Tropixel Festival – Art, Science, Technology and Society is an innovative, trans-disciplinary and disruptive event, combining academic activities, development and knowledge sharing, and collaborative practical experience in urban environments. Thus, it is not a “festival” in the traditional format, it is the result of an ongoing work carried out by networks of experimental and collective diversified activists laboratories (agroecology, free software, tactical media, etc.) – seeking a fair, sustainable and inclusive future. Tropixel Festival is held since 2013 and it is the Brazilian partner of Pixaleache international network.
After three years of editions held in the Brazilian southeast region, in 2016 Tropixel will be held in the northeast, Bahia, on September 19th to 23rd. In this edition, water will be the central theme of all the practical activities and scientific works – as in previous editions, which took place in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, will bring together Brazilian and international artists, scientists, activists and researchers.
Tropixel – Água (Water)
Projections regarding the availability, distribution and quality of water, a basic resource for life, are increasingly emerging in the global society since the models of production and allocation of resources are co-dependent on large amounts of resource, thus present serious conflicts involving the priority of its use. Discussions previously restricted to researchers and ecologists now resonate between different sectors of society.
In Brazil, until recently, water had been seen as an “infinity” and “abundant” good because of the high occurrence of rivers and aquifers throughout the territory. Concern about shortages and resource availability was restricted to the semi-arid region, located in northeastern Brazil, also known as “sertão“.
However, with the water crisis in the Southeast (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais), environmental disasters with exponential impacts caused by negative externalities (such as environmental disaster occurred in 2015 in Rio Doce, Minas Gerais), climate change and rainfall in the south, show more and more that the issue of water needs to be widely discussed, designed, created, re-created and experienced from new perspectives.
One of Tropixel – Água concerns is to provide a space for action and meeting in addition to scientific lectures. Following the directions of Pixelache network as a whole, we encourage the direct collaboration between civil society, the scientific community, professionals and activists within a horizontal and interdisciplinary approach as possible.
Tropixel – Água accepts collaboration proposals in different formats:academic papers, posters, workshops, artist presentations, video, performances and interventions in three themes: Water and Art, Water and Society, Water and Science & Technology.
- Water and Art
Water has always been and will continue to be one of the subjects of great interest by artists. Along these lines, we seek proposals of papers that discuss and theorize the water within the context of the Digital / Electronic art or Eco-art/Land art.
- Water and Society
Our intention is to discuss the complexity involving the use and management of water, as well as the geopolitical challenges around this recourse today. This theme seeks proposals that can analyze the complex relationship between water and society, involving: Grants and Public Policies aimed at payment for ecosystem services; experimental cartography developed by populations located in areas of permanent preservation (APP’s), coastal and riverside communities; legal analysis of the interdependence of the Federal Constitution, the National Water Resources Policy (9433/1997), the New Forest Code (12651 / 2012) and the Resolutions of water quality on CONAMA (410/2009 and 430/2011), the National Policy of Traditional Peoples and Communities (6040/2007) as well as multiple deadlocks and legal challenges experienced nowadays; local (fishermen, quilombolas, riparian, indigenous people) ecological knowledge on the water; sociology and philosophy of water; narratives and memories involving water.
- Water and Science & Technology
International Symposium
During Tropixel – Água we will have an Academic International Symposium where researchers, teachers, students, artists and activists interested in the various aspects involving the theme water will be brought together. The symposium has an international Scientific Committee, composed of PhD professors from different areas of knowledge and recognized experience in interdisciplinary research. The Tropixel – Água Symposium will be held in Salvador, in Ondina campus of Federal University of Bahia (UFBA).
Ocupe Tropixel (Occupy)
In previous years, Ocupe Tropixel took place in Ubatuba, a town on the north coast of São Paulo, and interventions carried out such as: adoption of public square, robotics workshops, creating weather station model, technology appropriation workshops, video projections, video mapping, VJs and DJs performance, among others.
See more about the festival dates and the call for participation here.