[WikiLeak - Kaupthing Claims, 2011, Rules Series. Gouache Wall Painting. Dimensions variable.] Short Big Drama – Angela Bulloch :: January 21 - April 9, 2012 :: Opening: January 20; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Short Big Drama highlights the theatricality of the artist’s practice. This comprehensive exhibition presents a wide selection of existing works together with specially commissioned new pieces. The spotlight falls on three types of works — monumental wall paintings, colorful Pixel Box installations and interactive Drawing Machines. Continue reading

So What Again Is HASTAC? Post #HASTAC2011 Reflections on a Network Founded on a Theory That’s a Practice by Cathy Davidson, originally posted on HASTAC:

We have just finished two and a half glorious days at the University of Michigan. Soon we at HASTAC Central will write a formal thank you blog to all the incredible planners, organizers, and participants of our fifth HASTAC Conference, Digital Scholarly Communications, sponsored by the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Kidder Residency in the Arts, and led by two of our HASTAC Steering Committee members, Danny Herwitz and Julie Thompson Klein. And many others. Incredible event.Incredible people.

Now some overview thinking, not just about the #hastac2011 but about what it all means at this point in HASTAC’s history: Continue reading

Decode Me by Mushon Zer-Aviv and Guy Saggee (with code by Zohar Arad). Mushon says “It is a code based online campaign for DECODE, an exhibition of code based works. Participants are invited to “decode” their FB profile image into a triangle pixels combination and stamp their share on the timeline. Every day at midnight the participant with the largest share on the timeline (longest time before next decode) gets a free ticket to the show.

The show opened this last Friday and would go on until mid-March, by that time we expect the Decoder of the Day to lead with just a few minutes share…”

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How Can We Understand Code as a “Critical Artifact”?: USC’s Mark Marino on Critical Code Studies (Part One), by Henry Jenkins:

The Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS) Lab opened this summer at the University of Southern California with the specific goal of developing the field and fostering discussion between the Humanities and Computer Science. Current members include USC faculty and students and a host of affiliated scholars from other institutions, including and international advisory board. The HaCCS Lab sponsored its first conference this summer and will be sponsoring other get togethers both on campus and online. Central to its mission is to develop common vocabularies, methodologies, and case-studies of CCS, while promoting publications in the field. Continue reading

The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age by David M. Berry Reviewed by Jussi Parikka, Leonardo Reviews.

“Probably no one who reads Leonardo publications needs to be convinced of the centrality of software for modern art, culture, or academia. Yet, outside these circles, I think there is demand for such books as David Berry’s The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. At times, software studies still gets some of the crowd squirming in their seats in academic conferences, and either slightly worried or bemused reactions from representatives of more established academic disciplines. Surely code cannot be read and written like Shakespeare, appreciated the way you do Milton or object of such cult as Austen – or the cinephilic attachment in film studies to certain genres and films?” Continue >>

Also see Furtherfield’s review.

Network as Material: An Interview with Julian Oliver by Taina Bucher, Furtherfield.org: Continue reading

The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age by David M. Berry, Palgrave Macmillan:

The Philosophy of Software is a critical introduction to the subject of code and software, and develops an understanding of its social and philosophical implications in the digital age. The book has been written specifically for people interested in the subject from a non-technical background and provides a lively and interesting analysis of these new media forms. Software is a tangle, a knot, which ties together the physical and the ephemeral, the material and the ethereal, into a complete system that can be controlled and directed. However, software exceeds our ability to place limits on its entanglement, for it has in the past decade entered the everyday home through electronic augmentation that has replaced the mechanical world of the twentieth century. Continue reading

Coded Cultures: Creative Practice out of Diversity book discussion with Christian Reder (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien); Georg Russegger (Coded Cultures); Matthias Tarasiewicz and Michal Wlodkowski (5uper.net).:: April 4, 2011; 7:00 - 10:00 pm :: kunsthalle project space am karlsplatz, karlsplatz Vienna, Austria.

Through the transformations of creative cultures, enabled by digital media and global communication networks, new practices and ability profiles of artistic delineations and explorations are gaining grounds. New global codes and cultures are emerging out of diverse, intercultural abstractions and inventions, connected through new ways of exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Continue reading