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The emergence of the internet and other information technologies gave birth to new social and communicative activities. Cheap, decentralized and horizontal communication channels have been exploited by a wide spectrum of actors from antiglobalization activists and users of file-sharing networks to creative commons licensees and locative guerilla artists. As new media technologies have triggered various forms of activities, the New Left hopes about emancipatory social agency have also been resuscitated. In spite of the undeniable democratic potential inscribed in new information and communication technologies, there seems to be little agreement as to what consequences new media bring on existing structures of cultural, economic and political power.
RE:ACTIVISM:
RE-DRAWING THE BOUNDARIES OF ACTIVISM IN A NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
Budapest, October 14-15, 2005
http://www.re-activism.net
PANELS AND CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS
1 - Political economy of peer production networks
Panel leader: Yochai Benkler (Yale Law School)
Panel participants: Magnus Bergquist (Göteborg University), Jimmy Wales
(Wikipedia.org), Felix Stadler (openflows.org)
2 - Digitalized memory: new forms of archiving and journalism
Panel leader: Rick Prelinger (Prelinger Archives)
Panel participants: Barbie Zelizer (Annenberg School for Communication),
Heidi Karst (The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of
Conscience)
3 - Digital culture jamming
Panel leader: Kembrew McLeod (University of Iowa)
Panel participants: Andy Bichlbaum (rtmark.org), Marcell Mars (Multimedia
Institute, Croatia), Sebastian Luetgert (textz.com / piratecinema.org),
Nalini P. Kotamraju (University of California at Berkeley), Petko Dourmana
(InterSpace Media Art Center, Bulgaria)
4 - State intervention and regulatory issues in the Information Age
Panel leaders: Henry Perritt (Chicago-Kent College of Law), Jonathan
Zittrain (Berkman Center for Internet & Society)
Panel participants: Martin Cloonan (University of Glasgow), Milton Mueller
(Syracuse University, School of Information Studies), William Drake (UN
Working Group on Internet Governance)
5 - New media and global civil society
Panel leaders: Douglas Kellner (UCLA), Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago)
Panel participants: Richard Barbrook (School of Media, Arts & Design,
University of Westminster), Zsolt Boda (Institute of Political Science,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Dominique Cardon (Ecole des hautes études
en sciences sociales)
6 - New media activism and the urban fabric
Panel leader: Laura Forlano (NYC Wireless)
Panel participants: Giles Lane (Proboscis.org), Michael Keith (Boston
College)
7 - Civic uses of new media technologies
Panel leaders: Joanne Richardson (subsol.c3.hu & D Media, Romania),
Nicholas Jankowski (University of Nijmegen, Netherlands)
Panel participants: Vámosi Gyula (Roma Information Project), Christian
Sandvig (University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign)
8 - New media and democratic elections
Panel leader: Michael X Delli Carpini (Annenberg School for Communication)
Panel participants: Alexander H. Trechsel (European University Institute),
Wainer Lusoli (University of Salford), Allen Gunn (Aspiration Tech),
Gianpietro Mazzoleni (University of Milan), Alain Touraine (CADIS/EHESS)
OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM
On the first day, we gather to discuss the new dynamics of culture
production. Digital networks allow the large scale cooperation of
individuals with diverse motivational backgrounds. This cooperation often
results in globally competitive ideas, (software) products, (social)
services. The productive activities of ad-hoc activist or expert networks
on the Net can best be theorised by a new approach in political economy
exploring the structure and dynamics of peer production networks. Since
the emergence of peer networks transforms the established institutions of
the production of memory and cultural canon, a panel session will be
devoted to new forms of grassroot journalism and open archiving. Another
important challenge for the status quo of culture production is the fast
development of digital techniques allowing new forms for remix and
detournement, in a word, culture jamming. Finally, a special panel will
explore how various social, economic, and legal agents of regulation in a
post-Westphalian world order can react to all these processes.
On the second day we take a step closer to groups and individuals calling
themselves explicitely ?activist? and we explore the various forms of
local and global activism in the context of new media. Cheap and
decentralized communication channels have fertilized new forms of activist
practices through which social movements and civic action groups have
organized themselves. The emergence and operation of world large
anti-globalization activist networks is the most evident example of new
media triggered activism. Maybe less manifest, still very important, is
the urban guerilla activism enabled by the developing infrastructure of
locative media and wireless technologies. One of the panels will explore
how activists can turn, by the means of locative media, the urban fabric
into a battleground. One of our main aims is to establish a conceptual
framework that helps describing the civic uses of new media technologies,
the emergence of local civic engagement in the digital media landscape.
Finally, by exploring new media activism in the context of democratic
elections we can dive into the forces that change contemporary political
systems.
CALL FOR PARTICPATION
The aim of RE:activism conference is to bring together people with various
backgrounds, interests and projects immersed in the field of activism and
digital media. RE:activism will serve not only as an academic conference,
but as a large-scale social event enabling academics and practitioners,
eastern and western, European and North-American, groups and individuals,
to engage in communication and to establish further cooperation.
We invite academic participants to present papers and take part in round
table discussions with activists in one of the 8 panels. We invite members
of activist groups of all kinds (from the smallest DIY community to
transnational movements) and artists working with new media technologies
to present their projects connected to any of the 8 conference panels and
to take part in round table discussions with academics.
TYPES OF SUBMISSION
- Academic paper (750 words). Single or multi-author submissions of a
single paper. Participants are expected to submit full papers by September
30, 2005.
- Aesthetic presentation (750 words & audiovisual material). Presentation
of old or new media based artistic projects or performances related to
activism.
- Presentation of activist projects (750 words). Presentation of activist
projects exploring activist uses of the Internet.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: June 14, 2005
Organizing institutions - Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
Central European University, Open Society Institute, Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania ? will contribute to the
travel and housing expenses of invited participants.
SUBMISSION via site http://www.re-activism.net or via email:
submissions@re-activism.net
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SONIC TAGS WORKSHOP
10-16 October 2005, Budapest
As an offshoot of the Re:Activism conference, Sonic Tags workshop aims to
do a bit of city-programming, filling dedicated parts of Budapest with
unusual sounds, words, atmospheres, through creating event triggered,
localized broadcasts of poetic instances. The corresponding workshop is
taking place in close cooperation between conference organiser MOKK,
independent media-development team Nextlab, and community radio Tilos,
with active artists, poets, architects, creative technologists and DJ's.
The one-week workshop is planned to embrace both
- hands on prototyping of simple broadcast technologies, as well as
- developing the poetics of micro-broadcasts,
- defining and recording event triggered messages, ending with the results
broadcasted over special parts of the city.
Since the workshop provides both creative writing exercises as well as
technical assistance, no prior knowledge of these are required.
Special guest participants of the workshop include Welsh sound poet, and
author of unusual literary city-guide Real Cardiff, Peter Finch, architect
of soft spaces, Usman Haque, and for the Hungarian feel, our folk-surreal
Lajos Parti Nagy (a long time favourite of Tilos radio listeners)
If you are ready to actively get to know and transform Budapest for a
couple of days, please send us an e-mail with your:
- statement of interest (5 sentences)
- short bio
- links to your work (if)
If selected for the workshop, we are able to cover only your accommodation
costs. As for travel, we are happy to provide you letters of invitation
for your local grants, you will also find a good number of cheap flights
to Budapest on the net (Wizzair, SkyEurope, AirBerlin....)
FOR MORE INFORMATION contact Balazs Bodo, at submissions@re-activism.net