[New-imc] Online form: Proposed new IMC! (Muddy Media Project)

[shawnee1 at siu.edu]

Submitted by: Kristen Kordecki <shawnee1 at siu.edu> on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 @ 2:56:22 pm (-0800)

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imc_name:
Muddy Media Project

city:
Carbondale

state:
IL

country:
US

contact_name:
Kristen Kordecki

contact_email:
shawnee1 at siu.edu

contact_phone:


tech_name:
Steven Hirschberg

tech_email:
s_hirschberg at hotmail.com

tech_phone:


supporting_groups:


event_focus:
yes

critical_dates:


resources:
A number of folks participating in the Muddy Media Project are experienced organizers and activists.  A number of us have worked with Heartwood, Ruckus Society and various local environmental and social justice organizations.  Our strengths are in our abilities to effectively organize large events and meetings.  We also have strong networking skills and can draw upon resources locally, regionally as well as nationally with ease.  We project renting a space by March 2004 that will give the opportunity to coordinate and incorporate the larger community at a central hub. 

outreach:
The Muddy Media project has been working together for 8 months. Our publication is in its 8th issue.  We distribute 1500 copies monthly to Carbondale and the surrounding area. Community members and activists write articles about local events and redresses issues corporate media manipulates. We also show indy films monthly to appeal to different interests.  We have shown This is Traffic, some Doug Hawes-Davis docs, Guerilla News Network shorts and because there is a strong film department, local shorts.  We also have a weekly radio show on our community radio station and utilize the professors at the university for technical support. The 2 hour show addresses news items from independent media sources and the politics of independent music and features local to international indy bands and singer/songwriters. The radio show also gives us an opportunity to reach people who don\'t come into town often. We get the wattage to the cottage. MMP has supported and co-sponsored Indigenou
 s People\'s Day by contributing to a large benefit  and video documented Winona LaDuke\'s visit.  We are currently offering some technical support for a local film maker\'s attempts to make a documentary about her experience as an Indigenous women.  With assistance from an alternative energy/solar panel tech., and a local photographer we were able to create the Muddy Mobile Unit.  We built a box that  holds batteries charged by solar panels, a 1000 watt converter and a 35mm projector .  We used images of the people of Iraq and effects of depleted uranium on humans and with the help of a photographer superimposed text over them (“Are you shocked?  Are you awed?”  “We just bombed them.”).  We put the box in the back of a truck and drove around projecting the images on buildings, including the Federal Building, retail businesses (the bar crowd just loved us after a few drinks) and homes.

All of these events required skills and creativity from seasoned and beginning organizers, artists and techies. 

MMP is a collective of students, professors, professionals, full-time mamas, and various riff raff you really can\'t label.  We\'re amazed at our talents, frankly.  Our core members are made up of a Radio/Television graduate Photography grad student, a theatre student, an editor for the local mainstream paper doing it on the sly, a local reporter for another local mainstream paper doing the same, a plant biologist who throws amazing RAVEs, two lawyers, a radical librarian/film maker/tech assistant, a recent MA grad from the Multi Media program, a hip-hop DJ and professors from the History, Cinema/Photography, Journalism, Radio Television and Mass Communication and Media Art departments.


introductory_statement:
Muddy Media Project was created as a test run to determine if we could function as an Independent Media Center.  Our initial goal was to create an IMC that would allow for the activist and larger community to participate in creating non corporate media.  We have a strong arts community, but often, the connection to the political movement does not happen. MMP believes an IMC would bridge the gap between the arts community and those involved in politics and community building.  Southern Illinois also suffers from a geographic dissociation between folks living out of town and the espresso sucking pavement dwellers.  It\'s often evident in the political topics of those who live in Carbondale (peace issues, Green Party , the Bush regime) and those who live rurally (forests, organic farming, sprawl).  It was agreed an IMC and a physical space would help alleviate the distance between issues and create a central location where information can be readily accessed and networking can o
 ccur with even greater ease.

Southern Illinois has a crew of dedicated and impressive activists and community builders.  In 1997, the environmental groups were the first to stop all commercial logging on a National Forest that went unnoticed except in the forest protection community in the US.  We draw speakers and singer/songwriters from all over the country.  People here work hard to create a well informed and participatory community.  We have skills to offer other people and information to share.  A space on the IMC website would allow people in Southern Illinois to interact with others in a central and reliable place.  The international link could create a larger space for folks in Southern Illinois to obtain information, share skills and foster broader working relationships.