[spectre] Second Introduction to an Archaeology of Imaginary Media
Dear Spectrites! Next Monday, December 4, 2006 we are staging an evening program devoted to the idea of imaginary media at De Balie in Amsterdam, at the occasion of the launch of the Book of Imaginary Media, which is a production of De Balie with NAi Publishers, Rotterdam. Details about the book launch, including a lecture by Richard Barbrook and live performance by Peter Blegvad can be found here: http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?podiumid=media&articleid=88410 The event is also streamed live, via: http://www.debalie.nl/live The book comes out of a mini-festival and series of lectures called "An Archaeology of Imaginary Media", organised in February 2004 in De Balie. We are very pleased with the fact that the book finally comes out, after a lengthy production process. Details about the Book of Imaginary Media can be found at the NAi Publishers website: http://www.naipublishers.nl/art/imaginary_media_e.html What follows below is the introduction chapter I wrote for the book. Although the text contains a few specific references to materials found elsewhere in the book, I thought that the text is still generic enough to not be out of context here. I hope you will enjoy this second introduction into the elusive nature of imaginary media... A web dossier has been compiled around the original project, and we are currently retransferring all recorded lectures there in better quality at the moment, so far the lectures of Siegfried Zielinski, Klaus Theweleit, Bruce Sterling and John Akomfrah have already been transferred - the rest is available as 'old style' Real media files and will be changed in the coming week or so... See: http://www.debalie.nl/archaeology bests, eric -- B - Pardon, monsieur. What've you got behind that screen? A - Imaginary Media, mademoiselle. B - Cheeping like a nest of bats. May I see? A - Then they wouldn't be imaginary. B - But I hear them... A - So? B - So how imaginary can they be if B - You're right, seeing is believing. Or maybe touching is. [Tries to reach behind folding screen, blocked by A.] A - Sorry. No touching either. Excerpt from: On Imaginary Media, by Peter Blegvad (2004) Second Introduction to an Archaeology of Imaginary Media [1] Like communities, all media are partly real and partly imagined. [2] Without either actual or imaginary characteristics, media cannot function. More than mere 'extensions of man', media - especially communications media - are endowed with a nearly sacred capacity for qualitative transformation of human relationships. Many of the limitations of everyday life, especially the trappings of interpersonal communication, are to be alleviated by technological apparatuses that promise seamless and immediate connection. However, as an adjunct to communication, like human relationships themselves, the machines are vulnerable and frail, inadequate, failing to achieve tasks set out for them by their makers and users. In the archaeology of imaginary media we have tried to 'excavate' mankind's dreams of the ultimate communication medium. These archaeological explorations focus on the imaginations of media that have been expressed in stories, drawings, prints, films, songs, advertisements, or quasi-philosophical imaginaries. It deals not so much with realized media as it does with potential or possible media: dreamed media, fantasized media; visions of how human communication can be reshaped by means of machines. When tracing the lineages of imaginary media, one of the recurrent ideas uncovered is that somehow these machines would be able to compensate for the inherent flaws and deficiencies of interpersonal communication. The devices then become compensatory machines. They become sites onto which various types of irrational desires are projected. It would seem rather obvious that the machines in themselves cannot live up to the promise that they would somehow, as if by magic (as a true 'deus ex machina'!), be able to resolve the age old problems of human communication and relationships. Through this pre-programmed failure, imaginary media also become machines of frustration. When considering the panorama of the failed hopes of machinic imagination, a feeling lingers that technology is all about desire, frustration, deficiency, and hope of salvation - terms that sound predominantly religious . . . It must be made clear at the outset of this book that the aim of this project is not to produce a one-sided critique of technologically inspired media imaginaries. The aim, rather, is to understand how the imaginary qualities of media affect their actual course of development. This understanding should make it possible to retain a certain utopian potential of communications media without stepping into the pitfa
[spectre] Re: borderXing exercise, almeria, spain 6/7/8/9 january 2007
On Nov 30, 2006, at 10:12 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You are invited to attend a borderXing exercise in the tabernas desert, almeria, spain 6/7/8/9 january 2007. Suggested roles include illegal migrant worker, border patrol guard, coyote trafficker and local vigilante. Feel free to forward the invitation. to whom? to the people in tijuana?? or, is this an exercise for jumping a fence into a gallery exhibition?? i still don't get it. anyone out there who could help me understand it, tx appreciated in advance. /a __ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
[spectre] Rejection Episodes by Vooruit and NOMAD, 19.00, 07 December 2006
REJECTION EPISODES curated by Basak Senova participating artists and designers are Hatice Guleryuz, Ali Cabbar, Yesim Agaoglu, Zekiye Sarikartal, Nermin Er, Arzu Ozkal - Orkan Telhan, Osman Bozkurt, Bengisu Bayrak, Extrastruggle, Banu Cennetoglu, Koken Ergun, Ceren Oykut, and Ali Taptik. http://www.nomad-tv.net/rejection_episodes opening hours: Vooruit: daily from 19.00 till 23.00, 07-16 December 2006, closed on Sunday De Centrale: daily from 18.00 till 20.00, 7-10 December 2006 The project title Rejection Episodes is derived from the science of medicine: Immune cells may cause serious damage in order to protect the body from any medical intervention by triggering rejection episodes. The immune system functions by distinguishing between cells it recognizes as 'self' and foreign material. The occurrence of these episodes is totally instinctive. Similarly, a social rejection may also be instinctive and beyond reasoning. The project has been developed by detecting such social cases; the emphasis is mostly on Turkish cases in the context of urban culture, and particular ones experienced through/by Turks in Belgium. FRICTIES, platform for media art at Vooruit, presents Basak Senova (Turkey) Thursday 07. December. 2006, 20.30 + connected to the Salon at 21.30 : opening of the exhibition Rejection Episodes at Vooruit + before the Salon at 18.00 : opening of the exhibition Rejection Episodes at De Centrale Basak Senova s talk in the Salon will be about the functioning of NOMAD, the different networks they are part of and their projects. This Salon is also the official opening of Rejection Episodes, an exhibit in the framework of Istanbul Ekspres, a collaboration between Vooruit en De Centrale, an old electricity factory that is now an intercultural meeting place. http://www.nomad-tv.net/rejection_episodes __ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
[spectre] OptoSonic Tea @ Diapason - Thursday, December 7th, 8:30pm
Diapason, gallery for sound and intermedia presents... Thursday December 7th 8:30pm OptoSonic Tea @ Diapason Live sets by: - Bill Etra (live visuals) with James Herring (music) - LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus) visuals and music on handmade audio/video synthesizers Invited artist: - Anton Marini Suggested donation: $ 7 OptoSonic Tea is a new regular series of meetings dedicated to the convergence of live visuals with live sound which focuses on the visual component. These presentation-and-discussion meetings aim to explore different forms of live visuals (live video, live film, live slide projection and their variations and combinations) and the different ways they can come into interaction with live audio. Each evening features two different live visual artists or groups of artists who each perform a set with the live sound artists of their choice. The presentations are followed by an informal discussion about the artists' practices over a cup of green tea. A third artist, from previous generations of visualists or related fields, is invited specifically to participate in this discussion so as to create a dialogue between current and past practices and provide different perspectives on the present and the future. Organized by Katherine Liberovskaya and Ursula Scherrer About the artists: Bill Etra Bill Etra is the co-inventor (with Steve Rutt) of the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer (early seventies) and a Live Video pioneer. Bill is a founding member of The Kitchen. Recent projects include work on "The New Machine", an advanced digital video synthesizer that gives the artist "total plasticity of image" in real time. Mr. Etra has held several patents, some include developments for 3-D television and text-based (versus time-code based) editing of video. Visit www.etra.com for more details. James Herring (Planet Sounds) Creating percussive soundscapes and musical compositions primarily using custom built Kalimbas (African Thumb Piano), mixed with computer based digital synthesized processing. LoVid LoVid is Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus. Using homemade electronic devices and DIY sculptural instruments, LoVid overwhelms the senses with new media in their performances, videos, objects, and installations. LoVid has toured the US and Europe extensively performing, exhibiting, and lecturing at The Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, The Butler Institute of American Art , Evolution Festival, FACT, The Kitchen, Chicago Art Institute, Kansas City Art Institute, University of Wisconsin, Futuresonic Festival, Upgrade OK, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY Underground Film Festival, The Happy Lion, and Institute of Contemporary Art London among many others. LoVid is currently artist in residence at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been artist in residence at Eyebeam, Harvestworks, iEAR, and Alfred University, has received grants and awards from Experimental TV Center, NYSCA, and Greenwall Foundation, and is a free103Point9 transmission artist. In February 2007 LoVid will be exhibiting a new installation at the Neuberger Museum of Art. Anton Marini Anton Marini (Aka Vade) is a New York based video engineer and new media programmer specializing in video and 3D systems for post production, visual effects and realtime systems. His work explores both designing software environments and systems for realtime performance as well as aesthetics for abstract visual communication. Anton Marini is a frequent collaborator at Share (http://share.dj), and has participated in events such as Anyware, Share Montreal, Eyewash, Rake, Share @ The Kitchen, as well as leading several workshops in new media programming environments. Diapason 1026 6th Avenue, 2S New York NY 10018 (212) 719-4393 http://www.diapasongallery.org Avenue of the Americas between 38th and 39th Streets, two blocks south of Bryant Park. Subways: 1, 2, 3, 9, B, D, F, Q, N, R, W to Times Square/42nd Street __ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
