next 5 minutes international festival of tactical media, September 11-14 2003, Amsterdam

About next 5 minutes

What is Next 5 Minutes?

Next 5 Minutes is a festival that brings together media, art and politics.

Next 5 Minutes revolves around the notion of tactical media, the fusion of art, politics and media. The festival is organised irregularly, when the urgency is felt to bring a new edition of the festival together.

On-line Documentation

Extensive on-line documentation of the Next 5 Minutes festivals and tactical media are available at the following websites:

The Tactical Media Files

Tactical Media Files is an on-line documentation resource for the present, past and future of tactical media, started in the Fall of 2008:
Tactical Media Files

Next 5 Minutes festival wesbites

The websites of the previous editions are restored and available online:

Next 5 Minutes 2 (1996)

Next 5 Minutes 3 (1999)

Next 5 Minutes 4 Tactical Media Labs Documentation (2002-2003)

Next 5 Minutes 4 (2003)

(Next 5 Minutes 1 took place in 1993, the era before the web)

About next 5 minutes 4

How did this particular edition of the festival come about?

The fourth edition of the Next 5 Minutes festival is the result of a collaborative effort of a variety of organisations, initiatives and individuals dispersed world-wide. The program and content of the festival is prepared through a series of Tactical Media Labs (TMLs) organised locally in different cities around the globe. This series of Tactical Media Labs started on September 11, 2002 in Amsterdam and they continue internationally right up to the festival in September. TMLs have been organised in: Amsterdam, Sydney, Cluj, Barcelona, Delhi, New York, Singapore, Birmingham, Nova Scotia, Berlin, Chicago, Portsmouth, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Dubrovnik, and Zanzibar. The results of the various TMLs are published in a web journal, at: http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/n5m4_journal

What are the main themes of N5M4?

The program of Next 5 Minutes 4 is structured along four core thematic threads, bringing together a host of projects and debates. These four thematic threads are: "The Reappearing of the Public" deals with the elusiveness of the public that tactical media necessarily needs to interface with, and considers new strategies for engaging with or redefining 'the public'. "Deep Local (Growing Roots for the Global Village)", which explores the ambiguities of connecting essentially translocal media cultures with local contexts. "The Tactics of Appropriation" questions who is appropriating whom? Corporate, state, or terrorist actors all seem to have become effective media tacticians, is the battle for the screen therefore lost? "The Tactical and the Technical" finally questions the deeply political nature of (media-)technology, and the role that the development of new media tools plays in defining, enabling and constraining its tactical use.

Formats

The festival explores a variety of forms and formats, from low-tech to high-tech, from seminars and debates to performances and urban interventions, screenings, installations as well as sound projects and live media, a pitching session, a tool builders fair and open unmoderated spaces. Defining for tactical media is not the medium itself, but the attitude towards media.

Questions? Check the Frequently Asked Questions!