Tracing the Ephemeral: Tactical Media and the Lure of the Archive by David Garcia and Eric Kluitenberg

“Tactical Media emerged when the modest goals of media artists and media activists were transformed into a movement that challenged everyone to produce their own media in support of their own political struggles. This “new media” activism was based on the insight that the long-held distinction between the ‘street’ (reality) and the ‘media’ (representation) could no longer be upheld. On the contrary, the media had come to infuse all of society.

To challenge dominant (strategic) structures in society, it was necessary to develop new (tactical) means of producing and distributing media. Not a specialised task separate from the social movements, but a key activity around which social movements could coalesce.” [1] Continue reading

PWRT (The Psychoeconomy War Room Table) by Gustavo Romano, with Chema Diez del Corral, Álvaro Jesús Osuna Martín — part of Project Showcase, Visualizar’11: Understanding Infrastructures :: until July 30, 2011 :: Medialab Prado, Plaza de las Letras. C/ Alameda, 15 · 28014, Madrid. 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

Madame Wang: Journal of Geographically Dispersed Collaboration:

Madame Wang is a Quarterly Arts journal dedicated to dispersed collaboration, migration and encounter architectures, co-action and Post-human writing programmes. It has been formed in response to a mounting need to examine, engage and critique an emerging arts-practice that is multiple, data intelligent and severally located.

Madame Wang participates in the unfolding of critical and intuitive modes of production by working closely with artists and other disciplines to deliver texts. Group writing, recursive dialogue, critique and text-artworks are all part of the pallet of approaches to the subject. Through these means, we can properly test the propositions and strategies of distributed decision-making and the possibilities of its rhetoric. Continue reading

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Speculative :: June 16 – August 28, 2011 Continue reading

Symposium Datapolis Mark Shepard: Pathetic Fallacies and Category Mistakes from CIANT Prague on Vimeo.

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Newstweek is a device for manipulating news read by other people on wireless hotspots. Built into a small and innocuous wall plug it appears part of the local infrastructure, allowing writers to remotely edit news read on wireless devices without the awareness of their users. Now, HOWTO allows others to make Newstweek devices for under €50.00.

REMOTE NEWS ALTERATION: By using our new registration-free online service, a Newstweek device plugged into a wall at a cafe, library, school or elsewhere can now be controlled remotely using a simple browser interface. Any number of devices can be controlled in this manner. Continue reading

NAMAland by Connor McGarrigle (via -empyre-) NAMAland “visualised an aspect of the Irish financial collapse. At the risk of depressing you all with the details of what’s going on here in Dublin the project is an AR overlay of Dublin which identifies ~120 properties (pulling from a growing SQL database) which were bought by NAMA a very controversial Government agency set up to buy bad speculative property loans from failing banks, spending around €40b in the process. Information on NAMA properties is restricted, the agency was exempted from FOI requests with a lot of powerful interests trying to keep information from getting out (I’ve received quite a few legal threats). So NAMAland was created as an attempt to publish this information in an accessible format and I was able to get my hands on an unofficial database pulled together from public domain sources anonymously which I geotagged and published as an AR layar.” Continue reading

[Image: New York Times DEberlusconiZED with Open Internet, by Aram Bartholl] DEberlusconiZER: DE_ZER Vol. 1 is a web tool that replaces the images and words related to the Italian Prime Minister. The software subverts the media machine created by one of the most controversial figures in Italian politics by reclaiming the space devoted to him and using it for new purposes.

In an unprecedented adaptation of the codes of street art and public art to the online environment, DE_ZER Vol. 1 is the first of a series of exhibitions that will each include three works and last ten days. From April 26 to May 4, 2011, these three works will alternate randomly: Pussy, by Claudia Rossini; Lavorare stanca, by Alterazioni Video; and Open Internet, by Aram Bartholl. Continue reading