<nettime> TECH_NICKS

[tech_nicks@noaltgirls.org]

Please feel free to forward and circulate to lists and those interested.

Bookings officially begin Monday 22nd of May when our printed publicity
arrives, but we'll start taking email bookings immediately:
tech_nicks@noaltgirls.org

If you would like to receive printed information please email us your postal
address and how many leaflets you would like sent to you.

Lina and Lisa

:::::::::::::::::::::
TECH_NICKS
:::::::::::::::::::::

Tech_nicks is a long hot summer programme of workshops, presentations and
collaborative projects led by artists working with communication
technologies.  

Come in to learn, discuss, research, contribute your knowledge and
resources, find collaborators and develop your own projects.  Be prepared!
your participation is expected!

Tech_nicks are open working sessions.  You are welcome to visit at any
time, and the mobile lounge will always be available for reading and
research, but workshops or production may be in progress.  If you
seriously want to meet an artist, participate in a project, develop a new
skill or know more about one of the themes, please book a place on one of
the scheduled sessions. ___________________ BOOKING INFO:

All presentations: £3 / £2 concessions unless otherwise specified
All workshops: £7 / £5 concessions unless otherwise specified

Workshop and presentation bookings:
call: 07946 378905
email: tech_nicks@noaltgirls.org
Booking in advance is essential for all activities with limited places.
Pay on the day, cash or cheques, no cards.
Please arrive half an hour in advance of workshops, as there may be a
waiting list.

http://www.noaltgirls.org/tech_nicks

join the mailing list:
tech_nicks@noaltgirls.org
____________________
@
The Lux Gallery, London
Saturday 10 June to Sunday 25 June
Opening Times from 12noon daily

1.
Saturday 10th June to Monday 12 June
Everything for Nothing!  Blank and Jeron and Redundant Technology
Initiative.
Redundant Technology Initiative (RTI) specialise in collecting, rebuilding
and re-purposing thrown-out computers for artistic, social and strategic
purposes. Blank and Jeron's work recycles hardware, software, content and
human effort using home-grown programming and freely available applications.
RTI will be preparing an installation to be presented in the Netherland
later in June. Blank and Jeron will be building our very own Borg: a
data-gathering intelligence machine made from the collective processing
power of a multitude of 386 computers.

Workshops each day, Saturday to Monday

14.00 - 17.00        OSAS: Operating System Apprentice Scheme
2 hour sessions shadowing our artists while they ready 36 486 computers with
the Linux operating system. Reservations essential (£3/£2)

14.00 - 18.00        Linux Lab.
If you think you can get started on your own, bring in your old machine and
give it a new lease of life.   We offer some spare monitors, online and
print resources for small and large Linux distributions, plus the know-how
of our super-geek special guest trouble-shooter team.  Reservations
essential (£3/£2)

Presentations:

Saturday 10 June

12.00 - 13.00         Introduction by RTI and Blank and Jeron to the Linux
operating system,  and the two art-works in progress
           
18.-00 - 19.00        RTI talk about Access Space and their installation
projects.

19.30 - 21.00        I N F L I G H T Talk: Fly SKYJACK, play CYBERJACK
Tech-nicks  welcomes Johan Grimonprez for an INFLIGHT discussion in the
Mobile Lounge. In colaboration with Anthony D'Offay Gallery

INFLIGHT has all the right ingredients for a a regular airline magazine:
motion discomfort bag, safety instructions, inflight entertainment, shopping
specials, passenger information, plus a series of feature articles, as well
as some uncommercials & subvertisements.  But inside, INFLIGHT tells quite a
different story: the visual and written account of airplane hijacking, seen
through the history of its indeterminate relationship with news media.
INFLIGHT is conceived by Johan Grimonprez and designed by Pandiscio inc and
will be available throughout Tech-Nicks from the mobile lounge

Sunday 11 June     

12.00 - 13.00        Blank and Jeron present their work, direct you towards
free software applications and ask what we can learn from the Borg.

Monday 12 June

18.00 - 19.00        Final demonstration/presentation of  work done over the
weekend (free)

2.
Tuesday 13 June to Thursday 15 June
Software Summer School
We wondered what might happen if we tried to create a new discipline -
"software studies".  We might not finish, but this is a start.  Explore with
us the social, economic, psychological and aesthetic values and assumptions
embedded in our familiar software tools.  Ask how software determines our
thoughts, creative and working practices.   Go deep into the promises of the
Open Source movement, and ask if artist produced tools and the idea of
"social software" produces an opportunity for different kinds of involvement
in technicality, and can open up the processes of  'innovation'.

Tuesday 13 June

14.00 - 19.00        Retrograde Renegades
Try out our reconfigured systems: the multiple-mouse collaboration
competition, the rust-bucket storage device and participate in our Classic
vs. G4 death match speed trial.

19.00 - 21.00        Futureproof obsolesence
Our panel propose their most influential moment of paradigm-shift in
computing development. Line-up includes: Graham Harwood (artist) , Simon
Pope and Colin Green (I/0/D), Blank and Jeron (artists)  Stephen Emmott
(programmer) , David Mandl (programmer and writer).

Wednesday 14 June

16.00 - 19.00        Linker Rally
In 1999, the artist group Mongrel made Linker - a software tool that aimed
to provide an easy way to combine text, sound, images and video.  Since the
v.1 release, Linker has been used by people in many places... artists in
Belgrade, students in France, young mothers group in Bristol... to name a
few.  The Rally collects them together, many presented by their makers.

19.00 - 21.00        Social Software
Presentations and discussions with: Graham Harwood (artist),  Roos Eisma
(programmer at the Society of Old and New Media working on applications for
educational tools and people with learning disabilities), special guest open
source software developers.

Thursday 15 June

17.00 - 19.00        Interface and Interaction
Presentationa and discussions with: Richard Wright (artist, writer) ,
Matthew Fuller (artist, writer), Tom Betts (artist and programmer), Jon
Pollard, technical collaborator on Tomoko Takahshi's "Word Perfect2 project,
plus software criticism open-mic slot.

19.00 - 21.00        Life machine simulation
Shut down the Summer School with the unmissable chance to be a binary switch
for an evening. With your help, we will be setting up a human simulation of
Life: the cellular automata, not the headache. One hundred people needed.
Bring your friends. Its free.

Post-simulation, open source refreshments provided by Mark Greco and Simon
Pope.


3.
Friday 16 June

The Richmedia Revolution

12.30 - 17.00     
Flash For All

A workshop with Marie Persson (OVEN Digital)
A unique opportunity to get your hands on the infinite possibilities of this
revolutionary tool for creating animation on th web: Macromedia Flash.
Beginners welcome. Booking essential.

18.30 The Character in Your Browser Window: New Animation Genres

Macromedia Flash and streaming technologies are providing a platform for an
entirely new genre of animation. Bringing together previously remote fields
of web design, animation and the delivery of dynamic content, Flash
developers are redefining approaches to motion, character development,
interactivity,  composition, rhythm and the narrative. Our panelists examine
today¼s richmedia landscape and its¼ implications.

Panel includes Nik Roope and Tom Calthrop (OVEN Digital), chaired by Lina D.
Russell

21.00 - late

Flash Windows: A programe of the best of richmedia sites on the web today,
on the Lux Gallery windows after dark, in the gallery before.

4.
Saturday 17 June to Monday 19 June
Tuning the Net - Streaming Media with r a d i o q u a l i a and friends

Real-time delivery of audio and video content direct from producers to
target audience has become a reality with streaming media. Tuning the Net
provides a multi-tasking workspace environment for audio, video and
streaming text production and distribution, skilling-up and swapping
information.  Get familiar with the quirky characteristics of the net and
the essential questions of access to bandwidth, server facilities and
production tools.  r a d i o q u a l i a is an on-line art collaboration
experimenting with concepts of broadcasting and the net.

Activities each day, Saturday to Monday

14.00 - 21.30        rad.spc.org

Displaced London streaming group - Radiospace - guest at the Lux. Bring your
own audio to add to the mix... we'll be going out live (free).

18.00 - 21.30        Open Production Studio

In October 2000, Amsterdam will be hosting the inaugural festival of
streaming media: net.congestion.   Your streaming media works will be
needed!  Use the Open Production Studio to tell us what you are doing and
fill in gaps in your knowledge (free).

21.30 - midnight        rqtv
           
A 3 hour TV station for going out globally on the web and micro-locally on
the Lux Gallery windows. Bring your lo-fi, lo/no-budget contributions.  In
collaboration with Vacuum video streaming collective (free).

Workshops and presentations

Saturday 17 June

12.00 - 14.00        Presentation: Contructionmechanisms
Introduction to streaming media form, content and tools.  We look at the
technical requirements and review artists' intiatives.

14.30 - 18.00        Workshop: Producing sound and video for streaming media
(6 participants)

Sunday 18 June 

12.00 - 14.00    Presentation: Seeing more, seeing less, seeing better
video on the net: possibilites & compression technologies. How can
net.video or net.tv differ  from existing digital moving image work?


14:30 - 15:30    Discussion: word bending
an introduction to text streaming, and discussion about how it can be used
to critique the role of writing and narrative forms within streaming media.
With Katie Cooke.


16.00 - 18.00    Text streaming workshop
       (6 participants) (£3/£2)

5.
Tuesday 20 - Thursday 22 June
WFTP - Wireless For The People!

WFTP - Wireless for the People looks at the needs and methods for truly
independent communcation systems.  Thinking critically about how
infrastructure dependent we are,  we've set the scope as  renewable energy
sources, all kinds of wireless communication technologies, and the social
and political aspects of building and introducing home-grown technologies.
These three days will be a forum for dialogue, exchange of experience plus
knowledge and resource building on technical, social and legal methods for
many ways of being wireless.

Each Day, Tuesday to Thursday

12.00 - 18.30    
The Lux Gallery becomes a base for research and working meetings.  If you
have an interest, or some relevant experience to offer please contact the
organisers.  Demonstrations of the Insular Technologies system, mobile Fuel
Cell power sources and solar energy systems will be available (times to be
arranged).    

Presentations

Tuesday 20  19.00 - 21.00
Introductory presentations from: Wam Kat (Balkan Sunflowers) Howard Jones
(iHAC - International Humanitarian Aid Communications), Marko Peljhan
(Makrolab, Projekt Atol, Insular Technologies), Rupert  Gammon (renewable
energy expert), Sam de Silva  (artist and environmental campaigner).

Wednesday 21June  19.00 - 21.00
Problem-solving session.   Our panel will respond to scenarios, real or
imagined, in which wireless, mobile and self-sustainable communications
systems would be required. Please bring examples of situations with need.

Thursday 22 June  19.00 - 20.30
Summing up  three days research results of working meetings..

21.00 onwards
Get in training with the AAA (Association of Autonomous Astronauts).  A
celebration of  the end of the AAA Five Year Plan promoting community space
travel.   Demonstrations, role-playing exercises, alien radio transmissions
and other very special activities.  (£5/£3)

 
6.
Friday 23 June, Saturday 24 June, Sunday 25 June
Living Mute - with special guests RTmark, JODI and Alexei Shulgin and the
386DX Cyberpunk Rock Band

Since 1995 Mute Magazine has supplied the international media arts community
with news, views, interviews and commentary on the intersection of art,
culture, communication tehnologies, digital media and all its attendant
social and political issues.  To close Tech_nicks at the Lux, we hand over
to a Living Mute for which the editorial team and regular writers will mimic
on-page formats and present off-page, on-stage activities in inimitable Mute
style.


Fri 23rd June

18:30-20.30 Xobjects seminar. Network theorists Jamie King, Jan Abrams, Ted
Byfield and others discuss the immanent ideologies of network technologies.

21.00  We hand over to Alexei Shulgin and the 386DX Cyberpunk Rock Band for
a special performance of our favourite 386 hits.  A launch event for the
upcoming CD published by Staalplaat.


Saturday 24th June

13.00 - 17.00 Mapping Globalisation. Open floor debate including invite
speakers on the nature of globalisation. A map will be drawn during the
discussion (free).

17:30-19.00 Artists Jodi in conversation with Mute.

20:00 onwards: Mute Muzak. Hari Kunzru spins cutting edge electronic tracks
in a lounge-y environment while videos of nuclear weapons tests are
projected onto the gallery windows in film gathered by the Land Use
Interpretation Centre. (£5 / £3)


Sunday 25th June

14.00 - 16.00     Presentation by rtMark and discussion.   Meet the
quintessential media interventionists and anti-corporate activists.   Their
target sectors are getting wider, from the retail industry hit by the "The
Barbie Liberation Front", to computer games in their homo-erotic hack of
sim-copter, and most recently the legal structure of the internet itself in
the etoy/etoys domain name dispute. For this afternoon,  Mute writers probe
and question their tactics, rhetorics and underlying motivations.

17.00-19.00 Annual General Meeting of the Necronautical Society. Founded to
foster poetic approaches to death via technology, the Necronautical Society
will hear depositions from its Committee Members. After the presentations, a
debate will follow (free)

20:00 onwards Fallout Radio session devised by sound engineer Kate Rich.

Throughout the three days, display systems repurposed by Simon Worthington
will be on display on monitors in the gallery, Jodi's work will be
accessible via computer and Kate Rich will be generating constant fallout.

@
Site Gallery and Redundant Technology Initiative, Sheffield
Opening times from 12.00
Tuesday 27 June to Sunday 2 July

Shuttle between our two Sheffield venus for the full broad-band to
narrow-band perspective!

7.  Irational Videos
At Site Gallery, a programme of workshops, presentations and production
activity will be
open to all while the Irational.org group produce three video projects.
You are invited to become a part of the Irational video team during this
intensive week by lending your skills to the production of anti-promotional
videos for Irational.org, and two related groups: Technologies To The People
and Mejor Vida Corporation.

8. Vuk Cosic
Meanwhile at Access Space Vuk Cosic, retired member of  the world famous
ASCII art ensemble will be in residence.  The ASCII pensioner will be
delving into the RTI warehouse to re-build the mythical ASCII videowall and
other low-power systems.   Drop in daily.

Tuesday 27 June,  
12.00 - 17.30    Introductory workshop (at Site Gallery)
Digital Video in a Day with NoAltGirls: demystifying video production and
post production by producing a digital video in an afternoon.
(6 places)

19.00 -21.00        Introductions by irational.org , Vuk Cosic and our host
venues.
            (at Site Gallery)

Each day
Wednesday 28 June to Sunday 1 July

12.00 - 18.00         Irational Studio: Irational.Org invites participation
in the making of the irational.org anti-promo video  (at Site Gallery)

17.00 - 18.00        Drop-in  at Access Space  (free)
           
Wednesday 28 June

18.00 - 19.30        Rachel Baker - introduction to streaming media for
would-be webcasters and radio afficionados  (at Site Gallery)
                   
Thursday 29 June

18.00 - 19.30        Net Art goes on holiday:
discussion on the state of independent  artservers.
           Participants include irationalists, Vuk Cosic, tech-nicks team,
           RTI, and special guest Armin Medosch (at Site Gallery)

Friday 30 June

18.00 - 19.30        Heath Bunting - Cellular Pirate Radio
           integrating online audio with onair  FM broadcast  (at Access
Space)

Saturday 1 July

12.00 - 18.00        Irational toolkit tour: a look at the conceptualisation
and realisation of an             online groupware resource (Access Space)

18.00 - 19.30    Irational.Org and friends websurf
   Irationalists , Vuk Cosic and friends  present  favourite links and
resources on the web (Access Space)

Sunday 2  July

13.00 - 14.30        Vuk Cosic presents... (at Access Space)

15.00 - 17.00        Irational.org's guide to outdoor eating

18.00 - 20.00        Final presentation of Irational .org videos (at Site
Gallery)        

@
Hull Time Based Arts, Time Base, Hull
Saturday 8th July to Sunday 16 July
Tech_nicks in Hull assembles two working groups over two weekends.  Our
residency at Time Base will occupy the production, exhibition and
administrative areas in a seamless whole for discussion, organisation and
production.

9.
Saturday 8 July, Sunday 9 July, Monday 10 July
Live and Direct - Media Pranksters Workshop

As artists' interventions move increasingly from traditional forms of public
space to media space, Hull Time Based Arts'  ROOT 2000 festival, 20 - 22
October 2000 will be devoted to pranks, scams and interventions aimed at new
and old media.  Live and Direct is a precursor think-tank and training
ground, looking at methods, tools, strategies and, inevitably, ethics.

Guest tutors include:  rtmark, Association of Autonomous Astronauts, Richard
Pierre Davies  (Mongrel), Biotech Hobbyists, plus others from art, media,
culture and politics.

Saturday 8th July
10.00 - 12.00             Introductory presentations by all participating
groups

13.00 - 18.00            Association of Autonomous Astronauts Media
Invasions workshop.  With examples from the AAA First Five Year Plan: media
liason skills, role playing exercises, self-publicity and more.  (places
limited)

Sunday  9 July
12.00 - 15.00            rtmark corporate sabotage workshop.  2 members from
rtmark speak from experience about intervening in retail, mass media and new
media.  

16.00 - 18.00        Ethics, Alliances, Representation and Security.
Discussion session on the hard political questions.

Monday 10 July
12.00 - 19.00        Pranksters at work
A working day in which workshop participants can hone up their skills with
one-to-one contact from our guests.  Plus follow-up discussions, working
meetings and planning for Root 2000.

10.
Wednesday 12 July to Sunday 16 July
Timebase TV
Hull Time Based Arts has an extensive video production facility that
supports and promotes artists working with film and video.  Now, with media
streaming technology could the idea of an independent artists' TV station
become a reality?  These training sessions and pilot programmes are a good
chance to find out.  Plus we'll be evaluating other strategies for
distributing video among local communities or interest groups.  Come and
brush up your skills and join the team generating content on the fly.

Guests and collaborators include:  elab (Latvia), David Garcia (NL), James
Stevens (bak.spc.org and Vacuum, London), Cafe Society (Hull), Mike Stubbs
(Scotland), Hull Community Radio (Hull), NoAltGirls.

Wednesday 12 July
10.00 - 17.00        Digital Video in a Day with NoAltGirls
           (6 participants)

Thursday 13 July   
10.00 - 12.00        Introduction to Streaming technologies
           (6 participants)

Friday 14 July - Sunday 16 July
10.00 - 17.00        Open Production Studio  (free)
18.00 -  20.00        Time Base TV goes live on the web

11.
@
PVA
Bridport, Dorset
Biotech Beach
To finish off, Tech_nicks goes to the seaside as guests of the PVA; an
artist run media lab in an old library building, in a medium-sized market
town in rural Dorset.  Responding to the presence of both our natural
surroundings and this wired-up resource, we will be collecting a group of
biotech hobbyists; people concerned about the new industries of genetic
mapping, patenting, modification and the implementation of new varieties of
life. Plus we'll be exploring ways in which if we have something to say, we
may be able to say it.


Monday July 24     
12.00 - 14.00        Artists introductory presentations
15.00 - 16.30        How to make a radio station
An introduction by Heath Bunting on how to make a webcasting radio station
with broadcast capability.

Tuesday July 25    
10.00 - 18.00         Digital video in a Day
NoAltGirls with Carol Wright (6 participants)

Wednesday July 26  
10.00 - 13.00        Media streaming workshop
Micz Flor helps Bridport get familiar and skill-up on self-generated media
distribution.

Thursday July 27

19.30 - 21.30        Talking Digital Special on Biotechnology
PVA's series of public talks presents a special edition on Biotechnology.
With: Heath Bunting: Biotech Hobbyist magazine, Olga Samborska
(Ukraine/Czech Republic), and guests from the local area and national media.

Saturday July 29   
09.00 - 17.00        Visit the information stall at Dorchester farmers
market

Sunday July 30
12.30 - 17.30        Eat well with us at the biotech cafe!  Wash down your
Sunday lunch or teatime treat with video documentation, propaganda
production and further discussion on the weeks events.  Webcast live, too.

Mobile Lounge
The De Geuzen Foundation, an Amsterdam-based collective of artists  who work
on collaborative projects, have designed our "mobile lounge" - a reading,
research and relaxation area which will accommodate the constantly
accumlating archive of knowledge and materials generated by Tech_nicks. The
Lounge will be constructed and available at all of our venues.

Can't Make It?
Get our bandwidth-light, content-heavy documentation downloads!  Updated
Daily! Surf to: http://www.NoAltGirls.org/tech_nicks/catreader
to download the special browser that will bring you multimedia packages that
reviews, summarises, collects key information and provides a flavour of each
day's activity.
[safetycat/catreader logo]


Tech_nicks is a Media Art Projects production, programmed by Lina
Dzuverovic-Russell (with support from OVEN Digital) and Lisa Haskel.
Support team: Vera Midic and Milica Rankovic.

Venue Addresses

The Lux
2 - 4 Hoxton Square
London N1
020 7684 0201
www.lux.org.uk

Site Gallery
1 Brown Street
Sheffield S1  2BS
0114 281 2077
www.site-map.u-net.com

Redundant Technology Initiative Access Space
1 Sidney Street
Sheffield S1 4RG
0114 249 5588
www.lowtech.org

Hull Time Based Arts
Time Base
42 High Street
Hull HU1  1PS
01482 216446
www.timebase.org

PVA
The Old Library 
51 east street  
Bridport  Dorset  DT6 3JX
t/f:  01308 459071
www.pva-org.demon.co.uk

Catch the stream on:
http://rad.spc.org/tech_nicks.ram

Tech_nicks has been supported by the Arts Council of England National
Touring Programme.  Hosting by bak.spc.org.  With thanks to all our venues,
contributors and other collaborators, especially irational.org whose project
in July 1999 - Luxsquat - provided groundwork for this series.  Additional
thanks to Cathy Davies for increasing the value of our money.


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