Working circuits.

Media Generation: What Works to What's Next National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture biennial conference Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania October 22-25, 1998

From October 22-25, 1998, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) held its biennial conference at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA. Appropriately entitled "Media Generation: What Works to What's Next," this gathering of more than 250 media arts center directors, museum curators, community activists, scholars and artists discussed the state of the field of media arts with a renewed sense of purpose and an eye focused on the future. After the last two NAMAC conferences, the energy and optimism at this meeting were a welcome relief. The fear and confusion created by funding cuts in the '90s have faded as NAMAC's member organizations settle into a funding world where them are no free tickets and the entrepreneurial for-profit world sometimes provides more successful models.

Hosted by Pittsburgh Filmmakers under the direction of Executive Director Charlie Humphrey, "Media Generation" offered three workshop tracks - Non-Profit Management, Artists/Producers and Community Partnerships - which spanned the range of interests among NAMAC's often disparate constituencies. Many of the topics and presenters were reminiscent of past offerings. However, such decidedly pragmatic programs as "Beyond Foundations: Raising Money Like the Big Folks," "Successful Partnerships with Communities, Funders and Corporations," and "Partnerships with Artists: Managing Fiscal Sponsorships," provided participants with new and effective strategies.

Geared toward the media arts center administrator, the Non-Profit Management track offered working sessions such as "Organizational Planning, Positioning and Values Clarification" and "Media Arts Education: Its Role and Incorporation into an Arts Facility." Sessions in this track gathered the collective knowledge of some of the field's more seasoned leaders. Tom Borrup (Intermedia Arts), Anne Marie Stein (Boston Film/Video Foundation), Gall Silva (Film Arts Foundation) and Susan Walsh (Center for Independent Documentary) all shared their strategies for keeping organizations alive in an ever-changing environment. While administrators collected practical tools to aid in their operations, artists and producers participated in working sessions to tackle the real challenges of getting work made and seen. "Staring at the Screen: Creative Exhibition and Distribution for the Future," "How to Represent: Artists Discuss How Venues Package Their Work" and "Navigating Interdisciplinary Collaborations" dealt with issues of distribution and funding. "Cameras in the House: Youth Media Production at its Peak" spotlighted the work being produced by youths and the support mechanism necessary to sustain it.

Scarce funding for the media arts over the past eight years has created a tension between supporting media arts and reaching underserved communities, By devoting an entire track to Community Partnerships, organizers created a balance between often competing interests. "Underserved Communities and Access to Media Arts," "Working with Public Institutions: Public Libraries Supporting Media Centers" and "Opportunities and Obstacles Facing Media Arts" integrated the social responsibilities of media artists into a variety of communities with the creative concerns of artists devoted to these communities. "Beyond Local Boundaries: National and Global Partnerships" was a particularly powerful session. Presented by longtime activists Michael Eisenmenger (Videazimut, Paper Tiger TV), DeeDee Halleck (Deep Dish TV), Paul Teruel (Street Level Youth Media) and Bulgarian media artist Illiyana Nedkova, the session reminded participants that the media arts reach far beyond our own national borders.

In all of the tracks a strong emphasis was placed on emergent digital technologies and how media arts organizations incorporate new equipment and production processes into their facilities. "Media Arts in a Digital Age," "The Web: From Art to Marketing" and "Facilities and Technology: Media Arts Organizations in a Shifting Technological Landscape" prompted some of the most interesting and thoughtful discussions of the conference. Questions of how to add new equipment purchases into ever tightening budgets and discussions of complex new processes created a noticeable energy among participants.

Renowned video artist turned digital artist Phillip Mallory Jones, in his presentation as part of "Putting the Byte into Media: Digital Producers Speak," allowed participants to view new media work and question the producers involved. In addition to Jones's multimedia production, this session included a presentation by Paul Vanouse concerning a new interactive documentary form fueled by a computer-based intelligent agent, "The Recombinant History Apparatus," part of a number of new media processes being developed by the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. Rounding out this panel were independent media artist Prashant Bhargava's beautiful and painstakingly layered digital images.

"Little Nibbles," a dally film screening at three venues, was offered at lunchtime. The six screenings, guest curated by the National Black Programming Consortium, the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival, the Rutgers Film Co-op, The Teen Media Program (Cambridge, MA), Zeitgeist Alternative Arts Center (New Orleans, LA) and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (San Antonio, TX) represented works that were geographically and thematically diverse. Courtney Egan's I Feel Pretty (n.d.) is a confrontation of the mass media images of beauty through an eerily humorous juxtaposition of woman and image. Egan accomplishes this feeling by using low-tech props (life-size cutouts from fashion magazines of lips, eyes and hair) and extreme closeups of various actors pasting these images over their real life faces. The idea of beauty as a mask and the falseness of commercialized images is effectively conveyed by Egan's work. Rene Broussard's The Boy with the Bugle: The Fatboy Chronicles Part II (1998) is a candid self-exploration of sexual identity and body acceptance. Other samplings from this exhibition series included The Tourist (1997, by Maria Venuto), Chicanismo (1997, by Laura Greenlee), Asi Se Quiere En Jalisco (1995, by Augustin Calderon), and Ethnimage Five Day Identity Plan (1997, by Lisa Erdman Ramierez).

Other lunchtime opportunities included tours of Pittsburgh Filmmakers, The Mattress Factory and The Studio for Creative Inquiry. Other events included opportunities for individual meetings with National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) representatives, structured affinity group meetings, an invitation-only breakfast for members of institutions that fund the media arts, a NAMAC membership meeting and mentoring dinners that gave staff members of new organizations the chance to meet with representatives of veteran institutions. Even with the packed itinerary there was time for informal gatherings, conversations with colleagues and even an impromptu screening of attendee work.

The entire conference was nicely framed by opening and dosing remarks that placed the field within the larger contexts of cultural and political forces. The opening keynote with panelists Mark Lloyd of The Civil Rights Forum, Jack Willis of the Open Society Institute and scholar Patricia Zimmermann outlined the political landscape of free speech and legislative initiatives. With an emphasis on the rich tapestry of influences affecting imagemakers and the importance of independent media voices being heard, the closing keynote, delivered by B. Ruby Rich, was an uplifting end to a full four days of conference participation.

Overall the 1998 NAMAC conference was revitalizing. The focus on task-oriented initiatives as well as a strong emphasis on media content and the support of those who produce it created a positive and congenial mood. Perhaps participants had had enough of the constant depression and complaining of past years, or perhaps the emergence of a new generation of media artists and administrators who entered the field after the NEA cuts have brought new faith in the future. The current technological landscape fueled by the hype of a digital utopia seems to have buoyed the spirits of those who have fought the dwindling resource battle too long. Whatever the reason for the revitalized attitude and optimistic atmosphere, it fostered a pleasant gathering for a field that has long needed a reason to hope.

FELICIA M. SULLIVAN is Computer Resource Coordinator at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, a community media center in Lowell, MA and the former director of education at Boston Film/Video Foundation.