[ISEA97] Panel: Cynthia Beth Rubin & Lily Diaz (moderators) – A Multi-Cultural ISEA

Panel Statement

The issues surrounding equal access are pervasive in our culture (or collective world cultures). Although we often talk about diversity, and the desire to keep our culture open, growing, and free from singular standards of acceptability, the old issues of dominant culture keep emerging. Just how do we go about confronting this problem? In their infancy, the electronic arts appeared to be free from the biases that afflicted the established arts. ISEA especially kept exhibitions and performances opportunities open, and the organization, as a collective body of adventuresome individuals, stayed sincerely interested in the work of artists who for whatever reasons were relatively unknown. But a maturing ISEA cannot be so naive as to pretend to be untouched by the plagues of our time. The issues raised publicly at the plenary session of ISEA96, and privately in countless small discussions both inside and outside of ISEA, clearly and painfully point out that equal access for artists in the electronic arts is simply not there. Why is there not equal access, even if we all agree that this is desirable? (Since the very premise of electronic art is based on bringing diversity of the art establishment, we should take the step of assuming that few among us would limit what that diversity might be; those who disagree need to be confronted even greater issues). No matter how great our commitment of diversity, however, the obstacles that we face are many. And they all the more difficult to address because they are difficult to define, each dependent on the context of the others. To facilitate the discussion, we begin with the following break-down:

  1. Sensibility and Subject Matter Basis: “Blind Juries”: plowing through mounds of submissions, bring biases to the process. Naturally people respond more strongly to work which speaks to their own experience and aesthetic concerns. And if juries do not do this,then they are left judging technical expertise alone, which brings us to the next point.
  2. Access to Technology: Even as the price of computers drops, those individuals who are invited to use high end equipment, or who have positions which provide them with access, tend to be both artists who have passed some “aesthetic”tests and artists who, leading to the next point, are “plugged into the established art networks. Although no one wants to judge work by new technology alone, the “wow” factor often works.
  3. Plugged-In to the Art World: A community does not have to be truly closed for individuals outside of the community to experience it that way. Artists with varying perspectives may be embraced by ISEA, they are hesitant to even submit because they do not see ISEA as a likely venue for exhibiting their work and for the exchange of their ideas, then the problem remains. Beyond ISEA, what does it take for artists to feel that other institutions and organizations (such as those which give grants for artists) are open to them? This easily returns us to the first question.

ISEA97 needs to discuss the issues raised in Helsinki. Although English is the official language of this symposium, it would be useful to consider an exception for this panel and to extend the discussion to French and Spanish, or in perhaps whatever language the speakers prefer.

  • Cynthia Beth Rubin (U.S.A.) is an independent computer artist working in Providence, where she teaches part-time at the Rhode Island School of Design.Trained as a painter (MFA 1975, Maryland Institute, College of Art/ BA 1972 Antioch College), she began the transition to electronic media in 1984. She attended her first ISEA in 1990 as an exhibitor, and since then has exhibited at a variety of international venues including subsequent ISEAs, SIGGRAPH, Imagina, ARCADE, and other exhibitions in Brazil, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, and France, Inherited Memories, her most recent animation„ screened at SIGGRAPH 1997, and her previous animation, les affinites recouvrees, screened at ISEA95, the CODE show (New York City), the Pandemonium Festival (London), Jewish Film Festival (San Francisco), Vue sur les Docs (Marseille), Candid Camera (Lodz), and Festival Art Video (Casa Blanca), among others. Working with photo­graphic sources as a point of departure, her animations and still images recall cultural legacies from times and places beyond her personal experience, merged with references to her own life. Focusing on Jewish cultural history, she uses the computer to layer, morph and fuse image fragments together, replicating the subjective experience of memory.
  • Lily Diaz (Puerto Rico) works with language and images. Her interests focus on the areas o ‘history, myth and representation. Her work in video and interactive art has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has taught and lectured in Europe, Latin America and the United States. Currently she is a research fellow at the Media Laboratory of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland. She has a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude with Honors in Anthropology, from Brandeis University and was a fellow in the Studio Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. She received a Fulbright fellowship for 1990-91, to conduct research for an interactive piece about the scientific tech­niques utilized by the Europeans to visualize the newly acquired lands in the American continent.
  • Martin Sperka (Slovakia) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information and Computer Science, Slovak University of Technology and a visiting lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia. MSC EE Czech University of Technology, Prague, 1970. In 1993 he founded the Department of Visual Media at the Art Academy in Bratislava. He has been a speaker at several scientific and art confer­ences as well as the Curator of Computer Graphics in Fine Arts and E-Mail Art, 1,2,3,4 exhibitions, co-organisation of New Media international workshops. Exhibited in Slovakia, Czech republic, Hungary, Poland, U.S.A., and Austria.
  • James Montford, COORDINATOR OF COMMUNITY PROGRAMS, RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, USA
  • Kaizaad Navroze Kotwal (India). Originally from India, I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Ohio State University. My dissertation work concerns the use of VR and cyber technologies in theatre and cinema.
  • Janice Cheddie (UK), DISPLACED DATA, LONDON, UK