Virus Culture: Infection Communication and the Economy of Desire - a talk by Alessandro Ludovico :: April 22, 2008, 7:30 - 9:00 pm :: CIANT Gallery, Křížkovského 18, 130 00, Praha 3 (close to the Žižkov TV Tower).

Perception of viruses stems both from the way we consider the most recent epidemic diseases and from an innate fear of having one’s own body invaded by other efficient organisms, capable of re-arranging their working patterns in order to facilitate infiltration into their host. Perception of spam, as one of the inescapable communication phenomena of our times, is a changing lively part of our everyday infoscape. Spam is extremely pervasive and effective for billions of persons whose (easy to spot and trade) personal and open communication door are infiltrated usually after being verbally titillated. Continue reading

SURVIVALL, ‘Sur-viv-all’, is a word which reflects the 3 languages used during the project, which formed part of Andre Lemos’ sabbatical research at University of Alberta - English, French and Portuguese. The joint interest of the artists was to reflect on the relationship between the virtual territories of cyberspace, abstract representations of our worlds and the material conditions of life. In this case, the videos collected along the way show not only suburbia in winter snow but the blanket of private wifi signals, both closed and open which were detected at the beginning and end of each ‘letter’. Continue reading

Ars Virtua is pleased to announce _Augmentology 1[L]0[L]1_ by Mary-Anne (Mez) Breeze. Mez has initiated this work as part of her ongoing interrogation of the space, place and language of synthetic worlds. This text brings Mez’ prodigious talents and experience to bear on several fundamental issues relating to the nature of game and social space:

“_Augmentology 1[L]0[L]1_ explores concepts that shape and are shaped by an extensive range of online / synthetic encounters. These concepts are formed through principles generated internally within specific online environments. Continue reading

Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea / LX 2.0 Project New Commission: Space Race #1 by André Sier.

Space Race #1 is a 3d simulation in which teams of autonomous elements compete for a mysterious green fuel, that allows for a spaceship, the only possible way of escaping, to take them to another planet, the next level of the game. The team members are always organized and operating according to the team’s internal logic, either it being looking for the spaceship and running to it, gathering fuel and working either together or independently. Each member is characterized by unique features and each group is organized in swarms that perform the required tasks in order to achieve their goal, conquering the spaceship and traveling to another world. Continue reading

The Space Between: Bas Jan Ader - Latifa Echakhch - Maria Lindberg - Adrian Piper - Mark Raidpere - Gabriela Vanga :: March 16 - June 1, 2008 :: Opening: March 15, 2008; 2 pm :: Museum Anna Nordlander, Nordanå, Skellefteå, Sweden :: Curated by Mats Stjernstedt.

The exhibition The Space Between addresses certain dynamics where simple gestures suggest an alteration and a politicization of temporal and spatial conditions inherent in the work and between the artwork and the viewer. This is manifested both in the content and in the formal structure of the work. The artworks presented involve aspects including the politics of identity and language reinterpreted in concepts such as dimension and distance, spatial transformation and temporal shifts – but also psychological distances in the form of flights of fancy, changes in mentality and reverie. Continue reading

New York-based artists MRiver and TWhid (together, they are MTAA) began their collaboration as painters, but quickly moved into the world of new media. They were among the earliest internet artists and are at the forefront of a small handful who are still in practice from that first generation. Their work continues to push the boundaries of the genre, but is consistently informed by the history of conceptual art and performance. They very often contemplate the notion of “translation” between natural and computer languages, and in the form of “updating” works (their own or others’) from the platform of one media epoch to another. While their newest piece, YES & NO (2008), grows very clearly out of this trajectory, it is refreshingly different. Like their One Year Performance Video (2004) and Karaoke DeathMatch 100 (2007), it uses software to string together pre-existing video clips of the two artists, but in a seemingly more random way than before. Continue reading

State of the Union by Brad Borevitz - Within an hour after the text of the speech is released, President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address will be analyzed and presented. The address is scheduled to be delivered to Congress and the American people by the President on January 28th.

State of the Union provides searchable access to the corpus of all the State of the Union addresses from 1790 to the present. Using visualization software, the site allows a user to explore how specific words gain and lose prominence over time, and to link to information on the historical context. Continue reading

Words to Be Looked At: Language in 1960s Art Book Launch :: Featuring: a short talk by the author Liz Kotz; a reading by Eileen Myles; and performances (realizations of text scores) by James Orsher, Michael Pisaro, Mark So and Tashi Wada :: November 4, 2007; 8 pm :: Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA.

Words to Be Looked At - Language in 1960s Art by Liz Kotz: Language has been a primary element in visual art since the 1960s - whether in the form of printed texts, painted signs, words on the wall, or recorded speech. In Words to Be Looked At, Liz Kotz traces this practice to its beginnings, examining works of visual art, poetry, and experimental music created in and around New York City from 1958 to 1968. Continue reading

Citiness and Literariness: Architecture Dejeuner with Lindsay Bremner :: November 8, 2007; 12:00-2:00 pm :: Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA :: Free admission (Reservation required).

“If cities are indeed unique and unparaphraseable, then, as such, they have more in common with poetic than literal language, with literature than information. Insofar as the city exceeds interpretation, it operates like a work of literature does. Continue reading

Steven Pinker and other leading scientists join artists for a 24-hour Experiment Marathon featuring robots, three-way kissing booths and out-of-body experiences :: October 13 - 14, 2007 :: Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA [Nearest Tube: South Kensington or Lancaster Gate].

Olafur Eliasson together with Hans Ulrich Obrist convenes the 24-Hour Experiment Marathon which blurs the boundaries of art and science and creates a laboratory of experience. A huge variety of experiments exploring perception, artificial intelligence, the body and language, takes place in and around the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen. Continue reading