UNMA #1
Utrechtse Nieuwe Media Avond
Impakt and z25.org (z25) are jointly organizing an expert meeting and networking evening for the Utrecht new media sector. The city of Utrecht boasts a strong and growing creative sector. The HKU Utrecht University of the Arts Utrecht has a strong profile in the fields of Gaming and Interactive Design. The Municipality of Utrecht recognizes the economic importance of the Creative Industry and supports the development of this sector in the city. But what about opportunities to produce artistically interesting projects in this sector? How important is substantive innovation alongside technological innovation? In what ways can the various players in the field support and complement each other? And what can we learn from developments elsewhere?
The new media sector in Utrecht is young and has many new initiatives. In addition to addressing the above questions, the evening is also primarily intended as a networking opportunity where people and
organizations in Utrecht’s e-culture can meet and get to know each other.
Discussion chaired by Ann-Sophie Lehmann (Utrecht University). Featuring: Willem Velthoven (Mediamatic), Alex Adriaansens (V2), Julio Soto & Scott Petill (MASS), Bernadette Klein-Douwel (CZ Utrecht), Arnaud Loonstra (z25), Arjon Dunnewind (Impakt), and everyone in attendance.
Prior to the discussion, Impakt and z25 will also present two more recently produced projects. Impakt presents MASS by Julio Soto & Scott Petill. z25 presents Retyping Dante.
MASS, an Artificial Intelligence project
In November and December Julio Soto (Spain) and Scott Petill (US) were resident artists at Impakt. Together they worked on the development of their interactive project MASS. The installation explores group behavior and dynamics based on the interactions between humans and a community of computer generated, artificially intelligent avatars. Over the course of time, evolutionary changes in the avatars will result from their interactions with each other as well as with visitors to the installation. Will they evolve into aggressive, irrational beings or will they become more peaceful?
With MASS, there is no attempt to merge the virtual and the real worlds but to exploit the division through confrontation; reminding us that while we may connect to this other world, it is at best only a mirror to ourselves revealed through the expression of our most elementary emotions and instincts.
Retyping Dante
Retyping Dante is a media artwork developed by z25 about the internet, culture, and cultural developments surrounding Web 2.0. With this work, we primarily aim to portray hundreds of people sitting at hundreds of computers, touching letters on a keyboard with thousands of fingers. The letters touched by all these fingers enter our computer, and with those letters, Dante’s Divine Comedy is transcribed.
Stichting z25.org (z25) is a development institution for Art and New Media, based in Utrecht since 2003. Its mission is to create meaningful experiences through the innovative use of new media. Z25 aims to conduct experiments in which new media play a decisive role in the creation of meaning. Visit http://www.z25.org for more information.
Impakt focuses on presenting and promoting innovative audiovisual arts in an interdisciplinary context.
To this end, it organizes the annual Impakt Festival and Impakt Events throughout the year: short projects focusing on a theme, movement, or artist. It also launches net.art projects annually on its web gallery, Impakt Online. With the production house Impakt Works, Impakt runs an international artists-in-residence program.
