[spectre] Ars Electronica 2003 - Conferences

Mon Jul 28 11:44:36 CEST 2003

CODE - The Language of Our Time
Code=Law, Code=Art, Code=Life
Ars Electronica 2003
September 6-11
Linz, Austria
www.aec.at/code
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Ars Electronica 2003 - 3rd Announcement: Conferences

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1. Update: CODE Symposium
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2. Update: Pixelspaces
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3. Update: Prix Ars Electronica Forum
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4. Update: Radio FRO Conference
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You are reading the third issue of the Ars Electronica 2003 newsletter, providing information about the program of the symposia at this year's festival, CODE - The Language of Our Time.

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1. CODE Symposium
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The several panels of the CODE Symposium being presented from September 7 to September 11 will host detailed discussions of various aspects of the festival theme, CODE - The Language of Our Time.

Sunday and Monday are dedicated to rather theoretical considerations; in the following panels, the presentation of artistic ideas and projects moves to the top of the agenda. Protagonists of a software-based mode of artistic practice present their work and discuss how they utilize and deal with software.

Key topics will include the role of industry standards, the emergence of artistic trends as a consequence of program features, efforts to achieve artistic autonomy, and the aesthetics of codes.

Sunday, September 7
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10:30 - 13:30 The Meaning of CODE

The first panel at this year's symposium is dedicated to an attempt at defining the term CODE in a way that encompasses its artistic, legislative and biological facets. At the same time, this will shed light on historical aspects of CODE ranging from the book to the computer, from the codex to the regulatory efforts of modern governments, and from classic, script-based computer programs to evolutionary algorithms-dynamic systems that are capable of coming up with solutions to their own problems. What do artists, scientists and legal scholars understand CODE to be? Is it even possible to establish a generally applicable definition of this term? This kickoff of the CODE symposia will feature an elemental confrontation with terminological problems and issues raised by this year's Festival.

Moderation: Gerfried Stocker

Statements: Gerfried Stocker, Friedrich Kittler, Cindy Cohn, Erkki Huhtamo, Peter J. Bentley

15:00 - 18:00 The Art of Code

What effects is digitization having on art? What special characteristics are displayed by code-based art? And how does this inherent, uniquely self-determined expressive vocabulary of digital art manifest itself? What consequences will art as code-according to Kriesche, *alone* the generative answer to the complete permeation of *all* partial realities-have for the ongoing development of the arts? In which direction is artists' work with new instruments like algorithms and dynamic systems transforming the process of artistic creativity? Or is the concentration on CODE, this focus on the immediate basis of the technological transformation of art, proceeding along the wrong path, and should the confrontation with media art concentrate on social approaches-collaborative, social modes of action, the potential of connective interfaces-without which there can be no productive and uniquely self-determined human activity?

Moderation: Roy Ascott

Statements: Giaco Schiesser, Richard Kriesche, John Maeda, Roman Verostko, Casey Reas

Monday, September 8
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10:30 - 13:30 Social Code

Social activity is characterized by codes-individuals make themselves understood via language and communicate with human faces as their "interfaces." If the new codes that have been designed and developed for interaction with technical interfaces change our social and collective actions or even contribute to the development of new types of social intercourse, then how will this process be played out? Which structures are influencing this social transformation? And to what extent does the design of electronic devices play a role in this connection-are users of the new technology becoming passive consumers or mature, responsible critics of their equipment? The most far-reaching question undoubtedly arises in connection with the current overall social situation-are network linkages and mobility enhancing collective action or being applied to construct an instrument of state control and social engineering?

Moderation: Derrick de Kerckhove

Statements: Howard Rheingold, Leo Findeisen, Fiona Raby, Hans Peter Schwarz

15:00 - 18:00 Collective Creativity

Language-the code of human understanding-enabled humanity to take a quantum leap of collective intelligence. How do the new possibilities of communication influence the exchange of ideas within and among societies? How does software determine our collective creativity? Do computer programs influence the way we see the world and how we think? Can there be a language of collective intelligence? And-getting down to details-what effects will the new Open Source and Open Standards approaches have on the further development and progress of collective creativity?

Moderation: Derrick de Kerckhove

Statements: Pierre Lévy, Florian Cramer, John Warnock, Marc Canter, James 
McCartney

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/row.asp?area=10&iProjectID=11992

Tuesday, September 9
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10:30 - 13:30 Tangible Code

Interaction cannot be equated per se with the process of programming, though this holds true only in connection with the current practice of interaction that, in most cases, only represents a more of less complex process of selection. But what will future interaction look like-a form of interaction that goes beyond the process of selecting one option from among several? And, accordingly, how will the process of programming be defined in the future? The essence of programming could then be more than a linear, predetermined approach; it could well become more of an interactive, real-time process! Will such a new conceptualization create a code that is both realizable and at the same time accessible for the purpose of manipulation and reconfiguration-a sort of real-time compiling?

Moderation: Hiroshi Ishii

Statements: Hiroshi Ishii, Joachim Sauter, Oliver Fritz, Scott DeLahunta, Jonathan Norton

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/project.asp?area=10&iProjectID=11993

Wednesday, September 10
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10:30 - 13:30 Software & Art I.

This session is dedicated to artists' relation to software. The discussion will investigate some of the preconditions upon which artistic work with software-and even software itself-are based. What motivates artists to work with software; when and for what purposes do they utilize computer programs in their work? What outstanding characteristics are displayed by software as an instrument of artistic creativity; what makes this material unique and in what respect is its makeup similar or identical to that of other materials? Based on how things look today, what are the prospects (new areas of utilization) for the artistic use of code in the future?

Moderation: Casey Reas

Statements: Lia, Laurent Mignonnau Golan Levin / Zachary Lieberman, Alex Galloway, Ben Fry, Christa Sommerer, James McCartney, Sebastian Oschatz

Thursday, September 11
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10:30 - 13:30 Software & Art II.

The consideration of software as an art form evidently raises a number of questions: can any software be considered art and, if not, where do we draw the line between software as art and software as a "mere" commercial product? To what extent is the identity of so-called "new media art" or digital art defined by its nature as art based on code? What are the aesthetics of software art and how can they be assessed by traditional art-immanent criteria (or should they be at all)?

Moderation: Christiane Paul

Statements: Christiane Paul, Alexei Shulgin, Olga Goriunova, Christian Hübler, Andreas Broeckmann, Alex McLean, Amy Alexander

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/row.asp?area=10&iProjectID=11994

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2. Pixelspaces
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Monday, September 8 and Tuesday, September 9
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18:00 - 20:30 Pixelspaces-DAMPF

The Ars Electronica Futurelab Symposium entitled *Pixelspaces-Sensory Environments - Immaterial Interfaces* will concentrate on an area of emphasis of the Futurelab's recent work and, at the same time, a field in which the traditional arts have been increasingly converging on media art. Over the course of the conference, participants will examine the extent to which traditional artistic institutions (such as those involved with musical theater and dance) are signaling a readiness to take into account the development of media art, or the extent to which they are even in a position to do so. This symposium together with Klaus Obermaier's "Dance and Media Performance Fusion" (DAMPF), an interdisciplinary project dealing with the stage as a sensory environment, will constitute a forum in which the theory and practice of the convergence of media art and dance will be consummated in artistic and technical practice.

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/project.asp?area=10&iProjectID=12080

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3. PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA FORUM
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The Prix Ars Electronica Forum will feature speeches and presentations by and discussions with Prix Ars Electronica 2003 prizewinners and jurors.

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Tuesday, September 9: Computer Animation / Visual Effects

14:30 - 15:00 Carlos Saldanha, Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox (USA)
15:00 - 15:30 Koji Yamamura, Yamamura Animations, Inc. (J)
15:30 - 16:00 Romain Segaud, Cristel Pougeoise, Supinfocom, Ono plus One (F)
Moderation: Shuzo John Shiota (J)

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Wednesday, September 10: Digital Musics

14:30 - 15:00 Florian Hecker, Mego (D / A)
15:00 - 15:30 Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratje (N)
15:30 - 16:00 Ami Yoshida, Sachiko M, Utah Kawasaki, F.M.N. Sound Factory(J)
Moderation: Naut Humon (USA)

Wednesday, September 10: Interactive Art

16:30 - 17:00 Maywa Denki, Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd. (J)
17:00 - 17:30 Margarete Jahrmann, Max Moswitzer (A)
Moderation: Stahl Stenslie (N / D)

Thursday, September 11: Net Vision / Net Excellence

14:30 - 15:00 David Crawford (S)
15:00 - 15:30 Golan Levin (USA)
15:30 - 16:00 Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena, Yury Gitman (VEN / USA)
16:30 - 17:00 James Tindall (UK)
17:00 - 17:30 Lia (A)
17:30 - 18:00 Sulake Labs (FIN)
Moderation: Steve Rogers (UK)

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/row.asp?area=10&iProjectID=12106

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RADIO-FRO-KONFERENZ
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Tuesday, September 9

14:00 - 18:00 Towards a Society of Control?

Digital codes define how we communicate with one another in global networks, conduct business, obtain information and share knowledge. Nevertheless, the increasingly widespread propagation of code raises the question of the control of standards, and thus the control of the content that is being disseminated. Is the EU's amendment to copyright protection-"Digital Rights Management" (DRM), which sets up rigorous barriers against duplication-in actuality a step in the direction of "digital restriction management"? Are traditional "open spaces" increasingly endangered? What consequences are digital and legal standards like DRM having for Information Society?

Die Radio Fro Conference is divided into two panels:

PANEL A: CONTAINING INFORMATION: new digital standards, changes in copyright and their impact on freedom of information

PANEL B: DIGITAL STANDARDS AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: consequences and current strategies for an independent public sphere

please find more details online:
http://www.aec.at/de/festival/programm/project.asp?area=10&iProjectID=11981

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The detailed Ars Electronica 2003 festival program is online now:
http://www.aec.at/en/festival/index.asp

The website www.aec.at/code is providing regular and detailed updates on the festival theme, program details, news and background features as well as information about artists, speakers and performances until the festival in September.

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Ars Electronica 2003
Organization:
Ars Electronica Center Linz and ORF - Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Upper Austria Regional Studio
Co-organizers: Brucknerhaus Linz, O.K - Center for Contemporary Art

Concept & Artistic Direction: Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf

Curatorial Staff: Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Iris Mayr, Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber

Contact:
Ars Electronica Center
Hauptstrasse 2
4040 Linz, Austria
festival at aec.at
www.aec.at/code

Sponsors of Ars Electronica 2003:
SAP AG, Gericom, Telekom Austria, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Quelle AG, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Oesterreichische Brauunion, voestalpine, FESTO, Sony DADC, Siemens AG, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Spring, Opel Guenther

Sponsors of Prix Ars Electronica 2003:
The Prix Ars Electronica 2003 is sponsored by Telekom Austria and supported by BAWAG/P.S.K. Group, voestalpine, SONY DADC, Gericom, the City of Linz and the Province of Upper Austria.

Additional support by Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Casinos Austria, Poestlingberg Schloessl, Oesterreichischer Kulturservice