From: Andreas Treske (treske@bilkent.edu.tr) Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition - Call for participation On October 10-11 2008, Bilkent University Department of Communication and Design, in cooperation with the Institute of Network Cultures, will organise the 3rd Video Vortex event in Ankara, Turkey. Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition will feature a two-day international conference, evening program, live performances and new media art exhibition. As video is becoming a significant form of personal media on the internet, this conference and new media event aims to examine the key issues that are emerging around the independent production and distribution of online video. We are witnessing the merging of television and the Internet at an unprecedented speed. Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition, similar to the former Video Vortex conferences, will contextualize the latest developments through presenting continuities and discontinuities in the artistic, activist and mainstream perspective of the last few decades. Unlike the way online video presents itself as the latest and greatest, there are long threads to be woven into the history of visual art, cinema and documentary production. The rise of the database as the dominant form of storing and accessing cultural artifacts, has a rich tradition that still needs to be explored. How will we navigate through continuous expanding spaces of moving images? Will there be a technological paradigm shift, and how will this shift be narrated? What responses do are artists, activists, filmmakers and media producers have to the dynamic and controversial world of online video? How are institutions, groups and individuals coping with the potentialities of freely distributed video content? Themes of Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition will be: Navigating the database, p2p, art online, visual art, innovative art, participatory culture, social networking, political economy, collaboration and new production models, censorship & YouTube, collective memory, cinematic and online aesthetics. Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition is an extension of the broader Video Vortex project by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. Video Vortex Ankara is a follow-up to the Amsterdam conference, held in January 2008, and the Brussels conference, held in October 2007. It aims to continue and deepen the debates, while bringing together a wide range of scholars, artists and curators as well as lawyers, producers and engineers. At present, the organizers are in contact with Geoffrey Bowker, Donato Totaro, Jaromil, Steve Wilson, Vera Tollmann, Basak Senova, Angela Melitopoulos, Aras Ozgün and Michael Verdi, just to name a few. We are currently finalizing the program and aim to start press release at the end of May. To keep up with our progress, please see http://www.networkcultures.org/videovortex as well as the Video Vortex discussion list. Information about subscription to this list can be found at http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/videovortex_listcultures.org. The Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition website and blog, containing the latest information, will be online soon. For inquiries regarding participation, contribution or submission of related works, please contact Andreas Treske at treske@bilkent.edu.tr.