In January I had left Australia to work on a new film in India in collaboration with the Digital Empowerment Foundation and Inomy Media. I was there, based in Dehli, for five months. OCEAN IN A DROP explores the impact broadband is making on mostly rural and tribal communities, some who … Continue Reading ››
All posts by agarton
Indifference in difference
Just as there had been a flourishing of flowers that brought colour and shape of all manner throughout the forests of planet Earth, so too was there a burst of humans reflecting the diverse landscapes and climates across the great continents, grand brush strokes of language, song and dance, creed and shade, all speaking to … Continue Reading ››
Right to know – Part 1
Dense, chaotic thickets of electricity and phone cabling slung perilously over rusted scaffolding, window frames and round fragile bamboo poles. An overhead canopy woven throughout the urban fringe of Phnom Penh, Ho Chin Minh City, Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta, Beijing, Nanjing and Guangzhou. In the dark, amid the unruly mess a ragged and shadowy … Continue Reading ››
Women are stepping up in India’s off-grid rural communities
In India's north-east, in its rural off-grid villages where electricity has barely lit a single light bulb something truly beautiful is taking place. Women and girls from tribal communities, many former forest dwellers, once hunter-gathers, where resilience thrives, are inspiring each other through a communal space very new to them - the internet.
This article is … Continue Reading ››
Communications surveillance in the digital age
Contributing to the third GISWATCH report my chapter explored the net we had sought to create in the early 1990s, what it had become and where we seem to be headed. It reflects, in part, on an article I wrote just over 20 years ago, The Net: opportunity or threat, for 21C Magazine.
GISWATCH 2014 was … Continue Reading ››