[spectre] Macros media art center opens in Moscow

[Olga Gorunova]

OPENING OF "MACROS-CENTER" (ROSIZO media art center)
OPENING OF ARTISTIC SOFTWARE FESTIVAL read_me 1.2 
18.30, October 20, Moscow
"MuHA" Club, B. Kislovskyi per., 4/2, tel. 202-36-63, http://www.muha.ru/map.htm

Program:
18.30 Lecture by Eric Kluitenberg "Transfiguration of the avant-garde: The negative dialectics of the net". 
20.00 Presentation of "Macros-center". 
20.15 Opening of artistic software festival "read_me 1.2". http://www.macros-center.ru/read_me 
20.30 Reception.
21.00 Concert of cyber-punk-rock band 386 DX. Program: "Legend of Russian Rock".
Free entrance!

International festival read_me 1.2 is dedicated to the artistic comprehension of software: customizing, creating and deconstructing. The impact on the ordinary perception of a program and on what is commonly understood as media space, the demonstration of profound properties and qualities of programming, the open source ideology support, alternative methods of work and self-expression of an artist, - continuing this list of software art ideas is up to you! (Call for proposals will follow soon).

Eric Kluitenberg is a theorist, writer, and organizer on culture and technology. He is currently based at De Balie - Center for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, and teaches a course on "Culture and New Media" at the University of Amsterdam. 
Transfiguration of the avant-garde: The negative dialectics of the net.
The tradition of the avant-garde, now deemed dead and dormant, remains available as a repository of ideas and strategies that can be applied in a radically transformed cultural context. For the avant-garde "Art" has lost its interest as an object of dedication. Art today is beyond canon and medium: the avant-garde has completed its task. But within the context of a networked media culture the strategies of the avant-garde can be played out to develop a negative dialectics of the net. The new context is no longer art itself, but a new cultural environment, in which the real and the imaginary blend into an inextricable constellation. Aesthetic strategies and social and political activism fuse in the culture of real virtuality in a most productive way.
 
"386 DX" is a world-known band, leader of cyber-punk-rock (http://www.easylife.org/386dx). The group consists of one retired computer, which performs widely in Europe, Asia, America and Australia.  "386 DX" project - one of the leaders of the international low-tech movement. Each concert of the band poses the question: "Is a robot able to replace a human in show business?" And it always gives the affirmative answer! 
In 2001 Staalplaat label released the first CD of 386 DX "The Best Of", which has, besides musical tracks, video, a copy of Windows 3.1 and software used for music production.
"Legend of Russian Rock" is a new program of "386 DX", which includes such hits as "Gruppa Krovi", "Rock-n-Roll Myortv", "Idu-Kuriu" and other legendary songs of Russian Rock-n-Roll.


"Macros-center" was founded in autumn of the year 2001 in Moscow under State Center for Museums and Exhibitions "ROSIZO". It is an initiative intended to react to interesting and nontraditional phenomena in the sphere of media-art, in the area of intersection of arts, culture and new technologies. 
Director - Sergei Teterin teterin@pisem.net, Curator - Olga Gorunova og@macros-center.ru, Coordinator - Ekaterina Lazareva kl@macros-center.ru. Tel: +7 (095) 200-18-08.
Web site: http://www.macros-center.ru