Not An Alternative

Int’l ElectroSmog Festival: City Branding Debate

You are kindly invited to:

To Brand or not to Brand: The ElectroSmog Global City Branding debate
Thursday March 18th, 4pm - 6pm EST / 21:00 (GMT +1)

Discussion hosts: Merijn Oudenampsen & Ana Méndez
Venues: De Balie, Amsterdam / Eyebeam, New York / Medialab Prado, Madrid
http://www.electrosmogfestival.net/program/#branding

New York participants: Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of Brooklyn-based non-profit organization, Not An Alternative.

Branding strategies are the object of extensive critical research, mostly from the area of urban sociology. This research tries to figure out how such large scale urban and regional product-packaging strategies are affecting local economic structures, land and real-estate, local tax provisions, social housing, traffic flows, and other conditions that have an immediate impact on the daily life of residents.

In this debate, designers, artists, activists, architects and sociologists will look at the relation between branding and sustainability. Citybranding - or nation branding - attempts to hook up a location to the international flow of tourists, goods, workers and capital. It makes a lot of sense from a short term economic point of view. From the point of view of sustainability, however, these branding strategies are highly questionable. They add to the problematic of hypermobility that is under discussion in the Electrosmog festival.

In a broader sense the critique of city branding addresses the question of whether it is a good idea to profile places as products in an international market instead of living environments for their inhabitants. On the other hand, one could ask, whether cities and regions are economically viable at all without effective branding and promotion strategies. Are there alternative branding strategies?

Contributions by:

Merijn Oudenampsen, Amsterdam
http://www.flexmens.org/drupal/?q=merijn_oudenampsen

Ana Méndez & Isidro López, Observatorio Metropolitano, Madrid
www.observatoriometropolitano.org

Beka Economopoulos & Jason Jones, Not An Alternative, New York
www.notanalternative.net

Daniel van der Velden, designer and writer, Meta-haven, Brussels / Amsterdam
www.metahaven.net

Eva Ramos López, Town Planning and Housing Area, Madrid City Council

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Live streams & virtual theaters
All ElectroSmog events take place in two or more of the festival locations simultaneously and are streamed live over the internet in video and audio. On-line audiences can participate directly by making comments, asking questions and voting for the contributions of others.

Alternatively, you can follow the streamed events in virtual theatres set up in second life and on open sims, and join the discussion there.

ElectroSmog live on the web:
Join the live stream, comment, react, and vote for (or against) incoming contributions.

ElectroSmog live in Second Life:
The primary Second Life festival site is the Cyber-Nomad Camp, which can be accessed here:
Teleport: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/22/222/22

ElectroSmog live on your iphone:
You can also follow ElectroSmog on your iphone!

ElectroSmog at Eyebeam in NYC:
NYC residents can join the live presentation at Eyebeam, 540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011
http://eyebeam.org/events/electrosmog-festival-at-eyebeam

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Takes place in Amsterdam, New York, Madrid, Helsinki, Riga. London, Banff, New Zealand, Munich and online from March 18th-20th. No travel allowed!

ElectroSmog is a new festival that revolves around the concept SustainablecImmobility. The festival will introduce and explore this concept in theory and practice. With Sustainable Immobility we refer to a critique of current systems of hyper mobility of people and products in travel and transport, and their ecological unsustainability.

The exploration of Sustainable Immobility is a quest for a more
sustainable life style, which is less determined by speed and constant
mobility. A lifestyle that celebrates stronger links to local cultures,
while at the same time deepening our connections to others across any
geographical divide, using new communication technologies instead of
physical travel .

What we propose may sound a bit like a paradox: The proposition of
the festival is that the unfolding crisis of mobility can only be
effectively addressed by deepening our connections across geographical
divides through new communication technologies. The festival wants to
engage the fundamental promise of the information age that
communication technologies can replace the need for physical mobility,
and thus both contribute to ecological stability as well as a more
rewarding both deep-local and translocal life-style. While this promise
has existed since the dawn of the information age, it was never
realised. New material realities, however, force us to critically
re-examine these promises and seriously start to turn them into viable
choices.

Nothing
is self-evident for us. We will also critically question the underlying
premise that reliance on electronic connections and local roots is
self-evidently more energy efficient and more ecologically sustainable
than current systems of globalised mobility of people and goods.

What are the true energy costs and environmental and health hazards
of using even more electronic technologies (increased levels of
electrosmog)?

How can remote connections become a truly rewarding experience in and of themselves?

Is ‘going local’ the only solution?

We believe that only by answering such questions a viable
alternative to the current unsustainable systems of hyper-mobility can
be found.