When Paradigms Collide

In the face of growing global crises, it seems advisable to take a step back and revise existing paradigms of our thinking and acting. Ecological, systemic approaches and questions about diversity and sustainability are also becoming more and more urgent in terms of technology and digitization. The mur.at network of critical artists, programmers, designers amongst other humans tries to develop possible solutions through artistic, practical and discursive work. Local activities in Graz, Austria are paired with global networking and exchange with mutual organisations, festivals and collectives. Worklab sessions, open virtual residencies, discussion rounds and group work result in the online exhibition "When paradigms collide" bringing together creative interventions that re-evaluate our status quo, question current systems and propose new perspectives for possible, highly speculative and anticipated preferrable futures. Featured artists include: Fabian Kühfuss, Azahara Cerezo, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay and collectives FormatC/Hacklab01 (Dina Karadžić (FormatC), Vedran Gligo (Hacklab01), Dreaming beyond AI (Nushin Yazdani, Meera Ghani, Sarah Diedro Jordão, Ivo Bisseck, R. Buse Çetin). All works are under development in close cooperation between the artists and mur.at starting in 2021 with the "Pradigmenwechsel | Paradigmshifts" program. The online exhibition is part of TheWrong new digital art biennale 2021.

about

Since 1999 mur.at runs an DIY and artistic datafarm in Graz (Austria), serving webhosting for the arts/culture sector and promoting media/net/digital art with yearly worklabs, residencies, publications and exhibitions. Mur.at strongly advocates Open Source Software and Hardware and the sharing of knowledge in workshops and skillsharing sessions with the mur.at-community.

Organizer & curation: Andreas Zingerle
Design & Programming: Juan Linares Ceballos

mur.at

--- title: travel4U ---

travel4U

Travel4U offers surprising holiday experiences and you don't have to make an effort yourself. This trip takes place purely virtually, with a tablet or VR glasses the tourist can immerse himself in an artificial world. In addition to the virtual experiences, there are pop-up interventions or performances in public space, in which the art project is presented to a broad public. From a simple day hike to an alpine pasture with a real snack as a reward, a family trip to the forest playground, to a stay of several days at a lonely mountain lake. From the affordable, digital, entry-level experience to the all-inclusive 360 ° Virtual Reality (VR) panorama package. Interested parties can easily book a trip on the website or at a local travel agency. Pre-produced content is offered as a trial offer. But you can also choose the option of the passive live event, where an artist “travels” the journey live and the participants are taken along using 3D or 360 ° live video. For the more adventurous, there is also the option of controlling the travel route interactively using 3D live video and a game controller.

fabian kühfuß

Fabian Kühfuß born 1985 in Sindelfingen (D) Fabian Kühfuß live in Stuttgart (D). He finished his academic studies of visual art in the time- and computer based art class by Ulrich Wegenast at the Free Art Academy Baden-Württemberg in 2011. From 2011 ongoing he works as a freelancer media artist. 2012 Kühfuß got a project grant by the Karin-Abt-Straubinger-Stiftung. 2014 "Hillarious dialog with ALICE" won the Media in Space Category at the 27th Stuttgarter Filmwinter. In 2015 Kühfuß got a studio grant from the City of Stuttgart, which will least until 2019. From 2012 till today Kühfuß gives lectures for the new Media Class at the FKN. In 2015 he takes over the leadership for the Class from Ulrich Wegenast. 2013 Kühfuß did a Shortfilm Workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, together with Thomas Ch. Weber and Frieder Schlaich. He did Workshops for the Internatinal Festival of animated Film Stuttgart, [platform] no Budget, and at different Schools.

links

kuehfuss.com travel-4-u.eu travel4u.mur.at

--- title: mobile server ---

mobile server

In January 2020, Azahara Cerezo moved her artist's website to a small server of her own, with Internet access via SIM card and connection to a solar panel. Using a small mirror and a camera, the server takes selfies and displays them on the main page of the website, so that whoever enters it sees part of the elements that support it, that is, that support her work.

The first prototype was on view at the solo show Islas de arena at Bòlit Centre d'Art Contemporani (Girona). A more recent version, currently in use, has been developed within the program Summer sessions in Hangar (Barcelona).

Azahara Cerezo

Azahara Cerezo (Girona, 1988) addresses contradictions in the territory’s singularity and in/visibility relations between urban forms, globalizing processes and technical tools. Reappropriation and displacement strategies are used to shape (often online) actions, experimental videos and installations. Her projects are frequently linked to the production in the frame of artistic residencies.

links

azaharacerezo.com/server.html

--- title: notes on autonomy ---

notes on autonomy

In 2021 we are conducting a series of research productions projecting autonomy of network art to find if/how digital art can be independent from institutional and/or corporate physical infrastructures (e.g. off-grid, powered by renewables, recycled hardware, automated content, etc.). In the context of recent digital centralization and the increasingly corporate Internet, we are looking to indicate and promote new methods of radical, engaged and decentralized instances of art-work as a plethora of active, critical and ethical actions in the wider digital ecosystem. Our current Work In Progress project is compiling an open-ended open access FLOSS-based automated artist book about digital projects aiming to radically reduce, optimize or even circumvent traditional and physical art dependencies, methodologically interleaved with our existing infrastructure project pivilion.net.

We are presenting our project methods in building an automated crawler-based artist book, continuously re-compiling a web collection of digital sustainability projects. Our workshop methods are transdisciplinary and collaborative, based on the hacktivist ethos, new media experiment, permissive licensing, and horizontal collective work. The session is open for everyone to contribute sources and / or practice the coding aspect (HTML/CSS, Python and JavaScript). The goal is to collaboratively build a publication that includes participants' projects and promotes digital autonomy and networks decentralization.

Dina Karadžić

Dina Karadžić (1986) mastered in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb, 2012.A member of Croatian Association of Professional Artists since 2018, a Web-BasedMedia Alumni at Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Art Director of Format C art org(an artist organization focused on digital art, experimental multimedia research andcollaborative creation). Active as a volunteer, an organizer and an artist in theareas of visual | digital | net art and non-profit culture.

Vedran Gligo

Vedran Gligo (1984) is a self–taught DIY hacker / artist / cultural organizer.Strongly applying open source principles in everyday life and practice and workingto empower the local community by holding free and open digital workshops inZagreb’s Autonomous Cultural Center through the hacklab01 project which heco-founded in 2009. Practicing in the fields of open source, promoting the adoptionof GNU / Linux, glitch art, large scale online collaborative art, independentculture production, (h)ac(k)tivism (...).

links

noa.mur.at hrformatc.hr/j3d1n4 v3d.space

--- title: Dreaming beyond AI ---

dreaming beyond ai

AI technologies reinforce existing injustices and discrimination. Decision-making processes are increasingly being outsourced to algorithmic systems - by the police or in court, in schools and in job application procedures, in government offices and at border crossings & more. We present you a collaborative platform on AI & society — Dreaming Beyond AI. It is a space for critical and constructive knowledge, visionary fiction & speculative art and community-organising.

Dreaming Beyond AI's concept was birthed by Nushin Yazdani and Buse Çetin, but influenced and inspired by the works, thoughts, tireless love, care, and tenacity of many incredible feminist voices.

The web platform is designed and coded by Iyo Bisseck, and the communication strategy has been created by Sarah Diedro. Special advisors for Dreaming Beyond AI are Sarah Chander and Dr. Nakeema Stefflbauer. Meera Ghani supported with the overall flow of the project, and Victoria Kure-Wu has worked on the UX quality assessment. Tadleeh provided the music for the Pluriverse.

Dreaming Beyond AI has been created in cooperation with ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Sabiha Keyif and Nina Frohm), and supported by Humanity in Action and the Alfred Landecker Foundation within the framework of the Landecker Democracy Fellowship as well as mur.at.

Nushin Yazdani

Nushin Isabelle Yazdani (she/her) is a transformation designer, artist and AI design researcher. She works at the intersection of machine learning, design justice and intersectional feminist practices, and writes about the systems of oppression of the present and the possibilities of just and free futures.

At Superrr Lab , Nushin works as a project manager on creating feminist tech policies. With her collective dgtl fmnsm , she curates and organizes community events at the intersection of technology, art and design. Nushin has been lecturing at different universities, is a Landecker Democracy Fellow and a member of the Design Justice Network . She has been selected as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2021.

Raziye Buse Çetin

R. Buse Çetin is an AI researcher, consultant and creative. Her work revolves around ethics, impact, and governance of AI systems and it is grounded in intersectional feminism. Buse is the co-founder of the AI research, advocacy and art platform Dreaming Beyond AI . Buse's work aims to demystify the intersectional impact of AI technologies through research, policy advocacy and art for the general public and various organisations.

Buse worked with AI policy think tank The Future Society as an AI policy researcher, and she is a member of the AI Commons - a knowledge hub for AI-driven problem-solving for the benefit of communities. Buse is the editorial lead of Civic Data Library of Context project of Civic Software Foundation and also works with IEEE SA's AI-driven Innovation for Cities and People initiative.

Buse was in 100 Briliant Women in AI Ethics 2020 list and #35under35 European Leaders by Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. Buse speaks Turkish, French, English and Arabic; and holds a master's degree in International Public Management from Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA).

Meera Ghani

Meera Ghani (she/her) After 2 decades of working in activism and non-profit work on climate justice, racial equity, children's rights, and human rights across her native Pakistan and now home Europe, Meera realized that we couldn't move the needle on the things that matter if we couldn't take the time to heal our relationships with each other. This led Meera down the path of developing her theory and practices around what she calls a /Culture of Care/. Her goal in this work is to see people, communities, organisations and movements become greater by centring empathy and building systems of accountability, support and /care/.

She's a community organazier and as a parent, she wants a world where care, abundance, and love are the operating frames for all.

Sarah Diedro Jordão

Sarah Diedro Jordão (she/her) Sarah Diedro Jordão is a Communications Strategist, a Social Justice activist and a Podcast producer. She's a former UN Women Youth Ambassador, served as a Strategic advisor to the North-South Center of the Council of Europe on Intersectionality in policy-making and works as a freelance Consultant in Storytelling, Communications Strategy, Event moderation and educational workshop creation.

Iyo Bisseck

Iyo Bisseck (she/her) is a France-based designer, researcher and artist. She holds a BA in Media Interaction design from ECAL in Lausanne, and an MA in Virtual and Augmented Reality research from Institut Polytechnique Paris. Her research project focuses on biases in the modeling and perception of virtual agents. She is interested in power dynamics in artistic creation and production, which is why she is involved in projects such as the Black Film Festival Zurich, Dreaming Beyond AI or collectives such as Good for a Gxrl. With Elise Connor, Mat Avogadro and Viviane Morey, she co-curated the "Subversive.ve.s" exhibition at the MUDAC in Lausanne, looking at how design can question gender and power. In her work, she is interested in the biases showing the link between technologies and systems of domination and explores the limits of virtual worlds to create alternative narratives.

links

dreamingbeyond.ai nushinyazdani.com iyo.io

--- title: planchette bot ---

Planchette Bot

Conversations with the departed greats

Recent events in the world have been showing that nations and cultures are tending to turn inward for answers instead of talking to each other. In what possible ways, then, one can imagine a more dialogic society that aims to sustain its (eco)systems and mechanisms through reciprocity and exchanges not only with others outside of its borders and fences but also with the historical figures that are associated with radical social and political reform representing collective wisdom and knowledge? Such conversations and extended dialogues could be arguably considered a therapeutic practice for the current crises. When a society seeks answers to many critical questions, it may consider reconnecting with these historical figures for motivation and guidance. Contemporary societies seem to be at a loss about taking clear directions while facing urgent issues such as climate breakdown and mass migration. As a result they turn to nationalism, protectionism, conservatism and other counterproductive forces for vain answers. How can we tap into the knowledge base of the forefathers of the societies – global figures, social reformers, political and religious leaders? How can their departed voices be brought back into the troubled contemporary times for leadership and direction? How can we know their opinion about the present crises? In the tradition of Planchette, dead persons are brought back to life through a sensate mediator. Drawing on the history of the Planchette and other devices spiritualists claimed could be used to communicate with the dead, and inspired by these para-methodologies, the project Planchette Bot re-creates the aura of few of the global figures in automated voice and hologram. The select historical figures include M. K. Gandhi, Malcom X, and Nelson Mandela, among others. Their personalities are recreated by incorporating AI and Machine Learning from the data sets of their writings, images, audio, video and other archival materials and historical documents through rigorous research. The use of neural networks, Machine Learning models and speech synthesis are central to rebuild their persona in automated voice and visuals. The project outcomes include a series of live performances where in-depth conversations with few of these leading lights are staged inviting sensate audiences to participate in.

You can find the program for these events on the main page of the website.

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a contemporary artist, researcher, writer and theorist. Working across diverse media, such as sound, text, and moving image, and incorporating various technologies such as sensors, AI, and Machine Learning, Chattopadhyay produces large-scale installations and live performance addressing urgent issues such as the climate crisis, human intervention in the environment and ecology, migration, race, and decoloniality. Conceptually, Chattopadhyay’s work inquires into the materiality, objecthood, site, and technological mediation of lived experiences, and considers the aspects of subjectivity, contemplation, mindfulness, and transcendence inherent in listening. His artistic practice is deeply committed to social and environmental activism, and intends to shift the emphasis from object to situation, and from immersion to discourse in the realm of sound and media arts as necessary actant. As an artist, Chattopadhyay is an attentive and (com)passionate listener of the world around him, endeavouring to connect the disparate resonances across the borders and cultures, past and present, tradition and hyper-modernity, through an activating practice advocating for reciprocity and equality in the contemporary societies.

links

Interviews of participating artists on the Netzrauschen podcast, the mur.at podcast covering various topics relating to digital society, art and (free) technologies.

Fabian Kuhfuss

Azahara Cerezo

Dina Karadžić
& Vedran Gligo

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay