Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
If you are going to be in LA in early June, this sounds very interesting:
- TV or NOT TV:
Discussions To Create A Mass Media Outlet For The Arts At (MOCA) The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Thursday, June 5, 2003 7:30 pm
The last panel “Can the Arts Be Mass Distributed? Worldwide? How?” will cover the following subject and discussion points:
Can we have a culture channel on TV?
* composed of art, animation, experimental docs and stories?
* from across the globe?
* programmed thematically vs. hourly?
* by a revolving international committee?
* run with a nonprofit/for profit financial structure?
* funded by subscribers, grants, underwriters, foreign sales?
* distributed internationally via satellite vs. cable or www?
* for a diverse art appreciating audience – who are they?
Guest speakers include:
* Jay Levin – Founder of LA Weekly and Planet Central TV, chair of Media Challenge!, president of Share with Other LA
* Kim Spencer – President, WorldLink TV
* Carmi Zlotnik – Executive VP, HBO, Creative Operation & New Business Development
* More tba
These panel discussions are free and open to the public. June 5th join us at MOCA – 250 South Grand Avenue in downtown LA (90012). Regarding the museum, please note: Admission is free every Thursday from 11:00am until 8:00pm. Street parking is free after 6:00pm. Visit their web site at www.moca.org or call MOCA at 213-626-6222. To reach LA Freewaves please visit their site at www.freewaves.org or call them at 323-664-1510.
These artists, scholars and media professionals’ sophisticated dialogues are being recorded for future study and potential publication by an appropriate media outlet.
At the conclusion of the ninth and final LA Freewaves’ panel discussion on Thursday, June 5, 2003, thirty-seven different speakers from the worlds of education, art, technology and media will have come together over the past 17 months to discuss, debate, explore and strategize the highly ambitious topic: Starting A Culture Channel on TV (!).
A Culture Channel. An actual television channel, 24-7, airing a steady stream of innovative programming. New, fresh, different. Imagine it…odd, cool, unique, diverse, eclectic, extreme art – points of view. The programmers? The artists? The media makers? You, me, an Eskimo… As LA Freewaves’ founder Anne Bray once said, “With 3,000 ads in our face per day, with only 9% of the TV directors being women and with more extra-terrestrials on TV than Asians, Latinos and Native Americans combined, there is much missing in our public pictures and many false mirrors presented to us.” (MIT’s Leonardo Vol. 35, No. 1 2002). Anne’s life’s work has lead her to this critical point. There’s no turning back for her and others who believe that we have the ability now to create a new TV channel and succeed. We’re at a great crossroads given the current state of technology and broadcasting and distribution. People and communities who have never, or rarely ever, had the opportunity or the platform to share
their work, their vision, will be able to do so.
Los Angeles-based media arts organization LA Freewaves is behind this gigantic endeavor. Spearheading progressive thought and art since 1989 they have gathered some of the freshest minds of our time to participate in these remarkable discussions (see a list of all 37 speakers below).
LA Freewaves is a nonprofit media arts network that produces festivals, workshops, curriculum materials and a web site to encourage artistic and social expression, serving the needs of artists and audiences alike. Probably best-known throughout LA and the global media arts community for their month-long, bi-annual media art festivals which take place all over Los Angeles County. Next festival: November 2004. While the panel discussions are ultimately focusing on launching a Culture Channel, each bi-annual LA Freewaves’ festival presents various innovative works that could potentially air on such a Channel.
