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And also, if Jon's spelling of his name is to be trusted, a small bear-like creature from the third of the original Star Wars trilogy -----Original Message----- From: Curating digital art - www.crumbweb.org on behalf of Jon Thomson Sent: Fri 24/10/2008 11:06 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] Guardian blog re: ICA decision This from Ewok Eshun in the guardian blog comments -a politician in training by the looks of it. --:> Dear Lynn, Whilst I both understand and respect your point of view here Im keen to address some of the points youve raised. Most urgently, its important to say that I dont think that live art lacks any kind of cultural urgency. As a sincere fan of live performance works from the likes of Katie Mitchell and Punchdrunk to Ursula Martinez this is very far indeed from my point of view! For the past number of years the ICA has run a Live & Media Arts department which has focused primarily on new media based artistic practice. In my internal email to staff that you quoted, I was trying to make the point that I didnt feel that we could financially or artistically justify a whole department devoted primarily to that relatively narrow area of practice. With the limited resources available to our institution, Ive had to take the view that we are better off devoting our energies towards a more concentrated programme of activities rather than finding ourselves in the perpetual peril of spreading ourselvestoo thin. We need to do justice to the programme we present and that sometimes means doing less with greater depth rather than continuing to aim as broadly as we have in the past. Its not a decision Ive come to happily or lightly. Although the department will close, the ICA will continue to host part of the London International Mime Festival in January and other events, as they occur out of the programme, into the future. Ekow Eshun On 24 Oct 2008, at 10:51, Michelle Hirschhorn wrote: > FYI - > > Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:08:47 +0100 > From: Lois Keidan <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: Live and Media Arts at the ICA > > * This email is sent via the Liveart mail-list. 'Reply' will send > your response to that list * > > Lyn Gardner has written a Guardian blog about the ICA's decision to > cut its live programme, but, more importantly, about Ekow Eshun's > extraordinary statement that such work lacks 'depth and cultural > urgency' > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/oct/23/ica-live- > arts-closure > > I have just spoken to Lyn and she would like everyone on this list to > know that Guardian blogs can be VERY effective, but its important that > people respond to them and contribute to the debates they provoke. > > So, please do add a comment to her blog and please do spread the word > to anyone and everyone who should see it and ask them to respond with > comments. > > Lois > On 24 Oct 2008, at 00:00, NEW-MEDIA-CURATING automatic digest > system wrote: >