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font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;"><big><big>Response
New Media & Art Institutions to Governmental Cuts</big></big><br>
</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><span
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font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">Source of
innovation is eliminated<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.v2.nl/news/response-to-governmental-cuts">http://www.v2.nl/news/response-to-governmental-cuts</a><br>
</span></span></p>
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6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><span
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class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:
separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times;
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96); font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height:
18px;"></span></span></span></span>Netherlands, June
15 2011<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><br>
Dear Mr Zijlstra<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
Dear Members of the House of Representatives</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">One of the many
decisions in your arts policy paper “More than quality; a new<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
vision on arts policy”, is the liquidation of the total
infrastructure for new media<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
and art. The media arts & technology sector, which has
acquired a place in arts<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
policy in the past 8 years, has been abolished. The socalled
'development<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
institutions': STEIM, Waag Society, V2_, Submarine Channel,
WORM and<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
Mediamatic are losing their structural funding. In addition to
that the Netherlands<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
Media Art Institute, a visual arts institution which also
works in the media arts field,<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
loses its government funding. These structural institutional
resources will be<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
rerouted into a new Fund for the Creative Industry, which's
mission is to stimulate<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
the social and economic value of the creative industry as a
whole.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><strong
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">New media art
is an independent art discipline</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">The existance of
new media as an independent art discipline, including artistic<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
production, audiences, (inter)national networks, and events,
is completely denied<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
in this proposed new arts policy.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">New media art is
a discipline which questions and researches the technological<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
developments and challenges of our times, and designs new
applications for<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
these issues. It has its own idiom and art practice. It is an
independent discipline<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
sustaining independent thematics, international networks of
media labs, festivals,<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
publications and presentations. The Dutch model of these
cooperating new media<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
labs with crossovers into other fields (social, educational,
economical) has been<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
an exemplary model since years. The above mentioned
'development institutions'<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
are internationally renowned, part of vast international
networks, and contribute<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
to the position of the Netherlands in the fields of new media
and art.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><strong
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">Paradox:
punished for success</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">Like no other
arts field, new media art makes connections to other fields.
Its R&D<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
functions are relevant towards the total field of culture, as
well as heritage and<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
media. Exchange with science is continually growing, it plays
a vital role in the<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
innovation of social domains, and has a large impact on the
current renewal of<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
education. The paradox now is that new media art is widely
acknowledged and<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
seen as very relevant, but its source: artistic research
including its audience<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
outreach, autonomous art prodcution and international network,
will now be<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
discontinued.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><strong
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">Project based
vs structural</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">The policy paper
indicates a choice for a project based way of working, and for<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
that reason a total cut in institutional funding for R&D.
This is a very remarkable<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
way of reasoning as R&D activities need long term
commitment in order to be<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
able to develop from experiment to result. It also requires
excellent networking<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
and a sustainable infrastructure, including complex
relationships to social fields,<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
business and science. The new media institutions like no other
have paved the<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
way for such cooperations, and have shown that arts, sciences,
business and<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
society in general can work together in meaningful coalitions.
International<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
cooperations that have been opened up to Dutch partners also
exist thanks to<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
long term policy. With the abolishment of structural support
of these new media art<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
institutions, the basis is washed away and it will be
impossible in the future to<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
enter into long term commitments. Like European funding for
and participation in<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
research and projects, and participation in national research
programs.<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
A project based way of working interferes with continuity.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><strong
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">Talent
development</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">The new Fund for
the Creative Industry is also supposed to work on talent<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
development in a project based manner. This is contrary to the
needs of the<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
educational field where there is a demand for structural
connections. The new<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
media and art institutions have acknowledged that and play an
important role in<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
development of talent and skills through the programs they
have set up<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
together with vocational institutions and universities. They
also offer internships<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
and work with PHD students. The very same sustainable long
term structures are<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
necessary here in order to be able to structurally work within
education.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;"><strong
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">The way the
Fund for the Creative Industry should work!</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">New media art can
only contribute to the mission of enlarging the social and<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
economic value of the creative industry, in case the Fund is
enabled to:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">(1) issue longer
term institutional subsidies and</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">(2) means are
explicitely made available for artistic research,
artistic production <br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
and audience based activities</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">We sincerely hope
that you will involve the new media and art institutions in
the<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
set up and creation of the new Fund, and that the above
arguments will lead to<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
the desired adjustments. We will be more than happy to share
our views with you,<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
as well as the knowledge that we have in the area of
international new media<br style="margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;">
arts policy.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">Yours sincerely,</p>
<p style="margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom:
6px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 0px;">V2_<br
style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
Waag Society<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
STEIM<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
Mediamatic<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
WORM<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">
Submarine Channel<br style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left:
0px;">
Netherlands Media Art Institute</p>
</span></span>
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