Program
Participants
José Luis Sampedro (Literature) / Star appearance The Pinker Tones – Acoustic Set / Kate Madison & Actors At Work Productions ( Film – U.K.) / Reactable (live) / At versaris: No Apte (live) / Akram Khan (Dance – U.K.) / Txaber Allué (gastroblog) / Belén Gopegui (Literature) / Koulomek (live) / leerestademoda.com (Book) / Free Beer (Open source Beer) / Tweetpeli (Tweets, camera & action) / Rojadirecta (Sport) / D’ Evolution Summit / Internet No Será Otra TV / Public domain day: The Public Domain Manifesto / Miguel Brieva (comic) / Ploomba (Free piped music) / Te Pica la Barba: Jossie Malis – Irene Iborra (Animation) / Lava: Free Magenta (NL) / EDRI (Under Surveillance – EU) / Triolocría (García Lorca under Creative Commons) / La Máquina que guía los Rayos del Sol (Animations) / Martín Fernández (MotionGraphics) / Kevin Nicoll (ilustration)
Exponsors
Wiki How / GISS (Global Independent Streaming Support) / Miró Tv (tv online – Democracy Now) (USA) / Telekommunisten (Berlín) / Traficantes de Sueños
Music of the oXcars Gala
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Participants details
José Luis Sampedro
José Luis Sanpedro is a writer, economist, and member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He was a professor of Economic Structure at Universidad Complutense from 1955 to 1969, and a senator by Royal appointment in the first democratic parliament after the dictatorship. Sampedro published several works of fiction parallel to his professional activities as an economist, and after retiring he continued to write novels including the highly successful “Octubre, octubre,” “Sonrisa etrusca” and “La vieja sirena.”
Wonderfully lucid well into his nineties, he takes a critical humanist approach to the moral and social decadence of the West, to neoliberalism and to the brutalities of ruthless capitalism. In April 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Seville.
Source: wikipedia
José Luis has supported several petitions that lobbied against libraries being charged for loaning out books, and is part of the new campaign.
The following is an excerpt from his article on this subject:
If somebody pays out a certain amount in the course of everyday life, it is for one of two reasons:
a) because he or she will receive something in return.
b) because he or she has been fined.
And I wonder: What does a public library obtain in return for further payments after the initial cost of purchasing a book for lending purposes? Or perhaps the idea is to fine libraries for fulfilling their mission, which is precisely to lend books and promote reading?
At the same time, what do authors lose in this transaction? Didn’t they receive payment for the book when it was purchased? Will they have a smaller readership becacause readers borrow them? Will they sell less copies, or will the loan be publicity of sorts, as when manufacturers give away product samples?
And above all: Do we want to encourage people to read? Would Europe prefer wealthier but less widely read authors? I don’t understand this commercial Europe.
I personally prefer to have readers, and I feel indebted to libraries and their contributioin to the diffusion of my work. Take note, those who – without asking me – supposedly defend my interests as an author by attacking libraries. I have signed petitions against this measure before, and I join the campaign once again.
NO TO CHARGING FOR LIBRARY LOANS!
José Luis Sampedro
Star appearance THE PINKER TONES – ( Acoustic Set )
In June of 2001, Professor Manso and Mister Fury met three times on three consecutive days on Carrer Pamplona in Poblenou, Barcelona. They hadn’t seen each other since University, and quickly work out that they live less than 500 metres apart. On the fourth day, Mister Fury receives a call, asking him to compose the music for a TV series “Once Upon a Time in Europe”. Furia calls Manso, and the digital production skills of the Profesor and the analogic sympathies of the Senor are united for the first time.
During the production, The Pinker Tones spend some time with Christopher Lee, who is narrating the programme. Encouraged by his enthusiasm for the music, which he insists in his trademark thick baritone is surely part of their artistic future, The Pinker Tones are born and Mr Lee learns where to buy the best chipironess and prawns.
From the first day, The Pinker Tones sessions release locked up energy and potential, causing our heroes to work like crazy, producing the songs and remixes that will become their debut collection PINK CONNECTION and the maxi singles Mais Pourquoi? and One of Them. The tracks are released by a small local label, but quickly come to international attention thanks to the incredible video for Mais Pourquoi, which spends 19 weeks on the MTV Dance Chart. The band are snapped up by UK based Outstanding Records, who re-issue Pink Connection with the international title BCN CONNECTION, and quickly move to open up the world to the Pinker Tones sound, signing licences across the world which sees the record released from Japan to Mexico.
Kate Madison – Born of Hope , Actors at Work Productions
Born of Hope is a 2009 fantasy-adventure fan film directed by Kate Madison and written by Paula DiSante (as Alex K. Aldridge) that is based on the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
The idea for the film was born in 2003 when director/producer/actor Kate Madison wanted to submit a film for the Tolkien Fan Film Exhibition. Originally a modest plan, it grew until April 2006 when the first test shoot occurred. Principal photography started in June 2008, and continued through 2009. The goal was to debut at Ring*Con 2009, which it did. It was later streamed for free on various video websites including DailyMotion and YouTube.
Madison spent her life savings of £8,000 on the film. An extra £17,000 was generated by posting a trailer online, raising the budget to £25,000. Born of Hope was made over a period of six years, using a cast of 400, who would camp in tents so as to be able to shoot early.
Christopher Dane (Arathorn) ended up getting very involved in the process of making the film, contributing to the script as well as handling the editing of the final product. Kate Madison, who directed and produced the film was cast as Elgarain as well.
Source: Wikipedia
Kate Madison
As an actor and filmmaker, Kate is mostly known for directing, producing and acting in her Lord of the Rings prequel, ‘Born of Hope’, released on the internet in Dec 2009.
Although introduced to performing from the age of four, she took a bit of a hiatus to complete a Zoology Degree but quickly realised that science and academia was not really for her.
At the same time Kate continued to grow as an actor, moving from mostly musical theatre into the world of film. Honing her skills and building the all important showreel.
Kate directed her first narrative film in 2005, a short called ‘Into the Darkness’.
She has worked on a number of films, experiencing many different jobs behind the camera, including Stand in and Doubling work, and this knowledge helps her when working as an actor in front of the camera too.
Reactable
The Reactable was conceived and developed since 2003 by a research team at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso presented their creation for the first time in a public concert at the International Computer Music Conference 2005 in Barcelona.
Following an overwhelming response within the blogosphere, the Reactable was featured in various major TV and print magazines, becoming one of the most popular and worldwide acclaimed new musical instruments of the early 21st century. Declared the Hot Instrument of the Year by the Rolling Stone Magazine (2007), the Reactable has also received several prestigious international awards such as the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Digital Musics (2008), two D&AD Yellow Pencil Awards (2008), the MIDEM Hottest Music Biz Start-Up Award (2008) or the prize Ciutat de Barcelona (2007).
At Versaris
At Versaris is the first Catalan hip hop band to sing in Catalan. Both mc’s, Pau and Rodrigo, are strongly involved in social movements from Barcelona. Rap, and thus, At Versaris, are a mean necessary to keep on fighting against fascism and capitalism.
Knowing more…
The first LP by the band formed by Rodrigo (Pirat´s Sound Sistema), Pau (La Pupil•la and Batzak) and Bel (DJ), Va amb nosaltres (It goes along with us), talks about life in the neighbourhood, that quarter where is almost as important looking after your mates, after what’s going on and what’s not, as getting enough money to survive. All this goes along with the big range that Hip Hop can embrace. At Versaris were awarded by Enderrock as the “best upcoming band 2007” and were well recognized by the specialized media and public in Spanish state.
Back in 2008 they published their second album called “La vida són 2 dies” (‘Life is two days’), a 4 track EP supporting Barcelona’s metropolitan bus drivers strikes (fighting for 2 days without working per week). Early 2009 the band put out their third album called “A Cada Passa” (‘At every step’), where they keep on hitting hard with counscious lyrics and kneading a solid hip hop with old school flavours, organic spices (guitars, sax…) and a kickass and mad convination with best Spanish jazz-rock band Ass Trio as a support band in two songs. Next 2010 a new live show with Ass Trio is going to be touring the Spanish state under the name of ‘Per principis elegants’.
Akram Khan
Akram Khan is one of the most acclaimed choreographers of his generation working in Britain today. Born in London into a family of Bangladeshi origin in 1974, he began dancing at seven. He studied with the renowned Kathak dancer and teacher Sri Pratap Pawar.
He began presenting solo performances of his work in the 1990s, maintaining his commitment to classical kathak as well as developing modern work. In August 2000, he launched Akram Khan Dance Company with producer Farooq Chaudhry, which has provided him with a platform for innovation and a diverse range of work through collaboration with artists from other disciplines.
As Choreographer-in-Residence and later Associate Artist at the Southbank Centre, he presented a recital with Pandit Birju Maharaj and Sri Pratap Pawar, and A God of Small Tales. He remained an Associate Artist at the Southbank Centre until April 2005 and is currently an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career and was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005.
Txaber Allué – el cocinero fiel – The Constant Cook
Txaber Allué is a technology consultant by trade, who has become the best and most popular gastronomic video blogger: with over 200 recipe videos posted on his site, he has exceeded six million visits at the rate of 16,000 visits per day.
The key to his success? Simple recipes and audience interaction through social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and the blog itself, so that anybody can share experiences, change and improve the recipes. Tortilla 2.0 is truly a milestone.
Belén Gopegui
Belén Gopegui started her writing career by contributing to the literary sections of different print media, and went on to write novels and scripts, including her award-winning first work, “La escala de los mapas” (The Scale of Maps, 1993). Her third book, “La conquista del aire” (The Conquest of the Air”) was adapted for film by Gerardo Herrero. Francisco Umbral has described Gopegui as the best novelist of her generation.
Belén Gopegui took part in in the 2nd Conference Against Charging for Library Loans. This is a fragment of her presentation:
“Nobody misses out on a book that a reader reads in a library; the act of loaning a book, as I said earlier, is an act of justice, and not the result of an economic transaction that will always be uneven in the context of a capitalist market…
… Those of us who aspire to a way of life in which there is no longer any point to copyright and so-called intellectual property rights, ask that that these reference areas – public libraries – not be destroyed.”
KOULOMEK – KOULOMEK AMB XOCOLATA
“Koulomek amb xocolata” is a show of Koulomek playing with other musicians to perform a concert halfway between electronic and funky. This time Koulomek is escorted by Martí Ruiz on guitar, Nestor Munt on trumpet and Sergi Home with electronics.
Koulomek is not new in the music business, he has released many records with Hamsterloco and with other labels such as Discontinu Records, Flumo or Costellam. Koulomek is the nickname of Marc Pitarch, who, besides, plays in the band Híbrida and is a very active member of the “Comunitat Audiovisual Telenoika” (Audiovisual Community). He had a classical musical education (piano) and his production is a playground where one can play with sounds and rhythms that can be ambient, experimental, techno, breakbeat or funky. From the Hamsterloco “motor-racing team” , Koulomek is, without a doubt, and without leaving the Lo-fi sound, the one that makes music more restless and closer to the dance floor. He took part of the last edition of Sónar Kids along with Guillamino, Cauto and Drome, and they developed a successful workshop for children, recording and making electronic music with them on real time.
leerestademoda.com (Book)
Literary site that houses editorial news. The main goal is to spread reading and books and stimulating reading habits.
They are the creators of the BOOK experience: “An ingenious and ironic way of selling the book traditional support as a “new device of organize bioptic knowledge” commercially called “BOOK”.
FREE BEER
Free beer is a beer which is free in the sense of freedom, not in the sense of free beer.
The project, originally conceived by Copenhagen-based artist collective Superflex and students at the Copenhagen IT University, applies modern free software / open source methods to a traditional real-world product – namely the alcoholic beverage loved and enjoyed globally, and commonly known as beer.
FREE BEER is based on classic ale brewing traditions, but with addded Guaraná for a natural energy boost. The recipe and branding elements of FREE BEER is published under a Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5) license, which means that anyone can use the recipe to brew their own FREE BEER or create a derivative of the recipe. Anyone is free to earn money from FREE BEER, but they must publish the recipe under the same license and credit our work. All design and branding elements are available to beer brewers, and can be modified to suit, provided changes are published under the same license (”Attribution & Share Alike”)
TWEETPELI
The #tweetpeli is the first collaborative movie, it is made through Twitter and only by Twitter users. It is charity intended. The thing is to make a full-lenght film at zero cost. The Twitter users contribute with hours, material, contacts and work. In case of making some money, it’ll be sent to a previously vote-chosen NGO. The film will be first released on Twitter, then on Film Festivals, Movie theaters and TV.
The #tweetpeli was born in the radio program #vistinovist. After two shows entirely dedicated to Twitter and foreseeing that the Catalan twitters would gladly participate, the show presenter @valentisanjuan raised the idea of making a film. Just afterwards, @cine_cat was in, and @riedweg and @polispol joined as well. @ganyet and some thousand Twitter users, most of them from Catalonia, started taking part of it in only four weeks.
The #tweetpeli will go down in history for having one of the most eclectic soundtracks. Outstanding music groups such as @ThePinkerTones have already confirmed their presence and others such as @loveoflesbian or the kings of folk @amicsdelesarts are also into the project. Directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Abel Folk, José Corbacho, Roger Gual, Àngel Llàcer, Joan Riedweg, Juan Cruz and Valentí Sanjuan; and produced by Zentropa, among others.
ROJADIRECTA
Rojadirecta is a portal that broadcasts soccer and other sports, allowing viewers to watch via streaming or P2P applications.
Although they do not host any content and only offer links, rojadirecta.com has been at the receiving end of several threats and legal ctions. Specifically from:
Audiovisualsport: a company whose main shareholder is Sogecable, a subsidiary of Grupo PRISA. Audiovisualsport began a criminal lawsuit against the owner of Rojadirecta.com for an alleged crime against intellectual property.
Rojadirecta only publishes texts and external links or channels (or simply “streams”). It does not manage them or have any power over them, and regardless whether Rojadirecta published these links or not they would still remain accessible by other means, even through major search portals like Google and Yahoo, which have not been sued.
Rojadirecta has decided to make public the lawsuit that Audiovisual Sport has brought against it, and to publicly declare its intention to keep posting links to broadcasts of Spanish Soccer League and King’s Cup games, thus ignoring the leagal action brought by the company that is part of Sogecable. Rojadirecta sees this legal action as an intimidatory and desperate tactic to defend the commercial interests of a business model that it believes to be outdated. Rojadirecta is also seriously concerned by the fact that management staff from Audiovisual Sport were allowed to enter the police station while the owner of rojadirector.com was giving his statement.
One year later, Rojadirecta received two emails with legal threats from two major communications companies:
Canal13 -ARTEAR (Arte Radiotelevisivo Argentino, S.A.): a company belonging to the largest Argentinean multimedia group, Grupo Clarín, which controls the largest mainstream print medium and the largest sports print medium in Argentina, as well as one of the main free to air television channels, and pay television platforms, pay television channels, radios, web sites…
Televisa S.A. de C.V. (Televisa): a multimedia cumpany, which is currently the largest Spanish language communications company in the world.
Although the content of the web portal Rojadirecta is largely in Spanish, and Televisa is a Mexican company, the threatening email was written and sent in English on December 4, and demanded a reply before September 28 of the same year.
Source: rojadirecta.com
PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY
On the first day of each year, Public Domain Day celebrates the moment when copyrights expire. The films, photos, books and symphonies whose copyright term has finished become “free as the air to common use.” The end of the copyright on these works means that they enter the public domain, completing the copyright bargain. Copyright gives creators — authors, musicians, filmmakers, photographers — exclusive rights over their works for a limited time. The copyright encourages the creators to create and the publishers to distribute — that’s a very good thing. But when the copyright ends, the work enters the public domain — to join the plays of Shakespeare, the music of Mozart, the books of Dickens — the material of our collective culture. That’s a good thing too! It’s the second part of the copyright bargain; the limited period of exclusive rights ends and the work enters the realm of free culture. Prices fall, new editions come out, songs can be sung, symphonies performed, movies displayed. Even better, people can legally build on what came before.
Source: Duke Law
Miguel Brieva
Miguel Brieva is an occasionally rational biped who was born in Seville in 1974. As well as ingesting food and inhaling oxygen reasonably often, he also creates or contributes to publications such as Dinero, Bienvenido al mundo, El Jueves, La Vanguardia, Periódico Diagonal, El País, Rolling Stone, Cinemanía, Ajoblanco, Qué Leer, Mondo Bruto, NSLM, Recto, Tos, Freek, Nervi and the Gossip Column for the Parish of Our Lord Saint Stephen Protomartyr.
PLOOMBA
Ploomba is a simple electronic device that you can connect to the Internet and loudspeakers in your establishment in order to play free piped music, providing high quality ambience at a low cost.
The tracks distributed by Ploomba are chosen through a careful compilation of songs that are already on the web, and covered by free licences that allow commercial use.
Its creators have no contractural relationship with copyright collection societies, and as such these societies have no right to apply and collect fees for using these works for public communication purposes.
http://www.ploomba.com/html/
TE PICA LA BARBA
Te Pica la Barba is a Free Culture and Copyleft Festival that is held at Motril and Granada and covers a number of different spheres: exhibitions, concerts, talks, books, films… It will be held for the fifth time in 2010.
A suggestion from Te Pica la Barba:
Sopa – Jossie Malis. Irene Iborra. A short animation film by Jossie Malis and Irene Iborra, produced by Zumbakarmera, the company that also produced the Bendito Machine series, which won 22 audience and jury prizes around the world in 2007 alone.
Jossie Malis studied Advertising and Design in Chile, followed by film produciton at NYFA, New York, and a masters in Stop Motion Animation at 9zeros school in Barcelona. He currently develops audiovisual projects, including short films, video clips and animation series.
Irene Iborra graduated in 1999 in Strasburg, where she also completed a “Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies” in Photonics, Image and Cybernetics. She has taught animation at the University of Alicante. She currently combines scriptwriting in different genres with directing and producing stop motion animation, and also organises and imparts animation workshops.
FREE MAGENTA – LAVA
T-Mobile doesn’t want other Dutch companies using the colour Magenta (bright pink) for their stationary or advertising campaigns.
Deutsche Telekom, the mother company of T-Mobile, has registered Magenta at the European brandoffice.
The design agency Lava has launched a fun campaign to set the colour Magenta free. The result is a web full of images and ironic comments sent by users.
http://www.freemagenta.nl/
Lava
Lava was founded in 1990 The current team exists of 10 talented designers and three projectmanagers. The agency is focused on creative strategy, editorial design and dynamic identities.
EDRI – “Under Surveillance”
European Digital Rights was founded in June 2002. Currently 27 privacy and civil rights organisations have EDRi membership. They are based or have offices in 17 different countries in Europe. Members of European Digital Rights have joined forces to defend civil rights in the information society. The need for cooperation among organizations active in Europe is increasing as more regulation regarding the internet, copyright and privacy is originating from European institutions, or from International institutions with strong impact in Europe.
The comic book “Under surveillance” is an information and awareness tool for young adults created in the European project “Sensitization and information of young European citizens on the protection of their personal data”, where EDRi was one of the partners.
The project is coordinated by the French League of Human Rights (LDH), in partnership with the European Association for the Defense of Human Rights (AEDH), European Digital Rights (EDRi), the Czech association Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) and the Spanish association Comunicació per a la Cooperació (Pangea).
Triolocría (García Lorca under Creative Commons)
Is a musical project i emerged in mid-2009 n Avila. This year they signed a contract with the holders of of Lorca’s rights. This contract authorizes the musicalization of Lorca’s poem “Romance Sonámbulo” – who take a slightly different name- and agrees to publish the song under a Creative Commons license
LA MÁQUINA QUE GUÍA LOS RAYOS DEL SOL – Animations
Miguel Ángel Ramos is an illustrator, graphic designer and audiovisual director. He is currently part of the moving image design collective Electric Park.
Martín Fernández (MotionGraphics)
Director. Motion Graphics. Barcelona.
Exponsors
wikiHow
Is a wiki-based community, consisting of an extensive database of how-to guides. wikiHow’s mission is to build the world’s largest and highest quality how-to manual.The site started as an extension of the already existing eHow website, and has evolved to host over 80,000 how-to articles. In December 2009, “wikiHow had 20 million unique readers from over 200 countries or territories. These 20 million different people visited us a total of over 25 million times in the month.”
All of the site’s content is licensed under Creative Commons (by-nc-sa); and the site uses a modified version of MediaWiki 1.12.
GISS (Global Independent Streaming Support)
GISS is a network of independent servers that supports streaming (Internet video broadcasting) free of charge, using free software.
Giss is a volunteer, non-commercial project created with free software for free media.
Miró TV (TV online – Democracy Now)
Miro TV: Television 2.0, P2P television
Miro is a free, open source Internet TV distribution platform that incorporates P2P technology. This means that each receiver also transmits information, so that every user contributes to the distribution of the global content. Anybody can create their on television channel on Miro free of charge, making it a powerful tool for the worldwide distribution of independent productions. This open model of producer-consumers is starting to be called Television 2.0, in reference to Web 2.0 and the changes it brought about in the Internet, and it will radically transform the way we watch TV.
Miro currently offers access to over 200 commercial channels and more than 3000 channels run by independent producers, most of them using HD (high definition) technology. It also allows users to customise the application by adding any kind of RSS feed (videopodcast) and to search and view on other platforms (youtube, blip, etc…) Miro development is supported by the Participatory Culture Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
Telekommunisten
Telekommunisten is a German/Canadian Worker’s collective based in Berlin. The collective is involved in the art, hacker/free-software and activist communities, and their work focuses on promoting the ideal of workers’ self-organisation of production as a form of class struggle.
Telekommunisten is controlled by its workers and committed to staying that way. They believe that they can serve their customers best and at the lowest cost by remaining focused on meeting the needs of their workers and customers, not on profits for outside shareholders.
They believe that capitalism and the resulting global dominance of undemocratic corporations are the source of poverty, inequality, war and environmental catastrophe.
They also believe a solution can be found in workers autonomously organizing their own production. Without the theft of the product of labour, the oligarchs would not have the wealth to control corrupt politicians and fund immoral wars.
Traficantes de sueños
Traficantes de sueños isn’t a publishing house, or even an independent publisher that hopes to publish a constantly updated collection of critical texts.
On the contrary, it’s a project – you could call it a gamble – that aims to chart the constituent lines of other modes of life and to use people’s own words to construct, in theory and practice, the toolbox that can eventually build the cycle of struggles for the coming decades. But to do this without indulging in the archaic “sacredness” of culture, without concessions to the narcissism of literary genius, and without any loyalty at all to the usurpers of knowledge.
TdS embraces free access to knowledge. This means published texts can be partially or fully reproduced in any imaginable format, except where explicitly prohibited by the author of a for-profit edition.
As you know, copyleft makes content free as in freedom, not as in free of charge!
Everything has its costs…