[spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia

[Ana Peraica]

Unfortunately not any mention of Zvone and Maja or Syndicalists...

ana

Andreas Broeckmann wrote:
> (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
> 
> 
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