Thursday, January 31, 2008

Signature Event Context by Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša

WATCH THE PERFORMANCE
In summer 2007, three Slovenian artists officially changed their names to Janez Janša. Their work focuses on the question of signature, and – more particularly – on the role of signature in public space. In their various approaches, they explore Derrida’s famous statement on signature and its paradoxical relationship towards originality and repetition.“By definition, a written signature implies the actual or empirical nonpresence of the signer. But, it will be said, it also marks and retains his having-been present in a past now, which will remain a future now, and therefore in a now, in general, in the transcendental form of nowness (maintenance). This general maintenance is somehow inscribed, stapled to the present punctuality, always evident and always singular, in the form of the signature. This is the enigmatic originality of every paraph. For the attachment to the source to occur, the absolute singularity of an event of the signature and of a form of the signature must be retained: the pure reproducibility of a pure event.”
(Jacques Derrida, “Signature Event Context” in Margins of Philosophy, tr. Alan Bass, pp. 307-330)
On January 27th, 2008, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, and Janez Janša performed Signature Event Context at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, a walking action in the corridors of the Memorial. Each one of them, equipped with a GPS device, covered a different path within the Memorial’s structure this way, together assembling a common signature visible only in a virtual space (the internet) . During the performance artists continuously repeated “Jaz sem Janez Janša, Jaz sem Janez Janša, Jaz sem Janez Janša…” (“My name is Janez Janša”).
Signature Event Context at the Holocaust Memorial puts together 3 concepts (signature, event and context) from Derrida’s essay in complex relation; signature itself is an event which re-contextualizes the site of signature. In his book At Memory's Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture (Yale University Press, 2000) the American scholar James E. Young writes that there is no intrinsic meaning in memorials. Instead, they derive their meaning from visitors' interactions: each visitor makes their own experience of memory at a memorial. The structure of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, which invites a visitor for an individual experience – as has been stated by its architect Peter Eisenman –, points to the intention of the Signature Event Context project. Eisenman concludes his statement with the following explanation of the experience in the Memorial:
"In this monument there is no goal, no end, no working one's way in or out. The duration of an individual's experience of it grants no further understanding, since understanding is impossible. The time of the monument, its duration from top surface to ground, is disjoined from the time of experience. In this context, there is no nostalgia, no memory of the past, only the living memory of the individual experience. Here, we can only know the past through its manifestation in the present." (Eisenman Architects, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin. Project text by Peter Eisenman)
In Derrida's words, walking and talking signatures by Janša, Janša and Janša are the physical manifestations of nowness via individual experience. The traces of the walking and talking signature are left only in virtual space. Memory is always already a performance of virtuality.

REASON FOR BANNING S.E.C. FROM TRANSMEDIALE.08
According to the new director of Transmediale Stephen Kovats and to the Guest Curator of the exhibition CONSPIRE… Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, the great cause for banning this project from the festival 4 days before its opening has to be find in “judicial and legislative reasons” (Kovats) and “personal - curatorial and ethical convictions« (Petrešin-Bachelez).
Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša understand the banning act as an ACT OF POWER perpetrated by the artistic director of the festival and its guest-curator to the detriment of the artists and as an ACT OF VIOLENCE towards freedom of artistic expression.
Artists hereby formally invite the director of Transmediale Stephen Kovats, the guest-curator of the exhibition CONSPIRE… Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and all the subscribers of this mailing list to an open confrontation on issues disclosed by Signature Event Context.
"Signature Event Context" - images of the performance www.aksioma.org/sec/press.html
Credits
Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
Signature Event Context
Performance, SI, 2008
Production: Aksioma http://www.aksioma.org/
Co-production: Maska http://www.maska.si/,
Arscenic http://www.arscenic.info/

Sonic Acts XII - The Cinematic Experience

Long before celluloid was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century, other media were used to create cinematic experiences: magic lanterns, colour organs, zoëtropes, phenakistoscopes and many other, often optical machines. But even after the introduction of celluloid and the rise of cinema as a spatial concept, there were many attempts to redefine the concept of cinema. This was driven by avant-garde filmmakers during the interbellum, such as Walter Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger; Jordan Belson and Henry (Ken) Jacobs in the 50s with their Vortex concerts and Le Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion at the World Expo in 1958 by Xenakis and Varèse; and in the 60s by experiments such as computer and film pioneer Stan Vanderbeek’s Movie Drome project. In the 80s and 90s an increasing number of artists, filmmakers, musicians and composers created all kinds of immersive environments in which they experimented with new forms of cinema.

KEIICHIRO SHIBUYA + TAKASHI IKEGAMI “filmachine”

"Filmachine" is fully uses complex sounds generated from the chaotic dynamics and tapes and machine dynamics, organizing a fully 3D motion structures. A Phenomenologist Husserl discusses a network of longitudinal and transverse intentionality as a basis of subjective perception, where the longitudinal intentionality is a spatial structure and the transverse intentionality is a temporal structure. A spatial structure does not merely imply the 3D space emulated by the "Huron" system, but a space in perception, that is, perceptual structure as a knitting of memory and embodiment. "Filmachine" is an experimental instrument as well as a virtual space/time structure developed by an evolutionary form of the third-term music.
That is, "filmachine" synthesizes sound membranes (film) but at the same time, the machine itself becomes an internal observer by compiling the space/time complexity with sound dynamics.

concept, composition: Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami
multiphonic 3-dimentional programming: evala
program development: Yuta Ogai
lighting control programming: Daito Manabe
production assistant: maria
technical support: YCAM InterLab

Jean Otth

(born in 1940, lives and works in Chavannes-près-Renens, Switzerland)
After studying art history and philosophy at the University of Lausanne, Jean Otth attended the art school of Lausanne. From then on, his artistic trajectory, still influenced by the practice of painting, became closely tied to the emergence of new technologies. He is one of the pioneers of video art in Switzerland in the early 1970’s, and his works were soon seen in numerous exhibitions both in Switzerland and abroad: Dokumenta 6 in Kassel, A.S.A.C., the Venice Biennale, and notably the Biennale of São Paulo, where he received the prize “Art and Communication” in 1973. During that period, he collaborated with professor René Berger on the course “Aesthetic and Mass Media” at the University of Lausanne.
http://www.jeanotth.net/index.php?l=EN
nouvelles Augures
http://www.jeanotth.net/index.php?l=EN&display=nouvaugures2
Métastases d’orage
http://www.jeanotth.net/index.php?l=EN&display=metastasesdorage
c.e.mo.v.i.s 03c.
The last title of the « anarchive » series dedicated to Jean Otth's ¦uvre is published.
http://www.anarchive.net/indexeng.htm
http://www.jeanotth.net/index.php?l=EN&display=cemovis3

Andey Bartenev

http://www.bartenev.ru/

Andre Gingras's - CYP17

http://www.korzo.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_korzo_productie&p=362&m=169

http://www.korzo.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_korzo_creators&b=detail&p=3&type=choreografen&m=169

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

amazing guitar player


And here are the lyrics:
''Give me the beat boys'' (from Bill Withers)

Day after day I'm more confused
But I look for the light through the pouring rain
You know that's a game that I hate to lose
Now I'm feeling the strain
Aint it a shame?

Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away
Give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away

Beginning to think that I'm wasting time
I don't understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
I'm counting on you
To carry me through

And when my mind is free you know melody can move me
And when I'm feeling blue the guitar's coming through to soothe me
Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Your rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You've helped me along
You're making me strong

Now now now won't you take me?
Oh oh take me
Fly high...

http://www.makeworlds.org/

http://www.makeworlds.org/

AV Festival 08

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/
At AV Festival 08, we will discover that ever since the first experiments in wireless transmission by Nikola Tesla2, broadcasting has been a mechanism to enact social change. The power of broadcasting to shape public behaviour was graphically portrayed in 1938, by dramatist, Orson Welles, in his now legendary adaptation of War of the Worlds. The broadcast blurred the factual format of newscasting, with a fictional story of alien invasion and sparked panic amongst radio listeners. We celebrate the 70th anniversary of this crucial moment in broadcasting history, with a new version of the radio play staged by acclaimed theatre director Joanna Read (Middlesbrough Town Hall, 5 March).
Broadcasting continued to witness and transmit social history with images joining sound on the airwaves, as television became part of public life. AV Festival 08’s screening programme TV at the Cinema brings television to the big screen, showcasing landmark programmes, such as Ken Loach’s pioneering drama Cathy Come Home (Tyneside Cinema, 6 March), a graphic depiction of homelessness which inspired real policy change in 1960s Britain. Later political satire, such as the incendiary Brass Eye (Tyneside Cinema, 8 March), showed how television had become a platform to mock the political establishment. You can voice your own opinion about television, by voting for your favourite show online at our Alternative Top TV poll (www.avfestival.co.uk/toptv). The winning TV show will be shown at a gala screening (Tyneside Cinema, 7 March).
As broadcasting became increasingly ubiquitous, it became not only a means of observing social reality, but also increasingly a mechanism to shape it. Harun Farocki’s Videogram of a Revolution depicts the so-called television revolution in Romania in 1989, where broadcasting played a critical role in the fall of Ceauşescu regime. And politicians’ ruthless manipulation of television is vividly brought to life in Brian Springer’s Spin (both at Star and Shadow Cinema, 5 March).

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Borderline by VideoActiv-Berlin


Borderline: Süd-Ost Europa / Borderline: South-East Europe
Eine knapp einstündige doku über grenzen, eu-osterweiterung, roma - aus der perspektive der menschen, denen wir auf unserer reise begegnet sind.

borderline, is a one-hour doco about borders, the EU's growth into the East, aswell as the Roma people - told from the perspective of the people, whom we have met on our journey.


2002, 55min, auch als engliche Version (Bestellung in Doitschland)(8€ + Porto 2,50€) :: ONLINE BESTELLUNG BALD VERFÜGBAR 2004, 60 min, english/german (International Orders) (8€ + postage 4,50€) :: ONLINE ORDER AVAILABLE SOON
http://www.videoaktiv-berlin.org/borderline.htm

Interview with Phyllis Kind

Katsuhiro Terao

Hiroyuki Doi

Carlo Zinelli
AK: What are the differences and similarities between an outsider, or self-taught artist, and an insider, or classically trained artist?
PK: I believe the major difference is that self-taught artists are working for a different motive — an interior motive. Someone like Howard Finster was working to proselytize for Jesus. Both Wölfli and Ramírez had a personal narrative in mind, but it wasn't necessarily artistic, per se; they weren't thinking of themselves as artists or making art for the world. They just didn't have that historical conception of art in their heads, or the ideas of criticism, so what they're doing is outside of the conventional dialogue. I can't say it's a monologue because the word "monologue" has a derogatory, boastful side to it, and the impulse of outsider art isn't the least bit boastful. It's a job. It's a need. It's something that completely takes over their lives — whether they're doing it for Jesus or for God or for the apocalyptic end of the world. Their interior motive is something that's just intrinsic, and they don't identify it in relation to others. They aren't concerned about selling art to others, for money or critical approval. Although, the broader issue of approval is interesting; for instance, Ramírez used to bring people into his little room, and he would arrange them in the way he wanted them to view his work, which was tacked up on the wall. And Wölfli loved it if someone liked his work. But that has nothing to do with why they made it. There's no parrot of approval sitting on their shoulder and involved in a dialogue with them.
As for the similarity, something I've only just realized is that genuine artists, who invent their own vocabulary of form, become super involved with the activity of art-making itself. This might happen when they're just working and working, and all of a sudden, the work takes over and tells them what to do. And afterwards, they say, "Jeez, did I do that?" There's a film I was just watching about self-taught artist James Castle, and Robert Storr is quoted in it as saying something like, "It's frequently said that many artists have no intentions." I want you to know that all artists have intentions — but those intentions, which may or may not actually manifest in the final work, are beside the point. For years, I've spoken about something called intentional fallacy, and what intentional fallacy is about is that you cannot judge a work of art by what the artist intended to do; the work itself has a kind of agency. So an artist's intention for the work of art is neither necessary nor sufficient to make it a work of art. It's even more interesting when we try to make a connection between whatever the hell the artist intended and the resulting piece. Once an artist starts to think that they're doing what critics tell them they're doing, they sometimes take on this attitude about what they should be making and who they really are, and it stiffens their work. But every genuine artist, whether self-taught or trained, has a deeper level of involvement with their work.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Quality of Life Index-The World in 2005

The Economist Intelligence Unit draws up its "quality of life index"
http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf

Proprioception

Proprioception (pronounced /ˌproʊpriːəˈsɛpʃən/ PRO-pree-o-SEP-shun); from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body. Unlike the six exteroceptive senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and balance) by which we perceive the outside world, and interoceptive senses, by which we perceive the pain and the stretching of internal organs, proprioception is a third distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.
Kinesthesia is another term that is often used interchangeably with proprioception. Some differentiate the kinesthetic sense from proprioception by excluding the sense of equilibrium or balance from kinesthesia. An inner ear infection, for example, might degrade the sense of balance. This would degrade the proprioceptive sense, but not the kinesthetic sense. The infected person would be able to walk, but only by using the sense of sight to maintain balance; the person would be unable to walk with eyes closed.

12 of the best documentaries about Obsessive Hobbyists

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, about America's top Donkey Kong player, his challenger, and the vintage gaming subculture around them.
Wordplay Dir. Patrick Creadon, 2006
Spellbound Dir. Jeffrey Blitz, 2002
Scrabylon Dir. Scott M. Petersen, 2003
Darkon Dir. Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer, 2006
Über Goober Dir. Steve Metze, 2004
Air Guitar Nation Dir. Alexandra Lipsitz, 2006
Karaoke Fever Dir. Arthur Borman and Steve Danielson, 2001
Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating Dir. Danielle Franco and Christopher Kenneally, 2004
Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine Dir. Vikram Jayanti, 2003
Tetris: From Russia with Love Dir. Magnus Temple, 2004
Wild Wheels Dir. Harrod Blank, 1992
Hands on a Hard Body Dir. S.R. Bindler, 1997

12 Fiction Features About Obsessive Hobbyists
Searching for Bobby Fischer Dir. Steve Zaillian, 1993
Dangerous Moves Dir. Richard Dembo, 1984
WarGames Dir. John Badham, 1983
The Go Masters Dir. Duan Ji-shun and Junya Sato, 1982
The Last Starfighter Dir. Nick Castle, Jr. 1984
The Wizard Dir. Todd Holland, 1989
Strictly Ballroom Dir. Baz Lurhmann, 1992
Billy Elliot Dir. Steven Daldry, 2000
Tommy Dir. Ken Russell, 1975
Best in Show Dir. Christopher Guest, 2000
Balls of Fury Dir. Ben Garant, 2007
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story Dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2004

Nuage Vert by HeHe

Nuage Vert Dunkerque, 2002
A tracking system and laser beam projection, onto the vapour emission of a waste incinerator factory. The illuminated moving cloud will change colour - from pink to green - to show the level of waste being collected compared to the waste being recycled. This information is used to ask consumers to produce less waste and therefore contribute to a more sustainable environment. The results of the collective micro-actions will be visible over the course of three months.

Nuage Vert Helsinki, 2002

Every night from the 22 to the 29 of February 2008, the vapour emissions of he Salmisaari power plant in Helsinki will be illuminated to show the current levels of electricity consumption by local residents. A laser ray will trace the cloud during the night time and turn it into a city scale neon sign. Nuage Vert is a communal event for the area of Ruoholahti, which anticipates esoteric cults centred on energy and transforms an active power plant into a space for art, a living factory. In tandem, as a reversal of conventional roles whereby the post-industrial factory is turned into space for culture, Kaapeli (the cultural factory) becomes the site of operation and Salmisaari (the industrious factory) becomes the site of spectacle.
No other space, network, grid, community could better represent a city and it's activity as a whole. The physical dimension of the Salmisaari site, inhabits a special position in Helsinki; physically, visually and metaphorically. The vertical vectors of the architecture connect the underworld with the sky: the underground coal storage tunnels descend to 126m below sea level (the deepest point in Helsinki) whilst it's chimney reaches 155m into the sky with its cloud disappearing into the lower atmosphere. On the horizontal plane, the warm water tubes spread out like veins to heat the homes and offices of Helsinki. Since hot water cannot travel far, the factory is necessarily situated in the city centre, not in the periphery. The factory IS the centre. The extended space, vertically and horizontally, defines the sphere in which people live. In this sphere we are slowly becoming aware of the material and nonmaterial analogy between religion and energy. The factory gives us warmth, it is the provider of comfort and our lives increasingly depend upon it. Energy and religion are both visible and real, they shape our physical environment in the form of the enormous buildings that we build, and yet they are invisible. Since electricity cannot be stored, like religion, it is ephemeral and only exists in the moment of consumption. In February 2008 we will herd around this cathedral of energy and celebrate. http://www.pixelache.org/nuagevert/info.html

HeHe, the duo Helen Evans (British) and Heiko Hansen (German), live and workin Paris and initially conceived the project in 2003. HeHe was recentlycommissioned to make Champs d'Ozone at the Centre Georges Pompidou'sanniversary exhibition Airs de Paris. Their interest in air is also apparentin their 'Smoking Lamp' installation, which coincided with the Europe wideban on smoking in public space. Working in a variety of media andcontemporary technologies, their work has been described as poetic andpoignant, dealing with serious issues in a playful way. Their work engageswith the design and interpretation of urban space and the relationshipbetween individuals and their architectural and urban environment.HeHe: http://hehe.org.free.fr/

MEDIA ART HISTORY

http://www.mediaarthistory.org/
DANUBE TELELECTURES - Archive
Department for Image Science.
http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/department/bildwissenschaft/departmentinfo/index.php
Sarat MAHARAJ and Machiko KUSAHARA: Does the West still exist?
Gunalan NADARAJAN and Jens HAUSER: Pygmalion Tendencies: Bioart and its Precursors
Christiane PAUL and Paul SERMON: Myths of Immateriality: Curating and Archiving Media ArtLev MANOVICH and Sean CUBITT: Remixing Cinema: Future and Past of Moving Images www.donau-uni.ac.at/dtl-archive
www.donau-uni.ac.at/telelectures

"SPATIAL PERCEPTIONS AND MODELS IN AUTHENTIC CULTURES AND NEW MEDIA" by Olga R Ziangirova

Spatial perception in a net "work".
While using the Internet, we are naturally keeping in mind the spatial scales of this communication media. The involvement of a "spatial" awareness can not be abandoned, while we are "pushing out" another web page form the World Wide Web, containing in it an information, which has been produced somewhere far away on another continent.
It is a phenomena of the direct and flexible spatial communication, the case, when not you, who are proposed to use for the communication this or that geographical or topographic area, as in the case, when you are using the conventional media, but you, yourself is making your own choice and virtually "moving" through different zones and interacting with them.
While doing that, you can, in a particular extent, choose as well the quality and quantity of information, which you are going to precept. In any case, we , in most of the cases, are aware, how far away the informational source is, and where is placed a server, which contains
this particular data.
This spatial and informational shift in perception of spatially distanced objects is being definitely recognized by our conscious or at least, unconscious mind. That means, at a particular extent, some new perception reactions are being switched on, and some functional zones of the brain are being activated.
And subconsciously, the feeling of overcoming of a long distances is being invoked. Receiving text from the networks, hypothetically we are moving on a bigger distance, then a distance to the bookshelf, from which we could have taken this or that book or magazine.
Definitely, it brings particular impact on the neuron networks of our brain and nervous system operations. Such perception scaling is increasing due to the interaction with hypothetical macro cyberspace, from which the information is being received. May be, "pulling" of information out of the cyberspace includes the efforts on its "overcoming." In fact, particular involvement of a spatial perception might be supported by any other type of media transmission.
In the case of Internet communication, the possibilities of choice in virtual movement and its trajectory is switching on as well the other type of perceptional and reflective impulses.
Neuropsychological aspects of spatial perception.
According to the recent researches, the harmonious development of spatial notions and perceptions is specially important not only for the collective cultural growth, but as well, for the personal human's development.
They are one of the first, which we are receiving after our birth.
In the beginning of our life we are existing outside the the collective system of symbols and language. Space and its elements are the main areas for communicating and overcoming. It ia the first "communication" with the outer world, which is shaping our character and the world vision.
Normative neuropathology was associating the spatial and imaginary perception with the right brain activity, while the reflective thinking processes were associated with the actualization of the left brain. The latest theories and practical neuropsychological experiments had proved, that the right brain is constantly important not only for the imaginary perception of the information, but for the reflecting of it as well. It is specially important for "scaling" all type
the information and not only the imaginary one.
Along with the imaginary perception, it also supports the processes of its structuring and analyzing of the structure, the abilities for understanding the relations between the structure and its details, for ordering of the both and so-called general perception of the things and events. Spatial notions and perceptions are important not only for the collective cultural grouth, but as well for the personalhuman 's development .
They are one of the first, which we are receiving after our birth.
In the beginning of our lifes we are existing outside the the collective system of symbols and language. Space and its elements are the main areas for communicating and overcoming It ia the first "communication" which is shaping our character and the world vision. According to researches in the area of psychoneurology spatial perception changes according to the type of the deseases. The comparative analyses of the drawings done by chidlren with different neuropathologies the images proves this.
Handicapt children with the right- brain neuropathologies are unable to organise the space of a drawing, to put the objects into order or to regulate them .
Their drawings are disordered and chaotical,or too symplifyed.
They are unable to reproduce the egual forms,keep the wright scale of the picture and its details, to follow the structure of an image. The same symptoms are represented in their behaviour and movements through the space.
That means, the right brain also provides the abilities of discriminating between basic things and secondary.
Previously, it was related to some rudimentary process in our neuron system, as well, as with some archaic background of the humanity, something unnecessary and dark. But in fact, the spatial perception has been playing an important part in the general formation of the humane intelligence, and as well its reflective functions.
Since the humane pasts, spatial interaction and perception has been supporting the most important impulses, which were moving forward the cultural development of different civilizations.
Spatial notions and perceptions in authentic cultures.
Spatial notions are considered to be the basic humane notions through the whole civilization history. In most of authentic cultures special traditional methods have been worked out by many generations, aiming to protect symbolically, the humans from the inner and outer destructive forces and natural collimates. They were based on the special relationships with nature and on very precise ways of perception and organizing of the environment.
These ancient anti entropy measures and methods are manifested in the ancient cultural artifacts of different traditions. Their decorative elements were having an additional symbolical functions, and were aimed to harmonize personal, collective and natural environments.
It was an evolutionary developed symbolical language, which was
used for communicating with the outer world and its elements.
It was not just the language of "order", or the violent shaping methods. May be, more or less, it was the way and the language of respectful communication with the matter itself and the method of shaping the inner and outer environments, according to their own laws, structures, their ordered and harmonized aspects.
According to the tradition, applied artists and architects, being in correspondence with such an essential environmental vision, were associating their work with the activity of the creative and ordering universal forces.
May be, because of this, the ancient cultural inheritance, especially its artifacts, are so attractive and inspiring, comparing to particular de-humanized and symbolic - less, in - significant artificial cultural landscapes and objects of the present time.
In spite of the fact, that these ancient cultural visions were specifically mythological, and were not equipped too much by scientific and technological methodologies and tools, they were connected, in a true way, with the essential aspects of the evolutionary developed matter and existence, with the intuitive and perceptional dimensions of the humane nature.
Inside and outside the cyber -"space".
When we are inside the virtual cyberspace, it does not mean, we are interacting with something imaginary or illusory. In most of the cases, we are quite aware, that through the WWW, we are interacting with real distances, spaces and lands.
In fact, with our mind we are really "going through" the places and lands. This network spatial "cyber- exercising" can be used, as an exercise of imaginary moving through the space and corresponding yourself, your own individual environment with the global one. This "exercise" might stimulate particular brain zones, related to a spatial perception, but the success of such an exercise definitely depends on the intentions and personal qualities of the "user".
Such an extra involvement into the active processes of spatial perception during the "net-work", is as well corresponded with our neuron's network. Both of the networks have similar structural
principles and the basics of their organization.
For understanding this, it is important to stress out, that the processes of distribution of energy and information are basically organized in a hierarchical order, essentially suitable for this particular system.
In any case, for many of the modern recipients of information, who in some of the cases, are trapped by rather "private" ways of spatial perception, could be nice to have sometimes some
positive and concient travels through the "world wide " space.
May be, it will happen once, that the activated "rudimental" spatial perception, will be able to
solve, as well, some actual problems of the present day.
This will happen, if a modern way of concentration on the global environment, or on the "universal" one, in its attitudes will be really resembling some of the healthy ancient authentic cultural practices and "world visions".
Spatial models in authentic artifacts.
In general, the ways of spatial perception in of authentic cultures was different, than the contemporary one.The correspondence with the environment was specially important, and respectful relation with it, was one of the main necessary things in the hard conditions of
existing inside the natural environment.
That's why, most of cultural artifacts, which were created during the particular civilization stages, have been shaped as a micro-cosmic models, imitating the universal space construction. They were constructed as smaller models of environment, in order to interact
with the global one. These artifacts were including, manifesting, resembling, the same with
outer environment, structural principles, temporal and spatial dimensions. These principles and dimensions were included into the ornamental decoration and were supporting the inner concentration of their owners and "users" on the principles of order in the essential
construction of the universe.
Such an artifact, whether it was a pot, a musical instrument, dwelling or a temple, icon or a carpet, has been working itself, as a communicative space, as well as a spatial "harmonizing", ordering agent and mediator, which was invoking the feelings of harmony and
essential eternal order of the outer world and existence.
The concentration on the universal structures, was supposed to be resonating with the inner space of an individual, to welcome into his life the same principles of order and harmony. Along with this, to prevent the outer entropy of the natural forces, catastrophes inside
the natural environment, and may be, to overcome the inner processes of entropy inside the humane mind.
Such rather ordinary objects, which were symbolizing the ordered and harmonized world, functionally, could be compared to a kind of symbolic "computers", which have been helping their owners to communicate and to be in a correspondence with surrounding natural environment and the outer world.
It makes clear, why, the ornamentation and decoration of particular artifacts are so similar in different areas and cultural traditions and, why it has such an obvious basic structural similarity. If we will look at some simple artifacts, decorated with the same
axes, crosses, circles, rhythmic structures, spirals, squatters and other so called "archetypal" forms. In fact, this structures and ornaments were not so much having just a decorative function, but first of all, were intending to prevent the negative influences and the processes of entropy inside and outside personal and natural environment, in the mythological
interpretation, to take away, contro force or put into harmoniouce balance the influences of "evil forces".
Authentic cultural predicates, modern art and technological revolution in the beginning of 20th century. Abstract geometrical structures in the basis of an ancient artifacts, were inspiring the pioneers of modernism, and, in fact, have pushed forward the vanguard movements in the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired the first abstractionists. Sometimes, the routes of abstractionist revolution and the reasons for general change of artistic spatial expression in early twentieths is associated only with the technological development. In fact, it is not remembered enough about some other important dominant impulses, which have been giving birth to contemporary culture.
This hidden force, which was pushing forward vanguard movements, paradoxically, were contained within the authentic art inheritance, ancient artifacts and antiquities. It is well known, that early vanguard artists were collecting and imitating authentic artifacts, some were experimenting with shapes of tribal objects, some, - "deconstructing" traditional iconography and applied art.
It is also known, that this fashion has been widely spread in Europe and in Russia, and radically stimulated the art experiments of Picasso, waked up modernism's pioneers - Goncharova and
Larionov, and has been one of the basic areas for experimenting for such famous artists as Malevich and Candinskyi.
"A search for the structure" was one of the most important for different cultural and scientific areas of that period. It has been manifested in the the issues of structuralists and the research works in the areas of linguistics, anthropology and ethnography.
It was quite a general cultural process, which was based on the attempt to bring to the modern awareness past time cultural inheritance, and at the same time, to withdraw from it. The second, rather formal neglecting part of this process was achieved quite successfully, and gave the birth to different radical vanguards movements. But the first - reflective one, at that time, it seems, has not been completed enough.
Filtered and simplified old cultural inheritance, has become the basis for the new modern visual culture. Lacking necessary reflections, and aesthetically dried, it had lost the main basic traditional connotations and symbolical meanings, which were protecting and ordering the life and development of the ancestors.
On the other hand, an intensive concentration on the basic spatial structures of the authentic art, had helped, in the beginning the 20th century, to break through the traps of realistic forms and material objects, and has opened art and culture to new, multi-dimensional
perceptions.
The same cultural tendencies have left their traces in mathematical and logical fields of science, and later, gave the birth to the applied linguistics and the computer sciences, had started the new wave of technological development, and advanced computer technologies.
Unfortunately, till nowadays, to a particular extent, some of these cultural technological processes are based on the same, pragmatically simplified intentions and "narrow", flat spatial/world visions and perceptions.
The full version of the project is availible at the archive of Academy for Media arts, (KHM), Cologne http://www.khm.de/

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Marius Watz (b. 1973)


Marius Watz is an artist concerned with generative systems for creating visual form, still, animated or realtime. His signature is a brand of visual hedonism, marked by colourful organic shapes and a maximalist attitude. Most of his works deal with drawing machines implemented in software, live visuals for music or large-scale projections of plastic visual systems.



Center For Virtual Architecture (CVA)

http://cva.ap.buffalo.edu/

"GAZA: LIFT THE BLOCKADE" - The Relief Convoy on its way

"GAZA: LIFT THE BLOCKADE" - The Relief Convoy on its way
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html

Dictionary of war

Dictionary of war is a collaborative platform for creating concepts on the issue of war, to be invented, arranged and presented by scientists, artists, theorists and activists at public, two-day events. The aim is to create key concepts that either play a significant role in current discussions of war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created. The first 100 concepts have been produced in four editions in Frankfurt, Munich, Graz and Berlin over the past two years. All video-recordings, manuscripts, related material are available on this website.
http://dictionaryofwar.org/
http://v2v.cc/

TANK.TV

The Whole World
Curated by Ian White
1st January 2008 – 1st March 2008
The Whole World is a list of lists: a programme of artists' film and video and an interactive online exhibition.
tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film andvideo. Dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and establishedinternational artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery andarchive for video art. A platform for contemporary moving images.
http://www.tank.tv/

Mel Alexenberg

Mel Alexenberg is an artist who creates artworks at the interface between art, science, technology, and culture. His artworks explore interrelationships between digital age art and Jewish consciousness, space-time systems and electronic technologies, participatory art and community, high tech and high touch experiences, and responsive art in cyberspace and real space.
http://www.melalexenberg.com/index.htm
http://artiststory.blogspot.com/

"Towards a synergistic understanding of synaesthesia."

Smilek, Daniel, and Mike J. Dixon. (2002). "Towards a synergistic understanding of synaesthesia." Psyche, volume 8.
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v8/psyche-8-01-smilek.html
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/psyche-index-v1.html
PSYCHE an interdisciplinary journal of research on consciousness
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/index.html

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

"I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design." Read more
http://www.venganza.org/
FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER - THE GAME
http://www.venganza.org/games/index_large.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Friday, January 25, 2008

An interview with Steven Weinberg

Nobel laureate physicist Steven Weinberg has been vocal in his criticism of NASA's human spaceflight efforts. Sam Dinkin interviews Weinberg to learn more about his opposition to such efforts and what he feels the appropriate uses of space are.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1037/1

Intelligent Environments conference

Special Session on Social and Psychological Dimensions of Designing and Experiencing Intelligent Environments in the Urban Context.
session organizers:Dr. Dimitris Charitos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Everyday urban environments can be seen as complex spatial systems, which function as contexts for supporting communication. In the beginning of the 21st century, these environments are radically being re-ordered by technological systems and networks. These environments may also incorporate systems, which capture visual, auditory and other types of information regarding human activity and consequently utilize this input to affect the process of generating digital representations. Very recent advances in mobile, wireless, pervasive and ubiquitous computing technologies have begun to transform the potential for social interaction taking place within urban public space. We can therefore put forward the hypothesis that the incorporation of ICT systems results in an electronic enhancement of our everyday urban environment since our communication with these environments and with other individuals who exist and act within them is mediated by these systems. The most advanced form of these mediated spaces incorporate intelligence thus affording a novel type of mediation. These intelligent environments could be regarded as spatial interfaces that expand in physical space and integrate with it, thus affording a hybrid (physical and mediated) spatial experience, in the context of which a novel form of social interaction may occur. Thus, the experience of interacting with/within an intelligent environment may affect the way that users perceive the relation between the physical world and the technologically mediated environment and consequently the way that they experience and conceive of urban public space and everyday life within it. The significance of these changes for social life in a 21st century city is the main motivation for proposing this special session. The focus of the session is on investigating the emergence of intelligent environments and the impact that the implementation and use of such systems has on their users, from a social and psychological perspective and ultimately on mediated communication taking place within the context of these spaces. Particular emphasis is given to investigating the manner in which the urban spatial context, where situated communication occurs, is transformed by the introduction of these technologies. Indeed, when we refer to multi-user intelligent environment systems, these could be seen as communication environments, which function as systems supporting interpersonal computer-mediated communication; within the context of these environments, communication amongst locally or remotely located, networked individuals is mediated. Intelligent environments are systems of situated, context-aware communication.They bring human-computer communication and human-computer-human communication back into the context of our physical world, instead of expecting humans to adapt to the needs of a computer environment. In order to understand the social ramifications of these mediated spaces, it is important to: investigate the impact that the kind of interpersonal communication they support has on our everyday experience within the urban context; propose conceptual models for understanding the use and impact of such systems; study the use and impact of these systems from a user perspective, regarding either the personal or the interpersonal aspect of this use. The proposed special session welcomes contributions that will spark discussions on the personal and social implications and effects of using urban intelligent systems, which may consequently be useful for informing the design of such interactive environmental experiences.
For more information please contact: Dr. Dimitris Charitos, vedesign@otenet.gr, UOA, Greece.
www.media.uoa.gr/~charitos
See: http://conferences.theiet.org/ie08/cfp.htm for more info

Post-communist public space

Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw calls for video/photodocumentation of artistic projects referring to post-communist publicspaces.
Selection of the documentation will be presented in Zacheta gallery spacein relation to the public art project organized between March and December 2008 in Warsaw
Please send inquiries or submissions to:
Joanna Sokolowska
Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 300-916 Warsaw
Description of the project:
The dominant mode of production in cities is undergoing a fundamentalchange. From places of manufacturing and commerce, cities are becomingplaces whose focus is services and leisure, and creativity thus becomes amajor element in the production of wealth. This transformation goes handin hand with a destabilisation of hierarchies (those through which we makecategorise and make sense of knowledge, society, art, etc.) and aloosening up of social spaces, but at the same time makes them vulnerableto new types of appropriation and control. In the post-communist cities,this transformation is particularly striking. For these cities haverapidly moved away from a socialist modernity, which is often cast as amistaken or unfulfilled modernity, towards new social formations for whichadequate models, whether political or academic, have yet to be found. Weseem to be stuck between a past we can neither be rid of nor understand(much though some would want to cleanse it) and a West we can never be (much though some would want to embrace it).
The multifaceted post-communist urban structure is characterised bysimultaneous mutual interaction of many processes of apparentlycontradictory logic: of shutting and opening. The politics of symbolic memory, the representation of power, a narrow definition of national andreligious values function at the same time as the opening of the city tothe flows of capital and economy based on knowledge and culture. The processes of opening and liberalization are accompanied by the emergenceof new regimes of surveillance, borders, exclusions (e.g. particular typesof migration, trade and leisure are actively encouraged, while others aremade illegal).What everyday strategies do the inhabitants of a city like Warsaw developto deal with the new configuration of possibilities and prohibitions, ofliberation and control? What are their expectations or memories; and whatare they unwilling or unable to see? The challenge of this project is to ask ’ÄúWhat, under such circumstances,can artists tell us about Warsaw or how can they impact in the publicspace of this city?’Äù For artists are not innocent in the processesunderway. Even as they attempt to critique and explore, their successesmake them spokespeople for the new economy: creation is capital. But perhaps it is only art that is supple enough to uncover the paradoxes andundiscovereds of the way in which the everyday life of Warsaw is now changing. It would be nice to think that art is not fatally compromised,but that it is possible for art to exploit the uncertainty of its positionin the processes of production, to turn attention away from a productionof status towards an intervention and experimentation with space, perhapsan epistemology of space, that could enable the production of thespecificity of spaces themselves, exploring and extending perhaps thetheoretical challenge set out by Henri Lefˆ®vbre in his book The Production of Space. The above text is a proposition or challenge to which we will invite arange of artists from Poland and other Eastern European countries, to makeinterventions in the space of Warsaw. These interventions will then bedocumented in the Maly Salon space of Zacheta gallery, less in the form ofan exhibition than in the form of a multi-lateral documentation of a workin progress: what can art tell us about contemporary Warsaw? How much of what it is undergoing is a unique local story, and how much simply aparticular example of wider global or regional processes? The documentation of artworks will be accompanied by archival informationabout interventions in the public space of different post-communist citiesand academic texts dealing with this topic published in a blog.
Curators
Joanna Sokolowska and Benjamin Cope

Thursday, January 24, 2008

paul brown

artist and writer specialising in art & technology
http://www.paul-brown.com/

The Computer Arts Society (CAS)

The Computer Arts Society (CAS) promotes the creative uses of computers in the arts and culture generally. It is a community of interest for all involved in doing, managing, interpreting and understanding information technology's cultural potential.
http://www.computer-arts-society.org/index.html
See also PAGE bulletin
http://www.computer-arts-society.org/page/index.html

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Monday, January 21, 2008

Performance?

Place In Place Of: Alexandria‘Place In Place Of: Alexandria’ is a work in progress by Jeremy Beaudry that manifests itself as a set of site-specific interventions, performances, and documents based in Alexandria, Egypt. Equally important and essential, this project will be co-created as a collaboration with local art and architecture university students and recent graduates. The research and documentation will be collected, reconstituted, and recontextualized on the Web at alexandria.placeinplaceof.net

‘Place In Place Of: Alexandria’ is the first project in the series of events, workshops, exhibitions, and lectures collectively titled CLEOTRONICA: Festival for Media, Art, and Socio-Culture organized by Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), more information will be available on CLEOTRONICA in February.

Posted on Jan 11, 2008
In what sense does my presence in Alexandria constitute a performance? (And if it does, what does that mean? Is it even all that significant?)
I think I’m wrestling with a definition of performance here. Admittedly, as a discipline with a unique history, my knowledge of performance is weak. Is performance dependent on some degree of intentionality? Or can performances be staged unknowingly by actors in the course of everyday actions and movements? What is the frame that is drawn around a particular body (or bodies) in a particular space and during a particular time to distinguish a performance? Must there be a receptive audience in order to legitimize the action(s) as a performance? What role does documentation fulfill in the reception and validation of a performance? Must a performance be made public?
I know this is happening: My movement through the city is conspicuous; it is noticed by the inhabitants of Alexandria. I can’t remember the last time I have been so aware of my own visibility in public spaces. Merely walking down the street elicits curious stares, smiles from children, excited greetings in English. (”Hello! Welcome! How are you?”) If I happen to be taking photographs of the funny things that I take photographs of, or walk through the market pointing a microphone in every direction, then I sometimes achieve the status of spectacle. It is this attention that I’m not used to and that has me considering my stay here as a performance.
Back to (dictionary) definitions. Perform is somewhat ambiguous, oscillating between “carry out, accomplish, or fulfill” and “present to an audience.” Similarly, performance: “action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function” and “act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment.” Well, these aren’t very helpful at all actually…
Precedents come to mind: Mierle Ukeles washing the steps of the museum or shaking hands with every sanitation worker in NYC, Ulay and Marina Abramovic walking towards each other and the end of their relationship on the Great Wall of China, Gordan Matta-Clark and friends running the Food restaurant, Vito Acconci following strangers on the street, Alan Kaprow’s downtown happenings, Sophie Callie having her mother hire a private investogator to take surveillance photos of her, Situationist drifting in Paris, Francis Alys carrying a gun through Mexico City or a leaky can of paint, Joseph Beuys living in a NYC gallery with a coyote for a week, Alex Villar occupying public niche spaces, Bas Jan Ader sailing out to sea and never coming back, Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire in protest, terrorists flying planes into buildings… There are countless others.
That I would consider my presence in Alexandria as a performance has, essentially, to do with my body in space, and how the presence of my body changes that space, changes the people in that space. And what that presence might mean. My otherness here produces a kind of emanation that people visibly sense. My otherness stems from my appearance as a white western-looking male which, as Bassam (ACAF curator) notes, carries with it a degree of cultural power: my body is draped in the garments of western (mostly American) hegemony. If I do acknowledge the effect that my body has on the spaces I move through, I wish to do so without placing too much importance on these small changes. But they have significance in their own right that I am trying to come to terms with.
Finally, relating to the more modest sense of performance, I have thought about the pedestrian histories of the city as being performed by its inhabitants. My mundane performances in Alexandria—my own pedestrian histories—are compiled alongside theirs as we live out so many routines, paths, stories, etc each day.

Related Links:
http://meaning.boxwith.com/
http://thinktank.boxwith.com/
http://alexandria.placeinplaceof.net/
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)
http://www.acafspace.org/

C:Art:Media

C:Art:Media is an international two-year master's programme aimed at students committed to a contemporary art practice using digital media in the realization of their work. The strength of C:Art:Media lies in the ambition to take the relation between art and technology to its fullest potential. Depending on the students' ambitions and interests they can choose to take either a Master of Science or a Master of Fine Arts Degree.
Read more about C:Art:Media and the application process at the C:Art:Media

www.iraqiscope.org

http://www.iraqiscope.org/

Iraq on Screen

Alex Gibney's haunting and harrowing Winning Best Documentary at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival "Taxi to the Dark Side". The film opens in theaters on Friday.

Lessons of Darkness (Lektionen in Finsternis)
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1992
Werner Herzog's epic, highly visual documentary, sometimes referred to as a science-fiction film, concentrates on the disaster of the burning Kuwaiti oil fields in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. Herzog gracefully presents this hellish landscape through smooth truck-mounted shots and soaring aerial panoramas, seldom providing any sense of scale and giving the blazes a hauntingly majestic, unearthly feel. His narration, delivered from the perspective of a spectator from another planet, is sparse, more poetic and detached than informative; as firemen reignite jets of oil shortly after stopping the fires, he describes them as creatures motivated by madness and a desire to perpetuate the damage they were sent to fix. David Douglas' Fires of Kuwait, also released in 1992, is another more conventional look at the same subject.
Control Room
Dir. Jehane Noujaim, 2004
Following Startup.com, her acclaimed documentary investigation into the perils of the dot-com boom, Egyptian-born filmmaker Jehane Noujaim turned her attention to the ways reality is managed and constructed through the media. Her focus here was Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera's relationship with and coverage of the American military during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and how claims and counterclaims of media bias and propaganda underscored the ongoing tug-of-war between the Western and Islamic worlds. The film premiered at Sundance in 2004, and later helped Noujaim win the prestigious TED Prize, enabling her to organize Pangea Day, an international event this May that aims to unite the world through film
My Country My Country
Dir. Laura Poitras, 2005
Laura Poitras' Academy Award-nominated documentary is a unique insider's glimpse into Iraqi life under US occupation. Poitras spent over eight months alone filming in Baghdad, where she followed Dr. Riyadh, a Sunni physician who practices at the Adhamiya Free Clinic. When the US government attempts to institute democratic reforms in Iraq, Dr. Riyadh—himself an Islamic Party candidate for the Baghdad Provincial Council—is torn between supporting the popular boycott of the elections and joining them to support the democracy that could help stabilize his country. For a variety of reasons, including her inexplicable presence filming on a rooftop during an ambush, Poitras was assigned the highest rating on Homeland Security's watchlist after completing the film.
The Dreams of Sparrows
Dir. Haydar Daffar, 2005 First-time Iraqi director Haydar Daffar and his team of American and Iraqi contributing directors (known as the IraqEye Group) spent two years creating The Dream of Sparrows. After Saddam Hussein's capture, Daffar and his crew braved extreme danger to explore the occupation of Iraq through the eyes of those who witnessed it firsthand. Beginning with painters, writers, and filmmakers, the film delves into the arts and culture of Baghdad; later, interviews begin to veer towards the politics of occupation and resistance. The filmmakers are suddenly drawn much further into the subject when producer Sa'ad Fahker is killed during the battle of Fallujah, an event which dramatically impacts the crew's outlook on the situation in Iraq. The first feature documentary project from the IraqEye Group, The Dream of Sparrows was made with the goal of revitalizing Iraqi cinema within the worldwide film community.
No End in Sight
Dir. Charles Ferguson, 2007 On March 19, 2003, forces from the US and other allied nations invaded Iraq, seeking to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Major combat operations were supposed to take only a few months to complete, and just two months later, President George W. Bush declared that they were over. But by the end of 2006, American troops remained deeply involved in a splintered Iraq that was sinking into civil war. The directorial debut of political scientist and former software entrepreneur Charles Ferguson, No End in Sight concentrates on the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and the decisions that led up to the 2003 invasion, highlighting flawed plans that have not only destabilized Iraq's new government but also turned Iraqi civilians and soldiers against American "aid." The film includes interviews with numerous people who were directly involved in the initial Iraqi occupation, some speaking on camera about the war for the first time. No End in Sight premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Occupation: Dreamland
Dir. Ian Olds and Garrett Scott, 2005Following a unit of soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division, directors Ian Olds and Garrett Scott traveled through the city of Fallujah as soldiers patrolled the community—searching for weapons, interrogating women, and listening to the complaints of locals in their effort to ferret out supporters of Saddam Hussein's regime. In the camp where they are stationed, nicknamed "Dreamland," many soldiers confess to doubts about the mission, wondering if they're any good, what purpose their presence serves, and why they are acting as peacekeepers when they're trained as soldiers. This last concern becomes moot when violence explodes in the city, more than a year after major combat operations were supposed to be over. The film was initially criticized for being too sympathetic towards American soldiers and not critical enough of the war, but it has since gained a following among filmgoers, intellectuals, Iraq veterans, and military families. Scott died of a heart attack in 2005, just days before the film won the Independent Spirit Award.
Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand)
Dir. Bahman Ghobadi, 2004
The first film made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Turtles Can Fly takes place in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of the US invasion. Thirteen-year-old Satellite—so named for his ability to install satellite dishes for villagers desperate for news—is the leader of the village children, organizing minefield clearing operations and arranging trade-ins for unexploded mines. He falls for an orphan girl named Agrin, who is traveling with her apparently clairvoyant brother, both of whom are caring for a mysterious three-year-old whose connection to them becomes apparent as the war draws closer. Like the Kurdish director's previous films, A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly, this film is a powerful testament to the continued oppression of a people. It won more than a dozen prizes at various film festivals in 2004 and 2005.
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Dir. Rory Kennedy, 2007
Built by the British in the 1960s, the prison in the Iraqi city of Abu Ghraib became a torture center for interrogating and murdering political dissidents under Saddam Hussein's Baathist government. After the US invasion in 2003, the American military began using the facility to detain prisoners of war and suspected terrorists. The following year, journalists exposed widespread abuse there, adding a new chapter to the prison's dark history and significantly impacting international attitudes about the war. Through interviews with perpetrators, witnesses, and victims, director Rory Kennedy seeks to reconstruct the stories behind the now-iconic abuse photos that emerged from Abu Ghraib. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO a month later, subsequently winning an Emmy.
The Situation
Dir. Philip Haas, 2006
While covering the invasion in Iraq in 2003, American reporter Anna (Connie Nielsen) finds herself caught in a love triangle between a CIA operative (Damian Lewis) and an Iraqi photographer (Mido Manada), whose differing perspectives on the war challenge her loyalties. But when an American soldier throws an Iraqi boy off a bridge (a scene inspired by actual events), it sets off a scandal that polarizes the nation, putting Anna in grave danger as she rushes to cover the story. Nothing is as it seems in the conflict that has become so incomprehensible that the Iraqis only refer to bitterly it as "the situation." The story was written by journalist Wendell Steavenson, based on her experiences covering the war in Iraq for Slate.
Gunner Palace
Dir. Michael Tucker, 2004
One of the very first documentaries to present a nuanced view of what was happening on the ground in Iraq, Gunner Palace advertised itself as "the war you haven't seen on the news," and it delivered on the promise. Director Michael Tucker spent several months in 2003 and 2004 embedded with an Army artillery unit that had taken up residence in the bombed-out remnants of one of Saddam Hussein's son Uday's pleasure palaces, offering a sympathetic but frank perspective of American soldiers trying to contend with circumstances they'd never anticipated, such as training Iraqi soldiers, keeping peace among warring factions, and most of all, surviving to see another day.
Iraq in Fragments
Dir. James Longley, 2005
Director James Longley's three-act documentary is a tapestry-like exploration of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish responses to the first two years of the American occupation, told from the perspective of ordinary Iraqis. Iraq in Fragments' structure highlights the country's sectarian tensions, but the film resolutely avoids editorializing, instead seeking to capture the voices of regular human beings living in an endlessly wartorn land. The film was widely praised for its visual richness, winning multiple awards at Sundance and receiving a nomination at the 2006 Academy Awards, where it lost to An Inconvenient Truth.
Three Kings
Dir. David O. Russell, 1999
Marking a significant shift in direction from his earlier quirky comedies, director David O. Russell's Three Kings offered a strikingly strange and original take on America's role in the first Gulf War. The story of three American soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube) seeking to seize a cache of looted Kuwaiti gold from an Iraqi bunker after the end of the war, the film also serves as an indictment of American policy in the region. As a result of its unusual subject matter and experimental techniques, not to mention the salacious stories that emerged from the set, Three Kings was prominently featured in two gossipy histories of the indie film "revolution"—Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures and Sharon Waxman's Rebels on the Backlot.
Other Features
Diving DeepFunny and frank, Julian Schnabel’s latest film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, avoids sentimentality while plunging in on the furthest edge of life. » Read More
Second DraftThe United States has maintained an all-volunteer army since 1973, but what if the draft were reinstated? Bryan Gunnar Cole's Day Zero (TFF '07), starring Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, and Jon Bernthal, imagines how three different New York guys would respond to the call. » Read More
The Reelist: Iraq on Screen
While Americans are increasingly preoccupied with domestic issues, the war in Iraq is now rapidly approaching its fifth anniversary. With that dubious date in mind, we compile a list of films that depict the turmoil in the country during and after the two American-led invasions. » Read More
12 More
The War Tapes Dir. Deborah Scranton, 2006
Secret Ballot Dir. Babak Payami, 2001
Divine Intervention Dir. Elia Suleiman, 2002
West Beirut Dir. Ziad Doueiri, 1998
Kippur Dir. Amos Gitai, 2000
Wedding in Galilee Dir. Michel Khleifi, 1987
JiyanDir. Jano Rosebiani, 2002
Zaman, The Man from the Reeds (TFF '04) Dir. Amer Alwan, 2003
Through the Olive Trees Dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1994
Osama Dir. Siddiq Barmak, 2003
Jarhead Dir. Sam Mendes, 2005
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World Dir. Albert Brooks, 2005


Check out:
www.iraqiscope.org to view and share films and clips from Iraq!
www.niqash.org the place to debate Iraq and www.mict-international.org

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Human Activity Patterns by Albert-Lazlo Barabasi

The quantitative understanding of human dynamics is one of the most under-explored area of contemporary science. We are witnessing rapid changes, however, thanks to the emergence of detailed datasets that capture human behavior, which allow us to follow specific human actions in ultimate detail. Our interest in the subject is driven by a need for a general understanding of complex systems. Currently social systems offer some of the best mapped datasets on the dynamics of any complex system, when the action of each component (individual) can be followed in ultimate detail.
This webpage summarizes our attempts to understand the nature of time in complex systems. When do things happen in a complex system? When do we send an email, receive a phone call, and check out a book from the library? While traditional models have assumed that the timing of human actions is random, we are finding increasing evidence that they are not. Instead, the statistics of human activity patterns have a bursty character, which can be predicted by simple models.
more: http://www.nd.edu/~networks/HumanDynamics_20Oct05/human_dynamics_.htm
Center for Complex Network Research http://www.nd.edu/~networks/
The Sound of Many Hands Clapping-the Rythmic applause http://www.nd.edu/~alb/Clap/index.htm
http://www.nd.edu/~alb/

Monday, January 14, 2008

Flight Paths - A networked novel by Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph

“I have finished my weekly supermarket shop, stocking up on provisions for my three kids, my husband, our dog and our cat. I push the loaded trolley across the car park, battling to keep its wonky wheels on track. I pop open the boot of my car and then for some reason, I have no idea why, I look up, into the clear blue autumnal sky. And I see him. It takes me a long moment to figure out what I am looking at. He is falling from the sky. A dark mass, growing larger quickly. I let go of the trolley and am dimly aware that it is getting away from me but I can’t move, I am stuck there in the middle of the supermarket car park, watching, as he hurtles toward the earth. I have no idea how long it takes – a few seconds, an entire lifetime – but I stand there holding my breath as the city goes about its business around me until…He crashes into the roof of my car.”

2
The car park of Sainsbury’s supermarket in Richmond, southwest London, lies directly beneath one of the main flight paths into Heathrow Airport. Over the last decade, on at least five separate occasions, the bodies of young men have fallen from the sky and landed on or near this car park. All these men were stowaways on flights from the Indian subcontinent who had believed that they could find a way into the cargo hold of an airplane by climbing up into the airplane wheel shaft. It is thought that none could have survived the journey, killed by either the tremendous heat generated by the airplane wheels on the runway, crushed when the landing gear retracts into the plane after take off, or frozen to death once the airplane reaches altitude.

3
‘Flight Paths’ seeks to explore what happens when lives collide – an airplane stowaway and the fictional suburban London housewife, quoted above. This project will tell their stories.

4
Through the fiction of these two lives, and the cross-connections and contradictions they represent, a larger story about the way we live today will emerge. The collision between the unknown young man, who will be both memorialised and brought back to life by the piece

http://flightpaths.net/blog/

Electronic voice phenomenon (EVP)

Rorschach Audio: Ghost Voices and Perceptual Creativity Joe BanksLeonardo Music Journal, Vol. 11
"Rorschach Audio - Art and Illusion forSound" Strange Attractor Journal volume 1, Strange Attractor 2004.
"Rorschach Audio" is COPYRIGHT Joe Banks.

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are sections of static on the radio or other electronic recording media that are interpreted by paranormal researchers to be actual voices speaking words. Some advocates attribute these noises to ghosts or spirits.[1]. Skeptics of the paranormal attribute the voice-like aspect of the sounds to auditory pareidolia, and other well-documented phenomena.[2] According to parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, who popularized the idea,[3] EVP are typically brief, usually the length of a word or short phrase.[4]


more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon


http://www.spookme.com/evp.htm

Friday, January 11, 2008

"FROM HERE TO AWESOME"

NEW DISCOVERY AND DISTRIBUTION FESTIVAL
For more information visit http://www.fromheretoawesome.com

Brent Green performs his film "Carlin" live

with Sin Ropas and AndyCoppinger at the Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland. Filmed by Liz Cohen,edited by Rodney McLaughlin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjK6NSgDo6I
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/summer2005/features/25_faces1-5.php

Thursday, January 10, 2008

ISTANBUL: Roma, Roms, Gitanos NEED URGENT INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT!

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 21:30:13 +0200
From: "Pelin Tan" mailto:Tpelintan@gmail.com>
To: aslikiyak aslikiyak@celikdizayn.com>
Subject: ISTANBUL: Roma, Roms, Gitanos NEED URGENT INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT!

The historical Romani district of Istanbul, Sulukule, is to bedestroyed under the name of "urban renewal" and the Roma living thereare to be expulsed out of the city. Please react and show your supporturgently!...

Sulukule PlatformLe quartier historique des Roms d'Istanbul, Sulukule, sera demoli souspretexte de "renovation urbain" et ses habitants gitans serontexpulses en dehors de la ville. S'il vous plait reagissez et montrezvotre soutien en urgence!...

La plateforme de Sulukule
El barrio historico de los gitanos d'Istanbul, Sulukule, seradestruido con el pretexto de "renovacion urbana" y sus habitantes vana ser expulsados fuera de la cuidad. Por favor protestar y manifestarvuestro apoyo de urgencia!...

La Platforma de Sulukule
Istanbul'un tarihi Roman mahallesi Sulukule, "kentsel yenileme" adialtinda yikilmak ve mahalle sakinleri kentin disina surulmekisteniyor! Lutfen acil olarak tepkinizi ve Sulukule sakinlerinedesteginizi gosterin!...

Sulukule Platformu
URGENT CALL FOR SULUKULE ROMANI COMMUNITY
Your support urgently needed against exclusion of Roma from historic Sulukule!One of the oldest Romani communities in the World, the Sulukule Romani population is being forced to leave their historical neighborhood.The Sulukule neighborhood, situated in the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul is being depopulated through a gentrification project implemented by the Metropolitan and Fatih municipalities of Istanbul. As it stands, the project, promoted as an "urban renewal" is in its last phase. In February 2008 the demolishing of the houses will be started.Despite the efforts of the local people, of the Sulukule Association for the Enrichment of Roma Culture and for Solidarity, of the academicians from several universities, and of the NGO's, the project is developed by local authority under non-transparent conditions, without consulting the community and without considering their demands, needs and feedback.The alleged "urban renewal project" is a reconstruction plan which involves the complete demolition of the current neighbourhood, home to more than 3000 Roma, and its replacement with housing which is unaffordable for most of the original inhabitants. The Roma will be forcibly moved from their 1000 year-old historical neighborhood to an area 40km outside the city. Moreover, as the municipality wants them to pay for the public housing they will receive, this forcible move is accompanied by a debt obligation that they will not be able to meet.Because it will evict the Roma of their home, annihilate and assimilate the Roma culture in Istanbul, the project needs to be stopped. Your support is crucial to carry out this feat.The 1000 year-old home of the RomaThe Roma first came to Istanbul from India in the 11th century when the city was still the capital of the Byzantine Empire. And they spread around the World from here. Following the conquest of the city by the Ottomans in 1453 and with the permžssžon of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, they were settled near the city walls in the Sulukule as well as in the nearby Ayvansaray neighborhoods. For hundreds of years, Sulukule acted as a pilgrimage location for Roma from all over the world. It is one of the most important cultural centers of Roma music and dance as it continues to be a crucial worldwide resource for training musicians and dancers.Your support is needed for the cessation of the "urban renewal project"Because;The Sulukule urban renewal project is a non-transparent non-participatory project.It is against the clauses of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.It is implemented in the buffer zone of the ancient land walls of Istanbul, which are on the World Heritage list. As such, it fails to abide by the principles of the Vienna Memorandum and the Convention regarding the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
To help prevent the forced exile of the Sulukule Roma,
To protect the historical and cultural values of Istanbul, which are on the World Heritage List,
Please express your objection to this project by writing to the following officials,

Abdullah Gül
President of Turkey
Mail Address:T.C. Cumhurbaskanligi
Cankaya-Ankara
Turkeye-mail: cumhurbaskanli_i@tccb.gov.tr

Recep Tayyip Erdo_an
The Prime Minister of Turkey
Mail Address:BasbakanlikKžzžlay
Ankara
Turkey

Ertu_rul Günay
Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey
Mail Address:T.C. Kultur ve Turizm Bakanligi
Ataturk Bulvari No. 2906050 Opera
Ankara
Turkeye-mail: ertugrul.gunay@kulturturizm.gov.tr

Kadir Topba_Mayor of Istanbul
Mail Address:Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediye Baskanligi
Sarachane Istanbul Turkeye-mail: baskan@ibb.gov.tr

Mustafa Demir
Mayor of the Fatih district of Istanbul
Mail Address:Büyük Karaman Cad.No. 53
Fatih Istanbule-mail: mustafademir@fatih.bel.tr

Contact Persons:Hacer Foggo (hacerfoggo@gmail.com)
Derya Nüket Özer (deryanuket@gmail.com)
Viki Ciprut Izrail (vikichco.@hotmail.com)
Pelin Tan pelintan@gmail.com
Ph.D cand. / research assistant
Institute of Social Sciences
ITU Architecture Faculty, Taskisla 34437 - Istanbul phone: +90 2122456631
http://www.tanpelin.blogspot.com/
http://www.slowfood.com
http://www.sulukule.org/

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