THE DARK SIDE OF GOOGLE

Txt: Maria Molinari
Area: Hacking

Luci e Ombre di Google. Futuro e Passato dell'industria dei Metadati is the last masterpiece of the Ippolita community. Presented in April 2006 during the last Hackmeeting in Parma , it is now published by Feltrinelli (2007). It is under Creative Commons License and it can be freely diffused and reproduce, even from Ippolita.Net . If Open non è free, published by Eleuthera , Ippolita advise us about the ambiguity of the idea, so fashionable, of “Open Society”, in this last work its attention goes to Google , the research engine the most used in the entire world, and in this case as well urge us to pay attention. The Mountain View colossus is not what it seems, pilots our choices and put to risk our freedom and privacy. Loved and sustained by all the users, its own workers, technicians, nerds and hackers, Google is seen as the good giant and defendant of the free circulation of the knowledge. Behind its “innocent interfaces”...

segue...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- top ---------

OIL 21, P2P & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Txt: Maresa Lippolis
Area: p2p

From 24th till 28th May Berlin was the meeting point fot that weird and unruly network of activists, artists and hackers whose experiences and projects have intersected more or less continuously for a time at a global level. This time their objective was to study the formation politicies and thus to share experiences and ideas on the growing importance of the spread of knowledge and the access to immaterial resources. Among the different projects presented at the summit, the one we think worth highlighting in this article on p2p , is that developed by bootlab, the established Berlin hacklab for long engaged on different projects which study the development of new free and accessible technologies in their complexity, together with the experimentation of new forms of social subjectivity. The issue regarding the access to immaterial resources and his capitalization by few giants is more and more eviden...

read more...

PLUGIN ART

Txt: Valentina Tanni
Area: Plugin Art

One of the most loved strategy of nowadays artists is the invasion of different contexts. Tired of being contained by dedicated spaces, art is now inside the most varied places, contaminating the everyday life, entering the empty spaces of our lives, the common objects and activities. The first conquer has been the streets, then houses, supermarkets, stations and airports. And again bars, discos, ads and dresses. Art now even goes plug-in , and appears from the remote angles of our computer, inside the context of an everyday and familiar activity: surfing the net. Known also as add-ons or extensions, plug-in are non autonomous software that interacts with other programs to modify and extend their functions. A very popular add-ons category is the adblockers one that, once installed on your browser, prevent the visualization of ads, banners and annoying pop-up....

read more...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- top ---------

GOD ERROR BANG: PD AND THE USELESS MACHINES

Txt: Eleonora Oreggia
Area: Free Software

On the 28, 29 and 30 of April Rome saw for the first time in his history the Italian convention of Pure Data, a grafic programming language for manipulation and real-time creation of videos and sounds, as well as managing program for interactive systems. The event, result of the collaboration between Binario Etico, Feramenta and Strike, is the first organized effort turned to the institution of an Italian community, using and programing this free and open source software. Pure Data, originally invented in the 90s by Miller Puckette as a software for the computer music and multimedial work production, is the free and improved version belonging to Max/MSP (and also in this case Mr Puckette is the author). We are speaking about a modular system, expandible through libraries, externals e plugins. That is to say that the user can enrich the software skills and modify some of its properties, besides creating his own ad-hoc patches...

read more...

VJTHEORY: ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

Txt: Silvia Bianchi
Area: Vjing

A research which starts from the more and more widespread need to think upon how sense is generated and the visual impact Vjing has, which is far more than the technical approach to the discipline. The goal of this project is to gather articles, references and artistic projects regarding the work of the community which have joined the portal. The project is a constant work in progress, thanks to the chance users have to add their contents and to the organization of the team behind VjTheory to stimulate discussions and reflections on the topic. A multimedia structure created to support participation, which let his audience in thanks to means such as calls and chats, which in the last months has given birth to real philosophical brainstorming on the possible theoretical implications of Vjing e Real Time Processing. We talked to Ana Carvalho e Brendan Byrne, VjTheory's editors and researchers at the University College Falmouth...

read more...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- top -----------

SONAR 2007. CALL FOR ITALY? YES!

Txt: Marco Mancuso
Area: Live Media

We're all ready for Sonar 2007 . A couple of weeks ( 14th-15th-16th June ) and the Spanish weekend dedicated to the electronic music will be reality, collecting from the streets of Barcelona, from the CCCB/MACBA spaces and from the fair cathedral of Sonar by Night, a multitude of young lovers of electro sound out of control from all over the world. Whoever has been present at least once at Sonar knows what I'm talking about, and I'm sure between Digicult readers there are many aficionados of the Catalonian first hours. The atmosphere inside Sonar is the one of the great summer events, inimitable crossroads of sounds, visions, multimedia culture, research, concerts and techno rave parties able to satisfy the taste of even different publics, but in the end united by the desire to be there, to be part of the event, in a city that during summer becomes one of the most culturally and socially attractive places of the planet...

read more...

RES QUALIA, EVOLVABLE ART

Txt: Silvia Scaravaggi
Area: Art&Science

Deepening dynamics and relationships between art, science and technology, it's amazing finding Res-Qualia.net, the website born in the 2005 from the Spanish researcher Raquel Paricio, which inquires the infinite world that links art to science, using a typical digital world's approach. A precious database that encloses in itself some of the most innovative works and researches of the last years in artistic field, always tied to science and to the idea of evolution of the conscience. Raquel Paricio Garcia (Barcelona, 1968) holds a graduate in Fine Arts and is currently a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona about Evolvable applications in Art instalations. Her research interests include body consciousness and expression and multi-sensory environments and interfaces, apperception and new qualia. She is the creator of the www.res-qualia.net on-line space. She is currently granted by the Catalunya Goverment to develop her work and research.

read more...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- top -----------

I MONDI FIGURATI DELLA SCIENZA

Txt: Luigi Ghezzi
Area: Technology

Una settore sempre più importante degli studi sulla comunicazione scientifica si avvale di ricerche microsociologiche. La microsociologia – semplifico per ragioni di cronaca – si occupa principalmente del comportamento degli individui all'interno di uno spazio sociale ridotto, di persone o piccoli gruppi che sono in rapporto immediato tra di loro. Tra le ricerche più interessanti di tale approccio troviamo sicuramente gli studi nell'ambito dell'educazione e della pedagogia scientifica di cui abbondano le riviste Computer Science Education , International Journal of Science Education , Journal of Political Science Education e il Journal of Science Education and Technology . A titolo d'esempio possiamo citare l'articolo Youths'and scientists'authoring of and positioning Within science and scientists'work di Jrène Rahm (Université de Montréal, Faculté des sciences de l'éducation).

segue...