HEXEN 2.0 by Suzanne Treister is a series of works with strong network related concerns spanning across a number of forms including alchemical diagrams, a Tarot deck, photo-text works, pencil drawings, a video and a website. The works investigate:

histories of scientific research behind government programmes of mass control, investigating parallel histories of countercultural and grass roots movements. HEXEN 2.0 charts, within a framework of post-WWII U.S. governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of scientific and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and increased intelligence gathering, and implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society…Treister’s body of work presents a unique critical overview of modern intellectual and scientific history. Key to her artistic strategy is her decision to represent her visions of past interrelated histories by employing alternative systems for divining meaning or creating knowledge: alchemical drawings, tarot cards, gematria and the seance. She writes, ‘By representing these subjects and histories through the lens of the alchemical and the occult, HEXEN 2.0 offers a space where one may use the works as a tool to envision possible alternative futures.’

HEXEN 2.0 is currently showing at the Science Museum in London. Originally seen on the E-Flux announcements list.

rep.licants.org is:

a web service allowing users to install an artificial intelligence (bot) on their Facebook and/or Twitter account. From a different set of techniques, the bot attempts to simulate the activity of the user, to improve it by feeding his account and to create new contacts with other users.

The bot does not born [sic] with a fictitious identity, but will be added to the real identity of the user to modify it at his convenience. Thus, this bot can be seen as a virtual prothesis added to an user’s account, with the aim to build him a greater social reputation. Moreover, this bot can be perceived as a threat by defrauding even more the reality of who is really who on the cyberspace and by showing the poverty of our social interactions on these so-called social networks.

Above is an example conversation created by an instance of the bot (see more here). For similar work on artificial lifeforms / bots (albeit visualised very differently) see EKKAH.

rep.licants.org is currently showing at the Robots and Avatars exhibition at Fact in Liverpool until 27/05/12.

Some screenshots of the Make-shift performance last Friday. Many thanks to Frédérique Santune for taking these.

Tomorrow there is an opportunity to see a live performance of Make-shift, “a networked performance about connectivity and consequences” by Helen Varley Jamieson and Paula Crutchlow.

The performance takes place simultaneously in two separate houses that are connected through a specially designed online interface. Paula and Helen (one in each house) stage their part of the work with the help of local audience members. Scripted and visually poetic performance is interspersed with webcam videography, avatar puppetry and audience interaction in the format of a performative salon. Everything that happens in the houses is streamed to online audiences who can also contribute text chat visible on the interface to everyone throughout the event.

Below is a screenshot of the performance interface mentioned. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to attend the performance but hopefully I can get somebody to take a few screenshots so I’ll post again on this.

The performance takes place tomorrow 15th March 2012, 2pm UK / 7.30pm India (find your local time here). To access the interface to the performance visit the works site and click on the link ‘LIVE LINK HERE’ in the right of the page.

Originally seen on the Spectre mailing list.

In Paris last week and went to 2062, aller-retour vers le futur (2062, return towards the future), in particular to attend the conference Les fins des temps (The End of time) and see the festivals exhibition. The conference was interesting but no connection to network research there.

The exhibition was overall disapointing, poorly laid out / curated with works not having room to breadth, be seen or heard in isolation. One work in the exhibition that was network related was Netlag by Pleix (don’t judge it by my poor photos, click through to the site to see better ones). The work is a video installation using outdoor webcams where imagery has been sourced through:

a software called Picksucker to make a snapshot of 1600 webcams all over the world each 10 minutes.

Worth mentioning as there are some similarities to Hello World! seen and written about a few weeks ago. The work isn’t live which is disapointing (Hello World! isn’t live either) however the suggestion of a map of global webcams juxtaposed is interesting. A shame it doesn’t go further.

The festival runs until the 25th of March. The live events and conferences are worth a visit but don’t expect much from the exhibition.