Piksel[1] is an annual event for artists and developers working with free and open source audiovisual software. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, by the Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK) [2] and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free and open source software.
This years event - Piksel06 - continues the exploration of audiovisual code and it's myriad of expressions, but also brings in open hardware as a new focus area.
At Piksel06 we will expand the exhibition part and build upon the open hardware theme, which represents a potential for a new paradigm shift of vital importance for independent artistic expression in the digital domain.
The development, and therefore use, of digital technology today is mainly controlled by multinational corporations. Despite the prospects of technology expanding the means of artistic expression, the commercial demands of the software industries severely limit them instead. Piksel is focusing on the open source movement as a strategy for regaining artistic control of the technology, but also a means to bring attention to the close connections between art, politics, technology and economy.
The first Piksel event was arranged in november 2003, and gathered around 30 artists/developers from all parts of the world. It consisted of artistic/technical presentations, coding workshops and live performances. All activities were documented in a daily blog: http://www.piksel.no/log.html
One of the results from the event was the initiation of the Piksel Video Framework for 'interoperability between various free software applications dealing with video manipulation techniques' - http://www.piksel.org
Piksel06 is done in collaboration with HKS art centre[3] which will be the main location for this years events. Piksel is organised by BEK and a community of core participants including members of collectives dyne.org, goto10.org, sustainablesource.net, hackitectura.net, riereta.net, drone.ws, gephex.org and others. |
