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CURATED EVENTS & EXHIBITONS
CABLED MADNESS (2006-2008)
Performative Works with Wearable Devices
(click to enlarge)In 1976 Joseph Weizenbaum published a book under the title: Computer Power and Human Reason - From Judgment to Calculation. Computers have had enormous impact on societies world wide but the very purposes for which they were created are all determined by the values of the societies in which they were imbedded. Weizenbaum believed that insane societies produce insane ideas and corresponding instruments and that the judgment in human affairs is being replaced by calculation. Self-appointed deep thinkers preach that all aspects of reality are computable. Things are "figured out", parameters are optimized, strategies computed. The approach to Cabled Madness was to pose the questions does art compute? and how are things like „system crash“, „information overload“ and „body hardware and human perception“ dealt with by the artist to prove that art is not measurable, nor computable, nor is it part of a computer’s vocabulary and thus social reality. The works presented pose Weizenbaum’s question on the fundamental dogma of our time: to understand a thing is to be able to program it. However each work answers clearly: the robot cannot be taken as the ideal of what it means to be human.
Participating Artists Artists: Agitpop (USA), Art Clay (USA/CHE), Corebounce Association (CHE), Valerie Bugmann (COL) & Tinlun Chan (CAN), Claude Gacon / Cargobar Basel (CHE), Erratum Ensemble (DEU), Geneviève Favre (CHE), Lucas Gross (CHE), Manfred Kroboth (DEU), Benoit Maubrey (FRA), Joshua Rosenstock (USA), Andrius Rugys (LIT), Senselabor (AUS), Walter Siegfried (DEU), Pablo Ventura (CHE/ESP), Daniel Wilcox (USA) & Oscar Ramos (MEX)
Performance Space: Cabaret Voltaire Zurich, Walcheturm Zurich
FUSEBOX (2008)
Plugged versus Unplugged Media Art
(click to enlarge)Similar to conceptual art in which the idea involved in the work takes precedence over material concerns, the FUSEBOX 08 exhibition propositions that media art can also be practiced by putting new emphasis on the presentation of the idea, or concept behind media art through a reductionist approach, i.e. “unplugged media art”. The concept of for the works for the exhibition is thus reduced to a conceptual artwork that challenges the viewer to see the idea as artwork through the magnifying lens of the senses. The artworks presented still rely art as object to make an impact, but remain in principal conceptual as they emphasize that the idea behind them is more important then the scale or complexity of their presentation. The common theme that runs through all of the artworks selected for FUSEBOX 08 is the idea of ‘cultural transfer’, or how shifted identities can be traced back to cultural assimilation as it appears as an artefact in works of art. The exhibition therefore reveals a sympathetic stance toward Asian culture, which acts as a unifying rubric that creates a joint collective identity between both cultures.
Participating Artists: Art Clay (USA/CHE), Will Pappenheimer (USA), Chipp Jansen (USA), Hans Ludwig Hanau (DEU), Windowzoo (CHE), Erik Maldre (USA), x-cult (CHE) and others.
Exhibition Space: plugin basel, die mitte basel, Literaturhaus Basel, Café Issak, Ferry Boats Basel and open public space.
PLAYTIME (2008)
A Science and Technology in Cultural Context
(click to enlarge)The PlayTime event is concerned with the application of digital technology in the arts, technology transfer and cultural exchange. Each project presented offers insight into current research and innovations in art and technology as well as illustrating resulting synergies. As a whole the exhibition goal is to make artists aware of impulses in technology and scientists aware of the possibilities of application of technology in the arts. The individual presentations in the PlayTime project all have their roots in Computer Science. They celebrate various novel methods of proactive participation. The project concern themselves with such diverse themes as information retrieval using cross media solutions, creating interactive art using wearable technology, electronic training systems for proactive health, and real-time panoramics for presentations related to culture. Although diverse in theme, the projects find a common denominator in the in the way they present information. Visitors have the opportunity to enjoy interactivity for purposes of arts, science and edutainment. With the strengthening of globalization and the complex interrelations on all levels that that growth brings with it, it is clear that trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary approaches become important success factors. As a cultural exchange project, the natural process of discovery takes place via reciprocal perception by having to search for the foreign in the familiar in order to tune into the familiar in the foreign for the purpose of celebrating a high level of clarity in cultural identity and at the same time allow for cultural adaptation in times of constant change.
Exhibition Space: Pudong Expo Building, & Shanghai Museum of Technology (Grounds), Shanghai China, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai China