[rohrpost] conference RE:activism: Re-drawing the boundaries of activism in a new media environment

[Aram Bartholl]

hi, ich weiss nicht ob das schon durch die rohrpost gegangen ist. hört 
sich auf jeden fall interessant an.



RE:activism: Re-drawing the boundaries of activism in a new media 
environment

which is to take place in

Budapest, October 14-15, 2005

Re:activism conference addresses what role social activism can play in 
the broad process in which emerging new media technologies transform 
existing structures of cultural, economic and political power. The 
conference offers eight panels, each of them representing an important 
approach from which the transformative potential of new media can be 
meaningfully addressed.

On the first day, we gather to discuss the new dynamics of culture 
production. Digital networks allow the large scale cooperation of 
individuals with diverse motivational backgrounds. This cooperation 
often results in globally competitive ideas, (software) products, 
(social) services. The productive activities of ad-hoc activist or 
expert networks on the Net can best be theorised by a new approach in 
political economy exploring the structure and dynamics of  peer 
production networks. Since the emergence of peer networks transforms the 
established institutions of the production of memory and cultural canon, 
a panel session will be devoted to new forms of grassroot journalism and 
open archiving. Another important challenge for the status quo of 
culture production is the fast development of digital techniques 
allowing new forms for remix and detournement, in a word, culture 
jamming. Finally, a special panel will explore how various social, 
economic, and legal agents of regulation in a post-Westphalian world 
order can react to all these processes.

On the second day we take a step closer to groups and individuals 
calling themselves explicitely „activist” and we explore the various 
forms of local and global activism in the context of new media. Cheap 
and decentralized communication channels have fertilized new forms of 
activist practices through which social movements and civic action 
groups have organized themselves. The emergence and operation of world 
large anti-globalization activist networks is the most evident example 
of new media triggered activism. Maybe less manifest, still very 
important, is the urban guerilla activism enabled by the developing 
infrastructure of locative media and wireless technologies. One of the 
panels will explore how activists can turn, by the means of locative 
media,  the urban fabric into a battleground. One of our main aims is to 
establish a conceptual framework that helps describing the civic uses of 
new media technologies, the emergence of local civic engagement in the 
digital media landscape. Finally, by exploring new media activism in the 
context of democratic elections we can dive into the forces that change 
contemporary political systems.

The aim of RE:activism conference is to bring together various people 
with various backgrounds, interests and projects, still, all immersed in 
the field of activism and digital media. RE:activism will serve not only 
as an academic conference, but as a large-scale social event enabling 
academics and practitioners, eastern and western, European and 
North-American, groups and individuals, to engage in communication and 
to establish further cooperation.



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_____________________

Aram Bartholl
Ackerstr. 38
10115 Berlin
+49(0)3022017366
+49(0)1791036178
bartholl at datenform.de
www.datenform.de