thoughtsandtalks

On saturday september 18th, three Brussels art labs invite you in Koolmijnenkaai 30-34. OKNO opens their rooftop garden and Open Greens-project to all. You can taste urban honey and drinks made of plants from the garden. You can nibble on FoAM’s detoxifying treats to help you fight urban afflictions, spiced up with plants from the Kanal area. Q-O2 invites the sound artist Pierre Berthet for a concert using waterdrops as an instrument.

After a day of walking between various urban gardens alongside the canal, FoAM will serve a range of detoxifying bites, especially crafted to eliminate toxins and pollutants from the human bodily ecology. The aperitif combines ingredients, methods and performance-eating techniques that can assist your body in fighting some of the most prominent urban afflictions, including allergies, stress related disorders, diabetes and cancer. In collaboration with OKNO and Irma Firma, the cooks will incorporate edible plants gathered and grown in the Brussels’ Kanal area.

More: http://www.platformkanal.be/nl/acties/22-festival-kanal

Okno participates in the e-culture fair : ‘Future of the Labs’.

As part of the E-CULTURE FAIR 2010, BALTAN Laboratories is organising and hosting a presentation of Dutch, Belgian and German media art laboratories, brought together around three shared themes. This is an international presentation of BALTAN’s Future of the Lab research and one of the 12 projects from the Netherlands at the ECF.

The E-CULTURE FAIR 2010 will be showcasing innovative projects in the cross-over fields of creative industry, research, education and media art from August 23 – 25 on the second floor of the Dortmunder U – Centre for Art and Creativity. It is the first step of the envisaged long-term cooperation between the three partners, namely Virtueel Platform of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, BAM of Ghent, Flanders, Belgium, and medienwerk.nrw of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, organised by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (Dortmund, DE). In line with previous events held in the Netherlands since 2000, the E-CULTURE FAIR is being presented for the first time in Germany as a partner event and cooperation project of ISEA2010 RUHR, 16th International Symposium on Electronic Art.

Mal au Pixel festival is looking at connecting technology, urban electronics and social transformation issues, and to investigate our contemporary beliefs. The festival brings together young digital artists and unconventionnal electronics: unexpected technologies, prototypes and open ended events.
For its fifth edition, Mal au Pixel further explores environmental issues and looks at the signals coming from the South, through initiatives from the worldwide DIY community.
ALTLABS MEETING au 104 • June 27 • 14h-19h
104 rue d’Aubervilliers - 5 rue Curial, Paris 19
with : Okno | Trias Culture | Ker Thiossane | TMPLab | HONF | CRAS | APO33 | Refarm the City | DakarLug | …
http://www.le104.fr

http://www.happynewfestival.be/Klinkende_Stad.html

MAHILA is a multi media project that engages with women empowerment in small communities, here especially focused on Indian countrywomen affected by climate change. The project is presented in a twofold installation. One room unveils a multiple speaker ante-chamber that guides to the second room where a film is shown. The first room gives a taste of the material and atmosphere that the artists captured during their research in India. By the use of polyphonic principles and theatrical setups Billy Bultheel creates a simple yet elegant sound installation approaching the contemplative Indian landscape.
The second room shows a film made by Annemie Maes, which is a reflective documentary on women empowerment, going from west to east and vice versa.
(more…)

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