Free
and Open Source Technologies, Arts and Commoning Practices: an
Unconference about Art, Design, Technology, Making, Cities and their
Communities
Date: Thursday, May 30th - Saturday June 1st, 2019
Location: University of Nicosia, Cyprus
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The Unconference is organized by the University of Nicosia Research
Foundation as part of project PHYGITAL, and co-organized in
collaboration with the Fine Arts Programme, Department of Design and
Multimedia,
hack66.info, and the Municipality of Lakatamia.
What
kind of creativity comes after today’s digital cultures? After the
smart city, post-surveillance, post-innovation, when social
entrepreneurship discourse has ran its course?
In the last
few years there has been a sharp momentum in the growth of groups and
spaces that operate under collective and community-driven structures of
collaboration and shared learning processes (onsite and online). This is
happening in parallel to debates about the fate of the commons
(physical, digital, and creative), and about openness and freedom of
access. Our societies are at the same time, reeling from the effects of
connectivity and social media just as we try to understand their
potential and limitations for civic improvement, mobilization and/or
abuse, and their extensions into socially and community orientated art
and design.
In our times of digital communalities, bringing
together issues related to art, design, technology, governance, and the
commons, also means to reflect on contemporary discourses of openness
and freedom, and to redefine the ways we produce and share knowledge,
not least about new possibilities of production and sharing in
themselves.
Considering our digital realisms and increasingly
disparate lived realities, we wish to explore examples and approaches to
activism in relation to social movements around making and sharing,
critical artistic practices, and their related technological shifts.
Especially as pockets of our cities are being transformed into creative
and entrepreneurial hubs, and new setups of collective knowledge
production blend into processes of urbanisation, regeneration and issues
related to the smart city and its mechanisms of surveillance.
Confirmed speakers
Dr Richard M. Stallman
Dr Luiz Guilherme Vergara
Dr Johan Soderberg
Dr Gabriele de Seta
Harriet Poppy Speed and Dr Lynn Jones
Dr Gregory Sholette
Unconference Format
This
Unconference follows the momentum of a broader movement rethinking the
academic conference format towards a more connected model of knowledge
sharing, peer learning and collaboration. This allows presentations of
research while it also allows participants to work together and set
their own agenda in discussions, workshops, and co-working sessions,
that respond to previous proposals as well as spontaneously emerging
priorities. We will be hosting participants from a broad network of
researchers and activists across fields, and connecting remotely with
others.
Thursday Evening May 30th: Keynote
Friday, May 31st:
A day of presentations and pre-organised panels, during which we will
collectively formulate a plan for the Saturday, according to emerging
priorities among the participants
Saturday, June 1st: Discussions, workshops and co-working sessions designed according to the conclusions of the previous day
The
Unconference participants are invited to contribute to an Open Access
Online Masterclass with the same theme. The event will connect with a
local makeathon and later lead to an Exhibition that aims to communicate
visually and interactively the outcomes of these debates. Developing a
publication is one of the conference’s main aims.
How To Participate - Show up!
-
Submit and present something on May 31st: We invite abstracts for
15-20min presentations, panels or discussions, posters, remote video
participations, and workshop proposals. To propose something please send
title(s), 250 word abstracts, short bios, and contact details to:
cycommons@protonmail.com **Submission Deadline: 10/03/2019**- Help construct the second-day programme and join the discussions
- Participate remotely via backchannel or/and by sending in something for the on-site participants to consider
- Propose something for the Proceedings or the Online Masterclass
Join our Art, Tech, and the Commons Mailing List by emailing cycommons@protonmail.com
Provisional Themes
- the technology of participatory art, community art, and socially engaged art
- the art of the free and open source software movement
- social media mobilisation: necessary or abusive?
- free and open source community technologies and arts
- openness and/vs freedom in social, art, design and tech initiatives
- hacktivisms and artivisms / hacking the art and art hacking
- contemporary questions around community and civically driven art, design and technology
- hacking as culture
- hackerspaces and makerculture / hackerspaces and their politics
- shared learning - peer to peer
- “Design Global Manufacture Local”
- local vs global dimensions in community practice
- tech and art resistance discourses, their directions and overlaps
- freedom tech, tech freedom
- making and the commons: redefining public art / participatory art
- digital commons
- digital governance and social movements
- self-organisation discourse
- open data discourse
- networked cultures
- technology and policy / policy tech
Scientific Committee
Evanthia Tselika, University of Nicosia (Chair)
Chrystalleni Loizidou, hack66 (Chair)
Maria Hadjimichael, University of Cyprus
Niki Sioki, University of Nicosia
Eva Korae, Cyprus University of Technology
Marios Isaakidis, University College London
Thrasos Nerantzis, Future World Centre
Leandros Savvides, Leicester University
Gabriele de Seta, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan
Helene Black and Yiannis Colakides, NeMe.org
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Project
Phygital is implemented under the transnational Cooperation Programme
“Balkan - Mediterranean 2014-2020” under the name «Catalysing innovation
and entrepreneurship unlocking the potential of emerging production and
business models». The Project is co-funded by the European Union and
National Funds of the participating countries.
http://phygitalproject.eu