404 International Festival of Art & Technology has been awarded by “Fondo Nacional de las Artes” (National Arts Founding) for the production of the ninth season, which will be organized in different phases throughout 2012.

404 Festival launches an open call destined to artists and researchers from all over the world with the aim of spread and stimulate new media creations.

Authors can submit their works in the following areas:

• Installation
• Net.Art
• Still Image
• Animation
• Video
• Music
• Audiovisual Set
• Theory
• Performance

Submission is free. Please follow the instructions published here.

The title and theme of this eleventh edition of Artefact is The Social Contract. This term has been used in political and philosophical theories since the 17th century, but still emerges regularly today, in interviews with politicians, political party programs, debates, … Even the early adopters of the social contract theory, such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, used and interpreted the concept in different ways. The classical interpretation concerns the relation between the individual as a citizen and a political entity, in which the individual sacrifices part of his freedom and power in order for the state to offer for instance safety and social and economic security. But what is the position of the social contract in our current times of crisis in a globalized world?

One of the festival’s main questions is whether we can renegotiate or reform those ‘contracts’. Can we cancel them, rewrite them? The programme focuses on different forms of resistance and imagination. With exhibitions, performances, debates and meetings with international artists, we look for the position and alternatives for The Social Contract in our contemporary information and network society.

expo | Julieta Aranda / Anton Vidokle - Christin Lahr - Ariel Orozco - irational.org - Vlatka Horvat - Artist Placement Group - Jeanne van Heeswijk -Constant - Kitchain - Pedro Reyes - Jimmie Durham - Elín Hansdóttir - Samuel Bianchini - Herman Asselberghs - Radek Community - Lucy Kimbell / Andrew Barry - Geoff Cox - INTK - !Mediengruppe Bitnik - Sarah Vanhee - plan b - | performance | Anna Rispoli - Davis Freeman - Heine Avdal / Yukiko Shinozaki - plan b - Ehud Darash - Anna Mendelssohn - | talks | e-flux Time/Bank - Rudi Laermans - Frank Vandenbroucke - Antoon Vandevelde- Ewald Engelen - Dirk Holemans - Mohamed Ridouani - Peter Tom Jones - | kitchain cook & meet | Sarah Vanhee + Kristien Van den Brande - Femke Snelting + Kate Rich - Davis Freeman - Rudi Laermans + Antoon Vandevelde - | labo nights | Scroobius Pip - Rustie - Demdike Stare - Bugge Wesseltoft / Henrik Schwarz - Nils Frahm - Ansatz der Maschine - William Hooker - Phantogram/

Together with the other programme strands – the exhibition Dark Drives: Uneasy Energies in Technological Times, the performance programme The Ghosts in the Mashine, the video programme Satellite Stories and the symposium in/compatible: systems | publics | aesthetics – the reSource constitutes a substantial part of the transmediale 2012 programme. It presents a constellation of workshops, talks and performances distributed into five different sub-themes: reSource Methods, reSource Activism, reSource Networks, reSource Markets and reSource Sex.

reSource Methods investigates intersections between artistic production and research, reflecting on methodologies of curating (post)media art as well as on experimental and speculative methods of in/compatibility through artistic practices.

With Martin Howse (uk/de), Anthony Iles (uk), Mattin (se/es), Jonathan Kemp (uk), Shu Lea Cheang (tw/fr), Cornelia Sollfrank (de), Geoff Cox (uk/dk), Florian Cramer (de/nl), Christian Ulrik Andersen (dk), Georg Russegger (au), Michal Wlodkowski (au), Luise Reitstätter (au), Joasia Krysa (pl/dk), Sidney Ogidon (au), Eva Fischer (au), Morten Breinbjerg (dk), Matthias Tarasiewicz (au), Rosa Menkman (nl), Morten Riis (dk), Marie Thompson (uk), Carolin Wiedemann (de), Robert Jackson (uk), Andrew Prior (uk), Magda Tyzlik-Carver (pl/uk) and many others.

reSource Activism sheds light on the practices of artists, activists and hackers who are rethinking critical interventions in the field of art and technology.

With Florian Wüst (de), Kathy Rae Huffman (us/de), Eckart Lottman (de), Pit Schultz (de), Roberta Buiani (it/ca), Alessandra Renzi (it/ca), Nicola Angrisano (it), and others.

reSource Networks reflects on viral and distributed strategies of networking, questioning the concept of networking itself and proposing alternative to proprietary systems.

With Dmytri Kleiner (ca/de), Baruch Gottlieb (ca/de) and the Telekommunisten Network, Aymeric Mansoux (fr/nl), Johannes P Osterhoff (de), Salvatrice Settis (it), Anna Adamolo (it), Victoria Estok (us), Nicholas Knouf (us), Wolfgang Spahn (de) and others.

reSource Markets reflects on the meaning of capitalism in a time of crisis, proposing both critical and playful alternatives to the capitalistic logic by intervening directly within the economical systems.

With Steve Lambert (us), Daniel Garcia Andujar (es), Jaromil (it/nl), Kate Rich (uk), Shintaro Miyazaki (jp/de) and Elanor Colleoni (it/dk).

reSource Sex reflects on the interference and overlapping between sex business and ‘alternative’ porn, aiming to explore and discuss the open interzona which exists in between the often male-oriented mainstream porn, and the more narrow scene of queer and alt porn communities.

With Sergio Messina (it), Karla Grundick (cz/de), Julianne Pierce (au/uk), Liad Hussein Kantorowicz (il/de), Kate Erhardt (za/de), Jacob Appelbaum (us), Zach Blas (us), Aliya Rakhmetova (kz/hu), Gaia Novati (it/de), Gabriella Coleman (us), Katrien Jacobs (be/hk), Francesco Macarone Palmieri aka WARBEAR (it/de), Shu Lea Cheang (tw/fr) and Martin Hug (ch/es).

WORKSHOPS IN THE RESOURCE PROGRAMME

The reSource for transmedial culture presents a series of workshop during transmediale, dealing with art and technology, hacktivism and politics.

Registration for all workshops is possible via the online form on our website!

Floppy Films Workshop. Moving Images on 1.44 MB
With Florian Cramer and guest tutor Dagie Brundert

This workshop will teach you how to revitalise floppy disks for moving images. Using extreme means of compression, we can squeeze whole movies on the 1.44 Megabyte provided by a single floppy disk, using run-of-the-mill video and image formats (MPEG and animated GIFs). Floppy films can be used for various inventive means.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 11:00–17:00, Upper Foyer
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 11:00–17:00, Upper Foyer
Friday, February 3, 2012, 11:00–17:00, Upper Foyer

in/compatible Material
Artistic intervention with Martin Howse, Anthony Iles, Mattin, Jonathan Kemp, Shu Lea Cheang, Baruch Gottlieb, and others

As an intervention within the flow of transmediale, the in/compatible Material Laboratory inserts itself in the cut between the compatible protocol(s) and an in/compatible/inverse divinatory materiality through the setup of a series of experimental situations.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 12:00–18:00, Café Global Stage and around the HKW

Activism Beyond the Interface: The Sandbox Project
Conceived and hosted by Roberta Buiani and Alessandra Renzi
With Nicola Angrisano and others

The Sandbox Project is a series of experimental production labs in different cities bringing together artists, activists and techies to reflect creatively on the in/compatibility and diversity of artivist practices.

Thursday, February 2, closed session: 10:30–14:30 / open session: 14:30–16:30, Café Global Stage

Google – One Week Piece Workshop
with Johannes P Osterhoff

During the workshop Johannes P Osterhoff and the participants will set up their browsers to automatically publish all their Google searches during transmediale on the web. They will interlink their searches so that they get good rankings and become visible for everyone in everybody’s search results. Participants can join the collaborative Google – One Week Piece and follow the example and communication of other public searchers. To participate you need a computer or mobile phone (Firefox or Chrome browsers).

Thursday, February 2, 2012, 11:00–13:00 / 14:00–16:00, K2

Fluid Nexus
with Nicholas Knouf

In this workshop participants will learn about historical and contemporary experiments in analog and digital network construction. Through activities using simple materials such as pen and paper, participants will create novel designs for information networks. Hands-on experience with Fluid Nexus will give participants a base to extend their explorations after the workshop. No programming experience is necessary.

Friday, February 3, 11:00–14:00, K2

R15N & Technologies of Miscommunication
Dmytri Kleiner and Baruch Gottlieb from the Telekommunisten Network will introduce the R15N system, try it out together with the participants, and discuss and explore possible technologies of miscommunication applications.

Friday February 3, 15:00–18:00, K2

Bio-Game
with Shu Lea Cheang and Martin Hug

The workshop focuses on the study and experiments in: human body as BioNet and blood cells as computing units; human (E)motion sensing using GSR sensor; body sensor data as algorithm to define rules of the game; hack and sabotage - devising collective game with multiple players.

Saturday, February 4, 11:00–14:00, K2
Must be 18 years old to attend!

Words of advice for young pornographers
with Sergio Messina

Sergio Messina, aging porn enthusiast and Realcore expert, will take you on a little tour about the joys of good porn, the pains of bad one, the reasons to make it and the ways to become stars - also trying to establish a few golden rules to make enticing smut.

Saturday, February 4, 15:00–18:00, K2
Must be 18 years old to attend!

Paperduino-Uno – a PaperPCB Workshop
with Wolfgang Spahn

In the workshop Wolfgang Spahn will teach how to create and modify PaperPCBs (Printed Circuit Boards). As an outcome of the workshop every participant will have designed and build his or her own Paperduino-Uno.

Sunday, February 5, 12:00–16:00, K2

ARTWORKS IN THE RESOURCE PROGRAMME

R15N
by Dmytri Kleiner, Baruch Gottlieb and the Telekommunisten Network

Telekommunisten present R15N as a working telephone-based interactive installation which is available as a mobilization and engagement platform for the transmediale community.

R15N is an artwork in the form of an experimental mobile phone service which attempts to generate local community engagement and communication. After registering with the service participants will be joined together in the R15N community, able to initiate and share information about what is going on at transmediale and beyond. Every member thus eventually becomes engaged in a real conversation with another, and this engenders cohesion and complicity.

R15N is the Official Miscommunication Platform of transmediale 2012.

Please register yourself at www.r15n.net

Presentation of R15N at the opening of transmediale, Tuesday January 31, 17:00–18:30

Google – One Week Performance Piece
by Johannes P Osterhoff

From January 1 to December 31, 2011, the Interface Artist Johannes P Osterhoff has been publishing all of his search queries with the search engine Google in a One-year Performance piece called Google. Since for each search a website has been generated automatically, Osterhoff’s searches surface surprisingly well-ranked in Google’s search results. During the week of transmediale Osterhoff opens this hacking of Google’s business model to collaboration. Follow the searches of JODI, Olia Lialina, mspr0, Rene Walter and others or useGooglepublicly yourself.

Presentation as part of the panel Isolation and Empowerment after Web 2.0, Friday, February 3, 11:00–14:00, K1

PERFORMANCES IN THE RESOURCE PROGRAMME

Steam Machine Music
by Morten Riis

Steam Machine Music is a homebuilt mechanical instrument made mostly from vintage Meccano parts. The instrument is driven by a steam engine and the sound material is generated from various strings, dynamos and music boxes. But the most important sound generating part is the sound of the machine itself, the rhythmic patterns and pulsating drones of the steam engine, the squeaking of the gear trains. The instability of the entire mechanism is extremely noticeable, and displays and reflects the physicality of the machine to an extreme degree. Steam Machine Music questions the whole practice and conceptualizing of machine music in a historical perspective that points to the fact that machines always have been malfunctioning. The artist can be watched building up the Steam Machine at the opening night, followed by the performance Steam Machine Music later on. The perfomance will be repeated in a shorter version on Wednesday, February 1, in the framework of the in/compatible research practices event at K1.

Tuesday, January 31, live construction: 17:00–18:30 / performance: 20:30–21:00, K1

Watch Me Work
by Liad Hussein Kantorowicz and Kate Erhardt

Liad works as an erotic performer at an Israeli sex chat site. The usage of cameras, computers and projectors enables the viewers to peer into the live exchange of cyber sex work between sex worker and client, and compare between the sex worker’s actual experience and what is projected to the client. The performance seeks to de-exotify sex work, opting for a realistic perspective, and investigates the discrepancy between the hyped discussion about sex work as compared to the actual sex work experience.

The performance will be held in the context of the panel Commercialising Eros simultaneosly with a discussion with Jacob Appelbaum, Zach Blas, Liad Hussein Kantorowicz and Aliya Rakhmetova, moderated by Gaia Novati.

Saturday, February 4, 13:30 – 15:30, K1
Minimum age for admission 18 years!

RESOURCE LAUNCH AT TRANSMEDIALE 2012

Within the aegis of facilitating collaboration and the sharing of resources and knowledge between the transmediale festival in Berlin and the local and translocal scene engaged with art and digital culture, the reSource acts as a link between the cultural production of art festivals and collaborative networks in the field of art and technology, hacktivism and politics.

After four days of talks, workshops and performances, the reSource programme at transmediale ends with a special game: Zombie Play in the Ludic Salon, reSourcing an Exquisite Media Corpse. The Ludic Interface Research Group (L.I.R.G.) cordially invites all visitors of transmediale 2012 to partake in a contemporary version of the surrealist game Le Cadavre Exquis. In the course of this event, different projects from the reSource for transmedial culture initiative will be brought into a playful dialogue with each other through aleatoric, agonal and just plain ludicrous methods.

With Mark Butler (us/de) (host), Natascha Adamowsky (de), Georg Russegger (au), Daphne Dragona (gr), Mathias Fuchs (de), Gregor Sedlag (de) and other special guests.

This initiative will include the presentation of the OutResourcing project: a collaboration project between transmediale and CEMA – Center for Experimental Media Arts at Sristhi School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore.

With Prayas Abhinav (in), Linda Hilfling (dk/de) and an introduction by Kristoffer Gansing (se/de).

After transmediale 2012, reSource for transmedial culture will extend its activity into a series of events that will be held in the course of 2012 and beyond, as a way to gather and present the results as well as to continue the dialogue further, leading to the next transmediale festival in 2013. The methodology of the reSource as a peer production laboratory of knowledge, research and artistic projects, will be presented in the Auditorium of the HKW on the last day of the festival together with current reSource partners.

With Tatiana Bazzichelli (reSource for transmedial culture), Stéphane Bauer (Kunstraum Kreuzberg /Bethanien, Berlin), Oliver Baurhenn (CTM, Berlin), Clemens Apprich and Oliver Lerone Schultz (Post-Media Lab, Leuphana University Lüneburg).

A final note in the spirit of networking: participate in discussions around the reSource for transmedial culture on twitter via the hashtag #tmresource!

transmediale is a project of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Portraits of two of today’s most provocative artists bring contemporary art to the big screen, in Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, and Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present. Cinematic media installations, multimedia performances, and transmedia experiences are found in the Festival’s New Frontier program. Presenting work of artists, journalists, game designers, and media scientists, New Frontier 2012 explores the integration of human forms with the techno-sphere and ushers in a media environment of the future that nourishes the cornerstones of our humanity — our social nature, vulnerability, and creativity.

New Frontier 2012 opens on January 20, 2012. The exhibit runs in Park City, Utah through January 28 and at the Salt Lake City Art Center through May 19.

New Frontier 2012 Artists and Projects

• Himalaya Song by Gingger Shankar, Mridu Chandra, The Shanghai Restoration Project
• Abacus by Paul Abacus, Early Morning Opera, Lars Jan
• Bear 71 by Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison
• The Cloud of Unknowing by Ho Tzu Nyen
• Evolution (Megaplex) by Marco Brambilla
• Hunger in Los Angeles by Nonny de la Peña
• My Generation by Eva and Fronco Mattes, a.k.a. 0100101110101101.org
• Radical Games Against the Tyranny of Entertainment by ARTIST Molleindustria
• To Many Men Strange Fates are Given by Brent Green
• Question Bridge: Black Males by Hank Willis Thomas, Chris Johnson, in collaboration with Bayete Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair
• whiteonwhite: algorhythmicnoir by Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation

Calling All Artists: Northern Lights is happy to announce a number of calls for participation in the 2012 edition of Northern Spark, which will take place June 9-10, 2012. For some background on this year’s Northern Spark see here. The new website will launch later this week at northernspark.org.

Call for 10 projects in any media/discipline: We are looking for projects that are sited/ performed in public space and engage a broad public audience in that space. Projects can be in any medium or discipline. Look at the project line up for Northern Spark in 2011 to see the wide range of works presented. Application deadline: February 27. The call is here.

Call for 2 projects in any media/discipline – inter/national: We are looking for projects that are sited/ performed in public space and engage a broad public audience in that space. Projects can be in any medium or discipline. This call is funded in part by the NEA and is for artists living or working outside of Minnesota. Application deadline: February 13. The call is here.

Call for Data Visualization project: This is an open call in collaboration with The Eyeo Festival for a data visualization project. Application deadline: February 13, 2012. The call is here.

Call for Minnesota Center for Books Arts project: Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA), in collaboration with Northern Lights.mn, is accepting proposals for an all-night event in MCBA’s gallery and studio space as part of Northern Spark. Application deadline: January 30. The call is here.

More Calls: More calls will be announced in the coming days. Subscribe to the Northern Lights mailing list, Like us on Facebook, follow us @Northern_Spark or get the tumblr feed to stay informed.

The art of Pacific Standard Time heads into the streets, clubs and public spaces of Southern California from January 19 through 29, 2012, during the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival. This 11-day celebration will feature more than 30 extraordinary performances, including contemporary re-enactments of iconic works by artists such as Eleanor Antin, Judy Chicago, Suzanne Lacy, and James Turrell, and interventions both large and small in the public sphere. The festival will present a series of adaptations, re-inventions, and commissions that are inspired by the performance and installation artists working in Los Angeles between 1945 and 1980.

Throughout the festival, a group of new public artworks will be on view throughout the city. In addition, new performances will premiere every day, including outdoor visual spectacles, experimental theater and sound art, social and political interventions, and media art. Highlights include a newly commissioned performance by Andrea Fraser, a previously unrealized dream performance by Richard Jackson, and a never-before produced play by William Leavitt. A nightly after-party by artist Liz Glynn, Black Box, will provide a space for socializing, and include surprise performances each evening. For a complete listing of the Festival’s events and projects, please visit www.pacificstandardtimefestival.org.

The Festival’s Co-Directors are Glenn Phillips, Principal Project Specialist and Consulting Curator at the Getty Research Institute, and Lauri Firstenberg, Director and Chief Curator of LAXART.

Organized by LAXART and the Getty Research Institute.
Support provided by the Getty Foundation.

shut up and listen! (SUAL) 2011 provides a stage for artists from the so-called ‘Near East’, some of whom found a second (maybe temporary) home in Austria or other European countries. The festival’s title Near West implies a change of perspective regarding the – sometimes utopian - proximity to the ‘Fortress Europe’. SUAL 2011 strives to present exceptional artistic positions in the realms of music, sound art, as well as related artistic categories. Far beyond political demarcation lines, a geographic region is explored by artistic criteria, individual idiosyncrasies are highlighted, individual collaborations encouraged. The scope of SUAL 2011 ranges from contemporary instrumental compositions free improvisation, electroacoustic electronic music, and world music, to artistic creations within the domains of documentary film and media art. Additional activities include a panel discussion, a lecture about traditional Arabic music, and a composition contest in collaboration with Austrian and international music institutions.

Produced by sp ce – Platform for Music, Art and Intermedia.
Curators: Belma Bešlić-Gál and Bernhard Gál

Pixxelpoint is one of the most successful and renowned festivals of new media art in Slovenia and also abroad. Its purpose is firstly, to bring the information technology and new media art closer to the general public, and secondly, to raise awareness about a different potential to use computer among the young. In previous editions the festival had a big media response and over 3000 visitors visited it every year, so this is a challenge for the organizers to further expand it and trespass the boundaries of the gallery space which has become too small for all the projects which are to be carried out. The exhibition of new media art projects, as the central event of the festival will be mounted at City Gallery Nova Gorica but will include also other locations at Nova Gorica and Gorizia (Italy).

The title for the 12th edition of Pixxelpoint 2011 is appropriately enigmatic: LETS GET READY…, merely defines a space of engagement driven forward by a generative force: ‘to begin again from the beginning’ for those who seek what formulates new media art in its fluent transition between the various manifestations, which can take on new meanings in multiple contextual re-configurations no matter what of their materiality or mediality. Especially when considering the articulations from the fundamental/historical register to what this could foster at the intersection of new media art’s ‘mission, its destiny.’

Beyond what has been stated, it can also be said that one of the characteristics of new media art is potentially generate a critical moments; an instance of that might open up the possibility of thinking the ‘new.’

However, in describing the relation to the new media driven art forms, there is likewise a kernel approach as ‘new technologies are nothing other than new means to an end.’ Then, what does this interpretation cultivate? And, how could this space of engagement be defined within these statement, which at first appear contradictory yet are co-existing and non-separable?

The repercussions of what characterize the generative moment of reconnecting processually with what is produced, with the conditions of emergence of which reveals its transformative capacities as a space for possibilities. This highlights the political and cultural context of contemporary art production in the context of the emergence of micropolitical forces to generate.

This seeks to maintain relational entities in tracing a line through different planes of production and this is the very core of the direction of the 12th edition of Pixxelpoint 2011, linked with the eventualities of implications for the very idea of critical engagement as to create different forms of articulation in relation to new media art.

Curatorial team

Gülsen Bal - visual culture theorist and curator. She is the Director, Head of Development of Projects and Programmes at Open Space - Zentrum für Kunstprojekte in Vienna. Bal curated, published articles, participated in talks and held workshops in various places and venues in the U.K. as well as in Europe and Turkey.

BridA / Jurij Pavlica, Sendi Mango, Tom Kerševan - was created in 1996, when its members were studying at the Venice Academy of fine arts. Since then the BridA has developed a series of top-level artistic projects at an international level.

Participating Artists:

Heba Amin, Burak Arıkan, Miriam Bajtala, John Bell, Neno Belchev, Jorge Catoni, Andrea Dojmi and Lorenzo Bona, Karin Felbermayr, Alexander Gross, Marina Gržinić/Aina Šmid/Zvonka Simčič, Haciktectura.net, Wei-Ming Ho, Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics, Reese Inman, Sanela Jahić, Gavin Jocius, Sheridan Kelley, Kensuke Koike, monochrom, Alban Muja, Joseph Nechvatal, Alan Phelan, Irena Pivka and Brane Zorman, Arjan Pregl, Christine Schőrkhuber, Santiago Sierra, Owen Smith, Abby Stiers, Christian Streinz, Sissua Tarka aka Verina Gfader, Justin Taylor, Maciej Toporowicz, Arjan Vanmeenen

Award

A judging panel will chose the award winner which will be announced during the festival.

Award jury:

• Vuk Ćosić - new media artist, pioneer of net.art, Ljubljana.
• Charles Esche - curator, writer and director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
• Ida Hiršenfelder - freelance art critic, also collaborates with Radio Študent, Dnevnik and Center for Contemporary Arts - SCCA, Ljubljana.
• Tevž Logar - artistic director of Škuc gallery, Ljubljana.
• Franz Thalmair - curator, writer and co-founded the collective CONT3XT.NET. currently managing curator at the Secession, Vienna.

Supported by:

Municipality of Nova Gorica
Republik of Slovenia - Ministry of Culture
Österreichisches Kulturforum Ljubljana

Currents 2012, the 3rd annual Santa Fe International New Media Festival, explores the role of technology and the diverse applications of New Media in the arts. This year submission categories include single channel video, video and sound installation, interactive new media, animation, computer/ software modulated sculpture, multimedia performance, experimental and interactive documentary video, Digital Dome projection, art gaming and web art.

The Festival will be held in several venues throughout the city: El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the Center for Contemporary Arts, the Santa Fe Complex and the Digital Dome facility at the Institute for American Indian Arts. In addition to exhibitions Currents 2012 will offer panel discussions and workshops, and two nights of multimedia performance. Festival events are free to the public.

Application Deadlines (via online submission or postmarked):
February 1, 2012 (most festival submissions)
March 1, 2012 for Digital Dome Submissions