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Immersive Lab exhibition @HEK

During a weekend, HeK and ICST present works that were developed for the interactive sound and video environment Immersive Lab as part of an artist residency and a workshop. Visitors have the opportunity to interact with the installation.

The Immersive Lab – developed by Daniel Bisig and Jan Schacher – is a unique sound and video space; in a ring-shaped arrangement it presents digital media produced in real time in a panorama projection with surround sound. The entire surface of the installation is touch-sensitive and allows visitors to interact and influence the content. The Immersive Lab has been further developed by the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) of the Zurich University of the Arts for several years as a platform for the realisation and presentation of artistic works.

HeK presents works that were previously created on site during an artist residency and a workshop. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the unique media world and become part of the Immersive Lab’s unusual spatial, interactive and collaborative environment. It is only through the interaction of the audience that the work unfolds its full potential.

Special attention will be paid to the project coexistence, which the two artists Nadine Cocina and Ramona Sprenger realized during the residence at HeK.

The interactive installation coexistence deals with the meaning, perception and relevance of physical and digital spaces whose definition and accessibility have drastically changed with the Internet. In the Immersive Lab, the two artists create and simulate different spaces and give visitors the opportunity to create new contexts through their overlapping and juxtaposition.

On Saturday, 13.04.2019, the participants of BitFabrik will create works for the Immersive Lab between 1pm and 4pm. As part of the programming club for children and teenagers – a new HeK format – the kids will develop their own ideas for the interactive setting and experiment with sound and video.

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Malta joins European Forum for Advanced Practices (EFAP)

The proposed European Forum for Advanced Practices (EFAP) aims to initiate and host a network of
researchers, practitioners, and theorists from across Europe who are actively shaping innovative and
transformative forms of research across and among many artistic and academic fields, industry, the
private sector, and civil society. Their research activities, which are often hybrid in method, are usually consigned to the categories ‘practice-based’ or ‘artistic research.’ While both of these terms can be broadly descriptive, they are too general to keep pace with the inventive experimentalism of practice-oriented research activity. In particular, they fail to capture the extent to which these new and cross-disciplinary collaborative research practices are reshaping the institutions and contexts around them. Rather than adhere to established ‘best practices’ or seek, as ‘advance studies’ do, to advance particular disciplinary or institutional contexts, these research practices aim to reconfigure conventional assumptions and approaches. Their strength lies precisely in their ability to radically reformulate problems outside of conventional frames, and to draw on a wide range of epistemologies, protocols, and practices to propose innovative or even transformative forms of impact. In doing so, they redefine assumptions about who the stakeholders are, how they relate to each other and their fields, and, crucially, what the nature of the stakes can be.

For these reasons, EFAP proposes a new umbrella term, Advanced Practices, to describe this
widespread ‘research turn’ composed of cross-disciplinary practices and hybridized methods across
disparate contexts. EFAP believes that recognizing (1) the fundamentally advanced nature of these
activities, (2) surveying and studying specific examples and programmatic contexts in order to
understand how they can be nurtured at all levels, and (3) developing vocabularies and frameworks as
dynamic and generative as the practices themselves to articulate and assess them are essential steps
in realizing their potential for European society.
This initiative comes in response to widespread need among academic and civic institutions, as well as
the private sector, to clarify the protocols, means, and potentials of practice-oriented research activity.
EFAP sets out to:

  • survey the range of emerging practice-driven research modes;
  • develop new vocabularies and typologies for describing and assessing the operations and
  • methodologies of these emergent research forms;
  • develop provisional criteria and flexible procedures for valuing and evaluating them; and
  • propose flexible principles, structures, and procedures, for the fostering of new practice-driven
  • research for institutions, funding agencies, and the private sector.

EFAP’s aim is to promote both the development of advanced forms of research and advanced ways of
translating their practices and findings into teaching curricula, incentive frameworks, innovation projects, and multi-layered, matrixed responses to complex societal challenges.

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Cryptorave #10 @HEK

As part of the exhibition Swiss Media Art: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Fragmentin, Lauren Huret – Pax Art Awards 2018 a Cryptorave will take place at HeK; a dance party that combines crypto currencies and live action roleplaying games.

!Mediengruppe Bitnik, Omsk Social Club, Knoth & Renner, Cryptorave #10, 2019

Recently, !Mediengruppe Bitnik – Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo – developed Cryptoraves in collaboration with Omsk Social Club: performative events including live action role-playing games, dance parties and crypto currencies. Visitors are invited to take part in the participative performance by registering on the Cryptorave website and allowing their computer to mine the anonymous crypto currency Monero in order to unlock information about the party and the role to be played. By joining their computing power, the participating community collectively generates value to enable the autonomous dance party experience. Through the online mining process, participants unlock their LARP identity, the Cryptorave reader and finally their entry ticket to the rave.

Mine your ticket and unlock information on the party here: http://0b673cce.xyz

The acts Ven3mo (CH), Primitive Art (IT), Crystallmess (FR) and Suutoo (GB) will play live at the Cryptorave.

Ven’3mo is a Geneva-based multidisciplinary artist, DJ and researcher. She plays with sound in order to explore notions of hybridisation and mutation – looking at music as a vector for transformation and deconstruction. Her sets are not subject to one genre and are filled with different textures and narratives.

Primitive Art is an Italian experimental music band founded in 2011 by the collaboration of Matteo Pit and Jim C. Nedd. Digital soundscapes provide the arena for timbres, melodies, verses and spoken words to crash into one another. Within the haze, the duo winds up its chaotic energy, channeling their intimate songs in strange territories.

Through the medium of DJing, Crystallmess concentrates on the analysis of so-called „subcultures“ and the influence of black diasporas. Through the multiplication of references to dancehall, soca, logobi and hip-hop, Crystallmess manifests the importance of these currents in the formation of new musical territories. Her expressive sets decolonise club culture, inviting us to rethink the future.

Multi-disciplinary artist and musician Suutoo creates soundscapes both harmonious and discordant. Utilising fantasy as a weapon of choice, Suutoo destroys the gods you thought you worshipped and lets you swallow light.

Black Mirror Special on ARTE.TV about crypto raves.

Amnesia Scanner

Rave Culture on Block Chain

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SAROBMED

Upon conclusion of the pilot phase, documenting human rights violations occurring at sea during SAR or interdiction events in the period 2015-2018, following a successful launch of the SAROBMED website, including at the LIBE Hearing of 27 November 2018, and considering the urgency of events unfolding in the Mediterranean, the situation in Libya, and the project of a FRONTEX reform and disembarkation platforms gaining support at EU political and policy level, SAROBMED partners meet to assess results so far and determine the next stage of collaboration. This meeting will allow a reflection on the work undertaken and the changes necessary to adapt to the new circumstances, where SAR NGOs can hardly operate and where a conversion of rescue into monitoring activities of
interdictions and pull backs at the EU’s external maritime borders seems the main way to go. The meeting will serve to review the incident template report, assess the SAROBMED App currently being developed by our Brunel partners, adapt the data categories of recorded information, agree on SOPs that are safe and in compliance with the relevant legal standards, and collectively reflect on the way forward.

OUR MISSION

Migrant deaths are rising despite increased operational presence at sea. Proactive Search and Rescue (SAR) operations are being replaced by security missions by coastal states. Allegations of human rights violations against boat migrants and NGO vessels and personnel are multiplying and humanitarian assistance is being conflated with the crimes of smuggling and trafficking.

Currently no monitoring system exists for SAR and the measures adopted in this regard have been ineffective. Such scenario makes SAROBMED initiative all the more necessary, as our mission is to raise awareness among stakeholders, policy makers and the general public.

In order to carry out our mission, SAROBMED would set up an independent, research-led observatory of search and rescue (SAR) and interdiction incidents, through a secured digital environment for the collection, storage, exchange, and dissemination of reliable data regarding human rights violations in the Mediterranean.

 OUR ORGANISATION

 SAROBMED: The Search and Rescue Observatory for the Mediterranean is an international, multi-disciplinary consortium of independent researchers, civil society groups, and other organisations working in the field of cross-border maritime migration, either on the ground, or through advocacy, research and/or strategic litigation.

The key purpose of SAROBMED is to set up an independent, research-led observatory of search and rescue (SAR) and interdiction incidents, through the collection, analysis and dissemination of reliable data regarding human rights violations in the Mediterranean.

Members of the Observatory record and report incidents occurring at sea to the SAROBMED who processes, stores, and analyses the data. Analysing and systematising new data sources feeds into evidence-based research, tracking trends, identifying best practices, and fostering knowledge exchange between partners. This collaborative process supports cooperation, optimizing responses in cases of victimisation and/or prosecution of survivors and/or their helpers. NGO partners are also the main end-users of SAROBMED results, which support evidence-based advocacy, strategic litigation, and research-led lobbying and campaigning. Researchers, from their part, have the opportunity to gather and compile this new dataset, conduct ground-breaking, cross-disciplinary research, and impact realities beyond academia, helping to generate a counter-narrative challenging prevailing discourse and raising public awareness.

OUR VISION

SAROBMED’s mission is pursued through the four inter-dependent legs of the project:

  1. Data collection and dissemination of first-hand information of incidents occurring at sea published online
  2. Operational cooperation and coordination between members to maintain high-quality SAR
  3. Policy-relevant research and targeted advocacy action
  4. Strategic litigation of key cases to promote legal change
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Immersive Lab workshop @HEK

Adnan Hadzi took part in the immersive lab workshop @HEK. The ‘Immersive Lab’ is an artistic and technological research project of the Institute of Computer Music and Sound Technology at the Zurich University of the Arts. It is a media space that integrates panoramic video, surround audio with full touch interaction on the entire screen surface. The ‘Immersive Lab’ provides a platform for a catalogue of artistic works that are specifically tailored to the unique situation that this configuration offers. These works articulate the relationship between immersive media and direct interaction. It functions both as a space for experimental learning and creation and as a permanent audiovisual installation for the general public, showing finished pieces in a self-explanatory way.This installation as a platform is the fruit of several years of investigation and artistic creation. The term Immersion is used in a broader sense. Apart from spatial envelopment by image and sound, additional levels of immersions are generated for the visitors: they enter into a dedicated physical space, direct tactile interaction on the panoramic surface enhances their personal engagement, and finally within the shared space arise group behaviour and social interactions. Such an extended form of immersion provides a multi-faceted experience.The compositions can be collaboratively created and combine visual and sonic material with generative and algorithmic methods. The artistic approach focuses on real-time pieces that react to visitor interaction and that take advantage of the panoramic nature of the installation.

Different forms of engagement are possible within the installation. The audience can freely explore the works and experience different types of perceptions. Artists can experiment with the development of compositional strategies for working with different senses and artistic domains. The installation exposes foundational aspects of immersion such as spatial and multi-sensory perception, which provide interesting topics for investigation.Work in the ‘Immersive Lab’ happens in different phases, activities, and addresses different people. In a teaching context, in general, any student can visit the lab in guided tours. Students majoring in electronic music or media arts, however, are invited to actively learn by exploring the inner workings of existing pieces. Artists and advanced students have the opportunity to become involved more intensely by creating entirely new pieces. For this, the ICST offers to share its experience, methods, and tools for development and realization of ideas for this particular media space. Finally, in the exhibition context, general audiences are invited to experience the catalogue of works.

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!Mediengruppe Bitnik receives Pax Art Award

The exhibition Swiss Media Art: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Fragmentin, Lauren Huret consists of three solo shows on the respective winners of the Pax Art Awards 2018. In June 2018, two artist groups and one artist from Switzerland were awarded the prize for the first time. The works presented in the exhibition deal with the potential alienation embedded in the stronger intersection of digital technologies and economics. At the same time, they suggest that a more human outcome is possible, inviting the visitors to ask questions and ultimately take control over the instruments that are given to them.

!Mediengruppe Bitnik have established themselves as a major voice in the Swiss media art scene. The duo deals with relevant topics of public interest such as the surveillance of individuals, the commercial use of chat bots or the economy of the darknet. In their most recent works, the artists explore how the digital revolution affects economic dynamics and how these in turn affect our social behaviour. In their work Random Darknet Shopper (2014), !Mediengruppe Bitnik programmed an automated online shopping bot, which randomly purchased items on the darknet and had them delivered to the exhibition space. The question of the responsibility of illegal actions by a bot was raised. The recent work Postal Machine Decision deals with the automation of postal services: !Mediengruppe Bitnik sent twenty-one parcels with two different delivery addresses – one in Halle (Saale) and one in Brussels. The automated post offices, working with the help of barcodes, scanners and programmed instructions, were completely overwhelmed with the parcels and sent them back and forth – which the artist duo tracked and used to study automated logistical systems.

!Mediengruppe Bitnik developed Cryptoraves in collaboration with OMSK Social Club and Knoth & Renner. Utopian events involving live action role-play (LARP) to open up a thinking space around topics related to cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology and DAO. To attend the Cryptorave, participants need to mine the  anonymous cryptocurrency Monero through a dedicated Cryptorave website. By joining their computing power together, the participating community collectively generates value to enable the autonomous dance party experience. Through the online mining process, participants unlock their LARP identity, the Cryptorave reader and finally their entry ticket to the rave. In March, the tenth edition of Cryptorave will take place at HeK. In the exhibition space, a projection displays the Cryptorave website, revealing the process of collective cryptocurrency mining to unlock the LARP dance experience.

Fragmentin, consisting of Laura Perrenoud, Marc Dubois and David Colombini, works at the intersection of art and design. The studio explores the boundaries between the digital and physical environment and examines the impact of technology on our everyday lives. Displuvium, the most recent work realised by Fragmentin in collaboration with designer Renaud Defrancesco for the exhibition at HeK, deals with the controversial topic of geo-engineering and cloud seeding in particular – a practice that was developed to influence and change weather developments and has been applied by many countries since the 1940s. In addition to other works, HeK also presents an updated version of the work 2199, a virtual reality installation that prompts users to follow certain instructions, resulting in a kind of involuntary choreography. With this work, the artists question forms of control and authority through popular media and the willingness of the population to follow them.

Lauren Huret’s work investigates how digital media increasingly influence our social behaviour. The artist uses tools from popular smartphone applications to tell personal stories. In Deep Blue Dream IV, Huret presents herself trapped in a flat screen; her body slowly moves beneath the transparent surface and is pressed against the translucent screen. This work is on the one hand a self-portrait and on the other hand a representation of the complicated relationship between humans and screens in which people get lost more and more. In her most recent video work Praying for my Haters, Huret presents her research on so-called content moderators in Manila who remove offensive content from social networks. Her video shows the difficulties and suffering of these unknown and underpaid workers. For the exhibition at HeK, Huret will develop a new ongoing work, Executive Realness, which will show a livestream resulting from the artist’s research on high-frequency trading algorithms used in the stock market.

Art Foundation Pax is an independent foundation promoting digital and media-based art in Switzerland and is financially supported by Pax. With the Pax Art Awards, ground-breaking prizes for digital art, the Art Foundation Pax in collaboration with HeK, honours and supports media-specific practices of Swiss artists whose works use media technologies or reflect on their effects.

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OFFSHORE TOUR OPERATOR

We organised a remote walk through Victoria, Gozo.

The Great Offshore (Le Grand Large) is a documentary artwork, that invites us to a journey into the depth of the offshore industry.

The work gathers together documents, narratives, photographs and objects, collected during several trips in some of the most notorious tax havens : Dublin, the City of London, Zürich and Pfäffikon, Switzerland, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, the Channel Islands, Jersey & Guernsey, Wilmington Delaware, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Malta, Cyprus, Amsterdam, Luxembourg.

The various documents brought back from those exploratory travels are agenced like an encyclopedia, that seeks to index and underlign the infrastructural aspects of the tax evasion industry, that is lying at the heart of the neoliberal machinery.

Posted on by admin Events, presentations, projects, research

OFFSHORE TOUR OPERATOR

We organised a remote walk through Victoria, Gozo.

The Great Offshore (Le Grand Large) is a documentary artwork, that invites us to a journey into the depth of the offshore industry.

The work gathers together documents, narratives, photographs and objects, collected during several trips in some of the most notorious tax havens : Dublin, the City of London, Zürich and Pfäffikon, Switzerland, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, the Channel Islands, Jersey & Guernsey, Wilmington Delaware, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Malta, Cyprus, Amsterdam, Luxembourg.

The various documents brought back from those exploratory travels are agenced like an encyclopedia, that seeks to index and underlign the infrastructural aspects of the tax evasion industry, that is lying at the heart of the neoliberal machinery.

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boattr.uk @IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging

Adnan presented the boattr project during the EI 2019 conference.

Founded in 1947, the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (imaging.org) is a professional international organization dedicated to keeping members and others apprised of the latest scientific and technological developments in the field of imaging through conferences, educational programs, publications, and its website.

IS&T encompasses all aspects of imaging science, with particular emphasis on digital printing, electronic imaging, color science, image preservation, photofinishing, pre-press technologies, hybrid imaging systems, and silver halide research.

History

In 1947 a group of 81 researchers from the National Archives, US Navy, National Bureau of Standards, Signal Corp Engineering Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, Bell & Howell Co., and Eastman Kodak Co.—to name a few—worked together to form the Society of Photographic Engineers. The goal was to establish a society to concentrate on publishing scientific papers in the area of photographic engineering. Before this, papers where published in a multitude of publications mixed with other papers of various non-related material. The membership more then doubled before 1950. The first issue of “Photographic Engineering” was published in January 1950.

As a result of “Photographic Engineering”, the newly formed Society was able to bring in 18 corporate members, including Bell & Howell Co., Eastman Kodak Co., Bausch & Lomb Optical, Graflex Inc., and Kollmorgan Optical. By the end of 1950 the Society had 33 corporate and more than 270 individual members.

The Society of Photographic Engineers changed it’s name in April 1957 to the Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers (SPSE). Shortly thereafter the first issue of the “Journal of Photographic Scientists and Engineers” was published. On Jan. 29, 1992, the name of the Society was changed to the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T).

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Fourtoni: An AR Sculpture

Fourtoni is an Augmented Reality sculpture that makes use of audience eye tracking data in order to recreate a fourth Triton from the existing three tritons in Vincent Apap’s Triton Fountain located in Triton Square, Valletta.

The virtual sculpture was launched on an Android platform on 28 September 2018 as part of the Science in the City Festival 2018. Fourtoni is a collaboration between Matthew Attard and Matthew Galea from the Department of Digital Arts, together with Dr Vanessa Camilleri from the Department of Artificial Intelligence.

The virtual sculpture’s content was driven by research concerning the combination of the cortical homunculus representation of our body in our brain, and eye-tracking results involving free gazing. This aspect of the project was discussed with Prof. Ian Thornton from the Department of Cognitive Sciences.