THE MODERN TECHNOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION
(THE HUMANITARIAN ASPECTS OF TELECOMMUNICATION)

Reviewed by Bulat M  Galeyev,
"Prometei", Kazan State
Technical University - Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan,
K. Marks Str, 10, Kazan 420111, Russia.
E-mail: galeyev@prometey.kcn.ru

A seminar entitled "The Modern Technology of Communication (The Humanitarian Aspects of Telecommunication) was held at the Central Cinema House in Moscow, 17-19 March 1994. The meeting was organized by the New Screen Technologies Association of the Russian Filmmakers' Union. The following topics were discussed at the meeting:

• Modern telecommunications: telephone networks, video computer terminals, cable and interactive television (what more? what next?)
• Modern telecommunications as a "Gordian knot" of human culture and technology
• The globalization of telecommunications: from communism to communalism?
• The communicative phenomena of the "global village" and "metaprehistoric culture": new values and codes, goals and motivations, ideologies and lifestyles
• The creative essence of telecommunicative products The social and cultural markets of communication: the first steps toward actuality
• The first teleconferences held in foreign countries to discuss issues surrounding modern art, information exchanges through electronic mail communication and other perspectives on communication.

A forum entitled "Searching for a Third Reality" was held at the seminar on the last day. This was a presentation of various creative groups engaged in the development of new technologies in art and art education. The groups involved included the Great Association of St.Petersburg; the groups "Pilot", "Big Stroll" and "TV-Gallery" from Moscow; the Art Laboratory for New Media, the Laboratory for Art-Psychotherapy and the Termen Center of the Moscow Conservatory, all from Moscow; and "Prometei," from Kazan. The works created by these groups were demonstrated in the exhibition, to which Muscovites were invited. The exhibition provoked great interest among members of the audience.

This forum completed a discussion of similar events held last year at the Graphikon Festival (St.Petersburg, September 1993) and the Anigraph Festival (Moscow, May 1993). It also set forth plans for the new Anigraph 1994 Festival, as well as a computer forum to be organized by the Creat Association of St. Petersburg.

The meeting revealed a powerful rise of interest in new technologies in Russia over the last 3 years. Dozens of new groups have appeared, mainly consisting of creative teams of young people engaged in computer and video art. Many exhibitions and festivals have been held during this period, and regular TV programming on this theme, now in its second year, has been produced by a Russian channel. Participants in the meeting decided to entrust the coordination and connection with other countries to the newly created Screen Arts Association. The concept of the necessity of a common publication in Russian devoted to new technologies was also expressed. I informed the gathering of the forthcoming special issue of "Leonardo" on "Art and Technology in the Former Soviet Union (Volume 27, No. 5) and proposed a broadening of attempts to publish such collaborative international editions.

Published in "Leonardo", v.28,1995, N 1, p.79