Technology Culture

SCANZ 2013: Wananga-Symposium

Developing the culture to create a sustainable civilization

Feb 1stâ€“3rd, 2013 â€“ New Plymouth, New Zealand

SCANZ (Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand)Â is New ZealandÂ´s premier art, technology, culture and ecology event and involves a symposium, creative residency, and public events and exhibitions. Occurring biennially, it has typically involved a mix of Aotearoa New Zealand and international artists, producers, theorists and curators.Â SCANZ 2013: 3rd natureÂ will be theÂ fourth eventÂ and will be organized by Ian Clothier, Trudy Lane, and Nina Czegledy ofÂ Intercreate, in partnership with aligned organizations within the arts and sciences and with tangata whenua.

SCANZ 2013 3rd natureÂ seeks to develop a fresh space, carrying memes from previous SCANZ events (which have all had an emphasis on environment) and other Intercreate projects that have involved scientists, indigenous peoples and artists working together. The aim is to build new knowledge and establish legacies around this work, unencumbered by old perspectives and now distant categories.

We ignore the environmental crisis at our peril. Integrating the indigenous perspective, creative, environmental and scientific views on the environment is essential for continued human habitation of the planet. From these trajectories, it is possible to conceive of a fresh hybrid space, composed of overlapping elements.

For the symposium schedule, a list of selected abstracts and to register,Â click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21â€²s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in LÃ¼neburg, Germany) and Rana Ã–ztÃ¼rk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Technology, culture, Rodney King, Ian Tomlinson and Damien McBride

Two very modern stories, and one slightly older one:

1) Attempting to grasp the new digital culture, the UKâ€™s Labour party falls foul of it instead when Gordon Brownâ€™s protege Damien McBride is caught plotting to feed bloggers malevolent disinformation.

2) Protestors, long warning of the evils of surveillance culture, suddenly find that surveillance has its uses when horrendous footage of the beating of Ian Tomlinson emerges, to be followed yesterday by more amateur phone video of another police assault on a G20 protestor.

The socio-technological earthquake continues to alter the way our culture unfolds in surprising ways. The omnipresence of continually updated digital representations of our world is altering our relationship to it in ways that are both dangerous and liberating.

Blogger Tomorrow Museum suggested something like this recently, kicking off with Momusâ€™s idea of the 1:1 ratio of experience to writing. For the slightly Eeyore-ish artist/musician Momus, the suggestion that we now turn every act into content – a blog, a Tweet- is something of a worry. For Tomorrow Museum, though, this world in which everyone becomes a witness is a safer place. He cites the filmed beating of Rodney King – the assault that started the LA Riots – as a starting point of this info earthquake.

The paradox is that while Damien McBrideâ€™s actions are now witnessed and scrutinised, weâ€™ve also lived through a decade in which around seven million have been killed or died in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia with barely any witness at all.

And having met Rodney King a couple of times while I was working in South Central Los Angeles, I wouldnâ€™t envy anyone who becomes part of the info-maelstrom. The film of Rodney Kingâ€™s beating became a focal point for civil rights activism, but King himself was not a man who ever asked for the attention, who felt tragically responsible for the deaths that happened in the ensuing riots, and who appeared to be just as much a victim of the all attention he had as of that original police assault.

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology