Naked on Pluto will be part of the exhibition at FILE Sao Paulo 2011.

http://www.filefestival.org

Naked on Pluto is part of the exhibition ‘Funware’, the opening is Friday November 12 at 20.00.

Funware

Adrian Ward, Amy Alexander, Annina Ruest, Bob Zimbinski, Carmen Weisskopf / Domagoj Smoljo / Roger Wigger, Christoph Haag / Franziska Windisch / Ludwig Zeller / Martin Rumori, Colin Green / Matthew Fuller / Simon Pope, Dave Griffiths, Dave Griffiths / Aymeric Mansoux / Marloes de Valk, David Link, Electroboutique, Gazira Babeli, Joan Leandre, JODI, Jon Satrom / Ben Syverson, RTmark, Runme.org.

Making and using software can be experimental, humorous and aesthetically rich. Alongside today’s rather dull omnipresence of databases and content management systems, elements of fun have actually informed and guided the development of software from its beginnings. Fun is the energy of curiosity and inappropriateness, exploring what is not yet known in art, culture, computer science, design, math and the site of their encounter: software. Here, software art, a joke of a mathematical genius and amateur tinkering of software stand side by side.

Freaks run the world. It is through fun that they invent what becomes our reality, even if their jokes are later updated to guide matters in unappetizing ways. Our society is built and managed by software. To understand how we can act in relation to such systems and how they are made, we need to get a sense of the energy that drives software, the energy based on fun. We can come closer to these practices through the territories that are in-between geeky humour, digital folklore, cultures of using conventional software, artistic software and history of computation. It is in the fact that exploration takes place through fun and the bizarre territories always exist that there is a hope for an open horizon.

The exhibition Funware questions, tangles and experiments with the materiality of software, the backbone of contemporary society. Letting us deal with the glitchy nature of human-machine ensembles, it offers a way of understanding something that is normally hidden and serious. Fun is far from detaching software from political or social interrogability, it is rather a force and a method that works on complicating the normal, the serious and the dominant.

Starting off with the reconstruction of an algorithm from the 1950-s, Funware references home scripting of the 1980-s, early fascination with ASCII, geeky humour, deconstructed games, classic software art and goes on to include an i-Phone sculpture and an i-Pad application.

Performed by amateurs, artists, alternative coders or professional programmers for “fun”, enquiries into software as aesthetic and political practice let us see the uncertainty and seamfullness of software in times when the dominant tendencies is to hide its operation behind security systems, impenetrable interfaces and shiny entertainment.

Fun in software is a way to construct and recognize the complexity of software as embedded in between art, folklore, industry, and university. It is about breaking from systems of constraints in ways that produce richness and abundance of kinds. Funware offers a way to re-address software, as an invisible universal culture, in its aesthetics, history, and power.

Curator: Olga Goriunova
Executive producers: aaaan.net
Supported by: VSBfonds, SNS Reaal, London Metropolitan University & STRP Festival

hello process! is part of the exhibition Process is Paradigm
April 23 – August 30 , 2010
LABoral, Gijon (ES)

“Before the background of unforeseen global processes, credit crash and climate change, the exhibition el proceso como paradigma researches the nature of processes and self organising, processual systems on a cultural level and in the arts. el proceso como paradigma puts forward the idea that today processes have become one of the major paradigms and creative strategies in contemporary art and design across the disciplines. The show reveals the elementary shift from a culture based on the concept of manifestation and the final product to a culture of process resulting from a networked society. Consequently, the show introduces a new understanding of process-based art which goes beyond previous definitions. el proceso como paradigma suggests that the new process-based art is the art of the 21st century.”

Curated by: Susanne Jaschko & Lucas Evers
Spatial design: kawamura-ganjavian
Graphic design: The Studio of Fernando Gutiérrez

Artists: Jelte van Abbema, Ralf Baecker, boredomresearch, Gregory Chatonsky, Adrián Cuervo, Ursula Damm, Driessens & Verstappen, Peter Flemming, Isabelle Jenniches, Roman Kirschner, Allison Kudla, Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel, Aymeric Mansoux & Marloes de Valk, Luna Maurer, Marta de Menezes, Henrik Menné, Leo Peschta, Julius Popp, C.E.B. Reas, RYBN, Warren Sack, Antoine Schmitt, Ralf Schreiber, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag

make art 2009
“What the Fork?! Distributed and Open Practices in FLOSS art”
Poitiers, France
From the 8th to the 13th of December 2009
Exhibition | Concerts | Presentations | Workshop

Aharon Amir (GB), Wayne Clements (GB), FooCorp (GB), Gijs Gieskes (NL), Gullibloon (AT/DE), Adnan Hadzi (CH), Lisa Haskel (GB), Reni Hofmüller (AT), Olivier Laruelle (FR), LAFKON (DE), Anne Laforêt (FR), Mattin (ES), Antoine Moreau (FR), Nathalie Magnan (FR), No Copy Paste (HU), Noyade (FR), Jean Sépulchre (FR), Wesley Smith (US), Koray Tahiroğlu (TR/FI), The Guardians of the Tradition (US), Taku Unami (JP), Milovann Yanatchkov (FR), Simon Yuill (GB), Jérémie Zimmermann (FR), IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT), …

make art is an international festival focussed on Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and open content in digital arts. make art offers performances, presentations, workshops and an exhibition, focused on the blurred line between art and software programming.

What The Fork?!

This year make art focusses on distributed and open practices in FLOSS art. ‘What the fork?!’ is about decentralization. Forking is the new black. Work from one source, copy, patch, improve, experiment, change direction, inspire! Forking is not about quick hacks, but about creating room to experiment, letting go of the one working copy and creating a multiplicity of ideas.

Exhibition

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
Opening Thursday December 10 at 19:00
Opening hours: December 11, 12 and 13 from 10:00 til 19:00, free admission
Installations by Wayne Clements (GB), The Guardians of the Tradition (US), Aharon Amir (GB), Gijs Gieskes (NL), Gullibloon (AT/DE), LAFKON (DE) and Olivier Laruelle (FR)

Concerts

Placard
Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
Thursday December 10 at 21:00, free admission
With a.o. No Copy Paste (HU), Wesley Smith (US), Noyade (FR), Taku Unami (JP) & Mattin (ES) duo, …

Galactic
Planétarium of Espace Mendès-France / Lieu Multiple, 1 rue de la Cathédrale
Friday December 11 at 21:00, 3€ discount 5€ full
With Koray Tahiroğlu (TR/FI) and IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT)

Hardware
Carré Bleu, 1 bis rue de Nimègue (Couronneries)
Saturday December 12 at 21:00, admission: between 3,50€ and 12€
With Mattin (ES), Reni Hofmüller (AT) and Anne Laforêt (FR)

Presentations

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
free admission

Friday December 11
17:00 Secret agents, expressive programming and virtual machines
3 presentations on hyper creative programming in Pure Data, Fluxus and Lua. With IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT), Gábor Papp & Agoston Nagy (HU) and Wesley Smith (US)

Saturday December 12

10:30 Breakfast Club
Start your day with croissants, coffee and a shower of refreshing short interviews by Nathalie Magnan. With several make art 2009 artists.

14:00 Totally f*rked
Simulating, daisychaining and forking Free Software
With Simon Yuill (GB), Wayne Clements (GB), Adnan Hadzi (CH), Lisa Haskel (GB) and FooCorp (GB)

18:00 Internet, Freedom and Creation
Debate on the recent changes in “Internet and Creation” French law(s) (HADOPI).
Moderated by Sylvain Cousin – Confort Moderne (FR). With Jérémie Zimmermann – La Quadrature du Net (FR), Antoine Moreau – art libre (FR) and Jean Sépulchre (to be confirmed) – SACEM (FR)

Sunday December 13

10.30 Breakfast Club
Start your day with a pain au chocolat and a cup of tea while bathing in inspiring ideas and good questions by Nathalie Magnan. With several make art 2009 artists.

14:00 Bottom-up! scriptable design
toolchain and work processes in open source architectural and graphic design. With Milovann Yanatchkov (FR), Olivier Laruelle (FR) and LAFKON (DE)

Workshop

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
December 8 to 11, see website for registration
Fork a house! , a 4 day workshop on creating forkable and FLOSS architecture using 3D graphics application Blender. With Milovann Yanatchkov (FR)

http://makeart.goto10.org

After the Net explores the paradoxical development of the Internet. As the current Web 2.0 hype begins to wane, the exhibition reflects upon the promises of technological progress, global networking and instantaneous communication. Presented artworks draw attention to key developments: from cybernetics to free and open source software, and social networking platforms.

Reflected in the title, the exhibition makes explicit reference to the documentary film The Net by Lutz Dammbeck (2003), and has three iterations: for Valencia (2008), Plymouth (2009) and Toluca (2010). The selection of artists is updated for each venue as a new version.

Exhibition

12 September – 23 October 2009, Peninsula Arts Gallery, University of
Plymouth, UK

Roy Ascott, Blackboard Notes (1967), special poster edition of 1000 produced for After the Net (2.0) by KURATOR / Wayne Clements, logo_wiki (2007), The Best and Worst of Possible Worlds (2009) / Geoff Cox, antisocial notworking for Arnolfini (2008), Hello World! (2008) / Lutz Dammbeck, The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the Internet (2003) / Jeff Gompertz & Caen Botto (Universomente), Second Public Life (2009) / Rui Guerra, www_hack (2008) / Linda Hilfling, Participation 0.0 ­- Part I (2007) / Aymeric Mansoux & Marloes de Valk (GOTO10), Hello process! (2008) / Graham Harwood, Richard Wright & Matsuko Yokokoji, Tantalum Memorial (2008)

Performance

25 September 2009, Peninsula Arts Gallery, 7.00pm
4NX performance by Aymeric Mansoux

4NX is an audiovisual noise sculpture, starting with the panic of a flat signal, turning it into image then back into sound, the bootstrapping of a stochastic noise generator, the search for structure and frozen moments of accidental beauty. A cornucopia of clicks, pops and glitches. 4NX is violent but draws you into this world of chaos through its black and white aesthetics, melancholic atmosphere and unexpected shaping of raw noise into hypnotic patterns. 4NX is on ongoing research on noise aesthetics.

Lecture

22 October 2009, Theatre 2 Roland Levinsky Building, 6.30pm
Transiting the Net by Professor Roy Ascott

Cybernetics and behaviour, mind and technology, connectivity and syncretism, chance and change, constitute the parameters of practice of Roy Ascott, whose talk will chart his passage through the Net, from analogue to digital and beyond. Ascott has exhibited widely, from Venice Biennale to Ars Electronica, is published in at least twelve languages, and recognised internationally as an innovator and visionary. He is president of the Planetary Collegium at University of Plymouth.

Galleri 3,14
12/12/08 – 25/1/09
http://www.stiftelsen314.com

hello process! will be running in the main exhibition of the 2008 edition of the piksel festival in Bergen. The latest node from the Metabiosis project will be shown next to other great works such as Cyclic evolution of a discourse (by Voldemar Johansons, Daniil Umanski, Federico Sangati), Expanded Eye
(by Anaisa Franco), and exist.pl from Pall Thayer, that we had the chance to show a week ago during make art.

For more information about the piksel festival and its huge program, check http://piksel.no !

After the Net explores the paradoxical development of the Internet. As the current Web 2.0 hype begins to wane, the exhibition reflects upon the promises of technological progress, global networking and instantaneous communication. Presented artworks draw attention to key developments: from cybernetics to free and open source software, and social networking platforms.

Reflected in the title, the exhibition makes explicit reference to the documentary film The Net by Lutz Dammbeck (2003), and has three iterations: for Valencia (2008), Plymouth (2009) and Toluca (2010). The selection of artists is updated for each venue as a new version.

The installation hello process! will be developed at Sign during an Artist in Residency from 03.03.08 until 03.04.08.

Openlab Groningen

Openlab Groningen, 11, 13, 18, 20, 25 and 27 March 2008, between 14.00 and 18.00
Sign, Winschoterkade 10, Groningen, NL
Costs: free!

Join us for 6 afternoon sessions of Openlab Groningen! The Openlab is a workspace equipped with 6 workstations running a wide variety of open source software for artists and designers. The goal of the lab is to kick start a community in Groningen that brings together local artists/designers/programmers that work with or are interested to work with open source software.

Special session the 13th of March: Dave Griffiths’ crash course Fluxus!!! http://www.pawfal.org/dave

The lab in Groningen will kick off with the 3 day workshop ‘hello process’. After the workshop the lab will be open for 3 weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 14.00 until 18.00. The lab is open to everyone interested in making, researching, exchanging, learning or simply working, having a (lot of) coffee and a chat. Permanent inhabitants of the lab: ‘hello process’ artists Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk from digital art collective GOTO10.

Openlab Groningen will be the third European Openlab. The first Openlab started 3 years ago in London. The lab organises performances, exhibitions and meetings. The project stimulates the use of open source software through the organisation of events. The second lab in existence is Openlab Glasgow. It started a year ago, and is a collective that is open to artists who are interested in the use of technology within their arts practice. The group is based on the sharing and exchange of skills, collaborative projects and the exchange of ideas.

In Rand We Trust!

‘hello process’ lectures: in rand() we trust!
13 March 2008, 20.00 – 22.30
Sign, Winschoterkade 10, Groningen
Guests: Florian Cramer, Arie Altena, Adger Stokvisch, Aymeric Mansoux, and Marloes de Valk

During this evening we will be questioning the nature and purpose of generative art. With 4 lectures and an open talk, we investigate whether or not generative art is indeed an art form or just a technique. Is it possible to make a distinction between generative processes, applications of generative processes and generative processes as a conceptual ground for software art? Does the term generative art apply to screen savers, alife, fractal art,, conceptual software/code art and poetry alike?

Is it even important to make this distinction? The term generative art has been around for a while now, and is applied to extremely diverse works and opposite artistic approaches. No more! It’s time to fork! (again!)

The tactics of generative art – Florian Cramer
Despite frequent claims to the contrary, artistic employment of generative system is never simply a reflection of structures or issues formally inherent in them – such as self-organization or emergence -, but linked to artistic politics. In other words, even systems supposedly removed from intention are intentional depending on their programming and, most importantly, the context they get put in. The lecture will reconstruct this along a classical and more contemporary example, John Cage’s chance operations and Cornelia Sollfrank’s net.art generators, reading the latter as a critique of the former, and question concepts like indeterminacy, chance, and unintentionality.

Florian Cramer, born 1969, Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Course Director of the Media Design M.A. programme of the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, writer on (among others) experimental and computational arts.

Accidents, generative art and livecoding – Dave Griffiths
Livecoding is the practice of programming in front of an audience. This lectureformace will demo three livecoding systems which are designed to encourage a more playful interaction for live performances than traditional text based livecoding. Using a gamepad, these systems use metaphors borrowed from computer games to encourage playful accidents by the building up of emergent behaviours.

The first instrugame is called betablocker, and is programmed with a form of colourful assembler to make acid techno music. The second is called Al Jazari, and is a robot programming music game named after a 13th century inventor of musical robots. The third is a work in progress gamepad language called daisy chain, where the performer-coder builds network structures of flowers which give birth to new executable visual structures.

Dave has been writing programs to make noises, pictures and animations using a variety of languages for many years. He is the author of lots of free software projects exploring these areas, and uses much of it in performances and workshops around europe. He is part of the Openlab free software artists collective, the TOPLAP live coding community and slub, the live coding band. He lives in London where he makes film effects software and computer games.

Dave has performed at various events using his own software, including the Piksel festival in Bergen, Barcelona’s Sonar festival, the Linux Audio Conference in Karlsruhe, and at the READ_ME Software Art Festival/Dorkbot City Camp in Arhus, Denmark.

Generative Art, a subjective overview – Arie Altena
In my presentation I will give a subjective overview of generative art, including examples from music, literature, media art and the visual arts. If there is a subtext to this overview, it might be the attempt to discern the differences and similarities between the use (and status) of ‘the generative’ in these fields. Examples may include work from: John Cage, John Zorn, Frieder Nake, OULIPO, Karl Sims, Tom Ray, Casey Reas, Driessens & Verstappen, and Telcosystems.

Arie Altena (1966), studied Literary Theory, and writes about art and new media. Currently he is editor/researcher for the V2_Archive in Rotterdam and theory tutor at the department of Interactive Media and Environments of the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen. He also curates the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam. In the past he worked for Mediamatic and Metropolis M. He co-edited the POD-book Pervasive Personal Participatory, Ubiscribe 0.9.0 (2006) and the Sonic Acts publications Unsorted, Thoughts on the Information Arts (2004), The Anthology of Computer Art (2006) and The Cinematic Experience (2008).

Algorithmic Art – Adger Stokvisch
A lecture on the different aspects of algorithmic art and the artists’ own art practice. A short overview on computational methods and techniques, investigating the possibilities and meaning of these techniques for art production, the integration of algorithmic art in location based work such as art in public space, collaborations with the high-tech sector and a view on the future of algorithmic art and interactive media.

Generative art is firmly rooted in the philosophy of process-based science, which lays the foundation for many artistic possibilities to create autonomously functioning, dynamic (interactive) artworks that can for instance learn, show infinite variations or show emergent behaviour.

Adger Stokvisch focusses on the use of computer technology and computer coding as a medium and works on the artistic research and development of interactive location based computer driven installations. Keywords that describe his practice: interactive computervisualisations, algorithmic art, mathematical modelling, location based computer driven installations, interaction devices and interaction design.

Hosts of the evening – Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk
Aymeric Mansoux has taken part in many artistic experiments based on the internet and the emergence of networks, and considers any form of data to be a new clay that can be used to develop software art. His most recent projects include the 0xA band, the digital artlife Metabiosis project, the pure:dyne GNU/Linux live distribution for media artists and ongoing theoretical research into tools, online communities and digital autonomous processes. Aymeric is editor of the FLOSS+Art book, scheduled for release mid 2008, as well as www.digitalartistshandook.org which was launched early 2008.

Marloes de Valk is a dutch digital artist, currently based in the UK. She is part of GOTO10, a collective of artists and programmers working in the field of digital art and Free/Libre Open Source Software. She studied Sound and Image at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, specializing in abstract compositional computer games, HCI and crashing computers. Her work consists of audiovisual performances and installations, investigating machine theater and narratives of digital processes. She is currently collaborating with French artist Aymeric Mansoux on Metabiosis, a project investigating the ups and downs of data packets living in a world of connected ecosystems. From August 2007 until January 2008 she was editor of www.digitalartistshandook.org and is currently working on the GOTO10 publication FLOSS+Art, to be published mid 2008.

workshop hello process!

Workshop ‘Hello Process’, 7-8-9 March 2008, Sign, Winschoterkade 10, Groningen, NL
Costs: Free!

Chaos theory, finite state machines, randomness, entropy, non linear systems and non deterministic automata, l-systems, self-similar series, recursions and iterations. WTF? LOLZ

The term generative art should not attempt to describe any art-movement or ideology. It’s a method of making digital art. This term refers to how the art is made, and not taking into account why it was made, what the content of the artwork is or what the intention of the artist is.

Generative techniques applied to digital art and sound art can greatly enhance and widen the field of possibilities brought inside an artwork by giving an extra degree of freedom to creative processes designed by the artist.

Generative strategies and algorithmic exploration bring the designer in a situation in which s/he is not replaced by the machine but moved to a position where s/he initiates and develops a digital chemistry where artistic processes can evolve on their own.

During this 3 day workshop, the participants will be introduced to dataflow programming, simple Digital Signal Processing, generative and algorithmic techniques that they will be able to apply in any other field once the course is completed.

The main goal is to move creativity from the design of a formal object-effect to the design of the model of an object-cause in which autonomous processes will be injected in order to reach emerging spaces the participants would not have been able to design using a top down approach.

The goal of the workshop is not to learn a new software, but to get acquainted with certain techniques and strategies for the creation of a media art work or design. The software Pure Data will be used to illustrate most of the different techniques, but the emphasis will be
put on introducing and explaining the generative processes so the participant can understand them and will be able to implement these techniques in his/her creative work.

The participants who are interested in learning more about the software used in the workshop, can come to the Openlab sessions following the workshop.

The workshop is based on 100% Free/Libre/Open Source Software. All the material used during the workshop will be available on-line under an open content license. During the workshop we’ll work with the pure:dyne GNU/Linux operating system.

No previous knowledge of programming is required, but knowing how to use
computers is :)

Schedule

DAY 1

introduction to puredata
- basic pd layout
- triggers and messages
- hot and cold inlets
- random and select
- audio and control signals

introduction to gem
- basic gem layout
- gem objects
- spatial organisation
- colors and rendering priority

iterations and recursion
- the basics
- some examples in Pd

DAY 2

deterministic automata
- what is an automaton?
- build a simple automaton in Pd
- stochastic processes
- an example of more advanced automata: cellular automata

introduction to chaos
- a bit of theory
- analysis of the logistic function of Robert May
- presentation of other chaotic functions
- mini pdp introduction
- feedback in pdp

DAY 3

self similarity
- writing a self similar poem
- self similarity in music
- a simple tracer in gem
- L-systems, an introduction
- Some L-systems in Pd

resources for further investigation
- books, sites, lists, etc.
- Openlab
- FLOSS interesting in this context (processing, fluxus, Pd, …)
- Q&A

In ‘pond’, de Valk and Mansoux investigate to what extent information can develop in a network of computers linked with each other and how it is possible for an audience to interact with it.

The ‘pond’ installation consists of three interconnected machines. Each machine runs a simple ecosystem model in which small strings of data are produced, processed and sent back and forth from computer to computer. Even though the number crunching methods are abstract, the process is visualized in the shape and form of a pond, inhabited by little data-creatures. When the machines are turned on, these ‘creatures’ remain in the computer memory and can go about their business. They socialize, reproduce, jump to other systems and after a while… die. It is possible for the audience to interact with each pond via a touch screen, directly influencing and breaking the self organizing process.

‘pond’ is an experiment and a game for people who are curious about the possibilities of standalone processes, generative systems and artificial life.

For more information about the Metabiosis project, please visit the project site http://metabiosis.kuri.mu

Metabiosis is made possible with support from the Netherlands Media Art Institute, Kunsthochschule fur Medien Koln and the Digital Research Unit

For more information about make art 2007, please visit http://makeart.goto10.org/2007