2005 NAMAC Conference

Our 2005 Conference Taking Liberties: Freedom, Creativity and Risk in the Media Arts, took place in Philadelphia between September 28 and October 2. Hosted by Scribe Video Center and created by the Philadelphia Steering Committee (Philadelphia Independent Film Video Associations (PIFVA), Termite TV Collective, Greater Philadelphia Film Office, Drexel University Television (DUTV), Film @ International House, Film at the Prince, WYBE Public Television and Scribe) the Conference attracted over 440 participants.

Taking Liberties was NAMAC's 25th Anniversary conference which featured the largest, most diverse and intergenerational group of attendees in our history. Please explore the highlights from the conference below for a quick snapshot of the experience (you can always delve deeper by visiting the full Taking Liberties website).

TRACKS
The conference themes of freedom, creativity and risk were woven into all three track of the conference: Activism, Ingenuity and Content & Commentary.

KEYNOTES AND PLENARY SESSIONS
The conference opened with Lani Guinier and Nolan Bowie presenting a joint keynote address followed by a vigorous conversation on the democratizing power of independent media.

AWARDS CEREMONY
The evening include live music, video mixing and dancing at the World Cafe Live. Emceed by Linda Blackaby, the awardees were Loni Ding, Grand Rapids Community Media Center and The Youth Initiative Program of the Open Society Institute.

SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE
Download a PDF of the conference schedule.

CONFERENCE REFLECTIONS:

Surprising and Unpredictable: Reflections on NAMAC's 20th Anniversary Conference by Helen of De Michiel
Taking Liberties: Freedom, Creativity, and Risk in the Media Arts, unfolded during three gloriously beautiful days in the city of Philadelphia. The timing was perfect, the venues expansive, and I had one surprising and unpredictable experience after another.

Information Technology: The Masses’ Media by Marlina Gonzalez of Intermedia Arts Minnesota
For someone who has been attending NAMAC conferences since the '80s, as an organizational member and as a board member, each year always brought out the variations of the important themes of activism, democracy, access, multiculturalism. But one factor was so different this year: how digital technology has permeated street culture.

Diversity, Technology and Risk: One Man's NAMAC Conference by David Dombrosky of Southern Arts Federation
As a relative newcomer to the media arts community, I did not know what to expect from my first NAMAC Conference. I wondered how this convening would differ from the other arts conferences I had attended. What would I take back from this gathering that I had not encountered elsewhere?

Twists and Turns of Ingenuity by Chris Burnett of Visual Studies Workshop
The NAMAC Conference’s Ingenuity track appeared in high-relief against the Conference’s overall theme of freedom, creativity, and risk in the media arts. These values are certainly within the domain of emerging media, but because new media often take freedom and risk as givens, the initial spirit of adventure may become worn.

Electing Activism by Jay Brause of Out North Contemporary Art House
As I followed the Activism track at the Talking Liberties Conference, I pondered a question that wasn’t asked: How does living in a country that is at war (still and yet again) affect our work as artists?

Youth Media Learns to Mingle with the Big Dogs by Katina Paron of Children’s PressLine
If media arts is a new field, then youth media must be in its infancy. Fortunately, at NAMAC’s Taking Liberties Conference, the lines between old and new, young and … older were blurred, as cross-fertilization became the key to learning and growing.

Media Justice and Media Reform by Jon Stout of Free Speech TV
For those who missed the Free Press conference, NAMAC’s own Taking Liberties Conference offered another opportunity to engage with the immediate advocacy campaigns of the media reform movement. Perhaps even more significantly, the Conference also directed an invaluable spotlight on the movement-building contributions—theoretical and practical—being made by media justice organizers.

See You at the Next Conference by Vera Davis of Black Metropolis Research Consortium
The first NAMAC Conference I attended was in 1993. That year the Conference was held in my hometown, Chicago. By now I’ve come to see these events as opportunities to catch up with people I haven’t seen since the last Conference, and to see what everyone is doing individually and within their organizations.