`Newsgroups: workspace.deep_europe`

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Subject: alter-interview q's From: marjan@kud-fp.si (marjan) Date: 4 Aug 1997 21:43:24 +0200 * * * * * Hybrid Workspace at dX deep europe session hosted by V2_East and Syndicate mini report and question frags by Tom Bass (basstom@sirius.ceu.hu) In part of the program for August 4, we intended to hold an informative public interview about the activities of the Syndicate and its members that form a "network of trust" in Andreas Broeckmann's words. Those initial participants were Inke Arns (Berlin), Andreas Broeckmann (Rotterdam), Rasa Smite (Riga), and Branka Davic (Novi Sad). The public was unreceptive, expecting the eye candy we provided the previous day as a visa department dispensing any number of tickets, stamps, application forms, and bureaucracy for entry not only to deep europe but also to the Institute of Affordable Lunacy's (http://www.dse.nl/ibw) evening performance. We stopped the debate, expanded the circle to include other workshop participants behind the video beamer walls, and with one sole curious member of the audience, continued the discussion among ourselves with the occasional prompt from our single guest while the audience surfed us in realtime and moved on to the expensive restaurant next to Workspace. But there exists a second set of questions beyond the who, what, when, where, and why. These draft questions may be considered a platform for future discussion in, around, and among the Syndicate though they may have obvious answers. For the westerner, the Syndicate is indicative of mobsterism. How is this organization different from that of the mafia as a network that serves to foster the position of EE/fSU art and media projects? What opportunities are made available from this list? A survey of postings would reveal many concerning future events and contact information, putting the initiative in the hands of the local artists, theoreticians, and mediaists that often do not venture West/South/North due to language barriers and a simple lack of capital. Does the Syndicate also seek to increase links between EE/fSU communities on the web? For the most part, each respective deep european country looks West but does not seek to contact its neighbors, perhaps as a result of the "Soviet" cross cultural experience. Is there an innate resistance to this despite Syndicate's mission? What do realtime meetings do to increase this sense that cooperation is necessary if nascent EE/fSU net.art + theory is to advance into the international public realm? Past meetings in Liverpool and Rotterdam have sought to achieve what, i.e., a Syndicate product per se or loose collaboration and support? Does Syndicate do anything to address the debt of reference and theoretical material necessary to see computer culture as something more diverse than simply product listings in the latest PC magazines? What has been the most frustrating part of dealing with the nationals of EE/fSU? Does the legacy of solid, high intellectual culture hinder the attempts of the Syndicate to legitimize its activities in a realm that increasingly becomes commodified and capitalized (resembling more a shopping mall than the "gallery" that institutionalizes art in the first place, putting it in the hands of such intellectuals that avoided the net as yet another example of low, unpleasant, and thus illegitimate culture).