Month: September 2019

Posted on by admin Events, projects, research

Video Vortex #12

Adnan gave an Interview to Kultura.TV on the Video Vortex XII conference.

VideoVortex, an artistic network concerned with the aesthetics and politics of online video, will gather again in Malta for a conference in late September 2019. In this edition we are in particularly focussed on bringing new research, theory and critiques of online video – in addition to questions around its integration with social media – to Malta. If you are a graduate student or researcher/critic that is engaged with the theoretical challenges of contemporary (moving) image cultures, please join us for the conference.Given its ease of access and use, video has historically been aligned with media activism and collaborative work. Now, however, with video’s prevalence across social media and the web, its dominance of the internet of things, the role of the camera in both the maintenance and breaking down of networks, in addition to the increasing capacity of digital video to simulate that which has not occurred – we require novel theories and research. That is to say that rapidly changing technological formats underscore the urgent need to engage with practices of archiving and curation, modes of collaboration and political mobilisation, as well as fresh comprehensions of the subject-spectator, actors and networks constituted by contemporary video and digital cultures.
Conference and screenings: September 26-29, 2019.
Exhibition:  September 13 until October 27, 2019 (in Spazju Kreattiv)

Download the full program here.

All events are held at Spazju Kreattiv, except for “Session 2:
Activism”, on Day 2, which will be held at Aula Prima, University of
Malta Valletta Campus . Please refer to details below and in the program.

VV XII conference registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-conference-tickets-63022752750

VV XII screening registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-screenings-tickets-63025027554

Special: ASMR workshop
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-special-asmr-workshop-tickets-63027029542

Schedule of Video Vortex #12 Conference:

Day 1: Thursday – September 26, 2019

15:00: Video Vortex Pre-Screening: Dance: Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

17:00: Opening of Video Vortex Conference

• Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam)

•  Wilfried Agricola de Cologne: Curated screening – The W:OW

18:30: Opening Lecture & Performance

• @lbert figurt: Lecture: Desktop Horror

• Annie Abrahams, Lisa Parra and Daniel Pinheiro: Performance: DISTANT FEELINGS #6

20:00: Meet the Video Vortex Artists

• Vince Briffa and Michael Alcorn: OUTLAND

• Ryan Woodring: The oldest new structure

• Q&A with video vortex artists: Werther Germondari, Letta Shtohryn, Pablo Núñez Palma, Bram Loogman, Tivon Rice & Hang Li (together with Caroline Rosello)

Day 2: Friday – September 27, 2019

09:00: Welcome, Registration & Coffee

10:00: Session 1: Online Video Theory I

• Andrew Clay: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. Oakley in the Land of the Video Bloggers

• Karla Brunet: Online Video Cartography

• Ana Peraica: Disinterested and Dead: Spinning Visual Media Reporting Events

• Kathy Rae Huffman: ON/IN Time – video art from outsider to insider

12:00: Break

13:00: Session 2: Activism

NOTE: this session is at a different Venue: Aula Prima, University of Malta Valletta
Campus

• Donatella della Ratta: The vanished image: who owns the archives of the Arab uprisings?

• Aishwarya Viswanathan: Staged Fear: Real and Imagined Audiences of Mob Lynching Videos in India.

• Confusion of Tongues: Moving Membranes

• Miguel Oliveros Mediavilla: Dictature 4.0: ‘La prison à plein air’

15:00: Break

16:00: Session 3: Streaming & Platforms

• Dino Ge Zhang: A Theory of Livestreaming Video

• Andreas Treske and Aras Ozgun: Narrative Platforms: Towards a Morphology of New Audience Activities and Narrative Forms

• Tomasz Hollanek: The Netflix Clinic: (experi)Mental Entertainment in the Age of Psychometrics

• Antonia Hernandez: There’s something compelling about real life: early webcam tropes on current sexcam platforms

Special: ASMR workshop (parallel session on invitation only)
Lucille Calmel & Damien Petitot: Soft Screens Soft Skins Soft: an ASMR workshop

18:00: Break

20:00: Video Vortex evening screening
Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

Day 3: Saturday – September 28, 2019

09:00: Welcome, Registration & Coffee

09:30: Special: Breakfast Screening

• Colette Tron: Screening: Digital images and films, what’s the matter?

10:00: Session 4: Online Video Theory II

• Colette Tron: Digital images and films, what’s the matter?

• Mitra Azar: From Selfie to Algorithmic Facial Image

• Jack Wilson: PLAYING FROM ANOTHER ROOM

• Chris Meigh-Andrews: EDAU Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection

12:00: Break

13:00: Session 5: Experiments in Aesthetics

• Dan Oki: The Absence of Telepresence

• Hiroko Kimura-Myokam: Video hosting service as a presenting space and a repository

• Patrick Lichty: Not Really Like Being There

• Richard Misek: A Machine for Viewing: a virtual reality video essay

15:00: Break

16:00: Session 6: Workshops/lecture on tech issues

• Pablo Núñez Palma and Bram Loogman: Jan Bot

• Heiko Recktenwald: Montage der Sensationen

• Adnan Hadzi, Simon Worthington and Oliver Lerone Schultz: VV12 after.video book

Special: ASMR workshop (parallel session on invitation only)
Lucille Calmel & Damien Petitot: Soft Screens Soft Skins Soft: an ASMR workshop

18:00: Closing Ceremony

• Andrew Alamango and Andrew Pace: Magna Żmien (Time Machine)

• Judit Kis: Practices Beyond the SELF

Day 4: Sunday – September 29, 2019

14:00: Replay Day
Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

Schedule of Video Vortex #12 Screenings:

Day 1: Thursday – September 26, 2019

15:00: Pre-VV12 Screening: Dance

• Rita Al Cunha: Error 500, 1:44

• Daniela Lucato: When I dance, 67 min.

• Vito Alfarano: I have a dream, 11:00

17:00: Curated screening – The W:OW

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, 61 min

Day 2: Friday – September 27, 2019

20:00: Screening I: Structures

• Adam Fish: Points of Presence, 18:46

• Albert Merino: Bestiary, 5:10

• Lotte Louise de Jong: BRB, 5:25

• Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum: Go Move Be, 9:50

• Samantha Harvey: Auto tune me, 4:31

21:00: Screening II: Internet, Sadness, Love

• Andres Azzolina: Puntomov, 15:15

• Glasz DeCuir: Yes I saw an angel, 2:37

• María José Ribas: Torremolinos Match, 8:51

• Pedro Gomes: Mutilated Dreams, 10:22

• Salvador Miranda: Aim Down Sights, 7:30

22:00: Screening III: Myself Any Other Night

• Sofia Braga: I stalk myself, 13:26

• María José Ribas: Seismographical, 2:03

• Zimu Zhang & Zheng Lu Xinyuan: Just like any other night, 29:33

Day 4: Sunday – September 29, 2019

14:00: Screening I: Structures

• Adam Fish: Points of Presence, 18:46

• Albert Merino: Bestiary, 5:10

• Lotte Louise de Jong: BRB, 5:25

• Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum: Go Move Be, 9:50

• Samantha Harvey: Auto tune me, 4:31

15:00: Screening II: Internet, Sadness, Love

• Andres Azzolina: Puntomov, 15:15

• Glasz DeCuir: Yes I saw an angel, 2:37

• María José Ribas: Torremolinos Match, 8:51

• Pedro Gomes: Mutilated Dreams, 10:22

• Salvador Miranda: Aim Down Sights, 7:30

16:00: Screening III: Myself Any Other Night

• Sofia Braga: I stalk myself, 13:26

• María José Ribas: Seismographical, 2:03

• Zimu Zhang & Zheng Lu Xinyuan: Just like any other night, 29:33

17:00: Screening IV: The W:OW

• Wilfried Agricola de Cologne: Curated screening – The W:OW (ca 60 min.)

18:00: Screening V: Crash Theory
•  Adam Fish: Crash Theory, 45:00

Posted on by admin Events, presentations

Video Theory & Video Vortex

Prof. Treske will first talk about his book Video Theory. The publisher’s review details the significance of the work, noting that “video is a part of everyday life, comparable to driving a car or taking a shower. It is nearly omnipresent, available on demand.” Because cameras all around us are constantly creating video and ‘uploading, sharing, linking and relating,’ what the reviewer calls ‘an ocean of video’ has come to cover our planet. Although this ocean might look like ‘bluish noise and dust” from far away, it may in fact “embed beautiful and fascinating living scapes of moving images: objects constantly changing, rearranging, assembling, evolving, collapsing but never disappearing—a real cinema.’ In the book, the author ‘describes and theorizes these objects formerly named video, their forms, behaviours and properties.’
Then we will discuss the Video Vortex 12 conference: Video Vortex, an artistic network concerned with the aesthetics and politics of online video, will gather again in Malta for a conference in late September 2019 (http://vv12.org). In this edition, we are in particularly focused on bringing new research, theory and critiques of online video – in addition to questions around its integration with social media – to Malta. If you are a graduate student or researcher/critic engaged in the theoretical challenges of contemporary (moving) image cultures, then please do join us for the conference.
Given its ease of access and use, video has historically been aligned with media activism and collaborative work. Now, however, with video’s prevalence across social media and the web, its dominance of the internet of things, the role of the camera in both the maintenance and breaking down of networks – in addition to the increasing capacity of digital video to simulate that which has not occurred –we require novel theories and research. That is to say, that rapidly changing technological formats underscore the urgent need to engage with practices of archiving and curation, modes of collaboration and political mobilisation, as well as fresh comprehensions of the subject-spectator, actors and networks constituted by contemporary video and digital cultures.
Speaker profile

Professor Andreas Treske is an author, media artist and filmmaker, writing about online video and culture. He graduated from the University of Television and Film, Munich, where he also taught film and video post-production. He lectures with the Department of Communication and Design at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. Since 2008, he has been involved in the Video Vortex network.

Posted on by admin Events, presentations

Digital Arts on the British Waterways

During the on the image conference Adnan presented the boattr 360 project.

This paper discusses the network of the British Waterways as a digital social commons, through the researcher’s journey on the narrow boat ‘Quintessence,’ and the development of the ‘boattr’ prototype in collaboration with MAZI, a Horizon2020 research project. For three years, the researcher joined the community of bargees, travellers, who use the canals to live on them, with a temporary permit to stay for two weeks in one place. The paper offers a critical view on the housing situation in the UK and EU in general. The paper also looks into capabilities offered by Do-It-Yourself (DIY) networking infrastructures – low-cost off-the-shelf hardware and wireless technologies – and how small communities or individuals can deploy local communication networks that are fully owned by local actors, including all generated data. These DIY networks could cover from a small square (e.g., using a Raspberry Pi) to a city neighborhood (e.g., RedHook initiative) or even a whole city (e.g., guifi.net), and in the case of boattr, the towpath of the canal network. This paper is being proposed in combination with an installation of a running boattr prototype, micro-computer book. This boattr installation lets the conference visitor experience the ‘boattr’ project through accessing the boattr micro-computer book over any WiFi enabled device. The installation encompasses a photographic triptych showcasing canal life, and a micro-computer through which the viewer can be immersed into a journey on the canals.

Past, Present, Future, Digital Arts, Mesh Networks, Video 360
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Mapping Gaps: Hands-on Workshop on Collaboration in Artistic Research and Curatorial Practice

The innovative and critical potential of artistic research lies in its capacity to generate personally situated knowledge, implying that ideas and theory are ultimately the result of practice, and that the emergent process of research methods unfolds through practice. Based on the notion that knowledge is derived from doing and the senses, this ACMlab hands-on workshop led by Maren Richter and Dr Adnan Hadzi will explore collaboration in artistic research and curatorial practice.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss the necessity of design for such projects from the point of view of the artist engaged in industry partnerships and projects. Whether you are the curious artist who is interested in testing out productive gaps in your practice or thinking of applying for the next call of the Malta Arts Fund – Research Support Grant, this may be the session for you.

This ACMlab is being organized in collaboration with the Department of Digital Arts at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta.

Maren Richter

Maren Richter is a curator and researcher. She defines her curatorial practice as one that creates space for exchange with, for and on experimental artistic practice based on the production and politics of space and alternative knowledge production. Between 2016 and 2018 she was the curator of the main visual arts exhibition in the Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme. She is the co-initiator of ‘Grammar of Urgencies’ a research-based series of collaborative projects, initiated in 2015. In 2013 she co-curated the first Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Bienniale, which was designed as an ‘eco-aesthetical’ space for international exchange of artists, theorists, campaigners and researchers. Between 2010 and 2013 she was the artistic director of the Regionale, a festival in Styria/Austria, which looked into the question of how rural areas and landscapes could become a model for a new socio-political discourse in times of urban growth and climate change. She was curator at Camouflage Art/Culture/Politics in Johannesburg and at CCASA in Brussels, and the co-curator of a series of researches and exhibition on alternative and informal life between 2003 and 2006 (amongst others “Naked Life” at MOCA Taipei).

Dr Adnan Hadzi

Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident academic in the Department of Digital Arts, at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta. Hadzi has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV. It is a collaborative video editing service hosted in Deckspace’s racks, based on free and open source software, compiled into a unique suite of blog, cvs, film database and compositing tools. Hadzi is co-editing and producing the after.video video book, exploring video as theory, reflecting upon networked video, as it profoundly re-shapes medial patterns (Youtube, citizen journalism, video surveillance etc.). Hadzi’s documentary film work tracks artist pranksters The Yes Men and ! Mediengruppe Bitnik Collective – a collective of contemporary artists working on and with the Internet. Bitnik’s practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms.