CODE RED, 1997 continued an ongoing international artists project which ANAT began in 1995 with ‘Virogenesis’project, curated by Francesca da Rimini. These events bring artists and writers to Australia to present their work and meet with Australian practitioners.
The event was curated by Julianne Pierce and staged in collaboration with The Performance Space. The touring component of the event was coordinated by Sherryl Ryan. With the move towards global information culture, it is imperative to assess how these shifts affect and alter contemporary culture and society.
Corporations such as Microsoft and News Ltd which are instigating these changes, have created a dramatic shift in how we perceive the world around us. The impact of global information culture has wide and long lasting ramifications on human society, bringing into question how we are changing and adapting with the rapid development of new technologies and how these are irreversibly changing communication, lifestyle, behaviour, human relationships and the environment.
These information empires remain relatively unchecked as they strive for global media domination, power and profit. CODE RED interrogated these structures of power, debating and
analysing the shifts in social power from the state to the media. Most importantly, CODE RED investigated how artists are shaping communication and the vital role which artists can play in developing the future of the new media.
Some of the key issues addressed included:
- the technologies which form the infra structure of the information culture (eg. the internet, interactive television, world wide web)
- how these technologies are being utilised and their impact on society and culture
- how artists are responding to these shifts in culture
- how are artists engaging with information technologies (eg. world wide web and multimedia)
- how artists are creating work which critiques and/or engages in debate about information culture
- how information technologies have altered art practice and what sort of practices are emerging through these sorts of technologies.
CODE RED participants were:
Jeffrey Cook (Australia)
Director of multimedia and internet company Merlin, who provide internet services for artists and arts organisations.
Zina Kaye (Australia)
Zina Kaye is a new media artist and writer who uses communications technologies, and in particular the internet, to muse on the nature of metaphysical boundaries and the secret life of the airwaves. Arguing that the internet is the new radio, she has begun to broadcast her own test transmissions: using cold war surveillance tools to generate content. She also knows something about the Anti_Destination Society.
Geert Lovink (Netherlands)
Co-founder of The Digital City (Amsterdam-based freenet) and Press Now, the Dutch support campaign for independent media in former Yugoslavia. Founding editor of the media/art magazine Mediamatic (1989-1994) and member of Adilkno the Foundation for the Advancement of Illegal Knowledge, a free association of media-related intellectuals. Geert has lectured and participated in many conferences on independent media, the arts and new technologies in Eastern Europe.
Cornelia Sollfrank (Germany)
Founding member of German new media performance group – lnnen (1991-93) whose principle was to exploit structures, such as the media, business and public authorities, in order to determine and eventually subvert them. In September 1997, Cornelia was co-organiser of the First Cyberfeminist International meeting at Hybrid Workspace – part of Documenta X in Kassel, Germany. Cornelia Sollfrank’s visit to Australia is generously supported by the Goethe Institut.
Brad Miller (Australia)
Artist working with interactive technologies. His CDROM A Digital Rhyzome has been shown extensively throughout Australia and overseas. His latest work Planet of Noise is a collaborative multimedia work with McKenzie Wark.
Marko Peljhan (Slovenia)
Ljubljana based performance and communication artist and writer, founder of the arts organisation Projekt Atol and programs coordinator of Ljudmila (Ljubljana digital media lab). His most recent work Makrolab was part of Documenta X, and was a self sustained survival environment and communications centre which tracked radio and
satellite emissions across Europe.
Linda Wallace (Australia)
Linda Wallace is a new media artist, writer and curator. She is director of the machine hunger information art company.
McKenzie Wark (Australia)
Writer and cultural theorist specialising in the media and emerging technologies. His new book The Virtual Republic was launched in October.
CODE RED NATIONAL PROGRAM
SYDNEY :: November 13
University of Western Sydney / Street level
Geert Lovink and Cornelia Sollfrank presentation
November 10 – 23
The Performance Space
Marko Peljhan (Slovenia) residency: 178° EAST – ocean region research and performance. A legal and practical research of the Australian telecom laws with emphasis on interception and privacy strategies.
Saturday 22 November
The Performance Space, 12 – 6pm
Marko Peljhan showed in the gallery and Zina Kaye carried out a presentation and performance
Sunday 23 November
The Performance Space Theatre
All day conference
Monday 24 November
The Performance Space Studio, 6-gpm
Round table discussion/presentation with Geert Lovink and McKenzie Wark
Wednesday 26 November
The Performance Space Studio, 6pm
Round table discussion/presentation with Julianne Pierce and Cornelia Sollfrank
MELBOURNE :: November 1
Melbourne Exhibition Centre: (Crack the) Binary Code symposium
Geert Lovink – forum participant
November 3
ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art)
Geert Lovink lecture
HOBART ::November 28
CAST (Contemporary Art Services Tasmania)
Marko Peljhan lecture and presentation
PERTH :: November 27
PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art)
Geert Lovink lecture and presentation
ADELAIDE :: December 12
Mercury Cinema
Marko Peljhan, Julianne Pierce and Cornelia Sollfrank presentations
Tags: digital technologies, global information culture, media, social power
