Re: BEK survives (was: URGENT - BEK: Call for support)

Congrats, that's great!

Iain

----- Original Message -----
From: "Trond Lossius" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 5:11 AM
Subject: [CsndTek] BEK survives (was: URGENT - BEK: Call for support)


> Last autumn BEK, Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, was running the risk
of
> having to close down due to lack of future fundings. To prevent this we
> launched a massive lobbying campaign towards the Ministry of Culture, The
> Norwegian Parliament, The Municipality of Bergen, etc.  We also called for
> artists and others concerned to express their support for BEK at our
> website. Almost 600 persons responded to this call for support.
Concidering
> that BEK is a small and young organization, that was very impressive. The
> support statements were forwarded to all relevant politicians and
> bureaucrats:
>
> http://www.bek.no/demo_html
>
> Shortly before christmas the Parliament decided to grant support for BEK
for
> the future. In the beginning of January The Norwegian Council for Cultural
> Affairs and the Ministry of Culture desided to provide additional funding
> for BEK. BEK now has a long-term security concerning fundings that we have
> never experienced before.
>
> On behalf of everyone involved with BEK (staff, artists, users, etc.) I
want
> to express our gratitude towards all of you that supported us.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Trond Lossius
>
>
>
> On 12-10-03 20:36, "Trond Lossius" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > BEK - Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts might be forced to close down
early
> > next year due to lack of governmental support. For this reason we call
for
> > your support. If you believe that BEK should continue to exist, please
> > express your support at our web page:
> >
> > http://www.bek.no
> >
> > or by sending a mail to [email protected]
> >
> > HISTORY
> >
> > BEK - Bergen Centre of Electronic Arts, was found while Bergen, Norway,
was
> > one of 9 cultural cities of Europe 2000. The founding of BEK was part of
a
> > national strategy initiated by The Norwegian Council for Cultural
Affairs to
> > better working conditions for artists working within the field of new
media
> > arts in Norway. BEK is part of the Norwegian Production Network for
> > Electronic Arts (www.pnek.no). So far The Norwegian Council for Cultural
> > Affairs has provided most of the financial support for BEK. The
Norwegian
> > Council for Cultural Affairs is not permitted to support organizations
for
> > extended periods, and will not be able to support BEK in the future. For
> > this reason, we've applied for Governmental support from 2004. The
proposed
> > National Budget does not include future support for BEK. For this reason
we
> > now fear that we will be forced to close down early next year. If so, we
> > believe that one of the strongest current Norwegian voices on the
> > international art scene will be silenced, causing a severe setback to
> > artistic exchange between the art community in Norway and abroad.
> >
> > ACTIVITY AND INTERNATIONAL PROFILE
> >
> > BEK hosted the first international workshop dealing with Nato.0+55 in
the
> > summer of 2000, and has been profiled as a valuable resource for artists
in
> > Norway and abroad using live technologies such as Max, MSP, Nato.0+55,
> > streaming technology, Keystroke/Keyworx, etc. The mailing list /55\ was
> > established when Netochka Nezvanova was thrown of the Max-MSP mailing
list.
> > HC Gilje and Kurt Ralske of 242.pilots first met during the workshop at
BEK.
> > 242.pilots has toured the world as pioneers of real time based video
> > performance, and the received the Image Award at Transmediale.03
> > International Media Art Festival in Berlin, February 2003.
> >
> > The development of "MøB", Linux GNU software for real-time video
processing
> > (mob.bek.no) has been a major project for the last two years. In
November
> > 2003 BEK will host an international conference and festival, Piksel, of
> > artists/developers working with real-time video on Linux
(www.piksel.no).
> > Piksel will be a valuable opportunity to coordinate current development
of
> > real time video software for Linux around the world. The workshop was
> > overbooked before we got the opportunity to do a call for participation.
> >
> > BEK has been an important part of the Bergen electronic music and
> > electronica community. Torbjørn Brundtland of Röyksopp was doing civil
> > service at BEK when Röyksopp hit the British pop charts in 2001.
Underground
> > artists such as Kaptein Kaliber, Jazzkammer, Alog and Phonophani have
been
> > collaborating with BEK at a number of projects. Pilota.fm started out as
a
> > net radio focusing on electronic and contemporary music. The Trollofon
> > concerts on a vintage trolley bus has hosted artists such as Phonophani,
> > Oval, Alog, Pita, Kim Hiortøy, Tujiko Noriko, Maja Ratkje, Massimo and
> > Fennesz. The concerts are available for download as mp3 at Pilota.fm.
The
> > Pilota project also caused the Municipality of Bergen to continue
supporting
> > the use of trolley buses in Bergen two years ago. BEK also hosts another
net
> > radio focusing on the local music scene (www.radiofetthode.no) and the
> > mailing list CsoundTekno.
> >
> > BEK has been affiliated with the most important Norwegian contemporary
> > theatre companies, such as BAK-truppen (www.baktruppen.org) and
> > Verdensteatret (www.verdensteatret.com). BEK has been involved in the
> > production of a number of short movies. The short movie "Love is the
Law"
> > was presented as part of Semaine Internationale de la Critique at the
Cannes
> > Film Festival 2003 and received "Prix Canal + du Meilleur court métrage"
and
> > " Prix de la (Toute) Jeune Critique".
> >
> > This year BEK is hosting 6 artists and students from abroad,
participating
> > in the NIFCA Media Artist in Residence, Fulbright program, Leonardo da
Vinci
> > EU training programme and other exchange programmes.
>
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