intermedia & new media experiments // presentations // robotic installations // holograms // BioArt // SoundArt // hacked devices // performances & concerts with DIWO & DIY machines

What is Normal, anyway?

Photo: Tanja Kanazir / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)

On February 5 and 6, Filodrammatica will become the place of gathering for a great number of do-it-yourself enthusiasts, innovators and artists, who will demonstrate their devices – created by hacking of all sorts of available technology – to the citizens of Rijeka and their guests. Majestic space of the big hall of Filodrammatica will become a place for experiment and innovation. The audience will get the chance to have a look at the world from the perspective of an insect, see the holographic display of the Internet, encounter homemade robots, attend a concert of the oscillators, see a performance of unusual gadgets, and explore about 30 devices created from the clash of the human imagination with everyday objects.

AND Fair acts as a catalyst for the new approaches in the use of technology for the purposes of art and inventiveness in the field of mechanics, electronics and programming, with the goal of exploring new and challenging conventional views of technology. The Fair wishes to encourage visitors to develop a way of thinking that involves abandoning user manuals and adjusting devices to their own needs and interests.

As a meeting place for everybody who enjoys learning and knowledge sharing, AND Fair is an excellent opportunity to find out about different ideas and achievements, a site for visitors and exhibitors to meet each other, learn from each other and open the possibilities of mutual cooperation. It is also a great chance to get insight into the fascinating imagination of our fellow citizens, neighbors near and far, who hack the devices from everyday household and transform them into wondrous objects that fascinate us, make us laugh and open up some new perspectives on their use.

Inspired by the nineteenth-century concept of the World’s Fair, conceived as an opportunity for inventors and engineers to unveil their inventions and discoveries, AND Fair will bring to Rijeka some unusual exhibits and weird ideas. These among all include a market stand that offers a restaurant menu based on a technology of reviving extinct species, a device that forms a crystal out of human saliva, a machine that in real-time documents tectonic movement occurring within Earth, the machine that uses technology to create works of art, and many other devices that, each in their own way, resist the category of “normal”.

The Fair will open on Friday, 5 February, at 5 pm. From 6 pm the participants will start presenting their exhibits. With performance by Zagreb-based electronic/experimental project MMessy Oscillators at 11 pm we will end the first day of the Fair.

On Saturday, 6 February, the Fair will open its doors at 10 am, continuing with the presentation of the exhibits from 11 am. At 8 pm, the artists and Fair participants connected with Ljubljana-based organization Cirkulacija² will carry out a performance, which will conclude the program of the Fair.

EXHIBITS & FAIR PARTICIPANTS

(more details below)
   

Cloud Face (Shinseungback Kimyonghun, South Korea)

Assembler (BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica, Slovenia)

The De-Extinction Deli (The Center For Genomic Gastronomy, Ireland)

Living Fossil (Inés Cámara Leret, Spain)

Spit Crystal (Inés Cámara Leret, Spain)

Various devices (Borut Savski, Slovenia)

Various devices (Stefan Doepner, Germany/Slovenia)

Pechblenda Lab / HardGlam (Paula Pin, Spain)

Projection Scanner (Boštjan Čadež, Slovenia)

::vtol:: (Dmitry Morozov, Russia)

DIY Hydrophones (Robertina Šebjanič, Slovenia)

Sonorose (Nataša Muševič Dot, Slovenia)

Dia-projectors (Dominik Mahnič, Slovenia)

STEMI Hexapod Robot (STEMI, Rijeka, Croatia)

Rip_rap Game (Rijeka Makerspace, Rijeka, Croatia)

    
+ performances, acts…

In cooperation with Abandon Normal Devices (AND) – an organization from Manchester from which the Fair borrowed its name – following artist will present their unusual works in Rijeka: Emma Conley from The Centre for Genomic Gastronomy (Ireland), Inés Cámara Leret (Spain), BridA collective from Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Shinseungback Kimyonghun collective from Seul (South Korea).

    
CLOUD FACE    [⇑]
Shinseungback Kimyonghun (South Korea)

Cloud Face (detection process), 2012

Humans often see figures and forms in clouds, whether that’s animals, faces and even god. This kind of perception also appears in computer vision.  Face-detection algorithms sometimes find faces where there aren’t any. Cloud Face is a collection of cloud images that are recognized as human faces by a face-detection algorithm. It is a result of computer’s vision error, but they often look like faces to human eyes, too. This work attempts to examine the relation between computer vision and human vision.

For the purposes of AND Fair a networked camera will survey the skies above Filodrammatica, collecting the faces from the skies of Rijeka. These will be displayed online and in the venue during the Fair.

Shinseungback Kimyonghun is an artistic duo based in Seoul consisting of Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun. Their collaborative practice explores social and cultural impacts of technology.
   

ASSEMBLER    [⇑]
BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica (Slovenia)

Assembler
 

Assembler is a multimedia project by BridA, which doesn’t use technology for scientific purposes, but as a possibility for entering into the process of creating a work of art. Various computer and mechanical parts of this robotic system form an automated environment that allows the construction of visual content in real time. In constant interaction with the audience and by using mathematical functions and algorithms, the device automatically generates content and ensures its constant change.

BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica is an art collective from Nova Gorica (Slovenia), established in 1996 at the Art Academy in Venice. Its work is based on an analysis of the processes and the roles within contemporary art, the principles of artistic collaboration and group work, research and projects involving collaboration with other artists, professionals and creative people. Members of BridA are very active in their city and connected with a number of institutes and universities, performing abroad as lecturers and visiting artists in the residency programs.
   

THE DE-EXTINTION DELI    [⇑]
The Center For Genomic Gastronomy (Ireland)

The De-Extinction Deli – “Yesterday’s Meat Tomorrow.”

    
The De-Extinction Deli is a fantastical market stand designed to highlight the emerging technologies, risks, and outcomes of the growing movement to revive, rear and possibly eat, extinct species. Visitors can learn about the de-extinction debate from the Deli’s representatives and through the Deli’s interactive environment. The market stand includes butcher paper infographic take-aways, representations of extinct animal habitats, and an ongoing poll, tallying public opinions about the art and science of de-extinction. Visitors receive badges indicating their choices and have the option to write and mail pre-addressed postcards to leading researchers and thinkers in the field of de-extinction.

This version of the project is an homage to Stewart Brand’s first project, a letter writing and button-wearing campaign to NASA about why citizens had yet to see a photograph of Earth from space. Mr. Brand is one of our postcard recipients.

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is an artist-led think tank that examines the biotechnologies and biodiversity of human food systems. Their mission is to map food controversies, prototype alternative culinary futures and imagine a more just, biodiverse & beautiful food system. The Center presents its research through public lectures, research publications, meals and exhibitions. Since 2010, the Center has conducted research and exhibited in Europe, Asia and North America. We collaborate with scientists, chefs, hackers and farmers.

Contact: info@genomicgastronomy.com
    

LIVING FOSSIL    [⇑]
Inés Cámara Leret (Spain)

Living Fossil

Living Fossil is a machine that documents in real-time tectonic movement occurring within Earth. This geological artefact, combined with our planet’s history, allows for the construction of a living fossil, allowing the audience to presence a generally unseen process: how our planet builds up, deconstructs and reacts.

     
*     *     *

SPIT CRYSTAL / Crystallization of artist’s saliva    [⇑]
Inés Cámara Leret (Spain)

Spit Crystal

DNA is one of the greatest information carrying systems which was discovered precisely through the process of crystallisation. By reversing the process, and by inserting the collected material, the result is that of a crystal containing genetic information. During the AND Fair, there will be a saliva bank, allowing for visitors to donate their saliva towards the making of a collective Spit Crystal.

    
Inés Cámara Leret is recording a breath on a stone’s memory, building a crystal from a month’s worth of saliva, capturing rainfall through the use of asphalt. By adopting the role of an alchemist that observes, understands, and rearranges a system’s structure, Inés Cámara Leret embarks the viewer on a journey to question the symbiosis between cause and effect. Inés graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from UCM and has achieved a Masters in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art. Her work has featured in exhibitions internationally, has delivered conferences & workshops, curated exhibitions and has received commissions from Merton Council and the V&A Museum.

In collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary Art Aksioma, from Ljubljana arrived an organization named Cirkulacija², bringing seven artists and inventors from Slovenia, Spain, Germany and Russia, who presented their devices created by using Arduino platform and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) interface, and a variety of DIY devices and tools.
   
Cirkulacija² is an interdisciplinary and multimedia center for creating and introducting technologically supported arts, acting as an artistic collective active in the field of robotics, sound and art-based technology. Projects developed by Cirkulacija² are artistic in nature, giving great importance to development of their own technologies (devices, programming, prototypes, etc.).
   
Their work has been internationally recognized, and in 2009 the team received the Golden Bird Award from Liberal Academy for their innovative work. The core of the group consists of Stefan Doepner, Bostjan Leskovšek and Borut Savski, but for the implementation of specific projects, other artists, technologists and engineers are occasionally invited to join the group. At the AND Fair in Rijeka, Doepner and Savski were accompanied by artists Paula Pin, Bostjan Čadež, Dmitry Morozov, Nataša Muševič Dot and Dominik Mahnič.
   
Its intellectual and developing independence sets Cirkulacija² as a unique ethical compass for the entire intermedia scene and a permanent reminder of the social importance of cultural production.

Various devices    [⇑]
Borut Savski (Slovenia)

Borut Savski

Borut Savski will present in Rijeka most of his small Arduino systems and gadgets.

Born in Ljubljana in 1960, Savski is an intermedia artist who places great emphasis on sound – the combination of technical solutions for unorthodox instruments and autonomous audiovisual structures/sculptures. In 1999, he presented the first cybernetic sound installation “Sound Biotope” in the Kapelica gallery in Ljubljana. His essay “Sound” stands as a metaphor which encompasses the author’s core preoccupations. Later, he continued developing independent concepts and instruments and collaborations with other artists. In the period from 2006 to 2010, the worked on writing the music for three dance performances by Mateja Bučar. In 2006, he co-organized the Intermediate Spaces festival with KUD Trivia. In 2007 he co-founded the intermedia initiative Cirkulacija². After 2010, he collaborated with Bogdana Herman on the project of Newly-Composed Slovenian Folk Songs. He is currently focusing on haptic interfaces and interactive mechanisms.
    
    

     
Various devices    [⇑]
Stefan Doepner (Germany/Slovenia)

Stefan Doepner

Stefan Doepner, another co-founder of Cirkulacija², will present a number of his works in the field of technology based art, robotics and sound. Born in 1966 in Bremen, Doepner studied painting, experimental film and intermedia arts. Since the early 1990s he has confounded several art groups and initiatives: Verein23, SOPHIE studio gallery, and Media AccessBureau (all in Bremen); f18institute for Art, Information and Technology in Hamburg; Obrat and Cirkulacija² in Ljubljana. Since 1997 he collaborates with Stelarc. Doepner participated at the documenta 9 project Van Gogh TV (1992); exhibited at Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2006); Smart2006, Bremen; Synthetic Times: Media Art China, Beijing (2008); Ars Electronica, Linz (2008); Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana (xxx); MedienKunstLabor, Kunsthaus Graz (with Cirkulacija 2, 2009).

With the f18institut’s Playground Robotics project he exhibited in Basel, Bern, Solothurn and Ljubljana (2004). Between 2010–2012 Doepner worked with Marc Dusseiller and Boštjan Leskovšek on the NanoŠmano project on nano scale material, life-forms and tools. With Cirkulacija2 he realized the total art platform project (2010–2013); 2014-15 the international art_sound festival The Noise is Us in Ljubljana.
  

PECHBLENDA LAB / HARDGLAM series    [⇑]
Paola Pin (Spain)

HardGlam

Paula Pin is a TransHackFeminist performer and researcher who has a degree in the field of fine arts received at the universities of Barcelona and Sao Paolo. Her work extends in the range of drawing, abstract video processing, application of electronic devices, and research at the frontiers of biology, art and queer science. In addition to presenting the experimental project Pechblenda Lab and DIY devices for gynecological research from HardGlam series, Pin will also carry out a performance.

PROJECTION SCANNER    [⇑]
Boštjan Čadež (Slovenia)

Boštjan Čadež    

Born in 1979, Boštjan Čadež is an intermedia artist who studied industrial design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. During his studies, he received an award for outstanding accomplishment for the design of the Sporty tyre, which is still produced by the company Sava. At the same time, he was active as a graffiti and street artist, and he published three compilations of audio reactive animations on the website of Winamp, a very popular mp3 player at the time. With the interactive computer toy Line Rider, designed under the supervision of Professor Zdravko Papič, he had success in the global market and for this work he received a prestigious award for innovation at the computer game developers conference in San Francisco. Afterwards, in collaboration with artist Velibor Barišič, he took part in the PPP Box project in which major galleries at home and abroad exhibited the works of several dozens of artists. Since 2009, he has been focusing on the field of real-time generated and generative computer graphics.

At the AND Fair Čadež will present his Projection Scanner, a MIDI controlled mirror which allows one to redirect the projection to any position in an area constrained by a cylinder shape.

::VTOL::    [⇑]
Dmitry Morozov (Russia)

Prankophone

     
::vtol:: is a project of the Moscow media-artist, musician and engineer of strange-sounding mechanisms – Dmitry Morozov.

Starting in mid 00s, Dmitry actively began using DIY and circuit-bent instruments for his own music projects, as well as making instruments for other musicians and media artists at the same time. He is the first serial music and video synthesizer producer in all of post-soviet territories, after the collapse of USSR. Besides making music and instruments, Dmitry creates audiovisual art-installations and advocates circuit bending and DIY electronic in Russia by means of lectures and workshops. As artist and musician he has participated in many art festivals and gigs in Russia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, China, Hong Kong, Lithuania and Israel.

DIY HYDROPHONES    [⇑]
Robertina Šebjanič (Slovenia)

Robertina Šebjanič

Ljubljana-based intermedia artist Robertina Šebjanič is working in the cross field of art, technology and science, with special focus on Living systems and Marine environments. The context for her ideas and concepts is often realized in collaboration with other authors (artist, scientist, humanist, makers, hackers…). At the AND Fair in Rijeka artist will present her DIY Hydrophones, a device for recording underwater sounds, which will also be incorporated into her performance.

SONOROSE    [⇑]
Nataša Muševič Dot (Slovenia)

Nataša Muševič Dot finds inspiration in the topology of flowers

Ljubljana-based multimedia artist Nataša Muševič Dot will be presenting her latest experimental research project Sonorose (with Zavod Rampa) during which she intents to investigate the possibility of developing a zero-distortion organic shaped speaker based on the topology of flowers. Bionic acoustics being the main field, the author experiments with developing phase plugs and speaker driver surface that would enable all different sound wavelengths to sum up more accurately than on conventional drivers.

Speakers shaped like flowers will be 3d modeled based on the acoustic properties of different sound wavelengths. The author opens up the debate and invites the observers to think about which flower would suit as the origin for a perfect speaker and why. She will exhibit her organic shaped speakers built until now and showcase the importance of bionic shapes used for sound.

Dot will also be presenting an experimental sound performance based on the material from her upcoming music releases with various sounds from etno, digital noise landscapes, choirs and effects all recorded by the author. The mix of tribal sounding spaces with experimental noise will take you on a minimal journey through a sound-field composition. The author poses a question of our tribal identity in this digital world. Although our tribes have moved to the internet, is there any weight to the sound of human chanting still there? Does a digital world include the sound of people at all?

DIA-PROJECTORS    [⇑]
Dominik Mahnič (Slovenia)

One of Mahnič’s dia-projectors

Ljubljana based artist Dominik Mahnič will present his development on different mobile, low cost hand dia-projectors and the possibilities of their use. From 2002 to 2006 Mahnič studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where he also received a postgraduate degree in Video.

Radiona / Makerspace – Association for Development of ‘do-it-yourself’ Culture has been founded in order to enhance the visibility of makers’ open source culture and self sustainable production, as well as with an aim of connecting all possible fields of art, science and technology. The objective here is to create new realities of networked and collaborative intermedia and new media practices in line with world trends such as DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIWO (do-it-with-others). Radiona.org focuses its activities on education, research processes, artistic projects, curatorial practices, international and domestic inter-sector collaborations, renewable systems and social awareness related issues.

MORE INFO SOON!

STEMI HEXAPOD ROBOT    [⇑]
STEMI (Rijeka, Croatia)

   
STEMI Hexapod Robot

STEMI is a project designed by a team of engineers and artist from Rijeka, with the aim to contribute to a solution to the problem of a lack of quality education in fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM fields. With the vision of a worldwide engaging and open knowledge sharing society, they are creating a platform for project based learning: STEMI – Learning by Creating. Their goal is to deliver an opportunity for learning Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics through an innovative approach.

The first pilot project to be launched is Hexapod Robot, which is controlled via a smartphone. The most important advantage of robots in STEMI projects is the influence they have to promote and raise interest in robotics and STEM fields in general, among higher education students, high school students, and elementary school students. If we give young people today an opportunity to experiment and to learn through building and creating, that can foster an innovative environment in the future.

      
RIP_RAP GAME  [⇑]
Rijeka Makerspace (Rijeka, Croatia)

Rijeka Makerspace

AND Fair will also be an opportunity for a number of enthusiasts from Rijeka, gathered in the recently initiated Makerspace in Filodrammatica, to present their progress achieved in the weekly workshops.

Rip_rap Game is an installation that explores the ways of space perception by different groups of people. In the form of an interactive game, Rip_rap investigates the possibilities of collective agency. Every spectator is invited to play the game: by using 3D printer, the player has to make a piece of puzzle that will upgrade already existing installation. By the viewer’s input in the installation, we will be able to research the way different people perceive the common space, and secondly, do the experiment that is investigating the possibility of common perception.