Returned last night from a very cool conference in Denver sponsored by The Association of American Cultures (TAAC) based in San Antonio. The conference, "Global Connections to Cultural Democracy," featured artists and arts organizations from around the world.
The most interesting session had eight young people who were doing an array of innovative things. Quentin Renaudo and Aziz Ridouan are two 19-year-olds in Paris who founded Audionautes ("audio surfers") to provide legal assistance to those accused of illegally downloading music.
Gabriella Gomez-Mont is a young artist in Mexico City who founded (with friends) Laboratorio Curatorial 060 to put on unique art displays. In one, an artist created four round fish tanks on wheels, each about the size of a SCUBA tank. He put a Beta fighting fish in each tank. You can only have one of these fish per tank because they attack and kill other Betas. The fish would see the other Beta but in another tank and move toward that fish. A sensor in the tank picked up the fish's movements and the tank moved in that direction. Each tank had bumpers so it was kind of like fish bumper cars. They also do political projects. They put a bunch of artists on a bus and drove 18 hours to the new town of Frontera on the Guatemalan border. Among other projects, the artists built a barge on the river and equipped it with a satellite laptop where illegal immigrants from Guatemala could consult weather reports, plot their corse through Mexico to Arizona, and check e-mail. According to Gomez-Mont, some 300 people cross the river near Frontera every day.
Another young man, Ivan Duran, opened the first recording studio and record label in his native Belize.
I continue to be amazed and encouraged by the creativity of the up-and-coming generations. Sometimes we have done the mentoring and are proud to see the accomplishments of our students. Now we are seeing the students becoming the mentors, especially in the area of technology.
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