[spectre] PRESS RELEASE - Violence Online Festival

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 07:44:39 +0200

PRESS RELEASE
NewMediaArtProjectNetwork Festivals www.newmediafest.org
Violence Online Festival www.newmediafest.org/violence
VioLENS Festival Tabor (CZ) www.cesta.cz
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contents:
headline
summary
introduction
featured artists
all participants
technical requirements
copyright
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headline:
Violence Online Festival
opened on 17 August 2002 as part of VioLENS Festival Tabor (CZ)
on www.newmediafest.org/violence
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summary:
Violence Online Festival is a New Media art project
realized with cooperation between
NewMediaArtprojectNetwork and CESTA, an international arts
organization in Tábor and host to the VioLENS festival
(August 22-26, 2002). The Violence Online Festival is
curated, organized and created in Flash by
Agricola de Cologne, curator and media artist operating
from Cologne/Germany. Both festivals complement each
other: VioLENS in Tábor, a festival focused interdisciplinary
and international artistic collaborations,
and Violence Online, a festival focused
on digital and New Media art. Both have in
common the goal to reflect the phenomenon known as
violence.
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introduction:
The human character contains both a light and a dark side, good and bad,
individually manifested. Deeply rooted is a dark-sided
element:  Violence.
In happy surroundings, it becomes hardly visible and in
less happy surroundings - either of a physical, psychological,
environmental, ideological, economic or political nature  -
nearly automatically a kind of survival
strategy with all the known consequences we see
manifested in conflicts on a small or large scale.
Violence is present anywhere, hidden or sleeping,
hesitating, waiting or in action, starting from simple
mobbing via verbalor physical attacks, the bandwidth has no end.

Nowadays, globalization, social injustice,
unemployment, increasing wealth on one side and
on the opposite increasing poverty (without mentioning some
causes) produce a climate where violence has a fertile
soil.  From the attack on 9/11 in the USA, people from
the Western civilization became painfully aware that
security of any kind is a mere illusion; not only the
internal, but also the external enemy is present anywhere.

Artists are said to be the consciousness of a nation or society
as they reflect the actual state of the psychological and physical
environment.
When this state is penetrated by violence, nobody is surprised that
violence becomes a universal subject for artistic reflection, the difference
may
only be the view on it and its perception depending on
the respective cultural background.

'Art and violence both seem to stem from the abstract: that place beyond
logic, the realm of the emotion. When they intersect we are simultaneously
repelled and attracted, frightened and excited. Historically this meeting
has been wrought with complexity, and as cultural violence in every society
increases, we are prevented by paranoia, censorship and ethical demands from
asking, and sometimes even posing, some of the most important questions
violence and art together and separately produce: how is violence
represented, and what or how much of it do we need to resist the cultivation
of fear and the encouragement of dependency? Is violence a tool, a process
or a result? When are artistic portrayals of violence justifiable? As
intellectual exercise, ritual, or spiritual enhancement? For other purposes?
Or are they never justifiable? Is violence in art an action, reaction, or
reflection? '  (quotation: CESTA festival statement).

How different the results of an artistic reflection can be is
shown through the Violence Online Festival, a New Media
online exhibition project curated and organized
as an individual event by Agricola de Cologne within the
framework of the "VioLENS Festival", an International Festival of
Interdisciplinary Artistic Collaborations organized by
CESTA in Tábor (Czech Republic)  22-26 August 2002.
For the Violence Online Festival, over 150 artists from
more than 30 countries present their work and form a
dynamic collaborative art work presenting very
individual visions and use of media.

The relevance of violence becomes visible also through
the high quality standard of  all the included works. Each
of them represents another aspect of violence - caught
in textual poetry, running as a video or embedded in an
interactive environment of a net-based art work.

In reaction to the key role (mass) media plays by displaying and even
promoting
violence, a new environment (interface) has been created for Violence
Online Festival, which houses and hosts the art works within a virtual media
company named "Violence Media Incorporated".
By dividing the company into different departments (eg.
"Violence for Happiness" , "Violence Marketing" or "Violence Broadcasting"),
it becomes clear that their meaning
has a rather ironic or sarcastic character, which gives
the embedded art works a new meaning.

While surfing through this environment, the visitor is forced to ask and
give answers,  and becomes slowly a part of this network of art through his
reflections and changes of perception.

As an independant event, Violence Online Festival will be included in
September 2002 in the virtual environment of "A Virtual Memorial"
www.a-virtual-memorial.org as "Featured project" and will remain afterwards
there for permanent.
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Following artists and their works are featured by the curator's choice:
Eduardo Angel, Claudia Tribin, Klaus Schrefler, Raquel Partnoy, Cindy
Gabriela Flores, Jeph Guerecka, Humberto Ramirez, Mike Salmond, Annemarie
Schleiner-Joan Leandre-Brody Condon, Yevgeniy Fiks, Roland Schappert.
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Names of all participating artists:
Germany: Roland Schappert, Knut Eckstein, Jürgen Bysard Adams, Ilse Hilpert,
Sabine Scholz, Wittwulf Y Malik,
Cornelia Heier, Agricola de Cologne
Argentina: Rachel Partnoy, Alicia Partnoy, Ruth Irupe Sanabria, Gabriel
Otero, Anahi Caceres, Jose Cuckier, Irene Coremberg
Colombia: Andres Yepes, Eduardo Angel, Claudia Tribin, Alejandro
Jaimes-Larrarte
Austria: Klaus Schrefler, Alexandra Reill, Medea, Renee Kellner
Italy:  ego,  Casaluce/Geiger, Caterina Davinio, Antonio Sassu
Ireland: Feargal O Malley
Australia: Francesca da Rimini, Michael Grimm
Bulgaria: Ventsislav Zankov  Japan: Kenji Siratori
Russia: Sergej Jakovlev   Croatia: Tony Mestrovic, Maya Kalogera
Canada: Jerzy Kolasinski, Eva Lewarne, Jeremy Owen Turner, Babel, Jo Cook,
David Cheung, David Fujino
Romania/Germany: Peter Jacobi
Mexico: Fran Ilich, Cindy Gabriela Flores
Israel: Igor Ulanowsky, Shira z. Carmel
Turkey: Bulent Bas, Genco Gulan
France: name diffusion, Nicolas Clauss, Ji Bet, Xavier Leton
Netherlands: Paul P. Ritt
USA: Doron Golan, Gerald Schwartz, Seth Lew, Eric Parnes, Nancy Jane Moore,
Joy Garnett, Yevgeniy Fiks, Juliet Martin, Restate, Moya Devine, Sharon
Harper, Coco Gordon, Jeremy Newman, Brody Condon, Rika Ohara, Mike Salmond,
Steve Bradley/Timothy Nohe, Natascha Engelmann, Alison Cole, Craig Macneill,
Eric Wennermark, Brian Judy,  Humberto Ramirez, Deb King,  Robert Dohrmann,
IIII IIII IIII.com, Judson Wright, John Dooley, Jeff Gurecka, Lena Zar,
Annemarie Schleiner, Anne Bray and Molly Cleator, John Kannenberg
UK: Jess Loseby
Portugal: Susana Mendes Silva
Estonia: Dagmar Kase
Lithuania: gintas K
Brazil: Giacomo Picca
Philippines: Fatima Lasay  and her classes:
VC36 CLASS John Michael Acevedo, Mark Anthony Alvarado, Carlo Ahillion,
Rikki Carmelo Baranda, Criselda Cac, Alexander John Castro II, Nathaniel,
Chua, Eric Flores, Gimo Lanot, Sabrina De Leon, Merwin De Mesa, Jr.,
Marielle Nadal, Lizamae Orola, Francis Rafael Sanbuenabuentura, Rogelio
Santos, Jr., Lea Segarra, Zoltan Pabon, Vincent Paul Samson, Don Juan Paolo
Torres, Alfred Mark Trajeco, Sheryl Valencia, Archie Yumul
SFA192 CLASS Gerard Baja, Anna Teresa Cabardo, Uriel Colomo, Niko Loren Dela
Cruz, John Ervin General, Michael Angelo Lampayan, Olivia Lopez, Deodato
Pairez, Jerusalem Pimentel, Alfred Anton Po, Joseph Raz, Jr., Ruth Kathryn
Santiago, Brian Oliver Sergio, Cherry Ann Tolentino
FA100 CLASS Eleanor Alfante, Carlito Amalla, Maysa Arabit, Ry Sedrick
Bolodo, Joey Claronino, Monica Delgado, Katrina De Dios, Amiel Lapuebla,
Catherine Rose Lasam, Michael Sagcal, Mary Grace Tenorio, Gem Alexandria
Tuano, Winchell Saludares, Camilla Tabagan, Paulo Vinluan
Serbia: Marko Stamenkovic
Finland: Janne Vanhanen
Belgium: Tamara Lai
Puerto Rico:  Richard Monge
Spain:  Joan Leandre
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technical requirements
optimized for VGA resolution 1024x768
PC Pentium III 600 Mhz or better or comparable MAC
Soundcard, recommended 56K or 64K modem or faster,
browsers: MS Internet Explorer 5.5+ or Netscape Navigator 6.0+
Players/Plug-ins: essential the latest Flash 6,
Shockwave, Real Player, Quicktime

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copyright:
Violence Online Festival
www.newmediafest.org/violence
text, conception, programming, visalization
curator, organizer = Agricola de Cologne - copyright Š 2002 . All rights
reserved.
copyright Š of all art works of
the participating artists hold the authors or owners.

VioLENS Festival Tabor (Czech Republic)
www.cesta.cz
is organized by CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station Tabor)
all rights Š by authors and owners.
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contacts:
Press
press@newmediafest.org
Violence Online Festival
violence@newmediafest.org
CESTA/Violens Festival Tabor
cesta@mbox.vol.cz