:: Saturday, October 11, 2003 ::

Ultrasound 2003, "a three day international festival exploring the territory of experimental sound and electronic music" will take place from the 27/11/2003 - 29/11/2003 in Huddersfield, England.

With live performances "embracing the full range of contemporary digital music practise from experimental generative programming techniques to rich synthesised electro-pop", conferences examining "sound in the urban landscape", showcases on "developments in the creative use of technology in the areas of electronic music and sound art", a very impressive set of workshops "interfacing sound and robotics" using technologies such as max/msp, jmax, pure data, suppercollider, icube etc. and a DJ night the event looks a must for all those interested in electronic music / new media / performance.

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Games and game hacks by artists seem to go through a reception these days. Last wednesday (october 8th ) an exhibition called <re:Play> curated by radioquala opened it's doors in the Capetown, South Africa. The show focusses on critical (in the political meaning of the word) games by artists and features amongst others games by Andy Deck, Natahlie Bookchin and Future Farmers. Tomorrow (october 11th) an exhibtion called G A M E S "computergames by artists" will open in Dortmund Germany. This show, curated by Tillman Baumgaertel, tries to give an overview of what the subtitle of the show says, participanting artists are amongst others: Arcangel Constantini, Mongrel, Vuk Cosic, Olaf Val, Tom Betts and Yang Zhenzhong.

:: Peter Luining [+] ::
...

It has been said that art does not happen in a vacuum. As I recently posted on video games, I find it appropriate to follow with a comparison of two reinterpretations of the famous Mario Bros Game:

Mario Battle No.1 created by Myfanwy Ashmore in 2000 presents a game environment stripped of all enemies and obstacles; all the player can do now is take a stroll across the landscape. And Super Mario Clouds by Cory Arcangel consists of nothing but the iconic clouds found in the Mario game.

Both of these pieces touch on a particular idea of leisure that is prevalent in game playing, which is actually disguised with labor (in this case competition either against the machine or another player). Both artists reevaluate having time to play games by taking away the labor aspect that is usually expected from the viewer while demanding to have a disinterested experience with the objects. The principles behind these pieces are based on a by now conventionalized postmodern, or maybe even post-pomo tension of the object of art as a subject of contemplation vs. an ideological battle ground for power. These extreme dialogues are, perhaps, what make art practice interesting. We find this tension nicely exposed in both pieces not by adding, but rather substracting from a naturalized functioning state. Purposiveness without a purpose is what these pieces present, and their power relies on the inability to offer nothing but loss of time as the ultimate privileged state of production.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Intelligent Agent's Volume 4, issue 2 is out and available on .pdf and HTML. Log on directly to their download section in case you have problems loading the main applet.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

I recently became aware of hartware an organization facilitating the exhibition of new media. Some of the online and offline exhibits include Object 404 not found and an upcoming exhibition on games, which should be interesting to keep an eye on.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

This came through the spectre mailing list today and may be of interest to those in and around the Netherlands over the weekend, none of the announcement has been edited out.....

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There are still some seats available for:

Seminar 'Digital Work'
Date: Saturday 11 October 2003
Time: 13:00 - 17:00 hours
Admission: 5 euro, students 3 euro
Location: V2_, Eendrachtstraat 10, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Registration: please mail to workshop@v2.nl

How do we work now with digital media? Have we shifted from a work culture
based on the ambience of clubs to one locked inside cubicles? Has media
design become rationalised to the point of complete predictability or is
there still room for creativity and fundamental innovation?

Speakers: Maurizio Lazzarato, Steve Baldwin, Laurence Rassel.
Moderator: Brian Holmes
Respondents: Enric Gili Fort, Eduard von Lindheim

The seminar will be streamed live via the website http://www.v2.nl/live
with an irc chatroom available for direct online participation. The chat
will be moderated live and broadcast during the event.

More info on: www.v2.nl/2003

'Digital Work' is part of a series of seminars organized by the Media
Design Research Programme of the Piet Zwart Instituut, Willem de Kooning
Academie, Hogeschool Rotterdam in collaboration with V2_, Institute for the
Unstable Media.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Lately, British net.artist and musician Michael Szpakowski of http://somedancersandmusicians.com has been experimenting with net cinema. One of his latest efforts,time machine, is a perfect moment of cinematic transformation.
:: Lewis LaCook [+] ::
...

Turbulence Spotlight on Annie Abrahams and Clement Charmet:
------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2003
Turbulence Spotlight: "Confrontation" by Annie Abrahams and Clement Charmet

A man and a woman continue to talk without understanding each other. Each uses his or her own invented language. The words of hope, left on the site by visitors, confront the images of war found on the web.

'confrontation' leads to an incapacity to define war and hope as opponents, but lets them seem more as striving forces that appear on every level of our lives. Up to a point that sometimes we can find hope in the image of war and war in the hope phrases.

BIOGRAPHIES

Annie Abrahams is a multimedia artist born in the Netherlands and living in France. She obtained a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utrecht and has a diploma from the Art School of Arnhem. Her most important project "being human" can be viewed from www.bram.org. This work concentrates on the possibilities and limitations of communication on the net.

Clément Charmet is an art student from France. Interested in computer art since 2002, he mainly uses Internet resources, code capabilities, and random functions to generate multimedia content. His work deals with the perception of information and reality through media.

For more information about Turbulence, please visit turbulence.org
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:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

There are no additions to the New Media Fix this week. However, I wanted to point out to the passing of one of the most influential post-colonial minds of recent times. Edward Said passed away just over a week ago. Said has certainly been a major influence in understanding marginality, especially in relation to globalization. The Edward Said Archive has a very good set of articles dealing with his recent death.

The recommended fix for this week is the hub
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...