Año 2067, los diarios anuncian la muerte de la ex tenista y modelo Anna Kournikova eliminada con un potente rayo láser enviado desde un satélite, por haber sido erróneamente confundida con una imitación de sí misma.

El terrible incidente ha sido posible porque, según elucubra el artista estadounidense David Rice, en el futuro las estrellas como Kournikova, patentarán su aspecto físico y se protegerán de las copias a través de un sistema vía satélite capaz de identificar y eliminar los parecidos no autorizados.

El relato para Internet Anna Kournikova Deleted by Memeright Trusted System es una de las obras más emblemáticas de la exposición del mismo título, abierta en el HMKV de Dortmund (Alemania). Tal como indica el subtítulo “el arte en la edad de la propiedad intelectual”, la exposición reflexiona sobre las implicaciones artísticas del copyright.

“La historia de Kournikova denuncia los peligros de estas leyes. ¿Qué pasaría si la Time Warner decidiera recaudar los derechos para la canción Happy Birthday To You, que es de su propiedad? ¿Cada vez que celebramos un cumpleaños tendremos que pagarle?” se pregunta Inke Arns, directora del centro y comisaria de la exposición.

Mientras que las industrias culturales sostienen que la expansión del copyright significa un aumento de la creatividad, la exposición defiende la necesidad de reutilizar materiales existentes de otros autores, como condición creativa inexcusable, a través de obras de net, software y videoarte, que critican de forma divertida la colisión entre la economía y la cultura, y el desarrollo tecnológico y la administración de los derechos digitales.

Entre los 28 artistas seleccionados por su uso conceptual de técnicas como el sampleado, la copia, la apropiación y el plagio, se encuentra el español Daniel García Andújar, autor de Archiv, una instalación presidida por la Torre del Conocimiento Público, una estructura simbólicamente inaccesible, rodeada por dos mesas en forma de C (la Comunidad y el Copyright), que acogen el material reunido por el artista en el PostCapital Archive.

“La agresividad de las compañías está provocando una degeneración de las leyes, que se podrían convertir en un eficaz instrumento de supresión de la innovación. Lo demuestra el parón experimentado por el hip hop desde que los departamentos legales de los principales sellos han empezado a demandar el uso no autorizado”, explica Arns, preguntándose qué pasaría con algunas de las obras de la muestra como el vídeo musical de Hohe Kante o la animación digital de Fred Fröhlich, realizada con más de 10.000 fotos de archivo.

Se trata de una pieza plunderphonic, algo así como robofónico, término acuñado en 1985 por el músico canadiense Jon Oswald para definir la música compuesta exclusivamente de fragmentos preexistentes.

Otra obra de este tipo es Gimme the Mermaid de Negativland & Tim Maloney, un vídeo musical donde la Sirenita de Disney grita con la voz de un furioso abogado “no puedes usarlo sin mi permiso, demandaré incluso tu culo”, al ritmo de Gimme Gimme Gimme, de Black Flag. Negativland se arruinó en 1991, cuando realizó una versión no comercial sampleada de una célebre canción de U2. A pesar del activismo mediático de Bono, Island Records llevó a juicio al grupo, que fue obligado a destruir la obra y a pagar los costes procesales.

Otra película de Disney, El libro de la Jungla, sirve al francés Pierre Bismuth para crear una versión babilónica, compuesta por fragmentos doblados a varios idiomas, de modo que Mowgli habla español, la pantera Bagheera árabe, el tigre Shere Khan inglés y el oso Baloo hebreo. “A pesar de los idiomas, los personajes se entienden, lo cual apunta a las potencialidades utópicas de la comunicación global, en contraste con las pinceladas de humor negro con las que Bismuth define los caracteres nacionales”, concluye Arns.

HMKV: www.hmkv.de/dyn/e

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Daniel García Andújar / ES

///Im Zentrum der Installation befindet sich ein hoher Bau, den man als „Turm des öffentlichen Wissens“ bezeichnen könnte. Mit der geschlossenen Aussichtsplattform möchte Andújar eine Nicht- zugänglichkeit öffentlichen Wissens andeuten. „Die halbrunde Form der beiden Tische, die an den Buchstaben c erinnert, steht zum einen für community, zum anderen für copyright. Das sind die beiden Pole.“ Der Fußboden ist mit den Logos von Unter- nehmen bedruckt, die das nichtöffentliche, privatisierte Wissen repräsentieren. Dieses skulpturale Setting beherbergt Andujars Postcapital-Archiv.

/// situated at the heart of the installation is a lofty structure that could be designated as a ‘tower of public knowledge’. by means of the observation deck, which is not accessible, andújar aims to insinuate inaccessibility to public knowledge. ‘the semicircular form of the two tables, reminiscent of the letter C, represents both community and copyright   —   the two poles’. the floor is printed with logos from companies representing non-public, privatised knowledge. this sculptural setting accommodates andújar’s Postcapital Archive.

‘You can’t use it without my permission … I’m gonna sue your ass!’ shouts Disney’s Little Mermaid with the angry voice of a copyright lawyer in the video Gimme the Mermaid (4:49 min., 2000).

The video by Negativland and Tim Maloney, situated at the exhibition entrance, is one of twenty eight works included in ‘Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System – Art in the Age of Intellectual Property’, an exhibition presented by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV). It is part of the project “Work 2.0 – Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age”. In the framework of “Work 2.0″, HMKV – together with the Berlin-based collaborative partner iRights.info/mikro e.V. – explores the relationships between creative work, intellectual property law, and technology (www.iRights.info).

Poster
Invitation cover back
Flyer cover back
Short exhibition guide

About the exhibition
How does the changing notion of (creative) work relate to intellectual property? Today we live in a post-industrial society where the goods being produced are no longer material (like steel, coal, etc.), but immaterial. The Ruhr Area, with its vast deindustrialised landscape, paradigmatically stands for this transition from the Industrial Age to the information or knowledge society. However, there is a significant difference: Immaterial goods such as knowledge and information can be reproduced without loss. Therefore, in order to function in a value-added chain, the distribution of these immaterial goods has to be restricted. This is effectuated with the aid of intellectual property (IP) law, namely copyrighting, patenting, and trademarking.

David Rice’s perfidious short story ‘Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System’ – from which curators Inke Arns and Francis Hunger have borrowed the exhibition title – deals with the concept of intellectual property: In 2065 stars – such as ex-tennis player Anna Kournikova – have their ‘brand’ protected by a satellite-based system that identifies unlicensed look-alikes and eliminates them via a strong laser beam. During a trip to the Pacific Rim, not officially cleared, the ‘real’ Anna Kournikova is identified as an imitation of herself and is consequently eliminated by the system.

>The exhibition in the PHOENIX Halle, measuring 2,200 square metres and located on the grounds of the former steelworks Phoenix-West, puts forward the thesis that the increasingly strict application of intellectual property law hampers the development of culture as a whole. It proves increasingly difficult to impart this culture by employing images, logos, or soundbites of this very culture (for instance, sampling in hip hop, which has already been made impossible by aggressive copyright lawyers threatening any use of sampling with legal action).

Die Ausstellung Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System – Art in the Age of Intellectual Property stellt künstlerische Arbeiten vor, die sich einerseits mit der künstlichen Verknappung von Kulturgütern befassen und andererseits mittels ‘alternativer’ Lizenzen eine Alternative zum gegenwärtigen Urheberrecht entwickeln. Die ausgewählten Arbeiten werden die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen künstlerischer Arbeit im Rahmen eines zunehmend restriktiv gehandhabten Immaterialgüterrechts aufzeigen und so den sich wandelnden Begriff von Arbeit im Kontext digitaler Reproduzierbarkeit beleuchten.

Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System – Kunst im Zeitalter des Geistigen Eigentums zeigt zeitgenössische künstlerische Arbeiten aus den Bereichen der Konzept-, Netz- und Softwarekunst sowie Filmwerke, die die Kollision von Technikentwicklung, digitaler Rechtekontrolle, Ökonomie und kultureller Arbeit zugleich nachdenklich und spielerisch aufzeigen.

The artists represented in this exhibition explore the question of art in the age of mechanical reproduction positioning itself differently in a post-Fordist era permeated with digital networks than in Fordist, analogue times to which Walter Benjamin has referred. Artistic techniques like cut-up, sampling, détournement, appropriation, copying, remixing, plagiarism, and repetition are employed.

Participating artists: AGENTUR/AGENCY (BE). Daniel Garcia Andújar (ES), Walter Benjamin (US), Christian von Borries (DE), Christophe Bruno (FR), Claire Chanel & Scary Sherman (US), Lloyd Dunn (US/CZ), Ramon & Pedro (CH), Fred Fröhlich (DE), Nate Harrison (US), John Heartfield (DE), Laibach/Novi kolektivizem (SI), Kembrew McLeod (US), Sebastian Lütgert (DE), Monochrom (AT), Negativland and Tim Maloney (US), Der Plan (DE), David Rice (US), Ines Schaber (DE), Alexei Shulgin & Aristarkh Chernyshev (RU), Cornelia Sollfrank (DE), Stay Free (US), Jason Torchinsky (US), UBERMORGEN.COM & Alessandro Ludovico & Paolo Cirio (CH/AT/IT), a.o.

* * *

Catalogue

A comprehensive, bilingual catalogue documenting the exhibition in the PHOENIX Halle Dortmund will be published in early September 2008 (German/English, with contributions by Inke Arns, Martin Conrads, Florian Cramer, Francis Hunger and a preface by Susanne Ackers and Volker Grassmuck).

* * *

ATTENTION – IMPORANT INFORMATION CONCERNING LOVE PARADE ON JULY 19

We would like to point you to the fact that due to the Love Parade that’s taking place in Dortmund on Saturday, July 19, 2008, there will be broad traffic diversions on Friday 18 and Saturday, July 19, 2008.

The highway B1 will be blocked for cars already on Friday (July 18) evening, starting from 21:00. Comprehensive information about how to get around with your car in Dortmund can be found at the following address (in German):
http://loveparade.dortmund.de/index.php?smi=47.5&tid=anreise_sperrungen

On Saturday, July 19, 2008, the train service will not be fully functional. While regional trains are running, long distance trains (like the ICE) will not stop at Dortmund main station. Comprehensive informationen on the train service in Dortmund on Saturday, July 19, 2008, can be found at:
http://www.loveparade.dortmund.de/index.php?smi=47.1&tid=anreise_bahn

* * *

Events

Friday / July 18, 2008 / 19:00
Opening of the exhibition Anna Kournikova Deleted by Memeright Trusted System — Art in the Age of Intellectual Property. From 21:00 Christian von Borries plays music made from other music

Friday / September 26, 2008 / 20:00
Christian von Borries – we play what we want
A live music event involving students from Dortmund’s Music School, 2008 (premiere)

September 26 – 28, 2008
Creative Work and Copyright
Conference in the framework of the project
Work 2.0 – Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age

* * *

Exhibition venues and Opening hours

PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
Hochofenstraße / Ecke Rombergstraße
Dortmund-Hörde
Thu + Fri 11:00— 22:00
Sat + Sun 11:00— 20:00
www.hmkv.de

Heimat Design Shop
Kleppingstraße 43
Dortmund-Mitte
Mon — Fri 10:00 —19:00
Sat 10:00 —18:00
www.heimatdesign.de

Admission:
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
4 € / 2 € reduced

* * *

Imprint

Anna Kournikova Deleted by Memeright Trusted System —Art in the Age of Intellectual Property

Exhibition in the framework of Work 2.0 – Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age

Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
19 July — 19 October 2008
www.hmkv.de

Curated by:
Dr. Inke Arns, Artistic Director of HMKV
Francis Hunger, Junior Curator of HMKV

Managing Director HMKV:
Susanne Ackers

Organisation/Production:
Kathleen Blümel, Francis Hunger

Technical Director/Exhibition Architecture:
Uwe Gorski

Editing of the catalogue and of the short guide:
Anna Paterok, Berlin

Design:
labor b

Conference Organisation:
Andrea Eichardt

Public Relations:
Roland Kentrup, ZK Medienagentur, Dortmund

* * *

The exhibition Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System – Art in the Age of Intellectual Property takes place in the frame of Work 2.0 — Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age.

Work 2.0 — Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age is a project by

Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, and
iRights.info, Berlin

The project Work 2.0 deals with the relation between creative work, copyright and technology. It consists of three parts: The information portal on copyright, iRights.info, researches new forms of labour relations in the most important copyright branches and runs a blog and a forum on this topic. This part of the project is developed in cooperation with AG Informatik in Bildung und Gesellschaft, Institut für Informatik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and receives funding by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung in the framework of Innovations- und Technikanalyse. The exhibition by Hartware MedienKunstVerein provides a survey of artistic strategies dealing with the new frameworks in the areas of work and property. Finally, the symposium Creative Work and Copyright, which is sponsored by the Federal Center for Civic Education, will offer space for discussion the results of the collaborative project.

* * *

PREVIEW
Creative Work and Copyright
A symposium by iRights.info, Berlin, and Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund
in the PHOENI X Halle Dortmund
Friday, 26 September — Sunday, 28 September 2008

Does copyright protect the author or the exploiter? How do authors work — with public grants, in creative industries, or in happy and willing self-exploitation? Remixing is illegal yet extremely common — how can the interests of the creatives and re-creatives be reconciled? Pressing questions from the analysis of new labour conditions will be explored not only in talks and panel discussions but also in the form of performances, films, concerts, and a tour of the exhibition. The symposium is sponsored by the Federal Centre for Civic Education.

* * *

Arbeit 2.0 — Copyright and creative work in the Digital Age is a project by:
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
iRights.info

Supporting organisations:
mikro e.V., Berlin
AG Informatik in Bildung und Gesellschaft, Institut für Informatik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Funded by:
Kunststiftung NRW
Der Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
dortmund-project
NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal
Kulturwerk der VG-BILD-KUNST GmbH, Bonn
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
ver.di

Cooperations:
Heimatdesign Magazin/ Shop/ Agentur/
Gravis
Medien Kunst Raum Unna

Media partner:
Heinz

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Die Ausstellung im Hartware MedienKunstVerein beschäftigt sich mit dem wandelnden Begriff der Arbeit in einer postindustriellen Gesellschaft. Vom 19. Juli bis zum 19. Oktober 2008 zeigen 25 Künstler und Künstlerinnen in Dortmund, was ihnen zum Thema Urheberrecht und Kunst eingefallen ist.

Was hat der sich wandelnde Begriff der Arbeit mit „geistigem Eigentum“ zu tun? In einer postindustriellen Gesellschaft werden nicht mehr allein materielle Güter (wie Stahl, Kohle etc.) produziert, sondern zunehmend mehr immaterielle Güter. Es gibt jedoch einen signifikanten Unterschied: Immaterialgüter wie Wissen und Informationen lassen sich verlustfrei reproduzieren. Um in einer Wertschöpfungskette funktionieren zu können, müssen diese Immaterialgüter daher in ihrer Verbreitung eingeschränkt werden – und zwar mit Hilfe des Patent-, des Urheber- und des Markenschutzrechts. All dies sind Formen „geistigen Eigentums“.

Auf das Konzept des „geistigen Eigentums“ als Wertschöpfungsinstrument verweist auch die perfide Kurzgeschichte von David Rice, der die KuratorInnen Inke Arns und Francis Hunger den Ausstellungstitel entlehnt haben: Im Jahr 2067 lassen Stars – wie der ex-Tennisprofi Anna Kournikova – ihre „Marke“ vor unerlaubten Lookalikes schützen, indem diese durch ein satellitengestützes System kontrolliert und gegebenenfalls durch einen starken Laserstrahl ausgelöscht werden. Die „echte“ Anna Kournikova wird auf einer nicht angemeldeten Reise in den asien-pazifischen Raum vom System als unerlaubte Kopie ihrer selbst identifiziert – und konsequenterweise eliminiert.

Die Ausstellung in der 2.200 qm großen PHOENIX Halle auf dem Gelände des ehemaligen Stahlwerks Phoenix-West im Süden Dortmunds stellt die These auf, dass sich die zunehmend strikte Anwendung geistiger Eigentumsrechte sich als hinderlich für die Entwicklung von Kultur als Ganzer erweist. Es wird immer schwieriger, über Kultur unter Verwendung von Bildern, Logos oder Soundschnipseln eben dieser Kultur zu sprechen. Sampling im Hiphop wurde bereits unmöglich gemacht – und zwar durch aggressive Urheberrechtsanwälte, die jedem Akt von Sampling mit Strafverfolgung drohen.

Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
19. Juli – 19. Oktober 2008
www.hmkv.de

Künstler
Agentur / Kobe Matthys (B)
Daniel Garcia Andújar (E)
Walter Benjamin (USA)
Pierre Bismuth (F)
Christian von Borries (D)
Christophe Bruno (F)
Claire Chanel & Scary Sherman (USA)
Claire Chanel (USA)
Lloyd Dunn (USA/CZ)
Ramon & Pedro (CH)
Fred Fröhlich (D)
Nate Harrison (USA)
Michael Iber (D)
Laibach & Novi kolektivizem feat. John Heartfield (SLO)
Kembrew McLeod (USA)
Sebastian Lütgert (D)
Monochrom (A)
Negativland & Tim Maloney (USA)
Der Plan (D)
David Rice (USA)
Ines Schaber (D)
Alexei Shulgin & Aristarkh Chernyshev (RUS)
Cornelia Sollfrank (D)
Stay Free (USA)
UBERMORGEN.COM & Alessandro Ludovico & Paolo Cirio (CH/A/I)

Arbeit 2.0 – Urheberrecht und Kreative Arbeit im Digitalen Zeitalter
ist ein Projekt von

Hartware MedienKunstVerein
iRights.info

Träger:
mikro e.V.
Informatik in Bildung und Gesellschaft, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Informatik

Gefördert durch:
Kunststiftung NRW
Der Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
dortmund-project
NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal
Kulturwerk der VG-BILD-KUNST GmbH, Bonn
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
ver.di

Medienpartner:
Heinz Magazin

Kooperation:
Heimatdesign 07.07.08 , Inke Arns

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‘You can’t use it without my permission … I’m gonna sue your ass!’ shouts Disney’s Little Mermaid with the angry voice of a copyright lawyer in the video Gimme the Mermaid (4:49 min., 2000).

The video by Negativland and Tim Maloney, situated at the exhibition entrance, is only one of more than twenty works included in ‘Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System: Art in the Age of Intellectual Property’, an exhibition presented by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) It is part of Arbeit 2.0 – copyright and creative work in the digital age, one of thirteen projects in Germany funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation focusing on ‘The Future of Labour.’ In the framework of Arbeit 2.0, HMKV – together with the Berlin-based collaborative partner iRights.info/mikro e.V. – explores the relationships between creative work, intellectual property law, and technology (www.iRights.info).

So how does the changing notion of (creative) work relate to intellectual property? Today we live in a post-industrial society where the goods being produced are no longer material (like steel, coal, etc.), but immaterial. The Ruhr Area, with its vast deindustrialised landscape, paradigmatically stands for this transition from the Industrial Age to the information or knowledge society. However, there is a significant difference: Immaterial goods such as knowledge and information can be reproduced without loss. Therefore, in order to function in a value-added chain, the distribution of these immaterial goods has to be restricted. This is effectuated with the aid of intellectual property (IP) law, namely copyrighting, patenting, and trademarking.

David Rice’s perfidious short story ‘Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System’ – from which curators Inke Arns and Francis Hunger have borrowed the exhibition title – deals with the concept of intellectual property: In 2065 stars – such as ex-tennis player Anna Kournikova – have their ‘brand’ protected by a satellite-based system that identifies unlicensed look-alikes and eliminates them via a strong laser beam. During a trip to the Pacific Rim, not officially cleared, the ‘real’ Anna Kournikova is identified as an imitation of herself and is consequently eliminated by the system.

The exhibition in the PHOENIX Halle, measuring 2,200 square metres and located on the grounds of the former steelworks Phoenix-West, puts forward the thesis that the increasingly strict application of intellectual property law hampers the development of culture as a whole. It proves increasingly difficult to impart this culture by employing images, logos, or soundbites of this very culture (for instance, sampling in hip hop, which has already been made impossible by aggressive copyright lawyers threatening any use of sampling with legal action).

The artists represented in this exhibition explore the question of art in the age of mechanical reproducibility positioning itself differently in a post-Fordist era permeated with digital networks than in Fordist, analogue times to which Walter Benjamin has referred. Artistic techniques like cut-up, sampling, détournement, appropriation, copying, remixing, plagiarism, and repetition are employed.

Participating artists: Agentur/Kobe Matthys (B), Daniel Garcia Andújar (E), Walter Benjamin (US), Christian von Borries (D), Christophe Bruno (F), Claire Chanel & Scary Sherman (US), Lloyd Dunn (US/CZ), Laurent Fauchere and Antoine Tinguely aka Ramon & Pedro (CH), Fred Fröhlich (D), Nate Harrison (US), John Heartfield (D), Laibach/Novi kolektivizem (SLO), Kembrew McLeod (US), Sebastian Lütgert (D), Monochrom (AT), Negativland and Tim Maloney (US), Der Plan (D), David Rice (US), Ines Schaber (D), Cornelia Sollfrank (D), UBERMORGEN.COM & Alessandro Ludovico & Paolo Cirio (CH/AT/IT), a.o.

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• 1998/2006
• Website with linked images
• www.irational.org/tttp/Crypto/armed1.html
• Presented in the exhibition with large-format DVD slide projection and Folder

Presented in the exhibition as an upgrade of almost 100 images, the internet project Armed Citizen shows a series of 17 small arms. No information is given on their origins. Who owns them? Are they being used as criminal evidence? Are they perhaps murder weapons? Who does the ›armed citizen‹ of the title refer to — the police? Or a citizens’ defence group that has taken up arms? Is there some allusion to the liberal firearms laws in the United States, to bloody incidents like the amok shootings that took place in Columbine High School, Colorado, in 1999, or in the Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt in 2002? Armed Citizen is difficult to pin down. But it is safe to assert that it deals with an indeterminate feeling of fear and menace, and, by association, with the growing longing for security in a world felt to be increasingly less safe. The exhibition deliberately groups Armed Citizen in a kind of »security zone« together with Heath Bunting’s CCTV and Rachel Baker and Heath Bunting’s CCTV Sabotag — further irational works pointing to the essential futility of technology — or weapons based protective measures. (Inke Arns)

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• 1997
• Website with trademarked sentences linked with URLs
• www.irational.org/tttp/TM/trademark.html
• Presented in the exhibition as wall installation

Daniel García Andújar – the Spanish media artist better known by his company name Technologies To The People — almost ten years ago created with Language (property) a work addressing the increasing privatization and commodification of language. A plain HTML page presents a list of sentences that have become registered trademarks and thus the property of their corporate owners. Examples include »Where do you want to go today?™« (Microsoft), »A better return on information ™« (SAP), »Moving at the speed of business™« (UPS), »What you never thought possible™« (Motorola). By giving his project the title Remember, language is not free™, Andújar anticipated the disputes surrounding ›intellectual property‹ in the following years (and increasingly evident in the second half of the 1990s with the ruthless scramble for domain names in the World Wide Web). While on the website the individual sentences are linked to the copyright notices of the relevant companies, a large-format, almost ›immersive‹, wall Presented has been chosen for the exhibition.(Inke Arns)

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with
Antoni Muntadas
Daniel García Andújar
Bettina Lockemann

The Project

“Heimatwechsel” is an interdisciplinary 4-week workshop for students specialising in the areas of design, visual communication, art, media and culture sciences. The tutors of the workshop are three internationally renowned artists from the USA, Spain and Germany: Antoni Muntadas, Daniel García Andújar and Bettina Lockemann.

The aim of the workshop is to facilitate reflection upon the structures of the “public” process, the methods of communication and the possibilities these present and to intervene artistically using modern communication technology methods and to test new “public” participation models.

Within the four weeks of workshop, forms of creative, critical and subversive handling of media and new technologies in both theory and in practice shall be developed. Focus of the workshop is thereby additionally the specific urbane and social situation in Dortmund Hörde regarding the developments planned at present at the locations Hörde, Phoenix West and Phoenix Ost. The project offers beyond that the opportunity to examine strategies of “art in public space” – a public space which has long been influenced by the mass media as well as by new information and communications technology (Internet, mobile telephone, wireless LAN).

Background

The central location of the workshops will be the former spare parts stores at the disused Phoenix West steel works, which was shut down in 1998. The, in the meantime, renamed “Phoenix Halle” exhibition and events hall is situated in one of the “future locations” of Dortmund, which will become the location of ICT business in the next few years – or like the eastern part of the steel works “Phoenix east” – will be converted into high-quality residential quarters.

In the middle of the two areas lies the centre of the suburb Hörde, which played neither a roll in the planning to date, nor can it participate in any way in the radical restructuring of the former industrial location.

The location – the Phoenix Halle – offers the workshop a concrete example to reflect on the extremely varied communication technologies and their functions within the context of this radical, local “Heimatwechsel”.

Part 1
Methods and Strategies of Public Interventions:
by Antoni Muntadas, 10. – 19. July 2004

Antoni Muntadas (New York) is one of the main artists, who has been experimenting with critical media practice within constantly changing contexts (public space, television, internet etc.) since the late 1960’s. He was represented at the documenta 5 and X and at various biennial art festivals.
In the workshop he will reflect on basic, methodical and theoretical ways of tackling an interventionist practice of art with the students of the workshops and will discuss optional interaction between theory, practice and actual implementation.

Part 2
Subversive and participative networks in the virtual “public” space: open source, free software and “Hactivism“
by Daniel García Andújar, 20 July – 29 July 2004

Daniel García Andújar (Valencia) is an artist, who has used the Internet in an interventional and de/constructive way as a tool for critically viewing media since the middle of the 1990’s. He is a fellow initiator of irational.org, took part among other things, in the exhibition net.conditions (ZKM, centre for art and media technology). In 2002 with the project “e-valencia“ he put into action the idea of a networked local communication structure, which successfully brought together divergent interest groups concerned with a critical discussion of cultural political developments.
In the context of the workshops, he will develop further the ideas, which were generated by the students in the first part of the workshop. Thereby the main emphasis will be concerned with the implementation of free communication “tools”: how to reach which target groups, either through participation or reception, which infra-structure and what technology is necessary for this.

Part 3
Addressing, Participation, Knowledge Production, Documentation
Tutor Bettina Lockemann, 30. July – 10. August 2004

Bettina Lockemann (Köln) is a media artist (photography, video, Internet), designer and media theorist. Among other things she took part in the research project of the Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste (State Academy for Creative Arts), Stuttgart for “Visuellen Kompetenz im Medienzeitalter“ (visual competence in the media era). In her extensive exhibitions she combines the theoretical side of creative strategies with the actual, artistic conversion into practice.
Bettina Lockemann will actively accompany the first two parts of the workshop. The emphasis in the third part will be on the implementation of individual plans and their adequate documentation, visualisation and communication.

Part 4 Presentation: September 2004 (at different venues)
No exhibition is planned as such. The emphasis will be on the documentation of planning concepts or the consolidation of infrastructural proposals for those taking part in the workshop and/or from population groups involved in the projects. The aim of the presentation is more to let “news” of the workshop results “seep” through to the public than to present it publicly. Here the actual public space, the internet or the still very effective print media can play a roll.

Participants

The 4-week interdisciplinary workshop is aimed at those students whose main area of study encompasses visual communication, media art, film/video, media and cultural science, and design.

The Workshop will be held in English.
The number of participants is limited to 15 students.

Please, send your applications including CV and a short description why you would like to participate to:

hartware medien kunst verein
Silke Albrecht
Güntherstr. 65
44143 Dortmund

Application deadline: 10.06.2004 (Post mark)

The participants will be informed directly in the middle of June.
Students from abroad will get reimbursed their travel expenses as far as they do not receive subsidies. If necessary, students from abroad will be supported by accommodating.

A project by
hartware medien kunst verein + medien_kunst_netz dortmund
In cooperation with
Fachhochschule Dortmund, FB Design (Polytechnic, Department Design)
Supported by
Ministerium für Städtebau und Wohnen, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
and others

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Band 156, August – Oktober 2001, Seite 379, Ausstellungen
Kunstforum
DORTMUND
Sven Drühl
New Ideas – Old Tricks
hARTware projekte, Dortmund, 11.5. – 1.7.2001

Die Fortschrittsgläubigkeit ist auf dem Höhepunkt angelangt. Allerorts wird von “global networking”, von Konsortien, Fusionen, kultureller Integration und dem Zulassen von Differenz geredet. In Wahrheit wird jedoch nur zugelassen, was sich dem System anpasst, d.h. Sieg des Kapitalismus auf ganzer Linie. Der angeblich so überaus weltoffene Nebenschauplatz Kulturaustausch gleicht dabei viel zu oft einer exotistischen Freakshow. Das vielgepriesene Andere ist in Wahrheit bloß da gefragt, wo es gerade nicht anders ist. In der aktuellen Ausstellung “New Ideas – Old Tricks” der Dortmunder hARTware projekte gehen die Kuratoren Hans Christ und Iris Dressler dem neuen Heilsversprechen – der Globalisierung – nach und klären über ideologisch motivierte Lügen und verkrustete Strukturen auf. Aus diesem kultur- und gesellschaftskritischen Anspruch der Ausstellungsmacher leitet sich auch die Künstlerauswahl der Schau ab.

Dabei führt die computermanipulierte Hochglanz-Fotoserie von Catherine Chalmers die kulturimperialistische Einsicht von Fressen und Gefressen werden wohl am eindringlichsten und zugleich äußerst abgeklärt vor Augen. Eine Raupe frisst sich durch eine Tomate, schließlich fällt sie einer Gottesanbeterin und diese wiederum einem Frosch zum Opfer. Alles geht in allem auf. Die ewige Reproduktion der Machtverhältnisse. Nur auf die Sichtweise kommt es an.

Und diese thematisiert der Pseudo-Dokumentarfilm “Nicht löschbares Feuer” von Harun Farocki aus dem Jahr 1969. Der Künstler geht in seinem mit historischen Aufnahmen und gestellten Szenen versetzten Film der Frage nach, wie sehr die Sichtweise das Resultat/Produkt beeinflusst. Er lässt dazu nacheinander ein und dieselbe Person in verschiedenen Rollen auftreten. Der Arbeiter sagt, er stelle Staubsauger her, doch jedes Mal, wenn er versuche, die herausgeschmuggelten Teile zusammenzusetzen, käme eine Maschinenpistole heraus. Der Student sagt, er vermute, dass in der Fabrik Maschinenpistolen hergestellt würden, doch jedes Mal, wenn er zu Hause versuche, die Teile zusammenzusetzen, käme ein Staubsauger heraus. Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen prallen aufeinander, was “wahr” ist, bestimmt letztlich nur die Wahl der “richtigen” Perspektive.

Letztere, jedoch in Form eines speziellen Vorwissens, ist auch nötig, um das Fotobuch “Plan” von Betttina Lockemann und Elisabeth Neudörfl angemessen “lesen” zu können. Auf den durchgängig schwarz-weißen Fotos sind stets nur Häuser in Berliner Straßen und Grünanlagen zu sehen. Keine Bildunterschriften, geschweige denn Zusatzinformationen, klären über das Gesehene auf. Erst am Ende des Buches steht eine Liste, die die Orte als Stützpunkte und Verwaltungszentralen der Berliner Nationalsozialisten kennzeichnet. Beim nochmaligen Durchblättern verändert sich somit der Blick. Die neue Erkenntnis lässt die vormals neutralen Bilder in solche des imaginierten Grauens umkippen.

Um Wissen und Nichtwissen geht es auch in dem Dokumentarfilm von Peter Brosens, der ein Toten-Ritual einer fremden Kultur – eines Andenvolkes – vorstellt. Ein verstörender Beweis dafür, dass sich Interkulturalität noch längst nicht durchgesetzt hat. Das Fremde bleibt fremd. Missverständnisse auf der Rezipientenseite sind durch die befremdliche filmische Umsetzung vorprogrammiert.

Überhaupt geht es in der Dortmunder Ausstellung sehr stark um Haltung. So wird etwa eine von Jörg Schlick gestaltete Ausgabe der Kunstzeitschrift Camera Austria vorgestellt, in der sich der Künstler mit dem politischen Rechtsruck Österreichs und den Zukunftsaussichten eines solchermaßen FPÖ-beeinflussten Landes auseinander setzte. Seine Perspektive: er sieht schwarz und folgerichtig sind auch alle Seiten des Magazins schwarz bedruckt. Ein mutiges Statement angesichts der prekären ökonomischen Zwänge eines Kunstmagazins.

Dan Perjovschi, der Biennale-Vertreter Rumäniens 1999, zeigt Teile seines Work-in-progress-Projektes “Wonderfull World”, welches aus unzähligen tagebuchartigen Zeichnungen zu politischen, gesellschaftlichen oder auch ästhetischen Themen besteht. Die Unterteilung in einzelne Blöcke wie “East Art” oder “new ideas – old tricks” gibt nur assoziativ eine Richtung vor, letztlich bleiben die skurrilen, z.T. von wunderbarem Zynismus zeugenden Blätter mehrdeutig.

Wie bei jedem hARTware-Projekt fehlt auch diesmal keineswegs der ansonsten kuratorisch eher stiefmütterlich behandelte Bereich der Netzkunst. Mit seiner Simulation “Phoney” spielt der spanischen Künstlers Daniel Garcìa Andùjar in gewohnt undurchschaubarer Weise das zentrale Instrument der Fortschrittsgläubigkeit und Globalisierung – das Internet – gegen seine unmündigen oder einfach inkompetenten Nutzer aus. Phoney ist auf den ersten Blick eine anscheinend normale Computersoftware, die dann jedoch auch dazu genutzt werden kann, subversiv bzw. kriminell tätig zu werden. In der vorgetäuschten Anonymität des Netzes werden so normale User zu enthemmten Schreibtischtätern einer völlig neuen Größenordnung. Hacker united – der Liebesvirus für alle. Wie gut, dass Phoney ein Fake ist, denn sonst gäbe es demnächst haufenweise Cyberterroristen.

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New possibilities create new unknowns.
New unknowns create new possibilities.

Generally speaking, the debate about the new technologies, and particularly as they bear on art, continue to cover a wide spectrum, from blindness and the most absolute rejection, to the most stupidly servile acceptance and total affirmation. To me it seems obvious that the practise of art will be changed by the impact of new technologies, as will every other aspect of society, although it is possible that some values will remain substantially unchanged. The spectator, the audience for which a work is intended, is today more accustomed than ever before to highly sophisticated representational techniques as used in advertising and by television, but above all by the transformation of media consumption habits arising from the spread of the internet and the systematic introduction of computers into the private sphere. No one can now escape from the profound changes being wrought by the so-called new technologies and the parallel impact being produced by globalisation on our societies, economies, cultures, and perceptions of our surroundings.
Even so, I think that we have made rather a fetish of these new technologies, and I believe that -without taking apocalyptic positions of complete rejection-we must keep cool heads and pragmatic functionality when considering what is in store for us, and our scope for action and response to it all. Our attention to what we call new technologies should not be focused so much on the possibility of marvellous technological flights, but rather the battlefronts that are beginning to emerge in a society now immersed in a process of violent and fundamental change.
Work itself no longer represents a practise that is especially separate and that structures itself in accordance with different criteria and procedure pertaining to the spheres of politics or art. Work no longer produces only merchandise and objects, but now it also produces social relations, ways of living, and new ways of subjectivisation of which we should be aware.
I hope this phenomenon changes the manner in which the work of the artist is viewed and his her relations with the rest of the society.
We believed (few years ago) that in the new global world there is a certain equality of opportunity for all who use the technology, and new tools are available to people of whatever stripe or aim that want to use them. Here also there is a globalising effect, and while it may have some perverse aspects. One of them, however, is plain: The free, independent, unregulated and uncontrolled use of independent and personal art servers will very soon become seriously limited by different circumstances. What we cannot do is to expect that the hopes raise by globalisation will limit our capacity to create and communicate openly.
I think now is the time where institution and the administration should set up some sort of financial support to developed net projects, may be without expecting to much immediate results comparing with traditional art.
In the culture field the identity of cultural institutions and their initiatives cannot be defined by their rentability, but instead by their careful selection, critical aspects, definition, identity, meaning and context.I believe that a major feature of the information revolution has been the spectacular increase in the number of net-based organised groups, most of them with a supranational scope. The phenomenon obviously extends to all sort of groups, including civil organisations and NGO’s, but it also changes the manner in which the work of the artist is viewed, and his or her relations with the rest of society. We find it a good context for developing, promoting, and –above all—for discussing artistic work. We must certainly benefit from technology to strengthen our structures and attain a scope and projection that would be very difficult to achieve without these tools.

art.net.dortmund.de

art.net.dortmund.de concept is based in a relatively simple technical architecture with three topics/zones planed like a flexible, multi-functional working environment with a graphical allusion to the local context:

peripheria
concrete
workbox

After this very simple mental structure the project still, on the whole, open as far as possible.
I would like to list some questions and references around these topics/zones:

art.net.dortmund.de
-technical infrastructure (NT versus linux, streaming video, radio, open source resources…)
-financial resources
-distribution media
-invitation network versus personal project

peripheria
-about the context
-a public square
-input
-electronic meeting point for locals/newsletter
-a collection/database of critical texts about digital culture which is open to translations, researchers, curators, artists and other users/contributors in order to add new materials and contribute to the architecture and content of the platform
-database as a tool for living culture an contemporary cultural production
-a collaboration network with other similar projects
-link to other spaces

concrete
-gallery
-output
-working place
-invitation-network
-specific art projects by curators platform
-specific art projects by artist platform
-presentation platform
-access and connected platform for locals
-novel users contributions
-access space
There is a crucial question about the presentation and collection of network art. Of course we are not going to just collect and make a list of links to selected websites from the ‘classics of net-art list’ like everybody is doing. We are more for the idea to produce new works and create a really live platform with a close relationship between the artists/curators and the audience by doing their own projects and shows.
About the idea to archive and preserve Internet art projects. The specifics of the medium Internet will be lost, and than many of the projects won’t work or will be perceive in the same sense like we already know anymore. Some works are produced for a specific software or hardware standard that can be obsolete very soon. Internet art should be collected and saved for posterity. We should preserve it. It is culture, so every cultural institution should have an obligation to keep it. Some web site will be abandoned or lost, may be we should acquire it for preservation, before the whole site goes off-line.
But, what should be archived and preserved?
the works as a whole
the description of it
a technical copy as an accurate simulation
the work itself with the viewing software and hardware

workbox
-technical information
-free tools
-open source
-technical infrastructure
-custom configuration
-learning centre
-technical support
-about free software
-knowledge platform: linux, perl, pgp, xml, etc
-Do we really need flash?

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