[Air-l] Video Vortex (conference and list); Responses to YouTube

[geert lovink]

Video Vortex Conference: November 30 and December 1 2007, Amsterdam (NL)
Organized by the Institute of Network Cultures

First announcement (shorter air version), March 16, 2007

More on the Event: http://www.networkcultures.org/videovortex/
List info: 
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/videovortex_listcultures.org

In response to the increasing potential for video to become a 
significant form of personal media on the Internet, this conference 
examines the key issues that are emerging around the independent 
production and distribution of online video content. What are artists 
and activists responses to the popularity of ‘user-generated content’ 
websites? Is corporate backlash eminent?

After years of talk about digital conversions and crossmedia platforms 
we are now witnessing the merger of the Internet and television at a 
pace that no one predicted. For the baby boom generation, that 
currently forms the film and television establishment, the media 
organisations and conglomerates, this unfolds as a complete nightmare. 
Not only because of copyright issues but increasingly due to the shift 
of audience to vlogging and video-sharing websites as part of the 
development of a broader participatory culture.

The opening night will feature live acts, performances and lectures 
under the banner of video slamming. We will trace the history from 
short film to one-minute videos to the first experiments with streaming 
media and online video, along with exploring the way VJs and media 
artists are accessing and using online archives.

The Video Vortex conference aims to contextualize these latest 
developments through presenting continuities and discontinuities in the 
artistic, activist and mainstream perspective of the last few decades. 
Unlike the way online video presents itself as the latest and greatest, 
there are long threads to be woven into the history of visual art, 
cinema and documentary production. The rise of the database as the 
dominant form of storing and accessing cultural artifacts has a rich 
tradition that still needs to be explored. The conference aims to raise 
the following questions:

- How are people utilising the potential to independently produce and 
distribute independent video content on the Internet?
- What are the alternatives to the proprietary standards currently 
being developed?
- What are the commercial objectives that mass media is imposing on 
user-generated content and video-sharing databases?
- What is the underlying economics of online video in the age of 
unlimited uploads?
- How autonomous are vloggers within the broader domain of mass media?
- How are cinema, television and video art being affected by the 
development of a ubiquitous online video practice?
- What type of aesthetic and narrative issues does the database pose 
for online video practice?

Conference themes:

Viral Video critique
Vlogging Critique
Participatory Culture, Participatory Video
Real World Tools and Technologies
Theory & History of the Database
Narrative and the Cinematic
Database Taxonomy and Navigation
Internet Video: Art, Activism, and Public Media
Evening Programme / Exhibition

(see website for details)

Video Vortex Discussion List:

With this discussion list we like to gather responses to the rise of 
YouTube and similar online video databases. What does YouTube tell us 
about the state of art in visual culture? Is YouTube the corporate 
media structure of the 21st century? What are the artist responses to 
YouTube aesthetics?

General information about the mailing list is at:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/videovortex_listcultures.org

To post to this list, send your email to: 
videovortex(at)listcultures.org

This list is meant for all those interested in the topic, and will 
possibly continue after the event in late 2007.

Practical info:

Date
November 30 and December 1, 2007.

Venue
PostCS 11, PostCS building
Oosterdokskade 3-5
1011 AD Amsterdam
T: 020 - 62 55 999
www.ilove11.nl

Organized by
Institute of Network Cultures, HvA Interactive Media, Amsterdam

Editorial team
Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer, Shirley Niemans

Affiliated researchers
Seth Keen, Vera Tollmann

Production
Shirley Niemans

For further information, please contact
Shirley Niemans, shirley(at)networkcultures.org