[spectre] Amsterdam Tactical Media Lab @ Imagine IC

[Eric Kluitenberg]

A   N   N   O   U   N   C   E   M   E   N   T

Next 5 Minutes 4:

A Temporary  Media Laboratory for Tactical Media
@ Imagine IC in Amsterdam Southeast
September 12 - 22, 2002


Opening Program: Thursday September 12 18.00 hrs

Imagine IC - Bijlmerplein 1006 - 1008 Amsterdam


Next 5 Minutes website:
http://www.n5m.org

Website Imagine IC
http://www.imagineic.nl


Imagine IC, the new centre for the visual representation of migration 
and cultures, is the location for a temporary public media laboratory 
from September 12th till 22nd. Open at all times to the wider 
audience, artists, campaigners, local and international media makers 
and activists will develop and discuss their work for 10 days, hold 
workshops with local media groups, present examples, realise live 
media programs on-line and via radio and tv, and execute various 
projects. This Tactical Media Laboratory (short: TML) will be the 
first of an international series of TMLs, organised in various 
cities, and on different continents.

The key-concept "tactical media" originates from a series of infamous 
conferences and festivals that have been organised in Amsterdam since 
1993 under the title Next 5 Minutes. Tactical media deals with the 
meeting point of art, media, and social and political questions. 
After three earlier editions the need is felt for a new approach. The 
purpose of the international series of TMLs is to investigate the 
role of media in contemporary cultural and political life, each time 
from within a new local context and perspective. At the heart of our 
concern is the question who is given a voice in the contemporary 
media landscape, and which voices are left out.  How can the 
individual as  well as  an as diverse as possible representation of 
cultural and political groups make their own voice be heard by media?

The Amsterdam TML will focus on the relationship between media and 
migrant cultures. Workshops and presentations will run continuously 
around themes such as: Virtual Shelter, net.radio and Home-Land 
Connections, GenderChangers: Women and Technology, Migration and 
Illegality, Wireless Media, and the Power of Personal Testimony.
The TML is the joint effort of a large number of artists and media 
groups, amongst others: ambient tv, ASCII, De Balie, Harwood, 
dine.org, Waag Society, RAZO, NYU Center for Media, Culture and 
History, Gender Changers Academy, expertbase.net, ghetto.ru, Paradox, 
Salto, and many more.

After Amsterdam the series of TMLs will be continued in New York, 
Delhi, Sydney, Cluj, Moscow, Berlin, Barcelona, in Latin America, and 
in other cities. The results of this series will be brought together 
in a concluding festival that is organised in Amsterdam in the end of 
May 2003.


Web Journal:

More information about the background of next 5 Minutes may be found 
on the web site:

http://www.n5m.org

At this location a web journal will be launched in the first week of 
September that will contain reports, daily programs of the TML, 
pictures, audio and video, as well as essays and other materials.


Overview of Main Themes of the Amsterdam Tactical Media Laboratory:

Virtual Shelter

In a world of nation states, to be, for whatever reason, without a 
state, often means to be forgotten, or worse. For those who have 
always known the security and protection afforded by citizenship it 
is hard to imagine the vulnerability and helplessness of the 
stateless person, the refugee. These are the brute facts behind the 
initiative in which a group of refugees will be working on a long 
term project with Imagine IC, Paradox, and the Amsterdam Tactical 
Media Lab (a team of developers, artists and other experts) to 
develop the website: the 'Virtual Shelter' online environment for 
refugees. We imagine Virtual Shelter as a space in which refugees can 
both network together privately, access vital information and, on a 
more symbolic level, become a space for personal testimony, the 
commemoration of the past and the imagination of other futures.


net.radio and Homeland Connections

In co-operation with RAZO, the radio and television organisation of 
Amsterdam Southeast, a workshop is organised around the combination 
of internet and radio. Especially in a district like Amsterdam 
Southeast, where so many migrant cultures live next to each other, 
the desire is abundant to exchange signals with the home land 
directly and without outside interference.. The combination of 
internet and radio offers unique opportunities to do just that. The 
workshop will be an exploration of this fascinating area, and will be 
supervised by a number of experienced international pioneers of the 
new net based media.


Migration and illegality

Tactical media have always been trying to give a voice to the 
voiceless and to make things visible that are left unseen by 
mainstream media. In the case of illegality this approach obviously 
gives rise to certain problems. Most illegal people prefer to remain 
'invisible', out of fear of being detected by the authorities. But 
this makes it very difficult for them to get their story across. Are 
there ways in which tactical media can help to solve this problem? 
And what can we do against the increasing tendency to categorise and 
register people, culminating recently in the Schengen Information 
System, a huge database in Strasbourg containing files on illegal 
immigrants? A couple of presentations and a debate will deal with 
these questions.


Wireless Networks

Since the adoption of wireless technology to access the internet, and 
to set up separate wireless networks for specific communities, seems 
to be taking a high flight soon, this is a good moment to ponder the 
possibilities for tactical media makers, and to consider the 
consequences for the media landscape in general. During the Amsterdam 
TML several tactical implementations of wireless technology will be 
experimented with. There will be hands-on workshops (how to build 
your own antenna) and discussions about the risks (legal and 
otherwise) of open access-points. If we want to build something more 
lasting than the once famous but now derelict Amsterdam Digital City, 
we should make a proper assessment of the dangers and opportunities 
which lie ahead of us.


GenderChangers: Women and Technology

The GenderChangers Academy will present a series of workshops during 
the TML aimed at providing hands-on training for women interested in 
media technology. These workshops will include sessions on recording 
and streaming audio and video, on DJing and VJing, and on computer 
hardware and building your own PC from parts.

http://www.genderchangers.org


Expertbase

Expertbase is a site for people with extraordinary skills. It's a 
site for people, who are not found in any commercial or official 
databases. A site for people, who are being ignored by vulgar 
head-hunters and usually excluded from the labour market -- either 
because of their residence permit status or because of their origins, 
but in the last instance because of their unique abilities and 
singular qualifications. Expertbase is a site for people, who have 
gained expert knowledge on any field and who are willing to share 
these experiences with others.

A data base can neither give people their dignity, nor a job. The 
expert base is an experiment, currently in the investigation phase 
and in future it will perhaps be a mirror of the multi-faceted, 
multi-lingual and international co-operation around work and 
migration. An example of networks and cross-border initiatives.

http://www.expertbase.net/

__________________

General information about Next 5 Minutes:

http://www.n5m..org

e-mail: n5m4@balie.nl
(attn. Derek Holzer)

Office:
De Balie - Centre for Culture and Politics
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
1017 RR Amsterdam

http://www.balie.nl