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29.6.2009 - 01:00 |
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Life INC. |
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Douglas Rushkoff speaks about his new book, alternative business and currency models and again makes a lucid analysis of what's going on and on what should we focus on in order to change things for the better. Great stuff!! |
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10.6.2009 - 16:12 |
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Cultured Graphic Hygiene |
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Dear all,
friend Memefest and Poper Studio collaborator Jason Grant from design studio Inkahoots in Brisbane has just published this article on Design Observer:
I think you might be interested in reading it. I would also like to encourage you to comment and promote this to your networks.
A bunch of voices supporting the idea of engaged design would be excellent in such a mainstream forum.
Take care, Oliver
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Tags: Design_observer design Vaan_Toorn
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29.4.2009 - 21:39 |
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Next round of discussion |
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This email was sent to the international Memefest organizational team.
Hello all,
i know, it took me a long, long time to write this. So here is a sort of synopsis of what we have discussed so far. In many cases we already made a decision, some things need still some more discussions. All in all quite some changes will happen for Memefest, as it looks now and this is good. Besides conceptual issues we need to find ways to organize, so i pointed out at the end of the document things that should be done next. I hope you will find time and energy to do the next round. :)
After this, i believe, we can work faster in smaller groups, depending on who is interested to work on what. Looking very much forward to your thoughts.
+++++++++++++++++++
I. As for the concept:
1. I think that we should get rid of the disciplines sociology, communications studies and visual arts. Instead we should have
a) theory
b) visual arts practice
c) Beyond… category
Here we agree in principle. Some of you had problems with Beyond… which is not by its name and concept totally clear. Shoaib stressed that the names of categories should reinforce the critical/counter culture /social cause dimension of the festival. This sounds like a great idea! Kernow and Roderick, stressed that “arts” is a problematic word, so maybe we should speak about designed message (Roddy) or visual communication practice instead ? I suggest visual communication practice.
Theory is another issue. As Nikola said theory and for exmpl. sociology is not the same. Rok had a good suggestion: “critical writing”.
So, this are suggestion (c is instead of Beyond..):
a) Visual communication practice
b) Critical writing
c) Participatory /experimental communication
2. We should get rid of the »student only« part of the festival. We should open it up for everyone. No age limitation.In general the main question here is: how can we make the educational part of Memefest stronger?
Most of us agree that this is good. Shoaib stressed that Memefest should be still focused on students, though. I believe that opening Memefest up to everyone does not exclude students. Students and Universities can still participate and it will be up to them how strong the students part will be in comparison to non-students.v
Memefest grew mainly from the students and University community and working with this communities is something that we should continue to work on strongly.
The Beyond… category focused on non-student was always very successful. Since it was a more open ended concept we received some very good works. It is for sure that there is a big demand and interest for Memefest like activities in the non-student community. Professionals for example don’t have many other media (besides coopted versions of “socially responsible” stuff at advertising and design festivals) to show their work.
I also think that if we would manage to do summer camps, a mixture of educators, professionals and students would be great. I did that already with another project and it was a combination where really everyone learned from everyone in a more open manner than if we would remain in the sphere of University only.
The sphere of the University, however, should be used productively. Russel suggested a proved model, with a project he is working with. What i am saying is, we should use this institutions if we could get support from them.
A gathering of the international Memefest community would be a strong thing also for the local community of the place of gathering, so we should also consider (besides of whats possible) to think which environment that would need such a impact.
Another option would be to divide Memefest (on line “competition”) in to a student and non-student part. But i am not sure this would bring any good results besides dividing the radical communication pool from the institutional perspective. Ana and Rok are in favour of such a distinction. One argument is that this would make younger students more confident in participating. What is your opinion on this?
2a Competition and awards
There is a prevailing argument that Memefest should not be a competition. Although Memefest is light years away from the prevailing festivals, competitions, biennials etc it still gives awards to the one’s who seem to be the best ones. There has been a suggestion of a curatorial approach by Jason, but the concept of this needs to be developed yet. I think we could have a curatorial approach combined with public vote.
3. The web site needs to be reworked in to a more social medium. The problem is that participants at Memefest did not get enough in touch with each other. The community building part of the web site should be stronger.
Here we all agree. The web site needs to be reworked and has to be more of a community tool than it is now. We can use our experiences from Memefest and other projects and a bunch of new technological solution that have been invented in the past years. A concrete concept for the web site can be made after we finish the overall Memefest concept discussion.
Ana, for example, stressed a important point: the English web site would need more regular content, blog writing etc…
Is anyone interested to contribute to this part? Or do you have any other ideas how to solve this problem?
Also, Martha Patricia pointed out that some of the current works which are published in the gallery are not matching the ethical standards of Memefest, suggesting the galleries should be reviewed.
II. The organisational/action part
Memefest is a big project and to work on it every year means really a substantial input of time and energy. Without collaboration of a wider community the project can not be done properly and even more important, without such a collaboration it makes no sense to work on Memefest for me. Here i have a simple question. How are you interested to collaborate with Memefest in the future? In what way? How much time could you or would you like contribute?
Many of you have answered but also many did not. I am asking again for your answer. This information is vital in order to strategize next steps, which should be planned according to what is possible to do.
How to go off-line? In the past Memefest went off line in organizing street communications campaigns- like for example in Belgrade and Ljubljana, organizing round tables, discussions, lectures, screenings, exhibitions, workshops and printing a publication- like in Slovenia, Brazil and Colombia. To go off –line and not work only on the net is very important. What can be done here?
We all agree that face to face meetings are necessary and that we all would like to spent time together in real. Two main ideas came up.
a workshop/conference/summer camp or similar gathering
production of publications/books/readers
Here it is obvious, that we are not in favor of regular conferences as we know them from academia and business but we are looking for more radical forms of explorations, collaboration and fun.
The obvious problem is money.
Some of you like Andreja, Roderick have offered time for grand writing, and i know there is more of us who would be willing to do this.
I suggest that we start looking for concrete funding possibilities like for example:
1. National funding
2. EU funding
3. International funding for collaboration for example EU and Australia or EU and Colombia or EU and Brasil
4. University funding
A reconceptualisation is also needed in the operations of the Memefest local Centers: Colombia, Brasil, Australia and Balkan. What has been achieved in the past is great, but considering the specific local conditions i am sure we should in depth discuss conceptual and organisational matters regarding the local Memefest nodes.For now the question is : what is the current situation? What are the local problems? How do you see the future of Memefest local centers?
A decentralized network structure is the best way to function. The practice in the past shows that the centers need to get more interconnected, through this establishing a stronger economy of sharing.The current situation with the local centers is this:
Several Memefest local chapters have been evolving in the past years. However remaining them to work for a longer period of time seems to be difficult.
Memefest balkan- set up by Jaša, is currently not operating
Memefest Australia- set up by Zoe, is currently not operating
Memefest Colombia, set originally by Claudia, now Esteban is working , but as he wrote, it’s not easy.
Memefest Brasil- set up by Paulo Hartmann is alive but in 2008 it started to get more and more difficult to operate.
We are discussing with Shoaib, about establishing a local center in UAE/Shajrah.
Frederic wrote about a posibility of starting a center in Montreal.
The hub, based in Slovenia is alive and working.
I suggest that people from the nodes or potential new notes say what 's their perspective on the current local situation and global collaboration , now and future.
Another thing I like to point out is the on-line educational impact.
For now , participants have valued the written feedback very much. This was limited for those who were short listed in the competition. I believe that this feedback should be made public, so everyone can learn from it. I also believe that this feedback would be stronger if jurors or from now on “curators” would speak in to a web cam. This would than be automatically recorded and posted on the web site as comments to the work. Much more feedback in quantity could be given and the quality might be better too, because people would get a more intense experience. What do you think about that?
Concept/Manifesto
Nikola, and some others suggested a new written conceptual document or manifesto. I think this is very much needed, so let's do it.
*****************************
Ok, this is it. Besides commenting the above, we need to organize, therefore please let us know the following, so we could start work on concrete things. Note this is still work on the reorganization and reconceptualization, not on the next event:
Who is interested in working on :
1. Written concept/manifesto
2. Web site : concept, architecture/design, writing, code
3. Grant research/writing
4. Network building, nurturing
5. Organizing
Take care, Oliver
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28.3.2009 - 04:54 |
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Time for fresh ideas and new tactics |
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It's been seven years since we started. Or almost eight by now. It's pretty crazy what happened in this time. Memefest grew from a one man band project, organised with a old computer, a slow telephone Internet connection in a 2x2 square meter room in Ljubljana to a international radical communication network with collaborations from more than 60 (sixty!) Countries.
After all this years many things have changed and i feel, we need to re conceptualise parts of the project.
Bellow is an email i have sent to the inner Memefest network of cca 30 people from around the world. As you see, the dialogue of change begins.
If you are interested to contribute in any way, let us know!
Oliver
Ps: photo is taken from the Memefest 2008 poster photo shooting in Barcelona
Dear all,
It's been a while since we had any discussions. We were in touch during and after Memefest 2008 ended, in June. At that time, before the much needed summer break, i already told you that i think Memefest needs some changes.
Iam writing this to you, because you all have been, in one way or another, strongly involved in Memefest in the past years. Some of you worked in the organisation of the project, some of you as Jury members through many years, some of you helped with getting the word about Memefest around and some of you participated and helped in the discussions we have had.
I will ask you for your opinion and your feedback will shape the strategy of Memefest's future in a very important way.
You all know that Memefest started as a small initiative in Ljubljana and during the course of the past seven years it grew to the biggest project of its kind, being able to establish a international grassroots network of like minded collaborators and much more. It became a important media activist platform, and it got it's place within institutional Academia- several Universities recognised the project and teachers are every year working on the festival outlines with their students.
We always were able to open very relevant questions and themes on which the international community reflected and created theory and practice. The most valuable part of Memefest is probably it's educational dimension and here we were able to go beyond the official academic institutions, which i think is very important.
The project started in 2002. The situation was pretty different then. Internet was not what it is today. Certain communication practices that Memefest helped to popularize were pretty unknown, especially in some parts of the world, and if Memefest offered a medium for professional AND amateur (radical) media production in the beginning of the project, today many other web based platforms like Youtube and other platforms exist and are used in our everyday lives. Although this platforms are not focused in critical/subversive/radical communications practices, they provide people with a chance to submit and broadcast.
This is only one perspective of the new conditions of course. The other one is a different on-line ethic than in the begging of the new millennium. I think that participating in radical initiatives is for the majority of the people less exciting as it was back than. The Internet gift economy that helped to spread the meme about Memefest has become narrowed to more particular interests and is not that much of a »common« when it comes to radical initiatives, unless one is particularly interested in a topic or project/initiative. Years ago it seemed important to participate and help as much as possible the different project popping up in the data sphere, now this is not the case anymore.
When manipulations of symbols provided a cognitive and practical door and helped people to understand various hidden ideologies and at the same time helped to subvert them , today this manipulation of symbols (like for example in Culture Jamming) has become a after work free time sport- proof for this is the millions images of »jammed« images floating through the Internet. This is a result of technological tools that become available to everyone as well as the widespread of a »culture jamming culture« that Memefest helped to popularise widely.
The effect of this is on the negative side – the majority of this images are communication-wise very week. The popular hobby like engagement with symbol manipulation caused also depolitisation of this communication approaches, because engagement with images , without deeper understanding of communication and without any concept, leaves the potential power of the image on the blank surface and does not cause any critical reflection on the side of the producer as well as on the side of the receptor.
Theory is another story. The communities that produce strong theory are mostly tied to academia and without giving people the chance to get academic points, they need for their career, participation seems less interesting. Of course there are people outside the academic institution that write strong theory, but we somehow did not succeed enough to get them involved.
I strongly believe that the general Memefest' concept is very relevant and strong, but changes need to be made in order to effect fully educate, nurture and communicate communications approaches, tools, ideas and concepts that are radically needed in our times.
I worked very hard on the project every year and i somehow feel that, especially in the last year, i did not had the time or chance to reflect on it properly. Now this is something i want to do and iam asking you for your opinion and help, because several changes need to be made and if Memefest wants to continue it must open a new chapter in order to remain relevant. The times and conditions in the media /communications sphere have changed, and the perception of radical engagement (especially on the internet) has changed too. That's why i think Memefest needs to be rethought and reconceptualised- in it's concept and organisational dynamics/structure.
There are two main things i'd like to discuss with you. One is the content/concept part of the project and one is the organisational/action part of the project.
Lot of this are things that i have discussed with some of you in the past. Here are the main points. Here i am asking you for your opinion on them. Latter, if you are interested, we can discuss all of them in more detail. Bellow are some thoughts and questions. After that there is a suggestion on the next steps of the project. I am asking you to reply with emails to everyone this email has been sent to.
I. As for the concept:
1. I think that we should get rid of the disciplines sociology, communications studies and visual arts. Instead we should have
a) theory
b) visual arts practice
c) Beyond… category
2. We should get rid of the »student only« part of the festival. We should open it up for everyone. No age limitation.In general the main question here is: how can we make the educational part of Memefest stronger?
3. The web site needs to be reworked in to a more social medium. The problem is that participants at Memefest did not get enough in touch with each other. The community building part of the web site should be stronger.
II. The organisational/action part
Memefest is a big project and to work on it every year means really a substantial input of time and energy. Without collaboration of a wider community the project can not be done properly and even more important, without such a collaboration it makes no sense to work on Memefest for me.
Here i have a simple question. How are you interested to collaborate with Memefest in the future? In what way? How much time could you or would you like contribute?
A reconceptualisation is also needed in the operations of the Memefest local Centers: Colombia, Brasil, Australia and Balkan. What has been achieved in the past is great, but considering the specific local conditions iam sure we should in depth discuss conceptual and organisational matters regarding the local Memefest nodes.For now the question is : what is the current situation? What are the local problems? How do you see the future of Memefest local centers? This question in particular is very much directed towards the ones who run or are part of the Memefest local teams.
How to go off-line?
In the past Memefest went off line in organising street communications campaigns- like for example in Belgrade and Ljubljana, organising round tables, discussions, lectures, screenings, exhibitions, workshops and printing a publication- like in Slovenia, Brasil and Colombia. To go off –line and not work only on the net is very important. What can be done here?
So, this are the main thoughts. What should we do this year?
The next question is: considering the above- do you think we should start immediately making Memefest 2009 festival, or should we first start discussing and work on the reconceptualised project after we have discussed this in depth?
I somehow lean towards the latter. For the discussion we could establish a online discussion platform, which would make things easier than sending emails back and forth and searching for past discussions in mail inbox.
The generally reconceptualisation will take some time. A intense discussion could bring us in cca 6 weeks to good conclusions.
This is it for now. I wish you all a good, healthy and happy new year!! I hope you will find the energy and interest to answer this email and continue to collaborate on Memefest.
Cheers, Oliver |
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10.12.2008 - 03:08 |
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Four Minutes to Midnight: Issue Ten |
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The tenth issue of Four Minutes to Midnight explores the idea of radical beauty (a theme inspired from this year’s Memefest) interpreted through the words and images of over 30 artists. Our ‘anniversary’ issue is the thickest (and prettiest) one yet, clocking in at a tidy 180 pages.
Some of my personal favourites among the diverse work featured in the issue include a selection of poetry from American ‘outsider’ poet F.A. Nettelbeck, two collaborations between myself and Montreal photographer Dita Kubin, a series of beautiful, seductive portraits painted by Kevin Ledo, and the surreal illustrations from my former student Ilinca Balaban.
I’m also incredibly proud of this issue’s fugue which in itself pulls together fragments from over 20 artists and writers. John and I worked incredibly hard to compose what we feel to be the best expression yet of the core ideas that started this project years ago, hanging out in his basement apartment, fuming at the world…
You can download the zine here.
Kevin |
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| Selection of works submitted during the festivals years. |
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