"BiCon has a lot less political/activist/theory workshops than it used to. 10 years ago there were plenty; it was already declining by 1995."
At one point, I felt very much the same, but came to the conclusion that that all part of the ebbs and flows of people into and out of BiCon that makes the thing in itself changing and organic, and have accepted that for what it is, rather than getting frustrated by it. Also it should be note dthat Queer politics per se has had it's heyday, and a general emphasis has shifted generally.
The history project that Kay's getting involved with is pretty interesting, I'd be very much interested in using textual analysis to map the changes in BiCon just simply looking at the workshop schedules, titles and texts over a period of time, you can simply map on the surface the shifting patterns of BiCon over time.
However that's not the only story, there is the organisational/structural element in terms of programme planning, by the programme bod, that can very much influence the shape and variety of the programme at BiCon.
When I was involved in the programming in 2000, I used a model based upon the IBC5 at Boston, which used basic programme tracks to try and have a varied programme, which had something for nearly everyone. Where certain tracks were a bit thin on the ground, I persoanlly contacted people and asked them if they would run a workshop on a particular theme, or area, so that the programme looked a bit more balanced. This is one way of doing it, also there has been discussion in the past about using the different days for different areas, so all the theory and academic sessions are held on one day, which means that those who are interested can attend for one day, while they aren't obliged to attend the days that hold no interest for them.
I wasn't too sure if I'd be at BiCon this year, so I didn't offer to run any sessions. In the past I've run sessiosn either academic type sessions or political/activist sessions, simply becasue I felt that if I didn't then there wouldn't be any of these type of sessions in the programme that year. It's nice to think that over the last two years that new people are getting involved and offering to trun these type of sessions, and it definately feels like there is the seeds of a renewal in activism/theroy although it's still early days.
One of the problems about BiCon is that it's on for one weekend a year, for things treally to flourish, they need to flourish outside of BiCon, to really take route, the activist weekends as well as the academic group BI-BLIO are doing just this, organising it's main business outside of BiCon, but feeding back to BiCon as well. Lets hope this forsight continues with other projects and plans.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-06 04:02 am (UTC)At one point, I felt very much the same, but came to the conclusion that that all part of the ebbs and flows of people into and out of BiCon that makes the thing in itself changing and organic, and have accepted that for what it is, rather than getting frustrated by it. Also it should be note dthat Queer politics per se has had it's heyday, and a general emphasis has shifted generally.
The history project that Kay's getting involved with is pretty interesting, I'd be very much interested in using textual analysis to map the changes in BiCon just simply looking at the workshop schedules, titles and texts over a period of time, you can simply map on the surface the shifting patterns of BiCon over time.
However that's not the only story, there is the organisational/structural element in terms of programme planning, by the programme bod, that can very much influence the shape and variety of the programme at BiCon.
When I was involved in the programming in 2000, I used a model based upon the IBC5 at Boston, which used basic programme tracks to try and have a varied programme, which had something for nearly everyone. Where certain tracks were a bit thin on the ground, I persoanlly contacted people and asked them if they would run a workshop on a particular theme, or area, so that the programme looked a bit more balanced. This is one way of doing it, also there has been discussion in the past about using the different days for different areas, so all the theory and academic sessions are held on one day, which means that those who are interested can attend for one day, while they aren't obliged to attend the days that hold no interest for them.
I wasn't too sure if I'd be at BiCon this year, so I didn't offer to run any sessions. In the past I've run sessiosn either academic type sessions or political/activist sessions, simply becasue I felt that if I didn't then there wouldn't be any of these type of sessions in the programme that year. It's nice to think that over the last two years that new people are getting involved and offering to trun these type of sessions, and it definately feels like there is the seeds of a renewal in activism/theroy although it's still early days.
One of the problems about BiCon is that it's on for one weekend a year, for things treally to flourish, they need to flourish outside of BiCon, to really take route, the activist weekends as well as the academic group BI-BLIO are doing just this, organising it's main business outside of BiCon, but feeding back to BiCon as well. Lets hope this forsight continues with other projects and plans.
Laurence