<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dear All,</div><div><br></div><div>Here at the Institute of Network Cultures we’re starting the planning for the big Video Vortex event here in Amsterdam next March 11-12, 2011, held at TrouwAmsterdam. The event will consist of a conference, an exhibition, parties (of course), workshops, screenings and so on.</div><div><br></div><div>We’ve started to draft a preliminary template of session themes and rough session titles for the conference, and wanted to ask for your input. What do you, the Video Vortex community think?</div><div><br></div><div>Do you think the proposed sessions are interesting approaches? </div><div>Do you find something less interesting or important?</div><div>Is there something crucial missing? What is urgent/emerging and should be discussed?</div><div><br></div><div>The official call for contributions, with a more detailed explanation of sessions, for the conference will be going out mid-September, but we wanted to get input from the Video Vortex list/community on these tentative session themes before posting it. </div><div><br></div><div>To get the conversation going, reply to the Video Vortex listserv</div><div><br></div><div>Also take a look at the new face of the <a href="http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/">Video Vortex blog</a>.</div><div><br></div><div>Looking forward to your responses,</div><div>All the best,</div><div>Video Vortex Amsterdam 2011 Team</div><div><br></div><div>_______</div><div><br></div><div>PROPOSED SESSIONS</div><div><br></div><div>1. Open Everything:</div><div>What is the current state of the art of open source, open content, open video, open and alternative platforms, etc. with respect to online video practices? What issues are faced, tackled, arrived at, explored, remedied when considering, and working with open practices? This session will be concerned with both editing software and delivery systems, codecs, hardware, platforms and issues of open video itself. </div><div><br></div><div>2. Youtube as Archive or the Question of Dynamic Database vs. Static Collection:</div><div>With a massive and diverse assortment of videos, is Youtube indeed an archive, or is it something else? If it is an archive, what in fact is it an archive of; is it a collection of videos, or an archive that represents little vignettes of cultural interest, whether memes, historic moments, tv show clips etc.? And is anyone archiving Youtube?</div><div><br></div><div>How are Youtube and other sorts of online video collections (whether institutionally owned or not) understood, practiced, used, designed, and reflected upon in terms of the opposition between the dynamic database and the static collection? And does such a stringent opposition actually exist? In the context of Youtube as a potentially dynamic database and a place of heavy social commentary and participation, is there interesting theory around the usefulness of creating channels on Youtube? How are people using the video lists they create, and what can been gleaned from this? How does all of this relate to the era of comment culture?</div><div><br></div><div>3. Beyond Keen and Lanier: Critique of the Amateur:</div><div>This session seeks to deal with some of the following questions:</div><div>Is the era of appropriation over – is remix just a deadly boring routine rather than a creative source of inspiration? Are we beyond remix? What is next? A return to a true and pure 'authentic' image culture?</div><div><br></div><div>Are the amateur and professional indeed in competition in the realm of online video? What should the role of art education be to overcome and understand the barrage of amateur work that is easily created, shared and presented? What kind of art literacy is required, how are art education institutions dealing with this, or are they, and what kind of language exists to discuss a separation between the amateur and the professional artist, and is this required? Are there art education institutions discussing the production of video for online purposes, and if so, what kinds of issues are tackled, and technical training offered?</div><div><br></div><div>The professional world of advertisement has fully integrated itself with the amateur approach, such as playing with remix culture and invoking a feeling of rawness. Should we aim for professional standards that really engage with the world of online video that don’t just build on professional standards of television and film – and what would these be – is it indeed the interactive capabilities of online video that make these professional structures different from those of tv and film? What techniques, structures, genres etc. exist in the professional realm of online video, compared to those of the amateur?</div><div><br></div><div>4. Video Activism Online:</div><div>Examples and explorations of online video as a form of activism, including both online portals and platforms that offer a space to post important human rights issue videos for example, and the ways that people in various locations around the world are using video as a tactical tool for political mobilization. This will consider both those that use video as a form of grassroots activism, and the ways in which authoritative powers, such as the police, understand and use video against activist actions. Furthermore, this session will explore the ethics of online video in the context of considering the issues and implications related to posting and making certain kinds of video material available online. </div><div><br></div><div>5. Big Players in the Game of Online Video:</div><div>This session will examine the big players in the world of online video. How are corporations and governments using online video? For example, what kind of surreptitious practices like impersonating grassroots organizations and guerrilla marketing are companies adopting for commercial purposes, appropriating and making use of the possibilities of online video and its easily viral nature? How are governments and officials turning to, and using, online video etc.? </div><div><br></div><div>6. Artist Perspectives:</div><div>What’s currently on the minds of artists making use of, or engaging with, online video? What kinds of issues are they dealing with and what kind of work is being made? This session is also interested in exploring how professional artists understand their position in relation to the expansive amount of amateur work being created and presented via online video and remix culture.</div><div><br></div></body></html>