Piksel21

Piksel is looking for volunteers!

Piksel is looking for volunteers!

If you are interested on how an online TV works, on setting up exhibitions, on doing online broadcasting, and want to help at the venues, at the concerts, handling the camera and mediating with the online artists, to be integrated in a communication team working in social media, we want you 🙂

You will be integrated in the Piksel team, understand the backend of an online tv, proving your camera skills in a real situation and meet new media artists and developers. All at once, catching in a glance the technological challenges of our times.

Piksel is an international festival for electronic art and technological freedom 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.

This year the festival (18th-21st Nov) is going HYBRID again, with many activities, online and offline. Three exhibitions, three concerts nights at Østre and online, workshops and presentations, street projections and an internet TV channel broadcasting 12 hours a day!

You will receive a festival pass with full access to all our events, a festival t-shirt and poster, a work certificate and an experience for life.

Please send us a PM or email us to piksel21(at)piksel(dot)no.

“Icons made by Pixel perfect from www.flaticon.com

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WORKSHOP You and I, You and Me by Mindaugas Gapsevicius (LT) and Maria Safronova Wahlström (SE)

You and I, You and Me

Number of Participants: 15
Place: Bergen Dance Center, Georgernes Verft 12, 5011 Bergen
Time: Thursday 18th of November from 12-14h
Duration: 2 hours

This workshop is part of the Performing Arts Workshop program, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts. It is a Piksel initiative in collaboration with Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland.

To register please send an email to: piksel21@piksel.no with your name and the name of the workshop you want to attend.

You and I, You and Me
by Mindaugas Gapsevicius (LT) and Maria Safronova Wahlström (SE)
http://triple-double-u.com/you-and-i-you-and-me/

Imagine the future. Humans, computing machines, and various types of hybrids share the space they live in. Senses are altered, some are inextricably linked to computing devices. Electricity is used to control the space and beings living in it. Humans take responsibility to reshape social ties to avoid being controlled by corporations and machines.

The project You and I, You and Me explores the impact of the environment through electricity. How far could electricity help in understanding the other? Is there a possibility to alter human senses by electric impulses? During the participatory event, the audience is invited to experience the environment, including other humans, by wearing jewellery, shoes, and headwear.

The project production was supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, and the Nordic Council of Ministers
https://youtu.be/NmVE_78Y43o

The workshop will guide through the different wearables objects: jewellery, headwear and shoes which leads to different public interactions:

Collection of wearables

Jewellery
The collection of jewelry questions the impact of differently charged ions on humans. By definition, an ion is an electrically charged particle produced by either removing or adding electrons from or to a neutral atom being in every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. These differently charged subatomic particles, while interacting, generate electric current. Consequently, humans also generate electric current. What are the abilities of humans to generate electric current and, while using it, experience the environment?

The jewelry pieces hold within it a small LED powered by the human body. Being very sensitive, the flashing of the LED depends on humidity, temperature, contact to the body, and other parameters that affect the components used for the circuit.

Headwear.
The project was inspired by research on brain-to-brain interfaces, including the study “A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information” by Miguel Pais-Vieira et al. Following the research, the collection of wearables questions the boundaries of empathy. Aesthetically, the project refers to traditional headwear and the role of headwear in signalling human identity to others.

The headwear uses medical strategies based on brain cell communication: the electrical impulses are detected while using electroencephalography (EEG), and brain stimulation is triggered by passing DC current through electrodes (tDCS), a non-invasive method to treat depressive disorder, increase empathic abilities, or decrease antisocial behaviour in violent offenders.

Shoes
The collection of shoes uses excess human heat, which is turned into electricity to generate sound. At the same time, shoes refer to daily clothing, something humans wear to protect themselves from unexpected environmental obstacles, including other organisms that are not necessarily always friendly to humans as well as cold. While being affected by the ambient temperature, light, and movement, the shoes suggest rethinking human’s relationship with nature.

Furthermore, the collection critiques the hype surrounding renewable energy, which often pollutes the environment no less than the energy obtained from burning gas or coal. Could excess human heat be considered renewable energy?

About Mindaugas Gapševičius
http://triple-double-u.com/you-and-i-you-and-me/

Mindaugas Gapševičius (born 1974) lives and works in Berlin, Weimar and Vilnius. His workquestions machine creativity without presuming that the human being is the sole creative force. He has completed MA studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1999 and received a Master of Philosophy degree from the Goldsmiths University of London. He is a creative fellow at the Bauhaus University in Weimar since 2015. Gapševičius was one of the initiators and founders of Institutio Media, the first Lithuanian media art platform (1998), as well as the European Migrating Art Academies network for emerging artists (2008). Along with colleagues from the TOP association, he initiated the first TOP community biolaboratory in Berlin (2016). In 2019 he established Alt lab, a laboratory for non-disciplinary research in Vilnius. Gapševičius’s works have been shown at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz (2019, 2020), the National Gallery of Art and MO Museum in Vilnius (2019), Piksel festival in Bergen (2018), RIXC art and science festival in Riga (2016), Pixelache festival in Helsinki (2015 and 2016), Pixxelpoint festival in Nova Goritsa (2014), KUMU Museum in Tallin (2011).

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WORKSHOP Responsive Body | Responsive Technology by Kenneth Flak and Külli Roosna (NO, EE)

Responsive Body | Responsive Tech

Number of Participants: 10-15
Place: Bergen Dance Center, Georgernes Verft 12, 5011 Bergen
Time: Saturday 20th of November from 10-14h
Duration: 4 hours

This workshop is part of the Performing Arts Workshop program, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts. It is a Piksel initiative in collaboration with PRODA-professional dance training/Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland.

To register please send an email to: piksel21@piksel.no with your name and the name of the workshop you want to attend.

https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Responsive Body is a dynamic system created by Roosna & Flak based on listening to yourself and the environment, training sensitivity and coordination as well as strength and stamina. Its purpose is to develop a strong, resilient and intelligent body that is open to internal and external impulses.

Roosna & Flak created the training from a need to prepare for a wide range of challenges. The system is under continuous evolution as a result of an ongoing movement practice and teaching.

The training starts with a gentle warm-up to access the breath and the joints, before bringing up the pulse and working through the major muscle groups. This is followed by a section focusing on more complex coordination and use of space, preparing for individual and partnering work, where the focus is on creating movement material based on listening to impulses from both outside and inside the body. This leads to more in-depth investigation into both creating and organizing material into choreographic structures.

Towards the end of the workshop sensor technology is brought into the game, enabling the research of a new set of connections between movement and sound. For this we use our own set of sensors.

Workshop leaders would offer a hands-on introduction to performing physically with movement sensors, developing the necessary sensibilities for producing sound and movement as an integrated whole.

About the dancers and choreographers:
https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Internationally active choreographers and dancers Külli Roosna (Estonia) and Kenneth Flak (Norway) have been collaborating since 2008. Whether they are creating their own choreographies or collaborating with others, their work deals with the narratives and technologies of the body. They have explored a wide range of themes, including deep ecology, Viking mythology, totalitarianism and internet culture. The core of their work is human experience in interconnected realities. This is often explored through the dancing body’s possibilities and limitations, in a constant dialogue with the digital technologies and discourses that extend and counterpoint it.

They have performed their works all over the world. Additionally, they teach Responsive Body movement technique, composition, and sensor programming at various universities and festivals, adapting their methodology and content to different contexts.

Their interactive music and dance performance Blood Music was nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards 2015; Stalking Paradise, a commission work for Lublin Dance Theater, was selected for the biannual Polish Dance Days. Prime Mover (2018) and Two Body Orchestra (2020) were nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards.

Külli Roosna (EE)

Born 1981, is an Estonian dancer, choreographer and teacher. She graduated Tallinn University in 2005 as a choreographer/dancer and continued her studies in Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands, obtaining her second bachelor degree in 2007.

In 2013 she obtained an MA of choreography at Tallinn University.

She has worked with international choreographers Stian Danielsen, Karen Foss, Kari Hoaas, Cid Perlman, Richard Siegal, Dylan Newcomb, Fine5 Dance Theater, and many others.

In 2010 her solo performance Circle Through was awarded the First Prize at the International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk, Belarus. She is the recipient of the 2017 Pärnu City Creative Stipendium.

Her teaching and performing has brought her to festivals, universities and theaters in Estonia, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Jordan, India, Japan, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Finland, Lithuania, Belarus, and South Korea. In 2014-15 she was board member of Estonian Dance Artist Union and head of its Stipendium commission.

Kenneth Flak (NO)

Born 1975, is a Norwegian dancer, choreographer, composer and teacher. He has performed in the works of André Gingras, Dansdesign, Richard Siegal, Kari Hoaas, Preeti Vasudevan and many others.

He is educated at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Norway and the Amsterdam Arts School in the Netherlands.

In 2007 he received a Bessie Performer’s Award in New York for his interpretation of Gingras’ solo CYP17. In 2010 he was nominated for the BNG Award in Amsterdam for his choreography Of Gods and Driftwood.

Flak has taught contemporary dance and sound design at universities and festivals around the world.

A self-taught composer and creative coder, he makes music and interactive tools for live choreographies and dance films.

He was chair of Norwegian Arts Council Commission for Dance 2018-2020.

Press
Kahe keha orkester, Anu Jurisson, Pärnu Postimees, 26 March 2021.
Post-dramaatiline tantsu-uurimus ja numbriballett, Heili Einasto, Postimees, 12 November 2020
Kehad tehnoloogia ja tantsu puutepunktis, Iiris Viirpalu, Sirp, 23 October 2020
Video: Sõltumatu Tantsu Laval kohtuvad kehad ja tehnoloogia, ERR kultuur, 6 Oktober 2020
Olemise protsess, Eline Selgis, STL, 29 September 2020

Media
11 January 2019: Elu pingeväljade liikumapanev jõud (Marie Pullerits, Sirp)
13 November 2018: [Külli Roosna rääkis tantsulavastusest “Prime Mover”](https://treraadio.bandcamp.com/track/1 November 018-k-lli-roosna-r-kis-tantsulavastusest-prime-mover) (Tre raadio)
12 November 2018: Külli Roosna lavastusest “Prime Mover”: see sündis meie endi elust (Ester Vilgats, ERR)
12 November 2018: Endlas esietendub pärnakate rahvusvaheline tantsulavastus (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)
12 November 2018: Endla Teatris toimub tantsulavastuse “Prime Mover” Eesti esietendus (ERR)
5 November 2018: Video: katkend Külli Roosna ja Kenneth Flaki uuslavastusest “Prime Mover” (ERR)
2 November 2018: Tütrekese sünd ärgitas looma Endla Küünis tantsulavastust (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)

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Critical Engineering Working Group EXHIBITION

Decoding Black Magic. Interventions in Infrastructure

Piksel Festival 2021
15th of November to 12th of December

Critical Engineers Working Group exhibition “Decoding Black Magic. Interventions in Infrastructure” will take place from the 15th of November to 12th of December 2021, showing well known artworks plus new works in progress by the artists Bengt Sjölén and Danja Vasiliev.
Black Book of Wireless (2020), Unintended Emissions (2019), Vending Private Network, WannaScry! [work in progress] and FakeDeeper – Portrait of three critical engineers (Bengt Sjölén, 2021)

Black Book of Wireless

The Black Book of Wireless is intended to be a book of the dark magic that antennas and radios is, with pages that are circuits and PCB trace antennas (copper traces on PCB material) and of which some examples are shown in this iteration. The piece tries to describe the physical connection between form and function in high frequency electronics such that all the traditional passive electronic components can be implemented with just the shape of copper on a substrate: a resistor being the thickness and length of trace, a capacitor a gap in a trace, a coil literally being a spiral or coil shaped trace and more obscure shapes like filters, couplers, transmission lines. The more obscure parts of this is things that are not fully understood or even if you can model and simulate how you think they will behave you have to try them out to see how they actually behave. For examples in the pictures see e.g. the UWB antennas that look like little faces or funny cartoon shapes and the fractal antennas with funny shapes and turns trying to maximize their length in a finite space or the Vivaldi antennas curved shapes where the maximum and minimum gaps between the copper bodies define the range of frequencies the antenna is tuned for while not even being connected the input – the input is on the opposite side of the PCB being coupled and in that way conveying the received signal.

Black Book of Wireless receives and decodes radio signals present in the local environment such as Air Traffic transponders for airplanes flying past, AIS transponders from ships, GSM communication between local cell towers and phones, Wifi communication between devices and base stations. Decoded information as well as description of other artefacts such as pcb trace antennas and a software radio system that can be a rogue GSM baase station (the white beagle bone and the white usrp software radio board with gsm antennas) is continuously printed on terminal style min screens distributed across the table.

Unintended Emissions (2019)

Wireless (802.11) Citizen Surveillance Investigation

https://criticalengineering.org/projects/unintended-emissions/

Inserted into urban environs, Unintended Emissions captures, dissects, maps and projects radio emissions invisibly shared by our portable wireless devices.

Unintended Emissions reveals meta-data such as make of device, networks the device previously connected to and Internet connection requests transmitted by the device out into the air, employing two arrays of directional Yagi antennae the project attempts to determine positions of Wi-Fi devices in the vicinity.

Similar to surveillance and tracking systems such as StingRay, Unintended Emissions places mobile Wi-Fi users on a 2D map indicating the kind of device user has, time of appearance, user’s network activity and other user-specific meta data. This information can be further analyzed to determine the user’s identity and movements within a locality and the Internet.

Using methods and technologies known to be deployed by federal, surveillance initiatives, the intervention seeks to engender a “healthy paranoia” in the interests of an increased techno-political subjectivity.

Vending Private Network

A vending machine for selling VPN internet access via gateways located four countries not involved in FIVE- NINE- ELEVEN-EYES internet surveillance program.

https://criticalengineering.org/projects/vending-private-network

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have come into increasing demand in recent years, providing route encryption through hostile networks. In China, Vietnam, Turkey and Pakistan they also serve to mitigate government censorship, such that foreign sites otherwise blocked by state firewalls are made available to VPN users (Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, activist sites and digital libraries being the most common).

Vending Private Network takes the form of a condom vending machine, such as those typically seen in public toilets, nightclubs and bars. Equipped with mechanical buttons, a coin-slot and USB ports, it offers 4 VPN routes, each with an animated graphic depicting the route as a fantasy destination.

Audiences are invited to insert a USB stick into the slot, a coin (1 pound or euro) into the machine, and to select a VPN destination by pressing a mechanical button. In doing so, a unique VPN configuration file is then written to the USB stick. Special instructions (in the form of a README.txt) are also copied, explaining how to use the VPN in a special ‘sheathed’ mode that evades detection methods (namely Deep Packet Inspection, or DPI) used by corporations and state-controlled infrastructure administrators. This is the only means known to work against state controlled firewalls.

Vending Private Network is especially designed for use in wealthy countries; only then can its ulterior motive come into play: leveraging economic and cultural privilege to benefit those less fortunate. With each VPN config paid for, another ‘shadow config’ is generated, to be later shipped to dissidents, activist organisations and others in Turkey, China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran (other countries to be confirmed) such that those that need it most can enjoy protection and access to the open web.

The coins inserted into the vending machine also directly fund the VPN running costs, whose tally is displayed on each screen of the vending machine. Should a particular VPN not have enough money deposited to pay for monthly server hosting costs, it is shutdown, with a white on black notice on the display that it no longer functions due to insufficient public funding. Should money sufficient to cover costs be donated the dormant server will boot back to life and public service continues.

Just as one might expect to see on a condom vending machine, Vending Private Network is adorned with the sticker “Get Protected”.

WannaScry! [work in progress]

WannaScry! is a video-conferencing server that operates from an exhibition venue and publicly displays and stores video calls conducted through it. Real-time and recorded video-chat are projected inside a Palantir*-like scrying ball.

*Palantir is a Techie Software Soldier Spy, Big Data’s scariest, most secretive unicorn in Silicon Valley1

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/523667524

FakeDeeper – Portrait of three critical engineers (Bengt Sjölén, 2021)

Photo manipulation has existed as long as photography has existed. Recent research has leveraged machine learning to do things such as face swap to replace the face of a person in a video with another persons face or to be able to drive one persons face with the motion of another face thereby e.g. making it look like a persons says or a reacts in a way that they didn’t do.

With our visual culture, in news, politics, social media etc, the ultimate proof of that something actually happened, or what someone actually said, has for many decades been the moving image documenting the event – what used to be perceived as the unquestionable absolute truth.

We have now rapidly moved into a time where this is no longer the case, where images and videos are malleable and easily edited to misrepresent events, to literally put words in someones mouth that they never uttered, or place people at a scene in which they never were.

This obviously has far-reaching implications in a society that puts the ultimate trust in the image be it a surveillance camera, a news coverage or a video posted on social media. FakeDeeper demonstrates this in a simple and direct way by having the face of a visitor drive the faces on 3 still images making them move their mouths, pose and facial expressions as the visitor does in front of the camera in real time. The live situation also allows for weird deformations and glitches and the possibility to easily break the illusion in ways that a deliberate fake video production would of course edit away but then also hints at artefacts that can reveal the fake while also emphasizing how much can be done easily with readily available code, machine learning models and only still images and a webcam.

Current variant:

3 screens (or a projection) shows 3 faces. A camera tracks faces of visitors in the space in front of the three screens. As the system locks to your face the 3 faces on the screens start moving in concert as your face does – you control all 3 faces in concert, if you smile they smile, if you lean your head to the right they do to, if you open your mouth they open their mouths mimicking you. The faces can be glitched and deformed e.g. by hiding part of your face, make strange faces or turning it almost away from the camera making it hard for the machine learning system to catch the pose and expression on your face. This also means that typically as you turn and walk away from the camera the last frame would typically be a weird deformed and glitched triptyc of faces.

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Critical Engineering Working Group

Critical Engineering Working Group

Piksel is glad to announce a special collaboration program with the Critical Engineers Working Group within the next 3 years. As a result, Piksel will host several exhibitions, workshops, and presentations led by CE components. The program will be developed within the Piksel Festival and Piksel Fest Spill activities along the years 2021-2023. Starting in November with an exhibition and 2 workshops. Stay tuned!

In 2011, a group of artists and engineers published the “Critical Engineering Manifesto”, since translated into 18 languages. In true avant-garde fashion, the “Manifesto” launches by describing Engineering as “the most transformative language of our time, shaping the way we move, communicate and think”, thus, it is the work of the Critical Engineer “to study and exploit this language, exposing its influence”. Further, a Critical Engineer “recognises that each work of engineering engineers its user”, considering “any technology depended upon to be both a challenge and a threat”. And so the manifesto unfolds.

https://criticalengineering.org/

Nearly ten years later, the relevance of the “Critical Engineering Manifesto” has only become more evident, as an ever-growing public becomes aware of the techno-political implications of using – and depending upon – integrated systems and complex, networked technologies. Today, one can find its 11 points listed on the walls of hacklabs, museums, engineering and media-art academies, and in a great many texts, the world over.

Around the manifesto, originally written by Julian Oliver, Gordan Savičić and Danja Vasiliev, gathered a larger group – the Critical Engineering Working Group – now including also Sarah Grant, Bengt Sjölén and Joana Moll.

Piksel will start a series of works inviting some of the representatives of the group Critical Engineering Working Group to work in Bergen.

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  • Our friends from Lifepatch in Yogyakarta needs help to rebuild their roof that has collapsed due to termite damage and heavy rains.
    https://lifepatch.id/Lifepatch_roof_collapsed

    1 March 2024 @ 2:21 pm

    🌟 Friendly Reminder: Get ready for another exciting Stormy Thursdays this week! 🌪️ Join us as we look at Hydra, learning how to wield its powers with any MIDI controller or keyboard. 🎹🕹️ https://hydra.ojack.xyz/ Plus, we will look at controlling a Praxis Live project using a MIDI keyboard.As always, there'll be dedicated time to work independently on your own projects.See you Thursday, 29/2 at Studio 207, Strandgaten 207, from 17:00-20:00. #PikselFest #StormyThursdays

    29 February 2024 @ 11:16 am

    🌩️ Stormy Thursday`s at Studio 207! 🌩️Join us today for yet an exciting edition of Stormy Thursdays! James will be giving a short demo of the game he's currently crafting; Wee boats, starring Beffen. With lots of cool open-source tools to highlight, it looks to be an interesting evening! 🎮✨
    📅 Date: Today 22.02-24🕔 Time: 17:00 - 20:00📍 Location: Studio 207, Strandgaten 207
    #StormyThursdays #PikselFest #GameDemo #OpenSourceMagic #Studio207

    22 February 2024 @ 3:43 pm

    PIKSEL Kidz Lab 2024 – Plants & Soft Sensors / LIVE CODING
    21st and 25th MayDiscovering Plant Magic: A Sensory Adventure with Soft Sensors for KidZ
    29th – 31st MayCreate your own show with live coding visuals. LIVE Coding!
    https://piksel.no/2024/02/15/piksel-kidz-lab-2024-plants-soft-sensors-live-coding

    15 February 2024 @ 10:30 am

    Stormy ThursdaysEach Thursday for the upcoming weeks, Piksel are hosting a series of workshops, creating a space for exploration, creativity and community. Anyone intrigued by the intersection of art and technology are welcome to join, interact, share and work on own projects and ideas.
    The workshops takes place each Thursday from 17:00 – 20:00 at Studio 207, Strandgaten 207.
    More info: https://piksel.no/2024/01/14/stormy-thursdays-open-workshopsWe also have a Discord meeting room: https://discord.gg/QyK9Apyq

    24 January 2024 @ 9:21 pm

    Buckle up, folks! Thanks to some seriously wild atmospheric vibes, we're rescheduling our meetup to next Thursday – officially dubbed the first-ever Stormy Thursday. This week's forecast is just too wild for Studio 207. So, grab your gear and brace yourself for an electrifying session where we'll dive headfirst into crafting an IoT device and whipping up some Webthings from scratch. Don't miss out – it's gonna be a tempest of tech brilliance! See you next Thursday! ⚡️🌪️

    18 January 2024 @ 2:15 pm

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