WisCon37 Programming Brainstorm

[jesse_the_k]

Well then. The deadline for programming submissions is Saturday! Saturday! Saturday as in day-after-tomorrow. I have some sketchy ideas which need fleshing out. Open up your brain and let the thoughts pour out.

Each idea has its own thread. I've got sketches — WisCon need 800-character submissions.


ETA all threads frozen, all ideas submitted, thank you very much for playing!

Comments

Schindler’s List as b-roll for Yom HaShoah/Django as b-roll for Black History Month

[jesse_the_k]

Powerful fictional explorations of history endure longer than facts in the public’s mind. Is alternative history appropriative? If the art is “better” than the truth, does it matter?

Jo Walton's Farthing series set this off, but I'm sure there are other examples.

Re: Schindler’s List as b-roll for Yom HaShoah/Django as b-roll for Black History Month

[sasha_feather]

Django unchained is hugely controversial and I think should be mentioned in the description. I don't understand the Yom HaShoah reference; maybe that should be explained somewhere? I am also not clear what is meant by "B roll" for that matter.

Re: Schindler’s List as b-roll for Yom HaShoah/Django as b-roll for Black History Month

[j00j]

Yom HaShoah is Holocaust Remembrance Day, basically. Using that might be clearer for folks who don't know Yom HaShoah? (I think some places in the states also observe a remembrance week or month. I think usually a week?)

(frozen) Re: Schindler’s List as b-roll for Yom HaShoah/Django as b-roll for Black History Month

[jesse_the_k]

I think mentions of both H.R.D. & Yom HaShoah belong further down in the description—I got distracted by "clever title shinies."

What I'm fumbling to phrase is whether creators of historical fictions have any responsibility for conveying historical truths. I have actually seen clips from Schindler's List used as generic background images (aka b-roll) on TV news when the topic was the Holocaust in Germany and German reparations. There were both B&W and color cameras recording the liberation of the camps; that film is in the public domain!

Does it matter that Schindler (a semi-fictional character) saved POWs in Poland, not Germany? I know there's a huge gulf between what actually happened in 1939-1945 and what Speilberg's story-machine chose to show. Speilberg's willingness to shine and buff what really happened has forever destroyed any respect for him. (One example: when the camp is liberated, someone in the factory proposes "a minute of silence" for those who haven't survived. Speilberg gives us 19 seconds. I think he could have risked the audience's restlessness, thought, perhaps even a little despair, by adding in 41 more seconds.)

It's exactly that gaping chasm between the reality of slavery in America and the Django-fantasy that I'm hoping we can explore.

But I'm also hoping better educated minds than mine can tell me that this tension — between historical fiction and fact — is old hat, well-defined, and has a snappy name which I can attach to this panel.

But if not, I can leave it in the clever hands of the program folk.

Self-Organizing Systems

[jesse_the_k]

Tehrir Square, Annares, Ants, Bogs, Wikipedia. How do systems organize themselves? What limits do writers not acknowledge? Are there truths too unlikely to tell? Does putting faith in emergence permit human individuals to abandon civic involvement?

Re: Self-Organizing Systems

[brainwane]

This is an interesting idea! Can I also add _Constellation Games_ (anarchy, "fluid overlays", dominance or equality with the other, etc.) as an analysis of this?

Re: Self-Organizing Systems

[jesse_the_k]

Will do. Didn't know about this book, and won't be able to finished it by Saturday, but I'm looking forward. You were one of the panelists I had in mind for this one, as well as the "Filterers".

(frozen) Re: Self-Organizing Systems

[brainwane]

Sadly I won't be able to make it to WisCon this year! :( Maybe next year I won't have a conflict.

You can read the first two chapters of CG here.

(frozen) Living Room Book Club: GoH $Title

[jesse_the_k]

Program Format: One discussion leader pledges to read book twice and develop discussion questions. Schedule in small room on Six as “Living Room” format.

Join 8 - 10 other members and a discussion leader to examine $title in depth. Bring one comment (something you loved, or hated, or resonated with) and one question (why did she use that image? Is this work in conversation with others?) A good introduction to public speaking for the first time member, and to how book clubs work.

Suggestions for $title: Farthing, Among Others, Door Into Ocean, Highest Frontier

(frozen) Re: Living Room Book Club: GoH $Title

[wired]

Book Club On Fire!

I enjoyed a panel a little like this at Fogcon, where all the panelists picked a book and read the other panelists books and then could compare and contrast. I feel like that might work well as a way to examine a single author.

(frozen) Re: Living Room Book Club: GoH $Title

[jesse_the_k]

I'm not quite understanding how many books are involved in that format. So if there are 4 panelists, each one reads a Jo Walton book (just for an example)? Or does each panelist read all 4 books. (I can imagine the latter would make for a chewy rich cheesecake of a panel.)

(frozen) Re: Living Room Book Club: GoH $Title

[metaphortunate]

Each panelist read all 4 books. It was great. I've been on two of those so far and I've enjoyed both of them.

(frozen) Re: Living Room Book Club: GoH $Title

[j00j]

I'd enjoy any of these book club formats. I'd be up for participating if you needed people who've done the book club thing before (I miss Think Galactic!).

(frozen) Not Another Disability Panel

[jesse_the_k]

You’ve seen these members present on disability, impairment, abl(e)ism, normate bigotry, and similar weighty subjects. That won’t happen here. Using a game-show format, they’ll explore vital topics including the silliest, the least effective, the most deadly, the sexiest, and the hardest to clean. The only reference to the social (justice) model of disability will be in this panel description.

(frozen) Re: Not Another Disability Panel

[meloukhia]

I was thinking about proposing something like this, but wanted to check with the Not Another Race Panel people to make sure they'd be okay with it...

(frozen) Re: Not Another Disability Panel

[jesse_the_k]

Found another way to express the siliness, which I'm keeping to myself for now :,)

Who’s Filtering the Filterers?

[jesse_the_k]

Library finding aids and individual link spams; NYTimes and Wikipedia; Crazymeds, WebMD, and Mayo Clinic; the Oxford Dictionary and the Urban Dictionary. Filtering the net’s infinity provides useful, reliable information. How do we learn to choose, judge and trust effective filterers?

Re: Who’s Filtering the Filterers?

[ex_cafenowhere544]

A really intriguing topic. I'd expect discussion might also touch on voluntary media blackouts? Knowing which sources are inclined to toe that line might affect our judgment. Also, some of us cross-check USonian reports against sources like Univision and/or Al-Jazeera

Re: Who’s Filtering the Filterers?

[meloukhia]

And how do we empower people with the tools to learn how to find their news/information and judge sources?

(frozen) Revisiting _How To Suppress Women’s Writing_

[jesse_the_k]

In 1983, Joanna Russ published this essential guide to the rhetoric and strategies of dismissal and oppression. Thirty years later, let’s reconsider this important work. Have things changed, for the better or worse? Is Russ’s analysis still helpful? Who else has contributed to our understanding of the barriers to women’s publishing? What new tools have we developed to support women’s writing?

(frozen) Re: Schindler’s List as b-roll for Yom HaShoah/Django as b-roll for Black History Month

[pantryslut]

I think this one is fleshed out and ready to go. Selfishly I want it to wait until next year when I am more likely to be able to be on it, but that's just me.

(frozen) (no subject)

[jesse_the_k]

Sadly I think this panel could be timely every damn year. I know you'd contribute a lot. OTOH, you can steal borrow it and apply to FOGcon :,)

Which raises the question, is there a general fannish etiquette re: borrowing panel ideas? On the one hand, intellectual property I'm smart mine mine; on the other hand, that con was so clever I want to copy it.

(frozen) (no subject)

[j00j]

I've always felt it was ok to adapt and borrow panel ideas, and I'm happy for people to do the same with mine (I'm sure any of the Think Galacticon folks would be ok with this as well). If the panel idea or format were specific or novel rather than generic, I'd want to give credit to the originating con or individual, and probably check in with them first. For example, "librarians in fantasy" would be kinda generic, whereas "not another %!@$ing race panel" is pretty novel.

[lcohen]

except for the one where you need to actually select which titles you want to explore, this is actually plenty to submit to programming--the committee will help you flesh these out. so please, even if no one expands on an idea here, submit it!!! these sound great!

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks! I will! I promise!

[luzula]

*envious sigh*

Also, hi! : ) It's good to see you.

[jesse_the_k]

One day, one day, we'll have the perfect storm of a math/science conference at the UW & WisCon within a month.

Hi! It's great to be seen.

[annaoj]

We don't need 800 characters so much as we max out at 800 characters :)