Wayfarer (Version 3 - Global Agents) is a movement.
An idea that communities and young people are given voice to take control of their environment.

There is a wide spread knowledge in the general populace of how to create video content to shift media across networks. Devices and social media platforms now come readily armed with the ability to shoot and  edit so they can  be uploaded and share across media platforms.

With the knowledge comes responsibility as netiquette has not been formalised and the social rules in these spaces can be widely variable. Mashing cultures, age groups and genders together can cause deep misunderstandings and one persons joke can easily be deeply offensive. It can be a difficult place to navigate…

However the democratisation of the net space has great benefits - it is more possible to have a voice in an increasingly fractured world if you are savvy with the ways you go about it and you have something to say.

And having something to say is important.

Myspace and its successor facebook has led a socialisation of the internet space. In these forms of social media you pretty much talk to your immediate group and no-one else.

You aren’t going to friend or be friended by anyone you don’t know. In some ways it is a closed loop. A witty comment, an amusing viral video, a photograph from a party on the weekend all gather around the user a social cache that is increased when something is liked or commented on.

Sometimes people are given kudos for having an opinion about something, but this really depends on who your social group is and what they think is important.
So how then to delineate oneself from the crowd? how to be creative? How to have an impact.

There are those of you who have access to school groups or community programs, Wayfarer is a way to engage young people and others in situations where they are using social media in positive and affirming ways to create real change in their community.

The group will be given a provocation that deals with an issue in their local area. They will then be given some time to brainstorm this question and then the group will use their video camera to shoot, edit and upload their video response.

One of the Wayfarer artists will come out to your area for a period of time depending on what the group needs. This might be a few days with a workshop or it may be a few weeks to really lead the process.

Whilst you are engaged in the process, there is also technical support available for editing or navigating the website. You can participate for as long or as short as you need.

The Wayfarer team are keen to be engaged in processes that are across borders and cultures. We aim to take this project into communities across Australia and across the world.

If you are interested in Wayfarer, then please contact info@wayfarer.net.au

Dramaturgy of digital participation

The creation of Wayfarer has been an iterative process as we find the correct form for the ideas that we have in place. In some ways there is a dramaturgy of concept and form but interestingly enough there is also a dramaturgy of design, participation and technology.

In Wayfarer 2.0 the emphasis was on a quickness, a guerilla style intervention into the urban space which created poetic or meaningful moments;documented and then discussed. Although this beta version was a success with 10 teams making work and a couple of hundred people signed up to the site, we discovered issues with the timeframe, with the way that we retained players (Agents) and with the quailty of the work that they were able to produce.

So in creating version 3.0 we undertook a change in the timeframe to enable the Wayfarer concept to really settle with participants. I think we also realised that with the advent of concepts like ‘the long tail’ that web related projects like this will have a longevity and will deepen with time. Dramaturgically the Wayfarer site will make a lot more sense with a greater volume of material. If we begin to see actions created in multiple different places, across regional, urban and rural areas both here in Australia but worldwide then each individual issue that is illuminated will begin to resonate across each other. The problems of inner city Melbourne may pale into insignificance with a problem in a less wealthy country.

One problem that will not go away is how we handle participants - whether it needs to be a sustained induction and nurturing period with the groups or if they can have an induction and then be alright on their own. We really are off on our own in this regard, there is not a lot of precedent in setting up this sort of venture, with an indefinite endpoint and with indefinite borders.

Initially through our work with Education at the Arts Centre (with the support of Vic Health through its Technology and Social Connection funding initiative) we will be encouraging young people to use the site as a tool to encourage real world and online civics. We hope that as we both travel we will be able to pick up participants wherever we go.

Wayfarer Global Agents can be used as a tool or container for creatives, activists, young people and others to encourage active citizenship in local communities through creative intervention.

Wayfarer Link to this video here.

Online Mobilisation

The ongoing unrest in Tunisia and Egypt and the possible spreading towards rest of the arab world is not entirely due to social media - but it has created a conduit for the rage to be maintained.

Organising street rallies in Egypt where there has been state of emergency legislation for decades is very difficult, but with online mobilisation through facebook, twitter and you tube there has been a palpable show of unity. If you consider that cyber activists in Egypt were watching the Jasmine revolution unfold in Tunisia via Al Jazeera and Youtube, and then they used the twitter hashtag #jan25 to create a groundswell of support, it becomes clear that this is a use of technology across the country and across borders which is unparalleled.

I think that there are a couple of keys to realising that this uprising is being fanned by social media;

1. There were simultaneous demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities, this was not a single action by one group protesting over one issue

2. There are no leaders to this movement, sure there are larger groups involved like the Muslim Brotherhood but they are not directing the action

3. The internet and Al Jazeera in Egypt were shut down once the Mubarak regime realised that this was how the information was being spread

After 30 years of rule, the young people of Egypt have finally found a way in which they can have a voice in their democracy. Although we here in Australia seem to have a robust democracy - it can still feel as if we are unable to create change to our circumstances or to at least voice our opinion.

Online advocacy groups such as Avaaz and Getup! are attempts to create real people power in the online environment. But are our young people really engaged in the actuality of the political processes, or more importantly do they have a say how the culture of their own community is evolving? How much do they know about their own community, or even about who lives next door? Is there a way that civics can be enabled in communities that goes beyond barbeques, morning teas or fun runs? Can citizens and especially young citizens be activated and challenged to get to the heart of local issues - to see that they can create change by themselves - that they don’t have to wait.

“And above all, we saw a new generation emerge. A generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears. A government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations.” President Barack Obama, February 11th 2011

This video is more than it seems. These students given the task;

Find a way to mark people who have made a civic contribution in the past week.

created an Action that attempted to highlight an organisation (FReeZA) that creates a difference in the community. The sound of ping pong balls being hit back and forth and the young people sitting at computers all provides a potent background of a service that is actually working and that is engaging young people in a meaningful way.

But the commentary on the site around the video and why it was short and didn’t build on a strong opening I think belies the fact that the group workshopped and researched an organisation that had ‘made a civic contribution’, and then went to their workspace and interviewed someone.

If we see the endpoint of the Action as the main element of it then we are losing site of the activation of people in a new way of thinking. Under what other circumstances are people going to actively seek out the things happening in their local community that is positive?