World-Information.Org Amsterdam: Exploring the Network Society of Control

World-Information.Org Amsterdam:
Exploring the Network Society of Control

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World-Information.Org Amsterdam
November 15 - December 15, 2002
De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
http://www.world-information.org
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After World-Information.Org's successful presentations in Brussels, Vienna (2000), Munich, Helsinki (2001) and Berlin (2002) it is now preparing for a major event in Amsterdam. From November 15 through December 15, 2002, World-Information.Org will once again stage its extensive exhibition and conference program in the Oude Kerk, the earliest parish church in Amsterdam. Here the World-Information Exhibition will present digital culture projects by renowned and pioneering artists, historic and state-of-the-art control and surveillance technology and the results of World-Information.Org's research program. Visitors will be offered an art mediation program that will enable them to gain inside views of the comprehensive content of World-Information.Org.

The exhibition consists of "World-Infostructure", "World-C4U" and the "Future Heritage Expo" a series of art projects. During the exhibition a temporary media lab will be installed in the Oude Kerk called "WIO-Works".

World-Infostructure provides insights in the evolution of communication technologies and their consequences for society. It presents the progression of historic communication codes to state-of-the-art applications, and provides an overview of the relation between technology, private investments and common welfare.

In World-C4U, the public experiences how organisations, companies and governments use state-of-the-art technologies for control and security through hands-on practical biometric applications and live demonstrations of surveillance systems. The exhibition also contains historical objects such as the code machine 'Enigma'.

WIO-Works is a temporary media lab in which several groups work on different themes, each during five to six days. In the Oude Kerk, permanent screening facilities and information terminals will be equipped and discussions, presentations and workshops will be organised so that the public will gain hands-on experiences.

Future Heritage Expo includes projects by (a.o.) the following artists:

Critical Art Ensemble
http://www.critical-art.net/

A collective of five artists of various specialisations dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory

Critical Art Ensemble has in recent project focussed on the implications Biotechnology, a.o. in the project "GenTerra - Transgenic Solutions for a Greener World"
http://www.critical-art.net/genterra/index.html


Arthur Elsenaar & Taco Stolk
BuBL Space
Do you need a break from the daily mobile soap? Surround yourself with soothing space. Simply press your pocket-size BuBL device. Release a bubble of silence. You'll feel pleasantly isolated inside, even in a crowded place. Evaporate all phone signals up to three meters around. Enjoy the silence. Create your Personal BuBL Space.
http://www.bubl-space.com


The Yesmen
The Yesmen have staged a series of stunning performances appearing in cognito as official spokesmen for the WTO at international trade conferences and seminars. Mistakenly identified and invited via their spoof website http://www,gatt.org they have recently announced a schedule for disbanding the WTO that lead to worried reactions world-wide including a parliamentary intervention in Canada.
http://www.theyesmen.org

Institute for Applied Autonomy
The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) was founded in 1998 as a technological research and development organisation concerned with individual and collective self-determination. Their mission is to study the forces and structures which effect self-determination; to create cultural artefacts which address these forces; and to develop technologies which serve social and human needs.
In Amsterdam a recent "spot-the-cam-in-Amsterdam" action was held to map observation camera's in the inner city. IAA has developed a system that produces "maps of least surveillance" charting a route with as little as possible camera's through any given city, which will now be applied to Amsterdam.
http://www.appliedautonomy.com/

Jill Magid - System Azure
Jill Magid is currently artist in residence at the Royal Academy of Arts in Amsterdam. She explores the aesthetics of surveillance, and proposes an alternative treatment of surveillance apparatuses. She has recently completed the first phase of a restyling of surveillance camera's of the Amsterdam police department by rhinestoning and restyling observation camera's at the main Amsterdam police station.
Magid wishes to bring these observation and control systems in the public consciousness by developing an explicit aesthetics of observation machines that makes them more visible to the public eye.


[RT-32] - ACOUSTIC.SPACE.LAB
A project by RIXC (LV, Latvia) and the international ACOUSTIC SPACE RESEARCH LAB team.
The [RT-32] - ACOUSTIC.SPACE.LAB @ IRBENE RADIOTELESCOPE is a multi-media exploration of the VIRAC radio telescope, a 32 m dish antenna in Irbene, Latvia: from the history of this top-secret Soviet era military object,
including precise technical data and its conversion to scientific and civilian use, to the international Acoustic.Space.Lab symposium on sound art, radio and satellite technology. The symposium took place at the site
of Irbene radio telescope RT-32 in August 2001 with the participation of more then 30 artists, radio amateurs and community radio activists from all over the world.

The connection between the Oude Kerk and the RT-32 antenna on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Irbene will be presented using data 'audiolisation' and 'visualisation' tools, developed by the international team of the Acoustic
Space Research Lab participants.

The Acoustic.Space.Research.Lab is an ongoing co-operation between several international artists' groups and individuals: RIXC/E-Lab (Riga/LV), L'audible (Sydney/AU), RadioQualia (London/UK-Adelaide/AU), Projekt Atol
(Ljubljana/SI), and other contributors from the Xchange network. Artists of [Acoustic Space Lab] present @ WIO are: Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits and Martins Ratniks (RIXC/Riga: DVD [RT-32], research, compilation and visual concept), Mr.Snow and Zina Kaye (L'Audible/Sydney: Firmament), Derek Holzer (Amsterdam: Open Source Sampling Project).
http://acoustic.space.re-lab.net


Marko Peljhan - Electronic Media Monitoring
The Slovene artist Marko Peljhan demonstrates his project Mission Control Room, an observation unit where all kinds of media signals, usually unknown to the public, are wiretapped and eavesdropped (Electronic Media Monitoring).
http://makrolab.ljudmila.org/


0100101110101101.ORG - VOPOS_GPS
>>quote:
# Anything has been said about this renegade cyber-entity,
# accused of being "simple thief", dubbed as "media dandy"
# and "cultural terrorists" or, simply, "shit".
# 0100101110101101.ORG is the author of some of the most
# perfect media exploits of the last years, such as the
# creation and diffusion, at the opening of the 49th
# Venice Biennial, of the computer virus "biennale.py" or
# the memorable theft of the art gallery Hell.com.
end quote<<

As part of their project series Glasnost 01.ORG will present their project VOPOS_GPS, an interface that allows the audience a 24 hour tracking of all movements of 01.ORG via a GPS system.
HTTP://WWW.0100101110101101.ORG

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World-Info Conference 2002: The Network Society of Control
De Balie, December 6 & 7, 2002

De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, will host the World-InfoCon conference 'The Network Society of Control', an international and interdisciplinary forum for the critical discussion of information politics in the network society. A wide variety of speakers and participants including researchers, politicians, representatives of social interest groups, activists and cultural workers will examine recent developments in information security, public opinion management, new legislation for intellectual property rights management in the digital domain, and the desire for a digital commons.

The final program of the conference will be announced shortly and will also be made available at the website of De Balie: http://ww.balie.nl/wio

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World-Information.Org is an initiative of Public Netbase/t0 and is organised in co-operation with Waag Society / for old and new media, De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics and Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/TBA. The project was previously presented in Brussels and Vienna.

World-Information.Org is realised with the financial support of The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology; Netherlands Culture Fund, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Sciences; Mondriaan Foundation; Culture2000; VSB Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.

http://www.world-information.org