mobile.culture.container - Former Yugoslavia

Comprised of a circle of 16 containers covered by a tent, the mobile.culture.container included facilities like an Internet café and a peace library. There were spaces for workshops, media production activities, music, painting, meetings, and events. A team of 8, most of whom were from South-Eastern Europe, organised debates, hosted discussions between young people, provided advice regarding the Internet and the video lab, and engaged in press and public relations work.

The central project strategy was to support existing local media while also inspiring the production of new, youth-driven independent media productions that could be sustained after the mobile.culture.container left the city. For this reason, work on the tours was not only geared toward producing concrete results like TV shows or daily newspapers; in addition, media specialists were brought in to host seminars on subjects like media responsibility, the basics of correct layout, and the business and managerial sides of a youth newspaper. These discussions were also designed to impart critical awareness of mass media practices the part of local youth. Already-existing newspaper, radio, and video groups in neighbouring cities visited the mobile.culture.container to work with the young people in that particular city.

The focus of the first set of tours (2001) was on holding workshops for young people focussing on media like the Internet, theatre, and photography. In the evenings, films were shown, discussions were held, and bands performed. As the project progressed, mobile.culture.container became a place where news was produced on a daily basis, and where the character of the media was worked on and talked about. Partnership and teamwork were emphasised in all of these activities. The idea was to get youth engaged in teams of peers with very different perspectives and from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, young people working on different media projects within the mobile.culture.container were encouraged to work together. Participants from past years were also asked to work on the current tour.

Specifically, each mobile.culture.container published a daily newspaper. An editorial team was set up in each city, which was then supported by teams who already ran local youth and school newspapers. The content of the paper was selected, written, and produced in the mobile.culture.container. The newspaper teams were networked and sent each other correspondence. The newspapers were sold publicly for a token charge, and were published online on the mobile.culture.container website.

At the TV studio, young people recorded news at a newsdesk and then commented on the stories in front of a camera in the neighbouring studio corner. The result was "Déjà Vu TV", a show focussed on questioning the truth behind information presented by the media. It provided a second or third look at familiar footage to inspire reflection on the way in which context impacts interpretation. The results were offered to a local TV station for a late-night show.

In the radio studio, participants recorded broadcasts, conducted interviews, mixed audio, and edited programmes digitally. The results were offered for broadcast to local radio stations. In 2002 the mobile.culture.container station, Radio Future, broadcast its programme in several languages for 88 hours throughout Kosovo. In many towns, partner radio stations were also founded.

Media, Youth, Freedom, Peace, Technology.

The Fund In Defence of our Future is a non-profit foundation. Organisers of the project claim that newspapers, television, radio, online news transform public opinion. They can report objectively, yet they can also manipulate. They can work independently, yet they can also be influenced in favour of certain causes. Freedom of the media, they say, is an important prerequisite for a peaceful future.

The project presented a CD/book entitled We Are Defending Our Future. The book features young people from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, and Kosovo speaking about their backgrounds, their lives, and their futures. The interactive CD offers the texts in nine languages, as well as a photos from the tours and a video-trailer illustrating project work. The project resulted in a network of 11 school and youth newspapers and 5 radio groups, as well as newly founded Internet cafés and video groups. Members of the NGO network OKC Abrasevic (in Mostar) are responsible for the future work in the containers.

As of late 2004, the mobile.culture.container has been set up in Mostar for a longer period; it is being run by the NGO the Mostar Youth Center Abrasevic.