I'm Charles Esche and was invited to join in by Trebor after we met at
an island conference in Suomenlinna, Helsinki. As a brief introduction,
I run an art space called Rooseum contemporary art center in MalmF6,
Sweden
and live in Copenhagen and occasionally in Edinburgh. From 1993-99 I
worked on and off for Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in
Liverpool, including co-curating at ISEA conference in 1998. I also
edit a semi-annual
art journal called Afterall and I co-curated the Gwangju Biennale last
year which featured artists' groups and independent art spaces from
Europe and Asia.
My interests are beginning to return to questions of art's engagement
with technology after a longish period of disillusionment after ISEA
'98. This was mainly brought on by a depair at the fascination with
(affirmative) tools and effects over content and critique - something
which I sense from Trebor and Geert has been much undermined by the
dot.com crash. As a curator, I am interested in how the art field can
be used to further emancipatory, critical culture - how it can effect
the political field without becoming it.
As far as conferences are concerned I think one vital task is to define
objectives - who is it we are trying to reach and what results would we
like to emerge? Not to be proscriptive but to give us an idea how to
struct
ure it - of course, many unthought of spin-offs should result anyway
but often these are helped rather than hindered by a transparent, clear
structure. If nothing else it gives the participants something to kick
against.
Secondly, I think the architecture of the space is important to
creating the kind of open exchange that leads to new possibilities.
This means everything from the acoustics to the placement of chairs,
cushions, chaises
longues, tables, writing pads, food service, coffee etc. Geert and I
were in a conference in San Sebastian in the spring that largely got
all these things wrong.
I agree about the idea to send out papers-in-progress early, though it
is often hard to get people to read in advance! I think introductory
statements rather than papers are useful (with the written texts as
background
for bedtime reading) - especially if the conference consists of
participants rather than speakers and an audience. Within the
structure, such 10 min statements can be given real weight by the
organisation.
Anyway, I look forward to contributing in any way I can (but mainly to
learning). Thanks very much for the invitation to join.