C3: Center for Culture & Communication Opening

[Soros Center for Contemporary Art <sccabp@mail.datanet.hu>]

C3: Center for Culture & Communication
Soros Foundation Hungary / SiliconLab

A new center, C3: Center for Culture & Communication, will be opened on
June 26, 1996 by the Soros Foundation Hungary. As a result of the
collaboration between the Soros Foundation Hungary, Silicon Graphics
Hungarian Liason Office and MATAV (Hungarian Telecommunications Company), C3
will facilitate the expanded exploration of digital media technology, will
encourage creative usage of the Internet and will function as a public
forum for debate and innovation regarding communication and culture.
C3 will function as a research center and media lab, resource facility,
internet provider and public access Internet lab, operating a
multi-disciplinary arts and culture program and gallery, and will run
various educational and grants programs dealing with the Internet and new
media art technologies. The latest in Silicon Graphics technology (ONYX,
INDY) will be accessible via C3.
C3 will incorporate the SCCA (Soros Center for Contemporary Arts-Budapest),
which will also be located at Budapest I, Orszaghaz utca 9.
Further information may be obtained from C3: Pf. 419, H-1537 Budapest, tel.:
36.1/ 214.68.56, fax: 214.68.72.


Board Members
Miklos Peternak, (Chair), Founding Director of Intermedia Department,
Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest; Gabor Halasz, Operation Manager,
Silicon Graphics Hungary, Budapest; Katalin Neray, Director, Ludwig Museum,
Budapest;
Dr. Lajos Nyikos, Science Advisor, Central Research Institute for Physics,
Budapest; Mihaly Poharnok, Director, Hungarian Design Center, Budapest;
Elek Straub, Executive Director, MATAV, (Hungarian PTT), Budapest; Tamas
Waliczky, artist, researcher, Center for Media Art (ZKM), Karlsruhe
(Germany/Hungary)

International Advisory Committee Members
Prof. Richard Kriesche, artist, professor, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung,
Offenbach (Austria/ Germany); Kathy Rae Huffman, freelance curator and
critic (Austria/USA); Marina Grzinic, video artist, curator, theoretician
(Slovenia); Prof.Dr. Siegfried Zielinski, Director, Kunsthochschule fuer
Medien Koln (Germany)

Staff Members
Program director: Suzanne Meszoely; Assistant director: Andrea Szekeres
Technical manager: Andras Tuedos; System managers: Gabor Endredi, Tamas Szalay
Program Coordinators: Adele Eisenstein, Agnes Veronika Kovacs, Livia Paldi,
Laszlo Toelgyes, Zoltan Szegedy-Maszak,  Marton Fernzehelyi



MISSION STATEMENT
communication = the open society
public -- content - culture -- technology -- future

C3 is a public, non-profit forum for debate and laboratory for exploration
and innovation regarding communication, culture and the open society. C3s
commitment, first and foremost, is to content, quality, and artistic
creativity and integrity.

The concept of open society is based on the recognition that people act on
imperfect knowledge, with no one individual in possession of an ultimate
truth, rather taking the rule of law and respect for the rights of others
as its starting point, and creating progress and prosperity from that sound
base. Open societies respect the right of people to freely receive and
communicate information, optimizing citizen participation towards societal
planning strategies. The Soros Foundation supports the qualitative and
creative use of the Internet and its impact on the creation and maintenance
of open societies.

C3 functions as an thought-provoking, public center that encourages debate
and allows for the free exchange of information on a range of issues
insufficiently explored in the public and commercial realm, promoting
connections and cooperation nationally and internationally. Our objectives
combine the eternal and valuable tradition of human culture with the
developing of a new society, building on continuity to change the world in
a positive, progressive direction. The technology is ultimately just the
actual, contemporary means by which to provide real and permanent value:
the preservation of democracy, empathy, cooperation, participation and
creativity. What we are striving to offer the public is human-oriented
values based upon new technologies.

C3 behaves essentially as an interdisciplinary interface for the expanded
exploration and creative development of digital media technology, operating
as a think tank, in its uniting of Hungarian and international
practitioners and theoreticians in new forms of collaboration. As a Center
investigating both media archeology and the potentialities of new
technology, C3 provides access to intellectual material as well as various
high powered computers through which the general public and specialists are
introduced to an exploration of the future.

We envision C3 as a quality content provider - an experimental laboratory
utilizing the latest developments in computer and communications
technologies to expand the notions of their functionability and usage, with
an emphasis on critical and social discourse from within and without the
media. The Eastern European context especially must be highlighted: Eastern
Europe, with its totalitarian legacy, is characterized by a critical
approach to the media in the media, in contrast to the Western tradition,
which is more formal, and less critically-contextually oriented.

The results of our research and creative experimentation are presented in
our ExplorationLab, abroad and on our www server. A primary objective of
the Center is to promote the results of C3 projects within Hungary, the
region, internationally -the global village- in an attempt to communicate
with the broadest public.


Program Outline

InternetLab
Public Internet Access, Education Program and Dial-Up Service
A free of charge facility by appointment only, where members of the general
public are able to browse the Internet using eight Silicon Graphics INDY
computer terminals. Expert guides will maintain the InternetLab, offering
assistance to visitors. A regular series of public lectures on Internet
usage and WWW site production will offer training for beginners,
intermediate and advanced level visitors, encouraging the expanded use of
the computer and the rapidly broadening information highway.
Via a Soros Foundation Hungary grant program, local non-profit  cultural
institutions, libraries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
individuals may receive free twelve-month dial-up Internet connectivity.
Successful applicants will also receive dial-up service instruction and
Internet usage training, as well as assistance in developing WWW sites,
promoting themselves internationally and researching the WWW to create new
resource networks.

ResourceLab
The international information, culture and media ResourceLab (multimedia
library and archive) will maintain journals, CD-ROMs, and various material
focusing on contemporary culture, computer technology and Internet
developments. The ResourceLab will also collect information on
international and national organizations, cultural exchange opportunities,
scholarships, residencies, exhibitions, festivals, competitions, etc., and
will maintain various databases relevant to the center's activities,
including scholarly documentation on contemporary Hungarian arts. The
ResourceLab will publish a newsletter in both printed and digital form of
these opportunities, as well as a brochure outlining the programs and
upcoming events of C3. A continuous research program will be run by the
ResourceLab, with special focus on the following areas: Hungarian and
international media art history and theory; The changing relationship of
art, science and technology; New languages, new terminology: methods of
restructuring traditional academic disciplines in the post-information
society.

SiliconLab
An open facility offering the latest in Silicon Graphics computer hardware
and software to content providers, invited specialists and successful grant
recipients for experimentation, project development and the expanded
utilization of digital media technology. An ONYX Infinite Reality Engine
and two INDY computers complete with Silicon Graphics software, as well as
PCs and Macintoshes will be made available with technical assistance for
determined periods of time to grant recipients of the C3 Open Grant
program. The grant program has been designed to advance the understanding
of culture and communication by supporting outstanding projects
demonstrating a multi-disciplinary team approach, in addition to an
expansive usage of the available computer and network technology.
International team members may apply to the grant program within a team
including Hungarian nationals. Projects focusing on the exploration of
computer-generated 3D applications, Interface research, or Process-based
aesthetics will be given preference. Successful applicants will be able to
use the expanded facilities of the Center, and the Internet, as well as the
administrative facilities, including fund-raising assistance and
international connections for research in media archaeology and new media
technology - their impacts on society at large and on global culture.

OpenLab
A multi-purpose hall where educational programs, symposia, conferences,
workshops, lectures by international speakers and performances are held.
Additionally, biweekly moving image (video, CD-ROM, CD-i, expanded cinema,
etc.) screenings and projections are presented to the public.

Biennial Exhibition
A major biennial exhibition and series of international media arts events
will be held in collaboration with the Mucsarnok (Budapest Kunsthalle),
presenting the results of C3s activities and offering an insight into the
contemporary international situation. These events will be accompanied by
symposia dealing with the theoretical issues surrounding the theme of the
exhibition.

ExplorationLab - Opening Exhibition

A multi-purpose space used for presenting project results and ideas
developed in the SiliconLab and ResourceLab, as well as innovative,
challenging projects produced abroad, enhancing the activities of the
Center. The ExplorationLab is also used as a work-in-progress studio space,
performance space and facility for workshops, symposia, lectures and
conferences.

Scheduled Opening Exhibition
Exploration Network:
exhibition on and around the net

The ExplorationLab has been transformed into a demonstration space in which
we are showing the C3 current and planned projects, such as: exhibitions,
symposia, archiving and research, and the educational and art programs in
connection with these. The presentation of  the planned activity, using
primarily the Internet, the working-exhibition reflects the inspiring
presence of those individuals and previous initiatives that can be
connected to the operations of the Center, and, moreover, carrying a timely
message. Demonstrating the cultural continuity between past and present,
open in every aspect ("That which is being made is ready." - Erdely
Miklos), the schedule/matrix, arousing the impact of a multidisciplinary
diagram, is accessible to the interested guests who are physically in the
exhibition space, as well as for the Web-gastronauts surfing towards us.
Thus the future-users are able to step into a latent gallery, where they
can act as an active, collaborative participant in developing the real or
the (virtual) image. Understanding the past tense as the traffic signs of
the highway, the next moment can be the common responsibility of the viewer
and the creator. Is it the pitfall  of methodological chaos, or the new
grammar of the new synthesis that symbolises the interface used for
accessing global knowledge?

The Butterfly Effect (Media archaeology)
Research in the Intermedia Department (Internet Galaxy www student works,
"New Interface" Research (J.A. Tillmann), Metaforum (Janos Sugar))
Beyond Art (Ludwig Museum Budapest/Neue Galerie Graz)
Flusser-Symposium
Body-CDi + Infermental
Miklos Erdely Exhibition
Optical Simulators
Stereo Future
Virtual Gallery (Imre Weber- SZTAKI)
Cryptography, Steganography, Virtual Communities (Cryptogram - Zoltan
Szegedy-Maszak)
Virtual Reality (VR) Exploration
Simulated Worlds
Interface Exploration
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Bots
Chaos Theory
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts

http://www.scca.hu
email: sccabp@mail.datanet.hu
Phone/Fax: 36-1-343-5379