Outline of a dialogue organised in Souillac for a mutual recognition between artists, the private sector, the governmental and the international bodies dealing with telecommunications.
 

The Souillac Charter
MARCEL has evolved according to the expressed needs coming from the Souillac meetings. It is in the form of a site using the structure of the Navihedron where artists, scientists, industry and institutions can exchange and elaborate projects bring together the competence of each.
 
Excerpts from the Souillac II Report, July, 1998
High Band-Width Network for Artistic Experimentation
All of the artists and institutions present during the two week meeting in Souillac in 1998 expressed the need for higher band-width possibilities and for a permanent "pipeline" for artistic, educational and cultural experimentation. Many of the institutions and individual artists are already confronting the problem of limited band-width in their work and the need to find solutions permitting larger scale experimentation in interactive work.
It was obvious in the discussions that the people present working in these related fields already have existing programmes and projects capable of testing the possibilities broad-band networks could provide. Projects in the areas of art and education are by definition content based and the most demanding from the cultural, social and technical points of view. They are, therefore, ideal candidates for experimentation on the future use of such networks.
 
The Souillac Charter for Art and Industry
The Souillac Charter was written up during a first meeting in Souillac in 1997 and outlined a possible form of collaboration between art and industry.
A new communication space is growing from a merger of video, computer and telecommunication 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 effect culture open to healthy speculation and necessary experimentation before its final specificity is defined.
 
The proposal is:
A framework for dialogue and mutual recognition for artists working with communications technologies and the private sector creating the technologies and an interface with governmental and international bodies directly concerned with telecommunications.
It is not a proposal for sponsoring or marketing.
 
Souillac Charter for Art and Industry (Souillac I)
http://leoalmanac.org/resources/emonograph/souillac.html#souchart
 
Results & Benefits
Art and Industry collaborating can help:
- to understand each other's basic imperatives,
- to create products which are more relevant to the user and the citizen
- to create processes of communication better representing society
- to stimulate the innovative use of networks
- to challenge and define management strategy to suit user needs
- to create new forms of content
- to develop new communications languages (software and operating systems)
- to understand art as fundamental research rather than applied arts, decorative or design
- to build new forms of cultural expression.
 
The Souillac Report (Souillac II - Projects)
http://leoalmanac.org/resources/emonograph/souillac.html#soui2