I don't think this is to do with 'being away', this has been ongoing and is endemic of the state of play. It's not really that things are even being released now, certainly not by the "official bodies". The bits are slowly coming together to form a pretty bleak picture as the snippets of information trickle out in the press and in exchanges like this, but more often than not in the pub.
As we know, there isn't any real independent news/information network between organisations/practitioners throughout Scotland across the alleged networked cultural sector, and nor is there going to be as things stand, and really as proposed. Those in the official know should be saying more, but as usual the silence is deafening. So as a quick unofficial, unqualified "correct me if I�m wrong" breakdown of a couple of goings on: Reinforce those coffee tables. �The List� have got the SAC Visual Arts Magazine tender, so look out for some great �media partnerships� there, though apparently having gone through the dressage they have a bit more hoop jumping to do... The SAC along with Scottish Screen and maybe the National Libraries will cease to exist in their current form in 2006, (if not sooner in some cases) becoming encompassed in an Executive Cultural Agency by 2007, dubbed by some �The Ministry of Motivation�. This stark politicisation of culture is unprecedented in the UK since WWII. We really would like to know more... but you can look to Commedia's "Saturday Night or Sunday Morning? From Arts to Industry -- New Forms of Cultural Policy", 1989, Geoff Mulgan & Ken Worpole, as a blueprint. The arts organisations having been told they are not to receive core funding from the SAC from 2004 are believed to be part of a purge to facilitate this transition, ie. Scottish Screen have taken on a new media mantle... In the absence of any transparent, accountable descriptions of events, please feel free to speculate... it seems it�s all we have. Leigh ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] archive: http://www.mediascot.org/ambit info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
