VIRTUALITIES AND REALITIES

• 29th September 2017
• festival2017

Moderator: David SCHMUDE

Christopher MILLER. The Virtual Class

Depression arises as the inability to rid oneself of the panic induced by media’s infinite competition for our attention and for the attention of others- causing the subject to lose the ability to recognize one’s individual relation to the collective. As a result the subject becomes an environmental sponge, unconsciously memorizing, recording, and reiterating functions of others while utterly unable to affirm any acts of their own individual desire. Panic overwhelms the subject to the point of losing touch with the objects which in the past had been the focus of narcissistic attention or self-love. Constructed from the history of their persona, the subject GG Allin is a figure of prestige among the virtual class of the late 1980’s and early 90’s. He is quoted, “I want to make rock’n’roll dangerous again.” This implies that rock’n’roll was once a desiring collective, founded on transgression within traditional ethics, but has somehow come to an equilibrium in correlation. Allin wanted more than anything to be the plane which caused the collapse of the ideological stasis of semio-capital. The music, which was produced in a state of panic, was engineered to ride this erratic energy, this substance of sublime nature which posits a state of depletion among its patrons. The transmutation of this substance into music temporarily lends to the musician this agency of depletion. Taken out of the context of good and evil, transgression can be a therapeutic mechanism working to counteract the obsessional neurosis of repressive social mores. Transgression is the only mode in which Allin knew himself, a habitual heroin addict who gained some counter-culture prestige after repeatedly and violently shitting on himself and smashing his head on the wall in front of a crowd. Psychosis has the potential to create fields of action, which extend the realm of experience for both the individual and the collective – contributing to the conquest of human enterprise. It is in an artist’s ability to regraft this individual experience and posit it as an important contribution to our culture that distinguishes the visionary from the delusional. The heroin helped- it allowed for Allin’s unconsciously inflated ego to flourish in euphoria – even, as was often the case, when nothing of his empirical experience confirmed these feelings. Individuals transgress with the morality of the social in order to learn about themselves, and to reciprocally boast of this self-knowledge gained through the hybrid of frail conscious activity, if any at all, and the infantile unconscious opportunism of the subject of fate. This is typical of modern subjectivity, or simply the modern production of subjectivity and it’s inability to coexist with otherness. When the drugs wear off the exuberant self is dissolved and any motive of the will immediately bears the title of delegate to a matrix of lack. This detox is the only experience such a subject will have of its corporeal body, associated with the field of ineffable lack – all potential action becomes virtual and the subject will try, with all his libidinal energy, conscious or unconscious, to convince itself and others that this barren existence is all there is to know, repressing the entire domain of human enterprise in reduction to a shallow inability of a single individual to accept his own state of being. It’s safe to say that GG Allin found some sort of enterprise in his music, but it could never lead to the development of a conscious collectivity because all individuals involved are determined to lose their own corporeal existence. The creative development of this persona was a cartographic experiment in transgressive human enterprise but as it does not present itself as a bridge to the collective psyche, the persona and all the individuals who found solace in its withdrawn territory are no friend to humanity. They constitute a suicidal hoard of unconscious, faithless semiotic-nodes. It is human-beings as such which perpetuate mimetic individualism in compensation for an ability to know themselves. When subjects are alienated by a state of panic and overwhelming competition one might try and delude oneself into thinking that they have no relation to the collective whatsoever, even though by distinguishing oneself from the collective they become inseparably dependent on it as the only entity which can grant the subject a reflection. The individual who only knows himself through transgression with the collective attests to the existence of the collective while submitting to the order of the collective relations as outside of it’s own control. That being said, GG Allin almost caught the wave of cognitariat existence, as an individual who labors towards the extension of human enterprise but because he could not re-incorporate his carnal existence he only contributes to the outdated phenomenon of the American No Wave which is a reactionary movement to industrial-era alienation where the worker is out of touch with himself and the other workers, their interaction muted by machinery. In the contemporary, the workers have left the factory but the noise has only grown more insufferable- the contemporary subject must create intentional refrains to remove themselves from this infinite war on our attention.

Sandra ALVARO. Behind the black mirror

Behind the black mirror, there is not the emptiness of the cyberspace, but the transductions between the differentials of potential of a whole machine.
In 1962 Mort Heilig produced the Sensorama, this first proposal of an immersive system encountered soon the evolution of computer graphics, led by the endeavour of simulate reality in the controllable surface of computers. The translation of images to data packages coded by complex algorithms produced the interactive interfaces and the dystopian worlds inhabited by human surrogates, but also the training systems where the bodies and movements of pilots become data, which are sensed and translated to simulated landscapes of warfare. Rendering these data as images, computers learned how to read any image of our world as data. Computer vision and the pervasiveness of networked computing has augmented the perception of the everyday world with communication capabilities and digital information which is contextualised and delivered in real-time. Virtual and Augmented Reality had contributed to developing the systems that allow abstract our world into data readable by computers towards the constitution of a ubiquitous medium in which our daily interactions are under the commanding of the standards and protocols of unperceived platforms (Bratton, 2016). Postdigital Art (Bishop et al, 2016) goes beyond the interfaces to encounter the materiality of this whole machine and build critical assemblages, which can disrupt it embodying the computer mediated processes shaping our daily lives and repurposing them for the proposal of potential futures. This text will introduce new artistic strategies which take advantage of the virtual capabilities of these systems to disrupt the immediacy and real-time tracking and unveil a deep time. The complex processes from where emerge our current techno-social milieu and its capability for the design of speculative futures.

Biography. Sandra Álvaro holds an International Doctorate in Philosophy from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and is also a new media artist. She has carried out projects and participated in international workshops at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA and the Laboratoire Paragraphe/CITU, University Paris 8, and taught in the Roy Ascott Studio BA in Technoetic Arts at De Tao Masters Academy in Shanghai. She has published in refereed journals such as the Technoetics Art Journal (Intellect) and Artnodes and has participated in international congresses including CAC 2016 (Paris), ISEA 2015 (Vancouver), Re-new 2013 (Copenhagen) and the CR13 International Research Conference as part of the “Consciousness Reframed: Art and Consciousness in the Post Biological Era” series (Cairo). She also contributes to open knowledge and the spread of digital culture as a writer at the blog of the CCCBLab. Sandra Álvaro also has a BA in Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited in museums and cultural centres including Caixa Forum, the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Department of Culture and Media, Casal Solleric in Palma de Mallorca (Antoni Gelabert Visual Arts Award), MOCA (Taipei) and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Toluca (Mexico) and in numerous festivals and galleries. Actually her project “PostDigital Strategies for the Anthropocene is finalist at the Cultural Innovation International Award. Organized at the CCCB.Sandra Álvaro holds a European Doctorate in Philosophy from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and is also a new media artist.
Her research work revolves around the definition of the contemporary post-digital situation, with a particular focus on artistic production and theory, and participatory urban design. To this end, she studies the material conditions and social processes linked to technological innovations such as the Internet of Things, data visualisation, and digital fabrication. She has carried out projects and participated in international workshops at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA and the Laboratoire Paragraphe/CITU, University Paris 8, and has taught in the BA in Technoetic Arts of the Roy Ascott Studio at De Tao Masters Academy in Shanghai. Recently her project “Postdigital Strategies for the Anthropocene has been selected as finalist in the 2nd Cultural Innovation International Prize 2016-2017 held at the CCCB (Barcelona)

Janis GARANCS. Induced spaces as an effort of new sense/making – interfacing finacial trading in 3D/VR

This paper presents an interactive installation project, which is a part of doctoral research thesis. During the 60s, ,Marshall McLuhan, described the arrival of electronic medi the movement as the returning of humans from visual into audile-tactile space, to the tribal state. From the reality of the represented, humans are moving to a reality that is very similar to the given, except it is not natural. It is artificial, developed out of the represented. It is the induced; the next stage of the evolution of the interplay of reality, media, and the sensorium.
In the current and increasing mass adoption, VR allows integrating these behavioral and psychophysiological measurement with the self-reported descriptions of the experience in an ecological but controlled setting (Wiederhold and Rizzo, 2005; Parsons, 2015: Fusaro et al., 2016).
Noted by Keltner and Haidt (2003), a properties of percepted sense of awe in are shaped by two key dimensions: vastness and the need for accommodation. Vastness involves the perception of enormous and/or complex stimuli, such as a grand view (perceptual vastness) or a big idea (conceptual vastness). The need for accommodation describes how awe-inducing stimuli force us to adjust our cognitive schemas to accommodate them. The paper refers concept of induced spaces and ideasthesia as an effort of new sense/making, through series of experimental VR interfaces.

Biography. Jānis Garančs (born 1973 in Latvia) is artist, working in areas of interactive multimedia installations, Virtual Reality, and audiovisual performance. He initially studied painting at Latvian Academy of Arts, Riga, then continued education in video and computer art at the Royal University of Fine Arts (KKH) in Stockholm, Sweden and obtained Master’s Degree (2003) in Audiovisual Media, from Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne, Germany, where his focus was immersive 3D environments. He is currently pursuing in doctoral research programme at Liepaja University, Latvia. His artistic interest is in exploration of moving stereoscopic imagery in combination with surround / 3-D sound. The work often engages with concepts from contemporary theoretical physics, communication and evolution theories. During 2006-2008 also has been a researcher at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (Germany), within research team of the consortium “LIVE” (funded by European Union) – developing interactive TV formats and production tools. He has been contributing to events like Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria), Transmediale (Berlin, Germany), DEAF (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), ISEA (Helsinki, Finland), IMCEXPO (Chelsea Art Museum, NYC), TECHNE’06 (Istanbul, Turkey) and exhibiting or lecturing at venues such as SAT (Montreal, Canada), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), Banff New Media Institute (Banff , Canada), ICA (London, UK), EXPO’2000 Hanover World Exhibition (German Pavilion), RIXC (Riga, Latvia) – among others.

Hanna HAASLAHTI. Cosmetic Space

How do we step into representations? Cosmetic Space is an artistic research project about our extended presence in simulations. For Sherry Turkle, “Simulation takes us further into our representations. We no longer need to keep the world in our “mind’s eye.” We build it, step into it, manipulate it. If photography is a new way of seeing, simulation is that and more: a new way of living, both a change of lens and a change of location.”
Cosmetic Space takes shape as an installation platform where people model a 3D double of themselves. Digital doubles then become part of virtual community, where their activities and gestures are controlled by realtime animation system. Social pressure is transmitted from the work to the audience, when people follow from the animation how their digital doubles treat one another and how this affects the relationships between the people watching the simulation.
It is impossible to know how much of us as individuals belongs to others and is being controlled by our communities. The structure of the work opens up this issue in relation to social changes taking place in western societies and the technologies, which operate as our messengers in the networks.

Biography. Media artist working and living in Helsinki, Finland.  My materials are light, shadow and human interaction. I´m interested in hidden structures which connect individuals to communities. The wavering equilibrium between individual freedom and communal rules takes shape as interactive installations, projections or lenticular images.
I explore gestalt psychology, computer vision, generative graphics and 3D-sensing in the development process of interactive spaces, creating ephemeral relationships between people, projection and space.

Natalia EGOROVA, Sergey SIMONOV, Daniil BAKALIN. The experience of interpretation of biological object in the context of contemporary art

“Marsyas”, a bionic sculpture, self-developing in contact with its external sound environment, is a research project at the intersection of art, science and technology. The focus points of the art & science project are bioacoustics, biomechanics and bionics. These aspects are based on the morphology of syrinx, the vocal organ of mockingbirds. The geometry and thrusters of the biological syrinx studied during the project are subject to transposition on a different scale, with appropriate transformation of environments and materials. Methods of adjusting mechanics based on evolutionary mechanisms (genetic algorithm and artificial neural network, developing on the basis of our bioacoustic studies) can lead to the improvement of the already complex architecture and kinetics of the syrinx. One of the most well-known forms of syrinx translations is aulos, a musical instrument of Phrygian origin, poetically reflected in the myth of the satire of Marsyas. Migrating from the animal world to the world of protoscience, to culture, and then erased from visuality (but “carried” by birds) and discovered again by scientists, the image of an almost perfect instrument of sound mimicry, finds its development in our project. We create our version of an already existing biological aerophone – birds’ syrinx acting in a different environment from the prototype. We consider it as a sketch for the existence of an organ separately from the body and as the intention to expand the boundaries of modelling biological objects. The project is implemented by a team consisting of an artist, ornithologists, an IT specialist, an expert in electronic devices, hydraulics, a specialist in 3D graphics.

Biographies. Natalia Egorova, born in 1985 in Petrozavodsk, Russia. Author of the idea and project’s artistic content. Artist, a member of Artists Association of Russia. The winner of Art and Technology section of Garage grant programs for emerging artists in 2016/2017, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow. Solo exhibitions: «Recensere», 2017, Galleri GRO, Jakobstad, Finland; «Direct Speech», 2011, Spider&mouse art space, Moscow. Group exhibitions and festivals: «Northern Paradise», 2017, Ilomantsi, Finland; «LimeStoneStories», 2016, Salon Am Moritzplatz, Berlin, Germany; «Rethinking Location», 2016, Kirkenes, Norway; Barents Spektakel 2015, Kirkenes, Norway; «Kalevala through the eyes of Russian artists» 2014-15, Museum of City Sculpture, St Petersburg, Center of Culture, Helsinki; Yanka Kupala State Literary Museum, Minsk, Belarusthe; Frontier», «Dust» 2012-2013, Laboratoria Art&Science
Space, Moscow; «The Shadow of Time», 2012, State Museum «Tsaritsino», Moscow; Athens Video Art Festival 2012, Athens, Greece; Media Night «Fathers and Sons», Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House, St Petersburg, Russia; International Experimental Film Festival «Vallecas Puerta Del Cine 2011», Madrid, Spain; «History of Russian Video Art. Volume 3», 2011, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia), etc.

Sergey Simonov, born in 1983 in Izhevsk, Russia. Author of the projects’ scientific content. Ornithologist, PhD, Laboratory for Zoology, Institute of Biology, Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences.In 2006 graduated from Udmurt State University (Federal State-Funded Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education), Izhevsk (Russia). (Co-) author of 81 scientific publications. Patents: RU 2501217 (20.12.2013) DEVICE FOR TRAPPING DENDROPHILOUS BIRDS; RU 2596890 (10.09.2016) DEVICE FOR SELECTIVE TRAPPING OF A MOVABLE OBJECT; RU 2618468 C2 (17.07.2017) A METHOD FOR PRODUCING A BIONIC NONWOVEN MATERIAL AND DEVICE FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION. Organiser of 2 month courses of ecological and biological educational computer programs for gifted children. Member of the Organiser Committee of the International Symposiums “Dynamics of Game Animals Populations in Nothern Europe”, 2010 & 2014, Russia.

Daniil Bakalin, born in 1981 in Nadvoitsy, Russia. Author of the technical solution of the project.
Programmer, engineer, work experience in IT environment – 14 years. In 2005 graduated from
Petrozavodsk State University, majoring in Mathematics and specializing in Information Systems. Widely interested in information technologies – from web development to science (academic) projects and VR. Independently developed new information systems for Russian museums. Head developer for a few current IT projects in Jordan, Russia and Finland.

 Carlotta AOUN. soft-()-face: extra/inter/outra

soft-()-face: extra/inter/intra” is a speculative view on the rituals we enact on technological devices and interfaces and the mutations resulting from it. Technologies of all sorts are empowering tools that augment human capabilities (physical and mental). Nevertheless their fast evolution has also empowered them by conditioning our lives, interactions and behaviors with screens and interfaces. The space of person-to-person communication slowly dissolves into the immensity of cyberspace, gradually transforming into a surface interaction, an evolving simulacrum. The interface, by its form, representation and interactivity, makes a reality out of a world that is otherwise invisible, maybe non-existent to us. In this piece, I use latex screens as a paradoxically dividing plane, a combinative membrane, a sort of resistive barrier that acts as a second skin, a soft interface, a merging between our bodies and technology. Their elasticity and resistivity lets us see, metaphorically, the distortions of our body and psyche in the way it bends, amplifies, extends or flattens and combines our interactions. Tactility on hard-screens keeps us at the surface of the (infra)structure, at the first level of engagement with technology while algorithms and inner mechanisms become “deep”, resulting in an amplification of the gap between reality and cyber-reality. This idea is materialized by a screen with overlapping gestures that reflects the empty obsession –or devotion– given to phones, tablets or computers. As such, technology stands as a relic of our humanness.

Biography.  Carlotta Aoun was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1991. After studying Fundamental Physics in the Pierre et Marie Curie University (UPMC) in Paris and working with Elías Crespín as an artist assistant, she applied to the MFA Design and Technology at Parsons from which she graduated in May 2017. Her work explores the (in)materiality of what the common public perceives as unusual phenomena. Whether it involves spiritual, transcendental, or scientific experiences, she uses art as a medium to unlock the viewer’s mind to other realities, possibilities or dimensions. In combining fine art techniques with scientific experimentation and technology (digital and/or analog), she provides a visual or interactive perception of what is ungraspable and expands the boundaries of “scientific invisibility” to a broader audience.