Permission Taken at University of Birmingham, 2nd March – 30th May

I’m happy to announce that the second part of Permission Taken will be taking place from 2nd March – 30th May at the Bramall Music Building at the University of Birmingham

ptanimation

This exhibition displays work by Antonio Roberts created during his 2014/15 artist-residency at the University of Birmingham. Roberts focused on issues surrounding copyright, permission culture and art: issues which become ever more pertinent as online communities become more prolific and harder to police.

The exhibition includes gifs and videos created by Roberts and other artists using images from the Research and Cultural Collections. Whilst his practice focuses on digitally reusing and remixing archive material, Roberts uses his work to encourage audiences to engage with issues such as the ownership of art and intellectual property rights. In doing so, he highlights the possibilities of a future where Free Culture and Open Source ideologies are adopted.

The exhibition features work originally shown at Birmingham Open Media alongside a reworking of Dead Copyright made for this exhibition. Alongside the exhibition there will be a series of workshops as part of the Arts and Science Festival.

Remix Party photos

The Remix Party happened on 20th January to celebrate the closing of my exhibition, Permission Taken, at Birmingham Open Media.

Remix Party!

Throughout the night remixes art artwork from the University of Birmingham were displayed in the main gallery space whilst Ryan Hughes took on DJ duties with soundscapes and the occasional R&B hit. It was really interesting to see how all the artists approached the archives and selected materials to work with.

Remix Party!

Thanks to the following artists for taking part in the party:
Dan Hett, Lorna Mills, Ashley James Brown, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, Michaël Borras A.K.A. Systaime, Benjamin Berg, Michael Lightborne, Morehshin Allahyari, Daniel Salisbury, Carla Gannis, Faith Holland, Nick Briz, Daniel Temkin, Adam Ferriss, Víctor Arce, Chema Padilla, Kate Spence, Jessica Evans, Emily Haasch.

Remix Party!

All of their remixes will be available online shortly and you’ll even have the chance to make your own! Photos from the party can be seen on Flickr.

Remix Party!

Fin

Permission Taken at Birmingham Open Media officially closed on 23rd January 2016 after opening on October 23rd 2015. It was my first solo exhibition and I’m extremely grateful to Karen Newman/Birmingham Open Media, Clare Mullett/Research and Cultural Collections and Arts Council England for helping it be a great one.

Permission Taken

The next iteration of the exhibition will be coming in March. Until then do check out Common Property at Jerwood Space for more work from myself and other artists following similar themes

University of Birmingham Artist in Residence

I’m happy to announce that I have been accepted onto the University of Birmingham’s Artist in Residence programme for 2014-2015.

The University of Birmingham‘s Artist in Residence programme provides artists with a studio on campus and a unique chance to engage with the diverse range of cultural collections held here. The artists work alongside the University’s curators, conservators and researchers with the opportunity to forge new interdisciplinary relationships. They also work with the cultural engagement team, delivering a series of workshops and lectures to staff, students and the public, bringing an exciting active aspect to the University’s cultural offer.

Over the next year (August 2014 to June 2015) I’ll be working with the Culture and Collections department to look at the issues of copyright, resue, and reapprorpriation and how it affects their extensive collections. Below is an excerpt from my proposal:

Archive Remix

archiveremix
As more people share their work online many questions have arisen over copyright, patents, intellectual property and remixing of artworks. Writers and artists such as Lawrence Lessig and Phil Morton have, through their work, argued that placing restrictive terms on an artwork prohibits creativity, rather than stimulates it.

In my practice I encourage engagement by releasing my work under so-called Copyleft licences (such as Creative Commons and GPL) that encourage the work to be reused, reinterpreted and remixed whilst still retaining authorship over original works. I also freely release all code, documentation and sources.

There have been many high profile cases of artists and institutions adopting similar approaches, such as The British Library releasing its image library into the Public Domain in 2013, and the Google Art Project, which, since 2011, has allowed users to view in very high-quality collections of artworks from 134 museums.

Through the residency I aim to work with the University to find effective methods for opening their collections to the public for them to be used, reused and remixed whilst still maintaining the integrity and reputation of the the University and Copyright holders.


Although I have proposed some outcomes for the residency – new tools built for remixing artworks, hosting a remix party, an exhibition of remixed works – this will all likely change as the residency progresses. You can follow the progress of my residency over at Archive Remix, and the academics amongst y’all can also view my Zotero library. Any major developments will also be posted here.

If y’all would like to talk about ideas, collaborations, meet me IRL in the studio, or just throw some suggested reading my way please do get in touch.

Dirty New Media

Dirty New Media took place on Thursday 21st March at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts. It was one of the most adventurous exhibitions that I’ve curated!

Thanks go out to:

Here’s a list of all of the works/pieces/artists included in the programme, should you want to check out more:

Exhibition

Benjamin Gaulon [aka Recyclism]- KindleGlitched
Jeff Donaldson – 16bit Edition Glitch Scarf – source: Atari ST emulator read error
Dec Ackroyd – Cityscape #46
Jason Soliday – Harbinger Variations
Charlotte Frost and Rob Myers – #arthistory
Kate Pemberton – Tacert
Jamie Boulton – C:\Users\5629a7\Pictures\IDDisplay.jpg
URRRGH – __KWEEN_CLARISSURRRGH, __YOUCHOOB_4_EVA, __ALADDINZ_CAT
Stef Lewandowski – Data Necklace

Super Special Essay

Shawne Holloway + Steven Hammer – 1_approach.dnm: (inter)active viewership in dirty new media. The whole text can be read in the Dirty New Media programme

Lectures

Jon Cates – WTF?! is D1RTY N3W M3DI∆?!
(For those that didn’t get one, Jon’s PDF, 1337 ¥³4Γ$ øƒ D1RTY N3W M3DI∆: 2005 – 2012 CH1C∆Gø, can be downloaded from GL1TCH.US)
Dan O’Hara – An Irregular and Spasmodic History of Glitches and other Systemic Stutterings

Screenings

(in order)
Modulate- O>L>S
Nick Kegeyan – i went home this winter (or my friends, lights, a game, and the last time i saw my childhood home)
Antonio Roberts – I Am Sitting in a Room
Carrie Gates – A portrait of a portrait of a portrait of nn
Bryan Peterson – [Dirty] inputs/processes.outputs
Theodore Darst – Approach
Jennifer Chan – [[[ I’ll Show You HD ]]]
Kevin Carey – OTC/DXM [256_l4y3rz_0v_sYrVp_r3m1xxx]
Sian Macfarlane – /ˈzi(ə)rˌäks/ (xerox)
Michael Lightborne – What Did The Duck Say To The Pig?

A/V Performances

Minuek
Norah Lorway
Circuit Ben

There’ll be videos appearing soon, but in the meantime check out the photos from Pete Ashton:

DNM Exhibition 10

DNM Circuit Ben performance 01

DNM Jon Cates Lecture 02

Till next time…

Dirty New Media preview: 1_approach.dnm: (inter)active viewership in dirty new media

Dirty New Media will be making its way to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts on 21st March as part of the University of Birmingham’s Arts and Science Festival.

Super Special Essay

Shawne Holloway + Steven Hammer – 1_approach.dnm: (inter)active viewership in dirty new media

The invisibility of various technologies, interfaces, and wares, via their often seductive and seamless interfaces, fosters a kind of cultural ocularcentrism[1] vis-a-vis capitalist consumerism. Dirty New Media (DNM) seeks to disengage our perception of screen-based activity from the two-dimensional, and critique material production of objects and systems that produce, curate, and guide reception of various texts.

keithdoddshellocatfood

In this way, DNM is both responsive and anticipatory to the proliferation of a culture uncritically enamoured with digital/web/device-being. By absorbing a wide array of amateur and artisan generated media artifacts, the (anti)genre “once anticipated and now brings us”[2] a form of technophenomenology, a cyber-ouroboros, allowing fluidity between our consciousness and digital media. This recursivity begins to weave a distinctly humanistic[3] perspective alongside the non-human data streaming from network to network, window to window.

[[[Read the whole essay in the Dirty New Media programme, available on the day]]]

Meta

Dirty New Media // REVOLUTION 02

THURSDAY 21 MARCH | 4-10PM | THE BARBER INSTITUTE, BIRMINGHAM

An engaging day of performances and interactive installations from digital artists, hacktivists and new media explorers from the West Midlands, Chicago and beyond. Artworks take the form of hacked and customised hardware, accessories, demos, lectures, data-mangling, projection and more!

This eclectic, expectation bending event is presented by Vivid Projects in association with artist/curator Antonio Roberts and The Barber institute of Fine Arts.

Free admission, no booking required. Dirty New Media. For further information and times, please contact 0121 414 2261 or email education@barber.org.uk. Facebook event link.

dnmani

Dirty New Media preview: A/V Performances

Dirty New Media will be making its way to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts on 21st March as part of the University of Birmingham’s Arts and Science Festival. Over the week I’ll be providing an overview of the upcoming event.

AV Performances | 7-10pm

Minuek


Circuit Ben


Norah Lorway


Meta

Dirty New Media // REVOLUTION 02

THURSDAY 21 MARCH | 4-10PM | THE BARBER INSTITUTE, BIRMINGHAM

An engaging day of performances and interactive installations from digital artists, hacktivists and new media explorers from the West Midlands, Chicago and beyond. Artworks take the form of hacked and customised hardware, accessories, demos, lectures, data-mangling, projection and more!

This eclectic, expectation bending event is presented by Vivid Projects in association with artist/curator Antonio Roberts and The Barber institute of Fine Arts.

Free admission, no booking required. Dirty New Media. For further information and times, please contact 0121 414 2261 or email education@barber.org.uk. Facebook event link.

dnmani

Dirty New Media preview: Screenings part 3

Dirty New Media will be making its way to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts on 21st March as part of the University of Birmingham’s Arts and Science Festival. Over the week I’ll be providing an overview of the upcoming event.

Screenings | 6-7pm

Michael Lightborne – What Did The Duck Say To The Pig?

michaellightborne_videoA stupid joke, told badly.

Bryan Peterson – [Dirty] inputs/processes.outputs

bryanpeterson_videoAppropriated Phil Morton video, twisted and built through analog video mixers

Sian Macfarlane – /ˈzi(ə)rˌäks/ (xerox)

sian_videoA copy of a copy; partially reconfiguring x-traterrestrial digital glitch.

Jennifer Chan – [[[ I’ll Show You HD ]]]

jenniferchan_videoNew Media A-Z

Meta

Dirty New Media // REVOLUTION 02

THURSDAY 21 MARCH | 4-10PM | THE BARBER INSTITUTE, BIRMINGHAM

An engaging day of performances and interactive installations from digital artists, hacktivists and new media explorers from the West Midlands, Chicago and beyond. Artworks take the form of hacked and customised hardware, accessories, demos, lectures, data-mangling, projection and more!

This eclectic, expectation bending event is presented by Vivid Projects in association with artist/curator Antonio Roberts and The Barber institute of Fine Arts.

Free admission, no booking required. Dirty New Media. For further information and times, please contact 0121 414 2261 or email education@barber.org.uk. Facebook event link.

dnmani

Dirty New Media preview: Screenings part 2

Dirty New Media will be making its way to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts on 21st March as part of the University of Birmingham’s Arts and Science Festival. Over the week I’ll be providing an overview of the upcoming event.

Screenings | 6-7pm

Modulate – O>L>S

modulate_videoDescription: A short audio visual journey exploring abstract narrative, movement, shape, colour, non verbal expression and spatial awareness. Sounds sourced from “The Octophonic Loop System”8.1 sound installation by Bobby Bird /Modulate, commissioned by Francisco Lopez.

Carrie Gates – A portrait of a portrait of a portrait of nn

carriegates_videoThe images for this work were created in 2003 for a project where Carrie used a piece of OS9 software art by Adrian Ward called “A portrait of Netochka Nezvanova” to create a generative video collage of a collection of over 10 000 .psd files Carrie had prepared on the topic of “cyberculture”. This video is the remix, prepared in Feb. 2013 for an online exhibition by Ellectra Radikal and Systaime Alias Michael Borras at http://cupcake.spamm.fr/.

Kevin Carey – OTC/DXM [256_l4y3rz_0v_sYrVp_r3m1xxx]

kevincarey_videoIn response to an increase in works inspired by DJ Screw’s chopped & screwed sound and the surrounding culture, this piece looks to subvert the smoothness and fluidity of the recent aesthetic focus within the underground rap community. What results is a frustrated trip – a dirty, murky exploration of over the counter and beyond.

Meta

Dirty New Media // REVOLUTION 02

THURSDAY 21 MARCH | 4-10PM | THE BARBER INSTITUTE, BIRMINGHAM

An engaging day of performances and interactive installations from digital artists, hacktivists and new media explorers from the West Midlands, Chicago and beyond. Artworks take the form of hacked and customised hardware, accessories, demos, lectures, data-mangling, projection and more!

This eclectic, expectation bending event is presented by Vivid Projects in association with artist/curator Antonio Roberts and The Barber institute of Fine Arts.

Free admission, no booking required. Dirty New Media. For further information and times, please contact 0121 414 2261 or email education@barber.org.uk. Facebook event link.

dnmani