new media ¬ art now [email protected] www.aminima.net Dirección:: Director:: Clara Alba ¬ Andrea García Méndez ¬ JoséTrascorrales Diseño:: Design:: Trascorrales Colaboradores:: Collaborators:: Chris Allen, HC Gilje, Kurt Ralske, Jonny DekamCasey Reas, Telecosystem (Lucas V.D. Velden, David Kiers, Gideon Kiers), Things Happen, Lia, Lillevan, Sue C., Pink Twins, Transforma, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), Olga Mink (aka Oxygen), Klaus Obermaier, Ilan Katin, Philipp Geist, Susana Karrasch, Electronic Shadow, Aether, Realited United, Boris & Brecht Debackere, Sandra Naumann, Asli Serbest, Mona Mahall, VJTheory, María Ptqk, CAMP, Daniel García Rovira, Sairica Rose, Arie Altena, Graffiti Research Lab Traductores:: Translators:: Raquel Herrera, Daniel García Rovira Editor:: Editor:: Espacio Publicaciones, S.L. Apartado de Correos P.O. Box 2879 - 08080 Barcelona Impresión:: Printing:: Eujoa Artes Gráficas dl/as1780/2003 Número Internacional Normalizado de Publicaciones International Standard Serial Number ISSN 1697-7777 a mínima:: no se hace responsable de la opinión de sus colaboradores. The content is responsibility of the authors.

Numero especial sobre Live Cinema, comisariado por Mia Makela Special issue about Live Cinema curated by Mia Makela

En este número :: In this number ::

Chris Allen HC Gilje: audiovisual spaces Kurt Ralske Jonny Dekam Casey Reas Telecosystems Lucas v.d. Velden, David Kiers, Gideon Kiers Things Happen Lia Lillevan Sue C. Pink Twins Transforma Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) Olga Mink Klaus Obermaier Ilan Katin Philipp Geist Susana Karrasch Naziha MESTAOUI, Yacine AIT KACI, Bengt Sjölén Adam Somlai-Fischer Realited United Boris & Brecht Debackere Mia Makela Sandra Naumann Asli Serbest & Mona Mahall Andrew Bucksbarg Gabriel Menotti Maria PTQK Cornelia Lund & Holger Lund Daniel García Rovira

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Live Cinema Creación audiovisual en tiempo real. Por Mia Makela (revisado por Sairica Rose)

Este número especial de a mínima está dedicado al Live Cinema, un término acuñado recientemente para referirse a la creación audiovisual en tiempo real. Por muy nuevo que parezca el término, la creación audiovisual tiene de hecho tras de sí una larga trayectoria. Incluso antes de la invención del Cinématographe, el showman Magic Lantern desarrolló efectos especiales ópticos, en tiempo real y muy vanguardistas para Phantasmagoria; y la Música de Color exploró las conexiones sinestésicas entre el sonido y los colores. En la actualidad, los artistas de Live Cinema continúan esa tradición de experimentación audiovisual, sólo que ayudados ahora por las tecnologías digitales. El montaje en tiempo real, el dibujo, la pintura, la

mezcla y remezcla, el procesado y la generación de imágenes son ejemplos de prácticas contemporáneas. Existen muchos enfoques distintos para esta forma de arte multidisciplinar, lo cual dificulta su definición y categorización. No obstante, la raison d’être del Live Cinema ha permanecido idéntica a lo largo de todo el siglo pasado: ofrecer experiencias alternativas para la narración cinemática y su establecimiento tradicionales, y hacerlo en tiempo real y para una audiencia en diversos contextos – desde almacenes subterráneos hasta museos de arte contemporáneo, o bien a través de Internet. Recientemente, un número creciente de artistas y teóricos ha empezado a interesarse por las prácticas cinemáticas en tiempo real, escribiendo artículos y tesis acerca de diversos conceptos: proyecciones, precursores,

interfaces pictóricos, remezcla en tiempo real, programación generativa y trayectorias del Live Cinema. Este número de a mínima es una colección de reflexiones contemporáneas en torno a este género. La pregunta “¿Qué es el Live Cinema?” ha sido respondida varias veces a fin de trazar una definición general del término, puesto que hasta ahora éste ha permanecido como algo bastante abstracto. El término Live Cinema todavía suena artificial a muchos oídos, pareciendo más natural sustituirlo por “live video” o por algo más actualizado según los medios empleados. Sin embargo, muchos creadores generan sus imágenes mediante software y no utilizan el vídeo para nada, con lo cual sus prácticas están más cerca del “live painting” que del vídeo o del cine. Hasta que alguien no invente un término más coherente, Live Cinema probablemente conservará su posición como común denominador para una amplia gama de prácticas en tiempo real.

Este número se centra en aspectos específicos del Live Cinema, como las proyecciones y el espacio. Por eso se incluye la mediarquitectura, pues el trabajo con la arquitectura y construcciones in situ constituye uno de los mayores intereses para los profesionales actuales del Live Cinema. Klaus Obermeir, uno de los artistas presentados, colabora con salas de danza, utilizando los cuerpos de los bailarines como blancos móviles para sus proyecciones, lo cual termina por transformar visualmente la realidad física de los cuerpos. Los Web Jockeys emplean Internet como espacio para crear performances audiovisuales en tiempo real y para compartir con el público la experiencia de navegar online. Otra cuestión importante es el desarrollo de software: la mentalidad del DIY y el desarrollo colectivo de herramientas son aspectos esenciales de la escena del Live Cinema. Esto es especialmente relevante porque las herramientas digitales que nos permiten manipular, procesar y generar imágenes en tiempo real, existen sólo desde hace un par de años, y con el aumento de la capacidad de procesado de los ordenadores, el espectro de posibilidades se amplía todavía más. Por eso, no es ninguna sorpresa que ya existan alrededor de unos 100 softwares para la manipulación visual en tiempo real y que su número vaya en aumento.

El Live Cinema es considerado a menudo como otra rama del VJng (Video Jockeying). Sin embargo, aunque los VJs y los profesionales del Live Cinema comparten los mismos softwares y similares métodos de trabajo, sus contextos son diferentes, puesto que los VJs están relacionados sobretodo con la cultura de club y los DJs. Muchos creadores de Live Cinema sienten la necesidad de desvincularse completamente de la escena VJ para poder establecer sus propios objetivos artísticos, los cuales raramente encontrarían una audiencia receptiva en un entorno de club. De hecho, los eventos audiovisuales y los festivales como el Sonic Acts o el Mapping son los principales puntos de encuentro para los creadores y para el público. Muchos artistas de Live Cinema trabajan en estrecha colaboración con músicos y forman grupos audiovisuales (Rechenzentrum, Telcosystems, Pink Twins, etc), demostrándose así que su enfoque ha ido mucho más allá de la mera creación de salvapantallas visuales para acompañar al DJ. En resumen, la fuerza conductora del Live Cinema como movimiento quizá resida en la cantidad inagotable de descubrimientos dentro del misterioso lenguaje de los audiovisuales, el cual, desde el principio y contra todo pronóstico, ha mantenido a tantos creadores fascinados por esta forma de arte.

Mia Makela a.k.a SOLU es una artista finlandesa residente en Barcelona. Trabaja con new media y Live Cinema. Es profesora, investigadora y activista cultural. www.solu.org

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Live Cinema Realtime audiovisual creation By Mia Makela This a minima special issue is dedicated to Live Cinema, a recently coined term for realtime audiovisual creation. As new as the term may seem, there is infact, a long trajectory for realtime audiovisual creation. Even before the invention of Cinematographé, Magic Lantern showmen developed state-of-the-art, optical, realtime special effects for Phantasmagoria and Color Music pioneers explored the synaesthetic connections between audio and colors. Today, Live Cinema artists continue the traditions of audiovisual experimentation, and are now aided by digital technologies. Realtime montage, drawing, painting, mixing, re-mixing, processing and generating visuals are some examples of contemporary practises. There are many approaches to this multidisciplinary art form, which makes it hard to pin down, define and categorize. Nevertheless, the raison d´être of Live Cinema has remained constant throughout the century: to offer alternative experiences for traditional cinematic narration and set-up, in realtime and for audience in various contexts, ranging from underground warehouses, to museums of contemporary art or on the internet. Recently, an increasing number of artists and theorists have turned their attention to realtime cinematic practises and have written articles and theses on various concepts, including projections, precursors, painterly interfaces, realtime, remixing, generative programming and the trajectories of Live Cinema. This a minima issue is a collection of contemporary reflections on the genre. The question “What is live

cinema ?” has been answered various times, in order to map out a general definition of the term, as it has remained quite abstract until now. The term Live Cinema still sounds artificial to many ears, as it seems natural to replace it with “live video” or something more up to date with the mediums used. However, many creators generate their visuals with software and don’t use video at all, thus their practise is actually closer to “live painting” than video or cinema.. Until someone invents a more coherent term, Live Cinema will probably hold its position as a common denominator for a wide range of realtime practises. The focus of this issue is on special aspects of Live Cinema, such as projections and space, so mediatecture is included, as working with architecture and site-specific set-ups is one of the biggest interests for contemporary Live Cinema practitioners. Klaus Obermeir, one of the showcased artists, collaborates with dance theatres, using the dancers´ bodies as moving targets for his projections, which ends up visually transforming the physical reality of the bodies. Web Jockeys use internet as space for creating realtime AV-performances and sharing the experience of surfing online with the public. Another important issue is software development: DIY mentality and collective development of tools are essential aspects of the Live Cinema scene. This is particularly relevant because the digital tools that enable us to manipulate, process and generate visuals in realtime, have only existed for a couple of years, and with the growth in processing power of the computers, the range of possibilities grows ever wider. Therefore it is no surprise that over 100 softwares for realtime visual manipulation already exist and that the number keeps increasing.

Live Cinema is often considered to be another branch of VJng (Video Jockeying). However, although VJs and Live Cinema practitioners share the same softwares and similar methods of working, their contexts are different, as VJs are predominantly related to the club culture and DJs. As such, many Live Cinema creators feel the need to separate themselves from the VJ scene altogether, in order to establish their own artistic goals, which would rarely find an appreciative audience in a club environment. In fact, Audiovisual events and festivals like Sonic Acts or Mapping are the main meeting points for the creators and the public. Many Live Cinema artists work in close collaboration with musicians and form AV-groups (Rechenzentrum, Telcosystems, Pink Twins, etc), symbolizing that their approach has gone far beyond creating visual wallpapers to accompany the DJ. To sum it up, the driving force behind the Live Cinema movement might well be the endless discoveries within the mysterious language of AudioVisuals that has kept so many creators fascinated with this art form from the beginning, and against all the odds.

Mia Makela a.k.a SOLU is finnish media + live cinema artist, teacher, investigator and cultural activist residing in Barcelona. www.solu.org

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interview entrevista

Chris Allen / The light surgeons Mia Makela

¿Cómo describirías tu trabajo?

How would you describe your work?

Actualmente estamos trabajando a través de plataformas de audio y vídeo, por lo tanto yo no me describiría a mí mismo como un artista ‘visual’ en tiempo real. Nuestro trabajo combina aspectos de filmación de documental, diseño de animación, fotografía y producción musical.

We are currently working across the audio and visual plattforms so I wouldn’t describe myself as a realtime “visual” artist. Our work combines aspects of documentary filmmaking, motion graphic design, photography and music production.

El trabajo de The Light Surgeons siempre ha abarcado diversos media explorados en un contexto en directo. Esto no siempre ha estado relacionado con la manipulación digital. Estoy interesado en la simple interacción de proyección, luz y sombras, así como en un enfoque personal para crear el contenido. Nos fascinan los accidentes felices que tienen lugar en cualquier proceso pero especialmente en el de una performance en vivo.

The Light Surgeons work has always spanned various different media explored in a live context. That might not always be about digital manipulation, I’m interested in the simple interaction of projection, light and shadows, as well as an in-camera approach to create the content. We're always fascinated by the happy accidents that occur in any process but particularly that of a live performance.

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¿Cómo describirías el ‘live cinema’? ¿Empleas este término para tu trabajo?

How would you describe "live cinema”? Do you use that term for your work?

Prefiero describir lo que hacemos con este término que con el de Vjing, creo que con él se describe nuestro enfoque, puesto que trabajamos con estructuras narrativas dentro de un contexto performántico y no nos dedicamos meramente a crear imágenes aleatorias para música.

I prefer this description of what we do than the term Vjing, I think it describes our approach well as we work with narrative structures within a performance context and are not just creating random visuals to music.

¿Cómo tenéis en cuenta el aspecto espacial de la performance? Trabajamos con multiples fuentes de proyección, por tanto, el aspecto espacial es muy importante para nosotros. Tener una instalación compleja siempre supone toda una lucha para lograr la adaptación de tu espectáculo a los distintos espacios, pero a menudo también puede dar lugar a posibilidades inesperadas. Nuestro espectáculo consiste en tres fuentes de vídeo y dos proyecciones de diapositivas, mezclándose proyecciones delanteras y traseras. Tenemos dos pantallas detrás del escenario y una gran cortina de teatro de gasa en la parte delantera para crear un efecto 3D a base de capas. Por supuesto, todo esto tiene que ser tenido en cuenta en el momento de crear y editar el material. Técnicamente, hay que tener en cuenta muchas cosas. Siempre tenemos trabajo extra, planificar tal instalación, y muchas veces ello supone un gran esfuerzo, sobretodo si tienes que trabajar alrededor de otros performers en el mismo escenario. Siempre vale la pena hacer algo que no sea colocar una pantalla de vídeo detrás del escenario.

How do you take into account the spatial aspect of performance? We work with multiple sources of projection, so the spatial aspect is very important to us. Having a complex set up means it is always a struggle to adapt your show to different spaces but often that can throw up unexpected possibilities. Our show consists of three video sources and two slide projections, which are projected as a mixture of front and rear projection. We have two screens at the back of the stage and a large theatre gauze over the front to create a 3D layered effect. Of course, all of this has to be taken into account when making and editing the material. Technically, there's a lot to consider, we always have to do that bit of extra work and planning to get this set up and sometimes it can be a real effort, specially if you have to work around other performers on the same stage. I always think it’s worth doing something a bit different than one video screen at the back of the stage.

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¿Cuál sería el espacio ideal para tu performance?

What would be the ideal space for your performance?

Mi espacio ideal sería algo a mitad de camino entre un club y un teatro, algo del tipo cabaret multimedia. Como nosotros mezclamos narración y música, es agradable tener a la gente esperando, sentada informalmente, pero también lo es darle la libertad de poder moverse por ahí. En nuestros espectáculos, el plano de proyección puede ser muy distinto según el ángulo desde el que se vea, por eso está bien darle a la gente la opción de explorar este aspecto. Sería un lugar con una pista de baile hundida, asientos agradables y acogedores dispuestos en diferentes niveles, ¡y un bar sin colas!

My idea of space is something between a club and a theatre space, a sort of multimedia cabaret type of thing. Because we mix narrative and music it’s nice to have people attending with informal seating but give the audience the freedom to move around as well. The laying of the projection in our shows can be very different when viewed from a different angle so it’s nice for people to be able to explore that aspect. Somewhere with a sunken dance floor and nice cosy seating on different levels around the outside with a bar without a queue! How do you build your performance?

¿Cómo elaboráis vuestra performance? Varía, dependiendo del proyecto. Pero en cuanto al espectáculo que estamos terminando: empezamos investigando y reuniendo material documental. Hicimos otra serie de investigaciones y de filmaciones, luego dedicamos un mes a grabar música y, finalmente, tres meses a la postproducción. ¡Y también una semana de ensayos! Esto no es lo normal, pero tampoco se trata de una obra normal.

It varies depending on the project, but with the show we are just finishing, it started with research and gathering some documentary material, another round of research and filming, a month of recording the music and then three months of postproduction. One week of rehearsals as well! That’s not normal but this isn't a normal piece of work.

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Me he dado cuenta de que utilizáis la voz en off como elemento, lo cual da continuidad y estructura narrativa a vuestro material... Sí, estoy muy interesado en cómo funciona el lenguaje en general, nuestro nuevo espectáculo explora esto a través del concepto de mito: cómo las verdades se crean y se distorsionan. Me gusta explorar los espacios que hay entre la imagen, el sonido y la palabra hablada. Gran parte de nuestra obra temprana giraba en torno a la recopilación de buen número de entrevistas con gente durante nuestros viajes, las cortábamos con música transformándolas en una suerte de piezas para radio, y luego les añadíamos imágenes. Esto se convirtió en una especie de forma laxa, expresionista, de producción filmográfica, un collage que dejaba un mayor margen a la audiencia para interpretar la narrativa. Me gusta mucho el espacio radiofónico, te permite imaginar, es triste que en nuestros días su importancia sea escasa con toda la pulcra animación 3D y su forma tan acelerada de edición propias de la cultura popular. Gran parte del trabajo en la escena VJ puede verse desprovista de significado y de sustancia, o bien sólo es entretenimiento o bien sólo estética superficial. Éste es ciertamente el problema de trabajar con clubs. Yo intento introducir significado y narración en nuestros proyectos porque me gusta implicar a la audiencia y hacer que piense. Quizá esto resulte un poco demasiado didáctico para la mayoría de audiencias de club, pero, como artista visual, creo que debemos sacar este área artística de su ámbito restringido para conectar con audiencias distintas. Es demasiado fácil predicar sólo a los conversos. ¡Hay tantas cosas de las que hablar en el mundo, tantas historias y cosas significativas que comunicar!

I've noticed that you use voice-over as an element, which gives continuance and narrative structure to your material... Yes, I'm very interested in how language works in general, our new show explores this through the concept of myth, and how truths are created and distorted. I like to explore the spaces between image, sound and spoken word. Much of our early work revolved around collecting fairly random interviews with people on our various travels, we would cut them up with music and make them into a sort of montage radio pieces and then start adding visuals to them. This became a sort of loose, expressionist form of filmmaking, a collage that left more space for the audience to interpret the narrative. I love the space of radio, it allows you to imagine and that’s sadly lucking these days with all the highly polished 3D animation and snappy editing in popular culture. Much of the work in the VJ scene can be a bit devoid of meaning and substance, its either just entertainment or just surface aesthetics. That’s the problem working in clubs really. I try to bring meaning and story telling to our projects because I like to engage the audience and make them think. Maybe that’s all a bit too didactic for most club audiences, but I think, as an AV artist, we need to push this area of art out there more, connect with different audiences. It’s too easy just to preach to the converted. There's so much to talk about in the world, so many stories and meaningful things to communicate!

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¿Cómo colaboras en el grupo?

How do you collaborate in the group?

Hago de director. En la mayoría de proyectos trabajo con un productor independiente, e invito a diversos artistas y diseñadores a que colaboren sobre la base del proyecto. Estas colaboraciones varían en función del proyecto, a veces hago más de comisario y dejo a la gente que haga lo que le apetezca, en otros casos las colaboraciones dentro del grupo son más directas.

I operate as the director and work with a freelance producer on most projects and invite different artist and designers in to collaborate on a project basis. These collaborations vary depending on the project, sometimes I'm acting more as a curator and letting people do their own thing really, and with some projects there are more direct collaborations within the group.

Dependiendo de en qué estadio del proyecto te encuentres, algunas personas son mejores para empezar un proyecto en sus inicios y otras lo son para cerrarlo al final.

It also depends on what stage of a project you’re in, some people are better at opening things up at the beginning and other closing it down at the end.

Con el proyecto ‘New Adventures’, o ‘True Fictions’ (¡nuevo título!) he estado dirigiendo y produciendo el proyecto como un todo, lo cual implica trabajar en todos sus aspectos. Empecé con la fase de investigación, luego seguí con la filmación documental y con las entrevistas, también formando parte del equipo de producción con el veterano miembro de TLS, Rob Rainbow. La música que grabamos en New York fue grabada y en parte arreglada por mi hermano Ben Allen, Dynamic Syncopation (Ninja Tune). Invitamos a unos veinticinco músicos a participar en las sesiones de grabación. Jamás había trabajado con ninguno de ellos. Así que se obtuvieron muchos resultados inesperados a lo largo del proceso. De vuelta a Londres, he estado ocupándome de toda la postproducción audiovisual con una persona de mucho talento, Tim Cowie, con quien he estado trabajando intermitentemente durante los últimos años. Hay un par de temas que han sido producidos por otros artistas, como por ejemplo Scanone, aka Jude Greenaway, miembro de la antigua escuela de TLS, y Macolm Litson, otro antiguo afiliado. Ha sido un proyecto con una larga trayectoria que ha ido creciendo de forma bastante orgánica, pero creo que va a ser lo mejor que hayamos realizado en mucho tiempo. ¡Estoy impaciente por mostrarlo ya a la gente!

With the New Adventures, or True Fictions (new title!) I have been directing and producing the project as a whole and that involves working on all aspects of it. I started out on the research and then began the documentary filming and interviews as part of the production with long time TLS member, Rob Rainbow. The music that we recorded in New York was engineered and part arranged by my brother Ben Allen, Dynamic Syncopation (Ninja Tune). We invited about twenty-five different musicians to participate in the recording sessions, none of which I had ever worked with, so there are lots of unexpected results from that process. Back in London, I have been doing all of the postproduction on the video and audio with a very talented man called Tim Cowie, who I've been working with on and off for the past few years. A couple of the tracks have been produced by other artists, a track by Scanone, AKA Jude Greenaway who is an old school member of TLS and Malcolm Litson who is another long time affiliate. It’s been a long haul project and has grown fairly organically really, but I think it’s going to be the best thing we have made for a long time. I’m just looking forward to showing it to people!

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¿De qué forma se relacionan audio y vídeo? En nuestro nuevo proyecto, las dos cosas se han realizado juntas en buena medida: todo el audio del espectáculo ha sido grabado en vídeo, y hemos mezclado y arreglado ambos a la vez. ¿Cómo ves el futuro de la creación visual en tiempo real? Creo que será posible ver una mayor interacción entre la audiencia y el espectáculo, lo cual sería muy interesante; las posibilidades de la tecnología móvil pueden llevar a efecto algunos desarrollos inesperados en este área. En este preciso momento, la cantidad de hardware y de instrumentos nuevos me resultan muy excitantes. ¡Acabo de iniciarme en el Midi! Estamos preparando un espectáculo en el que estrenaremos ese instrumento nuevo llamado TENORI-ON, que tiene un magnífico interface. Estoy deseando dar mayor salida a nuestro trabajo mediante su publicación en la red y en formato DVD. Me gustaría desarrollar un sello para editar DVDs, impulsar nuevas e innovadoras vías para combinar impresión, web y vídeo multiangular en DVD. A nivel general, necesitamos encontrar una manera de hacer que estas formas de expresión sean más sostenibles fuera del mundo corporativo de los sellos discográficos y de la esponsorización comercial. Estoy entusiasmado con la nueva oleada de empresas sociales y de vías a través de las que la audiencia puede invertir en el arte que le gusta. Hay aquí un enorme potencial para rodear las instituciones establecidas. Por encima de todo, espero continuar siendo libre y vivir la vida realizando este tipo de proyectos.

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What is the relationship between audio and video? With our new project, the two have been made together pretty much, all of the audio in the show has been recorded on video and we have mixed and arranged both at the same time. How do you see the future of realtime visual creation? I think we might see more interaction between the audience and performance, that could be very interesting; the possibilities of mobile technology could bring about some unforeseen developments in this area. The stream of new hardware and instruments are all very exciting to me right now, I’ve only just got into Midi! We're about to do a show to launch this new electronic instrument called a TENORI-ON which has an amazing interface. I'm very keen to get our work out more by publishing it on the web and DVD, I’d like to develop a DVD label, push new and innovative ways to combine print, web and multiple angles of video on DVD. On a general level, we need to start finding a way to make these forms of expression more sustainable outside of the corporate world of record labels and commercial sponsorship. I'm excited by the new wave of social enterprises and ways in which the audience can invest directly into the art that they like. There is huge potential to circum-navigate the established institutions. Above all, I really hope to continue to be free and to make a living from doing these types of projects.

Chris Allen Founder & Director The Light Surgeons' work spans a diverse range of media; print, photography, motion graphics, digital film production, exhibitions, installations and ground breaking live audio visual performances. http://www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk

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¿Qué te motivó a investigar de qué forma las tecnologías audiovisuales pueden transformar espacios físicos?

What was your motivation for investigating how Audiovisual technologies can transform physical spaces ?

En parte fue mi trabajo escenográfico y algunas instalaciones realizadas para emplazamientos específicos, pero también cuando empecé a advertir cómo la luz y el sonido pueden transformar el mismo lugar de maneras muy distintas, con sólo contemplar el mismo sitio en diversos momentos del día o en diversas épocas del año. Me interesa mucho la plasticidad del tiempo y del espacio, y cómo el movimiento los interrelaciona. Es decir, ser capaz de jugar con el espacio focalizándolo mediante luz, imagen y sonido. Improvisar con lo que ofrece un espacio, tanto en términos de input como de output. Qué ofrece como material para la imagen y el sonido, cómo incorporar el aspecto tiempo (la memoria) en un espacio. Cómo focalizar determinadas partes de un espacio (vídeo en el rincón de una habitación, una silla, el suelo, una persona, sonido proveniente de distintos lugares/objetos...), y después cómo proyectar imagen y sonido de nuevo en dicho espacio.

Partly through my work with scenography and some site-specific installations, but also by appreciating how light and sound can transform the same place in so many ways, just looking at the same spot at different times in the day, different times of the year. I am very interested in the plasticity of time and space, and how motion links them together. So, essentially being able to play a space by focusing it using light, image and sound. Improvising with what´s available in a space, in terms of both input and output. What is available as material for image and sound in the space, how to incorporate the time aspect (memory) of a space, how to focus on certain parts of a space (video in the corner of a room, a chair, the floor, a person, sound coming from different locations/objects), then look at how to project image and sound back into the space.

Jugar con un espacio consistiría entonces en crear algún tipo de estructura para todos estos elementos, casi como una composición o como una coreografía espacial.

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Otra motivación fue el sentimiento general de que los proyectos audiovisuales adolecen de una falta de tensión. Yo persigo una experiencia física. Me gusta la idea de una mente encarnada, de que nuestra mente está enraizada en el mundo a través de nuestros cuerpos. Mediante la creación de un espacio físico utilizando tecnología audivisual, puedes hacer la experiencia de esto a través de tu cuerpo. He observado que los proyectos audiovisuales para un espacio tienden a consistir en instalaciones de multipantallas con sonido surround sin relación alguna con el espacio en donde se ubican. Yo quiero usar el lugar físico como punto de partida, y no sólo como mero contenedor de una instalación.

The playing of a space would then be creating some sort of structure to all these elements, so almost like a composition or choreography of a space. Another motivation was a general feeling of a lack of tension in AV projects, I want to get a physical experience. I like the idea of the embodied mind, that our mind is grounded to the world through our bodies.So by creating a physical space using AV, you will experience it through your body. I see a tendency of spatial AV projects being multiscreen setups with surround sound which don´t really relate to the space they are in. I want to use the location as a starting point, not just as a container for a setup.

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¿Qué clase de posibilidades futuras ves para el trabajo audiovisual espacial?

What kind of the possibilities do you see in the horizon for spatial audiovisuals ?

Todavía espero que sucedan más cosas en cuanto a tecnología relativa a proyección y pantalla. Cuando sea posible algo como una película LED de alta resolución que puedas cortar en la forma que quieras y envolverla en un objeto. Eso permitiría un verdadero trabajo en pantalla.

I am still waiting for more things to happen with projection and screen technology, when you can get something like a high-res LED film which you could cut to the shape you want and wrap it onto an object, and it would be a working screen.

Estoy interesado en las posibilidades de montajes móviles. El desarrollo reciente de fuentes de energía alternativa, equipo portátil, y redes sin cable, facilita mucho las intervenciones con tecnología audiovisual. Me interesa crear un diálogo con mis entornos. Por esta razón, mi proyecto se centra en cómo explorar y capturar espacios, pero también en cómo transformarlos. Creo que cuanto más me sumerjo en este área, más deseo realizar proyectos a pequeña escala. Las mediafacades son fascinantes, pero al final son más un espectáculo que otra cosa. Así pues, busco soluciones manejables que permitan a la gente relacionarse con su entorno mediante la tecnología. Me inspiro en intentos de transformar e interpretar espacios llevados a cabo por otros artistas, como la ‘Máquina de hablar tiempo’ de David Rokeby, o ‘Displacements’, instalaciones de Michael Naimark.

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Actualmente, trabajo en mi proyecto ‘Nodio’, que consiste en la conexión de muchos nódulos audiovisuales juntos en una red y en la elaboración de composiciones audiovisuales con mi secuenciador casero. Cuando se crean ritmos y patrones a través de diversas fuentes, lo más interesante es lo que sucede entre dichas fuentes. Pero supongo que éste es sólo uno de los proyectos posibles que permiten jugar con un espacio.

I am interested in possibilities with mobile setups. Recent development with alternative energy sources, portable equipment, and wireless networks makes it easier to do interventions with AV technology. My interest is in creating a dialogue with my surroundings, that is why my project is as much about how to explore and capture spaces as well as transforming them. I think the more I dive into this area the more I want to do smallscale projects. Media-facades are fascinating, but too much of a spectacle in the end. So I look for portable accessible solutions which makes it easier for more people to relate to their environment with technology. I am inspired by other artists´ attempts at transforming and interpreting spaces, like David Rokeby´s Machine for Taking Time and Michael Naimark´s Displacements installations. Currently I am working on in my Nodio project, connecting many av nodes together in a network and make AV compositions with my homemade sequencer: creating rhythms, patterns across several sources, what happens between the sources is the most interesting. But I guess this is just one of the projects leading up to being able to play a space.

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¿Qué pasará con el encantador dúo proyector + pantalla?

What will happen to the lovely duo projector+screen ?

No me parece que vaya a desaparecer pronto. Prefiero una actuación audiovisual en una sola pantalla que un club en el que se proyecte la misma imagen diez veces – lo que para mí es una mala interpretación del trabajo audiovisual espacial –. Creo que la pantalla todavía tiene la habilidad de atraer la atención del espectador, por eso las obras de live cinema todavía funcionan bien en ese formato.

I don´t see it disappearing anytime soon. I much prefer a AV-performance on a single screen to a club with the same image multiplied ten times, which for me is a misunderstanding of spatial AV. I think the screen still has the ability to draw the attention of the spectator, which is why live cinema works still works well in this format.

HC Gilje HC Gilje works with video in real time environments, installations, live performance, set design and singlechannel video. Gilje has presented his work through different channels throughout the world: in concertvenues,theater and cinema venues, galleries, festivals and through several international dvd releases. http://hcgilje.wordpress.com

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¿Cómo empezaste a trabajar con audiovisuales en tiempo real? Yo trabajaba con música electrónica, y hacia 1997 empecé a utilizar Max/MSP para ciertos experimentos: realizaba largas composiciones reestructurando fragmentos muy cortos de material original preexistente. Un día me di cuenta de que la estrategia de reestructurar material también podía funcionar con imágenes, además de con sonido... Lo importante era la estrategia: daba igual que el resultado fuera música o vídeo. Empecé experimentando con el procesado de imágenes en Java, entonces salió Nato en 1999... y a partir de aquí, todo fue muy fácil. How did you get started with realtime audiovisuals ? I worked with electronic music, and around 1997, I began using Max/MSP for some experiments with making long compositions by restructuring very short bits of pre-existing source material. One day I realized that the strategy for restructuring material could work with images as well as sound...the strategy was the important thing: it didn't matter if the result was music or video. I started experimenting with processing images in Java, then Nato became available in 1999... and then, it was all downhill from there.

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a Con Nato, los usuarios de Max podían controlar el vídeo en tiempo real. Antes de Nato, la única forma de crear videoarte era trabajando con un software comercial de edición de vídeo: un videoartista tenía que tomar decisiones delicadas, como un compositor, y después esperar (a veces durante horas) a la renderización del resultado final. Con Nato, los resultados eran instantáneos. Esto abrió la posibilidad de improvisar con imágenes, del mismo modo que los músicos improvisan con el sonido. Es una forma de trabajar más intuitiva y directa. With Nato, Max users could control video in real-time. Before Nato, the only way of creating video art was to work with commercial video editing software: a video artist had to make careful decisions, like a composer, and then wait (sometimes for hours) for the final result to render. With Nato, results were instantaneous. This opened up the possibility of improvising with images, in the way improvising musicians improvise with sound. It's a much more intuitive and direct way of working.

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a ¿Cuál es tu relación con el legendario sofware Max/Msp/Nato? Nato fue probablemente el primer software que proporcionó un procesado de vídeo aleatorio en tiempo real. Era tan excitante por entonces... Ahí estaba esa poderosa herramienta, pero para utilizarla tenías que confiar en una extraña y anónima entidad online. Tenías que estar dispuesto a soportar una documentación poéticamente críptica, utilizar el software mediante unas instrucciones tipográficamente desafiantes, y si necesitabas soporte técnico, debías someterte a un trato condescendiente y/o abusivo. Pero no había elección – ¡era demasiado interesante como para no involucrarse en ello! What was your relationship with the legendary Max/Msp/Nato software ? Nato was probably the first software to provide real-time random-access video processing. It was so exciting at the time. Here was this powerful tool, but to use it, you had to trust a bizarre anonymous online entity. You had to be willing to endure poetically cryptic documentation, use the software via typographically challenging commands, and if you needed tech support, submit to patronizing and/or abusive treatment. But, there was no choice -- it was too interesting to be involved!

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a ¿Qué ha sucedido después (de Nato), en tu vida como artista y como desarrollador de software?

What has happened since (after nato) in your life as a creator / software developer ?

En 2001 desarrollé Auvi para Nato, porque quería ampliar las capacidades de Nato. Auvi es un conjunto de 85 objetos Max que amplían las capacidades de Max para vídeo en tiempo real. Funcionan un poco como los filtros de Photoshop para vídeo en directo, sólo que realizan efectos en tiempo real. Además son muy fáciles de usar algorítmicamente: un videoartista puede ordenarle a un objeto Auvi cambiar de diversas formas en tiempo real, y más allá de eso, también funcionará satisfactoriamente tomando interesantes decisiones en lugar del artista, mientras éste se encuentre ocupado haciendo otras cosas. Creé Auvi para uso personal, después decidí comercializarlo como producto para la venta.

In 2001, I developed Auvi for Nato, because I wanted to extend the capabilities of Nato. Auvi is a set of 85 Max objects, to extend the capabilities of Max for real-time video. It's a bit like Photoshop filters for live video, except they do time-based effects. Also they are very easy to use algorithmically -- a video artist can tell an Auvi object to change in various ways over time, and it will happily work away making interesting decisions for the artist, while they are busy doing other things. I wrote Auvi for my own use, then decided to market it as a commercial product.

Más tarde, en 2002, desarrollé Auvi para Jitter, porque estaba claro que Nato no iba a tener una larga vida. Desde entonces, me he dedicado menos al desarrollo de software, porque es mucho menos interesante que la creación artística. Me dedico a la creación de vídeo-instalaciones, he expuesto en galerías y museos a nivel internacional, y realizo vídeo en directo con conjuntos de música contemporánea y compañías de danza. Doy clases todo el día en el School of The Museum of Fine Arts de Boston. En 2007, recibí el Media Arts Fellowship de la Rockefeller Foundation. ¿Cómo describirías tu trabajo como artista visual en tiempo real? Me encanta trabajar con la cámara, capturar el entorno y luego procesar las imágenes en directo, de tal modo que, en el momento de ser proyectadas, transformen el entorno. Retrasar imágenes en vivo, cambiarles la velocidad, invertir su secuencia, repetir secciones: todo ello trastorna la coherencia

Then in 2002, I developed Auvi for Jitter, because it was clear that Nato would not have a long lifetime. Since that time, I have done less software development, because it is far less interesting than making art. I create video installations, and have exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, and perform live video with contemporary classical ensembles and dance companies. I teach full-time at the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. In 2007, I received a Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. How would you describe your work as realtime visual artist ? I love to work with a camera, to capture an environment, then process the images live, so that when they are projected they change the environment. Delaying live images, changing their speed, reversing their sequence, repeating sections, all disrupt the temporal coherence

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temporal de un acontecimiento. Esto funciona bien con músicos en directo o con bailarines. La cámara es objetiva, pero nuestro aparato sensorial y cognitivo no lo es, por tanto, las imágenes procesadas quizá se parezcan más a la manera en que leemos el mundo objetivo; nuestras mentes reúnen fragmentos de información percibidos en momentos distintos en la coherencia de un único modelo. El hecho de jugar con el tiempo revela nuevos aspectos de un acontecimiento, incluso mientras está sucediendo.

of an event. This works well with live musicians or dancers. The camera is objective, but our sensory apparatus and cognition are not, so the processed images perhaps resemble more the way we read the objective world; our minds assemble bits of information perceived at different times into one coherent model. By playing with time, new aspects of an event are revealed, even as it is occurring.

¿Cómo describirías el ‘live cinema’? ¿Utilizas este término para referirte a tu trabajo?

"Live cinema" to me implies that there is an element of narrative. When I worked with the video performance trio 242.pilots (with HC Gilje and Lukasz Lysakowski), we were trying to improvise collectively in the hopes that a narrative would spontaneously arrive out of the dialogue of images. So we were thinking of narrative flow, of recurring "characters" (which might be a type of image, or even an effect), of conflict and resolution.

Para mí, el ‘live cinema’ implica que existe un elemento narrativo. Cuando trabajé con el trío de vídeo-performance 242.pilots (con HC Gilje y Lukasz Lysakowski), tratamos de improvisar en grupo con la esperanza de que espontáneamente surgiría una narración a partir del diálogo de las imágenes. Pensábamos en el flujo narrativo, en los ‘caracteres’ recurrentes (que pueden ser un tipo de imagen, o incluso un acontecimiento), en el conflicto y en la resolución. Pero más recientemente, prefiero pensar en este tipo de trabajo como ‘música visual’ – y no como ‘live cinema’ –. En la música puede haber forma dinámica, pero no puede esperarse una narración. Toda la vida me he dedicado a la música, por eso esta idea es más cómoda para mí – sobretodo porque no tengo ningún talento para la narración. Sin embargo, es posible que al mundo del arte le resulten más cómodos aquellos trabajos que impliquen la destilación extrema de un concepto. El trabajo basado en tiempo real (como el ‘live cinema’) presupone que la audiencia se siente cómoda disfrutando del paseo. La mayor parte de la práctica artística consiste en ‘ir directamente al grano’, en parte debido a la

How would you describe "live cinema" ? Do you use that term for your work ?

But more recently, I prefer to think of this type of work as "visual music" instead of "live cinema". In music, there may be dynamic form, but no expectation of narrative. I've been involved in music all my life, so this idea is more comfortable for me -- especially since I have no talent for narrative, at all. It may be, however, that the art world is more comfortable with work that involves extreme distillation of a concept. Time-based work (like "live cinema" video) presupposes that the audience is comfortable with enjoying the ride. Most contemporary art practice is much more likely to "cut to the chase", partly because of

a capacidad de atención media del asiduo a las galerías de arte. Por esta razón, en la actualidad, el cine experimental, el arte performántico, o el ‘live cinema’, no gozan de mucho reconocimiento comercial en el mundo del arte, quizá de forma injusta. Esto no significa que el trabajo basado en tiempo real sea superior al trabajo que no lo esté o viceversa; tiene que ver simplemente con las diversas formas que tiene la audiencia de consumir productos artísticos. ¿De qué forma tienes en cuenta el espacio en tu trabajo? En una instalación, tengo control total del espacio, así puedo explotar las infinitas posibilidades de concebir vídeo en un espacio, de forma parecida a como lo harían un escultor o un arquitecto. Pero lo normal es que el vídeo en directo sea presentado en locales en los que no es posible tal grado de control. Lo que sí puede controlar el artista es la elección del tipo de local para la presentación. Es una decisión importante, porque todo arte viene determinado por un contexto, y el local afecta tremendamente al contexto de la obra, afecta al modo en que la audiencia se acercará a la obra, le da indicaciones sobre cómo participar en ella. Yo he hecho presentaciones en galerías, museos, cines y clubs. Prefiero las galerías, con sus sillas y cojines en el suelo, porque en ellas la gente es muy consciente de que ‘el arte es happening’ y se siente cómoda participando completamente en él. Los museos son similares, aunque normalmente son más formales y menos confortables.

the attention span of the average gallery-goer. For this reason, work like experimental cinema, or performance art, or "live cinema" video, do not currently enjoy much commercial cachet in the art world, perhaps unjustly. Not to imply that time-based work is superior to non-time-based work, or vice versa; it just has to do with the different ways that the art audience consumes art products. How do you take space into account in your work ? For installation work, I have total control of the space, so I can exploit the endless possibilities of thinking about video in space, the way a sculptor or architect might. But usually, live video is presented in venues where that degree of control is not possible. What the artist can control is what kind of venue to present in. It's an important decision, because art is all about context, and the venue affects the context of the work tremendously. It affects the way that the audience approaches the work, it gives them cues about how they should engage with it. I've presented in galleries, museums, cinemas and clubs. Galleries, with chairs or cushions on the floor, are my favorite, because people are very aware that "art is happening" and are comfortable to engage fully. Museums are similar, though usually more formal and less comfortable.

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Los cines también pueden funcionar, porque, en este tipo de local, la audiencia está acostumbrada a concentrarse, pero de algún modo son menos libres que aquellos espacios en los que la gente escoge su propio asiento. Los clubs son lo que menos prefiero, porque su propósito estándar no tiene nada que ver con el arte. Los clubs tienen relación con el hecho de perderte en el alcohol, entre música alta y gente agradable, y estas cosas de algún modo son opuestas a toda atención artística (Ya sé que suena a sermón paternal, pero sí que creo que ‘participar por completo del arte’ es un estado metal específico, y dicho estado es posible en determinados entornos, y no en otros). Otra cuestión relacionada con la presentación de este tipo de trabajo es la duración. Las audiencias tienen una tolerancia limitada respecto a una obra no-narrativa; llega un punto en el que pierden la paciencia. Algunos artistas pueden decidir que no están para nada obligados a tener en cuenta los límites de la audiencia (incluso pueden sentir que forzar los límites de la misma forma parte de su declaración artística). Pero otros piensan que la obra parecerá mejor y comunicará más si se presenta en pequeñas dosis. Personalmente, yo prefiero presentar trabajos no-narrativos en secciones no más largas de 15 o 20 minutos; el programa completo de una obra no-narrativa no debería sobrepasar los 50 minutos.

Cinemas can work well, because the audience is used to focus in in this type of venue, but it's somehow less free that a space where people choose their own seating. Clubs are my least favorite, because their standard purpose has nothing to do with art. Clubs are about losing yourself in alcohol and loud music and pretty people, and those things are sort of the opposite of engaging with art. (I sound like someone's dad here, but I do think "engaging fully with art" is a specific mental state, and that state is possible in some environments, and not possible in others.) Another issue connected with presenting this kind of work is duration. Audiences have a limited tolerance for non-narrative work; there's a point in time where audiences lose patience. Some artists may decide that they have no obligation to consider the audience's limits (maybe they even feel that pushing the limits is part of their artistic statement.). But others feel that the work will look better and speak better in smaller doses. Personally, I prefer to present nonnarrative work in sections no longer than 15 or 20 minutes; a full program of non-narrative work should be no longer than 50 minutes.

Kurt Ralske Kurt Ralske's video installations and performances are created exclusively with his own custom software. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art. Kurt programmed and co-designed the 9-channel video installation that is permanently in the lobby of the MoMA in NYC. In 2003, his work received First Prize at the Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin, as a member of the video ensemble 242.pilots. He is also the author/programmer of Auvi, a popular video software environment in use by artists in 22 countries. Kurt is the recipient of a 2007 Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship. Kurt resides in New York City. He is Visiting Professor of Digital Art at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is on the faculty of The School of Visual Arts, NYC, in the MFA Computer Art Department.

How did you get started with realtime audiovisuals ? Like many video artists I know, I started as a painter. I was at university studying painting in the early nineties when I bought my first computer. Soon I declared I would no longer paint with brushes but instead with my computer. This progressed to studies in Electronic Art at Rensselaer, one of the first graduate degree programs in the field at the time. It was here that I was introduced to programming with Max, video art, computer music and performance art. The pedagogy at iEAR was very much focused on 'integration' of all these disciplines in some way. Live performance of audiovisuals was a natural direction to take. The software tools for performing live with digital video we're still quite primitive at the time. With the absence of good tools, I became very involved developing new software to allow me to pursue my craft effectively.

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a What was your relationship with the legendary nato software ? The answer to this question I'm afraid is a bit complex... until now, I've never really written about it in depth. When the first NATO.0+55 object for Max was released, there was much distrust of NN amongst the Max community, largely because she was highly engaged in the perturbation of male dominated, academic email lists (including the Max listserv). But I was among those personally fascinated with both NN's email performance art, but even more so with the possibilities of the software, as it was everything I needed to begin writing the video tools I needed. Throwing all hesitance aside, I do believe I was one of the first artists to purchase the software (which was relatively quite expensive) and subsequently reviewed it on my website. This helped pave the way for others to cast aside their skepticism about the software. Gradually I entered into an extended, dialogue with Netochka, which at times was maddening, and at other times highly fulfilling. I needed to first understand her unique language, which was embedded with cyber-crpytography in multiple languages, as well as communication through analogies sampled from various postmodern theory. At DEAF 2000, where the first "nato summit" occurred, Netochka gave her first live performance reading, much to the confused audience who was expecting a 'traditional' technology demonstration. Afterwords, no one asked any questions, and no one approached her. I think perhaps many were intimidated by what they had just witnessed (and rightly so), others had concluded that she was merely an actress for a more dubious collective. Not me... I took it upon myself to invite this Netochka for a coffee. "Yes, let's leave this circus" she replied. A week following this face to face encounter, Netochka asked if I would participate in one of her live performances as the "operator", which essentially meant performing a series of audiovisual works of her creation whilst she read her texts to the audience. This was at "Interferences" in Belfort, France. To my surprise, the Netochka here was a different Netochka, yes, there must be an actress. Again, the audience was confounded with our performance. I was asked to participate again in several other NN performances at various media art festivals. It was a bit akin to being a member of a terrorist cell. I would receive an email invitation to a festival, and within weeks I would fly in to perform my task, with several casts of characters, never really knowing who the 'real' Netochka was. Sometimes I would be sitting with Netochka, and receiving email instructions from "the real" Netochka from an undisclosed location. It was a fascinating endeavor which definitely added an air mystery to my reputation as a video artist, which was no doubt beginning to flourish by this time.

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But this was not by virtue of being an "NN" alone. As DeKam, I had developed fully fledged VJ software built upon the NATO platform, and released it under the VIDVOX label with NN's tenuous consent. I was now being invited to perform my own work and give presentations on the European and North American media art circuit in my own right. It was at this point that my relationship with NN began to wain, and it seemed that NN's interest in further developing Nato was also subsiding. Eventually, what in my eyes was a shining movement created solely by the force of NN became subsumed by those that followed suit with similar technologies. Dozens of new visual software platforms began to appear, several based directly on the Max framework, with the proverbial "nail in the coffin" being Cycling74's release of Jitter a mere 3 years after nato first appeared.

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So this is the essential history of my relationship with nato. If NN had chosen to continue its development, then there would likely be more to say. Of course, there are many details I've left out, many with good reason. This period was filled with a great deal of controversy, and some of the players in this theater I'm certain are glad it all came to pass. But mostly, this interview just isn't the right format for a comprehensive history of NN. Needles to say, what I miss is the revolutionary nature of the software itself. It broke the rules, it opened up new pathways and new aesthetics in video art, and its legacy is still very much apparent even today. But technology will always evolve, and the software must keep moving with it, so we've had to make changes in our tools since nato ceased to be developed. What has happened since in your life as a creator / software developer ? Vidvox steadily grew through this period and I continued for several years working on this beyond the nato days. In 2004, Vidvox reached a crossroads where it needed to move beyond what I was willing to invest. At heart, I am an artist much more than a marketeer. I gave control of the company to my small group of employees, who have continued to do great things developing VDMX, the flagship product I created. The latest release is superb and I find myself using it more often than writing my own tools which is a testament to its power and flexibility. http://vidvox.net/ Most of my work post-Vidvox has been focused on individual projects for clients, often involving custom software design, and also making content or production systems. I also continue to write my own personal, idiosyncratic tools especially when I find myself working on interesting shows or exhibitions. I've collaborated on a few small operas and theater works which has been wonderful. Commercially, I've spent a good part of my time recently working with the immersive projection company called "The Elumenati", http://elumenati.com/ which purveys a unique and patented fisheye lens for projection. The past two years have also been filled with concert tour production. I've been on the road as a VJ playing for huge audiences across the globe, although you would never know it because it all happens behind the scenes. I've recently organized my practice with a talented producer/curator named Bree Edwards and we're in the process of branding my long time personal domain 'node.net' into Node Video Design as a partnership. The goal ever since I got started was to strike the balance between being able to make a living and also make art. Somehow its still working.

a How would you describe your work as realtime visual artist ? From a purely visual perspective, I tend towards the abstract, taking a very painterly approach to my work. One can never escape their roots I suppose. I consider myself a "formalist" in this way, although, as one of my painting teachers once told me, "everything is abstracted from something" and so thinking about the social & political landscape is an important consideration for me. I also consider my work to be "generative" or in more plastic terms "about the process". The predominant process of my practice has been an aversion to timelines. I believe strongly in "video instrumentalism", taking a musical approach to working with video. Instead of the usual "acquire, capture, edit and render" paradigm, I am most concerned with building instruments and systems, then rehearsing and performing with them. Much of my work has been in the vein of generative software art, or "meta art" - focusing solely on the system which makes the art for me, rather than on crafting the end result. What is live cinema for you ? (do you use that term for your work ?) I do like this term, and I use it when I feel its appropriate to what I'm doing. I feel its important to differentiate carefully between what live cinema is and is not. Thinking of live cinema as anything to do with live video performance is far too broad a definition. I've been fortunate to be exposed to a tremendous variety of projects, genres and styles through my work with Vidvox and beyond, and let me assure you, 95% (or more) of what's out there I would not consider to be live cinema. This doesn't make any of this other work less valid, it just means it doesn't fall within what I think live cinema should aspire to be. For me, live cinema has a lot to do with the intention of the video artist, and how that intention is framed. The majority of VJs or visualists are relegated to the role of a supporting actor. In the worst (and unfortunately most common) case, the desired intent is merely visual wallpaper, an extension of the light show in reality. This certainly has its place, and truthfully, there needs to be this kind of "bread and butter" to support the would-be live cinema artist so they can pursue their individual work. In fact, I am not ashamed to admit I spend a significant portion of my working life doing exactly this... although at least its on a level which garners professional respect, as opposed to begging for work from the local clubs. On occasion, I'm able to bring the true elements of live cinema into that space where "eyecandy" would be the usual norm, which is lovely.

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What differentiates live cinema from normal cinema is the ability to improvise the narrative or concepts, to alter their course as the performance progresses, perhaps even interacting with the audience or present site-specific elements. What separates live cinema from eyecandy is that the intention of the artist must be front and center. The best live cinema is where visuals are the solo act or from visual bands, where nothing stands in the way between the audience and the visual performance. How do you take into account the spatial aspect of performance? On a site by site basis. I try to make every show I do as site-specific as possible, to react to the available architecture. Some of the technology I've been involved with recently opens up many possibilities for 'spatial' video. Working with the Elumenati's Omnifocus fisheye projection design has been wonderful, this technology allows the image hit every surface of a space without losing focus... the possibilities are tremendous for installation work. Recently I've been working with VMS movingmirror projectors which I can precisely move the video in space dynamically. What would be the ideal space for your performance? Projecting onto clouds in the sky. How do you see the future of realtime visual creation? The convergence of live netcasting with prevalent displays in architectural contexts. The displays will continue to grow in numbers everywhere around us. New generation OLED displays are manufactured on sheetrolls like wallpaper. It won't be long before we can turn entire walls, even buildings, into active displays. Bandwidth infrastructure will continue to grow, allowing us to perform easily from any location, even while in motion.

Johnny DeKam Johnny DeKam is an acclaimed video artist, VJ and software designer. In 1998 he founded the software company VIDVOX which is one of the preeminent software tools for live video production used by thousands of artists worldwide. As a VJ he has performed and toured with such notables as Sasha and John Digweed, Eminem, Deadbeat, Pure and Thomas Dolby. As a solo video artist DeKam as exhibited or performed at prestigious spectacles including Sonar, Transmediale, Mutek, Siggraph, The American Museum of the Moving Image, KIASMA Helsinki, and the New York Video Art Festival. DeKam has recently expanded is repertoire working with opera, theater and major concert tour productions.

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Did you create visuals before you programmed Processing ? We created Processing because we were making visuals. We made Processing as a tool to improve the process of making our visuals. Could you describe you method of working on visuals ? I work in a traditional way. I start with vague ideas and begin to make sketches. Gradually the ideas become more resolved through exploration and testing. I start writing software very early and the ideas often change in response to what happens with the code. Processing allows me to work faster than with the programming languages that I was using before (mainly C++). It is easier to translate my thoughts into code; this allows for a wider exploration. Software like MAX/MSP/JITTER, Puredata, VVVV and Processing are all very "programmer-oriented", meaning that using these software needs programming skills. What do you think of this ? Some ideas require programming. Fortunately, these environments were created so we can realizing these ideas. There are many other software environments that are not "programming-oriented." They support other production methods, such as editing photographs or building 3D models with a mouse. The tools/languages you listed above were all written for visual and sound creation. They have different qualities than the programming languages written for strict computer science and engineering applications. I'm excited to see more artist-created programming languages. Unlike general programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby) artists and musicians experiment with languages and libraries that are customized for their more specific domains. In addition to the languages you mentioned above, there's Scriptographer, GEM, OpenFrameworks, Supercollider, ChucK, and many, many more. Most of these are written on top of general programming languages; they minimize complexity and make it easier to do specific things like draw a moving line or load and play a sound.

a What can one do with Processing ? Processing was created for making visuals (2D and 3D); specifically, animated and interactive visuals. It has been extended into other domains including sound, data I/O, networks, video, etc. It's proved useful across a wide range of tasks and skill levels; it's used for highly commercial work and for small personal projects. I think the online Exhibition (www.processing.org/exhibition) is the best way to get a feeling for the type of work created. There, one can see installations, information visualization, games, movie titles, architectural renderings, advertisements, etc., using the media of software, animation, and print. People who consider themselves designers, artists, architects, programmers, and hobbyists all use Processing in different ways, each to fulfil their unique needs. They call their work different things: software, design, art, installation, live cinema, visual music, etc. There's nothing that I can create in Processing that I could not create using C++/OpenGL or with Java (or other environments), but it's easier to work with Processing. The code is shorter because it's designed to be specific to the type of work I create.

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a Processing is a "community software", what does it mean in practice ? Much of the software development is contributed from the community. Processing has a library system for extending the software beyond it's light core for creating graphics. There have been over fifty libraries contributed; this is the future of the software. Where do you get inspiration for generating visuals ? I try to live a full life (to have a broad range of experience and learn about many topics) and I distil this into my work. I'm more engaged with how the world works than how it looks. I think in terms of systems, so visual abstraction comes naturally. I create two types of work. I make conceptually-driven instructions that define processes and the related software interpretations. This work is informed by science and philosophy (systems theory, biology, artificial life, emergence, complex systems). It's an extension of conceptual art; it is focused on networks and structure. This type of work is created without reference to materiality. The dimension, medium, and ratio of presentation is inconsequential, but I write software to demonstrate the process. I also make perceptually-driven works that build on the foundation of the first type of work. These works are highly dependent on how they are shown (room conditions, frame specifications, etc.) They are often built or customized for a specific room and they are meant to engage the body through materials and space. My performed visuals for music also fit into this category. They are highly choreographed for a specific piece of music.

Casey Reas Reas is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. He focuses on defining processes and translating them into images. Reas is an associate professor in the department of Design | Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. With Ben Fry, he is the co-founder of Processing.org, a programming language and environment for the visual arts. He's the co-author of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, from MIT Press. 50 51

Tag Gallery, The Hague, Viernes 13 de Abril 2007 Viernes 13, inauguración de Meta_Epics II; nueva obra de Telcosystems, expuesta en la Tag gallery en The Hague. Me encontré con Lucas van der Velden y con los hermanos David y Gideon Kiers en el pequeño patio situado en la parte trasera del espacio expositivo, y, disfrutando del bonito día de sol, hablamos –sobre su trabajo, sus ideas sobre computer art y su nueva instalación–. He acabado por conocer bastante bien a Lucas y Gideon a través del trabajo que he realizado para el Sonic Acts Festival, un festival que han organizado a lo largo de los últimos años. AA: Meta_Epics II es una instalación generativa, ¿significa esto que el software genera tanto la imagen como el sonido en tiempo real? ¿Podríais explicar cómo funciona exactamente? DK: Meta_Epics II es una historia cinematográfica sin final en la que los cuatro capítulos se presentan continuamente con nuevas variaciones, hasta que los aparatos se apagan. Cada capítulo es una investigación distinta sobre ‘objetos’ en el tiempo y en el espacio y sobre su comportamiento recíproco.Prescindiendo de complicaciones y tecnicismos, se podría decir que formulamos reglas de comportamiento para la imagen y el sonido. Un capítulo podría basarse en reglas que sitúan la imagen y el sonido en el tiempo, mientras que otro capítulo podría basarse en reglas en las que las frecuencias de sonido controlan totalmente la imagen. GK: Si se busca un denominador común, podría decirse que estos módulos tratan las cualidades espaciales de la imagen y el sonido. AA: ¿Cómo se define la relación en la espacialización de imagen y sonido? GK: Las conexiones que hacemos entre imagen y sonido cubren un espectro amplio. En un extremo del espectro está la relación directa, individualizada. Por ejemplo, aquí podríamos conectar las cualidades espaciales del sonido con los diversos parámetros espaciales de objetos en un espacio visual tridimensional. En el otro extremo pueden darse relaciones muy débiles, casi aleatorias, entre el comportamiento del sonido y la narrativa visual. AA: ¿Podríais describir brevemente cada uno de los cuatro capítulos que constituyen la instalación Meta_Epics II? ¿Cuáles son los cuatro temas de investigación? LvdV: El primer capítulo es el resultado de una conexión directa entre el espectro de sonido y una matriz de imagen 3D. En el segundo capítulo asociamos la dinámica del sonido a la matriz de imagen para influir en ésta. El tercer capítulo concierne al emplazamiento espacial de objetos visuales y sonoros basado en una relación directa e individualizada entre la imagen y el sonido. Un secuenciador 5.1 (sonido surround) hace girar los patrones de sonido a través de altavoces, controlando simultáneamente los objetos visuales en el espacio 3D. El último capítulo trata sobre la relación entre la textura de la imagen y la del sonido, siendo la textura de la imagen el factor determinante. Esto crea un resultado en el que la conexión entre imagen y sonido es la menos directa y visible.

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Tag Gallery, The Hague, Friday April 13th 2007 Friday the 13th, the opening day of Meta_Epics II; A new work by Telcosystems, exhibited at the Tag gallery space in The Hague. I met up with Lucas van der Velden and the brothers David and Gideon Kiers in the small courtyard behind the exhibition space and, while enjoying the beautiful sunny day, we discuss – their work, their thoughts on computer art and their new installation piece. I have gotten to know Lucas and Gideon considerably well through the work I have done for the Sonic Acts Festival, a festival they have been organizing for the last years. AA: Meta_Epics II is a generative installation; does this mean that the software generates both the image and the sound in real time? Could you explain how this works exactly? DK: Meta_Epics II is a never-ending cinematographic story in which four chapters continuously present themselves in new variations, until the machines are shut down. Each chapter is a distinctive investigation of 'objects' in time and space and their reciprocal behavior. Avoiding complication and technicalities you could say we formulate rules for behavior in image and sound. One chapter could be based on rules that position the image and sound in time while another chapter could be based on rules where the soundfrequencies fully control the image. GK: If you are searching for a common denominator you could say that these modules are dealing with spatial qualities of image and sound. AA: How is the relationship in the spatialization of sound and image defined? GK: The connections we make between the image and sound cover a broad spectrum. On one end of the spectrum there’s the direct, one-to-one relationship. Here we could for instance connect the spatial qualities of the sound to the various spatial parameters of objects in a three dimensional visual space. On the other end there can be very loose, almost random relationships between the sound's behavior and visual narrative. AA: Could you give a short characterization of each of the four chapters that make up the Meta_Epics II installation? What were the four research topics? LvdV: The first chapter is the result of a direct connection between the sound spectrum and a 3D image matrix. In the second chapter we coupled the dynamics of the sound to influence the image matrix, on which we map a texture created by feedback and controlled by sound. The third chapter concerns the spatial positioning of image and sound objects based on a direct one-to-one relation between the image and the sound. A 5.1, (surround sound) sequencer rotates sound patterns through the speakers, simultaneously controlling the image objects in 3D space. The final chapter deals with the relationship between the texture of the image and that of the sound, where the image texture is the ruling factor. This creates an outcome in which the connection between image and sound is the least direct and visible.

a AA: En el momento de crear un capítulo, ¿cuándo decís: ‘esto funciona’, ‘está bien’ o ‘esto es lo que buscamos’? ¿Cuándo es lo suficientemente bueno para ser expuesto? LvdV: Antes de empezar con un nuevo capítulo exponemos algunas directrices generales, pero no definimos un tema de investigación en un sentido absoluto. El resultado final no está predeterminado por el tema de investigación. Empezamos a trabajar según directrices generales, pero mientras diseñamos el software nos encontramos con todo tipo de sorpresas, tanto técnicas como conceptuales. Esto nos conduce a vías alternativas y a resultados imprevistos. De este modo, el propio proceso de elaboración se convierte en la verdadera investigación. Puesto que todo lo que elaboramos tiene lugar en tiempo real, podemos ver y oír instantáneamente el resultado y decidir si es lo que buscamos o no. AA: Entonces, mientras estáis programando, ¿evaluáis en tiempo real, alteráis algo del diseño del software para ver qué resulta...? DK: Cuando trabajas con tu propio sofware, desarrollas una sensibilidad para ajustar los parámetros de tal modo que éstos producen comportamientos que afectan a tus deseos artísticos y que quieres explorar más. LvdV: En programación, se empieza realmente desde cero sólo una vez. Todo aquello que creamos nos sirve para elaborar y expandir nuestro vocabulario de reglas, de pequeños sistemas y sub-rutinas. Algunas rutinas son descartadas de nuestro vocabulario, otras son añadidas. Con el tiempo, nuestro vocabulario se va refinando y articulando. Así, nosotros no trabajamos a partir de una idea predefinida acerca del resultado final, sino más bien a partir de un conjunto de principios técnicos y conceptuales, a menudo muy simples. Desde este punto de partida creamos, ajustamos y afinamos el tiempo que haga falta hasta que encontramos algo interesante. AA: ¿Cuándo algo es interesante? LvdV: Ésta es una cuestión difícil. Es como preguntar: ‘¿Cuándo el arte es interesante?’ Tan pronto como das con una definición de arte interesante, encuentras igualmente obras interesantes que no se ajustan a la definición. Sin embargo, sí que existe una y otra vez un momento en el que pensamos: ‘es esto, esto es interesante’. Normalmente, esto ocurre durante sesiones de improvisación. En el proceso de elaborar y ajustar llegamos finalmente a un punto en el que pensamos: ‘sí, esto casi ya está’. Esto no sucede porque determinemos por adelantado que vayamos a hacer tal cosa, ni tampoco porque estemos trabajando hacia un resultado específico; sino porque confiamos en nuestras respectivas capacidades. Cada uno de nosotros dedica sus propias habilidades, y al cabo de cierto tiempo nuestros esfuerzos colectivos producen un resultado interesante. GK: Para nosotros, una obra nunca está realmente terminada; muchas de nuestras obras permanecen en constante desarrollo. Por esta razón, presentamos muchas versiones del mismo proyecto. Versiones antiguas todavía tienen su valor, pero hemos avanzado. Nuestro trabajo ahora es más preciso, está mejor articulado. AA: En la instalación Meta_Epics II, cada capítulo empieza con la indicación de la fecha y hora actuales. Si he comprendido bien, ¿cuando vuelva más tarde veré algo distinto, aun cuando esté viendo efectivamente el mismo capítulo? GK: Puesto que es una instalación generativa, por definición, cada vez que veas un capítulo vas a ver diferentes versiones del mismo. Pero la diferencia no es tanta. Las variaciones siempre se mantendrán dentro de un margen limitado, y los capítulos sin duda son reconocibles.

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AA: When you create such a chapter, how can you tell whether something 'works'? When do you think 'this is looking good', 'this is what we'll pursue'? When is it good enough to exhibit? LvdV: Before we start with a new chapter we lay out some general directions, but we don't define a research topic in an absolute sense. The end result is not predefined by the research question. We start working based on the general directions, but while designing the software, all kinds of surprises and problems occur, both technical and conceptual. This takes us on alternative paths and to unforeseen endpoints. In this way the building process itself becomes the actual research. Because everything we build runs in real-time, we can instantaneously see and here hear the outcome and decide whether or not it is what we are looking for. AA: So while you are programming, you evaluate in real-time, you alter something in the design of the software, and see how this works out...? DK: When you’re working with your own software you develop sensitivity for tweaking the parameters in such a way that they produce behavior that touches your artistic desires and that you want to explore further. LvdV: In programming you actually start from scratch only once. With everything we create we build and expand our vocabulary of rules, of small systems and subroutines. Some routines are scrapped from our vocabulary, others are added. Over time, our vocabulary becomes more refined and articulated. So we don't work from a predefined idea about the end result, but rather from a set of technical or conceptual principles, often very simple. From that starting point we build, tune and tweak as long as it takes until we find something interesting. AA: When is it interesting? LvdV: That is a hard question. It’s like asking: 'when is art interesting?'. As soon as you come up with a definition for interesting art, you will find equally interesting works that don’t fit the definition. Nevertheless, there is indeed again and again a moment where we think 'this is it, this is interesting'. Usually this occurs during improvisational sessions. In the process of building and tuning we eventually arrive at a point where we think 'yes, this is about right'. This doesn't happen because we determine in advance what it is we're going to do, nor because we are working towards a specific outcome; it happens because we trust each other’s abilities. Each of us puts in his own skills and after a while our collective efforts produce an interesting result. GK: For us, a work is actually never really finished; most of our works remain in constant development. That’s why we present so many versions of the same project. Older versions still have their value, but we have moved on. Our work is more precise now, more articulate. AA: In the Meta_Epics II installation each chapter starts with the indication of the current date and time. If I understand it correctly I'll see something else when I come back at a later moment, even though I am effectively seeing the same chapter? GK: Because it is a generative installation, by definition you'll get to see different versions each time you watch a chapter. But the difference is not that huge. The variations will always stay within a limited range and the chapters are definitely recognizable.

a AA: ¿Estas variaciones se alcanzan trabajando con generadores numéricos aleatorios? GK: Empleamos una amplia variedad de generadores, incluyendo generadores numéricos aleatorios, pero sólo cuando sirven a un propósito. La aplicación de valores aleatorios no es una meta en sí misma. Nuestra meta es crear una obra interesante, algo con lo que estemos satisfechos. Cuando utilizas generadores aleatorios, inevitablemente obtienes mucho silencio, o una pantalla vacía, pero eso no es lo que queremos mostrar a nuestra audiencia. Es interesante como concepto, pero no nesariamente como obra de arte – a menos que tu trabajo verse sobre ello –. Nuestro trabajo no trata sobre la aleatoriedad, sino que es un diálogo con las máquinas, por el que disponemos de una gran cantidad de libertad para improvisar y reaccionar con respecto a las máquinas, y por el que éstas disponen de una cantidad limitada de libertad para reaccionar unas con otras y con respecto a nosotros. Así, sucede que nos sentemos mirando el monitor o la proyección y nos digamos unos a otros: ‘ésta es una buena secuencia’, o ‘los ordenadores han hecho un buen trabajo’. La cualidad de la improvisación del ordenador varía dentro de ciertos límites dados. En este sentido, existe vida dentro de un ordenador – al menos, creo que es posible calificarla como tal. AA: ¿Te refieres entonces a la improvisación por ordenador basada en algoritmos creados por vosotros y a los límites que habéis establecido, la extensión de libertad que habéis definido para el ordenador? GK: Me refiero al diálogo con las máquinas y a las sorpresas que nos dan. Creemos firmemente que los ordenadores tienen sus propio dinamismo y que por eso intervienen en el proceso creativo. En parte esto es así porque utilizamos los ordenadores para tareas en tiempo real y también porque, mediante dichas tareas, los llevamos a sus límites. El resultado es que el ordenador realizará ciertas tareas demasiado tarde, o que se detendrá en mitad de su ejecución, a veces fallan por completo en la ejecución, o la capacidad de respuesta del ordenador disminuye durante breves períodos de tiempo. A menudo existen explicaciones lógicas para comportamientos particulares, pero debido a la complejidad del sistema es difícil rastrearlas. Esto conduce a una sensación de ‘individualidad’ y de ‘estar conectado con las máquinas’, por encima de los comportamientos programados. Así, los aspectos de improvisación de los ordenadores no dependen únicamente de los algoritmos que hemos creado, sino también de la mencionada ‘individualidad’ del sistema. De ahí es de donde proviene la cualidad de la obra. Además, el diálogo con la máquina sobreviene como algo muy natural, pues trabajamos con ellas diariamente. AA: ¿Diseñáis ese diálogo en código y luego tratáis de invitar o incluso de provocar al ordenador para que haga algo con ello? GK: Por lo general, los ordenadores están hechos para realizar tareas muy simples y tontas. La mayoría de ordenadores están equipados con un monitor, dos pequeños altavoces, un teclado y un ratón, todo dirigido a un uso muy restringido. En consecuencia, se ha establecido una imagen más bien unidimensional de lo que es un ordenador. Sin embargo, somos nosotros, los humanos, quienes hemos definido esa imagen limitada y esa funcionalidad restringida del ordenador. Por lo tanto, lo cierto es que el hombre impone firmes restricciones a la máquina. Existe una considerable libertad dentro de las máquinas cuyo afloramiento debería potenciarse más. Esto también forma parte de nuestro trabajo.

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AA: Are these variations achieved by working with random number generators? GK: We use a wide variety of generators, including random number generators, but only where they serve a purpose. The application of random values is not a goal in itself. Our aim is to make interesting work, something that we are satisfied with ourselves. When you use random generators, you inevitably get quite a lot of silence or an empty screen, and that is not what we want to show our audience. It is interesting as a concept, but not necessarily as a piece of art – unless if that is what your work is about. Our work is not about randomness. Our work is about a dialogue with machines, where there is a large amount of freedom for us to improvise and react to the machines, and a limited amount of freedom for the machines to react to each other and to us. It does happen that we sit and watch the monitor or projection and say to each other: ‘this is a good run’, or ‘the machines were really doing their best’. The quality of the machine’s improvisation varies within the given limits. In that sense there is life inside a computer – at least I believe you can qualify it as such. AA: Are you talking then about the computer improvising based on the algorithms you have created and the boundaries you have set, the extend of freedom you have defined for the computer? GK: I’m talking about the dialogue with the machines and the surprises they give back. We strongly believe that the computers haves their own dynamics and therefore intervene in the creative process. This is partially because we use the machines for real-time tasks and also because we push them to their limits with these tasks. The result is that the computer will execute certain tasks too late, or stop halfway through the execution, sometimes completely fail to execute or the computer’s responsiveness decreases for short periods of time. There are often logical explanations for particular behaviors, but because of the system's complexity they are hard to trace. This results in a feeling of 'individuality' and of 'being connected’ to the machines, on top of the programmed behaviors. So the improvisational qualities of the machines do not depend solely on the algorithms we created, but also on the before mentioned 'individuality' of the system. This is where the quality of the work comes from. Besides that, a dialogue with the machine strikes us as something very natural since we work with them on a daily basis. AA: You design that dialogue in code and then try to invite or even provoke the computer to do something with it? GK: In general, computers are made to execute very simple and dumb tasks. Most computers are equipped with a monitor, two small speakers, a keyboard and a mouse, all meant for very restricted use. As a result of this, a rather one-dimensional image of the computer has been established. However, it was us humans who defined this limited image and restricted functionality of the computer. So actually, man imposes firm restrictions on the machine. There is a considerable freedom inside the machines that should be allowed to come out more. That's also part of what our work is about.

a AA: ¿Diríais que vuestro trabajo se caracteriza por la estética digital? LvdV: No existe ninguna estética digital. Si se quisiera programar una obra del tipo Monet, podría hacerse; lo mismo vale para una obra abstracta de Mondrian o de Sol LeWitt. También se puede trabajar sin monitor y así no habría que hablar de píxeles. Puedes también adjuntar cien altavoces o mil bombillas de luz, o lo que quieras. El resultado, y con él la estética digital, no está realmente definido en absoluto. Un ordenador con un teclado, ratón y monitor, como Gideon acaba de decir, están hechos para un conjunto de tareas específicas, como la contabilidad, el correo electrónico y cosas por el estilo. Nosotros, en cambio, empleamos el ordenador para crear experiencias-espacios y experiencias-máquinas. Ahora mismo, esto es lo que determina para nosotros qué es un ordenador. Quizás en nuestro próximo proyecto hagamos algo sólo con sonido o un proyecto sólo con luces. El ordenador no define lo que el artista crea, sino que es el artista quien lo hace. Resulta sorprendente cómo la gente normalmente tiene opiniones muy claras sobre los ordenadores y la estética digital. Para mí, eso es como tener opiniones muy claras sobre un bosque. Por supuesto, puedes tener las opiniones que quieras sobre ello, pero la utilidad de un bosque no tiene nada que ver con ellas. Lo mismo vale para un ordenador. DK: La idea es utilizar el ordenador para convertir tus ideas en código, tras lo cual te apartas un poco del resultado y piensas: ‘esto es hermoso’, o: ‘no me esperaba esto’. La esencia de un ordenador es código. Tienes esa caja, introduces algunas reglas, éstas son ejecutadas y producen cierto resultado, sea el que sea. Quizá podría decirse que la ‘estética digital’ se encuentra principalmente en el aspecto procesual del trabajo. GK: Yo, de algún modo, contemplo el trabajo que hacemos también como un álbum privado de fotos vacacionales de ordenador. La razón por la que llamamos a una de nuestras series performánticas ‘Postales desde el procesador’ es porque trata de la vida que hay en su interior. Si quieres hablar de estética, entonces para mí se trataría de aquello que sucede dentro del procesador; la conversión de unos y ceros en experiencias que nos afectan. LvdV: Con un ordenador eres libre de expresar la nada. No hay significante último. Quizás ésta sea la esencia del arte por ordenador y de la codificación. Lo que lo hace realmente interesante es la ausencia de norma. Trata sobre nada; el resultado no encuentra referentes significantes fuera del ordenador. AA: ¿Por eso termináis creando experiencias-máquinas? [Meta_Epics II presenta un espacio a oscuras en el que, rodeado por el sonido, uno es absorbido en la imagen y en otro mundo]. LvdV: Sí, nuestro trabajo trata del espacio, de la presencia física en una intensa constelación de imagen y sonido. Hasta ahora hemos trabajado sobretodo con videoproyectores de alta resolución y con altavoces; ahora estamos trabajando en una instalación realizada únicamente con luces y altavoces. Se puede definir un espacio de tantas maneras distintas. Damos mucha importancia a la cualidad física de un espacio, más que al empleo de cierto tipo de imagen y sonido. Se trata más del impacto físico de la instalación que de cómo suena o qué se proyecta.

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AA: Would you say your work is characterized by computer aesthetics? LvdV: There is actually no such thing as computer aesthetics. If you would want to program a Monet-like work, it is possible; the same goes for an abstract Mondriaan or Sol LeWitt. You can also work without a monitor and you wouldn't have to talk about pixels. You can also attach a hundred speakers, or a thousand light bulbs, or whatever you want. The output, and with that the aesthetic of the computer, is actually not defined at all. A computer with a keyboard, mouse and monitor, as Gideon just said, was made for a specific set of tasks, like bookkeeping, emailing and such. We, on the other hand, use the computer to make experience-spaces and experience-machines. At the present moment, this is what determines for us what a computer is. Perhaps for our next project we'll make something only with sound or do a project with only lights. . The computer doesn’t define what the artist makes, the artist does. It’s remarkable how people usually have very strong opinions about computers and computer aesthetics. For me, that is like having very strong opinions about a forest. Of course, you can have all kinds of opinions about it, but that's not the purpose of a forest. The same goes for the computer. DK: The idea with the computer is that you convert your ideas into code, after which you take a step back and think, ‘that is beautiful’, or ‘I hadn't expected that’. The essence of the computer is code. You have this box, you insert some rules, the rules are executed and result in a certain output, whatever that output may be. Perhaps you could say that the 'computer aesthetics' is mainly found in the processing aspect of the work. GK: I also somehow see the work we make as a computer’s private holiday photo album. There is a reason that we named one of our performance series ‘Postcards from the Processor’: it's about the life inside. If you want to talk about aesthetics, then for me it should be about what goes on inside the processor; the conversion from ones and zeros into experiences that touch us. LvdV: With a computer you are free to express nothing. There is no ultimate signifier. Maybe that's the essence of computer art and code. What makes it really interesting is the absence of a norm. It's about nothing; the output has no reference to significant matters outside of the computer. AA: Is that also why you end up making experience-machines? [Meta_Epics II presents a dark space where, surrounded by sound, you are sucked into the image and into another world.] LvdV: Yes, our work is about the space, about the physical presence in an intense constellation of image and sound. Until now we have worked mostly with high-resolution video projectors and speakers; we are now working on an installation using only lights and speakers. There are so many more ways in which you can define a space. We attach great importance to the physicality of such a space, more than the usage of a certain type of image or sound. It's more about the physical impact of the installation and less about how it sounds or what the images looks like.

a AA: ¿No determináis esto mediante la selección de un sonido específico y de una específica imagen no-referencial? LvdV: Lo no-referencial no es tanto objeto de elección nuestra como el resultado de trabajar con ordenadores. Sobretodo porque dicho resultado carece de una forma fija de identidad y porque hay algunas convenciones en cuanto a qué es lo que debería parecer o cómo debería sonar. Tampoco hay nada establecido con respecto a la narrativa. Mucha gente, cuando oye un instrumento clásico como un violín, automáticamente ve un violín. En cambio, el sonido no-referencial de un ordenador está mucho menos vinculado a un ordenador. Una persona oye un ordenador, otra un mono o un tren, y otra incluso oye un ‘no-sonido’. AA: ¿Pero no debe haber un vocabulario de música electrónica en el que encajéis? ¿No deben haber tradiciones con las que vuestro trabajo tenga relación? GK: Por supuesto que nuestro trabajo tiene relación con el vocabulario de la música electrónica y del cine experimental, del mismo modo que existen conexiones con el computer art contemporáneo. Sin embargo, ello se debe a que nuestros actuales métodos de expresión son similares a estas formas de arte. Yo diría más bien que nuestro trabajo está estrechamente relacionado con la tradición del arte sonoro y visual, que tratan del desarrollo de nuevos ‘lenguajes’ para la imagen y el sonido. Componemos mediante un ordenador y el resultado se encuentra limitado sólo por la tecnología que empleamos para la producción. Nuestro trabajo versa sobre la creación y la investigación dentro de un nuevo vocabulario audiovisual y de un nuevo contexto. Con nuestro trabajo actual nos hemos situado en la intersección del arte visual, cinematográfico y performántico. Y hasta el día de hoy, en ninguno de estos mundos se encuentra plena y claramente representado nuestro trabajo. Construimos una cabina de proyección en forma de caja negra en una galería de blancas paredes y muy iluminada por la luz del sol, instalamos sillas y un equipo de altavoces con sonido surround en un club, y en un cine creamos una película en tiempo real. Por lo tanto, es parte de nuestro trabajo diario reorganizar el mundo un poco y prepararlo para el futuro. LvdV: Hasta cierto punto, también se trata de la liberación del ordenador. Dándole la vuelta a todas estas convenciones relativas sobretodo al espacio, poco a poco estos espacios se están haciendo más multidisciplinares. Pero todavía sólo existe un puñado de lugares que sean realmente multidisciplinares, tanto espacial como ‘mentalmente’. Pues todavía se hacen muchas suposiciones basadas en criterios que no pertenecen a nuestra época actual. AA: ¿Excepto quizás en arte sonoro? LvdV: Apenas hay tampoco emplazamientos para el arte sonoro. En un sitio el personal se vuelve loco cuando el sonido lleva sonando una hora, en otro sitio el falso techo vibra o el vecino del piso de arriba baja a quejarse. Pero es reconfortante pensar que, cuando se trabaja con ordenadores, al final lo cierto es que no necesitas hacer nada con ellos. Incluso sin espacio o producción, ellos continúan trabajando. Puedes oír el suave sonido de los discos duros, el zumbido de los ventiladores, y puedes ver las luces de la red parpadeando. Los ordenadores no nos necesitan en absoluto para continuar trabajando. -> www.telcosystems.net

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AA: Don't you determine that by selecting a specific sound and a specific non-referential image? LvdV: Not so much because we choose for non-referentiality; it's the result of working with computers. Especially because the output lacks a fixed form identity and because there are few conventions for the way it should look or sound. Also with regard to the narrative nothing is fixed. Most people, when they hear a classical instrument like a violin, automatically see a violin. Nonreferential computer sound is far less connected to a computer. One person hears a computer, the other a monkey or a train, and yet another hears a 'non-sound'. AA: But there must be a vocabulary of electronic music that you match to closely? There must be traditions that your work is related to? GK: Of course our work is related to the vocabulary of electronic music and experimental cinema, just as there are connections to contemporary computer art. However, this is mostly caused by the fact that our present methods of expression are similar to those art forms. I would say our work is closely related to the tradition of 'image and sound art', which deals with the development of new 'languages' for image and sound. We compose using a computer and the result is only limited by the technology we use for outputting. Our work deals with the creation of and research into a new audiovisual vocabulary and context. With our current work we have positioned ourselves on the intersection of visual arts, film and performing arts. And to this day, in none of these worlds is the presentation of our work straightforward. In a gallery with white walls and a lot of daylight we build a black box screening room, in a club we install chairs and a surround sound speaker setup and in a movie theater we create a film in real time. So part of our daily job is also reorganizing the world a bit and preparing it for the future. LvdV: To a certain degree this is the liberation of the computer as well. By overturning all those mostly space related - conventions, these places are slowly becoming a bit more multidisciplinary. But still there exist only a handful of places that are truly multidisciplinary, meaning spatially as well as 'mentally'. So many assumptions are still made based on standards that are not from the present era. AA: Except in sound art perhaps? LvdV: There are hardly any suitable locations for sound art either. In the one place the staff goes mad when the sound has been playing for an hour, in the other the loose ceiling throbs along or the neighbor upstairs comes down to complain. But it is a comforting thought that when working with computers, in the end you don't need to do anything with them really. Even without space or output, they just keep on working. You can hear the hard disks rattling gently, you can hear the ventilators rotating and see the network lights blinking. These computers don't need us at all to continue working.

Lucas van der Velden (1976, Eindhoven) lives and works in Rotterdam. Gideon Kiers (1975, Amsterdam) lives and works in Rotterdam and Reykjavik. Both studied at the Interfaculty Image and Sound, a department at the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy in The Hague. David Kiers (1977, Amsterdam) studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He works and lives in The Netherlands, Germany and Iceland.

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Si hablamos de Live Cinema, lo primero que nos viene a la cabeza es que se trata de algo realmente nuevo para la mayoría, no porque no se haya estado utilizando el montaje de video en directo, o porque no se hayan planteado formatos de espectáculo audiovisual muy cercanos a lo que hoy conocemos por live cinema, sino porque poco a poco empieza a cobrar entidad como medio autónomo. Y empieza a cobrar entidad porque cada vez son más nítidos los canales de difusión de este medio híbrido heredero de prácticamente todas las disciplinas que engloban el registro de las prácticas artísticas contemporáneas. Pero lo más importante y derivado de lo anterior: comienza a establecerse un público para esta práctica; como asistente y como creador. Un público que proviniendo de diferentes ámbitos y con una cultura visual y una manera de entender la comunicación adaptadas a formatos como Internet, los videojuegos o el cine, encuentra en el live cinema una forma capaz de representar sus intereses creativos.

Grupo que trabaja en torno a nuevas estructuras visuales de actuación en tiempo real. www.thingshappen.es

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Para nosotros, la entrada en el terreno de los visuales en tiempo real fue debido al interés que nos produjo un medio que por novedoso resultaba altamente sensible a cambios, pudiendo modelarse según necesidades específicas permitiendo el despliegue de nuevas formas de representar y ofreciendo así fuertes capacidades narrativas. Admitía la integración tanto teórica como práctica de diversas disciplinas en las que siempre habíamos estado interesados tales como el arte plástico, el diseño, la arquitectura, la música o también la magia, ya que la creación de ilusión y los nuevos recursos expresivos que hay que emplear para conseguirla formaba parte del atractivo. Nos sedujo el potencial que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías y la combinación entre el poder comunicativo de la imagen con la capacidad de crear espectáculo que tiene la puesta en escena de los visuales en directo.

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En nuestro trabajo, la narratividad y el contenido son el motor fundamental que genera toda la pieza y que nos marca el patrón para construir los elementos visuales que vamos a proyectar, generando un discurso visual coherente. Desde un principio, no nos interesó demasiado la mezcla fortuita de imágenes y la aplicación únicamente técnica del material si no es para adecuarlo al propósito de un guión. Así, nos referimos a una narratividad aplicada a este campo, intentando contar una historia con las condiciones intrínsecas de este medio mientras vamos buscando las bases de su propio lenguaje; al igual que un fotógrafo se adapta al formato bidimensional y estático aunque hable sobre algo que implique movimiento y tiempo. Cuando intentamos explicar cómo funciona nuestro trabajo, cosa que por cierto es bastante difícil ya que nosotros mismos intentamos entenderlo cada día y siempre va sufriendo modificaciones, decimos que se trata de un relato que traducimos en imágenes a través de una sucesión de escenas que permiten ser modificadas al instante en función de las necesidades narrativas. Para establecer un símil, podríamos decir que se trata de un fotograma de cine en el que te puedes detener y modificar su composición según la expresión que quieras adoptar en cada momento. Podrías eliminar algún objeto que forma el decorado y quedarte con uno en concreto si quieres remarcarlo, podríamos acercarnos al personaje y juguetear con él, eliminar todo de la escena y quedarnos con algo que pasó desapercibido, o bien hacer volar todo lo que aparece de forma desorbitada generando un desconcierto total. Lo primero que hacemos es marcar un guión y realizar una labor previa de diseño del material visual con el que vamos a trabajar y probarlo con las herramientas que utilizamos para ver como funciona. Una vez contrastado el material con su ajuste en la escena, su relación con los otros elementos y sus procesos con los dispositivos que lo controlan, quizá haya que realizar cambios tanto en el material como en las herramientas para obtener una mejor adecuación en la composición.

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En nuestras sesiones, a pesar de trabajar sobre una estructura con la que intentamos ordenar los elementos narrativamente, contamos ahora mismo con un factor aleatorio que puede generar de vez en cuando un caos que nos obliga a reconducir toda la secuencia; es decir, a veces nuestro trabajo, se parece al de un músico que más que tocar notas, se afana en reducir el desbarajuste de sonido ambiente en estructuras que tengan sentido para el espectador. Con esta función reductora vamos recolocando los elementos para que vayan definiendo la historia. Los elementos visuales que utilizamos, siempre flotan en un espacio que se reconfigura continuamente en función de la escena y nunca marcando el límite rectangular de una pantalla, así se trata de personajes, decorados, etc. que se extienden libremente en un espacio pudiendo hacerlo a través de la pared, techo o suelo. No generamos la sesión haciéndola coincidir con el ritmo de la música que normalmente acompaña los visuales, ni siquiera tenemos en mente que tenga que haber música en toda la sesión. Nuestra idea es crear un diálogo con el sonido, y que el contenido sonoro se genere a partir del guión y el material visual. En directo los dos manejamos el mismo instrumento cada uno en su función pero coordinados, estableciendo continuamente relación entre las acciones de uno y otro. En general intentamos no enredarnos con la complejidad que ofrece el ya de por sí complejo mundo de la programación y herramientas digitales de procesamiento de imagen. De tal manera que ciñéndonos al contenido visual, podemos encontrar a menudo soluciones sencillas que atajan directamente nuestro objetivo. Por todo esto, nos da la sensación de transitar en un terreno que todavía no ha generado soluciones cerradas permitiendo un grado de imaginación, libertad y creatividad apasionantes. Esto nos da la oportunidad de investigar mientras trabajamos intentando entender

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qué posibilidades ofrece este campo y qué significa el tiempo real a la hora de relatar una historia. Para nosotros es una incógnita que vamos despejando según avanzamos en el desarrollo de cada proyecto. En el contexto de la gente que se dedica al live cinema, aparecen continuamente referencias a figuras de los inicios del cine y no es de extrañar ya que en ciertos aspectos da la sensación de encontrarse en el comienzo de algo nuevo, y el juego experimental que le sucede a todo esto es inevitable. Méliès, Griffith, los cineastas rusos, Abel Gance, etc. son pioneros que exprimieron la técnica y el lenguaje cinematográfico a través de un largo proceso de experimentos. Ahora vemos como cada vez parece haber mayor interés en la edición de video en directo a la que se suma una utilización del espacio, una integración del espectador de forma interactiva por medio de sensores, múltiples pantallas y un sinfín de experiencias que demuestran ganas de trajinar en este panorama. Quizá somos muy optimistas a la hora de pensar en todo esto como un nuevo medio, pero en ningún caso deja de ser un motor de creatividad e inquietud y de búsqueda de una forma de relatar adaptada a sistemas actuales de comunicación; a nuevos canales de difusión. Desde luego, por lo que hemos venido contando, hablamos de un vasto terreno por explorar, caracterizado por una potente capacidad creativa derivada de su condición de libertad, es por ello que la continuidad de esta forma de representación está por un lado en manos de quienes se empeñen en desarrollar algo que comience a tener una entidad suficiente como para interesar a un público. Pero no podemos dejar de lado la necesidad de crear el canal necesario para su difusión, un mercado correspondiente adaptado a los nuevos cauces comunicativos. Aunque de manera personal, abogamos por un formato que aparte de distribuirse por medios como Internet llegando a usuarios de forma individual, tenga la oportunidad de reunir a personas en un mismo espacio produciendo el fenómeno de sinergia que se genera cuando la gente participa físicamente de un evento; en contacto unos con otros. 68 69

1. Lia

-------------Lia is an early pioneer of software art and internet art. Since 1995, her work is concerned with the artistic possibilities of code, digital video, on-line methodology and user-specific applications - seemingly different activities that she manages to bind together trough her unique approach to creativity and production. In a painterly, conceptual manner, Lia creates live-performances, real time sceneries, projections and installations in public spaces. Lias works have been presented internationally in numerous festivals. She has received numerous awards and honors, among others a distinction from Ars Electronica Festival for re-move.org, and she exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. Over the last few years she has taught at the Fachhochschule Joanneum in Graz, Austria, the École Cantonalle d'Art de Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University for Fine Arts, Oslo, Norway.

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Lia lives and works primarily in Vienna. www.strangethingshappen.org www.re-move.org www.turux.at www.wofbot.org http://flickr.com/photos/lia_lia

2. Lillevan (Rechenzentrum)

-------------Lillevan has been investigating the moving image for 20 years, starting out with Super-8 and 16mm, these days with video and computers. The focus on the image itself has always been central, the technology must follow the needs of the artist. Lillevan collaborates with composers, musicians, choreographers and theoreticians from a broad spectrum; from contemporary music to flamenco via Shakespeare, from experimental soundscape design to electronic dance music via classical interpretations. He is known for a radical reduction of imagery to its essence, while aiming to create streams of associative thinking in the viewer, by creating new relationships in juxtaposition and overlay, thus turning the manipulated image into a musical instrument. Existing film material is dissected, reworked and fused together, sometimes in abstract directions, sometimes in figurative-narrative forms. www.rechenzentrum.org

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3. Sue C.

-------------Sue Costabile aka SUE.C is a visual and performing artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her works challenge the norms of photography, video, and technology by blending them all into an organic and improvisational live performance setting. Employing a variety of digital tools to create an experimental animation "instrument," Costabile synthesizes cinema from photographs, drawings, watercolors, hand-made papers, fabrics and miniature interactive lighting effects. Dark, moody, textural, and physical, her live films inherit equally from the kinetic languages of Stan Brakhage's abstract cinema and Nicolas Schöffer's lumodynamic scuptures. She employs the same techniques in her recorded work to emphasize the beauty of the banal street corner, public parking lot, forgotten winter beach, torn remnant of a found photograph, cast-away super 8 vacation footage, and other half-forgotten, often-unnoticed, in-between spaces in her surroundings. Costabile has collaborated with musicians such as Morton Subotnick, Luc Ferrari, Laetitia Sonami, Antye Greie (AGF) and Joshua Kit Clayton at a variety of national and international venues including the San Francisco International Film Festival, REDCAT (Los Angeles), Ars Electronica (Linz), MUTEK (Montreal), SONAR (Barcelona), the MonkeyTown (NYC), and Activating the Medium (San Francisco). Her solo performances combine live imagery with a live soundtrack using her own voice, small sound effects devices and assorted electronic instruments. She currently teaches "Math & Media" at the California College of Arts (CCA) in Oakland.

4. Pink Twins

-------------Pink Twins is a duo of musicians and video artists, brothers Juha and Vesa Vehviläinen from Helsinki, Finland. Active since 1997, Pink Twins have displayed their video works and played their music to audiences in Europe and Asia, in festivals, art spaces, clubs, churches and outdoor events. Mostly created with self-made software, Pink Twins' video works are abstract and painterly, from formal compositions to extremely fast shapeless pixelstorms. Music of Pink Twins, based on improvisation and the brothers' symbiotic collaboration, is a chaotic whole of intense soundbursts, melodies and infinitely detailed sounds. In their concerts Pink Twins create a constantly changing multilayered wall of sound and aim for a physical, mental and spatial experience. The live music is normally accompanied by video projections. http://pinktwins.com/

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5. Transforma

-------------The Berlin video group Transforma was founded in 2001. Since then they've been exploring interferences between music and image. They are now working in the context of vjing, music videos and live cinema. Their visual language combines early cinema approaches with current computer based filmmaking techniques, to create fragmented visions and micro stories, which invite the viewer into a world with its own internal logic. They love to collaborate closely with musicians and sound artists, to generate a dense interplay and synergy of sound and image.

6. Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto)

-------------Carsten Nicolai, born 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, is part of an artist generation who works intensively in the transitional area between art and science. As a visual artist Nicolai seeks to overcome the separation of the sensual perceptions of man by making scientific phenomenons like sound and light frequenzies perceivable for both eyes and ears. His installations have a minimalistic aestehtic that by its elegance and consistency is highly intriguing. Further aspects of his works consider the integration of chance as well as the inspection of the interchanging relations of micro and macro structures. Special interest he also puts on so-called selforganizing processes, which for example occur when snow crystals develop. For several years now Carsten Nicolai experiments with sound under the pseudonym noto to create his own code of signs, acoustic and visual symbols. As alva noto he leads those experiments into the field of electronic music. Among others, Nicolai already performed as alva noto at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, at Centre Pompidou in Paris, at Kunsthaus Graz and at Tate Modern in London. Additionally he has projects with diverse artists such as Ryoji Ikeda (cyclo.), Mika Vainio or Thomas Knak (opto); recently he toured with Ryuichi Sakamoto through Europe, Australia and Asia. www.alvarnoto.com

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7. Olga Mink (aka Oxygen)

-------------Video-artist and founder of Videology.nOw! creates experimental animation, interactive work, live performance and multi-screen installations. Olga Mink's work relates to architectural environments, public-spaces and political engaged themes. With a strong emphasis to conceptual approaches, she aims to translate various crossoverfields in her work. The human body is another main theme in her work. This fascination was explored by re-arranging and composing pieces of the human body into new forms, to create another experience of time and space. By use of rectangular screens and a threedimensional projection set-up, a sophisticated visual environment is being developed. In 2003, Mink has been commissioned to develope a permanent interactive video-installation in a newly built cultural center. During night the projection becomes visible on a translucent projection-surface integrated in the building. Interactivity is accomplished by use of a touch screen interface inside the building and an online application on the dedicated website video-matic.nl. When performing live, she often collaborates with composer Michel Banabila. 'Urban Nature' is based on electronic and abstract themes, with an atmospheric and experimental flavour to it. www.videology.nu

8. Klaus Obermaier

-------------For almost two decades the media-artist, director and composer Klaus Obermaier creates innovative works in the area of dance, music, theatre and new media, highly acclaimed by critics and audience. His performances are shown at major festivals and theatres throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America and Australia. He composed for ensembles like Kronos Quartet, German Chamber Philharmonics, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Balanescu Quartet, among others. His numerous works also include projects like interactive installations, video art, web projects, computer music, radio plays as well as large intermedia outdoor events for ten thousands of people. Since 2006 he is visiting professor at the University IUAV of Venice teaching 'new media in stage performances' and gives lectures at international universities and institutions. www.exile.at

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9. Ilan Katin

-------------Ilan Katin is an artist specializing in drawings, live video performance and animation. His work has been published in a variety of print and online publications. His video performances include numerous collaborations and locations in the United Sates and Europe. Ilan's personal performance work tests the boundaries of performing with a laptop in front of an audience, engaging the ‘here’ and ‘now’ by interacting with inanimate objects or live drawing as well as mixing and manipulating live and pre-recorded imagery of these objects. The first of these works called 'eggsounds' and has been performed at 'mapping festival' in Geneva Switzerland (2005) and Participant INC Gallery in New York City as part of the Roberta Fleck Memorial Cinema (2005). In 2007 Ilan performed 'decrepticon 0001', and eight hour performance where he interacted with the audience through projected live drawing. Since 2005 Ilan has been developing 'decrepticon.' The project is executed through a variety of mediums such as performance, drawings, writings and videos. It is an exercise. http://www.ilankatin.com/ http://www.decrepticon.us/ http://www.myspace.com/decrepticon

10. Philipp Geist

-------------Philipp Geist works internationally as a multimedia artist in the mediums of video, performance, photography and painting. For his video works, he only uses self-filmed images and generated images which he transforms, abstracts and densifies in order to create a dialogue with the sound, the space and the visitors. The images alternate between colourful and monochrome compositions. For his work he uses contemporary digital hardand software and also analog tools. Music and sound play an important role in Philipp Geist's live performance works. The music influences the speed of the images, the intensity of its effects, its colours and contents. Geist selects the images live and as the music is generally improvised, the images are found and modified spontaneously. His works also include video-room-installations whose form and content are conditioned by the place where the work is being presented. In his video-installation “RIVERINE”, an ongoing project, Geist shows video recordings of rivers from different international locations, using underwater-video-cameras. Philipp Geist has also realized video installations which covered the entire front of large buildings. By using the architects' plans of the building he is able to highlight or to hide parts of the building. He manipulates its threedimensionality with his two-dimensional images. http://videogeist.blogspot.com http://riverinezones.blogspot.com

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a Space, Media and Real-Time in Media texture by Susana Karrasch (soyous.org)

The symbiosis between media and architecture during the last decade has generated a variety of approaches within the via methods and results. These contemporary attempts all have in common, the goal to create responsiveness of the medium, and its immediate changes by user inputs. The production combining urban scene with technologies in real time can give a new dimension to space by the possibility of expressing public opinion , or in a physical way by moving and reconfigurate the space itself. This paper shows up 4 different types of outputs from the fusion between media & architecture, visuals in the urban space, urban screens and interior and architecture in real time. 1 VISUALS IN THE URBAN SPACE Urban-Marketing vs. Guerilla content In the last decade a rapid and explosive development towards media facades has taken place. At the same time these steps opened the doors to imagine an infinite repetition . Narrowing down to the facade as a medium of communication, representation of content and social values, I would like to focus on customized media facades with critical argument to it's location and environment, acting as mediators representing public opinion / meaning or in a self-organized way of the spontaneous character. Unfortunately commercial interests - driven implementation of modular led-systems rarely include any relevant content, apart from marketing interest. These commercial media-facades provoke artistic intervention, from a critical position, such as guerilla and activism or artistic expression. This concepts results can be seen largely in Jenny Holzer’s text-based and socially oriented art-form , which took place mainly in public spaces. Her statements (original, on occasion, historic or

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archival sources ) have appeared on billboards and have been projected onto facades, walls and water by laser or with xenon. Not literally interactive but with a great impact and strong relation to its genius logic its both questioning and provocative. The work of the "Graffiti Research Lab" is another contemporary example. With the help of a self-made mobile device consisting of a bike, a projector, generator and computer they artists are flexible to move to any spot of the city to get in action. That way they are spontaneous to react on occurring situations in the urban environment: Big scale laser-tagging facades or intervening advertisements with tags and statements. They as well invite graffiti artists and the general public to participate in their artwork. 2 URBAN SCREEN In 2000 the world's largest fully-functional Tetris game took place at La Bastille, in Rhode Island, converting a fourteen-story Sciences Library into a giant video display which allows people to play and be seen for miles. The art installation created by Technology House at Brown University integrated more than 10,000 LED lights, controlled by fourteen custom-built circuit boards. A similar project called "Blinkenlights" took place in Berlin during 2001 within the annual "Chaos Computer Club congress" This Project's spectacularly simple idea works without addition of any media facade, but make the actual building lights of each room interact. Another example of low resolution facade are the award-winning installations by "Bix" and "Spot" by "Realited united". Both are exclusively designed, dynamic architectural surfaces. Having in mind that the balance between new technology and outdated technology, such as the neon tubes from the 1960s kitchen serve as a huge pixel within the facade.

The importance was also to create content and build identity by including a series of curated exhibitions involving visual artists. The artists developed a specially created software, which made it possible to submit videos or stream messages . 3 INSIDE/OUT Information Architecture is conquering open space. Both inside and outside, longing for the interactiveness with the user. Smart environments In these interiors, invisible computers are embedded into walls and used as integrating information & communication technology for architectural spaces. For example a research of the "Frauenhofer Institute" called "Room ware/disappearing computer". The goal is providing context-aware, smart services by hiding the actual computers. In order to rather interact with people and information, than with computers, it tends to put technology in the background to emphasize on its functions. This can happen in a physical and in a mental way by minimizing and integrating the devices into walls or fabrics and to not perceive those as computers at anymore Ambient intelligence includes sensing capabilities, processing power, reasoning mechanism, networking facilities and digital content to support selected social processes (i.e. coordination of teamwork , behavior analysis). Bix. Realited United. Photo: Landesmuseum Joanneum. 2003 Spots. Realited United. Photo: Bernd Hiepe, Berlin. 2005-2006

a Materializing the Visual A totally different approach of media texture is presented by the collective "Electronic shadow". Their work can be described as an overlapping between material space/visual representation and a virtual one. Some of their interior projections of virtual 3D spaces, are experimenting with different materials to project on. Some projects even invert the relation of inside / out whilst creating surprising perception. 4 RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTS Here we move in the territory of responsive and adaptable physical space. The attempts focus on making the space interact in real time, or on ambient changes or on users demand & necessities. For example, walls and windows protect us from sunlight or provides cooling system, like a skin that breathes. New Walls shall allow changes of their shape or characteristics, responsive to human interaction or through environmental inputs. Based on reconfigurable geometry they can bend from a flat condition to curved one, expand and contract. This "kinetic revival" is based on totally new starting point like Animation-tools, parametric derived from Video-Games and mechanical engineering whilst being linked with new technology, provides new possibilities to develop spaces allowing them to react in real time. An early example is Jean Nouvel`s "Institute du Monde Arabe" in Paris France. It is an amazing façade which not only represent the ornamental design link to the buildings content, but at the same time acts like thousands of lenses, closing down and opening up according to the external light conditions as the main constrain for their behavior. Nowadays many Institutions run their own research on computation and responsive architecture. The "Hyperbodygroup" in Delft elaborated on a series of interactive Projects called "MuscleBodys". The "Emergent Design Group" in London even jump in scale by re-interpreting natural systems and biometrics in the study of form-adaptation made by nature.

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BOOKS & LINKS ///// links_ artists & collectives : www.aether.hu www.graffitiresearchlab.com www.electronicshadow.com www.haque.co.uk. www.realu.de www.realitylab.at www.mediaarchitecture.org www.interactivearchitecture.org /////LAb´s www.tudelft.nl acg.media.mit.edu www.smartlabcentre.com www.imk.fraunhofer.de ////// MediaFacade: www.culturebase.org/home/urb anscreens/ www.mediafacade.net www.mediafacade.com www.ledlightray.com www.blinkenlights.de ///// Information_Architecture Ambient Intelligence ( AmI) & Roomware (R). : www.roomware.de www.disappearing-computer.net www.ambient-agoras.org tochi.acm.org LED display technology: www.blipcreative.com www.digitales-bauen.de

////// books: * 4dspace: Interactive Architecture / (AD_Architectural Design) by Lucy Bullivant Publisher: WileyAcademy * Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge * Responsive Environments by Lucy Bullivant Publisher: V&A Contemporary (Victoria & Albert Museum) * GameSetAndMatch II. On Computergames, Advanced Geometries and Digital Technologies by Kas Oosterhuis and Lukas Feireiss Publisher: Episode Publishers, Netherlands * GameSetAndMatch II. On Computergames, Advanced Geometries and Digital Technologies by Kas Oosterhuis and Lukas Feireiss Publisher: Episode Publishers, Netherlands * Reflexive Architecture / (AD_Architectural Design) by Neil Spiller Publisher: WileyAcademy *Total Interaction, byGehrhard M.Buurman Publisher: Birkhäuser * Performative Architecture, by Branko Kolarevic and Ali Malkawi Publisher: Spon Press

Susana Karrasch Susana Karrasch is a creative researcher (artist and architect) based in Barcelona. She studied Fine art and Architecture at the “Art academy of Düsseldorf Germany” as well as generative architecture at “EsarQ” in Barcelona Spain, supported by DaaD. In 2005 she founded “Soyous” which serves as a platform for her to explore a collaboration between media and architecture, whilst holding a strong focus on interactive architecture. Since 2006 she has been an assistant at the postgraduate “Digital Tectonics” course of “IaaC” in Barcelona, which involved collaborating in workshops of digital fabrication and FabLab, MiT.

Interactive Architecture Theo Wattson > Laser Tag, Rotterdam Graffiti Research Lab

a ElectronicShadow

Electronic Shadow proposes a new type of space that integrates a digital extension from the very start, creating an entity that does not put the real up against the virtual but combines them. Taken in this sense, virtual reality is omnipresence, encompassing everything that is possible, potential, all that’s invisible. This new hybrid reality makes invisible potential a visible reality, thereby creating the conditions necessary for new types of perception. Hybrid reality results from the coexistence of two perceived realities, one physical, the other electronic, in a common space. These types of spaces are built in a perceptible physical dimension, yet in deploying new features force the virtual dimension to take a certain number of limiting factors into account. This double architecture, real and virtual – an architecture of memory – enables us to create feasible utopias, to quote Yona Friedman. In fact, there is a much shorter time lapse today between a utopia and the opportunities to create it. This is due in part to technology that, contrary to what one might think, significantly simplifies the technical aspects of project development by enabling quick, true-to-life simulations. At the same time, the distance between fiction and reality is being whittled down; fiction is a reality in progress and reality a fiction in the process of being achieved. It is essential to think now about the potential tomorrow may offer. Since architecture and space are physical, as are images and digital networks, the actual merging of the real and the virtual occurs in a place situated mid-point between space and image. We are currently developing a patent-pending system at the intersection of geometry, perspective and digital technology that allows us to process a moving and interactive image according to a given space or physical volume. The space becomes an image and the image, freed from its frame, becomes habitable.

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The idea of a living space is critical to our thinking because a proposition of this type involves an extension of the imaginary into the physical environment, and is translated by architecture. Our 3minutes2 project “manifesto” is presented in the form of a 5 x 4 meter stage scene that comes to life as the image is projected. The piece, part artistic installation and part design proposal, shows a world that is possible. Set between reality and science-fiction, it represents a single room whose space keeps changing as two silhouetted figures, a man and a woman, go about their everyday life, both in the close and distant future. Our approach opens up multiple prospects for the future. By perceiving space through images and the immaterial, you enhance its value and merge two opposites. On the one hand, physical space allows you to appropriate it through your body and all your senses but, by definition, remains static for many. On the other, images gives free rein to the imagination, liberating it from the laws of physics, but are often assigned to a flat frame where you remain but a spectator. Demultiplying space by images means that the space keeps changing, becoming a true media. Demultiplying an image by space means the image is no longer an object that you look at but an environment you can live in and observe in harmony with reality. Demultiplication replaces the traditional accumulation process. In addition, as the technology is entirely hidden from view, what the public sees appears magical, a “supernatural” vision of reality. The interface rids itself of digital metaphors and becomes natural once again; people can use the ir senses without having to be taught to do so.

3minutes_ 3 minutes_ is a system that displays an extremely compact living unit. The particularity of the space lies in its ability to extend far beyond its physical boundaries through the image screened on it. In consequence, its volume can expand to fit the various functions scripted for it as a living space. The space, in fact, is perpetually reconfigured according to the activities of its inhabitants and as time goes by. The script compresses the home’s main activities and functions: eating, sleeping, working, etc., into a very short timeframe. The space is an empty shell that comes alive when in contact with an image. The image does not serve as a simple illustration, but as a critical element of the space, outlining its contours as well as its content. The objects are dematerialized into pixels, and virtual interfaces coexist along with representations of the objects and the “real” functions they provide.

The inhabitant of the space becomes content in the image, shown in the form of a silhouette. The shadow representing the projection of a neutral individual is the nerve center of the system; the space is built around him or her like a cocoon. The home thus becomes a full-fledged person, a twin, a jewel case. The average living space today keeps getting smaller, while screens continue growing in size (home cinema). The Western practice of carving out rooms according to function and of accumulating consumer goods is replaced in 3 minutes_ by the superimposing of different functions within the same space, a philosophy closer in spirit to that of Japanese homes, and a multiplication of the same physical object through successive transformations. It’s time and not the surface that gives the space its varied existences. 3 minutes_ outlines the contours of an everyday life as it would were the virtual were to materialize.

a Beyond the traditional functions of the home, appropriately adapted, there are certain activities suited to this particular concept of space that will inevitably result in radical changes in our political, economic and social system. In addition, the status of the image in relation to space continues to remain highly ambiguous. Is it the imprint of the individual’s memory on his/her home, the virtual reflection of a real life, or the life size model of a future space prefiguring the use of developing technologies, such as home automation, nanotechnologies…? 3 minutes _ does not try to answer these questions but rather to shift the focus of the classic argument pitting the virtual vs. reality. The hybridization of the two is firmly established in one’s mind and serves as the foundation for a proposed living space that anticipates the technological and social changes that will make it feasible. As the building of virtual worlds is often founded on metaphors of reality, the system aims to offer a virtual version of feasible utopian models.

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Description: A 15 sq. meter apartment is transformed by images, assuming different domestic functions according to the activities of its inhabitants. Equipment: Space built in whitewood, 1 video projector, 1 computer, a patented space-image system. Exhibitions: Paris, Nuit Blanche 2003 with the musée d’Art moderne of the city of Paris, Villette Numérique 2004, Laval (Laval Virtual) 2004, Linz (Ars Electronica) 2004, Tokyo (Japan Media Art Festival) 2005, Aix-en-Provence (Fondation Vasarely) 2005. Awards: Grand Prix Japan Media Art Festival 2004 section Art. Honorary Mention Ars Electronica 2004 Interactive Art. Electronic Shadow Created in 2000 by Naziha MESTAOUI, architect and artist, and Yacine AIT KACI, director and artist, Electronic Shadow focuses its research in the physical relations between space and image. Using its patented space/image projection system, Electronic Shadow has many exhibits to its credit (e.g. at MOMA in NewYork, Museum of Photography in Tokyo, the Centre Georges Pompidou and La Villette in Paris, the French cultural center in Milan, the Moca Shangai,…). It won the Grand Prize at the 2004 Japan Media Art Festival. Electronic Shadow took part in the Year of Cezanne celebrations in Aix-en-Provence, with an image projection project at the painter’s house, open to the public for the very first time. One of Electronic Shadow’s latest accomplishments is the Double Vision video-choreography show created with star choreographer Carolyn Carlson. Electronic Shadow works also as light artist for architectural projects, such as Frac Centre with architects Jakob and Mac Farlane (opening 2009). www.electronicshadow.com

Aether Aleph Reorganizing Vision www.aether.hu/aleph (2005-2007) Concept Aleph is an experimental public display, using the spaces, people and objects it faces as a palette to display messages from hidden viewpoints. When looking at a small mirror, it reflects a fraction of the space around us, when looking at a mirror façade, it reflects most things around us, containing segments that are dark or bright, red or green. But if we build a matrix of small mirrors, which can adjust their tilt according to the site they are facing, we can create a display that uses the ever changing flux of the place to show images from certain points in space. It will not be comprehendible from all viewpoints, just from specific ones, asking visitors to explore the space, or providing surprising flashes in a public setup that can stay around the edge of comprehension. We can for example limit this point to the height of a child, so whenever she or he looks at the mirror, drawings emerge from the reflections of the clouds, drawings that appear only for them, that adults will not be able to see. The project, as an installation, got commissioned for the Belsay hall contemporary arts program in the UK, to be shown between March 2007 to September 2007. This event supported by English Heritage and DOTT uk, curated by Judith King, and Juha Huuskonen. We joined up with artists Tamás Szakál, Péter Szakál, Andrea Bernscherer (nextlab.hu) who helped to make the installation happen.

Car mirrors After visiting the site, we decided to install it in the garden, outdoors. To reach the required level of stability within the budget we are using power side mirrors from cars. The installation is experienced as a large matrix of reflections of the actual environment on mirrors that can be electronically tilted,_ _so reflections are changing and eventually building up images and other visual information._ _This is perceived fully from one specific viewpoint at a time,_ _while getting fragmented by moving away from it._ _The installation produces its content in response to the presence,_ _position and behavior of visitors. The mirrors,_ '_pixels_' _of the installation are made from power side mirrors of cars_ (_Spansih remakes of Citroen ZX_ _mirrors_) _that have a sufficient angle to reach our goal and are built very robust and weather proof._ _Movement is achieved by_ _2_ _small electric motors within the casing,_ _which we control with our own technology. _Each mirror is equipped with a small circuit board with a microcontroller,_ _a motor driver and an angle sensor, and all communicate via radio._ Cameras are used for analyzing the environment seen through the mirrors and the programs running on the server uses this information to position the mirrors and thereby controls what the visitors see._ Belsay Hall Our site is a very unique place, with a magical quarry garden with huge plants. Aleph is constructing stories from fragments it finds around itself. By reflecting what is there now, it shuffles the present, and shows images that are not really there. This can be experienced as shift in space just as well a shift in time. The name we chose, Aleph, from Borges talks about a point in space, that contains all other points, where time falls into a singularity.

a This experience is like where the actual environment starts to carry something fictional. It is where the stains on the walls can become a medium, they mediate the space, and this is exactly how we felt about Belsay Hall. For us, Belsay Hall has a very unique duality. Every little corner feels loaded with hidden stories, with the histories of the place, but at the same time, as the buildings are emptied out, the place acts as a framework, that is waiting for new interpretations to happen, new uses to emerge. Perhaps Aleph is revealing something from this. Perhaps this will only be our personal relation to this connection, and not really visible for other. Either way, the very strong atmosphere of Belsay has influenced our work, as we have been working with these images in our minds for many months. Related projects and concepts There have been quite a few people and projects creating alternative displays, from room lights, to water drops, even we have been experimenting with rotating pixels before. Using reflections from tilting mirrors to create images is a technology used in most projectors, called DLP, that is very similar, of course on a much smaller scale. Building displays from kinetically moving objects was researched by Daniel Rozin a decade ago, who created many beautiful projects, we especially like the trash mirror. Also, we need to mention photo mosaic, the process of creating large images from many smaller ones in software. Given all the above, once we had the idea in 2005 to use the colors reflected on moving mirrors from the environment to shuffle new information into the same data, we thought that we really would like build it. Not for technological innovation, nor for artistic novelty, but simply out of curiosity. Facade system As we see the concept as a great architectural element, we are continously in discussion with possible partners and architectural projects for this. Have a look at this large rendering to see how we image aleph large scale. By tilting tiles of glass one could play with natural reflection and truly transparent areas, something regular glass facades can't achieve.

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Project Crediting Aleph Reorganizing Vision Bengt Sjölén (Autmata AB) and Adam Somlai-Fischer (Aether Architecture) ---------------Aether Architecture methodologies - Adam Somlai-Fischer Our projects: cultural technologies Our main focus is to develop systems, technologies, spaces that carry cultural qualities and are exploring the possibilities in today's networked societies. Borrowing concepts from electronic art, computer science and interaction design, we create spaces that somehow embody media, are responsive to people and are open for changing. This involves the development and software and hardware systems that allow communal and intuitive interactions and the building of malleable but tangible structures. This work today is mainly carried out through public installations (most shown at electronic art and architecture exhibitions, examples are the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004, 2006, ISEA 2004, 2006, Pixelache 2004, NTT ICC 2007) and research projects. Not buildings, thought we believe they show possibilities for future architectural uses. Our team: a loose network Together with Anita Pozna and Peter Hudini when we started our first projects in around 2002. We have been working as most other young offices, a team of former classmates forming a studio, working as consultants and investing time and webdesign-earned money to develop own content, experiments. Over the years we realized that working with professionals from other disciplines has a great advantage, projects are formed in collaboration, and we constantly learn from new people. This resulted that all projects we create have been produced in collaboration with others. For example Aleph, published in this issue, is a recent collaboration between Bengt Sjölén and myself. Sharing projects: Peer production This model is referred to in social science as Peer production, where individuals form horizontal networks per project basis. Today we consciously choose to work this way. Even thought we get many request we refuse to grow and employ people, rather continue to look for interesting professionals to create joint projects with. As peer production creates peer property, cultural content that is created in collaboration, we extensively use a licensing that allows further remixing and sharing: Creative Commons. While copyrighting prohibits reuses of cultural products, sharing it via a CC license allows derivative works, remixes, etc.

Belsay 03 Concept collage

a Realited United

In 2000 the brothers Tim Edler and Jan Edler founded realities:united (realU), a studio for art, architecture and technology. realities:united develops and supports architectural solutions, usually incorporating new media and information technologies. The office provides consulting, planning, and research, also undertaking projects for clients such as museums, businesses, and other architectural firms. One major focus of realities: united is architecture’s outward communicative capacity. Another is the quality of the user experience inside spaces, which in function and appearance is essentially augmented and changed by additional layers carrying information, media content and communication. Some of the studio’s projects resemble classical architectural work, but venture regularly into art, design, or technology research. Most projects are intended to serve as a catalyst in a given situation, and are therefore strongly determined by identifying, transforming, amplifying, and combining various existing potentials. In that sense the approach centers on taking advantage of available opportunities, rather than specific skills, procedures, or tasks. Although the majority of the projects incorporate new technologies or experimental approaches in one way or the other, the work always aims to affect actuality, not virtuality. Strategic initiative and a high proportion of communication and mediation in work processes mark many of the firm’s innovative projects. This approach creates the bridge between utopian ideas, abstract conceptions and realizations and has been recognized internationally. Currently realities:united is working on new projects in Europe, Asia and the USA.

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SPOTS Light- and Media Installation at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin__ Brief Description Buildings communicate: through their architecture and – as part of the architectonic concept – via their facades. In an age defined by high-tech, architects also are increasingly making use of the latest communications technology in order to present their buildings on the public stage. Whereas a glass facade merely makes a building more transparent, the media facade goes a step further. The dynamic surfaces – presentation areas for designs, animations or film sequences – turn the exterior shell of a building into a communication medium, an intermediary between structure and outdoor space. SPOTS, a temporary installation which has been on show at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, has been one of the world’s largest media facades. From November 2005 till March 2007, the eleven-storey glazed main facade of an office building hosted the light and media art installation SPOTS._ Continuation of architecture by other means SPOTS comprises a light matrix of some 1,800 ordinary fluorescent lamps that is integrated into the ventilated glass facade of the building at Potsdamer Platz 10. A central computer linked to a bus system can control all of the lamps individually, adjusting their brightness or switching them on and off. As a result, designs, graphics and animation sequences can be recreated on the facade as moving luminous images. The external shell of the building is transformed into a communicative membrane, which will be used primarily for displaying artistic material. With its large grid pattern and low resolution, the matrix of fluorescent tubes harmonises with the architectural scales of the building and of Potsdamer Platz as a whole. The aim is not to conceal the architecture with a media installation, but rather to implement its logical continuation. Jan Edler: ‘Our work begins in the transitional zones between architecture, design, art and marketing. What we are doing is the continuation of architecture by other means.’

©2005-06 Bernd Hiepe, Berlin

Multiple levels of communication SPOTS has developed on from the multiple award-winning BIX media facade, and yet in many respects it has no precedent. The overall concept is based on the superposition and simultaneous utilisation of multiple levels of communication: these consist in the existing spatial structure of the building and facade, the multi-layered graphical structure of the light installation and the dynamic level of the moving images. The level of the lamps themselves operates with different types of lamps grouped into gigantic hexagonal patterns. A translucent coloured film on the external shell acts as a light filter for the lamps behind and is visible even during the day as an independent graphical extension of the architecture. ‘The SPOTS light installation has a unique format. Compared to the mainstream in media facades on city-centre buildings it defines other priorities. It is not a neutral screen, but rather a specific addition to the architecture of the building and to the urban environment. It is a place as well as being a building and medium at the same time,’ says Tim Edler. Culture and commerce in tense opposition? Just like the Potsdamer Platz 10 building itself, the facade installation and the presentation concept that was specially developed for this purpose are subject to the tension that typically exists between the commercial interests of owners and customers on the one hand and the cultural or social desires of the public on the other. With SPOTS, realities:united is seeking new models for balance, constructive engagement or possible synthesis between the different spheres of reality. The project as a whole aims to generate an artistically loaded perception of the building complex, thus contributing to the complete redefinition of Potsdamer Platz and to a place of great significance for Berlin and Germany.

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©2005-06 Bernd Hiepe, Berlin

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Conception, design & planning: realities:united, Berlin Team: Jan Edler, Tim Edler, Malte Niedringhaus, Stefan Tietke, Ulrike Brückner, Carla Eckhard, Erik Levander, Chrsitoph Wagner, Jan-Philipp Wittrin Software Development: John Dekron & Jeremy Rotsztain Exhibition Catalogue Design: Ulrike Brückner Curators: Andreas Broeckmann, Ingken Wagner, Winfried Nussbaummüller, realities:united Commissioned Artists: Jim Campbell, Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani, Terry Gilliam, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jonathan Monk, Frieder Nake and Hendrik Poppe, Carsten Nicolai, Timm Ringewaldt, Ruth Schnell, realities:united with John Dekron, and others... Location: Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany Year: 2005-2007 Client: HVB Immobilien AG Surface Area: approx. 1.350 m2 Number of pixels/lamps: 1,774 (of which 1,014 ringshaped and 760 bar-shaped)

Jan Edler *1970 and Tim Edler *1965 // realities:united Jan Edler studied architecture at the Technische Universität Aachen and at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture. Tim Edler studied computer science and architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. The brothers work as architects, designer and artists. In 2000 they founded their office “realities:united” in Berlin. All their projects deal with issues of space, information, message and communication. Their creative achievements have been prized with a number of architecture and design awards, such as the Hans Schäfer Preis from the Association of German Architects (BDA), the „Inspire!Award“ by Deutsche Telekom or the “Goldene Nagel” (Golden Nail) which is the highest award given by the Art Directors Club, and has been shown at numerous exhbitions in Europe including the Venice Biannual for Architecture (2002 & 2006), the Vitra Design Museum and the new Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. Their most recognised projects to date are BIX [1], a light- and media facade at Kunsthaus Graz in 2003 that has hallmarked their international breakthrough, and SPOTS [2], a urban media installation at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Aside from their project-related work both of them have taught at various institutions such as the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, the Technische Universität Berlin or the Pasadena Art Center College in Los Angeles. Since 2005 Tim Edler holds a visiting professorship at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.