thoughtsandtalks

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Winter Camp is an event, organized by the Institute of Network Cultures and will take place 3-7 March ‘09 in Amsterdam. Network Cultures Winter Camp will be a mix of presentations and work spaces with an emphasis on getting things done. It will be a four-day program of work spaces and plenary presentations, in which a dozen networks can work on their specific current topics. (more…)

The third international Upgrade gathering will be taking place in Skopje, Macedonia, September 11-14, 2008.

Chain Reaction is the annual exhibition and symposium presented by the Upgrade! International organization for 2008. The gathering, which will involve curators and artists from the Upgrade nodes that are working in 27 cities, and which is aimed at both fostering inter-network communication and collaboration as well as exposure of art and ideas to a broad public audience. In Skopje the gathering incorporates an exhibition, symposium and publication as well as a programme of screenings and performances. (more…)

The okno-session on sustainable networks spreads out over the totality of the xmedk-media ecologies week, from april 20 till april 25.
This workshop week at PAF, St.Erme/FR is the final touch of a month-long research into sustainable meshnetworks. It’s the cherry on the cake of a long research.

At the St.Erme/Okno studio we organise mini-workshops that cover following topics:
- setting up a mesh network with the asus-routers
- flashing the asus routers with linux (kamikaze)
- connecting arduino’s to the asus
- the choice of sensors and connecting them to the arduinos
- reading and interpreting the sensordata with python
- power the network with alternative energy:
- build a custommade windmill for the physical location
- integrate existing solarpanels
- run artistic projects on the sustainable network

pictures of the xmedk-st.erme-sessions:
http://thoughtsandtalks.so-on.be/photo-albums/
xmedk - xmedk-day3 - xmedk-day4/5
or you can download the pdf of the sustainable networks-report by clicking this link.

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What is RC
http://reseaucitoyen.be/
http://boum.no-ip.com/gmap/gmap.php

Reseau Citoyen is a Brussels project for a user-run wireless network via wi-fi. RC has an ideological approach in putting up a free and open network and is run on a voluntary basis.
The volunteers/developers provide the technological expertise and in a collaborative spirit make it available to the inhabitants of Brussels.

RC was initiated in 2000 by Yvan Markoff, Jean-Charles de Longueville (less active now in RC due to a law case) and Marie Anne; and was setup to develop a longterm cooperation/communication project for Africa (called bombolong).
At that time, mesh networking was relatively new.

A Meshnetwork
Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by ‘hopping’ from node to node until the destination is reached.
Mesh networks differ from other networks in that the component parts can all connect to each other via multiple hops, and they generally are not mobile. Mesh networks can be seen as one type of ad hoc network.
Mesh networks are self-healing: the network can still operate even when a node breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, a very reliable network is formed.
(decentralised: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_network)
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You define yourself as a digital materialist. Can you explain what you mean by this, and what is your artistic background.

Digital materialism is the fundamental concept for my audio-visual work: installations and performances. I see the digital computer not as a tool, but as a raw material for generating artworks, similar to stone, wood, iron and so on.
In a digital computer you have huge clusters of numbers, such as files and data. These numbers have no forms, and in order to perceptualize them we need to transform the numbers into sound, images, text, and so on. The important point is how to perceptualize the numbers inside the computer, how we transform them into their perceptual form. That is the basic approach for creating art.
People often say it is very important how to digitize something, but i think the most important point is how to perceptualize the digital itself. The raw material is only numbers, without any form, and the way we transform this raw materials into a perceptual form is the basic approach of my digital work.

Do you mean by this that an artist should see from start beyond the numbers a certain form of audio and visuals?

What is the starting point? The starting point are the numbers, not the physical world. Starting from the digital domain is the most important approach for the digital materialist. These numbers are some kind of conceptual material and than they transform into a concrete form.
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