Fwd: <nettime> URGENT - BEK: Call for support

Oct. 13, 2003

Type: discussion

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Trond Lossius <[email protected]>
> Date: Sun Oct 12, 2003 2:46:28 PM US/Eastern
> To: <[email protected]>
> Subject: <nettime> URGENT - BEK: Call for support
> Reply-To: Trond Lossius <[email protected]>
>
> BEK - Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts might be forced to close down
> early next year due to lack of governmental support. For this reason we
> call for your support. If you believe that BEK should continue to
> exist,
> please express your support at our web page:
>
> http://www.bek.no
>
> or by sending a mail to [email protected].
>
> HISTORY
>
> BEK - Bergen Centre of Electronic Arts, was found while Bergen, Norway,
> was one of 9 cultural cities of Europe 2000. The founding of BEK was
> part
> of a national strategy initiated by The Norwegian Council for Cultural
> Affairs to better working conditions for artists working within the
> field
> of new media arts in Norway. BEK is part of the Norwegian Production
> Network for Electronic Arts (www.pnek.no). So far The Norwegian Council
> for Cultural Affairs has provided most of the financial support for
> BEK.
> The Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs is not permitted to support
> organizations for extended periods, and will not be able to support
> BEK in
> the future. For this reason, we've applied for Governmental support
> from
> 2004. The proposed National Budget does not include future support for
> BEK. For this reason we now fear that we will be forced to close down
> early next year. If so, we believe that one of the strongest current
> Norwegian voices on the international art scene will be silenced,
> causing
> a severe setback to artistic exchange between the art community in
> Norway
> and abroad.
>
> ACTIVITY AND INTERNATIONAL PROFILE
>
> BEK hosted the first international workshop dealing with Nato.0+55 in
> the
> summer of 2000, and has been profiled as a valuable resource for
> artists
> in Norway and abroad using live technologies such as Max, MSP,
> Nato.0+55,
> streaming technology, Keystroke/Keyworx, etc. The mailing list /55 was
> established when Netochka Nezvanova was thrown of the Max-MSP mailing
> list. HC Gilje and Kurt Ralske of 242.pilots first met during the
> workshop
> at BEK. 242.pilots has toured the world as pioneers of real time based
> video performance, and the received the Image Award at Transmediale.03
> International Media Art Festival in Berlin, February 2003.
>
> The development of "MoB", Linux GNU software for real-time video
> processing (mob.bek.no) has been a major project for the last two
> years.
> In November 2003 BEK will host an international conference and
> festival,
> Piksel, of artists/developers working with real-time video on Linux
> (www.piksel.no). Piksel will be a valuable opportunity to coordinate
> current development of real time video software for Linux around the
> world. The workshop was overbooked before we got the opportunity to do
> a
> call for participation.
>
> BEK has been an important part of the Bergen electronic music and
> electronica community. Torbjorn Brundtland of Royksopp was doing civil
> service at BEK when Royksopp hit the British pop charts in 2001.
> Underground artists such as Kaptein Kaliber, Jazzkammer, Alog and
> Phonophani have been collaborating with BEK at a number of projects.
> Pilota.fm started out as a net radio focusing on electronic and
> contemporary music. The Trollofon concerts on a vintage trolley bus has
> hosted artists such as Phonophani, Oval, Alog, Pita, Kim Hiortoy,
> Tujiko
> Noriko, Maja Ratkje, Massimo and Fennesz. The concerts are available
> for
> download as mp3 at Pilota.fm. The Pilota project also caused the
> Municipality of Bergen to continue supporting the use of trolley buses
> in
> Bergen two years ago. BEK also hosts another net radio focusing on the
> local music scene (www.radiofetthode.no) and the mailing list
> CsoundTekno.
>
> BEK has been affiliated with the most important Norwegian contemporary
> theatre companies, such as BAK-truppen (www.baktruppen.org) and
> Verdensteatret (www.verdensteatret.com). BEK has been involved in the
> production of a number of short movies. The short movie "Love is the
> Law"
> was presented as part of Semaine Internationale de la Critique at the
> Cannes Film Festival 2003 and received "Prix Canal + du Meilleur court
> metrage" and " Prix de la (Toute) Jeune Critique".
>
> This year BEK is hosting 6 artists and students from abroad,
> participating
> in the NIFCA Media Artist in Residence, Fulbright program, Leonardo da
> Vinci EU training programme and other exchange programmes.
>
>
>
>
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