List of museums around the world

"eclectic collection of World Wide Web services connected with museums around the world."

(International Council of Museums)

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs

"Over the past 35 years, [International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs] has published one of the most comprehensive collections of documentation and reflection on indigenous peoples' struggle for survival and recognition. IWGIA continues to be at the forefront of reflecting the most significant issues of concern to indigenous peoples. IWGIA's publications are published on a non-profit basis.
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IWGIA publishes mainly in English and Spanish but its documentation also includes books in French, Kiswahili (East Africa), Tagalok, Ilokano, Bisaya (Philippines), Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Russian, Portuguese, Hindi and Swedish, as well as 13 educational booklets in Danish.

IWGIA publishes the journal Indigenous Affairs, a yearbook The Indigenous World both in English and in Spanish (Asuntos Indigenas and El Mundo Indigena), books, handbooks and reports.

IWGIA's publications are written by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars and activists. Our readers are NGO activists and specialists working with indigenous peoples or related issues, politicians, scholars with a special interest, indigenous activists and organisations, individuals and communities.

IWGIA's documentation and information material contributes to its overall aim of supporting indigenous peoples, as stated in IWGIA's mission statement. IWGIA documents the human rights and overall situation of indigenous peoples, promotes indigenous rights and facilitates and provides for discussions, influences decision makers and puts indigenous issues on the agenda of governments, NGOs, international institutions such as the UN, OAS, Arctic Council, etc., and corporate business world. It also nurtures discussions within academic and intellectual fora and contributes to indigenous peoples' capacity building and sharing of experience."
(IWGIA)

Viewing the poor through Western eyes

"In global campaigns on issues like landmines, trade, medicines or small arms, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face dilemmas of control. How much of the management and publicity of a campaign should they keep and how much should they give away?
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Interational NGOs (INGOs) are often the intellectual originators of campaigns. They are also some of the few global organisations with the requisite money, sophistication, media expertise and brand recognition to run a global campaign. For efficiency's sake, they need to drive global campaigns.

In countless NGO communications, civil society heroes from Asia and Africa are presented as dependent second class citizens, defined primarily by their relationship to the international NGO.

Pioneering local campaigners are introduced as an "Oxfam partner" or a "CARE project". There is a colonial echo here in the implication that it is really INGOs who are saving the situation as the primary movers and shakers.

Part of the reason for this kind of post-colonial choreography by INGOs is because they are still required to be the visual mediators of the poor world to the rich world.

In Western society, our INGOs are inter-cultural gatekeepers. They know both worlds and report the one to the other."

(Hugo Slim, 30 Apr 2007)

Toilet signs from various countries

[This set of international toilet signs clearly indicates that cultural interpretation is key to the construction and interpretation of meaning. That despite the universality of human biology culture still plays a significant role in the construction meaning.]

Telecommunication: Decentralized International Exchange

Jeffrey Shaw (ZKM 1995)
TelecommunicationBroadcasting and telecommunications are an integral aspect of the new media technologies, and permit media manifestations to address an international and mass audience. While telecommunication methods have till now only tentatively been used by media artists, the Institute for Image Media feels that this is an important area of future development; one that will lead to a decentralized international exchange of cultural action and information.Therefore the Institute for Image Media will focus its activity in this area on the following potentials:

When one considers the visions which accompanied the development of contemporary art over the last 30 years - the kinetic art of the 1950s, the "open artwork" of the 1960s (happenings, environment, performances, land art, etc.), the conceptual and social art forms of the 1970s - one finds that these visions have interesting and astonishing parallels in the technological developments of the 1990's. Interactivity creates a intimate relation between the artwork and the viewer, tele-communications permits extended social interactions, simulation gives direct form to conceptual proposi-tions. It seems to be only a short step from "inter-media art" to "multimedia technology". Of course we cannot predict whether if technology will bring about a fulfillment or finale of these utopian artistic movements. The Institute for Image Media intends to be a place, where artists can think and work in relation to this question.