International Simposium on Electronic Art 2017 - Manizales (Colombia) - Workshop

Description

Domains, Publics and Access. WikiSprint for a Media Archaeology of the Present.

Domains, publics and access is an ongoing research project in media archaeology of the present been developed in Mexico by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and the Alumnos47 Foundation since 2015. The core of the research is a wiki where we collect projects that offer access for the general public to the domains of art, culture, economics, politics, science, and technology.

The Collection is dedicated to cataloguing, preserving and documenting projects that propose or investigate general access to the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services previously restricted mainly to specialists and professionals. Combining the mass media with heterogeneous social practices the projects question the vertical and centralized management of access by public and private institutions historically associated with art, culture, economics, politics, science, and technology such as museums, galleries, libraries, archives, publishers, laboratories, universities, companies, banks, hospitals, governments, political parties, factories, etc.

Projects that experiment with more horizontal and decentralized management models appear on the web associated with recent terms such as open access, open data, open content, open education, open government, open design, open spectrum, open science, cryptocurrencies, citizen journalism, citizen science, collaborative economy, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, free software, free culture, p2p, tactical urbanism ... These new terms coexist with old terms such as commons, public domain, time banks, grassroots media, solidarity economy, community currencies, cryptography, cooperatives, tactical media, DIY or piracy. All of them constitute the vocabulary of current forms of access, keywords of a vanishing present.

The Collection brings together projects that have emerged in different countries from the second half of the 20th century to the present day, with special attention to those developed in Mexico where the research began. The only condition is that the projects should be associated with the vocabulary of current forms of access counting on the participation of the general public in all domains of social activity. The collection includes, equally, projects launched by public and private institutions and different actors of civil society, since the questioning of the vertical and centralized management of access by institutions historically associated with the various domains is taking place inside and outside of them. In this way the Collection deals with the contemporary coexistence and hybridization between new and old models of access management that present different degrees of centralization and decentralization, verticality and horizontality.

Projects are categorized according to the categories and subcategories associated with the three main sections in which the wiki is divided. In Domains, the projects are indexed according to their main ascription to one or several Domains: Art, Science, Culture, Economics, Politics and Technology. In Publics, projects are labeled based on their linguistic, geographical and temporal universe. We catalog all the Language(s) in which each project is published, the Start Country(ies), the Start Year and the Year of Completion. In Access, the projects are classified according to the vocabulary of current forms of access. As this vocabulary appears and is popularized mainly in English, the main menu categories are in this language: Citizen, Collaborative, Commons, Co-ops, Crowd, Crypto, DIY, Free, Future, Grassroots, Open, P2P, Pirate, Private, Public, Tactical. The translation is found in the subcategories that also expand the forms of access linked with each category in English and Spanish. (We are currently translating the entire site in English).

To show how the vocabulary of current forms of access is diversified with use, the wiki allows participants to add new categories and subcategories following the terms that the projects apply to define themselves. When the terms are not shown explicitly or appear under a slightly different version, the categories and subcategories already indexed are assigned according to the criteria of the participant. Only the subcategories Nonprofit (Private), Profit (Private) and State (Public) are part of the cataloguing of all projects. In that way the public initiatives of governments are distinguished from all others and the business model and legal status of the project are indicated when they are clearly published. These cataloguing criteria also apply to projects that lack legal form or do not clearly state what their legal status is.

All the necessary information for the cataloguing is extracted from the project websites. Even the main sources for new projects are the links that they establish with other initiatives. In exceptional cases are secondary sources of information used to complete the cataloguing. The Collection does not pretend to be exhaustive. The selection is personal and depends on the online tours done by each participant as they register different projects in the wiki. Each participant is a curator and has her/his own “playlist”.

The goal is to preserve the memory of the projects that appear and disappear day by day in different countries by using the tools available online. As these are recent projects, all have or had a website that is saved in Wayback Machine, the free service that Internet Archive offers to preserve web pages in WARC format. In addition, all the Documentation of the projects is also preserved in Internet Archive for future generations.

The Documentation offers complementary information about the current forms of access in seven different sections. Interviews follows a questionnaire published by the fanzine Radical Software in 1970. The questionnaire applies to anyone involved in the projects who wish to provide their testimony. Manifestos exposes all kinds of perspectives about access, reactionary and progressive, that show how each new media present is transformed throughout the history of this genre. New manifestos appear and old manifestos are forgotten, so this incomplete collection by definition offers a selection that hopes to be enriched with new contributions. Library groups together books, articles, news, reports and any text dedicated to current forms of access and projects indexed in the wiki that are available for online consultation and downloading. Any document relevant to the current debates and reflections for the future of domains, publics and access is welcome.

The reason for cataloguing, preserving and documenting projects responds to the fact that the limits of access to the domains of art, science, culture, economics, politics and technology have never been stable and will continue to change in the near future. In order to provide a broader picture for future generations of the different forms of access, the collection includes all types of projects that are not only heterogenous but also antagonistic. Regardless of whether these are public, private or civil society initiatives, for profit or non-profit, local or global, activist, artistic, scientific, etc., from the left to the right of the political spectrum, this wiki gathers examples of all of them. The historical limits of access are established not only by consensus but also by antagonism between different perspectives which fight with each other by limiting the access at a particular time and place. The wiki collects the terms that inform the current discussions around access without taking the side of any of them. By displaying this vocabulary in its plurality and organizing it by country, a tool is offered through which all stakeholders can participate in the discussion or gain an idea of the possibilities available in their own context to judge for themselves the risks and opportunities that each form of access and each project puts into play.

Presenters

Paz Sastre (Madrid, 1975) holds a degree in philosophy from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a PhD from the Universidad Complutense in communication studies with the thesis Archives and Territories: Media Landscapes,Geoaesthetic and Commons directed by Dr. Francisco García García. She works in Mexico as a full professor and researcher in the Arts and Humanities Department of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Unidad Lerma. She has been a member of the Commons Mexico Laboratory and is part of Icono14, an independent research group dedicated to aesthetic and new media. From a visual studies perspective she has worked on archives, information society, bureaucracy and commons. Most of her publications can be consulted online. She has collaborated on several iniciatives dedicated to the construction, recovery and access to different archives such as the Huichol Nation Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Ana Victoria Jiménez archive of Mexican feminism and the repository, already deceased, of the Commons Mexico Laboratory (procomun.cc). At the present time she’s working on two ongoing research projects: one is Domains, publics and access (dpya.org), a wiki dedicated to the current forms of access, and the other is a research and preservation project of media manifestos. Her work has been presented in Medialab-Prado, Centro Multimedia, ISEA2016, Festival de las Artes Electrónicas y Video Transitio MX_06, Open Engagement Conference 2015, Festival de Artes Electrónicas y Video Transitio MX_05, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, VII World Archaeological Congress 2013, Creative Commons Summit Latinoamérica 2012, II Congreso Internacional Sociedad Digital 2011, I Congreso Internacional Ciudades Creativas 2009, Inclusiva-net 2008. She is a member of the jury of the National System of Artists and part of the National System of Researchers of the Mexican government.

p.sastre@correo.ler.uam.mx

Aisel Wicab (Ciudad de México, 1985) is a media artist that experiments with illustration, video and DIY machines to create light art, live performances and installations. Co-founded the expanded cinema group Colectivo Luz y Fuerza in 2012 and was part of the international live cinema collective Trinchera Ensamble from 2005 to 2011. Currently heads the area of educational research at Alumnos47 Foundation (non-profit organization that promotes knowledge processes using contemporary art) and she is involved in numerous projects that combine artistic experimentation with disruptive education and radical pedagogies. She has exhibited her work in Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Austria, France, Spain and Slovakia, at institutions such as the National Center of Arts, Cineteca Nacional, The Mexico City Museum, The Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico and Argentina, The Agora Quebec in Montreal, The Cinéma La Cleff in Paris, The Sammlung Essl and the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna. She has been granted by the Multimedia Center (CENART-INBA) in 2012, the BBVA-Bancomer Foundation in 2009, and PAPIIT-UNAM program from 2007 to 2009.

aisel@alumnos47.org

Participants

We are looking for participants interested in cataloguing, preserving and documenting the current forms of access for future generations from their national and personal experience. No expert knowledge is required. They can be artists, designers, scientists, academics, students, or from any other discipline with an interest in open access, open content, open government, open science, open design, open education, open spectrum, citizen journalism, citizen science, collaborative economy, commons, co-ops, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, cryptocurrencies, DIY, free software, free culture, community currencies, solidarity economy, grassroots media, p2p, piracy, tactical media, tactical urbanism, etc.

The sole requirement to participate in the workshops is to bring your own laptop or tablet.

Technical rider

Internet access, one projector, one screen, one white board and markers.

Tables, chairs and electric outlets enough for the number of participants signed up.

Schedule

09:00 - 10:00

1. Presentation

Who we are and what we do.

Who are you, where are you from and why are you interested in this workshop?

Let's open your account in the wiki!

2. Introduction to the research project

A very brief presentation of the Domains, publics and access research project.

3. Conversation

Which forms of access do you know?

Are you working on an specific access form?

What projects related to the current forms of access do you know?

Would you like to catalogue projects, manifestos or texts?

Would you like to become an interviewer during the Symposium?

10:00 - 12:00

4. Editing groups

The editing work will be organized in groups interested in cataloguing projects, manifestos or texts.

5. How to edit the wiki

How to create a wiki page.

How to upload a file.

How to catalogue a project.

How to catalogue a manifesto.

How to catalogue a text.

6. Research and cataloguing

Let's start cataloguing!

13:00 - 16:00

6. Research and cataloguing

Let's start cataloguing!

7. Editing groups presentations

Each editing group will show the catalogued projects, manifestos or texts.

Complementary materials

Research Map: File:Research map.pdf

Mapa de la investigación: File:Mapa investigacion.pdf

Collection Map: File:COLLECTION - Faceted Classification System.pdf

Mapa de la colección: File:COLECCIÓN - Sistema de clasificación facetada.pdf

Project Index Card: File:Project index card.pdf

Ficha de proyecto: File:Ficha de proyecto.pdf

Manifesto Index Card: File:Manifesto index card.pdf

Ficha de manifiesto: File:Ficha de manifiesto.pdf

Text Index Card: File:Text index card .pdf

Ficha de texto: File:Ficha de texto.pdf

Interview index card: File:Interview index card .pdf

Ficha de entrevista: File:Ficha de entrevista.pdf