Laboro Ergo Sum

I work, therefore I am

November 6-15, 2015 Istanbul

amberPlatform’s amber’15 Art and Technology Festival is to take place in Istanbul between November 6 to 15, 2015. This year’s theme is “Laboro Ergo Sum”.

We invite you to join amber’15, undergoing a new organisational structure. To apply, click for the application form. Artistic output, installations, performances, curatorial practices, workshops, contemporary dance, concerts, seminars, presentations, panels, academic articles are welcomed.

Important dates:

June 2, 2015, 19:00
As artists, academics, makers, individuals and institutions, you are all invided to the lauch meeting at StudioX. A great occasion to talk face to face and answer your questions!

July 17, 2015 22:00
DEADLINE

July 25, 2015 14:00
jury roundtable (location to be verified). In this round the jury is made up of all the applicants. the festival programme is to be created collectively.

August 20, 2015
announcement of the programme

2015 Theme: "Laboro Ergo Sum" 

When we talk about how the digital revolution has increasingly turned our lives around in the last three decades, we fix our gaze on the center stage and focus on the results. Our ways of doing things, from health to security, from education to entertainment have changed. This has made our life easier as much as it has caused complications. Nevertheless, a world where everyone is reachable anytime is a world much different from before. Mostly we admired it, got mad at it or feared it.

We have ignored the labor behind all this change and how the labor that creates the digital revolution is organized. We have disregarded the ways in which the digital revolution has transformed labor from mines to assembly lines, from homes to offices. Now that our initial fascination has ceded, the digital and the digitally transformed have made it to our daily routines. To better understand this revolution we’d like to look into its relation with labor and contextualize it beyond what is immediately visible in terms of change.

The theme of amber’15 is work and labor. Has digitalization devalued or cheapened labor? How has the relation between labor and capital changed? How widespread is insecurity with regards to work, how has unpaid labor increased? In what way has the relation between work and labor evolved? From white collar to youth who use digital tools, how has people’s attitude toward their own labor changed? Can we talk about robotic or cyborg labor? What’s the role of digital technologies in the growing unemployment, poverty and deepening class-wage gap? Have digital technologies honed the existing antagonisms? Is the reappearance of Marx’ theory of value in contemporary thought-scape an indication of a lack of change in terms of labor and exploitation?

amber’15, in its collective restructuring, invites you all to a discussion around the theme “Laboro Ergo Sum”.

Why a new model?

This year, amberPlatform offers a new collective festival model instead of a curated one. amber’15 invites academics, curators, makers and creative individuals (and institutions?) to be part of a sustainable, inclusive, open and common grounds collaboration.

The applicants can vote for the works during the jury roundtable on July 25 and be part of the selection committee of the festival.

As we embark on this new structure, we envision a new and integral ecology of which technology is an essential part, that aims at democratization of the relations of production and consumption; and promotes movements we have been supporting since the very beginning such as open source, free apps, DIY or do it together, ecological activism, sustainable living, urban farming, community (guerrilla) gardening and slow city. We propose a festival in these lines.

about amberFestival

amberFestival is the first and  only festival in the field of Art and Technology organized in Istanbul, since its inception in 2007.

amberFestival aims at fostering new forms of artistic expression through the possibilities of new technologies. amberFestival promotes new technologies in art.

amberFestival consists of exhibitions of interactive installations, stage performances, artists presentations, seminars and workshops, through out which amberFestival creates a platform for artistic exchange and collaborations. Click to read more