| Nat Muller on 17 Jan 2001 16:21:39 -0000 |
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| [Nettime-bold] Wiretap 7.01: Death and the Machine |
WT 7.01 Death and the Machine **!! Live streaming at http://raserver2.xs4all.nl:8888/ramgen/encoder/wiretap701.rm !!** Participation by: Birgit Richard (D), Jamie King (GB), Jens Brand (D) and Sam Ashley (USA) Moderation: Paul Perry (CDN/NL) Date Sunday 28th January 2001, 14.00 -17.00h Doors: 13.00h Location V2_Organisatie, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam Entrance fee 7.50 NLG This final Wiretap in the series 'Machine Times' queries the role of death in digital culture. Our current society is obsessed with progression. In this scenario death means the ultimate border. Developments in science and technology have always made an effort to extend life or realise the dream of immortality. This Wiretap takes you beyond the final frontier. Birgit Richard investigates how trans-humanists and extropians attempt to eradicate the scourge of mortality. Their heads are immersed, post-mortem, in liquid nitrogen in cryogenic tanks till medical science finds a way to reanimate them. 'Freeze Head, to Save Ass', indeed! Who though the Internet and digital media are safeguarded from decay is quite wrong. More often information technology is fighting hypothetical diseases such as 'bit rot', 'software decay' and 'link rot'. In his presentation 'Death and the Network' Jamie King debunks the popular post-nuclear apocalypse myth surrounding the Internet. Modern versions of occultism and shamanism evolve around machines and time. Similar to Edison, who used his phonograph to reverberate the voices of the deceased at Madame Blavatsky's seances, Sam Ashley's 'Everyone Laughed when I sat down at the Piano' (authentic spirit possession as vocal technique), Ghost Detector' and Jens Brand's computer controlled ratchets (The Ratchets) formulate a contemporary answer. Participants: Prof. Dr. Birgit Richard (D) Is since 1998 Professor of New Media at the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany). Her fields of specialisation include: new media, aesthetics of everyday life (contemporary youth cultures, fashion, design, pop culture), life and death in real and virtual environments. She is editor of the Kunstforum International Volumes on of Fashion, Time and Images of Violence, and founder of the Youth Culture Archive, a collection of objects from contemporary youth cultures. Her current research focuses on the representation of women in computer games. Jamie King (GB) In addition to his work with the International Necronautical Society Jamie King is a contributing editor at London technology and culture journal Mute and editor of the industry journal n3, dedicated to the analysis of the Domain Name System in business practice. He has recently completed a PhD thesis at the University of Southampton examining the role of the American frontier in the cultural construction of the Internet. He is now back to work on a long overdue science-fiction novel, and can still be found any evening you like attempting to write a hit two-step single in his project studio. Sam Ashley (USA) has been singing for more than 15 years, developing an unusual Animal Magnetism vocal technique. He has had principal roles in seven contemporary operas by Robert Ashley, with whom he regularly performs and records, in works by Alvin Lucier and in many other pieces too. He has designed digital audio signal processing systems, designed custom music software (including a stint with Sound Traffic Control) and done a wide range of recording engineer, consulting and project studio jobs. Sam Ashley co-founded Very Important Now, the Cactus Needle Project (acclaimed as an electronic/computer music ensemble), and AA Bee Removal. Sam Ashley has devoted his life to the invention of an experimental trance-mysticism and the art that he does tends to reflect this. Seeing Things, Everyone laughed when I sat down at the piano, Ghost Detector each feature a different version of authentic spirit possession or a mystical theme. Jens Brand (D) studied visual arts in Münster, Germany. He lives and works as a composer, musician, visual & audio-visual artist and organiser in Dortmund, Germany. His pieces can appear as concerts, performances or installations. Recent works have ended up being mixtures of these genres, developed as logical and absurd games between the audience and the artist. His experiments with everything that can be considered to be art are not supposed to establish a belief or truth, but try to offer a fruitful soil for research, communication and progressive failure. Pieces used in the collaboration with Sam Ashley, such as Motors and Styrofoam, Mini Fan Music, PIANO or RATCHETS appear as short duration installations that evoke something Jens considers to be 'electronic music without speakers'. Paul Perry (NL/CDN) If artists be either misanthropist or socio-paths then Paul Perry sees himself as belonging to the type misanthropist. As an artist, he divides his attention between the study of diversity and its propagation and identity and its survival. Recent examples of his work include the first part of a multi-part film on the simulation of Near Death Experiences (1,000 Deaths: Sortie 1, 2000), the development of a new constitution for the City of Amsterdam (Amsterdam 2.0, 1998), the design of a small rock garden featuring a sub-critical nuclear reactor (Nuclear Garden, 1998) and the creation of an immortal man/mouse hybrid at the University of Maastricht (Good and Evil on the Long Voyage, 1997). Bookmarks Birgit Richard http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/fb09/kunstpaed/indexweb/start.htm Jamie King http://www.jamie.com/ http://www.jamie.com/thesis/thesis.pdf http://www.necronauts.org/ http:www.metamute.com Paul Perry http://www.alamut.com Sam Ashley/ Jens Brand http://www.lovely.com/bios/ashleys.html http://www.thing.at/orfkunstradio/ao3/GROUP4/BIOS/brand.html http://www.metafort.org/ecoute/concerts/ashleybas.htm More info www.v2.nl/wiretap V2_Organisatie Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012 XL Rotterdam, NL T: ++31-10-2067272 F: ++31-10-2067271 www.v2.nl _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold