At 16:47 01.04.1998 +0100, you wrote:
>Steve Rushton from everything magazine here with  details on eBC:
>
>eBC1
>www.newmediacentre.com/icaweb/ebc
>
>The worlds first net broadcasting station run by artists 

hi everybody... i like monika glahn's brief reply to teh 'world's first'... - and guess josephine bosma is right to point directly at the core strategic use to boost the new media centre (and this project).

whoever happens to speak german might want to listen to this sunday's convex v. broadcast where i take some time to cast the eBC1 project in a critical light. generally: yes, great, the ICA does something, facilitates, organises, whatever. yes, the ICA is a huge administrative body which could play a key role in casting a platform for independent media practise. yes, the ICA might be the solid rock which could allow a series of projects to have some kind of backup in the new media mayhem... BUT... WHY do they have to start their first line with 'world's first net broad....' - if anything, that is an insult. 

the only thing you could say in their defence is that the whole project as such (and i should know, i was at the initial meeting at the ICA) wants to play those double standards and media games. it is partly supposed to reveal structures of the mainstream media by playing the game well - and being placed in the ICA they can be sure that they will be playing the game very well, possibly not because of the great strategy they use, but just because there are countless guardian and independent media journalists out there in london who are just too happy to look at the ICA and believe everything that comes out of the New Media Lab. 

who wants to blame them? i don't! they are having a hard time, give them some credit. they don't come out of the field of independent practise and without a solid funding strategy in place they must find it extremely hard to judge what's *good* and what's *not good*. the ICA is the filter they need. believe me, the day the first eBC1 goes online, the guardian will print in the media section that it is the 'world's first...' - i bet anything. poor journalists, suddenly they have to think their way into something completely new and are expected to write about it with the elegance and eloquence they might write about the newly opened serpentine gallery or the recently published kafka reader, the new marcel proust translation and so forth. similarly to the psychological causes of the repetitive strain syndrome in secretaries who suddenly had to relearn their job all over again, *culture* journalists might soon develop a similar disease...

... oh god, so much more to say, but i have to stop here. who want's to know more should learn german and switch on sunday to convex tv. THE WORLDS FIRST NETCASTING STATION RUN BY WHITE, MIDDLE-CLASS STUDENTS AND EX-STUDENTS!!!!!!!!!!

the problem is: monica said it much nicer with '??' and everybody knows what's going on, including e-magazine and the ICA. why do i feel the obligation to rant on about this? possibly because i happen to live within the 0171 phone region these days, i.e. alocal call away from *where it's at* - and have to deal with this. again: great opportunity, a shame about the start...

just one last question to the eBC1 people: how much did you spend on the one hour programme? where did the money come from? what were your categories to invite people? did you look into *what's out there* when deciding to do what you did? has any research (aside the decision to work with Java plug ins ;) taken place in independent netcasting within london? the UK? europe?

yours cheerfully,

Micz Flor (micz@xxxxxxxxxxxx)

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[q]"There is no administrative production of meaning."
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