Ars Electronica in the International and Soviet Versions

[ART/SCIENCE FORUM I I I Ars Electronica iril the International and SovietVersions Bulat M. Galeyev 'Ars electronica' means 'electronic art'. International festivals with the same name have been held annually since 1979 in the Austrian city of Linz. In mid-September, TV halls and the concert and entertainment center in Brucknerhaus are given over to artists -experimenters who work with the unusual and the latest in electronic equipment, including computers. In 1989 about 500 representatives from 29 countries competed with each other in the field of computer music, computer graphics and computer animation. Works and lectures on 'ars electronica' from the USSR were presented in Linz for the first time. (In 1988, Russians were at the festival, but their films were not within the scope of 'electronic art'.) As it happened, just one month (October 1989) after Linz the seminar 'Light Music on Cinema and TVScreen ' was held in Kazan, USSR. The theme of our seminar was similar to the subject of the Linz festival, and it was held within the time frame of our annual Prometheus Readings (28-30 October). Foreign guests took part in the Kazan seminar for the first time. Times are changing. BACKGROUND Although I have been engaged in the practical and theoretical investigation of the interrelationships between art, science and technology for almost 30 years, the 1989 Ars Electronica festival in Linz was the first time I actually participated in an international exhibition of that kind. Moreover, the expression 'for the first time' also describes my visit to Austria as a country where 'capitalism reigns', to use the Soviet press terminology of the past. The 'iron curtain' was the result of the Cold War. A thaw has set in, and iron that was dividing East and West is now falling to the ground. Here, I want to make one little digression . Ten years ago, in Brezhnev's Bulat M. Galeyev (physicist, artist), KAl, SKB 'Prometei", ul. K. Marksa 10, Kazan, 420111 USSR. Received 27 February 1990.© 19911SAST Pergamon Press pic.Printed inGreat Britain. 0024-094X/91 53.00+0.00 time, a documentary film about 'Prometei' (of which I am the director ) and its staffwas made. The film had the rather pretentious title One Possessed, but this is not important. Rather, it is the desperate courage of the film director that is important. Having completed the story about 'Prometei', he turned his camera to the landscape and trees and finished the film with a close-up of lonely green leaves under snow. I was surprised greatly by this ending and told the director that he was a seer. For about the same time, or so I was told, the book Art under the Snow was published in the West and our 'Prometei' group was mentioned therein (I have not seen the book, unfortunately). Not long ago, I had occasion to view that forgotten film again, and upon viewing the last sequence I discovered suddenly that the snow on the green leaves had melted and disappeared. Of course, I am joking. And I ask readers in advance to excuse me for the unscientific and ironic style of my article. Still, by way of presenting my impressions of the two events in Linz and Kazan, I want to use the somewhat unorthodox route of sharing some of my travel notes, because I experienced many things in the West for the first time in my life. Fantastic! All the details of outlandish life there were surprising. My surprises actually began before my departure when it took me only a few days to get a visa. Already this is fantastic! And then began myjourney to another planet. (Indeed, it may be appropriate to call my travel notes The Martian Chronicles, after the novel of my favorite writer, Ray Bradbury.) On board the Austrian jetliner, we were offered champagne, whiskey and brandy after dinner. In my country we would be asked to leave the airborne plane immediately for such a breach of the dry law! The airport in Vienna is not big and it is very tidy. There are no queues at the customs house (I simply did not notice them). I was surprised to learn that smoking was...