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CODE - The Language of Our Time
“Code – The Language of Our Time,” the theme of Ars Electronica 2003, will be a confrontation with software and digital codes.We have also received a record number of submissions to the Prix Ars Electronica. The Festival will offer a representative picture of the state of the art, and showcase the best that digital art has to offer.
Linz, July 1st 2003. CODE is an essential concept of our modern knowledge-based society.
It denotes the dominant role of information technology, the transference of what we know and our communications into digital databanks and networks, and has become a synonym for control and programmability. The significance of code as codex or body of rules and as a system of signs also describes the place of software in art and society: code is equally a tool and an expression of artistic work. Code—as a set of commands, as a program for the computer and as a system of characters essential to global digital communications systems—defines the rules and laws of life in these times.
CODE as the 2003 Ars Electronica theme carries on the long tradition of this festival for art, technology and society that, ever since its inception in 1979, has been dealing with issues that go beyond art and assume broad social relevance. A series of symposia, exhibitions, performances and interventions in public space will present artistic, scientific and sociopolitical perspectives on this theme.
Symposia
From Sunday, September 7 until Thursday, September 11, experts including Friedrich Kittler, Howard Rheingold, Florian Cramer, Peter J. Bentley and John Warnock will be taking part in symposia and conferences investigating the CODE theme:
CODE=LAW
deals with the possibilities and impossibilities of controlling the global digital network and its character as a domain of open communication protocols.
• How much power does the software monopoly really possess?
• Who establishes the codex and the norms of cyberspace?
• What possibilities are there to evade them?
CODE=ART
Dynamic systems are increasingly establishing themselves in the field of media art.
These systems undergo continuous independent development and interact differently in different situations—that is, they react individually. But how are we to define such works of data within the framework of the contemporary art discourse? And how do they, through their consistent, ongoing development, change our view and definition of artistic work?
• What are the characteristics that define the essence of media art?
• Is art programmable? Can software itself be art?
• According to which aesthetic criteria are we to assess this question?
CODE=LIFE
Solving the genetic codes leads us to believe that life is programmable and controllable like the code of a computer.
• Are we rewriting the Book of Life?
• Or are we summoning forth a biological Babylon?
CODE=LAW
Software is the foundation of the technological world. Digital codes are omnipresent in our modern Information Society and define how we communicate with one another in global networks, do business, obtain information and disseminate our knowledge.
The modern forms of communication via e-mail, SMS and chat are oriented on the possibilities of digital media, and these possibilities are created—as well as thwarted—by software. Thus, whom we are able to contact with these media and, for example, how our language changes as we go about this are also directly determined by the software on which these communication systems are based.
We are all familiar with the new style of locution that has been engendered by e-mail, SMS and chat rooms, or the dominance of English in these digital networks. These phenomena, in turn, give rise to the new cultural codes of our global society. The same applies to the way in which global financial transactions are consummated or the information strategies of global news media—software defines the rules of the game.
The discussion surrounding the issue of copyright has assumed particular significance in this regard.
In a situation in which merchandise takes the form of digital data and can thus be copied at will, the assertion of rights of use and property rights seems to have become an unsolvable Gordian knot.
Making national laws binding upon global networks is apparently just as impossible as effectively monitoring compliance with them. The difficulties of the music and film industries—whose products are themselves software—clearly illustrate the extent of this problem.
No wonder, then, that the upshot has been intensive efforts to program the control over the flow of data directly into the operating systems of our computers and networks. However, making sure that such initiatives not only safeguard the interests of the industry but also put in place democratic standards for a modern knowledge-based society is one of the key sociopolitical challenges facing us today. The open-source movement, those resisting state-controlled data encryption and peer-to-peer networks are coming under increasing pressure.
Software programs the computer and orders its data, but when the computer becomes an omnipresent instrument, it also gives rise to an ordering principle, a codex with consequences that reach deep into the core of our society.
Who determines this codex? Where are the loopholes that would enable us to evade this process of standardization? How can we assert our right to have some input into the formulation of these new laws?
CODE = ART
Computers are also assuming a central role in contemporary art. Software is a powerful tool in the hands of artists and designers, and has far-reaching consequences for the entire chain of production of art and the process of mediating the encounter with it.
In this context, the Internet is not only a medium for the distribution of art but one for its production as well—for example, in making software available. Animated works, short films, music, etc. enjoy a worldwide, freely accessible presentation platform in the Internet. This mode of access gives rise to new target audiences, and the reception of this art takes place for the most part beyond the purview of traditional institutions.
Another result has been the emergence of new forms of art—interactive art, for instance. And even if one can, of course, proceed under the assumption that art is always interactive (in the sense of amental-emotional dialog between the work and the beholder), the explicit essence of interactive media art is the far-reaching involvement of its audience, whose members thus become users and co-designers within an open, dynamic system—a principle that has only been possible as a result of the free programmability of the computer.
The artistic work involved in this process ranges from the level of content to the design of the interface and all the way to the development of the necessary software.
With the consistent utilization of software, the position of the artist changes. Artistic expression is no longer exclusively the result of the artist’s talent and physical mastery of a technique; instead, program codes describe parameters and processes according to which the computer generates dynamic visual and acoustic worlds—a practice that is in use not only in the specialized field of software art but also in computer animation and in many areas of serious and popular music.
In light of the increasing presence and significance of media art, it would seem to be a matter of great urgency to initiate a discussion of the fundamentals of these innovative ways of doing art and these new art forms.
The Festival will feature a historical overview of the role of computer programs in art and a multifaceted discourse focusing on software as a material and a medium of artistic work, and will also showcase numerous examples of code-oriented art.
CODE = LIFE
Information technology’s terms, metaphors and rules of syntax frequently have correspondences in the descriptions of the genetic engineers and biotechnologists. The expression “code of life” suggests the controllability of the basic principles of genetics and the predictability of their manipulation. This simplification of life as a programmable clockwork and the implied analogy of 0 and 1 with ACTG (the building blocks of DNA) may well be helpful for the general public to grasp these concepts but they also evoke great skepticism. Meanwhile, the symbiosis of information technology and biotech is proceeding in numerous new sciences and technical fields: bioinformatics, digital biology and evolutionary bionics to name only a few of the buzzwords making up the discussion of tomorrow’s key technologies.
In addition to the discussion forums, numerous exhibitions and events will also be taking up the core theme of this year’s Ars Electronica.
Several exhibitions confront the tense interplay of code, art and the human being, whereby Richard Kriesche’s datenwerk:mensch is probably the most radical approach. By taking the concept that life is essentially the processing of data and consistently developing it further, the artist construes worlds of reality and images based on and consisting of code.
Casey Reas, Ben Fry, John Maeda, Roman Verostko, James Patten, Heimo Ranzenbacher and Marc Downie are some of the other internationally renowned media artists who will make their mark on the CODE exhibition.
The Ars Electronica Festival has also been cultivating an exchange program with a number of different curators. One is Christiane Paul of New York’s Whitney Museum; in her show entitled CODeDOC II, the invited artists published the source code of their works as part of the exhibition.
Another is New Yorker Steve Sacks, the proprietor Bitforms Gallery; he was one of the first to specialize in software art and to develop strategies to gain acceptance for this medium in the art market.
The Media|Art|Education exhibition by the School of Art and Design Zurich (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich, HGKZ) can be viewed on the campus of the University of Art in Linz.
The Movieline program dealing with the Festival theme also features current film and video productions from the HGKZ.
The electrolobby offers CODE in applied form! Here, artists in a number of different configurations are working with Proce55ing, a new software developed by Casey Reas and Ben Fry. Proce55ing is a tool to produce reactive images and is a completely new type of software: simultaneously programming language, graphic programming environment, learning interface and designer community—CODE as the raw material of artistic creativity.
Performances, Events, Concerts
Ars Electronica wouldn’t be Ars Electronica if it weren’t also an ideal venue for meeting, dialog and exchange. In this spirit, the entire spectrum of media art will be represented at the 2003 Festival as well. Discussion rounds and performances provide the framework for encounters bringing together artists, theoreticians and all those who share an interest in the area of tension and interplay at the nexus of art, technology and society.
The opening event on Day 1: the traditional visualized Linzer Klangwolke at the Brucknerhaus is entitled Europe – A Symphonic Vision this year. This open-air event is Linz’s trademark for spectacular staging—music, light, projections, fireworks, and a multitude of people.
Login: Ars Electronica is the first get-together in Peter Behrens Haus (Alte Tabakwerke) and an invigorating plunge into the world of the media art community.
Essential to the function of Ars Electronica as transmission node for creative ideas is the e-lobby kitchen, where net artists, game developers, hacktivists and others come face-to-face with their peers and their publics. The e-lobby kitchen is hosting a full schedule of talks with artists and project presentations, and providing an open forum for everyone interested in encountering creativity up close and personal.
Pixelspaces, a workshop series initiated by the Ars Electronica Futurelab, is focusing on DAMPF (Dance and Media Performance Fusion), a new project designed to integrate advanced technologies into the performing arts—dance meets digital art, the nexus of technology and tradition as the
point of departure for a fascinating discussion.
This year’s program also features a full line-up of performances and concerts:
POL – A Mechatronic Performance by Marcel.li die Antúnez Roca is an ironic and poetic fable as the product of interaction among performer, audience members and machines—high tech as mechanical stage system.
Floating Points – Klangpark is a one-of-a-kind, 160,000-watt acoustic ambience in the Danube Park. Generative tonal algorithms are propagated along the riverbank and create a 96-hour real-time soundtrack. The featured performer: KOAN music software.
“Principle of Indeterminism” is the artistic credo of composer, architect and visionary Iannis Xenakis and the concept at the foundation of this extraordinary concert and performance event—a program of intense sensory input ranging from orchestra music to live electronics and digitally synthesized sound, from composed to programmed music, and from sound to image.
Messa di Voce is a totally innovative tonal and visual symbiosis by Tmema, a duo of American artists.
Special software transforms every nuance of the vocal stylings of Jaap Blonk and Joan La Barbara into expressive graphics, which are then, in turn, manipulated to become instruments in their own right.
Prix Ars Electronica
With 2,714 submissions from 85 countries, the Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s premier showcase of the best of digital art. Six Golden Nica trophies and 18 cash prizes totaling 109,900 Euros will be awarded in this competition sponsored by the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company.
But the awards ceremony is not the only event in conjunction with the Prix.
• The Prix Ars Electronica Forum will present speeches by and discussions with the 2003 Prix
Ars Electronica’s prizewinners and jurors.
• Cyberarts 2003, the Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition, presents the prizewinning projects in the Interactive Art category. The exhibited works treat a wide variety of themes ranging from a virtual manhunt through a real city (Blast Theory:“Can you see me now?”) and the search for elves in Linz’s subterranean realm (Agnes Meyer-Brandis:“Earth core laboratory and elf scan”) all the way to intelligent cubes whose positioning relative to one another programs a musical sequence and thus enable multiple users to create different tonal patterns with the same cubes (Henry Newton-Dunn, Hiroaki Nikano, James Gibson:“Block Jam”).
• The prizewinners in the Digital Musics category will perform live on stage at the Brucknerhaus in Digital Musics in Concert, while their counterparts in Computer Animation and Visual Effects will be presented at O.K Night, Electronic Theater.
Additional Information: uploads
During the Festival, real-time streams and online reports are available at www.aec.at/code. In addition, there will be two live broadcasts from the Festival: on Tuesday, September 9 beginning at 11:00 PM, the Austrian Broadcasting Company’s channel Ö1 will present Radio Night at the Festival; there will also be a program on the Bavarian Broadcasting Company’s channel BR4 Klassik on September 11 at 8:05 PM.
For further information contact:
ARS ELECTRONICA CENTER
Mag. Wolfgang Bednarzek
Hauptstraße 2
A-4040 Linz
Tel.+43.732.7272-38
wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at
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