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The Drum Beat 469 - Public SpacesPublication DateNovember 17, 2008
Focused on the concept of public "spaces" created and/or supported by communication, this issue of The Drum Beat draws on a broad range of types of spaces: the physical, the visual, and the virtual. Included are spaces as small as a lunch box and as large as a city, as freely available as open source software and as freely offered as street theatre, and as abstract as opinion and as concrete as a street corner.
Blank Noise is a participatory arts project which includes street demonstrations/interventions and online actions. One street intervention involves mapping of "harassment spots" on a city map of Delhi. Volunteers place a red thumb print on a city map to mark an area in which they have been harassed. The map is offered to passersby who add to it with their own marks. Testimonials are handed out during this process and also serve as an opening for dialogue. Contact: blurtblanknoise@gmail.com 2. FilmAid Bringing Film to Refugees - Kenya FilmAid International uses film and filmmaking to address the needs of displaced people around the world. FilmAid's programmes are based on the principles of refugee participation and empowerment. Refugee advisory boards review films and select those that are shown in all screenings. Members of the various refugee communities within the camps are taught to write scripts, direct, act, and edit the videos that are used in FilmAid's programmes. FilmAid's programmes are designed to educate, improve refugee health and self-esteem, break the monotony and isolation of refugee life, and reduce stigma, tension, and conflict. FilmAid's "Outdoor Evening Screenings" take place several nights per week and have reached up to 30,000 people in one evening. Contact: Caroline Avakian info@filmaidinternational.org 3. Scaling Steep Slopes - The Public Policies Helping to Transform Medellin by Warren Feek "Can there be any argument with a policy that drives strategies and programmes that reduces homicides from 184 to 26 per 100,000 adults over a 5 year period [2003 to 2007]; significantly raises a city's Human Development Index score [74.35 in 2001 to 80.4 in 2006]; sees the Quality of Life Index zoom upwards [68.09 in 2001 to 83.77 in 2006]; and makes considerable economic gains for that city? The prime driving force for transforming Medellin into a comparatively safe, economically advancing and educated city is a set of public policies built around open public spaces, transparent public processes, the culture of citizenship, high quality for all and striking symbolism including...cable cars, library parks, bridges, budget control and a botanical garden!" 4. Women Working for Women - Mexico Women Working for Women is a project using public space and visual art in an effort to raise Mexican women's consciousness about the importance of the struggle for gender parity and to motivate them to participate in carrying this struggle forward. By creating and displaying portraits of female personalities who have forged change, artist Maria Maria Acha Rodriguez hopes to raise awareness among people across Mexico about the sacrifices of those who fought for the rights of fellow women. Through visual biographies of remarkable women who have taken up the challenge in their own ways to foster gender equality, this project offers a history of women's work in the world. Contact: Maria Maria Acha Rodriguez mariamaria@ojoatomico.com OR info@ojoatomico.com 5. HakiElimu Public Engagement Programme - Tanzania The Public Engagement programme of HakiElimu was designed to contribute to creating and sustaining a national movement for social and educational change by stimulating broad public engagement, information sharing, dialogue, membership development, and networking throughout Tanzania. Among the activities using public spaces was the Public Murals Project: HakiElimu supported artists to design and paint large murals in public spaces in order to stimulate discussion on education issues. Murals focused on asking thought-provoking questions in an effort to make people stop and reflect on an issue in a new way. Locations included strategically-situated building walls and high-visibility transport vehicles that were accessible to large numbers of people. Contact: info@hakielimu.org 6. Creative Inner City Initiative (CICI) - South Africa Established in April 2002, this project provides opportunities for inner-city youth in Johannesburg, South Africa, to express their frustrations and dreams in creative ways, with the goal of empowering them through performance, crafts, and visual arts. Housed in an old school building in Joubert Park, Creative Inner City Initiative (CICI) provides facilities for youth to channel their creative spirits in the context of the poverty, crime, drug abuse, and other stresses that characterise this low-income neighbourhood. CICI offers training and development wherein youth can work in team-oriented activities to develop artistic productions that are presented to the greater community through street theatre and carnival, beautification of buildings with mosaic, art welding, murals, and signage for local public spaces. Contact: Carol Liknaitzky carol@pixie.co.za 7. Dabbawalla Lunchbox Campaign - India The Dabbawalla Lunchbox Campaign used a variety of communication tactics to reach the workplace by creating what was intended to be a highly visible, integrated campaign. The campaign relies on the involvement of dabbawalas to serve as both the medium and the message: As part of this century-old institution, approximately 5,000 dabbawalas pick up lunch boxes ("dabbas") from homes and deliver them to an estimated 200,000 workers across Mumbai. On December 1 2005 they delivered "creatively designed" materials and coasters bearing HIV/AIDS messages based on the global World AIDS Day theme "Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise" within lunch boxes to over 100,000 Mumbaikars. Contact: Sanjanthi Velu svelu@jhuccp.in Please VOTE in our NEW POLL on Access to Local Language Materials! How important are efforts to translate internet materials into local languages? Importance:
VOTE and COMMENT - click here. 8. Bangladesh Sanglap - Bangladesh Bangladesh Sanglap ("Dialogue on Bangladesh") was developed by the BBC World Service Trust (WST) to increase access to current affairs debates in the build-up to the Bangladeshi elections in January 2007. To facilitate public awareness and involvement, BBC WST complemented its series of weekly TV and radio debates with video vans designed to reach those in remote areas who have no access to television. The programmes were designed to give members of the public an opportunity to question politicians and commentators first-hand. This project drew on information and communication technologies (ICTs) to foster participation in the political process. The current affairs debates were broadcast on the BBC Bengali Service and Channel I satellite television, but video vans helped expose broader numbers of Bangladesh voters to the issues through large outdoor screens. Contact: David Prosser dprosser@dircon.co.uk 9. Your Turn - United Kingdom (UK) In an effort to promote active citizenship, the UK-based Common Purpose launched this programme for youth with leadership potential. Community-based programmes are held at places such as hostels, courts, and trading floors; at these venues, participants are given a practical overview of citizenship and decision-making, in part through meetings with senior decision-makers. Your Turn also takes the form of 1-day conferences that are designed to encourage young people from different backgrounds to think together in new ways about common problems in their towns and their world. A broad aim is to equip UK youth with the interest, knowledge, and confidence to make a contribution to their communities beyond their age and experience. Contact: Ros Johnson ros.johnson@hope-centre.com AND Faye Williams Coventry@commonpurpose.org.uk OR your.turn@commonpurpose.org.uk 10. Debate Europe - Eastern Europe, Western Europe In 2008, the European Commission (EC) launched an initiative designed to increase citizens' involvement in the European Union (EU)'s decision-making process. These projects, co-funded under the EC's Plan D: Dialogue, Democracy and Debate, involved: internet debates; European Commissioners' visits to the national parliaments, civil society, and the media in the Member States; debates on EU affairs in towns and cities; and information dissemination about Europe at schools and in citizens' fora. Debate Europe is part of an attempt to widen the Plan D "two-way dialogue" in anticipation of the European elections in June 2009. Contact: COMM-WEB@ec.europa.eu Launched in February 2007, this internet platform for social issue filmmakers offers alternative distribution for those seeking to communicate a social message. NomadsLand is a worldwide creative community of filmmakers, video producers, citizen journalists, bloggers, and vloggers (people who use video as a medium for weblogging, or blogging) who come together in this online place to provide feature films, news features, documentaries, travelogues, video reports, and essays that explore various social and political issues. This initiative uses the internet as a gathering space for publishing print and video - feature films, documentaries, travelogues, news features, music videos, essays, satire, or opinion pieces - that creatively make a bold statement about a vital social issue or expand international horizons while entertaining or engaging people. Contact: info@nomadsland.com Ourmedia is an online open-source community space, built and staffed by volunteers, that freely hosts grassroots video, audio, music, photos, text and public domain works. The goal of the project is to expose, advance, and preserve digital creativity at the grassroots level. The site aims to be a central gathering spot where people share works, offer tips and tutorials, and interact in a community space and virtual library that will preserve works for future generations. In the summer of 2008, Ourmedia was relaunched as a social media platform and tools provider for cause organisations. The site was upgraded to enable the creation of "cause pages" with specific calls to action and customisable widgets. This upgrade coheres with Ourmedia's mission to go beyond a "site where people just post frothy, dumb videos. We're after something deeper: telling meaningful stories. We want to encourage and nurture high-value grassroots media..." For example, visitors to the site may learn about Causecast, an effort to empower people who want to make change. It's a platform and social network where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment, and education converge to serve a greater purpose. Contact: inquiry@ourmedia.org 13. Common Knowledge: How Access to Knowledge and Ideas Can Drive Development This media brief, produced jointly by Panos London and Yale University, outlines the key arguments supporting more open access to knowledge as a tool for development in developing countries. It looks at examples in key sectors where knowledge plays a critical role in shaping and influencing people's lives. It also attempts to examine the meaning behind the jargon used in the industry to help better inform public debate around knowledge for development. As stated here, some people argue that intellectual property rights can also help the systematic development of public knowledge. Members of the Access to Knowledge movement (A2K) aim to "change the way knowledge is regulated across various sectors worldwide, and challenge the extent of intellectual property. A2K seeks large-scale changes in the information- and knowledge-sharing aspects of policies in sectors such as information technology, broadcasting, agriculture, health, education and publicly funded academic and scientific research." In order to post your opportunities within the Development Classifieds website, please click here for more information or contact jsavidge@comminit.com This issue was written by Julie Levy. The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners. Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, click here for our policy. To subscribe, click here. Placed on the Communication Initiative site November 13 2008 Last Updated November 14 2008 How useful did you find the knowledge and contacts on this page to your work? Post your comments (review comments from others below):COMMENTS POSTED |
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