Communication Front is about art and engineerings, about how creative persons can do usage of new engineerings to open up new possibilities in their work, about how communicating engineerings can assist us interrupt out of geographical isolation – imposed by visa governments like Schengen and by fiscal dependence on support from abroad – by crossing across continents webs of people with common involvements. Communication forepart is besides about how those engineerings influence the dealingss between people in and from East and West, and how these dealingss take form within the communicating constructions based on said engineerings.
When reflecting on art and new engineerings, a cardinal impression seems to be that of elites. There have been many traditions in the history of art that referred in one manner or another to their being portion of an elite, an avant-guarde, more perceptive of developments and opportunities, more disposed to demo a manner frontward than others.
Extreme illustrations may be the futurists, or the expressionists. At the same clip, possibly because of the perceptual experience of the province socialist government until 1989 as levelling down and impeding any attempt, any hunt outside of a prescribed ordinary, there is a inclination in Bulgaria, even outside the field of art, for people to number themselves as portion of an elite, to see themselves as different from the herd, as standing out from a bulk of common people who are seen and described as simple-minded, uneducated, relicts without a hereafter.
This elitism, whether in art or in Bulgaria or both, frequently comes manus in manus with disdain towards people who live in less industrialised conditions, who are less included in the modern universe, less familiar with modern engineerings. A often used derogatory word in Bulgarian is “ selianin ” , which means provincial or villager.
The relation between the metropolis, Sofia, connected to the universe, and the countryside, with an wholly different clip government, is equivocal. Few people in Sofia, including net creative persons, are wholly cut off from some kind of roots outside the metropolis, and many could barely last without the pokes of murphies and carots and the occasional piece of meat they receive from their relations who work a spot of land in the countryside, who look after a sheep or two, a hog and a twelve poulet.
And frequently, you will hear person life in Sofia tell you that if you know merely Sofia, if you haven ’ t been to the countryside, if you haven ’ t seen how people live at that place, you don ’ t cognize anything about Bulgaria. And however, frequently, this impression that metropolis life, modern life, is better than village life. Not merely in the sense that metropolis life might be easier or in certain ways more attractive, but besides in the sense that people who have chosen village life, or who have had no opportunity to get away from it, are “ seliani ” , mere villagers, simple-minded provincials.
Art, as a contemplation on societal developments, should ever reflect on its ain tools, and on its ain consequence within the moral force of societal dealingss. When we discuss art and engineerings, we need to look at who benefits from new engineerings, and who is endangered by them. The 55 twelvemonth old adult female who has been making the clerking of a little company for the past 15 old ages by manus – what happens to her when her foreman puts a computing machine in forepart of her, anticipating her to exchange to electronic clerking? Possibly she’ll learn, read the f*** manuals, get the cognition needed and go on working to her boss’s satisfaction.
And possibly she will non larn, will non understand why she should exchange to utilizing a computing machine, since making the clerking by manus has worked all right for so many old ages. Possibly she’ll find computing machines so foreign to her thought that she will non pull off. Possibly she’ll find herself, ten old ages before retirement, with solid accomplishments in bookkeeping but no opportunity to happen a occupation.
New engineerings, besides offering new possibilities to those who get the new accomplishments required, ever besides have the consequence of devaluing the cognition of people familiar with older engineerings, of doing such cognition obsolete. By choosing between those who are willing and able to accommodate to the new demands and those who refuse or are unable to follow suit, new engineerings are an elite-building tool. By making a force per unit area to accommodate, they leave certain people behind as “ useless ” on the refuse shit of history while giving others a opportunity to procure themselves a comparative place of power within an advanced elite.
When creative persons use new engineerings, they non merely represent themselves as portion of an advanced elite. If they do non actively overthrow their medium, they legitimize the mechanisms of elite-making, the inventions which render other people obsolete in their cognition and accomplishments. In their enthusiasm for the new medium – and there ’ s no uncertainty that new media are prone to elicit wonder and enthusiasm – creative persons are likely to do the power dealingss behind the medium unseeable. I see it as a cardinal undertaking of creative persons to try to defy take parting in stabilising and perpetuating power constructions and to happen ways of visualizing and stand foring the power dealingss inherent in the medium they use.
In footings of East-West dealingss, it seems to me that Bulgarian or other Eastern European creative persons have a certain advantage over their Western co-workers in observing and placing the power dealingss hidden behind the great new engineerings, since they are likely to be more sensitive to power prejudices between Western states and Eastern Europe, which are to a big extent based on differences in entree to and command over new engineerings.
The encephalon drain that sucks away Bulgarian advanced elites into places at Western universities, research and development research labs or – more temporarily – exhibition halls, is a direct effect of the manner technologies construction the opportunities for success ( every bit good as the impressions of what success means ) harmonizing to the entree to those engineerings, and of the manner the geographical distribution of this entree reflects power dealingss of international political relations.
Communication Front seems like the ideal environment for discoursing in-depth the ways that engineerings shape societal dealingss, including those between East and West, and to work on developing ways of stand foring these procedures and doing concealed power constructions apparent. Communication Front can go a topographic point where “ seliani ” and net afficionados can discourse how they want to populate and how new engineerings might be approached in order to enable each to take how they want to populate, without delegitimizing the other ’ s picks or worlds.
