[Reader-list] Video Vortex XI: Call for Responses

[Rashmi Sawhney]

*Video Vortex XI: Video in Flux*



*23-26 February 2017, Kochi-Muziris*





Video technology has radically altered the ways in which we produce,
consume and circulate images, influencing the aesthetics and possibilities
of moving image cultures, as well as yielding a rich body of scholarship
across various disciplines. Given its ease of access and use, video has
historically been aligned with media activism and collaborative work,
further enabled by digital platforms, that facilitate transnational
networks even as they exist within heightened systems of surveillance.
Having emerged as the driving force behind the web, social media, and the
internet of things, video, as Ina Blom (2016) suggests, is endowed with
life-like memory and agency. As witnessed in the recent network crash in
America as a result of the hacking of web cameras, video overload can even
become a cause for infrastructural vulnerability. While the infrastructures
of video in Europe and America may almost be taken for granted, in many
parts of the global South, video exists across uneven conditions, and this
invites engagements with video history and theory that are attentive to
these varied lives and forms of video.



Video Vortex XI proposes to place emphasis on these ‘other’ video cultures,
which have largely evaded scrutiny under the fiction of video’s
universalism. In keeping with this intention, Video Vortex XI is being held
in the city of Kochi-Muziris, in the midst of the 3rd Kochi biennial, which
gives contemporary form to the histories of an extremely cosmopolitan city.
Kochi-Muziris housed large Chinese, Arab, Jewish, and Christian populations
from its beginnings, and was governed by the Portugese, the Dutch, and the
British, before becoming part of independent India in 1947. As such, the
city provides a perfect location -- as the centre of trade between East
Asia, South Asia, and Europe – for addressing the diversities and the
synergies implicit in video cultures across the globe.



We are interested in the sharing of provocations, research, speculations,
video and film work that responds to current debates in film, video, media,
networks, and game theory, while being particularly attentive to the
implications that technologies of live video, surveillance, virtual
reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence have for the future
of video & media cultures.



We particularly encourage work that addresses the use of video in activism
and political mobilisation, artistic practices, technological developments
attendant to the medium (and its future), as well as the formal qualities
of video in the digital post-national and post-medium context.



The two day conclave will include* paper presentations, screenings,
discussions, workshops and round tables* and we invite proposals that
address (but are not limited to) the following themes. We are particularly
interested in work that is Asia-centric but are open to contributions that
engage with video cultures in the Global South :



   - Histories of video in Asia
   - Video art and activism
   - Aesthetics of Online video
   - Video and surveillance
   - Video archiving & curation
   - Infrastructures and platforms of video
   - Emergent technologies of video and moving image



We invite proposals in the following formats:



*Films & Curated Screening Programmes: *

Filmmakers and video artists are invited to submit work that addresses the
themes and concepts outlined in the Video Vortex XI call. Curators are
invited to propose short screening programmes of up to 3 hours that
showcase video/film work , in response to the themes outlined. A focus on
Asia is encouraged, but is not essential.



*Workshops:*

We invite video practitioners, artists, researchers, scientists, content
producers and theorists to submit proposals for workshops that explore
critical making as a mode of critique and inquiry. We are especially keen
on hearing from those working with Virtual or Augmented reality, as well as
those working with/on specific video archives. If you are proposing a
workshop, please indicate costs for materials, as these will have to be
built in separately as registration fees. All workshop organisers will have
to make their own arrangements for materials required.



*Sessions, individual contributions, reflections, responses & performances:
*

We welcome suggestions for sessions, round tables, and  individual
interventions addressing any of the topics outlined in the call, as well as
proposals for performances.



*About Video Vortex XI*

Video Vortex XI will take place in the Mill Hall, an old grain mill in
Mattanchery, which is one of the locations for the Kochi-Muziris biennale
2017.  Video Vortex XI will form a collateral event to the biennale, which
attracts large numbers of artists, curators, scholars and tourists from
around the world between the months of December 2016 and March 2017, when
the biennale is on. For more information on the biennale see
https://kochimuzirisbiennale.org.



*Submission deadlines:*

Please email proposals to Rashmi Sawhney: rashmi.sawhney at gmail.com and
Andreas Treske: treske at gmail.com by *16th December 2016.*

Selected applicants will be notified by* 30th December 2016.*


Video Vortex XI is being organised by the School of New Humanities &
Design, Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology in collaboration with
the University of Bilkent, Ankara, and the Institute of Network Cultures,
Amsterdam.

-- 
Dr. Rashmi Sawhney
Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology
N5, CA Site No. 21, 5th Phase,
KBH Colony, New Town Yelahanka,
Bangalore 560064
www.srishti.ac.in