Happy 2013

So glad it ain’t Christmas Today

Annie Abrahams & Jan de Weille

Filed under: Of interest

Aether9 – book

I profoundly enjoyed reading the Aether9 book published late October by Greyscale Press.
ISBN: 978-2-9700706-4-1
The book is based on the archives of aether9, a collaborative adventure exploring the danger zones of networked audio-visual live performance. (from 2007)

“we have perhaps overlooked that we must not only play but play together? – let’s consider each other as an orchestra and truly imagine what it sound like when all musicians are playing solo at the same time … – non-slick, pixelated aesthetic challenges many important hypes : -the constant “newness” of new media-the ever higher resolution and the misguided idea that these things contribute to the value of the message – how to write an efficient script: – it feels as if we are squeezed between the contradiction of doing real experimentation and being entertaining. – never in complete control“

The whole book (it smells deliciously of printer-ink) feels very familiar and makes me for a second time regret I didn’t meet the group earlier when they were still actively performing. I do hope we will be able to hear more about the project in the next Cyposium. What would they think to be the pitfalls and possibilities of remote artistic collaboration?

So strange to me, recognizing all kind of problematics in the aether9 work that I am still researching – why did they stop?, did they stop? Are there articles, insightfull texts about the work? Where can I find scripts?

More Aether9 reading : aether9 proceedings volume 1 issue 1 (reads as a theater play) and aether9 proceedings volume 3 issue 1 (feels as if I was there too) available via lulu.com (2009)

Filed under: Of interest, aether9, Greyscale Press

Towards an aesthetics of failure

“Far from an inconvenience, however, such embodied, frustrating and universal encounters with technology were depicted as a type of digital aesthetic. Both Maria X and Ruth Catlow – co-founder of the Furtherfield organisation ­– discussed the work of Annie Abrahams, an artist who strips social media of its cosy interfaces to reveal the futility of communication and the impossibility of shared experience.”

Elaine Speight for a-n The Artists Information Company in the article Towards an aesthetics of failure on the Digital Aesthetic³ conference in Preston.

a-n Stimulating and supporting contemporary visual arts practice

The Digital Aesthetic³ exhibition is at Harris Museum & Art Gallery until 5 January 2013.

ps I don’t agree on the part quoted, but the article overall is sensible and interesting. (AA)

Filed under: Articles / Texts, Of interest, a-n, Digital Aesthtic3, Elaine Speight, Preston

Cyposium 2012

October 12, 2012 3:00 pm – October 13, 2012 2:00 am UK.
Online symposium on past cyberformance projects.

What dif­fer­ent kind of events hap­pened? What did they make pos­si­ble? What was spe­cial about the event? Why were things done in a cer­tain way and what were the results?

With Maria Chatzichristodoulou, Auriea Har­vey and Michaël Samyn, Alan Sondheim, Mil­jana Perić, Stephen A. Schrum, Joseph DeLappe, Adriene Jenik, Active­Lay­ers, Roger Mills and Maja Delak and Luka Prinčić.

For more information www.cyposium.net/

The Cyposium is organised by Annie Abrahams, Christina Papagiannouli, Francesco Buonaiuto, Helen Varley Jamieson, Katarina DJ Urosevic, Martin Eisenbarth, Nathalie Fougeras, Suzon Fuks and Vicki Smith.

Filed under: Of interest

L’espace et son double

Cette semaine je reçois chez moi au 120 Impasse du Levant

Ronald de Ceuster et Ienke Kastelein

Ienke et Ronald, deux artistes Hollandais qui se connaissaient à peine sont du 23 au 29 juin 2012 ensemble en résidence au LIVING ROOM à Montpellier. Ienke, à l’origine photographe, et Ronald, à ses débuts homme de théâtre évoluent aujourd’hui tous les deux dans le domaine de l’art plastique.

L’espace et son double
Présentation de fin de résidence
Le vendredi 29 juin 2012 à partir de 18h30
LIVING ROOM Espace de création contemporaine
5 rue fouques, 34000 Montpellier
+33 (0)4 34 40 62 00 / +33 (0)6 62 52 61 59

Filed under: Of interest, Ienke Kastelein, Living Room, Ronald de Ceuster

Touch-er

Sais pas comment m’y prendre, sais pas Don’t know how to tackle it, don’t know

Faut peut être pas m’écouter You probably shouldn’t listen to me, shouldn’t listen to yourself
T’écouter
je voudrais vous toucher – toucher vers vous, vous I would like to touch you, to touch in your direction, yours

je voudrais I would like

tu voudrais you would like

me toucher, touchez moi
TOUCHEZ MOI to touch me, touch me, TOUCH ME

Vers toi, de loin In your direction,
from a distance ne me touchez pas don’t touch me
ne vous approchez pas, ne frôle pas mes limites, don’t come close, don’t feather my limits,

Chaque parole m’éloigne de toi Every word from you estranges me more

je te touche, tu me touches, au-delà de l’espace on se touche, pourtant mes doigts ne sentent rien I touch you, you touch me, we touch beyond space and still my fingers don’t feel a thing
… non touché, je te sens, toi, toi qui es loin, toi qui es partout, qui t’étales derrière et même devant …not-touched, I feel you, you, you far away, everywhere, you who spreads behind and even in front
toi dans moi, je te touche you in me I touch

lentement, avec attention, sinon je te perds slowly, with attention, if not, I will lose you

quand je te touche, tu me touches when I touch you, you touch me
il, elle me touche he, she touches me
le monde me touche the world touches me

Ce monde qui est trop violent, trop vulgaire This world that is too violent, too vulgar

Ma peau est déjà le dehors My skin is already outside

est déjà … is already…

ma chair, ma chère, mon cher my flesh, my dear, my dearest

Ne me touchez pas DON’T touch me

pas pas pas don’t don’t don’t pas PAS don’t
DON’T

touche touch

je te touche I touch you

je te touche I touch you

I hardly dare
je n’ose presque pas

Annie Abrahams 2011 2012

Filed under: Of interest, Annie Abrahams, touch, toucher

Winner Online/Offline Expanded Media Prize

Huis Clos / No Exit – On Translation
Jury statement
(English translation at the end)

6 Netzkünstler verschiedener Nationen und Muttersprachen werden in der Performance Huis Clos / No Exit – On Translation via Webcams auf einem Screen zusammengeschaltet. Die Regieanweisung von Annie Abrahams weist sie an, nur in ihrer Muttersprache und mit Gesten mit den anderen zu kommunizieren.

Eine gemeinsame Sprache soll entwickelt werden, kommt im Laufe der Performance aber kaum über Einwort Dialoge hinaus, ja das gegenseitige Anschweigen ist vorherrschend und reduziert die Teilnehmer auf ihre Gesichter. Sprachen werden hier als inkompatible Codes vorgeführt und im Scheitern der gemeinsamen Verständigung wird die Fiktion eines universell verbindenden Netzes schmerzhaft entlarvt. Schauen wir in unsere tägliche Computerpraxis, so entdecken wir in unsere Browser History nur Themen unserer Obsessionen – überwiegend in unserer Muttersprache. Unsere Facebook-Freunde bilden einen geschlossenen Kreis, der alle anderen ausschließt. Die Kommunikation scheitert in Huis Clos / No Exit – On Translation und findet damit eine ehrlichere Metapher für das Netz. “Die Hölle, das sind die anderen” heißt es in Jean-Paul Sartres Huis Clos. Annie Abrahams aktualisiert das auf: “Die Hölle des Netzes ist Babel, die Hölle des Netzes ist Facebook”.
Johannes Auer, Hanna Hasslathi and Marc Lee 23 01 2011
Jury New Media ON/OFFLINE, 24 Stuttgarter Filmwinter 2011

Performance  22 01 2011
Annie Abrahams, Nicolas Frespech and Igor Štromajer learning each others languages.
Video, protocol and screenprints

Filed under: Of interest, award, Hanna Hasslathi, Johannes Auer, Marc Lee, Of interest, online/offline, Stuttgarter Film Winter

Training for a better World – workshop

6-10 décembre
Workshop Training for a Better World
école nationale supérieure d’art Villa Arson, Nice
(sur l’invitation de Christian Vialard)
9 décembre
Participation à distance de quelques étudiants de l’ENSA Bourges.

Le Workshop Training for a Better World se fait dans le cadre du projet Huis Clos / No Exit et participe au processus de préparation d’une exposition au CRAC de Sète en automne 2011.

Filed under: Of interest, ENSA Bourges, Of interest, Training for a Better World, Villa Arson, Workshop

Maska – Practical Dramaturgy

Photos of  the Huis Clos No Exit – On Collaboration and Huis Clos / No Exit – On Translation telematic performances appeared in Maska, vol. XVI, no. 131-132 on Practical Dramaturgy.
They accompagnied the article Networked Publics and Dramaturgy by Una Bauer.

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More information

Maska, Institute for Publishing, Production and Education
Metelkova 6
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Europe

Tel.: + 386 1 431 31 22
+ 386 1 431 53 48
Fax.: + 386 1 431 31 22
info@maska.si

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Huis Clos No Exit – On Collaboration
Huis Clos / No Exit – On Translation

Filed under: Of interest, Huis Clos / No Exit, Maska, Of interest, Una Bauer

Noise & Capitalism

This is The BOOK that touched me most this last few years.
David Markson’s Wittgenstein’s Mistress is also competing.
The two books seems to come from two different worlds. The first is about music and politics the second is pure literature.
Putting them together in this post feels good. Both influence my web performance works. Both help me understand.

Noise & Capitalism http://www.arteleku.net/noise_capitalism
The book can be downloaded as a PDF file: http://www.arteleku.net/audiolab/noise_capitalism.pdf

Noise is a metastasis of desire – Going fragile until we destroy the fears that hold us back – The relation doesn’t exist, it comes into being.

Separation is the alpha and omega of the spectacle.
Proposition for a new performance series
Huis Clos / No Exit – Beyond (spectacle) – Training for a better world .pdf

Filed under: Of interest, David Markson, Mattin, Noise & Capitalism, Of interest