Workshop: Tactical Media 1, April 27-May 4, 2009
The Interactive Workshop ‘Tactical Media 1: Campaigns, Campus, Conversations’ was conducted by the members of “Citizen’s Initiative”, Calcutta, (Dibyajyoti, Madhura, Insia, Trina), and Faculty members from Jadavpur University, which included Dr. Kavita Panjabi and Dr. Samantak Das. All the resource persons were either academicians or activists with technical competence in New Media forms and active experience in digital campaigning. The workshop was coordinated by Dr. Madhuja Mukherjee, Joint Coordinator of the Lab and Senior Lecturer of the Department of Film Studies.
The Workshop offered a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the basic ideas and techniques of campaigning with digital media. The new platforms emerging in New Media are radically transforming the possibilities of creative and critical communication. Through this interactive workshop, the Media Lab tried to share technical and critical knowledge regarding this transformation and particularly the effective uses of the new tools that are becoming increasingly affordable by the public.
The basic questions that were raised and addressed by the Workshop were: Shall we remain passive recipients of the media or get organized to make our own? Should we not enable ourselves to use technologies that are cheap and simple, and can articulate our interests?
While the keynote was delivered by Kavita Panjabi, Trina N. Banerjee spoke about their own experiences of the tactical use of media during the period of political crisis. Samantak Das spoke about his apprehensions about the validity and reach of web based activities. It was decided that a blog combating ragging/hazing would be set up. Initially the participants, which included young school students, media practitioners, as well as members of the NGO ‘Saffo for equality’, and women’s organizations, were given hands-on training on techniques of setting up a blog.
At the later stage, the participants were involved in collecting material for the blog, which included interviews of ‘victims’ and of members of JU anti-ragging cell. A special emphasis was given to issues of gender and sexuality. As of now, the blog includes information regarding the law to resist ragging/hazing, as well as testimonies of people who have experienced ragging/hazing, and some relevant audio and video material. The blog hopes to provide a space to young people and enable them to share their opinion and experiences regarding ragging/hazing in institutions.
To visit the blog, click Rag Picker