Video artifacts seen in ANEMICodeCINEMA were taken from encrypted DVD and Windows Media video sources (including Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema) and decoded using free, open source software. This work is dedicated to the authors of patent-free audiovisual protocols and software.

After years of waiting for Macromedia / Adobe to release Linux-compatible versions of its Flash player, it appears the trouble with codecs will resume with Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin. Although promoted as “cross-platform,” there is no mention of support for Linux or other free, open source operating systems. Such privately controlled and patented codecs and protocols coerce content developers to exclude audiences.

HARDcoded is an ongoing collaboration between newMedia artists in Chicago + Mexico City, that explore the cross-over between digital noise, punk, + magic. HARDcoded is a wordplay between embedded/non- mailable data sets in software development, like End User License Agreements (or EULA) or closed-source proprietary computer applications, + the xXxHARDCORExXx ethic of Punk culture. Our (artists + organizers alike) approach to reconstruct/disrupt the controlled environment of digital technology by breaking these social devices with wizardry. Here, wizardry is informed by Tolkien references in early moments of information technology + digital networking, as well as playfully applying narratives of spell casting, enchantment, + fantasy to the otherwise dull architecture of cyberspace. This wizardy of course would be nothing without “magic.”

This “magic,” which serves as ironic term with a critical bent, can break the spell of traditional methods of cultural communication + sharing in an ever-growing oppressive state.

HARDcoded seeks to create a space where ruptures in our digital playing field (glitch, noise, + hacked/repurposed material/tools) can take precedence over the norms of our contemporary static digital landscape. The collaboration borrows from a Punk ethics/ethos + the necessity for a sustainable break away from the normative practices of commercial platforms. By invoking these ideologies/methodologies HARDcoded hopes to provide/facilitate a DIY/DIT network of subversion. In attempting to approach this task, HARDcoded wishes to provide a social platform of workshops, talks, + performances (and hybrids of these three) to enable these fissures to break through the veil of our closed-source expectations + reliance.

The Program consists of workshops/talks by ::

[1:00 - 2.30PM ] Alex Ignlizian + Mark Beasley + Cassandra Rosas (Hardware Hacking/Building)
[2.30 - 3 PM] Jake Elliot dai5ychain.net (Reprogramming Computer Literacy)
[3.00 - 3.30 PM] Marisa Plumb Working Engineer, Pathegon corp. (Lecture/Performance)
[3.30 - 4.30 PM] Temporary Services temporaryservices.org (Lecture on Urban Hacktivism)
[4.30 - 5 PM] criticalartware criticalartware.net (Media Art Histories Lecture)

[5 - 7 PM] Installation By :: Mark Beasley (DotMatrix Printer + Sound Installation) Paul Hertz collaboratory.nunet.net/phertz/ (Ignotus the Mage, Performance/Installation)

[7 - 9 PM] Performances/screening by :: Valerie Brewer (Machinima Video); Professor Pangaea (Machinima Video); CHHO (The Chicago Hacked Hardware Orchestra, Performance from Workshop); criticalartware w/ Morgan Higby Flowers criticalartware.net (Realtime Artware Development Performance); I <3 Presets ilovepresets.com (Realtime Audio/Video performance)

@ CentroMultiMedia in Mexico City, Mexico

Simultaneously, in Mexico City the HARDcoded Program consists of Workshops/Talks by:

Jaime Villarreal (Installing Open Source Software Session and Discussion)
Ezequiel Netri (Media Share and Discussion)
Lalo Melendez (Gaming and Algorythmic Improvisation and collaborative Arduino standalone Workshop)
Sebastian Bojorge (Gaming programing)

@ CentroMultiMedia
And Performances/Screenings by:

All Participants
@ the BORDER

Facial Glitches

Neuromirror is an EEG enhanced interactive installation by Iman Moradi. It consists of a computer vision and processing augmented mirror that distorts participants’ faces based on their own realtime brainwave readings. Its primary visual effects use the medium of the fake Digital Glitch or Glitchalike.

Neuromirror reflects how we mask our internal anxieties and fears behind our perfectly framed public image. It is about mimicking a facet of imperfect technology to reflect those internal struggles and imperfections. You can download Moradi’s dissertation Glitch Aesthetics here.