PIKSEL

Bergen 2022-2024

STATUS REPORT

Introduction

Inkluderende Digitalt Laboratorium for Eksperimentell Kunst (IDLE) is an innovative artistic and participatory project based on a digitally updated art venue space, Studio 207, in Bergen. The goal is to unlock the room’s different audiovisual devices, remotely accessible via the Internet, enabling everyone to interact with them to create new artistic experiences even not being physically there.

The venue’s audiovisual devices are controlled remotely through a virtual gallery. Guest artists and audiences can manipulate lights, videos, and sound equipment to create different atmospheres and performances in the venue. Through the manipulation of the virtual interfaces (the gallery), inputs are transformed by the Internet of Things system to alter physically the space. The public designs spatial audiovisual experiences for those In Real Life at the venue and simultaneously in the virtual gallery!

IDLE intends to offer a creative virtual meeting point for school kids, youngsters, people with reduced mobility who wants to interact with the physical world, and all of those art-curious lovers that want to look for new physical-virtual new experiences. The project explores new collaborations and forms of interaction between different art and cultural forms.

2022
IDLE is a multi-disciplinary three years project from 2022-2024. First-year development, 2022, has focused on the research and prototyping of the user interaction system. Tasks have included forming the team, coordinating meetings, researching the 3 main fields of the project: IoT (Internet Of Things) devices, Sound and Video control interfaces, and Virtual Reality user interface; testing software and hardware solutions within the free/libre technologies, development of a prototype, IDLE version 0.0, a possible model to follow, a Bergen development team residency’s, and a final presentation of the results.

The IDLE version 0.0, have been premiered at the 20th Piksel anniversary: PIKSELXX AI AI AI festival for Kunst og Fri Teknologi. The artists and developers of the project traveled to Bergen to work together in an art residency, creating the first sound and visual, physical, and virtual experience. The presentation was held on Thursday, Nov 17th – 22-23h.at Studio 207 and the @Piksel Cyber Salon with a massive public attendance.

2023
As with any research project, we found different technical challenges over the year that lead to a re-schedule of the initial project plan. To absorb the delay we have overlapped the second-year production with the final tasks of the first year. The new schedule will facilitate the developments to achieve IDLE version 1.0 and the dissemination plan to collaborators of the second year.

2023 is the year focused on knitting the mediators network among the voluntary organizations, the professional sector at the healthcare facilities, the public workers in different municipalities, and any other inclusive association that works with groups that need special facilitation: children and young people with long stays at healthcare facilities, school kids, people with reduced mobility, etc. The 2023 goal is to transfer the technological competencies on how to use IDLE through meetings and “hands-on” workshops.

2024
Still, there is a challenge to overcome this year. The initial project is planned over 3 years, including Development, Dissemination to mediators, and Public events with final users. The Arts Council Norway has only provided funding for 2 years (2022-23).

2024 is a crucial period that will determine the success or failure of the entire process. Throughout this last year, a series of public events will show the “Art Experiences” in Norway and internationally created by the audiences and specially curated guest artists invited to participate.

In 2023 we will apply again with this project to achieve the necessary funding to finish the IDLE project as intended and planned.

IDLE is a project initiated by Piksel in 2022, in collaboration with CNDSD, Malitzin Cortés and Iván Abreu, APO33, Jenny Pickett, Julien Ottavi, Romain Papion, and Martin E. Koch.

2022 System Development

Piksel proposed to develop the project over athree year period, from 2022 to 2024. This report is about explaining what has been done in the first project’s year.

In 2022 IDLE project goals were to develop the different components of the system and to connect them through a virtual gallery:

• To create the virtual gallery
• To implement the IoT system at Studio 207.
• To implement sound streaming tools to make online concerts with remote musicians and/or users.
• To connect all the systems.

The virtual gallery
The virtual gallery has taken the physical space as architectural model to enhance the understanding of the project and the identification of the venue. The system, based on innovative previously done projects, presents Studio 207 on a web-based internet VR platform.

The IoT system
The IoT system has been programmed using only free and open-source technologies and every developing step is published in a local wiki. This open documentation can be used to facilitate other venues to integrate IoT technologies in their spaces.

GIASO, Sound multi-user interface

The sound user interface is based on the server software developed by Apo33, Great International Audio Streaming Orchestra, GIASO, to create a place for networked performance.

The “Great International Audio Streaming Orchestra” uses a bi-directional multiplex platform to perform and mix different audio sources (streaming). In the time of the performance, the streams (transmission) are re-composed in the broadcast space through a spatialization based on a free and multi-stream internet transmission system. GIASO creates a new form of orchestral composition where composers become virtual entities that emerge from a community of nodes – audio explorers and networked performers.

Web-dev Interface
Through a browser we connect the physical devices, lights, sound, and screens at the Studio, to the VR environment, in such a way that people can interact and create new environments in real time.

Activities in Bergen related to the project

Residency

The artists and developers have been in Bergen a week on a working lab residency to fine tuning the first IDLE version. The team is originally from France, Mexico, Germany, Norway and Spain. This residency has allowed to set up the systems we have been working during 2022, connect them and test it.

Premiere at Studio 207. IDLE Versión 0.0.

On the right we can see the Studio 207 were the audience could enjoy the AV performance. The audio and visual electronic artists are located on the next office, to show clearly to the public they are controlling the Studio 207 venue. The performance can be seen at the Studio but also the audience could visit the remote work from the artists. A big monitor was showing the same performance also in the virtual gallery, the Piksel Cyber Salon.

The 2022 plan included the following practical goals:

• To develop a virtual gallery Studio 207 where the people can interact.
• To develop a sound interface where musicians or public can interact and send the final sound stream to the Studio 207 sound system.
• To integrate the IoT system in the Studio 207, including robotic cameras, led lights, sound equipment and video equipment connected.
• To make a website to use at Studio 207 to control the IoT system in situ.
• To publish the project findings to the general public and other cultural organizations.
• To disseminate the project.

Done tasks:

• To study the possibilities actual software and hardware based on free/libre technologies.
• To test them, to test the limitations and find out how to implement a solution easy to use.
• To put in common the different knowledge of the team members to achieve the final goals.
• To meet all over the year to coordinate the different teams: The IoT team, created by Martin E. Koch, Gisle Frøysland and Maite Cajaraville, the sound development system with Jenny Pickett, Julien Ottavi and Román Papión, and the virtual environment team Iván Abreu and Malitzin Cortés.
• To make a week residency inviting all team members in Bergen to be able to actually work in real life and in te real physicial space.
• To write down reports, documentation and graphical information about the system and how to implement it.
• To create a dissemination platform where we can share that knowledge https://wiki.piksel.org/index.php/Piksel_meets_IoT

Deliveries:

• A VR gallery in Hubs by Mozilla
• A sound streaming tools for multiuser musicians
• A server to host all the applications
• An IoT system controlled by code
• A wiki with documentation

Software tested:

VR environment:

• Mozilla Hubs
• A- frame three.js

IoT Servers:

• Domoticz https://www.domoticz.com/
• Openhab https://www.openhab.org/
• WebThings https://webthings.io/

Lights and protocols:

• Led lights individually addressable
• Led spotlights (Philips system – Philips HUE)
• Zigbee
• MIDI

Robotic Cameras
Sound:

• Icestream server modified

Video:

• Kodi video player over Raspberry pi

Conclusions:

– A wide research has been done on software and hardware related to each field. Therefore, we are in a better position to decide how to develop the final solution.

– We encountered several technical barriers that led us to change the software and hardware tools we had in mind. On the other side, to confirm our guess, we opened a communication channel with the Mozilla Hubs developers team. They confirmed several of our concerns, meaning we have got some awareness of the project and a better vision of how to get our goals.

– The project is very complex. We knew that. We calculate we have done approx a 75% of the planned project, which we believe is a good result.

– The team has met and decided how to work and is highly engaged in the process and the project.

– The activities in Bergen have been very successful, in public attendance and teamwork.

– To develop a project like this, the residency format works very well. It is highly recommended and effective.

Next steps:

In the first 6 months of 2023 we expect to have a new IDLE version 1.0, easy to use for external audiences. In parallel, we plan to start the second year activities.

The second year, once the system is functioning, we want to develop a dissemination plan together with voluntary organizations, the professional sector at the healthcare facilities, the public workers in different municipalities, and any other inclusive association who works with groups that need special facilitation: children and young people with long stays at healthcare facilities, school kids, people with reduced mobility, etc. Adding to that we want to invite national and international artists as well as the civil society to participate in the common creation. A series of workshops will be hosted at Piksel to transfer the competences from the Piksel team to collaborators and mediators.

The third year we will execute the dissemination plan in Norway and internationally through a series of public events where the different “Art Experiences” created by the public will be shown along the year. Specially curated guests artists will be invited to participate.

FRI KUNST – en feiring av kunstnerisk ytringsfrihet 2.- 8. mars 2020

FRI KUNST er et nettverk av kunstnere, kunst- og kulturinstitusjoner og -organisasjoner.

Vi står sammen for å bidra til at kunstnere og kunstinstitusjoner – i alle land – skal kunne skape og utøve sin kunst fritt, uten trusler og forfølgelse. Dette er en grunnleggende rettighet og forutsetning for et fritt og demokratisk samfunn.

Den kunstneriske friheten er stadig mer utsatt og truet i verden. Vi kan ikke akseptere at kunstnere og kunstinstitusjoner settes under press av politikere som er uenig i budskapet, virkemidlene eller formen på kunsten. Politiske myndigheter skal ikke overstyre uavhengige, kunstfaglige beslutninger.

Vårt mål er:

– å handle aktivt og solidarisk når kunstnere utsettes for sensur, forfølgelse og trakassering,

– å bidra til økt oppmerksomhet og bevissthet i samfunnet om å ivareta den kunstneriske ytringsfriheten,

– å bevare kunstens autonomi – gjennom forsvar av «armlengdes avstand»-prinsippet i kunst- og kulturforvaltningen.

https://www.frikunst.org

(Text in Norwegian below)

Why Europe should build its own social platform for news;if news is dying, who will safeguard democracy?; how did the news go ‘fake’? When the media went social. These has been some of the articles that Hossein Derakhshan has been writing at The Guardian and other international media.

Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian writer, who has been defining, commissioned by the Council of Europe, on the theory and practice of what is known as ‘fake news’ together with Claire Wardle. In 2010, Iran’s Mashregh News reported that the ‘counterrevolutionary blogger” had been sentenced to more than 19 years in jail for “conspiring with hostile governments, spreading propaganda against the Islamic system, spreading propaganda in favor of counterrevolutionary groups, blasphemy, and creating and managing obscene websites.¹

After six years in prison he was pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No reason was given for the pardon.

As Wired magazine reported, Mr. Derakhshan “figured out a way to combine Unicode and Blogger.com’s free tools to handle Persian characters.” This technical advance, Wired said, meant that “suddenly, blogging in Persian was as simple as it is in English.”

Considered a major influence in introducing the blogging concept to Iran, he was a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and is currently a research associate at the MIT Media Lab. His current research is focused on the future of journalism and also on the theory and socio-political implications of digital and social media. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Wired, Libération, Die Zeit, and Corriere Della Sera.

In Bergen, under the Piksel19 festival program, he will be giving a lecture about how the challenge awaiting journalism in the years to come is to reinvent itself around something other than news, whilst resisting the seduction of propaganda and entertainment. He thinks that post-news journalism will revolve around drama. This means journalists should make various experiments inspired by older artistic forms such as literature, theatre, cinema, photography and even music and dance. Innovation in journalism should not only be about business models or technology, it should be also about radically new cultural forms and representation formats.

Hossein Derakhshan will be in Bergen invited by the Piksel Festival, giving a lecture on Friday 22nd of November at the Bergen Public Library. He will be available for interviews. Please contact Maite Cajaraville (maite(at)piksel.no) or Gisle Frøysland (gif(at)piksel.no) . For mer informasjon: http://19.piksel.no

1. (excerpts from The New York Times)

---

Pressemelding

Hossein Derakhshan

Journalisme I tiden etter nyhetenes fall: Kunst møter journalisme

Why Europe should build its own social platform for news; if news is dying, who will safeguard democracy?; how did the news go ‘fake’? When the media went social. Dette er eksempler på noen av artiklene Hossein Derakhshan har ført I pennen for The Guardian og andre internasjonale nyhetsbyråer.

Hossein Derakhshan er en iransk-kanadisk skribent som på kommisjon fra Europarådet, sammen med Claire Wardle, har hatt en definerende rolle når det kommer til å utforme teorien og praksisen bak hva vi snakker om når vi I dag betegner noe som “fake news”. I 2010 rapporterte en av Iran sine nyhetskanaler, Masregh News, at den motrevolusjonære bloggeren har vært idømt mer enn 19 år I fengsel for å ha konspirert med fiendtlige regjeringer, spredt antiislamistisk propagada, spredt propaganda til fordel for motrevolusjonære grupper og blasfemi. I tillegg til å både opprette og drive hjemmesider med svært upassende innhold.

Etter å ha tilbragt seks av årene I fengsel, ble Derakhshan benådet av Iran’s øverste leder, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Noen årsak til dette ble aldri gitt.

Det gikk ikke ubemerket hen da Derakshan oppdaget hvordan han kunne kombinere Unicode med de gratis verktøyene som allerede var tilgjengelig gjennom Blogger.com slik at persiske tegn og bokstaver kunne taes I bruk. Magasinet Wired omtalte det hele som et teknisk fremskritt som plutselig gjorde det akkurat like enkelt å blogge på persisk som på engelsk.

Betraktet som en helt vesentlig figur når det gjelder å ha bragt konseptet blogging til Iran, tidligere forskningspartner ved Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center og for øyeblikket forskningskollega ved MIT Media Lab. I sin nyere forskning har Derakshan imidlertid valgt å fordype seg I undersøkelser omkring journalismens fremtid og de mulige sosialpolitiske konsekvensene av vår tids utstrakte bruk av digitale og sosiale medier.

Tekstene hans har stått på trykk I både The New York Times, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Wired, Libération, Die Zeit, og Corriere Della Sera.

I løpet av Piksel19 festivalen I Bergen kommer han til å holde en forelsening omhandlende hvordan journalismens virkelige utfordring på vei inn I fremtiden er å gjenskape seg selv, bygge seg opp på nytt etter nyhetenes tid er over og samtidig unngå å la seg forføre av propaganda og underholdning. Selv er han overbevist om at journalisme I tiden etter nyhetenes fall vil dreie seg om drama. Med dette mener han at journalister burde eksperimentere med eldre kunstformer som litteratur, teater, film, fotografi. Ja til og med musikk og dans. Innovasjon innenfor journalismen burde ikke utelukkende handle om forretningsmodeller eller teknologi, men også radikalt nye former for kultur og presentasjon.

PIKSEL19 – e/co,li:bre 21. – 23. november
Med et mål om å ta tilbake kunstnerisk kontroll over teknologien, lar Piksel deg utforske elektronisk kunst og fri teknologi. Du kan få oppleve live koding, eksperimentere med lyd og interaktiv kunst.

Hossein Derakhshan er invitert til Bergen av Pikselfestivalen, og holder en forelesning fredag 22. november på Bergen Hovedbibliotek. Han vil være tilgjengelig for intervjuer. Ta kontakt med Maite Cajaraville (maite(at)piksel.no) eller Gisle Frøysland (gif(at)piksel.no) .
For mer informasjon: http://19.piksel.no

Piksel19 is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Hordaland County, Community of Madrid, Austrian Embassy, Acción Cultural Española, Inaem, Pro Helvetia. and BEK.

Piksel Festival is looking for volunteers!!
Come on join us as artists assistants, exhibition mounting, event producers, communicators, and more!!
Email us at prod (AT) piksel.no or pm us on Facebook!!!
21-23 Nov 2019 BERGEN (NO)

Friday 11. october 22:00 – 03:00
Østre – Østre Skostredet 3
CC: NOK 150
18 yrs

SCHEDULE
22:00 DJ Error (experimental floor)
23:00 Kaptein Kaliber (experimental floor)
23:30 Iuly.B (main floor)
24:00 Pop-up food with Michelle Zhao
00:30 DJ Error & Anders G (experimental floor)

MAIN FLOOR – 23:30 – 03.00

ALL NIGHT

IULY.B (RO) (Joule, Subtil, RORA, Visionquest, Mulen, Fuse rec.)

One of the fastest rising Romanian young talents, Iuly.B (Iulian Bivolaru) resides in Iași, a major city in the North-Eastern part of the country. He is all about discovering and reinventing himself through music. He is self-taught and hard working in order to achieve the per fect matching sounds, leaving behind his own legacy. With the continuous flow of releasing an i deal amount of tracks, showing dedication and passion for what he does, along with playing in different i mportant venues across Europe, South America and Australia, in the recent years, he managed to make a name for himself.

Iuly.Bs records fly off the shelves as soon as they go on sale. We’re talking about a comprehensive discography, having credits on more than a dozen EPs in the last years, for renowned labels such as Rora, Visionquest, Mulen, Subtil or Fuse London. At Dubla Parties, he also plays on a regular basis in the opening for important names in the industry, such as Christopher Ledger, Ion Ludwig, Alci, Julian Perez, Priku, Cezar, Prâslea, SIT and together with many more.

Deep, hypnotic energies are forged into merciless basslines, born out of his own imagination and keener sense of space.

https://www.instagram.com/iulybbb/?hl=en

VIDEOJOCKEY

GISLE FRØYSLAND

220hex / Gisle Frøysland has for over a decade been one of the key figures of the Norwegian electronic arts scene. Since the early 80s he has been working as a musician, VJ and visual artist. He is a founding member of BEK – the Bergen Centre for Electronic Art and initiator/director of the Piksel festival for electronic art and free technologies.

Gisle Frøysland has been the receiver of grants and has held numerous exhibitions, many of them in Norway but also abroad. His work has been presented at several international festivals like Electrohype, Dissonanze, Transmediale, Borealis, Ultima, MakeArt, Pixelache, Mal au Pixel and Electropixel. His past collaborators include KKNull, VuNhatTan, John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug, BAKtruppen and Motherboard.

http://220hex.org

EXPERIMENTAL FLOOR – 22:00-03:00

KAPTEIN KALIBER – LIVE

The eclectic duo John Hegre og David Aasheim have decades of musical experience from different projects in the experimental/noise electronica scene. Tonight their bring they will bring their hard-gear and deliver a rare live performance.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/Kaptein-Kaliber-1488340938147761/

DJ ERROR
DJ Error alias Rolf Skøien har been a part of the Bergen underground scene since the start. DJ Error is known for arranging underground parties and playing long sets with a unique repertoire that is hard to describe in words.

ANDERS G
Anders G is one of the founders of the Bergen’s techno scene. He has fit into all the facets of the scene, standing behind the stage as DJ and light artist, and in front of the stage as part of the audience. As a previous club organizer, he has managed club events, techno and rave parties, and incorporated VJ artists, performance art projects and installationst. Anders G has a distinct sound that may consist of everything from industrial ambience, intergalactic space funk and pure muzak.

VIDEO/INSTALLATIONS

PIKSELSAVERS – screensavers that makes a difference!
PikselSavers is a screening programme of short videos and software art based on the screensaver format – short audiovisual (non)narratives made for endless looping. The programme is curated by the Piksel Festival.

PROGRAM:
– Political Campaigns – Battle of Opinion on Social Media, Marc Lee
– 2×6, Nick Montfort
– El arte de las perillas (the art of knobs), Osvaldo Cibils
– I will be waiting (2017), Dimitrios Gkikas (Alemania/Grecia)

VIDEO PROGRAM:
– Copyright Atrophy, Antonio Roberts
– Anarchotopia, Karen Eliot
– Go Rando, Benjamin Grosser
– Reconquista series, Paola Torres (Perú/Suecia)

#Anti-corruption-code-my-circumstances, Gisle Frøysland
#Anti-corruption-code-my-circumstances is an autonomous algorithm that reads from the anti-corruption best practices manual for companies named “Anti-corruption: Ethics and compliances hand book for business” widely distributed on the internet and highly recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Bank.
The reader software gradually corrupts the text randomly picking sentences with the word “anti” until the word “anti” is the only word left.
Idea, concept and development by Gisle Frøysland with the ideological inspiration of Maite Cajaraville.

http://piksel.no/mediawiki/index.php?title=TransPiksel#PikselSavers.2C_Several_artists.

http://piksel.no

FOOD – Michelle Zhao
Michelle Zhao is the owner and creator of the Instagram account @nosweetsour, which features delicious, authentic Chinese dishes and recipes. Her motivations are simple: to discover, and recreate proper Chinese food from around her country and in particular from her region of Yunnan.

https://nosweetsour.com/

The 17th edition of the Piksel Festival takes place November 21-23 2019.

Open call for projects: https://piksel.org

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy!
The 16th annual Piksel Festival for Electronic Art and Free Technologies
http://18.piksel.no presents:

Piksel Pavilion – The central info point for Piksel18 – Buzzocrazy!!

Yes, you heard it right, on the 22nd of November we are going to visualize and sonorize the Music Pavillion in Bergen with 3 hours of audiovisual live performances. The music pavilion will be electronically updated to host different Piksel artists doing high impact performances as a preview of what is going to happen at the Piksel Festival.

Piksel18 – Buzzocrazy! Is a festival devoted to art and technological freedom. It is happening next weekend in Bergen. Starting on Thursday with the Exhibition Opening, Concerts nigths on Friday and Saturday, workshops and artists talks.

To show you all of this we will be warming up for the opening of the festival in the Piksel Pavilion (Music pavilion in Bergen) from 16:00 to 19:00. It will produce a very different spectacle for the citizens passing by the main square and surroundings streets.
—-

Once the show is over we invite you to join at the Exhibition Opening Night – Piksel18 – Buzzocrazy! at Piksel Studio 207 in Strandgaten 207 and SKUR14 in Holbergskaien 1, Bergen

– Exhibition – 22nd opening night – 20:00 – 01:00

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy! Is proud to announce the opening night that will take place in two different spaces at the Piksel Studio 207 and SKUR14.

We invite you to join us in the opening night tour! 2 openings at the same time. Starting at 20:00 in Piksel Studio 207, the main exhibition shows different artworks devoted to DIY bioart and the Buzzocrazy! theme.

At 22:00 we will tour to SKUR14 where we will enjoy the premiere of the sound installation developed by Camilla Vatne Barratt-Due, Jo Grys with altered accordions: Hidden Track. SKUR14 is also hosting works by artists from Germany, Iceland, Italy, Uruguay and UK and Norway.

We hope you can enjoy the opening night with us.

At PIKSEL STUDIO 2017
Strandgaten 207, Bergen

DIY bioart topic is presented by the work of Anne Marie Maes (BE), The Intelligent Guerilla Beehive; Mindaugas Gapševičiuss (LT)+ Martin Howse(UK), Radio Mycelium & How I Hack Plant Conversations; Gisle Frøysland (NO) + Maite Cajaraville(ES), From DNA to NSA; Hamilton Mestizo (CO), DIY Traffic Lines for Air Pollution; Jose Alejandro Lopez (CO), Our 25th Chromosome on Google and Dimitrios Gkikas (GR/DE), I will be waiting.

Buzzocrazy! The slogan of this edition festival bring us artworks from Marc Lee (CH) , Political Campaigns – Battle of Opinion on Social Media – Start TV Bot; @Antonio Roberts (UK), Copyright Atrophy; Gabin Cortez Chance (US); Gisle Frøysland (NO), #Anti-corruption-code-my-circumstances.

At SKUR14
Holbergskaien 1, Bergen

International artists are invited to show their last developments at SKUR14 as part of the PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy! Exhibition.
Björk Viggósdóttir (IS), Circle; Wolfgang Spahn (DE/AT), It’s Organic If You Look Close Enough; Antonio Della Marina (IT), fades.net; Osvaldo Cibils (UR), El arte de las perillas (the art of knobs); Bioni Samp (Live Electronics) (UK), Beespace or Hive Synthesis, Camilla Vatne Barratt-due(NO), Jo Grys, Hidden Track, and, Ann Edvartsen (NO) with her last work Kessler Syndrome.

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy!
The 16th annual Piksel Festival for Electronic Art and Free Technologies
http://18.piksel.no

– Concerts Night at Hulen -Piksel18- Buzzocrazy! – 21:00 – 22:30
Doors open at 20:00
– SISTA CAVE RAVE – 3 year anniversary – 23:00 – 3:00
– Venue: Hulen | Olaf Ryes vei 48, 5006 Bergen
– http://hulen.no/
– Entrance Free for the Piksel festival concerts. 150 kr if you stay all night long at Sista Låten 3rd Anniversary techno night. Please see below.

John Bowers (UK)
Tim Shaw (UK)
Ivan Paulsen (NO) (Ivanuschka Sgrim Pa)
Thor Merlin (NO)
Peter Edwards (US/SL)

We are proud to collaborate with Sista Låten techno underground collective in Bergen to bring you a 2 sessions concerts program. Pikses18 – Buzzocrazy! starts at 21:00 to 22:30, then Sista Låten will start with their impressive line up of techno DJ’s till the end of the night.

PIKSEL18 – Buzzocrazy! on its second concerts night is presenting three shows with very different set up.

John Bowers and Tim Shaw from UK will introduce us to UTM, The Universal Transformation Machine (UTM), an imagined alchemical device that transforms one form of matter-energy into any other. Light energy into sound. Sound into physical movement. Physical movement into shortwave radiation. Radiation into magnetism. Magnetism into gravity.

Oroboros, from the Bergen artist, Ivan Paulsen will create a thick feedback invading noise situation trying to get as many types of feedback into one small package, crn will use everything from videofeedback to mixer-, audio-, EM- and radio-feedback to entertain, entrance and cause pain.

In the visual part, Thor Merlin Lervick will be creating a video mapping sculpture accompaning Ivan Paulsen. The projection mapped improvised brings live coded visuals into the physical space on a human sized figure enabling the audience to relate to the visuals in an untraditional setting.

Peter Edwards aka Casperelectronics is the man behind the OMSynth, a “circuit development and performance interface” that allows users to create astonishing sound and light performances. He will be our guy to close the night with his hardcore dance-noise set.

More about the artists:
John Bowers, Tim Shaw (UK)
http://www.jmbowers.net/
John Bowers (UK) works with modular synthesisers, home-brew electronics, reconstructions of antique image and sound-making devices, self-made software, field recordings and esoteric sensor systems. He makes performance environments which mix sound, image and gesture at a fundamental material level, sometimes accompanied by spoken text. His practice often combines improvised performance with walking, urban exploration and the investigation of selected sites to conduct research in an imagined discipline he calls ‘mythogeosonics’. He has performed at festivals including the collateral programme of the Venice Biennale, Transmediale/CTM Vorspiel Berlin, Piksel Bergen, Electropixel Nantes, BEAM Uxbridge and Spill Ipswich, and toured with the Rambert Dance Company performing David Tudor’s music to Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest. He contributed to the design of The Prayer Companion – a piece exhibited twice at the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and acquired for their permanent collection. Amongst many musical collaborations, he works with Sten-Olof Hellström, Tim Shaw and in the noise drone band Tonesucker. He helps coordinate the label Onoma Research and works in Culture Lab and Fine Art, Newcastle University.

Tim Shaw
https://tim-shaw.net/
In performances Tim improvises with field recordings, microphones, modular synthesisers, sculptural loudspeakers and resonant sound objects which, when combined, create layered listening environments. He uses a variety of self-constructed technologies to playback and manipulate his recordings. The unfolding composition incorporates elements of uncertainty and indeterminacy processed through room acoustics, computational systems and networked infrastructures. He is particularly interested in the relationships between site, sound and technologies. Presenting work through musical performances, installations, walks and site-responsive interventions his practice attempts to expose the mechanics of systems through sound to reveal the hidden aspects of environments and technologies. Tim works as a lecturer in Digital Media at Newcastle University. He presents work at galleries, festivals, museums, through residencies and cultural events nationally and internationally. Recently his work has been presented at New Ear Festival, New York (2018), History of Bosnia Museum, Sarajevo (2018), ARC, Switzerland (2018), bb15, Linz (2017), Stereolux, Nantes (2016), Baltic, Gateshead (2017), FACT Liverpool (2016), Eastern Bloc, Montreal (2016) and The Wired Lab, New South Wales, Australia (2016).

cimu / Ivan Andre Paulsen (NO)
https://soundcloud.com/irn-5
cirnu is the shadow of Bergen-based noise-maker and connoiseur of things weird, wild and WTF Ivan Andre Paulsen. While Ivan did his thing around the impro- and contemporary music-scene in Bergen, cirnu was hibernating. The summer of 2018, cirnu started to wake up, and for the piksel festival will be fully awake and ready to cause mayhem and get hir freak on with the rather spiffily named project ‘ouroboros’; an autophagous wall of glimmering, shimmering, magical noise, ‘ouroboros’ is a sonic feast using as many different types of feedback as possible – including FMradio- , EM-, microphone- and mixer-feedback – to detune your brains and break your chains.

Thor Merlin Lervik (NO)
https://thor-merlin.no
Thor Merlin is a Norwegian designer and programmer with a degree in programming from UiO and a degree in design from KhiO. He has developed several open source software tools for visual live coding like Sakuhin and Zypit. He has mainly worked with musicians in the genres of improvised noise, live dnb and jazz. To name a few, he has performed at Slottsfjell, Victoria Nasjonale Jazzscene, Ingensteds and Kulturhuset in Oslo.

Peter Edwards (US)
http://www.casperelectronics.com/
Peter Edwards is an American artist, musician, and teacher. He has been exploring the field of circuit bending and experimental musical electronics since 2000 through his business Casperelectronics. He performs regularly under the same name.

Edwards has performed, taught workshops and spoken on the topic of circuit bending and creative electronics at MIT’s Media Lab, Hasbro Toys, Hampshire College, Skidmore College, New York University, Bloomfield University, Long Beach University, Georgie Southern University and at new media festivals around the world including The Piksel Festival (Bergen, Norway).

****The Piksel festival entrance is free. If you want to enjoy all night long together with Sista Låten starting at 23.00 → 3:00, then the ticket entrance will be 150 kr. You can pay that at the entrance.

PIKSEL18 – Buzzocrazy!

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy!
The 16th annual Piksel Festival for Electronic Art and Free Technologies
http://18.piksel.no

– Concert night – 23rd 21:00 – 01:00 – Doors open at 20:30
– Venue: Studio USF | Georgernes verft 12, 5011 Bergen
– https://usf.no/lokaler/studio-usf/
– Entrance 60 NOK – Free for students.

PIKSEL18 – Buzzocrazy! First concerts night brings four outstanding audiovisual performances.

PIKSEL18 – Buzzocrazy! presents a line up of very well known artists in the international experimental scene.

From Berlin comes Wolfgang Spahn. His unique performance „Self-Similarity“ uses the data stream from a projector to create sound and visuals. A fractal explosion of colours based on different analogue and digital machines developed by the artist.

From the guts of the most impressive computer music environment, Pure Data, we present “pointillism” from the Austrian Iohannes Zmölnig, one of the core developers of that environment. The music is generated using morse code patterns, the code is written in “Braille”, the language of the blind.

Bioni Samp (Live Electronics), British artist, musician, inventor and bee keeper, will perform with his ‘Honey Viscosity Synth (c) Bioni Samp 2012’ that uses honey as a resistor to control oscillators, filters and sequencers.

And last but not least, we will see the DNA chain searches that Gisle Frøysland pull from the public data base of deCODE, and how he produces sound by sonifying the results of the matching patterns.

We can assure that this night is going to be a very experimental one!

More about the artists:

Wolfgang Spahn is an Austrian-German visual artist based in Berlin. His work includes interactive installations, miniature-slide-paintings and performances of light & sound. His art explores the field of analogue and digital media and focusses on both their contradiction and their correlation. That’s why he is also specialized in re-appropriated and re-purposed electronic technologies. Recently he developed analogue synthesizers as well as analogue computers and analog neuron networks and uses them to create abstract light-and-sound-sculptures.

Karachi Biennale 2017, Pakistan; Bienal de Artes Mediales – Santiago de Chile 2017; “Feedback” West Den Haag 2017; Wagner Museum Bayreuth 2017; Maximilian Forum, München 2017; “T2F” Karachi, Pakistan 2016, “Venkatappa Gallery” Bangalore, India 2016, „Montag Modus“ Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 2016; Bodenlos – Vilem Flusser und die Künste 2015-2017, Akademie der Künste, Berlin and Galerie AMU, Prague;
http://www.wolfgang-spahn.de

IOhannes m zmölnig (Austria)
IOhannes m zmölnig is an Austria-based software- and media-artist and member of the art-collective forum::für::umläute. He is currently working at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) in Graz. Being an active member of the FLOSS-community, he is one of the core developers of the Pure Data computer music environment, for which he also provides a number of libraries, including Gem for realtime-graphics and iemguts which is targeted at writing live-coding systems within Pd. IOhannes m zmölnig has performed concerts between Bergen and São Paolo, Perth and New York. (http://umlaeute.mur.at)

Bioni Samp (Live Electronics) is a British artist, musician, inventor and beekeeper.
From 2013 to 2018 Bioni took his ‘Hive Synthesis’ show on tour, performing and exhibiting in Ottawa, Canada at Gallery 101 and the National Museum of Nature. Harplinge, Sweden at Harp Art Lab. Slovakia at Banská Štiavnica Gallery. Prague, Czech Republic at školská 28 and Nová Perla. Wroclaw, Poland at the 16th Media Art Biennale. Linz, Austria at Eleonore and STWST48 during ARS Electronica. Liverpool at FACT, Bioni Samp installation in group show: Hybrids: Interspecies Collaboration in Craft and Design, @NationalCraft The National Centre for Craft & Design Sleaford, UK. reROOted festival, part of Hull 2017 Year of Culture, Sonic Dreams Festival, Waterford Ireland 2017, Primal Uproar 3 onboard the MS Stubnitz, Hamburg 2018 and many other various live shows in London and the UK.

h220/Gisle Frøysland (Norway)
http://gislefroysland.com/

Studied computer science, information technology, TV production and arts in Bergen. Since the early 80s he has been working as a musician, VJ and visual artist. He is a founding member of BEK, the Bergen Centre for Electronic Art and initiator/director of the Piksel festival for electronic art and free technologies.

Gisle Frøysland has received grants and has held numerous exhibitions, many of them in Norway, but also abroad. His works have been presented at several international festivals like Electrohype, Dissonanze, Transmediale, Borealis, Ultima, MakeArt,Pixelache, Mal au Pixel and Electropixel. His past collaborators include KKNull, Julien Ottavi ,VuNhatTan, John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug, BAKtruppen, Information and Motherboard.

PIKSEL18 – BuzzOcrazy!

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy!
The 16th annual Piksel Festival for Electronic Art and Free Technologies
http://18.piksel.no presents:

– Exhibition – 22nd opening night – 20:00 – 01:00
– November 23rd -24th, Bergen (NO) – 12:00-18:00
– Venues: Piksel Studio 207 / Strandgaten 207; SKUR14 /Holbergskaien 1;| Bergen

PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy! Is proud to announce the opening night that will take place in two different spaces at the Piksel Studio 207 and SKUR14.

We invite you to join us in the opening night tour! 2 openings at the same time. Starting at 20:00 in Piksel Studio 207, the main exhibition shows different artworks devoted to DIY bioart and the Buzzocrazy! theme.

At 22:00 we will tour to SKUR14 where we will enjoy the premiere of the sound installation developed by Camilla Vatne Barratt-duer, Jo Grys with altered accordions: Hidden Track. SKUR14 is also hosting works by artists from Germany, Iceland, Italy, Uruguay and UK and Norway.

We hope you can enjoy the opening night with us.

At PIKSEL STUDIO 2017
Strandgaten 207, Bergen

DIY bioart topic is presented by the work of Anne Marie Maes (BE), The Intelligent Guerilla Beehive; Mindaugas Gapševičiuss (LT)+ Martin Howse(UK), Radio Mycelium & How I Hack Plant Conversations; Gisle Frøysland (NO) + Maite Cajaraville(ES), From DNA to NSA; Hamilton Mestizo (CO), DIY Traffic Lines for Air Pollution; Jose Alejandro Lopez (CO), Our 25th Chromosome on Google and Dimitrios Gkikas (GR/DE), I will be waiting.

Buzzocrazy! The slogan of this edition festival bring us artworks from Marc Lee (CH) , Political Campaigns – Battle of Opinion on Social Media – Start TV Bot; @Antonio Roberts (UK), Copyright Atrophy; Gabin Cortez Chance (US); Gisle Frøysland (NO), #Anti-corruption-code-my-circumstances.

At SKUR14
Holbergskaien 1, Bergen

International artists are invited to show their last developments at SKUR14 as part of the PIKSEL18 Buzzocrazy! Exhibition.
Björk Viggósdóttir (IS), Circle; Wolfgang Spahn (DE/AT), It’s Organic If You Look Close Enough; Antonio Della Marina (IT), fades.net; Osvaldo Cibils (UR), El arte de las perillas (the art of knobs); Bioni Samp (Live Electronics) (UK), Beespace or Hive Synthesis, Camilla Vatne Barratt-due(NO), Jo Grys, Hidden Track, and, Ann Edvartsen (NO) with her last work Kessler Syndrome.

Piksel 18, Buzzocrazy!
elektronisk kunst og fri teknologi

22-24 Nov
Bergen, Norway

Piksel18 – Buzzocrazy!, elektronisk kunst og fri teknologi.
The hive mind: from echo-manipulation to eco-pollinization.

From 22nd to 24th of November, an international group of artists will meet at the PIKSEL Festival in Bergen. Throughout concerts, installations, performances, workshops and presentations, artists will share artistic ways to look at bio-data and ecosystems.

Buzzocrazy! The Piksel18 festival slogan points to the new era of “post-truth” based on appeals to emotion rather than policies and facts. Stretching the truth can be seen as just part of a game. The post-truth affects how we make sense of the world around us. That phenomenon has a name – agnotology, the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data.

The human mind has recently evolved to include the thinking process of social media as a whole. We’re connected to social media like a great hive mind.

The importance of what the hive spreads, staying in step with the hive, becomes more important than what happens in reality or maybe it can even be said that what the hive thinks becomes reality. People increasingly seek information that confirms their ideological beliefs, rather than information that’s factually accurate from reliable sources. And thanks to scientific advances in data metrics, the social media companies now have almost perfect mind control technology.

Even on the subject of climate change, people have become incredibly polarized. The hive mind is generating climate science-denying stories.

Piksel 18 Buzzocrazy! Claims to repair the hive mind. The global consciousness has been manipulated and we have to bring it back again from echo-manipulation to eco-pollinization, we seek the bee drones as the new metaphor to restore the logic ecosystem.

PIKSEL18 – Buzzocrazy!

Venues:

– PIKSEL STUDIO 207 | Strandgaten 207 | Bergen

– SKUR14 | Holbergskaien 1 | Bergen

-Studio USF | Georgernes verft 12, 5011 | Bergen

-Hulen | Olaf Ryes vei 48, 5006 | Bergen

Events:

-22 November: Exhibition opening night at PIKSEL STUDIO
https://www.facebook.com/events/264590194250439/

-23-24 November: Exhibition Piksel18 BuzzOcrazy! at PIKSEL STUDIO
https://www.facebook.com/events/714821492224052/

-23 November: Piksel Concert Night at USF
https://www.facebook.com/events/181299019472012/

-24 November: Piksel Concert Night at Hulen
https://www.facebook.com/events/771786699845012/

 

Full program: https://18.piksel.no/program/

BERGEN
5th – 7th November – 10:00- 14:00
8th – 9th November – 14:00 -18:00
12th – 14th November – 10:00- 14:00
15th – 16th November – 14:00 -18:00

Gratis verksted for barn/unge i alderen 8-18 år
for påmelding: piksel18(at)piksel(dot)no

For fjerde gang i Bergen kan barna tilbringe dagene med å leke med kunst og elektronikk. Piksel KidZ Lab er et kunstnerisk laboratorium hvor barn kan lære seg å forstå og skape kunstverk på nye medier.

Under temaene City- GO, City- BIO og City- TECH, vil barna samhandle med miljøet på flere fronter: både det sosiale, kulturelle og naturlige miljøet.

Anvendelsen av åpen teknologi hjelper barna å forstå hvordan datamaskiner fungerer og introduserer dem for begreper knyttet til digital frihet. Laben tar i bruk samarbeidsprosjekter basert på Do It With Others (DIWO) for å fremme kulturell diversitet og et mangfold av fysiske og virtuelle opplevelser som gjør barna klare for det 21. århundret!

Piksel KidZ Lab har som målsetning å bringe kunst i nye medier ut til barn og unge. Det er et initiativ i regi av Piksel, bergensfestivalen med fokus på kunst og fri teknologi.

Piksel Kidz Lab er støttet av Norsk Kulturfond og Hordaland Fylkeskommune.

---

ENGLISH

For the fourth time in Bergen, the kids will enjoy the autumn playing with art and electronics. Piksel KidZ Lab is an artistic laboratory for kids to understand and build new media artworks.

From 5th of November, Piksel Studio 207 will host the Autumn School Piksel KidZ Lab. Piksel KidZ Lab this year proposes three new workshops: DIY Traffic lights of air pollution, Bio-Vortex, a luminescent musical instrument and Electrotextile!. The workshops are dealing with pollution, luminescence and hybrid living art, and textile electronic wearables, all in once as a way of exploration of the complex contexts as civil empowerment, interspecies sustainability and urban and natural environment.

Under the themes City- GO, City-BIO and City- TECH, kids engage with the environment in a wide sense: social, cultural and natural environment.

The use of free technologies empowers the kids to understand how computers works and introduces them into the digital freedom concept. The lab apply to collaborative production based on Do It With Others (DIWO) to promote cultural diversity and multilayer physical and virtual experiences to get ready for the XXI century!

Piksel KidZ Lab, aims to bring new media art practices to kids and youngsters. It is an initiative of Piksel, the Bergen festival focused on art and free technologies.

For more information please visit: http://studio.piksel.no/

To sign up email to piksel18(at)piksel(dot)no

Press material (photos and more): http://studio.piksel.no/press-and-photos-pikselkidz/