[Reader-list] Cultural Futures: Call For Contributions and Event Announcement: (Auckland, Dec 1-5 2005)

[Danny Butt]

First Event Announcement and Call For Contributions - please circulate

CULTURAL FUTURES: PLACE, GROUND AND PRACTICE IN ASIA PACIFIC NEW MEDIA ARTS
Hoani Waititi Auckland / Tamaki Makaurau, December 1-5 2005
http://culturalfutures.place.net.nz

"The first imperative, that of crossing borders, translates as scepticism of
the rhetoric of bounded identities, and relates to the role of the
practitioner as a 'journeyman', as the peripatetic who maps an alternative
world by her journey through it.  The second, of building a shelter against
the odds of the law, insists however on a practice that is located in space,
and rooted in experience, that houses itself in a concrete 'somewhere' on
its own terms, not of the powers that govern spaces. It is this fragile
insistence on provisional stability, which allows for journeys to be made to
and from destinations, and for the mapping of routes with resting places in
between." 
-- Raqs Media Collective, 'X Notes on Practice'

Cultural Futures: Place, Ground and Practice in Asia Pacific New Media Arts
is an international event exploring cultural issues in the emerging new
media environment. It brings internationally significant artists to Auckland
/ Tamaki Makaurau for dialogue, workshops and exhibitions. Cultural Futures
is affiliated with the International Symposium for Electronic Arts
(ISEA2006), as an initiative of the Place, Ground and Practice Working Group
for the Pacific Rim New Media Summit. The Cultural Futures symposium,
exhibitions and workshops will develop international awareness of local work
in new media arts; and link international practices in new media arts to
dialogues in Aotearoa's cultural identity.

Confirmed participants include:

Albert L Refiti (Aotearoa)
Amanda Macdonald Crowley (Australia)
Cheryl L'hirondelle (Canada)
Creative Combat (Australia / Aotearoa)
Fatima Lasay (Philippines)
Jenny Fraser (Australia)
Lisa Reihana (Aotearoa)
Rachael Rakena (Aotearoa)
Raqs Media Collective (India)

with more currently under negotiation. Information on the presenters is
available at http://culturalfutures.place.net.nz/presenters.html

The symposium will include significant time set aside for open discussion,
and an entire afternoon for workshops that will develop ongoing initiatives
for new media arts in the Asia Pacific region. The outcomes from the
workshop will be presented at the Pacific Rim New Media Summit in San Jose,
California in August 2006.

To support this dialogue, we will be publishing a poster/broadsheet which
includes writings and imagery on the theme of "place, ground and practice in
the new media context". The broadsheet will be distributed to a wide public
to help establish an agenda for discussion during the symposium. Submissions
might address the following themes:

Place-based new media practices
Migration and movement
Indigeneity and colonisation
Home and belonging
New media and cultural transformation
Globalisation and cosmopolitanism
New media audiences and infrastructure
Activism and social change

Texts (in any genre) should be of less than 1500 words and images in JPEG
format under 2MB 
in size. These should be sent via e-mail to
info at culturalfutures.place.net.nz by August 30 2005. Publication will be at
the discretion of the editors, and all submitters will be notified of the
editors' decision as soon as possible. All contributions printed will be
attributed and copyright will remain with the contributor. All submitters
not attending Cultural Futures will receive copies of the publication by
post - please include your postal address with your submission.

We are also exploring possibilities for a book and/or journal issue on these
themes, to be developed after the symposium. Please e-mail if you wish to
receive more information about these plans as they develop.

Kia ora.

Danny Butt
Jon Bywater
Nova Paul

Organisational Group,
Cultural Futures
info at culturalfutures.place.net.nz
http://culturalfutures.place.net.nz