event

The Seropositive Ball Reader added to Tactical Media Files

The reader of The Seropositive Ball has been added to the Tactical Media Files as a freely downloadable pdf. The Seropostive Ball was a 69-hour 'networked event' staged at Amsterdam's Paradiso June 21-24, 1990, and  a shadow conference to the World AIDS Conference in San Francisco. The event was an important precursor for the first Next 5 Minutes festival on Tactical Television (1993). This exceptional document deserves special attention, hence this non-standard announcement.  (TMF editors)

The Seropositive Ball was a networked event that lasted 69 hours non-stop. It was a shadow conference to the World AIDS Conference, which was held the same days in San Francisco. Because people with HIV and AIDS were not welcome in the USA, both the Paradiso gathering as well as the especially designed 0+net offered a way to show commitment, share feelings and insights, exchange knowledge and art and express political views for many people involved.

The 0+net was also accessible in some of the AIDS wards in Amsterdam as well as in San Francisco and New York. The 0+net was a 'demo' for a to be developed HIVnet: it offered an easy intuitive interface (the world wide web had not yet been invented yet), mail and newsgroups, a first online art gallery and many knowledge sources. Participants, contributors and organizers of the Seropositive Ball came from ACT UP, self organizations around HIV and AIDS, the arts, the sciences, the medical establishment and political bodies. Dramatizing the differences in relation to the uncommon ground of HIV and AIDS at the time as well as finding the common ground between all involved were in the focus of our attention and were a great concern all along in the creation of this networked event.

The Seropositive Ball was presented by PARADISO Amsterdam in a continuous programme of 69 hours between June 21 17.00 hrs and June 24 14.00 hrs, 1990, in cooperation with TIME BASED ARTS, CICT/ University of Amsterdam, ACT UP Amsterdam / New York / San Francisco, HIV Vereniging NL, Schorerstichting, Buddy League, NCAB, Ministerie van WVC, AIDS info, ANTENNA, Mozeshuis, STEIM, Stichting Perdu, Filmtheatre Desmet, Bookshop Vrolijk, Academisch Medisch Centrum Amsterdam, Cornell Hospital New York, Simon Watson Project Space, Gay Men's Health Crisis, ACT NOW, 69 HOURS, VIth International Conference on AIDS. With the kind cooperation of Apple Computers BV.

Download the reader here:
http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/TMF_documents/SeroPositiveBall.pdf

Explore also the 'chapter' devoted to the Seropositive Ball at program director Caroline Nevejan's research website:
www.being-here.net/page/654/the-seropositive-ball