<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
one way around it is what we did with the CyPosium
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cyposium.net/">http://www.cyposium.net/</a>); this event had a zero budget. we decided
not to waste our time & energies trying to find funding for a
totally online globally distributed symposium about cyberformance,
& instead just got on with it. all of the organisers and
presenters volunteered their time and resources, and it was free to
attend (also no travel or accommodation costs for anyone!).
certainly it would have been nice to be paid for our work, we all
have to eat & pay bills; but this was a situation where enough
people wanted something to happen & just did it. i think that
everyone who participated felt it was very worthwhile to them in
myriad ways.<br>
<br>
as an independent artist who is not attached to any institution, i
often have to decide whether to participate in conferences or not
because of the costs. every situation is different. i wouldn't pay
to present my work at an academic conference or an event that's got
good funding, but i often contribute at smaller self-organised
events (which i tend to enjoy much more than the bigger ones anyway)
because it's something that i want to support & the fees are
usually realistic & flexible in terms of participants' financial
situations. for academic conferences, mostly i have found that
organisers do appreciate independent artists' situation & if
they really want you to be a part of it they will find a way to make
it work.<br>
<br>
it is really important that artists & non-institutional
participants are included in conferences - usually more so for the
academics than the artists; the academics i've worked with recently
certainly have regarded participating artists as invaluable assets.
attending conferences will always have some degree of cost (even
when i do get a fee, it's nowhere near compensation for the time
spent preparing, travelling, etc) but good ones are an opportunity
to exchange & network & learn. it's a matter of chosing
which ones are worth it & not being afraid to say no to those
that aren't.<br>
<br>
h : )<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 16/04/15 9:17 23AM, John Hopkins
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:552F6203.5030604@tech-no-mad.net" type="cite">Hei
Mathias!
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">It was not so long ago when artist and
non-institutional participants were
<br>
considered an asset for festivals and conferences.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Halcyon days indeed.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I remember that the group of invited
artists to 1994 ISEA in Helsinki threatened
<br>
the organizers with a boycott, in case we were forced to pay
conference fees.
<br>
Our argument was that we 1) did not have the money to pay for
conferences, 2)
<br>
that our supporting institutions, the arts councils and
embassies would not
<br>
understand that we have to pay for delivering artistic work and
3) that these
<br>
festivals and conferences create income based on the
participants' input.
<br>
In the end, none of us paid.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
I also remember that instance there in Helsinki, long on 21 years
ago. It would be interesting to see how a similar situation would
unfold these days. Would the artists resist (*resistance if
futile*)? Or would there not even be a mention of it. "You were
lucky to be selected to be a part of our august event." ...
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Today?
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Speaking from very recent conference experience, I became a bit of
a pariah for trying to make a tiny re-adjustment of the system
(all presenters had to register for the whole conference, although
this wasn't stated explicitly until I got an email a week before
after I had made a query as to why some sessions had individual
registration possibilities and others not. I was told that those
were only to allow the public to attend single sessions, that
option wasn't meant for presenters.) I'm presently unemployed in
that careerist sense, but submitted a paper and was also asked by
a Canadian colleague to join in a panel. I felt bad about asking
for a variance on the accepted protocol, but then, I was
presenting content and bringing my own network and experience to
the gathering at the same time as living on savings.
<br>
<br>
The economic pressure on organizers from the wider institutional
setting was such that in the end I was asked to pay for a day's
registration, about 3x what I had hoped to spend (and about 3-4
weeks worth of food).
<br>
<br>
I don't think the argument can be made in the US that a conference
makes money directly for the organizers, although indirectly, the
ultimate 'success' of a conference bolsters the university's
prestige. The local community makes some profit on hotels and
restaurants, airline flights, and this further reflects back on
the university's status as an income generator. Money is made for
someone, somewhere.
<br>
<br>
These days, I thing a higher percentage of 'artists' have been
absorbed into academic contexts, where there is funding (though
certainly not in abundance) that is earmarked for conference
attendance. This is a core element working to bolster the
university's wider social status. (At the same time noting that
few conferences actually interface with the wider social milieu!)
Faculty *have* to present at conferences. The 'publish-or-perish'
paradigm also drives/maintains/strengthens the hierarchic
structure of the university itself. Conferences in the arts
organized in the US, of which there are few, I suspect probably
have extremely low numbers of non-academics. This is also a result
of there being *zero* public funding for an artist to attend such
things. It would have to be fully out-of-pocket for the artist.
This provides an exclusionary result that threatens to keep the
Ivory Towers completely ivory, outsiders need not knock.
<br>
<br>
I can't really think of a way around this: it is a consequence of
the socio-economics of academic institutions and the wider
dis-interest and even hostility in the US towards education,
culture, and the arts. It is also a consequence of larger forces
at work by those who control system-wide flows of power.
<br>
<br>
In Europe, where cultural funding is one order of magnitude
greater than the US in a typical situation, things are a bit
different, with many more non-academic funding options. Of course,
it's been getting squeezed in the last years, but at least there
is something!
<br>
<br>
I think that all of these micro-stresses are manifestations of the
fact that there are too many people on the planet all who are
competing for limited resources.
<br>
<br>
so it goes.
<br>
<br>
jh
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
helen varley jamieson<br>
<a href="mailto:helen@creative-catalyst.com">helen@creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.creative-catalyst.com">http://www.creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net">http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net</a><br>
<a href="http://www.upstage.org.nz">http://www.upstage.org.nz</a></div>
</body>
</html>