Issue 61 Archives • Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture

The Perturbing Image. Interview With Francesca Fini

Francesca Fini is an image-woman: she creates (moving, static, real and synthetic) images; she is an art performer and filmmaker, interaction designer and (hyper) graphic dealing with every kind of hybridizations and contaminations. During her life she has been trying her hand at several media. Her first work was the autobiographical novel 'Thus Spoke Mickey Mouse' (1996), then she began to work in the fields of cinema and TV.... READ MORE...

Audiovisual Parameters. Paul Prudence’s “natural” Structures

Paul Prudence, real-time visual performer, works with procedural systems by exploring structures, graphic and generative potentialities of audiovisual systems. He is extraordinary, educated, intelligent, open-minded and capable of living in more worlds simultaneously, from the live-based media to the graphic art world, keeping his eyes always open wide on forms and composition rules, things that are not so easy to find in the turmoil of modern digital creativity. He is one of those hybrid figures standing on the edge of art and design who are now resorting to data visualization in order to describe, at the crossroads of art and algorithms, the storm of information surrounding us. The results are often unexpected.... READ MORE...

New Planning Protocols. From Design To Science Transitions

During the last decade the design field has been showing a growing interest in the possibility of improving scientific research with its products, by making use of multi-disciplinary integration methods and tools and scientific matrix-based criteria. Contemporary design aims to promote innovation and experimentation procedures, where design and science get closer to each other, melt and give birth to something new.... READ MORE...

Media Facades. When Buildings Start To Twitter

The analysis depicts international media facades with their different artistic, social or brand messages up to interfaces like iPhone Apps or brain sensors for public participation.... READ MORE...

Vaghe Stelle: Synths, Stars, Memories

Hopefully, we all agree on something: from time to time the electronic music scene in Italy produces really original, internationally relevant, projects - while the pop and the rock ones have never achieved anything similar. From Alexander Robotnik to the We Love, from Lory D to Marco Passarani, wherever in the world some interest arises in quality music produced by Italians, it's via synthetic beats. One of the latest example is Vaghe Stelle... READ MORE...

Zimoun & Leerraum [ ]. Sound Organisms In Evolution

The Swiss artist Zimoun claims he is an autodidact. During the following interview he will make clear he didn't study art and he doesn't have a solid background at his disposal, and least of all he never thought about confronting himself with other artistic or vanguard movements which came before him. As this article is trying to focus on, he is one the most interesting and visionary artist of our time. In the sound art international panorama, he is one of a kind for his research on the expressive potentialities of analogical (mechanical) sound in relation to the space, as well as for his aesthetical analysis on a possible visual translation of the sound mechanism implied by his works.... READ MORE...

Dyndy.net: The Future Of Money. For A New Democratic Economy

Last fall in Amsterdam took place the second Economies of the Commons Economies of the Commons - Paying the cost of making things free - conference. In the panels they discussed the political economy of open content and its consequences for the cultural sector and analyzed critically the economies taking place in the digital commons..... READ MORE...

Tracing Infra-spaces. Complicated Beginnings & Elliptical Ends

This article offers an investigation into how drawing infra-spaces creatively reveals the unknown types of digital geometry that emerge from the algorithmic 'flows' of digital visualisation systems, and how our perception of science, technology and visualisation is redefined. This is the second part of this two-part essay.... READ MORE...

Kim Asendorf. Censored Censored Chinese News

At a time when the Propaganda Department of the Chinese government has even more power than Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself, it is worth considering exactly how powerful spin and government propaganda can be in the contemporary world. Of course, the Chinese censorship debate has been argued in many arenas. Certainly, everyone is familiar with the debate's around Google's enforcing of the government's strict censorship laws and then their about-face.... READ MORE...

Def India And Chanderiyaan. Digital Empowerment & Local Communities

Def India, which stands for Digital Empowerment Foundation India, is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2002, working for the education and use of information technology and digital communications in India mainly, but also in other parts of Asia. Def India develops digital platforms for the masses, especially in deprived and poor areas with the aim of designing technological solutions that meet the needs of the population and allow the inclusion of different social groups and ethno-linguistic and religious minorities.... READ MORE...

Oliviero Ponte Di Pino. Ateatro.it: Dieci Anni Di Webmagazine

Il progetto Ateatro nasce il 14_01_2001, Wikipedia nasce il 15_01_2001. In principio era il blog (alla fine degli anni '90, la parola ancora non si usava) e si chiamava www.olivieropdp.it, archivio personale di testi, frutto di oltre vent'anni di attivit culturale di Oliviero Ponte di Pino - uno dei critici di punta della scena contemporanea - digitalizzati e riversati online (in pagine html statiche), poi via via arricchito di nuovi materiali d'attualit.... READ MORE...

Move: Choreographing You. Art & Dance Exhibition

The exhibition Move: Choreographing You at the Hayward Gallery in London left me slightly breathless and over-excited. Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator of the Hayward, Move is (yet) another participatory show at the Hayward, in that it 'invites you to become a participant -or even a dancer- in installations and sculptures by internationally renowned visual artists and choreographers.'... READ MORE...

The Fine Art Of Glitches. Cheats And Errors

When a new generation of artists looks at Marcel Duchamp famous painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 from 1912 will they then say: Whoa, look an early example of glitch art! When Duchamp made his painting he left the traces from the person going done the stairs on the canvas. A similar visual effect could be experienced when you have a corrupt graphic card which is not erasing the traces from the moving object on the screen.... READ MORE...

Re-focussing The Lens. New Media And Film Festival

A familiar exhibition platform for artists working in the media art field is the international art and technology festival circuit. It is a healthy scene, with regular events such as Transmediale (Germany), Ars Electronica (Austria), ISEA (various locations), 01SJ (USA) and arte.mov (Brazil) showcasing the latest work by artists from across the world. These events show both emerging and established artists and provide context and discussion through related conferences and workshops. However, for many artists in the field, there are limited opportunities for exhibiting outside of these contexts.... READ MORE...