StellaDesignFutures

I remember Memefest 2014, here in Melbourne.
Our theme was Dialogue, more precisely "Radical Intimacies: Dialogue in our Times". Giving my lecture at the symposium I was explaining how much effort we were putting into programming and designing an autonomous online social network on memefest.org and how funny and sad it is that so many artists, activists etc. actually use pretty much exclusively Facebook to network and self promote. What we could observe back than was a strong indicator or what is happening now. Facebook is not a place for non profits, activists, artists groups, because our outreach is dictated by how much we are willing to pay. Not paying for our posts on FB simply means our reach will be super small, like 3 % of our following on a FB page. It is very important to understand this. Memefest is a free for all social network, no surveillance, no data mining, no advertising, no payment, and a community that is actually reading the posts, not just scanning and linking them. So lets keep on being active here and nurture this space, and make use of it!

s2art
5 years, 2 months ago

Hi Oliver, it was great meeting you yesterday at the book fair, the coincidence is too strong to ignore.

We are inviting you to the book launch of Food Democracy by Oliver Vodeb, Saturday March 17h @ 2pm!

Called by the publisher Intellect books UK “A new type of academic book”, and by reviewers “a seminal text”, “urgent” and “extraordinary”, Food Democracy asks how to make socially responsive communication, design and art that counters the role of the food industry as a machine of consumption. More than four years in making and more than 200 people involved in this extradisciplinary research, Food Democracy by Oliver Vodeb is out now.


The beautifully designed full color book also includes for the first time a unique and delicious compilation of socially engaged cooking recipes by the academic, design, artist and activist community. Aiming not just to advance scholarship, but to push ahead real change in the world, Food Democracy is essential reading for scholars and citizens alike.


Melbourne Design Week 2018 is brought to you by the National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with Creative Victoria.


The book presentation will be followed by a discussion with Daryl Taylor and the audience


Link to NGV website: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program/food-democracy-book-launch/

Link to book: http://memefest.org/en/fooddemocracy/


Book launch at:

Saturday March 17th
2pm–3pm
Testing Grounds
Booking is not required.
1-23 City Rd, Southbank, Melbourne

This is a fantastic text on the state of today's universities:

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/whose-university-is-it-anyway/#!

Community Harvest Project
Hello all! I find this super meaningful and I am seeking your support. I have been participating in ...

Read about the ZAD, the largest squat on Europe, in the Guardian article bellow. After years of successfully defending the ZAD from the French authorities a new wave of threatening eviction is under way.

"The story of “la ZAD” in western France began more than half a century ago, when the French government earmarked the site for a new airport as part of a plan to create a transatlantic “Great West” gateway to France and Europe.

Years of consultations, arguments and indecision supposedly ended in 2008, when the €580 million project was given official approval. The squatters began arriving the same year, claiming they were responding to an appeal from farmers fighting compulsory purchase orders. No airport-related construction has since taken place on the 1,650-hectare site."

Full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/dec/28/end-of-la-zad-frances-utopian-anti-airport-community-faces-bitter-last-stand?CMP=share_btn_fb

Sttwn
5 years, 4 months ago

this is great stuff Oliver-

No Alternative

How culture jamming was culture-jammed

http://reallifemag.com/no-alternative/

"Hi uli.l, I just checked and the book is available online, for example here on Book Depository: http..."

New book out on DIY activism

Snowden's New App Turns Your Phone Into a Home Security System

https://www.wired.com/story/snowden-haven-app-turns-phone-into-home-security-system/

“Weaponized Pleasure”

Douglas Rushkoff in conversation with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

<iframe src="https://player.pippa.io/teamhuman/episodes/ep67-genesis-breyer-p-orridge-weaponized-pleasure" frameBorder="0" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>

oliver
5 years, 5 months ago

sorry, the embed code does not work here, check the next post above where I posted a direct URL link!

“Weaponized Pleasure”

Douglas Rushkoff in conversation with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

https://player.pippa.io/teamhuman/episodes/ep67-genesis-breyer-p-orridge-weaponized-pleasure

Food Democracy book presentation Webinar!
Three weeks ago I did this live Webinar with Online School of Food Design founder Francesca Zampollo...

Respect is when you change your own life. Public space is where you share that possibility.

Check this: Driving the Golden Spike, The Aesthetics of Anthropocene Public Space by Brian Holmes

http://deeptimechicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Holmes-Golden-Spike.pdf

Here a link to the Food Democracy book Webinar I did this morning with Francesca Zampollo and food designers from around the world- it is now online.

Note, it was 5 am for me here in Melbourne and I am not a coffee drinker! :) I presented our wonderful Food Democracy book more in detail and after that we had a good discussion on several issues presented in the book.

Here another link to the book with links where you can get your own copy

http://memefest.org/en/fooddemocracy/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8D1G4gwwVA

Food Democracy Webinar!
Dear Friends, join us for the FOOD DEMOCRACY live Webinar where I will be together with Franceska Fr...

So this is cool. A project to fight scams/ scamers. So next time you get a scam email, exmpl. someone wants to send you 5 million USD out of nothing send the email you have received to me@rescam.org

But check out this video that explains it all:

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/83/141287/overcoming-internet-disillusionment-on-the-principles-of-meme-design/

oliver
5 years, 6 months ago

And check out this too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVJ4JQ3SUw

Here an interview tactical media guru and director of the Institute of Network culture in Amsterdam Geert Lovink made with me on the addictive power of Memes. It is their crucial nature in my opinion and never it became as explicit as now. It is crucial to understand these characteristics of memes in order to develop responses to the current media environment. There is also a crucial shift in the way visual memes operate and in the very logic of communication design.

http://networkcultures.org/geert/2017/06/22/interview-with-oliver-vodeb-memefest-on-the-addictive-power-of-memes-today/

stephen_designer
5 years, 7 months ago

Great interview Oliver about addictive power of memes today, I really enjoyed reading it. Do you know, or anyone else, have an example of a large company that has used memes in a campaign to create financial profit & can you share a link to it? I'm just curious if the company meme results look too manufactured due to a big company budget & maybe producing a space for it to thrive so it potentially becomes less effective as compared to naturally organic occurring memes made from a social action for example. At the moment I'm basically looking for a comparison on the high design memes to low design memes if that makes sense.

oliver
5 years, 6 months ago

Hi Stephen, very nice to hear form you again! Check this out:

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/83/141287/overcoming-internet-disillusionment-on-the-principles-of-meme-design/

General Theory of the Precariat

http://networkcultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ToD25-Precariat-AlexFoti.pdf

About the book

From the fast-food industry to the sharing economy, precarious work has become the norm in contemporary capitalism, like the anti-globalization movement predicted it would. This book describes how the precariat came into being under neoliberalism and how it has radicalized in response to crisis and austerity. It investigates the political economy of precarity and the historical sociology of the precariat, and discusses movements of precarious youth against oligopoly and oligarchy in Europe, America, and East Asia. Foti covers the three fundamental dates of recent history: the financial crisis of 2008, the political revolutions of 2011, and the national-populist backlash of 2016, to present his class theory of the precariat and the ideology of left-populist movements. Building a theory of capitalist crisis to understand the aftermath of the Great Recession, he outlines political scenarios where the precariat can successfully fight for emancipation, and reverse inequality and environmental destruction. Written by the activist who put precarity on the map of radical thinking, this is the first work proposing a complete theory of the precariat in its actuality and potentiality.

julianne
5 years, 7 months ago

Hello Oliver, it sounds like a solid read but a bit heavy on language. Is it easy to understand?

oliver
5 years, 7 months ago

Hi Julianne it a bit dense, but have a look for your self, from the link I posted you can download a pdf. of the book for free!

julianne
5 years, 7 months ago

Thanks for getting back! Okayy, I'll have a look - thanks for sharing, I looked into the 'networkcultures' website.
Also, your profile description reads that you teach at Swinburne Uni in Melbourne?! I graduated there early this year. I would love to hear more of your work :)

oliver
5 years, 7 months ago

Are you still in Melbourne? We can meet for a chat if you come to Swinburne one day...? here is an interview with me on Networkcultures : http://networkcultures.org/geert/2017/06/22/interview-with-oliver-vodeb-memefest-on-the-addictive-power-of-memes-today/

julianne
5 years, 7 months ago

Yes, I live in Melbourne. I read that you moved to Melbourne?! So interesting. I would love to meet for a chat! We can meet at Haddons Cafe soon - what days do you teach/work there?

stephen_designer
5 years, 7 months ago

General Theory of the Precariat book seems very interesting, amazing it's free to read. I've never heard of the word Precariat until now. I'll give it a read, thanks for sharing it.

Decolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty history

https://theconversation.com/decolonising-research-methodology-must-include-undoing-its-dirty-history-83912?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1506445307

The Tipping Point