International festival of radical communication

Founded in 2002, Memefest is a complex international, semi-online project that uses the form of a festival as a tactical, educational, research and communications tool. It encourages students, academics, artists, professionals and activists to interrogate the commercialization of everyday life and critically analyze current dominant media and communication practices. Through an annual competition that transpires on the project’s website and various cultural events, Memefest aims to create a global cultural space that encourages research, creativity and critical reflection on consumer society while actively working towards social change. Ultimately, Memefest wants to help people shape the way meaning is produced in our society. Into this maelstrom, Memefest steps, awake to the fact that many of the dominant ideologies of modern consumer culture are inherently toxic to our physical and mental environment. And as such, the festival’s aim is to build a forum where the hold these “contagious ideas” have in our society can be investigated and critiqued. Moreover, Memefest bills itself as a “festival of radical communication” to indicate not only a commitment to finding revolutionary and extreme solutions to the ills that arise from consumer culture, but also to indicate a belief that a fundamental rethinking of communication is in order. It gives young people who are in the process of developing their analytical skills and creativity an opportunity to concentrate on building solutions to social problems and posit democratic forms of communication. And they get to do this in a supportive – yet challenging – environment before their talents and intelligence are coopted into the economic mainstream.

Year-round, Memefest serves as a forum for discussion and site for the exposition of radical communications strategies. All are welcome to cruise the site and to comment on content. Each year, Memefest singles out a text and/or image that serves as a focal point for a critical take on the current media environment. In the spring, the festival’s competition opens to both graduate and undergraduate students of Communication Studies, Sociology and Visual Arts (except the Beyond... category which is open to non-students as well). Participants are asked to respond to the chosen texts and images with written or visual entries (according to their discipline).

After the May deadline, submissions are evaluated by an international jury composed of distinguished professors and artists as well as professionals from the spheres of journalism, design, advertising and social marketing. Those who have submitted their works can view the jurors’ comments online. The best entries in each category, as chosen by the jury, will be awarded Award of Excellence. All entries are displayed on the site with comment boxes provided for visitor feedback. Memefest is ground-breaking because it is the only festival of its kind that encourages youth and students of different disciplines to try their hand at exploring the challenges of using communications to affect social change. Because it is unique and able to motivate and inspire people, Memefest has been gaining momentum since its inception.

In just five short years, the number of participants has grown enormously. Submissions now come in from every continent on the globe and, in 2004, Memefest welcomed close to 400 entries from 36 different Countries across all continents. In 2005, Memefest welcomed close to 500 entries, again from 36 countries, while in 2006 Memefest counted works from 30 countries, all continents. The web site is regularly visited by more than 60 Countries.

Since the beginning, the festival website has appeared in both, English and Slovenian. Thanks to the growing networks memefest has opened new nodes in its network: Memefest Latinoamerica with two teams in Brazil and Colombia with two websites in Spanish and Portuguese started communicating in end of february 2005. Memefest is also opening a node in Belgrade, which will be Memefests center for the whole Balkan area. These teams work virtually in the global Memefest networks as well as in physical space with Memefest sub projects in their own local environment. These nodes in the Memefest network not only promote media democracy and a critical attitude towards current market communication in South America, and in the Balkans but also act as a showcase for all of the festival’s South American and Balkan entries. One example of local intervention was the Memefest tactical media workshop, titled “Local communication for global ethics”, held in Manizales, Colombia in April 2006, directed by Memefest founder Oliver Vodeb.

Thus, though still a “new” festival, Memefest has become an important event and an internationally recognized figure in the media-activism community. As a festival, Memefest studies ideas and the processes of their dissemination. It encourages dialogue, collaboration, and through this, it is bringing together a vast number of ideas, concepts and tools, all of which are meant to support and inspire activist interventions within the public sphere. Memefest represents an intermediary institution and uses the form of a semi virtual festival as a tactical educational communications tool.

Memefest’s unofficial motto has been: “Subvert. Create. Enjoy.” It is a call to action. And while the play of dialogue that Memefest facilitates is edifying, the long term goal of the festival is to be a participant in the transformation of our society.

In 2007 Memefest became a special research field : “Critical studies of (visual) communication” at the Center for social psychology at the Faculty for social sciences- University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It also opened a new local center in Barcelona and is currently (jan 2008) working on a local center in the United Arabic emirates, based at the American university of Sharjah.

Memefest is also tightly connected with Studio Poper, based in Ljubljana and Inkahoots, based in Brisbane- both professional communications/ design studios that practice socially responsible /radical communications.

Memefest

Memefest LatinoAmérica
Memefest Balkan
Declarations
Design is not enough
People's communication charter
First things first manifesto
Center for social psychology
Studio Poper
Inkahoots