| Eric Kluitenberg on Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:48:56 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Amsterdam Tactical Media Lab @ Imagine IC |
A N N O U N C E M E N T Next 5 Minutes 4: A Temporary Media Laboratory for Tactical Media @ Imagine IC in Amsterdam Southeast September 12 - 22, 2002 Opening Program: Thursday September 12 18.00 hrs Imagine IC - Bijlmerplein 1006 - 1008 Amsterdam Next 5 Minutes website: http://www.n5m.org Website Imagine IC http://www.imagineic.nl Imagine IC, the new centre for the visual representation of migration and cultures, is the location for a temporary public media laboratory from September 12th till 22nd. Open at all times to the wider audience, artists, campaigners, local and international media makers and activists will develop and discuss their work for 10 days, hold workshops with local media groups, present examples, realise live media programs on-line and via radio and tv, and execute various projects. This Tactical Media Laboratory (short: TML) will be the first of an international series of TMLs, organised in various cities, and on different continents. The key-concept "tactical media" originates from a series of infamous conferences and festivals that have been organised in Amsterdam since 1993 under the title Next 5 Minutes. Tactical media deals with the meeting point of art, media, and social and political questions. After three earlier editions the need is felt for a new approach. The purpose of the international series of TMLs is to investigate the role of media in contemporary cultural and political life, each time from within a new local context and perspective. At the heart of our concern is the question who is given a voice in the contemporary media landscape, and which voices are left out. How can the individual as well as an as diverse as possible representation of cultural and political groups make their own voice be heard by media? The Amsterdam TML will focus on the relationship between media and migrant cultures. Workshops and presentations will run continuously around themes such as: Virtual Shelter, net.radio and Home-Land Connections, GenderChangers: Women and Technology, Migration and Illegality, Wireless Media, and the Power of Personal Testimony. The TML is the joint effort of a large number of artists and media groups, amongst others: ambient tv, ASCII, De Balie, Harwood, dine.org, Waag Society, RAZO, NYU Center for Media, Culture and History, Gender Changers Academy, expertbase.net, ghetto.ru, Paradox, Salto, and many more. After Amsterdam the series of TMLs will be continued in New York, Delhi, Sydney, Cluj, Moscow, Berlin, Barcelona, in Latin America, and in other cities. The results of this series will be brought together in a concluding festival that is organised in Amsterdam in the end of May 2003. Web Journal: More information about the background of next 5 Minutes may be found on the web site: http://www.n5m.org At this location a web journal will be launched in the first week of September that will contain reports, daily programs of the TML, pictures, audio and video, as well as essays and other materials. Overview of Main Themes of the Amsterdam Tactical Media Laboratory: Virtual Shelter In a world of nation states, to be, for whatever reason, without a state, often means to be forgotten, or worse. For those who have always known the security and protection afforded by citizenship it is hard to imagine the vulnerability and helplessness of the stateless person, the refugee. These are the brute facts behind the initiative in which a group of refugees will be working on a long term project with Imagine IC, Paradox, and the Amsterdam Tactical Media Lab (a team of developers, artists and other experts) to develop the website: the 'Virtual Shelter' online environment for refugees. We imagine Virtual Shelter as a space in which refugees can both network together privately, access vital information and, on a more symbolic level, become a space for personal testimony, the commemoration of the past and the imagination of other futures. net.radio and Homeland Connections In co-operation with RAZO, the radio and television organisation of Amsterdam Southeast, a workshop is organised around the combination of internet and radio. Especially in a district like Amsterdam Southeast, where so many migrant cultures live next to each other, the desire is abundant to exchange signals with the home land directly and without outside interference.. The combination of internet and radio offers unique opportunities to do just that. The workshop will be an exploration of this fascinating area, and will be supervised by a number of experienced international pioneers of the new net based media. Migration and illegality Tactical media have always been trying to give a voice to the voiceless and to make things visible that are left unseen by mainstream media. In the case of illegality this approach obviously gives rise to certain problems. Most illegal people prefer to remain 'invisible', out of fear of being detected by the authorities. But this makes it very difficult for them to get their story across. Are there ways in which tactical media can help to solve this problem? And what can we do against the increasing tendency to categorise and register people, culminating recently in the Schengen Information System, a huge database in Strasbourg containing files on illegal immigrants? A couple of presentations and a debate will deal with these questions. Wireless Networks Since the adoption of wireless technology to access the internet, and to set up separate wireless networks for specific communities, seems to be taking a high flight soon, this is a good moment to ponder the possibilities for tactical media makers, and to consider the consequences for the media landscape in general. During the Amsterdam TML several tactical implementations of wireless technology will be experimented with. There will be hands-on workshops (how to build your own antenna) and discussions about the risks (legal and otherwise) of open access-points. If we want to build something more lasting than the once famous but now derelict Amsterdam Digital City, we should make a proper assessment of the dangers and opportunities which lie ahead of us. GenderChangers: Women and Technology The GenderChangers Academy will present a series of workshops during the TML aimed at providing hands-on training for women interested in media technology. These workshops will include sessions on recording and streaming audio and video, on DJing and VJing, and on computer hardware and building your own PC from parts. http://www.genderchangers.org Expertbase Expertbase is a site for people with extraordinary skills. It's a site for people, who are not found in any commercial or official databases. A site for people, who are being ignored by vulgar head-hunters and usually excluded from the labour market -- either because of their residence permit status or because of their origins, but in the last instance because of their unique abilities and singular qualifications. Expertbase is a site for people, who have gained expert knowledge on any field and who are willing to share these experiences with others. A data base can neither give people their dignity, nor a job. The expert base is an experiment, currently in the investigation phase and in future it will perhaps be a mirror of the multi-faceted, multi-lingual and international co-operation around work and migration. An example of networks and cross-border initiatives. http://www.expertbase.net/ __________________ General information about Next 5 Minutes: http://www.n5m..org e-mail: [email protected] (attn. Derek Holzer) Office: De Balie - Centre for Culture and Politics Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10 1017 RR Amsterdam http://www.balie.nl # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]