Interview with Marleen Stikker - N5M programmer
By Bas Raijmakers and Willem van Weelden
Question:Is the goal of the conference to direct the eyes inward, into the
realm of the tribe of tactical media makers, the margin of marginality or is
it meant to get a better, and wider picture of what mainstream media are?
Marleen Stikker: Both. Everyone who is engaged in tactical media knows that
in essence they are very much outwardlooking, but for us it was a choice not
to invite IBM or people like Bill Gates. We don't believe that it is of very
much importance in this context. What's more interesting is to show the
controversy between the American Dream version of the technoculture
'the desire to be wired' against the cynical european movement of
'the proud to be flesh'. When you stage this, it supplies you a whole
package of arguments and strategies, with which you can confront the
Bill Gates type's in this world. On the other hand we wanted to do something
about the self-indulgence that parallels media-use. The fetish-culture that
surrounds technology made us raise the question: 'What are the effects that
you are after?'. Let's be critical to what we want, not with the intention
to look inwards, but with the intention to sharpen our objectives.
Q: Wasn't it shown in the first issue of the N5M that there is no clear
distinction between mainstream media and marginal media.
MS:Yes, you're right. Small initiatives are also caught up in the idea of a
mass audience and the range of their appearance. What's more crucial, is
the way in which you deal with a growing audience. Like the Digital City
that suddenly grew to the size it is now, it gives you the responsibility to
actually guide the (social) processes that are evolving on a fairly big scale.
Not many peolple know how to do that. You need a different legitimation and
responsibility than when making a tv-programme.
Q: Also in small media environments, like former underground initiatives, the
media are social processess?
MS: What I mean is, that those activities are comparable to a dwell/work
squat, some 10 years ago. Your listeners are like a family, and what usualy
conflicts, is an anarchistic zest and a sense of community building. But to
the size of a living community in one streetblock. That is uncomparable to
the scale we are dealing with now.
Q: But next to the will to broadcast, the thing is, that in Amsterdam a lot
of the necessary accessability is already arranged and in use. How do you see
the role and responsability of the Balie, Paradiso, the Society for the Old
and New Media and the N5M in that circumstance?
MS: Paradiso and the Balie have been a home for a lot of alternative
programming for some time now. A lot of things could happen there.
These places have created an independent tradition. But it took a lot of
effort and sweat to do it. We used to be busy with mundane stuff, but now we
have the opportunity to concentrate on remaining up to date. And to be able
to do that you need facilities and equipment to make that available for
experiments and alternative use. You have to be able to dramatically put
into action these gadgets, to maintain your position. Because we want to
remain an exception in a network of initiatives that deals with politics and
art.
Q: Do you also see a responsability for these institutions in facilitating a
international, say European network for alternative media use?
MS: Well, the Society of the Old and New Media are a sort of transferpoint
and extension of all the projects that we have organised and will organise.
But now we can do it with a sense of continuity. We operate as a node in a
web, but we don't have the pretention of doing it for the whole of Europe.
Nor would we want to give the promise to be a severe European player.
Of course we have to be selective, we don't have that kind of resources.
text by Willem van Weelden
|
