Why we need art in a media rich environment... Since new technological frontiers are inspiring inventiveness & creativity, what need is there for artists? How is our perception of art being transformed and how are artists dealing with, and sometimes provoking, the change?

Drawing on the experimentations of artists like Sophie Calle (photographer & conceptual artist), Radiohead, Thomas Ades (composer & conductor), Pipilotti Rist (video artist), Damian Hirst and others, we will discuss their creative - and strategic - use of communication technologies. The limits some artists have set themselves will be reviewed as well.

We will also investigate how new media artists are connecting art & science and whether their pioneering efforts will be moving out of laboratories and into the major art circuit.

And finally, time permitting, we will consider the role of galleries, auction and production houses, festivals and cultural institutions in raising market/public expectations, how Web 2.0 may be progressively shifting the decisional power of creative industries to the users and how the two worlds are connecting.

Bring your inspirations, bring your art passions, bring your web examples and illustrations, this open forum will be an opportunity to come up with new ideas to allow art to flourish in a media hungry environment.