November 6 - 9, 2008. Reykjavik, Iceland

The Pikslaverk 2008 conference is the Icelandic component in the international network of Pixelache conferences. It is organized by Lorna (the Icelandic organization for electronic arts) in collaboration with The Icelandic Academy of the Arts and The Reykjavik Municipal Art Galleries. Through a series of lectures, presentations and performances, this year’s conference will continue Helsinki’s theme on education and act as a precursor to Bergen’s them on Free, Libre and Open Source Software by focussing on artists’ use of computer programming code to create works of art. Invited and selected guests will present a variety of views regarding issues relating to artistic applications of computer programming code. Amongst the questions that will be explored are:

* Can we view computer programming code as a distinct artistic medium and if so, what are the conceptual and aesthetic implications?

* Does it matter whether or not artists do their own programming or hire professional programmers to do it?

* Can the “open-sourcing” of artistic code aid in the long-term preservation of this type of artwork?

More information: www.pikslaverk.org

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**Piksel08: code dreams
december 4-7 2008
Bergen, Norway

How does code dream? What are the dreams of code?

Piksel08 examines the other side of code, an alternative side to a hard-coded reality of work and play. Open hardware and free software project a utopic vision, yet exist within economies of capital, the dream factory of mainstream technology. Within the chance meeting of sewing machine and umbrella on the dissecting table, hardware and software are flattened.

Piksel08: code dreams explores the dreams of this soft machine; bachelors coding for pleasure, reverse engineering paranoiac constructs of the real, automatic coding practice, soft hardware, and everyday magic.

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**open call:

1. Installations

Projects related to the code dreams theme including but not restricted to: reverse engineering, soft hardware, code poetry, novel instruction sets, invisible exploration, ghosted computation…

programmed by and running on free and open source software and/or open/DIY hardware.

2. Audiovisual performance

Live art realised by the use of free and open source software. We specially encourage live coding and DIY hardware projects to apply.

3. Software/Hardware

Innovative DIY hardware and audiovisual software tools or software art released under an open licence.

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Please use the online submit form at:
http://piksel.no/piksel08/subform.html

or send documentation material - preferably as a URL to online documentation with images/video to piksel08 [AT] piksel [DOT] no

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**subsections:

**real code

real.co.[de][re] actively explores code which has strong effects on the real, constructing the world through prediction and description. The twelve hour real.co.[de][re] session will attempt the active construction of a working code model (of any form) which addresses a flattening of the distinction between software and hardware, to resolve a new political reference for real core code.

**abstract code

Abstract code is software whose results can be invisible, a software implementing different layers of action at the same time. Abstract code is a connection to parallel worlds, a poetic formula dealing with outer forces. Code is art, its action is subtile, effective, magic.

**procedural text

maledictions, oracles, iambi, hymn, formula, refrains, hypnotic sentences, prayers, and other.

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Piksel is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Vestnorsk Filmsenter, Hordaland County Council and others.

More info: http://piksel.no

The first Afropixel (organised by Kër Thiossane) was a great success!

The open source programming tool Pure Data was a major discovery for many of the participants of the Bricolabs workshop (some of them came all the way from Mali - a bus ride that took two days and nights)

* www.afropixel.org
* Afropixel photos
* Bricolabs video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPl5s83y_Tk
or download as 16 Mb Qtime video
* BBC World Service radio interview (Afropixel part starting at 15:54)

WikiAfrica/Palabre is a project aiming to ‘africanise’ Wikipedia through different networks, research projects, publications and events. WikiAfrica contributes texts, citations, images, audio and audiovisual documents to online and offline Wikimedia projects.

About WikiAfrika project:
* http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:WikiAfrica
* Lettera27 / WikiAfrika
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/lettera27

The first edition of Afropixel in Dakar, Senegal is organised by Kër Thiossane! We are happy to welcome another node from the South to Pixelache Network!

More information at www.afropixel.org

Juha Huuskonen / Pixelache was invited as a guest curator for this year’s Etoiles Polaires festival in Ghent, Belgium. The festival focuses on Finnish music and media arts, and during this weekend around 50 finnish artists will be performing and presenting their work.

The music programme includes Pan sonic collaborating with cellist Arne Deforce, Jimi Tenor with Belgian big band Flat Earth Society, Animator (Kimmo Pohjonen with Marita Liulia), Cleaning Women, Shogun Kunitoki, Aavikko and many more. The program section curated by Juha Huuskonen features an exhibition of three works of Terike Haapoja, sound portraits performance by Juha Valkeapää, Placard headphone festival and visualisations for some of the music shows - Samuli Alapuranen for Aavikko, Maippi Ketola for Jimi Tenor and Animator (Kimmo Pohjonen & Marita Liulia).

Etoiles Polaires will also premiere the Pixelache compilation #1, a screening that will be shown at Pixelache 2008 Helsinki in March 2008.

» Etoiles Polaires 07 programme details

Photo: © lastgap art laboratories 2000-2006

Welcome to an exciting Dorkbot Helsinki on November 2, from 18.00 onwards. This third edition of Dorkbot Helsinki will feature presentations and acts by the Association of Experimental Electronics (FI), Exo (FI) and our special feature Defektro (Japan/Australia).

Dorkbot was first organized in NYC in 2000 as a monthly gathering of artists, scientists and anyone else “doing strange things with electricity”. Later on, other people realized that their home city was in dire need of such a meeting, and dorkbot started to spread to other cities in different parts of the world…

Date & time: 2 November 2007, 18.00-01.00
Place: koko-teatteri / www.kokoteatteri.fi
Ticket: 5 eur

More info at http://pixelache.ac/university
About Dorkbot: www.dorkbot.org

Photo: Grains and Pixels

PixelVÄRK will be held next week end 5-7 October 2007 in Stockholm.

The festival is organised by Mejan Labs in collaboration with local pixelites. The 3-day programme consists of a seminar focusing on the aesthetics, tools and methods in VJ-ing and other underground media, and of club events celebrating live video and the pixel.

The festival marks the end of the Game Art focus Mejan Labs has had during the early autumn of 2007, with the last days of the exhibition Game Artat Mejan Labs (closing on 7.10).

Come along if you can!

More information on the programme: www.pixelvark.se

Pixelache invites you to share a morning coffee in the company of the Parisian artist duo HeHe, who will present their upcoming project ‘Nuage Vert’ (‘Green Cloud’) that is to be seen in the skies of Ruoholahti during February 2008.

Using a language based on light, sound and image, their practice explores the relationship between the individual and their architectural and urban environment. Their propositions are utopian, often posing as products ready for consumption, but are also real, functioning temporarily at the moment of operation.

Also participating in the discussion: Juha Huuskonen & Mathieu Marguerin, organisers of Pixelache electronic art festival in Helsinki & Paris.

The presentation/discussion will be held in English.

Date & time: 13 October 2007, 11.00-12.00
Place: Vanha / www.vanha.fi
Additional info. on HeHe: www.hehe.org

This presentation is a part of Megapolis 2022, an exciting one-day event initiated by the environmental organisation Dodo.

Further info. on Megapolis 2022 programme: www.megapolis2022.org

Mal au Pixel 2008 call for projects
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Mal au Pixel
Festival International des Cultures Electroniques
17-25 May, Paris
www.malaupixel.org

The third edition of Mal au Pixel will focus on the theme of public space.

We are currently looking for both finalized projects as well as concepts/prototypes and we encourage people from all disciplines to participate and send us proposals. Artists, researchers, architects, designers, hackers, activists, engineers, VJs, etc., you are all welcome!

We are seeking for projects more specifically dealing with the online public space and virtual communities, interactive installations in the urban space, mobile infrastructures and new cartographies.

We will also support site-specific projects by granting artistic residencies and providing other production resources.

Deadline for submission: November 1, 2007

More information about the submission process is available here: in English and in French

Pixelache Network News
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Pixelache continues traveling around the world, with upcoming new events in the Nordic region and in Paris…

SWEDEN * Pixelvärk October 5-6 2007 / www.pixelvark.se

NORWAY * Piksel November 15-18 2007 / www.piksel.no

FINLAND * Pixelache Helsinki march 13-16 2008 / www.pixelache.ac

FRANCE
* Mal au Pixel May 17-25 2008 / www.malaupixel.org
* Pixelache @ “Printemps (im)médiat!” May 2008.
“Printemps (im)médiat!” is a series of events organized by the Finnish Insitute in Paris in collaboration with several Finnish cultural organizations including Pikseliähky. It will take place in Paris during spring 2008, as part of the “100% Finlande, un festival finlandais en France” event and in parallel with Mal au Pixel festival.

ICELAND * Pikslaverk spring 2008 (dates to be confirmed) / www.this.is/lorna

Two new Nordic events will join the Pixelache family!

PixelVÄRK in Stockholm will be held 5-6 October 2007 (organised by Mejan Labs in collaboration with local pixelites) and Icelandic version of Pixelache will be initiated by Lorna!

Bienvenidos!