On-line and Off-line in Cluj, Romania, December 9-12, 1997
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Structures & Strategies in Developing Multimedia
The long trip to Cluj started at 4 a.m. in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. As a sleepy passenger in a large van, I found myself looking down a dark, narrow road heading towards Belgrade before my first cup of coffee. We arrived at dawn. The driver, arranged by the VideoMedeja festival, assisted me to buy a one way ticket to Timisoara, Romania, where I would join a group and drive on to Cluj. We found the unmarked platform for the dilapidated train. Everything at Belgrade's main station in great disrepair, and everyone looked cold. Inside, the coach is unheated (it's well below zero-Centigrade), and there is no food service available.
Intro: Another Winter Journey on the Balkan
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Not many people are traveling, and I have the shabby compartment to myself. I was told that most local people prefer the modern buses which are faster, warmer, and are safer. Trains do not always connect towns directly, are frequently robbed, and they take the ‚old route'. But, this offers me glimpses of the harsh life of the rural inhabitants in the border region between Yugoslavia and Romania. It is a vast, frozen landscape of cultivated fields that separate small villages (all carefully prepared for the next season). Many of the inhabitants still rely on horse drawn wagons. The whole scenery evokes the idea of space lost in time. Since the war in Yugoslavia, smuggling and economic sanctions have resulted in heavy security at border crossings, which can become a major episode if all one's documents are not in order. It was quick and the guards were in a good mood: I was lucky and not detained.
I arrive mid-day, and am greeted by a friendly face. We drive through the bustling, romantic looking town, to his office. What a tremendous contrast to enter IDEA, a fully equipped Macintosh Graphics studio, and settle into a warm chair for my first coffee of the day. I discovered that Timisoara has an active multimedia community, even though it is removed from the general "center" of travel. After several telephone calls, I am taken to Alexandru Patatics' studio, Art & Ambient Visual Research, where I was able to check my e-mail. Because two car loads were making the long drive to Cluj, I was organized into the more comfortable (newer) car of Alexandru. After a quick stop at McDonalds, we set of on the 7 hour drive, through unexpected dense fog over two lane, winding country roads, to Cluj. It is dark, so my imagination plays strongly about the scenery as we head into the heart of Transylvania. This might seem like a roundabout way to travel, but in the Balkans, it is quite normal, indeed.
The four day symposium, Structures and Strategies in Developing Multimedia: On-line and Off-line, began early in the morning on December 9. A collaboration between the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Bucharest and Dynamic Network Technologies, Cluj. It took place in the modern facilities of the Cluj partner, a 4 story remodeled building in a residential neighborhood, complete with full technical staff, in-house snack bar, library, and copy services. A private company, Dynamic Network Technologies started in 1995 as part of the Soros family, but has since split off to become a self supportive business that provides Internet services, conference support, software development and simultaneous translation (often for Soros supported events). Although information had been rather sketchy beforehand, a full package of information was presented to each participant, complete with biographies and contact addresses for the 23+ presenters at the event.
Symposium guests, we met at breakfast in the vast dining room of the Sport Hotel (yes, we were surrounded by athletes in expensive training suits, eating huge breakfasts). We car-pooled to the first session, where Irina Cios, director of the SCCA, cheerfully introduced the symposium and presented the strategy of the SCCA to assist with developing electronic art projects in Romania. She gave a brief history of the media events since 1993, which began with the video installation exhibition Ex Oriente Lux. That exhibition, which also included an international symposium and brought many visitors to Bucharest for the first time, was intended to close the information gap, and start a communication process. This lead to MEdia CULPA, the 1995 annual exhibition and CD ROM project, a major teamwork between artists, The Institute for Computers, and the SCCA. Cios announced at the outset that the seminar in Cluj was designed to stimulate interest in multimedia in Romania, for both artistic and commercial projects, incorporating video, WWW, 3D animation, and CD ROM. The days that followed consisted of presentations, demonstrations, and discussions handled in a supportive manner, which gave a deep look into the various interests and levels of ability.
Each evening, the staff, local artists, and visitors dined together, and visited some local bars and night spots in Cluj, which is a very social town. We gained further insight into the revitalized economy and general atmosphere of the local population - it was interesting to see that a club and a boutique shared the same name and entryway. But, it is probably a great business strategty! Although it was bitterly cold, our spirits were high, the food was great, and the small group felt comfortable exchanging connections and ideas.
Highlights of the Program
Some highlights from the program included a presentation from the Art Academy in Bucharest by Roxana Trestioreanu, and from the Multimedia Department, the Visual Art Academy in Cluj (by various young artists) giving a view to the future projects being developed by students. Melentie Pandilovsky from Skopje, presented "Macedonian Electronic Art 1994-997". Kati Gerber, a native Romanian now living in Ottawa, gave a detailed overview of the attempts being made on the international level to establish criteria for the evaluation of multimedia. Her current work with the Canadian Heritage Information Network, as part of the Multimedia Working Group, has devised a compendium of points that can be found online at www.icom.org (see cidoc). In her overview of artists websites, she stated that "the user's knowledge was provoked far more extensively in artists sites, than in more commercial or institutional sites" and that artists work meets more of the criteria that have been developed, so far.
Outstanding CD ROM's
The most impressive commercially viable project was the CD ROM, "The Roads to Heaven", presented by Rãzvan Theodorescu, Professor at the Fine Arts Academy in Bucharest. This educational project incorporated massive amounts of data that had been collected on the Moldavian mural painting in the 15th & 16th centuries. A CD ROM work in progress, "Report 1990-1995", containing the detailed data, images and documents, on the dramatic changes in the history of Romania, was presented by Olimpiu Bandalac. It will be distributed by the Eurotelier Association. The recipient of the Civic Forum Foundation in Prague, together with the Civil Society Development Foundation in Bucharest, the research for ‚Report 1990-95' is a study of newspaper, television and other press agencies, and brings together the most comprehensive report of seven years of the contradictory revolutionary events in Romania.
Artistic CD ROM projects presented included "Intermedia 11/1997" a multimedia version of the magazine Intermedia, published since 1994 in Arad (in English, French and German) by the Arad Museum and members of the Kinema Ikon workshop of media arts, with sponsorship by the Soros Center for Contemporary Art Bucharest. This heavily designed, but yet very informative project was also demonstrated in the Ostranenie festival in November. In a very personal look at his home town, Dieter Penteliuc presented "Timisoara - The Bridge City", an artistic project developed during a student residency at SCAN, Academie Minerva in Groningen, The Netherlands. This multimedia project, which he began as a video documentary, was transformed into a romantic visual journey through the various bridges, to reveal the history and legends of the town. It is a personal reflection, with a well designed interface that utilizes the ‚bridge' as a metaphor and a practical devise.
The final day of presentation, which unfortunately took place after my departure, included Alexandru Patatics, who was an artist who participated in the Biennial exhibition of the ICC/NTT gallery in Tokyo, Calin Dan, Romanian artist now living in Amsterdam, and Roy Ascott, director of the Center for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA-STAR). Ascott already has many connections with Romania through the international student exchange program Erasmus, and Calin Dan, the former associate director of the SCCA Bucharest, helped organize the first media exhibition there in 1993. Dan currently lives and works in Amsterdam, and is well known for the media installations created with the group subREAL, now creates solo, provocative interactive works.
I left Cluj with a personal commitment to return, and to continue to explore information and resources, to share new opportunities with the talented multimedia community there. The experience taught me that communication is highly valued in Romania today, and that we have a lot to learn from the dramatic references and reflections being created by the artists and designers in a nation on the mend. Romania is not only rebuilding its cities, and its society, but also its contemporary artistic vision.
Sponsors: Soros Center for Contemporary Arts - Bucharest and Dynamic Network Technologies - Cluj
Kathy Rae Huffman, Vienna, December 1997
Contact:
Irina Cios, CSAC Director
Soros Foundation for an Open Society - Romania
Bucharest 71102
C. P. 1-827
Calea Victoriei 141
csac@mail.sfos.ro