ISEA2010 Art Event Overview

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ISEA2010: [Overview] [Venues] [Presentations] [Workshops] [Art Events] [Gallery]

Art Exhibition:
- Heavy Matter
- At the turn of the 21st century, New Media has become a matter of course and the technology of electronic data processing is constantly being perfected. The promise that all spheres of life will be digitalized and made immaterial seems to have been fulfilled. Just how immaterial is data really? Does it not carry a certain amount of weight, after all? What role does the subject play in the virtual data space? In this exhibition, we will question the arrival of the virtual future and, as the exhibition title suggests, expose the immaterial as “Heavy Matter”. The question of whether New Media can access reality is explored in the form of complex processes of transformation, embodiment, sound and localization.
  By purloining scientific explanatory models for artistic purposes, applying extrasensory methods and devising poetic processes, the complex virtual world will become accessible and will be, literally, made tangible. Heavy does matter: objectively, physically and financially. Matter is an autonomous (disruptive) factor between transmitter and receiver. “Heavy Matter” has been developed by members of the teaching staff and students of the Academy of Media Ar... [Read more]
- At the turn of the 21st century, New Media has become a matter of course and the technology of electronic data processing is constantly being perfected. The promise that all spheres of life will be digitalized and made immaterial seems to have been fulfilled. Just how immaterial is data really? Does it not carry a certain amount of weight, after all? What role does the subject play in the virtual data space? In this exhibition, we will question the arrival of the virtual future and, as the exhibition title suggests, expose the immaterial as “Heavy Matter”. The question of whether New Media can access reality is explored in the form of complex processes of transformation, embodiment, sound and localization.
  By purloining scientific explanatory models for artistic purposes, applying extrasensory methods and devising poetic processes, the complex virtual world will become accessible and will be, literally, made tangible. Heavy does matter: objectively, physically and financially. Matter is an autonomous (disruptive) factor between transmitter and receiver. “Heavy Matter” has been developed by members of the teaching staff and students of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). Initiated, supervised and coordinated by Prof. Mathias Antlfinger, Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger, Echo Ho, Prof. Ute Hörner, Dr. des. Anneka Metzger, Lasse Scherffig, Prof. Dr. Georg Trogemann.
  http://www.georgtrogemann.de/heavy-matter-isea-ruhr-2010/ [Read Less]
- Exchange Emergences is a joint-showcase of Coded Cultures festival and Japan Media Arts Festival. The international partner project Coded Cultures/Japan Media Arts Festival shows the latest works of Japanese, Austrian and Slovenian artists at the Dortmunder Kunstverein. [Read more]
- Exchange Emergences is a joint-showcase of Coded Cultures festival and Japan Media Arts Festival. The international partner project Coded Cultures/Japan Media Arts Festival shows the latest works of Japanese, Austrian and Slovenian artists at the Dortmunder Kunstverein. [Read Less]
Trust Exhibition:
- We are glad to host the exhibition TRUST in the spaces of HartwareMedienKunstVerein (HMKV) at Dortmunder U as the pre-opening event of ISEA 2010 RUHR.
  The exhibition contains works by fourteen international artists and deals with the trust that we put in people, in media and in machines–out of a desire for security, for entertainment, or for comfort.
  TRUST is made possible by the generous support of the Kunststiftung NRW, the Art Foundation of North Rhine Westphalia. We are grateful to the Foundation’s general secretary, Regina Wyrwoll, for the confidence and interest that she has given to this project. TRUST takes place in the framework of ISEA 2010 RUHR, the 16th edition of the most important conference for media art worldwide, which happens annually, each time in a different part of the world. We can confidently say that we are proud to have brought ISEA to Germany for the first time. The symposium is officially hosted by medienwerk.nrw, an association of different media art institutions in North Rhine Westphalia, which was founded exactly 10 years ago, ... [Read more]
- We are glad to host the exhibition TRUST in the spaces of HartwareMedienKunstVerein (HMKV) at Dortmunder U as the pre-opening event of ISEA 2010 RUHR.
  The exhibition contains works by fourteen international artists and deals with the trust that we put in people, in media and in machines–out of a desire for security, for entertainment, or for comfort.
  TRUST is made possible by the generous support of the Kunststiftung NRW, the Art Foundation of North Rhine Westphalia. We are grateful to the Foundation’s general secretary, Regina Wyrwoll, for the confidence and interest that she has given to this project. TRUST takes place in the framework of ISEA 2010 RUHR, the 16th edition of the most important conference for media art worldwide, which happens annually, each time in a different part of the world. We can confidently say that we are proud to have brought ISEA to Germany for the first time. The symposium is officially hosted by medienwerk.nrw, an association of different media art institutions in North Rhine Westphalia, which was founded exactly 10 years ago, in October 2000.
  ISEA2010 RUHR is a project of the Cultural Capital of Europe, RUHR.2010, and is made possible by funding from RUHR.2010 GmbH, the Minister President of North Rhine Westphalia, and by the City of Dortmund.
  I would personally like to thank the curators of the TRUST exhibition and their team for the good cooperation which always followed the principle of ‘Control is good, trust is better’.
  Put your trust in us!
  Dr. Inke Arns
  
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- Trust in Rugged Terrain
- The exhibition TRUST presents works from fourteen artists and artist groups that focus on different aspects of trust. The works make it possible to grapple with the contemporary meaning of trust and to explore its boundaries.
  We distinguish between different forms of trust such as personal trust (in other people), system trust (in institutions and technical systems) and media trust (in images, media and presentation techniques). Communication and social action are unthinkable without trust – it forms the foundation for the functioning of complex societies, especially when they are not driven by the threat of violence. Trust is the retainer and the goodwill that we bring to a relationship: it embodies the expectation that the other will behave in a reliable manner although no explicit assurances have been given. Placing trust in someone means leaving him or her with a precious gift in the hope that it will be carefully treated and eventually returned.
  
  ... [Read more]
- The exhibition TRUST presents works from fourteen artists and artist groups that focus on different aspects of trust. The works make it possible to grapple with the contemporary meaning of trust and to explore its boundaries.
  We distinguish between different forms of trust such as personal trust (in other people), system trust (in institutions and technical systems) and media trust (in images, media and presentation techniques). Communication and social action are unthinkable without trust – it forms the foundation for the functioning of complex societies, especially when they are not driven by the threat of violence. Trust is the retainer and the goodwill that we bring to a relationship: it embodies the expectation that the other will behave in a reliable manner although no explicit assurances have been given. Placing trust in someone means leaving him or her with a precious gift in the hope that it will be carefully treated and eventually returned.
  
  Faith in institutions, societal structures and systems is aligned with, for example, money and its usage, equitable governance, reliable science and legitimate political power. In media, we trust that technical devices and presentation and communication aids will function properly to enable the kinds of communication and forms of expression that are expected of them.
  For all of these forms of trust there is often little reason; the mass media prove to be instruments of propaganda. Science, research and technology are regularly seen to be unable to gauge or control the consequences of their actions, and economic and political sys- tems fail under the pressure of special interest groups and corruption.
  When behaviour towards others, for instance between animals, is guided by instinct, no trust is required for the characteristic mechanisms of behaviour to function. This changes once intelligence and calculation come into play and people realise that their own behaviour is defined by thoughts and desires that are unknown to others, just as their motives are unknown to us.
  That is when social actions begin to be guided by inner motivations such as fear of violence, needs, desire and gratification – or by trust in another person. When we know their motivations, we can evaluate our expectations of future conduct – trust is the medium of placing such hopes in another person.
  The origin of any social situation is the encounter with others. In his project Nereida, Ariel Guzik endeavours to forge a positive relationship with his counterpart and enter into a dialogue. Nereida is an instrument through which Guzik hopes to communicate with cetaceans (whales and dolphins) for which he has, as intelligent and social creatures, the highest respect. The work is the result of a search for common ground and a medium to communicate with the whales. Trust in communication and its media is always accompanied by uncertainty about the awareness of the ‘other’. Only with the greatest caution, respect and the perspective of hope can such communication be attempted at all. Nereida is a monument to the longing for contact with another species through music. Given the finely-tuned senses of whales and the instruments through which Guzik interacts with them, the work marks a high degree of responsibility that is necessary in every relationship characterised by trust, and so points to the ethical dimension of communication.
  
  A trusting relationship is only possible between two parties that know each other. This is what the project macghillie_just a void by the artist group knowbotic research, in which one can move through the city in camouflage, taps into. The figure of MacGhillie subverts this identity; neither the face of the wearer nor their body can be seen. MacGhillie is a vague presence, an anonymous figure without identity, a void in the social system. The project offers the chance to temporarily withdraw from the normal subjective position and ‘become MacGhillie,’ and so represents a fundamental questioning of interpersonal relationships based on trust. MacGhillie is not, as it seems, simply a tragic figure of failure: camouflage is a cunning instrument of self-empowerment and control over one’s social identity through its negation.
  In her video performance One Day, Instead of One Night, a Burst of Machine Gun Fire Will Flash, If Light Cannot Come Otherwise Milica Tomić presents herself ‘as herself,’ a trustworthy and seemingly harmless person. We see a woman in everyday clothes who roams calmly through the city of Belgrade, holding a simple white plastic bag in one hand and a gun in the other. Along the way she visits unmarked locations where important events in the Yugoslav resistance to German occupation took place in the Second World War. Tomic seems completely casual about the gun – an item that, because of the inherent threat of violence, deserves mistrust. She overrides the intuitive distrust of weapons and manages to bring a dangerous object into a public space without it being able to exert its power and absolute dominance. In the attempt to build trust where there really is suspicion, this resonates with the impression of false confidence in someone who seems harmless but conceals dangerous potential. Through her performance Tomic succeeds in capturing this ambivalence of trust.
  
  The work Otondro Prohori, Guarding Who from Naeem Mohaiemen deals with the use of communication media such as mobile phones and the internet in a situation in which the ruling political system is not to be trusted. The technical functionality of media encourages a naive trust in devices that should fulfill a particular purpose: phoning, photocopying, sending e-mail, accessing the internet, taking part in a social network, etc. However, the real use and the actual context of the application has a complexity that contradicts this naïve instrumental trust. The interception of telephones and the state or non-governmental monitoring of data traffic have long been an everyday part of digital communication. Mohaiemen’s series of images deals with this breach of trust through the example of the deception in everyday modern media in Bangladesh and their control by an authoritarian state. As enlightened users today, we are encouraged to distrust the media and forced to assume a somewhat schizophrenic perspective towards the private and intimate media that cause obvious leaks in our private sphere.
  You need not be cynical to doubt the principle of trust in social systems. Often these systems are infinitely distant from benevolence and require suspicion as a necessary attitude. The theses in Konrad Becker’s text piece Trusted Realities spotlight the manipulation of truth, fraud and deception as counterparts of trust. The social philosopher Theodor W. Adorno suggested with his dictum “Wrong life cannot be lived rightly,” that there can be no free life as long as social conditions are characterised by a lack of freedom.
  The rules of deception that Becker sets up, and the description of his efforts to conceal the falsity, signify a glaring need for security even in that state of falsity. Becker’s work thus offers a rigorous deconstruction of the principle of trust in a technologically advanced society where justified trust seems unimaginable and where only the certainty of false illusion is realistic.
  
  The installation Desire of Code from Seiko Mikami also deals with the ambivalent confidence in security and surveillance systems. When visitors enter the installation, they seem to venture into the interior of a large machine. Numerous small robot arms attached to a long wall react to the presence of an observer with twitching movements. The arms follow every movement of the visitor and turn bright, watchful camera eyes towards their position. In a projection a kaleidoscopic myriad of image fragments can be seen, some current, some showing earlier moments from the installation space, and yet others coming via the internet from different cameras. Despite the apparent total surveillance, there is no feeling of mistrust – the system is transparent in terms of functionality and the communication channels are comprehensible. However, what remains unclear is what the machine intends to do or produce with the obtained information. You feel suspended in the animation, reassured by the constant attention and perhaps even comforted – trusting in the security being provided by a watchful eye. The fragile and twisting little robot arms suggest that the machine itself is more anxious and vulnerable than the observer. The machine doesn’t seem malicious, but confronts the viewer sincerely – like an animal.
  More radical is the question that Verena Friedrich formulates with her installation ENDO about trust in technical control systems. Trust needs transparency and ENDO poses the question of trust in data and in its collection. An anonymous, incomprehensible, hermetic, closed machine unceasingly registers and documents data on its immediate surroundings. ENDO absorbs information, expropriates data, avoids a communicative engagement and stays instead silent, motionless on the floor and leaves the viewer in an uncomprehending helplessness. Is the data useful, perhaps, for the provision of a healthy indoor climate, as a safeguard against misconduct, or fire safety? It is nevertheless difficult to grant trust to this introverted apparatus.
  Above all the mass media want to serve up manipulations and banal diversions – and yet we expect them to convey information that will help us to orient ourselves in this complex reality. Antoine Schmitt’s installation TIME SLIP is about the desire to not only learn about the past through the media, but also to get a grip on the future. TIME SLIP is based on computer software that modifies the grammatical tense of current reports from news agencies. Headlines are translated from the present or past into the future tense and reproduced on an LED ticker display. At the moment of reading, the desire to look into the future is satisfied. Lyrically and visually conveyed in the ‘language of global reality’ that is English headlines, a fascinating sense of knowledge is created about the future that one would like to believe. On one hand the headlines satisfy the desire for a good story and on the other, open up the logic of the underlying deception – especially if you are already aware of the current news. TIME SLIP is a simulation of an oracle, a prophetic machine. Here trust is employed as a desire, a small displacement and self-deception at the moment where knowledge of the truth of the message can be combined with the illusion of its futurity.
  
  Our mistrust of the media doesn’t mean that we don’t consult them again and again, in the hope that a true, or at least good story is told. It is similar for us with our sense organs. For orientation in the world, we rely absolutely on our perceptual apparatus and it is difficult to mistrust or doubt sensations, even if we have learnt from experience of visual or acoustic illusions that we do not see, hear or smell everything as it actually is. HC Gilje’s video installation blinkleads us to an insistence on the truth of visual perception literally before our eyes. Viewers quickly understand that their perceptions are not to be trusted. The composition is designed for sophisticated and highly precise video projections to create impressions of optical illusions in the space. It is therefore all the more fascinating to observe how the perceptual apparatus processes what is presented, but takes it again at face value, even though a moment before what we saw was exposed as illusion. Finally, it is clear that we have nothing but our senses to rely on. Even if we are skeptical about the deceptions, the edges of light and reflections presented here are so clear that after a short period of doubt we want to trust our eyes unconditionally. blink asks us to: ‘Mistrust perception, if you dare!’
  
  The question of confidence in our perceptions on one hand, and in science on the other, is also dealt with by the installation rota from Carsten Nicolai. In the room we see a tall, rotating, cylindrical mirror with a surface broken regularly by geometrically shaped holes. In the centre of the cylinder is a lamp spilling bright light through the holes which becomes moving spots of light on the surrounding walls. A text panel on the wall shows a table that describes the different frequencies of light at which altered states of consciousness are triggered in the viewer. The cylindrical sculpture is thus presented as a manipulation machine in the tradition of ‘brain machines’ of the 1960s. It remains unclear whether the information in the table is true and whether the alleged effects are actually provoked in every visitor. Finally, it is hard to determine at what speed the cylinder is actually turning. As in other communicative situations, the relationship between exhibitors and visitors is a risky undertaking. The visitor enters a potentially ‘dangerous,’ manipulative situation and must rely on the fulfillment of responsibility at the hands of a careful and cautious host. Or is this perhaps an example of those scientific experiments that manipulate their subjects under the guise of objectivity and transparency but actually follow a completely different and hidden interest in knowledge?
  Nicolai’s work opens up a complex discourse about truth, perception and ethics that includes a critical assessment of the confidence in one’s own senses: could our perceptual apparatus, our brain and mental state really be nothing more than an automatically responsive, controllable system?
  One method of ascertaining reality is the imitation of the found world. Sophie Bélair Clément tries this in her Choir piece for 24 voices attuned to the spectrum of frequencies of a sodium lamp powered by 60 hertz. The sound of the technical device is simulated by the most fundamental instrument – the human voice. An audible drama unfolds of generous, persistent efforts to obtain an accurate imitation of the sound, and of the subsequent failure in the face of the technological precision of the lamp. This drama is marked by the fact that it addresses the banal tone of a fluorescent tube, which is actually a waste product and commands little attention.
  
  The kind of empathy needed to take this sound so seriously in an aesthetic sense and then guide a chorus in the singing of it is also needed for entry into a communicative relationship. The desire to acquire technology and control its effects in a highly technological world is increasingly urgent and reflected in the longing for another entity that can be trusted, whether person or system. The desire of becoming-lamp, of not only singing but also shining, puts forward a humorous attempt at a human variation of technological simulacra.
  A deep immersion in technically produced simulacra is offered by digital animation in film and computer games. In Lonely Record Sessions, Joan Leandre has edited together scenes from such games into a linear video. The virtual worlds seem highly charged emotionally and make use of a cinematic visual language in scenes of the city and countryside. These mood shots aim to create a particular emotional state. The scenes never relinquish their status of simulated image, always remaining clearly artificial. It is obvious that the emotion is not produced by real things, but occurs in response to a construction. The deliberate mistrust of the image causes a mistrust of one’s own emotions when viewing the work and reveals just how dependent we are in our responses to certain visual and auditory patterns. In these sessions, any interaction and control over the course of the story is removed, and we are forced to experience the intrusion presented by the pseudo-emotions of the images.
  
  With his installation Memory Cone, Julien Maire has found a strong metaphor for the relationship of images and memories, and for the precarious status of our memories. An open visible device that is, however, in its complexity almost impossible to comprehend, invites us to make a photo visible in a projection through moving and compiling strips of white paper. This photo appears to be a private document with possibly great emotional content. But in the face of such a confusing technical system in which it is not clear where the image is actually being created, is it possible to really believe this picture? The image and its origins remain mysterious and even if we see that our interaction can appear in the image, we are separated from it by a border that is not only technical, but seems to be emotional as well. And if the images cannot be trusted, can one trust one’s memories? The everyday desire to conserve and construct memories by means of media can only be fulfilled if we believe in the veracity of images – a veracity that cannot be proven ultimately. Like these pieces in front of us, the shards of our memories have to be laboriously assembled before they again fragment and lose their solid form.
  Media transmit content. They make it possible to experience something that is absent, or past, or that cannot be sensed with our perceptual apparatus. Conventional radio converts specific electromagnetic waves into acoustic signals that can be perceived by the human ear. In everyday use, waves which are broadcast by a transmitter, are received and heard as music, sound or spoken word. Joyce Hinterding deals with a frequency range that is affected by the rather random and secondary electromagnetic effects of natural and technological phenomena. There is something improbable and uncanny about how she presents an electro-acoustic reality that can be made audible by antennas drawn in graphite. This is not a kind of techno-animism, but simply antennas for one part of the reality spectrum that manifests itself and can be experienced through the medium of these drawings.
  
  The part of the spectrum that the antennas pick up is very specific and depends on the individual form of each antenna. The drawing creates its own specific signals from this reality, which, in this particular form, is heard only through the specific shape of the antenna – a slightly differently drawn antenna produces a different signal from the same place. This could be described, albeit a little clumsily, as an aesthetically motivated spectrum - constructivism: it is not initially the objectivity of the electromagnetic spectrum that matters, but rather the drawing that corresponds to a unique aspect of the spectrum. Hinterding’s drawings are an expression of a desire for communication as well as an expression of trust in this communication.
  Hinterding’s trust in the world of devices has a different quality to the trust in a ‘normal’ antenna, calculated and constructed according to the rules of radio technology. She puts trust in drawing as a world-disclosing technique that produces an instrument for an operation in the spectrum of reality at degrée zéro of media technology: graphite pencil on paper. Her drawings are an expression of the desire for communication and of the confidence in this communication.
  In the winter of 1967/68, the sociologist and systems theorist Niklas Luhmann worked at the former Social Research Centre of the University of Münster in Dortmund on his study of ‘trust’. This work is still one of the key theoretical texts for our exhibition theme. In his book, Luhmann describes precisely the mechanisms and functions of trust both between individuals and in complex social systems. He writes in the spirit of the cybernetic social systems of his time, foregrounding the question of the functioning of systems through the illusion of trust. But is this ‘real world’ actually a world without trust? Or is it a world that should again reconsider personal trust after spending decades on perfecting its trust in systems alone?
  
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E-Culture Fair:
- The E-Culture Fair 2010 will be showcasing innovative projects in the fields of media art, creative industry, research and education. It is the first step of an envisaged long-term co-operation between three partners: Virtueel Platform of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, BAM – Flemish Institute for visual, audiovisual and media art of Ghent, Flanders, and medienwerk.nrw of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in affiliation with ecce – european centre for creative economy, organised by Hartware MedienKunstVerein. In line with previous events held regularly since 2000 in the Netherlands, the E-Culture Fair 2010 is being presented for the first time in Germany as an ISEA2010 RUHR co-operation project. In an exhibition and trade fair environment – in workshops and through live presentations – international artists and creatives showcase their latest works and anticipate future collaborations in the context of electronic culture. The intention is to display the current state of artistic reflection, and to debate social as well as cultural transformations and various creative applications in the digital field. Programme:
  1. Speakers: Dr. Inke Arns (HMKV... [Read more]
  2. The E-Culture Fair 2010 will be showcasing innovative projects in the fields of media art, creative industry, research and education. It is the first step of an envisaged long-term co-operation between three partners: Virtueel Platform of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, BAM – Flemish Institute for visual, audiovisual and media art of Ghent, Flanders, and medienwerk.nrw of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in affiliation with ecce – european centre for creative economy, organised by Hartware MedienKunstVerein. In line with previous events held regularly since 2000 in the Netherlands, the E-Culture Fair 2010 is being presented for the first time in Germany as an ISEA2010 RUHR co-operation project. In an exhibition and trade fair environment – in workshops and through live presentations – international artists and creatives showcase their latest works and anticipate future collaborations in the context of electronic culture. The intention is to display the current state of artistic reflection, and to debate social as well as cultural transformations and various creative applications in the digital field. Programme:
    1. Speakers: Dr. Inke Arns (HMKV/medienwerk.nrw), Floor van Spaendonck (Virtueel Platform), Dr. Andreas Broeckmann (ISEA2010 RUHR/Dortmunder U)
    2. Out of Curiosity: An Exploration of the Educational E-Culture Field in Flanders, the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia.
    3. Crossover Lab Lowlands by Nathalie Goethals
    4. Crossing Over – Interdisciplinary Practices
    5. Projects/Presenters: Cultuurlab, Wii Medic, Angelo Vermeulen, Botanoadopt City in a Bottle, NoiseTube
    6. Crosstalk: Booklaunch “We can change the weather: 100 cases in changeability”, Marleen Wijnants (ed.), VUBpress
    7. BALTAN Laboratories/Lablife 1: Ecological and Sustainable Designs Introduction: BALTAN Laboratories
    8. Projects/Presenters: OKNO, FoAM, Prototypen://
    9. BALTAN Laboratories: Booklaunch “The Future of the Lab”
    10. Urban Regeneration and Media Technology, hosted by Patching Zone
    11. Projects/Presenters: Patching Zone, Dropstuff, MediaLAB HvA, TwitterHouse, UPLabs
    12. BALTAN Laboratories/Lablife2: Urban Interventions
    13. Projects/Presenters: Recycle X/Patching Zone, 7scenes/De Waag, timelab (Q&A) Subjectivities
    14. Projects/Presenters: CubeBrowser, De Werktank, Crew, BigBrotherAwards, Participatory Culture
    15. Projects/Presenters: Instructables Restaurant, Mediamatic Travel, Where is Gary?, Folkwang Museum Essen, Social Spaces, DarkMatr, SK Stiftung Kultur (Q&A)
    16. BALTAN Laboratories/Lablife 3: Wearable Technologies
    17. Projects/Presenters: V2, Constant Toolpool
    18. Projects/Presenters: Fritzing, Fundels, Musescore, CityShapes, Nodebox, Netzspannung.org & Medienfluss,
    19. ARCHIE–mobile interactive museum guide
    20. Closing Remarks & Perspectives. Speakers: Dr. Inke Arns (HMKV/medienwerk.nrw), Prof. Dieter Gorny (RUHR.2010/ecce), Dr.Ingrid Stoppa-Sehlbach (Staatskanzlei NRW), Floor van Spaendonck (Virtueel Platform), Dirk De Wit (BAM), Dr. Andreas Broeckmann (ISEA2010 RUHR/Dortmunder U)
    Text with images (PDF) p. 78-79 [Read Less]
  3. Virtueel Platform – Projects from the Netherlands
  4. The Dutch contributions to the E-Culture Fair 2010 offer a varied collection of ways in which digital culture plays out in the real world. Together they demonstrate that e-culture does not only happen in digital on-screen spaces, but has intimately woven itself into many of the ways we do things in our work and the rest of our lives. A few examples: “UPLabs” (Urban Park Laboratory) explores the near future of the public park by inserting public entry digital services into the Westerpark of Amsterdam. “CityShapes” allows people to build life-size toy castles with huge (virtual) building blocks on the Leonie-ReygersTerrasse in front of the Dortmunder U. “Fritzing” allows technical amateurs to design and test their electronic circuits on screen until they work, and then gives them a blueprint to make them real. These designs can, of course, be published and improved by further users. The “Instructables Restaurant” is an open source/do-it-yourself restaurant that can be started from scratch anywhere. It is continuously improved and reiterated in an open design practice. Social media and mobile internet are the driving forces in the development of this hybrid mix that... [Read more]
  5. The Dutch contributions to the E-Culture Fair 2010 offer a varied collection of ways in which digital culture plays out in the real world. Together they demonstrate that e-culture does not only happen in digital on-screen spaces, but has intimately woven itself into many of the ways we do things in our work and the rest of our lives. A few examples: “UPLabs” (Urban Park Laboratory) explores the near future of the public park by inserting public entry digital services into the Westerpark of Amsterdam. “CityShapes” allows people to build life-size toy castles with huge (virtual) building blocks on the Leonie-ReygersTerrasse in front of the Dortmunder U. “Fritzing” allows technical amateurs to design and test their electronic circuits on screen until they work, and then gives them a blueprint to make them real. These designs can, of course, be published and improved by further users. The “Instructables Restaurant” is an open source/do-it-yourself restaurant that can be started from scratch anywhere. It is continuously improved and reiterated in an open design practice. Social media and mobile internet are the driving forces in the development of this hybrid mix that offers immense opportunities to blend artistic, design and entrepreneurial practices.
    
    With:
    1. CityShapes Sander Veenhof
    2. CoolMediaHotTalk Show CoolMediaHotTalk
    3. Dropstuff dropstuff.nl
    4. Fritzing fritzing.org
    5. Instructables Restaurant instructablesrestaurant.com
    6. Interactive Urban Projection MediaLAB, Hogeschool van Amsterdam
    7. Media Art Labs BALTAN Laboratories (Eindhoven)
    8. Mediamatic Travel Mediamatic
    9. Patching Zone (Rotterdam)
    10. TwitterHouse XML Architecture Research Urbanism
    11. Urban Park Laboratory Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek
    12. Wii Medic Grendel Games
    Full text with images (PDF) p. 76-77
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  6. The Flemish participants in the E-Culture Fair 2010 present research projects, tools, methods, applications and installations at the intersection of culture and new media technology. These crossover projects originate from quite different backgrounds, domains and disciplines such as cultural heritage and ways to categorize cultural and leisure information (“Cultuurlab”), generative art applications (“Nodebox”, “City in a Bottle”), interactive cinematic narratives and digital distribution (“Where is Gary?”), education and elearning (“Fundels”), artistic reflections on digital and analogue phenomena of seeing (De Werktank), music, gaming, design, ecology… What they have in common is that they explore social and cultural potentials of technology, going from multi-touch technology (e.g. “Social Spaces”), to omni-directional video techniques (Crew), RFID, interactive visualizations of the internet (“DarkMatr”) and of course in several cases networked technology (“Musescore”).
    With:
    1. ARCHIE–mobile interactive museum guide
    2. Expertise Centre for Digital Media (Hasselt University)
    3. Behind the Horizon De ... [Read more]
    4. The Flemish participants in the E-Culture Fair 2010 present research projects, tools, methods, applications and installations at the intersection of culture and new media technology. These crossover projects originate from quite different backgrounds, domains and disciplines such as cultural heritage and ways to categorize cultural and leisure information (“Cultuurlab”), generative art applications (“Nodebox”, “City in a Bottle”), interactive cinematic narratives and digital distribution (“Where is Gary?”), education and elearning (“Fundels”), artistic reflections on digital and analogue phenomena of seeing (De Werktank), music, gaming, design, ecology… What they have in common is that they explore social and cultural potentials of technology, going from multi-touch technology (e.g. “Social Spaces”), to omni-directional video techniques (Crew), RFID, interactive visualizations of the internet (“DarkMatr”) and of course in several cases networked technology (“Musescore”).
      With:
      1. ARCHIE–mobile interactive museum guide
      2. Expertise Centre for Digital Media (Hasselt University)
      3. Behind the Horizon De Werktank
      4. Biomodd Angelo Vermeulen
      5. City in a Bottle
      6. Cupid Cultuurlab, IBBT/SMIT
      7. DarkMatr Tom Heene
      8. Fundels Playlane
      9. Musescore Thomas Bonte
      10. Nodebox Experimental Media Group,
      11. Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp
      12. Noisetube VUB, Sony CSL Paris
      13. Out of Curiosity Social Spaces, Province of Limburg,
      14. Art Centre Z33
      15. Social Spaces Media & Design Academy, KHLim, Art Centre
      16. Z33, Expertise Centre for Digital Media (Hasselt University)
      17. Where is Gary? Potemkino
      18. W(Double U) Crew
      Text with images (PDF) p. 78-79 [Read Less]
    5. The contributions to the E-Culture Fair 2010 from North Rhine-Westphalia are characterised by a broad range of themes and approaches: the spectrum of showcased works ranges from artistic reflection (“The Moon Goose Experiment”) and possibilities for archiving and communicating media art (“Netzspannung.org & Medienfluss”) to artistic applications (“CubeBrowser”) and cultural criticism (“BigBrotherAwards”). A topic that is approached by three projects in varying fashions is participation: With interesting techniques pertaining to urban renewal and environmental sustainability, “Botanoadopt” and “Prototypen://” trace the intersection of physical space and digital networked technology. In a workshop, the Folkwang Museum Essen presents new opportunities created by Web 2.0 media for cultural education, through which it is now possible, regardless of place and time, for initiatives such as Cultural Commons to address a global audience.
      With:
      1. BigBrotherAwards FoeBuD e.V.
      2. Botanoadopt 431art.org
      3. CubeBrowser Ludwig Zeller
      4. Cultural Education in Web 2.0 Folkwang Museum Essen
      5. Lab for Media... [Read more]
      6. The contributions to the E-Culture Fair 2010 from North Rhine-Westphalia are characterised by a broad range of themes and approaches: the spectrum of showcased works ranges from artistic reflection (“The Moon Goose Experiment”) and possibilities for archiving and communicating media art (“Netzspannung.org & Medienfluss”) to artistic applications (“CubeBrowser”) and cultural criticism (“BigBrotherAwards”). A topic that is approached by three projects in varying fashions is participation: With interesting techniques pertaining to urban renewal and environmental sustainability, “Botanoadopt” and “Prototypen://” trace the intersection of physical space and digital networked technology. In a workshop, the Folkwang Museum Essen presents new opportunities created by Web 2.0 media for cultural education, through which it is now possible, regardless of place and time, for initiatives such as Cultural Commons to address a global audience.
        With:
        
        BigBrotherAwards FoeBuD e.V.
        
        Botanoadopt 431art.org
        
        CubeBrowser Ludwig Zeller
        
        Cultural Education in Web 2.0 Folkwang Museum Essen
        
        Lab for Media Arts Production SK Stiftung Kultur
        
        Netzspannung.org & Medienfluss
        
        Monika Fleischmann & Wolfgang Strauss
        
        Prototypen:// Labor für sensorische Annehmlichkeiten
        
        REMOTEWORDS Achim Mohné & Uta Kopp
        
        The Moon Goose Experiment – a bio poetic investigation
        
        Agnes Meyer-Brandis
        
        Text with images (PDF) p. 80-81 [Read Less]
      7. E-Culture Fair 2010 Closing Party Bringing the E-Culture Fair 2010 to a close, large interactive video projections controlled by visitors can be seen in the sizeable audiovisual outdoor installation of MediaLAB (Hogeschool van Amsterdam, NL) on the facade of the office building, next to the Dortmunder U. MediaLAB’s “U-Turm Project” was developed in collaboration with video artist Matthias Oostrik, Beam Systems, and Virtueel Platform. It combines interactive, large-scale projections with music and video art. The silhouettes of every visitor stepping onto one of the four stages on the Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse are recorded and projected onto a window of the facade. Through their movements, players can steer their images in different directions. The closing party expands at 23:00h when the E-Culture Fair 2010 opens the vaulted cellar under the Dortmunder U, jointly organised with ISEA2010 RUHR, providing an opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere, accompanied by electronic music.
        The closing party expanded at 23:00h when the E-Culture Fair 2010 opened the vaulted cellar under the Dortmunder U, jointly organized with ISE... [Read more]
      8. E-Culture Fair 2010 Closing Party Bringing the E-Culture Fair 2010 to a close, large interactive video projections controlled by visitors can be seen in the sizeable audiovisual outdoor installation of MediaLAB (Hogeschool van Amsterdam, NL) on the facade of the office building, next to the Dortmunder U. MediaLAB’s “U-Turm Project” was developed in collaboration with video artist Matthias Oostrik, Beam Systems, and Virtueel Platform. It combines interactive, large-scale projections with music and video art. The silhouettes of every visitor stepping onto one of the four stages on the Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse are recorded and projected onto a window of the facade. Through their movements, players can steer their images in different directions. The closing party expands at 23:00h when the E-Culture Fair 2010 opens the vaulted cellar under the Dortmunder U, jointly organised with ISEA2010 RUHR, providing an opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere, accompanied by electronic music.
        The closing party expanded at 23:00h when the E-Culture Fair 2010 opened the vaulted cellar under the Dortmunder U, jointly organized with ISEA2010 RUHR, providing an opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere, accompanied by electronic music.
        [Read Less]
Performances:
- Audiovisual Pilots
- Ei Wada presents his performance “Braun Tube Jazz Band” at the beginning of the club night.
  1. i8u (qc/ca) i8u’s audio art can be qualified as soundsculpture. It reveals powerful, opaque and complex sound environments where analogue and digital meet. She performs a set with humming drones enhanced by virtually inaudible acute frequencies.
  2. Halldór Úlfarsson (is) — Eyes are Speaking Eyes are Speaking A pair of light-sensitive glasses and light bulbs mounted on microphone stands are features of this performance. The tinted lenses react to the brightness of the bulbs, which are in turn influenced by the sound. Experience Halldór Úlfarsson’s instrument, the halldoro phone, played by Hildur Guðnadóttir in concert on Tuesday, Halldór Úlfarsson will also speak about his instrument at the panel “Building Musical Instruments”.
  3. evala (jp) The cutting-edge sound of evala is characterized by crystalline clarity and digital precision without ever losing sight of danceability. Supported by the Japan Foundation.
  4. Paul Prudence (gb) — ryNTH “ryNTH” uses live sound analysis to generate synthae... [Read more]
  5. Ei Wada presents his performance “Braun Tube Jazz Band” at the beginning of the club night.
    1. i8u (qc/ca) i8u’s audio art can be qualified as soundsculpture. It reveals powerful, opaque and complex sound environments where analogue and digital meet. She performs a set with humming drones enhanced by virtually inaudible acute frequencies.
    2. Halldór Úlfarsson (is) — Eyes are Speaking Eyes are Speaking A pair of light-sensitive glasses and light bulbs mounted on microphone stands are features of this performance. The tinted lenses react to the brightness of the bulbs, which are in turn influenced by the sound. Experience Halldór Úlfarsson’s instrument, the halldoro phone, played by Hildur Guðnadóttir in concert on Tuesday, Halldór Úlfarsson will also speak about his instrument at the panel “Building Musical Instruments”.
    3. evala (jp) The cutting-edge sound of evala is characterized by crystalline clarity and digital precision without ever losing sight of danceability. Supported by the Japan Foundation.
    4. Paul Prudence (gb) — ryNTH “ryNTH” uses live sound analysis to generate synthaesthetic geometric forms with real-time deformations and modulations. The resulting morphing geometries pay homage to anti-gravity mechanics and the ancient concept of ‘The Music of the Spheres’.
    5. Monolake Live Surround (de/nl) Music as a great abstract machine: metallic sounds, heavy bass, shimmering particles of dust. And with it a world of abstract lines; virtual rooms, skimmed through in real time. Pilots: Robert Henke (Sound) & Tarik Barri (Visuals).
    Text with image (PDF) p. 90-91 [Read Less]
  6. At the beginning of the club night participants of the “Experimental Electronics” workshop present their results in a short performance. Ei Wada presents his performance “Braun Tube Jazz Band” at the beginning of the club night.
    1. döbereiner & morimoto (de/nl/jp) These artists experiment with sound synthesis methods whose sonic possibilities are explored in an audiovisual live setting. The resulting sonorities are roughtextured microstructures visualised in wavelike forms.
    2. Infinite Livez (gb) — Solo live performance Infinite Livez performs a rare one-man show. Expect a mixture of experimental noise, stream of consciousness rapping and live beat-making from the London-born emcee.
    3. One Man Nation (sg) — When I Was Young I Was Easily Amused, But Now It Is All, The Same, And The Same One Man Nation’s work is best described as a “performance that transmits a deep narrative feeling of geopolitical disenchantment, ingrained into dark textures”. This disenchantment reveals itself on more levels than purely narrative; it is exorcised the use of every part of his body as a whole.
    4. Tarek Atoui (lb... [Read more]
    5. At the beginning of the club night participants of the “Experimental Electronics” workshop present their results in a short performance. Ei Wada presents his performance “Braun Tube Jazz Band” at the beginning of the club night.
      1. döbereiner & morimoto (de/nl/jp) These artists experiment with sound synthesis methods whose sonic possibilities are explored in an audiovisual live setting. The resulting sonorities are roughtextured microstructures visualised in wavelike forms.
      2. Infinite Livez (gb) — Solo live performance Infinite Livez performs a rare one-man show. Expect a mixture of experimental noise, stream of consciousness rapping and live beat-making from the London-born emcee.
      3. One Man Nation (sg) — When I Was Young I Was Easily Amused, But Now It Is All, The Same, And The Same One Man Nation’s work is best described as a “performance that transmits a deep narrative feeling of geopolitical disenchantment, ingrained into dark textures”. This disenchantment reveals itself on more levels than purely narrative; it is exorcised the use of every part of his body as a whole.
      4. Tarek Atoui (lb) — Un-drum 2/The Chinese Connection and Un-drum 3/Semantic Scanning Electron Microscope Tarek Atoui’s “Un-drum” performances are a series of complex interactions between music composition, movement and electronic engineering. Through a system of pressure sensors that engage the physical strength of the artist’s body, Atoui scans and tracks at high speed to instantly edit microsamples. Un-drum 2 produced by Sharjah Art Foundation (ae) Un-drum 3 produced by: Sharjah Art Foundation (ae), La Maison Rouge (fr) und Darat Al Funun, The Khalid Shoman Foundation (jo).
      5. Blevin Blectum (us) — Nocking Vane Laptop, costume, voice and video complement one another in this piece about conjuring, human/animal/elemental interaction, uncanny forces of destruction and primeval attempts at preservation.
      Text with image (PDF) p. 92-93 [Read Less]
Screening:
Concerts and Sound Events:
- Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen-Werden (ISEA2010 Day of Sound)
- On Sun 22 August 2010 the ICEM (Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media) at the Folkwang University, Essen, DE, presented the Day of Sound with concerts, performances and sound art installations. Selected project submissions from the ISEA2010 RUHR Call for Proposals was presented alongside works produced in the ICEM studios.
  
  A full day totally dedicated to electronic music during which the roots of instruments, compositional principles and sound structures of the electronic sound world will be presented. Live electronics are being generated and combined in an interplay with direct, well-rehearsed sound worlds. Barely perceptible auditory and visual microcosms flow through each other and sound resonances become symbolic. It will be collaged and looped, dismembered, reassembled, distorted and abstracted with text, sound and image. Modularised technical equipment and classical instruments in electronic garb are used. And, lastly, a one of a kind sound machine triumphs with enormous stertorous and subharmonic frequencies.
  
  Text with image (PDF) [Read more]
- On Sun 22 August 2010 the ICEM (Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media) at the Folkwang University, Essen, DE, presented the Day of Sound with concerts, performances and sound art installations. Selected project submissions from the ISEA2010 RUHR Call for Proposals was presented alongside works produced in the ICEM studios.
  
  A full day totally dedicated to electronic music during which the roots of instruments, compositional principles and sound structures of the electronic sound world will be presented. Live electronics are being generated and combined in an interplay with direct, well-rehearsed sound worlds. Barely perceptible auditory and visual microcosms flow through each other and sound resonances become symbolic. It will be collaged and looped, dismembered, reassembled, distorted and abstracted with text, sound and image. Modularised technical equipment and classical instruments in electronic garb are used. And, lastly, a one of a kind sound machine triumphs with enormous stertorous and subharmonic frequencies.
  
  Text with image (PDF) p. 24 [Read Less]
Public Events:

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