Fibreculture:::fibrepower:::Brisbane_2003

(posted on behalf of Molly Hankwitz)


Fibreculture:::fibrepower:::Brisbane_2003
Currents in Australasian New Media Research and Internet Culture
July 11, 12, 13th - Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre for the Live Arts
New Farm Park, Brisbane QLD


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 Australian Internet Research and 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, the :: fibrepower :: meeting 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/.)

Public Forum
Friday night (from 8 p.m.; registration from 7 p.m.)


:: Fibrepower in the Regions
:: Public Discussion Headed by Gerard Goggin
:: with guest speakers, panelists, and Q&A

<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 ([email protected]) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. He is
writing a book entitled *Networked Imaginings: A 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).

:: Introduction to the Fibreculture List
:: Open Session, M/C Collaboration, fc Webjournal, and other activities
:: Geert Lovink, David Teh, Axel Bruns, and other FC facilitators

The public forum will be followed by the opening of
the fc03 new media art exhibition :: digital literacies :: and music.

:: Digital Literacies :: New Media Arts Exhibition
:: Curated by Jane Turner and Linda Carroli

In conjunction with the conference, fibreculture and fAf are offering an
online gallery space set up as an opportunity for exploration by artists to
explore critical literacies and conference themes.

An A4 gallery of resonant works will also be displayed at the conference
venue providing opportunity for practitioners and all to respond visually
to the conference themes both beforehand and during the discussions.


Weekend Sessions:

– Saturday (from 9 a.m.; registration from 8 a.m.)
:: Intellectual Property - Intellectual Possibilities
:: Information Warfare
:: Wired Geopolitics


:: Warchalking Walk - Methods & Details
Bring laptop with a wireless modem installed.
Anyone with knowledge, please attend.


– Sunday (from 10 a.m.; registration from 9 a.m.)
:: The Internet Is Not Virtual
:: Teaching Fibrepower
:: Open Session

Session Heads will soon be posting more detailed statements on their
respective sessions to the list, asking for 'Position Statements' from
list members. There are no formal academic papers given.
Positions should be posted with 'POS' in the subject header.

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Registration details:

Three-day meeting 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.)

Registration forms will be available from the fibreculture Website shortly:
http://www.fibreculture.org/
Late registration will be possible during the weekend.
Cheques, cash and money orders only, thank you.
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See http://www.fibreculture.org/ for details.
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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/
Myspinach
http://www.myspinach.org/

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:: fibreculture:: is a collaborative network of Australasian academics,
postgrads, scientists, IT professionals, curators, writers, journalists,
activists and new media artists committed to the openness and intellectual
autonomy of wired Australia. The aims of :: fibreculture :: are to promote
excellence in Internet theory and culture at the level of tertiary
education, but also to foster creative collaboration with industry, support
critique, and influence cultural policy on social and political issues of
relevance and importance. The :: fibreculture :: mailing list and website
were started by David Teh and Geert Lovink.

for more inf: please contact:

[email protected]
[email protected]