Title: What if being yourself were a paradox? A transfiguration of the commonplace.
Technique: Scanotype vs. time, on film in light box
measure: each 21 x 29.7 cm
Date: April 2008

For a better resolution, please click on the thumbnails below:

by Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead (2007)

7:09 min, colour, stereo

Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead are artists based in London working primarily with video, sound and electronic networked space to create gallery and site-specific artworks and installations. They make artworks which look at how global communications systems like the worldwide web are changing the way we understand the world around us.

Most material of  their video “Flat Earth” is garnered from NASA’s public domain satellite image archive and was stitched together in a combination of Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects. Exceptions are flickr images edited at offline stage in Final Cut Pro and some close satellite images purchased from TerraServer Ltd.

From the artist’s website: ”Flat Earth is a desktop documentary, which takes the viewer on a seven minute trip around the world so that we encounter a series of fragments taken from real peoples’ blogs. These fragments are knitted together to form a kind of story or singular narrative. The visual effect is not unlike that of Google Earth, although significantly here, nearly all of the visual material for, Flat Earth is taken from satellite imagery freely available on the web. This is with the exception of the close-up imagery from outside USA, which had to be paid for non-commercial use and a series of images taken from Flickr under Creative Commons attribution license.”

Commissioned for Animate Projects in 2007, their project is not an unveiling of the spheric, “blue marble” image of the Earth as viewed from outer space but, rather, an attempt to describe the “flat” Earth as viewed from the membrane of the Internet. Blog entries and flickr photos interact with freely available satellite imagery to give a re-shaped conception of what space and distances between people effectively means in a networked world. The video begins in the tract housing of the American suburbs where we hear a performance of an actual blog entry from the angsty, young dancer, “teenangel.” A few seconds later, we zoom into the sky above San Francisco as the bemused “patriot2000″ informs us that he just read a translation of one of his blog posts into German and he’s now curious to learn German. We travel across the globe to Zimbabwe, Iran, and Europe. It’s a great seven minutes and it gets at something amazing about the Internet: if, according to Walter Benjamin, the technologies at the beginning of the 20th century allowed for perceptual reproduction to “keep pace with speech,” then the technologies of the 21st century allows for perceptual reproduction to keep pace with thought. As a reflective, older blogger muses in the videos last words, “if all else can be doubted, if our senses lie, at least I can start from the indisputable first principle that I am a thing that thinks.” – Gene McHugh

To have a look from above, simply click on the link below. Enjoy.

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/flmov.html

by Jeffrey Shaw (1988-91)

Computergraphic installation (Manhattan version (1989), Amsterdam version (1990), Karlsruhe version (1991))

Collection of ZKM-Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany

Jeffrey Shaw created three versions of  his “Legible City” between 1988 and 1991. The Manhattan variant was one of the very first interactive installations, today regarded as a key work of the genre.

In “The Legible City” the visitor is able to ride a stationary bicycle through a simulated representation of a city that is constituted by computer-generated three-dimensional letters that form words and sentences along the sides of the streets. Using the ground plans of actual cities – Manhattan, Amsterdam and Karlsruhe – the existing architecture of these cities is completely replaced by textual formations written and compiled by Dirk Groeneveld. Travelling through these cities of words is consequently a journey of reading; choosing the path one takes is a choice of texts as well as their spontaneous juxtapositions and conjunctions of meaning.

The handlebar and pedals of the interface bicycle give the viewer interactive control over direction and speed of travel. The physical effort of cycling in the real world is gratuitously transposed into the virtual environment, affirming a conjunction of the active body in the virtual domain. A video projector is used to project the computer-generated image onto a large screen. Another small monitor screen in front of the bicycle shows a simple ground plan of each city, with an indicator showing the momentary position of the cyclist.

The Manhattan version (1989) of this work comprises eight separate fictional story lines in the form of monologues by ex-Mayor Koch, Frank Lloyd Wright, Donald Trump, a tour guide, a confidence trickster, an ambassador and a taxi-driver. Each story line has a specific letter colour so that the bicyclist can choose one or another to follow the path of a particular narration. In the Amsterdam (1990) and Karlsruhe (1991) versions all the letters are scaled so that they have the same proportion and location as the actual buildings which they replace, resulting in a transformed but exact representation of the actual architectural appearance of these cities. The texts for these two cities are largely derived from archive documents that describe mundane historical events there.

To see a video of the installation, simply click on the link below. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj4EbEBkj88&feature=related

guest lecturer at Bruce Jenkin’s “Preserve/Present Moving-Im Med” class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, talking about the histories of Ars Electronica and their archives

wed, dec 02, 2009

link to the class program: http://www.saic.edu/courses/Film_Video_New_Media_Preserve_Present_Moving-Im_Med_479.html

“Lingering” [trad. 'persistenza'] è un’opera di media art di Steven Perdikis, che cerca di esplorare e collegare la natura effimera della memoria con l’esperienza e la tecnologia. Il risultato appare ricco di richiami a stati alterati/meditativi di coscienza, o comunque onirici. Infatti meditazione e sonno sono quelle condizioni in cui la nostra coscienza si espande e si diffonde, è ‘altra’ e non distinta con l’intorno, si incontra e si mescola con realtà che nella veglia non emergono. Lo spettatore è invitato a sperimentare frammenti di tempo, incapsulati all’interno dello spazio sullo schermo. In “Lingering”, il tempo diventa dinamico, concentrato e non-significante. “Lingering”, dunque, come ‘persistenza’, è effimero e il suo destino è la dissoluzione, ma esso vive e risplende fintanto che permane nella mente dello spettatore.

Steven Perdikis è un giovane artista che lavora in diverse di discipline quali fotografia, video, e scrittura. I suoi ambiti di ricerca vertono sui cicli, sull’effimero, e sulla natura transitoria dell’esistenza.
Come artista emergente, i suoi lavori sono stati esposti in diverse mostre e pubblicati. Attualmente studia per conseguire un diploma di specializzazione in Arti Visive presso la University of South Australia, che lo porterà a un Master in Visual Art.

Pioneer in the field, the Database of Virtual Art (DVA) has been
documenting the rapidly evolving digital installation art for more than
a decade. Cooperating with known media artists, researchers and
institutions as members allows the DVA to develop into the collective
project in the field. There have been a number of online archives
supported over the years, but almost all no longer have funding and have
either disappeared or exist in a frozen condition.

The DVA is beginning a renewed phase of further development with
existing and new members. Based on the *concept of expanded
documentation* it epitomizes a collective, *facebook-like* project
dedicated to media art. 500 artists selected from over 5000 applicants
offer the best selection of thousands of high quality artworks. Besides
the artists, more than 300 theorists and mediaarthistorians are
contributors. The DVA is a scholarly project and from the beginning a
university-based endeavor.

NEW FEATURES of the DVA :::
::: Optimized upload system allowing contributors to add, revise, &
cross-link information in a clear online procedure.
::: Artists can easily upload videos, as well as work descriptions,
digital documents, technical data, institutions and bios.
::: This rich online resource has a systematic thesaurus built from
various international keyword systems.
::: Any contributor from the field can submit to the news-ticker.
www.virtualart.at
Inviting a new wave of contributions to use the enhanced and improved
interface.
:::::::  Database of Virtual Art  :::::  ADVISORY BOARD  ::::::
Roy ASCOTT, Beryl GRAHAM, Erkki HUHTAMO, Jorge LA FERLA, Gunalan
NADARAJAN, Christiane PAUL, Martin ROTH, Steve WILSON
http://www.virtualart.at/about/advisory-board.html

Marloeke van der Vlugt: Patchmaker

It’s as if you enter an anatomical theatre. Marloeke van der Vlugt is sitting there, with a camera and a mirror pointed at herself, serenely, waiting for you to press the sensors on her body. Around her are video screens, and windows that double as mirrors. In her installation “Patchmaker”, body contact calls up video and sound – while you are intimately close to her, touching her feet and belly and hand and shoulder and neck, you are also playing her like an instrument.

The images are blurred and intermingled. You hear a piano playing. You see her hand opening. You are in the countryside, soft music, and a girl in a red coat is standing there, encircled by the camera. When you tough her tigh flames chur her skin – and you wonder if this is real remembered pain. At another point you are racing through the countryside, narrowly missing other cars, and it seems that some combination of touches causes a carcrash.

The oddest thing about it all is that you are on display yourself: people are looking at you and Marloeke from outside. Still, it is not you who are performing: the images, the real or imagined memories, the sacral athmosphere of the installation: it is all Marloeke’s theatre, who is sitting there quietly waiting for you to touch her. It is a world behind dark curtain, where you have to sit outside until the installation is ready for you to be led in. Once, they even set up the installation in a real anatomical theatre, in De Waag in Amsterdam – the exact place where Rembrandt’s Anatomical Lesson of Dr. Tulp was set!

Marloeke graduated in theatre science, and attended Goldsmith’s, Laban and APT (Arts Performance Theatricality) before enrolling at DasArts in 2006. You can read more about her Werdegang on the Neu/Now site, in an interview for the Jotta Magazine. Patchmaker’s full name, for that matter, is Series Patchmaker, No. 1 Marloeke, 1971. Sil van Leemput, who together with Tim van Elferen assisted her with programming and technology, tells me that they have now prepared costumes for an interactive dance performance, which will be Patchmaker No. 2.

Pues ya se puede descargar el diseño de los discos y portadas de Fedora 12. A mi me gusta mucho (más que el de Ubuntu 9.10)

+ Fedora 12 Media Art

Vía | Fedoreando

Uno dei maggiori centri culturali e più conosciuti in tutta l’Olanda. Melkweg.

Unico perché i suoi programmi uniscono 5 differenti discipline: musica, teatro, danza, fotografia e media art.

Fondata nel 1970 è un’organizzazione non profit che ha ampi spazi da offrire a chi vuole fare teatro, cinema, danza. Luogo di ritrovo per molti giovani.

Digital Slaves [Light Up Bristol] from Digital Slaves on Vimeo.

Jyväskylässä järjestetään ensi viikolla mapping -työpaja paikallisten mediaosaajien toimesta (Lumière 40100)  ja ulkomaalaisten ohjaajien (Digital Slaves) opastuksella. Työpajaan on paikkoja jäljellä ja huikeaa loppushow’ta kannattaa mennä katsomaan, ainutlaatuista nähtävää Suomessa.

В Таллинне начинается культурная свистопляска! То ничего, то всё сразу. Наряду с Disainioo, Куму и другими событиями начинается фестиваль Plektrum!  PLektrum ето по-моему самый стоящий, если не единстевнный Эстонский фестиваль аудиовизуальных представлений, продвигающий новую эстетику искусства vs наука, VJ культуру, интернет тренды и пространство, где можно встретить классных медиа художников, музыкантов и диджеев. Происходит фестиваль по всему культурному Таллинну в течение недели с 23 сентабря по 4 октабря, предлагая и бесплатные евенты и воркшопы. Некоторые ключевые слова концепции фестиваля: 3D concert, lomography, media-art, digital body, virtual world…

http://2009.plektrumfestival.ee/

La semana pasada estuve participando en el congreso internacional CRESC, en Manchester (1-4) septiembre. Esta asociación y centro de investigación en el ámbito del cambio socio-cultural, está financiado por el gobierno británico y organiza desde hace 5 años su congreso anual, proponiendo un tema a debate. En el 2006 el lema era “Media Change and Social Theory” y estuve con mis compañeros, Toni Roig, Elisenda Ardèvol y Ruth Pagès participando con el paper Videogame as media practice: An exploration on the intersections between audiovisual consumption and game cultures.  Este año fui en solitario a presentar el paper Objects and Traces in Space: an approach to locative media projects, que respondía al call for papers Objects – What Matters? Technology, Value and Social Change y el entorno y la impresión que he tenido ha sido muy distinta.

En relación al congreso de 2006, caracterizado por la participación de académicos del ámbito de la comunicación, aunque también antropólogos y sociólogos orientados al estudio de los medios, la participación en el congreso de 2009 se ha caracterizado por la heterogeneidad y multiplicidad de aproximaciones a un mismo tema: los objetos. La propuesta prometía, aunque la sensación una vez terminada no podría describirla sino como agridulce, y me explico. Si bien algunos profesores reclamamos que la investigación en el ámbito de las humanidades y ciencias sociales ha de ser necesariamente interdisciplinar, cuando se realiza un intento a gran escala, como ha sido el caso del congreso del CRESC, se ponen en evidencia algunas cuestiones que no acaban de funcionar. Esto sucede cuando por ejemplo afloran a discusión cuestiones que para un ámbito concreto ya están superadas o son de conocimiento básico, pero no para otros ámbitos, que tienen diferentes “backgrounds”.  Por ejemplo, cuestionar la utilidad del uso de métodos y tencologías audiovisuales en la ensañanza primaria jamás se discutiría en un congreso de comunicación, porque conocemos la existencia de un ámbito de investigación (“media literacies”) que precisamente se ocupa de la alfabetización en medios.  Es el precio de la interdisciplinariedad en un congreso . Sin embargo, dentro de la heterogeneidad de las sesiones se podían encontrar rastros de complicidad con algunos temas que me interesan. Supongo que se trata de una cuestión de escala, dado que nuestra práctica interdisciplinar en grupos de investigación más pequeños, de momento ha sido muy satisfactoria y enriquecedora.

Dejo aquí mi presentación en la que reflexionaba sobre la objetualiad (o no) de las prácticas de “locative media” y su relación con el espacio. En base a la idea de que los proyectos basados en tecnologias de localización pueden retornar a la idea de “lugar”, analizo tres proyectos que proponen cartografías subjetivas como modo de apropiación del espacio. Así mismo, trato de anclar estas prácticas en el contexto del arte contemporáneo, y su reflexión en torno a la objetualización, conceptualización o comodificación del objeto artístico.

[nederlandse versie link]

INVITATION:

Create 2D & 3D  ‘ATOMPUNK’ art for the  GOGBOT 2009 Festival! Create 3D Avatars, Vehicles, Environments, Sculptures and any other digital Atompunk things you can think of. Also photo’s, graphic designs, video’s and other  ‘2D’ artworks are very welcome to join this exhibition and contest! Digitally manipulated or not.

Invent, create and present what your idea’s about ATOMPUNK are, to the world!

CONTEST:

1. First Prize: 10000 L$
2. Second Prize: 5000 L$
3. Third prize: 3000 L$

• Extra prize by the public: 2000 L$ for most favorites in the Flickr ATOMpUnk group on sunday september 13th at 22:00 CEST  (= SL 1 pm PDT)

[ L$ = Linden Dollars, exchangeable for US Dollar's or Euro's or other currencies. 1 US$ is worth about 270 L$. To win any of these prizes you need at least a free Second Life account and a free Flickr account]

A professional GOGBOT art jury will critically review and judge the digital Atompunk entries on artistic quality, technical quality and originality. At 11th of september the 3 very best Atompunk Digital Artworks will be awarded. This will be announced during the ATOM.LIVE.NU happening in newBERLIN (SL) +  ATAK Enschede (NL) These 3 winners will also be exposed on large videoprojections to a ‘RL’ audience at the GOGBOT Festival!

DEADLINE:

Last day for submissions: 9th of september 2009

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Please upload screenshots or video of your virtual Atompunk objects and Atompunk avatars or photo’s and digital image artworks a.s.a.p. to http://flickr.com/groups/atompunk with at least these 3 tags: ‘GOGBOT2009‘ and ‘ATOMPUNKFESTIVAL‘ and ‘ATOMPUNK‘

Please also confirm Ze Moo about your participation in this festival if you are going to upload some Atompunk works. CONTACT: IM in SL or send a Flickr mail

EXHIBITION OF ALL PARTICIPANTS:

• In SL september 9 – 30th, 2009, at Second Enschede sim in Second Life (during and after the ‘RL’ GOGBOT 2009 Festival )
• Exposure on the web: ‘forever’.

http://flickr.com/groups/atompunk/discuss/72157622176071466

weitere Videos: part2, part3

Interaktive Fassadenprojektion und Schattenspiel. Auf die Fassade werden im Voraus aufgenommen Porträts projiziert. Zwei auf dem Boden angebrachte Xenonstrahler überstrahlen allerdings die Projektion, so dass die Portraits nur im Schatten der sich zwischen Scheinwerfer und Fassade befindenden Passanten freigegeben werden.

Hauptquelle der Inspiration war “The Shadow Dance” (1678) von Samuel Van Hoogstraten (1627-16788).

“Bodie Movies” wurde für die europäische Kulturhauptstadt 2001 (Rotterdam) von V2_Organisatie erstellt und später in Lissabon, Linz, Liverpool, Duisburg und Hongkong präsentiert.