A live programme concludes the TV-LAB_Adsis project in which 15 inmates from the Villabona Prison participated
The group, calling itself Los Kince, has produced an extensive catalogue of audiovisual content accessible on the website http://tvlab.experimentaltv.org/?cat=99
A view of one of the workshops that took place at LABoral since last November. Photo: LABoral
The production of a live television programme, which has been broadcast via streaming on website http://www.experimentaltv.org/tvlab/live, concludes the TV-LAB_Adsis project in which a group of 15 inmates from the therapeutic units at Villabona Prison have been participating since last November. All of them are included in a treatment programme for rehabilitation and social inclusion at the Adsis Foundation Day Centre.
TV-LAB, the Experimental Television Laboratory, is a platform for communication and collective collaboration, promoted by LABoral, which is based on a website that the participants themselves created in the workshops onto which audiovisual material generated by them is uploaded. Developed by Neokinok.tv, this didactic project is aimed at fostering cooperative and creative learning based on the use of communication media, such as the television and the internet, in an educational way. Since its creation at the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in May 2009, more than a thousand students and teachers from different educational centres in Asturias have already taken part in its various sessions.
In this specific case, the project originated from identical aims following the collaboration agreement between LABoral and the Adsis Foundation, an NGO that promotes and implements different projects intended for the social integration of the most disadvantaged groups, education and social advancement of young people, as well as programmes in development cooperation. As part of the social insertion programme for incarcerated people and those formerly incarcerated which is promoted by Adsis, the 15 prisoners attended four monthly intensive workshops until this past April. In the sessions, given by two members of Neokinok.tv, Daniel Miracle and Pía Capisano, the participants worked on the development of a communication platform and prepared, produced and uploaded texts, photographs and their own produced audiovisual pieces onto this online platform.
LOS KINZE, ART AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE
The body of work by this group – who adopted the collective name “Los Kinze”- can be seen at: http://tvlab.experimentaltv.org/?cat=99, where texts, photographs and videos have been posted. In addition, as a record of the experience a limited-edition and self-managed DVD/catalogue has been put together which includes part of the produced material, writings by the inmates and other pieces specially created for this publication by Neokinok.tv, Adsis and LABoral.
As explained by the participants themselves, from the very first sessions “a group of diverse people,” was formed, “...with different ways of understanding art and the way of showing that this “art” –that so many people believe to be denied to the public at large and only suitable for a few snobs- is at the reach of everybody being able to produce works, express them and present distinct points of view: Art for the People”.
Los Kinze have rated this experience very positively which has given them “the opportunity to get familiar with audiovisual media and creative elements different from the ones we had known before”; they have become competent in the use of new technologies, operating cameras, filming videos, preparing content for web pages that they managed themselves; while delving “into the use of communication tools to share knowledge and experience and understand that an art centre is something more than a space for holding openings and press conferences”.
The TV-LAB_Adsis project is based on open source teaching and philosophy: the free exchange of knowledge, network creation, knowledge replication and non-hierarchical learning through experimentation. In the workshops of the group of inmates from the therapeutic units of the Villabona Prison, the production of material and creative process was approached with a free knowledge laboratory in mind, made up by an open group with the aim of creating, exchanging, multiplying knowledge, promoting creative, independent and spontaneous learning. “Daring inventiveness”, in the words of Neokinok.tv’s members.
ABOUT NEOKINOK.TV
Neokinok.tv has worked for over ten years in a complex and interdisciplinary territory in the fields of art, education and new technologies. It creates projects that open up reflection on the new paradigms of communication and information, researching and experimenting with artistic creation, new technologies and society.
Since 1998, Neokinok.tv has opened various temporary television channels on UHF and VHF frequencies. It has broadcast both on analog and by internet using streaming and free technologies. It works in the creation of communication platforms in permanent development, both conceptually and technically. These channels can be tunable through the TV set along with other channels, or they can also be accessed on the internet.
Other similar projects by Neokinok.tv are:
TVLATA, Salvador de Bahía, Brazil
http://www.tvlata.org/
Radiomensió. Oficina experimental de comunicación y participación del Prat [Prat Communication and participation experimental office] http://radiomensio.wordpress.com/
TVCREATIVA. Taller de creació de Laboratoris de Comunicación [Communication Laboratories] creation workshop http://tvcreativa.wordpress.com/
DANÇA EM FOCO. Mobile Camera Creation Office
http://sites.google.com/site/oficinavideodanca/
ABOUT THE ADSIS FOUNDATION
The Adsis Foundation is an NGO that promotes and implements different projects, intended for the social integration of the most disadvantaged groups, education and social advancement of young people, as well as for development cooperation projects. It has a presence in 12 provinces in Spain, some countries in the European Union and in various countries in Latin America.
Adsis Foundation undertakes this work through individual and group processes, based on close relationships, companionship and efficient services. Accordingly, it sets out to especially involve young people, and jointly develops social action, educational and co-operation programmes with other people and organisations.
Among other programmes in Asturias it promotes a social inclusion programme for prisoners and ex-offenders. It goals are that the attendants acquire the necessary means to successfully cope with life after release and to promote alternatives to incarceration in achieving a normalised and decisive social and laboral re-insertion into society which reduces levels of social exclusion. Its action is carried out on two fronts: in the correctional facility, through interviews and workshops, and outside of the prison, by means of its fieldwork activities and Day Centre, as a resource for integration and social inclusion.
