[spectre] Announcement of Camp Pixelache 2014: The Commons, Vartiosaari, eastern Helsinki, 6-8th June

[andrew paterson]

Pixelache Helsinki 2014 will be an international 2-day trans-disciplinary
event focusing on the theme of "The Commons", including bio-, urban culture
and knowledge commons topics. Adding a new island to its logbook after
Suomenlinna (2011) and Naissaar (2013), Camp Pixelache will take up
residence in Vartiosaari, a nature island surrounded by eastern suburbs of
Helsinki, during 6-8th June 2014.

http://pixelache.ac/camp-2014

Camp Pixelache

Based on previous Camp Pixelache experiments, the event is designed around
two main unconference days. Except for keynote lectures planned in advance,
typically at unconferences the agenda will be shaped and confirmed by the
attendees at the beginning of the event. Anyone who wants to initiate a
discussion on a commons-related topic can claim a time and a space. The
event is free of charge. Several events will be organized around the main
Camp Pixelache days, including a programme of participatory workshops.

Background

According to Michel Bauwens, "the Commons consist of any common resource
that is available to all, and as such there are many type of Commons but
basically two: physical resources or man-made. The Commons is also a series
of specific institutional formats used to manage such common resources." On
the local Commons.fi web-presence, the following examples of Commons are
also given: Shared natural resources, free software, open data, p2p
networks, co-operatives, co-cultures, talkoots, street art, as well as many
other commonly-known past, present and future manifestations."

Pixelache already has a long history of engaging with collaborative digital
media and particularly with knowledge-sharing and Free/Libre Open Source
culture. Early in Pixelache Helsinki's development, a social science paper
by Katri Halonen, correctly identified the strong co-relations between
open-source ideology, and the influencing thematic and organizational
structure of the festival. Pixelache Festival 2014 engages further in
Commons issues, specifically from the angle of educational and cultural
production strategies and sustainability. As a trans-disciplinary cultural
festival, we believe in the necessity to develop trans-disciplinary
capacities to tackle together issues of the Commons, such as environmental
protection and sustainable nature-resource utilization/management, as well
as resisting privatizing forces on all aspects of life.

Vartiosaari

Camp Pixelache's main venue Vartiosaari demonstrates many aspects of the
Commons as an undeveloped nature and recreation island in the middle of
suburban city sprawl, which hosts numerous social and association-run
wooden summer-villa retreats and special features. The island is currently
under-threat of full-scale residential development by Helsinki City
Planning Department, and there is a grassroots campaign to protect it's
particular qualities, in which artists & cultural practitioners are
involved. We are hoping that the occasion of Camp Pixelache can also
provide a discussion forum around Helsinki-Commons issues.
http://kaupunginosat.net/vartiosaari

Suggestions of sub-themes / Seeded contributions

* Open-Sourcing Festivals (in the context of EU-Grundtvig 'Open Learning
Steps & Open-sourcing Festivals' project). How does an organization
open-source their cultural festival? Can we share the process for
organizing a festival, so that other groups can use it themselves? How do
organizations support activities and events throughout the year? Can we
share the process for sustaining ongoing programs, so that other groups can
do this too? These are the questions that five experimental art, design and
technology organizations from the Pixelache Network are asking themselves
and others, and exploring, through a mobile circuit of workshops and
seminars organized across Europe during 2013-2015. Open Source and
Free/Libre culture, spreading from software and hardware, to urban space
and organizational issues, unites the partners.
http://www.pixelache.ac/blog/2014/open-sourcing-festivals/

* The Bio-Commons in collaboration with Finnish Society of Bioart The topic
of Camp Pixelache 2014 are the commons in general, the cultural and natural
resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural
materials such as air, water, and a habitable earth. Biotechnological
developments show that some of the biological commons are endangered by
rigorous attempts of patenting natural biological resources for their
utilization in biotechnology. The biohacking scene as well as the DIY
Biology movement is working in keeping biology and biotechnology in the
commons. The Finnish Society of Bioart will organize a biohacker and DIY
Biology sub-theme related to the commons for Camp Pixelache 2014.
http://bioartsociety.fi/

* Helsinki-Commons as a continuation of the collaboration with Aalto co-p2p
SIG, Open cities working group (Open Knowledge Foundation Finland) and
Pixelache. Going from mapping towards the ways (methods) that Commons can
be made.. A 'Designing the Commons' how-to resource could be developed
(what works, why, a la Elinor Ostrom's '8 Principles for Managing a
Commmons'), or at least initiated during the Camp Pixelache days.
http://co-p2p.mlog.taik.fi/

Get Involved!

If you would like to get involved, please contact office [-at-] pixelache.ac

We will make an open call for participation in February.
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