MANY VENUS - BERGEN

19 - 22 NOVEMBER 2009

Piksel is an annual event for artists and developers working with free and open source software, hardware and art. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free and open source software.

The development, and therefore use, of digital technology today is mainly controlled by multinational corporations. Despite the prospects of technology expanding the means of artistic expression, the commercial demands of the software industries severely limit them instead. Piksel is focusing on the open source movement as a strategy for regaining artistic control of the technology, but also a means to bring attention to the close connections between art, politics, technology and economy.

The first Piksel event was arranged in november 2003, and gathered around 30 artists/developers from all parts of the world. It consisted of artistic/technical presentations, coding workshops and live performances. All activities were documented in a daily blog: http://www.piksel.no/log.html

One of the results of the event was the initiation of the Piksel Technologies for ‘interoperability between various free software applications dealing with video manipulation techniques’ – piksel.org Piliksel is organised by a community of core participants including members of collectives dyne.org, goto10.org, ap/xxxxx, apo33.org, hackitectura.net, riereta.net, drone.ws, gephex.org, openlab and others.

Piksel is a member of the Pixelache network of electronic art festivals – pixelache.ac – and one of the nodes in the Production Network for Electronic Art in Norway – PNEK Biohacking, DIY Electronics, open hardware, free software, circuit bending, process art, computer vision, multitouch, noise, alternative interfaces, live animation, sound art, light installation, LED art, code poetry, VGA hacking

Programme:

EXHIBITIONS @ Galleri 3,14, Lydgalleriet
http://piksel.no/p09/_exhibition

David Elliott, Pall Thayer, Paul Klotz, Andreas Muxel, Martin Hesselmeier, Susanna Katharina Hertrich, Marie-Julie Bourgeois, Michael Day, Arjan Scherpenisse, Ben Woodeson, Angie Atmadjaja, Gijs Gieskes, Carlos Tricas, Wolfgang Spahn, Thomas Gerwin, Ricardo Oliveira Nascimento,Ebru Kurbak, Fabiana Shizue, Dream Addictive, Carmen González, Leslie García, Arnfinn Killingtveit, Wendy Ann Mansilla, Jordi Puig

PRESENTATIONS @ Bergen Kunstmuseum/Stenersen
http://piksel.no/p09/Presentations

ToonLoop, Virtual Entity, REBUNTU, The Art of Seduction OR Practical Jedi Mindtricks OR Escaping the Matrix, Microcodes, Re-ware, Milkymist, Noise & Capitalism, Open Source Software Tools for creativity, Pure Data Rhythm & Bass Machine, Gate peepin’, The Hijmans van den Bergh building installation, OHANDA – Open Hardware and Design Alliance, Flock, _oneliner, Respirator, Py-Cessing, APODIO, Multi-Touch 360, Open Artistic Production

LIVE PERFORMANCES @ Landmark, Tårnsalen & NøsteBoden
http://piksel.no/p09/live-events

Action Potential, KUNST UND MUSIK MIT DEM TAGESLICHTPROJEKTOR, Noise invaders, DC12V ::Teatrino Elettrico::, Paper Cut Tales, Colour Projections, Mouth(s)’ lecture(s), Mattin, d.R.e.G.S., noish_VS_automata, Souffles I, He boxed regularly and was strong and very brave and always a perfect gentleman, Psychoid, MSST, Andy Bolus, The DIY drone synthesizer, Respirator, [i/o], THENOISER VS ZERO POINT ENERGY

WORKSHOPS @ Nøstegate 42 & PikselHut
http://piksel.no/p09/Workshops

W.O.M. – Workshop Osc Machine, LP Atari Punk Console, The DIY drone synthesizer, Qeve – Free your visuals, Hackteria | bioelectronix for artists, Navalha – handcrafted hardware/software audio performance interface, CHAOSLAB, ToonLoop Live Animation Workshop, Enhancing Pure Data Interactivity with Computer Vision (Open CV), Building simple analogue light-controlled theremins, VGA Signals: an introduction – more info and complete programme: http://piksel.no/p09

http://piksel.no/p09