media makers: building tools for a culture of open networks
Open networks (non commercial) are illegal – “State actors have repeatedly demonstrated hostility to community, pirate and citizens’ media throughout the twentieth century by criminalizing radio transmissions on unlincensed frequencies” ((Chakravartty and Sarikakis, 2006: 88).
Karla Schuch Brunet showed some examples of the engagement in free cultural practices thorugh community oriented media centers that appropriate technology for questioning social and political activities. “Many of them work with projects on digital inclusion and learning. A job of not only to appropriate the access to the net but their ambition is also to instigate creation and critical use of the medium. They use the media on different forms and patterns in order to transform in something new, experimental, and occasionally, creating noise and disturbance.”
Disadvantaged condition in this context can be sources of powerlessness, however changes in learning practices through the use of old and new technology in mobile laboratories and festivals become in this milieu greater source of understanding and dealing with cultures that preserve their autonomy and activity in contrast with the mainstream media. In its diversity and creativity a slow process of self recognition in the city space flourishes in constant activity and readiness to experiment with technology. Locating ideas and sources of experience that grow from below in different cultural tribes contribute to accomplish new attempts to contrast control of media in the democracies of the South.
The gaining experience of research in the field of DIY media education in India is to consider spaces and practices where media perform a collective role in disengaging with the national policy of providing access to ICT. The culture that anchors its legitimacy, collectively and subjectively inside urban spaces shapes a constituent moment for open knowledge and networks that not only focuses on information sharing, but contributes in inspecting cultural assemblages. Ashis Nandy enfolds an interesting discussion on the
