EX:pert Table

An expert debate on media and culture organised by the Maribor Theatre Festival

The incentive for this one-day debate springs out of the recent activities within the media machine, cultural politics, cultural institutions (independent as well as public ones) and the fact that cultural content as such is increasingly less (re)presented in Slovenian media. The situation is no different when it comes to the European and world media space. The questions that inevitably occur are when, where and, most of all, how did we arrive at this situation; that is, where did we miss as a society the projected aim to report continually, analytically, in-depth and in parallel on events in the field of culture or, to put it differently, when did (cultural?) politics force us into the given circumstances? Or, to pose the crucial question: when did we as society comply with those circumstances? When we speak about society, we think both of artists, creative people of all kinds in the field of culture, and journalists who are increasingly less employed in cultural sections if those still exist at all (if we consider the situation at the majority of radio stations).
We live in a time in which central forms of media are in extreme crisis. On the other hand, possibilities for alternative approaches of media creation are constantly emerging. This is also a time of media convergence that has completely usurped the traditional and established media approaches/methods offering us a multi-dimensional concept, which refers to the field of possibilities of connectivity and interactivity between media technology, media, locations (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), users and technical products (smartphones, etc.). We can also perceive the extraordinary popularity of media culture.
The aim of the event is to find out or to at least try to understand the position of journalists and institutions that deal on an everyday basis with culture, and seek potential solutions. Is the traditional and historically-confirmed journalism still possible? Where does the border lie which will prevent commercialisation in its worst capitalist, neoliberal – and some other verbal connotative trappings – form, that is, prevent its continuation through the cultural and media space?
From times immemorial the space of art and culture has been a space for creative and fresh ideas/innovations, whether it applies to creation within cultural or media space. All that was inscribed was lost somewhere on the way. It is time for the inscription to remain inscribed and to re-establish it and carry it through the cultural-media space.