[spectre] Survival Kit conference , Gaité Lyrique Paris, 20-22 october 2011

[ewen at no-log.org]

Ars Longa  presents

SURVIVAL KIT
GAITÉ LYRIQUE, PARIS
20-22 OCTOBER 2011

SURVIVAL KIT is an artistic collective reaction against the economic
situation being experienced by Latvia since the 2008 crisis. Most visible
expression of the present situation: artists take possession of the
premises of empty shops in the center of Riga. In two weeks more than 70
local and international artists convert empty spaces in the creative
laboratory and exhibition space and are confronted with a real fiction.
What would the artists to be an actor of their time facing an economic
crisis? a crash energy ...?

How to survive in the city in case of major disasters (whether nuclear,
chemical, electromagnetic, electrical, political, etc.).? What to do when
there is no internet, telephone, electricity and how to get information
about the situation? Should we leave the city or shut until after the
events? Can we trust the government communications? Can we set up already
a form of ecological resilience? The conference will host international
artists and experts to address these issues.

The conference is organised by Ars Longa, association focusing on
crossings between art, research and society (gallery located 67 avenue
Parmentier, Paris 11) in the framework of the Culture 2007-2013 program
led by the  Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (Riga, Latvia) with the
Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania), The Centre for New Media
Culture « RIXC » (Riga, Latvia), The Showroom (Londres, UK).

In partnership with /tmp/lab.

Prior to the conference, Ars Longa and Gaité Lyrique invite the bilingual
newspaper The Laboratory Planet for a “carte blanche” on the issue of
computer networking and its role in the management of  “the laboratory
planet”.



Thursday 20th october
7pm-9pm

Presentation of the Laboratory Planet N°4 with Bureau d'études, Ewen
Chardronnet, Jean-Baptiste Labrune and the members of the tmp/lab

The Laboratory Planet is a periodic journal of philosophy, science and
critical writing on technology. It is published in two versions, English
and French, both as print and internet editions. Ewen Chardronnet, Michel
Tibon-Cornillot and Bureau d'études, produce Laboratory Planet with a team
of artistic researchers, philosophers, scientists and activists. As a
journalistic multimedia piece, its online platform discusses geostrategic
and tactical media as well as speculative issues lurking behind the
ambiguous headlines of the mainstream press.
http://laboratoryplanet.org


Friday 21st october

PANEL 1 - SURVIVAL KIT
3pm-4pm

Survival Kit is an art project that attempts to identify things that could
prove vitally important to human existence, both in a material and,
hopefully, some metaphysical sense. Society, knowledge, activism and light
of subtle energies in the context of constant and inexhaustible crisis...
http://survivalkit.lv

Presentation by:

Solvita Krese (Lv)

Graduated from the Academy of Art, Science department, trained in cultural
management at Marcel Hicter Institute. Currently working on doctoral work
about interaction of art and its context. From the 2000th runs the Latvian
Center of Contemporary Art (ngo). As a curator has organized several
large-scale international art projects - "Trespassers," "Re: public",
"Archaeology of Reality," "Urbanologic", "Mobile Museum". She has
participated in several research projects about the artistic processes of
80ties, 90-ties and non-conformist art scene of earlier Soviet period.
Professional interest areas - arts and urban environment, relationships,
art and its socio-political context, gender issues. Author of numerous
articles in the magazine "Studio", newspaper "Diena", art exhibitions and
artists' catalogs. One of the contemporary culture of non-governmental
organization Association of the initiators and founders. Currently working
on an ambitious international art project Survival Kit.

Kristine Briede (Lv)

Culture producer, artist and filmmaker, manager of culture and art
projects. Worked as a producer and director at film studio “Locomotive
International”, author and producer of several documentaries and short
fictions (”Checking out”, “Mother connected”, Eurowatching”, “Borderland”,
“Where did they dissappear?”), one of the main founders of “Culture and
Information centre K at 2” (active from 2000-2008) in a former Soviet
military base Karosta were implemented numerous large and small scale
culture and society integration projects, co-founder of New Media and
Culture Centre RIXC in Riga and New Media Art education programme at
Liepaja University in Liepaja. Author, compiler and translator of numerous
articles and books. Currently working at Latvian Centre of Contemporary
Art and coordinating international art projects  - among them the
collaboration project “Survival Kit. Art linking society, knowledge and
activism”.

Zane Dātava (Lv)

Culture producer, manager of culture and art projects. Graduated from the
Academy of Culture, Theory of Culture department. She organises
experimental music and film art festival Sound forest and sound art
exhibitions. As a freelance curator she has collaborated with various
organizations and has organised performance art festival, exhibitions and
concerts. Currently working at Latvian Centre of Contemporary Art and
coordinating local and international art projects, including festival
Survival kit.

PANEL 2 – DIY TELECOM
4.15pm-5.45pm

In the context of survival, how to continue to communicate, learn,
interact with a network of correspondents in a "Do It Yourself" way? Today
NGOs, activists and hackers develop stand-alone solutions to overcome the
centralized networks, escape the surveillance and control of
communications, imagine lightweight and easy to deploy solutions. We will
discuss these projects to consider their application in a crisis situation
where the network logic prevails more than ever.

Alejandro Duque (Co)

Colombian artist and a current PhD candidate at the European Graduate
School (http://www.egs.edu) in Switzerland where he is currently based.
His research entitled: "Gifted Malice, Kinship Through the Wires and the
Waves" dedicates attention to collaborative/participatory arts that
celebrate cultural agitation across all possible networks. His current
interests deal with HAM radio, streaming media and satellite listening and
spotting. He is also an active member of networks such as Bricolabs,
dorkbot, labSurlab and [k.0_lab] and is easy to spot on the IRC freenode
network as dspstv.

“With the intention of regaining access and control over free information
infrastructures we take on a critical stand to reflect on the hegemonial
manipulation articulated by the way of dispositifs operating via
tele-technologies. From war machine drones to the familiar TeleVision set,
in our particular case, we will concentrate on so called Satellites. To
listen to them while they scan and transmit. To watch them while they
measure. But most importantly to reconsider, rethink and reclaim their
use. Be this a call to electronic civil disobedience, culture jamming or
noise.”

Benjamin Cadon (Fr)

Benjamin Cadon is a media artist who lives and works as project manager
for Labomedia, a well known independent media lab in Orleans, France. He's
been active in several other sound art organisations and develops
audio-visual performances and installations using open source real-time
softwares and electronic devices. Working partly on improvisation and
partly on physical principles, his goal is the construction/deconstruction
of concepts threw images, sounds, situations, in the questioning of the
relation between society, media and biological worlds which surround us.
http://www.01xy.fr ; http://www.labomedia.net

Philippe Langlois (Fr)

Co-founder of the tmp/lab, founder of P1 Security and Senior Security
Consultant for Telecom Security Task Force. Philippe Langlois has proven
expertise in network security. He founded and led technical teams in
several security companies (Qualys, WaveSecurity, INTRINsec) as well as
security research teams (Solsoft, TSTF). He founded Qualys and led the
world-leading vulnerability assessment service. He founded a pioneering
network security company Intrinsec in 1995 in France, as well as Worldnet,
France's first public Internet service provider, in 1993. Philippe was
also lead designer for Payline, one of the first e-commerce payment
gateways. He has written and translated security books, including some of
the earliest references in the field of computer security, and has been
giving speeches on network security since 1995 (RSA, COMDEX, Interop, HITB
Dubai, Hack.lu). You can reach him through his website at:
http://www.p1security.com


CONFERENCE-PERFORMANCE : STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND BEHAVIOURAL DYNAMICS
6pm-6.30pm

Infopolitical technologies alter how we conceive and structure reality.
Life imitates art and imagination it is not just a subjective process but
also the creation of the so called real. Strategic reality is the
battleground for control of object and subject in the dark age of
information feudalism.

Konrad Becker (At)

Theorist, artist and producer in the field of electronic media. He is
director and co-founder of the Institute for New Culture Technologies/t0,
and of Public Netbase during 1994 to 2006. He started
World-Information.Org, a cultural intelligence agency, and several other
projects. Books include: "Nach dem Ende der Politik" (2011) "Critical
Strategies in Art and Media" (2010) Strategic Reality Dictionary (2009),
"Deep Search" (2009)
www.t0.or.at, world-information.org/wii, global-security-alliance.com


FILM :  RIP IN PIECES AMERICA
7pm-8.30pm
Rip in Pieces America, Dominic Gagnon, video, 62', Canada, 2009

Rip in Pieces America assembles homemade short videos that were flagged
for their content and removed from the Internet shortly after. Working in
a gray zone of copyright law, Dominic Gagnon presents the virtual
testimonies of individuals who are all concerned with the future of the
United States. They sit alone in front of webcams, sometimes wearing masks
or sinister clothes, and proclaim their apocalyptic visions and conspiracy
theories with disturbing insistency.
Dominic Gagnon is an inventor, director, installer and active performer on
the international scene. He considers cinema as a technique for measuring
the immeasurable or as a discipline of chaos. Since 1996, he has made
public presentations of moving images, invent machines and concepts,
performs sound works, built facilities and creates performances in various
galleries, festivals and biennials around the world. To carry out his
projects, Gagnon has conducted several researches about: the decline of
economies (ISO, 2002), terror (Du Moteur à Explosion, 2000) violence and
identity crisis among boys (The Making of a Cobra, 2004), the
international adoption systems (Anchorage, 1998), information disorder and
homelessness (High Speed, 2007), Sado-Masochism and fetishism in popular
culture (Blockbuster History, 2005) and the family in the era of
mega-entertainment (Beluga Crash Blues, 1997).



Saturday 22nd October

PANEL 1 : ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE
3pm-5pm

Tim Boykett (Au)

Resilients, Gardens and MaschinenbaeuerInnen

The Resilients is a consortium of organisations investigating the
possibilities for developing resilient culture across Europe. This process
draws upon the rich and diverse wealth of European cultural practice and
looks at ways of intertwingling pre and post industrial techniques to
provide a basis upon which a more resilient and robust society can build.
The projects being developed at Time's Up are looking at the ways that
urban fringe gardens can be developed that utilise the special environment
of the industrial harbour, mixing this with the possibilities of machines
to assist, modify, and add strangeness to the growth.

About Time's Up
 Founded in 1996, Time's Up has its principal locus in the Linz harbour of
Austria but is widely active. Its mission is to investigate the ways in
which people interact with and explore their physical surroundings as a
complete context, discovering, learning and communicating as they do.
http://timesup.org

Rasa Smite (Lv)

Renewable Network Artists - On a Quest for a Sustainable Future

Rasa Smite is a new media artist, curator and network researcher, based in
Riga, Latvia. She has graduated from the Latvian Arts Academy, and holds a
doctoral degree in sociology from Riga Stradi?? University (the topic of
her PhD (2011) thesis was "Creative Network Communities"). Rasa Smite is
Associate Professor of New Media Art in Liepaja University, where she also
is researcher at the Art Research Lab (MPLab). She also is director of
RIXC, The Center for new media culture in Riga. Rasa Smite is key founder
(together with Raitis ?mits and J?nis Garan?s) of the E-LAB (1996) and
RIXC (2000) and since 1996 have been organisers of the annual
"Art+Communication" festival in Riga, Latvia. She is also founder and
chief editor of the "Acoustic Space" publication series (published since
1998 by E-Lab / RIXC, and since 2007  in collaboration with MPLab at
Liep?ja University). She is also writes about new media art and network
culture, and is author of book "Creative Networks" (published by RIXC and
LiepU MPLab, 2011). She has been working creatively as artist, organiser
and curator, initiating and implementing a number of networked art and
digital culture projects - locally in Latvia as well internationally. She
has participated in numerous conferences, exhibitions, symposiums and
festivals; and has been expert and member of various boards on new media
culture. http://rixc.lv

“In a quest for a sustainable future, artists are among those who, instead
of global constructs, offer a different approach based on everyday
practice - using networking strategies, transdisciplinary collaboration,
as well as open source, DIY and other tools of participatory culture.  The
artist community of the recently established Renewable Network continues
to develop networking practices today based both on the previous
experiences of the 'creative communities' of new media collaboration
networks in the 1990s and through the investigation of new realms for
their creative explorations. Hybrid relationships and new approaches are
investigated by combining art and science, but also art and agriculture,
technologies and nature, open source ideas, as well as folklore studies,
social actions, urban gardening, food production, open information
systems, cultural heritage and alternative energy technologies. Art has
thus left its autonomous position behind in this quest for sustainability
while becoming a key element in creating new relations between different
fields of society. The question arises whether this tendency is only
connected to a search for new forms of artistic expression and creative
innovation, or if it suggests a new paradigm shift.
In my presentation I will discuss this question by introducing the case of
the Renewable Network (Network for Art and Renewable Energy Technologies),
which was founded by the Riga-based RIXC media lab in 2009 with a twofold
aim: to use translocal networking strategies in order to overcome (local)
consequences of (global) economical crises, and to explore the potential
of transdisciplinary collaboration in addressing and solving
sustainability issues.
In the workshop I will discuss the future of both media labs and networks:
what makes them sustainable, how the Renewable Network artists approach
sustainability issues, and how an artistic research perspective may help
us to contribute to developing sustainable future scenarios, which can
only come true if we become more open and susceptible to new ideas and new
cooperations.”

Bureau d'études (Fr)

Evolving Theatre is a public place for activities and research to do with
an urban micro-ecosystem focusing on the cohabitation and fulfillment of
inhabitants, human and non-human alike.

The conceptual group Bureau d’études is developing a collective programme
dovetailing art, theory and research, which is conveyed in particular by
the making of maps about power networks and complexes. Aware of the limits
of an exclusively critical approach, the group is preparing the
construction of an Experimental Commune in a rural environment based on a
three-way articulation between culture, economy and society. Between 2003
and 2011, Bureau d’études has taken part in many exhibitions throughout
Europe, and in particular at the Generali Foundation in Vienna, the
Istanbul International Biennial, the Rennes Biennial of Contemporary Art,
the Nottingham Museum of Contemporary Art in London, the Karlsruhe art
centre in Germany, and the Serralves Foundation in Porto.

“This idea is being developed in a place in the process of urban
repurposing. This project is part and parcel of a two part research. On
the one hand it involves taking into consideration the non-human living
factor (flora and fauna) in issues of urban cohabitation. On the other
hand, the Evolving Theatre is keen to develop methods for making
ecological public places with innovative use values based on citizen
cooperation. Evolving Theatre here means living theatre, and the vagaries
of cohabitation, and also introduces the idea of a project space which is
evolving in time, capable of spreading, and adapting both in its
ecosystem, its social uses, and its material forms. The artwork presented
at EVENTO Biennale of Bordeaux consisted in setting up a pilot project for
this human/non-human social system in a square of the city. By creating an
urban laboratory based on a local collaboration with associations and
volunteer inhabitants, Evolving Theatre wants to incorporate artists and
local organizations within an architectural, social and agricultural
system.”


KEYNOTE : FUKUSHIMA, MEDIA, POWER
5.30pm-6.30pm

Maxence Layet (Fr)

As a former consultant in organization and change management at France
Telecom and a science journalist for the past 10 years, Maxence Layet is a
renowned specialist in the fields of new energy and electromagnetic
environmental technologies. He is the author of numerous films and books,
of which “Sous le feu des ondes,” (Under fire from waves), a documentary
broadcasted by Arte in 2009, and “Futur 2.0, Comprendre les 20 prochaines
années”, a book written with Frédéric Kaplan and Philippe Bultez Adams
(FYP, 2007). His articles about innovation, clean technology, sustainable
development and environmental issues have been published in numerous
media, including Le Monde, Effervesciences, Novethic.fr, News.fr and Le
Monde de l’intelligence. Maxence Layet has been working as the EU
parliament on Fukushima catastrophy.


6.30pm : closing drink