Conflux is the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice. At Conflux, visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and the public gather for four days to explore their urban environment.

People from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures come together at the festival to re-imagine the city as a playground, a space for positive change and an opportunity for civic engagement. The Village Voice describes Conflux as a “network of maverick artists and unorthodox urban investigators - making fresh, if underground, contributions to pedestrian life in New York City, and upping the ante on today’s fight for the soul of high-density metropolises.”

From architects to skateboarders, Conflux participants have an enthusiasm for the city that’s contagious. Over the course of the long weekend the sidewalks are literally transformed into a mobile laboratory for creative action. With tools ranging from traditional paper maps to high-tech mobile devices, artists present walking tours, public installations and interactive performance, as well as bike and subway expeditions, workshops, a lecture series, a film program and live music performances at night.

Conflux is produced by Glowlab, an independent, Brooklyn-based production and publishing studio with a gallery in Williamsburg and a web-based magazine at glowlab.com. We’ve worked with arts organizations including Eyebeam, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Van Alen Institute and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, as well as local universities such as New York University, Hunter College and Parsons. Conflux has been reviewed in publications including the New York Times, the Village Voice Flash Art and Art Review Magazine and covered on numerous arts blogs and cultural websites such as Flavorpill, Nylon, Rhizome and Gothamist.

Conflux is an event attended by people of differing backgrounds who share a common desire to understand, explore, and ultimately heighten their enjoyment of the urban environment while learning how to sustain and improve it. Conflux visitors are introduced to the ways cutting-edge artists utilize performance, visual art and music to address topics including the environment, sustainable development, the increased presence of technology in cities, emerging trends in social/local networking and ways we can humanize the urban experience by encouraging dialogue amongst communities.

As a fiscally-sponsored project of the Brooklyn Arts Council, Conflux has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Artists Space, the Puffin Foundation and the Independence Community Foundation.

[...] The starting point for the StoryBank project then, was a sense that the villagers had valuable stories and information to share, which might be extended with new technology. In particular, the way they currently told stories with pictures and music might be used to enliven radio content, or could be captured and shared in new ways. This observation led us to examine the way community radio programmes are made and enjoyed, and identify some real benefits that might be achieved with digital technology. These included widening participation through making stories on a mobile phone, using photographs as illustrations, and providing ‘listen again’ facilities in a convenient location…”

David Frohlich is the Director of the Digital World Research Centre and Professor of Interaction Design at the University of Surrey, where he works on future photography, literacy and communication technologies. Before joining Digital World, Frohlich, who has a PhD in psychology, spent 14 years as Senior Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs, a time devoted to tangible interfaces, new media design, and the digital divide. Matt Jones returned from New Zealand to Wales to help set up the Future Interaction Technology Lab at Swansea University. As a Reader in the FIT Lab he explores the human-computer interaction aspects of mobile and ubiquitous computing as well as socially-inclusive and impacting design. He recently co-authored Mobile Interaction Design (Wiley 2006). For the last two years, Frohlich and Jones have worked together on StoryBank, a project enabling textual and computer illiterate people to build a repository of audio-visual content via camera phones. Here’s their report from Budikote, a village in rural India.

The Mediatopia Project and related events will reflect upon the ISEA 2008 Border Transmissions Theme and will exploit the potential of networks, communication tools, alternate economies and experiential technologies as a collaborative engine to enable the emergence of a different conception of borders, and of the transmissions that problematize these demarcations.

It also seeks to expand the models of production and distribution that have arisen as social networks, hardware, generative software components, small-scale download practices and peer-to-peer protocols have changed the nature of not only how material is made but distributed. Mediatopia will act as an incubator and working model for experimentation, inquiry, and cross-cultural collaboration within the framework of these overarching themes.

Mediatopia seeks to expand upon the concepts of production and distribution as participants contribute discrete media from a variety of readily available sources, recognizing advances in technology, software and social networking strategies that have arisen in recent years. The Mediatopia project will be able to function as an international mashup / remix of broadcast media and simultaneously as a database and interface of freely accessible sound / video materials that transcends time, location, cultural and geographical borders without emphasis on market driven outcome.

The Mediatopia Project and scheduled events at ISEA 2008 will function as the primary event host while numerous satellite nodes worldwide will serve to further expand and engage the participating individuals in creative collaborations and cross cultural exchanges. The Mediatopia Project and related international events will be accessible online and live throughout ISEA Singapore 2008 and culminate in a 24 hour live remix in the Gallery Theatre at the National Museum of Singapore. To view, participate and/or contribute to the project or to see a complete list of participating artists and scheduled events both onsite and at remote nodes, please visit the project website at: http://www.mediatopia.org.

TAGallery :: About TAGallery :: Exhibitions TAGallery

SELECTED REVIEWS:

“The curator of internet art is working in and within the same medium as the artist and she filters, circulates and creates context. CONT3XT.NET is a Vienna-based media collective who has created an alternative exhibition space for collaborative, transparent curating and cooperation based upon linking and tagging.” (Annette Finnsdottir, hyperform net gallery)

“(…) the innovation concept of establishing connections between artifacts pushes the boundary of contemporary art and holds much promise for artists, writers, developers, performers and others interested in ways to distribute, connect, and share digital media produced for and presented on the new screen.” (John F. Barber, ISBN:978-3-540-79485-1)

“Ranging from thematic groupings to discussions on curating as tagging, the initial TAGallery shows are as diverse as the taggers themselves, which demonstrates the innovative character of the new media field, always pushing the boundaries of the contemporary art world.” (Miguel Amado, Rhizome)

“Cette collection propose un espace pour imaginer le récit de leur existence, mais aussi de leur disparition. Elle soulève évidemment la question de la conservation de ces oeuvres et ses enjeux, notamment leur inscription historique. Elle met en lumière le caractère éphémère du net.art et la nécessité de l’action humaine dans la conservation des oeuvres Web.” (Emilie Boudrias, DOCAM)

“Over the last several months CONT3XT.NET has become one of my favourite resources for monitoring the pulse of art and discourse on the net. (…) In my opinion this is one of the most well executed projects I’ve seen on the web in a while.” (Greg J. Smith, Vague Terrain)

The recent trends in participatory web indicate that the spectacle users create in social web services (through creating social content and meta-content) is not a by-product of use, but the product itself [1]. Many web services today base their business models on capitalizing on this product, the creative capacity of their users, through sophisticated advertising networks while positioning the user as both the producer and the consumer of content. The service cycle is familiar: service provider facilitates social use, user produces content, content generates traffic, traffic attracts advertising revenue for the service.

In this ecology, it is implied that all stake holders (service provider, user, advertiser) are compensated for their engagement in order for the service to sustain itself. Since every activity on the web is measurable, the compensations are determined in a pragmatic way through analytics. Usage statistics determine advertising value of the service. Number of clicks determine affection for advertised products. What users get, however, is not defined as clearly as the service provider’s or the advertiser’s compensation, which undermines the sustainability of the production cycle [2].

Granted, the user is already getting compensated by using the service for free in exchange with advertisement exposition. But, the value of the web service is based on the sum of service facilitation and content production [3], and the user appears as a stakeholder twice in the service ecology, as the consumer and the producer of the service. Thus, in order for the production cycle to sustain itself in the long term, there should be compensation for producing the content as well as using the service for free. Before speculating on the form of compensation, the value of user contribution needs to be transparent and its metrics should be defined.

While service providers may understand, calculate, and leverage user contribution to determine business plans and solicit advertisers, its value often remains opaque to the users. Activity logs are stored as the property of respective service providers and some providers allow access to parts of these records through their Application Programming Interfaces (API). Still, there is no means for interpreting this information universally across different services. More >>

After framing the subject in terms of both biology and art, Tactical Biopolitics discusses such topics as race and genetics (with contributions from leading biologists Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins); feminist bioscience; the politics of scientific expertise; bioart and the public sphere (with an essay by artist Claire Pentecost); activism and public health (with an essay by Treatment Action Group co-founder Mark Harrington); biosecurity after 9/11 (with essays by artists’ collective Critical Art Ensemble and anthropologist Paul Rabinow); and human-animal interaction (with a framing essay by cultural theorist Donna Haraway).

Contributors: Gaymon Bennett, Larry Carbone, Karen Cardozo, Gary Cass, Beatriz da Costa, Oron Catts, Gabriella Coleman, Critical Art Ensemble, Gwen D’Arcangelis, Troy Duster, Donna Haraway, Mark Harrington, Jens Hauser, Kathy High, Fatimah Jackson, Gwyneth Jones, Jonathan King, Richard Levins, Richard Lewontin, Rachel Mayeri, Sherie McDonald, Claire Pentecost, Kavita Philip, Paul Rabinow, Banu Subramanian, subRosa, Abha Sur, Samir Sur, Jacqueline Stevens, Eugene Thacker, Paul Vanouse, Ionat Zurr.

Yet YouTube’s term’s of service has already brought down The Empire Strikes Barack and Baracky. (btw, you can find them at RemixAmerica.org) So we at RemixAmerica.org are publicly beta launching to enlist your input…

RemixAmerica.org is the new home for remixers and video remixes. We are a non-partisan, non-profit project of Declare Yourself. Through RemixAmerica.org you can participate within the political medium of video remixes, mashups and video comments. Not only can you use our software to easily create your own remixes! BUT you can join the discussion by using your webcam to “talk back.”

Through our “American Playlist,” we make it easy to combine today’s political debate with America’s great ideas and historical speeches — from the Gettysburg Address to Kennedy’s Inaugural to Dr. King’s speeches — we give you the power to remix America’s greatest moments. Check out our blog for highlights.

If you are a remixer, we would love to feature your work. Upload to http://RemixAmerica.org today, and we promise you an informed and engaged community.

If you are a citizen journalist, cultural producer, campaign worker, etc. and have videos to share, upload them to http://RemixAmerica.org. We want to explore the impact of video remixes around America. We want to hear your voice and see your thoughts.

Also, we have noticed that there is no global discussion list for remixers. SO we have set up a google group at http://groups.google.com/group/videoremix. We hope that you join the mix and help us develop a global network of creators.

In short, we are ready to see your creativity. If you think we need to change ANYTHING, please email me noel [at] remixamerica.org and I will make sure your questions, comments, complaints, or problems are addressed.

We look forward to seeing you and we really look forward to your comments.

From the staff of www.RemixAmerica.org - Fred, Erika, Noel, Ali & Marshal.

South African choreographer and dance video director/editor Jeannette Ginslov blends dance and new media, in eclectic multimedia explorations and improvisations, dance and video, dance and interactive technology. Participation, immersion, sensory change, empathy, process and framing. The dancer, audience and creator are all in it together: movement creates sensory change.

This dorkbot session will be of interest to developers, performers, machinimators, animators, photographers, and just about anybody with an interest to bring more expression to avatars and more direct ways to interface with our embodied selves.

JJ Ventrella (a.k.a. Ventrella Linden) will present the avatar puppeteering project. A project motivated to bring more expression to the avatar, by enabling a more fluid and direct way to manipulate the ‘physical avatar’. This is a Linden Lab project that unfortunately was ‘put to sleep’ as Linden Lab decided to focus on the stability of Second Life and internal opinions differed over how compelling the feature really is. Last month however, Linden Lab released the client source code of this project, to allow other people to build on it (and convince them otherwise).

Philippe Bossut will present Handsfree3D, a project that enables to interface with virtual worlds via 3D camera motion tracking. Philippe Bossut has developed several demos to demonstrate how one can navigate and execute all sorts of tasks without the need for a mouse and keyboard, and over the last month he has been working on connecting his code with the puppeteering feature.

Please visit the dorkbot SL blog for full information on the event, the projects and the presenters:

IM Evo Szuyuan for questions (or technical issues you might experience during the event).