#Ewen Chardronnet

[antibothis]

The occultural stew is hot !"

As usual with this excellent Portuguese anthology, we find ourselves positioned in a gap between the old and the new on many levels. The occultural, post-industrial (as in the music/subculture, not as in general history), avant garde environment swings easily between play and philosophy, between genuine transformation and abstracted discourse, between pure experimentation and thorough thinking. Most of it is still fairly fresh, I have to say. If there’s some kind of code that unites these disparate voices, it’s an antithetical stance against the passive collective, expressed in eloquent experiments. Single voices spewing out disdain or frustration in honest, poetical and sometimes scary bursts."

Carl Abrahamsson

[schmiede]

Where do we go from here? -NEW - subnetTALK - We. May 13

Do you have questions about Schmiede20? please join us. 

subnetTALK We. May 13th 18:00 - online zoom  // Language - English

Tina Dolinšek  (PIFcamp, Slovenia)  and Rüdiger Wassibauer (Schmiede Hallein, Austria) will give insight about 2020 and are available for questions. 

We want to shape our future and not be shaped by our fears. What does this new reality mean for us?

This subnetTALK will be an open dialogue and conversation starter on how we want to bridge the developing distance. 

Ewen Chardronnet, chief editor of Makery magazine & medialab (France) will moderate. 

Zoom-Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/join Meeting-ID: 817 1954 1630 Passwort: 378477

Duration perspective - 60 min 25 min dialogue between Tina and Rüdiger  35 min questions and answers. 

link: https://www.facebook.com/subtime/live

PIFcamp, Schmiede and Makery are part of the Feral Labs Network  (funded by Creative Europe)

Pic 1: Schmiede Hallein - Pic 2: PIFcamp

More background on Where do we go from here? 

Two festivals want to start a conversation. PIFcamp as well as Schmiede are cooperative and process oriented festivals. We rely heavily on physical contact amongst our participants and audiences. How can we address this new situation? How will our work in 2020 and beyond be affected? What about the future of creative work and exchange gatherings? 

Tina Dolinšek, Coordinator of the PIFcamp Slovenia, wanted to hold a different talk (About the collaborative approaches in new media art production. As an example she wanted to point out these approaches talking about the Slovenian summer hacking camp "PIFcamp”). However Tina's talk was steamrolled by current events and the common question that will shape our future perception as well as actions and therefore our ability as well as potential.

Tina was about to cancel or postpone her talk as she lost the ground on which she was building and saw little relevance in looking back in nostalgia. Rüdiger’s point of view was that now we need normality and what can be done should be done, considering hygiene guidelines etc..., and if it is just for the purpose of testing. 

This is especially important considering our joint Creative Europe project feral lab network (a network of temporary dislocated hubs for research in art, technology and communities across Europe).  Creative Europe is a EU program designed to facilitate and enhance exchange amongst European artists and creatives. 

Tina and Rüdiger started a dialogue about what the future might bring and how we can or should approach it. As we had similar questions and assume that many do we decided to skyjack Tina’s PIFcamp subnetTALK. Tina and Rüdiger will briefly lay out the implications of our current situation, but then dive right into potential actions. 

Where do we go from here? 

[maxmollon]

(CHECK THE WEBSITE : lancement chaire arts et sciences)

Chèr.e.s ami.e.s,

Venez débattre vendredi !Je​ ​vous invite à un​ ​“forum des controverses” sur les enjeux éthiques des maladies neuro-dégénératives (les ‘forums des controverses’ sont des​ débat-fictions​ ​participatif) avec le projet Éphéméride.

•​ 19h-21h ce vendredi • 17h-19h pour voir les conférences qui précèdent. • ​Cité Internationale des arts: 18 rue de l’hôtel de ville - 75004 • ​Débat dans l'Atelier 8220, noté numéro 9 sur le plan ci-joint

“NOUS NE SOMMES PAS LE NOMBRE QUE NOUS CROYONS ÊTRE” est le nom de l​’événement​ ​art-science dans lequel s'inscrit un atelier thématique de 36h sur les savoirs médicaux, auquel je participe en organisant ce débat​​.

Le fil conducteur de ce foisonnant programme est l’univers d’un recueil de nouvelles de l’auteure américaine de science-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin, The Compass Rose (1982). J'interviendrai au sein de l’atelier qui reprend le titre d’une de ces nouvelles « L’eau est vaste ». Celle-ci attire notre attention sur les rapports que nous entretenons avec les savoirs scientifiques et médicaux qui ne nous encouragent pas toujours à oser explorer d’autres formes de relations de nos corps et de nos êtres à la multiplicité des mondes, visibles et invisibles, qui pourtant nous constituent.L'atelier est porté par Valérie Pihet du collectif Dingdingdong – Institut de coproduction de savoir sur la maladie de Huntington, co-fondé par 17 chercheurs, artistes et professionnels. Dans cet atelier, il s’agira de s’intéresser au « soin des possibles », pour suivre la philosophe Isabelle Stengers quand elle nous invite à penser les possibles contre les probables. Étant toutes et tous concerné.e.s dans une vie par la maladie, que l’on soit soi-même malade, proche d’un.e malade ou professionnel soignant, nous tâcherons d’explorer les manières de prendre soin des différentes formes de savoirs constituées à partir de nos expériences, et non en dehors d’elles. Pour ce faire, nous proposerons des espaces de partage de pratiques d’artistes et de chercheurs qui mettent leurs savoir-faire à l’épreuve de ces expériences, avec les personnes concernées. Nous explorerons également, par des expériences sensorielles – parfois virtuelles -, chorégraphiques et narratives, la question du soin à prendre des sens et des histoires qui nous fabriquent. Ces expériences inviteront les publics à s’éprouver comme faisceaux de relations, espace d’accueil, d’étreintes et de partage.

​Programme ​spécifique ​de cet atelier :

De 15h à 18h le vendredi 2 février, rencontre avec des chercheurs, artistes et professionnels qui mettent leurs compétences et leurs savoir-faire à l’épreuve d’expériences partagées par des personnes concernées.

De 18h à 19h puis de 21h à 22h le vendredi 2 février, et enfin de 10h à 16h le samedi 3 février, retrouvez-nous pour explorer les possibilités narratives de la réalité virtuelle. Au programme, dans l’ordre, introduction/discussion, démonstrations et atelier de création proposés et animés par  Fabien Siouffi (Dingdingdong, Fabbula), Ferdinand Dervieux (Parallèles Editions/Sharpsense) et Sarah Garcin (designer graphique et designer d’interaction). Plus d’info dans le document joint. ATTENTION : pour participer à l’atelier de création, je vous invite à vous inscrire, nombre de places limité : hello@fabbula.com

De 19h à 21h le vendredi 2 février, participez au débat conduit par Max Mollon, designer, enseignant et chercheur dédié au design fiction depuis 2010 (Design Fiction Club, Politique-Fiction, What if ? - bureau d’études du débat public). Il portera sur le temps de la maladie tant du point de vue des patients que des aidants. Cette concertation débutera par la présentation d’images fortes – conçues pour l’occasion, afin de stimuler le débat – qui mettent en perspective des scènes de vie de patients, et du même geste, des questionnements éthiques propres à ces sujets complexes.

De 22h à 10h la nuit du 2 au 3 février, venez nous rejoindre pour vivre une expérience sensorielle qui vous invitera à percevoir et ressentir les corps et les lieux comme des espaces de tâtonnement, d’étrangeté et de partage! Cette expérience est proposée par la chorégraphe Anne Collod (Cie … & alters, Dingdingdong).

De 18h à 19h30 le samedi 3 février, assistez à l’atelier « Tâla Médical » proposé par Luc Perera (chercheur en design sonore médical/programme doctoral SACRe), en présence de deux musiciens. Comment le design sonore médical et la musique classique de l’Inde du sud peuvent faire alliance pour tenter d’explorer une préoccupation politique et sociale majeure qui est le vieillissement de la population ? Quelle pratique pour quelle forme de soin ?

En permanence : exposition Dingdingdong – Institut de co-production de savoir sur la maladie de Huntington comprenant vidéos (deux capsules vidéo du docteur Marboeuf à propos de l’unité spéciale Alice Rivières et une vidéo intitulée Journal du futur d’Alice Rivières produites par le département «Narration spéculative» de L’Institut Dingdindong) et documents (posters et centre de ressources)

Je vous encourage vivement à regarder le programme de tout l'évènement. À consulter en ligne, ici.

Cet événement est proposé par la Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso, en partenariat avec la Chaire “arts & sciences” (portée par l’École polytechnique / l’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – PSL / la Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso) et la Cité internationale des arts. Il rassemblera des centaines d’artistes, chercheurs et groupes de travail d’horizons géographiques et disciplinaires très variés autour d’une expérience inédite, en continu pendant 36h. Ils vous invitent à réfléchir sur le présent et à esquisser ensemble des voies d’avenir.Le programme est très riche et réuni Toutes les infos ici : http://chaire-arts-sciences.org/nous/

Avec la participation de (Warning, name dropping!) :

​Bruno Latour, Pierre-Damien Huyghe, Christophe Leclercq , Giovanna Di Chiro, Laurent Jeanpierre, Kristin Ross, Emmanuel Mahé, Samuel Bianchini, Lucile Haute, Max Mollon, Ferdinand Dervieux, Sarah Garcin, Benoit Verjat, Nicolas Couturier, G.U.I., Julie Blanc, David Bihanic, Anthony Masure , Robin de Mourat , Vincent Piccolo , Annick Rivoire, Nolwenn Tréhondart, Valérie Pihet, Julia Morandeira, Arrizabalaga, Thierry Mouillé, David Zerbib, Naïm Aît-Sidhoum, Armand Béhar, Stéphane Bérard, Grégoire Bergeret, Filippo Broggini, Marie-Haude Caraès, Nicole MarchandZanartu, Matthieu Clainchard, Alexandre Costanzo, Anna Dezeuze, Elie During, Bastien Gallet, Gianni Gastaldi, Laurent Jeanpierre, Charlie Jeffery, Farah Khelil, Julia Kremer, Mauro Lanza, Frédérique Loutz, Sophie Mendelsohn, David Rabouin, Gaëtan Robillard, Didier Tallagrand, Christian Ruby, Linda Sanchez, Nicolas Tixier, Ewen Chardronnet, Aliens in Green , (groupe d’artistes composé, de Bureau d’études, Ewen Chardronnet, Mary Maggic, Julien Paris, Spela Petric), Xavier Bailly, Julien Bellanger, Benjamin Cadon, Nathalie Blanc, Lauranne Germond, Annick Bureaud, Isabelle Carlier, Erik Noulette, Chloé Desmoineaux, Nicolas Floc’h, Amanda Crabtree, Valérie Gentilhomme, Fabrice Lizon, Jeff Guess, Léa Le Bricomte, Robertina Sebjanic, Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens, Carole Thibaud, Miha Tursic, La Paillasse (Paris), Garance Malivel, Jamie Allen, Merle Ibach, Jennifer Crouch,, Nicholas Shapiro, Christophe Guérin , etc.

news​letter

[listentotheland]

Quentin Destieu Qui n’a jamais eu l’impression d’entendre une mélodie en utilisant une brosse à dents électrique ou d’essayer de générer un rythme de brossage entrainant ? Le signal sonore de l’Internationale Communiste est transmis à la brosse à dents et interprété par la vitesse de rotation du moteur. Objet connecté, la brosse à dents augmentée permet de diffuser l’Internationale communiste par vibrations au plus près de l’individu en passant directement par la racine de ses dents. Cette expérience interroge les rapports de proximités et d’intrusion entre corps humain et nouvelles technologies. Elle questionne la notion de collectif dans ce monde de consommation individualiste. -- How does one to go to work motivated in the morning? The collective of hackers Dardex found the solution: an electric toothbrush that sings “l’Internationale”. To all those who have once had the strange feeling of hearing a tune in the humming of their electric toothbrush, or even another voice coming out of their own mouth on the limit of paranormal, Quentin Destieu from the collective Dardex proposes to return to materialistic pragmatism and get off to work to a good start in the morning. Your toothbrush will play the communist hymn and your mouth will serve as a listening room as if the Russian military choir had suddenly started the revolution in your buccal microbiome. Generously, Quentin was nice enough to detail his toothbrush hack, the phenomenal success of which has been promised for the centenary of the Bolshevist revolution next year. The duo of Dardex artists, composed of Quentin Destieu and Sylvain Huguet, is also behind the Gamerz Lab and the eponym festival of Aix-en-Provence. This isn’t their first hack. They have already put forward the computer that smokes the narghile, the goldfish that moves around in a chair for the disabled or still Neolithic tools made from recasting of electronic waste. These artists from Aix-en-Provence do not lack humor to question our relation to machines. This time round, Dardex commits itself: the communist propaganda strikes the proletarian close to his body in the morning after waking up. The sound signal of “l’Internationale” is transmitted to an electric toothbrush and interpreted by the rotation speed of its motor. Quentin Destieu chose the title Volk Zabnbürste (Homage to Karl Marx) and presents his communist toothbrush very seriously as follows: “Surfing on the success of different connected objects, the enhanced toothbrush allows you to play the communist hymn “l’Internationale” via vibrations by going directly through the root of the individual’s teeth.” (Ewen Chardronnet) -- https://ift.tt/1QGCwqD

[afinberlin]

Response to “Walking and Mapping”

“Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city; the changes, shifts, breaks in the cloud helmet, movement of light on water. Drifting purposefully is the recommended mode, trampling asphalted earth in alert reverie, allowing the fiction of an underlying pattern to assert itself.” Through walking or traveling around an area, one is able to map this location based on their own experiences and what they notice. By walking and drifting around a location, one is creating a location their own in a certain way, thinking about their surroundings and only what matters to them at these places. In this way, walking and taking in surroundings is a strong and much more personal way to map an area. This method of mapping a place fits perfectly into the description of psychogeography, as Wilfred Hou Je Bek explains “psychogeography is the fact that you have an opinion about a space the moment you step into it. This has as much to do with the space as with our hardwired instincts to determine if it is safe.” To map an area based on completely personal experience is a powerful idea, and it is important to understand how people walking through the exact same space will have completely different observations and create different landmarks in their heads for different reasons. This is the idea behind psychogeography and the project completed by Wilfred Hou Je Bek in which he gave people directions to walk around Orleans following a specific set of directions and to write down landmarks that stood out to them. Everyone will have a completely customized experience, a major reason why mapping through walking is great for identifying what a city is made up of, and what the people of the city recognize in terms of importance. It is also interesting that some people may not be able to give directions or describe a place even though their description is completely valid, but only understandable to themselves. For example, if I were giving directions around Newfound Lake in New Hampshire, a place I have spent many years in my life, I would give the directions based on landmarks that I have observed and recognized, such as the marshland adjacent to the road where I sometimes see moose, or the volunteer fire department that most people don’t even recognize as they drive past it. By mapping based on personal experience, psychogeography can have some great use besides understanding personal experience. As Ewen Chardronnet points out, psychogeography is “a tool that can teach history, politics, and even the theory of capitalism.” Based on the experiences of people and groups of people, they can understand how certain groups of people will constantly see the same thing when mapping through walking. I am wondering, when walking around Berlin for 3 weeks, will I notice and identify mainly locations or aspects of the city different from the United States, will I notice mainly parts of the city that are very artistic or the various monuments around the city, or will I notice mainly something else that stands out to me.

[nofomoartworld]

GAMERZ 2016 – Our daily computer-programmed reality

For a full intro to the festival, check out my previous story: GAMERZ: Digital tech ‘degenerated’ by craft and kludge.

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, installation at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

This year, a section of the exhibition of the GAMERZ festival was dedicated to the omnipresence of algorithms into our life. It was curated by artist, writer and otherwise brilliant cultural agitator Ewen Chardronnet.

By anchoring his curatorial text in the year 1972, Chardronnet reminds us that back then, the future of technology was not paved with malignant machines and other existential risks. Instead, it was brimming with hopes, ideals and thrilling speculations. In 1972 thus, Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program, the first man-made satellite leaves the solar system, a man walks for the last time on the moon and his crew photographed one of the most reproduced images in human history: The Blue Marble portrait of the Earth.

1972 is also the year the cybernetic system Cybersyn and NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock market, were starting to show their potential. NASDAQ was only one year old but would rapidly become the fastest growing stock market. As for the socialism-imbued promises held by Cybersyn, they were cut short by the coup d’état led by Augusto Pinochet (and backed by the U.S.) in 1973.

Philip K. Dick declares that we Live in “a computer-programmed reality”

As the curator also recalls, a few years later Philip K. Dick would explain with determination (and a certain sentiment that the audience is not ready to believe his words) that we are living in a computer programmed reality. And indeed, nowadays, many scientists would argue that the science fiction writer’s declaration should not be taken lightly and that a being whose intelligence is far greater than our own might very well have created us for their own entertainment. In other words, chances are that we are indeed living in a computerized simulation.

What is sure is that artificial manipulations and decisions of all kinds have very physical and real impacts on our culture.

“Nowadays, algorithms are everywhere,” writes Chardronnet. “They organize the planning and optimal use of resources, pictures rendering, bio-computerizing, cryptography, stock exchanges, electronic surveillance, target marketing, our behavior on social media… But algorithms are as old as Babylon. If procedural generation video games universes are truly infinite, is there still any enchanted gardens full of immaterial mathematical relics to be found? Or will it be time to encompass the possibility of an end?“

The title for Chardronnet’s exhibition is thus, very fittingly, Simulated Universe. The show featured artists whose works filter through the hype and anxiety surrounding a world controlled by artificial and often invisible intelligence.

Konrad Becker and Felix Stalder, Painted by Numbers. A Discursive Installation on Algorithmic Regime. Installation view at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

Konrad Becker and Felix Stalder, Painted by Numbers. A Discursive Installation on Algorithmic Regime. Installation view at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

Painted by Numbers provides an excellent introduction to the theme of the exhibition. Konrad Becker and Felix Stalder interviewed artists, scientists, activists, artists and experts in technology about their own perspectives on the power of algorithmic realities. The interviews were then segmented and rebuilt into short thematic videos that explore a particular issue (politics, culture, agency, etc.) under different but complementary points of view. The people interviewed talk about the perceived rationality of algorithms, weigh in on the possibility to build algorithm that would better reflect our values, discuss their lack of transparency, the subtle ways in which they are already shaping our cognitive processes, and often secretly scoring of members of society.

The videos are also available for watching online. I would highly recommend that you have a look at them if you have an hour (or 6 times 10 minutes) to spend on short films that efficiently open up all sorts of questions and provocations around the world built on data. Extra bonus points to the authors of the videos for including women’s perspective (still not something that we should take for granted, alas!)

RYBN, ADM XI at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

RYBN, ADM XI at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

RYBN, ADM XI at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

RYBN, ADM XI at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Important decisions are more and more devolved to machines and programs, making it difficult to determine who (or what) is actually in control. The trend is particularly noticeable in finance where increasingly high number of stock trades are now driven by algorithms.

“Algorithmic Trading. Percentage of Market Volume,” data from Morton Glantz, Robert Kissell. Multi-Asset Risk Modeling: Techniques for a Global Economy in an Electronic and Algorithmic Trading Era. Academic Press, Dec 3, 2013, p. 258.

Many types of algorithmic or automated trading activities can be described as high-frequency trading (HFT), a type of algorithmic trading characterized by such high speeds, such high turnover rates and high order-to-trade ratios that no man would ever dream of comparing to its. Algo trading been the subject of much debate since one of them caused the 2010 Flash Crash which saw nearly $1 trillion of value erased from U.S. stocks and the Dow Jones index lose almost 9% of its value in a matter of minutes. The market rapidly regained its composure and eventually closed 3% lower.

RYBN.ORG is a group of French artists who have been studying algorithmic finance for a number of years but who also created their own trading robot. Using an artificial intelligence algorithm, the autonomous program has been investing and speculating on financial markets since 2011. More recently, the group have invited other artists to join their research platform ADM XI and experiment with counter-intuitive strategies of investment and speculation.

The trading algorithms hosted on the platform follow their own non mercantile and obsessive logic: some attempt to produce a total and irreversible chaos, others try to influence the market prices to make it look like a given geometrical shape, while others tries do saturate the market with non human affects.

Within this contest, benefits are no longer driven by the prices and other economic instruments, but rather, by living organisms – soil, plants, bacteria; by supraterrestrial rules – environmental, astronomical, astrological; or by non-scientific knowledges – esoteric, magic, geomancy, etc.

Suzanne Treister‘s Quantum V algorithm is guided by data from human brains under the influence of psychoactve plants and planetary networks. Horia Cosmin Samoila‘s work submits selected stocks and financial products to an algorithm governed by the Global Consciousness Project, a Princeton University parapsychology experiment that looks for interactions between “global consciousness” and physical systems. Marc Swynghedauw’s HeidiX buys or sells stock according to how likely her actions with help her (she’s a lady bot!) reach the summit of famous mountains. Nicolas Montgermont‘s HADES trading algorithm uses its knowledge in astronomy, astrology and mythology to sell or buy gold. You can find more algorithms on the platform, the logic behind each of them is frankly quite baffling but some of them seem to perform rather well.

Regina de Miguel, Una historia nunca contada desde abajo, 2016. Photo by Luce Moreau

Una historia nunca contada desde abajo (A Story Never Told from Below) is inspired by the Cybersyn or Synco project. The project kicked off in mid-1971, when cybernetic visionary Stafford Beer was approached by a high-ranking member of the newly elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. The scientist was asked if he could apply his cybernetic theories to the management of the public sector of the Chilean economy. The objective of Cybersyn was to use a system of networked telex machines and computers to transmit data from factories to the government, allowing for economic planning in real time. The project was dropped after Pinochet’s 1971 coup.

Regina de Miguel’s film lasts roughly 2 hours and i didn’t get a chance to watch it properly, alas! From what i’ve seen and also gathered from various readings and discussions, it seems that the work looks at times (which might now be regarded as ‘utopian’) when scientists and politicians embraced technology with enthusiasm in the hope that they would genuinely help them govern and improve humanity. However, utopias, even the most revolutionary ones, tend to be betrayed by the systematic failures of the times when they were conceived.

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, installation at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, installation at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, installation at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, installation at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, performance at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, performance at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov believe that the research in arts and humanities should be recognized as development practices complementary to space science and technology. The installation and performance they presented at GAMERZ are part of a broader call to integrate art forms into space programmes.

Živadinov was a co-founder of the avant-garde art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst and the director of the first complete theatre production in zero gravity conditions. In 1995 Živadinov embarked on Noordung 1995-2045, a 50-year theatrical process named after the famous Slovene rocket engineer and pioneer of cosmonautics.

The Noordung 1995-2045 theatre piece is to be repeated on the same day, every ten years, until 2045. Should any of the actors die during this 50 year period (as it happened already with actress Milena Grm), their role will be symbolized on stage by a remote controlled sign that the individual had previously selected. As for their text, it will be replaced by a melody for women and rhythm for men. Since it is highly likely that all actors will have passed away by 2045, all that will remain on the stage for the last performance will be their technological substitutes. Each of these devices will then be sent in the Earth’s orbit from where they will transmit signals back to Earth and also into deep space.

Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, Dunja Zupančič and Dragan Živadinov, Agents non-humains, performance at GAMERZ 2016. Photo: Luce Moreau

Previously: GAMERZ: Digital tech ‘degenerated’ by craft and kludge.

from We Make Money Not Art http://ift.tt/2lmUMPa via IFTTT

[conveniencelyyours]

An overview on Interactivos?16 with some highlights of the projects, such as Conveniencely Yours. The article is written by Ewen Chardronnet. 

English | French | pdf

[fuckyeahartandscience-blog-blog]

Ewen Chardronnet

[nofomoartworld]

GAMERZ: Digital tech ‘degenerated’ by craft and kludge

Trailer for the 12th edition of the GAMERZ festival

I’ve attended a fair number of editions of the GAMERZ festival over the years. The event seems to have found a formula that works, developed a personality of its own while always bringing to light new artists, perspectives and ideas that surprise me. Some of the performances are a bit mad and frenzied, a bit raw and totally at odds with the sleek and efficient aesthetics and atmosphere of many other media art festivals. And that’s why GAMERZ remains one of my favourite art appointment of the year.

Under its laid-back guise, GAMERZ is also sharp and subversive. It uses games, interactions and sounds as vehicles to observe a society re-shaped by technology and a technology challenged by artists and hackers.

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert performance at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

Yann Leguay, Stück für Stöcke

This year, the festival was organized around two fairly different themes. Simulated Universe, curated by Ewen Chardronnet and D. Générer, curated by Quentin Destieu.

Today, I’m going to focus on D. Générer, an exhibition and series of performances that explored the aesthetic peculiar to the kind of “digital” artworks that is guided by craft, kludge and a rowdy DIY spirit. These works are (de)generated by the touch of the human hand. They don’t have the efficient and polished aesthetic of design products, but they have soul, vigor and warmth.

“Researchers an theoreticians have already demonstrated the role of art & science-inspired aesthetics in the service of innovation and industry,” Destieu writes. “But they tend to underestimate the alternative and subversive aesthetic potential of these artistic forms, reducing them to default prototyping. Contrary to American historian Fred Turner’s dearest « makers » movement, in which innovating prototypes are to be eventually re-designed to be mass-made and sold, artists claim a different end to their works.”

Each work selected for the show champions an ‘alternative’ aesthetic that values the glitches of the process and the imperfection of technology. Perhaps even more interestingly, these works present themselves as a kind of anti-Apple squad, they open up their guts and show the mechanisms that brings them to life. By doing so, they suggest that there is an alternative to our passive-impassive consumer attitude and that now has come the time to reconnect with the objects that surround us (no matter how high-tech or low-tech they are) and make them our own:

A quick look at some of the artworks:

Yann Leguay, Arnaud Rivière and Jérôme Fino, DIRECT OUT. Sound experiments in the streets of Mulhouse (France) during the Météo music festival

Arnaud Rivière, DIRECT OUT

Direct Out takes sound creation and sound distribution outside of the concert halls, galleries and other traditional venues for music. The artists behind the work, Yann Leguay, Arnaud Rivière and Jérôme Fino, DIYed their own instruments by repurposing existing gadgets and materials. They then walked around the city looking for street furniture, trees and objects that would make their autonomous modules beep, buzz and resonate. By hooking up onto existing infrastructure, the small devices adopt a parasitic behaviour but they do so while remaining low-key and unobtrusive. They never not attempt to compete with the existing soundscape. Instead, they quietly capture and reveal the untapped energy and confidential vibrations of the urban environment.

If you read french, poptronic has a great write-up of the work.

salle

Yann Leguay, Stück für Stöcke

Yann Leguay, Stück für Stöcke

With Stück für Stöcke, Yann Leguay replaced with a piece of wood the tablets and phones held by game players in youtube videos. All that remains is the player’s finger gestures. The removal of the usual visual references reminds us of that interfaces are of little use without our own movements. Something that has always been clear to a tech industry obsessed with identifying every single gesture that can be patented and monetized.

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert, Scratchette demo 2016

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert, Scratchette. Photo by Luce Moreau

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert, Scratchette. Photo by Luce Moreau

Scratchettes! The kind of work that cheers me up!

Since 1999, Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert has been subverting, dissecting and transforming audio tapes, tape-recorders and other ‘old school’ devices into nifty little music machines. His instruments are as bizarre and charming as a ‘turntable’ for cassette tapes, a music sex toy vibrator or a Walkman on wheels. It’s about hacking, creating new sounds with old ones, but also about giving new life and purposes to bits and pieces of metal and plastic that could otherwise have been discarded:

“We’re not obliged to stay abreast with the new developments that big industries thrust on us,” he told Motherboard. “We can transform what already exists so that we can live a new experience.”

Tapetronic DJing his tape settings during GAMERZ. The most important part of his noisemaking art is not so much the K7 itself but the magnetic fields that can be scratched like vinyl:

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert performance at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert performance at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

Tapetronic aka Alexis Malbert performance at GAMERZ. Photo by Luce Moreau

I think i need to warn you about what comes next. It’s Windows 93 and it’s wild!

Windows 93 at GAMERZ festival. Photo by Luce Moreau

Windows 93 at GAMERZ festival. Photo by Luce Moreau

Windows 93 at GAMERZ festival. Photo by Luce Moreau

Artists Jankenpopp and Zombectro‘s spoof project imagines what could have happened if Microsoft hadn’t skipped a step between Windows 3.X and Windows 95.

The Moss and Roy of French art made a rather convincing parody of an early version of Windows, complete with a 8-bit version of Solitaire called Solitude, silly silly keyboard music, a cat explorer, songs for potatoes, a bit of always on trend GIFs, and icons you’re not sure you should be clicking on.

The speed is not what i would call optimal and as i wrote above, it’s proper bonkers. But also very clever and hilarious, even if you’re everything but a geek and you might not get all the references and innuendos

For the GAMERZ festival, the artists gave a 3rd dimension to their hallucinating pixelated online world and turned it into an installation that takes the form of ’90s cyber-café. It was interesting to watch people sit down and play with the operating system. What i found most curious was that it seemed to appeal to children, teenagers and middle age guys. Some stayed there for the nostalgia factor, others might have been attracted by the (intentional) dysfunctions refreshingly at odds with everything that is meant to make today’s mainstream ‘user experience’ seamless and pleasant.

Benjamin Gaulon, ReFunct Modular. Photo by Luce Moreau for GAMERZ

Benjamin Gaulon, ReFunct Modular. Photo by Luce Moreau for GAMERZ

Benjamin Gaulon, ReFunct Modular. Photo by Luce Moreau for GAMERZ

Refunct Modular is a wall-mounted version of Benjamin Gaulon’s ReFunct Media project. It uses a set of modules, each one connecting to the next using custom made connectors, they share power (5 and 12v), audio signal, video signal and spare lines for misc connections.

The sculpture hacks and repurposes discarded electronic devices, both digital and analogue, combining them into a complex chain of interconnected elements. The possible configurations and appearances of the final sculptures seem to be limited only the artist’s impulses and imagination.

ReFunct Modular doesn’t pretend to be an answer to the questions raised by e-waste, planned obsolescence and lack of sustainable design strategies. Rather, as an installation it experiments and explores unchallenged possibilities of ‘obsolete’ electronic and digital media technologies and our relationship with technologies and consumption.

Benjamin Gaulon, KindleGlitched*. Photo by Luce Moreau for GAMERZ

Benjamin Gaulon, KindleGlitched*. Photo by Luce Moreau for GAMERZ

KindleGlitched* is a work that explores the (so far grossly neglected) aesthetics of Planned Obsolescence. The work is a series of glitched kindles donated, found or bought on eBay. They have stopped working and would have ended up on a dump somewhere in Ghana if the artist hadn’t seen their singular beauty, signed them and sold them on Amazon as an insolent gesture of Retail Poisoning.

Reso-nance Numérique, Chimères Orchestra at GAMERZ festival

Reso-nance Numérique, Chimères Orchestra. Photo by Luce Moreau

Reso-nance Numérique, Chimères Orchestra. Photo by Luce Moreau

Chimères Orchestra are drummer-robots that hook onto urban structures. The metallic creatures play with the sonic capabilities of the built environment by drumming onto them with their little legs. The work is playful but also a bit mysterious and worrying. The creatures live above your head, dance with a mind that seems to be their own and seem to combine traditional percussion with coding mechanic with surprising ease. If simple machines can already exploit our architectures and music traditions now, imagine how robots will surpass and humble human creativity in the near future!

from We Make Money Not Art http://ift.tt/2kdleZo via IFTTT