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Inke Arns Inke Arns (*1968) is an independent media art curator and a PhD candidate at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. The title of her PhD thesis is "Objects in the Mirror may be Closer Than They Appear: The Avant-Garde in the Rear-View Mirror. A Comparative Analysis of the Artistic Reflection on the Historical Avant-Garde in Eastern Europe in the 1980s in Retroavantgarde and Post-Utopianism". After spending four years in Paris from 1982 - 86, from 1988 - 96 she studied Eastern European cultural studies, political science and art history in Berlin and Amsterdam; graduating in 1995/96 with a M.A. thesis on "Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) - an analysis of their artistic strategies in the context of Yugoslavia in the 1980s" (Freie Universitaet Berlin). Her curatorial work includes exhibitions, festivals and conferences on international media art and culture, like OSTranenie 93 at the Bauhaus Dessau; Minima Media: Medienbiennale Leipzig 1994, Leipzig; discord. sabotage of realities, Hamburg 1996/97; body of the message, Berlin 1998. She is a founding member of the translocal Syndicate network (*1996) and of the Berlin-based "mikro" association for the advancement of media cultures (*1998). She has published widely on issues of media culture and art in international magazines and books. Her book "Net Cultures" (Rotbuch Verlag) will be published in spring 2001. Minor Media Toolkit: An Appraisal of Horizontal Communication. Two examples of local and translocal communication. The Berlin-based mikro association for the advancement of media cultures and the translocal Syndicate mailing list. Small or minor media are point-to-point media, unlike mass media that are mainly one-to-many communication ("One sender and a thousand receivers!"). Minor media are mostly instant and very fast but also very mobile communication tools. They are not heavy to carry, and, in case of the Internet, they are accessible worldwide, at least in many places. Minor media are (mostly) non-commercial, whereas mass media have to function on a commercial basis. Small or minor media are basically do-it-yourself (DIY) media. In most cases these small, independent propaganda machineries tell the "small" stories, in contrast to the "grand narratives" of the official mass media, a function which is already present in Deleuze/Guattari’s notion of „litteratures mineures" developed in the 1970s. Informal networks, newsgroups and Internet mailing lists which are often used by hundreds of people to keep in contact and exchange news and discussions play a significant role in the spreading of critical information. Good examples are the Nettime mailing list, or the Syndicate mailing list launched in 1995/96 which devotes itself to fostering contacts and co-operation, improvements in communication and an exchange between institutions and individuals in Eastern and Western Europe active in the media and media culture. The Syndicate mailing list allows regular e-mail communication between participants regarding forthcoming events and collaborative projects. Since the first meeting in Rotterdam in 1996, which was attended by 30 media artists and activists, journalists and curators from 12 Eastern and Western European countries, the Syndicate network has grown steadily. In April 2000, it links over 400 participants from more than 30 European countries and a number of non-European countries. The original idea was to establish an East-West network as well as an East-East network. In the meantime, however, the Syndicate network has increasingly developed into an all-European forum for media culture and art. It gives rise to both short-term collaborative projects as well as long-term co-operation in changing combinations. Syndicate meetings and workshops have been held regularly, in most cases as part of festivals and conferences. Regularly, a selection of texts that have been distributed via the mailing list is published in the form of a low-cost reader. In March 1998, fifteen artists, theoreticians, journalists, organizers and other cultural producers founded mikro e.V., a Berlin-based initiative for the advancement of media cultures. The founding members work mostly in the field of independent media culture - from video art and electronic music, independent radio and TV production, to creative use of the Internet and digital multimedia technologies. What brings this multi-faceted group together is the need for a critical discussion of the cultural, social and political impact of media in today’s society. This discussion takes place not only within the initiative itself, but also during events that address an interested public. In this way, an independent Berlin-based platform for media critique has emerged. The initiative instigates and realizes public discussions, conferences, exhibitions, publications, and other activities dealing with the artistic, political and cultural applications of new media. The monthly mikro.lounges which take place at the Berlin WMF club deal with specific questions of media culture (from copyright and cryptography to art and politics on the Internet) and combine the different formats of video screenings, lectures, panel discussions and DJ sets. The name „mikro" is programmatic: it hints at the 'small' or 'minor' that normally is hidden by the massive and loud notion of "media". The initiative does not intend to develop into an institutional makro structure, but instead focuses on small, distributed, yet no less influential capillary structures, through which the media and technologies exercise power within art and society. mikro and its members are a genuine part of this mikrological field which is characterized by its heterogeneous, multi-faceted and networked elements. These networks, from which mikro's work emerges, exist parallel to commercially formed social structures and are based on relations of trust and the gift economy. The diversity and the fragility of this network of relationships is the reason for the careful formulation of the aim of the association: "advancement of media cultures". |
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