thoughtsandtalks

Screenings at HUMlab, the Conference room
Annemie Maes and Goedele Verleysen

Starting with the screening of the movie ‘MAHILA’ (about the women solar engineers of Barefoot College India) followed by the screening of the film of Goedele Verleysen (on the role of the women in the political situation in Bolivia). A more detailed presentation on the projects will follow the screenings.

This will be followed by a more detailed presentation on the projects, and a discussion starting from a list of questions. These questions will be modified collectively, during the workshop. New list will serve as a starting point to do audio interviews with the participants, and will be added to a collective (open source) audio database.

The Eclectic Tech Carnival is a gathering of women with a critical interested in Free Information and Open Standards technology. The event creates an opportunity for women to network, exchange skills and have fun! It’s been held at least once a year since 2002, each time in a place where there is a group of women intersted and willing to host and organise it. Its roots are in the Genderchangers hardware and FLOSS courses.

Women from all over the world organise the /ETC through mailing lists, IRC chat and IRL (in real life) meetings. While the main focus is to attract local women to participate, the reality is that women (and gender minorities) travel from all over the world to participate in the Eclectic Tech Carnival.

The week-long festivities includes workshops on installing open source and free software, taking a computer apart, building websites, soldering, playing puzzle games, learnign to programme and discuss the meaning of it all. In addition there are art exhibitions, presentations and performances.

more info: http://www.eclectictechcarnival.org/

Move for a Day is taking place during the Micronomics Festival in Brussels. Therefore some non-profit organiations, buisnesses and micro-initiatives will swap their work places with each other.

5 minutes movie made by Indymedia on the move1day-activities:

(click the image to link to the indymedia site).

More information can be downloaded on David Helbich’s blog.
A slideshow of the event we be presented at Micronomics festival.
More pictures about the Movie1Day-project:
http://thoughtsandtalks.so-on.be/photo-albums/, select move1day-album.

(more…)

The ‘Alternative Economy Cultures’ (alt.econ.cult) programme on April 3rd & 5th brings together leading international and Finnish thinkers, cultural practitioners and activists, to present alternative economic visions.
The seminar aims to tackle not just the financial, but the social, cultural, institutional, human, material, emotional and intellectual forms of capital. Not just about individual gain, boosting, balancing or bail-outs, but common good, peer-to-peer, shared wealth and appropriate reward for effort involved.
Cultural production and social-networking, especially the digital online versions of the recent decade, have promoted new ideas of wealth, opportunity, scarcity, and exchange. Importantly, it also reminds us of old ones. Surrounding those ideas are developing practices, cultures and entrpreneurship.

all info: seminar alternative economy cultures

Pixelache 09 features a seminar (in Finnish) and a series of presentations and discussions (in English) related to theme Art, Science & Ecology.
This theme aims to bring together local and international environmental scientists and artists. The programme will feature presentations about recent art/science collaborations and discussions about working methods and shared interests.
We will also explore what could be done with the real-time energy consumption data recently released by Helsingin Energia (see below) together with the participants of Digital Craftsmanship and Audiovisual Hacking themes.

info: seminar Art, Science & Ecology

report by regine debatty - we make money not art : how to save the world in 10 days!

Setting up an exhibition about today’s ecological and economical crisis is a delicate exercise: it seems that everybody has done one such exhibition before you and invited the same artists as you. This year’s edition of The Game Is Up! , a festival organized by one of my favourite art centers, the Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium, was brazenly titled How To Save the World in 10 Days.

Signals from the South’ is an annual showcase of projects from ‘the South’ (South America, Africa, Asia). This year’s exhibition features work by Venzha Christ / Yogyakarta New Media Art Laboratory (Indonesia), Geraldine Juaréz (Mexico), Annemie Maes (Belgium), Vanessa Gocksch & Juan Carlos Pellegrino (Colombia).

The exhibition is organised by Pixelache festival in collaboration with MUU Gallery.
Pixelache Helsinki (2-5 April) is a festival of electronic art and subcultures, organised since 2002.

signals from the south
pixelache.2009
MUU Gallery 13.3. - 5.4.2009 — Lönnrotinkatu 33, 00180 Helsinki

information on the projects and artists: (more…)

Global warming, the financial crisis, famine, drought and overpopulation… The end is near, but don’t despair: artists and experts from different disciplines will launch proposals to save the world, put the threat in perspective or blow up the whole thing.
Well-aimed happenings, bold statements, bizarre turns, sophisticated utopias and biodegradable references.

Vooruit/Ghent - 4/14 march 2009

So-on – Politics of change
Annemie Maes has made a documentary wall with pictures, videos, and interviews she gathered during her field research at Barefoot College. In this Indian community, illiterate grown-up women are technically trained so they can personally provide their village with sustainable energy with the help of solar panels. Their knowledge could inspire the West to find solutions for current climate and environmental issues.
Annemie Maes is a member of the So-on collective, consisting of artists, filmmakers, activists and researchers. They want to confront the public with different views and try to stimulate the public debate on economic, political and cultural sustainability.