[spectre] NEXT 5 MINUTES 4: First General Announcement March 2002

[Derek Holzer]

NEXT 5 MINUTES 4: First General Announcement March 2002 


Announcing the 4th edition of the Next 5 Minutes, a collaborative 
exploration of tactical media-making from around the world. 

For the last decade, Next 5 Minutes has been celebrating and 
exploring connections between art, electronic media and politics. 
The variety of zones where these practices overlap are what we call 
tactical media. 

Next 5 Minutes will transform itself into an interlinked series of 
Tactical Media Laboratories (TMLs) and smaller scale local 
meetings organised in collaboration with media tacticians in many 
different countries. The first Tactical Media Lab begins in 
Amsterdam in September 2002, and further TMLs are planned for 
New York, Delhi, Latin America and beyond. 

These TMLs and local meetings, nurtured and enlivened by an 
internationally distributed editorial team, will lay the groundwork for 
the main N5M4 festival scheduled for May 2003. 


This document contains the following sections: 

- General Introduction and Background 
- Tactical Media Labs and the N5M4 Editorial Trajectory 
- The Next 5 Minutes 4 Festival 
- A Concise Time-Line of Next 5 Minutes 4 
- Organisational Structure & Editorial Board 


General information, links and news can also be found on the website of 
Next 5 Minutes 4: 

http://www.n5m4.org 

_______________________ 


1) General Introduction and Background: 

  Tactical Media in a transformed semiotic landscape 

Next 5 Minutes, is an occasional, large scale, festival of tactical media =
making from around the world. Based in Amsterdam, the event brings togethe=
r - in various combinations - four distinct but overlapping cultures: soc
ial and political activism, the visual arts, radical experimentation in el=
ectronic communications media and critical theory. This is not a random cl=
uster of discourses, but a recurrent nexus that has been embodied in a la
rge enough number of individual work and collective projects to form a rec=
ognisable pattern of practice which we call tactical media. 

Next 5 Minutes exists to reemphasise the media question. One of the princi=
pal values of tactical media is that it deals directly and pragmatically w=
ith questions of mediation in a time where access to public discourse is 
gained primarily via electronic media. In this context, we explore the way=
s in which vital social and cultural issues are conveyed in a radically ex=
panding media ecology of unparalleled complexity. 

Addressing a changing context... 

The context for tactical media has radically changed. The make-up of the m=
edia-landscape itself has changed dramatically, not in the least because o=
f the rapid growth of the Internet. The practices of tactical media and t
he places where they manifest have also expanded and diversified tremendou=
sly over the last few years. 

The growth in the availability of not only powerful production tools but a=
lso new opportunities for distribution has generated a culture in which 
greater numbers of people than ever before are establishing their own medi=
a presence. They create their own representations (or counter-representati=
ons), tell their own stories, and occasionally change their own lives and
 the lives of others. An enormous creativity in political, aesthetic and s=
ocial innovation is unleashed through this mass exploitation of media tool=
s that were once monopolised by the state or the media industry. 

>From its inception in 1993 the Next 5 Minutes platform demonstrated that t=
he loci of the tactical went far beyond the confines of the western world =
and its post-communist/socialist counterpart. Former *third world* 
countries and regions continue to develop their own tactical media and com=
puting cultures, weaving in and out of the international media network. Al=
ong with the continuities, new developments and configurations 
continually appear - such as the Indymedia network - that mirror the radic=
al internationalisation of an economic system. A system which attempts to =
enforce its logic under the misleading guise of "globalisation". With the
 Internet to a degree taking centre stage earlier forms of critical 
media- and more recent generations of computing cultures have moved ever c=
loser. Globally mediated branding has become one of the principal spaces o=
f contestation, but the interventions in this 'semiotic landscape' have 
become increasingly problematic after the events of September 11th. Finall=
y, new forms of cultural conflict have emerged, complex hybrids, in part c=
onstituted out of the current acceleration of the long established clash 

between traditional cultures and the processes of modernisation. But to th=
is conflict has been added an additional layer of complexity, as mass move=
ments of enforced economic migration have created a globally networked Di
aspora riddled with as sense exile, humiliation and anger. These new confi=
gurations have instilled a renewed sense of urgency in the practice of tac=
tical media (or made their local absence felt even more painfully). 

An important objective of the 4th edition of N5M is to assert a much broad=
er understanding of tactical media, which has come to be almost exclusivel=
y identified with use of the media in direct political campaigning. We wa
nt to place as much emphasis on individual voices and their narratives as =
on mass political movements and media theory. Our aim is not to create pol=
arisation but to establish a zone where the powerful and necessary new so
cial movements can encounter representatives of the multitude of individua=
l voices they are seeking to represent. 

>From the outset we saw the tactical as richly textured with the voices of =
individuals, particularly the individual's participation in and subjective=
 responses to public events that are increasingly turned into media spect
acles. September 11th has only served to emphasise the fact that the telec=
ommunications umbrella has made these public spectacles into part of the v=
ery texture of our lives. Public events / spectacles are not merely marke
rs in our private lives but they are also what form our lives, both 
private and public. The Next 5 Minutes is a platform where many of these s=
tories and practices can be assembled and shared. It is a both space for p=
olemics and reflection, where the profound implications of these new deve
lopments can be explored, theorised and debated. 

Changing the structure of Next 5 Minutes... 

As organisers we acknowledge the radical changes in context by decentralis=
ing our own structure in a similarly radical way. Next 5 Minutes is en rou=
te to become a series of interlinked local laboratories for action-orient
ed research and reflection, and simultaneous platforms for public presenta=
tion, debate, discussion: Local events are nurtured, supported and engaged=
 by an equally decentralised international group of editorial advisors. 

Over the last decade the editions of Next 5 Minutes have been witness to a=
 generation of experimental media makers, emerging under the rubric of the=
 tactical, who have completely bypassed not only the rigid hierarchies an
d 
outmoded protocols of broadcast media but also the tired rituals of the in=
stitutionalised avant garde. Within this ever-changing context the Next 5 =
Minutes have identified and developed tactical media as a key component i
n 
the formation of a political poetics for the media age. 


2) Tactical Media Labs and the N5M4 Editorial Trajectory 


Next 5 Minutes 4 integrates three levels of activity: 

- It starts as an interlinked series of temporary public 
media-laboratories, hosted in different cities on different continents. Ea=
ch of these labs will be devoted to a specific theme or set of themes, whi=
ch is closely linked to the interests and concerns of the local organiser
s, but connected to an on-going research effort supported by an 
elaborate international editorial board. 

- The results will be collected on-line in an editorial environment contai=
ning reports, essays, pictures, film and video materials. 

- All local events will be brought together in a concluding festival organ=
ised in Amsterdam in May 2003, which is the combined result of all these c=
ollaborations. 


The TML - Tactical Media Laboratory 

These temporary medialabs are called Tactical Media Laboratories, or for s=
hort; TMLs. They will be environments designed to support the rapid protot=
yping of ideas, methodologies, tools, slogans, artefacts, gimmicks, 
various kinds of media production and actions. The TML is envisioned as a =
shared workspace with a public interface. While the media tacticians work =
on their projects, the space is open for visitors at all times. Proposals
, 
prototypes, and discussions are developed in a continuous interaction with=
 the public. The work in the space is combined with public presentations o=
f the practices which the TML participants are involved in. Public debate
s 
will be held about the themes of each particular TML. 

This model of a work and presentation space in one, is loosely modelled on=
 earlier events that the organisers of N5M4 have been involved with, such =
as the Hybrid Workspace during documenta X in Kassel Germany (1997), Art 

Servers Unlimited in London & Labin, Croatia (2001), Temp in the Kiasma Mu=
seum in Helsinki (1999), and the Acoustic.Space.Lab in Latvia (2001). 

Each of these Tactical Media Labs will bring together a working group of m=
edia makers, artists, theorists, technologists, activists, and other cultu=
ral agents for two weeks. The TMLs create an immediate interface between 
international artistic and activist media networks and local practitioners=
 and initiatives. 


Where and when? 

Five larger TMLs are currently planned as key-locations for Next 5 Minutes=
 4. This series of labs will be organised in sequential order to allow for=
 direct exchange of results and ideas between the different local events.
 The TMLs will be organised throughout the Fall of 2002 (see also: 
Timeline), and the results will be gathered, filtered and reworked in earl=
y 2003. 

The first Tactical Media Laboratory will be organised in Amsterdam as a ki=
ck-off of the process in September 2002. Further TMLs are planned in New Y=
ork City, hosted by the Center for Media, Culture and History of New York
 
University, and in Delhi hosted by Sarai the new media initiative. We are =
currently establishing contacts with suitable partners to host a TML in So=
uth America and in the Middle East. The objective is that these TMLs shou
ld be ambitious collaborations, not only in terms of the level of 
discourse, but also in terms of capturing, managing and disseminating the =
outcomes comprehensively and at a speed which will ensure their use value =
to other practitioners. 


Local Workshops 

Besides the larger scale TMLs, a number of local organisers and initiative=
s have expressed great interest in setting up local workshops. They will b=
e devoted to specific regional questions. Examples of these are; an emerg
ing new media network for Southeast Europe and the Balkans, the power stru=
ggles in the turbulent Russian media landscape, or topics of special inter=
est, such as streaming media and the relationship of radio and tv to the 
internet. Further smaller-scale workshops are planned in Moscow, Zagreb, 
London, Chicago and Berlin that will contribute to the overall editorial p=
rocess of Next 5 Minutes 4. 


International Editorial Board 

This interlinked series of local events, TMLs and smaller workshops, toget=
her will define the final content of the Next 5 Minutes festival, which is=
 planned for May 2003 (see below). To ensure that the local meetings actu
ally result in a dynamic, multifaceted but also coherent program, we have =
established an international editorial board. The main 
task of this board is to facilitate and support the local meetings, and to=
 filter the outcomes of each of these events. 

Through this distributed editorial process we hope to transform Next 5 Min=
utes from an occasional 'tribal gathering' into a sustainable research net=
work for the tactical media. The tribal gathering aspect of N5M is 
valuable and will remain, but the outcomes will, we hope, be both a less '=
random' event, and result in an accessible and developing pool of shared k=
nowledge. 


N5M4 Editorial on-line environment 

To support the immediate availability of the outcomes of the various local=
 events, TMLs and other gatherings in the frame of N5M4 - for a world-wide=
 audience - an on-line editorial environment will be constructed. This on
-line environment will help to create the desired developing pool of share=
d knowledge. The editorial system can be fed by local editors, and can be =
accessed freely wherever an internet connection is available. This on-lin
e resource will contain written reports, articles, essays and other 
text materials, as well as audio documents, photographs, stills, film, and=
 video materials. The on-line environment will be built upon the open-sour=
ce architecture of the content-management system MMBase, originally devel
oped 
for the VPRO broadcasting organisation in The Netherlands. The prototype e=
ditorial system to be built will immediately be made accessible as an open=
-source application itself. 


Archives 

Developing a community of tactical media practice and making sure that med=
ia tacticians don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel is sometimes mista=
ken for institutionalisation. As organisers we feel, however, that 
creating a memory for the kind of work that has been done in this vibrant =
field of practice is of tremendous importance. Beside the archive that wil=
l be built with the N5M4 editorial environment, one of our main resources
 is 
an extensive N5M/tactical media archive housed at Amsterdam's Internationa=
l Institute of Social History. The associated databases are available on-l=
ine in the archive section of the N5M website at:  http://www.n5m.org/ 

Additional material of value on the archives of N5M and tactical media can=
 be found at: 
http://www.iisg.nl/visual_archives/n5m/index.html 


Next 5 Minutes 4 TV 

For the Fall of 2002 and the beginning of 2003, a series of five documenta=
ry TV programs is planned as part of Next 5 Minutes 4. These TV programs w=
ill follow the trajectory of the Tactical Media Labs, reflect their theme
s, and document their results. These programs are produced for disseminati=
on in The Netherlands as well as for international redistribution via loca=
l and national TV broadcasters. The idea behind the programs is to collec
t materials of local media makers involved in, or invited for, the differe=
nt TMLs. The final documentaries will be included in the on-line editorial=
 environment of N5M4, and remain available via the Internet beyond the ac
tual broadcast dates. The programs will also be included in the Next 5 Min=
utes general archives. 


Next 5 Minutes 4 Reader 

In preparation for the Next 5 Minutes festival in May 2003 a reader will b=
e prepared as a print publication. This reader will be a follow-up to the =
successful Next 5 Minutes Workbook that was produced for the 1999 edition
 of Next 5 Minutes. The reader will be assembled in the beginning of 2003 =
after completion of the last TMLs and local workshops. Based on the outcom=
es and the materials gathered and produced at the TMLs and workshops, an 
international editorial team will collect and filter these materials and 
produce a reader that will provide background information and analyses for=
 the themes of the Next 5 Minutes 4 festival. 



3) The Next 5 Minutes 4 Festival 


The Next 5 Minutes Festival will happen in Amsterdam in May 2003, and conc=
ludes the series of local TMLs and workshops. The festival will be the asp=
ect of Next 5 Minutes 4 that resembles the traditional gathering associat
ed with the previous editions closest. What is essentially different about=
 the new edition is that the content of the festival is defined by the out=
comes and ideas produced in the TMLs, the workshops, and within the inter
national editorial board. The festival will thus operate as a showcase and=
 presentation platform for tactical media making from around 
the world, bringing together artistically challenging productions with soc=
ially relevant and politically urgent questions. 

The role of the Amsterdam organisers is primarily to facilitate and enable=
 the exchange of ideas and experiences between these groups; to act as an =
intermediary between the international network of tactical media practiti
oners, the local Amsterdam cultural environment, and the wider 
national and international audience. 

Next 5 Minutes deliberately positions itself at the meeting point of poeti=
cs and politics, making it always more than 'merely' an arts festival, an =
activist gathering, or a conference. The festival is both a meeting place
 for specialists as well as an open public presentation platform. Theory a=
nd reflection have always been an essential part of Next 5 Minutes. Althou=
gh for tactical media practice is prime - it always deals with the 
concrete lived local realities -, this practice never operates in isolatio=
n: It is developed in a continuous dialogue with critical theoretical anal=
ysis and reflection. Next 5 Minutes consciously mixes the formats of an a
rts festival and a conference to stimulate cross-fertilisation of theory a=
nd praxis, and to emphasise that they cannot 
operate in isolation from each other. 


Expected Audience 

The target audience of Next 5 Minutes reflects the inclusiveness of its ch=
aracter. The festival should bring together a diverse cross section of art=
ists, media makers, designers, communication specialists, educators, acti
vists, political analysts, media theoreticians, networkers, internet and I=
CT professionals, technologists, writers, media researchers, radio makers,=
 performers and sound artists, and a wider audience interested in contemp
orary arts and media cultures, global politics and new social 
movements. Although the range of target groups is wide, it is certainly no=
t arbitrary. We intend to bring together those people and initiatives who =
share a concern for the cultural diversity, the democratic organisation, 
and public accessibility of the future media and communication landscape, =
but who normally rarely meet. Next 5 Minutes, in short, brings together th=
ose people who wish to share a responsibility in promoting media for soci
al change. 


Structure of the Festival 

The festival will cover a wide array of themes and presentation forms, all=
 of which are open to the wider public. The main events of the festival wi=
ll be concentrated in three days, while certain specialised workshops and
 seminars may be carried out shortly before or after these main festival d=
ates. The exact dates of the festival will be announced in the spring of 2=
002. 


Seminars & Debates 

The seminars and debates program of Next 5 Minutes 4 will be the theoretic=
al backbone of the festival. The debates will build upon the themes explor=
ed in the local TMLs and workshops, as well as complementary thematic dis
cussions not yet addressed in previous meetings. 


Performances 

Next 5 Minutes 4 wishes to extend the tradition of creating elaborate perf=
ormance programs, with radical arts practices that challenge conventional =
formats of both media and performing arts. In the spirit of the infamous 
Low Tech Show during Next 5 Minutes 3, and the highly 
successful performance programs of the "net.congestion" festival of stream=
ing media (2000), we will invite performers from around the world whose ap=
proach to media challenges modes of representation and framing 
imposed by mainstream media formats and technical architectures. 


Artist Projects 

Next 5 Minutes 4 intends to commission 3 works by artists or arts collecti=
ves, to be created for the festival. These commissioned art works can resu=
lt in installations, or works realised in the public space. We will prefe
r artist works in the selection of proposals that involve clear and 
intimate ties with existing local and/or translocal communities; works tha=
t reflect and embody the ideas investigated within the frame of tactical 
media. 


Screenings 

Specific thematic screening programs will be developed that seek combinati=
ons with other parts of the festival program, connect the theoretical deba=
tes with actual film and video production, and create interdisciplinary e
xchanges in the performance nights that are planned. In the previous editi=
on of N5M, the combination of live Slam poetry 
performances, mediated performances between different locations, and film =
screenings of important films about the culture of slam poetry, turned out=
 to be highly successful. We will actively search primarily for such hybr
id 
combinations. Besides the formal screening programs, an important element =
of each Next 5 Minutes gathering is the possibility for media makers from =
around the world 
to show their work to each other and exchange their materials. We will cre=
ate a large number of private screening units where film and video makers =
can show and exchange their works, thus creating a maximum capacity 
for interaction and cross-fertilisation between N5M4 participants. 


TAZ - Temporary Autonomous Zone 

The TAZ or Temporary Autonomous Zone was introduced to Next 5 Minutes in 1=
999 for the first time, and proved a more-than-worthwhile addition to the =
official festival program. The TAZ is essentially a fully equipped presen
tation space that is entirely unprogrammed at the start of the festival. P=
articipants can register themselves for a presentation block and use the f=
acilities for whatever presentation they want to hold, i.e. film, 
video, internet, CD-ROM or live performance. There is no editorial control=
 but also no editorial responsibility for these spaces, save for the prese=
nters themselves. 


Social Space 

Social processes can not be programmed, but they can be facilitated. We wi=
ll deliberately create a social space in the festival that will enable inf=
ormal exchange and encounters between festival participants and audience.
 Although such a social space is necessarily unprogrammed, we consider it =
a vital element in the overall set-up of the festival. 


Hybrid Media Studio 

As in previous editions, Next 5 Minutes is more than an event for presenta=
tion and debate about media, it is also an event where a lot of media-outp=
ut is produced on site. The nerve centre of the media production during N
5M4 will be the Hybrid Media Studio. The concept takes the fusion of diffe=
rent media-forms within a hybridised digital media network as its starting=
 point. Radio, television, internet, wireless transmission, satellite and
 other forms of electronic media production continue to exist in their own=
 right, but they are also more and more often combined into expanded media=
 formats that involve two or more media at once. The Hybrid Media Studio 
brings these different media-forms together in one space, and connects the=
m to all available media-infrastructures. Amsterdam offers unique possibil=
ities for non-commercial free media programming on local TV and radio, as
 well as various web-casting facilities. From the Hybrid Media Studio cont=
inuous live programming will be fed to local media outlets, to internation=
al (satellite-) outlets, to national broadcasting organisations, and to l
ocal media partners in other cities in the world. What makes the studio hy=
brid is its trans-genre approach, and its trans-local distribution. 



4)  A Concise Time-Line of Next 5 Minutes 4: 


January - March 2002: 

Inititial Peparation and formation of the International Editorial Board 

Publication of initial announcement 

Launch provisonal web site 
____________________ 

April - August 2002: 

Preparation TMLs and workshops 

Start of editorial Discussion 
____________________ 

September: 

First TML in Amsterdam 

Launch of the on-line editorial environment 
____________________ 

October 2002 -  January 2003: 

4 further TMLs in other cities and regions 

Local meetings and workshops 
____________________ 

February 2003: 

Filtering of results of the TMLs & local meetings 

Editing of Next 5 Minutes 4 reader 
____________________ 

May 2003: 

Next 5 Minutes 4 Festival in Amsterdam 
____________________ 




5) Organisational Structure & Editorial Board 


The production office of Next 5 Minutes 4 is housed at De Balie - Centre f=
or Culture and Politics, Amsterdam. 

Address: 

Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10 
1017 RR Amsterdam 
The Netherlands 

Tel. +31.20.553 51 71 
or:  +31.20.553 51 51 (General number De Balie) 
Fax. +31.20.553 51 55 

e-mail: n5m4@balie.nl 

Web site:  http://www.n5m.org 


Organising Institutions: 

Next 5 Minutes 4 will be organised and facilitated by a closely collaborat=
ing group of cultural organisations in Amsterdam: De Balie - Centre for Cu=
lture and Politics, De Waag  - Society for Old and New Media, Montevideo 
Netherlands Media Art Institute, ASCII, SALTO (Amsterdam local broadcastin=
g organisation). 


Main International Partner-Organisations: 

Center for Media, Culture and History, New York University 
Sarai - The New Media Initiative, Delhi 


Amsterdam Editorial Team 

Carolien Euser        - Media Producer & Researcher  / 				Cut-n-Paste 
David Garcia          - Co-founder of Next 5 Minutes / HKU 			/Porthsmouth=
 University 
Menno Grootveld       - Co-founder of Next 5 Minutes 
Derek Holzer          - Production coordinator of Next 5 			Minutes 4/ aco=
ustic.space.lab
Eric Kluitenberg      - Media theorist / De Balie 


International Editorial Board 
(in alphabetical order) 

Barbara Abrash (Center for Media, Culture & History, NYU)
Josephine Berry (Mute Magazine, London) 
Andreas Broeckmann (Transmediale, Berlin) 
Zeljko Blace (MAMA, Zagreb) 
Greg Bordowitz (New York) 
Ted Byfield (New York) 
Critical Art Ensemble (Chicago) 
Micz Flor (Center for Advanced Media, Prague) 
Honor Harger (Tate Modern, London) 
Graham Harwood (De Waag, Amsterdam) 
Sheri Herndon (Indymedia, Seattle) 
Adam Hyde ( r a d i o q u a l i a , London) 
Manse Jacobi (Freespeech.Org, Indymedia, Seattle) 
Zina Kaye (Laudanum.net, Sidney) 
Oleg Kireev (Moscow) 
Daoud Kuttab (Palestina) 
Fran=E7ois Laureys (IICD, The Hague) 
Geert Lovink (Sidney) 
Arun Mehta (Delhi) 
Gerbrand Oudenaarden (Engage!, Utrecht) 
Drazen Pantic (New York) 
Joanne Richardson (Subsol, Cluj) 
Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago) 
Cornelia Sollfrank (Hamburg) 
Jo van der Spek (Radio Reed Flute) 
Ravi Sundaram (Sarai, Delhi) 
Ren=E9e Turner (De Geuzen, Rotterdam) 
Faith Wilding (Chicago)