interfiction XVIII

instructable: that's how it works!

Interdiciplinary workshop symposium for art, media and network cultures

How does this work? That’s how it works! Is everything “instructable”? This year’s interfiction symposium invites with lectures, presentations and workshop-sessions to take a closer look at media, forms and formats of how-tos, tutorials and instructions, skill-sharing, the communication of know-how, and community based knowledge generation.  

The era of digitalization seems to be directly coined with the so called “information society“: Based upon the coupling of digital databases with network technologies, search engines and other tools enhancing the retrieval and distribution of information, the more recent development of social media enabling not only “digerati”, but everyone to actively participate in the collection and dissemination of information about “almost everything” and for any purpose you might imagine.

However, an “information society” is still far from being a community of practice. Not only has information become an article of trade. Moreover, knowledge was and is, just as it has always been, power. And for this reason, neither information nor knowledge is something shared amongst all, being freely commuted, distributed and/or made accessible for granted. At the same time the call for commons, for shared information and knowledge as well as for accessibility has gained importance – and subsequently become a core field of community based engagement within digital networks and beyond. Over the last decade, a whole variety of platforms and tools have been developed enabling and fostering a community-oriented gathering and exchange of information.

The recent boom of do it yourself cultures we are currently facing in a whole variety of different fields is obviously strongly connected to and promoted by this progress. Especially internet based platforms and tools for the publication and communication, exchange and collaborative development of instructions, manuals and how-tos play an important role. They are not only a major source of information and inspiration, but also facilitate communication about practical implementation and exchange of experience.

But is it possible to transfer principles that have been proved and approved in one field to another one without a break? What about the relation(s) between theory and practice? What are the premises and requirements for a successful conversation and realization? And when are the criteria for a how-to good enough to make stuff really work? How does the exchange of information, know-how and knowledge in different areas of application work – and what has to be done to foster it in different socio-cultural contexts and communities? In how far have relations between experts and laymen, amateurs and professionals, traditional institutions of education and alternate resources, including instruments and strategies of knowledge building, changed in the course of technological developments and their social impact? How important are Open Source technologies, D.I.Y. and “hacks” within this context?

As an interdisciplinary workshop-conference for art, media and network cultures, interfiction will explore promises and problems generated at the mentioned intersections and convergences of technological and cultural developments. Together with the more recent achievements, we’re also interested in the histories of gadget technologies and cultures, as well as perspectives of media archaeology. As always, special attention will be devoted to Open Source development, OS technology, Creative Commons and Do-It-Yourself access.

And as always interfiction is digging into its issues not only in theory, but also with a very practical approach: Share your knowledge, skills and instructions hands on and online by the way of our interfiction “HowTo swap”!

interfiction team 2011
Verena Kuni (director), Martin Dege, Karsten Asshauer and Anders Turge Lehr

Friday, Nov 11 / 7 pm
interfiction opening warm-up with an intro by Verena Kuni, HowTo Wawerko with Erik Frank and interfiction “HowTo-swap” and bar

Saturday, Nov 12 / 11 am till 9 pm + Sunday, Nov 13 / 11 am till 5 pm
Workshop-seminar with lectures, projects, presentations, videos, discussions, lab and interfiction “HowTo-Swap”

Participants
Karsten Asshauer (Berlin)
Martin Dege (Kassel)
Jördis Drawe (Tübingen)
Denisa Dyrsmidova (Frankfurt)
Jan Eggers (Frankfurt am Main)
Erik Frank (Dortmund)
Annabelle Hornung (Frankfurt am Main)
Benjamin Hagemann (Giessen)
Sarah Held (Mannheim)
Karl Heinz Jeron (Berlin)
Georg Klein (Offenbach)
Verena Kuni (Frankfurt am Main)
Anders Turge Lehr (Karlsruhe/Ulm)
Bernd Metz (Frankfurt)
Tine Nowak (Frankfurt am Main)
Daniel Pauls (Frankfurt am Main)
Eva Sauterleute (Frankfurt am Main)
Anabel Sarabi (Essen/Bern)
Uwe Schüler (Tübingen)
Philip Steffan (Berlin)
Olaf Val (Kassel)
Paul Wiersbinski (Frankfurt)
Karsten Winnemuth (Kassel)
Stephanie Wuschitz (Wien)
a.o.

Find out more about participants and program at www.interfiction.org
No fee, guests and their gadgets are welcome.
Contact: info@interfiction.org