MetaForum

Timeline:

Media Research Foundation officially becomes a Foundation in 1990.

April 1990: The Media Are With Us (A médiumok velünk voltak), a cooperation with the Mucsarnok, and the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, dealt with the role of television in the Romanian revolution. It was the first event to analyze a current event from the perspective of the media to take place in Hungary, and included leading international media theoreticians (Vilém Flusser, Peter Weibel, Margaret Morse, Ingo Günther etc.), and the staff of Romanian television.

October 7-9 1994: MetaForum 94 took place in the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, as a part of Budapest's annual Autumn Festival of the Arts. Organisers: The Budapest Autumn Festival, the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian Fine Arts Academy and the Media Research Foundation.

"This small, chaotic event included CD-ROM and the World Wide Web, which was just gaining attention in the explosive hype of the Internet. There were no commercial Internet providers in Hungary, and just three Hungarian CD-ROMs. The lack of a working Internet connection during the event led to a heated debate between representatives of the Hungarian Telecom and East Edge- a group of Hungarian students well acquainted with the Internet."

1995:
This debate led to MetaForum II/NO BORDERS/Budapest Networking Conference in 1995. These were international topics, and perhaps even more important in Hungary, where bad telephone lines and a general lack of expendable wealth magnify the issues of new communication technologies in the West. Speakers included; John Parry Barlow; Konrad Becker; Heath Bunting; Matthew Fuller; Debra Guzman, Kristof Nyiri, Gabor Kelemen; Kristof Nyiri; Pit Schultz; Marleen Stikker; and Peter Lamborn Wilson, as well as many others. "In addition to the lectures and panel discussions, public access to Internet was available for the audience."

October 11-13 1996: MetaForum III followed with the subject of content, which has become the crucial element in the New Media discourse. With MetaForum III / UNDER CONSTRUCTION / Budapest Content Conference came the closing of the MetaForum Conference Series in Budapest.

MetaForum Organizing Committee: Geert Lovink, Diana McCarty, Janos Sugar.

Media Research Foundation: Media Research existed in various forms prior to officially becoming a Foundation in 1990. The founding members were Gábor Bora, Aesthetician; András Böröcz, Sculptor; Miklós Peternák, Art historian; László Révész, Artist, Filmmaker; János Sugár, Artist, Filmmaker; and Katalin Timár, Art historian. The group comprised a unique wealth of expertise, with each member being an expert in his or her respective field.

Resources:

http://www.mrf.hu/metaforum.html
http://www.mrf.hu/buenobye.html
http://www.mrf.hu/mediaresearch.html
http://mail.v2.nl/v2east/1996/0100.html - MetaForum III anouncement

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