Responsible Visuals

I love those chats that you cycle to with strategy X and you realise after 30 seconds that this is going to be much more interesting. I met today with Eboman who performed at StrangerFestival´s opening. We discussed possibilities for working together. I expected to hear a lot about technology that I do not and will not understand and ended in a discussion on privacy and civility.

We discussed an idea which will be featured in the up-coming DEMOS report as well: the role of remixing and sampling in giving people tools for self-expression. As Eboman´s work shows, creative use of existing content gives him more tools as an artist. We were brainstorming on equipping young people, NGOs and what have you with better and easier tools for visual interaction, self-reflection and social commentary. I think we need to tackle this issue for different directions: when Eboman comes from the media arts corner, for instance Tactical Tech are doing their share from their corner.

Some people mentioned after Eboman´s performance at StrangerFestival that they were concerned about using intimate and sensitive material for sampling. I felt a bit awkward mentioning this to him today but the response was very different than I would have expected: as an information activist he was not taken back and stressed the role of these kind of examples in fostering debate on what we should put online, how others can use our material and what are the "houserules" of sampling.

As I cycled home, this Monday had turned much better than expected. I really felt inspired by developing ways for StrangerFestival to be in the frontline in equipping people with better tools for social visual literacy and commentary.