The Interception series of actions consists of the illegal interception of CCTV cameras monitoring urban areas. Continue reading

A group of activists, educators, technologists, and community organizers now known as Public Laboratory came together to organize the Gulf Oil Mapping project. Since May 2010, we have been working with New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade to get Gulf Coast residents out on boats and along beaches to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the spill’s effects. All the imagery from this project is being released into the public domain.

Grassroots Mapping is part of the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, founded by a group of activists, educators, technologists, and community organizers interested in new ways to promote action, intervention, and awareness through a participatory research model. Continue reading

Dead Drops Master Class with Aram Bartholl :: June 29, 2011; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm :: V2_, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam.

The term “Dead drops” refers to places where spies leave information behind to be picked up by others; a method often used among spies during the Cold War. In Aram Bartholl’s version of the dead drop, USB memory sticks are installed in public locations for anyone to upload or download information. By doing so, an anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer network for the exchange of digital information is created. More information about the project and current Dead Drop locations is available here. Continue reading

Monetary Utopias with Jaromil & Marco Sachy, Enric Duran, Christian Nold, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy, Baruch Gottlieb :: CONFERENCE: MCDate – le café numérique | Upgrade! Paris with Mal au Pixel Festival; June 17, 2011; 7:00 pm :: Maison des Métallos, 94 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris + and on Digitalarti live stream.

For its sixth edition, Mal au Pixel Festival — dedicated to the Open Source and DIY Cultures — looks at the issue of alternative money and currencies through a series of public lectures. This conferences panel is associated to an exhibition at Plateforme Gallery, with Paolo Cirio, Baruch Gottlieb & Mansour Ciss Kanakassy, DYNDY, Christian Nold. Continue reading

Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0 by David Gauntlett (read Henry Jenkins’ interviews with him: Part 1, Part 2): In Making is Connecting, David Gauntlett argues that, through making things, people engage with the world and create connections with each other. Both online and offline, we see that people want to make their mark on the world, and to make connections.

During the previous century, the production of culture became dominated by professional elite producers. But today, a vast array of people are making and sharing their own ideas, videos and other creative material online, as well as engaging in real–world crafts, art projects and hands–on experiences.

Gauntlett argues that we are seeing a shift from a ‘sit–back–and–be–told culture′ to a ‘making–and–doing culture′. Continue reading

Plataforma Cero of LABoral presents Orbitando Satélites / Orbiting Satellites — a critical and artistic investigation of satellites :: May 10-14, 2011 :: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Los Prados, 121, 33394 Gijón (Asturias) Spain.

Orbitando Satélites proposes an exercise in the visualisation and investigation of these “rarae aves” that operate in habitually imperceptible frequencies and distances. We listen to them with DIY antenas and radios, showing how to locate them and observe them with free hardware and software.

In the tradition of the independent groups involved in the creation of free/libre infrastructures the meeting unites amateurs and experts, from various countries and cultures, to develop a declaration which poetically sketches this occult ring that surrounds us. Continue reading

Art.on.Wires Media Festival 2011 :: May 25-29, 2011 :: Betong/Chateu Neuf, Oslo.

Art.on.Wires is is as an open laboratory, hacker space, and meeting point for artists, designers, creative media professionals, multimedia researchers, engineers, and Do-it-Yourself enthusiasts. As an annual event Art.on.Wires creates an interdisciplinary forum to explore the future of electronic arts and modern lifestyle. We invite professional artists, designers, architects, musicians, researchers, students and open-minded visitors to join a vivid and diverse group of experimenters to share, create, learn, play and be inspired by arts, science and technology.

Under the title make : create : invent : recycle : explore we promote education, collaboration, sharing and making of interactive and electronic arts, and the direct dissemination of latest developments from Multimedia IT research to the public. Continue reading

Detektors: the rhythms of electromagnetic emissions, their psychogeophysics and micrological auscultation.

Almost any electronic gadget can be transformed into an audible and sometimes rhythmical sound object. Detektors is firstly (A) a cartography of user-generated geolocational sound recordings, logs and walks, which reveal hidden electromagnetic geographies of our urban areas and secondly (B) a database and catalog of sonic studies of electromagnetic emissions produced by our everyday electronic devices.

Detektors is an open, collaborative project which uses sonic strategies and DIY-devices to make audible the hidden infoscapes of our time. Continue reading

UPGRADE! PARIS #42 /DEV/ART/#8: Benjamin Gaulon aka RECYCLISM :: March 18, 2011; 7:00 - 11:00 pm :: Blackboxe, 17 rue de la Chapelle, 75018, Paris.

Benjamin Gaulon received a degree in Visual Communication from l’École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg and a MFA in Interactive Media & Environment from the Frank Mohr Institute. During his time at the Frank Mohr Institute, he developed several high profile projects, including de Pong Game, the Recycling Entertainment System, the PrintBall and Corrupt. After Graduating Gaulon started leading D.A.T.A (Dublin Art and Technology Association) and co-founded the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art (IMOCA) in 2007. Continue reading

Low Lives 3: Call for Proposals — Deadline: March 20. Contact: keoqui(at)gmail(dot)com.

Now entering its third year, Low Lives is an international exhibition of live performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time at multiple venues throughout the U.S. and around the world. Low Lives examines works that critically investigate, challenge, and extend the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting, viewing, and archiving performances. Low Lives is not simply about the presentation of performative gestures at a particular place and time but also about the transmission of these moments and what gets lost, conveyed, blurred, and reconfigured when utilizing this medium. Continue reading