Call
for
New
Media
Art:


Trafficked
Identities









Subject:
 Call
for
New
Media
Art:
Trafficked
Identities
exhibition
for
FLEFF
2011


(deadline:
15.03.2011)



Types:
 Call
for
new
media
art,
locative
media,
tactical
media,
electronic
civil

disobedience,
experimental
coding,
radical
cartography,
opportunity,

announcement,
festival,
prizes,
competition







In
collaboration
with
the
Global
Alliance
Against
Traffic
in
Women
(GAATW)
based
in
Bangkok,

Thailand,
the
Finger
Lakes
Environmental
Film
Festival
(FLEFF)
is
looking
for
submissions
of
digital

art
for
the
exhibition
Trafficked
Identities
in
conjunction
with
the
festival
theme
of
Checkpoints

for
2011.



The
Finger
Lakes
Environmental
Film
Festival
(FLEFF)
provides
a
vibrant
space
for
debates
and

dialogues
of
environmentalism
according
to
twenty‐first–century
global
perspectives
that
embrace

the
complex
nexus
of
political,
economic,
social,
and
aesthetic
dimensions,
such
as
public
health,

genetically
modified
seeds,
endemic
disease,
indentured
labour,
militarized
international
borders,

civil
war,
biological
war,
neoliberal
economic
policies,
intellectual
property,
free
trade
zones,

bioengineered
foods,
informal
economies,
rare
minerals,
women’s
rights,
and
human
rights.





The
Global
Alliance
Against
Traffic
in
Women
(GAATW)
is
an
alliance
of
more
than
90
non‐
governmental
organisations
from
across
the
world
that
deal
with
migrant
rights,
human
rights,

anti‐trafficking,
women’s
rights,
and
labour
issues.

GAATW
promotes
and
defends
the
human

rights
of
all
migrants
and
their
families
against
the
threat
of
an
increasingly
globalised
labour

market
and
calls
for
safety
standards
for
migrant
workers
in
the
process
of
migration
and
in
the

formal
and
informal
work
sectors
‐
garment
and
food
processing,
agriculture
and
farming,

domestic
work,
sex
work
‐
where
slavery‐like
conditions
and
practices
exist.





Teaming
up
for
the
first
time,
FLEFF
and
GAATW
are
interested
in
discovering
the
ways
in
which

digital
art
would
explore,
visualise,
engage,
intervene
in,
map
the
complexities
of,
and/or
allow

viewers
to
embody
and
experience
migration,
human
trafficking,
and
labour
issues,
where

people’s
identities
and
experiences
can
be
fragmented,
dissected,
and
pigeon‐holed
by
authorities

and
policy
makers.




A
person
can
simultaneously
be
a
refugee,
a
worker,
a
trafficked
person,
a
family
breadwinner,
a

community
leader,
and
an
undocumented
migrant.

Yet
policies
created
to
help
one
identity
may

end
up
endangering
another
identity,
such
as
when
repatriation
policies
for
trafficked
persons

endanger
refugees
trying
to
escape
conflict
and
abuse.

How
may
art
practices
address
the

fragmentation
and
limitation
of
people’s
identities
in
anti‐trafficking
and
migration
policies?




Anti‐trafficking
campaigns
often
rely
on
victimisation
narratives
that
leave
structural
barriers,
such

as
racial
discrimination
and
restrictive
migration
policies,
unchallenged.

How
may
activist

campaigns
against
human
trafficking
avoid
glamourising
the
victimization
of
trafficked
persons
and

instead
use
digital
media
as
a
platform
to
promote
the
recognition
of
trafficked
persons’
rights,

strengths
and
power?

How
may
campaigns
call
attention
to
gross
exploitation
while
highlighting

victims’
resilience
and
agency?

How
may
the
bodies
that
are
smuggled
past,
or
that
covertly
pass,

political
checkpoints
be
represented
in
ways
that
educate
about
the
intersection
of
geopolitical

complexities
with
labour,
whether
sexual,
manual,
domestic,
forced,
or
voluntary?




We
invite
submissions
of
new
media
art,
database
documentaries,
locative
and
tactical
media
with

a
distributed
network
component,
digital
video
designed
for
online
exhibition
platforms,

experimental
coding,
data‐visualization
applications,
experimental
archiving,
and
other
web‐based

media
that
engage
the
theme
of
“Checkpoints”
for
FLEFF
2011’s
online
exhibition,
Trafficked

Identities.

One
prize
of
250USD
will
be
awarded.

It
is
envisioned
that
the
winning
entry
could
be

used
for
GAATW’s
campaign
purposes.





The
Trafficked
Identities
exhibit
will
go
live
in
April
2011
in
conjunction
with
the
festival
in
Ithaca

(New
York),
USA.

Visit
the
FLEFF
web
site
at
www.ithaca.edu/fleff
for
details,
links
to
previous

new
media
art
exhibitions
and
blogs,
including
the
curators’
blog
Digital
Spaces:
Speculations
on

Digital
Art
and
Viral
Spaces.

Please
also
read
about
other
events
associated
with
FLEFF
and
its

global
network
of
partners
in
the
Open
Cinema
Project.



Please
send
links
to
submissions
with
a
brief
bio
in
an
email
to
curators
Dale
Hudson
(UAE/USA)

and
Sharon
Lin
Tay
(UK/Singapore)
at
digifleff.gaatw@gmail.com
no
later
than
15
March
2011.



Only
projects
that
can
be
exhibited
online
can
be
considered
for
this
exhibit.

Media
artists

working
in
off‐line
formats,
should
visit
the
FLEFF
web
site
for
other
calls.

Unfortunately,
we

cannot
consider
projects
previously
curated
in
FLEFF
exhibits,
nor
can
we
consider
projects
by

Ithaca
College
students,
faculty,
or
staff.





CURATORS’
BIOS



Dale
Hudson
(UAE/USA)
teaches
film
and
new
media
studies
at
New
York
University
Abu
Dhabi.


His
work
on
global
cinema
and
new
media
appears
in
Afterimage,
Cinema
Journal,
Journal
of
Film

and
Video,
Screen,
Studies
in
Documentary
Film,
and
elsewhere.

He
is
preparing
a
book

manuscript
entitled
Blood,
Bodies,
and
Borders.



Sharon
Lin
Tay
(UK/Singapore)
teaches
film
and
digital
theory
at
Middlesex
University
in
London.


She
is
on
sabbatical
in
2010
and
is
currently
a
Visiting
Associate
Professor
at
Nanyang
Technical

University
in
Singapore.

Her
new
book
about
women
filmmakers
and
digital
artists,
entitled

Women
on
the
Edge:
Twelve
Political
Film
Practices
(2009),
is
published
by
Palgrave
Macmillan.



Hudson
and
Tay
have
co‐curated
four
previous
exhibitions
at
FLEFF:
Undisclosed
Recipients

(2007),
ubuntu.kuqala
(2008),
sticky‐content
(2009),
and
Map
Open
Space
(2010).

They
are
also

co‐curating
the
Digital
Checkpoints
exhibition
for
FLEFF
2011.