[artinfo] Video Vortex: Call for Theory

[Institute of Network Cultures]

Call for Theory: Video Vortex
International Conference
Date: 18-19 January, 2008 (new date!)
Location: POSTCS 11, Amsterdam
www.networkcultures.org/videovortex

Organized by: Institute of Network Cultures, 
Amsterdam Polytechnic, HvA Interactive Media.

Deadline for submission of abstract (500-1000 
words) and biography (100 words): August 14, 2007.

Submit to: info at networkcultures.org

Reply date: September 7, 2007.

Further inquiries:

Sabine Niederer
Institute of Network Cultures
Rhijnspoorplein 1
NL-1091 GC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
t: (+31) 20-595 18 66
f: (+31) 20-595 18 40


Suggested topics:

- database theory
- software studies
- online video analysis
- YouTube criticism
- alternative platforms/open standards
- theory of participatory culture
- collaboratory data generation

Video Vortex: general introduction
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 ëuser-generated contentí
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 organizations 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 utilizing 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 website: www.networkcultures.org/videovortex

Discussion list: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/
videovortex_listcultures.org
This list is meant for all those interested in 
the topic, and will continue after the event in 
early 2008.

Institute of Network Cultures
info at networkcultures.org
t: +31205951866
f: +3165951840