A conversation with Neokinok.tv on audiovisual storytelling and "Do It Together" dynamics
Neokinok is a not for profit organization, founded in 1998 and coordinated by Daniel Miracle. It works around the creation of audiovisual content and experimental television developing several artistic projects cutting across art, culture and education. Their work has been developed and presented in Barcelona, Madrid, Lausanne, Portugal, Mali, Paris, USA and Brazil.
The name Neokinok is a tribute to the Russian collective Kinoks lead by the filmmaker Dziga Vertov. The collective claimed that the mechanical eye of the camera could capture reality and truth far better than the human eye, thereafter that cinema did not need directors, nor script or actors. According to Vertov, the reporter handling a video camera to record what happens in the streets is nothing but the extension of the "mechanical eyes" of the video camera itself as illustrated by Vertov's emblematic and most celebrated film "Man with a movie camera". The name "NeoKinok" clearly refers to this history in order to settle the present and future aspirations of this collective: Design and use audiovisual devices for the collective construction of the meanings and representations of nowadays realities with their "faked truths and real lies".
Currently ongoing projects consist in several "temporary televisions channels" screened via UHF (Ultra High Frequency) and VHF (Very High Frequency) frequencies for their analogical diffusion through an ordinary television set (nearby other channels belonging to public institutions or private companies), and via Internet throughout streaming protocols using Free and Libre Open Source (FLOSS) technologies. The internet, beyond representing an access platform also provides a platform for participative process to take place in order to involve the audience in the generation of the TV content.
Neokinok.tv by doing experimental television aims to create and demonstrate other ways of making and watching television.
By insisting on the involvement of the community, they want to transform the audience from being a passive viewer/consumer to be an active producer/creator. To achieve this, a deep work on designing ICT is being carried out, resulting in the construction of electronic devices, telecommunication systems, sound and video applications, as well as open software to edit and treat audiovisual contents . The design and development of the above mentioned ICT aims to, and is motivated by, the search for new audiovisual languages and aesthetics to enable collective creation, to develop education in communication, critical analysis of medias, and an alternative model to release and distribute audiovisual content (e.g. by using free licenses like copyleft).
---
Many thanks to Margherita Bacigalupo and Patrice Riemens
for reviewing this article
| INITIATIVE | Neokinok.tv |
| WHAT | Experimental (participative) Television and Audiovisual content creation and distribution |
| WHO | The Neokinok collective (coordinated by Daniel Miracle) |
| WHERE | BARCELONA, SALVADOR DE BAHIA, BAMAKO |
| WHEN | 1998 |
| REACH | Local TV audience and internet users + international film festival audiences |
| ICT DESIGNED | Audiovisual devices, FLOSS for audiovisual editing, free hardware, broadcast platforms |
Read more downloading the attached PDF above.
