|
|
Press
information Ars Electronica
2004 On the occasion
of the Ars Electronica 2004, the O.K Center for Contemporary Art is
pleased to announce the CyberArts 2004 – Prix Ars Electronica
Exhibition. The CyberArts Exhibition at the O.K provides an exciting look at the latest trends the field of digital media art. The focus is on works in the category Interactive Art – presented as space and sound installations that encourage visitor interaction. The prizewinning
works in the category Computer Animation/Visual Effects, Net
Vision, Digital Musics and – new this year – Digital
Communities are documented at the O.K by means of information
terminals. The O.K Night on September 4th starts at 10:00 p.m. on the Arena Plaza with Electronic Theatre, a film screening featuring the best computer animations from this year’s Prix Ars Electronica. Next up is a performance by Digital Musics award-winner Felix Kubin on the O.K Mediendeck, followed by a concert by hANGovER_9e. The O.K Mediendeck with its video and audio archive is once again set up as meeting place and hang-out-space. Guests can enjoy daily presentations here of Demi-Pas by Julien Maire: on Sept. 2 at noon; Sept. 3 & 5-7 at 2:30 p.m. CyberArts 2004 at the O.K is open through September 19th. During Ars Electronica,
the opening hours of the O.K Center for Contemporary Art will be extended:
daily from 10:00 a.m. to midnight.
Golden Nica Digital Musics Banlieue
du Vide For this piece, the artist collected 3,000 images recorded by surveillance cameras. All show deserted, snow-covered streets by night. The only movement is the slow change in the structure of the snow. The soundtrack consists of muffled gray noise and intermittent traffic sounds. A feeling of transience and the passage of time is evoked by both the gradual changes in the pictures as well as by Köner’s sound composition. Together they convey timelessness and the existential quality of time elapsing – the waiting and expectancy that define our existence. The installation invites us to watch as time trickles away. Thomas Köner, born in 1965, works in the fields of sound art, film music, video, remix radio play and installations.
Listening
Post The point of departure for this work is the endless amount of online communication that is making its way through the world over the Internet every second of every day. Hansen and Rubin base their computer-controlled audiovisual environment on the realtime exchange of messages in tens of thousands of online forums. “Listening Post” displays a series of soundtracks and visual text arrangements that reflect the magnitude, immediacy and dynamics of the global conversation. The artists’ goal is to distill the content and structure of this collective communication in the WWW and to present it in a comprehensible and appealing way. In a darkened space, 231 electronic displays use sound, image and movement to abstract online communication from its imprisonment on the screen and to help viewers experience with a combination of senses both its quality and overwhelming extent. Mark
H. Hansen is Associate Professor, Department for Statistics,
University of California Los Angeles.
Ah_Q-A Mirror
of Death Ah_Q-A is an adaptation
of the video game “Quake III,” a well-known “first-person
shooter game.” All of the protagonists in the computer game are
modeled after the artist – both the shooters and their victims
have faces. Instead of using a keyboard or mouse to play the game, the
player uses a dance pad, a touch-sensitive floor mat that has found
widespread application in the Asian gaming world. Feng
Mengbo, born in 1966 in Peking, is a freelance artist (Venice
Biennale in 1993 and documenta X in 1997) and Guest Professor at the
Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in Peking. Fish control robots:
the installation consists of three movable robotic sculptures, each
of which holds a fish bowl with a Siamese fighting fish. These fish
are known to have excellent vision and a high degree of social organization,
but are also quite aggressive. Ken Rinaldo, born in 1958, artist and theorist, directs the Art and Technology-Program of the Department of Art at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Alert The striking web
of sound – sirens, alarms – and the high noise level in
the city of Cluj was the point of departure for the work “Alert,“
which was created in the course of an O.K exchange program. Barbara
Musil reprogrammed the alarm systems of 10 cars in the Cluj area, replacing
the usual alarm signal with songs and texts. With this “permanent
intervention” built into the vehicles, she thus left behind her
own acoustic touch in Cluj. Autos as status symbols and the idea of
protecting one’s possessions are among the motives that come to
light in interviews with the owners of the new alarm systems. Barbara Musil, born in 1972, studied medicine in Graz, became a Dr. med. univ. in 1999, studied at the Art University in Linz, and now works as a freelance artist.
Demi-Pas is a short
film projected using a “reversed camera“ technique. Micromechanisms
inside a converted projector generate animated images. The real miniature
objects or photographic material as transposed within the projector
are set into motion to form a live performance by the artist. Based
on this experimental projection method, the film tells the simple story
of one man’s daily routine. Julien Maire, born in 1969, studied in Metz, now lives and works in Berlin, and was Artist in Residence in Podewil.
A digital stage
set on which real actors perform, wearing digital costumes projected
onto their bodies, gives us a view into the future of theater and dramatization.
Nils Krüger, project director / André Bernhard, software and hardware developer; Andreas Kratky, media designer and artist; Bernd Lintermann, software developer and media artist; Joachim Sauter, media designer, founding member of ART+COM; Jan Schroeder, stage and costumer designer; André Werner, composer
Future of Memory
is a feature-length program that combines dance, theater and interactive
media. Close-ups and the movements of the performers are recorded, saved
and manipulated using the realtime video imaging software Isadora
and then projected onto 20 monitors. The improvised movements of the
dancers control the intensity of the visual effects, the playback rate
of the clips and the musical score for the performance. Marc
Coniglio is a composer and artist whose work focuses on combining
music, dance, theater and interactive media.
A mixture of telephone booth
and wading pool: wearing a helmet that blocks out all external stimuli,
the user climbs into a water tank and is then able to communicate by
speech with another user in a second tank. Stefan
Agamanolis directs the Human Connectedness Group at MIT Europe,
Dublin.
Loops Loops is a portrait of choreographer Merce Cunningham. His “Solo Dance for Hands and Fingers“ was recorded using motion capture technology and then visualized by means of lines and dots. Cunningham’s voice serves as the basis for the musical score: a computer analyzes a text that Cunningham reads aloud and generates the music via textual and acoustic parameters taken from a sample of John Cage’s experimental composition “Prepared Piano.” Marc
Downie has a Master of Science degree, is a member of the Synthetic
Character Group at MIT, and is presently a doctoral student at MIT.
Messa di Voce
is a concert in which the singing and speech of the performers is transformed
into complex, subtly differentiated, and highly expressive realtime
graphics by means of specially developed visualization software. Golan
Levin, artist, engineer, and composer, is an Assistant Professor
at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.
Topobo (Topology and Robotic) is a 3D construction kit system that can store physical movements and then replay them autonomously. Simply by putting Topobo pieces together, one can build dynamic biomorphic forms such as animals or plants and animate them by turning, pushing or pulling them. The figure memorizes the “learned” movement and repeats it independently multiple times. Hayes
Raffles, designer and artist, works at MIT Media Lab and has
won numerous design awards.
This installation
is, strictly speaking, a computer in the form of a train. The operating
system is an implementation of a Turing machine* (based on the work
of Adam Calcraft and Michael Greene), a universal computing machine
with which anything can theoretically be calculated. David
Moises, born in 1973 in Innsbruck, studied at the Art University
of Linz and Humboldt University in Berlin, and lives and works in Vienna.
A television is
turned toward the wall so that only its flickering can be seen and the
sound can be heard. A computer captures the television signal and edits
it in realtime: Osman
Khan, media artist and Master of Fine Arts, is currently studying
in the Department of Design/Media Arts at the University of California,
LA.
3 minutes²
is an installation that mixes up space and image, real and virtual,
presenting us with a hybrid, miniaturized living space that cannot be
physically measured, but is instead represented as the sum of its potential
dimensions. Electronic Shadow, is a group of artists founded in 2000 (Naziha Mestaoui /BE, architect and Yacine Ait Kaci /F, director and graphic artist) www.electronicshadow.com
1000 Deathclock
in Paris constructs a network within the existing global information
networks. Participants are asked to think about their lives, to express
their lifespans in numbers and to set their own deathclock accordingly. Tatsuo
Miyajima is an artist whose work has been featured
often at the Venice Biennale and in numerous exhibitions.
Due to the large number of submissions dealing with social and political issues, as well as in the new category Digital Communities and the popular Internet category Net Vision, a special section of the exhibition was set up expressly to display these projects. The juries honored in particular those projects that harness the potential of the Internet for individual empowerment, providing people with an opportunity for active political participation.
Creative
Commons /USA Creative Commons defines an infrastructure for intellectual property rights that gives authors a way of distributing their works under a series of different licenses with varying degrees of restriction. To help authors find their way through the creative copyright jungle, the website offers both extremely informative (Flash) videos and numerous templates. Distinction Net Vision Newsmap
This project provides a easily comprehensible visualization of the current state of the global news landscape on the Internet, with website graphics that allow users to compare the relevance of selected topics as well as news categories (such as national vs. international news, sports, etc.) in ten different countries.
Bush in
30 seconds On the initiative of the election fund MoveOn.org, thousands of commercials critical of the Bush administration were submitted and judged online. Some of the top 100 can now be viewed on this site.
During the Ars Electronica, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga will be making his way through the city with a shopping cart in tow equipped with a mobile radio broadcasting station, giving the man on the street a chance to voice his opinions to the public via a Web stream.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a community-generated Open-Content encyclopedia – both created and maintained by a volunteer staff. With the easy-to-use Wiki software, even people without special programming skills can add and edit HTML texts, while the community ensures quality control and protection from vandalism. The World
starts with Me The World starts with Me is an easy-to-grasp online sex education and AIDS prevention curriculum for Ugandan young people. Users can navigate per mouse-click through informative drawings and texts on the subjects of friendship, gender, pregnancy, etc. This joint program of Butterfly Works and Schoolnet Uganda targets students and school-leavers, endeavoring to achieve nationwide coverage by means of 53 schools with online access and telecenters.
smart X
tension Tonga.Online is
a project involving media, IC technology and art that focuses on the
Tonga people living on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. On display
at O.K are photographs by Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber and a keyboard-like
device with which 10 documents can be edited without electricity or
network access.
GPS::Tron is a combination of new technologies such as GPS, Bluetooth and GMS or GPRS with the classic Tron game concept – mobile phone plus computer game. Thomas Winkler has succeeded in achieving an ingenious fusion between the real and the virtual. Thomas Winkler, born in 1984, Hauptschule Hartberg and HTL Pinkafeld
David Haslinger “Es war einmal ein Mann... der hatte einen Schwamm” (“There once was a man with a sponge…”) - based on this nursery rhyme David Haslinger has put together an animated story frame for frame and also added a soundtrack. David Haslinger, born in 1995 in Linz, Volksschule 26 Harbach
Manuel Fallmann, born in 1985, Gymnasium der Englischen Fräulein in St.Pölten
radio2stream transforms radio signals into an MP3 stream. The aim is to close the gulf between radio and PC in order to hear radio programs that are not usually streamed via computer. Gottfried Haider, born in 1985, Schottengymnasium Vienna Multimedia Team
Europa-Hauptschule Hall in Tyrolia Pupils at the Europa-Hauptschule in Hall, Tyrol developed a language learning program based on visual elements for their Turkish classmates to help them learn basic German in a fun, fast and imaginative way. Project team of the Europa-Hauptschule Hall in Tyrolia
Gerald Gradwohl With this project, Gerald Gradwohl has succeeded in offering a series of useful features in an aesthetically appealing package. Beginning with a small Flash Shooter, Gradwohl added more and more complex functions, until Sulaa grew into a useful project with room to grow. Gerald Gradwohl, born in 1986, Handelsakademie Weiz
EyeBoard is a hardware and software application that makes it possible for the user to control major computer functions merely by moving his eyes. This innovation could prove extremely useful for disabled people in mastering their daily lives more independently. Michaela Meindl,
born in 1984 in Uttendorf, Upper Austria, HTL Braunau;
A computer game for two players reduced to its most basic elements, in which each player uses his own mouse to take advantage of the movements of his opponent and thus advance from level to level. Christoph Wiesner, born in 1987, HTL Grieskirchen
Patrick – a.k.a. Junky Hugs – developed his own very personal Flash site, dominated by graphic elements that reveal his growing talent for drawing. The initial stick-figure animations were soon joined by characters with realistic faces and bodies, along with detailed backgrounds. Patrick Derieg-Hütmannsberger, born in 1992, LinzInternationalSchoolAuhof Tobias Schererbauer/Sebastian
Schreiner/Franz Gruber The main idea behind this project is to mix together a sense of humor, plenty of ideas and limited financial means to produce a television program that is free and available to everyone. After users register at the website http://casting.o-nan.org, they are contacted personally, informed of possible projects, and entered in the database in order to compile a network of young talent. The program is to be made up of three ten-minute long Quicktime streams featuring reports from parties, interviews, artist portraits, artworks, etc. Tobias Schererbauer,
born in 1984, BG Schärding, currently completing his term of civilian
service
This DOS-based game was developed on a 386 computer. Swiftness and accuracy are the basic skills required to line up rows of numbers based on binary code. Franz Haider, born in 1987, Schottengymnasium Vienna
In his Revo Race Mathias Kuntner shows us that the game Tron still good for a surprise or two. Revo Race stands out among the many Tron imitators, with perspectival effects that create a 3D character and other new special effects that make the game far more dynamic. Action is emphasized through additional speed-ups and a variety of ammunition and shields to choose from. Mathias Kuntner, born in 1985, HTL Pinkafeld
[phonetcard] - from word to image – attempts to exploit the possibilities of the digital – photography, image manipulation, graphics – to develop multilingual, intercultural, multimedia design instruction with plenty of room for tolerance as well as for learning techniques such as look-ups, searches, comparisons, etc. Project of the
HBLA für künstlerische Gestaltung Linz, Garnisonstrasse
Manuel Eder has created a self-contained Japanese-style animated film. The script is based on a story he wrote himself, and the film contains over 90 animated figures, up to 50 backgrounds, 30 dialogues and 9 different songs, packed into some 120 scenes. Manuel Eder,
born in 1989 in Hallein
The students designed, built and programmed a new kind of record player. Without any prior technical knowledge or skills, they constructed a tone arm out of a matchbox, which picks up colors from a piece of aluminum foil by means of a light-emitting diode and converts them into sounds. With the help of frequency converters and a computer program, they were able after a few attempts to create mind-boggling sounds! Project participants:
Bernhard Hauer, Anna ReginaMühlberger, Victoria Dangl, Matthias
Hirnschall
10:00 p.m. Electronic Theatre, open air cinema on the Arena Plaza featuring the best in computer animation and visual effects from the Prix Ars Electronica
Honorary Mention Digital Musics Felix Kubin is known for his subtle, seductive performances. He is a keyboard player who parodies electronic music and plays a kind of “faked“ pop music that manifests influences ranging from classical music to the New Wave German music of the 1980s.
|