Video Vortex 6: TrouwAmsterdam :: March 11-12, 2011 :: Amsterdam.

Two years later, the Video Vortex events come back to Amsterdam. Organized by the Institute of Network Cultures, and in a top cultural venue, Video Vortex 6 offers artist presentations (performances, screenings and talks), hands-on workshops, the launch of the upcoming Video Vortex Reader II, and a 2-day symposium, Speakers Confirmed Thus Far:

Online Video Aesthetics: This theme seeks to explore various insights, explorations and arguments regarding the vast arena of online video aesthetics. Tackling the tenuous relationship between amateur and professional video production particularly with respect to the question of ‘quality’, have amateur and professional video grown closer, or are they still in competition, and what aesthetics, techniques, genres, structures, and so on, exist in the professional realm of online video, compared to the amateur?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Andrew Clay (UK), “The YouTube Rich List: A List of Riches?”
• Florian Cramer (NL), “Camera Test Poetics”
• Florian Schneider (NL), “Modes of Documentary Making in the Age of Networking”
• Michael Strangelove (CAN),”The Cultural Value of Amateur Video”

It’s not a Dead Collection, it’s a Dynamic Database: Now that museums, distributors and TV channels have put their collections online, what is the next phase for these digitalized public archives? How can ‘the audience’ be involved, in order to avoid a dead online collection with zero comments? Moreover, what forms of social dynamism can be critically forged in the default rush towards greater participation? Who controls the database, and is there a role for designers in developing database aesthetics? How to jump through the hoops of copyright legislation, format compatibility and the spatial culture of consumption and production? Once collaboration comes into play, what impact do conflicting skill sets, different modes of knowledge production and varying social desires have?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Sandra Fauconnier, NIMk (NL), Video Art Distribution Online and Creating an Online Catalogue
• Teague Schneiter, IsumaTV (US/CA), “Digital ≠ Accessible: Improving access and use to indigenous video content with IsumaTV’s Local Servers project”
• Catrien Schreuder, Boijmans Museum (NL), Boijmans van Beuningen Art Tube
• Mél Hogan, (CA), “It’s not a Dynamic Database… it’s a Dead Collection?”

Country Reports: What are some are current key issues being faced by different countries in their use of online video? Taking specific cases studies as their focus, this session seeks to offer a detailed exploration of some of the hot topics, initiatives, and pressing needs of various countries in their development and use of online video.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Koen Leurs, (NL) “Vernacular Spectacles? Dutch-Moroccan youth on YouTube”
• Ferdiansyah Thajib and Nuraini Juliastuti, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center (IDN), “A Chronicle of Video Activism and Online Distribution in Post-New Order Indonesia “

Platforms, Standards and the Trouble with Translation: This theme seeks to draw forth experts who will offer strong interventions regarding various platforms and channels proliferating on the internet that contribute to the ecology and culture of online video. The theme focuses on the problem of the translations across platforms that arise to due to conflicts in standards. The geo-cultural, and often the national, limits to open sharing of online content are also significant. How do users and producers get around the limits of these borders? How do they work under the radar or tunnel through the firewall in the face of censorship and content control? Or do people simply submit to the powers that be?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Holmes Wilson, Universal Subtitles/Participatory Culture Foundation (US), “Universal Subtitles – Collaborative, Volunteer Subtitling for any Video on the Web Using Free Software”
• Ben Moskowitz, Open Video Alliance (US) “Video of the Open Web, Not Just on the Open Web”
• Matthew Williamson, (US) “Degeneracy In Online Video Platforms”

Online Video as a Political Tool: What are the political strategies of online video? Are there powerful platforms available for videos in the realm of activism? How do activists deal with and reflect on the nature of online video, with its guerrilla, amateur, viral, remix and lo-fi characteristics? How is online video being used as a (grassroots) political tool, and conversely the ways in which authoritative powers understand and use video against activist actions? What are the new ways of launching political content effectively when everything aims to be viral?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Patrícia Dias da Silva (PT), “Joining the Online Video Conversation? The Presence of Institutional Actors on Youtube”
• Sam Gregory, WITNESS (US), “Remix Video, Aggregated Video and Human Rights Activism”
• Joanne Richardson, (RO) “Making Video Politically”
• And Lowenthal, EngageMedia (AU)

Online Video Art: What is currently on the minds of artists who engage with online video? How are the possibilities of online video being used in creative and innovative ways by artists? What kinds of issues are these artists dealing with and what kind of work is being made? Through artist talks, this session seeks to illustrate the diverse practices and perspectives of artists working in the realm of online video.

• Natalie Bookchin, organized 1999-2000 Bookchin , an eight month series of lectures and workshops on art, activism and the Internet at CalArts, MOCA in LA, and Laboratorio Cinematek in Tijuana. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is co-Director of the Photography & Media Program in the Art School at CalArts.
• Roel Wouters, (NL) “Directing the Audience: What Happens When Media Producers and Consumers Merge?”
• Evan Roth, (US)” Animated Gig Mashup Studio” Workshop results