Another round of Piksel Kidz is right around the corner! From Tuesday 28th of November until Friday 1st of December kids, parents, youngsters and adults are welcome to studio 207 where the digital-craft artist Florencia Alonso (Flor de Fuego) will guide the group on tips and tricks of Live coding using the open source software Hydra.
In 2015, Piksel Festival, the Bergen festival focusing on new media art and open digital culture, introduced Piksel KidZ Lab, an artistic laboratory for kids to understand and build new media artworks. After 9 years of experience working with kids and technology, the program is rooted in the autumn schools program. Piksel KidZ Lab will be held in Bergen during the autumn of 2023.
Throughout the 3 hours workshop the kids will experiment programming with very simple code sounds and visuals. The workshop intends to de-mystify technology and reveal its design decisions, limitations, and creative potential. Kids will produce a final performance all together at the end of the workshop.
In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Hydra – a live coding environment created by Olivia Jack. Using live programming, they will have the opportunity to explore image and camera manipulation and create unique visuals. Additionally, we will discuss the various formats where video plays a crucial role, such as live concerts, art installations, and music videos.
Hydra is a web-based video synthesizer. Olivia describes live coding as writing code in real time to make visuals and/or music as part of a performance. Originally begun as a series of explorations in the browser, Hydra is now used by a large community of live coding performers who perform in clubs and other venues, as well as in online streamed performances throughout the pandemic. There are many resources for getting started with Hydra, and a number of spin-off projects including PIXELJAM, also by Olivia, which allows multiple performers to do live coding together. There are also periodic online meetups where live coders worldwide meet up to talk and show off their works created with Hydra.
Hydra is live code-able video synth and coding environment that runs directly in the browser. It is free and open-source and made for beginners and experts alike.
Duration: 4 hours. The workshop repeats every day in 2 possible schedules: mornings from 10:00 to 13:00 for schools late afternoon from 16:00-19:00 for individual kids
Age: 10-88 years old. Parents and young adults are also welcome!
Place: Studio 207, Strandgaten 207, 5004 Bergen
To secure a spot, send us an email to piksel23(AT)piksel.no with the Subject line Piksel Kidz.
Remember to include the day and time you wish to sign up for as well as name and age of participants!
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The inception of Piksel Cyber Salons can be traced back to 2020, a year marked by the rapid emergence of new ways to connect in response to the global pandemic. While virtual reality (VR) was not a novel concept, WebVR became more accessible and easier to develop, aligning well with the prevailing spirit of the times.
Piksel FestSpil 2020 – COPY PASTE
The inaugural Piksel Cyber Salon took place during the Piksel FestSpil in 2020, curated by Antonio Roberts. Its aim was to embrace the essence of digital artworks that could only be exhibited in the digital realm. Artists Matthew Plummer-Fernandez and Julien Deswaef presented glitchy collages of random objects sourced from freely accessible 3D online repositories, resulting in a peculiar landscape.
The Piksel Cyber Salon was part of the Ars Electrónica Garden BERGEN
The second Piksel Cyber Salon, held in 2021, experimented with the festival’s slogan letters, transforming the salon into an electronic literature saloon. Created by artist Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD), each artwork was linked to ring-shaped sculptures, and curated video programs played continuously on various screens. A live connection was established with the festival in Bergen.
The third Piksel Cyber Salon, known as Piksel 21, embraced a semi-dark environment, symbolizing our gradual emergence from the global outbreak. Alongside digital sculptures created by 3D artist, creative coder, and sound artist Santiago Ramírez Camarena, the Cyber Salon served as a virtual arena for following the festival’s streaming activities. A TV studio was set up at Piksel to facilitate streaming, attracting newcomers to the world of streaming and expanding the content.
Marking 20 years of New Media Art and Free/Libre technologies in Norway, Piksel XX featured a seminar, special projects, an extensive exhibition, concerts, performances, artist presentations, and workshops. The fourth Piksel Cyber Salon served as a hub for experiencing all these events. Furthermore, the development of the new Cyber Salon aimed to establish a more profound connection with physical spaces. This led to the creation and premiere of IDLE in November 2022. Learn more about the IDLE project here: IDLE Project Details.
IDLE Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art
As a part of our ongoing project Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art (IDLE), Piksel is hosting an information meeting/ workshop.
Friday May 26th, 12:00 – 14:00 Studio 207, Strandgaten 207, Bergen Tools needed: Own Laptop and Headphones
Open to anyone interested in creative and innovative digital solutions for the inclusion of people with reduced mobility/functionality.
The meeting will include a presentation of IDLE so far, an exploration of Piksel Cyber Salon, and end with a small workshop on how to navigate and utilize opportunities available on this platform.
The goal for the evening is to inspire participants to take further part in the project as IDLE mediators, cultural organizations, and artists.
To sign up, please send an email with the subject line “IDLE Mediator Meeting” to piksel23(at)piksel(dot)no
Ps: The event is BYOL- Bring Your Own Laptop (and headphones) !
Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art (IDLE) is an innovative, artistic, and participatory project based on a digitally upgraded meeting place, Studio 207 in Bergen. The goal is to make the physical art space Studio 207 available online via Piksel Cyber Salon with the aim that everyone can interact and create new artistic experiences without having to be physically present.
The project started with the premise that social gatherings on digital platforms give a greater opportunity to participate when unable to meet up physically and explores how to open access to electronic and contemporary art in new ways.
To test the preliminary manufactured technology and eventually disseminate the completed tool, we at Piksel wish to put together a team consisting of representatives from cultural/artistic/humanitarian/health organizations or institutions that work with people with reduced mobility physically, socially, and/or infrastructural. This includes actors who wish to include the aforementioned groups in their activities.
As an IDLE mediator, one will: • Be among the first with user knowledge related to an innovative tool. • Gain expanded knowledge about creative inclusion opportunities within art and culture. • Interact with the artists behind IDLE. • Be able to influence the finished result so that it is adapted to the needs you see as suitable to be met. • Get arranged use of the Piksel Cyber Salon and specially adapted workshops organized by Piksel.
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Piksel is presenting the project IDLE Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art at the ISEA SYMBIOSIS 23 as a part of the event program Analysis, theory & politics of care (in Electronic Arts) May 17th at 4:30 GMT+2 at Mains d’Œuvres.
The event is organized by the EU funded project Toolkit of Care, an Action’s network to share collective expertise and technical knowledge employed in creative ways to develop knowledge and methodologies of care. Enabling creative technology to form a “critical network of care”.
With our ongoing project Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art (IDLE) recognized as a useful tool by the Toolkit of Care network, Piksel representatives will present the concept of IDLE and its possibilities to the International Electronic Art Symposium 2023 Audience.
IDLE intends to offer a creative virtual meeting point for school kids, youngsters, people with reduced mobility, artists performing remotely who want to interact with the physical world, and all of those art curious lovers that want to look for new physical-virtual new experiences.
DIGI.KOMP is a Cultural cooperation with Slovenians partners through the EEA and Norway Grants.
DIGI.KOMP answers the growing demands for the use of digital content in society, which are difficult for teachers, other pedagogical workers, and training organizers to follow and use in their day-to-day work. Children, adults and the elderly need quality training to raise their digital competencies for work and everyday life. The main goal of the project is the development and pilot implementation of 39 new teaching and learning practices for work and life in the field of digital competencies.
Piksel has prepared 3 workshops about basic electronics, DIY bioart instruments, and digital streaming competences:
Basic electronic knowledge – how to teach computer skills, how to start working with electronics, how a computer works. Useful for teachers teaching children around 8 years old.
How to use microscope with your mobile phone – a creative approach to science that teachers can do at schools (11-18 years old or more)
How to use OBS Studio – Streaming video to different platforms (YouTube, others) where the lecturer can integrate slides, documents, web pages, different cameras, webcam, high-performance real-time video/audio capturing and mixing, create scenes made up of multiple sources and more.
The first part of the project is planned for March 2023 when the Piksel team travel to Slovenia to host the first series of workshops. To help lead the workshops we are lucky to be joined by the artists Sarah Grant, Hamilton Mestizo and APO33/Julien Ottavi.
In February the Spanish national TV program – Metrópolis – successfully aired a PikselXX special where they showed highlights of AV performances, the AI AI AI exhibition and interviews with artists and curators. Capturing the essence of Piksel in the beautiful framing of sunny Bergen and KiB, – Kunstskolen i Bergen, our main festival venue. The show is a must watch for any new media art enthusiast with a case of wanderlust. The full program with English subtitles can be seen here: https://www.piksel.org/nextcloud/index.php/s/Xj9oFdZnjoYNmdL
(click on the image to see the video)
Featured artist include: Oscar Martin a.k.a Noish (ES), Miller Puckette (US), Kerry Hagan (IR), Derek Curry (US), Jennifer Gradecki (US), Nick Montfort (US), Luz María Sánchez (MX), Ben Grosser (US), Özge Samanci (TR/US), Hillevi Munthe (NO), Elisabeth Schimana (AT), Sarah Grant (DE/US), Teresa Dillon (IR), Joana Chicau (PT/GB), Juan Pablo García Sossa (CO/DE), Lauren McCarthy (US), Shortwave Collective (UK).
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.
– 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.
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Welcome to Piksel09 – the 7th annual Piksel festival!
This years theme – f[re](e){op}[en]able – is a play on the words free, open and able. This is our way of celebrating the 7th festival with a meta theme which in a poetic way express the fundamental topics that have been the main focus of Piksel from the start – artistic practice built on technological freedom!
To sign up send an email to: piksel22(at)piksel(dot)no All workshops are free to attend.
This year Piksel adds to the regular Piksel festival workshops and the Piksel Kidz Lab edition, for the second year, the initiative in collaboration with Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland and PRODA. The new program “Performing arts Workshops, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts.” consists in a workshops program for performers, choreographers and dancers interested on the use of digital tools applied to interaction, sound, light, devices control, robotics, etc. with free technologies! As a result of the collaboration with the Critical Engineering Working -group we welcome 2 other workshops “Open Wave-Receiver by Shortwave Collective” and Messaging with lights in a not internet era! by Sarah Grant. Pure Data claims its space as a powerful digital tool for artists with 3 workshops: Pure Data for beginners, PdParty, and Neural Networks with PD.
Workshops are IRL except the one from Alexandros Drymonitis, Neural Networks in Pure Data, that will be online.
FRIDAY 18th & SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER
Ewasteroid – Paul Granjon @KIB Workshop I – 10-13h PIKSEL KIDZ LAB – Age 10-100
The beauty and the ugliness of electronic waste fight it off in this workshop for curious people. Starting with a pile of electronic waste items such as printers, pc towers, DVD players the participants will build a spinning asteroid made of out of date components and found timber, mining the old machines for intricate and complex parts. The resulting temporary sculpture is both celebration of human engineering and sinister indicator of an extractivist civilisation gone in overdrive.
Open Wave-Receiver – Shortwave Collective @KIB Atrium – 15-18 h Coping Strategies program
Building Open Wave-Receivers enables DIY communications reception, and allows anyone to freely listen to the broad spectrum of radio waves around us. All you need are a few easy-to-procure supplies and, if you want to try it, a neighborhood fence or other receptive antenna proxy.
Why a fence? Antennas are necessary for radios to receive signals, and many things can be antennas. Fences can make great, and very long, antennas! Other materials can work well too; even a tent peg can become a useful part of a radio. Open Wave-Receivers allow us to explore the relationship between different combinations of materials, antennas, and radio waves, creating a new technology literacy, a new medium for artistic expression, and a new way to explore the airwaves in our communities.
We have found making Open Wave-Receivers to be a fun adventure. The ability to use simple scraps to create variety and personalization in each radio makes this a great maker project for anyone wanting to play with radio.
FRIDAY 18th NOVEMBER
Movement sensors in Pure Data for beginners– Kris Kuldkepp @KIB Workshop II – 10-12 h
The workshop for beginners in Pure Data and programming for movement sensors introduces the first steps for processing the data and the necessary algorithms. The guests should bring their personal computers and preinstall Pure Data. As sensors, we will use our smartphones, and participants should also preinstall an app GyrOSC (iOS) or OSChook (Android) on their phones. A computer mouse can be used to stimulate the data stream. During the workshop, we will build examples in Pure Data that introduce the first essential steps in creating music with sensors and what to do with the raw data. No previous experience with Pure Data is required.
Live collaborative radio with Mezcal – August Black @KIB Workshop II – 12-13 h
Mezcal is a web app for collaborative sound and live transmission that I have been prototyping and building in collaboration with https://wavefarm.org and multiple artists (such as Anna Friz https://nicelittlestatic.com/, Betsey Biggs https://www.betseybiggs.org/, and Peter Courtemanche http://absolutevalueofnoise.ca/?now). In this 1 hour workshop, I give an overview of the software, its design intentions and practical implementations, and then split the group up into sections to create a live experimental radio session on-site. (note: this software is not YET free software, but lives in the web as a free service for free cultural institutions such as radio libre in Medellín, Colombia https://red.radiolibre.cc/ and Sound Camp in the UK https://soundtent.org/, among others)
ONLINE Workshop Prototyping DIY smart robots with Arduino and Machine Learning – Ivan Iovine @KIB Workshop III – 10-13 h
The workshop aims to teach participants the use of the Arduino platform in conjunction with the Ml5.js Machine Learning framework.
Each participant will be given a DIY robotic arm made of recycled wood, to which an Arduino will be interfaced. Through serial (WebSerial) communication, the Arduino will communicate with a Javascript application and the Ml5.js framework. Participants will be explained and taught the basics of Machine Learning, exploring and experimenting firsthand with pre-trained Machine Learning models for body recognition (PoseNet model), hand recognition (Handpose model), face and facial emotion recognition (FaceApi), as well as real-time object tracking (YOLO). Through the use of these Open Source technologies, workshop participants will be able to learn the basics of Arduino and Ml5.js, experimenting in a hands-on manner and creating customized human-machine interactions based on Machine Learning models.
memoryMechanics by Karen Eide Bøen, Mads Høbye, Lise Aagaard Knudsen, Maja Fagerberg Ranten and Troels Andreasen. @Strandgaten 205 – 12-13 h
Performing Arts Workshops Program in collaboration with Bergen Dansesenter and PRODA
memoryMechanics is an interactive sound installation that explores how we as humans embody memories.
The installation is based on an archive of memories that are collected from different people, by guiding them through sensory experiences and into physical poses that trigger embodied memories. Their recorded memories are then stored in the installation for retrieval through imitating their initial poses.
Artificial intelligence is used to record and retrieve memories from the archive. Through the installation, a synergy between human memory and computer memory appears. Artificial intelligence creates a mediated physical space in which the audience can walk around, position themselves in poses and hear the intimate stories of previous participants.
SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER
Messaging with lights in a not internet era! – Sarah Grant @KIB Atrium 10-13 h Coping Strategies /PIKSEL KIDZ LAB – Age 10-18
What would happen if we no longer had the internet or mobile phones? How would we send messages to each other? Drawing inspiration from insects and ancient forms of signalling using light, we will learn in this workshop how to create our own blinking firefly lanterns for wirelessly transmitting messages.
Intro to PdParty – cowboy man – Dan Wilcox @KIB Workshop II – 10-13 h
This is an overview workshop PdParty, a free open-source iOS application for running Pure Data patches on Apple mobile devices using libpd. Directly inspired by Chris McCormick’s DroidParty for Android and the original RjDj by Reality Jockey, PdParty takes a step further by supporting OSC (Open Sound Control), MIDI, & MiFi game controller input as well as implementing the native Pd GUI objects for a WYSIWYG patch to mobile device experience. Various scene types are supported including compatibility modes for PdDroidParty & RjDj and both patches and abstraction libraries can be managed via a built-in web server. Unlike the rise of the single-purpose audio application, PdParty is meant to provide a platform for general purpose digital signal processing via Pure Data patches.
ONLINE Workshop Neural Networks in Pure Data – Alexandros Drymonitis @KIB Workshop III – 10-13 h
This workshop proposal aims to demystify various concepts around the field of machine learning through the use of neural networks. Lately I have developed an external object for Pure Data, called neuralnet (https://github.com/alexdrymonitis/neuralnet), that enables the user to create various kinds of densely connected neural networks, for various artistic applications. The participants will be introduced to basic theory on neural networks, with hands-on examples that will clarify certain concepts on this popular field. By following this workshop, the participants will be able to use neural networks created with this object, for their own use cases, reaching satisfactory levels of network training and performance.
Each participant must have their own laptop with Pure Data installed. Any additional external objects can be installed during the workshop.
Soft Control and body actuation – Afroditi Psarra &Tingyi Jiang @Bergen Dansesenter – Studio 1 – 10-13 h Performing Arts Workshops Program in collaboration with Bergen Dansesenter and PRODA
The implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems in all areas of technological artifacts, constantly challenges the ways in which we perceive and understand the world around us, our bodies, and our identities.
In this workshop, the participants will experiment hands-on with the idea of body control through the use of wearable technology and natural language processing, while discussing ideas around the construction of identity, and how algorithms dictate our gestures and movements. Specifically, the workshop will focus on contact improvisation with robotic actuators in an effort to explore the hybridization of human and algorithmic movement.
Creative PCB-design – Marc Duseiller @nearest bar – TBD
As a creative design / drawing workshop we want to explore how creativity can be use to make unique designs of fuctional electronic circuits. We also will discuss what means Open Hardware and why sharing detailed instructions can lead to a diversity of personal designs and improving the accessibility for DIY electronics workshops. In this creative drawing workshop, we will learn the most basic introduction to read schematics of electronics circuits, and how to implement it as a functional PCB (Printer Circuit Board) where all the connections are drawn in copper. We will learn what are footprints of components and what are the different “layers” for preparing a PCB design for manufacturing (in China factory of DIY home etching). This workshop also serves for re-thinking the diy-CAD methodology (do-it-yourself Children Aided Design) and applying it to the fork of the peepsy, based on the Continuity Tester by David Johnson-Davies. The peepsy circuit is based on the ATTINY85 functions as a continuity tester, the famouse “peeps” of every multimeter, that allows you to test if an electric connection is present, testing your aux cables, or debbugging other electronics. And it has a pink LED on it!
What circuit will we do?
The example circuit is based on the peepsy, by Michael Egger (a.n.y.m.a.) and it has even a practical function as a continuity tester, the most useful tool to test if a connection is present, in a cable or on a circuit. It’s the “peep” that is one of the functions of all multimeters, and usually the one we use the most! The circuit is very simple, 1 capacitor, 2 resistors, 1 LED, a buzzer to make the “beep”, a coin battery holder and an µ-controller (the Attiny85). Due to the special software on the attiny, it will “sleep” all the time, and only use a little electricity when testing, so the battery last almost forever!
VENUES
@KIB Atrium, @KIB Workshop I, @KIB Workshop II, @KIB Workshop III Marken 37
@ Bergen Dansesenter / Georgernes Verft 12
@ BIT Teatergaragjen / Strandgaten 205
Piksel Festival 2022 will take place from 17th-20th of November at different venues across Bergen, with 3 main Exhibitions, a Seminar, 3 concert nights, workshops and artists presentations.
Piksel festival is an international network and annual event for Electronic Art and Technological Freedom.
For Accreditation and Press Passes, please visit us at Studio 207, or send an email to piksel22(AT)piksel.no
More info and full program at http://22.piksel.no
Piksel22 is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Vestland fylkeskommune. Piksel22 collaborates with Dansecenter, PRODA, Lydgalleriet, Critical Engineering Working Group, BIT Teatergarasjen and APO33.
PIKSEL :: FREE AS IN ART!
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Piksel is an international event for artists and developers working with free and open technologies in artistic practice. Part workshop, part festival, it is organized in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free technologies & art.
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2008 Piksel festival celebrating ‘Code Dreams’ saw the boundaries between artists, audience, hardware and software blur in the collective pursuit of a machinic unconscious, as well as a highly conscious celebration of FLOSS culture.
What does code dream? Asking this question presupposes not only machinic consciousness but, above all, agency. What are our dreams of code? Answering this involves collective propositions for cultural techniques and models of production. Piksel08 festival investigates both – in between logics of source code, quests for artistic freedom and the beautiful scenario of a cold Norwegian winter.
Review by M. Beatrice Fazi/ Mutte Culture and politics after the net. Feb 2009
Coping Strategies, curated by Sarah Grant, Critical Engineering Working Group.
@KIB, Kunstskolen i Bergen 17th-27th November
We are excited to present Coping Strategies, a new exhibition curated by Sarah Grant, Radical Networks. As part of the 3 years Piksel collaboration with The Critical Engineering Working Group, Coping Strategies joins the works of Lauren McCarthy, Juan Pablo García Sossa, Isaac Kariuki, Teresa Dillon, Shortwave Collective, Joana Chicau, and Adam Harvey. Coping Strategies is part of the PIKSELXX AI AI AI program, in Bergen from 17-27 Nov.
Sarah Grant in her curatorial statement, affirms that by now we begin to understand the extent to which our personal and professional interactions are mediated by the digital, from user interfaces to data harvesting networks of surveillance. As digital captives, we have little agency over our membership and the extent of our participation within these obfuscated systems.
How can we put some space between ourselves and these dominant structures? How can we push back and reclaim agency over the narrative that is written about ourselves and our communities by these intrusive technologies? How do we mitigate digital crisis?
Coping Strategies is a program of works, including presentations, workshops, and performances, that demonstrate artist-led approaches to recasting our role in the asymmetrical relationship between ourselves and the dominant providers of information technology.
By demonstrating concrete actions that we as individuals and as communities can take in response to these domineering information systems, Coping Strategies hopes to provoke excitement and reassurance that we don’t have to passively accept the default settings of our digital lives.
PROGRAM
EXHIBITION Nov 17th -27th – opening 18-21h – rest of the days 11-18h Futura Tropica by Juan Pablo García Sossa What do you want me to say? by Lauren McCarthy
TALKS Nov 18th – 11-13h @KIB Auditorium Futura Trōpica by Juan Pablo García Sossa Coding : Braiding : Transmissions by Isaac Kariuki VFRAME by Adam Harvey
PERFORMANCE Nov 17th – 19h Tango for us Two/Too by Joana Chicau
PERFORMANCE Nov 19th – 18h MTCD – A Visual Anthology of My Machine Life, Teresa Dillon
WORKSHOPS
Nov 18th &19th – 15-18h Open Wave-Receiver by Shortwave Collective
Nov 19th – 10-13h Messaging with lights in a not internet era! by Sarah Grant
Talks
VFRAME by Adam Harvey
VFRAME.io (Visual Forensics and Metadata Extraction) is a computer vision toolkit designed for human rights researchers. It aims to bridge the gap between state-of-the-art artificial intelligence used in the commercial sector and make it accessible and tailored to the needs of human rights researchers and investigative journalists working with large video or image datasets. VFRAME is under active development and was most recently presented at the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) Mine Action Technology Workshop in November 2021.
Adam Harvey (US/DE) is an artist and research scientist based in Berlin focused on computer vision, privacy, and surveillance. He is a graduate of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University (2010) and is the creator of the VFRAME.io computer vision project, Exposing.ai dataset project, and CV Dazzle computer vision camouflage concept.
Futura Trōpica by Juan Pablo García Sossa
| Futura Trōpica | is an intertropical decentralized network of grass-root local networks for lateral exchange of local resources and other forms of Knowledges, Designs and Technologies. It plays with the narrative of the Wood Wide Web and the way trees are interconnected, communicate to each other and redistribute nutrients with the help of fungi as mycellium. It uses the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol to connect Rhizomes in Bogotá, Kinshasa and Bengaluru. Each Rhizome is composed of a raspberry pi-based wireless access point and web server in combination with a USB based distribution system similar to ‘El Paquete Semanal’ in Cuba.
Juan Pablo García Sossa — jpgs / Futura Trōpica Netroots (*Bogotá, COL) is a Designer, Researcher and Artist fascinated by the clash between emerging technologies and grass-root popular culture in tropical territories. His practice explores the development of cultures, visions, realities and worlds through the remix and reappropriation of technologies from a Tropikós perspective (Tropics as Region and Mindset). JPGS has been part of diverse research institutions and design studios and currently is a design research member at SAVVY Contemporary The Laboratory of Form-Ideas’ Design Department in Berlin and Co-Director of Estación Terrena, a space for Arts, Research and Technologies in Bogotá.
Coding : Braiding : Transmissions by Isaac Kariuki
CBT (Coding : Braiding : Transmissions) is a collaboration with Tamar Clarke-Brown as an experiment in speculative technology, combining the DIY practices of coding and braiding. CBT explores these two practices as tools for sending encrypted messages to escape totalising surveillance of black communities globally. The performance installation comprises of women braiding each others’ hair with a GoPro camera attached to their heads. The camera and accompanying software translates their hand movements into encrypted messages that the women send to each other throughout the performance.
Isaac Kariuki is a visual artist and writer whose work centres on surveillance, borders, internet culture and the black market, in relation to the Global South. His work has taken the form of image, video, lectures, writing and performance. He has exhibited at the Tate Modern, Kadist (Paris) and the Kampala Art Biennale among others as well as holding lectures at the Tate Britain and Yale University.
Performances
Tango for us Two/Too by Joana Chicau
<– Tango for Us Two/Too — > is a live coding performance that merges web-programming with the choreographic language of Tango. The script focus on the dialogical nature of Tango, using Google Translate with fragments of texts from interviews with Tango dancers and practitioners. It invites us to a pas-de-deux performed by the online interface and JavaScript functions which randomise search queries and present a series of (mis)translations. An algorithmic dance sustaining glitches between the techniques and poetics of Tango, each breath a step towards the emergence of a new vocabulary for the moving.
Joana Chicau is a graphic designer, coder, researcher — with a background in dance. In her practice she interweaves web programming languages and environments with choreography. She researches the intersection of the body with the constructed, designed, programmed environment, aiming at widening the ways in which digital sciences is presented and made accessible to the public. She privileges the use of Free-Libre Open Source software, and collaborates with various international practitioners in the fields of art, design and technology on both commissioned and self-initiated projects. She has been actively participating and organizing events with performances involving multi-location collaborative coding, algorithmic improvisation, discussions on gender equality and activism.
MTCD – A Visual Anthology of My Machine Life, Teresa Dillon
MTCD is a monologue in which the artist and researcher Teresa Dillon takes one “machine’ from each year of her life. From radios to home recording devices to her first experiences on the Internet, reflections on techs uses and misuses, failures and breakdowns, highlight the glitchy realities and contextual relations in which the key “machines” that shaped her technological know-how and imagination, play out.
MTCD originally premiered at Berlin’s transmediale in 2018 with further presentations in 2019. This updated but stripped back version is a special edition for PIKSEL 20th birthday.
Teresa Dillon (IRL/UK/DE)
An artist and researcher Teresa’s work explores the interrelationships between humans, other species, technology, cities and our environments. This currently manifests through three evolving programmes: Repair Acts (2018-) explores restorative cultures and practices by connecting past stories of care, maintenance and healing, with what we do today and how we envision the future. Urban Hosts (2013-) a programme that plays with civic conversational, encountering and hospitality formats and Liminal Routes (2020-) a mixtape and sonic tripping series for cities. Experienced in producing software and hardware projects, Teresa has also written on subjects such as open source processes, music, technology and design, sonic materiality’s and folklores, multispecies relations, surveillance, governance and the smart city, repair economies and artisan repair professions. As a Humboldt Fellow (UdK and TU, Berlin, 2014-16) her work documented artistic approaches to making the electromagnetic spectrum in cities audible. Invited to co-curate transmediale (2016) and HACK-THE-CITY (2012) for the former, Science Gallery, Dublin, since 2016 she currently holds the post of Professor of City Futures at the School of Art and Design, UWE, Bristol.
| Futura Trōpica | is an intertropical decentralized network of grass-root local networks for lateral exchange of local resources and other forms of Knowledges, Designs and Technologies. It plays with the narrative of the Wood Wide Web and the way trees are interconnected, communicate to each other and redistribute nutrients with the help of fungi as mycellium. It uses the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol to connect Rhizomes in Bogotá, Kinshasa and Bengaluru. Each Rhizome is composed of a raspberry pi-based wireless access point and web server in combination with a USB based distribution system similar to ‘El Paquete Semanal’ in Cuba.
What do you want me to say? by Lauren McCarthy
Exhausted by Zoom calls, I created a digital clone of my voice to replace me. This voice allows me to puppet myself, using it to say all the things I hadn’t previously been able to embody. I feel a sense of power owning the data of my own voice. I am taking it back from the tech companies, constantly collecting my conversations, sampling and analyzing and archiving my speech for future use yet unknown. Instead, I offer the ownership and control of my voice to others.
Upon collecting and visiting the work, you are asked by my voice, “What do you want me to say?” However you reply, my voice responds by speaking your own words back to you. Then it asks again, “What do you want me to say?”
This work considers vulnerability, ownership, and authenticity in a time of rapidly advancing virtual reality. As I open access to my voice, I reflect on the ways femme voiced virtual assistants are commanded and controlled by their users and their developers. And the ways we can feel heard and (mis)understood by those that listen.
Lauren Lee McCarthy is an artist examining social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. She has received grants and residencies from Creative Capital, United States Artists, LACMA, Sundance New Frontier, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Autodesk, and Ars Electronica. Her work SOMEONE was awarded the Ars Electronica Golden Nica and the Japan Media Arts Social Impact Award, and her work LAUREN was awarded the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction. Lauren’s work has been exhibited internationally, at places such as the Barbican Centre, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Haus der elektronischen Künste, SIGGRAPH, Onassis Cultural Center, IDFA DocLab, Science Gallery Dublin, Seoul Museum of Art, and the Japan Media Arts Festival.
Workshops
Open Wave-Receiver by Shortwave Collective
Building Open Wave-Receivers enables DIY communications reception, and allows anyone to freely listen to the broad spectrum of radio waves around us. All you need are a few easy-to-procure supplies and, if you want to try it, a neighborhood fence or other receptive antenna proxy.
Why a fence? Antennas are necessary for radios to receive signals, and many things can be antennas. Fences can make great, and very long, antennas! Other materials can work well too; even a tent peg can become a useful part of a radio. Open Wave-Receivers allow us to explore the relationship between different combinations of materials, antennas, and radio waves, creating a new technology literacy, a new medium for artistic expression, and a new way to explore the airwaves in our communities.
We have found making Open Wave-Receivers to be a fun adventure. The ability to use simple scraps to create variety and personalization in each radio makes this a great maker project for anyone wanting to play with radio.
Shortwave Collective is an international, feminist artist group established in May 2020, interested in the creative use of radio. We meet regularly to discuss feminist approaches to amatuer radio and the radio spectrum as artistic material, sharing resources, considering DIY approaches and inclusive structures. Members include Alyssa Moxley, Georgia Muenster, Brigitte Hart, Kate Donovan, Maria Papadomanolaki, Sally Applin, Lisa Hall, Sasha Engelmann, Franchesca Casauay, and Hannah Kemp-Welch
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memoryMechanics by Karen Eide Bøen, Mads Høbye, Lise Aagaard Knudsen, Maja Fagerberg Ranten and Troels Andreasen.
PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOPS PROGRAM @Strandgaten 205
memoryMechanics is an interactive sound installation that explores how we as humans embody memories.
Participants: Dancers and anyone interested on interactivity and technologies. Duration: 1 hour Venue: former BIT Teatergarasjen office (Strandgaten 205) Date: NOV 18th – 12-13h To participate send an email to: piksel22(at)piksel(dot)no
The installation is based on an archive of memories that are collected from different people, by guiding them through sensory experiences and into physical poses that trigger embodied memories. Their recorded memories are then stored in the installation for retrieval through imitating their initial poses.
Artificial intelligence is used to record and retrieve memories from the archive. Through the installation, a synergy between human memory and computer memory appears. Artificial intelligence creates a mediated physical space in which the audience can walk around, position themselves in poses and hear the intimate stories of previous participants.
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📣 Piksel brings IDLE to Ars Electronica📣 Piksel is pleased to announce our participation in STWST48x10 NOPE, part of the Ars Electronica festival, taking place from September 6 to 8, 2024, in Linz, Austria. This year, Piksel will showcase IDLE, our digital platform designed for collaborative art and live performance, both as an exhibition and a presentation. https://stwst48x10.stwst.at/en/idle #Piksel #PikselFest #PikselCyberSalong #idle #stwst48x10 #arselectronica
The Piksel Newsletter for August is out with more info about the Piksel Festival Call for Projects, IDLE at STWST48x10 NOPE and Stormy Fridays.Read it online here: https://piksel.no/?na=view&id=57 #Piksel #PikselFest #PikselCyberSalong #newsletter #bergen #norway
📣 Friendly Reminder: Open Call for Projects! 📣 Piksel24 | November 21-23, 2024 | Bergen, Norway Piksel is excited to announce the call for innovative online and physical projects for the 22nd edition of the Piksel Festival! We're especially interested in projects that explore our virtual gallery, IDLE. https://idle.piksel.no/ Learn more and apply at https://pretalx.com/piksel24/ by September 1st, 2024,
Piksel24November 21-23 2024Bergen, Norway Dear friends, We are excited to announce the call for projects for the 22nd edition of the Piksel Festival! https://piksel.no/2024/07/10/piksel-festival-2024
Piksel Fest Spill – Finnisage Silent Vegetal Thoughts closing event and IDLE Virtual Instruments Performance. Date: Friday, June 28thTime: 18:00 - 21:00Location: Studio 207, Strandgaten 207 To finish up Piksel Fest Spill, we invite you to spend some additional moments with the plants before their time controlling Studio 207's lights and sounds comes to an end. In addition, we are excited to showcase the IDLE Virtual Instruments with an AV performance. #piksel #IDLE #Bergen #Studio207
IDLE Virtual Instruments Workshop For musicians, artists, programmers, and VR professionals. Date: June 20thTime: 15:00-18:00Where: Studio 207, Strandgaten 207, BergenSignup: Email piksel24(at)piksel(dot)no https://idle.piksel.no/ In the IDLE Virtual Instruments workshop, Piksel invites musicians, artists, programmers, and VR professionals to continue exploring the potential uses of Virtual Instruments, emphasizing the artistic standpoint.
