Laboratory Italy
Author: redactie redactie
Sunday Sept 14, Paradiso (Grote Zaal)
Equipped with powerful vocal chords and lively arm work (an Italian specialty), Franco, the first speaker in Laboratory Italy, gave us an introduction into the paradoxical situations in the Italian media landscape as well as in the political realm.
Concerning the pre-Berlusconi era in the media, ironically the autonomous struggle for air space outside of state television has cleared the path for the emergence of commercial TV. After an extended 20-year puberty, the media market has freed itself from paternalistic regulations, only to be adopted by the dull mechanism of capital.
Since the populist mediacratic reign was born out of deregulation, new strategies for an alternative media sphere should be developed. The question is whether this should take the shape of an opposing block or as an operation in the folds and creases of the largely annexed media land.
It seems that the girotondi (Grassrootsmilitants, intellectuals, teachers and women contesting the inertia and vacuity of the Left leadership) are adhering more to the first option, choosing to create televisual opposition with initiatives such as "Spegni la tivù, accendi la libertà": turn off your tv, and turn to liberty.
On the other hand, the Indymedia or Telestreet “camp” is going for the cracks in the law, focusing more on local tv broadcasting and creative tv-hacking.
In terms of politics, Franco pointed out there is an unlikely path of continuity running between the centre Left parties and those on the centre right. The neoliberalism policy of Berlusconi has been prepared by centre Left by their contribution in breaking working-class resistance. One could conclude from this, that political opposition to Berlusconi’s government virtually does not exist.
Second speaker Vittorio gave a short historical overview of tactical media in Italy. The autonomous movement, largely born out of social and squat centers, had been creating independent communication zones in the course of 20 years and mobilization for “piazza’ actions flourished especially through the use of internet. The authorities have been scrutinizing organizations like ecn.org (hosting and linking autonomous initiatives or “islands in the web”) carefully, but haven’t succeeded in cutting them off yet.
Matteo Pasquinelli, revigorated us all with some pep talk about the sensibility that has grown in civil society after the Genoa G8. The DS (Left Democrats) is gaining followers and according to Matteo, things like do-it-yourself television as a tool for collective narration can energize politics too.
When questioned on illegality issues around tactical media, Franco responded that the media law borders are very fuzzy. Mr. B. himself seems to trample on them happily (and judges are idiots anyway), so until now, street TV, with the exception of Telefabbrica, has been tolerated.
The Sicilian Telefabbrica story is a very particular one, says Lucio, who is from the island. Sicily stands apart as an autonomous zone, governed by the mafia, where 40% of the working population is unemployed. With most media under corrupt control and a great digital divide, the need for something like Telefabbrica was acute.This joint effort from media-activists and factory workers was aborted by the authorities, since it was compromising their dark dealings.
Summing it up, the most sympathetic aspect of this deep local street TV, is that it unites a low-tech attitude with a complete turnaround in concept and form: not television, but proxyvision, not live nor recorded but halflive and a total reverse of centre and periphery. It’s a refreshing demystification of television, even if I don’t know what on earth a ‘palimpsest’ is.
Sarah van Lamsweerde