It's been the toughest Memefest till now. For our mission of research, experiment and pushing the borders of socially responsible and responsive communication further, we have opened this years outline : Radical beauty. It was a months long, intense and also polemic discussion we had while creating the concept for it. In the end we came up with a definition that had three main points. Radical beauty should work on three main levels. On the level of content it should create: a poetic dialogue and action between the world and grassroots projects or processes that are existing or yet to be realized. On the level of process: it should empower relations between people. On the aesthetic level: it should evoke a strong feeling of affection or love. We have been using an excerpt from photographer David Lachapelle' inspiring and strong documentary: Rize as a example of Radical beauty.
During the process of this years festval it became clear that this outlines will be the toughest till now. It is a empirical fact that communication in the public sphere and especially visual communication very rarelly includes content, proces and aesthetics in a manner which does not instrumentalize peoples relations, or if we speak broader: the culture. In genneral there are not many examples of communication projects which can fit in to Radical beauty out there. Visual communication works mainly on the level of representation- even more if it is used in media which do not include a possibility of feedback and participation. Inspired by the text »Design is not enough«, Memefest researched this problemms already in 2004, when the central theme was Response- Ability. This should work towards creating of situations »where you talk to people who talk back. Situations where the ears are as important as the eyes, where the written word and the image get left behind in the conversation.« A hard task indeed, especially if we look at the predominant design education and culture which is based on a practice of decontextualisation and self-reference.
This years visual submissions had problems to match the complexity of communication in terms of including all three levels in a productive way. We know it is a hard task, but good design work needs to include all this levels. It needs to include the context in the concept of the visualisation. After this years festival proceess we ask ourselves: did we come close to the limits of visual communication with this years festival outlines? When does the power of visual communication end, because the communication problem that it should solve is just to big and to difficult?
Theory at Memefest is another thing. We did not receive many works, but those ones that we did, are good. However, we find that theoretical landscapes are of extreme importance to understand, interpret and communicate radical ideas that lead to a more ethical and emancipated collective subject. By theoretical exploration of various social practices that reflect 'radical beauty' we aimed at a more in depth understanding of the complex social dynamics. Practices that at first glance seem unusual or are considered just a happening of popular culture, were explored in terms of radical beauty. This is something we are happy about and in the future we will work even more towards interconnecting theory with visual communication. We also know we need to work on including a bigger »theoretical audience« in the future and we have plans on how to do it.
As always, the most complex and innovative communication works were submitted in the Beyond… category. Two works we like the most are »Oamos«, a search engine, created in Switzerland, that uses visual language and internet streaming technology in a way that gives on several levels much better results and user experience than Google. Next one is »Fluid Nexus« from Usa. The author describes the work as « a application for mobile phones that is primarily designed to enable activists and relief workers to send messages and data amongst themselves independent of a centralized mobile phone network. Instead of relying on external providers, people become carriers of data, with messages passing between phones in an ad-hoc manner. The project is partially a response to network views of reality that assume stabilized topologies, both spatially and temporally.« Great works!
In the end i'd like to thank everyone involved in the project. It was a different, but very valuable experience this year. Almost 70 submissions will receive written feedback from our jurors in all categories which produced almost 500 written comments that will provide feedback to the participants and help them to create even better works in the future! The evaluation process took several weeks and the pedagogical feedback is in our opinion the best award of all. We thank them indefinitely for their conscientious collaboration.
Check out the winners and honorable mentions, take the time, browse their work and participate in the discussions. Congratulations to everyone who submitted works!
We will take a few weeks brake and after the summer we'll let you know about our next steps. Have a great summer.
Memefest collective 20.6.2008
Visual arts
Visual arts - static:
Undergraduate winner:
Title: the welcome mat
Country: AU
Faculty: RMIT University/Communication Design (Honours)/The Works
Honorable mentions:
Title: Serenity
Country: AE
Faculty: School of Architecture and Design American University of Sharjah
Title: INDIVIDUAL BEAUTY
Country: AU
Faculty: RMIT University/Applied Communnication/ Bachelor of Design, Communication Design, Honours
Title: From the Midnight Artists, with love.
Country: AU
Faculty: RMIT, Bachelor of Design (Communication Designer)(Honours)
Postgraduate winner: No award was given!
Visual arts - moving:
Undergraduate winner: No award was given!
Postgraduate winner: No award was given!
Visual arts - Web site /interactive.:
Undergraduate winner: No award was given!
Postgraduate winner: No award was given!
Communication studies
Undergraduate winner:
Title: RADIKALNA LEPOTA
Country: SI
Faculty: Univerza v Ljubljani/Fakulteta za družbene vede/Komunikologija-medijske in komunikacijske študije
Postgraduate winner: No award was given!
Sociology
Undergraduate winner:
Title: Radical beauty - constructing discourse on new negritude.
Country: SI
Faculty: University of Ljubljana/Faculty of Social Sciences/Cultural Studies
Postgraduate winner:
Title: Zdravljenje ženskosti – Uravnovešanje energij
Country: SI
Faculty: /
Category Beyond...
Highest rated works are:
Title: Oamos
Country: CH
Faculty: 2000-2003 University of Art and Design, HGK Zürich Switzerland, \"New Media\" Department 1995-1999 University of Art and Design, HGK Basel Switzerland, \"Installation\" Department
Title: Fluid Nexus
Country: US
Faculty: /
Title: Is EU(rope) everywhere? An ongoing photo project with volunteer eurosignspotters
Country: BE
Faculty: University of Helsinki, Faculty of Political Science
Author: Mareike
Date:27.6.2008 - 12:41 CET
Comment:
Congratulations Memefest, it is a pleasure too see this works and to know that someone is out there working hard on radical communication. Respect!
Author: Simon
Date:26.6.2008 - 11:46 CET
Comment:
Bravo!
Selection of work submitted during the festivals years.
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