COMMENTS

"Franca, this is an inspiring project, beautiful insurrection! Will go and read more on your website now! How to experience Zona Franca soon! Vida"

"Excellent piece, I would love to see it in Havana, specially during the 12 art biennale."

"Dear Darren, Tom, Ricardo;

Thank you very much for your recognition and
valuable comments...

Since we started implementing the project in June 2014, I am questioning myself a lot about how to maintain the "organicity" of the project...The Ramadan dinners organised by Anti-Capitalist Muslims in Taxim had arise from a true reflex, an immediate and synchronized action for unity against the government`s discriminatory politics. This is why it is un-reproducible; strong, sincere and intimate.

However, the dynamics of the Earth Table Malta is quite different. Although Malta is a hot-spot within the immigration problem of Europe, there is still a lack of reflex in terms of taking immediate action among the communities. Therefore, our preparation stage is also about the search for a collective impulse which could bring people around the table as "individuals" without pre-set agendas meanwhile avoiding Utopian or kitsch scenarios.

As I spent more time trying to built up this event by communicating with asylum seekers, activists, churches...etc (and also hours of self-reflections during my recovery after the accident) the original structure of the project seemed to be lacking of truth and intimacy. To be honest, I felt that my "intention" was a bit fake...Why? Because, I was taking too much things for granted and most importantly I was framing the participants as asylum seekers, locals...etc. I was ignoring the individual aspect; including mine. What was my real motivation, expectation while sitting around the table? Or, do I really, really crave for an intimate dialogue? Is it that easy? What am I looking for in this experience? Am I open for all types of discussion that might arise? I mean seriously; me, as the petite bourgeois, how much willing to get out of my comfort zone? In the end, is this project really capable of creating an intimate content rather then creating a pseudo image?

On the other hand,I still believe that sharing a meal together is a very strong archetype for starting a dialogue between distant/alienated communities. It is also a reference for equality and inclusion. However, for an intimate dialogue, we need more than a spectacle... After making all the inner math I decided to change my approach. The documentation of the preparation process (meetings and discussions with the people who we invite or ask support for the table) has become as important as the final event. At this point, I am preparing two different material: a personal diary and a documentary of the current dialogues with audio, video and photographs as much as possible.
In addition to this, w also decided to change our approach to facilitation and moderation. We gave up the idea of cooking performance. It might happen in latter productions but for this event, we prefer to keep it as simple as possible. Instead, we decided to start with a sharing, a short memory or story which will be told by the volunteering participants but, our intention is to interfere as little as possible...

We will be documenting the final event as well; my main intention is to create a mix media work which combines both processes... We would be happy to share the final work with you...
"

"Dear curators Darren and Alana,

First, thanks for your review and for the good words. I couln't answer in the past weeks since all our energy went to the launch and promotion of the project. The platform is now public at http://www.sponsor-now.org . Sorry for the delay but on the other hand, I now have enough feedbacks from "sponsors" and "wealthy children" to answer correctly to your questions.

Most people who have visited the platform understand the satiric approach and approve it. The only hard critics we received where from people who found out about the project on social media, and didn't dig to understand further. These ones were scandalized by the idea that « fuckin rich kids » should be helped and might deserve our empathy. They didn't get the critic of our consumer society and prefered to keep the focus on economic poverty in the south, which I understand. But I prefer when we look at the big picture. Consumer society produces, at the same time, material poverty in the global south and relational poverty in the Western countries. Both phenomena have the same origin, so why struggles against poverty in the global south couldn't integrate this critic about relational poverty in the North? I think it's time to enlarge the debate and show that we all lose because of consumerism: citizens of the south, citizens of the north, and the environment.

Alana asks: How can you shift this from a symbolic culture jamming art work using humour and parody to a very real campaign that achieves the outcomes it claims? It's a good question. Since the project is launched, it has a good success on the web, at least its french version. Humour and parody play an important role in this success, especially among western youth. I doubt that those kids would participate on the platform if it would be presented as a real campaign. Since we call it « an online game», it's easier (or even the only way?) to convince them to create a wealthy child profile. Once they are matched with a sponsor, it mays not be a classical sponsorship, but it's a real intercultural experience. And from that, I think a consciousness can raise.

Do sponsors of the south understand the satirical side? It looks like most of them do get it, but they don't care whatever it's a fictional or real campaign. These binary categories seems to be more important for us in our western cultures. Sponsors are just happy to participate and to share their culture and their know-how. This said, I should make a quick survey soon to know exactly what is their perception.

Thanks again Darren and Alana for your relevent questions,
and let's keep in touch!

Julien
http://www.sponsor-now.org"

"Scott, Thank you for the comment. You pose a good question. What would be the outcome of constructing a dialogue between more politicized entities? That kind of speculative practice could definitely be applied to a conflict as a method to propose alternative narratives, explanations, and possible outcomes. Or, it could simply be a means to create space for an existing dialogue in as you describe "a less 'safe' environment"."

"hello,

thank you so much by the comments, all really thoughtful and useful for further improvements. I will refer to some comments you made in a general way, since I believe they are connected.

this project was the starting point of my journey investigating social networks and their walled gardens.

Even though I knew that digitally it had the potential of achieving higher audience, I opted through the path of print design. In "I have NOT read and agree to the terms of use" the simple change of media proves itself as a strong rethoric device. In this case, just using type was a direct response to how terms and conditions are designed. I considered alternatives such as creating more user friendly approaches (such as illustrated infographics) but I felt that type by itself would be interesting enough.

since my are of interest involves the paradox of corporate monopolies X participatory culture, DIY culture and remediation, my project evolved more interestingly in offline ways.

I made some online experiments such as http://www.walledgardens.org/. It didn't work as expected cause I made the participation process too complicated and didn't create supporting material to advertise the initiative. Others experiments were also postponed due the lack of technical skills, tight schedules in my Master program which didn't enable me to complete them in a satisfactory way.

In another development since my submission for memefest,(https://www.behance.net/gallery/21259663/Skim-Scan-Read-Copy-Rec-Live) I created a conceptual zine to discuss these complex subjects from our network society. Here, I introduced images and more complex visual techniques than in my newspaper format. Also I avoided to talk specifically about Facebook, Tumblr or any other social network. As Alex Jordan comments about the association with names being an advertising way to them, not citing them also gives a longer life to the publication, maybe in some years they may not exist anymore, while the discussion about corporations X individuals, privacy, surveillance, life editing, virtual x real, information overload will be even more relevant.

All the research to these projects gave me a good critical basis that now I am trying to share in ways that can lead to action. I confess it is a hard process between acknowledging an issue and acting to change it, but that is what I am trying to do with these projects. Not in a way of dictating manifestos of how the digital world should be, but stimulating reflection through the process of making familiar things unfamiliar.

My challenges still reside in technical skills (to create digital projects, for example) and economic ones (to create viable ways of spreading without relying in third part money).

Thank you again for the selection and insights. I would be really happy to collaborate with the Memefest community in further projects, if there is interest, you can find me on behance.net/cleberdecampos. "

"Dear Tom Liacas - I have Bohm and On Dialogue in hand and am devouring this little gem - Bohms thought are illuminating mine - "the elimination of competition in discourse" is the sound of my heartbeat. Thank you"

"Dear Tom Liacas - I have Bohm and On Dialogue in hand and am devouring this little gem - Bohms thought are illuminating mine - "the elimination of competition in discourse" is the sound of my heartbeat. Thank you"

"Hi Dr. Sadokierski,

Thank you for your kind words and critique!

I completely agree that my type treatment is limited. All of the quotes, while they represent the entire spectrum of this issue, are each given the same type treatment. That's a great point- the conversation could begin sooner for the reader if the type treatment had more variety, and corresponded to the two main sides of this issue. I will definitely make a revision of this poster that incorporates your advice.

As for the research, this project was a class assignment, and prompted us to review the online dialogue surrounding our chosen issue. We looked at online forums, social media platforms, etc. to analyze the quality of dialogue and conversation taking place. Therefore, all of the quotes are taken from various online sources in which a conversation was taking place.

Many thanks again for your critique. "

"How to portrait or capture the particular tone of people living in a North Icelandic village? Leaving the portrayed in rigid and silent framings, not able to explain themselves (verbally at least), might seem to be an odd way to go. During our first test shots we discovered how a flat angled camera pointing at the local’s choreographed moves lead to a perceptual mismatch since we somehow were looking at a real everyday scenery, and, at the same time, a vastly theatrical setting, emphasized even more by the tempo and the repetitions in the final film. Well, maybe it is due to this simple performative twist that some kind of authenticity nevertheless is able to find its way to the eyes of a viewer. Like proclaiming that this film is a staged documentary! But then again, which documentary isn’t staged? In any case we ended up with this ‘field report’: a sequence of portraits of the locals situated in their accustomed surroundings. Each of them is articulating their own person, not in the dimension of lingual communication, but simply through the similarities and differences that only the viewer is able to comprehend. So, dear Alana Hunt! Thank you so much for curating our film. My spirit was truly lifted with pure motivation when I read your richly written feedback on the intimacy that you’ve experienced while watching it. It was exactly that affect we had hoped to trigger with this choreographed way of communicating; a way beyond language.

Best wishes and lots of gratitude,
Troels Primdahl"

"Dear Alana, I want to take up your idea about taking out to the public and I am now exploring venues like the Sydney Opera House where there are many transient visitors and a mixed and disperse spectrum of people to engage with. And your idea of mixing the questers - that is fantastic. I am excited to spend more time with this idea and see who I can bring together to QUEST. The idea of divergent backgrounds/beliefs/perspectives holding a dialogue of Questions - wow.
Thank you - a wonderful gift for me to unravel.
"

"hi Tom
thanks for you feedback
yes the social and political framing of the selected texts... I suppose that since meme work across within and through a range of text and the types of intimates are very varied, a dictionary entry with a few redactions can reveal a political underbelly latent in all texts. then the opportunity for collaboration or contestation might occur better over banal texts whereas a heated contestation might ensue with very loaded and charred texts. I was thinking to involve audience or curator in the choice of texts.

However, this may all be moot because the extent of the preparation and expense and co-ordination of people to assist mean that i really needed to know much earlier about acceptance and then to work with the venue and tech people to solve some issues , so I am afraid, with such short notice that I will not be able to produce the proposal. I have tried to email the organiser but have had no response... not sure where to go from here?, cheers Jondi "

"Dear Kevin, thanks a lot for your stimulating words and constructive observations. The first time I exhibit this series; when I put it on the wall, I bump into the same problem – some of the stories/situations that were so clear to me before (when I was creating it), became a bit confusing, especially if you look at the whole series together. I realized that on some photos I’m trying to say too much and sometimes even different messages all at once. Also photos have different intensities and some stories are more elaborated than others, ex. death of a child or pedophilia are much heavier themes than the fact that also gay couples experience boredom. So, I’m thinking in the future I will work more on script, scenography and dramaturgy between the characters for every story – in that way also the message will be more clear and subtle, not only funny, garish and kitschy. So, thanks again for positive feedback! "

"dear darren,

thanks for your detailed and positive feedback. ot´s a pleasure to read the lines. i want to go through few points and try to clear or mystify certain things.
We play with the cloud in a very metaphorical and claimy way. We initially called the project ready to fog, because of the warning on the fog machines we played around with. also the notion to ready to f*ck was quite appealing to us. but then the people who gave us the money to build the first prototype decided to rename it in their sense, also because they had the italian telecom in the back. we thought: come on, leave us with that name chit chat... give us the cash so we can realize it. well, of course we had the cloud notion, but we came from a more questioning direction. what happens when these IT cloud rain, what kind of puddles result... these been the questions from the cloud side. but really cloud computer is what it is not.
the irony, somehow we can´t agree with 100%. of course it´s not biting serious. but for us, it´s serious to elaborate, to test the future promised to us in star trek. all that sci-fi stuff... that it results in a ironically naive way, maybe that´s just the way it is. it´s not judging. "

"Thanks for your words, Nicola. Michel Foucault's work is impressive, and emphasizes the idea of the power behind those hegemonic discourses. I tried to think in another direction: the discourse of power as a calming speech that distances us from the threat of death, which is always present when we make a real decision. Go beyond the ambiguity of official discourse (a concept of Heidegger) is a challenge and an act of courage. The courage is what makes dialogue real.
"

"yes! thank you! I will!!! Great suggestion!!!! Bye. Say hi to paris for me. "

"and if ever you continues to spread the material in the actual form please add infos about the source of the illustrations. (under the illustrations).

for example: Melbourne Times, 4. 3. 2014

so long in Paris it is half past seven in the morning, I have to go in a printshop. Bye
"

"Yes, Alex very very good questions. The typography is intended to be the primal source of frustration for my audience with the typical comment of "I can't read that, I don't understand" drawing parallel to not having patience or willing to look deeper and that with a closer look the "OTHER" languages are actually english letters stylised and they can read it it form sentences. The typography in most instances will be deemed as unidentifiable to my audience, overlooked, ignored if you may, just like the cultures they appear to represent. As I intend to spread these viral at major public transport stations, similar to the distribution of MX newspapers, I intended the illustrations to grab the attention of the audience with an identifiable object, albeit a disgusting stereotype. Often this graph is met with a laugh. Whilst you say that the Asian stereotype cartoon is harmless, that is the very essence of my intention. Why do you say it is harmless? Because he is happy? Or because the political issues of death and massacre or suicide are absent from this character? They are as harmful as each other as the continue to wedge distance between cultures by reinforcing offensive racial stereotypes that promote prejudice to principle victims. The smiling Asian character reinforces the a very real fear that a lot of ignorant people possess that Asians are plotting to become the master race, with such fears giving rise to the White Australia Policy that was specifically targeted at Asians. "

"I forgot the comment on the colour. why ONE is red? for formgiving reasons? ;-) I ask me a little if really you need illustrations with your well made typo crations. maybe you rather need SIGNS.

"

"Bonjour. Right. BUT please take a distant look to the illustrations on your fine material. maybe you will discover an enormous difference between both the jewish with his money (classical nazi caricature), the arab ( and his bombing belt (todays arab caricature) and the others, the harmless chinese, pakistani... the degree is really not the same. It's a difficult, no?

amitiés

alex"

"Thank you so much Alex Jordan for your comments. I particular appreciate the concept of stretching our concepts of visual illustrations of stereotypes implanted in peoples brains. I have particularly chosen to represent "seen" visual racist cartoons to avoid positioning myself as a political cartoonist. Although with your suggestion, it seems like a wonderful follow up project to depict the undepicted but over thought racial discriminations of our minds. This piece is directly squarely at suggesting that we need a way to identify dangerous speech and how it a precursor for violence. According to section 18c in the Australian Racial Discrimination Act its illegal for someone to do a public act which is reasonably, likely, in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humilate or intimidate someone based on their race. this includes artistic impressions that convery racial stereotyping and vilification in the media. If I were to create and perpetuate "new" illustrations, I would fear, I would be actively hurting people and further complicating our cultural understandings. "

"the everyday use of Augmented Reality is related to brand strategies or to disruptive activities; like in our case. IN many sense we were not able in the condition in which we were to openly represent what we see of our reality. K28, is a work about the endless spaces in which the global criminal powers move. They are so advanced in terms of control and submission of society that every conspiratorial fresco we can imagine is for sure not so far from reality itself."

"Thank you Darren and Ricardo!

The accompanying video would be comprised of archival footage, mostly material shot in the mid-1950s, should I manage to source this material with the relevant permissions. It would provide a strong visual context to what has been lost against what remains. But I'm also glad to know that the work stands up entirely on its own given too that I'm often designing such works in an visual manner evocative to the ears."

"Thank you for the thought-provoking comments, Roderick -- and thanks to all the curators for choosing our work!

Lucas and I see this kind of intervention as useful, and potentially radical, because it calls into question users' subjective relationships with their browsers. Too often, people seem to regard the 'browser window' as an actual window, as a view onto immutable objects and permanent spaces, instead of as a mutable piece of software that displays mutable pieces of data. At the very least, we hope that projects like ours can help to shatter this misconception, and to expand users' notions of what is possible.

We are definitely hoping to install the extension in a few public and semi-public computer labs on the 18th and thereafter -- if you know anyone who might be interested, we'd love to coordinate something with them!

And thanks too for the encouragement to more explicitly map out what's happening with this kind of extension, and this kind of occupation, of a browser's core functionalities. This makes me think of how useful a practice-oriented piece of writing might be in this case, i.e. an essay that both describes how an extension like ours works, and also describes where it works and why that space (and that work) is important. It also makes me think of the great work (and great writing) that's being produced by the critical making community, and I'm not sure I would've thought of connection if not for your comments. Much appreciated!"

"Dear Alana Hunt - I need more time to reflect on your thoughtful and thought provoking feedback. I'm going away for a bit to 'push"."

"Dear Darren Tofts. Thank you very much for your kind words and your QUESTions! I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how QUEST might be performed at Swinburne. I would like it to be visible by the public and the opportunity for it to be en endurance performance once more. I have friends in Melbourne and would ask one to be an assistant so that the 'rules' are explained as I do not speak throughout the performance. Each person is encouraged to photograph the QUEST dialogue upon completion. I keep the original QUESTS as part of the research. I have been contemplating what public spaces you have that fit in with the conference and Swinburne University. Can this performance be at Federation Square or at the Melbourne Art Gallery since it is something you are looking to give back to the public? The peculiar thing about QUEST is that its very public performance amplifies the intimacy that is taking place between two strangers.
"

"Dear Tom Liacas, I have now spent time considering your thoughts and firstly I wish to thank you for the guidance re Bohm. I was not aware of his book and have now ordered it and will add it to my research. I am excited about that as I admired Bohm for other reasons (consciousness and awareness and his spiritual journey). To respond to your questions, I am to now curious to see what might happen if QUEST was an instrument for socio/political change. I have quested with a group of psychotherapists and I have quested with corporate managers in their offices. This is the closest example I have to your question. And yes - it makes a difference to the exchange that occurs. In the corporate environment the major topic turned to work/life balance. We were not sitting in a pink imbued room and not on the floor but in a dedicated meeting room. I feel that the altered space setting plays a significant role that allows the imagination to awaken because already you may become curious about the glow however there are no reasons written or otherwise as to why its there - it attracts you and already you are beginning to wonder. In a community setting I feel a simple approach would be to create a serene space where a written dialogue of questions can be exchanged and then gathered for consideration. I am presently doing this for the over than 5000 questions that have been raised to date. I require guidance though. I have typed all of these out. I know very clearly how the individual benefits (including me) from the QUEST but how to extract the juice of it for a broader benefit - perhaps even a more universal benefit beyond what QUEST offers which is to break down the barriers to a polarity thinking process that we have been taught. noula"

"Also in response to 'are my questions leading the participant' I can clearly and truly say both yes and no. No because I am no intention to take them down a particular thought process and Yes because my response affects their thinking process as much as their response affects mine. However at all times the interpretation is subjective. I remember once somebody wrote "how are you today?" and I responded "why do you care?" and they took a long time - a very long time to respond.
"

"I am grateful for the reflective feedback I have received from the curators and you have all given me food for thought. I will take the time now to sit, read and read your thoughts and respond more fully over the weekend.
I can readily say that QUEST can be performed without public view of the QUEST as well as in public view. the feedback from participants has been that once they sit, the reflective process is so intense that they re no longer aware of anything else except that which is occurring between us.


"

"Hey Tom, thanks for the feedback and kind words.

In response to your questions...

Firstly, 1000+ Coffees is about stepping outside of your comfort zone, reconnecting with people outside of your usual social sphere or people that you've "liked" more statuses than had real life conversations with. It's about reminding yourself of why you decided to accept or click that "Add Friend" button in the first place. This project has changed my life in a multitude of ways, from providing me employment, taking me to New York City and providing me a huge array of new life experiences thanks to the wonderful people I've reconnected with. As far as a condensed practice to recommend to the average person, taking the time out of your day to participate in your own 1+ or 10+ coffees with anyone you've been meaning to get in touch with is all I could recommend. Facebook is there for a reason, use it!

As far as ways that I can see my learnings being applied by online social movements, sure, but that's my next project that I'm still nutting out the finer details on. :-)"

"Broken City Lab's project/projects capture and are captured by the growth of globalization-is-borderization. The northern border between the U.S. and Canada is always left out of the nexus of the "border condition" and yet both Winsor and Detroit are sites of the ruins left by the protocols of "free-trade" and "racial-script" that deep echo one another long history of social and economic deletion. "

"This journal has always been a useful space for considering a number of important cross-sections between analysis, social framing, and a call to action, that do not always support each other. But in the best moment a frission between the above threesome creates new cognitive maps. That is not a bad thing at all."

"This project contains a direct link to certain histories of tactical media or electronic disturbance. The question of rerouting and framing the conditions that ATM networks have been established and interrupting the standard condition of life being lived only at the "point of purchase.""

"The question of an un-documentary form is important quality that the project traces. How can the politics of the voice and voicelessness can participate in producing fearless speech. The project has this type of potential. "

"The question of an un-documentary form is important quality that the project traces. How can the politics of the voice and voicelessness can participate in producing fearless speech. The project has this type of potential. "

"After having exhibited this work a lot of times and talking to people about this my target of this work seems to work out.
I have been thinking about showing all the bloody mess first, but that I have seen so many times before. The exaggerated sterile look of the clean rooms to me is a way to hint the cruelty and to emphasize the emotional coldness of the actions that happen in those rooms. And me, as a vegeterian, I don't feel guilty by looking at the bloody type of pictures. I only feel sad. But the carnivores I've been talking to told me that by looking at those bloody pictures they feel guilty and don't want to look at them any longer. My pictures also make them feel guilty, but they keep on looking, start to discover the rooms and reconstruct the happening in their imagination. So in my opinion that is quite an achievment! It seems to push people to think about the meat industry and I am proud of that."

"Hey Kevin,

Thank you for selecting our work and for your generous feedback.

First, I will address the idea of this work. The quotes are excerpts from speeches in the 1960s by the “founding father” of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. As I was going through his speeches, it revealed this utopian aspiration where every man and woman has a right to a dignified life. It revealed many anti-colonial sentiments and a fight for just and fair society. After independence, the country quickly embraced free market enterprise. In here, lie many contradictions. Firstly, there is nothing radical about the shift from colonialism to capitalism. The shift merely represents a change in approach in regards to extracting resources. Secondly, Mr Lee espoused socialism in his speeches yet invited many MNCs to utilize our cheap labour in the early decades. Lastly, we are known to the world for our free market policies, yet the government through share purchases owns many big local companies. It was this various contradictions that informed this work.

It is because of these various contradictions, both present and in the past, that I felt the work had to be ambiguous. To me, it seems almost inevitable to embrace this new form of colonialism or Singapore would not progress forward. It was these various ideas and elements, past and present, which I felt a 9-screen approach would work. But this meant that the work had to be projected as opposed to an online viewing. Maybe I could have made better aesthetical decisions. Currently, I am considering extending this work into a 9 CRT-TV installation.

Once again, thank you for your time and feedback.
"

"Drago mi je da sam dobila tako dobre komentare za svoj rad. Uistinu je to pitanje koje me provocira duže vremena i neobično mi je drago da postoji platfomra intenacionalnoga značaja gde se možemo sresti istomišljenici. Uvek posotoji dilema, kako dotaći drugu javnost, ljude koje tek treba podstaći ka razmišljanju o problemu i to pre nego taj postane nerešiv. Memefest je bacio rukavicu i sada je na nama koji smo tu da širimo njegovu ideju. Hvala vam za podsticaj. Miomira"

"Dear Alana

Thank you so much for your feedback, inspirations and comments. We wish you could come to one of HMiE?.... we'll keep you posted.

Answering your questions:

The topics we've discussed so far are
- The use of sound for political purposes, the expansions in great spaces of big enterprises changes our urban landscapes
- Codex alimentarius, water shortage, food production and feeding habits, environment.
- Art, Migration, and Identity.
- Community and Individuality.
- Media and Religion.
- Art.
They were chosen depending on the context on a big scale, so sometimes we decided to propose a spiky subject. We normally research about the venue, occasion, possible community and then select a topic.

So far we haven't had moments of boredom (sure not!). The only time we had a bit of problems was in Amsterdam in December. We were in a cold church open to the public to visit, and in pulsing Amsterdam it's been a bit hard to convince people to stay with us to cook in the freezing cold instead of visiting Amsterdam. However, we did it three times and we had minimum 10 maximum 20 people. Participants generally are first attracted by the looks of something weird happening, then by our cordiality and finally by the action of cooking. Some of them participate because they'd like to learn the recipe, others because they find it funny. The interesting bit is that by the end (when we eat altogether sitting either at a table or on the floor), people who decided to stick with us talk as if they knew each other.

About the text: forgive the use of big words, and as a good intellectual you've pointed out big issues of our text. A "community based on confrontation", "deeper relationships" and "real dialogues" are words we've used to try and describe what we just wrote above. What HMiE? does is breaking the ice between strangers in average three minutes, the time one has before getting dirty or needing someone else to accomplish a task related to preparing the food. This aspect serves the purpose of tackling certain topics as a small community rather than a group of individuals. (i.e. We've never heard people talking about the weather).

Documentation:
you can find more documentation here:
http://neverenoughofit.com/fridge.html
and
http://neverenoughofit.com/propositions.html#Kabila

The outcomes, as you can see from the link, are a series of propositions that the newly born community of every edition of HMiE? would agree upon. Sometimes we would also compile a list of further readings emerged from the discussions. For the Art, Migration and Identity we asked the community to fill in a sort of VISA application form and then compiled a visual demographic.

Surely we could invest more in the differentiation of documentation, possibly more honest towards the project. On the other side, the choice of having digital documentation is to allow its dissemination online. We understand the limits of it, and we thank you for bringing this up.

Last, the title. How Much is Enough?'s first edition was indeed about codex alimentarius, water shortage, food production and feeding habits, environment. After the first edition though we sticked to it because we realised that it could also refer to the time needed in order to build a mini-community. It also refers to the grandma's way of cooking... "put enough salt". Lastly, the first time we did it a joke came up, that became a sort of "inside joke" with the participants: during the preparation of food, whenever someone would ask "how much salt (tomato, flour....)?" the answer would be "enough" and then "how much is enough?" "IT"S NEVER ENOUGH!". We are well aware this is not a way of justifying a title, but the tool of inside joke proved another little efficent piece of the puzzle that create the unique synergy that happens during HMiE?

Thank you so much for your feedback
"

"Dear Kevin

To answer your questions:

The topics we threw in as "facilitators" were depending on the context HMiE? was happening in. So far it's been:

- The use of sound for political purposes, the expansions in great spaces of big enterprises changes our urban landscapes
- Codex alimentarius, water shortage, food production and feeding habits, environment.
- Art, Migration, and Identity.
- Community and Individuality.
- Media and Religion.
- Art.

you can find more documentation here:
http://neverenoughofit.com/fridge.html
and
http://neverenoughofit.com/propositions.html#Kabila

The outcomes, as you can see from the link, are a series of propositions that the newly born community of every edition of HMiE? would agree upon. Sometimes we would also compile a list of further readings emerged from the discussions. For the Art, Migration and Identity we asked the community to fill in a sort of VISA application form and then compiled a visual demographic.

Unfortunately, for the conflict-resolution bit, we are still working on getting to places that would need it. So far though, I must say that during the editions of HMiE? we had some sort of micro-conflict-resolution situations, and somehow the very nature of the work helped the resolution.

And indeed your questioning the labeling of such entity as art is interesting. We've asked this question many times ourselves. HMiE? has been presented both within art contexts and not, we haven't found out yet how to label it ourselves. Sometimes labeling it as a participatory project served the purpose to present it in minimalist contexts and therefore underlying the absurdity of such act, sometimes we presented it as an activity, serving the purpose of micro-conflict-solving. We can say HMiE? is like a recipe: part art, part craft, part mess.

Thank you so much for your feedback, it helped us enormously."

"I can't express my gratitude enough for selecting the work. It's an honor and a huge opportunity for me to show my work, discuss the issue with experts and grow up as an artist. I thank Memefest/QCA for such an wonderful initiative.

As a matter of fact, I am excited not because my work got selected among many for a competition, but for the platform the work is getting which it rightfully deserves. Right now, the situation is even tensed because of the BT Brinjal which is genetically modified (GM) crop. Last month, government owned Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) (which has been working with Monsanto collaborator MahyCo) has applied to the agriculture ministry for its use at the growers’ level without any research on the impact on human health. It caused tension and writ petition in the High Court by an NGO. Nevertheless, most of the mass media (with some exceptions) are projecting only the health-hazard part, completely ignoring the farmers' issue. Hence, I feel that the issue with the farmers should also be presented in some alternative media, if not the usual one.

My special thanks to the judges and reviewers for their insightful comments which will definitely help shape the work in future. See you all in the workshop. "

"Hello Kevin,
Thanks for your comments.
The beer was definitally pricey if you were paying for it. but next time have a look in the backstage : there was free beers available for all.
About the theoretical themes behind my work, I agree that it may be difficult to fully understand it by watching the video. I have to say that the "disturbance of cultural conditionning" of my work was made of a numerous of elements, simple items like flying bicycles hooked to the ceiling or jumping chirurgists to more complex set-ups like the meat procession and the other procession with a virgin that is masterbating herself with an "gaz gun"...

but in general, the idea was to create an artistic space in which acting, video projections, music and exhibitions converge into making a big soup out of reappropriated sens, symbols and esthtics.

As for the student strike banners, David Widgington would awnser this more accuratelly but from what I understood, his work consist precisely of reintroducing visual archives of the student strike into news uses and contexts with no intention of fixing them permanently.

I hope these awnsers helped you to understand better my work.

Solidarity,

Olivier
aka
VJ olilouya
"

"hi to all and thank you! Really interesting comments, and I also agree with the critics. The network anyway in Milano and Italy exist: Orto diffuso was with Giardino degli aromi the promoter of the network of community garden in Milano: libere rape metropolitane. We are also working toghether with two Facebook pages: Orto diffuso and Orto circuito Milano (wich is the page of Libere rape metropolitane) and also with the national network page (Orti e giardini condivisi). In Milano the community gardens are mainly buildt by activist wich are fighting against the concrete jungle, trying to push different economies and also well linked with Gruppi di acquisto solidale, the groups for an alternative distribution of food. "

"Very clean and approachable. I think you did a good job of trying to affect change by not freaking the consumer out."

"Very clean and approachable. I think you did a good job of trying to affect change by not freaking the consumer out."

"Dear Alana and Alain,

I am sorry it took me so long to reply to your comments. I have been spending time in Oaxaca, with limited opportunities to spend time online. But I hope you will agree that it's better late than never.

Alana, I want to thank you for your kind words. I want to say some words, hoping to reply to your interesting questions. As you know, traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge stand on unequal grounds. Yet, if we look closely, they are much more tightly linked than it appears at first sight. Although scientific knowledge has become hegemonic, scientists are realizing that they cannot advance unless they value and incorporate traditional knowledge. I have seen this in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, where "Los ojos de la milpa" started. Agronomists are trying to understand traditional cropping systems, in order to support their development in changing conditions. Correspondingly, farmers are learning advanced scientific techniques for achieving greater sustainability, such as planting trees for preserving the soil or using mychorrhizae as organic fertilizers. So, although science is still hegemonic, and holds a great deal of power in relation to traditional farming, there is a growing exchange between both knowledge systems. So far, "Los ojos de la milpa" contains exclusively what farmers from Santa María Tlahuitoltepec have chosen to show. I share your desire to see the project grow in many directions, as I consider that agriculture is a part of culture, and it is deeply connected to many other things which happen in daily life. This has started to happen to some extent, and I hope it will continue even more intensively. Finally, I think you are absolutely right about my statement. "Giving voice to farmers" sound paternalistic, and I should have stated this in a different way. Of course, nobody can give voice to farmers, because they already have one... and it's strong and powerful! But, as you know, the hegemonic capitalist system we live in effectively silences voices which stand for alternative views of how food should be produced. While this system preaches competition, efficiency and the preeminence of individual interests, farmers in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec raise their voices in favor of cooperation and collaborative work, and community values. Maybe I should have said that this project *amplifies* those voices.

Alan, I am also very grateful for your comments. I appreciate your understanding that this is not a voyeuristic exercise, but the materialization of a shared will of "voicing out." Farmers only showed what they wanted to show and, believe me, there are many things which were left out of this project. They clearly understand that this is not about exhibiting themselves, but letting everybody know what goes on in their fields. It is indeed surprising how the most advanced technologies are penetrating and being accepted in rural communities. In Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, for instance, the cellphone signal became available only two years ago. Now, many people own smartphones, especially young people. Our belief is that these technologies can strengthen the links between young people and their community. As you may know, it is mostly young people who migrate to the United States, often leaving their land and their family for many years. This also reminded me about the Border Film Project, which I also like. Thank you again for your generous comment."

"Thank you for the feedback! Tony, yes I did purposefully leave out any information about health risks. I do have very strong opinions about HFCS but it went against the purpose and tone of the project. I wanted to present a very nonbiased look at HFCS, processed foods and their ingredients to allow the audience to form their own opinion and thoughts based on what I was showing them. When speaking of obesity and health risks it is easy to turn people off prematurely, I wanted everyone to see this project and decide for themselves how they feel"

"Dear Alana and Kevin

As we are a collective with a collective email we realised just now that MEME Fest had selected us, and your comments.

Thank you so much for you interest and your feedback, we are truly honoured! We will be answering all your very interesting questions and comments, and do our homeworks on Bishop, Ranciere and so on.... why not getting also a bit of Bourriaud and Farquaharson out of the dust....

We will be back shortly, with our collective answers

Thank you again so much.
AC"

"Fernando, muchas gracias por tus palabras! Coincido en tus observaciones. Creo que mi principal dificultad radicó en no poder hacerme una idea clara del público al que iba dirigido. Eso le quitó fuerza al trabajo. Por otra parte, la escena final del sacrificio de los animales en espacios públicos no buscaba glorificar la muerte, sino provocar un golpe de efecto. Quiero decir: es duro toparse con la realidad del sacrificio, implica mirar en los ojos de la muerte y reconocerla como parte de uno, quitarle el manto de violencia que la rodea y hacerla parte de la realidad de la vida. Y en esto cada cultura tiene su modo, su ritual.
El relato del cazador kaiowá es propio producido sobre observaciones y recuerdos de ese pueblo. En el resulta clara la idea que Goya planteó como la angustias de la devoración en su cuadro "Cronos devorando a su hijo": ese que voy a comer está muriendo por mí, es parte mía. Negar esa muerte es desaparecer al ser que se ofrece, es desentenderse, es cosificar."

"Amazing work Chica! Well done. "

"Wonderful and a great creative idea!!! Congrats!!!"

"Thanks for all of your feedback! Have made some changes. The final copy is now available to download for free here --

http://www.mediafire.com/?wb08ajbjk3nja1n"

"Haha! I do actually! Will take a look at those and stop by the studio. & agreed about the title, you'll be happy to hear I changed the name of it"

"Hi Ashlea,
feel free to come into the studio and we can discuss in more depth. But in the meantime here's a just few examples of what I mean regarding the typography. Apologies to general readers - this is pretty arcane stuff.

Starting with the cover - check the kerning in the title (and as we're now only talking about typography I won't hassle you again about the actual choice of title). Then the contents page - it looks as if you've centred the page numbers which creates an awkward alignment. Also perhaps consider tabbing a consistent space between the chapter numbers and headings (the capitals of the headers lead the eye along an inconsistent vertical). The tone of the work, due largely to the type and its composition, is deliberately and appropriately very restrained, but it's also very dry - these subtle details (and others) might help increase visual engagement without loosing this tone. In the body, details like unnecessary chapter indents at the top of columns (indents cue the eye to a new para so are redundant at the beginning of a text), and narrow column width relative to font size and text length could be reconsidered. Is there something subtle you can do to the centred chapter headings to add a little typographic colour? Why this specific font? Etc.

Let me know if you want further pedantic typographic harassment."

"Now that the contest is over, I would like to thank the judges who commented on my work. It is certainly a privilege to have Steve Keen read and offer positive remarks on the work of an amateur. You are right about my focus on the relationship between information and energy. I think there are basic physical processes which underlay economic realities, but are not given enough consideration because their conclusions are not always what people paying economists want to hear. As I describe it, the truth is. Answers are what people want to hear. While philosophers seek truths, priests and politicians provide answers. That is why there are so many people able to make a living as priests and politicians, but so few as philosophers.
To Daniel Marcus, I would like to say the idea I offered for how government could budget is entirely designed to make all sorts of trades, manipulation and power plays possible, as the legislature organizes the list of priorities, but it includes a real budgeting function, by giving the executive the power of decision about where to draw the line. The fact is, only as many promises can be kept, as there is the ability to fulfill. This doesn't necessarily lead to the forms of austerity currently being proposed, because the overhang of surplus spending will always be kept in mind, not allowed to expand uncontrollably and then be collapsed, usually in favor of these in positions of power. The reason democracy works is because power is decentralized, with local, state and federal systems all working in areas best suited to particular needs. The real problem we currently have is an overly centralized banking system. If we had local, state and federal forms of public banking, that put profits back into the communities generating the wealth and not having it channeled through private hands in New York, to be then lent back to the Federal and local governments, there would be stronger local communities and less need for the Federal government to solve as many problems.
In politics there is this dichotomy of the individual, versus the community, but keep in mind that it is at the local level, where most people know each other, for better or worse, that we are all most deeply recognized as individuals and yet still most strongly connected to our societies. That doesn't translate to a larger society, but there are advantages to large that don't apply to small and advantages to small that don't apply to large. Knowing what works best is what is important.
On a personal note, it is interesting that while Brisbane is virtually on the other side of the planet, Goucher is the college closest to my home, up here in Sparks. My eldest sister graduated from there.
"

"Hi Jason!

I'm wondering if you have any detailed feedback regarding the typography for this publication. I'm working on fixing up a few issues with it, and would appreciate your input.

Thanks,
Ashlea"

"Thank you All for your inspiring comments on my work!"

"Thank you to you all for such in-depth constructive feedback and to Memefest for the opportunity to show my work to all the practicing professionals who were curators this year. I would agree that all of you “have soul, integrity, in depth understanding, extensive knowledge, pedagogical eros,  extremely sharp eye for things that matter and theoretical and practical experience.”

I think from the feedback that it is clear that the mediums I have used for this project have not been the most appropriate. It seems that moving online as I had considered looks to be the most effective means of gaining more exposure, financial support and interest in the cause. It would be more up to date and I recognise that the print collateral is too disposable and archaic for this campaign. Operating thorough a blog or website would be the most cost effective means of targeting and maintaining a dialogue with interested parties and finding a wider audience. Moving online could also provide a means of monitoring user experiences through time and through different groups of people as well, which I agree would add to the project.

You have all commented that you were impressed with my level of research. Research was not a chore for me at all because I was very interested in the research and feel that more people need to know the facts of the way the world operates. The majority of people (especially my age) are too distracted and occupied by technology, popular culture, controlled and biased mass media and an unhealthy obsession and need for validation from social media to even understand the basics of modern history or sociology and that is a problem/ignorance that makes me angry. Shoaib, you have written that my work is “backed by facts and data not based on perceptions or mis-placed ideology.” I feel that this is an important point. I deliberately wanted to concentrate on unbiased facts because people can have ideological disagreements, but if objective, corroborated facts about society are stated in a clear manner, they cannot reasonably argue with them (although that probably wont stop them trying). The research I have found, for example “A girl in south Africa is more likely to be raped then learn to read’, “16 thousand children die daily even though enough food is produced twice each year to feed the world”, or observing the unfair division of labor and profits for African women should outrage everyone. Everyone should be passionate about learning from and about this information. If everyone knew and understood the facts they surely would be furious and want to change the way the world operates, and that is why design is such a powerful and important tool to make information more accessible.

A valid criticism was from Kevin when he said that “the project does not question the inherent problematics/discourse of contemporary capitalism and the true nature of debt as explored in Graeber's text”, and that the project “does encourage us to change the status quo, but only within the prescribed limits of a dominant ideology that in my opinion (and likely Graeber's), is quite fundamentally flawed.” I agree that the dominant ideology of the world is fundamentally flawed and that the approach I have taken has decreased the power of the campaign. I didn't set these limits on the campaign because I felt that a system of almost global advanced capitalism and globalisation is perfect or even good. The project was developed in such a way because I thought about it from a cynical perspective. Because the majority of the world is part of a system of advanced capitalism, it is unlikely to change due to this campaign, and it was a more realistic and pragmatic solution to at least try to educate people and encourage some form of direct action within the limits of the system we are currently in. I also wanted to have a broader audience that wasn't immediately turned off because they feel their ideology is different or conflicting to ‘progressive’ or ‘left-wing’ ideas. That is another one of the reasons I relied on unbiased facts that are not political or ideological. I do accept that a more comprehensive/critical approach towards the global economic model could have led to a stronger outcome and I’ll use this advice in future projects and through the continuing development of this project.

Shoaib, I believe I have had some exposure to Bruce Mau but I am now more familiar with his work, and his “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” is also now blu-tacced to my wall.

Once again, thank you to you all for your very constructive feedback,

Darcy Mangan. "

"thanks for the in depth feedback! much appreciated"

"Hello-

I like your approach- but it comes down to a particular filmic/directorial approach: it's a kind of rhetorical device, in that it could be applied to any discussion, I would be very interested in how this could be placed within a larger narrative so that some kind of closure, or development could happen, including some kind of context for the discussions that are being developed..."

"Thanks for your support Alain. Unfortunately AMCV is low on activity. Mainly because there are no funds to work on it. But we are always looking for places to show it and expect to get more attention. Next month we are doing a workshop with it @: http://culturadigital.org.br/project/amcv-alerta-movil-de-contra-vigilancia/"

"It also reminds me of the statement "make love, not war" - nicely done."

"THX, very inspiring words, I will give my best to work more, thx again and everything best!"

"this post was initialiy discussed via the community board on this web site. i posted it after i saw this documentary. because it became a wider discussion that also has to do with shepard fairey, who did initially the obama poster, i am copying it here.
---------------------------------

oliver
2 weeks, 1 day ago

I watched yesterday the street art documentary, Exit through the Gift Shop.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_Through_the_Gift_Shop

It is about the emergence of Street art focused mainly on Banksy and Shepard Fairey. But than this other guy named Thierry Guetta becomes the main character of the movie. There is a controversy about the documentary being a complete hoax. I have to admit i am not sure about that. But in any case this polemics only help to raise questions about street art, art in general and mainly about the "sell out" dimension of something that was/is authentic. Nothing really new, but this documentary is highly intelligent and i would say strong in any sense. If it is really a hoax, than even more.

Does anyone know more about this polemic? Have you seen it- do you believe it is a hoax?

image-shift
2 weeks ago

i was also suprised that i liked this film. i belive its quality actually lies in what you describe oliver: it leaves one behind with these questions on street-art-gallery hype and artistic authorship. it is very well done and funny.

inesnin
2 weeks ago

i really want to watch this movie, and likely will within the next days. it's sounding each time more intringuing, indeed. a friend of mine wrote about it recently saying that in none of the two reviews she read about it was mentioned the fact that bansky has become some kind of luther blissett. a condividual, she says. apparently there are rumors (yeah, hoax? sounds like, but still) saying that bansky could be a name of not necessarily only one person, but many.. i've heard things like this about other characters, like homer (from the odyssey, the ancient greek famous book).. well.. i'll watch it and comment back again. :)

oliver
2 weeks ago

ok, let's have a look at a few things about shepard fairey- most know for his "obey giant" street art and the obama poster http://www.posterpage.ch/exhib/ex216oba/p181484s.png

here is a little bit of what he says about Thierry Guetta, the guy who in the documentary plays the main role and might be fake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e-F4MsBx_I

watching this video to me is interesting, because shepard knows how to present him self very well. doing he's "subversive" street art, he get help from several people he calls "we'll trained assistants."

having a closer look to what he does- his art, once can see there is not a lot to see. at least not a lot of original stuff. here is a good article about that:

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm

doing a bit more of research i came across he's commercial studio web site:

http://studionumberone.com/about/

this is interesting:

"The shop was founded by artist Shepard Fairey in 2003 as a means to extend his unique strain of innovative graphics, subversive self-promotion, and grassroots marketing to the world of advertising. In the ensuing years, SNO has grown to help businesses realize more meaningful consumer experiences through original storytelling, and innovative art-based design and marketing."

hmm, i understand he likes POP art etc... but iam starting to believe that the guy mixed everything up. comming from the skateboard scene, he does similar stuff than the first legendary skate companies. first, doing subversive business, later selling out and making a lot of money.

i am not saying that he's intention to capitalize is 100% false, but he speaks about using marketing and advertising! not sure he knows what he speaks about.

as with many things- its impossible to be totally in a place without contradictions, but watching the documentary, checking faireys work i dare to claim the following.

no matter if the french guy Thierry Guetta is true or false, fairey is using him to create distinction. in the process of overall comodification of street art bad examples, sell outs are needed to make one look authentic.

btw: i like now this poster even more: http://www.memefest.org/en/gallery/works2010-11/519/

oliver
2 weeks ago

hmm... more from he's company web site- here how he presents himself and his OBEY campaign:

http://studionumberone.com/about/


"Shepard Fairey is the artist behind OBEY GIANT, the graphics that have changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. What started with an absurd sticker he created in 1989 while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design has since evolved into a worldwide street art campaign, an acclaimed body of fine art, and a model of alternative marketing for a new generation of consumers."

danielmarcus
1 week, 3 days ago

I'm teaching the film this week in my class on Alternative Media. While I guess revelations could be forthcoming that show it is a fake, I haven't seen anything to really indicate that - just a lot of vague rumors. Seems real to me - and certainly what it depicts actually happened. Did Banksy put Thierry up to it? In one sense, that doesn't matter. And insofar as Banksy has questioned its own validity, that would seem like a canny marketing ploy - adds to the publicity through controversy.

inesnin
4 days, 11 hours ago

alright, so i watched the film. to me it's pretty funny this whole hoax talk all around, to start. first of all, no matter what's inside, this is "the bansky film" or "bansky's film", which would be more correct, and it's very curious this move towards its focus. but, still, thierry/mr. brainwash is the main character since the beggining, and you can see that from the point of view and the interviews.

i really want to watch his unreleased film "life remote control", even though it's said to be chaotic. i don't doubt it is, but i'm still very curious. bansky, while making a film 'about' thierry, his attempt of making a film about him, street art in general and later about his own mad art move, simply labels him as "crazy" and says the piece was unwatchable. well, if you take a glimpse in a lot of well known pieces of video art, most of it is unwatchable 'til the end, usually because of their time concept being too slow or because it's annoying or whatever. it may be much more aggressive or even absurd if put against pop art influenced pieces, including street art, that's usually so graphic and easy to get. i'm not defending it, just saying i'm curious.

one thing that's undeniable is that either mr. brainwash is a readymade by bansky or by himself. his insanely huge idea of becoming a pop star, uhn, artist, taking so much from andy warhol in some kind of obvious remix of what's in the media today - including grafitti - echoes in many artists around, since warhol actually, like jeff koons or damien hirst, who keep some kind of factory in order to produce works in large scale. i've heard reports in art class about koons' production process being very similar to thierry's, the only difference being that he does manipulate images in photoshop himself before sending to some assistant to paint or produce. and i'm not aware of details, but i believe someone like koons might have built his career gradually, not from one day to another, which of course makes someone a very easy target for being a hoax - or a readymade. well, still, he's a product himself. it's all part of the game, millions included. and banksy gets it all.

inesnin
4 days, 11 hours ago

just to make clear: i do like banksy and street art a lot, lol, and haven't made up my mind about sheperd, who you were discussing before.

inesnin
4 days, 11 hours ago

hmmm apparently not so much to do, or maybe, but i kept remembering of the documentary 'we live in public' http://www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com/ - have you watched it? perhaps it reminds me because it's also about people dealing with media, nonstop footage, hiding / showing off and the whole thing as a career. yeah. i watched it in a festival, but it's in the bittorrent fields, so there"

"sure, and good luck!"

"Thanks for the very interesting feedback ; I hope to be able to explore similar ideas in the near future, albeit perhaps in a better semantically constructed way."

"Iz najbolje namere nisam htela da komentarišem ovogodišnju selekciju, između ostalog, i zato što nisam upoznata sa prethodnim izborima pa ni kriterijumima. Ali budući da sam dobila ovako lepu kritiku, red je da se zahvalim i da odgovorim na pitanje koje kao da mi je postavljeno.
Naime, razumela sam da je cilj radionice za koju smo se "prijateljski takmičili" unapređenje određenih sposobnosti koje možda imamo, razmena iskustva, oblikovanje ideja, produktivno udruživanje energije radi skretanja pažnje javnosti na određene probleme u regionu. Čini mi se da sam u tom smislu potpuno promašila "prijateljsku trku", jer su ovde izabrani surovi profesionalci koji već imaju visoko razvijene mehanizme izražavanja u zadatim oblastima, a njihovi odgovori na temu apsolutno su superiorni u kontekstu koji je poznat samo njima i kuratorima. Moje naivno razumevanje ljubavi, konflikta i imaginacije, kao ogoljenih, humanih fenomena, čini se previše bukvalnim i nedoraslim, pa samim tim i nejasnim.
No, tu sam da objasnim, iako je moj dragi kurator već zamislio i povezao moje malo pisanije. Konfliktnost u društvu predstavljena je kroz kontrast patrijarhalnog nasleđa i savremenog okruženja, problematika vrišti u kršenju osnovnog ljudskog prava - prava na slobodu, a u razumevanju ljubavi se ogledaju obe ove stavke, budući da se ona iz intimnog, "mojeg" polja, prenosi na javno i izjednačava sa brakom i reprodukcijom. Pitanje na kraju kritike je stoga vrlo zanimljivo i verovatno otkriva da je čak i u vizuri jednog intelektualca jedino rešenje smorene žene da se lepo uda i rodi sebi jedno dete, da ima nešto svoje.
Još malo jednostavnih istina o ljubavi, konfliktu i imaginaciji: ljubav nije nesrećni brak, niti pritisak na ženu da rodi, jer ona možda to ne može ili ne želi ili njen ljubavnik to ne može ili ne želi - u tom slučaju postoji ogroman konflikt sa okruženjem iz kojeg proizilazi uvreda za ženu i nesrećan život, a ako zamislimo da se to da objasniti, na neki prost način, na koji, na primer, moja baba može da razume, onda valjda imamo imaginaciju sveta u kojem svako ljudsko biće ima pravo na svoj život.
Zahvaljujem se Nikoli Janoviću za zaista laskav osvrt na ovaj rad. Bilo bi lepo da sam dobila i nekakav komentar za video oko koga sam se mnogo više trudila, nesvesna da za to vreme timovi programera i majstora video dizajna, rade to isto. Namera mi je bila da oba rada budu jednostavna i razumljiva, budući da mi je stalo da se o ovoj temi govori što više, da taj neki "novi humanizam" konačno uzme maha.
Izvinjavam se ako sam bila drska i obećavam da ću svoje naivne poglede na svet ubuduće širiti samo u amaterskim okruženjima.
Sve najbolje želim svima. "

"This is all on track. I am very glad I am talking to you all. I am quite excited to have connected with Memefest.

-most of the people that i have been working with over the last 8 years have been dependent on their local environment. They have great strategies but somehow it stays in the local/regional, or it stays within an academic context which is a bit of a dead end. Obviously there is a need to share and transcend practices. "

"....and Scott, with the increasing significance of social networking politically it would be great to learn more about home-grown strategies you mentioned - which I think is exactly where the community at Memefest, as an alternative networking site itself, is coming from."

"Thanks Vida - really nice to hear that you find the work inspiring...."

"I'm also conscient that this translation operation could sound as a kind of 'taming' of subversive forms. It is precisely what interested me.
On one hand, it could create a new interest for people by trying to read the shape of signatures for themselves and not for a supposed hidden sense. I wonder people could perhaps discover the pleasure of certain complex calligraphy created by writers - because I'm originally a graffiti writer who is still mostly interested by this singular aspect of graffiti.
On the other hand, staying closed to the original composition is a way to refuse the decoration aspect of graffiti mural which is often invited by the owner to cover original signatures all-overs. Shaping it closer to a virtual tag clouds would have been a disrespect the writer original intention which is not to make the wall beautifull.
I made several other tag clouds (which are not shown here) and the final form always depends of the experience of writers but sometimes looks more closer to virtual tag clouds with variation of dimensions. In CSS langage this variation is totally customisable, there's no default scale between words size that could define a standard of tag clouds - it's more the cloud composition which make sense.
The project works around the idea of "reversible coherence", I didn't want to turn reality marks into virtual marks, I only wanted to make people realise that if they understand global meaning and utility of virtual tag, they also could understand the point of real ones.
Finally, the subversion of graffiti writing appears directly in the spelling distortion of common sense words, which could not be confused with commercial communication, even if the project is playing with its codes of readability."

"Thanks so much for your comments. Appreciate it. We are really happy that our work shares space with some amazing creatives from around the world.

Will keep memefest posted on how analogue progresses. Thanks again!"

"Now is time to be more particular in order to be more general, i mean that now do we really have to act as a mesias or do we have to act in our particular experiance to fight the "power".
Is greatfull to see this kind of work full of visual an conceptual concept."

"Thanks again for your feedback on this work, here is my response.

Antonio - Nice to hear your response, those are the kinds of thoughts we hoped to provoke. Considering the gravity of the issues at hand, viral awareness would be really useful.

Jason - You say 'graphic simplification of radical ideas is an necessary but little tackled task for visual communication' and I agree. Many radical ideas are so completely misunderstood (or unknown) our political and social options are severely curtailed - and it appears to many that we have no alternative to the current system.

Roderick - I was aware of the mechanical, symmetrical and simplification issues with the design. A project goal was to nurture ecological literacy - and the mechanism and reductionism can seem to conflict with this objective. We stuck with this design because I see ecological thinking as enveloping both mechanism and reductionism into its understanding and methods, using them when appropriate. Mechanical metaphors are appealing to us; we live in a mechanical paradigm, a dysfunctional one - but nevertheless, this is the world we know. Organic metaphors can be dismissed on aesthetic grounds; associated with identity politics rather than and philosophical allegiances. Certainly the complexity and the contested nature of the decisions that will happen along the way are absent from this poster. What we need, I think, is many more visualizations of a functional sustainable economic system - in stark contrast to what we have today!"

"thank you for your very kind comments! our work will be better with your help!
ciao"

"@ Sandy Kaltenborn:

Thank you for the kind comment. We were very humbled reading your insightful point of view. We aim to take this further in the long run.

"

"Dear meme-curators,

we received a kind answer about the possibility to start a dialogue over there. First, we really love this "open procedure"!

Regarding the specific questions addressed to REFF, we alerted all authors and artist about MemeFest and we try here to live a feedback.

About the book and the use of QRcode:
To experience QRcode people need the paper version of the book: we published near 500 copies and around 250 are actually circulating (both in bookstores/event/friends houses). Distribution is the first limitation. The second is language: the book is in italian and was distributed physically just in Italy. The third is technolgical: of course, people need a mobile/webcam capable to read QRcode and the software to read it. It seems a terrible situation, but is not that bad. I the REFF case people enjoy reading QRcodes and are really using them: of course we need to think that the book was presented during specific event and to specific audience already involved in art, technologies, research (or very joung: for example students classes). QRcodes are not "for-everyones" but are becoming quiet common.
What is really interesting both for REFF and FakePress, as a partner and publisher of the project, are the emerging grammars and narratives we can create using this technologies. About the low tech use, a good example is "REFF DIY Expo". This is a performative section of the book that brings people to a link where they can dowload 30 QRcode: each of them point to an artwork of the catalogue, so printing them as stickers everyone can realize its REFF AR exhibit everywhere.

There are a lot of exemples of special qrcodes and fiducial markers we realized for the publication, but the real innovation we produced as REFF is MACME, an open source platform that transforms a WordPress blog into a system of cross-media publishing. REFF book is the first prototype of publication produced using MACME:
http://www.fakepress.it/FP/?p=1617&lang=en

we released the software in this days as a part of the first internationl REFF exhibit in London
http://www.fakepress.it/FP/?p=1677&lang=en

This exhibion is a powerfull example of a real policy enacted by the Fake Institution, but also of collaboration and diffusion of practices using ubiquitous technologies produed by REFF. In the 2 weeks prior the exhibit we realized a series of theoretical and practical workshops exploring the possibilities offered by fake, remix, recontextualization, plagiarism and reenactment as a tool for methodological reinvention of reality, across universities and students movements. We brought them platforms as MACME and Bluetooth War : softwares was installed on their machines, with the result that now dozens of project are popping up allover and groups of students involved in social movements across London and Milan are experimenting this platforms as a tool for tactical media.

We called this the "REFF Youth Program" :)
http://www.fakepress.it/FP/?p=1694&lang=en

I live you with the newest project of our Fake Institution, the REFF AR Drug:

“REFF is an Augmented Reality (AR) Drug. Also referred to as Simulata Realitas per Activam-Industriosam-Laboriosam Multiplicationem, REFF AR Drug is a psychotropic antidepressant administered cross-medially.

This drug is used to treat social depression, fear of the future, precariety, anthropological distress, lack of opportunities, communicational totalitarianism, scarcity of freedoms and intolerant social ecosystems.

Compared to other drugs acting on the same areas, REFF AR Drug is designed with accessibility in mind and as an enabler of the spontaneous generation of forms of expression and of collaborative practices.

REFF AR Drug is also used (off-label) to treat numerous other conditions such as the UFPS (Uncertainty for the Future of Publishing Syndrome), and the LDSBMS (Lack of Decent Sustainable Business Models Syndrome).”

We lunched the drug in london and it will be the next version of the book :)

penelpe.di.pixel for REFF

Note:
(1) I'm in charge for curating the MemeFest submission and process: what you read is my point of view. Because we love multiplicity and we do not believe in representative system, all artists and authors participing in the REFF Institution will be completely free to express their own point of view.
(2) A special thanks to Salvatore Iaconesi (aka xDxD.vs.xDxD) is needed: he conceived in the first beginning the idea of the Fake Institution, providing aesthetics and technologies to REFF."

"Thank you for comments. Your words are very important for us."

"Nice, romantik........like it"

"Estou feliz e surpreso. O crítico, Claudio Tognolli, foi muito generoso com o ensaio. Agradeço sinceramente pela leitura cuidadosa.

Acredito veementemente na busca pela Verdade através da ponderação lógica e da objetividade, embora conheça os riscos que essa postura pode engendrar quando mesclada com personalidades arrogantes, contribuindo assim para o enrijecimento das instituições.

Propus uma resposta sóbria, prudente, mas não espartana. Com ares socráticos sem dúvida. Refletida e clara o suficiente para ser passível de refutação sem rodeios ou afetações intelectualóides. É o próprio senso crítico, a devoção à objetividade, que se encarrega de aceitar o risco de ser descoberto em erro para o benefício da Verdade. No texto explico como tal benefício deriva imediatamente de uma partilha conflituosa.

Sim, espero que repercutam os trabalhos deste Memefest. Porque há uma proposta legítima de superação do real pelo ideal."

"@daniel on the first paragraph of your review: both of your questions fits perfectly into my current study/research on different kinds of social inequalities (some label it as "digital divide") in internet communities and the usage of social media, in Weberian cultural context.
"

"@Sttwn Yes, I am familiar with the latest Sh.Turkle study, though I didn't read Alone together I've realised what was her point. Listening to her recent lectures and podcasts she seems very sceptical in regards to new social web tendencies. I'm not utopian or dystopian, that's why I didn't want to analyse her current work in this paper of mine. In future analysis, it is worth mentioning, indeed."

"Daniel: Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Indeed, this topic opens up a variety of aspects to be addressed in the future, including the (web) activism that you've mentioned, social networking in deploying micro-forms (such as Twitter or identica).
Nikolai: Thank you for your comments. The limited space didn't allow me to go into deeper critical contemplations, but I agree with you that social/virtual, online ways of communications are grateful for various explorations in the future esp. from techno-utopian/dystopian's point of view.

"

"Dear Katarina,
thank you a lot for your comment!
Let me reply to your reflections and questions.

The collaboration i experienced (more than a hundred common users experienced too) and shot of it was somehow problematic (in the opposite of easy) because of the specific environment of the virtual world. The space was shared with many really different people, who even level of avatar coordination was different. 3d Virtual worlds are not technically so strong yet to "host" easy hundreds of people one time in one space (that’s why on virtual concerts of stars there are not hundreds). That’s why more than 20 makes you feel crowd. Most of the time “Big Psomm 2” was crowdy. The mess was natural state of communication (that’s why I showed some scenes in fast forward to express it). Chat, voice, personal messages, navigation and looking from above same time was most of the time hell. That's why users surprised me that they do so much effort to be one organism. Yes this is a reflection on virtual worlds more than on other collaboration environments like facebook, twitter and so on. Those rather simplify collaborations, makes them easier, faster, effective and they allow thousands to participate in same system, chat, discussion or whatever. Here we need to immerse to some level, it takes time to deal with 3d environment, interface, interactions, accidents. If you need to meet a friend there and tell him a simple thing, it could take a lot of time. If you want to go to a virtual museum, in comparison to watching same content on website, the time could be wasted. What is the strongest thing there, it is an immersion, which makes project like “Big Psomm 2” a “real” experience for users.

“Being one organism” this is actually a statement. And it could cause some conflicts, but it didn’t. Many people inside virtual realities are greefing (harassing others), disturb, spam, and so on, many of them are banned from places, parcels, regions. And it’s because of being anonymous. I don’t agree that this was an issue on early ages of internet. On “friends” systems you know your friends, people use real names, portals owners and users control those systems, if anybody start to mess. Forums, comments on newspapers, videos portals, if not moderate could host many behaviours. And this project was open for everyone there.

Conflicts in a frame of “being one” could be caused by many reasons, even by some users who decided to be the same part of the body☺.

But I imagine this experience with selected people who represent really different own political statements - this could be very interesting. Who, what part would choose, who would try to rule/coordinate movements of others. Does leftist could form a right leg, does extreme catholic could be a crotch touching hips, who are communists?

Or other possibility, if they are “already one” let them go together to demonstrate at Libya embassy, in both realities.

At the end, having fun is not the main reason for being in Second Life. This is just a commercial face of it. Real life Paris is not only Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge, and you don’t go there only for a romantic weekend.

Best greetings!


"

"This is a good overview, but as I was reading it especially with the "vintage" citations re Sherry Turkle (95), I was wondering if the author has seen her new work "Alone Together" which comprises in part ethnographic portraits done recently re online media. It is very negative in general about the use of online media in terms of the big Memefest issues of "love and conflict," and also freedom. She tends to express examples of constraint on social behavior. "

"Thanks for your comments everyone. Will try to respond soon. In the meantime, the Steady State graphic can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/gRbtgl "

"Robi hvala za čudovit esej. Z njegovo pomočjo lahko veliko jasneje gledamo in razumemo tudi vizualna dela, ki so prispela na festival. Po mojem mnenju esej pokaže na nekatere ključne povezave med ljubeznijo, konfliktom in imaginacijo. Glede na to, da gre za kompleksna filozofska in etična vprašanja pa je prednost eseja tudi v tem, da je napisano dostopno različnim bralcem.

Bojana, hvala za komentar. Škoda pa je, da se dotika zgolj formalnega vidika eseja. Memefest na srečo ni toga akademska /znanstvena revija. Predvsem poskušamo odpirat dialog in prostor za dialog.
Kar pogrešam je komentar k vsebini, predvsem pa iztočnice za nadaljnji dialog s tekstom in z avtorjem znotraj Memefestove skupnosti. Zato bi te prosil, da dodaš še vsebinski vidik.

Pozdrav obema, Oliver
"

"i samo apropo pesme The Flaming Lips - I Can Be a Frog, kao inspiracije za razumevanje/doživljavanje drugog, voljenog kao onog koji zadobija mnoštvo obličja ili pak, šalje znakove, kao poziv na ljubavničku potragu/igru ili na tumačenje - svi ti znaci/tragovi, obličja u pesmi, to što "...she can be anything, any kind of creature she wants to be...", zanimljivo je da su svi "animalni, životinjski" (na stranu pitanje što se taj ratnički usklik indijanca stavlja u taj kontekst). E, sad, problematizacija tog životinjskog u odnosu na ljudsko. prvo je samo van vidookruga i delatnosti ovog drugog i ukazuje na tu asimetričnost ljudskog, koja se upravo u ljubavi samo-prikazuje. (za do kraja zanimljivu eksplikaciju Bataj...)"

"dragi Nikola, ogroman si rad obavio, hvala!
osnovna poetičnost rada bi bila do kraja zaokružena, da sam npr., ostavila nedorečenim izvore, no se poigra(va)la citatima-znakovima. Poetičnost tkanja eseja bi onda ostala u ljubavničkom igrokazu potrage i tumačenja tragova-znakova.
u pravu si - u prvom delu rada problematizujem taj ljubavnički eros upisan u samo srce filosofije, korene naše misli koja je određena kao "ljubav prema mudrosti". i na tragu Deride i Deleza ispitujem/problematizujem takvu ljubav, rešive "formule i jednačine" i suprodstavljam joj neumirenosti i neumerenosti, prekomernost, odnosno nerazrešiv konflikt, tj. ontološku "a-simetričnost". Zakonu i trgu, vidljivom i ucelovljenom suprodstavljam, ispitujem drugo - pustinju, nesagledivu, mnoštvenu... tragovi, koji se (delezovsko-manje-više-prustovski-deridijanski) osipaju, referišući uvek na neki nedostatak, na već-odsutnost.
Potraga za ljubavlju, potraga za istinom, koja u savremenoj hiperprodukciji (i hiperpotrošnji) znakova (i praksi označavanja) (do)vodi do privida (ljubavi i istine). (postavlja se pitanje valorizacije tako stvorenog/proizvedenog privida) I zato, na kraju eseja i kažem da ono što uvek ostaje u igri odvodi ponovo u pustinju - uvek izvan ustanovljenih oblika proizvodnje i normiranja ljubavi. Pustinja, hijeroglifi i lavirint velika metafora. Bolje, sintetično - u pustinjskom lavirintu izazvani, onaj koji očekuje odgovor, kvantitet i kvalitet "performativnog" iskaza "volim te", traži tragove i znakove drugog/voljenog/željenog, koji se pokazuju hijeroglifima, a prema tome, podrazumevaju I tumačenje... (Ničeova reč: "Čovek lavirinta ne traži nikad istinu, nego samo svoju Arijadnu.")

hvala na sugestijama, proučavaću preporučene autore. (1. "ljubim nekoga da ljubim nekog drugog" - tako i Delez tumači prustovske bolne i lažljive ljubavne znakove/tragove jer upućuju na ćitav jedan drugi svet/svet drugog koji mene isključuje 2. "Ljubav je moguća kao slučajna. Ali to ne znači da za ljubav na prvi pogled nisu potrebni uslovi.... "Ovde je poudarena tako materijalnost ljubavi kao i njena imaginarnost" - da, da, da nerazdvojnost neizbežnog slučaja i materijalnosti imaginarnog, koji u sebi otelovljuju bazičnu nesimetriju i konflikt... )
"

"Hey Bojan, it might be much more valuable if you would write more about your work and the context."

"Alana,
congratulations on this inspiring work, its easy to imagine to be put in action way beyond its primary context an aims. It was especially valuable to me to read so carefully articulated description of your work. Thank you!"

"Jason+ André: thanks for your comments- they are useful. Sorry about the paragraph breaks or absence, we had a bit of a problem posting to the Memefest site:) The comments about projecting onto surfaces is a good thing to think about- in most cases the projects are displayed out of contingency- they end up going into contexts that are pretty fluid, from a place like Borderhack, where you do not even know that you have an electrical hookup that is reliable,(and whatever technology can be placed into the site on the border), to places that are well provided for in terms of space and technology. It would be a good thought to be more connected to the particular in situ space and think in terms of a more critical positioning of the work in an external public space, rather than working more within particular (institutional) spaces.

New work is coming along that is more directly collaborative with an audience in terms of story telling working with a particular geographic area. It will essentially allow people with different experiences to map a space that they share with other people, and define very specific "borders" in terms of how they interact in the space. For example, what someone of a particular group perceives of as a center or landmark of a public space can also be seen as a place of exclusion for another group. This sounds a bit dry, but when it is applied to particular situations if can be highly effective both as a kind of visualization and statement, and also as a way to start to accommodate others. I need to post some of that asap- it's going well. "

"Regarding the workshop aspect of Memefest, this is exactly the kind of project that should be discussed and explored as a way to think through agency in regards to the "mapping" aspect. It would be useful to try to compile an inventory of interventions that have/continue to be done throughout the world as a counter to the more imposed structures- both political and economic- that would seem to dictate the pathway and content of a message.

I've seen other evidence of this- from people creating their own internet through improvising cheap wireless hardware into a kind of backbone using simple materials, to a change in strategy from using expensive applications marketed throughout the world, to writing apps through home-grown programming. "

"A huge thanks to all the curators; your detailed comments, questions and advice are sensitive and meaningful, and there is no doubt that they will enrich the project – particularly in the next stage of its development and distribution.

I will try to respond here to some of the ideas and questions that have been posed.

I understand Tony Credland’s hesitation when he asks how the people who participated in the project managed to gain from the experience when it seems the work has been presented in what appear to be “far-away” exhibition contexts. This is an issue common to many forms of participatory practice when it moves into an exhibition context that is outside its point of origin, though this can also have its advantages. To some extent Sandy Kalternborn similarly echoes this concern when he asks about the relationship between the project, its participants and the idea of “cultural capital for the art world”.

While this terrain is complex and always multifaceted, I will try and answer here in the simplest way that I can.

I believe it is equally important for the paper txt msgs from Kashmir to be distributed both inside and outside Kashmir. There is a need for Kashmir’s stories to circulate globally, and also for greater creative and culturally charged exchanges to take place within the region.

As the 2009 decision to implement the pre-paid ban in Kashmir, more or less, emanated from New Delhi the initial exhibition in this city was site-specific. It hoped to, as the paper txt msgs themselves state, ‘create some discussion around the reasons for the recent emergence of paper txt msging’ in the midst of the city whose seat of power implemented the ban in the first place.

The Indian state’s cutting of phone connections and text messaging services across Kashmir is a common and continuing practice. In the context of this ongoing military occupation it is important for these paper txt msgs, the voices and stories that they contain, to be read far and wide. I am open to avenues, both within and outside the ‘art world’ that will aid in this distribution.

However, I am particularly interested in getting this collection of paper txt msgs back to Kashmir so that people can access the collection as a whole. While local exhibitions and video screenings are a possibility, considering the context this could also prove difficult and may not reach the widest audience. Ideally I would love to distribute en-masse a printed publication of the paper txt msgs, accompanied with stories, poetry and essays that people from Kashmir have contributed to the project – pieces of writing that greater contextualise the project as a whole. Ideally I would like this publication to be multi-lingual with translations in English and Kashmiri or Urdu.

However, due to limited resources I am unable to print this publication and its translation at present. For the time being I am developing a website and putting together a pdf for online distribution that individuals, both in and outside Kashmir, can further circulate and print out themselves.

Andre Vallias suggested that interviews, testimonies, and videos of the paper txt msgs being distributed could make the documentation of the project more inspiring for others. I am interested in finding the right way to contextualise the project, yet artistically I do feel that less is often more. In this sense perhaps a straight video of their distribution would be a bit of an overload, I like to leave some things to the imagination and feel that together the paper txt msgs speak strongly in themselves.

And finally to quickly answer Sandy Kalternborn’s questions about the logistics of the project. The cards were distributed mostly throughout Kashmir’s Summer capital Srinagar along with the Southern and Northern regions of the valley through friends of mine who further passed them onto friends, family and colleagues of theirs. The paper txt msgs literally moved from hand to hand. Approximately 150 paper txt msgs made their way back to me in packages, peoples’ pockets and individually in the post. I do not know where those 850 paper txt msgs that were not returned lie today. Perhaps in someone’s wallet, lost on a road, perhaps in the draw of a bedroom, in a garbage bin, perhaps one is being used as a bookmark, or held as a love letter deep in the pocket of a pheran....I know that some people did not want to post their paper txt msg off to an anonymous address and preferred to keep it for use themselves. I find it equally powerful to imagine where those paper txt msgs are and how they may have been used, as it is to read the statements that fill the paper txt msgs that were returned.

Again, a huge thanks for all the invaluable feedback – I will definitely keep it in mind as the project develops further and look forward to more exchanges via Memefest....
"

"I wish to thank you Frédéric for precious comments. Especially those that opened new horizons with AOS. They fit completely to open/chaotic/fluent/adjustable system that AOS aspires to.
Truly, to bring outside participants to a gallery/museum via internet, incorporating their relation to artwork into the "big picture" would be a good next step for AOS.
Also, I guess radio can be better interpreted, as in Berlin case it was more of an invitation tool (FM), but of course also a medium that challenges role players to interact in interview like fashion they have been accustomed to by everyday media.
Questions you pose on what is a team, individual vs. group, and other theoretical questions behind AOS are pertinent too.
There was an hones try to explain here:
http://gentlejunk.net/art01/about-art01/


"

"thank you for these critics. we really appreciate it and keep going to put them to reality!"

"dear meme-curators,

thank you for this exciting review process: exciting also because I found in the text very interesting questions adressed to REFF (witch help us in a dipper comprehension of what we are doing/we did).

I found here a space for comment, so I'm using it: is it the right procedure? Can we open a dialogue over here? It is quiet unusual and we would love to do it :)

we just sent to REFF artists/authors the review page to ask them comments/confrontation

best regards,
penelope.di.pixel for REFF"

"thanks for the comments- they are very valuable- I want to spend time going through them in detail- am traveling right now- best to all- "

"@ Dr Zoë Sadokierski:

Thank you for the kind comments, and we agree that at times, the contrast between colors and text are too strong. This is a lesson that we as design students learned how to address, thanks to the feedback and the experimentation that the assignment allowed us to conduct.

@ Tony Credland:

We are glad that you enjoyed exploring our website, and perhaps the random clicks helped you with that.
the original text is cited in the About page under Manifesto - last line.
Thank you again for the comment.

@ Kevin Yuen Kit Lo:

You have good points. It's true that the text is not very legible against the bright backgrounds, or the correct hierarchy. Yet, as students, we took this opportunity to experiment with type and color, and push the boundaries of legibility, but perhaps we pushed it a bit far.
Thank you for your valuable feedback and for appreciating our concept.

@ Shoaib Nabi:

The story of the two lovers in paris is what our concept is about. we have the love stories connected to others about conflict and power, because this is reality, but only with this reality we reach harmony.
Referring to the comment about hierarchy. The way we understand the comment is that the size of the icon doesn't necessarily relate to the importance of the story. if this is the comment then the answer would be we faced a geographic issue with some countries that are small in area, such as Lebanon and Bahrain. In our view, this was the best way to go around this issue, specially for UAE and Iraq.

We appreciate you comprehension of our concept and your analysis which we could describe as "spot on."

Thank you for your comment.
"

"Es impresionante este documental interactivo. Logra a través de una hermosa puesta gráfica, cautivar y sensibilizar al espectador hasta el final, llevándolo a través de toda una historia muy conmovedora.

Felicitaciones para Paul y Michael!"

"Hi!
First I want to say tank you all for appreciating and for your interesting critic! Tank you from all of us, to Frédéric Dubois and all Memefest crew.
So I want to answer to your questions.

First one: "I was wondering if the workshops had been useful at all in creating constructive dialogue among the 8 women. Was the project more successful (therapeutic) at an individual level or at a group (collective) level?"

I think that “individual” and “collective” level are constantly in relationship and merely they are the same dimension: we can find our best way to understand our self (and the best language for this) just relating our emotions and perceptions through the other (we learn this from the relationship between our body and the body of the mother in the first days of our life, is in that point that everything starts…) So YES! The best result of the project has been giving instruments to evolve these kind of practice (individual-group level relationship) among partecipants. New and intermedia technologies gave us a funny, ironic but also critic and educational way too our purpose. In two words we could say that it is a sort of “social therapy”.

"I would love to know in what ways though, the use of open source software has changed anything in the creative process and output of Bordernetart. Was it determinant?"

Yes. Since 2007 I tried to experiment different interfaces (to make photos, videos and so on…free and not free). But:

- in most of cases, interface design is not compatible to “vulnerable” adolescent’s first approach. What I want to say is that: more interface design is complex and full of tools, much more is the difficulty for the adolescent to understand the inner functioning of the software (and of the language), finding a personal and singular way to approach it; so I had to take care about our purpose to give girls free instruments and not just some templates!
For these reasons I preferred to use much more “simple” software such ad Kompozer or Audacity, etc…and simply trash my cracked Suite Adobe :)

- the use of open source and free ware software has been one of our main message during activities: “is open, you can download and use it…” “wherever you are”, “ you don’t have to pay for this…” , “communication is free”, “you can find your way…”; because often for these girls one “alt” is the economic impossibility to got a tool (digital divide). Every year some girls came to me showing little intermedia works made by them selves at home, at school... These are an important feedback.

- I preferred to live always all the aesthetic “mistakes” visible in every work, just to narrate our difficulties in approaching the different interfaces: I think that open source world might evolve its target experimenting in such hybrid social context, finding new and revolutionary aesthetic and design solutions.


"If you had to think of ways to make this workshop even more impactful, using mobile technology or other online tools, what would you attempt to use with the participants in the future? What would work well?"

Time and space during these kind of activities is built respecting every individual attitudes and emotions and economic status. When a technology is introduced in a certain ecosystem, this action produces a lot of effects, or none. In our case we started with video-theatre in 2007 and we came to internet in 2010. We have always to take care about the respect of identity privacy, moving from an hyper-local and private dimension (the girls) to an hyper-global reception (the world wide web), so introducing connective and telematic tools is, in more case, simply FORBIDDEN. Often we answered to our structural boundaries through aesthetic solutions and tricks, then we find, little by little, to envelop the project with more tools.
For 2011 we are going to realize a Delfine blog with Wordpress!!
Our goal is a social and active communication campaign (for the web) realized by Compagnia Delfine. Of course, every year, we would like to “open” this social web platform to other partecipants (such schools, other communities, …) and find collaborative ways to approach our common goal: let adolescents talk about their emotions and social problematic recombinating languages, identities and roles.
To promote and facilitate the use of this blog between the girls, I will start using this wordpress tool:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/text-messaging/

I verified that even if not every girl has a personal computer, all of them have a personal mobile phone! I will activate the phone number of every girls mobile, with the Text Messaging service of Wordpress. Girls will receive notifications via SMS text when various changes happen on their blog and they will receive and moderate comments, create posts and more via text.
With this platform we will have a collective blog, every girl we’ll learn to use it even after their living in the community, and even if she has any pc, creating links between their experiences, even far away from that space and time.


"This would make it useful outside of Milano and replicable on a larger scale, if at all possible, thereby widening the social impact even more."

Yes! That’s it!! This project is born with the aim to think about the Digital Net as a social resource to connect people who are living at the “borderline” of our society and of our Net (bordernetart): therapeutic communities, penitentiary, mental hospital, connected with schools, art academies, museums, families, and so on…Recombinant social practices through new technolgies are really fertile ways to evolve society in something new, as Foucault would say, going over our limited ability to approach the real and unreal (and so the virtual) through the language, leading communication to a common right and a common evolution.


Tank U all Memefest see you soon!!
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"I like"