Upgrade! Vienna: International Meeting of Net and Media Artists in Vienna :: September 12, 2009; 8:00 pm :: Central Garden Wien, Danube Canal (In case of bad weather, go to Nestroyhof Hamakom, Nestroyplatz 1 (corner of Czerningasse), 1020 Vienna,

The network started in New York, in April 1999. Upgrade! New York developed around the artist Yael Kanarek, deriving from discursive evenings about media culture. There exist 30 nodes of the globally active network by now. Its comprehensive framework — beside the manifold work forms of the individual nodes — entails the communication on net art and media art. On a local level, regional artists are connected to the network by means of regular events. The lively supra-regional participation in existing projects and the numerous local activities of the individual nodes give proof of the successful work of Upgrade! International. Upgrade! Vienna will open on September 12, 2009.

The focus of Upgrade! Vienna # 01 will be on the network itself, and several European node operators have been invited to Vienna to that purpose: Upgrade! Berlin, Upgrade! Eindhoven, Upgrade! Munich and Upgrade! Skopje will be guests in Vienna on September 12, presenting their latest projects, local activities as well as demonstrating the added-value the network provides in each case. Upgrade! Vienna will be operated as an itinerant – nomadic – node, hosting future presentations in established institutions of art as well as offspaces. Beyond that, visits to the studio of local media artists are scheduled every month. The medial realization of these visits will be disseminated through the Web site and thus will be accessible for the Upgrade! Community.

Upgrade! Berlin will be represented by Ela Kagel. She is a curator, media producer, member of the Public Art Lab and co-initiator of the Mobile Studio Project. Upgrade! Eindhoven is operated by Ren̩ Par̩, founder and director of the MAD emergent art center, and Carmin Karasic, founding member of the Electronic Disturbance Theater, vice-director of Boston Cyberarts and an instructor at renowned universities in America. Upgrade! Munich is being created by the media artist Tamiko Thiel (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, ICA London, Silicon Valley РSan Jose Museum of Art, etc.) and by the director, dramatic advisor and curator Horst Konietzny. The activities of Upgrade! Skopje will be presented by the art historian and curator Elena Veljanovska (co-curator of the Macedonian pavilion at the 53th Biennale in Venice; founding member of LINE Initiative and Movement, etc.).

Upgrade! Vienna is curated and operated by Rosa von Suess (curator; professor for TV and video film production at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, with the main focus on format development, interaction and virtual sets) and by Ursula Hentschläger (communication expert and independent writer in the sector of media art; co-founder of www.zeitgenossen.com).

Central Gardenis a project of the society bearing the same name, utilizing public space for interdisciplinary, artistic, social and sports activities. An infrastructure is made available for the various forms of participation. The project at the Danube Canal in Vienna has been staging events like the Viennese Soccer tournament for Girls as well as symposiums, art installations, open-air concerts and film presentations for some time now.