About Tropixel

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.

Thus, the intention is to expand the festival experience to a very symbolic territory for biodiversity and Brazilian cultures – region which  embrace communities organized into hackerspaces and medialabs formats – as well as environmental preservation projects, technology recycling and citizen science. In a broader perspective, the event seeks to overcome the dichotomy between theory and practice, between expert and layman, between academic and non-academic community. It also aims to critically articulate the border between culture and technology – on the one hand with scientific and theoretical references – and on the other, with contemporary experimental practices.
 

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
This theme accepts proposals and reports on experiences that have technological and scientific innovations related to water, such as: models related to DIY  (do it yourself) and Diwo (do it with others) innovation for the treatment of sewage and industrial effluent present in rivers and estuaries; environmental monitoring through mobile devices and free technologies; remote sensing of ocean and river basins; modeling and simulation scenarios related to scarcity, floods and rising sea and ocean level; production of water through forest restoration and biodiversity; marine biodiversity in aquatic, oceanic and continental environments.

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 addition to the Academic Symposium, Tropixel – Água will held Ocupe Tropixel. The activity of Ocupe will happen as a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone), where interventions will take place in squares, schools, public spaces and cultural centers. For this, we have an open public call. Proposals will be selected by the Artistic/Occupy Committee Tropixel which is composed by Brazilian and international professionals with extensive practical knowledge in experimental and interdisciplinary projects. In this context, we will work on a riverine/coastal village located near Salvador for holding the last two days of the festival. One possible place is the municipality of Madre de Deus that suffers from anthropogenic pressures of the oil industry while home to vulnerable populations, whose main livelihoods are fishing and tourism.

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.

tropixel1Photos: Luciana Fleischman