Dear aoir list, here the programe of the fibreculture meeting, a list for Australian new media/net research and culture. Matthew Allen and a few others of the Internet Studies program from Curtin (Perth) will be coming. We expect around 50 participants. This first meeting will have an informal character and is meant to become a strategic conference, not one with speakers and papers. One of the outcomes could be the founding of an Australian foundation for Internet research, but we first have to discuss this. One of the topics is also gonna be the relation between fibreculture and aior. We will keep you posted about the results. If you're interested, you can order the book which contemporary writings of Autralian new media scholars. Later on I will post the details how to order this publication. All the papers were peer-reviewed and ran on the fibreculture list in previous versions. Yours, Geert Lovink (one of the fibreculture facilitators) --- | f i b r e - c u l t u r e | || ||| |||| ||||||| || ||| || |||||| ||||| || |||| i n t e r n e t || ||| |||| ||||||| || ||| || |||||| ||||| || |||| theory | criticism | research || ||| |||| ||||||| || ||| || |||||| ||||| || |||| ::fibreculture:: politics of a digital present 6 - 8 December, 2001, Melbourne Noting a vacuum in critical Australian net culture and research, ::fibreculture:: was founded as a mailing list in January 2001 by David Teh and Geert Lovink. The purpose of the list has been to exchange articles, ideas and arguments on Australian IT policy and practice in a broad context. The inaugural ::fibreculture:: meeting considers four key areas of net culture and research: theory, policy, education and the arts. Co-organised by Cinemedia and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a public debate on the evening of 6 December will precede the meeting. The debate seeks to address these issues in dialogue with a wider audience. A 2 day meeting follows the debate. All are welcome. Both events bring together a community of critical thinkers engaged with new media/Internet theory and practice, with a view to constructing a strategic program of how Australia might better support innovation, R+D and the applications and culture of new technology. A reader has been prepared for publication prior to the ::fibreculture:: meeting. It can be ordered from the ::fibreculture:: website (www.fibreculture.org). Submissions of 1500 to 3000 word short essays, position papers, or manifestos were invited that address at least one of the four key themes, and these were posted to the ::fibreculture:: mailing list and subject to peer review. The aim of the ::fibreculture:: meeting is not to present formal papers, but to circulate papers in advance which can operate as a point of reference and basis for discussion during the meeting. We aim to produce more readers, monographs, edited collections and newspapers. Proposals to the list are most welcome for future publications. We see this as one key intervention into the current political economy of commercial academic publishing and the "command economy" approach to academic production by DETYA. Digital publics: a debate Thursday 6 December, 7pm - 10pm Organised together with Cinemedia's Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) Treasury Theatre, Lower Plaza 1 Macarthur Street, East Melbourne Registration: at the door ($10 full/$7 concession) 7pm sharp Introduction Moderator: Geert Lovink 7.15pm - 7.50pm Session 1 - Net Theory Key Speaker: Mathew Allen, Associate Professor, School of Media and Information, Curtin University of Technology; author of Smart Thinking; and the Executive of the Association of Internet Researchers (http://www.aoir.org). Respondent: Esther Milne, writer and PhD candidate, Department of English with Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne. 7.50pm - 8.25pm Session 2 - Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, Commercial Practices Key speaker: Victor Perton, Victorian Shadow Minister for Technology & Innovation; Victorian Shadow Minister for Conservation & Environment; former Chairman, Victorian Government Multimedia Committee, Data Protection Advisory Council, Electronic Business Framework Group. Respondent: Tom Worthington, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Australian National University; electronic business consultant; author of the book Net Traveller; information technology professional. BREAK - 25 minutes plus launch of book, Politics of a Digital Present: An Inventory on Australian Net Culture, Criticism and Theory · light snacks and drinks available in foyer 8.50pm - 9.25pm Session 3 - New Media Arts/Culture and the Arts Key Speaker: Terry Cutler, currently a member of the Australian Information Economy Advisory Council. He is a member of the International Advisory Panel of Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor, reflecting his strong interest in the role of, and opportunities for, Asian countries in the new information era. Terry Cutler is also Chairman of the Australia Council, having previously chaired its New Media Arts Board, and he is on the Council of the Victorian College of the Arts. He has previously served as a director of Cinemedia and Opera Australia. Respondent: Amanda McDonald Crowley, currently Associate Director, Adelaide Festival 2002. Cultural worker, researcher, facilitator, curator working primarily in the new media/ electronic arts field. Previous Director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology. 9.25pm - 10pm Session 4 - Education Key speaker: Paul James, Senior Lecturer, Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University; President of Association for the Public University; author of Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community; editor of The State in Question: Transformations of the Australian State and Technocratic Dreaming: Of Very Fast Trains and Japanese Designer Cities; editorial member of Arena publications. Respondent: Anna Munster, Lecturer in Digital Media Theory, School of Art History and Theory, College of Fine Arts, UNSW. She is also a media artist whose work ranges across new media, time-based and photomedia (see her online work: http://wundernet.cofa.unsw.edu.au). Anna has written for ctheory, m/c, Photofile and Artlink among others and is currently researching biotechnical art and ethics. Closing Panel ::fibreculture:: inaugural meeting, 7 - 8 December, Organised together with the Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) 234 St Kilda Road Southbank, Melbourne VIC 3006 Registration: $50/$30 full; $30/$20 single day (payable at the door - NOTE cash or cheques only). Registration includes lunch, tea, coffee and copy of the book, Politics of a Digital Present: An Inventory of Australian Net Culture, Criticism and Theory. Venue: a PDF map of the room locations can be downloaded from www.vca.unimelb.edu.au - go to the link "Where is the VCA". Program Friday 7 December Venue: Room 216 in the Music School (entry from St Kilda Road) 10.00am - 10.30am Introduction of ::fibreculture:: facilitators and organisers 10.30am - 12.30pm Mapping Australian FibreCulture Round with introductions and 3 minute presentations · Researchers, critics, theorists, writers, programmers, designers, developers, consultants: WHERE are you and WHAT are you up to? 12.30pm - 1.25pm - Lunch break 1.30pm - 3.30pm Session 1: Network Theory/Philosophy Topics: · Debating neo-emperical approaches and the return of objective social science after the exhaustion of post-structuralism · Crisis of the offline (AI/VR) body centred Deleuzian notions · Hegemony of digital Darwinism and biologism within new media arts and IT industry · Importance of media archaeology, mapping pre-histories of new media · Global governance debate · Public Domain vs. the Corporate State · Problematic relation to Cultural Studies · Network theories for the future-present 3.30pm - 4pm - Tea/coffee break 4pm - 6pm Session 2: Policy Topics: · Telstra, broadband, right of access, bandwidth · Australia and the censorship tendency (political, pornography, gambling, etc.) · Alternative plan for IT Centre of Excellence · Mapping the policy players · How to fight the consumerist ethos in IT policy - "access" as cyber literacy and skill, not high bandwidth data-gluttony · How can ::fibreculture:: be heard and operate on the policy level? · Policy futures 6pm onwards - drinks/dinner party (location to be decided) Saturday 8 December Venue: Federation Hall (entry from Grant Street, Southbank) 11.00am - 1pm Session 3: Culture and the arts Topics: · Cult of representation, proximity to political power · Patronage system (cultural state apparatus) · Primacy of aesthetics · Lack of game/net.art and e-literature funding · Deliriating over an (absent) synergy of arts and science · Generationalism in new media arts 1pm - 2pm - Lunch break · screening of The Code - a Linux documentary from Finland 2pm - 4pm Session 4: Education Topics: · Current approaches/paradigms: teaching new media/internet studies and e-learning · Corporatisation and the Virtual University - profit obsessions, confused IT sovereignty, limited teaching and research outcomes · What constitutes the mode of production? · Relationship between curricula development and university funding and policy · Both government and opposition share limited horizons. How can we explode these? 4.15pm - 6pm Closing session ::fibreculture meeting:: · Directions of ::fibreculture:: · Discussion about the list · Legal structures for ::fibreculture:: as formal organisation · Futures: the place of ::fibreculture:: within policy making, research funding and practice Convenors: Hugh Brown (Brisbane) hughie@onlineopinion.com.au Geert Lovink (Sydney) geert@xs4all.nl Helen Merrick (Perth) H.Merrick@exchange.curtin.edu.au Esther Milne (Melbourne) e.milne@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au Ned Rossiter (Melbourne) Ned.Rossiter@arts.monash.edu.au David Teh (Sydney) dteh@arthist.usyd.edu.au Michele Willson (Perth) M.Willson@exchange.curtin.edu.au With special thanks to: John Arnold, Head of School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, <John.Arnold@arts.monash.edu.au> Alessio Cavallaro, Producer/Curator New Media Projects Cinemedia's Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) <alessio@cinemedia.net> Nikos Papastergiadis, writer and Head of the Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), <n.papastergiadis@vca.unimelb.edu.au> Louise Adler, Deputy Director of VCA Arena Printing and Publications Pty Ltd., http://www.arena.org.au Sponsors: Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts Cinemedia's Australian Centre for the Moving Image Humanities Division, Curtin University of Technology Monash Publications Grants Committee School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University The Power Institute, University of Sydney ::fibreculture:: promoting independent australian internet research & theory mail to fibreculture@lists.myspinach.org ::to subscribe:: email "fibreculture-request@lists.myspinach.org" with "subscribe" in the subject line. ::archive:: http://lists.myspinach.org/archives/fibreculture ::homepage:: http://www.fibreculture.org