<div dir="ltr">Sorry for any cross posting...<br><div><br>Marc
Garrett writes about strategies for solidarity discussed in the
Off-the-Cloud-Zone at this year's Conversation Pieces at Transmediale
festival 2016. <br><br>""Last year’s festival explored the marketing of
big data in the age of social control. This year, the chosen format was
entitled conversationpiece, with the aim of enabling a series of
dialogues and participatory setups to talk about the most burning topics
in post-digital culture today. To give it grounding and historical
context the theme was pinned to the “backdrop of different processes of
social transformation, 17th and 18th century European painters perfected
the group portrait painting known as the “Conversation Piece” in which
the everyday life of the aristocracy was depicted in ideal scenes of
common activity.” In recent years the festival has scaffolded its panels,
workshops and keynotes to grand, central themes to guide its peers and
visitors, along with a large-scale curated exhibition. If we view the
four interconnected thematic streams- Anxious to Act, Anxious to Make,
Anxious to Share and Anxious to Secure - we might guess that the
festival curators are also anxious to save all the resources (and
celebrations) for next year, which is after all, Transmediale's 30th
birthday. So, I was curious to see how my brief time here would
unfold...""<br><br><a href="http://www.furtherfield.org/features/review-transmediale-2016-necessary-conversations">http://www.furtherfield.org/features/review-transmediale-2016-necessary-conversations</a></div></div>