Free Cultural Spaces 5th Symposium, 2015, Christiania, Copenhagen
Hi everyone: Hugs, Energy, and Greetings.
Thanks to those of you who attended the 5th Futurological Symposium on Free Cultural Spaces (FCS) and enjoyed the wonderful Christiania experience in Copenhagen. Another energising event! Heartfelt thanks to Britta, Frants, Ilene, Ligia, Majya, Mikkel, Nils, and Nina!
Hello to those of you who organized and attended previous Symposia at Boom and Ruigoord, and to those who propose hosting Symposia in the near future. Our core FCS network is growing!
We welcome your responses to and comments on this short post-Symposium report and want to share the enthusiasm that participants at Christiania had for the idea of holding more frequent “mini-Symposia,” in addition (we hope) to regular larger coordinating events like the 3rd (Ruigoord), 4th (Boom Festival), and 5th (Christiania) Symposia. Regarding the mini-Symposia, we wonder how many experienced Symposiotes should be present for them to be considered “Symposium” events: perhaps 3; including one who has previously helped organize?
The Shiram Community in Russia, Maastricht’s Landbouwbelang in the Netherlands, Skärkäll in Sweden, and Užupis in Lithuania have proposed holding Symposia of various sizes during 2016.
The organizing group has discussed producing a “Basic FCS Information pack” (posted on the freeculturalspaces website?), which might include: The Emerging Network of Autonomous Zones (by Aja); the film Reflections from The Ruigoord Symposium 2013 www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlW985bn3Y; the seven bullet points developed from the first debate on formulating the “Declaration on the Universal Value of Free Cultural Spaces”; the FCS Typology developed for the “Web of Hubs of Free Cultural Spaces” project, and the Core Values for FCS document that was developed during the preparations for the Boom Symposium. We’d appreciate your feedback on this idea.
The theme for the 5th Symposium was “Individuals and Collectives.” We ask the participants to write a report on the essence of their contribution in a maximum of three (3) A-4 pages that we can archive and possibly publish as a booklet-reader. Please send your report to adele-jordan@mindspring.com. An ongoing theme, or range of themes, for future symposia has yet to be discussed, but current suggestions include: conflict resolution; no identity; free nord cultural spaces; crazy wisdom: the power of humour; continuing focus on the “declaration on the value of free cultural spaces”; resolving contradictions; and, making and developing connections.
Alan Dearling’s personal video of the 5th Symposium and his blog report (in words and images) about the event are posted at: www.freeculturalspaces.net. Take a look and perhaps get involved in the growing “Web of Hubs of Free Cultural Spaces” website that he is working hard to develop.
Work has begun on developing an archive of materials and documents relating to the Symposia (past and future) for the “freeculturalspaces” website. In addition to transcription documents and sound files from the Ruigoord Symposia, Boom has provided edited and raw video files, and Christiania TV is providing raw video files to us (the sound technician erased the sound files for the 2nd and 3rd days). And we have the record of the debate and work surrounding the first attempt to formulate the Declaration on the Universal Value of Free Cultural Spaces.
FINALLY: WE, THE ATTENDEES OF THE 5TH FUTUROLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM ON FREE CULTURAL SPACES, DECLARE OUR UNEQUIVOCAL SUPPORT FOR THE EMERGING FREE CULTURAL SPACES OF THE WORLD. At the urging of Peter Lamborn Wilson (Hakim Bey), whose letter was read to the assembled Symposiotes at 16:05 on Thursday, 24 September 2015, THE 5th SYMPOSIUM RECOGNIZES THE VISIONARY COURAGE OF THE ROJAVAN EXPERIMENT IN SYRIA’S WESTERN KURDISTAN. We applaud the war zone efforts of the Rojavan kurds to create a positive Free Cultural Space in a war torn region.
Thanks to all of you, participants and organizers;
Amazingly, the Futurological Symposium on FCS lives another day!
Alan Dearling, Majya Dunder, Ilene Lucinda Hendriks, Britta Lillesøe, Mikkel Pedersen Marzbar, Ligia Neves, Frants Pandal, Nils Vest, Aja Waalwijk, Nina Estrup Willumsen, and Jordan Zinovich
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