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.
“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
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
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:
Interview mit Diedrich Diederichsen, Kulturwissenschafter, Berlin / Wien at the Ö1 Creative Cities Symposium on the 31st of april in the Radiokulturhaus Vienna.
i finally managed to finish the summary of this years transmediale – it’s a tough job to create a span of all the topics the transmediale is covering, but i think it’s gives a rough idea, but see yourself:
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