Economy

13.02.2012

The Slave Business and Its Material and Moral Hinterlands in Continental Europe

Conference at the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool (UK), April 20-22, 2012

The history of transatlantic slavery is one of the most active and fruitful fields of historical research worldwide. As scholarship in this field is increasingly global, it opens up unique possibilities for international collaboration. More particularly, the most recent research which looks beyond the familiar Atlantic axis and the principal slave-trading nations has made clear the scope for new kinds of comparative and trans-regional studies.

The conference revisits a number of key themes relevant to the relationship between slavery (outside Europe) and the dynamics of (European) metropolitan society, giving specific attention to developments in Continental Europe and in particular to the German-speaking regions. These themes include the impact of the slave business on capitalist development and the development of discourses around slavery and abolition in the public sphere. Behind that there lie questions about private conscience – in the first instance about what was known and knowable about the implication of individual economic actors in one of the earliest globalised businesses. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

12.09.2011

PICNIC Festival 2011

September 14th-16th, Amsterdam

“PICNIC Festival is an annual three-day event that blurs the lines between creativity, science, technology and business to explore new solutions in the spirit of co- creation. This year’s theme is Urban Futures, with a focus on sustainability, infrastructure, society, design and media. PICNIC Festival 2011 takes place from 14 to 16 September at NDSM Wharf in Amsterdam.”

more information: http://thirdwaveberlin.com/2011/08/picnic-festival-2011/?utm_source=Cognitive+Cities+Conference+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d958e85e4f-PICNIC8_29_2011&utm_medium=email

By Benjamin Smith

17.05.2011

Exhibition: “On the Metaphor of Growth”

Reposted from: www.kunstverein-hannover.de

Installation of Michel Blazy

Until June 26, 2011 in Hannover, Germany

As a concept initially associated with biology, “growth” suggests something natural.  However, if one follows the concept of growth as a metaphor borrowed from biology, one additionally encounters a second side that usually negates the metaphorical use. Organic growth is consistently defined by a natural border; it knows a state of being fully grown and is determined by the cycle of growth and decay. Stagnation, transience and renewal are part of the “natural,” but hardly find any metaphorical acceptance. Economic growth or technical development, for example, knows no boundary and no saturation.

The international exhibition project “On the Metaphor of Growth” brings together various strands of artistic dealings with different phenomena of growth to construct a tension field out of positive and negative connotations of growing, occasioning fundamental reflections. In the process, the artists’ designs — their reactions and answers to specific consequences of the idea of growth — form a matrix that enables the central position of the concept of growth in the social self-image to be experienced.

Read more »

By Ronja Röckemann

14.03.2011

FCForum conclusions – sustainable economic models for the creative sector

“We can no longer put off re-thinking the economic structures that have been producing, financing and funding culture up until now. Many of the old models have become anachronistic and detrimental to civil society. The aim of this document is to promote innovative strategies to defend and extend the sphere in which human creativity and knowledge can prosper freely and sustainably.

This document is addressed to policy reformers, citizens and free/libre culture activists to provide them practical tools to actively operate this change.”

Download the Declaration and “How-to” guide to new models of sustainability in the digital era at http://fcforum.net/sustainable-models-for-creativity

By Sacha Kagan

23.02.2011

Lectures and presentations available on video

READY TO CHANGE: An Experimental Forum on Culture and Social Innovation in Europe and in the Med Area

An event organized in Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2–4 December 2010, within the framework of the Sostenuto project “Thinking culture as a factor of economic and social innovation”

Direct link to the videos of the lectures and presentations held at the Forum: http://www.bunker.si/eng/sostenuto-lectures-and-presentations

Direct links to: the Catalogue: PDF file ;  the forum’s manifesto: http://www.bunker.si/eng/manifest-towards-transformational-cultures ; photos from the event: on flickr

By Sacha Kagan

05.02.2011

Conexiones improbables: Call for Applications

Call for artists and social scientists to develop joint research projects with 9 organisations located in Spain

Deadline to apply: 9am on 28 March 2011.

Collaboration period: May 2011 – January 2012 (part time).

Payment: 12,000 euros (including travel and accommodation).

Improbable Connections is a community of collaborative and co-creative research initiatives aimed at innovation and social responsibility. It is based on the paradigms of open innovation and the principles of interrelated fields, disciplines and individuals. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan