HIGHNOON call for audivisual protest
29.Nov.03 - In recent years media activism has evolved globally from local pirate radios, video activist groups and paper zines into complex networks of alliances that use ICT to bridge the physical gap in txt, visual and sonic media, as well as those of distance and feasibility. Some of these networks (like Indymedia) have showed the way for others how to structure the information agregation and desemination process.
Recently a diverse group of media activists, artists and programers initiated project HighNoon which is set out to develop a new model that would suite better for moving image. Agregation of video has already been experimentaly established in recent months by v2v project, using free software, open formats and standards to encode, store and syndicate production quality video in sustainable and managable way.
Towards HIGHNOON
Further along this road we wanna develop methods and models to fill these archives with quality content and make it available for others to engage within this social, media and technical development. By using free technologies, working on models of inclusion and adressing social issues within so called "information society" we are initiating HighNoon platform for delivery of this media through networks to all connected. Being early in development stage we need your support in submiting content, testing technology, commiting resources and adopting standards we agree on. Join us as we build HighNoon for its first incarnation in counter program to World Summit of Information Society!
What is HIGHNOON
High Noon is an audiovisual protest over three days (Dec 10-12) that gathers objections against the WSIS in Geneva in order to assert our claims to the so called "information society".
Since we are reluctant to report from yet another useless global summit to the rest of the world, we want to engage international participation in this media event that inverts the centralistic self-referential structure set-up by WSIS in order to distribute media presence equally between time-zones. High Noon works as an interface for confronting and exposing rhetorics of the WSIS by the variety of media contributions and interventions uploaded by media activists and artists from around the globe. We will be following the revolution of the sun using its light as a scanner to raise up local experiences and stories to tell. For three days it will be always midday in HighNoon. For each midday you are invited to participate rather than be represented!
Creating an Archive
Archive will be assembled, from which HighNoon stream will be programmed, out of copylefted audiovisual media with all authors/producers credited acordingly.
This effort will not end after the WSIS. One of the main goals of this effort is to create a stable media archive for further collaborations and to test technical endurance and efficiency of independent infrastructures (video archive, database of metadata, streaming servers), as well as new models of procreative media expression and translocal networking.
Call for Content
Proposed topics are:
digital divide and access - community media and media activism borders and migration - immaterial labor - hardware manufacturing open source development - copyright and intellectual property war and infowar - media monopolies and privatization - censorship and freedom of expression
How to Engage
a) Submit a video: We call for videos to upload in the archive. We will then compress for streaming (to stream is to broadcast on the net).
b) Organize a live stream: We call for actions and events to broadcast live using the net. We will screen in WSIS arena and in remote locations.
c) Organize a public screening: We call for public screenings of the stream from Geneva. We will open local inputs through IRC channels, webboards, streams to We Seize!
Every local initiative will be free to organize its own schedule for the streamings, picking up videos from the archive. At the same time the geneva03 collective will provide a default streaming of all the materials in scheduled program.
HIGH NOON working group
