How to make the world and humanity aware of the worst sufferings of people: Sudan

Vortrag: 22. Mai 2019, 16.00 Uhr; Workshop: 23. bis 25. Mai Kunstuniversität Linz, Domgasse 1

Interface Cultures lädt zum Vortrag von Tomo Križnar und Bojana Pivk Križnar und zum Workshop von César Escudero Andaluz und Martín Nadal zusammen mit Tomo Križnar.

Lecture

May 22nd 2019, time 16.00 to 17.30
Location: Domgasse 1, ExPostmusicroom, 4. OG

The workshop will be preceded by a lecture by Tomo Križnar, Slovenian human rights activist, writer, documentary film-maker, journalist and a worldwide traveler. In his work, he focuses on the sensitivities of protecting indigenous cultures, notably during his travels to Africa, in which he selflessly ventures to dangerous zones not only to protect indigenous people, but to teach them to defend themselves from oppressors, be they Arabs, Chinese, or Europeans, trying to seize their land, and its natural resources. He is notable for delivering video cameras and drones in Southern Kordofan to the local ethnic Nuba civilians in order to help them collect the evidence of North Sudan military's war crimes against them. He wrote and published several books and was a special envoy of the former Slovenian president Janez Drnovšek for Darfur.

Workshop

Self-prevention devices, May 23rd to 25th 2019, time 10.15 to 18.15
Location: Interface culture lecture room, 3th floor, room 3.OG, DO.03.27
The day after the lecture, we will start with the workshop »Self- Prevention Devices« led by César Escudero Andaluz and Martín Nadal, together with Tomo Križnar.

Workshop Content
Suggesting the design and creation of "self-prevention devices" – prototype low price tools to assist indigenous people in medical care, basic resource supply, as diagnosing or cleaning water for individual safety.
- Equipping their villages with communication system in emergency situations.
- Providing tools for giving voice to the people who are refused the access to media by world governments.
- Re:thinking proper strategies to introduce these elements and devices to their culture.
Keywords: Device Art, Critical Engineering, Surveillance, Design Thinking, Mechatronics, Wireless communication.

Tomo Križnar, B.Sc. in economics and mechanical engineering, left his job as a project leader for relations with IBM in ISKRA, the largest corporation in Slovenia, in 1985, and went on a cycling trip around the world. He published his experiences from this 7-year long journey in several books and caught them in documentary films. As an independent author and journalist, he focuses on the sensitivities of surviving indigenous cultures and the ways of protecting them. The documentaries Nuba, Pure People (2000), Dar Fur – War for Water (2008) and Eyes and Ears of God – Video Surveillance of Sudan (2012), in co-authorship with the film director Maja Weiss, have forced international, governmental and non-governmental organizations to direct attention to the stealth genocide of indigenous peoples in the Sahel, especially in Sudan. Over the last several years, he has been engaged, with his supporters, in smuggling modern information technology and cheap surveillance drones into the besieged areas. He advocates the establishment of transnational nature reserves to help refugees stay on their own land, where the bones of their elders and ancestors rest.

Since 2017 he and his wife Bojana Križnar have been helping the people in the Nubba Mountains to fight against leprosy, because there is no medication in the Nubba Mountains. Additionally, in South Sudan they have a problem receiving medications. Visiting Juba Teaching Hospital, they were told that since November they had received no antibiotics, so they cannot treat 150 new lepers. At Novartis, the company that produces the antibiotics, they don’t know the reason why they don’t get them. »Don’t give up!« would probably say Tomo’s father, judging by the title of his book Don’t give up, boy. Medication can be bought in Uganda and delivered to the Nubba Mountains and Blue Nile. In that way we can make possible what the right of every one is – to be Human.
www.tomokriznar.com
hope.si

César Escudero Andaluz (Ph.D. Candidate), artist and researcher focused on Human-Computer Interaction, interface criticism, digital culture and its social and political effects. His work spans image-making, sculpture, videogame, installation, networked culture, IoT, robotics, interfaces appropriations, and media archeology. Since 2011 he has been researching at the Kunstuniversität Linz in Interface Culture LAB.
escuderoandaluz.com

Martín Nadal (BSc), artist/creative coder based in Linz and studying the Interface Cultures program at KunstUni. In the past years he has collaborated on a variety of projects and taught at some workshops related to art and technology. He is also interested in illustration and cinematography. His works have been shown at Visualizar 11 (Medialab Prado), Ars Electronica, AMRO Festival y Settimana della Scienza (Genova). IAMAS (jp). ZKM (de).
martinnadal.eu

This lecture and workshop is supported by: Interface Cultures, Hochschüler*innenschaft Kunstuniversität Linz and Trbovlje New Media Setting (TNM)