Interesting, all this. Community dynamics, issues of to whom the community belongs, power structures, etc. Just like it's always been. I don't want to play down how this must have been traumatic for those involved, not that what this person has done is unfair and basically sociopathic. However,it's interesting how the social tropes we are familiar with, both positive and negative, play out in all forums of human interaction. In this respect the medium can never be a panacea or make a difference.

best

Simon


On 7 Jun 2013, at 09:31, Oliver Grau <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> writing this from a train. Here is what happened: 
> Please do compare this with groups of other institutions like ZKM, Ars Electronica etc., which would be taken over by former coworkers (students)...
> 
> 
> "Dear Colleagues and Friends,
> 
> the group of our field and MediaArtHistories Program was hijaced by admin no. 4 (a former student of mine ... Nina Wenhart), who made herself now the one and only admin.. 
> 
> A.) Two colleagues from DanubeU, (Andrea Haberson and Wendy Coones) and I have administered this list over the last 5 years and also developed and host the MediaArtHistories program since 2005. Yesterday we were surprisingly deleted, also deleted in this act of piracy was the "original Mission" of our field, which we wrote with 15 colleagues (like Machiko Kusahara, Gunalan Nadarajan, Roger Malina and others in 2004). Since Wenhart deleted the mission, which is since the beginning in 2008 the mission of this group here it is again: 
> 
> "MISSION -Recognizing the increasing significance of media art for our culture, this group is dedicated to the study and discussion of various media art histories within the interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts of the histories of art."
> Wenhard also delited the links, which were there since the beginning:
> 
> www.mediaarthistory/maharchive
> www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah
> 
> 
> B.) Wenhart came with false accusations against our MediaArtHistories program, and wrote re "shameless self promotion of a universities department" - when the fact is that the State of Austria and DanubeU is so generous and supportive that international post grad working professional students have only to come up with 50% of the real costs. In our country and University we constantly defend this unique program against people who try to use the money for courses not related to art.
> 
> C.) Wenhart accused all of my colleagues and me of "censorship", which for me and my colleagues after 5 years of helping to grow this group as admin is a very serious offense and evidently bullshit - an excuse to take over this group, proven by the fact that even Andrea Haberson, who is not working at DanubeU since a year has been deleted too... Fact is, we established during recent years as any other growing/large FB group clear rules: Political propaganda or adds for lingerie etc. were always delited and extensive artist *self promo* too, in fact we have some "cases" who posted more then a 100 times on their own work, but the group was always for a quality scientific exchange on media art HISTORIES. Without this "censorship" this group would not exist as it is now. In fact a number of known scholars left the group due to TOO much spam. 
> 
> When Wenhart deleted our colleague and alumni Prof. Jon Cates of the group we took her admin role away for the first time... Now she even deleted us too, the founder of this group and since 2002 of this field and made herself the only admin.. It would be helpful for us and I guess also for our work in the field and the upcoming conferences if we could have our roles back and that the violation of the mission of our field ends...
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Oliver
> 
> 
>>>> Sarah Cook <[log in to unmask]> 7.6.2013 10:07 >>> 
> For those crumb peeps on Facebook there is an interesting discussion about admin and 'ownership' of the field of media art histories taking place there now:
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/mediaarthistories/permalink/10152254450784068/
> 
> I wonder if anyone has any comments about the use of online platforms to build discussion in a field and how an emerging area of scholarship can remain open and accessible beyond the institution where its main proponents work?
> This strikes me as something relevant to the field of scholarship around new media art curating also, which has been through us, associated with our research centre at the University of Sunderland but which no member of CRUMB claims any particular exclusivity over, as this unmoderated mailing list on an academic server attests to (going strong for 13 years now).
> Is itinerancy, or distributed and shared authorship, the best way to develop and foster interest in an area of research related to new media art? (I ask sitting in Sydney thinking of the model of ISEA and its change of place each time.) How can an emerging area of academic scholarship in a field which is inherently networked remain open to those networks? Strategies on a postcard please.
> 
> Jetlagged yours,
> Sarah
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my pocket.
> 


Simon Biggs
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[log in to unmask] Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
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