new media center_kuda.org

bitomatik is a collection of texts, transcripts of lectures held at the New Media Center kuda.org between 2001 and 2004. The texts describe models of comtemporary artistic production which use different media as a means of expression. Drawing on the activist-artistic practice of Novi Sad in the sixties and seventies, a period of the neo-avant garde, the kuda.org Center has examined those phenomena containing an interdisciplinary and cross-media character. From the very outset, kuda.lounge has been a platform for discussion, argumentation, dialog and the contextualization of artistic practice, in the framework of which more than fifty presentations, lectures and workshops have been organized. Particular attention has been paid to communication and the exchange of ideas, primarily owing to the fact that the arts' scene in Serbia during the nineties developed within a context of what is often called 'Art in a Closed Society', which resulted in a syndrome of self-referential artistic production. The Internet and the development of communication technologies formed the electronic backbone of social movements in the late nineties and the early part of this new century, and at the same time connected a smaller circle of Novi Sad artists (the Absolutely Association, Andrej Tišma, the Videomedia festival) which in spite of the odds established contact with the international scene, and brought members of this network to present their work in Novi Sad. International mailing lists such as Nettime, Syndicate and Spectre played a central role in this communication.

In inviting key names in media art and theory, kuda.org has attempted to offer the local public an insight into international contemporary artistic practise. The local population has had a chance to familiarize themselves with the work of leading international and local artists, theoreticians and arts' groups such as Critical Art Ensemble, Bureau d'Etudes, Armin Medosch, and Inke Arns. Lectures and presentations within the framework of kuda.lounge are orientated towards researching new media related to social activism, media theory, and conceptual art, new-media "genres" such as net.art, software art, interactive art and generative art are explored .

The question of the so-called new media is quantitively identical to problems dealt with by the neo-avant-garde of the sixties and seventies, which conducted experiments with installations and video and electronic sound. These problems deal with the question of the relationship between medium and content, i.e. what's new in new media. Media research is the history of researching communcation and extroversion and in itself simultaneously bears the political, seeking channels to address the masses and send a message. The avant-garde's aspiration to penetrate society, to reach ground zero, and lead it in the utopian project of creating a fair society is closely connected to media research. The contents of this collection present different research and experiments in new media and a kind of manifestation of the artistic avant-garde at the close of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st century.

These two elements; society as an object of intervention by an artistic project, and media research via which this intervention is to be carried out, are the basis of this collection of texts. This publication brings a cycle integrating debates and discussions on contemporary artistic practice to a close, and in a print medium presents them to a wider public.

Izdavač / Publisher: Daniel print, Novi Sad
Edicija / Series: kuda.read 003
Urednik edicije kuda.read / kuda.read Eitorial Board: kuda.org
Transkripcija / Transcription: Milica Šećerov
Prevod na srpski / Translation into Serbian: Bojana Petrić, Orfeas Skutelis, Marijana Macura, Nikolina Knežević
Prevod na engleski / Translation into English: David Williams
Lektura tekstova na engleskom / English Proofreading: David Williams, Nikolina Knežević
Lektura tekstova na srpskom / Serbian Proofreading: Silvija Čamber
Grafičko oblikovanje / Graphic design: Veljko Damjanović
Priprema za štampu / Layout: Veljko Damjanović
Štampa / Printed by Futura, Novi Sad
Tiraž / Print run: 1000
ISBN 86-7188-027-3

All texts are published under Creative Commons license unless otherwise indicated. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/)