MONDOFUNZA

I met this robot at the Transmediale in Berlin earlier this year:

Text from the programme:

“In ‘Petit Mal’ the media artist Simon Penny has created an interactive robot that doesn’t have a useful function per se. This charming machine appears to be the diametric opposite of a hi-tech robot: it moves around light-footedly on the two wheels of a bicycle. Penny is interested in the emotional aspects of our relationship with machines, and in the cultural effects of research and development in the field of ‘artificial life’. ‘Petit mal’ is a term borrowed from neuropsychology, and stands for a momentary loss of control. In a subtle way, this criticises the control paradigm and social application of computer technology, in that visitors to the exhibition are confronted with an elaborate machine entity that appears, like a young animal, to desire nothing more than harmless and playful contact. Petit Mal was conceived in 1989. Building and development occurred 1992-95. The robot was damaged during exhibition in Sheffield in 1998. In summer 2005 work began on resurrecting it for transmediale 2006.”

Som jeg skrev i min forrige post, så er den svenske bienale for digital kunst - Electrohype - genopstået. Pludselig slog det mig, at jeg lavede min allerførste podcast fra åbningen af den forrige Electrohype d. 26. september 2004.

Den skulle du tage og lytte til.

Last year it seemed like the Swedish biennial for computerbased art - Electrohype - had turned off the electricity forever - read this.
But the good news this week is: They’re back! They’ve moved from Malmoe to Lund and this is their call for entries:

“Call for entries. Electrohype 2006 – the fourth Nordic biennial for computer based art

Deadline July 3rd 2006 – material via ordinary mail should be postmarked by this date.

Electrohype is pleased to announce this call for entries for the exhibition that will be a follow up to the previous large Electrohype exhibitions in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

The exhibition will take place in Lunds Konsthall from December 9th to January 7th.

This year the exhibition will be in both a new venue and a new city. Lunds Konsthall is located in the central part of Lund, in the south of Sweden. Lund is approximately 20 km north of Malmo where previous Electrohype exhibitions has been presented.

Lunds Konsthall, built in 1957, is a beautiful exhibition spaces in late functionalist architecture style. The exhibition space has a flexible semi-open layout with a total exhibition surface of approximately 600 - 800 square meters. The annual number of visitors in Lunds Konsthall is 95 000.

The exhibition will present works by 8 – 10 artists or artist groups. The concept of the Electrohype biennial is that it shall be a Nordic exhibition but this does not exclude works by artists from outside the Nordic region. To give the exhibition a broad perspective we are usually working with a 50/50model, 50 percent from the Nordic region and 50 percent from the rest of the world.

Since the decision to realize the exhibition was made just recently we have not yet decided on a theme or topic for this exhibition. This also explains the short deadline.

In addition to the main exhibition there will also be an exhibition with the topic “electronic art in public space” at the Museum of Sketches in Lund, a museum dedicated to public art. Most of the artworks in the museum are in the form of models, visualizations and sketches. This exhibition will be presented during the same period as the main exhibition. This call, and the application form, does not
include this exhibition, however if you have knowledge of, or have realized a project you think we should know of feel free to send us a short description
(maximum 1/2 page) and link to a project page. Please write “public” in
the subject line.

Important dates
Deadline for this call for entries July 3rd 2006
Exhibition opening December 9th 2006
Exhibition closing January 7th 2007

Please feel free to re-distribute this call.

What kind of art are we looking for?
Electrohype has since the start in 1999 focused on what we choose to call computer based art. Art that runs of computers and utilizes the capacity of the computer to mix various media, allow interaction with the audience, or machines interacting with each others etc. in other words art that can not be transferred to “traditional” linear media.
This might seem as a narrow approach but we have discovered that it gives us a better focus on a genre that in no way is narrow.

We are not looking for “straight” video art (even if it is edited on a computer) or still images rendered on computers and other material that refers to more “traditional” media forms. Forms were the traditional tools have been replaced with computers and software.

Practical
An online application form and a PDF form can be found on this address:
www.electrohype.org/2006

NOTE: Please do NOT send documentation material as attachments to e-mail and do NOT send 8 pages CVs. Put your material online and send us the url or ftp address or send us a CD in the mail. Please read the form and follow the guidelines. We receive a large amount of proposals and all of them are reviewed closely. To be able to do this we ask you to follow the structure in the application form and the topics mentioned above.

Financial
We are still working on the fundraising for the exhibition. We will hopefully have final numbers sometime during this summer. We will have to adjust the final selection of works for exhibition according to the financial situation. This is unfortunate but it is also necessary, art is beautiful but financial reality is harsh.

We will encourage everyone submitting material to look for possibilities for local funding to help cover costs for transport, travel and rent of technical equipment.

In previous exhibitions we have managed to keep a high level both in artistic content and exhibition design, even on a modest budget. It is therefore very important for us to avoid unpleasant surprises, so please keep this in mind when filling out the various posts in the form, especially when it comes to technical requirements, transport weight etc.

We are looking forward to see new and interesting works of art.

Best regards from the Electrohype team

Anna Kindvall and Lars Gustav Midboe”

For additional info please visit:
http://www.electrohype.org/2006

Last summer I was amazed by Thomas Friedmans book “The World is Flat”. Unfortunately I haven’t been close to a place, where he gives a speech, but Alex Soojung-Kim Pang has:

Thomas Friedman on… wait for it… The World is Flat: ”

“

(Via IFTF’s Future Now.)

Videoblogging is being hyped. I’ve just missed a workshop yesterday and I’m still not sure what it is that defines a vblogger? I’ve posted video - or at least links for video - that I’ve made for the past two years. Does that make me a videoblogger - vblogger - whatever it is called?

Please have a look at

I haven’t quite figured out what this is about, but it looks interesting:

innovationjournalism.org: The DVD “The Future of Innovation Journalism” (Innovation Journalism Vol.2 No.12) is now available on Google Video. This DVD presents a roundtable discussion about the future of journalism with the “Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf (Google /ICANN), Whitfield Diffie (Sun Microsystems), Amy Bernstein (Business 2.0), Lee Bruno (Red Herring), Dan Gillmor (Bayosphere), Anders Lotsson (Computer Sweden), Frances Mann-Craik (Tornado Insider, Addison Marketing), Harry McCracken (PC World), Tony Perkins (AlwayOn Network), Jan Sandred (Biotech Sweden), Richard Allan Horning (Tomlinson Zisko LLP), Charles Wessner (National Academies) and Stig Hagström (Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning). Producer and moderator: David Nordfors (Stanford / VINNOVA)

Last night I did a presentation on Web 2.0 and social media for the digital division of the Berlingske Officin - a corporation of several Danish papers. The setup was called a “champagne-buzz” = an informal setting at the end of a long day’s conference on digital media and future strategies for a media company more than 200 years old. They served me champagne, and I was not allowed to use Power Point, which I almost never do anyway - but I managed to persuade the organizar to print a t-shirt for me with one carefully selected slide. I chose a quote of Peter Hirshberg of Technorati that he made at the recent OnHollywood conference: “CONTROL was so 20th century”. I wanted to illustrate how usergenerated content is wrenching control over the news and content from the papers. And control is what an editor values most = this loss of control is what he fears most. And if he believes that he can still maintain total control, then he lives in the last century.

Athelas Sinfonietta CPH feat. mooseMATRIX og The Silesian String Quartet præsenterer:

Med luppen for øret
Simon Steen-Andersen: Debut/Portræt

Onsdag den 17. maj 2006, København
Dronningesalen i Den Sorte Diamant, kl. 20:00

Læs mere – og KOM MED OG LYT!

S vil have flere film fra provinsen:
“S vil have flere film fra provinsen
14. maj 2006 10.29 Kultur
Forud for de kommende forhandlinger om et nyt filmforlig siger Socialdemokratiet, at flere danske film bør foregå uden for København.
Partiets kulturordfører, Mogens Jensen, siger:
- Ud fra en overordnet kulturpolitisk betragtning vil det være fornuftigt, at vi rent visuelt kan få så mange indtryk som muligt af vores land.
Socialdemokraterne mener det kan foregå som på Fyn, hvor flere fynske kommuner har penge i en regional fysk filmfond.”

(Via dr.dk.)

Og jeg som troede, at det handler om den gode historie…, og så handler det om at vise danske landskaber frem. Jamen, det gjorde de jo også så skønt og godt i 50′erne med Far Til Fire. Jeg kan da fx huske Lille Per på Bornholm. Rådden historie men flotte klipper. No wonder sosserne scorer lavt i meningsmålingerne. De kunne jo starte med at lave valgfilm med Helle på udvalgte turistattraktioner i det ganske land. Fed serie: Helle i Dybbøl Mølle, Helle redder Holger Danske, Helle møder Den Lille Havfrue, Helle ved Vesterhavet, Helle vender tilbage, Helle på slottet etc etc – jeg kan næsten ikke vente på Danmarks genoprejsning som stolt filmnation - Lars von Trier come home - Trollhätten og amerikanske skuespillere er helt forkert, og Ålen er/var da vist socialdemokrat?

Hey - great idea. I used to listen a lot to this album way back 25 years ago when I was doing highschool….. They did sampling before sampling was actually possible, so it is actually the correct thing to do: to give this music back to be re-sampled under a Creative Commons license.

Remix David Byrne and Brian Eno’s latest: ”

David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Remix Site Launches Today
Submitted by Eric Steuer on 2006-05-09 04:57 PM.May 9, 2006

For the first time ever, fans are able to legally remix and share their own personal versions of two songs from David Byrne and Brian Eno’s groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The interactive forum bush-of-ghosts.com has been developed to celebrate the reissue of the album 25 years after its original release.

By agreeing to the terms of download, users will be able to download the component audio for two tracks from Bush of Ghosts - ‘A Secret Life’ and ‘Help Me Somebody.’ This component audio is licensed to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Consistent with that license, users can legally create remixes and upload them to the site. Visitors can listen to, rate, and discuss the remixes, and are also encouraged to create their own videos, which will be streamed on the site.

Yay! Thanks David and Brian and gratz to the CC team!

Comment - TrackBack”

(Via Joi Ito’s Web.)

I’ve just discovered that eMusic.com features Copenhagen, a live album by the now defunct American band Galaxie 500 recorded Decmber 1st 1990 in Copenhagen by the Danish Broadcast Corporation. The funny thing is that the venue was Barbue, the club where I was doing the booking. Though I did not book this concert since I had left to be a reporter a year earlier, I was probably in the audience.

It brings back memories. I also booked The Flaming Lips. Loudest concert ever at Barbue. Our tight, black jeans were vibrating because of the air pressure from the loudspeakers. Must have been in 1987.

Only other band that played that loud was Rapeman = Steve Albini, formerly of Big Black and later to become a famous producer of Nirvana and others. He tried to score after the concert. With little luck as I remember. Who wants to go to a sleazy hotel with the frontman of a band called Rapeman? Though he was actually a quite nice guy.

Same thing with Henry Rollins, who visited us with his spoken word show. He had some really funny stories about being at the hospital with a great urge to masturbate and about how he blew his only chance to killl Bono on a street in L.A.

And Sky Saxon - legendary singer of the sixities garagepunk band The Seeds - who only wanted to drink “ice cold milk”, which meant that we had to store several litres of milk in the icecube machine.

Or the Meat Puppets, who stole all of our completely new orange towels. I bought the orange ones on purpose, because I thought they were so ugly that no one would steal them. Wrong!

And another star from the 60’s/70’s garagerock scene Alex Chilton, who was really bad tempered. Maybe because he kept on having an electrical shock from the microphone.

I don’t know, because I had to leave that night to play a gig with my own band – Boghandle, Danish grunge - as usual it ended up with our singer getting into a fight with someone from the audience.

Those were the days. 1987. Almost 20 years ago. And what is left except from a clear sinustone constantly ringing in my ear?

Well, search for the above mentioned artists at eMusic. There are some pretty good picks. And some day I might get back to writing the whole story with all the sleazy details of the Copenhagen underground rock scene in the 80’s.

But then again; who cares?

This is fun! I’ve just received this pressrelease from “Halliburton”… Is it the Yesmen in a new disguise?

Check out the photos.
May 9, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: mailto:
Photos: http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/EPDU/

HALLIBURTON SOLVES GLOBAL WARMING
SurvivaBalls save managers from abrupt climate change

An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even
when climate change makes life as we know it impossible.

“The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no
matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way,” said Fred Wolf, a
Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss
conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida.
“This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate
change,” he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Most scientists believe global warming is certain to cause an
accelerating onslaught of hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes,
etc. and that a world-destroying disaster is increasingly possible.
For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just
the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will suddenly
become just as cold as Alaska. Global heat and flooding events are
also increasingly possible.

In order to head off such catastrophic scenarios, scientists agree we
must reduce our carbon emissions by 70% within the next few years.
Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits, however, and so
a more forward-thinking solution is needed.

At today’s conference, Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three
SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably
protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any
intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable
orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient
gathering capacities, onboard medical facilities, and a daunting
defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not
go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by
catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

“It’s essentially a gated community for one,” said Wolf.

Dr. Northrop Goody, the head of Halliburton’s Emergency Products
Development Unit, showed diagrams and videos describing the
SurvivaBall’s many features. “Much as amoebas link up into slime
molds when threatened, SurvivaBalls also fulfill a community
function. After all, people need people,” noted Goody as he showed an
artist’s rendition of numerous SurvivaBalls linking up to form a
managerial aggregate with functional differentiation, metaphorically
dancing through the streets of Houston, Texas.

The conference attendees peppered the duo with questions. One asked
how the device would fare against terrorism, another whether the
array of embedded technologies might make the unit too cumbersome; a
third brought up the issue of the unit’s cost feasibility. Wolf and
Goody assured the audience that these problems and others were being
addressed.

“The SurvivaBall builds on Halliburton’s reputation as a disaster and
conflict industry innovator,” said Wolf. “Just as the Black Plague
led to the Renaissance and the Great Deluge gave Noah a monopoly of
the animals, so tomorrow’s catastrophes could well lead to good - and
industry must be ready to seize that good.”

Goody also noted that Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society
was set to employ the SurvivaBall as part of its Corporate Sustenance
(R) program. Another of Cousteau’s CSR programs involves accepting a
generous sponsorship from the Dow Chemical Corporation, whose general
shareholder meeting is May 11.

Please visit http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/EPDU/ for photos,
video, and text of today’s presentation.

Årets bedste nyhed. Da jeg var på Harddisken P1, havde vi en sofa til “meditativ research”. Det var toppen lige at tage ti minutter på øjet, før man skulle koncentrere sig en ny opgave. Jeg får som regel de bedste ideer, når jeg er i bad, på min cykel gennem byen eller, når jeg sover eller er lige ved at falde i søvn. REM-søvn er toppen for kreativ tænkning. Da jeg startede hos FDB, der lå i Coops bygning i Albertslund, var der to rum på gangen med skilet “hvilerum”. Det havde de sikkert været engang, men nu blev de brugt til opmagasinering af ringbind. Tænk engang, at “dovenskab” engang har været en værdsat kvalitet. Genkomsten af den bølge vil jeg gerne være evangelist på!

Dovenskab er godt mod stress: “En halv time på divaneseren er god medicin mod stress.
Dovenskab er godt mod stress
07. maj 2006 03.50 Indland Opdat.: 07. maj 2006 11.24
En dosis dovenskab er god medicin mod stress. siger stressforskeren Thomas Milsted, der er leder af Center for Stress, til NORDJYSKE Stiftstidende.

- Problemet er bare, at vi ser dovenskab og pauser i arbejdstiden som uintelligent. Så afstressning er kulturelt imod os, siger Thomas Milsted.
Dagligt dovneri
I dag er over 44 procent stressede med mellemrum, viser tal fra Statens Institut for Folkesundhed.
- Dovenskab aktiverer nogle stoffer, der modvirker stress. Pulsen kommer ned, og hjertebanken og blodtrykket falder, når man dovner, siger Thomas Milsted.
Han foreslår, at det daglige dovneri kan være t”

(Via dr.dk.)

Jeg er blevet inviteret med i Mennesker og Medier hos Lasse Jensen i P1 i dag klokken 13 - 14.00. Erik Kjær Larsen fra Flix.dk og jeg er det første indslag i udsendelsen. Det handler – som den opmærksomme læser nok har gættet – om borgermedier og borgerjournalistik.

Du kan også fange genudsendelsen på P1 lørdag klokken 11- 12.00 – eller på podcast