Art Meets Radical Openness 2020

Art Meets Radical Openness 2020
20th – 23rd of May 2020
main location: architekturforum oö
other locations: Stadtwerkstatt, Kunstuniversität Linz

OPEN CALL: Of Whirlpools and Tornadoes

Send us your submission and fill out the form!

Deadline: Monday 24.02.2020

AMRO is a biennial community festival in Linz that explores and discusses new challenges between digital culture, art, everyday life, education, politics and activism. The 2020 edition of the AMRO festival is characterized by reflections upon the “centripetal” and “centrifugal” dynamics of acceleration visible in contemporary society and the ways artistic practice, activism and radical thinking can engage with it.

Of Whirlpools and Tornadoes aims to provide a picture of the current social and technological movements that reflect the diverse troubles our economic and political systems are currently facing. The speed of production and consumption of new technologies is inevitably linked to the waste of natural resources, which humans exploit and use to their own only advantage without considering the equilibrium of the ecosystem.

The acceleration of the effects of climate change runs in parallel to the unstoppable race for technological development, which is often misunderstood as a solution – rather than a cause – of the inevitable environmental catastrophe. Many groups of activists are now trying to push governments into doing more. But there is still very little discussion about models of sustainable technological infrastructure, how this infrastructure can be built and what it might look like. In the meantime, the next generation of smart products are being developed, which will increasingly be connected to the internet. Behind the smooth surface of our daily electronics, even more machines will stream data around the world 24/7, requiring more data centers and energy.

How much more digital do we need to be, when we consider that every cloud is a server farm wasting considerable amounts of energy, water, fresh air and raw materials?

Throughout the festival, these topics will be further explored through discussion panels, workshops, performances and showcases of artistic work. The Open Call is addressed to artists, hacktivists, cultural workers, journalists, F/LOSS developers and ‘improvers of the world’ who want to make a contribution (exhibition, workshop, lecture, performance) to the topic.

Possible formats

Lectures
You are welcome to share your research with us about climate change & technology, decentralization models, alternative networks
(30 min lecture)

Workshops and Hands-on
An important section of the festival is dedicated to skill-sharing and learning-together.

Showcase
Since its beginnings, AMRO has been a place for exchanging ideas and sharing discussions about on-going processes. Within the framework of the showcase we are able to provide a possibility to display your work within the festival locations. You can propose projects that are still in development or that need some external point of view. Installations / objects / interventions …they should be accompanied by a short presentation or a skill-sharing workshop.

Performances, Nightline
If a 3D-rendered tree falls in a virtual forest, and there is nothing that listens to it, does it still make a sound? What is the squeak of the fauna living at the borders of the corporate web? Do bots cry when one is rude to them? We are ‘simply’ looking for the sonic-apparatus that can hack data-capitalism. Got any?
We are open to any experimental approaches towards machines and sound. Your presence at the festival should also include an element of active skill-sharing with the other participants (workshop or presentation).

Presentations
Each participant is invited to give a short presentation of their contribution.

*

AMRO Policy Support
We are aware that nobody is able to work for free. During our last events we were able to provide participants with travel support, private accommodation, food and an appreciative fee. We will do our best to make this possible again in 2020. We have to warn you though, that no one will get rich through participating in this event!

How to support us?
If it is possible for you to finance your travel and/or accommodation on your own or through a 3rd party (university, grant, etc.), this would be a great help to us. In case you need a letter of invitation please mail: amro@servus.at

Open Source
AMRO (Art Meets Radical Openness) is shaped by the spirit of the Free Software movement. This understanding is an essential basis for the selection of contributions using open source software and hardware.

Sharing Documents & Files
Please note that we support Open Standards and we try to avoid using 3rd party services as much as possible (Google, DropBox, wetransfer, etc). If you want to share something with us, it must be accessible through publicly available standards.

Travel policy
We want to avoid flying and support more sustainable ways of traveling – like train, bicycle or boat. Please consider this when applying and preparing your travel to Linz!