Estonian Experience: Non-In­sti­tu­tional Media Art Pro­duc­tion in Estronia

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • New Media Art Education in Central and Eastern Europe in the Last Two Decades: experiments and transition

Presentation Title:
  • Estonian Experience: Non-In­sti­tu­tional Media Art Pro­duc­tion in Estronia

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Abstract:

  • Panel: New Media Art Education in Central and Eastern Europe in the Last Two Decades: experiments and transition

    Speak­ing of non-in­sti­tu­tional media art pro­duc­tion in Es­to­nia I rely on my per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence of or­gan­is­ing an­nual media art fes­ti­val in Tallinn.  We are a small and quite poor coun­try in a sit­u­a­tion where most of “cul­ture mak­ers” must be able to be suc­cess­ful by them­selves. On the other hand this poor­ness sit­u­ates us to be more cre­ative and look after new ex­tra­or­di­nary forms of co­op­er­a­tion, shar­ing ideas and con­tin­ious self-learn­ing.  I think that liv­ing and cre­at­ing art in small so­ci­ety gives us many ben­e­fits – fact that every­body knows each other makes re­la­tion­ships and group­works much eas­ier. On the other hand we have in sit­u­a­ton where we have less au­di­ence.

    What char­ac­ter­izes non-in­sti­tu­tional media art in Es­to­nia?  First and best phe­nom­e­non is DIY – pro­jects are born with hands-on method by using low-tech tools. Artists are often work­ing in cel­lars or garages, old fac­to­ries or rooftop flats. So I should say that artis­tic work and cre­ativ­ity do not de­pend on lo­ca­tion. Sec­ondly I would say that media art does not de­pend of small bud­get.  Vice versa, I am happy to say that media art is evolv­ing and con­stantly finds new out­comes. Third and more broad phe­nom­e­non is that media art is dis­solved with other cul­tural forms and can be found every­where. And this is con­tin­u­ing and ever-ris­ing trend. Fourth is artists pe­cu­liar at­ti­tude of “big” prob­lems. For ex­am­ple prob­lems of sur­veil­lance so­ci­ety that have be­come pop­u­lar abroad didn’t pro­voke fears or neg­a­tively minded works at all, in­stead our artists joy­fully ex­pressed con­de­scen­sion about it. Through art­works it was con­cluded that the sur­round­ing cam­eras and care­fully in­spected per­sonal data are an in­evitable part of today’s so­ci­ety, which must be ac­cepted and which should be used in art in the best way.

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