The modern apartment buildings and new galleries also had other neighbors, the residents at number 120. A typical chinese neighborhood, just as we imagine it in the west. Small lane houses meandered in narrow alleys. Laundry dries above our heads and people cook their meals in the entry ways of their houses. The inhabitants lived in this area for many decades. Even still, when M50 was already established with its cafes and bookshops and the loving art visitors from the West.

Now it is over. 120 Moganshan Road has been destroyed. Most residents are gone, still one graffiti screams off the wall: ” Ha ha! We are still here!” Lost shoes can be found in the rubble, glimpses of wallpaper are visible on certain walls. A daily scene in Shanghai.

Konstantin Bayer, German artist and initiator of the gallery “Eigenheim” in Weimar / Germany knew this neighborhood very well. He curated a small exhibition space, the “Island 6 shack”, during his university exchange program in 2008 at 120 Moganshan Road. This established a continuous dialogue between tradition, art, East and West. Where this exchange took place is now a gaping hole.

After two years, Konstantin met some of the remaining residents again. The already existing mutual sympathy was still in place. In his familiar manner to create art in urban living spaces Konstantin is now planning a 24 hour art project on this site along together with a handful of renowend Shanghai galleries. 2000 m2 demolition land will be revived in order to make space for art and to point out the rapid development and change of life in China as well calling attention on the specific characteristics of temporary urban structure. The demolition site appears now as a counterpart to sparkling Shanghai with its new Expo site and countless renovated facades all around the city.

Generally it is expected of art and artists to identify with the current progressive urban development. But especially artists and creative people often draw the short straw, however, work space gets destroyed or simply turns out to be unaffordable. “M120 – Moganshan re-used” is an example of the positive exchange between people from different parts of the world using art as a common language. There is also a thought to be pointed out to the many creators of our near future. Before everything is gone. Before everything is uniform. Look closely! Art doesn’t need white walls!

The current issue is devoted to the topic of digital library efforts in China. With the help of Sam Sun, long-time CNRI employee and Beijing native, we have gathered a group of authors who speak authoritatively on current projects in China. Four of those articles, primarily describing current and past projects from a non-technical perspective, appear in this issue while some of the more technical articles will appear in issues later this year.

Many D-Lib readers will be unaware of the activities in China, which are extensive and growing. If you read only one article in this issue, it should be the Overview article by Xihui Zhen, which I think most readers will find of great interest. Just as China is assuming a larger and more important role on the world stage, so too it seems to me will they assume a larger and more important role in the digital library world as time goes on. The size of the various projects, the number of universities and research groups in China addressing the issues, and the vast sweep of Chinese history and culture that remains to be digitized and integrated into the world of digital libraries would seem to guarantee that.

Significant language, culture, and political gaps between China and the more established digital library players in Western countries remain, of course, and will present challenges on all sides for years to come. The language gap will even be evident in the current issue of D-Lib, as all of the articles started out in Chinese or in English written by native Chinese speakers. But as the connections between China and the other countries of the world deepen, these gaps will narrow and, in our small slice of the world’s intellectual activity, D-Lib will do its best to help that process.

New Media Archaeology – Research Project, September 10 + 11
Co-organizer (in no particular order): V2 | C3 | ZHdK | ZKM | ICC | MIT | Montevideo  | Transmediale | China National Art Academy | Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University | Shanghai Institute of Visual Art of Fudan University | Laboratory Art Beijing | ARTLINKART｜WE NEED MONEY NOT ART｜ Ars Electronica | FACT | MAAP |

On September 10, I will give a presentation on  the archive of Ars Electronica and basis wien and their cooperation project for the development of a new database suited to represent new media art projects.

http://www.kulturpool.at/