Dear CRUMB list.

Welcome back to class for the autumn semester! ;-)
And happy half-birthday - the CRUMB list is now 6 months old!

After a much-needed and sweltering hot summer break it is back to the
desk and, for many curators, back onto an airplane to travel to the next
exhibition and festival in what is widely known as "the beginning of the
season".

SIGGRAPH has come and gone in LA, ARS Electronica is about to kick off
in Linz, the Venice Biennale is approaching its dog days, and we are all
looking forward to a cool fall including the New Cinema/New Media
festival in Montreal, DEAF in Rotterdam, and countless others.

What is up for debate is not so much the validity of the festival format
for the presentation of new media art work, but points about what works
and what doesn't, how festival-like events can be thematically or
conceptually framed (the science/technology frame versus the industry or
the art world frame), what criteria is put forth for the awarding of
prizes, how artists can best position themselves in regards to
interpretation and contextualisation.

Helen Cadwallader writes: "the festival context was the main forum for
new media work in the early/mid '90's - framed with reference to the
sci/art and sci/technology context/histories. I think the ground has
shifted slightly, but there's still much to play for. What other spaces
for discourse are essential in opening up other frames of reference
(paradigms)?"

Obviously festivals happen in months other than September -- and so I
welcome you from this moment on to report back to the list about
festivals you've been to over the summer and exhibitions you've seen.
All nature of "what i did this summer"/travel reports gladly accepted.

September's invited respondents to the theme CURATING FESTIVALS are:

Helen Cadwallader -- new media arts officer at the Arts Council of
England.

Joel S. Bacher -- curator for the last 6 years of a monthly microcinema
program of short films, videos and digital media from around the world.
The program, Independent exposure plays every month in Seattle and then
at microcinemas and festivals around the world. To date they have shown
hundreds of times in 30 countries.

and

Andreas Broeckman -- director of the Transmediale Festival in Berlin and
has co-curated programmes for the Dutch Electronic Art Festival and the
Next 5 Minutes: Tactical Media conference.

I look forward to renewing the debates!

Sarah
_________________________________________________________

Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss
http://www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb/

Co-Editors: Telephone: +44  191 515 2896
Beryl Graham: [log in to unmask]
Sarah Cook: [log in to unmask]