[CC] ::fibreculture:: politics of a digital present

[Esther Milne]

[apols for cross posting]


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i n t e r n e t
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theory | criticism | research
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::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-empirical 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
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