An evening on Media and Activism – Goethe Institute, Karachi | 7th April

Do media and activism always go together. How does an activist media fill the gaps. How do the new technologies fit in this picture. What does this increased access to information mean for our complex culture and society.

• Rob van Kranenburg observes the present age of acceleration. Concerning the role of the artist in an ever more complex world full of radicalism, he dares to ask: what does this mean for the disruptive qualities of art if disruption becomes the default
• Suzanne Hogendoorn presents her film on European activists at the G8 Summit 2007.
• Awab Alvi gives us a behind-the-web look at citizens covering the Long March in March 2009 using internet & cellphones.
• Faisal Qureshi will ponder the important question of what we out to to gain from the new technologies along with every other thing, in order to get somewhere.
• Faisal Hasnain Zaidi will talk about how journalists actually use new media in their work – while looking at possibilities not yet taken.

Discussion on linkages on these themes will follow.

Programme

1. Welcome by Goethe Institute
2. Introduction by Mauj Collective
3. ‘On the Need of Bureaucracy: slowing things down in the age of acceleration’ – Rob van Kranenburg
4. ‘We will block you’ (documentary film) – Suzanne Hogendoorn
5. Tracking the Long March – Awab Alvi
6. tba – Faisal Qureshi
7. New Media in Journalism Practice – Syed Faisal Hasnain Zaidi
8. Open Discussion

Rob van Kranenburg graduated cum laude in Literary Theory at Tilburg University (Nl). He went to work with Prof Ronald Soetaert in Ghent, in the Educational Department, developing online learning modules, methods and concepts drawing on the idea of multiliteracies. In 2000 he went to Amsterdam to work as programmer on media education at the centre for culture and politics de Balie and as teacher-coordinator of the new media program in the Film and Television Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam. Feeling it was to young a field to predominantly historize it, he moved to Doors of Perception and co-programmed with John Thackara Doors 7, Flow, the design challenge of pervasive computing. In 2003 he mentored a postgraduate course in performance, theatre and the arts at APT, Arts Performance Theatrical. He has also been associated with The Virtual Platform (nl), the Waag Society (nl), Transmediale Festival (de) and Sarai (in).

Faisal Qureshi is an engineer, an entrepreneur and a well-known media personality. He is a founder chair person of Loose Ends Pakistan, a non-profit organization, host of several talk shows such as Ankahi (current) on Samaa TV, Loose Ends on Business Plus and Breakfast at Dawn on Dawn News, CEO of Kolachi Advanced Technologies, Director Blue Ice Technologies, founder chairperson of Mensa Pakistan, and a former Chairperson of P@SHA – the Pakistan Software’s Houses Association.

Suzanne Hogendoorn is an international documentary filmmaker from The Netherlands. Her documentaries are usually associated with activism and have aired on channels such as Holland Doc. She is a member of the Mauj Collective and is making a documentary on the same.

Awab Alvi is the most well-known blogger in Pakistan. He is also an activist and a practicing dentist. He has broken a number of stories to the media in the past and is an advocate of citizen journalism using the internet in parlicular. Awab blog at https://teeth.com.pk/blog/ was selected the Best South Asian Blog for 2008 by the Brass Crescent Society.

Syed Faisal Hasnain Zaidi is Director of News and Current Affairs Programing at Geo Television Network. Geo TV has taken stands against the government on a number of occasions, particularly in the recent coverage of the Long March 2009 under threat of being shut down, and in late 2007 when its broadcast was actually shut during the transition from the military government.

The Mauj Collective is engaged in art, technology and empowerment of people. It wants to introduce larger numbers of people in Pakistan to new media art. It wants to explore ways in which the interplay and interstices of art and technology are also socially engaging and empowering.