[spectre] 'Alternative Economy Cultures' post-script

[andrew paterson]

The ‘Alternative Economy Cultures’ (alt.econ.cult) programme on  
April 3rd & 5th, brought together leading international and Finnish  
thinkers, cultural practitioners and activists, to present  
alternative economic visions, during Pixelache Helsinki Festival 2009.

The seminar aimed to tackle not just the financial, but the social,  
cultural, institutional, human, material, emotional and intellectual  
forms of capital. Not just about individual gain, boosting, balancing  
or bail-outs, but common good, peer-to-peer, shared wealth and  
appropriate reward for effort involved.

The discussion-based workshop about peer-fundraising brought together  
artists, researchers and business representatives interested in P2P  
funding models. Focusing upon emerging practices and related topics,  
it also raised the topic: Can the crowd-sourcing phenomena be applied  
to support alternative cultural events in Finland?

The programme was initiated and organised by artist-researcher Andrew  
Gryf Paterson (independent / www.agryfp.info / Medialab TaiK), in  
cooperation with Marita Muukkonen & Ivor Stodolsky of Perpetuum  
Mobilε (www.perpetualmobile.org) and Roope Mokka of Demos Helsinki  
(www.demos.fi). We aimed to offer a new strand to the Pixelache  
Network discourse.

Not claiming to be any expert in the topic, the programme of speakers  
in the seminar emerged from a combination of direct invitations, and  
peer nominations from the social network of the organiser and  
associates. The audience for the event had to be constructed also.  
Hence in different ways, it was an exercise in exploring connections  
and developing new associations.

A cultural festival and organisation, like Pixelache, is an organised  
network (www.pixelache.ac). It brings together people interested in  
topics such as electronic arts; participatory cultures (and  
subcultures, including the exploration of grassroot organising and  
networks); politics and economics of media/technology; media literacy  
and engaging environmental issues. Social, intellectual and  
institutional capital has gathered over the years, but it is still  
based mostly on volunteer or underpaid work.  If we were to pay  
everyone, nothing would have happened to begin. That is a very-much  
unresolved problematic, but also strength where we support our dreams.

In organising and cooperation, the alt.econ.cult programme aimed to  
highlight peer-to-peer practice in relation to theories.  Unusually,  
in the Nordic cultural festival context, the event was funded by a  
'bottom-up' mix of institutional and seed/peer-funding, where the  
support grew over time, rather than being determined in advance.  For  
example, via small personal donations, cultural organisations,  
government ministries, non-profit political think-tanks, activist  
media and business companies.  We also experimented with an online  
volunteer donation system, instead of seminar tickets, and used an  
offline micro-donation system (Piñata).

For more info: http://2009.pixelache.ac/festival/programme/ 
alternative-economy-cultures/

.

DOCUMENTATIONS

All the documentations (including video, audio most slides, &  
supporting materials) from the Friday 3rd and Sunday 5th April events  
are now available *online*.

See here:
http://2009.pixelache.ac/alternative-economy-cultures-documentations/

The videos documenting the friday event are hosted on Vimeo platform,  
and the whole day is split into 7 parts. (In all cases, except the  
first 2 clips, speakers are bundled together in groups)

However, audio files of each presenter are also available in  
both .ogg and .mp3 format,
with creative commons licenses (by-sa/by-nc-sa) applied to them.

.

BUDGET

Lastly, for those who wish to dip 'under-the-money-covers' of the the  
'Alt.Econ.Cult' seminar..
Or learn something about the funding methodology/practicalities (and  
hopefully repeat/adapt/etc)..
Or wonder who gave to & benefited from it.. The budget is made  
public, released with a creative commons license (by-nc-nd).

Download: http://2009.pixelache.ac/alteconcult/budget/ 
budget_170409_alt-econ-cult_pixelache09_cc-by-nc-nd.pdf
or view online: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub? 
key=pcJi_Y1JrRioGw54PXtgWcQ

.

Feel free to share with your internets.
all the best (wishes),
,a

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andrew gryf paterson

http://agryfp.info/
mobile [FI]: +358 50402 3828
email: agryfp at gmail.com
skype: agryfp
locale: Helsinki, FI
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