gravitymax in transition

A game of Lexicon generated via a crossmedia ecology.

A diplomatic envoy from the Micronation of Ludea invites visitors to construct their own icons and tag the environment around them. Players then document their experience online at ludea.net thereby contributing to the formation of an alternate reality.

A citizen of Ludea is situated simultaneously in the Micronation of Ludea and Melbourne and invites visitors to play with systems of human-computer expression to cultivate a crossmedia ecology. Players are invited to collaborate with the Ludean citizen in remapping urban space via a constructed language and its relationship to a fictional world. Meaning is negotiated by glitches; the shifts in perspective generated by the idiosyncratic nature of each collaborators individual reality.

MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL EUROPE 2010 will explore the networked possibilities of urban screens and media facades via internet and new technologies on a European level.
The format of the MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL reflects on the increasing presence of massive-infrastructures with digital visual elements in public spaces while investigating their communicative function in the urban environment.

The festival will show especially developed art projects in Europe-wide Joint Broadcasting Events which aspire to share dreams of the different cities and report about local issues and exchange peoples’ stories and ideas. The media facades will be transformed into local stages and open a global window for cultural and societal processes to create a dialogue and connect the local public virtually with the other places throughout Europe.

Its long-term vision is to be a catalyst for the creation of a sustainable and transportable structure where artists, cultural professionals, arts organizations, cultural institutions, governmental bodies, private and commercial businesses, media and the general public, within Europe and beyond, can interact through the development of a new cultural communication format in the public space.

joint broadcasting events from august 7 – september 12. finissage live streaming: october 2. more info here.

via transmediale.

a slight deviation from the usual topics, this post is interesting in the social and cultural perspective. a recent washington post article reports how homeless people are using cell phones to track job opportunities, update food stamp applications, and communicate their whereabouts to others. as pay-as-you-go phone prices go down, society’s urban nomads are becoming resourceful in finding ways to get back on their feet and perhaps maintain a small amount of dignity and independence.

“Phones are really a lifeline for many people,” said Adam Rocap, director of social services at Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center for the homeless. During a string of attacks against homeless people sleeping downtown in the fall, two victims called 911 for help after they were assaulted, he said.

a very entertaining interview with matteo pasquinelli on his new book animal spirits: a bestiary of the commons. pasquinella chuckled his way thru a dizzying variety of topics regarding digital culture and network theory. dubstep is likened to the anthem of current our doom and gloom times. and parasites are not such bad things at all.

Surfing the waves of crisis – from energy, to environment to the current financial crisis, Pit Schultz and Matteo Pasquinelli talk failed metropolis, cyberpunk and underground culture. A history lesson for urban survival in the future, they discuss notions from J.G. Ballard, digital sub cultures and parasitic cybernetics.  Matteo bids a dirty farewell to media culture!

Matteo Pasquinelli is a writer, curator and researcher at Queen Mary University of London. He edited the collections Media Activism (2002) and C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader (2007). With Katrien Jacobs and the Institute of Network Cultures, he organised the Art and Politics of Netporn conference (2005). He lives in Amsterdam.