Isea 2008

Just returned from an exhilarating experience in Singapore. First i attended a summit on Media Art Policy and Practice organised by IFACCA and the Asea Europe foundation. Interacted intensively with media artists and curators from India, Hungary, Japan, Scotland, Netherlands, and many more. Its funny how even though we attach the country next to our name, most people now have mixed identities.
More details will follow in later posts

there was talk about Singapore being a dictatorship and questions regarding how appropriate it wast to hold a conference like this. But I enjoyed the fact that I could walk home alone at 12am and not worry at all or just hop on the public transport and not have my personal safety as the no. 1 issue on my mind all the time. And my question is would Europeans ever attend a conference in a country that is attempting to liberate itself and thus the center of controversy and chaos? There does need to be a structure in place when you organise a gathering of people and that was just overwhelming in Singapore.

My main reason for wanting to participate in Isea 2008 was because of Gunalan Nadarajan being part of the organizing committee. there was a mix of individuals I think it had to do with the fact also that Singapore is easy access for many regions. this time we had to do a 5 hr. flight and those from Europe were the ones doing the 18 hour + marathons. I enjoyed the sessions, was attracted to the artists presentations which I find better than the media art displayed at the museums actually! met and connected with very interesting people, it reminded me of college days back in Minnesota but the people here were professionals.