* 4th Annual CYBERFEST coming November 2010! CYBERFEST is the only International festival of Cybernetic Art in Russia combining living, biological and somatic substance with technical and computer devices. More on Cyberfest 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007...
* CYLAND announces Call
for Projects in New Media, Video, Net and Cyber Arts...
CYLAND is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by Marina Koldobskaya of the St. Petersburg branch of Russian National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) and Anna Frants of the St. Petersburg Arts Project Fund, New York.
Russian videoart exhibition online!
Our site presents an exhibition of Russian videoartists.
Cyberfest 2009 star – DJ Spooky (USA) again comes to St. Petersburg with the updated version of his audiovisual remix of Dzyga Vertov's “Enthusiasm”. This summer he already had a presentation at Tate Modern (London), visited by six thousand people! Visit this audiovisual concert if you are in St. Petersburg on August 26th -
ALL INFORMATION AND CONTACTS ARE AVAILABLE AT “FAMILYFEST” WEB PAGE, wich hosts performance of DJ Spooky this time. Additional information about DJ Spooky you can read at his site.
This Sunday, August 15th, is Lev Termen's birthday, he was known as Leon Theremin in the U.S. This is a short excerpt from Mattis' interview, published with Robert
Moog as co-author: "Pulling Music Out of Thin Air," Keyboard, February,
1992, pp.46-54.
Mattis:
Please tell me about your early life, and about your scientific and
musical training.
Theremin:
I was born in Leningrad, which was then called St. Petersburg, in 1896. My
father was a lawyer, and my mother was interested in the arts, especially
music and drawing. Even before high school I was interested in physics, in
electricity, and in oscillatory motions like those of a pendulum. In high
school I was interested in physics, and after playing the piano I started
studying cello. While in high school, I entered the Conservatory on the
cello, and I graduated with the title of "free artist on the violoncello."
Then I entered the university, and majored in physics and astronomy.
A very actual for this summer video installation “Breath of Air” by Anna Frants was set and shown on 25th of July 2010 at a festival in Ozerki with support from CYLAND Laboratory.“Festival of Workshops” took place from 30th of July till 30th of June in the “Village of Artists”, nearby St.Petersburg in Ozerki. Exact address is Novoselkovskaya street, building 16, “Rural Life” gallery.
On 6th August 2010 CYLAND will take part in VIII International festival of experimental art in Manege Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg. CYLAND MediaLab will present “PHOTOROBOT” project, created on the basis of new DRUMPAINTING media system version, which, unlike the previous version, uses electronic drums.
Programmers – SergeyKomarov and Alexey Grachyov; electronic drums – Valery Morozov;artistic concept, work with pictures – Vladimir Lilo, also, check DRUMPAINTING project page.
Creative team of CYLAND took part in the festival of architecture students “Arteria”, held in the end of July in Zelenogorsk. CYLAND artists showed panoramic interactive installation “Paralleloid” and did a workshop with young architects, based on Drumpainting performance. For the whole week 3 teams of students prepared material for performance, to show the results on 31st of July.
First St. Petersburgfestival of youth architects “Arteria” took place in Zelenogorsk,from 26th of July till 1st August 2010 at the “Architect” art center. http://www.arteria-fest.org
Felting by Hannes Kivits Robotics and programing Aleksei Grachev In collaboration with CYLAND MediaLab North Pole - New York, 2010
Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky pondered a question: “Am I a trembling creature or have I the right?” This installation answers positively both parts of this compound question: Yes, you are a trembling creature, and yes, you have the right... to tremble from any change in the world around you as do these hats felted by the Estonian artist ... and set into moving or, rather, into trembling by any motion or gesture of the viewer. Perhaps, they literally follow the mandate of the Apostle Paul and “work out their salvation with fear and trembling”. Or they remind us that life is movement unlike, for instance, immovable stones above the Arctic Circle that, ironically, served as an inspiration for this work.
Global workshop on robots for kids led by a
kid by 12 year old
Daniil Frants in collaboration with local Berlin
children & community organizations - July
12, 13, 14, 15
International
nonprofit organization
RSPROJECTS has joined forces with Russia's infamous tech savvy
organization
Cyland and youth programs of Berlin to bring a series of free summer
classes on
robots for kids led by a kid. The hands on class, which ranges between
an hour
to two hours long, is led by Daniil Frants, a twelve year old boy.
Having
taught this class in Russia, New York and Japan - Daniil
builds cultural
bridges by teaching a subject near and dear to all children nowadays - technology.
An opportunity
to gain basic understanding of mechanical engineering, an experience of
connecting with others from different backgrounds as well as an
introduction to
possible careers in the tech field - "Humanizing
Robots" teaches a broad
spectrum of social and practical skills.
In this
art and tech class we (Daniil and
adults from RSP and the youth programs) will experiment with robots,
take them
apart, explore their inner structure und revive them again. Through the
eyes of
a 12
year old
kid, you will learn about the basics of computer works, the components
that
make robots mobile. Using small toy robots we will demonstrate the
miracle of
the electronic parts working together. Then applying stick and paint and
through your imagination we will give our robots a total make over.
Learn, see
and create- Your personal toy robot for fun!
NATIONAL
CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS
ST. PETERSBURG ART PROJECTS INC
announce
the preparation of next, fourth festival of cybernetic art – CYBERFEST,
which will take place in St.Petersburg, Russia, November 2010. Curators
of festival: Anna Frants, Marina Koldobskaya
CYBERFEST
2010 will be dedicated to understanding of domestic life and
everyday practice in digital civilization.
There is a constant
flow of new things appearing to serve the customers – more complex and
advanced household appliances, utensils, furniture, tools, clothes,
communication channels, hygiene products and so on. On the one hand,
everyday life improves, on the other – technical progress formulates new
challenges to the human being. There are changes in speed, limits of
intimacy, possibilities of communication, and above all – in fundamental
notions of real and imaginary, live and not live.
To take part in Cyberfest 2010 we call for works of
media artists, which give a meaning to changes in psychological
parameters of everyday life of a modern man, surrounded by digital
gadgets.
Festival motto:
ДОМАШНИЕ
ТАРАКАНЫ / HOUSE BUGS
Possible subjects:
-
revolt/disobedience/independence/secret life of machines
- program
error, leading to paradoxical/catastrophic/heuristic results
-
banalization/domestication of artificial intelligence
- new notions
of house comfort/fears/pleasures
- changes of
surrounding/repairs/upgrades in digital civilization
- digital
pets/children and household
Proposals, missed by organizers
are welcomed.
Artificial
intelligence is a great thing. But there is something wrong with it.
Simple machines are just breaking. Intelligent machines become insane.
E-mail boxes receive sexual proposals, sent by a robot. Intelligent
vacuum cleaner completely eats cat's food. Intelligent dryer makes a
colorful pancake from a favorite dress. Mobile phone photo camera makes
suprematic composition from a banal landscape. The further we go, more
miracles and strange things we receive. All this is cool, interesting
and even funny, but a bit scary. Because we already can't live without
those small tyrants. Mobile phone, notebook and i-pod are as necessary
as a cup of coffee in the morning, car during the day and hot bath in
the evening. We are surrounded but not giving up. We are in charge for
the ones we tamed – those, who in turn tames us. We will compete in
madness with those things, that make our life better.
St.Petersburg branch of National Center for Contemporary Arts
Cyland medialaboratory
present
Video show“Ecology today – ecology tomorrow”
Show will be held within the frame of Kronfest festival
(Kronstadt international ecological festival of arts)
27thJune, 6 p.m.
Address:Kronstadt, Sovietskaya street, building 35, “Bastion” cinema
This program represents video works by contemporary artists from the collection of Cyland video archive, as well as a compilation of various news programs, concerning the global ecological problems of our country and world, where we are living today. Program ranges from “global warming”, melting of ice in Antarctica, extinction of certain species of animals, to everyday traces of man's activities.
1. Ecology today – ecology tomorrow.
2010, 8:52
This film is an educational-informational mix about ecological problems today. Drying out Aral sea, the problem of waste and garbage recycling, air pollution in cities, oil overflow and dying of birds and animals – all this can't leave you indifferent, even in cold news reports.
2. Anton Khlabov. Around the city.
2007, 1:20
PAL, DVD-video, colour video, stereo
City – is a complex combination of elements of natural and artificial environments, where balance between natural and constructed has a vital meaning in life and health of every citizen. Video shows importance of maintaining this balance, slowly telling the grotesque story about the development of artificial lights, which can lead to loss of natural lights and the possibility of seeing the sky itself...
3. Anna Frants. Beyond Arctic Circle.
2010, 3:23
Today, polar bear became a symbol of disasters, related to global warming. Habitat of these animals being destroyed rapidly and they are under the threat of extinction in the nearest 45 years. Video was shot during the expedition of artists to Spitsbergen. Polar bear tears a body of dead whale.
4. Dmitry Moiseev. Alien.
2008, 9:25
An alien comes to planet Earth. A trip of naive glamorous cartoon alien among severe post-soviet industrial landscapes and deserted outskirts of dormitory areas can be watched without a pause.
Olya Zhuk
Written and directed by Dmitry Moiseev
Director of photography – Mikhail Fyodorov
Artists – Anatoly Belov, Dmitry Moiseev
Music – Dmitry Ibraimov (Hardtennis)
5. Vika Ilyushkina. Afterword.
2010. 2:27
Peaceful glade of “Victoria” park after the celebration of 1st May in Berlin.
6. Lyudmila Belova. The compelled Foreshortening.
1999. 13.33
In the year 2000 Lyudmila Belova was called the first russian media artist, who was awarded a prize by the ZKM, biggest center of new technologies in Karlsruhe (Germany), for “The compelled Foreshortening” video. This work shows what sees an automobile driver while staying in a traffic jam. Constrained movement, lack of opportunity to break out and drive away - this makes him examine cars, numbers, details – all those things we do not usually observe.
