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Monthly Magazine:
Digicult Produzioni
Editing/Photo Editing:
Marco Mancuso
Cover:
Redazione Digicult
Contents:
Giulia Baldi, Silvia Bianchi, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Lucrezia Cippitelli, Giuseppe Cordaro, Alessio Galbiati, Luigi Ghezzi, Salvatore Iaconesi, Marco Mancuso, Annamaria Monteverdi, Bertram Niessen, Eleonora Oreggia, Oriana Persico, Monica Ponzini, Massimo Schiavoni
Translations:
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NET ART
//Giulia Simi
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LES LIENS INVISIBLES: DISILLUSIONE 2.0
Txt: Giulia Simi
Area: Net Art
 Les Liens Invisibles, “gruppo artistico immaginario”, è composto da Clemente Pestelli – aka Dedalus - e Gionatan Quintini , entrambi già attivi nell'ambiente hacktivist e in particolare nella mailing list e progetto di networking ideato e fondato da Tatiana Bazzichelli, AHA. Dal 2006, come ,Les Liens Invisibles, lavorano interrogandosi sui processi di creazione e comunicazione artistico-sociale-politica e utilizzano la net art come macroterritorio in cui dar corpo alla loro riflessione. Il tentativo è quello di portare alla luce “i collegamenti invisibili” tra mente, realtà e infosfera, con un approccio concettuale che fa dell'ironia un'arma sovversiva. Tra i temi cardine dei loro lavori uno dei nodi irrisolti della web culture, quello legato alla libertà della (e nella) rete. Il web 2.0: antigerarchico partecipativo e largamente accessibile. Apparentemente la concretizzazione di un'utopia, in realtà spesso un'omologazione di linguaggi e contenuti. False promesse del web 2.0? Cosa non ha funzionato? Quali possono essere invece le prospettive di controcultura attraverso il web 2.0? Abbiamo cercato di rispondere ad alcune di queste domande per mezzo di questa intervista, per percorrere insieme a Les Liens Invisibles i passaggi più significativi del loro progetto artistico. Uno dei progetti di arte e attivismo in Rete più interessanti nati nel nostro paese ultimamente.
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HACKTIVISM
//Eleonora Oreggia
HACKTIVISM
//Tatiana Bazzichelli
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EDOARDO DECARLI:THE PERMANENCE OF KNOWLEDGE
Txt: Eleonora Oreggia / Eng: Chiara Resmini
Area: Hacktivism
 In recent years, in Italy and in the world, many things have changed as regards knowledge, its dissemination and the education system. For a long time, people have spoken about school reform, one of the many cases in which Italian bureaucracy has shown its slow and backward mechanisms. If on one hand Italian students were at a disadvantage in comparison with their “foreign” fellows, because the system was too far from practice and reality, on the other hand Italian school, which has always been public and non-meritocratic, had the rare quality to teach to think. Instead of creating workers and very ambitious people to employ in the industrial sector, Italian school churned out thinkers, philosophers, cultured people who used to rely on the effort and the exercise of their minds. It was said that their fellows from Europe and the USA, who came from shorter and easier schools and had more experience thanks to internship...
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DONNE E TECNOLOGIE IN NETWORK NELL' EST EUROPA
Txt: Tatiana Bazzichelli e Gaia Novati
Area: Hacktivism
 La mostra HACK.Fem.EAST, prevista dal 9 maggio al 22 giugno presso il Kunstraum Kreuzberg /Bethanien di Berlino si concentra da un lato sullo sviluppo tecnologico, dall'altro sulle realtà socio-politiche declinate al femminile. L'idea principale è quella di mettere in connessione le pratiche sperimentali e artistiche realizzate da artiste e attiviste provenienti dai paesi dell'Est Europa. Il progetto è il risultato di una ricerca condotta sulle comunità digitali nell'ambito della netculture e dell'attivismo internazionale. Nasce come un progetto di networking aperto, per cui la scelta delle artiste e delle attiviste partecipanti non viene decisa attraverso le classiche metodologie curatoriali, ma nasce dal basso. Attraverso una open call diffusa in rete, sono infatti le artiste stesse a presentarsi e a proporre il proprio lavoro. Naturalmente non tutti i progetti rientrano a far parte della mostra per evidenti questioni di coerenza e di spazio...
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GENERATIVE ART
//Marco Mancuso
MMORPG
//Giulia Baldi
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VISUAL COMPLEXITY, BEAUTIFUL COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Txt: Marco Mancuso
Area: Generative Art
 Ormai è sotto gli occhi di tutti, anche dei più conservatori tra noi. La technologicizzazione del nostro mondo, così come lo abbiamo conosciuto fino a qualche anno fa, è un processo ormai in atto e sicuramente irrefrenabile. Ha preso il via, dopo qualche anno di quiescenza, soprattutto nelle abitudini e nelle attitudini della maggior parte di noi e di tutti quelli che hanno qualche anno in meno di noi Nella cosiddetta era digitale nella quale viviamo, pochi sono i punti fermi come tutti sanno bene. Difficile individuare dei trends duraturi, siano essi applicati in ambito sociale, artistico o di marketing. Quasi impossibile prevedere con certezza cosa accadrà domani. E' la natura stessa dello strumento che lo determina, soggetto come è agli sviluppi tecnologici e alle applicazioni più diverse da ambiti sempre più compenetrati tra loro. All'interno di questo affascinante calderone di stimoli costanti, devo ammettere che uno dei trend...
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VIRTUAL WORLD CONFERENCE:GENERAZIONE AVATAR
Txt: Giulia Baldi
Area: Mmorpg
 Sono nati da idee fantascientifiche e si sono poi sviluppati come tecnologie e ambienti di comunicazione per iniziati del web, ma oggi i mondi virtuali sono parte di una rivoluzione che sta ridefinendo l'industria dei media e dell'entertainment. Così, la terza Virtual World Conference (organizzata dalla Virtual World Management, sponsorizzata da una cordata di realtà dell'industria guidate dalla The Electric Ship Company, e da poco conclusa a New York) ha visto la partecipazione di tutti gli esperti del metaverso ma anche di rappresentanti dei media, della comunicazione e del marketing, dell'advertisment, della legislazione e dell'educazione. I cinque stream principali in cui era divisa la conferenza sono già una sintesi dell'attuale panorama di riflessione, ricerca e sviluppo attorno al metaverso: kids and teens, marketing and entertainment, virtual laws, enterprise, technology and results...
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EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
//Alessio Galbiati
VIDEO ART
//Monica Ponzini
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LANGHEINRICH,
THE USELESS AND FASCINATED LOOK
Txt: Alessio Galbiati and Paolo Catò / Eng: Nicola Ferloni
Area: Experimental Cinema
 Here comes another chapter of the series of interviews dedicated to the most interesting representatives of Sonic Acts latest edition (Amsterdam, February 21st – 24th), which we started in March with a long virtual conversation with Ken Jacobs. (“Jacobs: il demiurgo dell'immagine in movimento” di Alessio Galbiati e Paola Catò – Digimag32/marzo08). This time is Ulf Langheinrich's turn, “a contemporary artist who has always struggled for a production aimed at reaching an emotive and effective unicuum”. (this definition comes from Mixedmedia Milan festival 2006 online pages, from Audiovisual Art section crated by Marco Mancuso).Born in 1960 in Wolfen (Eastern Germany) he lives and works between Vienna (Austria) and Accra (Ghana). Leaving the land of real socialism, in the middle of the ‘80s he moves to the western part of his country, having already had a varied education which included...
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FEDERICO SOLMI: VIDEO ICONE E SUPERSTARS
Txt: Monica Ponzini / Img: courtesy Federico Solmi
Area: Video Art
 Irriverenti, surreali, sessualmente espliciti. I video e i quadri di Federico Solmi sono come lui: esuberanti, chiassosi e ironici. L'ultimo (anti)eroe partorito dall'instancabile fantasia dell'artista bolognese trapiantato a New York è nientemeno che un Papa futuristico, sesso-dipendente, che si libra in volo a mo' di Superman sopra al Vaticano, e che una volta finito all'Inferno si lancia in una carneficina in stile Doom . Prima di lui, era toccato a King Kong e a Rocco Siffredi, scatenati in deliri di onnipotenza finiti miseramente con la morte di entrambi. Con The Evil Empire, la sua ultima videoanimazione accompagnata da un totale di 1000 dipinti/fotogrammi, Federico Solmi continua e raffina il suo stile personale, dove Raymond Pettibon e Bosch si mescolano al Barocco e all'animazione in 3D, per creare un mondo caotico, straripante, sanguigno e carnevalesco, votato alla corporalità più estrema e al rovesciamento beffardo di ogni regola...
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//Giuseppe Cordaro
//Marco Mancuso
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DISSONANT ECSTASY OF CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE
Txt: Giuseppe Cordaro / Eng: Nicola Ferloni
Area: Experimental
 Charlemagne Palestine, musician, sculptor, painter, video-artist and musical shaman is one of the most interesting representatives of the contemporary European music scene. On May 9th he will be performing in Rome 's Palazzo dei Congressi, at Dissonanze's eighth edition. An original and peculiar composer, he is considered one of the myths of the “Downtown Music Scene” in New York during the 1970's. His name comes along with those of La Monte Young , Philip Glass, Pandit Pran Nath and Steve Reich , even though Charlemagne has always kept his distance from this “category”, dedicating himself to visual experimentation and installations in museums and galleries. To witness one of his live performances is a unique experience, because of the beauty of the complex sounds the listener is surrounded by; it is impossible to forecast what will happen next. The peculiarity of Charlemagne Palestine's performances...
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SONAR 2008: THE FEMININE FACTOR
Txt: Marco Mancuso / Eng: Nicola Ferloni
Area: Electronica
 Digicult has confirmed its media partnership with Sonar, the most important international event for electronic music. From June 19th to 21st we'll be reporting from the event in Barcelona, which has recently opened its doors to new media and (even if with some reluctance) to audio/video performances. Presenting the Sonar to those who are thinking about dedicating their energies to the most crowded and important event for electronic music to this day is not easy, if anything because of the huge amount of musicians, djs, video artists, labels, installations and partners featured every year. According to advance information from the organization, the programme of the 15th edition is based on two main themes: the “feminine factor” in today's music and “hybridism” as a result of the interaction between genres and subgenres. As far as the presence of women in the programme is concerned...
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AUDIO VIDEO
//Marco Mancuso
LIVE MEDIA
//Silvia Bianchi
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KAIICHIRO SHIBUYA: ORDER AND CHAOS
Txt: Marco Mancuso / Eng: Chiara Resmini
Area: Audio Video
 Elektra is back. The Canadian audiovisual art festival comes back for its ninth edition in the habitual Usine C of Montreal. A series of international artists will perform from 7 th to 11 th May '08 with audio-video live that will be judged in June Digimag edition. Between the rich setting of Elektra for this year, I found very attractive Kaiichiro Shibuya audio-video live, on one side because of its artistic and productive history – musician, sound designer and owner of ATAK label, on the other side because of its collaboration with Exonemo, couple of Japanese audiovisual experimenters able to use digital tools and circuit bendings of different kind. I appreciated Shibuya work for ages, both as musician and ATAK producer as well (label that is leveled to the more well-known Raster Noton and 12k in terms of production, aesthetic, packaging and image), and recently had the...
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OLYVETTY: PROCESSING SOUND AND IMAGES
Txt: Silvia Bianchi / Eng: Stefania Longo
Area: Live Media
 Olyvetty is an audio visual environment project that started in Berlin in 2006 when the musician Claudio Rocchetti and the visual artist Riccardo Benassi met . Olyvetty is the distortion of a symbol, the language prevailing over the content, the information over the production. With this new project, which was presented at Netmage 08 for the first time, the depths of noise and minimal-techno have been systematically plumbed . We interviewed Riccardo Benassi when the duo's two records were contemporarily released: As all-encompassing as a hole , a double picture-disc vinyl which was recorded manually and Hundebiss Records of 7" Im Leeren . The two artists both live in Berlin , where they met and started their collaboration. What they have in common is their actual research on sound, which means a direct interaction with the object and its surface through the use of different supports...
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ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE
//Salvatore Iaconesi
TECHNOLOGY
//Luigi Ghezzi
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WE ARE NOT ALONE - PART 1
Txt & Eng: Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico
Area: Artificial Intelligence
 We are not alone. The philosophical observation of the technological contemporary era (and, also, of our everyday lives) allows us to describe the emergence of new forms of life. A technological mutation took place in the human being. Technology always modified us. We have always been cyborgs, and this is not a new concept. Transport technologies mutated our perception of space and time. The developments on energy, starting from electricity, changed our conception of time flows and of the usage of time for production. Telecommunications opened up new possibilities for our own thought, allowing it to be freely addressed throughout space, and to propagate independently from the material body. Information technologies and, specifically, network technologies go along these directions with even more emphasis. Network and information technologies, with a mutagen leap, directly connect the mind...
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LATE NEOPOSITIVISM AND NEW POLITICAL ENERGY
Txt: Luigi Ghezzi / Eng: Nicola Ferloni
Area: Technology
Alex Steffen is one of the most renowned voices as far as environmental sustainability and studies on the social impact of technology are concerned. From his biography emerge collaborations with Weiden, Kennedy, Nike, Amazon, Ideo, Arup, Nau, Yahoo! and the World Travel and Tourism Council. He was recently the main character in a CNN documentary dealing with forecasting possibilities for the future and he was labelled by New York Sunday's magazine Ecotecture as one of the most influential innovators worldwide. Besides all that, or maybe because of all that, Alex Steffen is a political optimist. Let's see further into the definition of “political optimism” , as it could not feel any further away from the actual western technological and political scenery. Steffen's optimism is not the wannabe reflection of a life spent in a safe (late) capitalist environment, but rather the result of an approach other than cynicism...
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DESIGN
//Giulia Baldi
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DESIGN AND THE ELASTIC MIND
Txt: Giulia Baldi / Eng: Francesca Magnaghi
Area: Design
 [the exhibition] focuses on designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, changes which will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that people can actually understand and use. This is a brief excerpt taken from the press release of Elastic Mind exhibition, running until the 12 th of May at MoMa, Museum of Modern Art, of New York . It is impossible to show here all the works, that were selected by Paola Antonelli, the Italian senior curator in MoMa's Department of Architecture and Design; maybe it is more useful to talk about the general trend of these projects. Our ability to adapt to the environment and our creativity in changing it in something else necessary to our dreams and needs: these are two typical features of men and women's life in every time and place. But only an elastic mind can support and cope with the fast and multidimensional change of 21 st century, without losing its own identity. For this reason the challenge is constant: scientific and technological revolution can lead to faster and deeper changes, and contemporary men and women have not only to constantly find new change possibilities, but also to completely change those already known concepts and relations, such as space, time, information and individuality. With an elastic mind, of course. So, design has become a more and more important means of social mediation and promotion, because it provides tools to show how research is converted into every-day objects, useful for everyone everywhere.
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TECHNO THEATRE
//Annamaria Monteverdi
PERFORMING ART
//Massimo Schiavoni |
VIDEOELEKTRA SUPERSTAR
Tx: Annamaria Monteverdi / Eng: Francesca Magnaghi
Area: Techno Theatre
 In Greek mythology, Electra was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to Orestes and Iphigenia. After her father was murdered by Aegisthus and his lover Clytemnestra, Electra and Orestes decided to revenge their father and their family. Electra inspired many literary writers, from Aeschylus, who wrote Oresteia , to Sophocles and Euripides. Recently there have been only few important artistic works of this kind in theater, television and cinema. Here are some examples: Elettra di Euripide , Spoleto 1993 , by Massimo Castri ; L'impossibilità di recitare Elettra oggi , Rai 1969, by Collettivo di Fabbrico (conceived and directed by Ròska, Dominique Isserman, Manrico Pavolettoni) after the takeover of a cinema in Fabbrico, Reggio Emilia, in 1968, thanks to the collaboration of Godard, Living, Volonté and others; Elettra by Sophocles , Rai 3, Piedmont region 1987, by Tonino De Bernardi with non-professional actors; and finally Orestea by Aeschylus , 1972, by Luca Ronconi . Obviously, we need to mention Notes Towards an African Orestes , 1975, by Pasolini .
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CAREFUL EVOLUTION RESEARCHES
Tx: Massimo Schiavoni / Eng: Francesca Magnaghi
Area: Performing Art
 They are becoming more and more famous, they are appreciated or slated, they don't have anything to lose; they live and sleep for theater, among innovative sets, special texts, theaters with an invisible audience, improvised shows, contests, and rents that must be paid. They go on because they believe in what they do; sometimes they have to fight against the Italian bureaucracies; they join forces, despite the geographical distance and their meticulous job. Maybe, in this period there are too many research theatrical companies; but quantity is not so bad, it could promote innovation, competition and self-awareness. Then, quality and professionalism will be promoted too. What has really changed is the notion of space, time and body. Audience, artists, organizations, stage, set, visual art and direction: these elements have incredibly developed. Nowadays those companies, that were founded five years ago...
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NEW MEDIA
//Bertram Niessen
NEW MEDIA MARKET
//Lucrezia Cippitelli
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RUDY RUCKER: LET'S GIVE FLURB TO THE PEOPLE!
Txt: Bertram Niessen / Eng: Stefania Longo
Area: New Media
 The infinite. Kantor's paradox. Fractal marijuana spliffs. Gluon's injections. Chtulu appearing in a California swimmingpool. Surfing on manipulated quantic waves. Software. Hardware. Wetware. Realware. For this month's Digimag issue we interviewed Rudy Rucker, science fiction writer, mathematician, programmer, visionary. Among the main artists of cyberpunk first wave, Rucker has developed an extremely peculiar career as a psychedelic literary researcher able to mix ( in a literary project he has called Transrealism, in which he has fantastically reintepreted his real experiences ) “high” and “low” cultural elements together, creating an amazing twirl which has its roots in the great fantasy-mathematic classics such as Flatland and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . Well, with such premises, all one can do is to plunge into reading and see what dimensions one is projected into. In this interview...
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HOLY FIRE, IL MESTIERE DELL'ARTE
Txt: Lucrezia Cippitelli
Area: New Media Market
 Si conclude proprio oggi, mentre sto scrivendo, una mostra che è stata presentata come una svolta nel panorama della produzione artistica collegata ai nuovi media. Holy Fire Art of the digital age, realizzata in occasione della ventiseiesima edizione della fiera d'arte contemporanea di Bruxelles Art Brussels . In perfetta sintonia con la fiera d'arte, una sorta di supermercato dell'arte contemporanea dove le gallerie più ricche, in vista e prestigiose del mondo mostrano i loro gioielli a un pubblico di mercanti, collezionisti ed addetti ai lavori, Holy Fire propone un percorso attraverso una serie di prodotti artistici basati sull'uso dei media, che hanno in più la caratteristica di essere collezionabili e vendibili. Tanto più in tono con Art Brussels perché la fiera di Bruxelles ha luogo proprio in uno dei Paesi europei con il più alto numero di importanti collezioni private, con sede non solo nella capitale, ma anche in diverse città di provincia...
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