The Souillac Charter for Art and Industry: A Framework for Collaboration with Introductions by Don Foresta and Fernando Lagraña

A new communication space is growing from a merger of video, computer and telecommunications technologies, coalescing into a system—roughly called “the network”—searching for its own logic and a cultural, social and political identity. What this space will mean to society is not yet clear, its final content is uncertain, and how it will affect culture is open to healthy speculation and necessary experimentation before its final specificity is defined. Surprisingly, the two sectors most concerned with building this space have been artists and the telecommunications industry. Finding a way to increase collaboration between the two would accelerate the development of the network. Points considered include (1) the artist is a researcher expanding the potential of the tools, (2) industry interfacing with art could mean more innovation, and (3) governments and international institutions can help such innovation happen. The Souillac Charter presented here is a blueprint for beginning.