As part of the Libre Graphics Meeting 2013: Future Tools held at the new building of MediaLab Prado in Madrid, Brendan Howell and Jon Nordby premier the Piksels and Lines Orchestra (PLO).

The Piksels and Lines Orchestra is an experimental performance system for graphic design. The image industry populates our visual culture, yet it exists in a world with an inner life that is invisible to most people. The orchestra shifts the focus from the end results to the actions and decisions that take place during the creative process.  By turning the tools of graphic design, the software applications, into instruments, the active labour and the operational gestures of designers are converted to sound. Actions like painting, cutting, setting text, adding layers, drawing shapes etc. are reflected by sonic events within a score.  At the same time, the system brings the audience visually into the everyday work environment of the designer by exposing the application interfaces as they are used. In order to make the necessary software modifications, the applications used in this project are all free and open source software.

Howell and Nordby are working with four volunteer actors this evening, performing the first composition for the PLO system, a noise opera set in a fictional design agency. The software instruments played in this performance include GIMP, MyPaint, and Scribus, and  this instance of the PLO Soundserver is realized in SuperCollider.

The performance starts today Friday 12. April 21:30 GMT +1 and the live stream is found here.

The PLO system was commissioned by Piksel as part of  the Libre Graphics Research Project funded by EU, and realized through an artist residency throughout November/December 2012 in Bergen. The first presentation of the system was given at the 10th anniversary of the Piksel festival: Piksel [X] 24th November. The technical documentation, specifications and source code of the system is stored on GitHub.

The initial idea for the Piksels and Lines Orchestra commission was developed during the 3rd Libre Graphics Research Meeting held in Bergen June 2012, and is one of several commissions developed through the LGRU-project.

We are happy to announce that we are streaming the Piksels & Lines Seminar sessions.

Stream of the daily presentations running from 10:00-13:00 from Wednesday to Friday can be found here: http://giss.tv:8000/piksel11.ogg (Kindly powered by giss.tv)

Open the url  in a media player like VLC or Mplayer if you can’t view it directly in the browser.

Video documentation of the different sessions will be made available at the Piksel media server.

The collected photo documentation from the research meeting is available from Constant’s web gallery.

Bergen, 6-9 June 2012 @ ROM 8

The Piksels & Lines research seminar is the third in the Libre Graphic Research Unit research meeting series and will have a particular focus on improvements, interoperability between and fringe use of F/LOSS graphic bitmap and vector software, as well as generative software used in performative contexts.

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Piksel10 is in its final day.
Last change to get your hands dirty in a workshop environment, before listening in on three different presentations.
At 5 pm Signe Lidén and Michal Kindernay will hold a finissage concert, playing their installation Angualar Momentum at Entree.

Piksel10 is signing off with five different live art performances at Studio USF, last act UKI, a provocative collaborative performance by Shu Lea Cheang, assisted by Martin Howse.

WORKSHOPS | KNIPSU 11:00-14:00

11:00 Mouse and keyboard hack – the way for a simple and universal interface [KNIPSU]

PRESENTATIONS | STUDIO USF 14:00-17:00

14:00 Cartografia Sonora Antarctica
15:00 RDEX presentation
16:00 CHEAP, FAT & OPEN

FINISSAGE | ENTREE

17:00 FINISSAGE CONCERT: Angular Momentum

LIVE ART | STUDIO USF 21:00-01:00

21:00 HYLICS
22:00 RDEX
23:00 Degenrative Illetrism
23:30 Dystophonia
23:45 UKI

See the full festival schedule.

Entering the third day, half of festival program has been presented, and an equally interesting half remains. The day starts off with workshops at three different locations, KNIPSU, the PikselHut and Studio USF – followed by four interesting presentations at Studio USF. Note the live art performance FRUIT+ EMOTIOn=NOISE at 17.30.

The evening is set off with Miss Oreggia performing Phantasmata. After that Piksel enters Bass – and the Pikselfestival in collaboration with Basstronomisk Institutt is proud to present a raw audio line-up of Porrige, Skwee and Dubstep, visually furbished by six person VJ-crew.

WORKSHOPS | KNIPSU PIKSELHUT STUDIO USF 11:00-14:00

11:00 Exquisite_Code [KNIPSU]
11:00 Psychedelic D.i.Y. Toilet Roll Goggles [PikselHuT]
11:00 Spectral Analysis and Processing in Pure Data [Studio USF]

PRESENTATIONS | STUDIO USF 11:00-17:00

14:00 Golden Shield Music – sonification of IT censorship technologies
14:30 Naked on Pluto
15:00 The White People
16:00 Scenic: Telepresence software for live performances and installations
17:00 LIVE ART CONCERT: FRUIT+EMOTION=NOISE

LIVE ART & PIKSELBASS/BASSPIKSEL | STUDIO USF 21:00-01:00

21:00 Phantasmata
22:00 PIKSELBASS / BASSPIKSEL / PIKSELOMISK / BASSTROLOGISK PIKSELTUTT
Audio: Panetone, Automat.Piss.Tool, Mesak & Limonious, Bastronomic DJ Crew: Kjempetjukk DJ, DJ Eldfot & DJ Woo.
Visuals: Pikselcrew Allik, Servando, Root, Sweena, Alexandre Q., and Basstronomisk VJ Birk N.
Stroboscopmeister: Anders G

See the full festival schedule for the coming days.

We are in the second day of Piksel10 – Martin Howse, Shu Lea Cheang and Anthony Iles are starting off the morning assembling moments for a 6 hour period, in their performative live art event “The Construction of Situations”, and on two other locations in the city centre workshop participants learn how live code, and hack their radios in no time. The Piksel main exhibition at Galleri 3.14 opens at 18.00 – revealing seven installations that all reference the festival theme (Un)stable, accompanied by concert with Cellulose (NO).
All in time before dinner.
Evening starts at 21:00 at Studio USF and we are proud to present five audiovisual concerts.

WORKSHOPS | KNIPSU PIKSELHUT 11:00-14:00

11:00 Functional live coding workshop [KNIPSU]
11:00 CHEAP SOUND GENERATOR //// HACK YOUR RADIO IN 30 MINUTES [PikselHUT]

SPECIAL LIVE ART EVENT | STUDIO USF 11:00-17:00

11:00 – 17:00 The Construction of Situations

PIKSEL10 MAIN EXHIBITION OPENING | GALLERI 3.14 18:00-20:00


18:30 CELLULOSE (NO)

LIVE ART | STUDIO USF 21:00-01:00

21:00 Cartografia Sonora Antarctica
22:00 RADIO NOISE INTERFERENCES COLLECTIVE
22:30 trAnsCodE
23:00 Andy Bolus / Miho
23:30 slub

See the full festival schedule for the coming days.

Piksel10 is opened and we are proud to present a day full of workshops and presentations, ending with an offical opening of the festival by Commissioner for Culture Harald Victor Hove, followed by concerts and audiovisual performances. Welcome!

WORKSHOPS | KNIPSU PIKSELHUT 11:00-13:00

11:00 NoiZe bouyZ: Workshop and Guerilla Installation in Bergen [KNIPSU]
11:00 Building arduino synthesizers [PikselHUT]

PRESENTATIONS | STUDIO USF 14:00-17:00

14:00 Reflecting about ArTe
15:00 How to build a Capitalistic Robot
16:00 Scratch

FESTIVAL OPENING | STUDIO USF 21:00-01:00

21:00 Piksel10: Official opening with Commissioner of Culture Harald V. Hove
21:15 Something Stuck in My Throat
22:00 f(x)
23:00 The Cartographer
23:30 A/V

See the full festival schedule for the coming days.

(Un)stable

The 8th annual Piksel festival for Electronic Art and Technological Freedom

The main festival exhibition is held at Galleri 3,14 and will be up from November 19th 2010 – January 9th 2011. In addition, several artworks are exhibited at KNIPSU and Entree Visningsrom during the festival period.

See the full program schedule, and an map overview of all locations.

We wish you welcome!

FESTIVAL PASS/DAY PASS
The day program consisting of the exhibitions, workshops and presentations, is free to attend.

For the evening program you will need a festival pass/day pass.
A festival pass is 250 NOK and will give you free entry to the evening events all days.
The day pass is 100 NOK.

Registration for the festival and workshops can be done at the online registration or by sending a mail to piksel10 [AT] piksel.no.

Festival- and daypasses can be picked up and paid for at the festival desk at KNIPSU or at the door for live events.

Workshops are free but some has a fee for materials. (check costs)
Fees can be paid  at the workshop location where needed.

Thursday November 4th Piksel presents Piksel Night at Galleri KIT, as part of the Meta.Morf 2010 biennale programme in Trondheim (NO), organized by TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre)

PIKSEL NIGHT
21 PM the doors open at Galleri KIT. The evening includes screening of the PikselSavers series, concert by the legendary Bjørn Torske Band (this time as a duo performance by Bjørn Torske and John Hegre), and is round up with groovy rhythms and playful projections delivered by Piksel Soundsystem.

PIKSELSAVERS SCREENING
PikselSaver is a series of short movies and software art specially curated by the Piksel festival in Bergen for the biennale. The works were selected based on an open call for participation in conjunction with the Meta.Morf.

PikselSavers consists of 10 works associated with the biennale theme New.Brave.World! through keywords such as sustainable resource allocation, renewable technologies, energy harvesting, fair trade hardware, free content, open access, DIY economy, shared development, and all the works are made using Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS).

The 10 projects are:
Mark Beasley – Snowstorm
Mark Beasley – Icemelt
Andy Deck – Spill Cycle
Jim Bizzocchi – Longfalls
Claude Heiland-Allen – Mandulia
Osvaldo Cibils – 54 dinamic body background
Ralph Kistler – Screensaver
Yves Degoyon – Evil Fish :::
Wayne Clements – Brave New World War
Thomas Thiery – 10 Minutes

Read the full presentation of the artists and their works.

PIKSEL09 SUNDAY PROGRAM

Join in on the last day of Piksel09, with program of workshops and presentations: Learn about the Piksel Software of the Year, APODIO, see how a hemispheral multi touch display can be the future interface for art installations, and get the basics of Open ComputerVision. Participate in two hardware workshops where you learn how to build a light-controlled theremins and how to steer VGA signals.
We end the evening at Nøsteboden with an engaging line-up featuring concerts and audiovisual performances: Experience a drone synth concert with Peter Edwards and workshop participants, and watch NOISE battling PUNK!

SOFTWARE WORKSHOP | Stenersen Aud./Bergen Kunstmuseum
11:00-13:00

¤ Enhancing Pure Data Interactivity with Computer Vision (Open CV)

HARDWARE WORKSHOPS | Nøstegaten 42
12:00-18:00

¤ Building simple analogue light-controlled theremins
¤ VGA Signals: an introduction

PRESENTATIONS | Stenersen aud./Bergen Kunstmuseum
14:00-17:00

¤ _oneliner: presentation (Resheduled to be held at Nøstegaten 42 at 12:00)
¤ Respirator presentation
¤ Py-Cessing
¤ APODIO : A GNU/LINUX MULTIMEDIA DISTRIBUTION FOR EVERYONE! (Piksel software of the year)
¤ Multitouch 360

LIVE EVENTS | NøsteBoden
21:00-01:00

¤ The DIY drone synthesizer concert
¤ Souffles I
¤ [i/o]
¤ TheNoiser vs Zero Point Energy

PIKSEL09 SATURDAY PROGRAM

Join in on Piksel09 day program of workshops and presentations: find out what Open Hardware is, interact with the Terms of Service in Web 2.0 applications, and learn how to make a realtime stop-motion performance using ToonLoop. The ChaosLab workshop enters day 2 at ROM8 and the Hackteria workshop is in it’s third and final day. We end the evening at Tårnsalen with an engaging line-up featuring concerts and audiovisual performances: Listen to the sound of meat, see gentlemen boxing to create code – code that produces sound. And see how strobes can be the controllers for a loud concert.

SOFTWARE WORKSHOP | Stenersen Aud. 11:00-13:00

¤ ToonLoop Live Animation Workshop

CHAOSLAB | ROM 8, Vaskerelven 8
12:00-18:00

¤ ChaosLab (2 day participatory environment and workshop: Fri 20th.- Sat. 21st)

HACKTERIA biohacking | Nøstegaten 42
12:00-18:00

¤ Hackteria (3 day workshop: Thu 19th.- Sat. 21st)

PIKSEL PLENUM | Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall
18:30-19:30

¤ PIKSEL PLENUM – Open Artistic Production

LIVE EVENTS | Tårnsalen/Bergen Kunsthall
21:00-01:00

¤ noish_VS_automata
¤ Respirator
¤ He boxed regularly and was strong and very brave and always a perfect gentleman
¤ Psychoid
¤ MSST
¤ Performance for circuit bent toys and meat controllers

PIKSEL09 FRIDAY PROGRAM

Piksel09 presents a day program of workshops and presentations, where you can learn how to slice audio files in real-time and give your old electronic toys new life. ChaosLab opens at ROM8, and we end the evening at Landmark with an engaging line-up featuring concerts and audiovisual performances: Watch geometrical shapes become sound, see poems become moving images, and get a full-on noise experience by sound-artist Mattin! Special headphone event at the PikselHut – the Late Night Lobby Nuizzzance.

SOFTWARE WORKSHOP | Stenersen Aud. 11:00-13:00

¤ Navahla

CHAOSLAB | ROM 8, Vaskerelven 8
12:00-18:00

¤ ChaosLab (2 day participatory environment and workshop: Fri 20th.- Sat. 21st)

HARDWARE WORKSHOP | Nøstegaten 42 12:00-18:00

¤ Hackteria (3 day workshop: Thu 19th.- Sat. 21st)

PRESENTATIONS | Stenersen aud. 14:00-17:00

¤ Microcodes
¤ Re-ware
¤ Milkymist, an open hardware VJ platform
¤ Noise & Capitalism/Free Software Series
¤ Open Source Software Tools for creativity

MAIN EXHIBITION OPENING | Galleri 3.14 18:00

¤ Battle (David Elliott)
¤ Flick Flock (Wendy Ann Mansilla, Jordi Puig)
¤ TL-Display (Paul Klotz)
¤ Capacitive Body (Andreas Muxel, Martin Hesselmeier)
¤ Reality Checking Device (Susanna Katharina Hertrich)
¤ Void Extension (Marie-Julie Bourgeois)
¤ Unanchored (Michael Day)
¤ _oneliner (Arjan Scherpenisse)

LIVE EVENTS | Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall 21:00-01:00

¤ Paper Cut Tales
¤ Colour Projections
¤ Mouth(s)’ lecture(s)
¤ Mattin

SPECIAL HEADPHONE EVENT | PikselHut 02:00-

¤ d.R.e.G.S – – Late Night Lobby Nuizzzance