Video-dnevnik concept was presented in Pixelache 2006 festival in Helsinki.

www.video-dnevnik.org will be released on the Internet the 6 of June.

Video-dnevnik is a tool to understand different cultures using the video-diary as a method. The project is based on that the participants contributes by recording their daily life. The project has been running in three different countries lending out video equipment to the participants the materials has then been collected and edited. Over a hundred persons are today part of video-dnevnik.

The sixth of June www.video-dnevnik.org will be released on the Internet in a version that works in Swedish, English and Russian.

Video-dnevnik wants to break up stereotypes about east and west. Both the false image about life in the west that exists in east and the image distributed by western media where countries with a rich culture and tradition are reduced to: trafficking, maffia and Chernobyl. By using video-dnevnik you can visit young people in small town Sweden. You can have a look on the presidential elections in Belarus and you can follow an Ukrainian businessman on a strange trip to the Carpathian mountains. You can meet rich housewifes in Minsk and take part in a wedding, a childbirth and a funeral.

Video-dnevnik presents an inverse stream of conciousness. You can take part of the infinite mosaic of banalities that is real life. Video-dnevnik is a documentary project that reconnects to the birth of film. When motion pictures had names like: the train is coming to the station, the child eats breakfast and the workers are leaving the factory. But today in the new Europe.

Video-dnevnik is documentary project where professionals like sound-technicians, photographers and directors are made unemployed. The people that usually are the object for the film team are made subjects and can expose what they chose to the camcorder. This creates an other way of participating in a documentary process. Video-dnevnik believes in the personal propaganda. in the way that people chose to present themselves.

Video-dnevnik welcome you to seminar at Interactive Institute in Stockholm the 6 of June 1400 to 1800. The seminar will present the project and put in a context between documentary film making, participatory media and new media.

Because of national holiday the doors will be closed so if you want to be let in come to Karlavägen 94 in Stockholm 1400-1500 or phone +46 70 632 93 69.

best greetings

Nils Claesson and Dmitri Plax
www.video-dnevnik.org

While waiting for the upcoming Pixelache adventures in Colombia (scheduled for Feb 2007) please check out this report from Bogotrax 2006…

Please check out the call for projects for Article, a new event in Stavanger, Norway which will have it’s first edition in November 2006…

More information at http://iolab.no/article, deadline 15 June!

* * *

Article is one of the main projects for Stavanger 2008 - European Capital of Culture. Article 2006 will be a pilot project for the 2008 installment, but also to underline that Article is intended as a biannual event BEYOND the scope of the European Capital year.

Article will be comprised of: a main exhibition; a conference related to the themes of the biannual; in-depth practical and theoretical workshops and seminars; and contributions from local resources and other collaborative partners.

The goal of Article is to promote artforms which don’t merely employ electronic techniques in its production and display, but also actively comment on technology, the ethics and politics of technology and the evolution and dissemination of technology. Article wishes to establish an open arena for artforms which critique and engage social processes and present reflected positions on the expressive qualities and contexts of the media.

By «Unstable artforms» we intend to encompass art which is not institutionalised and stabilised by traditional frameworks of production and distribution, art which crosses disciplinary boundaries, which engages unusual contexts and references, or art which is not anchored by permanent, static objects.

The basic proposition and theme of the biannual is the artistic and democratic potential in the use of technology in a socially engaged art practice. Article will give this ephemeral and experimental art a context, and present it to a local, national and international audience.

Article intends to present productions / work which are site-specific or made for traditional exhibition venues, work which explores and expands the potential of artistic expression in our immediate environment and objects. Article will be produced in close collaboration between i/o/lab, the norwegian production network for electronic arts, and invited groups and individuals from the Nordic arts scenes.

The Programme Committee for Article 2006 consists of Hege Tapio and Kevin Foust from i/o/lab and the following individuals, each with extensive experience in the practice and mediation of unstable arts:

Jon Brunberg, Sweden. See: http://www.brunberg.se
Juha Huuskonen, Finland. See: http://www.juhuu.nu
Mogens Jacobsen, Denmark. http://mogens.info

Association of experimental electronics has safely returned Finland. Pictures from our journey to Paris and back are now on-line in koelse.org.

And some more Paris pictures on my diary in anttia.net.

PixelACHE’r Ville H’s laptop sticker printing service “Pimp my laptop” launches officially today 29.4.2006!

Service was beta-tested using pixelACHE Helsinki 2006 crew, thank you for the support!

Check out the site at www.pimpmylaptop.com

* Paris + San Martino Valle Caudina + Bergen + Bogotá *

Pixelache festival events and various collaboration projects are coming up around the world during the next few months!

The international Pixelache menu includes interactive/software art, audiovisual performances, open hardware, unstable artforms and more…

Pixelache tour calendar:

Ars Longa, Confluences, Mains d’Œuvres

:: Mal au Pixel 2006
:: 19-29 April, Paris
:: www.malaupixel.org

Three Parisian organisations - Ars Longa, Confluences and Mains d’Oeuvres - have chosen to join forces with the Pixelache festival. On a day-to-day basis, they support digital artistic research, media and citizenship issues, by means of residencies and regular public events. Some of the artists that they promote participated in the previous and the present editions of the Pixelache festival in Helsinki. Ars Longa, Confluences and Mains d’Oeuvres, with the support of the Finnish Institute in Paris and Project 101, naturally unite with the Pixelache team in an effort to give visibility to experimental art forms, on-going research and social issues originating from various European countries. This is in order to encourage exchanges between the local and international artists and citizens communities.

The “Mal au pixel” festival consists of several equally important components: introductory workshops in creative tools aimed at knowledge and technology transfers; public debates dedicated to sharing questions and ideas emerging from new social and media practices; exploration of installations, prototypes, live evening events and performances for the pleasure to be found in artistic practices based on the reappropriation of communication technologies.

We hope the Festival “Mal au Pixel” develops into a platform for future international exchanges and dialogue, contributing to artistic, civic and participatory reappropriation of contemporary communication media and tools that increasingly govern our daily life.

On behalf of the Mal au Pixel team,

Vincent Guimas,
Mathieu Marguerin

* * *

:: Interferenze 2006
:: 3-5 August
:: San Martino Valle Caudina, Italy
:: www.interferenze.org

Theme for 2006: Naturalis Electronica.

With its 2006 edition, INTERFERENZE, international festival of sounds, new visual arts and media, is seated in the mountains of the Partenio/Valle Caudina (Southern Italy), which it will fill with live performances, installations, projections, seminars, free camping, artists and the public. Thus the international artistic vanguard will be fused with the splendid mountain scenes of Campania.

Although INTERFERENZE is tied to the land, electronic and multimedia arts are its driving force: performances, installations, events, workshops and conferences complete the event.

With edition IV INTERFERENZE confirms its dual spirit existing in the balance between digital provocation and tradition: digital arts and the arts of the past, sonorous vanguards and local values.

Pixelache festival director Juha Huuskonen has been invited to curate the interactive/software art section of Interferenze 2006.

* * *

:: Piksel06
:: 12-15 October
:: Bergen, Norway
:: www.piksel.no

Piksel is an annual event for artists and developers working with free/libre and open source audiovisual software. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, by the Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK) and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of open source.

This years event - Piksel06 – continues the exploration of audiovisual code and it’s myriad of expressions, but also brings in open hardware as a new focus area.

For the last two years we have collaborated with PixelACHE in parts of the program and last years collaboration with curator Isabelle Arvers for the Piksel05 exhibition proved very fruitful. At Piksel06 we will expand the exhibition part and build upon the open hardware theme, which represents a potential for a new paradigm shift of vital importance for independent artistic expression in the digital domain. Hopefully there will also be room for some interchange with the PixelACHE and Mal au Pixel program.

Piksel06 is done in collaboration with HKS art centre which will be the main location for this years events. Piksel is organised by BEK and a community of core participants including members of collectives dyne.org, goto10.org, sustainablesource.net, hackitectura.net, riereta.net, drone.ws, gephex.org and others.

The development, and therefore use, of digital technology today is mainly controlled by multinational corporations. Despite the prospects of technology expanding the means of artistic expression, the commercial demands of the software industries severely limit them instead. Piksel is focusing on the open source movement as a strategy for regaining artistic control of the technology, but also a means to bring attention to the close connections between art, politics, technology and economy.

* * *

:: Colombopixel // Pixeltrax (working title)
:: Spring 2007
:: Bogotá, Colombia
:: bogotrax.free.fr
:: intermundos.org

The first Colombian edition of Pixelache, organised together with Intermundos and Bogotrax festival. Colombopixel // Pixeltrax presents VJ shows and workshops (with local and international VJ crews), exhibitions and conferences focusing on experimental electronics, audiovisual software and current political issues relating to development of media/technology.

Bogotrax is an independent festival that has been presenting electronic music and arts to the marginalized communities in Bogotá, Colombia. It is an alternative to the commercial and institutional events which have been too expensive for many locals to participate in. The festival consists of open air presentations, free concerts and club events, workshops, radio programs and presentations in universities and libraries. Bogotrax events take place in diverse locations around the city, including the suburbs. All events are open to the public and free. Each year there is an open call for proposals from which emerging Colombian artists are selected to participate in the event. Bogotrax 2007 will be the fourth edition of the festival.

In addition to organising the Pixelache festival edition in Colombia, the plan is to present work of Colombian artists in Pixelache 2007 in Helsinki as well as in other international Pixelache events.

A few photos from Mains d’Oeuvres, 20-22 April // Quelques photos prises à Mains d’Oeuvres, 20-22 Avril

A few photos from Confluences, 19-20 April // Quelques photos prises à Confluences, 19-20 Avril

workshop Orgsmobile
thursday 20 April, 12.00-18.00

Cars, cars, cars. Everywhere. When did this happen? How? And who decided?

The Orgsmobile crew, currently in residence at Main d’Œuvres in Paris, invites you to participate in a half-day workshop on contemporary carness in general, and the driving situation in particular. This session is a sonic attempt to question preconceptions of personal transportation. It is part of the ongoing Orgsmobile exploration of car-culture and dot org strategies. The workshop will end with a live break-in transmission on 100.3 FM (the frequency of a popular commercial radio station) of sound pieces created by the workshop participants during the day.

The workshop will take place at and around Main d’Œuvres, Thursday 20 April, 12.00-18.00.

Tentative schedule:
12.00 - 12.30 Participants gather at Atelier 4, Mains d’Œuvres, 12.30 - 13.00 Introduction 13.00 - 16.00 Gathering sonic material and editing sounds 16.00 - 18.00 FM transmission (100.3 MHz) at la Périphérique

So if you’re interested in car culture, dot org practices, pirate radio, public sound environments, or just think this sounds like fun - send a mail to MECHANICS_AT_ORGSMOBILE_DOT_ORG as soon as possible. Welcome!

/The Orgsmobile Paris Crew
www.orgsmobile.org

!!! SOIREE D’OUVERTURE EXCEPTIONNELLE !!!
Soirée Finlandaiz avec VLADISLAV DELAY
Pionnier du click’n’cut, disciple d’une épure tout sauf minimale, improvisateur, grand amateur de dub et de jazz, Vladislav Delay semble revenir, sous l’égide de son jeune label Huume recordings, à des valeurs plus basiques. La parution de deux projets très différents, The Doll, avec Craig Armstrong & AGF et The Four Quarters, un album solo magnétique, était l’occasion d’interroger ce musicien hors normes sur son parcours, ses valeurs, ses visions. Dialogue par emails interposés, au cours d’un voyage entre Boston et New York.