PIKSEL

“You are 4.3 billion kilometres away from the nearest human, what would you like to do?”

Naked on Pluto is a text-based multiplayer game on Facebook. You are stranded on the planet Pluto, naked, alone. Your world is empty except for fragments of data, objects relating to your past life on social networks – but seen through the distorted lens of the game world. You can explore this world, at first alone and later in the game you’ll be able to invite and interact with friends. You can add and manipulate objects you encounter, interact with others and bots. Once you enter deeper into this world and web of data, you become aware of increasing complexity, characters appear you may recognise – are they friends or animated bits of data? Information is substituted and modified in subtle ways. Is it possible to remember what was ever real in the first place?

The game explores the limits and nature of social networks from within, slowly pushing the boundaries of what is tolerated by the companies that own them, carefully documenting this process as we go. Story and play are combined with an investigation on how exposed we are on social networks, and how our data are being used. (continue reading…)

As part of Piksel’s collaboration with the BALTAN Laboratories in Eindhoven, we put out an open call in the summer for proposals from artists who were specifically interested in working with the tracking and mapping technology Open Computer Vision. We received a number of high quality proposals through this call and in the end, Piksel and BALTAN selected the project Flick Flock by Wendy Ann Mansilla and Jordi Puig. Wendy Ann and Jordi participated in the OpenCV workshop that was held at BALTAN in September and are now back in the labs for a 4 week residency. The results of their work will be presented at the Piksel09 exhibition at Gallery 3,14 from November 20 2009 to January 10 2010.

Flick Flock

Flick Flock defines the meaning of the body and its linkage to the continuous transformation of the urban place and the way it can construct and deconstruct society. It is reflecting the interconnections of bodies and space, reshaping each other to form such an unbound relationship. Using stereoscopic and ambisonic 3D technology, Flick Flock recreates the digital urban space we are living in to allow us to immersively experience the role of the physical body as a vehicle of expression and knowledge. (continue reading…)

Report by Yves Degoyon, workshop leader (along with Lluis Gomez i Bigorda), OpenCV workshop at BALTAN Laboratories, September 21-27, 2009 (continue reading…)

Workshop leaders:
Lluis Gómez I Bigórda, Hangar.org, Barcelona
Yves Degoyon, GISS.tv, Barcelona

In collaboration with Piksel (Norway)

Participants: 16 (maximum)
Fee: 75 Euro

Location: BALTAN Laboratories
Glaslaan 2, SWA 8
Eindhoven
The Netherlands

Computer Vision is currently acquiring a growing relevance in the field of interactive arts. From Myron Krueger’s pioneering artwork in the 1970s to the present day, many artists have used Computer Vision techniques in their works, extending its field of traditional applications (medical, military, industrial, etc.) to interactive artistic practices. It might be visible in an interactive installation or hidden/embedded when used, for example, in gesture-driven musical instruments. (continue reading…)

Open Call for Proposals

BALTAN Laboratories and Piksel collaborative research and development residency

++ Deadline: August 31, 2009 ++

As part of BALTAN Laboratories’ Blueprint research programme investigating the roles and forms of the art and technology laboratory of the future, BALTAN and Piksel are collaborating to explore the relationship between hard and software developers working on free and open source tools for artistic production, and the artistic use and development of these tools in a laboratory setting.

One artist will be selected from this open call to produce an artwork using tools developed in collaboration with local and international developers of the Piksel Community, together with BALTAN and Piksel, through workshops and a residency at BALTAN. The Piksel/BALTAN collaboration will run from September until December 2009.

(continue reading…)