Hi I thought Air-l members may be interested in this. Cheers Danny -- http://www.dannybutt.net ------ Forwarded Message Fibreculture::Brisbane_2003:::::::::: fibrepower:: Currents in Australasian New Media Research and Internet Culture :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: July 11, 12, 13th:::2003 Fibreculture http://www.fibreculture.org Brisbane::Powerhouse - Centre for the Live Arts New Farm Park, Brisbane QLD Tel: 3358 - 8622 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fibreculture::Brisbane_2003::::::Fibrepower::Schedule & Themes Three day Meeting Fri July 11, Sat 12, Sun 13th Powerhouse: Courier Mail room Fibreculture :: in association with critical new media studies sections in universities across Brisbane, invites you to a meeting in July 2003 on theory, policy, practice, and education in New Media and the Internet. Fibrepower :: Currents in Australasian New Media Research and Internet Culture will bring together practitioners in the academy and industry from around Australia and New Zealand to participate in critically informed debates about new media and its cultures. It follows the ANZCA03 conference (see http://www.bgsb.qut.edu.au/conferences/ANZCA03/index.html - 9-11 July at QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane). :: Theme of the 2003 Fibreculture Meeting :: fibrepower:: In academic and popular discourses, new media, the Internet, and 'virtual reality' are often described as just this - a 'virtual' reality, an Other, a 'cyberspace' which is somehow disconnected from the 'real' and secondary to 'life' experiences and issues. It is rarely accepted in the dominant Internet discourses of commercial and social culture that the truth is vastly different. New media and networked technologies currently pervade our lives and connect us ever more closely and solidly as citizens of networked society. If information and knowledge, in the new economy, are 'power', then the copper, optical, or wireless fibres spanning the networks are conduits for this power; they are full of power, and powerful. Their daily influence and the network's influence on human society is real and tangible. Fibreculture:: wants to address this continued insistence on conceptualising networked life and Internet cultures as a separate, second-rate or exotic reality, a dichotomy which obscures fact and prevents any in-depth engagement with and critique of the power of 'fibre' over and in our everyday lives. Set in a literal and figurative locus of power from the previous, industrial, era, ::fibrepower:: will engage with a range of themes that disclose the unseen power of fibre-culture in the informational age. Outcomes of this event will include a high profile public forum, an online publication of refereed articles, and deeper connections between new media industries, the academy and others. The meeting will be held at the Brisbane Powerhouse from July 11-13, 2003. (For reports from past fibreculture meetings and updates on fibreculture 2003, please see the Website at http://www.fibreculture.org/.) :::::::::::: FRIDAY nite JULY 11th 7 p.m. Welcome and Registration 8 p.m. Session 1: Fibrepower in the Regions :: Headed by Gerard Goggin Public forum with Guest Speakers, Panelists, and Q&A (TBA) In Australasia regional and rural areas continue to miss out on reliable and fast access to the global networks. This contributes significantly to the growing digital divide, and carries important implications for public and private policy. How can we increase the fibrepower of the regions, and what are current examples of best practice? Gerard Goggin (g.goggin@uq.edu.au) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. He is writing a book entitled *Networked Imaginings: Cultural History of Australian Internet*, and has long had an interest in rural and regional internet and telecommunications (not least from living in the country himself). plus :: Introduction to the Fibreculture List & its Open Session, M/C Collaboration, fc Webjournal, and other Fibreculture activities with Geert Lovink, David Teh, Axel Bruns, and other list facilitators. **10 p.m. OPENING Art & Music :: Digital Literacies :: New Media Arts Exhibition :: Guest djs and vjs. No host bar. In conjunction with the conference, Fibreculture and fineArtforum are offering an online gallery space set up as an opportunity for artists to explore critical literacies and conference themes. An A4 gallery of resonant works will also be displayed at the meeting venue providing opportunity for practitioners and attendees to respond visually to the fibrepower themes both beforehand and during the discussions. Organized by Jane Turner. --- :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fibrepower::Weekend Schedule - Discussion Sessions Brisbane Powerhouse - July 12th and 13th SATURDAY JULY 12th 8 a.m.::Registration 8:45 a.m.::Welcome 9 - 10:45 a.m.::Session 2: Intellectual Property-Intellectual Possibilities :: Headed by Esther Milne and Kate Crawford The exercise of intellectual property rights can stifle the generation of intellectual property. The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been abused on any number of occasions. How can copyright be reconfigured for the networked age? How can creative rights be protected, and innovation ensured? How can fibrepower be harnessed to drive intellectual possibilities? What measures, policies and action should be implemented to protect indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property? 10:45 a.m. Morning tea & coffee 11:15 - 1 p.m.::Session 3: Information Warfare :: Headed by Steve Stockwell and Geert Lovink Weapons of mass destruction may remain elusive - but weapons of mass disinformation are evident in any political or military conflict, if you know where and how to look. Information warfare adds to the firepower of conventional weapons arsenals. How do we disarm the information warriors? How do we distinguish freedom of information fighters from info-terrorists? How do we keep truth from becoming a battlefield detainee? 1 p.m.LUNCH 2:00 - 4 p.m. ::Session 4: Fibre Access Geopolitics Wired :: Headed by Guy Redden Much has been made of the distributed nature of the Internet. Does this make it a means through which previously unheard voices can carry, enhancing democracy? Or is it more that network capitalism can now get its tentacles everywhere, determining access and usage on its terms? This session invites critical appraisal and geopolitical interpretation of the spread of informational networks. How does the digital divide play out across space, class and ethnicity? Is access a luxury? With Google in China and aol.com in Australia and numerous other mergers and shifts, who controls the networks? With concentration/convergence, will there be an enclosure of the networks, new ways of constraining and exploiting their use to the detriment of the 'online commons'? Will distributed fibrepower continue to give an edge to international activism, indigenous rights, direct democracy/publishing, and other mobilisations against the centralisation of power? At least relative to other media? Consideration also needs to given to how these matters can be regulated. Is it time for a United Networks alongside the United Nations and who would hold the veto rights?! ____ 4 p.m.:: Warchalking Walk - Methods & Details Bring laptop with a wireless modem installed. Anyone with knowledge, please attend. ____ 7 p.m. Fibreculture dinner (optional) __ SUNDAY JULY 13th 9 a.m. Registration 10 - 11:45 a.m.::Session 5: The Internet Is Not Virtual :: Headed by Axel Bruns The myth of a separate, containable 'cyberspace' persists despite all evidence to the contrary. Rather than perpetuating new age visions of leaving the body behind to virtually 'inhabit' cyberspace, it is important to begin to realise that cyberspace, or fibrespace, already envelops society; is society. What are the implications of this fact? For example, how can disciplines like teaching and publishing turn to integrating Internet content, literacies, and technologies as part of their core activities rather than as an adjunct afterthought? In doing so, how can this 'fibrepower' be released from the strangleholds of outdated mythologies? 11:45 LUNCH 12:45 - 2:30 p.m.Session 6 ::Teaching Fibrepower:: :: Headed by Molly Hankwitz and Danny Butt Debates over technology and education are often couched in between the university sector hanging on to its critical freedom, authority and scholarship vs. government policy directions which are pushing higher education, among other sectors, into more corporatized, privatised spheres. Meanwhile, schools, colleges, and universities are struggling to keep up with the pace of technology. Teaching methods and approaches to cybercultures lag behind and students are often forced to take the initiative into their own hands if they hope to build useful skills sets and acquire an understanding of new media. Whole communities miss out on participating if they cannot make their voices heard. How can teaching institutions redress this situation? What are some excellent practices? 2:30 - 3 p.m. Afternoon Tea 3 - 4:45 p.m.::Open Session:: No set topic. Discussion about the direction of fibreculture. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: REGISTRATION: Three-day registration includes attendance at all sessions, lunches, morning and afternoon teas. All prices include GST. :: Three-day registration $27.50/$55.00 :: Opening nite forum and art exhibition only $10.00/$15.00 (Prices are for students and other concession cardholders / non-students) Pre-registration forms are available from the fibreculture website: http://www.fibreculture.org/ Late registration will be possible during the meeting. Cheques, cash and money orders only, thank you. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For more information and to subscribe to the fibreculture list: See http://www.fibreculture.org/ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For more inf. contact meeting organizers: Axel Bruns snurb@snurb.info Molly Hankwitz m.hankwitz@qut.edu.au Thank you to all participants and sponsors, John Hartley, QUT, UQ Media & Cultural Studies, M/C, fAf, Brisbane Powerhouse, Karen Hands, David Cox, Anna Zagala, and Jo Gray. Fibreculture 2003 sponsors: QUT Creative Industries Faculty http://www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au/ - UQ Media and Cultural Studies Centre http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/ - M/C - Media and Culture http://www.media-culture.org.au/ - fineArt forum http://www.fineartforum.org/ - Australian Network for Art and Technology http://www.anat.org.au/ - Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre for the Live Arts http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/ - Fibreculture is served by: Myspinach http://www.myspinach.org/ ::::::::::::::::::: ::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australian ::critical internet theory, culture and research ::subscribe: fibreculture-request@lists.myspinach.org ::with "subscribe" in the subject line ::unsubcribe: fibreculture-request@lists.myspinach.org ::with "unsubscribe" in the subject line ::info and archive: http://www.fibreculture.org ::please send announcements to seperate mailinglist: :: http://lists.myspinach.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibreculture-announce ------ End of Forwarded Message