No Borders – No Nations – No Prisons

An Invitation To The Gatwick No Border Camp 2007

From 19th to 24th September 07 we will gather at Gatwick Airport for the first No Border Camp in the UK. This camp will be a chance to work together to try and stop the building of a new detention centre, and to gather ideas for how to build up the fight against the system of migration controls.

Gatwick Aiport – The Border Point

Gatwick is a border in the middle of Britain. People arrive here everyday. People are forcibly deported from here everyday. It is a place where people are imprisoned for unlimited lengths of time without trial, where people are forced to hide underground and be invisible, where people are treated as criminals for the ‘crime’ of crossing the border.

In Britain, the government has recently announced its intention to build a new detention centre, near Tinsley House, another detention centre at Gatwick airport. This will be another in a long line of barbarous prisons across the world, imprisoning people who migrate. Unless we stop it from being built.

Not far from Gatwick there are other border fortifications: the immigration reporting centre at Croydon, the airline companies who charter deportation flights and the ID Interview centre in Crawley. And a few miles away are the border posts at Dover and Folkstone, where fear of detection by the border police forces people to risk their lives hiding under lorries, or in suffocating containers.

While the physical borders get fortified, governments also tighten up the internal controls: from international databases to video surveillance, biometric ID cards to electronic tagging. Just recently, the UK government has announced the introduction of the Sirene System. This will grant Britain access to the SIS (Schengen Information System), a EU wide police database for refugees and migrants, planned to be extended to keep protesters from moving around.

A Tactics Laboratory

How does daily life, from the need to work for survival to the welfare system, reinforce these borders? How can we fight against the common acceptance of borders, the idea of an inside and outside? How can we claim freedom of movement as a basic right? How do we assert our ability to decide whether to go or stay, according to our needs and desires, not the needs of the state or the economy? How can we escape control, and start building a movement powerful enough to challenge the divisions between people?

We need to share knowledge with those who have broken these borders, the hackers who escape control, those who survive without work and money, those who fight the detention system , those who question identities, those who have learnt to organise themselves without hierarchy or divisions.

Camp(aign)ing Against Borders

This camp is continuing the tradition of the No Border camps across the world since the late 1990s, and like the camps taking place this year in the Ukraine in August and on the US/Mexican border in November. It will be a space to share information, skills, knowledge and experiences. A place to plan actions together against the system of borders which divides us.

We are aware that the struggles for “no borders” reach far beyond “open borders”. Without borders the idea of states will become obsolete, without states the national economies will be history. In a world without borders, nobody will ask for papers anymore.

The camp will also be a laboratory of political and practical self-organisation. The camp will consist only of people’s contributions to this. We are aware of the borders which divide ourselves from each other, be it sex, class, race, nationality, or whatever. The border camps are experiments in how to overcome these artificial and separating identities.

No Borders

No Borders is a network of groups struggling for the freedom of movement for all and an end to all migration controls. We call for a radical movement against the system of control, dividing us into citizens and non-citizens.

We demand the end of the border regime for everyone, including ourselves, to enable us to live another way, without fear, racism and nationalism.

We move, we meet. We talk, we fight.

Come camp with us. read more.

the next Deptford.TV workshops during october will produce short films for the lewisham 77 exhibition in november. more here.

On 13 August 1977, the far-right National Front attempted to march from New Cross to Lewisham in South East London. Local people and anti-racists from all over London and beyond mobilised to oppose them, and the NF were humiliated as their march was disrupted and banners seized.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the ‘Battle of Lewisham’ a series of commemorations are planned in the area where it took place, including:

– a walk along the route of the march/counter-protest, including people involved at the time. This will start from Clifton Rise, New Cross at 3 pm on Saturday 15th September 2007. Google map here

– a Love Music Hate Racism gig at Goldsmiths Student Union on Saturday 27th October 2007.

– a half day event in New Cross on Saturday 10th November with speakers, films and a social event in the evening (2 pm start at Goldsmiths College, New Cross).

More here
 

Key posts

• Battle of Lewisham Chronology
• South East London Racism & Resistance Chronology
• Picture Gallery

 

 

Tell us your story

Do you have any memories, leaflets, photographs, video footage or other material relating to the ‘Battle of Lewisham’? If so please email us (lewisham77@gmail.com) or post a comment on this site. As well as the events of August 13th, we are interested in the build up of racism and resistance prior to the day, and the aftermath, such as court cases.

migrating University Goldsmiths to Gatwick

mig | 11.09.2007 22:40 | No Border Camp 2007 | Migration

from indymedia

General enthusiasm for this event is very high. A feeling of frustration, and therefore energy for exploring activist options, is strong on campus. This is the joint result of the ongoing managerialism that afflicts the ‘teaching factory’ at all levels, alongside the wider malaise of neo-liberal war-mongering imperialism/Border-ism evident in the current conjuncture, everywhere. The role of the university in relation to borders between people and knowledge, between different knowledges, between peoples, between students, between students who pay ‘overseas’ fees and those who pay too much (‘training’ for industrial gain, paid for by the student??) and the ever extended morale crush that afflicts staff… linked to the obsolescence of older ideas of ‘education’ in favour of opportunism and productivity… Exclusions and …racism, murder-death-kill… there is much good reason to explore these concerns in our workshop.

 

No Detention, No Deportation;
No Borders in Education:
Freedom of Movement for All

Migrating University, at Goldsmiths,
September 14-15th 2007;
From Goldsmiths to Gatwick. ( http://noborders.org.uk )

At the last meeting we had taken decisions on the date, timetable and format, five panels plus Battle of Lewisham Walk (met with them and agreed mutual co-ordination); prepared a preliminary blurb (now on CCS website [currently goldsmiths sites are down]), arranged to make a banner, booked a room, still in discussion with College over the marquee; organised with Joan Kelly to visit; linked with No Borders London and No Borders general.

Confirmed speakers so far include: Ken Fero (Injustice), David Graeber (activist anthrop), Ava Caradonna (sex worker education group), Susan Cueva (union), Sanjay Sharma (author of Multicultural Encounters), Hari Kunzru (novelist), Mao Mollona (anthropologist), Harmit Athwal (Inst Race Relations), Katherine Mann (musician), Paul Hendrich (Pirate dad) and Joan Kelly (artist).

Panels and format as it stands now [this draft is not yet confirmed]:

Friday 14th September

10.30 – Introduction, note that this is a meeting to encourage attendance at No Borders Camp at Gatwick – indicate table and meeting in evening.

10.45 -12.30 – Panel 1 – open university open source – (Brian)

12.30-2pm – Picnic on Back Field/in tent or inside if rain. 2.00-4.00 – Panel 2 – radical pedagogy/immaterial labour – (Francisco)

4.15-6.15 – Panel 3 – racism, immigration/detention, police, ‘injustice (new film promo), Inst Race Relations (Olivia)

6.15 – meeting upstairs in Goldsmiths Tavern about collective attendance at Gatwick.

7.00-9 Joan Kelly from Singapore for workshop upstairs in Tavern (food and drinks).

Saturday 15th September

10.30-12.30. Panel 4 – Teaching Factory/Critique/uses of the University (John)

12.50-2.30 Panel 5 – local campaigns, Wilberforce/pirates, Sex Workers Education campaign, trades union, Detention support (Cam)

2.30 Quick lunch

3pm-6pm – “Battle of Lewisham commemorative walk” along the route of the march/counter-protest against the National Front in 1977, including people involved at the time. At present this will start from Clifton Rise, New Cross at 3.

Deptford.TV presentation see slides1 & slides2 (as .pdf files).

AVPhD project

The AVPhD project began October 2005 and we have AHRC funding until September 2008 to consolidate, expand and develop the project UK wide, and develop more national (and potentially international) collaborative connections. Audiovisual practice research PhDs were first accepted little over a decade ago and are now increasingly in demand. Our initiative is the first systematically to address the training needs of this growing community of doctoral students. One of the effects of our work to date has been to reveal the need for students to discuss issues with the (still relatively small) group of experienced supervisors and examiners, and vice-versa.

Our primary objective is to create a sustainable, engaging and lively UK wide training network for all those working towards audiovisual practice research PhDs. We believe this will involve a long term commitment to training, especially as the nature of the PhD is itself long term, and both students and staff will benefit from sustained and continuous networking, both live and online, which of course will help their developing academic careers.

These are our main aims:

1. To sponsor and help organise a series of training events and workshops across the UK, covering the major aspects of embarking on an AVPhD, aimed at current and prospective candidates. The first of these has already happened in Belfast – others are planned for Brighton, Edinburgh, Cardiff, London, Manchester and Bristol. These events will also give doctoral students a chance to see and discuss each other’s work, in a form of a ‘peer review’ process. At least one of them will also afford an opportunity for supervisors and examiners to discuss standards and criteria.
2. To develop an online education pack to compliment the workshops, including (for example) case-studies of universities and their differing approaches to AVPhDs, and methodological publications (perhaps a collection of essays generated by contributions to the training events).
3. Set up and maintain a dynamic, intuitive website that includes a database of examiners, supervisors and students of AVPhDs with their profiles and links, an online forum for ongoing discussions and support, as well as relevant articles and audio-visual works.
4. Collaborate with the Bristol University based ScreenWork initiative – a peer reviewed DVD to be published by Intellect in association with the Journal of Media Practice.
5. To develop a future plan for the website, DVD distribution, and the workshops to ensure long-term sustainability of AVPhD, for example looking into institutional subscription to the scheme.

The AVPhD steering group now comprises:

Ian Christie

Professor of Film and Media History, School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck

Jon Dovey

Reader in Screen Media, Department of Drama: Theatre, Film, Television, University of Bristol

Tony Dowmunt

Department of Media & Communications, Goldsmiths College (which remains the lead institution) – Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, University of Ulster

Robin Nelson

Professor, Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University

Gail Pearce

Lecturer, Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London

Al Rees

Research Tutor, Department of Communication, Art and Design, Royal College of Art

Joram Ten Brink

Reader in Film, Head of the PhD programme (practice based), University of Westminster

Rosie Thomas

Reader in Art and Media Practice and Director of Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster

 

The Manchester workshop will focus upon digital media and new media arts and invites current (or recently-completed) PhD students to present their work (see ‘Call for Presentations’) and we ask presenters to foreground issues of methods and methodology. Proposals with other interesting topics and perspectives will, however, be considered.

Though there is considerable interest in ‘practice as research’, the AVPhD project is concerned with all approaches to PhDs in the Audio-Visual media (broadly understood to cover everything from fine art and sonics to social anthropology using sound, video/film as a means of investigation).

AVPhD ‘North’: Regional Workshop

Friday 14th September 9.30am – 6pm, Saturday 15th September 9.45am – 5pm

Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University,

Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6BH

(Organisers – Jim Aulich, Jane Linden, Robin Nelson)

NB There is no charge for this AHRC-funded workshop. Lunch will be provided on both days BUT delegates are asked to register their intention to attend for catering and organisational purposes:

TO:   Cheryl Platt (c.platt@mmu.ac.uk)  BY:    Friday 31 August 2007

Friday 14 September

09.30   Arrival and tea/coffee

10.00  Welcome and Introduction

10.15  Keynote: Charlie Gere, Reader in New Media and Director of Research in the Institute for Cultural Research at Lancaster University.

11.30  Methods/Methodologies (1)

Digital Practices – Applications: Chair – Jane Linden

 (Eunice CHAN, Mike GOLDING, Anne KELLOCK)

13.00  Lunch

14.00  Innovations in publishing PaR (Ric Allsopp)

15.00    a) Examiners workshop – tutors only (Robin Nelson)

b) Introduction and screening: Transfiction

by Johannes Sjöberg + discussion

17.00  Short plenary followed by wine reception

Saturday 15 September

09.45   Arrival

10.00   Keynote: Andrea Zapp, researcher-practitioner and Route Leader for MA Media Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University

11.00   Methods/Methodologies (2)

Lanscapes and Communities: Chair – Jim Aulich

(Veronica VIERIN, Lisa STANSBIE, Adnan HADZI)

 + Summary of issues identified (Jane Linden)

13.00  Lunch

14.00  Workshop: Modes of Writing for PaR PhDs

(Robin Nelson et al)

16.00    Plenary discussion

17.00  Close

Strategies of Sharing: the Case-study of Deptford.TV
Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka Maria X) presented at DRHA 2007

Web 2.0 is about sharing and networking. Software like wikis and social networking sites have made it possible for anyone privileged enough to enjoy access to new technologies to publish any type of content online and invite everyone else to access, share and process this.

This paper will attempt to explore the ‘strategies’ of sharing, using the project Deptford.TV (http://www.deptford.tv) as a case-study: Initiated in 2005 by Adnan Hadzi, Deptford.TV is an open and networked project that employs methods of commons-based peer production and uses open source software to build a video database for collective film-making. It also is a community project that attempts to collectively document the regeneration process in Deptford (Southeast London). I wanted to know: Who are the Deptford.TV participants? Why do they want to share their work? What kind of work are they prepared to share? Which strategies do they employ in the process of sharing? How do they tackle the challenges such practices involve?

This paper will be based on video interviews with Deptford.TV participants and their analysis, discussing issues of collaboration, authorship, community and documentation within the context of socially engaged Web 2.0 practices.

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What was more shocking was the discussion around the shutting down of the ahds and that there is no proper solution for the vacuum to come, as a lot of outcomes from research around new media relies on the ahds as archive.

from the ahds blog

After the AHDS: the end of national support

 

A panel discussion at the opening of the recent Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts conference at Dartington College of the Arts posed the question what happens after the end of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS); is this the end of national support?

The Arts and Humanities Data Service is a national service with the primary role to preserve, curate, and provide access to the digital output of the humanities in the UK. The Service is also active in the enhancement and promotion of digital scholarship in the UK as well as internationally. After eleven years of service, the AHDS recently lost its funding from the JISC (Joint Information Services Committee) and the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). The Service will cease to exist in its present form in March of 2008.

The panel discussion was introduced by the head of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme, Professor David Robey. The other members of the panel were Lorna Hughes, Manager of the AHRC ICT Methods Network, and Professor David Shepherd, Director of the Humanities Research Institute.

Professor Robey stated that the end of the AHDS may be decisive in the history of digital scholarship in the UK as this may be the end of national support. It is national support that has defined digital scholarship in the UK for many years and has helped the nation to become one of the world-leaders in the field. Without a national approach, the field may flounder or return to the dark days of scattered digital scholarship with little coherence or ambitions as a field.

At the present time, the AHDS preserves over one thousand projects in various digital forms, some of which include the Stormont Papers (the complete collection of the parliamentary debates of the Northern Irish Parliament under British rule), and Designing Shakespeare, (a multi-media database of the performances of Shakespeare over a forty year period). The collection of the AHDS is undoubtedly one of the most important digital collections in the world and some of it ‘born-digital’ collections exist in no other location.

The panel discussed some of the problems that may occur after the closure of the AHDS. There is no indication as to what will happen to the collection after the closure, except that the responsibility for preservation of the individual projects may be handed to institutional repositories. Although institutional repositories are responsible for collecting, preserving, and dissemination the intellectual output of universities in a digital form, there are some reservations, as express by David Shepherd, that institutional repositories are up to the task. Preservation requires projects to be prepared in a certain way and is an ongoing process. It also requires the ability to deal with complex data in various forms. There is also the serious problem that not all universities have institutional repositories, ironically including King’s College; London, the principal home of the AHDS. Although institutional repositories may one day be able to handle the tasks of the AHDS, there was great concern, as expressed by all members of the panel, that this was yet some time away. In the longer term institutional repositories may be able to look after complex data, but not now. David Robey also expressed the loss of the AHDS may also mean the end of its integrated catalogue to search the collections under its umbrella.

Lorna Hughes, the Manager of the AHRC Methods Network, stated that the decision to cease funding of the AHDS came at the same time that digital resources had reached a critical mass and access to this was altering the very nature of scholarship across the spectrum. To withdraw funding now may impact upon the ability to reuse this significant resource and to curate and present it in a user-friendly and innovative way in the future.

The program that Lorna Hughes is Manager, the highly inventive Methods Network, also ceases to be funded in 2008. The Methods Network is involved in numerous activities to promote the use of digital technologies in the humanities through workshops and other events. As the name indicates, the Methods Network is active in promoting digital scholarship through connecting individuals across various disciplines through such things as the computational methods that they employ in their work. For instance, scholars may come together through tools (like text mining) or through methods (like visualisation). It is this cross-fertilisation that is vital to the promotion of digital scholarship as a field, not only because of the economic efficiencies that it provides, but also because central to the concept of ‘innovation’ is the sharing of knowledge across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

Lorna Hughes also lamented that there was a serious dearth of tools available to scholars to properly exploit digital resources; perhaps another activity that could benefit from greater central coordination. One way that this could be achieved is through online resources such as the arts-humanities.net community platform being developed by the Methods Network. It is hoped that this community platform will continue part of the work of the Methods Network in a virtual form and carry on the conversation that will take digital humanities and its methods forward.

David Shepherd discussed what universities can do in this post-AHDS period. His own experience from running the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield; one of the UK’s premier centres within the Digital Humanities, is that institutional repositories are no where near close to being able to support complex data as made by HRI Sheffield. He made the case that universities have additional responsibilities now that the AHDS is gone, but there is a gap between what they can do and what is needed. 50% of all projects funded by the AHRC in 2006 had some sort of digital output that indicated that we cannot now make a divide between the digital and the posing of research questions.

The demise of the AHDS is a challenging period and institutions need to move quickly to overcome any gaps in the services offered by the AHDS. If they don’t move quickly, there is a danger that some of the digital output of the humanities in the UK will be lost along with the skills needed to preserve and provide access to this data.

this was great! let’s do it again!
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/wiki/index.php/DorkCamp07

the programme and abstracts as .pdf file. Deptford.TV as poster presentation.

Media, Communication, Information: Celebrating 50 Years of Theories and Practices
These last fifty years have seen a number of theoretical evolutions and practical advances in the domains which relate media to the inter-or multi-disciplinary field of information and communication. Some of them have emanated from European and Western research centres, others from diverse regions of the world scientific community. These various bodies of research have supplied analytical tools that cover the whole range of the field of media, information and communication, in a global perspective: from the production and the international circulation of news and data, images and texts, to their reception, by a wide range of publics. They have critically examined such issues as public space and democracy, actor networks and agency or technological mediation and its modalities.

New theoretical spaces of development and applications are also emerging, apparent in a number of pioneering works, with original and innovative approaches. Issues such as internet governance and co-regulation of the media resonate with questions on diasporic publics, cultural and trans-cultural diversities. The theoretical contributions of other fields, such as economics, cognition, politics, or urban studies, to name a few, have been facilitating new readings of semiotic processes and media representations, and fostering a deeper understanding of the tensions between genres and gender, minorities and communities, “youth” cultures and subcultures, worldwide. The modifications of the market and the political economy of the media in the context of globalization have cast in new perspectives such issues as cultural goods and services, e-learning industries and media literacies, not to mention sustainable development alternatives via media and new technologies for information and communication.

These developments, old and new, coincide with the areas of inquiry and the directions for research that IAMCR has fully embraced over the past fifty years. In celebration of this anniversary, The IAMCR 2007 conference will try to reflect these tendencies and to test how they intersect with more classical thematic strands such as media history, political communication, political economy, participatory communication, media education, information and ICT policy, etc. Sections and Working groups will analyze in their sessions innovative connections between theory and practice, notably the contribution of empirical work to research, and evaluate new original methodologies, protocols, instruments and indicators. Perspectives and trends for the future will also be delineated, so as to provide new paths for investigation by IAMCR members in the next 50 years.

Website: iamcr.org

It may be free but is it open? A discussion around one of the most current and pertinent issues in the arts, technology and society. The audience is invited to participate in a dabate led by contributors.

lovebytes

Chaired by
Ele Carpenter.
CRUMB, Open Source Embroidery, The Star and Shadow.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=209
http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/

Contributors include:

Charlie Davies
Ex Features Editor of ‘The Face’ Magazine, founder of the ‘London School of Art and Business’, founder member of ‘Pick Me Up’ and has recently undertaken the project ‘Free Work’.
http://charliedavies.stikipad.com/home/show/HomePage
http://charliedavies.stikipad.com/home/show/
Pick+Me+Up

Ian Anderson
the Designers Republic
http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/

Dougald Hine
Freelance Journalist, Co-founder of ‘The School of Everything’
http://otherexcuses.blogspot.com/
http://www.schoolofeverything.com/

Simon Blackmore
The Owl Project
http://www.owlproject.com/
http://www.simonblackmore.net/

Adnan Hadzi
Deptford TV: A Film and TV project based on the principles of openess and Sharing.
http://dek.spc.org/
http://www.deptford.tv

Documentation on lovebytes.tv

Communication Technologies of Empowerment

A Postgraduate Conference for the presentation of PhD research on the intersection of power and communication technologies organised by the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) at the University of Leeds

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“Andy Warhol said that everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. The web means that anyone can have their 15 minutes of power.”Abstracts and Bios

Adnan Hadzi (University of London, UK)
Adnan Hadzi is currently working on a practice-based PhD titled ‘The author vs. the collective’ at Goldsmiths, focusing on the influence of digitisation and the new forms of distribution on documentary film production, as well as the author’s rights in relation to collective authorship. This interdisciplinary research project will combine sources and expertise from the fields of media and communication, computer studies and architecture. Adnan is co-founder of Liquid Culture, Deptford TV and http://www.copyleft.cc

Deptford.TV – strategies of sharing
What is Deptford.TV
Deptford.TV is a research project on collaborative film – initiated by Adnan Hadzi in collaboration with the Deckspace media lab, Bitnik media collective, Boundless project, Liquid Culture initiative, and Goldsmiths College. It is an online media database documenting the regeneration process of Deptford, in Sout East London. Deptford TV functions as an open, collaborative platform that allows artists, filmmakers and people living and working around Deptford to store, share, re-edit and redistribute the documentation of the regeneration process. The open and collaborative aspect of the project is of particular importance as it manifests in two ways: a) audiences can become producers by submitting their own footage, b) the interface that is being used enables the contributors to discuss and interact with each other through the database. Deptford TV is a form of “television”, since audiences are able to choose edited “time lines” they would like to watch; at the same time they have the option to comment on or change the actual content. Deptford TV makes us of licenses such as the creative commons sa-by and gnu general public license to allow and enhance this politics of sharing.