Upgrade! Johannesburg: Christaan Hattingh :: May 19, 2009; 1:15 - 2:00 pm :: Digital Arts Seminar Room – Digital Convent (opposite the WSOA, Map), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Award winning Digital Artists Christaan Hattingh will be speaking about his work. His focus will be on his artistic use of signal processing. He is qualified as a metallurgical engineer and multimedia artist. His main interests lie in the fields of interactive audio-visual synchronisation, artificial intelligence, 3D animation and technologically advanced media. Continue reading

Upgrade! Zagreb: Sandro Đukić :: May 7, 2009; 7:00 pm :: net.club mama, Preradoviceva 18, Zagreb, Croatia.

Sandro Đukić presents topic About problems of the reality of an image through his work. Discussion and refreshments follow after the presentation. Meet people interested in media art, exchange ideas about projects and get inspired.

Sandro Ðukić is an artist who in his works - spatial, architectonic and photographic installations and constructed films - moves from one medium to another with ease. By doing those movements, he applies different layers and meanings of spaces and by doing that he defines himself as virtual visual artist with tendency towards critical interpretation of space and date of inception of the artwork. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Lily & Honglei (杨熙瑛, 李宏磊) :: May 19, 2009; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: DIFFERENT VENUE: Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute for Technology N51-390, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA (map).

Lily & Honglei, an artist team from Beijing, recently initiated the Cyber Museum of Contemporary Art in Second Life. Built with virtual traditional Chinese architecture, Cyber MoCA houses a series of virtual installations, multimedia presentations and online performances accomplished through cross-continental artist collaborations. Lily & Honglei’s digital art reflects on folklore traditions, history, current society and the Chinese diaspora. It examines the current economic development of China within the context of globalization, while simultaneously exploring the meaning of virtual online communities in terms of global dialogues as they relate to cultural roots and the “fantasy” of China. Continue reading

Upgrade! Paris: House of Natural Fiber [HONF] — New Media Art Laboratory, Yogyakarta, Indonesia :: April 30, 2009; 8:00 pm :: Maison des Metallos, 94 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris.

Irene Agrivina Widyaningrum, Tommy Surya, Andreas Siagian, Julian Abraham, co-founders of HONF in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, will present this New Media Art laboratory, its two festivals CELLSBUTTON and YIVF, and them recent creations.

House of Natural Fiber [HONF] from Yogyakarta, Indonesia is a New Media Art laboratory, founded in 1999. They concentrate on the principles of social critique and art&technology innovation. Continue reading

Upgrade! Milwaukee: Patrick Lichty and Christopher Burns :: April 19, 2009; 7 :00 - 9:00 pm :: MOCT, 240 E Pittsburgh Ave, Milwaukee, WI.

Please come to our first-ever Upgrade! Milwaukee.

Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between us and media. Continue reading

Upgrade! Östersund-Stockholm: Drawing Games! by IDA RÖDÉN :: April 18, 2009; 2:00 - 6:00 pm - April 19, 2009; 10:00 am - 6:00 pm :: Härke Konstcentrum, Härkevägen 5, Frösön, Sweden.

We’re for the fourth time in Östersund arranging a special Upgrade! event with a very interesting perspective with an artist from the generation of media artists. She’ll present her works in a borderland between computer games, art and drawing. A presentation from Ida and a discussion about the multidisciplinary approach with drawing and computer art will happen on April 18 between 2pm and 5pm. Continue reading

Upgrade! Tijuana: Ricardo Dominguez, Micha Cardenas, Aninna Rust, Moises Horta :: May 13, 2009; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: Lui Velazquez, Jose Maria Larroque 271-2nd floor, Colonia Federal, Tijuana, Baja California, México.

Transborder Immigrant Tool: The border between the U.S. and Mexico has moved between the virtual and the all too real since before the birth of the two nation-states. This has allowed a deep archive of suspect movement across this border to be traced and tagged – specifically anchored to immigrants bodies moving north, while immigrant bodies moving south much less so. More >>

Internet Art in the Global South @ Joburg Art Fair 2009 :: curated by Tegan Bristow (Upgrade! Johannesburg and Digital Arts Division of the Wits School of Arts) in collaboration with Upgrade! International: Berlin, Boston - Turbulence.org, Chicago, Lisbon, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, and Tel-Aviv – Jerusalem.

Internet Art in the Global South explores and highlights a broad range of Internet art genres by artists in the global south, and works orientated towards its geography and politics. The project was born out of an interest to uncover artists working with the Internet as a primary medium in South Africa. The selection grew to encompass works from or about South America and Asia. Reviewed in The Times (Johannesburg) and the Mail & Guardian.

Upgrade! São Paulo: Internet 2.0 & 3.0 and the Culture of Mobility by Lucia Santaella :: April 4, 2009; 10:00 am :: Ateliê Unicentro Belas Artes de São Paulo, R. Dr. Álvaro Alvim, 76 - Vila Mariana.

Lucia Santaella is full professor at São Paulo Catholic University (PUCSP), PhD in Literary Theory (1973-PUCSP) and Livre-docente in Communication Studies (1993-ECA/USP). She is the director of CIMID, Center of Research in Digital Media, PUCSP, and also the director of the Center for Peirce Studies. Continue reading

Upgrade! Berlin: jonCates :: March 21, 2009; 8:00 pm :: Art Claims Impulse, Lübbener Str. 5, 10997 Berlin.

jonCates makes, organizes and teaches experimental New Media Art. His projects have been presented internationally at various events in locations such as Beijing, Madrid and Mexico City; nationally in Chicago, New York and Boston and are widely distributed online. Art Games, video, experimental Machinima, Computer Witchcraft, digitalPunk and Noise music are some of the unstable categories that his work playfully moves through. Continue reading