Art Meets Radical Openness 2020
20th - 23rd of May 2020
OPEN CALL: Of Whirlpools and Tornadoes
Send us your submission and fill out the form!
http://radical-openness.org/en

Deadline: Monday 24.02.2020

AMRO is a biennial community festival in Linz that explores and
discusses new challenges between digital culture, art, everyday life,
education, politics and activism. The 2020 edition of the AMRO festival
is characterized by reflections upon the “centripetal” and “centrifugal”
dynamics of acceleration visible in contemporary society and the ways
artistic practice, activism and radical thinking can engage with it.

Of Whirlpools and Tornadoes aims to provide a picture of the current
social and technological movements that reflect the diverse troubles our
economic and political systems are currently facing. The speed of
production and consumption of new technologies is inevitably linked to
the waste of natural resources, which humans exploit and use to their
own only advantage without considering the equilibrium of the ecosystem.

The acceleration of the effects of climate change runs in parallel to
the unstoppable race for technological development, which is often
misunderstood as a solution - rather than a cause - of the inevitable
environmental catastrophe. Many groups of activists are now trying to
push governments into doing more. But there is still very little
discussion about models of sustainable technological infrastructure, how
this infrastructure can be built and what it might look like. In the
meantime, the next generation of smart products are being developed,
which will increasingly be connected to the internet. Behind the smooth
surface of our daily electronics, even more machines will stream data
around the world 24/7, requiring more data centers and energy.

How much more digital do we need to be, when we consider that every
cloud is a server farm wasting considerable amounts of energy, water,
fresh air and raw materials?

Throughout the festival, these topics will be further explored through
discussion panels, workshops, performances and showcases of artistic
work. The Open Call is addressed to artists, hacktivists, cultural
workers, journalists, F/LOSS developers and ‘improvers of the world’ who
want to make a contribution (exhibition, workshop, lecture, performance)
to the topic.
Possible formats
Lectures

You are welcome to share your research with us about climate change &
technology, decentralization models, alternative networks
(30 min lecture)
Workshops and Hands-on

An important section of the festival is dedicated to skill-sharing and
learning-together.
Showcase

Since its beginnings, AMRO has been a place for exchanging ideas and
sharing discussions about on-going processes. Within the framework of
the showcase we are able to provide a possibility to display your work
within the festival locations. You can propose projects that are still
in development or that need some external point of view. Installations /
objects / interventions …they should be accompanied by a short
presentation or a skill-sharing workshop.
Performances, Nightline

If a 3D-rendered tree falls in a virtual forest, and there is nothing
that listens to it, does it still make a sound? What is the squeak of
the fauna living at the borders of the corporate web? Do bots cry when
one is rude to them? We are ‘simply’ looking for the sonic-apparatus
that can hack data-capitalism. Got any?

We are open to any experimental approaches towards machines and sound.
Your presence at the festival should also include an element of active
skill-sharing with the other participants (workshop or presentation).
Presentations

Each participant is invited to give a short presentation of their
contribution.