[iDC] The Social Event Machine

[t]

I want to add as an example brazilian midiatatica.org 
<http://www.midiatatica.org>'s work, group from which I am part. we 
started as a group organizing a festival called midia tatica brasil (03) 
wanting to converse with the concept of tactical media from a less 
european, north-american perspective. we have actually been experiencing 
this subtle resistance since dictadure times and therefore we invited 
groups to 'occupy' an arts space with their works. - brazilian indymedia 
opened a radio on the first day. we were later sued because of this and 
simply did not attend anatel's call -.

this festival ended up on a project called autolabs - three media 
production telecenters in free software with aimed at resisting our 
current dictatory mediaspace scenario while turning into tangible 
educational processes the ideas we were pursuing, canibalizing current 
media practices. well this has today emerged into national public 
politics with projects such as pontos de cultura (ministry of culture) 
and gesac (ministry of communication) absorbing many colleagues. no, we 
do not see this as a contradiction. at a recent meeting they described 
how it can be seen from a hacker's perspective. and indeed they do radio 
workshops from inside a governamental project, teaching civil 
disobedience, talking about gender, open licenses and so on. the 
argument is that there are far too many empty spaces to occupy, and the 
occupation logics are vivid from landless movement, to carnival and 
midiatatica.org's now national festivals (themes are now set up 
collectively through discussion lists), as long as we can remain 
critical about the real struggles at stake, and the final outcomes such 
as an exponential growth of free media practicioners.

in brazil, education and telecenters are a reality, cognitive processes 
and collective spaces merge,
with computer/technology reclying, low tech and  bio/rural activism as 
the leading media activism. radio, tv, print material and mobile phones 
are also a reality. and we are not even talking about art, considering 
art as part of everydaylife, under our festive model..

just a quick remark about Open Congress. I do not understand how come a 
congress that wants to discuss free software produce proprietary streams 
(real player). unfortunately it is not acessible for me.. subject and 
objects are not too dissociated?

xt


Trebor Scholz escreveu:

>Hell, no. It¹s not a question of paper versus network. The book is not
>the problem. They will stick around. Google scans books to make them
>available for cheap reprint later. Texts can, of course, be perfectly
>dialogical. I see writing as dialogue. We talk to other writers¹ printed
>work. We speak with others in situations like this. But maybe somebody
>here can shed light on the value of reading a lengthy paper to the tune
>of an audience that sinks into deep-seated event slumber. We are not
>just talking mechanics here. A sitting speaker hidden behind a laptop
>speaking to a group that is arranged in orderly rows surely shapes
>interaction. It¹s hilarious that even the most progressive post-graduate
>programs sometimes insist on the hierarchical peeps-and-master,
>church-like room set-up. It shapes discussion. I am not talking about DJ
>Spooky stage moves (he thinks a lot about that stuff). Formats influence
>content. Brian¹s suggestion of a real-time networked discussion of a
>specific piece (followed by an embodied meeting) sounds worth giving it
>a go. But there is no one-fits-all solution. Indubitably there are, make
>no mistake about it, fantastic public intellectuals who are magnificent!
>Likewise, I see no danger of keynotes or paper reading enthusiasts dying
>out anytime soon. We are talking about alternatives, not a
>Potemkin-style takeover. Adam brings up a good point. It would indeed be
>useful to speak to concrete examples. Do you have particularly inspiring
>examples? Anybody? I was also at the Tate event that Adam mentioned and
>agree that sometimes a less ambitious approach to scale would result in
>a more intensive exchange. The small work groups at Open Congress
>(<http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/open_congress/>)
>worked best in my opinion.
>
>I would also like to point to Phil Agre¹s accounts:
>³Notes on organizing conferences²
><http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/organizing.html> 
>
>and a quick Google search popped up this: 
><http://www.planetfriendly.net/promote.html>
>
>I cleaned up the ³glaring² English of my last post a bit and posted it
>to my blog:
><http://collectivate.net/journalisms/2006/2/1/the-social-event-machine.
>html> 
>
>Do you know of other texts on the topic?
>
>best,
>Trebor
>
>
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