First discussed in 1998, the Container Project was perceived as a way forward for all the other talented Jamaicans on the corners that mervin Jarman escaped from. His conviction was that if given the tools so-called “bad boys” could be expressly good! Using himself as an analogy mervin was determined to take the opportunities he experienced in London back to the streets of Jamaica.

It is now 5 years on and the Container is as potent now as it was then. A brilliant intuition and media art solution that allows media arts professionals the opportunity to work with some of the most naturally creative talents. This is a celebration of these experiences, both present and imagined. The Container represents thinking inside the box with a difference.

Jamaica celebrates one of the richest cultural dynamics. For a nation so small it has imprinted its presence on an exponential scale globally. It is indeed time we make this leap and cross this digital divide. Jamaica has the potential to play a central part in the development of creative content and culture products.

The Container Project's 5th anniversary series of community multimedia workshops wishes to introduce New Media Arts to the national population. These activities will take participating practitioners from around the world into the field and into some unusual situations. The anniversary workshops will create the launching pad for exciting research and development of community resources in ICT and multimedia productions.

Call for Participation

An official call for participation is available download.pdf

The Container will mount an exhibition of work produced during the workshops series conducted during the celebration of its 5th year in operation. This will raise the profile of Digital Art and demonstrate to the general population how important the use of new media technologies can be to their everyday lives.

Digital and performing artist Camille Turner and colleague Jim Ruxton will headline their Sync tech art installation. Other internationally renowned media artists will also have works on exhibition. The Digital Art exhibition will take place during the week of March 23 - 28, 2009, and will be spread across several locations including UTech, Emancipation Park, National Gallery and downtown Kingston. We will also have mini exhibitions on most high streets via video walls and shop fronts. >>more

The Container enjoys a good relationship with its current group of supporters from corporate Jamaica, other Government bodies and NGOs. We look forward to their continuing support and are inviting others to come on board to make this a significant imprint on the demography of the Jamaican landscape.

Supporters: UNESCO, C&W Jamaica Foundation, ICT4D Jamaica, and HEART NTA.

The Container project is a community multimedia access space vis-à-vis a computer lab situated in a 40 foot ISO shipping container. The project allows people from the local community to become sensitized to the use of computer technologies and its relationship to their everyday lives.

Located in Palmers Cross, Clarendon, on the south central plains in Jamaica, it can be considered to be rural! The project is accessed by a wide variety of people who use the space as it is the only such facility in the community. At least 60% of our time is with users who are new to computers and utilise the space as a learning center. Through our association with HEART Trust NTA (the national training agency) we have been able to offer accredited courses in ICT. The other 40% of time is split between basic use by both young and old — photocopying documents, checking emails or creating documents. We also conduct creative workshops for digital storytelling, web site development, digital music and video production.

The intention now is to move the creative development to the top of the agenda, bringing the project more in line with its original objective of being a multimedia development lab. >>more

Moving Outside the Box: a main part of this movement is the new mongrelStreet initiative—the iSt.Lab. For 4 years the Container has served community of Palmers Cross. Now we are championing a new kind of street art initiative. The iSt.Lab will be equipped with high end tools to bring the new media possibilities right into the street.

Many of our youths feel unwanted and have often been described as fit only for dumping. The iSt.Lab is a subsidiary of the Container Project and is aimed at the many disadvantaged young people on our street corners. The hope is to give these young people an opportunity to make a difference in their own lives, and by so doing help to make a difference in their communities.

The iSt.Lab will be a vital component of the 5th anniversary series of workshop as it enables visiting practitioners to take their workshops into the field with all the tools they need. The wheelie bin is a more contemporary state of the container project – originally meant to be mobile and moving around the island. We will use the wheelie bin as an outreach lab to mobilize the creative influences of the street, placing it in a digital context.

The iSt.Lab has a multilateral focus. Its primary aim is to bring otherwise unsubscribed to pockets of talent into mainstream digital media. We want to use this tool as a nexus to reach the hardest to reach of our society and those considered most volatile. We wish to share the success of this groundbreaking initiative with other organizations and other countries.

The iSt.Lab is made up of computers and media network components with self-powering capacity. When in operation the lab will be able to send FM and VHF signals to localized residences in the immediate vicinity of the lab. These narrowcast transmissions will give the community a better appreciation of the workshops and the people who are involved.
The wheelie bin project is supported by IPDC/UNESCO funds along with other partners. >> more

David Cranswick
Sonia Mills
Franchesca DaRimini
mervin Jarman
M. H. Scarlett
Errol Sinclair
Camille Turner

The Digitizing Culture Symposium will be an indepth analysis of community multimedia development. This symposium is an opportunity for Jamaican Artists, Technologists and creative industry practitioners to interrogate the multidisciplinary approach to developing new media technologies. The idea is to bring a conversation and investigation into how the emergence of new tools, platforms and creative processes can better serve society and create a more equal distribution of knowledge and cultural capital.

The symposium will be held at the Utech campus in Kingston. Accompanying the one day symposium will an exhibition mounted and free software booths and ideas “clinics”. Seating will be limited so please register your interest early!

Expected Keynote Speakers include: Wendy Chun (US), Camille Turner (CAN), David Vadiveloo (AUS), Natalie Bookchin (US) and Lena Nahlous (AUS). >>more

As we prioritise the everyday running of the project we often lack the time to update our web site, and hence some of our most recent projects and successes have not yet been documented. However, we hope the following links will offer some insight into what we have achieved over the years. A google search on Container Project will reveal other related activities:
UNESCO
Jamaicas.com
Year 01
Fraw
Skint Stream
Youth Vibes

The Container Project has manifested itself as a node in a highly creative, informal global network of digital arts and social art projects, art/science projects, cultural activism and more. This unique feature of the Container stems directly from the founder's own mongrelized experiences with socially progressive organisations including ARTEC, Backspace and the Mongrel collective. This in effect makes the Container Project fundamentally different from some other types of grass roots media centers, and other UNESCO-type community projects in the Caribbean. The project is naturally and organically linked to talented artists and inspiring projects around the world. Therefore, as a bonus, anyone participating in a Container project, also becomes part of this network, and part of the global community networks that the Container links into.

Digital artist mervin Jarman creates social art networks and interventions, bringing New Technology and Creative Cultures into an interactive space. The Container Project is one such space. His work with the Mongrel collective has placed him in the forefront of community art activism and multimedia development for marginalized users. >>more