Mídia Andarilha

Parte Um

"nós antropophagizamos práticas dos meios e propomes a coletividade e a autonomia das relações produtivas, além de igualmente reconhecer a periferia - nós somos todos periféricos em relação ao império - como uma realidade marginalizada e, antes de tudo, uma expressão principal da lógica colonial das culturas latino americanas". "Aqui vêm a mídia tática!", Manifesto do festival Mídia Tática Brasil.


Descrição

Mídia Andarilha é um projeto de pesquisa em cibercultura brasileira. É um estudo de dois anos que procura dar forma à uma rede cooperativa de produtores de meios independentes por todo o país, estimulando o conhecimento local ao promover a instrução, a interação social e a consciência dos meios alinhando a produção cultural regional à novas formas de produção e distribuição. É também um projeto prático de pedagogia e de intercâmbio aplicados entre comunidades locais e translocais.


Como

Através de uma mídia itinerante móvel que percorrerá as regiões norte e nordeste do Brasil, trabalhando com grupos que agem com os conceitos e/ou as práticas de mídia comunitária e produção autônoma dos meios e fornecendo espaço de acesso e aprendizagem para novos e velhos meios, e quando possível, a fusão de ambos. O ambiente terá idealmente 5 máquinas recicladas na plataforma livre, dois computadores novos também operando nesta plataforma para a edição áudiovisual conectados em rede, um projetor, um scanner, uma impressora, uma câmera digital fotográfica e duas camêras DV. Viabilizaremos a conexão de internet no próprio ônibus para a publicação e oficinas, assim como procuraremos parar em locais em que essa conexão exista e esteja sendo sub-utilizada como telecentros rurais e escolas públicas.

Planeja-se que entre 8 e 10 estados escolhidos entre o Norte e Nordeste brasileiro construirão junto à mídia itinerante suas atividades.

Neste momento estamos procurando parcerias e colaboradores, sendo locais e internacionais, para a construção de uma plataforma de pesquisa de alfabetização digital de mídia dentro de tal ambiente.


Plano

Em um lugar específico, a mídia itinerante para recolhendo informações sobre os grupos que trabalham com mídia localmente. Com um breve período de troca de informação, um projeto de curto prazo é estabelecido, culminando no desenvolvido de oficinas, debates e uma apresentação/festival para exibir os resultados. O ônibus será também um veículo literal do transporte de alguns destes grupos entre lugares diferentes. Construirá também uma base de dados com o contexto e os projetos totais desenvolvidos.


Justificativa

Muitos são os problemas sociais, políticos e econômicos do Brasil. No plano econômico e social há uma distribuição extremamente desigual da riqueza e do conhecimento, refletida em uma desigualdade social, por exemplo, nas diferenças extremas entre o centro e a periferia das cidades grandes, desigualdades regionais, criminalidade, racismo e etc.

No norte e no nordeste do país, todos estes problemas são ainda maiores como o analfabetismo, o desemprego (o mais elevado no Brasil) e as circunstâncias econômicas e sociais muito pobres que são uma norma. De acordo com Interage.org.br, a porcentagem de pobreza extrema na região norte é de 44% e o nordeste tem ao menos 5 estados com a taxa mais baixa do país de desenvolvimento humano (IDH), e um índice de 40,8& de analfabestismo (http://www.risolidaria.org.br/estatis/view_grafico.jsp?id=200509060012). De acordo com globalis.gvu.unu.edu, o índice de pessoas que já tiveram algum contato com a internet seja em local público ou privado é muito pouco, aproximadamente 21% da população brasileira, sendo que destes, 42% são das classes A e B e 40% da classe C. (IBGE através do PNAD 2005). Em 2005, os percentuais de pessoas que acessaram à Internet nas Regiões Norte (12,0%) e Nordeste (11,9%) foram bem inferiores aos do Sudeste (26,3%), Sul (25,6%) e Centro-Oeste (23,4%)/ (http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/noticia_visualiza.php?id_noticia=686&id_pagina=1).

Problemas como o turismo exploratório e sexual, a biopirataria, a destruição de mata atlântica e florestas tropicais, associados a uma vasta gama de interesses econômicos nacionais e internacionais nestas duas regiões, que vêm, desde épocas coloniais penalizando seus povos, para não mencionar a destruição deliberada de sua cultura. Ao mesmo tempo, estas são regiões de importante e histórica diversidade cultural e biológica.

Já a região Norte contém grande parte da biodiversidade do mundo, com reservas indpigenas e parques nacionais e estaduais que concentram mais de cem línguas e dialetos diferentes, com uma medicina popular tradicional oral baseada em ervas e extratos, e um número ainda maior de estilos musicais diferentes, de festivals populares e de mitos.


Parte II

Desenvolvimento

O projeto apresentado aqui segue uma ordem lógica de ações e trabalhos desenvolvidos pela rede de ativistas de mídia midiatatica.org. Partindo da introdução do conceito de mídia tática no Brasil em 2003 e sua aplicação subseqüente na criação artística com MIDIA TATICA BRASIL (Anexo 1); então desenvolvendo o conceito para as áreas periféricas, marginalizadas ou pobres de São Paulo - com AUTOLABS (Anexo 2); e finalmente instrumentalizando aquelas práticas na comunidade artística com um segundo festival, Digitofagia (Anexo 3), era natural que nós focassêmos para as vozes silenciosas e riquíssimas do cenário midiático brasileiro. Partindo deste projeto como uma ação político, social assim como uma ação cultural, Mídia Itinerante procurará estender o diálogo atual de estratégias dos meios, da auto-instrução progressiva e da cultura da rede com muitas outras iniciativas, em um contexto onde, mais do que seu lugar de origem, uma visão crítica da prática dos meios possa emergir, no campo de conhecimentos novos e tradicionais.


Fases

Pesquisa: Tecetura de uma rede relevante dos colaboradores dentro das áreas e dos domínios do estudo, a definição da tecnologia e dos recursos humanos necessitados, assim como seu custo, e publicação dos dados através de um Web site.

Desenvolvimento: A instalação e testes do miniônibus, a excursão e o projeto.


Proponent & Equipe

Ananinas (Alagoas) Ricardo e Tati (Rio Grande do Norte) Rodrigo (Fortaleza)

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Description

The Itinerant Media Lab is a research project in Brazilian cyberculture. It is a two-year study that aims to form a cooperative network of independent media producers throughout the country, stimulating local knowledge while promoting education, social interaction and media awareness by aligning regional cultural production and new/autonomous forms of production and distribution.


How?
Through a mobile media center running across the north and north-eastern region of Brazil, mapping groups that already work with the concepts and/or practices of community media, providing access and learning space for people on old and new media and, when possible, the fusion of both.

At a given place, the mobile media center stops to gather information about groups working with media locally. Through a brief period of information exchange, a short-term project is developed culminating in workshops, debates and a final party to exhibit the results (in the same way the tactical media lab Midia Tatica Brasil in Sao Paulo was formatted). With the physical mapping we will also be able to build a virtual one, a database with the overall context and projects developed within such locations. Literally linking initiatives throughout the country, 5 to 8 chosen districts will have a Lab festivity constituted and run by different groups, promoting the interchange between local and translocal communities.

Although the bus will be a literal vehicle of transportation of these groups between different locations, we are also looking for other collaborations, being local and worldwide,
to build a common platform to research media projects within this described environment (read more below - Problems Approached). Some of the collaborations needed are, for example, researchers and programmers that work on free platform, with low-tech media and with pedagogy.

The Lab will ideally have 4 recycled machines in free platform and two MACs for sound and video editing connected through an Intranet, a studio for sound and radio production, one data show, one scanner, one printer, one digital camera and one camcorder. We are at the moment looking for subventions to maintain a group of 4 people and the assembly of the lab inside a minibus. We will also be looking into nodes of Internet access on the given trajectory (to be defined on the research phase) such as universities, telecenters etc to publish the material on the web.

Why
Problems Approached

Many are the social, political and economic problems in Brazil. Socially, there's an extremely unequal distribution of wealth. Such a big social inequality is reflected, for example, in the extreme differences between the center and the periphery in the big cities, regional unequalities, criminality, racism. Besides that, we live in an unnoficial police state that acts in defense of the elites, murdering and arresting poorer citzens, because of the color of their skin or social condition. Politically, the current post-dictatorship Brazilian government defines itself as a democracy, with its current president, Lula da Silva, who, in spite of his bond with the Worker's Party (PT), has acted much more in a Tony Blair-like third way, showing a very conservative approach in defense of the great monopolies and business community rather than the population in general. Undertakings like "Fome Zero" (Zero Hunger) reveal themselves much more as politics of favor than real welfare state.

Cultural conditions are not better. Public education is in a very bad condition, with high percentage of illiterates, precarious public schools and few public and free universities, whose access is much more easy to rich and well prepared students. As for the media situation, the majority of Brazilians watch TV, most of them only watching the hegemonic Globo TV. Given that circumstance, a good part of the Brazilian cultural background is formed through television rather than the school. The control of media is very rigid and corrupt, favouring the interests of monopolies that become official through a state agency, Anatel, whose policy is to repress all initiatives ranging from free radio stations to a vast array of independent media production away from corporate interests, be it communitarian or not. The access to the internet is also tightly controlled by the same Anatel, with most broadband monopolized by few communication enterprises (e.g.: spanish Telefonica), and, subsequently, very few concessions. In addition to this context, a great conservatism characterizes Brazilian culture nowadays, with most of its production, musical or artistic, directly tied to the market, characterized by a reactionary and disperse postmodernism, with little or none social or political criticism.

Even so, that didn't prevent that, in the last years, a whole series of cultural producers emerged in the artistic, activist or media fields that were actively engaged in an independent and critical production. In that sense, groups like Indymedia Brazil and a whole community of websites and projects (e.g.: Radio Muda, Joinha Filmes, Projeto Metafora, Re:Combo), started to work and produce throughout the country, but especially in Sao Paulo, the richest and most developed city in the country.

But Brazil is much bigger, and the unequalities even greater. In the north and north-east of the country, all those problems are added to iliteracy, unemployment (both the highest in Brazil) and very poor economic and social conditions. According to Interage.org.br, the percentage of people in extreme poverty in the north region is 44% and the north-east has at least 5 states with the country's lowest rate of Human Development (HDI), all of them below 0,69%. Problems such as exploratory tourism, biopiracy, natural tropical forest destruction and arid weather are also associated with a vast array of national and international economic interests in these two regions that, since colonial times, have been penalizing its people, not to mention destroying its culture.

Despite of that, inside this big Brazilian periphery, the diversity is one of the highest in the country, cultural and biological. According to awish.net, only two square kilometers of Amazon land contains more diverse species than all of Canada and the United States and only the known Indian reserves there have more than one hundred different dialects. Not to mention a great number of different musical styles, folk festivals and myths.

In the meantime, on the 7 o'clock soap opera we can follow the life of party and fashion of the Brazilian bourgeoisie while the all-for-bizarre talk shows and new evangelist church channels compete to numb us with fear and apathy.

Proposal
The project presented here follows a logic order of actions and works developed by midiatatica.org. Starting from introducing the concept of tactical media in Brazil and its subsequent application in both activist and artistic creations with MIDIA TATICA BRASIL (see Part 2); then developing it towards the pratical use of the concept in peripheral, marginalized or poor areas of sao paulo with AUTOLABS (Part 2); and finally instrumentalizing those practices in the artistic community through a minor second festival, Digitofagia, it was natural that we would turn our eyes to such a socially and culturally significant area.

Going the opposite way from the current Brazilian projects related to new media, and the city that is able to dilute everything into slogans (e.g: digital inclusion), we approach this project as being a political, as well as a social and cultural action, with the Itinerant Media Lab hopefully being able to expand the current media strategies with progressive education and interaction between different initiatives, in a context where, even more than in its place of origin, a broader critical vision of media practices can emerge, both in the field of traditional and new media.

This fellowship with xxxxxxxx would enable us to develop the first part of this project, the research phase, in which we plan to create a network of collaborations to be embodied by the mobile media center.

Phases
Research: Set up of a relevant network of collaborations within the areas and domains of study, definition of technology and human resources needed an its cost, data publishing via a website. Partners contacted.

Development: Minibus set-up and tests, tour and design of the Brazilian media map.

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Rhizome.org

Mídia Kombi

Parte Um

"we antropophize medium practices and propose the collectivity and autonomy of productive relations, besides equaly acknowledging the periphery – we are all peripheric in relation to the empire – as a marginalized reality, and before everything else, the main expression of the colonial logic of latin american cultures". "Aqui vêm a mídia tática!", “Here comes the tactical media!”, Manifest from the festival Mídia Tática Brasil, 2003.


(500 words max)

Project description

Many are the social, political and economic problems in Brazil. Socially, there's an extremely unequal distribution of wealth. Such a big social inequality is reflected, for example, in the extreme differences between the center and the periphery in the big cities, regional unequalities, criminality, racism.

Cultural conditions are not better. Public education is in a very bad condition, with high percentage of illiterates, precarious public schools and few public and free universities, whose access is much more easy to rich and well prepared students. As for the media situation, the majority of Brazilians watch TV, most of them only watching the hegemonic Globo TV. Given that circumstance, a good part of the Brazilian cultural background is formed through television rather than the school. The control of media is very rigid and corrupt, favouring the interests of monopolies that become official through a state agency, Anatel, whose policy is to repress all initiatives ranging from free radio stations to a vast array of independent media production away from corporate interests, be it communitarian or not. The access to the internet is also tightly controlled by the same Anatel, with most broadband monopolized by few communication enterprises (e.g.: spanish Telefonica), and, subsequently, very few concessions. In addition to this context, a great conservatism characterizes Brazilian culture nowadays, with most of its production, musical or artistic, directly tied to the market, characterized by a reactionary and disperse postmodernism, with little or none social or political criticism.

Even so, that didn't prevent that, in the last years, a whole series of cultural producers emerged in the artistic, activist or media fields that were actively engaged in an independent and critical production. In that sense, groups like Indymedia Brazil and a whole community of websites and projects (e.g.: Radio Muda, Joinha Filmes, Projeto Metafora, Re:Combo, Media Sana, Metareciclagem, Orquesta Organismo, Midiatatica), started to work and produce throughout the country, also stimulated by community media projects such as Autolabs and Free Knowledge encounters.

The north-east of the country is a continent in itself, with problems such as iliteracy, unemployment (both the highest in Brazil) and very poor economic and social conditions. According to Interage.org.br, the percentage of people in extreme poverty in the north region is 44% and the north-east has at least 5 states with the country's lowest rate of Human Development (HDI), all of them below 0,69%. Problems such as exploratory tourism, biopiracy, natural tropical forest destruction and arid weather are also associated with a vast array of national and international economic interests in these two regions that, since colonial times, have been penalizing its people, not to mention destroying its culture.

Despite of that, inside this big Brazilian periphery, the diversity is one of the highest in the country, cultural and biological. According to awish.net, only the known Indian reserves have more than one hundred different dialects. Not to mention a great number of different musical styles, folk festivals and myths.

The cultural production of some communities – indigenous, quilombolas, ribeirinhos – asks for a condition given by its environment and that defines its territoriality.

This territoriality is not only physical but a set of symbolic relations from the people that occupies that territory and maintain its cultural tradition at that given environment or place.
To enter and connect those territories of multiple and unheard subjectivities, stimulating local knowledge while promoting face to face education, socio-technical interaction and media awareness is to align regional cultural production and new/autonomous forms of media production and distribution.

Brief description of project (500 characters max)

Media Kombi is a political, as well as a social and a cultural action, knitting popular media strategies with critical education, converging different initiatives at a common space, in a context where, even more than in its place of origin, a broader vision of media practices can emerge, both in the field of traditional media, as much as the new media and the internet.



How?
Through a mobile media center running across the north-eastern region of Brazil, mapping groups that already work with the concepts and/or practices of community media, providing access and learning space for people at old and new media and, when possible, the fusion of both. Besides being a literal vehicle of transportation of these groups between different locations, Media Kombi is an connecting artifact per se, where people can learn and use free software tools and experience connectivity.

At 8 chosen places, Media Kombi stops to gather information about groups working with media locally. Through a brief period of information exchange, a short-term project is developed culminating in workshops, debates and a final party/screening to exhibit the results. With the physical mapping we will also be able to build a virtual one, a database with the overall context and projects developed within such locations. Literally linking initiatives throughout the country, 5 to 8 chosen districts will have a Lab festivity constituted and run by different groups, promoting the interchange between local and translocal communities.

project's feasibility
The project presented here follows a logic order of actions and works developed by midiatatica.org. Starting from introducing the concept of tactical media in Brazil and its subsequent application in both activist and artistic creations with MIDIA TATICA BRASIL; then developing it towards the pratical use of the concept in peripheral, marginalized or poor areas of sao paulo with AUTOLABS; and finally instrumentalizing those practices in the artistic community through nation-wide festivals, such as Digitofagia (SP/RJ), Submidialogia#1 (Campinas) , Submidialogia#2 (Pernambuco), Cibersalão.BR (BA/MG) e Upgrade!Salvador (BA) it was natural that we would turn our eyes to such a socially and culturally significant area.

collaborations

People and places involved

tatiana wells
renata lourenço
thaís brito
ricardo ruiz
sérgio melo
pixies
titi
gabriel furtado
ananias filho

8 lugares

sibaúma – rio grande do norte
Sibaúma é habitada a pelo menos um século e meio por descendentes de escravos fugidos ou forros. Tem uma longa história de lutas em defesa de suas terras: os moradores já foram expulsos duas vezes de suas terras, para onde voltaram “na marra”. Três famílias tradicionais formam o núcleo da comunidade quilombola: os Leandro, os Camilo e os Caetano. A Associação de remanescentes de quilombolas da praia de Sibaúma, instituição representativa local, vem lutando há mais de 10 anos pela retomada de suas terras, que têm sido griladas, devastadas ou vendidas.

Sibaúma, hoje:



, cachoeira, chapada diamantina e juazeiro - bahia, aldeia cumaru - paraíba, sete cidades - piauí, petrolina - pernambuco)

we are also looking for other collaborations, being local or worldwide.

production timeline

Phases
Research: Set up of a relevant network of collaborations within the areas and domains of study, definition of technology and human resources needed an its current costs, data publishing via a website. Partners contacted.

Development: Minibus set-up and tests, tour and design of the Brazilian media map.

The Lab will ideally have 4 recycled machines in free platform and two MACs for sound and video editing connected through an Intranet, a studio for sound and radio production, one data show, one scanner, one printer, one digital camera and one camcorder. We are at the moment looking for subventions to maintain a group of 4 people and the assembly of the lab inside a minibus. We will also be looking into nodes of Internet access on the given trajectory (to be defined on the research phase) such as universities, telecenters etc to publish the material on the web.



project budget

Kombi:
Natural gas kit us$1.000
Hire of media equipment (speakers, sound table, laptops, microphones, camera) us$1.000

People, food and housing for 10 people during 3 months
us$1.000
JUNE to AUGUST


Your resume or Curriculum Vitae. For collaborative groups, provide either a collective CV or the CV's of all participants.

Descentro


+ Up to 5 work samples. Note: More is not necessarily better. You should include only work samples relevant to your proposal. If your proposal has nothing to do with photography, don’t include images from your photography portfolio. Please provide contextualizing information (title, date, medium, perhaps a brief description) to help the jury understand what they are looking at. The work sample can take any form, as long as it is accessible via the web.



Online

Oficina, vídeo, site (blog), transmissão ao vivo, cineclube
Trajetório de artistas em comunidades do nordeste