About

Since its conceptualization, EMYAN Online Arts Festival advocates web 2.0 models of producing and sharing artistic creativity and wants to showcase the richness of cultural practices and strengthen artistic exchanges in the Euro-Med region.

The use of internet tools has been in increase in our social and professional lives since new techniques were adapted to facilitate the use of communications tools over the internet in general.

Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

In order to promote the use of internet tools in arts, EMYAN launched in May 2007 art 2.0 Initiative.

Leaping into the world of information and communication technology gave the today arts a new dimension which will help forming the arts of the future. Giving new ideas of creation of new arts and also merging of some of the existing arts.

New aims and purposes of art have been arisen in the last few years arguing the world to put a definition of this newly created multi-purpose easy to distribute art.

Euro-Med Young Artists Network is launching a call for entries for its 2nd Online Arts Festival which is scheduled to be held online in October 2009. The festival is organized under EMYAN ZeroBudget Initiative.

The festival is open for young artists (up to 30 years old) living in one of the Euro-Med countries in all fields of arts that can be published on the web, special section for web-based arts.

Aiming to promote the use of Information Technology (IT) in arts in the EuroMed area. The IT represents a new artistic trend which has been growing in scale in the last few years. Young web users will be able to design and disseminate new production.

United Nations Declaration and Recommendations related to this theme:

Articles of the 1980 Recommendation related to this theme:
V. Member States should promote and protect the status of artists by considering artistic activity, including innovation and research, as a service to the community.
VI. 6. Member States are invited to:
(c) compensate any prejudice artists might suffer in consequence of the technical development of new communication and reproduction media and of cultural industries by favouring, for example, publicity for and dissemination of their works, and the creation of posts. (…)

Points of the 1997 Declaration related to this theme:
14. The new technologies help to promote artistic exchanges. These technologies constitute a vast field of investigation for artists in terms of their creative and training potential.(…)

The arts and the new technologies:
34. The success of electronic information and communication networks depends to a large extent on the quality of the contents that they will be able to transmit. For this reason :
a) the information technology sector should be encouraged to facilitate the provision of the necessary equipment to art teaching institutions, particularly in the developing countries ;
b) artists should be encouraged to become better acquainted with the new technological tools with a view to increasing their creative opportunities. Co-operation between artists and experts in the new technologies should be strengthened to that end ;
c) it is recommended that the new technologies be used for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage and oral traditions.
35. So as to preserve artistic and cultural diversity, States are requested to support professional organizations of artists in their efforts to master new communication tools, with a view to guaranteeing all artists free access to the distribution of their works while safeguarding their rights.

Link to last year online arts festival:  Online Arts Festival v1.0