Graffiti Analysis 2.0 takes live tags and transforms them into active 3D animations. The project is by Evan Roth and software development by Chris Sugrue and was recently showcased at the BLK River Festival in Vienna.
Yearly Archive for 2009
Three members of the eye-writer initiative tell us about their project, how it started and how it developed. There is more great video documentation available on vimeo, like this clip:
During the Olympic Games in 2008 James Powderly traveled to Beijing in order to support the group “Students for a free Tibet”. The Idea was to go there and do a L.A.S.E.R. Tag performance. Before he was able to do so he was arrested and sentenced to 10 days of prison. When the games were over he was set free and sent home, where he decided to publish the story as a comic book together with Jihoi Lee. In the interview he tells us about the time in prison and the comic book that was exhibited at the Blackriver Festival in Vienna.
This is the L.A.S.E.R. Tag Video by GRL, for everybody who is not familiar with the project:
from http://graffitiresearchlab.com/rotterdam/laser_tag_WEB.mov
Signs and Signals Appendix
THX to the very charming and synergetic art-gang”freyluft” (monika freyer und philipp luftensteiner) we can proudly present: “Signs and Signals” the directors cut! It’s a recording of the whole performance, taken from the vis-á-vis Danube bank.
1. The Building:
The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a center for the electronic arts, run by Ars Electronica and situated in Linz, Austria. It’s located at the northern side of the Danube, on the right side of the Nibelungenbrücke (witch has a pretty interesszing history itself). The building is also known as the “Museum of the Future“. The museum has six floors filled with creative work from hi-tech laboratories all over the world.
2. The “new” Building:
The new building includes a multi-level structure adjacent to the existing facility and then wrapping the entire ensemble in a glass shell, the AEC’s spectacular 5,100-m2 LED façade. The result is a holistic entity, which can be used like a gigantic kind of screen.
3. The Event:
Matthias Schoenauer and Sebastian Schlachter from Austrian radio station fm4 produced “Signs and Signals. Together with the artgroup “freyluft” they developed the concept of a audio/ visual performance including the technical possibilities of this special environment.
It was extraordinary !!! But see for yourself and enjoy!
Other artists included are: Vocalist Mani Obeya, skin-conductor-violinist Ulla Rauter, Patrick Pulsinger and Richard Eigner.
For more information about the backstage situation and interviews look at my post: Façade-Play and Body-Sound.
The Japan Media Arts Festival chooses every year another country to show their currently awarded and nominated pieces in an exhibition abroad.
This years the exhibition takes place in Vienna. It shows very well that the Japanese art definition differs from the European approach quite a lot, the border between art and design is floating as you can see by the selection of pieces in the exhibition.
Atsushi Wakimoto, the curator of the Japan Media Arts Festival walks us trough the viennese exhibition of the Festival which is running until 20th of September.
[use you mouse wheel]
“Signs and Signals” @ Ars Electronica Festival 09Last weekend, at the FM4 co-hosted multimedia performance “Signs and Signals”, artist duo freyluft visualized sounds on the surface of the Ars Electronica Center (AEC).
“Any heavy-handed block can be transformed to a magical zone with an illuminated façade”, wrote Gerlinde Lang on the FM4 Website. Now, for sure, the new Ars Electronica Center (AEC) at its location on the banks of the Danube in Linz, does not qualify as a “heavy-handed block”, a magical zone it became nonetheless. This happened courtesy of artist duo freyluft, who, last weekend in cooperation with FM4, made 40.000 LEDs dance on the façade of the AEC, in their performance “Signs and Signals”.
The sounds involved were provided by DJs and live-musicians, but, notably, also by media artist Ulla Rauter, who utilized her own body as an instrument. With an electric violin bow she stroked her right forearm, while her hand was fitted with electric contacts. “The skin serves as a conductor. When the violin bow touches the skin, the circuit is closed”, says Rauter: “It is a sort of biofeedback.”
Text: Patrick Dax, ORF Futurezone Translation: Oliver Stummer
Wenn die Maus schreit
Es gibt viele Möglichkeiten, eine Computermaus zu zerstören. Zehn davon hat das japanische Künstlerduo exonemo in der aus Videos und einem Computerprogramm bestehenden Installation “DanmatsuMouse” gesammelt. Einmal saust ein Vorschlaghammer auf das Plastikgadget, ein anderes Mal fräst sich die Klinge eines Küchenmessers durch das Zeigegerät.
Ein Computerprogramm sorgt dafür, dass die reale Maus auf dem Desktop die “Todeserfahrung” ihres gefilmten Pendants nachvollziehen kann und gleichsam final zuckt. Zu sehen ist “DanmatsuMouse” bei der Ausstellung des Coded-Cultures-Festivals, das derzeit im Wiener MuseumsQuartier stattfindet und japanische und österreichische Positionen in der Medienkunst einander gegenüberstellt.
Zum Auftakt der futurezone.ORF.at-Serie “Futurezone Galerie” hat Matthias Tarasiewicz vom Coded-Cultures-Kuratorenteam Ella Esque vom Wiener Medienkunstblog tagr.tv durch die Ausstellung geführt. Die beiden unterhalten sich unter anderem über Martin Pichlmairs Arbeit “Bagatelle Concrete”, die einen Flipper zur Soundmaschine ummodelt, und über Yuko Mohris Installation “The Execution of Mary”, die elektronische Geräte zweckentfremdet.
Coded Cultures endet am Sonntag. Die Festivalausstellung ist noch bis zum 7. Juni im freiraum des Wiener MuseumsQuartiers zu sehen.
Coded Cultures – Wien 27. – 31. Mai 2009, Yokohama und Tokio 14. – 18. Oktober 2009
The guys of Pikselfest in Norway are now accepting proposals in the categories installation, a/v performance, presentations and workshops. As ever – ” Projects realised using Max/Msp/Jitter, Flash/Shockwave, Final Cut or any other proprietary software does NOT qualify, and should not be submitted!”
Next years transmediale also published the call for entries.
I couldn’t find something like a theme or a subject – the next step after getting rid of the categories a few years ago? Would make sense imho, artistic production usually doesn’t care too much about festival themes anyway..
Jaime Stapleton at the Ö1 Creative Cities Symposium on the 31st of april in the Radiokulturhaus Vienna.
…well, that last question of Jaime put me into a difficult situation: we agreed to ask everyone the same set of questions, so i either had to cut out jamie – or break up the concept that we all agreed on.
I decided to go on with the interview, and even though i didn’t manage to phrase a proper question i think it was a good decision: What followed were the most interesting views on the term creativity i heard in a long time, so even though it’s unedited i recommend the second part of the interview:
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