Syndicate: p2p: Cultural Competence, Linz 1.-3. 10. 1998

[Konrad Becker <konrad@t0.or.at> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

[Panel 2 will give a forum to the ideas of the Amsterdam Agenda. There will
be a website soonish... ~>K]


Cultural Competence.
New Technologies, Culture and Employment

EU Conference, Design Centre Linz, Upper Austria
Thursday 1 October to Saturday 3 October, 1998
An event organised by the Department for the Arts, Federal Chancellery,
as part of Austria's EU Presidency of the European Union


The rapid developments in electronic communications and IT have had a
far-reaching impact on all fields of social endeavour, from business and
education to culture and the arts. New technologies and media require a
cultural context for users and for their own further development. This
"creative potential" of culture has an everyday importance that goes beyond
social innovation. By creating new professions and types of work, it is
also becoming increasingly significant for society as a whole. On
technology-driven markets, producers of culture are always in demand as
"content suppliers".

During Austria's Presidency of the European Union, a conference entitled
"Cultural Competence: New Technologies, Culture and Employment" will focus
on repositioning culture in relation to the new media. This "digital
revolution" is changing the structure of the entire cultural environment of
our society. It brings with it opportunities as well as risks. Both can be
favourably influenced if culture and the arts take an active role in
shaping the world-wide data networks and develop a general competency in
these new media.

Social scientists, politicians, and administrators from around Europe will
gather for this conference to discuss the current meaning of the terms
"culture" and "employment." Other topics will be the new work cultures now
emerging and the end to mono-sequential (earnings-oriented) careers. The
contents of the new Information Society must be conveyed by entirely
different means requiring, above all, new and innovative educational
strategies. In socio-political scenarios of the future, culture and the
arts is a field increasingly touted as a potential new "job machine". The
type of work and employment situations envisioned and the changes that have
taken place in the role of culture within ICT (information and
communication technology) will be discussed using European "best practice"
models as examples. The conference will also delve into the effects of the
changes in distribution structures that have been brought about by these
new technologies and explore the general question of forward-looking forms
of work in the cultural sector.


Technology policy needs cultural policy

This conference is intended to help bring about a permanent integration of
culture and the arts in a European context, in European politics in all its
various guises, and in the conceptual framework of the Information Society.
In the process, potential conflicts, both current and emerging, will be
illuminated and critically analysed.

Above all, we will seek to free the term "culture" from the prejudices and
supposed arbitrariness surrounding it and to clarify new opportunities, and
new limits, of labour market prospects and practices in culture and the
arts, particularly with regard to the new position of "creativity" in the
context of European employment.

 Culture and the arts are tradition builders to be sure, but they also hold
relevant potential for changing society. The object of this conference is
to arrive at a more precise understanding of the term culture and to show
how differently cultural policy makers, administrative institutions and the
arts community itself utilise the term, at times against each other, at
other times seemingly oblivious of each other. Cultural competence refers
to the ability to perceive, as creative participants, the generalistic
aspects of our complex society.

Our political goal is to integrate culture in the employment policy
guidelines of the European Union as an operative agenda.


Programme
Subject to change		Conference languages: German, English, French

Thursday, 1 October, 1998
Afternoon			Policy scenarios and perspectives
Plenary contributions:
-	Transformation of work culture
-	Infrastructural developments and technical innovations from a societal
perspective / civil rights and ICT
-	Copyright & culture: description of current policy stands
-	Siting and culture: fact and fiction - investment in culture in view of
employment policies
-	"Economy of attention"
-	New technologies and the media changing the conception of public space:
what does "access to culture" mean today?
-	Possibilities for culture/art organisations, artists and culture
researchers to participate in European programmes
-	Media competence in connection with culture, education, science,
economy,
administration and politics - a new and broader definition of culture

Friday, 2 October, 1998
All day, working groups

Panel 1	Content and distribution: the electronic challenge (music, literature)
-     cultural production - cyberspace
-     copyright regimes - new technology, new policy
-     distribution and digital revolution
-     siting and employment

Panel 2	Cultural practice in electronic networks (network culture/art)
-     practice to policy
-     networking the future of digital culture
-     public sphere and the electronic arts

Panel 3 				Repositioning culture in employment
policies
New position of culture in employment context
-     transformation of work culture: new work/ new culture
-     cultural worker - who are you?
-     best practice models - culture and  employment


 Saturday, 3 October, 1998
Morning, open to the public
Technology policy needs cultural policy
Rapporteurs report from working groups
Discussion by EU politicians and experts
Drafting of conclusions



Organizers
Federal Chancellery, Department for the Arts
A-1010 Vienna, Ballhausplatz 1

Concept team
Ã?sterreichische Kulturdokumentation, Vienna
Herbert Lachmayer, Archimedia Institute for Arts and Technology,Linz
Public Netbase t0 Media~Space!, Vienna, Konrad Becker, Marie Ringler
Hauptverband des Ã?sterreichischen Buchhandels, Vienna
mica - music information centre austria, Vienna
Federal Chancellery, Department for EU-Affairs, II/9

Conception and planning
c/o �sterreichische Kulturdokumentation - Internationales Archiv für
Kulturanalysen, Vienna
Andrea Ellmeier, Veronika Ratzenböck
E-mail: kulturdokumentation@kulturdokumentation.org