Tomislav Medak

Tomislav Medak is a cultural activist and philosopher. He studied Philosophy, German language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. At the focus of his theoretical interests lie constellations of contemporary political philosophy, media theory and aesthetics. His practical pursuit is the expansion of the public domain. He is a free software and free culture advocate.

The focus of Tomislav’s work is social, biopolitical and media theory, in particular socio-theoretical implications of digital technologies and new media. His research activities are focusing on issues of social and cultural policies – investingating societal implications of IPR and alternatives to existing IPR framework, protection of the public domain and alternative regimes of management and representation of creative production. He is co-ordinating theory program and publishing activities of the Multimedia Institute/MAMA (Zagreb, Croatia). Tomislav co-edited a reader on the socio-cultural importance of free software “GNUSpectre”  and co-authored the free culture, technology and science festival “Freedom to Creativity!”. He co-curated “System.Hack”, an exhibition on the history of hacking. Tomislav Medak is member of the Croatian Creative Commons team and board member of iCommons. He is also member of the urban activist initiative “Right to the City”  and works with the Zagreb-based theatre group BADco  as a performer, dramaturge and director.

Tags: Croatia, cultural advocacy, cultural participation, cultural policy, cultural theory, economy of culture

Multimedia Institute [mi2]

Multimedia Institute [mi2] emerged in 1999 as one of non-governmental spin-offs from the Open Society Institute Croatia dealing with social approaches to technology and digital culture and with social theory. Multimedia Institute’s activities range from informal education and training in technology and digital media, free software development, archiving and publishing of digital and print media, cultural management and content curation, as well as policy and advocacy theory and praxis.

Multimedia Institute [mi2] has helped incubate numerous cultural and social initiatives, including cultural collaboration platform Clubture, iCommons informal cultural advocacy policy forum and the local Right to the City campaign, hosting local hacker community and serving as an open venue for other cultural and social initiatives. It is the organizer of Human Rights Film Festival, electronic music programs, publishing activities and localizer of Creative Commons licenses.

Multimedia Institute is running the net.culture club MaMa, which is a meeting point for different local and international communities ranging from political activists, media artists, electronic music makers, theorists, hackers and free software developers, queer support groups, to the anime community. MaMa’s club space consissts of a lecture and performance room „Duty Free Room“, the central reception room the „Frequent Flyers Zone“ with multi-language library and „Terminals“ linux based workshop space. MaMa set-up a variety of different lecture/discussion/presentation series dealing with its primary fields of interest. Some of those series like Becoming Digital, Caternetics, MaMa čita have in the meanwhile ceased to exist, and among the ones still active as of 2011 are Pastforward, Transverzala, and Vizualni kolegij.

Tags: Croatia, cultural advocacy, cultural cooperation, cultural management, cultural participation, cultural production, urban culture

The Clubture Network

The Clubture Network was established in 2002 and it gathers 39 independent cultural organizations active in different contemporary cultural and artistic disciplines in Croatia. It functions as a collaborative exchange platform trough which organizations directly collaborate, on principles of mutual decision-making and inclusiveness. Programs also have an educational segment, where, through workshops and trainings as well as the exchange of experience, organizations acquire relevant knowledge and skills in the field of policy processes, most notably in the field of advocacy actions. Main goals of the Clubture network is to facilitate partnerships and strengthen collaboration between organizations, to increase public visibility and influence of the independent cultural sector on the cultural policy-making in Croatia, in the region of former Yugoslavia, and internationally. The Network conducts different program activities in order to successfully contribute to the decentralization of cultural production, trough enabling distribution of innovative independent cultural and artistic programs in different cities and smaller communities across Croatia.

The Clubture Network conducts activities aiming to increase influence and public visibility of the independent cultural sector and towards establishment of the independent cultural sector as a relevant actor on the cultural-political map. Clubture was the first organization in the region of former Yugoslavia to promote active participation of the independent cultural sector in the processes of cultural policy-making and implementation, organizing educational activities, as well as joint advocacy actions towards different decision-makers in Croatia and beyond.  The Network is recognized in Croatia, in the SEE region and internationally as a catalyst for collaboration and a relevant actor in the field of cultural policies, in terms of envisioning and advocating for a successful implementation of bottom-up models of cultural policy-making.

Clubture activities are carried through following programmes and initiatives:

• CLUBTURE HR – Programme exchange is a key activity based on direct collaboration of organizations of civil society, non-formal initiatives and artistic organizations, which mutually share cultural contents and/or mutually create projects and programs (exhibitions, film programs, music performances, workshops, dance and theatre plays and other performing forms, lectures..).
• CLUBTURE’S REGIONAL INITIATIVE – regional program sharing initiative and a project collaboration network. Pilot-phase started in 2006 between organizations from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia. 
• KULTURPUNKT.HR – portal aiming to promote and to present primary the independent cultural scene, and civil initiatives connected to the independent cultural scene that managed the process of public advocacy directed towards wider social issues. Kulturpunk.hr develops instruments for analytical and critical approach to the topics in the area of culture in general.
• KULTURA AKTIVA – program consists of different advocacy and monitoring public policies activities, aiming to improve institutional framework that is relevant for civil cultural sector, but also the cultural sector in general. Program also deals with issues in youth policies – such as youth clubs, organizations that are active in youth culture, or those that deal with organizing youth free time, etc.

The most of the activities are aimed towards the formation of transparent cultural policies models in local (regional and cities) administrations.

Tags: arts management, Croatia, cultural cooperation, cultural diversity, cultural participation, cultural production, funding, lobbying, mobility

Department of Sociology – University of Zadar

In the late 90′s the Department of Sociology at the University of Zadar started to integrate cultural studies into the existing curriculum of the Department. The program of cultural studies theorizes and analyzes encounters among multiple discourses within specific socio-historical contexts of contemporary culture.  Since 2002 the Department is following the Bologna programme and offering undergraduate degrees, as well as MA and PhD courses, based on an interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical approach.  The Department’s general goals are connected with developing and sustaining a culture of  dialogue and democratic processes, supporting an interdisciplinary approach, promoting international mobility and cooperation between professors, students and research fellows, and supporting the creative industries development on a regional level. The Department includes a new innovative approach to the subjects through  also covering practical knowledge about application procedures for EU development funds and similar praxis focusing on Adriatic region development.

The department of Sociology is also active on the national and international level in different research projects covering cultural studies related topics such as: cultural history, cultural policy, visual culture, material culture lifestyle, Diaspora, propaganda, societies in transition, religion, etc.  Examples: The Challenges of Europeanisation: Mediating between National and European Identities in South Eastern Europe (SEE) (2010-2011) and Croatian Society: Identity, Mobility and New Technologies (Hrvatsko društvo: identitet, mobilnost i nove tehnologije) (2007-2012).

Tags: arts management, Croatia, cultural education, cultural research, cultural tourism, culture and development, Mediterranean

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