Upgrade! Boston: Patrick Lichty :: March 15, 2011; 7:00 pm :: MIT Media Lab (E14), 6th Floor, Room 633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Patrick Lichty is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for 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 people and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney Biennial, Turin Biennial, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA), and TED Conference. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Moments of Inertia by R. Luke DuBois, with Todd Reynolds :: February 8, 2011; Doors open @ 6:30 pm. Performance begins @ 7:00 pm :: MIT Media Lab (E14), 6th Floor, Room 633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Moments of Inertia is an evening-length performance based on a teleological study of gesture in musical performance and how it relates to gesture in intimate social interaction. The work is written for solo violin with real-time computer accompaniment and video. Moments consists of twelve violin études written by R. Luke DuBois for Todd Reynolds – ranging from 1-10 minutes in length – each of which uses a different violin performance gesture as a control input for manipulating a short piece of high-speed film (300 frames-per-second) – of objects and people in motion. Continue reading

Upgrade! Paris #41: Valentina Vuksic :: December 19, 2010; 6:00 – 8:00 pm ::
Générale Nord-Est, 14 avenue Parmentier, Paris 11, M° Voltaire (9).

Valentina Vuksic (DE) is a computer artist and programmer based in Zürich. She approaches computers via acoustic transducers for magnetic fields — telephone adapters — and engages in a personal exploration of the possibilities offered by articulated hard- and software mediation.

About her work: Computer Noise: Harddisko, installation: Hard drives orchestra (disk noise), Harddisko vinyl, Sei Personaggi part 2, installation: Experimental play in computers (RAM noise), Permanent atelier and stage in Luzein (CH): Computer Concrète in the Swiss mountains. Continue reading

Upgrade! Chicago: The Unintentional Art of Digital Cultures & Communities: From 4chan to cam4 & beyond… with Natacha Stolz, Ei Jane Janet Lin & Miao Jiaxin :: December 10, 2010; 7:00 pm :: The Nightingale, 1084 N. Milwuakee, Chicago, IL.

What happens when contemporary Performance Art meets Digital Cultures online? How is New Media Art conversational? Who is having these conversations and what are their expectations?

Natacha Stolz performed her Interior Semiotics project at an exhibition/ event called FOREVER(21) in Chicago, Illinois on March 27, 2010. Stolz uploaded video documentation of the performance to YouTube on May 8. Then, as Know Your Meme reports, During the week of August 5th, the video was posted to 4chan. Continue reading

Upgrade! Paris #40: Thierry Boutonnier + Cécile Azoulay :: December 12, 2010; 5:00 pm :: Plateforme – 73, rue des Haies 75020 Paris – Metro Buzenval (9) or Avron (2).

EPLURIBUSUNUM © (Out of many, one ©), initiated in Lyon in September, 2005. This work is composed of a patent, audio recordings, digital images, flags, documents and feeds itself with relationships it generates. Thierry Boutonnier filed a patent application for the United States of America’s flag with an extra star. Continue reading

Michelle Teran :: Lecture: November 27, 2010; 8:00 pm :: Cultural Center CK, Skopje :: Radio Session @ Kanal 103, Skopje (Hosts: Ivana Dragsic and Gjorgi Janevski; Guests: Michelle Teran, Wiebke Stadler, Elena Veljanovska and more): November 27; 12:00 – 4:00 pm :: [pc users: directly follow the stream link; mac users: download the link, and then open it. should open in itune]

The ever increasing proliferation of media generated through collective use of mapping and image-making platforms are creating new ways of seeing and exploring the world. The New Geographies workshop presented practical, participatory and theoretical examples of new geographies created through use of image-making and mapping technologies. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Caitlin Berrigan :: December 7, 2010; 7:00 – 9:00 pm :: MIT Media Lab (E14), 6th Floor, Room 633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Caitlin Berrigan is an artist who works at the intersection of performance, edible sculpture, participatory actions and the life sciences to initiate dialogue about biopolitics and culture. Tactics of delicate provocation spark dissonance in the audience’s visceral and cognitive experience of her work, favoring multivalent readings and responses. In producing anxiety and revealing layers of ambiguous emotions, her artwork opens a space of potential to confront uncertainty within the context of social issues. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: ecoarttech :: November 16, 2010; 7:00 – 9:00 pm :: MIT Media Lab (E14), 6th Floor, Room 633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir cofounded ecoarttech in 2005 to explore convergent media, technology, and environments. Cary and Leila work interdisciplinarily, drawing on ideas and methodologies from digital studies, philosophy, literature, ecological science, critical/cultural studies, and art. For ecoarttech, the term “environment” does not refer only to nature or geographic spaces but rather to interwoven networks of biological, cultural, mental, and digital spaces. Continue reading

Upgrade! Johannesburg Remote No 3: Peter Traub (based in Charlottesville, Virginia, US) :: October 27, 2010; 6:30 – 7:00 pm (South African Time) :: Digital Arts Seminar Room, Digital Arts Convent Building, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (directions) + streamed live.

In this remote lecture Peter will talk about several of his recent pieces that focus on using physical, virtual, and hybrid spaces as compositional tools. The pieces span several mediums, from online installation to dance performance to site-specific physical installation. He will also discuss and demonstrate the tools, both software and hardware, that he used to create the works. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Jane Prophet :: October 26, 2010; 7:00 – 9:00 pm :: MIT Media Lab (E14), 6th Floor, Room, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Jane Prophet, a renowned British visual artist, uses traditional and new media and materials to produce surprising and beautiful objects. Site-specific installations include “Conductor,” a flooded power station lit with 120 electro luminescent cables. “Decoy” and “The Landscape Room” combine images of real and simulated landscapes, and “Model Landscapes” uses rapid prototyping to make miniature trees from mathematical data. Continue reading