the media art project
BROADCAST MEDIA SCULPTURES

invites you to the final conference
THE FUTURE OF OLD MEDIA

02. – 03. September 2010
11:00 to 18:00
Kunsthalle Exnergasse

04. September 2010
20:00
WUK Foyer

“We work with women who have been trafficked and with current and
former sex workers. Some of the women have been trafficked into the
sex industry, and some of them were forced into other kinds of
labour, such as bonded domestic work. Most of the women have
migrated from other countries to the Netherlands.

On one level, we train women who are marginalised in the Netherlands
to tell their stories using powerful media tools such as radio, photo-
graphy, and video. We want to give them the skill and opportunity to
express the complexities of their lives.
But we don’t stop there. Our goal is to use media to create a more
humanised and multi-faceted picture of the sex industry. We want
to show this industry as a complex fabric, composed both of women
workers who are entitled to demand their rights as workers and women
who have been forced into the industry.
Many people looking in from the outside have quite a polarised view.
Women are either victims, or they are making choices. But as in any
other area of life, there are many grey zones. We will create a moving
exhibition that tells the stories of sex workers and trafficked women in
their own voices and images. In the long-term, we want to create an
independent media centre run by and for women from these communities.”

Home is a concept that is material, emotional and political. At the heart of the most recent economic collapse, the loss of homes became a major concern, not only from the perspective of people’s inabilityto secure shelter, but also in how within the context of the american dream losing a home became analogous to losing the promise of the capitalist might.

The lack of a home may be different than a lack of home; this series addresses the meaning of home and the definitions individuals, cities, nations and cultures work with when referring to such concept. Themes of displacement, (im)migration, uneven development, autonomous spaces, architecture and memory are recurring in the program.

Curated by denisse andrade

++MAY 20++
Featuring a conversation with Rob Robinson, of Picture the Homeless, filmmakers and others TBA.

DOÑA ANA, Animation; 2min (2006)
Marlon Vásquez Silva, David Sanchez, Colombia
Ana is a woman who sells medicinal plants in the city of Medellín ,Colombia. While she eats strawberries and talks about their properties, we find out much more.

HERE TO STAY, Documentary; 7min (2008)
Mansee Kong, USA
Illustrates the effects of gentrification in Manhattan’s Chinatown as an elderly man and fellow tenants in an endangered single-room occupancy building await the results of an anti-eviction lawsuit

CUSPS, Documentary; 14min (2008)
Sara Zia Ebrahimi, USA
In this personal documentary Sara Zia Ebrahimi explores her experiences living as an urban nomad and immigrant in the post-industrial landscape of Philadelphia.

The documentary first began exploring the role artists play in gentrification.

FOUR PLACES CALLED HOME, Documentary; 4 min (2008)
Simone Viger, Canada
Do you know the history of your home? How much of the past can be read? This portrait of a neighborhood travels to four different reconverted buildings in the South West region of Montreal, presenting varied notions of home.

TACTICAL TOURIST, 14min (2007)
Dara Greenwald, USA
A DIY portrait of the squatting movement in Barcelona, Spain. A tourist walks through the city led by squatters – the tour points out buildings turned from abandoned or speculative properties into communal homes and radical cultural spaces.

DEAR NEIGHBOR, Video letter; 7min (2006)
Cristian Bermudez, Costa Rica/Norway
An ordinary house in an ordinary suburb was painted in white and fuchsia color stripes. A year later, a letter was sent to the neighbors explaining the reasons for this choice. The same letter was used as script for this film that deals with issues such as identity, immigration and the use of art out of the white cube.

2 HOME MOVIES, Experimental documentary; 9min (2009)
Masha Godovannaya, Russia
One can say with some certainty that all of us,with cameras–
have shot home movies in their lives.Now, imagine how a home movie would look like if it was shot inWarsaw Ghetto at the beginning of 1940s by a German worker during this vacation…

NO PLACE LIKE HOME, PSA. 1min (2009)
Supafriends, Global Action Project; USA
A public service announcement focusing on homelessness among LGBTQ youth.

++MAY 21++

ICIT ET LA-BAS (HERE AND THERE), Documentary; 20min (2003)
Natalia Rodriguez, Colombia
A n immigrant couple in France see their daughters becoming French. In this home of double culture, hopes of going back still exist.

THE COST OF SEPARATION, Documentary, 9min (2009)
Liz Miller Canada

“The Cost of Separation” highlights the daily effects of prolonged separation from family members on three parents with refugee status in Canada.

STILL, Documentary; 18min (2009)
Alana Kakoyiannis, Cyprus
A poetic documentary reflecting on the notion of home through
the lens of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriotdisplacement on the divided island of Cyprus. The testimonies of twofemale voices living on opposing sides of the Green Line combined with the filmmaker’s own observations of the present day, capture the potency ofthe political conflict through personal perspectives.

DISILLUSIONMENT, Video portraits;12min (2007)
Voices of Women Media, The Netherlands
Migrant women flee their homelands in search of a new country offering security,freedom and peace. They leave families and their cultures behind for a chance to improve their political and personal situations.

In February 2007, undocumented migrant women residing illegally in a housing shelter in The Netherlands were given media tools to create six intimate videoportraits offering a brief glimpse into this transient period oftheir lives.

STEEL HOMES, Documentary; 10min (2008)
Eva Weber, UK
A poetic exploration of memory and loss, Steel Homes takes the viewer inside the world of a self-storage warehouse, uncovering the hiddent treasures and secrets behind closed doors.

WARM PLACE TONIGHT, Documentary, 7min (1996)
Nic Bettauer, USA
This film documents two homeless men’s Sisyphean struggle to safe the life of their friend on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. The film expresses the men’s feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and powerlessness tied to their grief, loss and homelessness.

LEAVING EL BARRIO, Documentary, 5min (1997)
Beni Matias, USA
A look at what happens when a family loses their home in Spanish Harlem.

In 2007 richtten Vivian Wenli Lin en Pooja Pant de stichting Voices of Women op. Afkomstig uit de Verenigde Staten en Nepal zijn ze nu woonachtig in Amsterdam. Beiden zijn al jaren actief op het gebied van mediakunst, feminisme, gender-issues en activisme.

Voices of Women ontstond met als insteek om de stigma’s die uiteenlopende vrouwelijke arbeiders omringen weg te nemen. Het is een organisatie in ontwikkeling. Na hun eerste project ‘Dissillusionment’ in 2007 waarin ze migrantenvrouwen de kans boden zelf te vertellen over hun bestaan en soms extreme werkomstandigheden zijn ze in 2010, met steun van Mama Cash, begonnen aan een uitgebreid en gelaagd nieuw project onder de noemer ‘A day in her life’.

Dit project omvat verschillende elementen. In eerste instantie is het een workshop voor zowel sekswerkers als slachtoffers van mensenhandel, waarin ze vrouwen de vrijheid en mogelijkheid bieden om te praten over hun leven en daarbij op creatieve wijze gebruik te maken van media als radio, video en fotografie. “Het gaat er niet om dat de deelnemers hun ‘ware’ identiteit prijsgeven. Maar we willen hun dagelijks leven, hun dromen en hoop vastleggen.” Omdat juist deze verhalen vaak niet gedocumenteerd worden, niet gehoord worden willen Vivian Wenli Lin en Pooja Pant met hun werk een zo divers mogelijk publiek bereiken.

Het uiteindelijke resultaat verwerken ze tot een videoinstallatie waarin de verhalen van de vrouwen te zien en te horen zijn. Bezoekers kunnen kijken en luisteren naar de ervaringen en levens die gedeeld worden. Verder richten ze een fototentoonstelling in, met foto’s van alle vrouwen. Door zowel vrijwillig werkende vrouwen als slachtoffers van mensenhandel aan het woord te laten, ontstaat er een rijkheid aan stemmen die laten zien dat dit werk niet eenduidig te interpreteren is.

Vivian en Pooja willen ruimte maken voor de menselijke aspecten van het werk dat deze vrouwen doen. Dat vrouwen die vrijwillig werken het recht hebben te beslissen wat ze met hun lichaam doen, die keuzevrijheid is essentieel. En dat vrouwen die slachtoffer zijn geweest, meer zijn dan alleen dat, slachtoffer.

Voices of Women wil vrouwen zelf letterlijk de middelen bieden om hun eigen verhaal te vertellen en zodoende zichzelf te versterken en hun eigenwaarde te vergroten.

Het werk van Voices of Women is op dit moment nog in ontwikkeling. Tijdens het LOVER-debat over de rechten van sekswerkers, op 23 juni in Utrecht, zal een deel van het werk te zien en te horen zijn. Meer informatie over het debat volgt.

http://nonewenemies.net/2010/04/10/maxi-meets-vivian-wenli-lin/

Growing up as an only child from a strong independent woman from the former GDR I never experienced the need to emancipate or to reflect much about my womanhood. Since I never felt marginalized as a Caucasian woman and since I never had to fight for equal payments, I just did not know what to reflect about. Meeting Vivian Wenli Lin, a video artist with a feminist focus, got me thinking and I hoped that meeting her would deconstruct my image of feminists as bra burning asexual women.

Vivian’s work, such as ‘Loving Work’ and ‘Asakusa Geisha’, is often described as very sexual, but what she really tries to show is the human side of sexuality and the layers of femininity that deconstruct sexuality. Experimenting with video from an early age, it came to her as a natural medium to express her view. A medium that makes it possible for Vivian to create her own cave; a personal space where she can feel comfortable and put her subjects patiently at ease. Contrary to male directors, who tend to be more intrusive in her opinion, Vivian knows how to make her subjects forget about the camera and let go.

Moving into a feminist focus, after attending Loni Ding’s Ethnic Studies social documentary class in America, gave Vivian a female voice that does not want to impose on the men’s world, but draws inspiration from other female artists. Taking on feminism as a religion she wants to create powerful images that inspire, instead of merely complaining. At Voices of Women media she is giving workshops to marginalized communities, such as sex workers and trafficked women, who find it hard to juggle their explosive work with their delicate family live. She believes that learning how to create your own image enables these women to deal with the split between their work and their personal lives.

While generally documenting Asian racial minorities she also worked with graffiti women and women in the hip hop scene. These thoughtful pieces show strong beautiful women and their relationship with their cities. While they reflect on their careers they are not being equalized to androgynous women, but let be in their femininity without being degraded. Vivian loves to show women fighting, how they balance career, motherhood, and sexuality, and if there is one thing she would like to achieve it is redefining women’s place in society. Without pushing away men as culprits she embraces femininity in al its facets.

While we ponder about the marginal and racial differences I remembered how I felt when I traveled through South-America and Asia. Being ‘the other’ made me feel very uncomfortable and I realized that while I could just go back home, a lot of women do not have the choice. Vivian made me understand that every being is political and that her focus on the feminine point of view is merely her way to represent herself and the communities she feels close to. She also made me realize how lucky I am to have the primarily untroubled live I life. In the future she would like to focus more on her workshops and give voice to teenagers and immigrant communities in Amsterdam, as well as to create more portraits.

By maxi meissner

Hotpot Lab #4: Niche Music Talk
Wednesday, April 14 2010
Venue: STEIM, Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
Time: 20.30 hrs.
Door open: 20:00 hrs.
Charge: Free

Presentation about San Francisco Bay Area hip hop and the connection to slang.

A celebration and memorial tribute to Loni Ding, 1931-2010, will be held on Monday, April 12, 2010 at the Brecht Forum at 451 West Street, between Bank and Bethune, New York City. It will start at 6:30 PM with a potluck dinner, screening of her work and video excerpts of the service and Chinatown Memorial March that happened in San Francisco on March 14. There will be an open forum for people to tell stories, poems and anecdotes about this wonderful woman. Loni’s partner, David Welsh, will be present along with many colleagues and former students.

Loni Ding (Isadora Quanehia Ding Welsh, or Ding Bick Lon) was an award-winning filmmaker as well as a teacher, people’s advocate and community organizer. She was one of the pioneers who launched the Neighborhood Arts Program of the San Francisco Art Commission. As a tireless advocate for social issue documentary, Loni played a central role in the creation of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (now the Center for Asian American Media) and ITVS, as well as being a leading voice in the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. Her television programs have reached literally millions of school children and PBS audiences. Her ground-breaking films include the Color of Honor and Nisei Soldier, about the Japanese American soldier in World War II; the Bean Sprouts children’s series; and Ancestors in the Americas, a television series about the history of Asians in the Western hemisphere.

Loni inspired thousands of students in her 35 years of teaching and she brought a passionate social conscience to independent filmmaking. She was a leader who believed that media was a tool by which communities can realize the power that resides in them. We will miss her.

A fund has been established for an annual Loni Ding Award in Social Issue Documentary, organized by the Center for Asian American Media. Loni’s website is www.cetel.org. Some of her students have set up a new website rememberingloni.com that is growing day by day.

The East Coast Loni Ding Celebration is sponsored by: the Center for Media, Culture and History, NYU; Deep Dish TV; Third World Newsreel; Asian Cinevision; the Center for Asian American Media; Paper Tiger TV; National Black Programming Consortium: Scribe Video Center; the Black Producers Consortium; Women Make Movies; Downtown Community Television, and many individuals.

From the Celebration Committee: DeeDee Halleck, Barbara Abrash and J.T. Takagi

Loni was a mentor, mother, friend, teacher, filmmaker, pioneer, and pure inspiration.

She was my professor in 1999-2000 and I had the honor of working with her from 2000-2002.

www.cetel.org