Remarks by H.E. Ong Keng Yong,
Secretary-General of ASEAN
at the Opening Ceremony
of the ASEAN New Media Arts Exhibition
National Gallery, Jakarta, 20 February – 2 March 2007

The ASEAN-COCI’s Sub-Committee on Culture has, to date, implemented over three hundred projects since its inception in 1978. The projects, covering activities in visual arts, performing arts and literary studies, are all geared towards promoting ASEAN’s arts and culture and at the same time preserving and protecting ASEAN’s cultural heritage. Many of the outputs of these projects have been documented in film, video and publications.

This particular project, the ASEAN New Media Arts Competition and Exhibition, represents ASEAN-COCI’s maiden attempt to converge the traditional arts with modern information technology (IT). In other words, a marriage of traditional and contemporary in the area of visual arts.

With the theme of ‘Interaction in Cultural Diversity’, this project aims to identify the tendencies of regional cultural networks in utilizing information technology, and at the same time, strengthen ASEAN identity and solidarity through new media art forms.

New media arts mean many things to many people but all agree on one thing. It basically means innovative work that uses new technologies. It gained greater prominence in the middle of the 20th Century when it became closely associated with the term ‘digital art’ and converged with the history and theory of computer-based practices often with the Internet as the platform.

 The Australian Council for the Arts, for example, has defined it as a process where new technologies are used by artists to create works that explore new modes of artistic expression. These new technologies include computers, information and communications technology, virtual or immersive environments, or sound engineering. “They are the brushes and pens of a new generation of artists.”

The new media arts movement challenges conventional notions of ‘what art is’ and the role it plays in our society. Audiences are challenged – and confronted – as we might be today – by different art forms, disciplines and media. Examples include multimedia dance and music, hybrid performances, multidimensional installations, conceptual and improvised performances and many more.

The potential of new media is indeed limitless and is limited only by the boundaries of the artists’ creativity.

New media arts have already grown by leaps and bounds. And I am glad to see that ASEAN, through this initial project, is now looking at this development seriously. We must not be left behind in new developments. There is no reason why ASEAN should not be with the movement on new media arts. New media arts is an amalgamation of culture and IT skills, both of which are not in short supply in ASEAN. New media arts collaborations can involve cultural and artistic differences reflecting the cultural diversity of our ASEAN population.

But there are also challenges that we have to face and address, such as intellectual property rights and also the preservation of such new forms of artwork. Research projects are already underway to improve the preservation and documentation of the fragile media arts heritage, for example, the digital archiving of media and the translation of work from an obsolete medium into a related new medium.

 And there may also be social repercussions. It has been argued that the tendency of new media technology and production is towards short attention spans, simplified narrative and visual styles and easy formats and stereotypes. What effect does this have on our young generation? So at the same time as we develop this genre of art, we have to also be aware of the need to preserve and nurture spaces in the traditional arts world so that our children can also have the freedom to develop as critical and sensitive purveyors of art and not just as consumers.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Indonesia, especially ASEAN-COCI Indonesia and its Sub-Committee on Culture (SCC), for organizing and hosting the ASEAN New Media Arts Competition and Exhibition, a project under the ASEAN COCI.

 I would also like to take the opportunity to convey my appreciation to the Jury Team, chaired by Professor Edward Cabagnot of the Philippines, in taking the time to judge the regional level competition and selecting the winning entries. To all the entrants who have worked hard for this competition and to those who have made it to the winning entries, I congratulate you.

On behalf of ASEAN, I wish the exhibition every success.