[spectre] The Israeli Center for Digital Art >>>>>>>>> Call for proposals

[galit]

Call for proposals
Deadline - 31 August  2003
The Israeli Center for Digital Art
Digital ArtLab
www.digitalartlab.org.il
info at digitalartlab.org.il
16 Yirmiyahu st, 
Holon 58373, Israel.


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The Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon was formed in 2001 with the
objective of advancing and promoting New-Media art in Israel, as well as to
act as a clearinghouse for communications between artists and between
artists and the public. The Center is committed both to a dynamic view of
the contemporary art and culture spheres, and to publicizing the influence
of new technologies on today¹s society. To that end, the Center hosts both
Israeli and foreign artists¹ video art, net.art, sound and interactive video
exhibits. A special emphasis is put on Cooperative projects between Israeli
and foreign artists, and between artists and the community, to bringing
digital art works to outlying areas, developing training programs and
workshops for school-age children and artists using digital media, artist
workshops and more.

Out of a desire to catalyze the discourse on the influences of digital
technologies on contemporary culture in general and Israeli society in
particular, and out of a recognition of the need to create a platform for
communications between artists, activists, media people, film makers, and
the general public, during the coming year, the center will oversee three
projects under the them ³Hilchot Shcheinim³ (Halachot for neighbors) [a
reference to the laws of division of property and boundaries codified by the
Rambam in his Mishna Torah, a commentary on the Torah].

Hilchot Shcheinim is comprised of three main exhibits, each accompanied by
video screenings, lectures, performances and workshops. The exhibits will
act as a laboratory for ideas about art and media and the marketplace and
exchange, and will examine the manner in which social, cultural and
technological changes, influence art and artists.

The Hilchot Shcheinim events should be apprehended as an up-to-date source
of information that offers a panoramic view of our lives via the combination
of the language of art and the tools of contemporary culture, the various
media, politics, and the economy.


Project I: November 2003 ­ January, 2004
 - will focus on the mapping of independent organizations of artists who
have found for themselves a place where they can create without relocating
to the center, or without being ³directed from above² by the main art hubs.
The exhibit features projects run jointly by art centers in outlying areas
and projects by artists in adjoining areas that reflect the changes taking
place in the art scene as a result of the globalization movement. Preference
will be given to artists working in the Middle East.

Project II: March- May, 2004
- will focus on tactics and strategies used by artists, groups of artists,
activists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to create cultural
networks and cooperation. The emphasis will be on the ways in which
capitalism and the globalization movement shape the media and the use that
artists make of media technologies in their work.

Project III: September - November, 2004
we will attempt to diagram life in the world of the Empire - Globalization,
proposing the Internet as a positive model for globalization. Not only is
the Internet a model wherein the countries of the world, giant corporations,
political and social organizations, and individuals are equal, but it is a
model of a decentralized network without centralized control or enforcement
that cannot monitor either the flow of information or number of its
³citizens². Moreover, it is a virtual, apolitical structure with a weak
capacity for control that is vulnerable to disruptions, ³street action², and
revolts, yet it does not collapse as a result. At Hilchot Schcheinim III, we
will attempt to examine how a vision of such a world is conceived of by
artists, and what the effects are of such a world on the art realm.

Visual artists, media artists, musicians, activists, and collectors are
invited to propose projects. Preference will be given to artists working in
the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Proposals for projects for project I must be sent by August 31, 2003 along
with the accompanying form.


Submit to:
The Israeli Center for Digital Art
Digital ArtLab
www.digitalartlab.org.il
info at digitalartlab.org.il
16 Yirmiyahu st, 
Holon 58373, Israel.



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Hilchot Shcheinim
Israeli society, most critics agree, is represented by a rich and
occasionally contradictory world of images concerning its character, its
borders (both political and social), its population makeup, its cultural
origins, and its political directions. Thus, for example, Israel is
presented in its political discourse by the following attributes, to name
just a few: ³The only democracy in the Middle East², ³A country of
immigrants², ³A melting pot², ³An armed ghetto², ³A bi-national state², ³A
Levantine society², ³A Western island in the East², ³A little America².

These images, with their double messages, have a significant impact on
Israeli society. They are understood within the context of larger issues
that are at the center of public discourse, running deep within the hidden
processes shaping the definition and the representation of individuals and
groups in the society. Under these conditions, most of the discourse in
Israeli society and its cultural sphere deal intensively (even obsessively)
with the attempt to understand, explain, and decode the cultural
environment.


The contradiction and the multiplicity of views in Israeli society and its
culture derive their origins from the dichotomy between East and West,
between "Ashkenazi" and "Sepharadi". This dichotomy manifests itself on the
Israeli art scene in the tension between the "local" and the "universal".
Israel exists in the Middle East, a space wherein nationalism and religion
play central roles, on the one hand holding onto its national and religious
identity, viewing itself from the outside in, and at the same time trying to
preserve its acceptance to the world¹s ³Western club² by building a
free-market economy, implementing widespread privatization, a near-total
adoption of Western cultural symbols, and so forth.

In her article ³Eyes Wide Shut: On the Acquired Albino Syndrome on the
Israeli Art Scene² (Theory and Critique, vol. 20, 2002), Sarah Hinsky
describes the place of the West in Israeli art and culture.

>From its earliest days until now, the concept of ³the West² was firmly
rooted in the Israeli art scene as a guiding principle and shaping it on the
European art scene model. In this sense, the Israeli art scene exists in a
tension of two opposing categories: art that tries to be at the same time
universal and local, when the ³universal² model is actually European.

This affinity is a fundamental force in the Israeli art world, and its
origins are identical to Western - Europeans origins of the Zionist
movement. The establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East was
perceived by many in the Zionist movement as creating a European ³annex² in
the Middle East wherein nationalist and colonialist aspirations could be
realized.

It is from this perception that the closed attitude of Israeli culture
toward the surrounding Arabic culture stems (as well as from the grappling
with the culture of Jewish immigrants from Arab lands), resulting in the
perception of the latter as inferior. This closed-mindedness has only begun
to disperse in the past two decades, allowing the inflow of Eastern-Arab
influences, mainly felt in Israeli music, upon which there has been a
conspicuous influence, and in which there is much collaboration between
musicians from the neighboring countries.

Against this backdrop, the Israeli visual arts are preoccupied with
conducting a dialog with Western ³power centers² of art, which is perhaps
the main reason why an effort is not made today to create a network of
exhibits and artist exchange projects with the neighboring countries such as
Turkey, Greece, or even Egypt or Jordan.

The cultural conflicts described herein can be viewed in a wider context as
part of global processes taking place in other regions of the world
involving societies, countries, organizations, and individuals undergoing
redefinition and creating new paths and meanings for their activities

Two main events (up until now) of the new millennium‹or the fact of their
being defined as main events‹have been the destruction of the Twin Towers on
September 11, 2001 and the war in Iraq, both having sharpened the
differences between expectations of a post-nationalist world wherein global
power is given priority the Nation State, and the reality of a
nation-oriented world in which national rule within conventional borders
remains, and in which ethnicity and religion still have a central place in
determining the internal and external ³rules of the game² of the individual
country.

The process of change will slowly affect the familiar world division of East
and West, of the free world and the enslaved world, of free-market economy
versus a controlled economy, of superpowers, and of a world order that will
be rebuilt anew, including a change in relations and agreements between
countries, citizens, communities, and neighbors: social, professional, and
cultural divisions will alter themselves and be refashioned.

Technology has a central role to play in these processes: As it becomes more
accessible, it seeps into more and more spheres, influencing more and more
aspects of our lives as individuals and as a society. It is superfluous to
say that this process is not progressing linearly, but rather is developing
at different paces in various places in the world.

The process of redefinition in which we find ourselves affects almost every
aspect of our lives, demanding reexamination of fundamental concepts and
assumptions that up until now were perceived as unassailable. In addition,
we must investigate how these changes manifest themselves in art, and in the
relationship between art and society. What is the place of art in the
globalization process and the world that it is creating? Which strategies
have artists chosen for coping with these changes? These issues have emerged
in the local-Israeli context, and stemming from a desire to create a link
with other outlying areas in which similar conflicts are taking place, The
Israeli Center for Digital Art, through Hilchot Shcheinim, will examine them
in the coming year.

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The Israeli Center for Digital Art
Digital ArtLab
www.digitalartlab.org.il
info at digitalartlab.org.il
16 Yirmiyahu st, 
Holon 58373, Israel.


1. Type of work/project   _______________________________________

2. Title   _______________________________________

3. General Details 

   Organization/Institution  _______________________________________
 

   Name   _______________________________________
   
   Street   _______________________________________
   
   Zip Code _________________________  City _________________________
           

   State _________________________  Country _________________________
  
   Tel _________________________  Fax _________________________

   E-mail _________________________  URL  _________________________

4. Media 
   
(VHS, S-VHS, PAL, NTSC, SECAM)___________________________

   Digital (Mini-DV, CD-ROM, DVD, Floppy, Zip) ____________________
   
   Operation System (Windows, Linux, MacOS, Other) _______________

   An Internet Project at http://__________________________________

    System Requirements (software, hardware)______________________

   Other Media ______________________________________________

5. Production

   Country of production ________________    Year ______________

6. Additional Materials
   Please add additional materials and mark here:

Description ____    Documentation ____    Photographs ____  Costs/Budget
____    CV ____    Other ____

                   











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