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The Lido Opens WiFi Gates for the Venice Film Festival

 

FREE WI-FI ACCESS ON THE LIDO

The Biennale and the City of Venice announce an important agreement to allow the public, the journalists and the operators of the Venice International Film Festival on the Lido free access to the Wi-Fi connection, through the broadband municipal network of the City of Venice, the development of which will be completed by Venis Spa on the island of the Lido in time for the inauguration of the Venice Film Festival.

It is not until a paragraph like this do you begin to realise just how fast some European countries have been developing, compared to others. Whereas in Manchester (U.K.) the virtual network covers the entire city centre, and a free access to the Internet is accepted as a norm and taken for granted, in Italy the development of the web access seems to be lagging behind so much that such a ‘natural’ development deserves a special mention.

No, I’m not having a laugh, but merely making a point. At the same time, this is a curious point to observe. I wonder if this could be the best illustration of the chasm between the new arts and the old arts, between the future-oriented, classic-defying FutureEverything and Manchester International Festival and the classy (too classy, perhaps) Venice Film Festival. The former have acquired access to the Internet and diverse other things, the latter is only just providing the artistic public with one of pre-requisites of modern-day communication and success.

It’s not a question of the old keeping abreast with the new; it’s the question of the old retaining its ability and authority to inspire the new. And for that, the old has to have access to, and the knowledge of, the language and lifestyle of the new.

Image courtesy of BrandChannel.

Author: Julia Shuvalova

Julia Shuvalova is the author of Los Cuadernos de Julia blog. She is an author of several books, a translator, and a Foreign Languages tutor. She lives and works in Moscow, Russia.

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