by John Grzinich

I don't believe much in a virtual world without a significant counterpart in the physical world, that is, the two "worlds" are less separate entities as they are two aspects of a unified whole. Until molecular switching nano-computers run on naturally regenerating biomass energy, we're going to have to face the dependency of cyberspace on the existing industrial age power grids. When the power goes out and the batteries run low it's not long before you are sharing stories and songs around the fire. Because of the aging soviet infrastructure, this happens often enough in rural Estonia to keep you grounded in the physical world, which brings me back to my original point.

The idea of networks and the practice of networking existed well before the rise of the internet is another point I'd like to touch on. I'd hate to think that the glamour of information flows of bits and bytes will add up to a collective amnesia where we would forget how people communicated before there was Email; IRC chat, AIM messaging, P2P sharing clients; BBS, PHP boards, WIKI sites, BLOGs, RSS feeds etc... in other words, before there was a high tech interface for our means of communicating and sharing information. In this way, many people use the internet in much the same way they transport or entertain themselves, through pre-defined well established hierarchically controlled means made to channel or be channelled among the masses.

So, beyond the conceptual paradigms of interactivity in virtual reality lies the clicks and scrolls of the average end user who struggles to comprehend the interface far more than the age old familiar text and emoticon means of expressions. After all, it will take a fair amount of work to redefine and rework what has established the human condition under the great age of industrialized newtonian mechanics. The level of HCI is still somewhat low as relatively few people actually develop and construct the world wide web they so much rely on. Although from the start, giving access to and maintaining an open structure for both the languages and infrastructure used for the web was more than important, it was essential for such a thing to survive. This was not invented, it was known from experience, which brings me back to the beginning of my second point.

Consider this critical sounding introduction, a brief if you will, on the new media projects connected to MoKS, an artist-run cultural space in rural southeast Estonia. MoKS started in 2001 as an artist-in-residence program in the village of Mooste and was until fairly recently a one person operation, run by Evelyn Müürsepp. Evelyn did what was needed to run the project, everything from applying for money or maintaining the website to stacking the wood that heat the ovens. On occasion, when necessary, she would bring friends on board to help out with events such as symposiums or exhibitions. This spirit is what attracted me to get involved with MoKS and is what continues motivate others to join in and stick with the organization. The practice is fairly simple, that you learn by doing and that opportunities are more about what you create rather than hope to discover in a distant place. So the idea to start a 'media lab' at MoKS came from the necessity of establishing the communication infrastructure (there was never even a phone line installed) and the opportunity of putting concepts into practice.

In the physical world this came easier than expected. The space for a separate media lab simply did not exist, so by default, the building itself became the lab, only with newer media. In this way the walls are as much a communication surface for paintings or graphic works as the CRT monitors are for moving images and HTML pages or speakers for sonic environments. This integrated approach is somewhat different than many of the media labs throughout the world that function as specialized spaces for digital production. Next came the connection and as some may have heard, Estonia is a fairly wired place. The latest phrase I've heard floating around is, "you can even get WIFI in the forests".... which is true in some places. In Mooste, as with most of the rural areas, the village is linked into the national fiber optic network that supplies the community run ISP with a 2MBit line. This roughly translates into all the bandwidth without the profit, something I still find difficult to believe. So what was needed to put MoKS online was a wireless radio link to the village server which put us on the local network. With that came a WIFI router and LAN cables installed by the village system operator.

But again, getting technically connected to the world wide web proved rather easy and less of a challenge than making connections to the people in the local community, something that MoKS has worked for since it began. In a place where unemployment and alcoholism run high, a social conscience develops and the integrated approach once again comes into play. Where many media labs strive for sustaining attention through well encrypted theories and high tech wizardry from intelligent personalities, MoKS feeds it's activities through working with the immediate context, the place and people of its surroundings. The lab was started by an event, a 5 day workshop on digital video for people who wanted to learn. People came from different parts of the country to take part. This was followed a year later by a movie making workshop for the local youth who indulged in creating their own fantasy worlds while practically learning how to use video and sound equipment. In the end their horror films turned out to be more like comedies but it is clear they got something from it, it's not east to make an effective film. And it's not easy to teach others how to do it either. Other events also relate to practicing artists. This past spring we held a workshop titled 'The Other Senses' that focused on communicating non-visual and auditory information using video and sound. More recently MoKS hosted the international symposium Heli+Visioon (Pushing the Medium in English), an event dedicated to experimental forms of sound and moving image. For this we held public events in Tartu, a university town 40km from Mooste as well as 2 lectures at the Tartu Art College, but the artists stayed at MoKS. This made more economic and social sense.

After its short history, the model for the MoKS media lab has proven its value yet has shown challenges in being an effective project. In our case people are still the best interface for introducing others to new media and finding creative ways to work with it. For the future it makes sense to push for more online activities, to bridge the local with the distributed web and try to share more of the MoKS archive and live events to those at a distance using open source tools. You can bet a workshop for this is already in the works.

John Grzinich was trained as an architect but has been a practicing sound and video artist for over 10 years. He is currently on the MoKS board and serves as the media lab coordinator.

more info online at:
http://mooste.ee/mogs/
http://www.kaon.org/~jgrzinich/