Vesna Manojlovic on Thu, 16 Apr 1998 08:52:16 +0100 |
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Syndicate: <nettime> "bijela" report (peace school) |
(On 2nd of April we will have presentation of Peace School in Cinema Rex, Belgrade.) <a href=http://galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu/~BECHA/Bijela/> Peace School </a> (a possible article for cyberfeminist reader) Prelude From 26th February to 4th March '98. I was in "Peace School", in Bijela, Montenegro (see pre-anoucement, /nettime/archive/1433.html). That was 12th gathering of that kind, but for the first time held in Yugoslavia. The topic was "The first generation of human rights as shown through the media" -- taped theater performance, newspaper, Internet, radio. The goal was approached through nonviolent communication and creative work, and the participants were young people, age 18 to 23 years, from all the former republics of former Yugoslavia. I was the leader of computer workshop. My plan was to go through Internet resources about human rights, to learn how we can use media for our proposes and to make a web page, but reality was different.. Unplugged Instead of 8 computers in our hotel "Delfin" (Delphyn), we got only 4 in "House for children without parents" ("Dom ..."), half an hour away, walking. With more problems: because of missunderstanding betweeen (very birocratic) authorities of Dom and our organizers, for the weekend we were allowed only to use equipment during the night, and only me and Ana (organizer, from XXL). Director was surprised and suspicious -- can he trust the whole computer room to two such young girls (and I am not so young at all ;). OK - first night there were just two of us. We found 4 pentiums, but only one with Win95 and CD ROM drive and complete Office instaled, others were with Win3.11 for Workgroups, plus one 286 with German DOS plus one Amiga. We put them together 'cause they were all de-composed to pieces. I connected them with Ethernet cables so all Windows could get up through network from the server. Next day I got my group -- 9 boys and two girls. First hour we had with Journalists and Radio workshop, with whome we were in the same "media" group. Rest of the session I gave them a lecture about beginings of Internet, its structure, organization, services.. Then we disscused situation in our countries: ISPs, monopolies, infrastructure, censorship.. On our second unplugged meeting girls gave up - I suppose they wanted more concrete lectures about practical usage of computers - so it was again me alone with 9 boys. I told them about net-activism, with examples of Sans Papiers, Radio B92, mexican rebbels (zapatistes), networks of NGOs, networks of artists like Syndicate, organizing meeting via list and chat like cyberfeminists; I brought with me ZKP4 and ZKP3.2.1 and gave them to read, also "Digital Arts", new YU magazine. I told them about HiP, and we discussed privacy and cryptography, and about importance of accessibility of data and possibility to promote our own ideas to the broad public. Net Working Our walk to the Dom was along the sea, passing the shipyard. SF, fantasy, hacking, HTML, free software.. were our topics. In the computer room they were mostly practicing typing, usage of Office and basics of DTP - but, as usual, all things were uncompatible with one another: workstations had only WordPad, without YU fonts, and that was the major problem -- it appeared that the main goal of our workshop was to give technical support for preparing everyday bulletin and administration of participants. But, besides that, most of the time most of boys were playing games - they brought their own, & machines were full with those that Dom's teacher Boba was using like education tool with retired (and other) children. There was possibility to switch on the modem we brought, but only early in the morning, on computer in director's office and if we don't bother him in that moment, so we quit. Even if we were not connected to the Big Net, we practiced working with local net: mapping and disconnecting network drives, sharing devices, moving or copying files, de/installing applications.. and organized ourselves according to the network laws: decentralized, no hierarchy, learning from one another... Some boys were suffering 'cause they don't have computers at home, but I was encouraging them: I also never had my own computer, everything I know I learned working for "providers", and also not in school, but practicing. There is also a "rule" that my friend came upon after lot of years leading computer seminars in Petnica Science Center: quantity and quality of knowledge is in opposite proportion with the "power"/configuration of machine that pupil has. Momir (from Osijek, Slavonija, Croatia) was the best example - he knew a lot and was very interested and hard-working and the greatest freak - he was staying during the nights just to finish some typing or to play games, in spite of not having computer. Last morning Murphy decided to remind us of his Law: server was f*cked up, but Boba fixed it - somebody deleted whole operating system by mistake. We were in great hurry to finish final work: "Mammal Almanac" and Address Book, but then printer refused to work. We gave up and went outside, to lay on the beach. Sun and sea and Conte's jokes made us feel better: "It was mistake when we quit using stone boards for writing". Then, Crni (Black, from Rijeka, Istra, Croatia) fixed the printer driver and we did it. But.. our happiness was not long-lasting: now photo-coping machine was not working, and there was no more time - we went back. The Rest Will Follow Other results of Peace School were radio program on Radio Kotor, exhibition of Photo section, exhibition of Scene and Costume section, two performances of Sound workshop, bulletin of "Igraonica", and final theater performance - the result of Actors, Directors, Scene & Costume. NES workshop had it's own shows, but also helped to all others with make-up and hair-dressing. In workshops of nonviolent communication I learned to open, to express how I feel, to listen to others, to think of my needs and what other need. But, the main thing that we achieved was friendship and love that we shared, trust and openness we were feeling for each other, news from the neighborhood and from the friends that couldn't come this time, connections that we made and plans for the future, the way we were working, eating, sleeping, dancing together nice memories that will help us in days that we will be separated again.. When we came back to Belgrade, all who stayed couldn't resist to be without others for a half day, so in the evening we gathered in Andergraund. On last evolution Conte's wish came true: on the wall there was a drawing of a computer on stone board, like a fresco I asked them about their impressions: Denis (Pula, Istra, Croatia) couldn't show all his skills because of lack of equipment and software; Sale (Belgrade) was sorry that he couldn't help more and understand everything, but he become even more interested and he will continue to learn; Misha and Bojan are also staying here so we will work together more - but the thing that I am satisfied the most is that Crni liked Linux and he will examine it further. Others, not mentioned but were in our workshop: Andrej, silent Slovenian, Gogi from Tuzla, Bosnia, and Aca from Jagodina, Serbia, that I hope will become as good hackers as they are dancers. We are still virtually together, on the mailing list I'm maintaining, and on the web-page that is in progress and that everybody will contribute. When I walk through Belgrade, I can recognize some, that I haven't chance to personally meet among 150 people, by the knitted caps and shawls that all participants got in the beginning of camp (and they were knitted by refugee woman from Croatia and Bosnia). We are always wearing them. We become some kind of "supporters", Peace Team Supporters ;) On 2nd of April, we will have presentation of Peace School in Cinema Rex. It will be screening of the video that Video workshop made: some practical excercises of participants + whole theater play, photo exhibiton, and promotion of wall-news-paper and of web-page. mailto:Vesna@Manojlov.ic.yu BECHA gURL http://www.classroom.opennet.org/~BECHA/ -----End of forwarded message----- --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl