PixelACHE 2004 festival

Stockholm, 26-28 March 2004
Helsinki, 1-4 April 2004

www.pixelache.ac

Interactive furniture * Singing Bridges * Locative media workshop * Open source architecture * Sound in public space * Stop Motion Studies * Weathermatrix * Aether architects * Live action kung-fu game * BrandBody 2.0 * TRyPTiCHON * Oil Hazard pin ball game * AmbientTV.net * Mini Gallery * Modern Talking * Abnormal audio * Trash tech workshop * Aquatic * Zelabo vjs

THEME 2004: AUDIOVISUAL ARCHITECTURE

PixelACHE is an annual festival of electronic art, design and technology. The theme for this year is Audiovisual architecture, experimenting with the border between the digital domain and the physical world.

PixelACHE Festival 2004 goes on for 10 days, starting in Stockholm and continuing in Helsinki.

LANDSCAPE SAMPLING

PixelACHE 2004 will premiere Gray Zone: Weathermatrix, an audiovisual performance by the Finnish artist/musician group CNCD. The performance utilizes a vast amount of material gathered from a network of weather surveillance cameras around Finland. The material is used to create journeys across different weathers and seasons.

Singing Bridges by Jodi Rose [AU] is a collection of recorded sounds of bridges from around the world. Every brigde has its own unique sound and these sounds are used as instruments in an audiovisual performance created by Jodi Rose in collaboration with Mari Keski-Korsu and Lasse Kaikkonen, who also assisted in recording the sounds of Matinkaari bridge in Finland.

Stop Motion Studies by David Crawford [SE] consists of short animations based on photos taken while travelling in subways of New York, London, Boston, Paris and Gothenburg. The animations capture some fundamental elements of interaction between people and their urban surroundings.

Kamppi Reconstruction by Sami Järvinen & Sami Klemola (sound) and Hanna Ojamo & Minna Långström (video) searches for unexpected aesthetic properties at the Kamppi construction site in the heart of Helsinki.

INTERACTIVE FURNITURE AND ADVENTUROUS ARCHITECTURE

PixelACHE exhibition features projects ranging from environmental pin ball machines to experimental architecture. The common denominator for the projects is the search for new physical interfaces to audiovisual media. Many of the projects are still in their prototyping phase and are shown to the audience for the first time.

Scoop by Anna Hiltunen [FI/UK] is an example of how our environment can become aware of the information and communication inside our mobile communication devices. Scoop is a prototype of a table which displays information and acts as an user interface to devices placed on top of it.

Distributed projection space by Aether architects [HU/SE/ES] and Thru & Thru Piece by Anttu Harlin [FI] explore how complex surfaces can be turned into display screens, creating an illusion of living and changing physical material.

Minigalleriet (the Mini Gallery) is a project by artist collective Modern Talking [SE]. Minigalleriet is a mobile exhibition space, with one squaremeter of floor space and fifty-five centimeters high ceiling. For PixelACHE 2004 Festival Minigalleriet will feature the launch event of the Modern Talking soundtrack by Abnormal audio [SE].

PixelACHE exhibition also features interactive water soundscape Aquatic by Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski [FI], BrandBody 2.0 training bench by Tuomo Tammenpää [FI], interactive painting Swarm by Daniel Shiffman [US] and Oil Hazard pin ball machine by Teijo Pellinen, Henrik Niinimäki and Mikko Lindholm [FI].

WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS

PixelACHE audience will have the chance to experience the results of three workshops taking place before and during the festival. The workshops deal with locative media, sound in public space and imaginary architecture.

Locative media workshop will bring together an international group of artists and researchers who will spend the week exploring the activity around Helsinki railway station. Locative media is understood to mean media in which context is crucial, in that the media pertains to specific location and time. The term locative media has also been associated with mobility, collaborative mapping, and emergent forms of social networking.

Artists in signal | process workshop will participate in group projects that explore and engage with the sonic landscape in the local area: an invitation and a challenge to the different public in those spaces to think about their place in the sonic architecture of the city. signal | process workshop is organised by Sibelius Academy Centre for Music & Technology and MUU ry.

Kristian Simolin and students of Turku Arts Academy will create new designs for the Parliament House by using a 3D modeling program. Proposals for art and architecture to other locations around Helsinki are also going to be presented by PixelACHE artists.

PixelACHE will also have more short workshops and presentations; Trash technology workshop by Association of Experimental Electronics, DON'T PUSH THE BUTTON seminar about interaction and a presentation of a live action kung-fu game from the same team that created last year's favourite installation, Animaatiokone.

The concept of how to open architecture for public participation is explored by the Open source architecture project by Usman Haque [PK/UK], Margot Jacobs [SE/US], Andrew Paterson [FI/UK], Adam Somlai-Fischer [SE/HU] and Ophra Wolf [UK/IL/US].

PIXELACHE ARTIST RESIDENCY

PixelACHE is a part of NIFCA Media AiR international media art residency program.

The residency artist for this year is Mukul Patel [UK], member of AmbientTV.net collective.

Mukul and Manu Luksch [UK] from AmbientTV.net will collaborate with David Muth [UK] and Minna Långström [FI] to create a new version of TRyPTiCHON wireless performance project.

PIXELACHE STOCKHOLM

Audiovisual club night organised by The Nursery and Fylkingen will feature Gray Zone: Weathermatrix and an analog vs. digital battle between Mukul Patel [UK] and Tuomas Toivonen [FI].

Sauna office for contemporary art will present Singing Bridges by Jodi Rose [AU].

Kristian Simolin [FI] will teach a workshop on Blender software and present his work Benchwarmers United at CRAC, Creative Room for Art and Computing.

More detailed program will be available soon!

ORGANISERS AND VENUES

PixelACHE 2004 Helsinki is organised by non-profit organisation Piknik Frequency and Olento in collaboration with Kiasma Theatre.

PixelACHE Helsinki clubs take place at Club Gloria and Club Bundolo.

A special exhibition of interactive artwork will be set up at Restaurant Via and Thru' and Thru piece by Anttu Harlin is exhibited on the Lasipalatsi courtyard (as a projection realised with the support of RGB Oy).

Locative media workshop and signal | process workshop extend the event to MUU Gallery and the area of Helsinki Railway Station.

PixelACHE residency is a part of NIFCA Media AiR residency program by NIFCA - Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art. Kristian Simolin's imaginary architecture workshop is organised by Turku Arts Academy.

Locative media workshop is a part of the 'Trans-Cultural Mapping' workshop series, coordinated by RIXC/Riga. Other partner organisations are TEKS/Trondheim, LORNA/Reykjavik, ELLIPSE/Paris, Projekt Atol/Ljubljana and Piknik Frequency/Helsinki. Locative media will also be featured in ISEA 2004 in August 2004.

PixelACHE 2004 Festival is realised with the support of the Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union, Kiasma Theatre and AVEK.