Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

the glitches, and I thought that there was a particularly gl�ring glitch in the parallel panels - the language panels - that we've heard the reports from today where the Indonesian panel was the only panel as far as I'm aware that d idn't have a translator and this led to a situation where only about twelve or th irteen Indonesians participated . I ndonesian artists do not have any trouble meeting with each other and they're always spending a lot of time discussing issues of art but it became a very closed forum and if there had been a translator there then it would have been a larger session, I believe, and could have been a potentially very lively one and so I was interested in hearing from the organ isers why this was the only session that was isolated into its own language group. David Williams I don't think this was the session where we should address that one - perhaps we could take it up later. Laine Berman I wasn't aware that the other panels d id have translators . My only concern at the time was with just an hour and fifteen m inutes, I thought we needed to take advantage of the time and quite often when you do work with translators the time is then cut in half. That was my only concern at the time when we had originally come up with these ideas. The point is very well taken and I 'm sure it will be considered for the future. Claire Roberts Just for the record, the Chinese language session was also only in Chinese and I know that a number of people came up to me and expressed interest in attending. I suppose the thinking behind the session was that all of the rest of the Conference was being conducted in English and this was an opportun ity for there to be real d ialogue and real d iscussion by non-Engl ish speaking people. As Laine said, by introducing translation you cut the time in half and it was felt that it was an important opportun ity to offer. David Williams The question of the dominance of the English language has been an issue in successive APTs and the idea of introducing these particular language sessions was in some ways designed to overcome that and I th ink that the point about the translation was wel l expressed by our previous two speakers . Deborah Hart A brief comment in relation to the time frames that were given to the speakers . I think that they were qu ite short and I think that in some ways that was really good because it allowed a lot of people to have input, but I should also say that as one of the speakers that obviously means that the papers are limited in their scope, and I was a bit concerned yesterday in the Australian session to make the point that I really believe we shouldn't evade the past when we share our stories with each other in this forum and in shared exh ibitions or exchange exhibitions. I am also very pleased to see that in this afternoon's session there is this topic 'From Dissidence to Healing' because I think perhaps that the point I didn't get a chance to make was the place that many artists who weren't discussed yesterday have and I think that we should not be immobilised by a kind of Eurocentric fear of failure. I think there is a way forward and I th ink Uie word that Charles used of the efflorescence of art in the region is very important and in Australia as wel l . From the floor www.odn.com .au - is an outback d igital network of Australia. A $300,000,000 gig linking all of the Aboriginal communities from Cairns to Broome. Enjoy! Jasleen Demeejer I was listen ing and I felt that it's a marvellous occasion to hear various points of view, but there is a certain Eurocentric approach to the whole thing. We call it Asian-Pacific but I th ink in the process we forget the large creative expression of those people who are not able to be on the Internet, to use the modern technology and the media or be able to communicate in the language in which we are communicating. That brings me to the point that perhaps it may be worthwhile that before the next APT takes place, you m ight th ink of ways and means of 1 46