Thursday, March 27, 2008

Electronic Disturbance Theater

New Media Art often takes hybrid forms, blending art's emphasis on aesthetics and creativity with the imperatives of other disciplines. In 1998, Ricardo Dominguez and a loose group of collaborators -- collectively known as the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) -- blended art and politics by initiating a series of online civil disobedience actions in support of the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas, Mexico, a revolutionary movement of indigenous people fighting against ongoing governmental oppression. EDT used e-mail and the Web to promote its project to activists around the world, enlisting sympathetic supporters to download and run a Java applet called FloodNet. This applet repeatedly tried to open nonexistent Web pages at targeted sites, such as those of former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Mexican Stock Exchange, and Chase Manhattan Bank. Participants in EDT's actions were asked to select words for use in constructing "bad URLs" (Web addresses of pages that don't exist on the targeted server). For example, participants were asked to input the names of Zapatistas killed by the Mexican Army in military attacks on the autonomous village of Acteal, forcing targeted servers to return an error message each time one of these "bad" URLs was requested. In a deft conceptual gesture, this process inscribed the "bad" URL in the server's error log as a way of symbolically returning the dead to those responsible for their murders. If enough people had run the applet simultaneously, they would have overloaded the server, so that when a regular visitor tried to access the site, pages would have loaded slowly or not at all.
This disabling of a site in this way is known as a "denial of service attack." EDT's actions are analogous to sit-in demonstrations in which protestors block the entrance to a public building. Taking the civil disobedience actions of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s as a model, EDT's members avoid destroying data and use their real names rather than hiding behind aliases. "The idea," according to Dominguez, "is not to destroy or disrupt these Web sites. It's to disturb, in the same way that paper airplanes coming through your window are going to annoy you." Dominguez alludes here to the symbolic Zapatista air force, composed entirely of paper planes.
The FloodNet software was used again in actions against the World Trade Organization and, in 1999, the group released their online civil disobedience software to the public as part of the "Zapatista Disturbance Developer's Kit."
EDT's work exemplifies the use of "tactical media," or the deployment of low-cost communications tools to protest against government and corporate institutions in a wide-reaching, high-impact manner. "We don't have massive PR firms or the ears of The New York Times. So we have to make gestures that are attractive to the media," Dominguez says.
Trained as an actor, Dominguez led agit-prop theater productions in the 1980s as a member of ACT-UP, the New York-based AIDS activist organization. He then worked for several years with Critical Art Ensemble, a group that published several books on media and politics, including Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas, before forming EDT in 1997.
-->https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Electronic+Disturbance+Theater
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/EDTECD.html
http://archives.openflows.org/hacktivism/hacktivism00945.html
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html

Move The Frame

http://greatdance.com/movetheframe/

SOCIETE REALISTE

Société Réaliste is a Paris-based cooperative created by Ferenc Gróf and Jean-Baptiste Naudy in June 2004. This cooperative manages the development of several research and economical structures in fields such as territorial ergonomy, experimental economy, political design or counter-strategy. Société Réaliste is researcher at Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht) and is represented by Galerie Martine Aboucaya (Paris).
http://www.societerealiste.net/
http://multitudes-icones.samizdat.net
"RED"
The project "Video Salon" (March 07-21, 2008) is having its third edition in the promising French Galerija10m2 in Sarajevo. This year it features debuts and Bulgarian participation. The video project platform is based on the established framework of cooperation among an international curator team. The concept is to represent on an annual basis various artists from the Balkan region, Central and Western Europe, as well as Asia.
A dozen of curators have been invited to this video exhibition that coincides with the 24-th edition of the "Sarajevo Winter" International Festival. They are presenting about 200 artists from 30 countries. The concept of this year's project has no strict thematic or technical parameters that the co-organizers or the authors invited by them should stick to. The structure that the project platform is built on is extremely free and open. The focus is rather on presenting a large number of various artistic stands thus raising questions related to the understanding and the boundaries of the visual, the options and diversity of media.
The Bulgarian selection titled "Red" includes works by Kalin Serapionov, Ivan Moudov, Daniela Kostova (Troy, New York), Stefan Nikolaev (Sofia/Paris), Boryana Rossa, Ventzislav Zankov, Vladimir Mitrev (Berlin), Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanov (Sofia/Paris) and the exclusive participation of Mariyana Vasileva (Berlin). Prioritized as regards the selection of authors and works has been the intention to acquaint the countries from the region and the constant flow of viewers in the gallery and the French Cultural Center with some of the best and most active representatives of the young generation of Bulgarian artists. The main goal is to present the possibly most complete picture of the current state of contemporary Bulgarian art on the basis of ten varying artistic profiles. In order to have a relatively full and true vision of the range and quality of the Bulgarian artistic Diaspora the selection includes heterogeneous in terms of sensitivity, direction and level of visual provocation, and also not so young, but already emblematic for Bulgarian contemporary art, authors. Some of those are artists living and working in Bulgaria, others are rather unpopular in this country but making a career abroad, and still others live both in Bulgaria and abroad.
The selected works aim at representing the type and direction of visual thinking developed in correlation to the location that has become an indirect cause or "engine" for the generated ideas, its own specifics and topicality; or, in other words - to display the level of cultural exposure of the artist, of the perceived and reflected social aspects of environment.
The inner structure of the video compilation is built on a freer principle.The works that were presented for selection took on the function of a self-forming organism. Selected for the exhibition were videos that on the one hand could create a natural meaningful and aesthetic transition one to another, and on the other - could set apart different groups of their own nature and topics. A leading criterion though was the desire that the selected works should disclose the intellectual potential and the creative capabilities of the artists themselves.
Nadia Timova, curator
Video Selection "Red"Daniela Kostova's video "Frame" (2000) was created while the author still lived in Bulgaria. It raises essential questions related to the tiredness from the mundane, its baleful habits and the automatism of choices that we prove to make as if by the way. The work is an attempt at reconstructing our own (consciously chosen) reality that due to its immanent cyclic character turns out to be totally unrecognizable and non-segmentable. Despite some premised feminist nuances her video treats general human norms of behaviour.
Boryana Rossa takes part in the project with two works - "The Last Valve", (2004) and "Back and Forth" (1999). "The Last Valve" is a complex work which as the author says, represents to the fullest extent her personality and her entire artistic view so far. The video documents a performance where Boryana sews up her vulva in a demonstrative manner and this act seems scandalous and repulsive to many. The truth is that this is a very "happy" and successful work since, despite the big number of contradicting references that it provokes, the artist, "victimizing" herself and her biological "function", manages to synthesize one of the main aspects of the Ultrafuturo platform. Her other earlier work "Back and Forth" is built on the template of the stereo card but it has a quite more serious and profound message. The vision of the author herself and the "blurred" echoing sound arrangement (her childish voice recorded in a moment of tender emotion for her mother when the two year-old Boryana pours out her daughterly feelings in a small poem) stir sympathy first and then a feeling of absurd. Using this audio-visual "wink" which is actually a temporal and meaningful layering the author provides viewers with the possibility to compare and give a new meaning to the present and the future, their existing parallels, expectations and crossings.
Kalin Serapionov takes part with two works - "Why Women?" (2004) and "You Get It?" (2004) presenting his different view and disproving in his own way existing prejudices as regards sexism and the needless entailing opposition. In "Why Women?" the author checks the self-esteem and reflexes of Bulgarian women. The situation shows a "street hooligan" shooting from above with eggs at innocent women. Oddly enough, the artistic research indicates a sad statistics - none of the women manages to get out of her role of victim and defend herself honourably. The reaction of all women is the same - the biological shells cause only timid and conciliatory running away from the "battle-field". A comically presented fact which is at the same time noted with a certain bit of grievance. In the same impartial manner "You Get It?" tells about a rather common situation - a young couple have a long "elucidating" dialog that does not get the desired meaningful result. The "impartial" work aims at provoking adequately impartial and yet empathic moods. The phenomenon of "banal and meaningless dialog" is a problematic stage that almost every intimate relationship goes through. This work cannot but simply "get in tune" with the experience of each viewer.
Ivan Moudov also takes part with two works - "Traffic Control" (2001) and "14'13 Minutes Priority" (2005). Moudov is one of the best and most topical contemporary Bulgarian authors. In all his works he manages to focus on the essence of trivial situations from our everyday life and to examine them from their least expected and markedly comical side. Notwithstanding the matters that he deals with (his intervention is usually merciless but particularly nice), his talent of being funny and witty is one of the best-winning clues in contemporary art. It is not enough to think of a way of manipulation. It should look like you have mixed up somewhat unwittingly the rules of the game and with a big doze of artistry at that - simply to be forgiven, voluntarily and with a smile.
Not without a smile but driven by sympathy and sentiment Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanov shoot their documentary video "Two Days' Distance" (2007). The video is actually an improvised interview taken from an old woman and an old man who have come to downtown Paris from a far-away place in their motherland and living on begging and rebeck-playing. The interview puts together a collage of two totally alien one to another models (personalized and depersonalized), demonstrating the background of the contexts that have given rise to them. The feelings and thoughts that the video provokes cover a wide range of analogies and senseless evaluations that they bring forth.
Ventzislav Zankov participates with one of his latest videos "Still Life" (2006). The work also titled "The Artist's Fridge" is a means used by the artist to try and see himself from a different angle. The fridge is "a diary, food, days, the days described through food". The video consists of hundreds or thousands of similar stills documenting the everyday contents of Ventzi's fridge. This is a still life slightly vibrating from the insignificant changes that are happening. The "diagram" of this consumption is a sign not only of the biological but also of the spiritual need of man. Seen from that angle, the "image" of living points to something frightening - we hardly realize the monotony of everyday life, the depressing similarity of the days (the eaten food) making up our life, otherwise motivated by huge strivings and expectations.
Mariyana Vasileva's video "Jumping Man" (2000-2005) shows a man in a suit making somersaults in the air, jumping on an invisible for the viewer trampoline. Each jump is a metaphor of man's attempt to out-jump himself and the routine of his everyday life. In the artist's view, contemporary society is full of jumping people who constantly repeat their actions with the hope to out-jump themselves each time by making their "jump" even better. "Jumping Man", "Minouk, le poisson peintre" (2003) by Stefan Nikolaev and "Autopainting" (2004) by Vladimir Mitrev form a particular group of videos that indicate a different visual "school". All three works lack narrative that would otherwise burden the laconic and extremely clear image and message. With their purity the videos provoke an impression of overbearing aesthetics. The "school" is the masterful insertion of a message in an art character whose final synthesis is equally balanced.
"Minouk" is Stefan Nikolaev's goldfish placed in an unusual and extreme for the more sensitive viewer situation. Within 17 minutes, with a serious attitude and realizing its own mission, Minouk precisely "stirs" red pigment in its small bowl, being careful where exactly to place the pigment. At the work's final stage the fish is hard to distinguish in the deep red water - which is also a slightly depressing sight. The references that have been made so far on this video's basis stretch it to several different directions - the art trend "Fluxus", the hypnosis from the aesthetic sight and the eternal argument about the nature of creative work.
The video "Autopainting" of Vladimir Mitrev shows a toy sport automobile whose cracked reservoir is full of red paint. The small automobile is moving backwards outlining in red its own axis of movement. When the paint is over the artist' hand appears in the still pouring in some more red "fuel". Gradually the car starts losing balance and going out of the outlined trajectory. By this act the artist comments on our egocentric behaviour in the socium, with a balanced sense of irony. The backward movement and the red are for him symbols of blind aggression:http://artchannel.bg
[in proggress]

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

CREW

CREW is a Belgium-based performance group. Eric Joris being its key figure, this production team has brought together people from different domains depending on the projects that were being made. On the whole, CREW has insisted on making performances at the melting point of live art and technology.

Finding in experimental theatre a laboratory where they can test the progress of their own work, researchers from different universities develop original technologies for CREW to use in the performances. Permanent dialogue with the developments in robotics and computer sciences triggers the theatrical imagination of design and production, text and sound.

The artistic outcome tends to be hybrid; technological live art troubles installed categories of theatricality. CREW wants to explore how these hybridities can be operated, both on a theoretical and on a practical level. What happens when digital technology really merges production and reflection within the context of the stage - insofar as one can still speak of a stage?
http://www.crewonline.org/crew.html

Streaming Museum.org

Monday, March 24, 2008

Shape-shifting robot forms from magnetic swarm

Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers.
The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together.
Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US, admits this is still a distant prospect.
However, his team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or "claytronic", robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines.
These prototype robots use electromagnetic forces to manoeuvre themselves, communicate
more...
http://pitmm.net/

Groundwork Collective

"The principal goal of the Groundwork Collective is to develop a theory and a practice (praxis) to provide the skills, both intellectual and practical, necessary for a nonhierarchical and nonauthoritarian system of social organization. We believe that the creation of such a system would involve a socialist revolution, but one different from that which is usually understood by this term."
http://groundwork.ucsd.edu/
http://groundworkbooks.blogspot.com/

Exploratory Music

David Linton (http://bicameral.multiply.com)
Adriana Sa (http://adrianasa.planetaclix.pt/)
Damian Stewart aka Frey (http://frey.co.nz)
Fadigaz (http://www.myspace.com/fadigaz)
John Klima (http://www.cityarts.com/lmno/)
Magenta Interior (http://www.visual-agency.net/magenta_interior/index.htm)
MonkeyFish (http://monkeyfishfilms.net)
Paulo Raposo (http://www.sirr-ecords.com/pauloraposo/)

Est-ethics of Counter-Documentary

by joanne richardson

DOCUMENTARY. DOCUMENT. EVIDENCE, EXAMPLE, PROOF, LESSON, FROM DOCERE, TO TEACH. Documentary film production has wavered between the contradictory illuminations of its etymological shadow. As an extension of photography, documentary is, if we can believe Roland Barthes, "indifferent to all intermediaries"–mimesis accomplished. Documentary codes have been developed to create an irresistible sense of immediacy, objectivity, and authenticity: synchronized sound, long takes with hand held cameras, wide angles, unobtrusive editing, standardized 24-frame speed, use of newsreel footage, oral witness testimonials, the disembodied talking heads of those in a position to know, the centralization of perspective. Such technologies of truth, once invented, become naturalized. In the documentary’s attempt to capture the movement of the real, the mediating activity of the... [more]

Joanne Richardson
Born in Bucharest, grew up in New York, currently living between Cluj, Romania and Berlin. Founder of D Media (http://www.dmedia.ro) in Romania, an NGO for the production and dissemination of art and digital culture. Editor of Subsol webzine (http://subsol.c3.hu), and author of essays on social movements, postcommunism, immaterial labor, copyleft, tactical media, the history of the avant-gardes, and experimental film & video in Eastern Europe. Recent videos on nationalism, delocalization, migration, activism, precarity and borders.

BoxWars


http://www.hoff.ee/?63

Imagine hordes of fearsome “warriors” raging into battle dressed in heavy armour and using massive vehicles from tanks, ships and even airplanes... made out of cardboard! Sounds mad, engaging and hilariously funny, doesn't it? So get some friends together, acquire tape and cardboard from the backyard of local grocery and you are ready for serious Boxwars action!
Boxwars is a concept event involving cardboard-clad “soldiers” who engage in gladiator-style fighting performances. Created by cardboard enthusiasts in Melbourne in 2001, Boxwars UK was transposed to Edinburgh in 2006 by Demian Deadly and became a cultural phenomenon.
Boxwars encourages grassroots creativity by young organisers, producers and participants. It promotes self-organising, event production in music club and outdoor contexts, networking, use of popular technology platforms as well as highlights new music and bands in the underground club scene. It also offers a fringe and creative/humorous slant on creative recycling practices (“fight or be recycled!”).

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Burning Capital

Subject: PLATFORM launches Burning Capital, short films on the climate crisis
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:06:56 +0000
From: Benjamin
To: info@platformlondon.org
References: <33cc609c0802231015h4ad18649u1b3065ccfe5d633a@mail.gmail.com>

Dear Carbon Web subscriber,
We thought that you would be interested to hear about Burning
Capital, new within PLATFORM's Carbon Web project... This week
PLATFORM launched a series of short films on its website:

http://www.platformlondon.org/burning

You may have seen the issues explored in the Thursday's Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/21/bp.oil

We hope that you find the films useful - do let us know, it would be
great to have further dialog and any feedback on this new section of
our website.

Please send the attached e-flyer to anyone who might be interested.
best wishes,
Benjamin Diss - PLATFORM

----------------
Burning Capital
----------------
Burning Capital, a compelling series of short films explores the role
of Britain's largest corporation in the growing climate crisis.

From the creators of And While London Burns - a soundtrack for the era
of climate change, Burning Capital is a video voyage through the world
of oil giant BP.

BP delivered 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
last year. Burning Capital asks - what will become of this giant in a
world where scientists, politicians and public opinion demand urgent
action to avert climate crisis.

Watch the films now at:
http://www.platformlondon.org/burning

------------
What is it?
------------
The 45 minute documentary film is split into short downloadable
sections with interactive data panels that give you further
information on the background: details of oil and gas fields,
pipelines and refineries coming on stream this year plus biographies
of 18 key decision makers in BP, and graphs of the company's oil and
gas production and CO2 emissions 1997-2006.

------------------------------
Apologies:
PLATFORM's carbonweb website is currently experiencing technical
problems, it will be fully operation again within the next few days,
meanwhile you can access all content via PLATFORM's main website at:
http://www.platformlondon.org
------------------------------

Carbon Web Newsletter,
PLATFORM,
7 Horselydown Lane,
Tower Bridge,
Bermondsey,
London,
England,
SE1 2LN.
Tel: +44 (0)207 403 3738
info@platformlondon.org

www.platformlondon.org
www.remembersarowiwa.com
www.andwhilelondonburns.com - download your operatic audio walk
-------------------------------

The Chinese Disabled Performing Arts Troupe



"This is the Chinese Disabled Performing Arts Troupe (they are deaf). I got this from my grand-ma. I found it very beautiful & interesting. She told me it took them over 10 whole years to get to such a high level of perfection." from lostboygq

Japanese Human Art, Matrix Ping-Pong and Football





Magmart Video Art Festival

THEM - ME - Author: Boukhari Nisirne / Syria


AISLADO - Author: Freixes Ribera Gerard / Spain


SNOWFAKES - Author: Foster Emily Alden / USA


More: http://www.magmart.it/winners.php

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Faceless: Chasing the Data Shadow

"With an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in place, [the UK's] inhabitants are the most watched in the world." Insights into the process of making 'Faceless', a sci-fi film utilising Data Protection requests from CCTV systems. Exposing first-hand experiences, the makers detail the many different types of replies they received to their subject access requests made under the Data Protection Act; explaining the general confusion of many data controllers, how so many CCTV systems are not functional and why the process of obtaining images became much more difficult from 2004...
text : http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31faceless.html
pdf :http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/313Faceless.pdf

Radioballet by LIGNA

Exercises on Adhocracy participants in a workshop on 'Collectives, Actions, Re-enactments', held in Estonia, discuss the Radioballet action - a co-ordinated performative action responding to the privatisation of public space - and consider its impact. Apprehensive of the ethics of collective action after the traumas of Communism, the speakers reveal the limits of expressing solidarity in the absence of material and reciprocal relationships.text :http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31masscom.html pdf :http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31MassCom.pdf
http://www.publicpreparation.org

Monday, March 17, 2008

Okkyung Lee

http://www.myspace.com/okkyunglee
http://www.okkyunglee.com/okkyunglee/

Driven- a dilemma of coexistence

by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow
http://diwologue.net/driven/
Two people attempt to resolve a recurring argument. Their conversation is transcribed into 2 frames in a single browser. Lag starts to interfere with the flow of statements and responses.'Driven' can be viewed in most Internet browsers and requires no plugins. It can be accessed in two ways. Either by individuals with personal computers, who can click through the work at their own pace, or projected with sound in public spaces where it has its own tempo.
Visit the blog http://diwologue.net/blog/?p=6

THE YES MEN APOLOGIZE TO BRITISH PETROLEUM

http://www.beyond-petrol.com/

- ----- Forwarded message from The Yes Men -----

- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: Use of a website... infringing copyright on the trademarks of
BP p.l.c.
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:15:09 -0000
From: White, Robert S C

Dear Sirs,
My name is Robert White and I work in Group Trade Marks - part of the Legal Department of BP p.l.c.
Our responsibilities extend to protecting the BP brand and trade marks which includes monitoring the internet for infringements and fraudulent activities.
Our attention has been drawn to the existence of the following web pages. http://www.theyesmen.org/agribusiness/beyondpetrol/
You will note that these pages bear a remarkable similarity to the genuine www.bp.com website. You will observe that the webpages in question include multiple reproductions of the BP logo. BP p.l.c. has not authorised this and submit that this infringes the copyright in BP's trademarks.
In addition, we are concerned that there is a real risk of that genuine visitors could be confused and being diverted away from the genuine www.bp.com site. For example, please refer to link to the "Contact Us" page
http://www.theyesmen.org/agribusiness/beyondpetrol/contactusdisplay.html
You will see that there are a number email addresses listed all ending in "@beyondpetrol.com". BP neither owns the http://www.beyondpetrol.com/ domain and nor the email addresses attached to the domain.
Whilst we do not object to the http://www.theyesmen.org/ per se, our concerns relate to the web pages appearing at the http://www.theyesmen.org/agribusiness/beyondpetrol/ level (and below) in the hierarchy of the site. [...]

- -------- Original Message --------

Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:09:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andy Bichlbaum
To: "White, Robert S C"
Subject: Use of a website... infringing copyright on the trademarks of
BP p.l.c.

Dear Mr. White, BP p.l.c.,
Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to write to us in regard to your company's website, BP.com.
First of all, please allow me to say that we do completely understand and sympathize with the hurt that your company has every right in the world to feel, and we deeply apologize for occasioning this emotion.
And although we do know that there can be no excuse at all for this slight, I would beg your indulgence for just one minute, so that I might try to explain our side of the story, such as it is.

Back in 2006, we began preparing some satires on a number of companies that we considered to be the world's prime malefactors, in order to help expose their monstrous crimes in a humorous way. These companies included ExxonMobil, Halliburton/KBR, and a number of other entities,
including your own.

Sadly, while we did get around to fully realizing some of the spoofs - including the ones on Exxon and Halliburton - we actually *forgot* about yours shortly after we began work on it, and it thus remained in the execrable half-finished state in which, to your horror, you found it last week. It didn't even have its own URL!

I would like to sincerely apologize to your company on behalf of the Yes Men. Like morons, we were misled by appearances. Like morons, we thought - or rather, felt - that the malefaction of those other companies was more... maleficent than your own.

Yes, we can be real morons sometimes. There is no doubt of that.

But I am here to tell you today that we are making efforts. We now understand that objectively, BP does every bit as much damage to this planet as does Exxon, Halliburton, or any other more obviously nefarious company, regardless of its carefully engineered professions of decency and concern. And we are ready today to prove our maturity, sincerity, and newfound intelligence by offering you a fully realized spoof of your own: http://beyond-petrol.com/.
We have likewise deleted the offending pages you refer to below.

I know that our admissions today may be rubbing salt in your wounds, but I do hope that this website can in some way make amends. Any relationship, after all, must start from a place of truth and honesty, not deceit and subterfuge. This is the honest truth, and so this is where we begin.

Again, please accept our deepest apologies, and our hopes for a better future.
Yours most faithfully indeed,
The Yes Men

- ----- End forwarded message -----

Friday, March 7, 2008

www.TheMetaTechnology.com

New strategy to understand technology gets spotlight via
TheMetaTechnology.com

Reggio Emilia, Italy – February 24th, 2008 – An online course about
meta-technology, a new type of strategy to understand technology, has
recently been launched online via the website, TheMetaTechnology.com.

According to founder, Luca D'Angelo, "Meta-technology is created by
taking a piece of technology and modifying its standard
input-process-output flow. By using meta-technology, we can experience a
different type of interaction so when we use the original technology, we
gain a deeper understanding of it. It's like going to the moon,
experiencing a different gravity force, and then coming back to the
world so we can have a deeper understanding of the world's gravity."

Meta-technology takes a piece of technology and modifies the
input-process-output flow; deleting a part, altering a part, or adding a
part.

Meta-language was invented many years ago in order to develop an
understanding of language. Now it's time for meta-technology to provide
an understanding of technology.

TheMetaTechnology.com offers an online course about meta-technology. The
course has been prepared in a way that provides a complete multi-sensory
experience to users. The online course is free and has meta-technologies
and videos that explain them.

http://www.TheMetaTechnology.com

Adventures in Cultural Politics

Danny Butt’s writings on cultural politics - http://acp.dannybutt.net
http://www.dannybutt.net/acp/

NEWDANCE TV

http://blip.tv/search?q=NEWDANCE+TV&x=10&y=17



http://www.andreamaciel.com/indexbra.html

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Next Nature -researches and visualizations of our changing relation with nature.



Nowadays, children know more corporate logo’s and brands than bird or tree species. The average Western person has more worries about the instability of financial markets and mortgage interest deductions than about hurricanes or floods.
We are living in a time in which the “made” and the “born” are fusing. Hypoallergenic cats are already on the market. Plants are used as sensors, information displays and chemical factories. Animals are being augmented and branded. Plastic surgeons sculpt flesh to match retouched photographs in glossy magazines. In response to donor organ shortages, researchers are working on a 3D organ printer. Real nature is not green. It is out of control. Our technological world has become so intricate and uncontrollable that it has become a nature of its own. Games have become jobs. Second life is not sustainable. Digital world metaphors boomerang into our physical environment. Wine making has become an information science. Everyday robots give massages and take care of the children. RFID chips open doors, they might be infected, but nonetheless are edible.
How should we relate to these developments? How will we design? How will we build? How do we relate to our environment? How can we create humane technology? We call upon designers, artists, visionaries, film makers and other creative people to submit their visions, statements and ideas on how we will live in next nature.

This newsletter is connected to the website which researches and visualizes our changing relation with nature.

CONTENTS

-Designing for Next Nature

-Fake for Real: A Memory Game about Reality

-Biggest Visual Power Show in California on May 17th

DESIGNING FOR NEXT NATURE: ONE WEEK LEFT TO SEND IN PROPOSALS

Submission deadline: March 10.



BLOG HIGHLIGHTS


Organic Coca-Cola Diet Coke Plus, the latest addition to Coca Cola product range, is fortified with vitamins and minerals to improve your health. Is Coca Cola, which was originally marketed as a health drink, returning to its roots? And what is this thing with engineered food?http://www.nextnature.net/?p=2012


Hurricane control causes a storm of lawsuitsAccording to a recent study, adding dust to Hurricane Katrina’s base could have weakened the storm and sent it spinning away from New Orleans. Controlling hurricanes could save lots of lives and dollars, but who decides where to direct a storm? Will ‘natural disasters’ soon be exclusively for the poor and powerless?http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1886


Bio-mechanical Energy HarvestingLet’s face it: every time your cell-phone runs empty you feel amputated and you quickly run home to connect to a power-adapter. Bionic Power Inc. is now developing a knee-brace that can be used to charge small devices; the 5-watt electricity output from one knee generator is enough to power 10 cell-phones at once. http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1977


Intelligent Design - A Designers take (video)

A typographical film on the term ‘Intelligent Design’ from a designers perspective. Those opposing camps in the intelligent design debate might be much closer than they think. http://www.nextnature.net/?p=2021


Green Blues: Bio-fuels add to Global WarmingIt is official: the Green Blues has begun. Almost all bio-fuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these 'green' fuels are taken into account, two new studies published in the top-tier journal Science have concluded. http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1992


Retro Future: Magic Highway USA (video)Nothing makes a person more modest about future speculations than Retro Future. The sheer optimism in the 1958 video entitled 'Magic Highway USA' is just overwhelming: "It will be our magic carpet to new hopes, new dreams and a better way of life, for the future" (yes, they’re talking about highways here). http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1809


FAKE FOR REAL: A MEMORY GAME ABOUT REALITY

The Fake for Real Memory Game playfully visualizes the classical theme of Fake vs Real. Is everything that was once directly experienced, in our media society now replaced by simulations? Or are reproduction and imitation naturally part of life? Can you tell the fake from the real? See for yourself! Created by the good people of NextNature.net.Play the game online: http://www.fakeforreal.com/


BIGGEST VISUAL POWER SHOW IN CALIFORNIA ON MAY 17TH

After the successful editions in 2003, 2005 and 2006 in the Netherlands and Germany, the event now moves to sunny Southern California. The Biggest Visual Power Show is an intellectual show that blends between a conference and a pop concert. The show represents a field of mixed cultural disciplines presenting visionary statements, radical ideas and powerful imagery. The event will take place on May 17 at the Wind Tunnel Building in South Pasadena. The list of presenters will be announced in the next newsletter. http://www.nextnature.net/powershow

Improv Everywhere



On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/http://improveverywhere.com/
http://current.com/items/88830919_time_stops_at_grand_central

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Kevin Warwick



Kevin has carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. He has been successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.
http://www.kevinwarwick.com/
LIFT08 is a three day event to explore the social impact of new technologies.
http://www.nouvo.ch/liftvideo

Knowledge Through Practice

a new seminar group interrogating the nature of practice based research.
http://knowledgethroughpractice.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

eipcp - european institute for progressive cultural policies

The current issue of the eipcp web journal transversal undertakes a specific survey of the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. The starting points of post-Yugoslavian institutional critique are based on partly shared experiences from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and the neoliberal transformation processes of the past twenty years. Yet they also fan out into a multitude of breaks, discontinuities and dislocations, depending on the different positions in these neoliberal/neocolonial processes that have developed in the geographies between Croatia and Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Slovenia.

Art Machines on the Web

Lia, http://www.isaidif.net/
Miltos Manetas, http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
Cornelia Sollfrank, http://net.art-generator.com/src/mat.html
An exhibition of the Museum Tinguely, Basel and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
http://www.tinguely.ch/en/exhibition/kunstmaschinen_follow.html
http://www.artwarez.org/?p=251#more-251

BAVO

BAVO is an independent research office focused on the political dimension of art, architecture and planning. BAVO is a co-operation between Gideon Boie and Matthias Pauwels, both of whom studied architecture and philosophy. BAVO recently conducted research into creative city development and practices of embedded cultural activism. BAVO’s explicit mission is to enhance public debate by means of publications, symposia and interventions.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Dance Your PhD contest

2009 Dance Your PhD contest: Want to dance your own thesis? Stay tuned to www.johnbohannon.org/dance.html where a CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS will be announced soon. Rather than a localized contest, the next round will be global. Scientists will video their own dances and post them online (e.g., to YouTube). The prize? Negotiations are underway to have the winners' latest peer-reviewed publications interpreted by a professional dance company next year. Good luck and happy grooving.

The Gonzo Scientist
Can Scientists Dance?
John Bohannon
A series of reports on connections between science, culture, and the arts from Science Contributing Correspondent John Bohannon, who, in true gonzo style, will participate in the events he covers.
No one quite knew what to expect as the lights came up on a pair of astrophysicists dressed as binary galaxies. To the tune of an old tango, Ruth Gruetzbauch stalked and twirled around Jesús Varela before surrendering to his supermassive gravity. The rowdy audience of scientists exploded with applause. The world's first Dance Your Ph.D. Contest, with Christoph Campregher at the controls of the sound system, was off to a good start.http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5865/905b#dancegallery