[-empyre-] fourth topic and guests - density of the circuit

[Gabriel Menotti]

Dear empyreans:

Thanks John for the last week contributions! I still haven’t had news
from Grazi, but I hope she appears in time for this last week. Our
final round is dedicated to the definitive territory of any medium:
its circuit. By that, we are referring to the whole set of cultural,
social and economic macrostructures that constitute the medium most
fundamental underpinnings. Good examples of such structures are the
channels for film distribution, along with their regulations and
policies.

The dislocation of an image naturally alters its meaning. The value of
a symbol can be completely different depending on the cultural context
it is seen. By approximating the way images are transported of the way
they are constituted on the screen, video technologies have put into
question the poetic results of distribution – how the structure of
diffusion affect audiovisual languages and aesthetics. Artists such as
Nam June Paik and David Hall have explored these characteristics in
their works.

Digital networks create even more complex imbrications between the
visuals and their transmission all over the world, setting new forms
of distributions, user agency and potential experiences. How are these
possibilities being employed by artists (and companies!) nowadays? And
how they might affect our very concepts of movie and cinema?

These are our week’s guests:

!Mediengruppe Bitnik

The Zurich (CH) based !Mediengruppe Bitnik is an arts collective which
has been working since 2003. !Mediengruppe Bitniks main focus is to
investigate into social and media systems and their connotation(s) in
society, thereby aiming at creating new fields for cultural action and
collaboration. "Hacking", a strategy taken from software developement,
is one theme for their artistic practice.

Bruno Vianna

Bruno Vianna works with film, mobile media and installations. He
directed 4 shorts between 1994 and 2003, and released his first
feature, Cafuné, in 2006.  In 2008, he released, Ressaca (Hangover), a
feature narrative film that is edited live in every screening through
the use of a touch screen interface. He has works in mobile digital
media such as Palm Poetry and Invisibles, presented last year at the
arte.mov festival. He has studied film and has a master's degree from
ITP-NYU.

Best!
Menotti