<div class="gmail_quote"><font face="'times new roman', serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Aksioma
– Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, presents:</font>
<br>
<br>
<font size="3"><b><span style="background:transparent">Julian
Oliver and Danja Vasiliev</span></b></font>
<br>
<font size="4"><i><b><span style="background:transparent">Newstweek</span></b></i></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><i><span style="background:transparent">Media-hacking
intervention</span></i></font>
<br>
<a href="http://www.aksioma.org/newstweek" target="_blank"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span style="background:transparent">www.aksioma.org/newstweek</span></span></span></font></a>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="background:transparent"><a href="http://vimeo.com/23075736" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/23075736</a></span></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="background:transparent"><font color="#141414"><span lang="en-US"><b>Aksioma
</b></span></font><font color="#141414"><span lang="en-US"><b>|</b></span></font><font color="#141414"><span lang="en-US"><b>
Project Space</b></span></font></span></font>
<br>
<font color="#141414"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="background:transparent">Komenskega
18, Ljubljana</span></font></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="background:transparent">11
- 26 April 2012</span></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b><span style="background:transparent">Opening
of the Newstweek Bureau Slovenia: Wednesday, 11 April 2012, at 7
p.m.<br>
</span></b></font> <br><br>
</font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font face="'times new roman', serif">“
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US"><i>Media
is the nervous system of a democracy. If it’s not functioning
well the democracy can’t function.”</i></span><span lang="en-US">
<br>
(Jeff Cohen, Director of the Park Center for Independent Media) </span></font><br>
<br>
<em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US"><br></span></font></em></font><div><font face="'times new roman', serif"><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">
is a device for manipulating news on major news portals in the
country. In public places with free wireless access to the Internet,
the artists will build a small device into a wall plug, making it
appear as part of the local infrastructure. During the public
intervention, the gallery will be turned into a press center where
visitors and agents will remotely edit news read on laptops, phones
and tablets without their users knowing. Hotspots manipulable by
</span></font><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">
include cafes, libraries, hotels, universities and city-wide wireless
networks. In the Ljubljana edition of the project, wireless hotspots
with </span></font><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style:normal">
transmitters built in them will be at the </span></span></font></em><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Bi-Ko-Fe</span></font></em><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style:normal">
bar (Židovska steza 2, Ljubljana) and </span></span></font></em><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Kavarna
SEM | Slovenski etnografski muzej</span></font></em><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style:normal">
cafe (Metelkova ulica 2, Ljubljana).</span></span></font></em>
<br>
<br>
<em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Newstweek</font></em>
<em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span style="font-style:normal">
is one of the most insightful socially-engaged hacking projects of
the year. Last year it won the authors the prestigious Golden Nica
Prix in the Cyberarts category at the </span></font></em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Ars
Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. This year the authors will
install the device into the Ars Electronica Center as part of its
festival collection, and before that they will perform their public
intervention in Ljubljana.</font>
<br>
<br>
<em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">
emerges as a symptom of our increasingly corporatized and mediated
democratic reality. While news is increasingly read digitally, it
still follows a traditional, top-down distribution model and thus
often falls victim to the same political and corporate interests that
have always sought to manipulate public opinion. </span></font><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">
intervenes in this model, providing an opportunity for citizens to
have their turn at manipulating the media, “fixing facts” as they
pass across a wireless network. In this way </span></font><em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></font></em><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">
can be seen as a tactical device for altering public reality on a
per-network basis. </span></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><em><span lang="en-US">Newstweek</span></em><span lang="en-US">
also signals a word of caution, that a strictly media-defined reality
is always a vulnerable reality; that along the course of news
distribution there are many hands at work, from ISP workers, numerous
server administrators and wireless access point owners. Moreso, with
the increasing ubiquity of networks and their devices comes greater
ignorance as to their function, offering a growing opportunity for
manipulation of opinion, from source to destination (from server to
screen). </span></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>Julian
Oliver</b></font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">
is a New Zealander based in Berlin. He has been active in the
critical intersection of art and technology since 1998. His projects
and the occasional paper have been presented at many museums,
international electronic-art events and conferences, including the
Tate Modern, Transmediale, Ars Electronica and the Japan Media Arts
Festival. His work has received several awards, ranging across
technical excellence, artistic invention and interaction design.
Julian has given numerous workshops and master classes in software
art, augmented reality, creative hacking, data forensics,
object-oriented programming for artists, virtual architecture,
artistic game-development, information visualization, UNIX/Linux and
open source development practices worldwide. He is a long-time
advocate of the use of free software in artistic production,
distribution and education. Find out more at: </font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://julianoliver.com/" target="_blank"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">http://julianoliver.com</font></a></u></span></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><span style="text-decoration:none"><b>Danja
Vasiliev</b></span></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><span style="text-decoration:none">
is a Russian born computer artist currently living between Berlin and
Rotterdam. Working with diverse methods, technologies and materials
Danja ridicules the contemporary affection for digital life and
questions the global tendency for cyborgination. Works of the artist
often described as </span></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><i><span style="text-decoration:none">technological
interventions</span></i></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><span style="text-decoration:none">,
be those hardware, software or conceptual pieces. Famous recent works
include a mechanical web-server that is accessible over the Internet
(“m/e/m/e 2.0”, 2009), Linux distribution that joins and
questions the concepts of Turing machines and Singularity
(“RE:buntu”, 2009), human-puppetry installation that disconnects
bodies and consciousnesses of its users (“Master/slave”, 2007).
Network and Internet technology, especially in regard to the </span></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><i><span style="text-decoration:none">Network
as the new World</span></i></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><font color="#000000"><span style="text-decoration:none">,
is the latest affection of Danja Vasiliev. He is currently developing
several special devices that will become the new tools of a digital
interventionist. Find out more at:</span></font></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u>
</u></span></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://k0a1a.net/" target="_blank">http://k0a1a.net/</a></u></span></font></font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b><span style="background:transparent">In
partnership with: </span></b></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Kavarna
SEM, Metelkova ulica 2, Ljubljana </font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><a href="http://www.etno-muzej.si/sl/muzejska-kavarna" target="_blank">http://www.etno-muzej.si/sl/muzejska-kavarna</a></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Bi-Ko-Fe,
Židovska steza 2, Ljubljana </font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/BI-KO-FE/195564620484096" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/pages/BI-KO-FE/195564620484096</a></u></span></font></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>Acknowledgements:
</b><span style="font-weight:normal">Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital
Media Lab <a href="http://www.ljudmila.org/" target="_blank">www.ljudmila.org</a></span></font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><b>Production:
</b></span><span lang="en-GB">Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary
Art, Ljubljana, 2012</span></font>
<br>
<font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.aksioma.org/" target="_blank"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">www.aksioma.org</span></font></a></u></span></font><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"> </span></font>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Artistic
Director: Janez Janša</font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Executive
Producer: Marcela Okretič</font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Assistant
Production: Sonja Grdina</font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Public
Relations: Mojca Zupanič</font>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Technical Director: Valter Udovičić</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><i><b>The
programme of Aksioma Institute is supported by the Ministry of
Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of
Ljubljana.</b></i></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><i><span style="background:transparent">Sponsor:
Datacenter d.o.o.</span></i></font></font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>Contact:</b></font></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">Marcela
Okretič, 041 250 830, </span></font></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="mailto:aksioma4@siol.net" target="_blank"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">aksioma4@siol.net</span></font></a></u></span></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2"><b>Aksioma
| Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana</b></font></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="2">Neubergerjeva
25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia</font></font>
<br>
<font><font><span lang="zxx"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,129);font-size:11pt"><a href="http://www.aksioma.org/" target="_blank"><span lang="en-GB">www.aksioma.org</span></a></span></span></font></font></font><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font>
</div></div>
</div><br>