Alta Tecnología Andina (ATA)
(1) is a non-governmental cultural organization whose mission is to nurture a new culture based on the use and spread of electronic media in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America. ATA promotes independence and innovation in an effort to expand knowledge and communication within Andean society and enable this society to participate in a dialogue with other cultures interested in the interaction of the arts, sciences and technologies.
Since its founding in 1998, ATA has set up discussion and research activities, including seminars, workshops, exhibitions and conferences. It has also launched a media centre where the public can experiment with the works created by artists funded by the organization. The collection contains Peruvian and international titles, archives of audiovisual and interactive material, and recordings of electronic music.
ATA’s main goal is to support young professional artists regardless of class, race or religion. To date, the organization has contributed to the production of 70 works by foreign and Peruvian artists, including Angie Bonino, Rafael Besaccia and Roger Atasi. ATA provides them with resources to create media pieces as well as opportunities for regional and international collaboration, and encourages the distribution of their works outside the country. A further objective is to make the Peruvian and Latin American public aware of the media arts.
ATA has organized many events, including the
International Video / Electronic / Art Festival (2) with the help of Alfonso Castrillón of the Visual Arts Gallery of Ricardo Palma University. This festival served as a platform for introducing a young audience to electronic and digital arts. The event comprised an exhibition of recent productions shown for the first time, performances, concerts and conferences in which many foreign researchers took part. The fifth edition of this now annual festival was held in May 2001 with guests including Solange Oliveira Farks (Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil), Rudolf Frieling (ZKM/Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany), Jamsen Law and Fion Ng (Videotage, Hong Kong). Specialists are invited to share their knowledge with the participants in order to forge links between the academic world and the public. Visitors also enjoy access to numerous video works from festivals around the world. According to ATA, the enthusiastic participation of the public attests to Peruvians’ interest in new media.
Alta Tecnología Andina is the first organization dedicated to new media in Peru. Together with the Art and Science Creation Support Program, ATA supplies fully equipped postproduction spaces to local artists (such as Rafael Besacci for his
Magna Opera and Roger Atasi for
N...mi...go) and foreign artists who come to work in the area (such as Antoni Muntadas, who is developing a project here). In addition to providing education, promotion and exchange, ATA seeks to interest the Peruvian public in the technological arts.