[nettime-lat] To the signers of the open letter to Kathy Halbreich /http://www.mteww.com/walker_letter/index.shtml --- tirando flores---

["| ||| || |||||" <vibri@internet.com.uy>]

Steve Dietz's response to the net art community's concerns regarding the
future of new media at The Walker Art Center.
posted June 26, 2003
To the signers of the open letter to Kathy Halbreich
http://www.mteww.com/walker_letter/index.shtml

Thank you.
It is not my intention to dwell on my personal circumstances in relation to
the Walker's decision to terminate its new media curatorial program. Steve
Dietz and the Walker is a boring morality play that matters most to a
relatively small number of friends and family. Nevertheless, the response of
the field - both supportive and intelligently critical - has been heartening
to me personally, and I thank you. As much as we have all come to mistrust
or at least be skeptical of the "C" word, there has been a palpable sense of
community in response to the actions of one of its defacto members.
Because the Walker, I would argue, for better or worse, had become over the
past 7 years, an undeniable part of the new media/digital/net art (for
brevity, nma) ecosystem. Part of this was my passion, of course, but my
practice was significantly and consciously situated within an institutional
context. I did not and do not believe that mainstream art institutions
should be viewed as some kind of pinnacle authority in relation to nma. We
only prove our value by doing things of value, not simply by being part of
the establishment art world. At the same time, I believe that institutions
can have a useful and fruitful role in relation to nma. Part of that belief
is based in the value of longevity and commitment. An institution can
(potentially) do things over time that are difficult, and perhaps less
interesting, over time, for artists and virtual communities. So what does it
mean in relation to these and other possibilities when an institution like
the Walker pulls the plug?
In one of the first pieces I wrote about net art for "Beyond Interface," I
deliberately appropriated David Antin's seminal essay on video, substituting
"net art" for his "video art"
(http://www.yproductions.com/beyondinterface/bi_fr.html) as a simplistic but
effective way to use what we understood well (video) to think about
something we then understood less well (net art). So when I read in the
Walker's letter ". . . we will be focusing on enhancing the Walker Web site'
s educational components and on realizing some of the interactive projects
for our expansion," I can't help but imagine an institution terminating its
film/video program and saying "we intend to focus our commitment to film and
video by using videotape to document interviews with artists, which can then
be broadcast on educational cable tv." Or, "we're getting rid of our photo
department, but we'll still take pictures of the artworks in our
 collection."
I'm actually a huge proponent of the potential mutations possible when there
is intercourse between new media art and more prosaic or didactic functions,
but the latter without the former is at best a confusing conflation and in
no way at all a continuation of that part of the Walker's mission to be a ".
. . catalyst for the creative expression of artists . . ." The Walker has
decided that committed, long-term support of new media artists is no longer
a priority despite its existing five-year plan, which explicitly envisions
otherwise.
The stated reason, of course, is economics. There is no question that the
Walker, along with every other arts organization in the United States, is
under extreme economic pressure. The irony, however, is that the Walker's
new media curatorial budget has been 100% grant funded. By terminating the
program, there are literally no savings of non-salary costs for the
foreseeable future.
It is true that some building-related fundraising - the Walker was planning
a $225,000 "mediatheque" for its new building - that would have had to
happen will not now have to. But as difficult as it is to raise a quarter
million dollars in capital costs and perhaps $150,000 in annual programming
costs in the current economic climate, I fear the reasoning for Walker's
abandonment of its new media curatorial program is more problematic in terms
of the generic issue of institutional involvement in the nma field.
In order for the Walker to maintain its commitment to building "more than a
museum" that will "offer our multiple audiences the unique opportunity to
experience under one roof the relationships between the most innovative
visual, performing, and media arts of our time"
(http://expansion.walkerart.org/dir_statement.wac), it has devised a
strategy, which is referred to internally to as the "85% solution." Simply
put, these are cuts in the original building program that the Walker feels
the public will never notice. I would assume that probably 90% of ambitious
buildings ever built have done this. But even if unconsciously, the Walker
has made the determination that neither the estimated 1.2 million visitors
to the new building nor the current 3 million visitors to the Walker's
websites (approximately half of whom view nma), will "notice" that the
Walker no longer supports new media artists post-2003. It has to be asked
whether this is another manifestation of an old-fashioned and inaccurate
notion that the virtual is not real (really); it's sort of invisible, and so
it does not quite matter as much.
I know that the response of the new media community to the Walker's
termination of its ongoing support for new media artists has underscored
that the Walker, nevertheless, has a responsibility to the existing new
media artworks and resources under its aegis, which cannot be abrogated or
even arrogated - any more than it can willy nilly de-accession contemporary
art that may no longer be in favor with its current staff or public
opinion - regardless of the fact they are virtual.
I hope that other institutions will see that the community for new media art
is broad and deep and diverse and Real and will consider redoubling their
efforts around nma and certainly not suspend them.
I have been at the table when the director of the Walker has made courageous
decisions, but this was not one of them, and I believe, regretfully, that in
the long run it will undermine how credibly the Walker can pursue its "more
than a museum" motto more than the credibility of the field itself.



---------





Kathy Halbreich's response to the net art community's concerns regarding the
future of new media at The Walker Art Center.
June 6, 2003
Sometimes leaders have to make difficult decisions. This is one of those
times for the Walker and for every museum in the country, due to economic
conditions beyond our control. We had to take a number of measures to
balance the budget, including staff cuts across the board. Eliminating Steve
Dietz's position as curator of new media, however, was one of the hardest
decisions of my career. Steve is truly a visionary. But there are times in
the life of every organization when it simply cannot afford to implement the
dreams of a visionary leader like Steve Dietz.
Our philosophical and artistic commitment to New Media has not wavered, but
the resources are not there to carry out that commitment as intensively or
as quickly as we had hoped. I would like to assure everyone that we will
keep the works in Gallery 9 and the Study Collection accessible. While we
won't be continuing the curatorial aspects of the new media department in
the near future, we will be focusing on enhancing the Walker Web site's
educational components and on realizing some of the interactive projects for
our expansion. The Walker will be sustaining a five-person new media
department.
This isn't a perfect solution by any stretch of the imagination, but it's
one I hope leaves us a foundation to build on. For example, three spaces in
our expansion designed for new media commissions and presentations remain in
our plans. While not completed and outfitted as we originally intended, they
can be in the future. It pains me greatly that our expansion, now under
construction, will have a less ambitious New Media program but many of the
projects Steve and others envisioned, such as Dialog, an interactive
multimedia table, will be completed and installed for our 2005 opening.
Given the present economic uncertainty, we found it next to impossible to
raise the $2 million to $5 million required to secure the curatorial
program, complete the presentation spaces as designed, and cover the
necessary staff and infrastructure costs. Once the economy stabilizes---or a
patron is found---I hope to rebuild the vision Steve and I hoped we would be
able to realize sooner rather than later. Any ideas are welcome!
I appreciate that you and many others have taken the time to communicate
your concerns about Steve's departure. Your disappointment does not begin to
match my own.









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