I love watching the TED Talks. it's great they publish the videos as it's REALLY expensive to attend the conference. tonight I've watched a few :

Sir Ken Robinson : Creativity and Education
his talk was very entertaining - he's quite funny!, and he raised some good points and examples of how modern education system is designed towards getting people jobs, since it was formed since the introduction of industrialisation. as we don't know what will happen in the future, how can we educate children correctly to prepare for the future. and how creativity has a lesser importance in the education system of today. I liked a couple of comments he raised - listed below. the full transcript is on the TED blog page

"creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status"

...

here's a video from Propaganda & his friends - he's been in a couple of the online MLA courses I've done. I really like it - the message, the music, the whole thing!!

it's on http://postmoderntimes.com also - which is also a great video / online magazine

here's the blurb from youtube about it :

episode features four underground hip hop artists -- Naada, Propaganda Anonymous, 2HL, and iLL SpoKKinN -- and producer euphAmism in an animated music video packing lyrical and graphical punch in a call for global awakening.

Please go to www.iclips.net/2012 to see the rest of the episodes (more)

Salon Mazal was established in 2001, in Tel Aviv, Israel, by a group of social-environmental activists. Salon Mazal is a non-for-profit registered charity that serves as an information distribution center for social, environmental and political change The place functions as a store (including books, magazines and fair-trade products), a lending library, an artist gallery, a vegetarian bar and a community center where movie screenings, lectures, workshops and meetings take place.

The place is run in line with anarchist ideology and values, which encourage an egalitarian, non-hierarchical community. Salon Mazal is run by a group of volunteers. Consensus decision-making is used to promote the expression of individual voices within the group in daily meetings.

Hidden away on the Watch/Listen section of the the Darrren Hayes website is a link saying Found a Bird?. What is this you ask?

It's a project on the neonbird website involving writing a wish inside a folded note / paper bird & leaving it for a stranger to find. Write the NEONBIRD.COM website on the outside of the note, then take a photo of it & where you left it. Upload the photo to the Made a Bird page.

The person who finds your wish can visit the website and claim their bird.

It's a bit like geocaching but you don't need a gps. And a bit like bluetoothing but you don't need a bluetooth device. And a bit like leaving books in public spaces, but you get to check the website and see what happened to your wish and see how far it went.

Full details are on the http://www.neonbird.com/something-wonderful/ website.

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

music is Indian Summer by Big Bud

I went along to the Sarai Independent Fellows 2006 workshops last weekend (26-27/08) @ Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi. I missed the first two days sessions, but here is a slideshow video of some of the saturday & sunday sessions. it was really interesting - both the presentations and the discussions afterwards. some sessions were in Hindi so I couldn't follow as easily. there were a wide range of projects though - art, music, urban issues. hopefully they'll link to some of the full papers on the sarai.net website. it was a great way to get another insight into life and goings on in India and related places.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/saraiifellows2006

http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com

http://www.sarai.net

PixelPress' intent is to encourage documentary photographers, writers, filmmakers, artists, human rights workers and students to explore the world in ways that take advantage of the new possibilities provided by digital media. They seek a new paradigm of journalism, one that encourages an active dialogue between the author and reader and, also, the subject.

sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! is a Realtime-Mind-Music-Video-Re-De-Construction-Machine.

It is a conceptual software which makes it possible to work with samples in a completely new way by making them available in a manner that does justice to their nature as concrete musical memories. The whole package will be released under the GNU GPL soon.

Combat Wombat are an outspoken troupe of hip hop punks mainly located in Melbourne. They've just released their second album "Unsound System". Armed with only samplers, mics and turntables, powered by solar energy and an uncompromising belief in Truth over Spin, these desert nomads are the real deal, creating an album that reflects the frontline activism they have become famous for. Unsound System is a bullet to the dark heart of the Australian psyche.

a summary of the Sarai Reader 04 paper called "The Revenge of Lowtech : Autolabs, Telecentros and Tactical Media in Sao Paulo" by Ricardo Rosas.

the freemind mind map tactical_media_in_Brazil.mm is attached - this contains html links or expand / collapse the xhtml version below

http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/ is the new Sarai Reader link - they've changed their website and all the links have changed

http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/04-crisis-media/55ricardo.pdf is the new link for the article

The Spunk Library collects and distributes literature in electronic format, with an emphasis on anarchism and related issues. For a more complete description of what Spunk is about you can view the Spunk Manifesto.

changelings introduces the next generation of creative practitioners to the discerning industry professional. Via an interactive showcase - featuring fashion, design, and art - located at Mars Lounge, Wentworth Avenue, the project will provide a platform for the promotion of these budding careers. Through these events, the accompanying web site, and magazine of the same name, the project will provide these multi-talented individuals with a tool for their own creative development. visit www.changelings.com.au for more details

RE:activism: Re-drawing the boundaries of activism in a new media environment is a conference which is to take place in Budapest, October 14-15, 2005. Re:activism will focus on two closely connected subjects. On the first day, we gather to discuss the new dynamics of culture production. Digital networks allow the large scale cooperation of individuals with diverse motivational backgrounds. This cooperation often results in globally competitive ideas, (software) products, (social) services. Ad-hoc activist, expert networks can only consolidate themselves if the necessary legal, economic and technological frameworks are created or emerge from local interactions. We research into the political economy of peer production networks and examine how regulation in a post-Westphalian order can integrate these networks. We also discuss the potential conflicts between peer networks and contemporary social, economic, and legal institutions and examine how tradition emerges through open archives documenting these conflicts. read more or visit http://www.re-activism.net/ for more information and instructions on how to submit papers.

people doing strange things with electricity

what's dorkbotlondon?
first there was dorkbotnyc, a monthly meeting of electronic artists in new york.

"dorkbotnyc is a monthly meeting of artists (sound / image / movement / whatever), designers, engineers, students and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creation of electronic art (in the broadest sense of the term.)" [more dorkbotnyc]

"Free internet access to thousands of clips from public service radio and TV programmes is a step closer after the launch of the Creative Archive Licence. The BBC, Channel 4, the British Film Institute (BFI) and The Open University (OU) launched the scheme on Wednesday. It is the first stage of the Creative Archive initiative announced by former BBC director general Greg Dyke in 2003. Under the plans, the public will be able to "own" a copy of the clips and use them for their own creations."

"The BBC will initially make footage from natural history and factual programmes available under the licence, while Channel 4 has commissioned a selection of content. The BFI will be releasing silent comedy, early literary adaptations, newsreel footage and archive footage of British cities in the early 20th century. " Read the full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4441205.stm
or visit the Creative Archive Licence Group @ http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/index.html

Virtual Case Book on Tactical Media

The Genesis of the Virtual Case Book Project

9-11 and After: A Virtual Case Book is a prototype for a planned series of what we are calling "virtual case books" (VCB), each organized around a key area of cultural activism in which tactical media play a central role.

Because tactical media practices (see definitions) are inherently responsive, interactive, and constantly evolving, we chose a format that would make it possible to capture the specificity of such developments in different political and cultural contexts. We have also taken advantage of the interactivity offered by web-based forms of publication, enabling us to invite others to join an ongoing conversation, and allowing readers to simultaneously access, analyze, and respond to the ideas, images, resources, and the multitude of links contained in the VCB.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Protests flies in the airs of the present, gathering up words like sticks shaking in the breeze. The journal sits at a discursive juncture between art and (often anarchist) activism with the knowledge that a knowledge and discourse are one tool to change the world.

The Journal, aware of the possibilities of the boundless moment, searches for ways to think through the cultural and political ramifications of representation. In word and aspiration, The Journal dreams toward a world that differs from "a celebration of the choice already made in the sphere of production, and the consummate result of that choice.

Raqs Media Collective - excerpt from Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raqs_Media_Collective

Raqs Media Collective is a group of three media practitioners - Jeebesh Bagchi (New Delhi, 1965), Monica Narula (New Delhi, 1969) and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (New Delhi, 1968) - based in New Delhi. Raqs is best known for its contribution to contemporary art, and has presented work at most of the major international shows, from Documenta to the Venice Biennale; but the collective is active in an unusually wide range of domains, and it is perhaps this breadth that gives their work its originality and scope.

TXTmob is a service that lets you quickly and easily share txt messages with friends, comrades, and total strangers. The format is similar to an email b-board system. You can sign up to send and receive messages from various groups, which are organized around a range of different topics.

TXTMob was designed for use by protestors at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer. It is currently being revamped for use at the Republican National Convention in New York this August.

Celebrating the rebirth of psychedelic futurism - lots of great articles and links. great thinking material

Fringecore deals with the cultural fringe and some of the more weird stuff that goes on out there and helps to make society that much more stimulating.