why Survival Kit?
What would be the contents of a survival kit for the media and communications environment? The question can seem simple and bring into mind some concrete associations; swiss army knife, food packages with all the necessary vitamines, instructions of how to make fire and get clean water, etc... Fortunately, following these associations will not give you the answer to the question. Surviving in the media environment is not the same thing as surviving in the wilderness. It cannot be reduced to the simple idea of staying alive - there is no lion who would come and eat you and neither is there a chance that you would freeze to death.
The question about the communication technology survival kit can be understood in various completely different ways. Some people relate it to 'digital divide', education and accessibility of media technologies. Some people will think of copyrights, freedom of speech and open source movement. And some will claim that we need to forget the communication technologies completely if we want to talk about survival.
Why are we asking such a fuzzy question? Because we believe it can lead to many interesting directions. Within our working group we have been talking about this theme for more than a year now, and the concept has been redefined numerous times.
Survival kit is a concept that people coming from different worlds can relate to and talk about. It can act as a bridge between the worlds of engineers, artists and theorists. It proposes a discussion of what is essential and important for us, and how does that relates to the media and technology around us. It also contains the idea of something concrete, the idea that we can find solutions that can make a difference.
This publication is one of the results of the search for the Survival Kit. The search will continue and hopefully lead to new and unexpected directions.
Juha Huuskonen on behalf of the Survival Kit working group