[- New faces (and formats) rule!?
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By TreborScholz, Section question corner Posted on Sat Aug 30th, 2003 at 10:32:20 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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Some thoughts on conference formats in the media arts scene
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I love conferences. They are great places to get inspired, provoked, debate, learn, make new friends, meet future collaborators, party intensely, dance. And yet a bit of a festival fatigue takes hold of the media arts scene. Recent articles in the summer issue of "metamute" address the issue looking at "Transmediale" and other festivals. Discussions in preparation for the upcoming Next5Minutes conference in Amsterdam also addressed the question of festival formats.
What are the point of discontent? Well, sometimes conferences become disintegrated and unconnected recitals of individual panelists, which are interesting, but don't focus on the questions of the conference. The one-to-many format of a speaker addressing an audience should be done away with as it turns the audience into a passive block in front of a self-promotional panel or speaker. This setup contributes to the ghettoizing of incestuous and insular networks, often either Euro or US (if not New York)-centric. What about global inclusivity? And how do the organizers get the local or regional audience to participate? The conference location is crucial in this regard as an inclusive space invites new faces, opens up the space of the conference to the city.
Rigid structure of panels and the non-communicative form of the key-note speaker feed into the celebrity system reinforcing hegemonic paradigms that get in the way of a lively exchange of ideas. Debates are mostly dominated by male participants leaving other important contributions unheard. Here are some of the existing models and others who are more experimental.
Mailing-List, Weblog (process-oriented discussion formats that lead up to the conference, prior physical meetings show useful)
Talk-Shop (making sure debates stay conceptually coherent)
Panel (reformulation, reworking, revision of outlined issues,
allowing for spontaneity, after presentation chairs get re-arranged
to include the audience)
Open Mic (very short presentations or comments, VCR / slide projector/ web projection available)
Party (drinking, dancing, drugs)
Workshop (including the creation of link lists on the theme of the workshop)
Lecture (ie. collaborative lectures, Avoiding that the participants sit bored to tears in the audience)
Artist Presentation (showing projects in process to invite people in the audience to collaborate)
Exhibition-Type Situation (settings in which to present, and browse networked artworks or web initiatives (smaller intimate spaces encouraging flesh connections)
Coffee-Break (based on the "water cooler theory")
Open Space (professionally moderated, closed door once a group has formed)
Open Mike Space(people introduce themselves very briefly, room for making contacts, meet space)
Parallel Event (making sure the events don't compete for audience, satellite events showing the outcome of the conference: ie. Collaborations)
I'm curious what your thoughts and experiences are regarding these models and which formats you found most useful.
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