News 2009
News 2008
The Flash Job Campaign moves Berlin
The TeenKom Development Group is pleased to announce the start on June 1st of a two weeks intensive Flash Job Campaign, featured at the international NEW LIFE BERLIN festival for Contemporary Art.
During the past five weeks since the first press release the campaign has evoked diverse attention:
- Organizations and associations like the National Network for Civil Society and Bildungscent ("EducationCent") feature The Flash Job Campaign in their newsletters,
- the Department for City Development of Berlin and the State Statistical Institute Berlin-Brandenburg have provided a number of maps with statistical data,
- in commission of the new international art newspaper FAIR the Catalysts of The Flash Job Campaign will conduct a "fair survey": Talks with people from different groups in Neukoelln on the topic of fairness will be published in the July edition of the paper,
- Willy Essmann, director of OUTREACHa Berlin-wide streeworker organization, will visit the campaign Catalysts and give a workshop,
- - the Initiative SchönBunt and the More-generations-house Sonnenhaus invited the catalysts to partake in a “Future Workshop” for citizens of the Berlin community Schoeneweide on June 7th,
- in the evening of the same day, The Flash Job Campaign is special guest in the festival program event LIVE REVIEW by Open Dialogues, a group of critics from England, who will study The Flash Job Campaign closely,
- the custom made starter-kits (including bags, maps and office material) for the catalysts are sponsored by the companies SkyRanch and POK.
Catalysts from 9 countries
The Campaign launch is conducted by the socalled „Catalysts”. They are people, who walk into social space in order to get in touch with citizens, without the help of advertisement or established organizations. The catalysts move and mediate the themes of the campaign and report the outcome. Since the first press release in April, Eleven persons from USA, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and Germany with professional background in art, city development, health care, social work and philosophy successfully applied for the role as a Catalyst. During the Two campaign weeks, they will try to discover and study the attitude and readyness for action among citizens in the chosen Campaign Borough of Berlin Neukoelln.
A highly sensible aspect of human hope shall be addressed: Work as the mean to a self-governed life. Small shorttime-jobs (in TeenKom they are called Flash Jobs: one-time jobs of up to 2 hours duration) shall be acquired from “customers” (typically shops or private people in need of a little help) and passed on to adolescents within the community. The Catalysts will set up a critical dialogue concerning their own intervention and discuss topics like fairness and self-governance with engaged citizens. The stories will be processed and published within the two weeks time span.
All interested people can participate
All interested people can follow and join the discussions:
TeenKom-Newsletter
If you sign-up for the Newsletter, you will (during the campaign) receive a couple of newsletters with a resume of the development including links to the most important reports and events. After the Campaign, you can either sign out of the newsletter service or continue to receive news about TeenKom. Outside campaigning times it is published every other month.
Kick-Off Workshop
Sunday, June 1st, 5:00-7:00 PM, FAIR-ETHICS Society for Art & Aesthetics, Karl Marx Str. 168, Berlin Neukoelln. Concept and structure of the Campaign will be discussed; the catalysts will be presented and receive their starter kits.
Online, June 1st-15th
At www.wooloo.org/flashjob the Catalysts will document and discuss the continual development of the project. All registered internet users can join the discussion.
Status after one week
Saturday, June 7th, 5-7 pm, NEW LIFE SHOP, Choriner Str. 85, Berlin Mitte. The Flash Job Campaign is guest at the public LIVE REVIEW by Open Dialogues, a group of critics from England, who will study and write about the campaign.
Concluding Event
Sunday June 15th, 2-4 pm at the festival venue, Greifswalder Str. 220, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. The catalysts will present their multimedial results from the two weeks of campaigning followed by discussion with the public
The official opening of the NEW LIFE BERLIN contemporary Art Festival is on Saturday May 31, at 6 pm in the NEW LIFE SHOP, Choriner Strasse 85, Berlin Mitte (U8: Rosenthaler Platz).
After Party at 10 pm in SCALA Berlin, Friedrichstrasse 112, with live act by Bunny Rabbit and much more.
