Revolting was a temporary media lab which ran during ISEA '98
in Manchester, England. It was organised by Micz Flor (CrashMedia,
University of Salford, Mute Magazine). It has been described by
a number of journalists and participants as the most exciting
event to take place at this year's conference.
To: Cybersociology Magazine ([email protected])
From: micz flor <[email protected]>
Subject: Re:port: Manchester/UK/Revolting
Re:port: MANCHESTER'S TEMPORARY MEDIA LAB: REVOLTING
http://www.yourserver.co.uk/revolting/
15th Aug - 20th Sep 98
What is happening in Manchester, UK? This summer the post-industrial
city
in the North-West of England hosted the temporary media lab Revolting.
Possibly a bit late for the fast serving mailinglist. A personal
but
valuable starting point for me to snoop around the context within
which
Revolting was placed...
-----
INTRO
THE CENTRE AND THE MONUMENT: BUILDING THE UK
SUPER! A MEDIA LAB!
ON A MORE REVOLTING NOTE
REVOLTING AND THE REVOLUTION
THE PERIPHERY NEEDS REAL-TIME-ARCHIVISTS
COMPROMISED EXHIBITION PRACTICE: THE SMUDGY CUBE
CULTURAL INDUSTRIES VERSUS CULTURE : MANCHESTER
REVOLTING PARTICIPANTS
MANCHESTER LINKS
-----
INTRO
At the opening of the Revolting temporary media lab you would
encounter
little more than a crowded bar area, two empty shelves, the Revolting
newsletter (tabloid format) a set of 60s sofas and the subtle
electronic
tracks of Berlin's trax tv. No (media) art on display - wait,
some people
mistook the Flying Toasters screensaver projections for an installation
work and subsequently must have thought: this is bad art. But
nobody said
anything.
Between the 15th August and the 20th September 1998 the empty
shelves got
filled with material: photocopies, videos, slides, audio tapes,
photographs, print outs. And the web site incrementally raised
its content
index, now supplying over 10 hours of sound files, scans, texts,
graphics,
links, messages. The revolting FM transmitter on 106.5FM lifted
most of the
content on-air and the coffee machine in the bar area must have
produced
gallons of content itself. More info on the projects can be found
on the site.
THE CENTRE AND THE MONUMENT: BUILDING THE UK
Remaining temporary, the Revolting laboratory should be seen in
direct
opposition to the trend of media centres as they grow throughout
the UK
these days. According to plan, over 50 'centres' might be built
throughout
the next ten years. Start counting the cities you know and wonder
where the
remaining 40 centres will be built - and being a centre in relation
to
what? The reasons for this media centre epidemic are multi-layered.
European policy wants to support the development of media centres,
and
where policy goes, money follows. EU policy believes that computers
do
good. They allegedly breed education, skills, jobs, humanity,
... name it.
And the current structure of UK's capital funding (see also lottery
money)
supports the accumulation of money in order to construct or convert
buildings.
The temporary media laboratory critically reflects on this believe
in the
centre and the building. When it comes to independent media production
it
is obvious that there are peripheries. In fact most of the appeal
for the
centres to exhibit, invite or imbibe smaller media effects derives
from the
attraction of the diverse, the distance between the centre and
the
periphery. Such projects can remain light like a feather, whereas
the
centre in many cases will eventually (and I guess 10 years is
already a
conservative estimate) be vacant monuments of the turn of the
millennium.
Instead of falling into the trap of building, equipping and running
a
centre, Revolting aimed to create a temporary density of activities
and
theoretical discourse in the North-West of the UK. Accepting that
a media
lab will always be flavoured by the Zeitgeist within which it
is
constituted requires temporary solutions.
SUPER! A MEDIA LAB!
Today, the media lab is a media phenomenon. You can find them
everywhere
and they might well be looked upon as the 90s version of collectives
or
communes; political and artistic entities which might claim to
be the last
bastion of political consciousness within activism and art, after
the
gallery has long lost its outreach potential in terms of social
change.
However, even though the media lab seems to be a generalised stencil
for
media production, it is clear that the only unifying factor is
the empty
technological framework which allows to produce, archive and present
media.
At the Art Servers Unlimited conference in London, July 1998,
the most
striking outcome was the diversity with which those independent
internet
initiatives need to be measured. In mere economic terms, the equation
of
costs of space, equipment and workforce can function as a mapping
device
for the socio-ge
ographical location of such initiatives. Space
is expensive
in the West, especially in cities, equipment is comparably expensive
in the
East - but space is less of a problem in the Lower East Side of
Europe. In
the West workforce is generally expensive, as cultural production
becomes a
luxury article in richer societies. Still, the UK has a long tradition
of
cultural production funded by the dripfeed of unemployment benefit
(something very novel but on the rise in Germany).
As the term Cultural Industries gains a currency on its own, it
would be
interesting to explore the economic and social objectives of small
(and
independent?) media labs. One crucial distinction which needs
to be taken
is the time span over which those entities function. The Revolting
media
lab was temporary and there
fore removed from the financial and
psychological maintenance struggle of ongoing initiatives. Production
was
crucial, but exchange clearly the priority.
ON A MORE REVOLTING NOTE
REVOLTING AND THE REVOLUTION
This years International Symposium of Electronic Arts (isea98)
was held in
Manchester and Liverpool under the header of 'Revolution'. But
let's be
realistic! A blockbuster electronic arts event-slash- symposium
called
Revolution is unrealistic. Still, it is anything but unexpected.
Over the
last few years several trends have developed which - if followed
through
consequently - make the appropriation of such a dramatic word
for radical
change more understandable. Firstly, the momentum associated with
the
social uprising of the late 60s has been transformed into social
romanticism and introduced deep into popular culture. Secondly,
the
'Digital Revolution' has been announced. The fashionable transfer
of
notions of radical change from the sphere of the social sciences
to those
of technological advancement makes one question the reliability
of the
concept of revolution as such. Finally, the battlegrounds of subversion
have allegedly re-located to the digital (and analogue) rea
lms
of networked
technologies. Revolting hangs up on the Revolution Master Narrative
and
dials again.
THE PERIPHERY NEEDS REAL-TIME-ARCHIVISTS
Being temporary easily translates into being peripheral. And when
talking
about the periphery we have to ponder concepts such as attendance,
audience, the public. Just as well, based in Manchester throughout
the
summer hole the concept of the lab always emphasised the importance
of the
archive. The live events, happenings, presentation in the space
had two
audiences. One on site and one on demand. Revolting produced over
18 hours
of video material and the web page contains over 10 hours of audio
material. For a temporary media lab the archive is crucial and
concepts
such as 'the public attendance' need to be understood through
networked
media and distribution channels. Long live the real-time-archivists!
THE SMUDGY CUBE EXHIBITION PRACTICE
With a five week programme inviting international and local media
players,
temporary also described the ongoing transformations of the Revolting
space. At times we had two presentations a day, especially throughout
the
time where isea98 had it's 48 hours of academia based across the
road at
Manchester Metropolitan University. This ongoing change was crucial
to the
flavour of Revolting. The foundation remained the same: a bar
area, a
coffee machine, a kitchen, three Macs, VCRs, tapes, radio transmitters,
slide projectors, beams, etc. - but the space became what the
participants
would make of it, sometimes disrupting the expectations with vigorous
incisions.
Given the pace of the alterations and adjustments - creating a
tea room,
then emptying the whole space for a performance, then installing
half a
dozen of video monitors, then building an auditorium for 40 people,
then
turning the space into a fanzine library - would set 'compromise'
as a
default value. As it turned out this backdrop of improvisation
seemed
rather adequate for most of the media works which presented themselves
at
the space. Without getting caught up between the aesthetic imperatives
of
the white cube and the process oriented nature of media activism,
the
presentations could focus on the essence of their work. Especially
as the
participants would generally be present to introduce and discuss
the work,
the revolting context provided enough gravity to pull people towards
the
subject matter.
CULTURAL INDUSTRIES VERSUS CULTURE : MANCHESTER
Manchester is internationally known - that's for sure. Mainly
for football,
cricket and the industrial revolution and the presence of Marx
and Engels -
much later for Punk, then Rave, the Hacienda, Factory records,
then came
the 90s and things went a bit quiet for a while. Recently a new
selection
if independent record labels have been set up and it generally
believed
that the music culture is going up-hill again.
Manchester has the biggest student population in Europe (ask any
private
cab driver), but it needs to be said that this student population
seems to
be superimposed onto the city, being its own economical entity,
supplying
bars, clubs, restaurants, accommodation, as a matter of fact whole
parts of
the city with business.
If you believe the papers then Manchester is booming. Whole parts
of the
city are under development. The Northern Quarter - for the past
decades
known for its sweat shop fashion and sex industries has recently
been
renamed the Creative Quarter. Artists moved in, city developers
followed.
Since the term Cultural Industries has been created for the UK,
it doesn't
matter too much if you are an artist, desig
ner or architect -
at the bottom
line you are a more or less successful entrepreneur. Almost any
small
(creative) enterprise has to evaluate itself in terms of economy:
being a
business.
Today Manchester is led by the new Manchester Men, architects,
planners,
developers who are rebuilding and re-conceptualising the city.
This
re-thinking of scale and structure has a number of origins, the
most
dramatic one being the IRA bombing of the city centre in 1996.
A whole
central area is under redevelopment, aiming to increase commercial
value of
property which has previously been used by small business enterprises,
which have been entirely wiped out of the centre with the blow.
At this
level, Manchester is run by business deals and politicians do
little but
shape the development of the facades.
When it comes to the cultural developments currently underway,
electronic
arts and media culture come into play. Substantial funding is
being
supplied to the area. This money is sometimes targeted towards
the
development of small and medium enterprises. But the implications
of the
term Cultural Industries works both ways. Not only do cultural
initiatives
have to evaluate themselves economically, but also they are suddenly
in a
position to receive money originally devoted for business development.
Fab.
Under the cover of training schemes and access courses a series
of
initiatives have been set up to facilitate the area with possibilities
and
support structures. The focus varies from commissioning art, supplying
structures, set up training or access schemes, network people
or simply
generate ideas or give space.
Key players in the North-West area of the UK are (in alphabetical
order)
the Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology (FACT, which also
organised
the art programme of isea98), Innovation in Design and Electronic
Arts
(IDEA, a group of artists who also run a number of training and
access
courses and own the Deaf And Dumb Institute at which Revolting
was located)
and The Manchester Telematics and Teleworking Society (MTTP, who
are in
partnership with many electronic village halls throughout the
city and
develop a network for micro and small enterprises).
Space: the last frontier... Technology plays a crucial role in
the
development of the cultural mindframe o
f Manchester. If you look
at the
label culture and the raves of the late 80s it becomes obvious
that
Manchester always managed to marry independent entrepreneurial
production
and cultural profiling. With the increase in city development
and the
subsequent decline of available spaces, small technological networks
might
present an opportunity to escape the corporate feel of urban regeneration.
The Deaf and Dumb Institute (DADI building) of IDEA could provide
Manchester with such a network, also FACT will start working on
a media
centre and the development of a Merseyside Network in Liverpool
in 99 to
facilitate the diverse cultures with a network and public access
terminals.
Once outside London, the idea of private funding for cultural
developments
is a bit of a joke. Hopefully Universities and public institutions
will
offer their redundant resources to facilitate independent groups,
but art
organisation and funding play a crucial role in the process of
facilitating. North of the city centre, on the border to Salford
an old
factory building is underway to become an independent mixture
of studio,
meeting, and exhibition space and a small media lab entity: From
Space (on
a mailing list near you in early 99).
Micz Flor
[Manchester, Oct98]
Special thanks to Andy Lovatt from the Manchester Institute of
Popular
Culture for his Manchester specific input, thanks to Graham Parker,
Laurie
Peake and Simon Robertshaw. And standing ovations to Tosh Ryan
for being
himself and everywhere and in places where nobody else dares to
go...
REVOLTING PARTICIPANTS
Aurora Universalis - Makrolab Mission (Stephen Kovats, Nina Czegledy
&
Marko Peljhan); Backspace; Biotech Hobbyist Magazine (Heath Bunting
&
Natalie Jeremijenko); Bit Plane (Bureau of Inverse Technology);
Black Arts
Alliance (Black Arts Alliance); Black Women's Guide to Europe
(Liverpool
Black Sisters); Community Media & Black Activism (Black Multimedia
Arts
Collective); Martin Conrads; DeepDish TV (DeeDee Halleck); Die
Kunst;
Digital Artisans (Richard Barbrook); Elect
ronic Pulse Systems
(Ricardo
Dominguez); Micz Flor; Gio d'Angelo; Global Bedroom Communications
(Fanzine
Culture compiled by Graham Clayton-Chance); Hypermedia Research
Centre;
Infopool (K3000 - special guest: Shedhalle Zurich); Manchester
Area
Psychogeographics (Bob Dickinson); Million Youth March (Million
Youth
March); Museum of Modern Strategy (Miguel Leal, Cristina Mateus);
Net,
Radio & Streaming Media (Gio D'Angelo & friends); on-air, on-web,
on-site
(convex tv.); Poets Get Paid (Poets Get Paid); Recognising (V.Barbul,
A.Davic, V.Midic, B.Milicic-Davic); Redundant Technology Initiative
(James
Wallbank & friends); Natascha SadrHaghighian; Soaps Around The
World
(dogfilm); Soft, Warm And Secluded (Florian Zeyfang, et.al.);
Tactical
Media (Geert Lovink); Teens Talk Revolution (Jamika Ajalon in
collaboration
[see page]); Vera Tollmann; Virtual Migrants (Kuljit Chuhan);
Virtual
Revolutions (various, see page for list of artists); volte-face
(luxus
cont.); Waiting Area / Ejector Seat (monitor 007); What About
Communication
Guerrilla ? (autonome a.f.r.i.k.a. gruppe, L. Blisset, S. Bruenzels)
Virtual Revolutions was a collaboration with Revolting. More info:
http://www.yourserver.co.uk/vr/
Revolting was operated by Martin Conrads, Micz Flor, Natascha
SadrHaghighian, Vera Tollmann and Florian Zeyfang, organised by
Micz Flor.
The Revolting web architecture was developed by Gio D'Angelo,
the project
was assisted by Vera Tollmann and editorially supported by Graham
Parker.
Revolting was hosted on-line by lovely.net and on-site by IDEA.
Additional
key funders were the Arts Council of England, University of Salford
and FACT.
MANCHESTER LINKS (ALPHABETICAL ORDER):
The Annual Programme
http://www.theannualprogram.com/
Arts About Manchester
http://www.aam.org.uk/
Cornerhouse
http://www.aam.org.uk/venues/corner.html
Crash Media
http://www.yourserver.co.uk/crashmedia/
Cyberia
http://www.manchester.cyberiacafe.net/
Digital Summer 98
http://www.ds98.org/
Foundation for Art & Creative Technology
http://www.fact.co.uk/
geek (e-zine)
http://www.geek.co.uk/
Green Room
http://www.u-net.com/set/greenroom/
Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts (IDEA)
http://www.idea.org.uk/
Manchester Institute of Popular Culture
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/mipc/
Manchester Online
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/
Manchester Telematics & Telework Partnership (MTTP)
http://www.mttp.net.uk/
Northern Quarter Network
http://www.nqn.org.uk/
Micz Flor [[email protected]]
http://www.yourserver.co.uk/revolting
http://www.yourserver.co.uk/crashmedia
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[t/f]+44.151.7092663 [t]+44.161.2956157 [a]http://www.art-bag.net
[b]http://www.yourserver.co.uk [c]http://www.metamute.com
[q] "There is no administrative production of meaning."
-----------------------------------------------------------------