The way we collectively discuss about migration, in general, and forced displacement by sea, or “boat migration”, in particular, has an impact on our responses to address the phenomenon. Narratives on “boat migration”, be it in the media or in public discourse, affect political processes across Europe, influencing our perception of “boat migrants”, ultimately having an effect on the ways they are received in (or repelled from) our societies. The challenge is to unpack and explain the causes and consequences of such narratives, examining their construction and assessing their effects on prevailing attitudes.Sea Watch and Alarm Phone have already been working in a state of permanent crisis for 5 years now, fighting the EU’S policies of letting die at the deadliest European border, the Mediterranean. It is an avoidable and deadly crisis. Now the biggest difference is that our environment is also in one. Staying at home, in those Covid-19 times, is a privilege that the people we pull out of the water do not have. We must not and will not forget the people who are fighting for their survival on the doorstep of Fortress Europe. Flight is not a choice.
Joana Moll will host a critical exploration through the world of data marketplaces and the economic role of profile pics from dating websites. Participants will get a glimpse into the hidden mechanics of selling and buying private images and data without the users’ knowledge. They will further be drawn into the invisible circulation of images as currency and get rare insight into the role of data brokers and transactions.
Virtuelle Eröffnung und Streamingfestival: Critical Zones Die Ausstellung »Critical Zones – Horizonte einer neuen Erdpolitik« über die kritische Situation der Erde fällt durch die Corona-Krise in eine kritische Zeit. Eine neue Erdpolitik verlangt auch eine neue Ausstellungspolitik: Wir gehen auf Sendung!
Forced Entertainment nailed it with the ZOOM performance End Meeting for All. Kristy Stott, theatre editor writes: We’ve all become more familiar with Zoom during the lockdown…and whether you love or hate the video conferencing platform, End Meeting For All is probably the most entertaining Zoom call you will have during the pandemic. The grid of screens lends itself perfectly to this perceptive and comically unsettling performance. Brilliantly reflective of current times, the performers are plagued by technical difficulties and artistic misunderstandings.
Excavating comic chaos from complete isolation despair – Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor, Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon and Tim Etchells – are stuck in a world where the lockdown appears to have been going on for a very very very very long time. Cue bad wigs, skeletons, fake tears, frozen screens, smeared make-up, interruptions by dogs…and lots of gin.
Forced Entertainment have been at the forefront of new developments in theatre and performance for 35 years, and are renowned internationally for pushing the boundaries of contemporary theatre, this project sees the company turn their eye for collage, fragmented narrative and innovation towards video. Multi-layered improvisation, gradual repetitions and breakdowns all provide a reflection on the strange state of lockdown, and the wider anxieties that have surfaced during the pandemic.
Bringing absurd wit and brilliant humour, despite each performers’ infinite state of isolation, End Meeting For All is compelling viewing. If only all Zoom meetings were this entertaining…
Critical thinkers, artists, researchers, activists, and geeks in search of other economies and financial discourses for a fair society.
All along, these have been dark times for the economy, as offshore finance wreaks havoc in the very fabric of cities and communities, and crypto-companies navigate the world in search of their own tax havens. Information leaks from financial paradises have made it clear that the wealthy, influential, and well-connected will still escape taxation. These are the same people turning places like Malta and the Bahamas into luxury apartment zones. At the same time, well-documented Dutch fiscal loopholes cost the world approximately 22 billion euros in lost taxes each year. Corporations like Shell tempt governments with scraps of their ill-gained revenues in exchange for legal residence in anonymous letterboxes. Global business and crypto-speculation have debased national regulations to the competitive logics of an international tax marketplace, and local economies and communities struggle to hold up against privatisation and the mass transformation of jobs to a precarious freelance existence in the gig economy.
Weeks into the corona crisis, it is too early to say which aspects of the global financial system have been thrown into the dustbin of history. Pivotal nation-states are now exploring digital currencies as one tool for post-pandemic stimulus (or austerity). How do the earlier proposals for Universal Basic Income relate to the sudden appearance of helicopter money in some countries? Are the Keynesian money proposals to prop up the Western economies an indication of the end of the neoliberal hegemony? Is the ban on cash during the corona crisis an indication of the arrival of the cashless society?
It is a grim scenario, but perhaps not all is lost. The economy is not – and never was – merely in the hands of faceless corporations and cryptocurrency speculators. MoneyLab explores the imaginaries of artists, researchers, activists, and geeks in search of other possible economies and urgently interrogates a different financial discourse. It has always asked: can we use technology critically to support alternative values of cooperation and “commoning” in a world that is dominated by individualism and competition?
MoneyLab #8, the first-ever in a post-socialist country and the first-ever virtual edition, features examples far from the mainstream media spotlight. It zooms in on the effects of offshore finance and explores counter-experiments in the realms of housing, care work, and blockchain technology. In the fringes, something interesting is happening: blockchain is no longer just another tool for capitalist growth obsessions, and people are realising radical visions for fairly-waged care work, redistributed wealth, equitable social relations, and strong grassroots communities. In our world of vanishing cash, corner-cutting multinationals, and weakened social support structures, can community currencies or self-organised care networks strengthen neighbourhoods? What would fair and social housing look like if it was turned into the cornerstone of the economy? Who is building local systems that can stand up against the financialisation of housing in the global platform economy?
MoneyLab #8 sheds light on radical and alternative strategies for self-organisation and pushes on towards new and collective futures situated in resilient local communities.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the museum landscape. As expected, most institutions turned to social media but should museums think differently when trying to bridge a physical and virtual reality?
This webinar shall explore the ways and means how institutions can sustain relevance over time even when circumstances dictate closure. It shall also provide practical suggestions as to how museums can keep keep sight of their communities’ needs and ambitions as these evolve and change over time.
Sandro Debono (b. 1970) is a museum thinker and culture strategist. He is the brains behind MUŻA – The Malta National Community Art Museum which he spearheaded and for which he developed the origional guiding vision. He is culture advisor to the President of the Republic of Malta, the national representative at the European Museum Academy and sits on the advisory board of We Are Museums, the international platform of museum innovators and change-makers. He is also visiting lecturer at the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education (University of Malta), international fora and institutions.
Interactive map with museum re-opening plans
After getting an overview of the impact that COVID-19 has had on museums and how they are reacting to and coping with the pandemic, we are looking more closely at the re-opening of museums in Europe. With the help of our members, we hve created a map that gives a quick overview of European countries’ plans to re-open museums to the public. If managed well and if appropriate security and safety measures are adopted, there is no reason to keep museums closed.
Roc Herms will lead a tour of his favorite virtual worlds and share his practice of screenshot-based photo reportages. Viewers are given the opportunity to engage with the artist, learn about screenshotting techniques and discover alternative online spaces for social exchange and interaction.
All over Europe new working tools, ideas and support mechanisms of and for cultural initiatives have popped up during the past weeks. Some of them might be temporary, some might be here to stay. Some of them are developed by you, a lot of them by others. All of them try addressing our ‘new normal’. But how normal is this new situation?
We invite you to join our webcare sessions: Speaking in a community of care and with peers from all over Europe to exchange on new realities, share fears and dreams, listen to and support one another.
In this third webcare session we will together discuss if and how the newly formed grassroots solidarity movements might find an international equivalent?
Hosts Shelagh Wright and Peter Jenkinson are cultural change agents working locally andinternationally with activists in culture, development and progressive politics, including with Reshape, Laboratories of Care and Compass UK.
Zoomed In is a new virtual festival celebrating photography and architecture.
The festival will take part from 21st-24th April 2020, and is one of the official partners of the Dezeen Virtual Design Festival.
Zoomed In is organised by London-based architectural photographer Luke O’Donovan, kindly supported by an incredibly generous network of guest curators and event participants. Please direct any enquiries to Luke at contact@lukeodonovan.co.uk
For updates on the festival, please check our Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. You can also subscribe to Luke’s email newsletter below for updates on Zoomed In and other architectural photography projects.
