By |

ZERO1 artist alum, Scott Kildall, is working on yet another amazing arts and technology project, Tweets in Space. The project has been covered by BBC, Forbes, Scientific American, CNET, Tech Trendy, Tech Mash and many other media organizations! Below, you will find a full description of ‘Tweets in Space’ and links to the Rocket Hub fundraising page and the project site.

*          *          *         *

Official Press Release and Text Source: Artists ‘Tweets in Space’ Project Site

Artists, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern will beam Twitter discussions from participants worldwide towards GJ667Cc – an exoplanet 22 light years away that might support earth-like biological life. Anyone with an Internet connection can participate during two performance events, which will simultaneously take place online, at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2012, New Mexico), and in the stars. By engaging the millions of voices in the Twitterverse and dispatching them into the larger Universe, Tweets in Space activates a potent discussion about communication and life that traverses beyond our borders or understanding. It is not just a public performance; it performs a public.

The artists will collect all Twitter messages tagged #tweetsinspace and transmit them into the cosmos via either a home-built or borrowed communication system. Our soon-to-be alien friends will receive scores of unmediated thoughts and feedback about politics, philosophy, pop culture, dinner, dancing cats and everything in between. All tweets will also be streamed to a live public website, where they’ll be permanently archived, as well as projected – as animated twitter spaceships towing messages – at the Balloon Museum and planetarium-like digital dome (IAIA), in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Your donation will help buy equipment that will enable the artists to build their own open-source transmission system, upgrade an existing one through partnership with another institution, and/or time with one of the world’s extant high-powered communicators. Any funds above our goal will pay for a better system, or go towards online coding, design, and promotion. RocketHub is not an investment or charity. It is an exchange: funds from fans for rewards from us: both the ability to send Tweets into Space, and then some. It’s an All & More funding mechanism for us: if we don’t reach our financial goal we get to keep what we raise. But if we do reach our goal, we get access to exciting opportunities.

Tweets in Space asks us to take a closer look at our spectacular need to connect, perform and network with others. It creates a tension between the depth and shallowness of sharing 140 characters at a time with the entire Internet world, in all its complexity, richness and absurdity, by transmitting our passing thoughts and responses to everywhere and nowhere. These “twitters” will be stretched across all time and space as a reflection on the contemporary phenomenon of the “status” updates we broadcast, both literal and metaphoric.

Please click here to help fund Tweets in Space via RocketHub* and to learn more info on the project, click here.

Kildall and Stern are slated to launch the project at ISEA — the International Symposium on Electronic Art — this September in New Mexico, and are excited and are now trying to raising $8500 since it turns out it’s pretty difficult to send messages into the cosmos.

* What is RocketHub? RocketHub is very much like Kickstarter, only a better fit for our project. They do direct credit card payments, instead of going through Amazon Payments, they can handle international orders and have more of a science focus.

Originally posted to ZERO1, please click here to view

By |

Face to Facebook by Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico ~ Source Image: Artists' Website

What happens when you gather one million stolen Facebook profile photos, filter them through face-recognition software, put them on a dating website, and show the work internationally? You’ve got some thought-provoking art.

If you haven’t seen or heard of this project, I suggest you check out the genius behind Face to Facebook created by Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico. The project is the third installment of The Hacking Monopolism Trilogy. By the way, if you’re huffy and puffy about art like this, you’re probably the same person that says, “My kid can do that!”, when you look at Modern Art. Or, you’re hyper-vigilant and quick to say, “What about my privacy?”. To remind you, your kid didn’t do it (case closed). About your privacy, change and check your settings and starting educating yourself. Still concerned about your privacy? Keep a slambook, lots of stamps, and hush.

This is art.

Why and how, you ask? Face to Facebook forces the viewer to contemplate the age of social media and how one differentiates from their physical existence. Cirio and Ludovico are providing some hefty culture criticism and, well, I enjoy the philosophical, social, cultural, and economical underpinnings of this work. Again, check it out and feel free to share your comment and thoughts. I’d love to hear them.

By |

Click on the image above to read some inspiring interviews!

I’m a sucker for interviews. I can’t help it. I find them inspirational (especially when the questions asked get at the why and how of someone’s success story). Artist, Matt Ganucheau, shares all the great stuff with me and I’m seriously grateful for him sharing his wealth of knowledge in arts and technology. Kudos (again) to my artist friend for sharing this latest addition to my essential reading – Substratum. Beautifully designed and well put together, Substratum asks artists about their stories and what they envision in their communities and the world and how arts and technology can affect change. That said, I highly recommend you delve into the space and learn about some really (truly) amazing artists and innovators!!

By |

By |

In times of crisis only creativity is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein, Scientist

Or, as Espacio Enter Canarias site states in Spanish, “En los momentos de crisis sólo la creatividad es más importante que el conocimiento.” (Still Albert Einstein, of course). According to the site, the meeting is an International Meeting of Creativity Innovation & Digital Culture, which may interest some of you dear readers. Apparently, the Espacio organization has put out a call for participants (speakers, etc.) that include the following topics:

Click on the image to visit the Espacio Enter Canarias site

Under the ART – SCIENCE – INNOVATION – TECHNOLOGY – SOCIETY category:

  • Digital Communities
  • Geospatial storytelling
  • Artificial Life
  • Software art
  • Transgenic art
  • Generative art
  • Videogames
  • Robotic
  • Open Source
  • 2D & 3D Computer Animation
  • Net-art
  • Experimental video art
  • Blog, videoblog
  • Creation for mobile platforms
  • Videodance
  • App development

Under the DIGITAL IMAGE category:

  • Film
  • Short film
  • Webfilm
  • Mobile film
  • Cinema 3D
  • Animation movie
  • Videoart movie

I believe if you’re on Google Chrome or Firefox, you’re able to translate the Espacio Enter Canarias site. Or, if you’re fluent in Spanish, you’re golden. Either way, I wanted to pass on this info to new media artist and/or educators interested in traveling to Tenerife, Canary Islands in Spain! From what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty nice place to visit.

Side note: EEC collaborates with Artechmedia, which was an arts and technology organization. Absolutely worth checking out and networking with these folks, if you have the opportunity!

By |

Image Source: Artist Website

When you’re constantly on the look out for great art, you will find it. Please check out Michelle Higa’s work by clicking on the screenshot above. Latest work, Active Ecosystem (SMF) with Camille Utterback.