The # rp18 topics: Bits and Bytes of Knowledge!

1, 2, 3: POP – Power to the people! And we want to make sure we hear you loud and clear: Send your suggestions our way, because the Call for Participation for #rp18 is underway. We’re giving you the stage! You’ve got until 7 January 2018 to submit your projects, hacks or workshop ideas. Join in! Why not take a look at #rp18’s main topics for inspiration or have a browse through videos from the last years on our YouTube channel? That’s always the best way to prepare.

Curious about what we’ve got in store for you? Then keep reading and get acquainted with the POP, re:health, re:learn topics, as well as a special focus this year: Music & Sovereignty. Here’s wishing you good luck as you embark on your journey through the jungle of possibilities: Let there be POP! PS: We’re especially happy to receive pre-holiday mail!

POP

POP is our uber-motto this year. Our new website design in green-screen-green already alludes to the direction we’re headed – even despite the inherent blank space: Squeaky clean, Seventeen cut-out popstar culture might come to mind. But, with its screeching guitars on plateau boots, POP was never really as harmless as it sometimes appeared. Instead, POP was and is an attitude that can reflect and expose the innermost mechanisms of society. It isn’t just since Stuart Hall and the arrival of New Left that this has become in high demand again. For us, POP also means PoP in the sense of depicting populations and crowds as data or information delivered through data-based curation. Likewise, it’s the construction of publicity and the much-needed bursting of filter bubbles in the widest sense: big data and information literacy. We’re referring to the PoP of Citizen Science, Journalism and Civic Tech, Investigative Collectives and Open Spaces. You might say that we’re aiming to bring the power of people back to the streets. From swarm behaviour to crowd-sourced journalism, from rapid response after environmental disasters to interdisciplinarity: What does "better together" mean to you?

re:health

Health in times of interconnectedness in a fascinatingly wide spectrum: “re:health” deals with the various aspects of how digitisation leaves its marks on the realms of (quantified) health and health services, and the opportunities and risks that these developments have for people and their bodies. In previous years, topics such as 3D printing in disaster areas, depression on the internet and digital developments in the healthcare sector, e.g. in the British NHS, were among the topics covered. Another important issue was health information online and its quality inspection – more relevant than ever! (Your body, your choice!). We also discussed medical data & ethics, digital period and ovulation trackers, self-care, and the ever-present Blockchain: Surprise us with your submissions and turn PoP into the Power of Patients!

Music & Souvereignty

Music and the digital sphere are closely interconnected. But our #rp18 Music topic isn’t just about a national and international exchange, the promotion of new formats or the continued development of the scene at the intersection of sound and technology. The second part, Sovereignty, more specifically the sovereignty of the individual, means the liberty to decide one's own thoughts and actions. Yet, what we can and can’t do with music is never entirely up to us – it’s both limited and enabled by new technologies and media. Big data, open source operating systems, remix culture, hacked hardware and digital distribution are just a few of the many and varied aspects that we want to focus on together with you. The music track will discuss, perform and make visible, the freedoms and constraints of these the new sovereignties within our contemporary music worlds.

re:learn

Back to the blogs! Save the open education web! In 2018, the call for “digitised and digital education” is a widespread consensus in almost all professional areas. Politicians and business, students and their parents, journalists and funders all agree and unite in their call for increased digital learning and teaching. But: digital isn’t always better. Colourful apps might help you broaden and deepen your vocabulary. Animated explanatory videos may let you recreate teacher-centred instruction formats as often as you want. With cloud-based platforms, learning materials and communications can be replicated and multiplied. But the key question remains: Are we only digitally reproducing and enhancing the systems and knowledge of the 20th century? Are the debates around “digital education” maybe even hindering the necessary paradigm shift?

In the 21st century, interactive vocabulary and math exercises are not enough. Education goals such as classically-formed education and autonomy, creativity and critical thinking, freedom and responsibility do not require simplification of the (digital) world, but approaches that embrace the open network, promote the interaction with diversity and chaos, facilitate self-determined learning and collaborative projects. How does that work in real life? re:learn 2018 is looking for your answers.

Found some inspiration? Take part in the Call for Participation! More details over here.