Title: Safe Spaces at Cons

Status: confirmed

Proposed by: Sarah Parker

Description:

Every one thinks of conventions as safe spaces where they can just hang out and be. This is not always true. Our panellists will talk about creating safe spaces, maintaining safe spaces, safe spaces at conventions and the unspoken rules of safe spaces at cons.

Includes discussions of the "Open Source Boob Project", room parties and conventions we've been to. There might be some amusing stories in there too, as well as some warnings and food for thought.

Adult themes.

Room Notes:

Tags: Format: Discussion, General

• Safe_Spaces_at_Cons.mp3

Confirmed panellists: Danny Oz, Sarah Xu, Sarah Parker, Sandra Norman

No additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Montana B

Time: Thursday 8:30 PM

Title: Digital art

Status: confirmed

Proposed by: Cathy Cupitt

Description:

Holograms, online archives, mashups... how does it compare to traditional art practices? Discussion with examples.

Room Notes:

Tags: General, Equipment: AV

Confirmed panellists: Sarah Xu, Emily Smith, Lisa Rye, Andy Phillips, Nancy Lorenz

One additional panellist has been suggested.

Room: Cocktail Lounge

Time: Thursday 9:30 PM

Title: Lost

Status: confirmed

Proposed by: Tom Eitelhuber

Description:

The TV series Lost is scheduled to conclude in 2010, with just over twenty episodes remaining. This definite time-limit suggests that The Survivors and Others are finally headed towards some sort of climactic endgame. This panel will encourage open discussion on the current and previous seasons, as well as speculation on future events.

Room Notes:

Tags: Fantasy, Science fiction, TV

Confirmed panellists: Tom Eitelhuber, Graeme Watson, Sarah Xu

No additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Montana A

Time: Thursday 10:30 PM

Title: Frontiers, Commons and Copyright: Creativity in the Internet Age

Status: confirmed

Proposed by:

Description:

By facilitating collaboration, remixing, re-working and linking, the Internet is changing the boundaries of creative practice. Electronic Frontiers Australia, Creative Commons, and the Organization for Transformative Works are at the forefront of digital rights and creative metamorphosis. What do these organisations do? What avenues for art and writing do they provide? Why do we need them and what can they do for you?

Room Notes:

Tags: General, Technology

Confirmed panellists: David Cake, Sarah Xu, Cathy Cupitt, Maia Bobrowicz

2 additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Cocktail Lounge

Time: Friday 10:00 AM

Title: Strong Women in New Who, the Whedonverse, and SFF

Status: confirmed

Proposed by:

Description:

Round Table Discussion

Strong women who look good and kick arse - but are they lacking in agency? Has 'strong' become the new sexy? And what do they think 'strong' means anyway? Is it all for the male gaze, or is this a step forward for the representation of women? Why does being physically violent equal sexy?

Room Notes:

Tags: Gynaecon

• Strong_Women_in_New_Who__the_Whedonverse_and_SFF.mp3

Confirmed panellists: Sarah Xu

No additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Montana B

Time: Friday 4:00 PM

Title: Norma K Hemming Award

Status: confirmed

Proposed by:

Description:

This panel will discuss the forthcoming Norma K. Hemming Award to mark excellence in the exploration of race, gender, class and sexuality in Australian science fiction, fantasy or art work. The aim is to have it launched big time at Aussiecon 4 on 2-6 Sep 10.

Room Notes:

Tags: Format: Panel, General, Gynaecon

Confirmed panellists: David Medlen, Emma Hawkes, Sarah Xu

3 additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Oshaneshii

Time: Sunday 10:00 AM

Title: Fandom, Boobs, and the Internet: Big sister is watching you

Status: confirmed

Proposed by: Sarah Xu

Description:

"This should be a better world," a friend of mine said. "A more honest one, where sex isn't shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, 'Wow, I'd like to touch your breasts,' and people would understand that it's not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful."

We were standing in the hallway of ConFusion, about nine of us, and we all nodded. Then another friend spoke up.

"You can touch my boobs," she said to all of us in the hallway. "It's no big deal."

In 2008, at Penguicon, an annual SF and software convention in Michigan USA, a group of friends carried out an ‘experiment’ they later labelled The Open Source Boob Project (OSBP). Women attending the convention were invited to wear little coloured badges—green representing ‘yes you may ask to touch my breasts’ and red to signify a preference to opt out of the boob touching festivities. After the con one of the projects participants, who uses the Internet pseudonym The Ferret, blogged his experience of the project on his live journal and enthusiastically described the event as “a raging success”.

The most interesting part about the OSBP is not so much that a bunch of fans got together and thought ‘hey, wouldn’t it be great if we could all touch women’s boobs freely without being made to feel like perverts” but rather the way that, through the relatively new medium of web 2.0, the event gained international attention and further OSBP experiments were ceased due to by widespread feminist outrage.

In this paper I will discuss the Ferret’s original post, the reaction it provoked, and look at some of the outcomes generated by the blogosphere. In particular I will discuss the artworks I created as commentary on the OSBP as part of my PhD work into cyberfeminism and web 2.0.

Room Notes:

Tags: Academic Panel, Women, Equipment: AV

• Fandom_Boobs_and_the_Internet.mp3

Confirmed panellists: Sarah Xu

No additional panellists have been suggested.

Room: Montana B

Time: Monday 10:00 AM