6/10 kl19: joanne richardson talk on d media

d media is an organisation in cluj, romania exploring the intersections between digital culture and social activism. since 2002 the group’s activities have included a tactical media festival, an eclectic tech festival for women, running a net radio, hands on workshops (streaming media, acoustic interventions in public space, free software), and several video production projects.

joanne richardson will present some of the group’s activities, focusing on the most recent video project, commonplaces of transition, and on the relation between art and activism, free production and distribution, and the need to break the enclosures of intellectual property.

commonplaces of transition is a collaborative video project by d media (romania), in collaboration with ak-kraak (germany), interspace (bulgaria) and k:sak (moldova). the aim of the project is to open up a critical dialogue about the shape of transition and other alternatives than simply “catching up” with the global market. the project has produced 8 videos on themes including the remapping of borders and identities, the transformation of labour and the evolution of activism.

the presentation will include clips from the 3 videos produced by d media:

in transit is a diary of a journey through space and time, composed of subjective impressions of the present and childhood memories of the past. while traveling across romania in the year of its eu accession, the narrative reflects on the meaning of transition, the re-writing of history and the relation between images and memory.
(30 min, 2008)

precarious lives mixes archival footage depicting women’s labour over the past century with ten portraits of romanian women working today. the video challenges the dominant discourse about precarity and its disregard of differences based on gender and of economic disparities between the first and third worlds of europe.
(43 min, 2008)

two or three things about activism is a counter-documentary based on a distinction once made by godard between making a political film (a film about a political struggle) and making film politically. while 13 protagonists, from anarchist groups and environmentalists to ngos, discuss activism in romania and its historical context, the author reflects on her own motivations.
(73 min, 2008)

all videos are copyleft and are online at archive.org

the presentation will focus on the aesthetic strategies of the videos (detournement, recycling of found materials, the use of estrangement devices), questions surrounding free production (without the enclosures of intellectual property) and free distribution, and how the use of digital technologies and online distribution have impacted video production.

joanne richardson, bio:
joanne richardson is living and working in cluj (romania) as a theorist, artist and program director of d media (www.dmedia.ro). she is the editor of subsol (subsol.c3.hu), a webzine on activist art and media theory, and of two books on digital culture. she has written essays on the radical left, experimental film, video activism, tactical media, free software, the myth of authorship and copyleft. her videos reflect an ongoing interest in the phenomena of globalization, nationalism and postcommunism.