Pixelache Helsinki 2014 will be an international 2-day
trans-disciplinary event focusing on the theme of “The Commons”,
including bio-, urban culture and knowledge commons topics. Adding a new
island to its logbook after Suomenlinna (2011) and Naissaar (2013), Camp
Pixelache will take up residence in Vartiosaari, a nature island
surrounded by eastern suburbs of Helsinki, during 6-8th June 2014.

http://pixelache.ac/camp-2014

Camp Pixelache

Based on previous Camp Pixelache experiments, the event is designed
around two main unconference days. Except for keynote lectures planned
in advance, typically at unconferences the agenda will be shaped and
confirmed by the attendees at the beginning of the event. Anyone who
wants to initiate a discussion on a commons-related topic can claim a
time and a space. The event is free of charge. Several events will be
organized around the main Camp Pixelache days, including a programme of
participatory workshops.

Background

According to Michel Bauwens, “the Commons consist of any common resource
that is available to all, and as such there are many type of Commons but
basically two: physical resources or man-made. The Commons is also a
series of specific institutional formats used to manage such common
resources.” On the local Commons.fi web-presence, the following examples
of Commons are also given: Shared natural resources, free software, open
data, p2p networks, co-operatives, co-cultures, talkoots, street art, as
well as many other commonly-known past, present and future manifestations.”

Pixelache already has a long history of engaging with collaborative
digital media and particularly with knowledge-sharing and Free/Libre
Open Source culture. Early in Pixelache Helsinki’s development, a social
science paper by Katri Halonen, correctly identified the strong
co-relations between open-source ideology, and the influencing thematic
and organizational structure of the festival. Pixelache Festival 2014
engages further in Commons issues, specifically from the angle of
educational and cultural production strategies and sustainability. As a
trans-disciplinary cultural festival, we believe in the necessity to
develop trans-disciplinary capacities to tackle together issues of the
Commons, such as environmental protection and sustainable
nature-resource utilization/management, as well as resisting privatizing
forces on all aspects of life.

Vartiosaari

Camp Pixelache’s main venue Vartiosaari demonstrates many aspects of the
Commons as an undeveloped nature and recreation island in the middle of
suburban city sprawl, which hosts numerous social and association-run
wooden summer-villa retreats and special features. The island is
currently under-threat of full-scale residential development by Helsinki
City Planning Department, and there is a grassroots campaign to protect
it’s particular qualities, in which artists & cultural practitioners are
involved. We are hoping that the occasion of Camp Pixelache can also
provide a discussion forum around Helsinki-Commons issues.
http://kaupunginosat.net/vartiosaari

Suggestions of sub-themes / Seeded contributions

* Open-Sourcing Festivals (in the context of EU-Grundtvig ‘Open Learning
Steps & Open-sourcing Festivals’ project). How does an organization
open-source their cultural festival? Can we share the process for
organizing a festival, so that other groups can use it themselves? How
do organizations support activities and events throughout the year? Can
we share the process for sustaining ongoing programs, so that other
groups can do this too? These are the questions that five experimental
art, design and technology organizations from the Pixelache Network are
asking themselves and others, and exploring, through a mobile circuit of
workshops and seminars organized across Europe during 2013-2015. Open
Source and Free/Libre culture, spreading from software and hardware, to
urban space and organizational issues, unites the partners.
http://www.pixelache.ac/blog/2014/open-sourcing-festivals/

* The Bio-Commons in collaboration with Finnish Society of Bioart The
topic of Camp Pixelache 2014 are the commons in general, the cultural
and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including
natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable earth.
Biotechnological developments show that some of the biological commons
are endangered by rigorous attempts of patenting natural biological
resources for their utilization in biotechnology. The biohacking scene
as well as the DIY Biology movement is working in keeping biology and
biotechnology in the commons. The Finnish Society of Bioart will
organize a biohacker and DIY Biology sub-theme related to the commons
for Camp Pixelache 2014. http://bioartsociety.fi/

* Helsinki-Commons as a continuation of the collaboration with Aalto
co-p2p SIG, Open cities working group (Open Knowledge Foundation
Finland) and Pixelache. Going from mapping towards the ways (methods)
that Commons can be made.. A ‘Designing the Commons’ how-to resource
could be developed (what works, why, a la Elinor Ostrom’s ’8 Principles
for Managing a Commmons’), or at least initiated during the Camp
Pixelache days. http://co-p2p.mlog.taik.fi/

Get Involved!

If you would like to get involved, please contact office [-at-] pixelache.ac

We will make an open call for participation in February.

--
andrew gryf paterson

http://agryfp.info
mobile [FI]: +358 50 402 3828
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