Media Arts

[ludvik.hlavacek@ecn.cz (Ludvik Hlavacek)]

   SYMPOSIUM

Media Arts:
 Intercultural Hope or Art without a Message?

Goethe Institute, Prague
3rd - 5th December 1996


The sixth symposium in a series of annual international
interdisciplinary meetings devoted to the legacy of Vilém Flusser
concentrates on questions raised by the last year´s symposium entitled
"Environment as an Artifact."

Content: In media art the actual medium of a work of art becomes more
important due to the process of communication with a recipient / user.
Therefore it seems strange that the notion of communication implied by
this kind of art has not been thoroughly examined yet. The act of
communication is dependent on the culture within which it takes place.
How come, that media art can be transferred from one culture to
another one without losing its message? Should there not be some
communication failures or at least minor shifts in meaning? If not, we
may suspect media art of:
       1. being a kind of metaculture that can easily cover other
       cultures. If so, it cannot be neutral towards cultural values.
       Media art would necessarily imply that kind of thinking which
       is West-orientated and linear, masculine etc.
     2. having no message at all. We have just not noticed it yet.

Program:
December 3: Introduction to the Media Theory
December 4: Presentation of Art Projects
December 5: Media Art - Transculrure or Meaninglessness?

This symposium should serve as a kind of introduction into the
phenomenon of media art. It is open to everyone interested. We hope
that discussions will prevail over lectures. We would like to discuss
questions that will probably be raised by the conference "Culture,
Communicatin and New Media" (November 19 - 23, 1996). On the 4th
December, Mrs. Edith Flusserová along with PhDr. Milena Slavická will
present the first Czech anthology of Vilém Flusser´s essays on art.

For more information call the Goethe Institute-Prague.
Languages spoken at the conference are Czech, English and German.
Simultaneous interpreting provided. Admission free.

In cooperation with Michael Bielický, professor of Academy of Visual
Arts - Prague, and SCCA - Prague.