[spectre] The Evening of Imaginary Media - Monday December 4, De Balie, Amsterdam

[Eric Kluitenberg]

A   N   N   O   U   N   C   E   M   E   N   T

The Evening of Imaginary Media

The imaginary future of media..

/ Book Launch / DVD presentation / lecture Richard Barbrook / live  
performance Peter Blegvad /


De Balie, Amsterdam
Monday December 4, 2006
19.30 hrs: Book presentation
20.30 hrs: Evening program


In conjunction with the publication of the “Book & DVD of Imaginary  
Media” by De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, in  
collaboration with NAi Publishers (Rotterdam), De Balie presents an  
intimate yet spectacular program around the concept of ‘imaginary  
media’. For centuries mankind has dreamt about the ultimate  
communication medium, which should once and for all eradicate the  
ubiquitous human misunderstanding - however, miscommunication still  
prevails  today as a seemingly inextinguishable feature of human  
experience...

The evening will start with the presentation of the “Book of  
Imaginary Media”, after which RICHARD BARBROOK will speak about the  
imaginary future of artificial intelligence and the extremely real  
cold war agenda hiding behind these imaginations. Richard Barbrook is  
a researcher and co-ordinator of  the Hypermedia Research Centre at  
the University of Westminster, London. Barbrook is currently working  
on a book devoted to this topic, which will appear next spring under  
the title “Imaginary Futures - From Thinking Machines to the Global  
Village”

A PREVIEW will be given of the “DVD of Imaginary Media”, which  
includes the son et lumière adaptation of “On Imaginary Media” by  
Peter Blegvad, based on the theatre performance he developed for De  
Balie in 2004.

PETER BLEGVAD will also perform live and contribute some of his  
elusive songs. Blegvad collaborated in the past with cultbands such  
as Faust, Slap Happy and Henry Cow, and with avant-garde artists as  
John Zorn. He is the creator of the famous Leviathan cartoon,  
published in the Independent on Sunday, and he developed a remarkable  
solo-career as a singer / composer. He also gained esteem with his  
sound plays (Eartoons) for BBC radio in London.

Further information can be found at the Balie website:
http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?podiumid=media&articleid=88410


BACKGROUND:

In 2004 De Balie organised the  mini-festival “An Archaeology of  
Imaginary Media” about the dreams, visions and imaginations of the  
ultimate communication medium with a selection of world-renown media  
scientists, media archaeologists, writers, artists and filmmakers.  
The Book and the DVD of Imaginary Media now conclude these  
archaeological explorations.


THE PUBLICATION:

The Book of Imaginary Media will be available from mid-November from  
NAi Publishers in Rotterdam and in bookshops - with contributions by  
Siegfried Zielinski, Erkki Huhtamo, Bruce Sterling, John Akomfrah,  
Zoe Beloff, Edwin Carels, Timothy Druckrey, Richard Barbrook, and  
edited by Eric Kluitenberg (De Balie).

The accompanying DVD contains, next to  “On Imaginary Media” by Peter  
Blegvad, the experimental short movie “Aqua Micans” by François  
Ducat, and a selection of cartoons specially produced for the 2004  
festival by Ben Katchor, Peter Blegvad, Thomas Zummer, Jonathan  
Rosen, Sasa (aka Aleksander Zograf), Gary Panter, Dick Tuinder, Neal  
Fox en Les Coleman.

Information page of NAi Publishers:
http://www.naipublishers.nl/art/imaginary_media_e.html


PROGRAM:

19.30 - Book Launch Book of Imaginary Media

20.30 - Start evening program.

Conclusion:  ± 22.30 hrs.

Admission: free / reserving tickets is possible via the Balie website

Language: English

Information: http://www.debalie.nl/media

An extensive web dossier has previously been compiled around this  
project:
http://www.debalie.nl/archaeology