:: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 ::
ART AND GLOBALIZATION THREAD
PROJECT:: hack.it.art
an exhibition and event about technological,
artistic and political activism in Italy
January 14th to February 27th, 2005
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien,Berlin
REVIEWED BY:: Molly Hankwitz
Alternative media networks often offer the only means to make voices heard in opposition to the dominant media. In the case of Italy this means the monopoly media of Berlusconi. 'Counter information networks' thus described possess the potential to mobilize (through mailing lists, forums, etc.) more alternative voice and to reframe the context in which media is made. Such flexibility and openness of information technologies and creative exchange offers the possibility of spontaneous intervention in cooperation with other social movements. The idealism of hacker.art is thus described in this ambitious collection of artists, artworks, websites, and projects. The blurring of hacking and art points to the efficacy and potentials of political participation as an endless questioning of form and content.
It's an exhibition very much worth checking out for the deeply rooted and sustained commitments to the notorious 'hacker ethic' found both in the work of artists selected and the explosive ideas which can arise from juxtaposing such artists/hacktivists together. What's nice, too, is all the cross-border networking between Germany, where the exhibit took place, and Italy, where the majority of artists are from. It's as if the artists' life-force co-mingled on the net, and manifested in Germany for the show, only proof that the eighties have indeed 'grown' the networks necessary to put a different face on the 'traditional art system.' (see hacker.art website below for full context)
Of note are all the cyberfeminists and their panel and the Telestreet workshop which dives into challenging TV norms, technological potentials of streaming and other. With this lively techno political scene in an exhibition context, the energy of the art intersects with the very world it was created to circumvent.
More info: http://www.ecn.org/aha/English/hackit_art.htm
PROJECT::HIGHLIGHT Low-fi
new works by international artists using networked media
06 August thru 02 October 2005 FREE
Stills, 23 Cockburn St, Edinburgh, EH1 1BP
Open daily 11am to 6pm
Featuring;
Mauricio Arango (Colombia/US)
Cavan Convery (UK)
James Coupe (UK)
Radarboy (South Africa/Japan)
Kate Rich (UK)
UK Museum of Ordure (UK)
Low-fi commissions exist to support the production of new artworks that use networked technologies. Although these artworks thrive on the internet, in this exhibition the artists use sound, projection and other methods to inhabit the physical space of the gallery. They work in tangible, engaging and sensory ways to convey ideas about our relationships with the media, technology and digital and commercial networks.
Among the works, Kate Rich forges new routes of import while Mauricio Arango's map of the world reveals how international news media is creating new cartography. James Coupe's sound installation dispenses wisdom gathered from metaphysical travels on the net, while the UK Museum of Ordure invite you to add to their gradually degrading sound files. Throughout the exhibition, the works react and grow in response to visitors' input -unroll familiar contemporary technologies as one would ancient scrolls in Cavan Convery's Vertical Scroll and take responsibility for the maintenance of radarboy's Big Five Digital Zoo.
Low-fi is an artist collective focused on net art, mediation and
distribution systems
http://www.low-fi.org.uk
STILLS is one of Scotland’s leading centres for research, production
and exhibition of contemporary art inspired by existing and emerging technologies
http://www.stills.org
More info...
http://www.stills.org/exh_current.html