Abstract

In the contemporary global framework, the convergence between art, creativity and new media offer a different way to think about the community, with its local connections and intercultural relations. In the specific Mediterranean context is developing a renewed awareness around concepts like “mobility”, “representation”, “mutual understanding”, “connection”, “dialogue”, “exchange”, “network”, “flux”, that are inspiring an increasingly production of ideas, artworks, seminars, researches and new forms of encounter.

Is it possible to realize a new social and cultural Mediterranean dialogue through media technologies? How does it change the mutual understanding and knowledge through the new media dialogue? Is it Information and Communication Technology (ICT) a new stand and tool for intercultural education and comprehension? How does it change the practice of conversation, exchange and dialogue in the social digital era? How do art and creativity operate, interact and influence in the “Digital Mediterranean”?

Intercultural communication is extending and developing itself through multiple mechanisms: we seek, we find ourselves and we interact more and more through technology tools and social networks that act as platforms for gathering, dissemination and knowledge. Online participation experiences, festivals, exhibitions and virtual galleries; research and dissemination of free information, platforms of social and political criticism, etc., are just some of the stages where art, creativity and new information and communication technology meet and converge. The Internet becomes the continent where multiple cultures, one humanity coexist (Bauman, 2008), where the in between element of the border disappears.

There are several projects – between real presence and virtual communication, between “relational aesthetics” and the tools of Web 2.0 – with the ambition of finding different ways to create interconnection points where Mediterranean cultures and people can meet and shared their visions, creative expressions and thoughts.

A new media landscape – transformed also by art and creativity – is defining and challenging the social relationships and interactions within the Mediterranean area.

• Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio is a Research Fellow in Art History, Theory and Criticism at the University of Barcelona. He studied Humanities and Philosophy at the “Università  degli Studi di Roma Tre” (Italy) and gained a Master in “Advanced Studies in History of Art” from the University of Barcelona. Currently he is part of the research group “Art, Architecture and Digital Society” (UB). His current lines of investigation involve the subjects of interculturality in contemporary art, the interactions between artistic, media and cultural practices in the Mediterranean and the impact of new technologies on art, communication and contemporary society. He has participated in several international conferences and developed projects and research in Europe, Asia and Middle East. He has collaborated, among others, with Love Difference / Pistoletto Foundation; Mediateca of the Caixaforum Barcelona; OVNI Archives. He writes articles for several international magazines, works also as a critic and independent curator and is co-founder of the platform interartive.org

Full text (PDF) p. 194-196