"Hack the Knowledge" Lab

Technology, Creativity, Social Organization

Lancaster, England, Feb. 3–5, 2006

A Weekend Gathering For Collaborative and Creative Reflection

Lancaster University (Institute for Advanced
Studies)
North West England.

1. WHAT IS THE KNOWLEDGE LAB?

The Knowledge Lab is an attempt to provide a collective space for
anti-capitalist reflection. It is located at the margin of the
university, an institution essentially geared towards the production
of knowledge as a resource for corporate interest and as justification
for particular constellations of power relations.
The Knowledge Lab is hence also an attempt to claim back some of the
university's space, resources and know-how from the military-industrial
complex and make them available for people concerned about and working
against the status quo of unceasing commodification, exploitation, war,
and biospherical destruction.2. WHAT WILL THIS WEEKEND BE LIKE?

This weekend is the second Knowledge Lab event, and you are happily
invited to get involved. Find the emerging programme here.

The event is also an experiment in format/structure, and aims to go
beyond the conventional speaker-audience set up. The weekend will be
divided into FOUR themed STREAMS made up of a series of extended
discussion sessions or hand-on workshops:

STREAM 1: POLITECHS (democratisation of technology/politics in
technological civilisation)

STREAM 2: HACKING CONSCIOUSNESS (hearts, minds & technology)

STREAM 3: PROPERGANDER ((autonomous) media & communication)

STREAM 4: HACKLAB (techie skill transfer)

All streams share the same lunch and dinner breaks, but are otherwise
NOT time-bound to one another. There will also be a 1/2 stream (the
KIDZ' STREAM!) taking place in the soft-seated corner of the foyer.
Please let us know in advance if you're bringing a small person.

Apart from the hacklab (a series of hands-on workshops), each stream
consists of a number of facilitated sessions on a particular subject
(see here for more info).
Sessions are long-ish discussions (up to 2-3 hours) around a set of
questions, issues or statements (that will be made available on the wiki
in advance). There will be no formal presentations, but the idea is that
people with particular experience/knowledge of the given subject will
aim to ensure vibrancy of discussion and relevance of information
imparted — without extinguishing other people's points of views and
contributions!

The idea is for each session to collectively draft some sort of "output"
- this could be a simple list of main points summarising the discussion,
but could of course be more creative (such as editing audio recordings
for publication online), and would ideally also identify further
questions regarding the subject (rather than attempt to provide answers)
with a view to encourage further thought and action, maybe even spawn
writings, research, or other projects. The "output" will be "publicised"
on the wiki and ideally on posters or similar during the course of the
weekend.

Live web-streaming and recording facilities for the discussions will be
set up. As part of the hacklab we are hoping to provide a media sharing
server, so bring your hard drives, CDs and DVDs with documentaries,
music and more to share and take new stuff home with you to screen or
redistribute.

There will be a plenary/feedback session Sunday lunchtime to wrap up the
whole event.

3. HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

Anybody is welcome to attend the weekend, get involved in the
discussions, and take part in the workshops. HOWEVER, YOU NEED TO
REGISTER TO ATTEND AS THE EVENT IS LIMITED TO 100 PEOPLE, SO PLEASE GET
IN TOUCH NOW: n.moeller@lancaster.ac.uk.

If you'd like to take a more pro-active role during the conference, you
might want to ADOPT a session — that is, prepare it in advance
(suggest questions, main issues, reading material etc and propose the
length of the session), arrive prepared for discussion themselves,
attend it, and participate passionately in the debates and in the
drafting of the "output". For proposed sessions see
here.

We also still need people to FACILITATE sessions — ideally a session
should NOT be adopted and facilitated by the same person(s).
Facilitators are usually best if experienced in their task, and will be
called upon to facilitate not only discussion, but also the drafting of
the "output".

Any which way, please get in touch.

4. COSTS AND PRACTICALITIES

Unwaged persons: free

Unfunded students/low-paid persons: donation

Funded students/Lancaster university staff: £20

Academics/waged persons: £65

This contribution is for the whole weekend and includes Friday and
Saturday dinner, Saturday and Sunday breakfast and lunch. All food will
be vegan and predominantly organic.

Shared accommodation is available on the floor of the very spacious and
friendly Quakers' Meeting House, it is free, but please bring sleeping
bag and mat. Get in touch if you have any special requirements, and
again, please let us know in advance if you're bringing a child.

www.knowledgelab.org.uk