Monday, May 31, 2004
Just returned from a meeting at Villa Vigoni in Menaggio, Italy, where I participated in a planning meeting for an international conference on the history of art and technology, to be held at Banff in 2005. The extraordinary beauty of the surroundings was exceeded only by the intellectual intensity and camaraderie of the group. Here's a slideshow of the villa and Lago di Como (3mb, QuickTime). The Banff conference is gonna rock!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
OK, so it's been ten days since my last update... You coulda seen this coming as posts became increasingly sporadic. I'm not even going to try to go back to Futuresonic at this point.
But here's a slideshow from the Cuba 1950s party (5.5meg Quicktime) hosted by Salette and Isabel at the former's posh Buckingham Gate flat, where I have generously been accomodated whilst in London. Music compliments of Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Soy el rei de los mojitos! Dig!
But here's a slideshow from the Cuba 1950s party (5.5meg Quicktime) hosted by Salette and Isabel at the former's posh Buckingham Gate flat, where I have generously been accomodated whilst in London. Music compliments of Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Soy el rei de los mojitos! Dig!
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Can't believe it's already Sunday... I'm leaving Manchester and Futuresonic tomorrow and I haven't even updated my Cyberart Bilbao entry yet... more pix and review of Futuresonic forthcoming. Perhaps I'll have some downtime while visiting my old Phoenix friend Rony and his wife Nadine in Lyon to catch up. So here's more on Bilbao:
Cyberart Bilbao ended for me at about 5:00am on Friday when I wrenched myself from the dance-floor of the closing fiesta and headed back to the Silken Indauxtu Hotel to shower and chill for a few moments before heading to the airport for my 7:50am flight to Manchester.
This was a fantastic festival and I hope that it repeats itself or that the organizers (who also put on a conference in 1999 in elsewhere in the country) continue a series of such events in Spain. Although one of the endearing features of the event was its location in Bilbao, it would be delightful for the international art and tech community to have an excuse to visit other cities in Spain. Pau Waelder Laso www.sicplacitum.com (cool url!), a young art-historian I met at CAB, has a vision of doing something like this in Mallorca… count me in, Pau!
Why Cyberart Bilbao rocked:
What made this festival special was that there were many Spanish artists, engineers, and critics/historians exhibiting and presenting, so I got to learn about the very interesting work happening in Spain. In fact, I wish I had gone to more of the Spanish-language sessions. The presentation by Raquel Patricio Garcia and Juan Manuel Moreno Arostegui on the Poetic Cubs collaboration was fascinating to me conceptually, technically, and in terms of the international scope of the project, which involves computer scientists, engineers, neuroscientists, and artists in four countries and five universities. Although she is the first to point out the limitations of the mouse-interface, Agueda Simo’s work, “Mimesis” offered the most compelling artistic VR visualization of nano-scale interactions I have experienced. Sergi Jorda’s purposely provocative presentation on software art raised many juicy questions and used irony as a delicious way of challenging preconceptions. Here are some other reasons why Cyberart Bilbao rocked:
1. Spain rocks
2. The Basque Country rocks and the language is brilliantly graphic
3. The Spanish people (and here I include the Basque) rock
4. Bilbao rocks – it’s an architecturally marvelous, pedestrian-friendly city that is a joy to walk through. It has an amazing energy of a vital city that is growing and youthful and dedicated to a future that is not only prosperous but beautiful. The seafood is amazingly fresh and delicious, the wine is fantastic, and it is very affordable. Apparently there are some nouvelle Basque restaurants, but I didn’t get to sample that particular international mélange on this trip.
Some recommendations for your visit to Bilbao. I stayed at the Hotel Silken Indautxu, a four star hotel I booked over the Internet for 60 Euros/night for two people. Our room was on the 5th floor and had a little balcony, which was lovely, frigobar, and shower/tub. Though a bit south of the action, the location is quite central. There’s a terrific little coffee shop (serving just coffee and tea and few snacks) across Gordoniz from the hotel, serving excellent cappuccino for about 1 Euro.
For a nice sidetrip, you can take the Metro to the ocean in about 20 minutes. Newly built, fast, clean, quiet, and economical, the Metro is reminiscent of Washington, DC. Once you reach the stop closest to the marina, you’ll wind your way through spectacular mansions, presumably constructed by wealthy ship-builders, to the marina, where you’ll find several restaurants. Jonathan and I had theorized on our first day that we’d find the best food where there was the worst lighting. While we don’t know what the other restaurants’ fare is like, we ate at the one at the end with horrific mercury vapor lamps and had amazing food, including the largest, most delicious asparagus I’ve ever seen in my life, mussels so fresh you could flex them, and other delicacies I can’t even begin to recall the names of…
Cyberart Bilbao ended for me at about 5:00am on Friday when I wrenched myself from the dance-floor of the closing fiesta and headed back to the Silken Indauxtu Hotel to shower and chill for a few moments before heading to the airport for my 7:50am flight to Manchester.
This was a fantastic festival and I hope that it repeats itself or that the organizers (who also put on a conference in 1999 in elsewhere in the country) continue a series of such events in Spain. Although one of the endearing features of the event was its location in Bilbao, it would be delightful for the international art and tech community to have an excuse to visit other cities in Spain. Pau Waelder Laso www.sicplacitum.com (cool url!), a young art-historian I met at CAB, has a vision of doing something like this in Mallorca… count me in, Pau!
Why Cyberart Bilbao rocked:
What made this festival special was that there were many Spanish artists, engineers, and critics/historians exhibiting and presenting, so I got to learn about the very interesting work happening in Spain. In fact, I wish I had gone to more of the Spanish-language sessions. The presentation by Raquel Patricio Garcia and Juan Manuel Moreno Arostegui on the Poetic Cubs collaboration was fascinating to me conceptually, technically, and in terms of the international scope of the project, which involves computer scientists, engineers, neuroscientists, and artists in four countries and five universities. Although she is the first to point out the limitations of the mouse-interface, Agueda Simo’s work, “Mimesis” offered the most compelling artistic VR visualization of nano-scale interactions I have experienced. Sergi Jorda’s purposely provocative presentation on software art raised many juicy questions and used irony as a delicious way of challenging preconceptions. Here are some other reasons why Cyberart Bilbao rocked:
1. Spain rocks
2. The Basque Country rocks and the language is brilliantly graphic
3. The Spanish people (and here I include the Basque) rock
4. Bilbao rocks – it’s an architecturally marvelous, pedestrian-friendly city that is a joy to walk through. It has an amazing energy of a vital city that is growing and youthful and dedicated to a future that is not only prosperous but beautiful. The seafood is amazingly fresh and delicious, the wine is fantastic, and it is very affordable. Apparently there are some nouvelle Basque restaurants, but I didn’t get to sample that particular international mélange on this trip.
Some recommendations for your visit to Bilbao. I stayed at the Hotel Silken Indautxu, a four star hotel I booked over the Internet for 60 Euros/night for two people. Our room was on the 5th floor and had a little balcony, which was lovely, frigobar, and shower/tub. Though a bit south of the action, the location is quite central. There’s a terrific little coffee shop (serving just coffee and tea and few snacks) across Gordoniz from the hotel, serving excellent cappuccino for about 1 Euro.
For a nice sidetrip, you can take the Metro to the ocean in about 20 minutes. Newly built, fast, clean, quiet, and economical, the Metro is reminiscent of Washington, DC. Once you reach the stop closest to the marina, you’ll wind your way through spectacular mansions, presumably constructed by wealthy ship-builders, to the marina, where you’ll find several restaurants. Jonathan and I had theorized on our first day that we’d find the best food where there was the worst lighting. While we don’t know what the other restaurants’ fare is like, we ate at the one at the end with horrific mercury vapor lamps and had amazing food, including the largest, most delicious asparagus I’ve ever seen in my life, mussels so fresh you could flex them, and other delicacies I can’t even begin to recall the names of…
Thursday, April 29, 2004
NEW PIX of BILBAO!!! (Note: requires QuickTime)
Today is the last day of the Ciberart Bilbao festival. The today conference was comprised of presentations from the Planetary Collegium - the international PhD program that Roy Ascott directs, based at the University of Plymouth. It's always very interesting to see what his students are up to. I snuck away for a while to see the Guggenheim Bilbao, and now see why people have raved about its architectural bliss, both inside and outside. Off to Futuresonic tomorrow. Thanks, Mark, for the inspiration!
Today is the last day of the Ciberart Bilbao festival. The today conference was comprised of presentations from the Planetary Collegium - the international PhD program that Roy Ascott directs, based at the University of Plymouth. It's always very interesting to see what his students are up to. I snuck away for a while to see the Guggenheim Bilbao, and now see why people have raved about its architectural bliss, both inside and outside. Off to Futuresonic tomorrow. Thanks, Mark, for the inspiration!
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
An open-email to Mark Amerika:
From: eddie@artexetra.com
Date: April 28, 2004 6:07:02 PM CEST
Subject: nomadic parallel processing of psychogeographical artistic flows
To: amerika@altx.com
Mark -
I'm in your talk; or am I? I'm parallel processing the flows of your words and images, while reflecting on my own semi-(un)realized ambitions during my euro media arts pilgrimage (now) to maintain a rich blog supplemented by images and videos from my nomadic wanderings, and also, of course, extending my consciousness telematically via this email asynchronously to a time-place where it will intersect with your own presence in this consensual hallucination...
I've been consuming and capturing/producing vast amounts of information but unable to resist this mode of operations: to suspend this process long enough to analyze it; process it; post it in a place exterior to the here and now place of my self. How do you do it?
time to find a new gladder nut...(your spam)... thirsty...[to] enter a hot desert landscape? (to quote you)
Eddie
From: eddie@artexetra.com
Date: April 28, 2004 6:07:02 PM CEST
Subject: nomadic parallel processing of psychogeographical artistic flows
To: amerika@altx.com
Mark -
I'm in your talk; or am I? I'm parallel processing the flows of your words and images, while reflecting on my own semi-(un)realized ambitions during my euro media arts pilgrimage (now) to maintain a rich blog supplemented by images and videos from my nomadic wanderings, and also, of course, extending my consciousness telematically via this email asynchronously to a time-place where it will intersect with your own presence in this consensual hallucination...
I've been consuming and capturing/producing vast amounts of information but unable to resist this mode of operations: to suspend this process long enough to analyze it; process it; post it in a place exterior to the here and now place of my self. How do you do it?
time to find a new gladder nut...(your spam)... thirsty...[to] enter a hot desert landscape? (to quote you)
Eddie
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Why did I think I'd have time to maintain a blog while traipsing around media arts festivals in Europe. I'm having far too much fun to waste me time on this! I've got a lot of pix, though, and the conversations and papers and exhibitions at cyberart bilbao have been very stimulating, so maybe later... Adios!
Monday, April 26, 2004
Bienvenidos a Bilbao! The airport welcomes you into a stunningly modern world. The bus comes out of tunnel and the Guggenheim Bilbao emerges as a resplendent apparition. Then across the river you're in beautiful medieval Bilbao, filled with tiny streets, gorgeous architecture, and great little cafes.
My old college friend Jonathan arrived late last night and we're having a great time together - just like old times. Had a fantastic meal with two bottles of crianza and talked until 3am. Thank god for caffeine!
Cyberart Bilbao has begun today and my panel starts in 1/2 hour. Wish me luck!
My old college friend Jonathan arrived late last night and we're having a great time together - just like old times. Had a fantastic meal with two bottles of crianza and talked until 3am. Thank god for caffeine!
Cyberart Bilbao has begun today and my panel starts in 1/2 hour. Wish me luck!
