about

Ma­king Chan­ge cal­led for a cri­ti­cal un­der­stan­ding of chan­ge that al­lows us to re­co­gni­ze new forms, func­tions and me­thods of chan­ge prac­tices, with an em­pha­sis on me­dia and narration. The pro­ject collec­ted mul­ti­ple and di­ver­se ex­pe­ri­en­ces and praxologies of landmark projects engaged in change through con­ver­sa­ti­ons, re-assemblage and event-based interaction – with a focus on com­mu­nities in emer­ging in­for­ma­ti­on so­cie­ties.

The pur­po­se of the pro­ject was to reflect not only pro­ces­ses of chan­ge as part of the Glo­bal South with a special sensitivity to new mediatized conditions, but also to reflect induced and neccessary changes in the concepts and visions of ‘change’ itself.

Within an experimental and interaction-based methodology a focus was cast on crea­ting pro­to­ty­pes for a know­ledge com­mons as to fa­ci­li­ta­te the crea­ti­on, ex­ch­an­ge and in­te­gra­ti­on of know­ledge, the­r­e­by linking the ongoing pro­ces­ses of so­ci­al and po­li­ti­cal chan­ge in the re­gi­on with a general revision of social change processes, models and languages.

Ma­king Chan­ge was hos­ting pro­duc­tion-ori­en­ted work­shops – sometimes cal­led “pro­duc­tion sprints” – to fa­ci­li­ta­te the con­ver­gence of ac­tors, projects, ide­as and methods. The­se ‘sprints’ did not have a tra­di­tio­nal con­fe­rence struc­tu­re whe­re know­ledge is im­par­ted, but had been spaces of know­ledge ex­ch­an­ge bet­ween chan­ge-ma­kers around pro­ces­ses, nar­ra­ti­ves and visions of chan­ge. Ma­king use of mul­ti-mo­dal forms and for­mats of know­ledge pro­duc­tion (text, image, au­dio, etc), par­ti­ci­pants were as­ked to group around four focal to­pics that were assumed to be critical for any re-casting of our understanding of ‘social change’: cri­ses, eco­lo­gies, in­fra­struc­tu­res, and net­works.

In June 2014 the first Pro­duc­tion Sprint with par­ti­ci­pants from Sou­theast Asia took place in Ban­ga­lo­re; and in Fe­bru­ary 2015 the se­cond Pro­duc­tion Sprint with par­ti­ci­pants from La­tin Ame­ri­ca took place in Bo­gotá.

The larger horizon of the project was the idea of ‘knowledge commons’ which was probed by these first stirrings of new formats of change-knowledge.

Thus ‚making vision!‘ was the label for focussing visual work as well as vision building on different levels and in different dimensions of ‚Making Change‘ – spanning process faclitation (centered around the workshops), topical engagement with terms/issues of the visual and ‚vision‘, and – ultimately – also exemplary visual production.
‚Vision folios‘ were one bracket to organize this vision-strand. But ‚making vision‘ pervaded more aspects and modules of ‚Making Change‘, and – particularly with view to the workshops/production sprints and their ‚exhibitions’/‚displays’. Accordingly a second bracket was the extended use of visual-/vision-based methods (paired with methods of narration), that were used as one of the main pillars to facilitate the work of very heterogenuous groups under circumstances of extreme time restraint (i.e. the bringing together of the (virtual) network in two ‚sprint‘-like 3-4 day workshops). This part of ‚making vision‘ could be labeled as ‚live vision‘.

• Esra´a al Shafei (Middle East Youth / Bahrain) >>
• Ahmad Barclay (Visualizing Palestine / Lebanon + Palestine) >>
• Irene Agrivina (House of Natural Fibre – HONF / Indonesia) >>
• Jasmeen Pathejy (BlankNoise / India) >>
• Keiko Tanaka (5th element / Remix Film Festival) >>
• Leonard Bartholomeus (Ruangrupa / Indonesia) >>
• Measy Angelina (thedustysneakers) >>
• Maya Indira Ganesh (Tactical Technology Collective / India) >>
• Maya Hemant (Prantham Books / India)
• Yun Chen (China)