Program e.V and Berlin China Cultural Bridges presents THERE IS NO I IN TEAM brings together cutting-edge Chinese video, live audiovisuals and performance art and creative communities from both China and Berlin.

The event is structured around the idea of making a live radio show focusing on rhizomatic networks stretching out from China to Berlin. The guests for THERE IS NO I IN TEAM belong to the same network of people who create their artistic projects on an individual basis but yet become public through a team of people who provide the necessary context.

A radio program created around the existing project THERE IS NO I IN TEAM installs itself in an exhibition space where the video works of Meiya Lin and Jin Shan raise questions about the role of the individual, hierarchy, power, migration, public space, market strategies and capitalism. Continue reading

Read | Write Storage in Collaborative Networked Art by Jason Freeman — in Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art):

ABSTRACT: This chapter explores the role of storage in media art and, more specifically, its role in collaborative creativity within the field of networked music. Through a series of paired analyses of works that differentially emphasize transmission and storage or which employ different approaches to storage, the chapter discusses different opportunities, challenges, and issues related to storage in collaborative, networked art. Music by the Rova Saxophone Quartet and by Nick Collins frames a discussion of composition and improvisation; two works by The Hub initiate an analysis of the influence of technology on network design and on collaborative models of shared material and shared control; broadcast works by Max Neuhaus introduce the concept of active storage systems; the online sites WebDrum and Jamglue raise questions about network latency and the persistency of storage; and Bicycle Built for 2,000 and Graph Theory manipulate the level of awareness of storage mechanisms by various participants.

Radio Berkman 127: Video Killed the Video Star — report back from the Open Video Conference, with Amar Ashar, Chris Peterson, and Catherine White of the Berkman Center.

Is the idea of a mainstream video culture dead? TV news anchors, sitcom stars, and A-list actors are losing ground to the groundswell of citizen journalists, independent web series creators, and the occasional cats falling off of pianos on YouTube. If everyone is a producer, what role will video play in our lives in the future? This was one line of questioning taking place at the first ever Open Video Conference in New York City this past June.

Continue reading

In 2008 Mexican artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, created an art installation in memory of the terrible student massacre that took place in Tlatelolco 40 years earlier.

Participants speak freely into a megaphone placed where the massacre took place on the ‘Plaza de las Tres Culturas’. Based on the volume of the voices, the brightness of a 10kW searchlight is altered. As the searchlight hits the top of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it spawns three additional searchlights, one pointed to the north, one to the southeast towards Zócalo Square, and one to the southwest towards the Monument to the Revolution. Continue reading

Wi: The Journal of Mobile Media — Active Radio … Launch and Demo :: April 7, 2009; 11:00 am - 1:00 pm :: Simultaneous Broadcast**: MONTREAL: Department of Communication Studies C-Pod Space, Room CJ 2.192; and Concordia University–Loyola Campus, 7141 Sherbrooke St. West; TORONTO: Mobile Media Lab at York University, 217 York Lanes; BOLOGNA: Marconi Foundation.

Active Radio focuses on the role and place of Active Radio. The concept of active radio comes from Jean Laurendeau’s french-language biography of Maurice Martenot — inventor of les Ondes Martenot. This early electronic musical instrument (1928) produces its sound through the interaction of two radio waves. Continue reading

Tantalum Memorial by Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, Matsuko Yokokoji at Transmediale: The telephone-installation is a memorial to the more than 3 million people who have perished in the complex wars that have gone on in the Congo since 1998, often referred to as the ‘Coltan Wars’. The ore coltan is used as the raw material for the metal tantalum, which is an essential component of mobile phones and computers. Therefore tantalum is coveted by dozens of international mining industries and local warring groups, and is nowadays more valuable than gold.

Built of electromagnetic ‘Strowger’ telephone switches, invented in 1938, and connected to a computer, the installation serves not only as a memorial, but functions also as a center of a social telephone network that is used by Congolese immigrants living in the UK. Continue reading

Finishing School presents Finding Joy :: December 4, 2008 7:00 – 10:00 pm :: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Avenue, Sculpture Plaza, 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Intrigued by the military term “finding joy” (referring to the successful establishment of radio contact on the battlefield), Finishing School leads a workshop in which participants build small DIY radios that will be used to detect prerecorded transmissions located throughout the museum. To generate audio content prior to the event, Finishing School will interview members of the MOCA community about what brings them joy. The public is also welcome to share their thoughts by phone; to participate, please call the Finding Joy Hotline at 213/455-2926. Continue reading

Civilmedia 08: Cultures – Participation – Dialogue :: December 4 – 6, 2008 :: Jugend-und Familiengästehaus Nonntal, Josef-Preis-Allee 14, Salzburg :: UnConference Call for Participation.

The Civilmedia will be a landmark at the end of the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008”. In bringing together international and national alternative media practitioners, researchers, policy makers, activists, and community development workers, we will review the importance of community media and Web 2.0 for intercultural dialogue in Europe. Continue reading

Out of this World ::until September 13, 2008 :: Wood Street Galleries, 601 Wood Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

Jean-Pierre Aube, Maria Antelman, Vera-Maria Glahn, Marcus Wendt and Gail Wight investigate macro and micro cosmologies in the form of an interactive installation, video installations and photography.

Artist and programmer, Jean-Pierre Aube holds an MFA from Université du Québec a Montréal. His work work has consistently used recuperative technology and data acquisition systems to question nature. Since 2000, he has worked on capturing the sounds of the aurora borealis through the use of very low frequency receivers. His VLF.Natural Radio project is being presented as a flat screen video work. The artist writes that: Continue reading

StoryBank – using mobiles to share stories in an Indian village by David Frohlich and Matt Jones, Receiver Magazine #20:

[...] The starting point for the StoryBank project then, was a sense that the villagers had valuable stories and information to share, which might be extended with new technology. In particular, the way they currently told stories with pictures and music might be used to enliven radio content, or could be captured and shared in new ways. This observation led us to examine the way community radio programmes are made and enjoyed, and identify some real benefits that might be achieved with digital technology. These included widening participation through making stories on a mobile phone, using photographs as illustrations, and providing ‘listen again’ facilities in a convenient location…” Continue reading