Technology for Life: Media Workshop with Orangi School Children
Exhibition and Certificate Ceremony Friday March 11, 2016 at 3.00 pm sharp
Venue: Orangi Pilot Project Office
A Project of Karachi Biennale 2017 in collaboration with Orangi Pilot Project (OPPOCT) and Goethe-Institut, Karachi.
In the three-day workshop Berlin-based media, art and open culture advocates Stephen Kovats and Wolfgang Spahn will help de-mystify digital technology, introducing youths to skills and knowledge based on the Open Source model. Both have worked internationally on projects aimed at community development and education based on the concepts of open culture, linking artistic methodologies with hands-on approaches to understanding technology.
This Media Workshop is a part of Karachi Biennale’s public outreach initiatives that hopes to engage a larger audience for art by reaching 20% of the city in next two years.
Orangi Pilot Project is a socially innovative project carried out in the late 1980s in the squatter settlement of Orangi Town, Karachi. Since Orangi was a squatter settlement, it did not qualify for government aid due to its “unofficial” status. Because of this, people were left to tend for themselves. In 1987, OPP decided to start a microcredit program. For this they established a new institution, Orangi Pilot Project- Orangi Charitable Trust (OPP- OCT). Since then, OPP- OCT has been running a microcredit program, which has expanded its reach all over Sindh and South Punjab.
Workshop conductors Stephen Kovats and Wolfgang Spahn, skype session by Timm Wille.
Stephen Kovats is a Berlin-based researcher and digital culture activist. In his community development and education work he promotes the extension of the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math combined in Learning) agenda to include Art, supporting the notion of STEAM. Here the application of art, DIY culture and critical design play crucial roles in education, linking these to the sciences in order to support increased creativity in the realm of open innovation. Events such as the South Sudan #peacehackcamp (http://peacehackcamp.net/) and learning networks such as hackidemia (http://www.hackidemia.com/
Wolfgang Spahn is a visual artist living in Berlin. His work includes interactive installations, videos, projections, and miniature-slide-paintings. He participates in numerous international exhibitions and is teaching interaction and interface design at the BBK-Berlin and the Universität Paderborn.
Timm Daniell Wille is an Open Source Hardware Activist, Mechanical Engineer for renewable energies, organizer & part of the Open Source Ecology* network, based in Berlin Germany.