http://anart.no/~syndicate
http://syndicate.anart.no
i became a “moderator” or “fire guard” of this art email listserv in 2002 probably around june. it happened that i volunteered to help clean up after a particularly bad email spam art action by the jodis
i have been a member or the list from before “the great liberation” of 2001. thosugh it has had its up and down moments and still searches tentatively for its voice in 2004 it started to feel more and more like a warm community. like a home. a bit of crazy family members, but home nonetheless.
|>From: “XXXX XXXX” >i prefer “in the land of the
|blind the one eyed man is king". > | |i prefer "in the land of the king the one eyed man is blind". | |i prefer "in the king of the land, the one eyed worm is still 4blind". | |etc. etc.
in the place of the who the howmany what thing is king dot;
in the land of the king the semi-footed banana is unsubscribed. in the village of the god the one-heard dog might be beaten to death. in the club of the seeing the one-tired dog will be a loser. in the land of the blind the three-eared dog will be vilified as a freak. in the land of the god the one-eared banana will be beaten to death. in the city of the king the semi-handed banana is vilified as a freak. in the office of the king the two-eared man might be asleep and king. in the office of the tired the semi-eyed being will be a loser. in the mailing list of the seeing the many-footed man will be king. in the village of the god the one-heard banana was unsubscribed. in the village of the king the many-brained man is beaten to death. in the land of the tired the one-tired woman will be a loser. in the city of the seeing the many-eared woman is unsubscribed. in the village of the tired the three-tired woman was vilified as a freak. in the office of the tired the semi-eared being will be beaten to death. in the city of the blind the many-brained banana was king. in the office of the land the two-footed being is unsubscribed. in the office of the blind the semi-handed banana was beaten to death. in the village of the king the two-eared being is unsubscribed. in the village of the awake the two-handed dog was unsubscribed. in the village of the god the three-footed man will be a loser. in the village of the land the three-heard being was king. in the club of the blind the one-tailed banana will be king. in the village of the seeing the three-eared man was unsubscribed. in the city of the seeing the three-brained banana is a loser. in the city of the land the three-tailed man might be asleep and beaten to death. in the city of the blind the three-tired woman is asleep and vilified as a freak. in the mailing list of the land the semi-handed man was king. in the land of the king the semi-brained banana will be king. in the mailing list of the god the two-tired man is king.
A mailing list for online art and online culture focuing on easter europe. that is the official story at least. but it is much more and much less than that. i have been one of the moderators since 2002 (?)
Initiated by a meeting of 30 people at the Next Five Minutes in Amsterdam 1996, the Syndicate was established as a platform for the exchange of information between East and West European cultural activists.
Syndicate network primarily consists of artists, art theorists and curators with an interest in media culture.
In December 2001 there are around 365 subscribers to Syndicate mailing list from more than 30 different European and some non-European countries.
As an open virtual community Syndicate network is transcending national frontiers and provides, with Syndicate mailing list, an unmoderated channel for announcements as well as for discussions on projects, events and the political situation experienced.
The decentralized structure of the information provided on Syndicate allows for a diversity of opinions from different parts of the world and highly contrasts the kind of information provided in the mass media.
Participation, meetings and collaborative projects are initiated and seen as an important step towards a system which can exist in a fluidic form without a need of authoritarian actions. Thus, Syndicate network is an experimental research project on the possibilities of building open transcultural communities by using the advantages of tactical media in decentralized structures as the Internet provides them.
In this network of individuals with different personal and cultural backgrounds expressed difference is seen as a value that provides the possibility to a better understanding.
In August 2001 the administration team of Syndicate mailing list changed and since August 27 Syndicate mailing list and web space are hosted by Atelier Nord in Norway. In December 2001 the Syndicate web space at http://anart.no/~syndicate/ is still under development but will be filled over time with texts and projects like, for example, the KKnut project. KKnut is a kind of web message board, which allows an interaction from the web space to the mailing list. Message entries to the KKnut are accessible at the dreamBeach.
At http://anart.no/sympa/arc/syndicate a mail archive is publicly accessible. Former archives are accessible at http://www.v2.nl/syndicate.
So far the main meetings have taken place at half-yearly intervals in Rotterdam (Sept. 1996) Liverpool (April 97), Kassel (July 97), Dessau (Nov. 97), Tirana (May 98), Skopje (Oct. 98), Budapest (April 99), and Helsinki (Oct. 99), Plovdiv (June 2001)
with many smaller meetings and joint projects, presentations and workshops happening in between.
Three Readers have been published and collected a selection of important texts from the mailing list in printed form:
- V2_East Reader September 1996
- Deep Europe October 1997
- Junction Scopje October 1998
They are also accessible online at V2 in Rotterdam.