Some
ideas that were quite discussed and very interesting for me:
1-
The human body as interface.
2-
Immersion: jumping from the frame of the computer to the Caves' Space,
which are considered the most advanced stage of immersion in the cyberspace.
Arlindo Machado retroceded two thousand years and situated the embryo
of this experience in the Allegory of the Cave, by Plato.
3-
The biotechnology and the modifications in genoma, the possibility
of creating "life", the paradigm created by the subversion
of the technology and the question that arises: what is the ethical
limit of the technological resources utilization? Among others participated
of that discussion Eduardo Kac and Roy Ascott . Eduardo Kac talked
quickly about his new work:
http://www.channel.creative-capital.org/project_146.html
MOVE
36 investigates the shifting boundaries among humans, non-humans,
and machines. Inspired by the computer that beat chess champion Gary
Kasparov in 1997, the piece is constructed of a large chess board
made of earth (dark squares) and sand (light squares). The only piece
on the board is a plant, which has been genetically engineered by
the artist for this project. This plant uses basic ASCII computer
text to translate the Descartes statement "Cogito Ergo Sum"
into genetic code. Exploring both the foundations of rationalist philosophy
and new frontiers in artificial intelligence, MOVE 36 includes video
projections of a chess game played by invisible opponents.
Amazing is not it?
Some
works that interested me a lot:
1-
On Translation: El Aplauso, 1999 Installation by Antoni Muntadas (Spain)
A
deconstruction of the showbusiness society and of the so-called “state
terrorism”. It is an installation comprised by three DVD screens:
the central screen displays TV images of (political or non-political)
atrocities. On the side screens, a crowd applauds each time a key
image is exhibited or removed from the main screen.
2-
ADA - Anarquitetura do Afeto, 2004 Installation by Simone Michelin
(Brazil)
Sound design, application of videographism, consultant and technological
execution: KAU Etnopop (Daniel Kau and Marcelo Reis)
The
concepts of inside and outside that were questions in Lygia Clark's
work reappear in this work of Simone Michelin. A discussion about
surveillance systems and equipment. The idea is to reverse the scheme
for internal circuit cameras, turning them into "external circuit"
cameras. Michelin’s deviating system explores new forms of narrative
and reverses the legal foundations that serve as basis for intellectual
property rights of public images.
3-
I'mito: Zapping Zone, 2004
Installation by Diana Domingues and Grupo Artecno UCS (Brazil) ( http://artecno.ucs.br/
)
The
work explores the creation of synthetic identities from a database
of 20 historical characters. A bar code reader interprets several
objects through a program created with genetic algorithms and associates
them to the identities of people such as Gandhi, Chaplin, Ayrton Senna
and Lennon. Information is turned into images that, in turn, are deformed
by the morphing technique - used in computer graphics - and projected
on the screens.
It was fun to interact with Diana Domingue's installation - a space
full of colors and mythical objects. Passing the bar code of two of
them on the appropriated visor, for example: Carmen Miranda and Che
Guevara's objects, both myth appear on the screen simultaneously.
4-
"Mejor Vida Corps", for a human interface
Minerva Cuevas (Mexico)
A
critique to consumption society, political clienteles and irrational
consumption of capitalist societies. MVC is a ghost company headquartered
on Torre Latinoamericana, a well-known skyscraper in downtown Mexico
City. Its key strategy is to break, usually by fraudulent means, the
golden rules of capitalism. For instance, the company sells on its
website bar code tags with lower prices for previously selected products
and fake credentials that allow the purchase of cheaper air tickets.
Link to the work: (http://irational.org/mvc/english.html
)
5- I could not to conclude without commenting the excellent works
of our newsletter's friends :
Clemente
Padín / Uruguay
Por
la Vida y por la Paz (1987), PAZ=PAN (2001) and Spam Trashes (2002)
CD-ROM by Clemente Padin (Uruguay)
Padin is one of the first artists to introduce in the artistic field
a different or divergent way of dealing with new technologies and
is one of the artists honored by the exhibition. His three selected
works explore teams such as pacifism and document uncommon ways of
political manifestation, both on the street and on the World Wide
Web.
http://arteonline.arq.br
(Gallery Electronic Poetry and Spam's Room)
Fran
Ilich (Mexico)
Borderhack
is a symbolic event, a festival of virtual and real activists, who
discuss the ways the borders and the immigration laws are defined.
Attachment is an on-line exhibition coordinated by Ilich for Borderhack,
with artists and contesters related to the general cyber cultural
universe, such as Mark Amerika, Oliver Ressler and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
http://delete.tv/net
