mediating spaces :

experimentations with dynamic images

An information shadow can be described as the "digitally accessible information” which is associated with a product or service such as its name, or its position in space and time. Objects or resources, which contain these data shadows are sometimes known as ‘spimes', a term coined by Bruce Sterling, from the contraction of the words ‘space’ and ‘time’.

Spimes’ have an ability to track their own existence throughout their lifetime and he believes that they are able to be “folded back into the manufacturing stream”. He sees them as “virtual images” which he suggests are most likely to be “a glamour publicity photo" which "is also deep-linked to the genuine, three dimensional computer designed engineering specifications of the object.”

Our desire to engage with our data driven society, where we create endless streams of information, has not only opened us up to the vastness of its possibilities but has also made us aware of our reliance on the patterns of modulation which are susceptible to the commodifying of content. We are incessantly consuming larger amounts of images, objects and knowledge and we are constantly reshaping content, re-creating new languages and re-appropriating old ideas.

The following documentation explores the possibilities of the dynamic image within the digital environment and attempts to expand on the notion of the ‘disruption of reality' as fiction and reality become an unbound image or an infinite experience.

INFORMATION SHADOWS : shift: the digital re-interpretation of the social

Text only version : swipe to navigate

in the dust of this planet

Ok ok ... probably a bit off topic and I am not sure how I got here but I thought it relevant, especially the idea of making connections, social-media and recent discussions. If you ever think nobody is listening, that nobody is looking or question what you are doing and why, here is a fascinating story from WNYC radiolab, where the hermeneutics of philosophy, pop culture and the contemporary embrace.

In_the_Dust_of_this_planet

It also left me wondering if our fascination with nihilism could be due to the lack of language for the contemporary or the increased use of machines (technology) to mediate order through knowledge, experience and relevancy; or the use of algorithms and statistics to track and trace us as our identities are being increasingly defined through our online interactions? ... those 'transactions' that occur in the everyday and exist in all aspect of our lives. Does it link into what we value, how we define desirability and the relationship we have with our sense of worth?

We talk nihilism with Eugene Thacker & Simon Critchley, leather jackets with June Ambrose, climate change with David Victor, and hope with the father of Transcendental Black Metal - Hunter Hunt Hendrix of the band Liturgy (retrieved from WNYC radiolab – hosted by Jad Abumrad)

https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/399432

bitflips and battlefields : Hito Steyerl

[image] Hito Steyerl, Is a Museum a Battlefield? was shown at the Adam Art Gallery Wellington - 4th July to the 10 August. http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz

If you have never considered a museum as a battlefield, consider again. In Hito Steyerl's lecture/video installation/performance Is the Museum a Battlefield, she gives a convincing presentation that might make you consider otherwise. Her ‘work’ traces the debris from a battlefield in the mountainous areas south of the city of Van, Turkey where the Kurdistan PKK has been fighting for independence from Turkey. Some of the items collected includes the ‘invisible’ shell casings of a 20mm Gatling gun made by General Dynamics.

Steyerl goes on to retrace the origins of these shells back to their manufactures which implicates various corporate and industrial giants in a technological ‘bit-flip’ linking them to the biggest museums in the world through architecture, software, the 'gentrification of culture' and the corporatisation and sponsorship of art institutions by some of largest weapons manufactures in the world.

Steyerl’s uses the term ‘bit-flip’ to describe the dual use of technology, where it can be both culturally and scientifically important but at the same time can act as the collaborator to humankinds atrocities. This usage resonated with my views on the ‘new and disparate interactions’ which we are enacting through our mobile devices. Technically, ‘bit-flip’ is not a word but it suggests a manipulation of sorts where a 0 becomes a 1, an off an on and vice-versa. For me, it conjures up images of multiplicities where intent is polyvalent, where technologies ‘flip back’ on themselves, masking one of their binate ambitions.

The following video is an edited version.

[vimeo 76011774 w=700 h=393]

Documentation of Hito Steyerl's lecture "Is the Museum a Battlefield", first shown at 13th Istanbul Biennial. Steyerl’s new lecture, pro­duced for the 13th Istanbul Biennial, takes as its departure point her March 2013 talk ‘I Dreamed a Dream: Politics in the Age of Mass Art Production’ and focuses on the arms industry, a phenomenon constantly re-conceptualized by the media through the regular flow of images. It asks the question of how a museum and a battlefield could be related. The question emerges when Steyerl follows the trace of an empty bullet casing which she found in the area where the mass grave of Andrea Wolf and her friends were located in Van, Turkey.

Converstations with Doug Aitkens : artist / interviewer / facilitator

process | patterns | chaos | motion | place

"Doug Aitken was born in California in 1968. He lives and works in Los Angeles and New York. Widely known for his innovative fine art installations, Aitken utilizes a wide array of media and artistic approaches to leads us into a world where time, space, and memory are fluid concepts [...] Aitken’s body of work ranges from photography, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, and installations." Retrieved from http://www.dougaitkenworkshop.com/bio/

In this series of interviews Doug Aitken's talks with contemporary visual artists, musicians, architects and socially conscious individuals across a diverse range of topics, disciplines and practice. They discuss processes, inspiration and art making and of interest to me is his interview with artist Aaron Koblin and the underlying theme of patterns. Through out all of the conversations the presence of patterns and systems is touch on, whether they be organic in nature, constructed visually or assembled aurally they exist within all that we do which facilitates our connections to and with our social world.

Station to Station (http://stationtostation.com) is another Aitken's initiated project where a train ride "connect[s] leading figures and underground creators from the worlds of art, music, food, literature, and film for a series of cultural interventions and site-specific happenings. The train, designed as a moving, kinetic light sculpture, broadcasted unique content and experiences to a global audience [...]" which takes viewers on a "journey into the new cultural frontier." Retrieved from http://stationtostation.com/about/

http://dougaitkenthesource.com http://www.dougaitkenworkshop.com http://stationtostation.com

disinformation :

DeBord quote

"... disinformation [...] is openly employed by particular powers, or consequently, by people who hold fragments of economic or political authority, in order to maintain what is established; and always in a counter-offensive role.

If occasionally a kind of disinformation threatens to appear, in the service of particular interests temporarily in conflict, and threatens to be believed, getting out of control and thus clashing with the concerted work of a less irresponsible disinformation, there is no reason to fear that the former involves other manipulators who are more subtle or more skilled: it is simply because disinformation now spreads in a world where there is no room for verification."

Debord, G. (1998). Comments on the Society of the Spectacle. London, UK: Verso

debord-Rad America V4 I5-page-001

Benjamin Tiven and Triple Canopy

[image] Benjamin Tiven, Daniel arap Moi at a Public Presentation, Unknown Date, 2013, inkjet print 20" × 25".

Pixels, root properties, illusions, patterns, grids and cities

Michael Cowan, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University and Benjamin Tiven, artist and contributor to the online magazine Triple Canopy, engage in a fascinating conversation, titled How we see in which they discuss the role of the brain in the understanding of the sensory world. The conversation revolves around issues that relate to our visual systems and the role of consciousness, evolution, experiential and scientific influences in shaping a visual understanding.

The interview is part of Common Minds, a series of essays which investigate the intricacies of the brain and the growth of neuroscience in contemporary society and science. Interestingly, Tiven titles this interview as a collaborative work and not an interview. This approach highlights the multiple roles that artists, such as Tiven, engage in and that any discourse is as valid a piece of art work as any painting, photograph, sculpture or digital creation. Below is a short extract from that conversation:

Our monitoring of the world is really much less continuous and accurate than we think it is. Experience is the conversion of energy into data. The project of all life is to correlate the interpretation with the energy source, since the better your ability to interpret reality, the more likely you are to survive and pass on your genes. Now, how close or causal is the relationship between the energy we experience and our interpretation of it—that's a different question. In fact, something like illusion or magic is based on a discrepancy between the information we're taking in and our interpretation. (Tarr, 2013 para 15)

Corrupted imagery and heads of state

Benjamin Tiven's approach to his art work is collaborative in nature and investigative in style. He deals with the longevity of images and the cross pollination of data from its analog forms into the digitised world as a need for survival. These manifest themselves as conversations that revolve around the issues of existence, memory and the way that stories are told. In A Third Version of the Imaginary, Tiven researches the archived footage, buried in the depths of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation, and the events surrounding the 1973 Kenyan Independence Day parade. He brings the archived footage back to life through a series of interviews and conversations which corroborate the grainy, choppy footage from a technological past.

Employing the internet, through Triple Canopy, as a platform for the reinterpretation of these occurrences, the ‘conversations’ express themselves as investigative journalism which delve deeper into the politics of regimes past, the power of political imagery and the data that forms these events. Tiven describes an aspect of his work as the "increasing interchangeability between objects and data" and in one of these conversations with Brian Larkin, Larkin describes that a “breakdown shouldn’t be seen as the absence of something, but rather as the groundwork for something else coming into existence” (Larkin, 2014). This view exemplifies what Tiven’s work is about; that all things have data, past, present and future and in the retrieval and archiving of these events, new occurrences happen.

The digital space can now act as the repository of our actions. The increased capacity of storage through micro technologies and cloud depositories has expanded the realm of knowledge and the capacity for the instantaneous retrieval of information. The explosion of on-line magazines, blogs and social media sites has spurned an environment where all our experiences can be recorded and archived. This ever expanding environment can also be seen as the collective memory of our times.

But one day, these digital spaces might mirror the dusty archival rooms of past regimes, which means that the decoding of our digital past will require new technologies and new visionaries to retrieve them from their slumber. So, who will be responsible for the reinterpretation of these memories? Who will re-mix, loop, splice, cut and paste new story lines in an effort to uncover the deeper connections that occurred in the posting of our existence? As the digital space increasingly becomes controlled and commodified will it be the artist, the writer, the scientist or will we relinquish that responsibility to the powers that govern us? And will these interpretations represent the truth?

Reference:

Tarr, M. & Tiven, B. (2013). How we see. Retrieved from: http://canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/how-we-see

Larkin, B., Nyong’o, T. & Tiven, M. (2014). Everyday static transmissions. Retrieved from: http://canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/everyday_static_transmissions

Jim Campbell comes to Auckland

In October this year the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki will present the hugely successful exhibition entitled Light Show, bringing some of the most respect international light artist working today to New Zealand. Of special interest to me is the inclusion of Jim Campell. I have been following his work for several years now and he is one of those artist who has inspired me to push my work into new territories.

His works straddle the cusp of art and technology, comprehension and emotion. After the suicide of his brother, who had struggled with schizophrenia for years, Campbell produced Letter to a suicide in 1985, a 30 minute video of Campbell and his parents addressing his brother a year after his death. That video would be his first and last and since then he has been investigating human emotional states, perception and memory through the abstraction of light and the diffusion of pixels into a 'low definition' unit which express themslves through light, grids, objects, motion and metaphors.

http://youtu.be/-JsLgypYqCM

In 2012, Jim was presented with the 13th Annual Bay Area Treasure Award by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In celebration of this honor, SFMOMA created [this] short film Jim Campbell: Transmitted in Light about his practice.

Retrieved from: http://www.jimcampbell.tv/news/

Cover image: Grand Central Station 2 –2009

pattern recognition :: Marshall McLuhan

“... You cannot cope with vast amounts of information in the old fragmentary classified patterns. You tend to go looking for mythic and structural forms in order to manage such complex data, moving at very high speeds, so the electric engineers often speak of pattern recognition as a normal need of people processing data electrically and by computers and so on – a need for pattern recognition.”

McLuhan, M. (1968) Marshall McLuhan Speaks, Centennial 2011: Pattern recognition [Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/interview/1965-the-future-of-man-in-the-electric-age/

" ...what now matters most is not the production of new content but its retrieval in intelligible patterns through acts of reframing, reiterating, and documenting."

Joselit, D. (2013). After Art. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (p. 55-56)

“We see and comprehend things as patterns, as meaningful events, because of the way our brains operate and they are made for the interpretation of a certain type of information, a certain type of world.”

Donath, J (2007). The imperfect observer: Mind, machines and materialism in the 21st century. MIT Media Lab. Retrieved from http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/TheImperfectObserver.pdf (p. 10)

"Personal experience is frequently rooted in collective and practical activities whose nature is stable, coherent, and patterned, although constantly, if minutely, in flux."

Coleman, G. (2013). Coding Freedom. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (p. 27)

“...participants can discern the relative complexity and orderliness of paintings or patterns after only a single glance afforded by a 50 msec [millisecond] exposure...”

Cupchik, G. (2011). The Digitized Self in the Internet Age. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5(4) 318–328. (p. 321)

"The analysis of such massive data sets is an important and challenging task, since researchers and analysts are interested in patterns in the data, including associations, correlations or exceptions."

Keim, D. A., Schneidewind, J., Sips, M. ( 2006). Scalable Pixel-based Visual Interfaces: Challenges and Solutions. Retrieved from: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~msips/papers/scalable_pixel_exploration.pdf (Introduction)

Cover image: Still image from video interview, Old versus new assumptions (1960). Marshall McLuhan Speaks Centennial 2011. Retrieved from http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/electric-age/1960-old-versus-new-assumptions.php

Note: Apologies to Henri Dauman for posting a previous cover image with out his permission. Henri Dauman's career as a feature photographer for Life Magazine has seen him capture some of the most important cultural, political and iconic personalities of the 20th century. He is a master photographer with a unique eye for capturing those decisive moments which defined history. For a better insight into his work visit his web site at http://daumanpictures.com/.

to appropriate ::

  In a recent post by Justine Giles on her MFA blog, Rhurbard Pyjamas, Giles includes a TEDxKC video of the writer and artist Austin Kleon’s talk Steal like an Artist graciously thanking Tanya Eccelston, visiting scholar at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design for the link. In the video Kleon describes his methods of research and the role that collecting and appropriating play in his creative process.

In contrast, the artist Aleksandra Mir describes in an interview with Lars Bang Larsen how the title of her work Hello came about. Mir tells the story of a student, named Happy, who she knew at art school who would greet arbitrary people as they went through the doors with a simple hello. Twenty five years later she thinks of Happy’s performance and says “it would be hard not to give him some credit for my work with Hello” (Mir, 2013).

These two examples probably sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of ‘stealing ideas’ but none-the-less they highlight the significance of appropriation to artists in the creative process. I have always had a delicate relationship with appropriating. Somehow I felt like I may be cheating or not being true to my sense of originality by stealing; not from the original author or source, but in a strange way, from myself. It felt like some sort of moral and ethical defeatist paradigm. What I have come to realise is that I have been denying myself the full process of exploration and the irrefutable need to reference not only my past experiences, cultural or otherwise, but also those moments and creative outputs that have influenced me the most through the work of others.

This awakening to the real intent of appropriation is also exemplified by the filmmaker and director Jim Jarmusch. In a recent article in the New Zealand Listener, Alexander Bisley talks with Jarmusch about his recent movie Only Lovers Left Alive. Jarmuch’s approach to the creative process is one of contemplative instinct, referencing historical characters and exotic locations. Jarmusch describes the process in his latest offering to the cinematic world as a “kind of grope around in the dark” (Jarmusch, as cited in Bisley, 2014, p. 38). Bisely closes the piece with an extract from Rule #5 of Jarmusch’s ‘Golden Rules’, a reflective insight into his working process. Here I have included the extended quote:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to”. (Jarmusch, 2004)

In an age of FOLLOW’s, LIKE’s, SHARES’s and TWEET’s, the appropriation and dissemination of information has become part of a common culture. What once was an intellectual reflection on the uniqueness of individuality today it is an instinctual reflex instigated through an interface that encourages personal disclosure and cultivates a dichotomy of idiosyncratic homogenization. As the digital space become both a mimesis of everyday life and an environment with its own existence, more and more it becomes a space that requires comment and reflection.

References:

Jarmusch, J. (2004). Jim Jarmusch’s 5 golden rules (or non-rules) of moviemaking. Retrieved from http://www.moviemaker.com/articles-directing/jim-jarmusch-5-golden-rules-of-moviemaking/

Bisely, A. (2014, May 3-9). Bloodied, but alive. New Zealand Listener, 243(3860), 38-39.

Mir, A. (2013). Hello: In conversation with Lars Bang Larsen. In Lars Bang Larsen (ED.), Networks: Documents of contemporary art. (pp. 86-88). London, England: Whitechapel Gallery.

Rabih Mroué

the pixelated revolution <#>

Rabih Mroué is an actor, director, playwright and a TDR Contributing Editor. In 1990 he began putting on his own plays, performances, and videos. Continuously searching for new and contemporary relations among all the different elements and languages of the theatre art forms, Mroué questions the definitions of theatre and the relationship between space and form of the performance and, consequently, questions how the performer relates with the audience.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ys7IpfqHLo]

His works deal with the issues that have been swept under the table in the current political climate of Lebanon. He draws much-needed attention to the broader political and economic contexts by means of a semi-documentary theatre….

Retrieved from: http://www.sfeir-semler.com/gallery-artists/rabih-mroue/

images:

Grandfather, Father and Son, 2010, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg - installation view

Noiseless, 2006-2008 video, colour, mute, 4:40 min, Edition of 5 + 1 ap

The Fall of a Hair, 2012 Part 1: The Pixelated Revolution

I the undersigned, 2006, 2 channel monitor screening, sound, colour, 3:52 min., Edition of 5 + 1 a.p.

Other videos :: artort.tv - d13 - Rabih Mroué – The Pixelated Revolution : http://vimeo.com/44123255 (in german)

Daniel Canogar

  http://vimeo.com/90873466

bitforms galley ::

Daniel Canogar uses discarded electronic materials in his photography, video, sculpture and installations, which construct portraits of a society and an age. Finding inspiration in the archeology of new media, Canogar brings the dead back to life, revealing their contained secrets.

Retreived from: http://www.bitforms.com/artists/canogar/about

RIP Stuart Hall

hall-cover

Stuart Hall (3 February 1932 – 10 February 2014). "Stuart Hall, a beloved cultural theorist and political activist whose work reached so many people across so many borders, died Monday in London (February 10, 2014), at the age of 82" (Retrieved from http://www.massreview.org/node/329). John Akomfrah is described by Sukhdev Sandhu from The Guardian newspaper as "widely recognised as one of Britain's most expansive and intellectually rewarding film-makers" (Sandhu, 2012). In a recent video on the frieze videowebsite, Akomfrah talks about his latest project which is based around the activist and cultural theorist, Stuart Hall. Stuart Hall was discussed not long ago by Noel Ivanoff, Head of Department Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design during a MFA seminar talk in January 2014. Ivanoff uses Hall's theories on representation and the media to highlight the role or implications it can have for the artists and encourages artists to think about a 'new' interpretation of representation, outlined by Hall, which can express itself within contemporary society.

Stuart Hall describes “representation as [is] the way in which meaning is somehow given to the things which are depicted through the images or whatever it is, on screens or the words on a page, which stand for what we’re talking about” (Hall as cited in Jhally, 1997). But ‘meaning’ works in a multiplicity of intricate ways and an “image can have many different meanings and [that] there is no guarantee that images will work in the way we think they will” (Jhally, 1997). Central to Hall’s argument is the notion that power and knowledge is controlled by media and the dissemination of these media-driven images corrupts our understanding of reality and truth (Jhally, 1997). With this in mind Hall asks us to reconsider the role of representation and goes on to say that:

representation is constitutive of the event. It enters into the constitution of the object that we are talking about. It is part of the object itself; it is constitutive of it. It is one of its conditions of existence, and therefore representation is not outside the event, not after the event, but within the event itself; it is constitutive of it. (Hall as cited in Jhally, 1997)

Sut Jhally, Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, founder and Executive Director of the Media Education Foundation and Producer and Director of the video Stuart Hall: Representation and the Media sums up Halls thinking by stating that:

Hall understands that communication is always linked with power and that those groups who wield power in a society influence what gets represented through the media. Hall wants to hold both these ideas: that messages work in complex ways, and that they are always connected with the way that power operates in any society, together at the same time. He examines our everyday world where knowledge and power intersect. (Jhally, 1997)

Jhally concludes in his introduction by saying that Hall “insists on the role that intellectual work can play in helping to regain control of an image dominated world that has drifted beyond the democratic reach of ordinary people” (Jhally, 1997).

In the video below, John Akomfrah talks about the multiple identities, the image and the influences that Stuart Hall represented based on a well known paragraph written by Hall which states that "identities are created at the crossroad of historical moments, events and psychic activity... at some crossroads between the personal and the political" (Hall as cited in Akomfrah, 2014).

[vimeo 86095079 w=500 h=281]

John Akomfrah: On essays, identities and Stuart Hall

The award-winning filmmaker discusses the origins of the Black Audio Film collective, his recent project exploring the life and times of cultural theorist Stuart Hall and the 'pariah space’ of the film essay on television and in the art gallery. Retrieved from: http://video.frieze.com/film/john-akomfrah-essays-identities-and-stuart-hall/

References:

Akomfrah, J. (2014). John Akomfrah: On essays, identities and Stuart Hall. Retrieved from: http://video.frieze.com/film/john-akomfrah-essays-identities-and-stuart-hall/

Jhally, S. (1997) Stuart Hall: Representation and the Media. Media Education Foundation Transcripts. MEF, Northhampton, MA. Retrieved from http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/409/transcript_409.pdf

Sandhu, S. (2012, February 20). John Akomfrah: Migration and memory. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/20/john-akomfrah-migration-memory

Christian Boltanski

Since 1958 Christian Boltanski, a self-taught French sculptor, painter, photographer and film makers, has been exploring the notion of memory and its relationship not only with himself but how it relates to others as a cultural signifier through objects, found, assembled or purposely manufactured. His works explore the psychological and emotional affect where the “reconstruction of the past” (Franzke, 2009), presents him with material that evokes the human struggle for survival and represents “flashbacks to segments of time and life that blurred memory with invention” (Franzke, 2009).

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Although the materials and objects seem as if they have been ‘brought’ with the subjects he depicts, they nonetheless have been constructed, acquired, distorted, weathered and distressed intentionally by Boltanski. Through this process of reinterpreting objects he places them in our minds-eye as historical entities which “evoke(s) our tenuous connection to a tragic past” (Marcoci, 2000). His works resemble shrines and memorials common with religious remembrance sites and his use of lights to illuminate his subjects remind us of a halo or a soft flickering-light, possibly a candle which we all know will eventually burn-out.

He has recently shifted back to film making and his latest project entitled Storage Memory, invites viewers or participants to observe his documentation of his experiences as a continuous evolving self-portrait via a subscription on the internet. For more information: http://www.christian-boltanski.com/

References

Franzke, A. (2009). Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=649

Marcoci, R. (2000). MoMA2000: Open Ends (1960–2000). Audio program excerpt. Retrieved form http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80857

Images courtesy of Phaidon: http://www.phaidon.com/store/art/christian-boltanski-9780714836584/ and the Unicorn Bookshop, Warkworth: http://www.unicornbookshop.co.nz

Daan Roosegaarde

Daan Roosegaarde creates interactive projects which blurs the line between art, technology and sense. His team of designers and engineers develop their own bespoke technology and his works encourages users and viewers to interact with the pieces. This interactivity is as much part of the works as is the visual aesthetic and the potential of commercialization is never too far from his intent.  His studio resembles a science lab where his team experiment, observe and investigate and is where "the studio creates interactive designs that explore the dynamic relation between people, technology and space." Retrieved from http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/info/profile/.

Artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde (1979) is internationally known for creating social designs that explore the relation between people, technology and space. His Studio Roosegaarde is the social design lab with his team of designers and engineers based in the Netherlands and Shanghai.

http://vimeo.com/50980092

With projects ranging from fashion to architecture his interactive designs such as Dune, Intimacy and Smart Highway are tactile high-tech environments in which viewer and space become one. This connection, established between ideology and technology, results in what Roosegaarde calls 'techno-poetry'. Retrieved from http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/info/about-daan/

http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/video/dutch-profile-daan-roosegaarde/

Images :

Dune - 2006-2012. Specifications : Modular system of length 100 cm, width 50 cm, variable heights. Hundreds of fibers, LEDs, sensors, speakers, interactive software and electronics; variable up to 400 meters.

Intimacy - 2010-2011. Specifications :  ʻBlackʼ and ʻWhiteʼ dresses, length 100cm, width 40 cm. Smart foils, wireless technologies, electronics, LEDs, copper and other media.

Flow - 2007-2013. Specifications :  Modular system of several meters with hundreds of ventilators, aluminum, sensors, electronics, software and other media.

Esther Shalev-Gerz

Esther Shalev-Gerz states "All my work is based on the potentiality of trust" (Shalev-Gerz, 2013). Her projects often express the narrative of a time forgotten which she then reinterprets as slices of time in the present. She has described the importance of memory in her works as an integral aspect of her site specific installations. The relationship between object and environment is how those moments are defined. Individuals who occupy the space in the past talk about their experience and their relationship with not only the physical space but the intent of the space and their interaction with others who use those same spaces.

Though we rarely speak of trust in relation to art, a work of art may well be the ultimate expression of trust. It is as if we trust, for instance, that some inked piece of paper or painted canvas will receive us and speak truly about our world and its own. It is this space of trust that enables dialogue to unfold. Dialogue is a group of people freely reaching a place and verbally exchanging thoughts in a present and immediate way whilst listening, not only to others but also to themselves with others, then coming together and exchanging again, and after having left, coming together yet again. Such gathering is never spontaneous; still, it must be proposed. (Esther Shalev-Gerz, The Trust Gap (2013). Retrieved from • / http://art-agenda.com/shows/art-and-theory-new-publications-by-esther-shalev-gerz/

“I do think all art springs out from an invitation, real or imaginary” (Esther Shalev-Gerz, 2010).

http://youtu.be/LP77WlRppAg

Artist's talk with Esther Shalev-Gerz at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, January 12, 2013.

http://youtu.be/e_DXgVEMfvQ

The Artwork as an Act of Memory

For over 20 years her work has focused on interventions and projects in public space, taking the form of collaboration and exchange with the audience. Her installations and photographic work raise questions on group memory and its interaction with personal history and souvenir. In these commemorative monuments, installations, video and photographic works, questions about history are posed, and its relationship with collective memory is explored and investigated. Esther Shalev-Gerz: The Artwork as an Act of Memory. 2001 by: Contemporary Past. Retrieved from: http://vimeo.com/27525041

[vimeo 27525041 w=500 h=281]

Esther Shalev-Gerz: The Artwork as an Act of Memory from Contemporary Past on Vimeo.

Resources / images :

http://www.shalev-gerz.net/

Cover image: DAEDAL(US), 2003. Intervention and Installation. Dublin, Ireland. Still image projections variable dimensions. 15 colour photographs - 65 cm x 53 cm. 15 diasec-mounted colour photographs – 108 cm x 80 cm.

INSEPARABLE ANGELS: AN IMAGINARY HOUSE FOR WALTER BENJAMIN, 2000. Installation. Collection of the Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden. 1 Double-faced clock - 60 cm. Double-seated chair – 82 cm x 65 cm x 43 cm.

BOOKS INHALED BY THE SKY, 1998. Video Projection - 14 mn.

Online resources :

[image] http://art.uts.edu.au/index.php/exhibitions/trace-recordings/

Online galleries, curated projects, digital books and interactive spaces not only allow individuals and groups to bring their observations, their ideas and concerns to a wider audience but it re-defines our concepts around physical spaces and how we engage with them which challenges our traditional notions of the gallery and museum. The digital space allows for a more contemplative approach, it allows viewers to re-visit a space, galvanises cultural expansion and broadens our sphere of understanding.

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Trace Recordings

http://www.tracerecordings.net/

From the DNA left on chewed gum to top-secret NSA listening stations, this exhibitioncasts an artistic light on the scale and sophistication of surveillance technologies,question their lack of transparency and asks what power we have as individuals withinthem. From data tracking to drones, Trace Recordings presents work by eleven artistswho use a wide variety of media and ideas to critically and at times playfully addressthese issues. • Retrieved from: http://www.tracerecordings.net/About

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At the edge of art

http://at-the-edge-of-art.com/index.php

Desktop computer technology and the Internet have opened up new possibilities for artistic creation, distribution, and appreciation. But in addition to projects that might conventionally be described as new-media art, there is now a wide spectrum of work—unclassified until this book—by practitioners not normally thought of as "artists." • Retrieved from:  http://amzn.com/0500238227

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Portraiture in the digital age

http://www.dlux.org.au/face2face/index.htm

Welcome to Face to Face, an Asialink and d/Lux/MediaArts touring exhibition where you are invited to explore the work of fourteen Australian artists who provide a unique and engaging perspective on how digital technologies are reshaping our understanding and experience of contemporary identity. Covering a variety of media from digital photography to video and interactive installation, you are encouraged to investigate these questions and form your own opinions. • Retrieved from: http://www.dlux.org.au/face2face/foreword.htm

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Adam Harvey

http://ahprojects.com/

Adam Harvey is an artist, designer, and programmer in New York. His work explores the intersection of privacy, computer vision, and fashion. His ongoing project, CV Dazzle, is an attempt to create hair styles, makeup, and clothing that thwart face recognition software.  • Retrieved from: http://makematics.com/research/viola-jones/

Additional references / interviews : http://makematics.com/ • / http://www.reuters.com/video/2010/05/13/camouflage-gets-hi-tech-makeovervideoId=86047446&feedType=VideoRSS&feedName=Technology&videoChannel=6 • / The anti paparazzi device: http://youtu.be/CDc-H9ZzfpI • / DNA Spoofing: DIY Counter-Surveillance: http://vimeo.com/auremoser/dnaspoof

marking time with memories

[image] Laurent Millet - Translucent Mould of Me, Piezography, 40x50cm, 2013.

Abstract memory: organisation and categorisation as a form of memory / computer terminology  contact points (  – cloud storage . who monitors . polices the system . censorship. Digital - the scalable pixel .

"Memory Studies examines the social, cultural, cognitive, political and technological shifts affecting how, what and why individuals, groups and societies remember, and forget. Despite the epistemological and causal significance attributed to memory in the study of such questions as the formation of personal and public identity, culture and politics, and social communities, there remains dramatic divergence on the basic concepts and methods of the area."

First visiting Fellow Prof John Sutton, of the Warwick Centre for Memory Studies, delivers the inaugural lecture launched by Prof Susan Bassnett, Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Warwick.

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