DigiArts @ World Summit on Information Society Tunis 2005
06/12/2005
The DigiArts team has successfully completed our mission to the 2nd phase World Summit on Information Society Tunis 2005 (16-18 November 2005) with two interventions at the UNESCO stand (16 November 2005, 10:00; 18 November 2005, 16:00) on the subject of “Creative practises using ICTs in promotion of cultural diversity” and also a presentation on “Creative digital practices and community building” at the Austrian village (18 November 2005, 13:00).
Looking back at the first World Summit Geneva 2003, it’s interesting to note that most of the DigiArts’ pilot activities presented in Tunis this time were actually initially introduced at development phase in Geneva such as the Young Digital Creators Programme (http://www.unesco.org/culture/digiarts/ydc) and the creation of master module on Art, Design, and Technology in the Arab States (http://www.unesco.org/culture/digiarts/arabstates/training). Therefore, it was timely to re-address the issue of the role of different actors and their creative digital practises in building capacities and protecting the diversity of creative content related to the implementation of the WSIS Action Plan, especially through specific examples of the pilot projects.
We were fortunate to have Gerfried Stocker, Director, Ars Electronica (http://www.aec.at/de/index.asp), to share with us the recent trends in digital art and public spaces, followed by a progress report on the Masters Module on Art Design and Technology in the Arab States, which underlined the importance of making use of an educational network of universities and practitioners in the field of interdisciplinary digital creation.
The Young Digital Creators (YDC) project was then introduced with a special pre-launching of the newly developed 4th YDC programme “History and Culture of Peace in Africa” (http://www.ml.refer.org/unesco/digiarts/sommaire.php3). Mr Eduard Matoko, Director of the UNESCO Office in Bamako stressed the importance of collaborative initiatives in creating content as a tool for young people in reflecting on global issues of our time.
The intervention of Mr Wilson Masaka Magambo of Nairobits (Kenya; www.nairobits.org) was an exceptional occasion as it was not foreseen but arranged on the spot as Nairobits had won the grand prize in the category of “Creativity and Culture” of the World Summit Youth Award (http://www.youthaward.org/wsya/). Within the DigiArts Africa networking initiative (http://www.unesco.org/culture/digiarts/africa), Nairobits has been recognized as a media channel for local African content, exemplifying how training initiatives in digital creative applications can contribute towards building capacities of young people, especially disadvantaged groups in the African society. The finishing line of Mr Magambo addressed to all youth “We can do IT and sky is the limit!” was in particularly empowering.
For those who would like to follow up more closely on the presentation, please find a web-broadcasted clip at:
mms://stream.unesco.org/vod/wsis_4_181105_hd_en.wmv
You can also find the official documents adopted at WSIS Tunis 2005, the agenda and the Tunis Commitment at:
- Agenda
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20687&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
- Tunis Commitment
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20689&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Lastly, we would like to express our special thanks to our presenters at WSIS Tunis and our partners who have supported the DigiArts project in promoting knowledge and creativity within digital environments.
