My husband and I spend part of our year in Europe, mostly in Belgium, but travel out to friends in Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland and England. For awhile, this bicontinental-ness felt a little schizophrenic, in a number of areas but not the least artistically. Europe just thinks and does art differently than the U.S. It's not an either/or thing. I'm not a Europhile, but I appreciate the adventures each takes in its artistic journey.
Anyhow, it seems to me that Europe is generally more interested in feeling futuristic. Being much older, it dialogs with its past but in a much different way than we do. Everything screams about the future.
Take music, for instance. Rock and roll is here to stay in America but Europe is saturated with electronic music. Walk into any high street store and you are bound to hear the airwaves pumping techno or house, hip-hop and often some more adventurous electronic stuff. Of course clubbing is everywhere, but the music in the air is full of knobs, tweaks, computers, and digital imagery. Graphic design follows--pushing boundaries and asking future questions through technology and design.
Every November, there is a festival in Brussels called Cimatics AV, an unusual combination of VJing, electronic performance, designers, musicians--generally avant-garde stuff--but trying to create this dialog in the electronic realm about design. It's asking those questions about the future.
