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PNEK 2005 and beyond

December 10, 2004

The conditions for the electronic art in the Nordic countries was an important topic for the recent Electrohype conference. The current situation is very diffent between the various contries.

The Danish organization Artificial took three different angles of documentation of the Electrohype biennial and conference:

ELECTROHYPE BIENNIAL 2004 – IMAGES FROM THE EXHIBITION

IS SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK?
Soeren Pold’s presentation at the Electrohype conference in Malmoe generated a lot of discussion. Soeren is among other things the founder of the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Aarhus and one of the organizers of Read_me 2004.000 Here is what he said.

A MATTER OF TAKING UP THE CHALLENGE
On occasion of the Electrohype Biennial and Conference in Malmoe Sweden Artificial gives a few opinions on the status of the field of electronic and computer based art forms in Denmark.

Jeremy Welsh gave a presentation of development in Norway in the nineties with particular emphasis on development in the art education. Continuing from there I gave a presentation of development in the last five years. I particularly emphasised the report by the Norwegian Art Council “Skjønnheten og utstyret” from 1999 suggesting a future strategy for improving conditions. Two different approaches were suggested: building one large national center or creating a network of smaller centers situated in different regions of Norway. The report recommended the networked model.

This formed an important background for the establishment of BEK in Bergen in 2000 and TEKS in Trondheim 2002.000 Together with Atelier Nord and NoTAM both situated in Oslo they formed the Production Network for Electronic Arts (PNEK). For the initial period BEK TEKS and PNEK has all got fundings from the Norwegian Art Council. By the end of 2003 BEK had to secure other ways of funding in order to continue and in the end succeded in getting yearly national fundings.

In 2005 The Art Council will subsidise PNEK for 6 months only. PNEK is currently working to secure future fundings. TEKS will be in a similar situation by the end of 2005.

In my opinion the network model has been a very succesful one. Today you see artists from all over Norway collaborating and sharing knowledge. There’s a strong momentum now and considerable international networking and exchange. The electronic art scene is one of the most exciting movements in Norwegian contemporary arts right now and also fuel a lot of cross-diciplinary collaborations. In order to maintain this in the future a continuation of PNEK and TEKS is imperative.

We got some very positive signals from The Family Administration and Cultural Comitee of the Norwegian Parliament when discussing strategy for cultural politics towards 2014.000 The gouverment did not propose support for PNEK in the proposed national Budget for 2005 but there are some really positive signals coming from the parliament recently. The final decision will happen sometime later this month.

Produksjonsnettverket for Elektronisk Kunst (PNEK)

Komiteens medlemmer fra Arbeiderpartiet og Sosialistisk Venstreparti viser til at Produksjonsnettverket for Elektronisk Kunst er et fireårig prosjekt finansiert under Norsk kulturråd som begynte 2001 og som går ut våren 2005.000 PNEKs oppgave er å være en samlende ressurs for produksjon av elektronisk kunst i Norge og virksomheten består i å koordinere ulike prosjekter og utveksle tekniske ressurser og faglig kompetanse på tvers av geografi og fagfelt.

Komiteens medlemmer fra Arbeiderpartiet Sosialistisk Venstreparti og Senterpartiet ønsker at prosjektet skal videreføres og foreslår at det bevilges 1 mill. kroner til dette.