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The Softspace Of Usman Haque. Choreographies Of Sensations

Barbara Sansone
Architecture, according to Vitruvius, is the sum of three factors: utilitas, venustas and firmitas. Usefulness and beauty are for sure features that cannot be renounced in order not to cross the border into sculpture or into the simple and unfortunately rampant building industry. But what about permanence? Is it truly something that cannot be renounced ? Is it truly a must that an architectural work has necessarily to be solid and lasting over time ? When, on the contrary, a work is ephemeral, short-lived , transient cannot belong anymore to the domain of architecture ? And if the term 'ephemeral' rather than bearing the negative connotation of something fragile and subject to speculation, could instead carry a different meaning?... READ MORE...
ArticlesDesignDigimag - Issue 54, May 2010

Decode Exhibition. Software Art At Victoria & Albert Museum

Mark Hancock
When is a work of art a design object? When it has a utilitarian purpose? When it has no purpose but is designed to encapsulate a concept that relates to human experience and attempting to capture something about the essence of our existence? Or when the sign on the gallery wall says so? This was the first question that crossed my mind when I arrived the the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to view the Decode exhibition. The exhibition ran from 8th December 2009 until 11th April 2010... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 53, April 2010

The Research Of Knifeandwork. In Between Technology And Partecipation

Mattia Casalegno
Even if the Knifeandfork were not raised in Los Angeles (Brian House is from Denver and based in NY, Sue Huang currently lives in LA but was born in Saudi Arabia) their art seems to me quintessential to such odd place. They designed an user-oriented fictional narrative inspired to Kurosawa's film Rashomoon based on the algorithm of the /Prisoner's Dilemma /game theory model (5 'til 12, 2006); transformed a contemporary art museum in a golf club (Emptiness is Form (golf and donuts) at MOCA, 2009), and staged a public continuous reenactment of the infamous Maradona's goal that leaded Argentina to victory at the 1986 World Cup (Trying the Hand of God, 2009).... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 52, March 2010

Fluctuating Intelligences

Carla Langella
In the 'liquid society', as Zygmunt Bauman defines it in: 'Modus Vivendi. Hell and Utopia of the Liquid World', the structures that create the boundaries of space of behaviour, habits and social and individual forms, are dissolved, creating a chaotic and dynamic context in continuous transformation where contemporary men and women find themselves having to continuously and frenetically pass from social one role to another. Family, work, social life, are alternated until they overlap, despite having different needs and necessities that are often distant from each other.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDesignDigimag - Issue 50, December 2009 / January 2010

Jonah Brucker-cohen: New Media, From Web 2.0 To Web 4.0

Donata Marletta
Jonah Brucker-Cohen is a researcher, an artist and a writer who, in spite of his youth, has reached unquestionable fame and respect internationally in the field of new media and technologies applied to art. He has recently obtained a Ph d at the Disruptive Design Team of the Networking and Telecommunications Research Group (NTRG) at the prestigious Trinity College in Dublin.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDesignDigimag - Issue 50, December 2009 / January 2010

Happy Birthday Artfutura

Barbara Sansone
Artfutura has just turned 20 (a really venerable age for a festival on such a topic). It celebrated its birthday at the IMAGINA building in Barcelona.For people thinking they were going to miss the traditional Mercat de le Flors (in fact this would have surely been a more adequate location for it) it has in fact turned out to be amusing to attend this festival in the famous catch@22, the district of innovation which has been the subject of a series of debates, an area still gutted due to never-ending work-in-progress but already with a futuristic stamp.... READ MORE...
ArtArticlesDesignDigimag - Issue 49, November 2009

New Educational Models: The Amazing Ciid Institute

Elena Gianni
I have been in Copenhagen for two months and I haven't seen anything yet: no museums nor exhibitions. It's not that Copenhagen is that big, nor that public transport is inefficient, we are talking about the extremely well-run capital of Denmark; the reason why is that I spend all my time at school. The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) is a project recently set up by Simona Maschi and Heather Martin. In collaboration with the Danish Design school (DKDS), the CIID offers a year long, intensive master in Interaction Design to a very limited number of students. The educational activity is now in its second year and it is supported by a research laboratory and a consultancy which has contacts with private companies. The program has links with various companies which cooperate with the students and provide research briefs based on the reality of the market.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDesignDigimag - Issue 49, November 2009

Sosolimited: Deconstruction Time Again

Marco Mancuso
Eric Gunther, Justin Manor and John Rothenberg are three thirty-something ironic and ingenious, since 2003 the project Sosolimited youth group at the intersection of art and design specializing in the deployment of interactive installations, audiovisual performances, live remixes and immersive environments, all strictly based self-designing software and technologies and on a technical level / achieved very, very high. With a solid background in physics, computer science, architecture and music and a master's degree at MIT in Boston in the drawer, jumped to hit the crononaca (and the glory of international art) with a momentum that only a country like the United States' America could make practical and effective.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 49, November 2009

Thirty Years Of Ars Electronica: The Future Of Man And Nature

Tiziana Gemin
The 2009 Ars Electronica will surely be an edition to remember. The festival, which takes place in Linz the first week of September, celebrated its 30th year. Much attention was focused on the little Austrian town for the fact that Linz was chosen as European Culture Capital for 2009, and so it has experienced an intense year, dense with launches and cultural events... READ MORE...
ArtArticlesDigimag - Issue 48, October 2009Science

The Uncertain Human Quantum Mechanics

Jeremy Levine
Werner Heisenberg's famous 'Uncertainty Principle' articulates the idea that we cannever completely eliminate the influence of the subject from any description of quantumparticles. The reason is simple: because we are part of the very system beingdescribed. It is impossible to accurately predict exactly how an electron will behavewhen we measure it because of the sensitivity of its wave function to our presence orthe presence of a detection device, which we put into place. The act of measurement causes an uncertain change in the thing being measured.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 48, October 2009

Non-locality: Myths And Metaphors In Networked Art And Quantum Systems

Jeremy Levine
Quantum particle systems seem to possess the ability to communicate instantaneously with each other, defying our classical understanding of space and distance. This feature of the quantum world, known as non-locality, is often used to describe the World Wide Web, and particularly interactive networked art, which seems to collapses space into mouse clicks and links. But is it really applicable?... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 47, September 2009

Hangar + Laboral = Summerlab

Barbara Sansone
In this epoch, we are witnessing the rapid evolution of technology, which facilitates scientific research and improves our lives. But technology is also captured, manipulated and used for novel purposes in the arts. Experimental practice with technology in the arts is increasingly visible in exhibitions and museums around the world and on the Internet, while there is always a strong compulsion to create spaces where experimentation is possible. The objective of these centres is the public diffusion of this mix of disc'pines, to invite people to experiment, understand and express their creativity in unison with others and in this way to create culture.... READ MORE...
ArticlesDigimag - Issue 47, September 2009

Ephemeral Physicality: Quantum Particles And Digital Art

Jeremy Levine
Just as a quantum particle has both a virtual and a physical dimension, so does a work of digital art, which exists as both invisible code and visual display. The dual nature of matter in quantum mechanics is mirrored by the dual nature of a work of digital art. Just as a photon is both a particle and a wave, a work of digital art is both a set of instructions and the execution of those instructions. Digital art, software art, or any work of art that utilizes media as its medium- is both a set of structural relations (a system of process) and a set of discrete objects in space. This is conceptual dualism rather than physical dualism. But how does one make sense of diametriclly opposite models of the same thing without suffering a bit of cognitive dissonance? Neil's Bohr, one of the father's of quantum mechanics, points the way out: embrace the paradox... READ MORE...
ArtArticlesDigimag - Issue 46, July / August 2009