STAGING DYNAMIC INTERFERENCES WORKSHOP EVENT " SWEET DREAMS "
MONDAY 24th NOVEMBER 03
19.00-21.00
AT [PLUG.IN], BASEL

The participants of the "Staging Dynamic Interferences" workshop cordially invite you to join them at the [Plug.In] gallery for a couple of hours of social interaction.What we have to share with you is the vibes generated by a few days of contact and Sweet Dreams of a brief meeting in Basel.

One of the softwares we've been using is Keyworx, which is being developed by WAAG (the centere for old and new media), in Amsterdam.

This six day workshop was led by Motherboard, hosted by [Plug.In] and organised by the Viper Festival.

(Special thanx to the people at [Plug.In], and Thomas Keller for their hospitality).

images from the workshop here

PARTICIPANTS

Barbara Naegelin

Born in 1967 in Venezuela (yes..)
Lives and works in Basel
Graduated at Artschool in Lucerne and in Basel. Working mainly in the area of video, performance and music-performance - in groups and solo. (Les Reines Prochaines, Butch&Baumann and others.) Tendence to tragiccomical experiences in self-ironic settings.
Awards: TPC CreaTVty-Award 2002, Werkbeitrag Kt. Lucerne 2003, grant for 1/2 year's studio-exchange in Montréal 2004.
url: http://www.reinesprochaines.ch

Amanda Steggell

Born in Yokohama. Residing in Norway since 1985. Co-director of Motherboard. Studied dance at London College of Dance and Drama in 1982-85, and choreography at the National Ballet Academy, Oslo, from 1992-94. Choreographed several works for the stage and screen. Worked as guest teacher at several institutions of visual and performing arts. Occasional VJ and webmistress. Currently doing a phd in network performance at the Norwegian Academy of Theatre, Fredrikstad.
url: www.liveart.org


Per Platou

Born in Oslo. Co-director of Motherboard. Studied media theory, criminology, history of ideas and film/drama in Oslo and London. Background in alternative media and radio. He founded DBUT in 89, an alternative distribution network, record company and production company for sound, film, art and media, and NOOD in 95, a project dedicated to sound exchange on the internet. Since then he has directed and produced a number of sound/art works and workshops. Freelance journalist on digital art and hacktivism, curator, and board member of the Norwegian Short Film Festival.
url: www.liveart.org

Chris Coleman

Born in West Virginia USA, MFA from SUNY Buffalo NY and teaching at Fredonia State University. Works in the mediums of video, installation, sculpture, and interactive electronics. Interested in methods and purpose of control over people and environs.
url: http://findernet.net

Martin Burr

media in moments (sync now or later) - he loves to sing telematic karaoke
url: http://www.hyperform.ch
email: martin.burr@hyperform.ch

Elisa Mishto

Born in Italy. Gradueted at the University of Bologna (Sociology, Media, Semiotik). Since 1999 lives in Berlin and works as a director and videoartist.
url: www.duplikat.org

Ruth Prangen

Stage-designer and media-artist (studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers Paris). She calls her work "electronic szenography" and focus on the "stage" as an interactive, dynamic interface in order to create scenarios of mixed realities.
email: ruthi@khm.de

Tom Lang

Born in Switzerland and lives in Winterthur. He is employed at university of applied science, Aargau department of art and design as a assistant for media art. The main focus of his work is performance and media art.
url: www.ifkg.org

Stijn Ossevoort

For the last three years I have focussed my designs on electronic consumer products. Driven by my dissatisfaction with most electronic products I have tried to find a way to humanise them. First I tried to improve them through conducting research on existing products and user trials then over the past two years I have developed my own distinctive ways....
url:http://members.lycos.nl/StijnOssevoort/

IMAGES FROM THE WORKSHOP (more coming soon):  

IMAGE 01: Image from Chris' initial artist presentation on the first day of the workshop.

One of the projects he talked about was "Spatiodynamic" (Interactive installation, 2003). The viewer sees a small screen with a land/sea scape flowing towards them. By rounding a corner, the device creating this image is discovered. 220 fans blow to manipulate a sheet of plastic, all controlled by a computer that is using the people from the original space to determine the patterns.

IMAGE 02: A snapshot of Tom's keyworx output for an sms prototype project.

Tom used sms messages as an input in keyworx to create a "fake" dating interface. As sms messages are received, they appear as text on the screen and are spoken by the speech rendering options (text to speech) in keyworx. The "woman" (a series of qt movies) reacts to messages as they enter, and laughs, blows a kiss, etc, as people send her an sms message. Information about the date and time that the sms was received are also displayed.

IMAGE 03: A snapshot of Barbara and Martin's keyworx output for a telematic karaoke prototype.

This was an investigation into making a telematic karaoke session where several singers could perform from different locations. What you see here is two live video feeds and a karaoke qt movie on the same screen. Due to data transfer rates across a network, and different performance capabilities of the networked computers, the singers' experience of their partners' audio and video feeds are not in sync. This deviation from the usual syncronized karaoke experience provides a challenge for the performers.

IMAGE 04: A smoke-screen prototype as depicted in the Basler Zeitung, 22.11.03.

An attempt was made to make a smoke screen that would act as a projection surface. The idea was that the smoke machine could be controlled by participants in a keyworx session. An interface was made so that the on/off button on the machine could be activated by any control value in keyworx. Assisted by Stjin, and other members of the workshop, Chris was the main guy behind the practical solution for creating a projection surface by connecting the smoke machine to a construction of several plastic pipes and tubes, and making it controlable via keyworx.