[spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia

[Andreas Broeckmann]

(cross-posted from nettime by permission; apologies for all the 
broken special characters...)



From: "Klaudio Stefancic" <kstefancic at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:51:28 +0200
Subject: <nettime> [nettime] New Media Art in Croatia


dear nettimers,

here i would like to contribute with my text 'new media new networks'.
it is about  new media art and culture in croatia from the late 1980's
till 2005. the text is written last year and it was meant to be
published in a reader dedicated to history of croatian art from 1940's
to the 1990's and aimed to international audience. it was one of the
reasons why i've decided to use a sociocentric approach in attempt to
represent this period of media art in croatia and to combine it with
the art theory of modernism and avantgarde. on the basis of my
research i also made a small homonymous exhibtion in galzenica gallery
in zagreb/velika gorica this year. the text is also available for
download here http://www.galerijagalzenica.info/english.html)

greetings

---

New Media - New Networks [1]

If you mention the term new media in the presence of one of the most
prominent artists of the extremely popular virtual world of Second
Life, Gazira Barbelli, you will automatically activate a programme
script, which will blow away your avatar to a completely different,
unwanted location. The script entitled Don't Say Tornado is her
artwork, created to draw attention to inappropriate use of some terms
of traditional new media theory in the context of a completely
artificial world in which the artist herself (avatar) is nothing but a
set of binary data.

Although the Croatian new media art is far from being thoroughly
virtual, the example of Second Life indicates the current process of
redefining the new media culture in relation to the increase in the
number of the Internet users, changes in the ways it is used, faster
introduction of new media theory in traditional scientific fields etc.
In a somewhat modified version of his early new media theory (The
Language of New Media), Lev Manovich has raised a question whether
there is any sense in talking about new media in the culture that has
adopted digital production, processing and distribution of
information.  Therefore, he has developed eight theses for
distinguishing new media from old ones, claiming that the list itself
is a work in progress [2]. On the other hand, Geert Lovink has pointed
out that new media are at a critical juncture. According to him, new
media are facing the mass adoption of new technologies, fast
Internetisation of a non-Western world, the increase in capacity of
the Internet and its new uses known as Web 2.0. They are also caught
in a dilemma about whether they will be used in art institutions or
they will continue consolidation of their relatively independent
cultural sector based on exhibitions, festivals and conferences [3].

Discursive instability has marked the new media art and culture in
Croatia from its very beginnings. So far, they have been a
heterogeneous cultural area where political, social and artistic
clashes intertwine with coexistence and cooperation. In other words,
governmental bodies for public communication have been corrected by
the work of NGOs while the system of art institutions has alternated
with flexible networks of individuals, projects and initiatives. This
parallel opposition and negotiation among the dominant,
unwilling-to-change culture and marginalized cultures based on
promises of creative communication, citizens' participation in social
processes and a particular form of freedom typical of cyber culture,
have characterized new media in Croatia throughout 1990's [4].
The history of art is usually no more than the history of artists.
Such method is applied even when it comes to a selection of the new
media art [5]. However, new media art and culture in Croatia cannot be
properly presented without a description of the institutions that have
participated in the implementation of new technologies in society.
Those institutions can be described as networks that, in case of need
and depending on circumstances, mutually integrate, connect or
disintegrate, thus forming dynamic and flexible cultural space
suitable for various, not only artistic activities. In that sense, the
history of new media in Croatia during 1990's should include the work
of governmental and non-governmental institutions that were more less
directly involved in political and cultural clashes of post-socialist
society.

Since the break-up of Yugoslavia, national independence and beginning
of the Patriot war, several distinguishing social networks have marked
the new media art and culture in Croatia.


Anti-war Campaign, Zamir, Arkzin

Chronologically speaking, the citizens' initiative "Anti-War Campaign"
(1991-1995) came first. The efforts for reconstruction of disconnected
phone lines among Croatia, Serbia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina
developed into BBS (Bulletin Board System). BBS is computer software
that enables users to connect by telephoning, to download or upload
files to BBS network, read the news and exchange messages. After that,
"Zamir Transnational Net" (abbr. "Zamir") was launched in Zagreb in
1992, with the initial help of the Dutch and German hackers, in order
to connect citizens and peace activists across the war-thorn former
Yugoslavia. The realization that public media have a political aspect
as well was quite a shock in Croatia, unlike in other post-socialist
countries [6]. In the state of war, the mass media and means of
communication were tightly controlled in the newly founded country.
Not only there was a problem of regulation of the Internet use, which
was officially introduced by connecting university academic and
research network (CARnet) to foreign servers in 1992, but the use of
"old" media (TV, radio, newspapers) was also reduced. Under such
circumstances, the non-governmental organization "Anti-War Campaign"
with initial funds of "Open Society" launched two media: fanzine/
newspapers "Arkzin" in 1991 and BBS system in 1992 [7].

At first, "Arkzin" was a strictly political fanzine but after a while,
editorial board widened the interest and included international
members and topics [8]. It gradually changed from the political
fanzine and political fortnightly to a hybrid magazine in which
politics, culture, theory and art met, crossed and overlapped in a way
that Croatian media scene had not been used to. Its hybrid quality was
especially manifested in the field of new media, which has been
continually recorded since 1995 [9]. It is important to say that
"Arkzin" was for a long time the only magazine that systematically
recorded events on the international scene of new media by their
extensive definition, later adopted by Australian Cultural Council,
which included the culture of DJ's, VJ's, electronic music created and
distributed via computers, urban club culture etc [10].

In the art world context, "Arkzin" was connected with the
international new media art scene on one hand and with the avant-garde
art tradition on the other. In the first case, one of the editorial
board members, Igor Markovi_ participated in the meeting that took
place in Trieste in 1996, where the "net art" pioneers drew op
principles of their activities and started a closer cooperation with
new media festival "Next 5 Minutes" and other events on the Dutch
culture scene [11]. Following the example of De Certeau's definition
of citizens' tactics as opposed to state's strategy, the Dutch
theoreticians Geert Lovink and David Garcia formulated a peculiar
media theory, known as "tactical media" in 1997. Promoting this theory
in the conditions of new media being implemented into Croatian
society, affected by war, economic transition and deficit of
democratic institutions, "Arkzin" constantly pointed out the public
and art media's political dimension [12].

As said above, "Arkzin" also referred to avant-garde art tradition
that always questioned the dominant social, political and art climate
in Central and Eastern Europe [13]. When it came to "Arkzin", it
challenged the establishment in several fields: in the field of
politics (state of war, autocrat regime, economic privatization), in
the field of culture (new ways of communication, new lifestyles,
subculture etc.) and in the field of arts (art institutions'
bureaucratic system as opposed to the freedom of the Internet etc.).
In many aspects, "Arkzin" was a successor of "Zenit" [14]. It accepted
new technologies based on digital data processing (computer, the
Internet); made space for new media as alternative productional and
distributive tools (web pages, net art); re-introduced the neglected
media objects in the context of art and culture practices (fanzine,
posters, leaflets); treated artistic and discursive practices of
theory, philosophy, sociology on equal terms; reinterpreted high
culture - pop culture relations (rave subculture, pornography);
promoted team work (journalists published texts under collective or
individual pseudonyms); worked hard on internationalisation of art and
culture (on-line and off-line networking, new media festivals reports,
interviews with foreign artists, theoreticians, activists); opposed
and even Dadaistically made fun of dominant culture.

In the 1992-1995 period, there were two ways of accessing the
Internet: either with the help of academic and research network for
those who actively participated in scientific institutes and faculties
or with the help of Zamir's BBS network that, based on fragile
telephone lines, was insufficient even for activists [15] . For these
reasons, the basic activities of "Arkzin" were criticism of state's
attitude towards new media and fight for free access to the Internet.
However, the government did not have any media politics, only
restrictions caused by war so that media activism of "Arkzin", similar
to avant-garde art, sometimes reminded of Cervantes's Don Quixote
tilting at windmills [16].

The concept of "tactical media", promoted by "Arkzin" throughout the
1990's, reveals a considerable influence of the Dutch culture on new
media culture in Croatia. There are several reasons for this: a
constant interest of the Dutch activists, artists and theoreticians in
Croatia, residence and education of Croatian journalists, artists and
theoreticians in the Netherlands and interpretation of media theory,
made by the Dutch theoreticians gathered around "Adilkno" project,
which Croatian intellectuals gladly accepted [17].

Seen form the new media perspective, "Arkzin" design was closely
related to design of its web sites and designer Bla_enko Kare_in Karo,
but the attention should be given to off-line edition as well. The
innovation of publications' design lied in creative application of new
media in the area of old media/ graphic design. Any changes in page
layout were possible only with the help of computer technology. Being
aware of new expressiveness resulting from new media used in graphic
design, publication designers listed hardware components, software
tools, font types next to the usual impressum information. It was
quite common to design a page layout as interface (using
characteristic Macintosh and Windows fonts, conversational windows,
falling menus, e-mail models etc.) or timeline imitating aesthetics of
hypertext. The publication's illustrator Bla_enko Kare_in used
software and the Internet iconic quite often.
On the other hand, designers created the web site by making old media
the content of new media. They kept a traditional role of illustration
as a dominant visual message; unlike publication, they simplified the
web page layout, stressing hyperlink with the font size or simple
colour change; they emphasized the "length" of web pages offering the
option of long scrolls etc. The traditionality of web sites' design
was moderated with the use of hyperlinks, animated GIFs etc.[18]

In the context of only a few Croatian users of the Internet i.e.
predominantly journalism/ television culture, these design methods
were extremely important. They were tactical because they easily
switched from one medium to another, combined old and new, and
articulated quick and radical social changes that were part of every
day life in Croatia of the 1990's.


Multimedial Institute, Net-Club Mama

During the depressed 1990's, "Arkzin" was a sole example when it came
to media coverage of the issues that were a matter of Central and
Eastern Europe governmental and non-governmental institutions'
interest. The examples of Hungary, Latvia and Slovenia can serve for
the comparison purposes: Budapest Fine Art Academy opened Department
of Media Art in 1991, and several years later, in 1996, Centre for
Culture and Communication (C3) was founded by Open Society Institute
to support media artists. E-Lab was founded in Riga in 1996 and club
"Ljudmila" in Ljubljana started to work one year earlier. On the other
hand, a major part of the new media art and culture in Croatia
promoted redactional policy of "Arkzin", a part of the wider citizens'
campaign that was going on at the time.

The first two, exclusively multimedial cultural spaces in Croatia were
Multimedial Institute (Mi2), opened in 1999, and Net Club Mama opened
in 2000 [19]. Like in many other post-socialist countries, The Open
Society Institute financially supported the foundation of these
institutions. On one side, activities of Multimedial Institute and Net
Club Mama have been a continuation of "Zamir" and "Arkzin", and on the
other side, they have been a specific adaptation of the new media art
and culture to post-war society, determined by neo-liberal ideology
and consumerism. The similarities between two models of NGO's cultural
activism (Anti-war Campaign and "Arkzin" as opposed to Multimedial
Institute and Mama) are the wide area of fight for civil society's
standards, right to approach channels of public communication at
reasonable prices, freedom of minorities' cultural forms etc. As far
as the art area is concerned, Multimedial Institute and the Club have
been the only constant public gathering places for artists,
theoreticians, curators, hackers, programmers, critics and activists
interested in various forms of media art. In addition to this,
Multimedial Institute was one of the rare production centres for all
the forms of new media art. By organizing various activities
(lectures, presentations, publishing, exhibitions, festivals) it has
shifted the public attention to the increasing importance of the
Internet in everyday life, promoting various forms of net art, and
supporting the idea of free software and need for reinterpretation of
author's rights in the context of digital production and distribution
of cultural assets.
Due to Multimedial Institute's activity, a new model of cultural
practice replaced a paradigmatic space of "Arkzin" redaction,
functioning at three levels: at the level of organization of cultural
festivals, including exhibitions, lectures, workshops, conferences; at
the level of maintaining mailing lists and at the level of socializing
in the club on daily basis [20].

In the period 2000-2005, Multimedial Institute organized exhibitions
and festivals dedicated to net art ("I Am Still Alive", 2000), free
software, media art and networking ("Becoming Digital", 2001/2003;
"ASU2 - Art Servers Unlimited", 2001; "Critical Update - New Media
Culture Week 2002"; "Next5Minutes", 2003; "Sloboda stvarala_tvu", 2005
etc.). The most relevant new media organizations, artists and
theoreticians from Europe, North America, Australia and India were
presented there. Just as "Arkzin" did in 1990's, Multimedial Institute
has used "old" and "new" media for its activities: inside the
"laboratory" it has been developing and maintaining "TamTam" software
based on the Wiki technology, as well as translating and publishing
books on philosophy, free software movement, sociology, politics and
new media theory [21]. In occasional cooperation with Multimedial
Institute, other NGOs have been formed that have also dedicated a part
of their activities to new media art. Among these, the independent
curators team "Kontejner" presented mostly works of the Croatian,
Slovenian, Serbian and American artists [22] at festivals "Device Art"
and "Touch Me" in the period 2004-2006; the independent curators team
"WHW" organized a typical new media event "Project: Broadcasting" in
2001 [23]. Another important characteristic of Multimedial Institute
is its principled openness towards hackers, one of the social layers
who have been helping to build a contemporary Internet culture.

Due to various forms of teamwork, free software programmers staying in
Zagreb, art workshops and socializing in the club, the gap between
humanistic (artistic) and technical culture on Zagreb new media scene
has been considerably narrowed.
  Besides already mentioned Bla_enko Kare_in, the artists who have been
more less influenced by the new media culture of "Arkzin" and
Multimedial Institute are Ivan Maru_i_ Klif
(https://boo.mi2.hr/~klif/), Darko Fritz (http://darkofritz.net/), Ana
Hu_man (http://anahusman.net), Andreja Kulun_i_
(http://www.andreja.org/), Lina Kova_evi_
(http://www.linakovacevic.net/), and Nenad Romi_ a.k.a. Marcell Mars
(http://ki.ber.kom.uni.st) [24]. A large majority of their artistic
activities belong to post-conceptual, socially critical art practice.
Generally speaking, the same can be said for their work what Manovich,
analyzing the works of Alexei Shulgin and Dmitry Prigov, said about
the Russian art scene. He said that due to a peculiar historical
experience, the Eastern European artists were always more careful and
distrustful to utopian promises of new technologies than the Western
ones, and preferred black-humoured and dystopian aspects of new media,
rather than long-term social and artistic projects [25].


Cathedral, Media Scape

Any serious overview of new media art in Croatia would be incomplete
without the institutions and artists that have perceived new media
primarily as an artistic device used to point out or change existing
art procedures. In the context of Manovich's description of new media,
this network and its members see new media as a new representational
machine rather than a new social and artistic practice resulting from
their use [26].

This network was best presented by the exhibition/ project "Katedrala"
(1988) and a series of exhibitions, lectures, presentations and
symposiums held under the name Media Scape
(http://www.mediascape.info/indexnovigrad.htm) in Zagreb from 1993
until 1999 [27]. "Katedrala" was a team project carried out by artists
Darko Fritz, Stanko Juzba_i_, Boris Bakal, Ivan Maru_i_ Kilf and a
programmer Goran Premec. It was conceived as a multimedial interactive
gallery ambient, created and controlled by computers, various
electronic devices, screens and other new media objects and it was
dedicated to the major modernist artists [28].
The focus of the artists joined in this project was the two Manovich's
new media paradigms: database and algorithm. Both refer to the medium
of art production (image, sound, text) and the possibility of its
control. Since one medium is often "translated" into another, these
artists' works were usually multimedial and the process of remediation
is performed through different and complex interactive protocols. The
ambient installations prevailed and with the help of modern
technology, it was possible for the visitors to participate in
realization of an artwork. Due to their potential to generate and save
a great amount of data and to interact, CD ROM, closed circuit, video
and television installations were favourite new media genres among the
artists gathered around this network.

Once more, the artists Darko Fritz and Ivan Maru_i_ Klif should be
mentioned because their works can be interpreted in both contexts. Due
to their tendency to work with out-of-date technology (telefax
machines, old instruments, LP records, gramophone etc.) and
democratic, amateur do-it-yourself culture, they fit in the context of
Multimedial Institute network, while due to their inclination to
multimedial, interactive and gallery-situated works they fit in the
context of Media Scape network [29]. Within the framework of the
latter, we can also interpret the works of Sandro _uki_, Magdalena
Pederin, interactive video installations of Dalibor Martinis, Dan Oki,
Simon Bogojevi_ Narath, Sandra Sterle, Kristina Leko and others.


UMAS - Department of Visual Communication Design, International
Festival of New Film

The third network is located in the town of Split, thus being the only
network of artists, theoreticians, curators and audience existing out
of Zagreb. Some of the participants of this network have already been
mentioned in the contexts of "Katedrala" and "Media Scape" but the
true meaning of this network lies in the area of art education. In
1997, Academy of Fine Arts in Split opened Department of Visual
Communication Design, which became the first high education programme
in Croatia dedicated to the new media education [30]. Department of
Visual Communication Design, and later Department of Film and Video,
offered basic insights into the new media arts, whether digital film
and video, photography or web design [31]. In other words, the
Department's programme was based on the process of reinterpretation of
the established art forms from the new media perspective, the process
that Manovich called meta-media and Janos Sugar inter-media process
[32].

A year earlier, International Festival of New Film had been
established in Split, which has also been presenting new media art
since 1997. The international jury has chosen and awarded new media
artworks. Due to the Festival's programme and activities of Department
of Visual Communication Design together with Department of Film and
Video, a number of new media artists and theoreticians, such as Lev
Manovich, Geert Lovink, Tamas Banovich, Nan Hoover, David Blair,
Gisela Domschke and others, have presented their work in Split.


Strategies and Tactics

The media art in Croatia has had a long tradition. The earliest use of
computers in art happened in 1969 when the electronic engineer and
explorer Vladimir Bona_i_ began to collaborate with the art movement
Nove tendencije. Throughout 1970's, when Nove tendencije stopped to
exist and a decade of domination of conceptual, performing and
activist art practices started, art referred to technologies in
several ways. In the area of video art, particularly in the works of
Dalibor Martinis and Sanja Ivekovi_, convergence of consuming
electronics (portable cameras, TV set etc.) and art was happening in
two ways. First, on the experimental level because the artists in
almost gestalt-like manner tested characteristics of new medium and
second, on the level where new media were seen as a platform for
criticizing "society of spectacle".

According to this rough classification of the media art, each of the
two new-media models in Croatia during 1990's belonged to a different
side of the tradition. "Katedrala" and "Media Scape" belonged to the
side that facing the modernist dilemma - pure art or social activism -
chose the autonomous art field in which experimenting with technology,
with the purpose of broadening freedom of artistic expression, had
more prominent role with the ending of 20th century. "Arkzin" and
"Multimedial Institute" followed the line, which in a constant
reminding of determinedness of every material, including art practice,
saw the new media not only as a group of new technical protocols but
also as a chance for new transgression of art, politics, high and
popular culture etc.

The sharp sensibility of "Arkzin" to the issue of media freedom is one
of the most important factors in an attempt to differentiate these two
new media paradigms. Another important factor is a political potential
of popular culture, which is exactly what "Arkzin" was doing,
according to some texts written by a long member of editorial board
and designer of "Arkzin" Dejan Kr_i_.  He claims that a true critical,
corrective opposition to a bureaucratic socialist system of the late
1970's and 1980's was a particular practice of youth, usually popular
culture that degraded with the introduction of parliamentary
democration, since they lost the initial focus of interest, their
raison d'etre [33]. It seems that the new media in Croatia of the
1990's should be seen as a revitalization of alternative, opposing
potentials of pop culture that stood against a grey background of war,
economic transition, autocrat government and xenophobia.


Epilogue

The first generation of artists formally educated in media art at
Split and Zagreb Fine Art Academies was presented at the exhibition
"Re:sources: New Media and Young Croatian Artists" at the Gal_enica
Gallery in 2003. Only one of around 20 presented works did not belong
to video or animation art [34]. It can only be speculated about a real
popularity of film and video art among young Croatian artists. It
seems there has been a long and respectable tradition of experimental
film, video and animation, which has also determined the new media art
in Croatia [35]. Still, Geert Lovink suggested in one of his essays on
history of new media that the art tradition has always looked down on
the Internet and "network computer" as devices for art practice [36].
Using definitions introduced in Croatian art history by Ljubo Karaman
in the 1950's, Igor Markovi_ thinks the inability of so-called
peripheral and provincial  communities to creatively assimilate
influences of topological, not geographical centre, is responsible for
the omnipresent aversion to net art in Croatia. According to his
interpretation, advertising aspects as well as traditional aspects of
photography and video characterize Croatian artists' works on the
Internet [37].

Nowadays, the access to the Internet in Croatia is completely opened
to the market of the corporative capital. After more than a decade of
monopole, T-Com had to allow the access to so-called last mile in
2006. Despite this, Croatian citizens are still paying one of the most
expensive tariffs for the Internet access in Europe.

It is still impossible to find out, within a reasonable period, the
number of the Internet users in Croatia for the years 1996 and 2006.
In addition, the Modern Gallery, the institution dedicated to the
presentation of Croatian modern art, still does not have a web site.
On the other side, a recent survey has shown that Croatia has the
third-largest number of Fire fox users, following Finland and
Slovenia. In addition, Multimedial Institute's activity of promoting
Creative Commons licence is one of the most prominent in the region
while slow but persistent lobbying for the governmental use of the
free software is still going on. Finally, new media are becoming the
only media in Croatia, too.

(May 2007) Klaudio _tefan_i_ 
					(translation: Anita Kojund_i_)



[1]  The author would like to express his gratitude to Dejan Kr_i_,
Marcell Mars, Igor Markovi_, Dan Oki and Sr_an Dvornik for their help
with this text by providing necessary information and conversations.

[2]  Manovich, L., New Media from Borges to HTML in The New Media
Reader; edited by N. Wardrip-Fruin and N. Montfort, Cambridge
Massachusets&London, 2003: 13-25

[3]  http://www.argosarts.org/articles.do?id=343

[4]  The author borrows the terms opposition and negotiation from
Stuart Hall's cultural theory. Hall Stuart (2006): "Coding/ Decoding",
in Duda, D. (ed.): Politika teroije. Zbornik rasprava iz kulturalnih
studijas. Zagreb, Dispute: 127-139

[5]  For example, see Rachel Green's Internet Art (Thames&Hudson,
2004) or Darko Fritz's presentation of history of the Croatian media
art on http://www.culturenet.hr/v1/english/panorama.asp?id=39

[6]  For Janos Sugar's correspondence with Gaert Lovink  about typical
post-socialist experience of (inter) media artist, see
http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint74/2/14

[7]  In 1995, Zamir's network had 2000 members. Among others, Erich
Bachman writes on the establishing the BBS system on
http://balkansnet.org/MF-draft/MFF/zana-pr.htm

[8]  Until 1998, Arkzin's editor-in-chief was Vesna Jankovi_.
However, the board found it important to establish the institution of
collective, non-hierarchical editorship in which all the participants
were equally included. Other members of editorial board were graphic
designers Dejan Kr_i_, Dean Dragosavac Rutta, Bla_enko Kare_in,
journalists, publicists and theoreticians Igor Markovi_, Boris Buden,
Boris Mikuli_, Boris Trup_evi_, Geert Lovink and others.

[9]  "Arkzin" wrote about the Dutch group "Agentur Bilwet", cyber
feminism theory, work of Slovenian net-clubs "Ljudmila" and
"Kiberpipa", festivals such as "Next 5 Minutes", "Ars Electronica",
Venice Biennale, art groups and artists such as Critical Art Ensemble,
01.org, Stelarc and Ivan Maru_i_ Klif. Furthermore, translations of
texts written by theoreticians such as Geert Lovink, Andreas
Broeckmann, Hakim Bey, Richard Dawkins, Peter Weibel, Mark Dery, Mark
Terkessidis were published.

[10] Lovink, G., "New Media Art & Science", 2005, 30th May 2007
http://laudanum.net/geert/files/1129753681/

[11] Green, Rachel "Internet Art", London: Thames&Hudson, 2004: 54

[12]  http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/garcia-lovinktext,html

[13]  _uvakovi_, M., "Estetika apstraktnog slikarstva, Beograd:
Narodna knjiga/ Alfa, 1998: 18

[14]  "Zenit" was an avant-garde magazine, at first published in
Zagreb (1921-1923) and later in Beograd (1923-1926). Ljubomir Mici_,
whose intention was to introduce social and artistic principles of
avant-garde period into Croatia and Serbia, launched it. Although
pushed to the margins, "Zenit" enriched the Croatian art with many
avant-garde features, in particular constructivism, futurism and
Dadaism.

[15]  The commercial access to the Internet was extremely expensive
when it first started in 1995. In the mean time, the national operator
was sold to Deutsche Telekom.

[16]  Igor Markovi_ informed me about the surprising passivity of
state institutions when it came to implementation of the Internet,
claiming that governmental reaction to non-governmental organizations'
criticism was ill-defined and chaotic, rather that preconceived and
organized.

[17]  "Adilkno" or "Organization for improving illegal knowledge"
("Agentur Bilwet" in German) is informal group of intellectuals,
researchers and theoreticians who started to work in Amsterdam in
1983. They have published several books such as: "Cracking the
Movement", "Squatting beyond the Media" (1990) about subculture of
squats in Amsterdam; "The Data Dandy" (1994), a collection of essays
on cyber culture; "Media Archive" (1992) about repositioning mass
media in relation to socialist project downfall (Croatian edition was
published in 1998). Their theory was influenced by The French post
structuralism, pop culture, media art and Marxist theory.

[18] It is still possible to see "Arkzin" web page on
http://mediafilter.org/MFF/AZbi1.html

[19] Some of the founders were Nenad Romi_ a.k.a. Marcell Mars, Teodor
Celakoski, Vedran Gulin, Tomislav Medak, _eljko Bla_e, Petar Milat,
Boris Buden and others.

[20]  A newspaper redaction had an important role in the society of
former Yugoslavia due to a particular model called "socialism with
human face". The turbulent 1990's kept a part of that symbolism. Among
the most relevant "Arkzin" predecessors were youth magazines "Polet"
and "Studentski list".

[21]  The following translations should be mentioned here: Lawrence
Lessig's "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace", McKenzie Wark's "A
Hacker Manifesto", Marina Gr_ini_'s "Estetika kibersvijeta i u_inci
derealizacije", Michael Hardt & Tony Negri's "Empire" etc.

[22]  These artists were presented: Vuk _osi_, Luka Frelih, Ivan
Maru_iu_ Klif, Magdalena Pederin, Dubravko Kuhta, Berislav _imi_i_,
Sa_o Sedla_ek, William Linn, Ines Krasi_, Nika Oblak, Primo_ Novak and
others.

[23]  "Project: Broadcasting" was dedicated to Nikola Tesla. It was
taking place for almost a year at different locations in Zagreb and
was broadcasted on national radio. It consisted of exhibitions,
lectures, discussions, performances, concerts etc.

[24] One of the artists whose work has not been covered by any of the
three new media networks is Igor Zlobec. In 2000, he started the web
site "Zlobecsport". It soon transformed from a web page with a purpose
of presenting off-line works to a typical net artwork. Another artist
should be mentioned here, Antun Bo_i_evi_, whose interactive sound
ambient "Va_no je sudjelovati" was exhibited in Osijek in 2004. A year
earlier, Maja Kalogjera organized the international exhibition "Ground
of My Studio" in the GRADEC Gallery with the works of Ruth Catlow,
Agricola de Cologne, Marc Garret, Maya Kalogera, Jess Loseby, Eryk
Salvaggio, Teo Spiller and Jody Zellen.

[25]  Manovich, L., "Behind the Screen Russian New Media" from
Convergence  15 May 2007 http://con.sageoub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/10

[26]  Manovich 2003: 16

[27]  Media Scape was an international manifestation, founded by Heiko
Daxl, Ingeborg Fullep, Bojan Baleti_ and Malcolm LeGriece.

[28]  "Katedrala" was dedicated to Vasilij Kandinsky, Modest
Mussorgsky, Marchel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys. For further information
see http://members.chello.nl/fritzd/projects/katedrala/text.html

[29]  The term "network computer" is used here to point out the
cultural practices neglected in the theory of "early new media",
determined by popularization of the Internet and its introduction in
the world of mass media, increase of the wireless Internet access, new
forms of artistic on-line networking based on Web 2.0, influence of
open source, i.e. Creative Commons' cultural and artistic movement
etc. In short, the term is a temporary methodological construction
created for the purposes of this historic countdown, in accordance
with Manovich's differentiation between new media and cyber culture.
For further information, see Manovich 2003, 16 and "The Language of
New Media" of the same author.

[30]  Some of the founders were Ivo Dekovi_, Tomislav Leroti_, Vlado
Zrni_, Gorki _uvela, Mirko Petri_, Slobodan Joki_ a.k.a. Dan Oki and
others.

[31]  Himbele, _. and _tefan_i_, K. "Protiv pedago_ke atrofiranosti
(interview with  Slobodan Joki_ a.k.a. Dan Oki), "Zarez", 25 September
2003 http://www.zarez.hr/113/temabroja4.htm  (15 June 2007)

[32]  Lovink, G. "Intermedia: The Dirty Digital Bauhaus, an e-mail
Exchange with Janos Sugar" from "Convergence: The International
Journal of Research into New Media Technologies", 5 March 2007
(http://laudanum.net/geert/files/1006074852/index.shtml?1182511765).
In Sugar's conception "inter-media" stands for "inter-disciplinary"
plus "media".

[33]  Kr_i_, D. "Alter/native" in "Communication Front 2000 Book", 18
April 2006 http://cfront.org/cf00book/en/dejan-alternative-en.html

[34]  It was Dunja Sabli_'s graduation work - CD ROM "Vila Velebita".

[35]  The hybrid area where film, video and "traditional" art of the
early 1970's overlap can be presented by GEFF (Genre Film Festival),
the work by Vladimir Petek and FAVIT (Film, audiovizualna
istra_ivanja, televizija), Dalibor Martinis and Sanja Ivekovi_'s work,
  experimental films of Ladislav Galeta, Tomislav Gotovac and others.

[36] Lovink, Geert: "New Media, Art and Science", 2005 30 May 2007
http://laudanum.net/geert/files/1129753681/

[37] Markovi_, Igor: "Periphery vs. Province" from "Convergence: The
International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies", 2
April 2007 http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/31



Literature:

Castells, Manuel (2003): The Internet Galaxy. Reflections on Internet,
Business, and Society, Zagreb, Jesenski&Turk

Fritz, Darko: "Media Art". Culturenet.hr
http://www.culturenet.hr/v1/english/panorama.asp?id=39  (15 June 2007)

Green, Rachel (2004): Internet Art. London, Thames&Hudson

Hall, Stuart (2006) "Coding/ Decoding" in Duda, D.; (ed.): Politika
teorije. Zbornik rasprava iz kulturalnih studija. Zagreb: Dispute:
127-139

Himbele, _eljka and _tefan_i_, Klaudio "Protiv pedago_ke atrofiranosti
(intervju sa Slobodanom Joki_em a.k.a Danom Okijem)", Zarez, 25
September 2003
http://www.zarez.hr/113/temabroja4.htm   (15 June 2007)

Kr_i_, Dejan (2000): "Alter/native". Communication Front Book
http://www.cfront.org/cf00book/en/dejan-alternative-en.html  (15 June
2007)

Lovink, Geert (1998): "Intermedia: The Dirty Digital Bauhaus, an
e-mail exchange with J_nos Sug_r" from Convergence: The International
Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
  http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/14 (15 June 2007)

Lovink, Geert (2003): Dark Fiber.  Cambridge - Massachusetts & 
London, MIT Press

Lovink, Geert (2005): "New Media, Art and Science. Explorations beyond
the Official Discourse"
  http://laudanum.net/geert/files/1129753681/ (15 June 2007)

Manovich, Lev (1998): "Behind the Screen Russian New Media" from
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media
Technologies http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/10  (15 June 2007)

Manovich, Lev (2001): The Language of New Media, Cambridge -
Massachusetts & London, MIT Press

Manovich, Lev (2003) "New Media from Borges to HTML" in Wardrip-Fruin,
N. and Montfort, N. (ed.): The New Media Reader.
Cambridge-Massachusetts & London: MIT Press: 13-25

Markovi_, Igor (1998): "Periphery vs. Province "in Convergence: The
International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
  http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/31  (15 June 2007)

_uvakovi_, Mi_ko (1998): Estetika apstraktnog slikarstva, Beograd:
Narodna knjiga/Alfa

--
klaudio
www.galerijagalzenica.info
www.kiberdzezva.blogspot.com


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime at kein.org