http://www.basics-festival.net
The Festival basics. Medien | Kunst | Gesellschaft which started in 2004 and takes place every two years is a cooperation between ARGEkultur, Galerie 5020, subnet and the degree course MultiMediaArt at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences. The coming festival features the motto “The Elite – within and outside” and will take place from March 9 to March 16, 2014 in Salzburg. For that reason we are looking for artistic concepts from all fields, which deal with the issue of the festival theme “Elite” critically and connect it with digital media and/or experimental technologies. According to the concept a budget of € 500 to € 4,000 will be available for the realization of each chosen project.
The Elite – within and outside: Elites are usually associated with unjustified privileges, arrogance and elevatedness. They do not merely claim an exceptional position but rather the tops of the hierarchical structures. The contemporary boom of the term seems to be afflicted with the idea that, in a global world, the state with its institutions and duties (e.g. economy and science) could not remain competitive without elite formation. Art and the art term are also often labelled as elitist and exclusive. The acceptance of this elite position allows close connections to political and economic circles of power. Elites attract wide attention and are very prominently placed in public media. The digital elite, however, avoids to come into the picture as far as possible. The social scientist Lutz Ellrich describes this group of people (software developers, founders and members of networks, computer literate people with an enormous amount of technical expertise and a high creative energy) as invisible third party between the elites of power and attention and, on the other hand, as a group with a high potential of cultural capital, that is going to become a functional elite with social power. At a time of incomprehensible possibilities of computer techniques and with regard to the balance of these technical possibilities, the social will and what is politically feasible, the question of the involvement of this “digital elite” in the practice of exercising power and its role in undermining or cementing existing disparities arises.
Based on the question of present changes in our society that are caused by media too, this new edition of the festival tries to find patterns for the creation of a social order in respect of the role, the impact and the contribution of elites by connecting the fields of media, arts and society.?
Application: Send the description or documentation of your concept/artistic work with a detailed budget plan and your curriculum vitae until 24 Nov, 2013 to . Please send files with more than 10MB (e.g. if you want to send a video documentation) in form of downloadable links only. The projects are chosen by a jury that will announce its decision early in December.