Connexion
Memo Akten describes himself as:
http://www.memo.tv/
“an artist and researcher from Istanbul, Turkey. He works with emerging technologies as both a medium and subject matter, investigating their impact on society and culture – with a specific interest in the collisions between nature, science, technology, ethics, ritual and religion.”
His work goes much further your average visual artist, as he specialises in Artificial Intelligence, works with algorithms and large-scale responsive installations with image, sound and light. In AV culture’s layman terms he’s an audiovisual jack-of-all-trades and a true techy, oh and he’s studying for a PhD in AI as if that wasn’t enough. Here you can see a selection of his work in the very accurately named video, ‘Selection of work in 3 minutes’ (2017).
Akten received the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica – the most prestigious award in Media Art – for his work ‘Forms’ in 2013. He has exhibited and performed internationally at exhibitions including The Grand Palais’s “Artistes & Robots” in 2018 (Paris FR), The Barbican’s “More than human” in 2017 (London UK) and the Victoria & Albert Museum’s landmark “Decode” exhibition in 2009 (London UK). He has shown work at venues such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Moscow RU), Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai CN), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo JP), Royal Opera House (London UK), Lisbon Architecture Triennale (Lisbon PT), Itaú Cultural (Sao Paulo BR) and many others.
He has collaborated with celebrities such as Lenny Kravitz, U2, Depeche Mode and Professor Richard Dawkins, and brands including Google, Twitter, Deutsche Bank, Coca Cola and Sony PlayStation. Akten’s work is in numerous public and private collections around the world.
Alongside his practice, Akten is currently working towards a PhD at Goldsmiths University of London in artificial intelligence and expressive human-machine interaction, to deepen collaborative creativity between humans and machines and augment human creative expression. Fascinated by trying to understand the world and human nature, he draws inspiration from fields such as physics, molecular & evolutionary biology, ecology, abiogenesis, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology and philosophy.
Memo hasn’t just emerged on the scene by any means. In 2007 Akten founded The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company (MSA Visuals), an art and tech creative studio. For some of those who have been following audiovisual culture since before even Audiovisual City was born, then they’ll recognise the name Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) – the evolution of MSA Visuals in 2011. In more recent years and a lot of success, Akten is now focusing on his own work and research, though his contribution to audiovisual culture and performance, must not go unmentioned. I strongly recommend that you explore his exceptionally wide and varied body of artwork and scientific investigations, as it takes you on a socia cultural journey that goes beyond audiovisual art.
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In creating art installations and performances using sensor technology, she strives to explore the importance of human relationships and connections.
Park is a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Her works have been featured by Art21, Artnet, The Creators Project, New York Times magazine, Wired, PBS, Time Out NY, the New York Post, and through many other media outlets.
She received BFA in Fine Arts at Art Center College of Design and her Masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
It highlights the importance of human presence and physical connection in our lives. It cannot be bloomed alone and is only bloomed by the relationship between people. As a response to participants’ skin- to – skin contacts, heart rate, and gestures, “Blooming” blossoms according to their intimacy. As audience members hold hands or embrace , the digital Cherry tree flowers bloom and scatter.
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We present the new media artist, Mónica Rikić, whose work focuses on code, electronics and non-digital objects to create interactive projects often framed as experimental games.
Her interest lies in the social impact of technology, human-machine-human coexistence and the reappropriation of technological systems to rethink them through art. From educational approaches to sociological experimentation, her projects propose new ways of interacting with the digital environment that surrounds us.
She’s participated in festivals such as Arts Electronica, Sónar and FILE, among others. She’s been awarded at Japan Media Arts Festival, AMAZE Berlin, Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition (Atlanta) and with a BBVA Foundation Leonardo grant to work on a research project about robots and social interactions.
She has also done artistic residencies at TAGin Montreal, QUT- The Cube in Australia, Platohedro in Medellin and Medialab Prado in Madrid.
Currently she’s part of two Creative Europe projects: Contested Desires and ARTificial IntelligenceLab.
We encourage you to see her webpage to know more about different projects that connect humans with technology.
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Time in quarantine seems to have developed into a huge focus on creative minds, with more online festivals and artistic projects than you can shake a stick at. At Audiovisual City, we’ve been taking advantage of the time to network with artists and discover more projects than ever. We got in touch with Miguel and Rodrigo AKA Boris Chimp 504 through the audiovisual network #supportvisualists, and were particularly keen to learn more about their experiences, experimentations and creations during the quarantine so far…
1. You guys are based in Portugal. How is the situation there at the moment and how have you been affected professionally, as audiovisual artists?
We had some shows and projects cancelled or postponed, not only with Boris Chimp 504 as with other parallel projects. In the case of Boris Chimp 504 we started presenting a new AV Show – Vanishing Quasars – last September and had some nice shows in the end of 2019 Electro Alternative (Toulouse), Fotonica (Roma), Criatek (Aveiro), 948 Merkatua (Pamplona) and we were hoping to tour the show around in 2020. But now with these situation, everything is on standby, and we are unsure about when we’ll be able to get back on stage.
R: In my particular case I also teach at the university (and are running the classes on videoconference), so I am able to have a fixed income. But many Portuguese artists/technicians/AV/…. who work as freelancers or project based in the cultural, events, music and AV scene are struggling as everything has stopped right now, and many are left with zero income for an unpredictable amount of time.
M: Luckily I have some savings (ah ah) and the government gives some financial help to “independent workers” [autónomos in Spanish] but I’m still working (at a much lower rhythm) on projects that hopefully will happen when this situation ends.
2. As an audiovisual collective, you usually collaborate together in a physical space. How has your way of working changed in the current situation?
In our case, our way of working has not changed much, as we live in different cities (Porto, Faro). So working remotely is our normal way of working: making video calls, changing emails with ideas, sending audio/video files back and forth, etc… The project started when we were both living in Barcelona, and then we were working in the same physical space and developed some nice working and communication skills between us. When eventually we came back to our hometowns, we managed to change that on a virtual basis, although we frequently travel between Faro and Porto, and also so every time we have any kind of presentation we use that time fully for rehearsing, test stuff, etc… Right now it looks like we won’t be travelling soon, so this gives us more time to work on audiovisual content, than when we are touring.
3. What things have you learned as a result of the quarantine and what would be your message to other AV artists around the world about how to manage the situation in order to prepare for the future?
R: In the beginning I thought that I would be super-productive during these days, and spend days coding and creating visuals, learning new stuff, but in fact it is super difficult to concentrate, as I am constantly checking the Covid19-news social media etc. So my artistic productivity is really low. Also I ended spending even more time in front of the computer, which is not good, as after some hours I start to get dizzy, tired and without patience to create anything. On the other hand I have been really enjoying cooking, speeding time in the kitchen and try new dishes (maybe because I am not looking at screens.). So my advices would be: low your productivity expectations, avoid check the news all the time (maybe only 1 time a day to keep track of the situation). And manage your screen time, avoid spend all day in front of the computer.
M: In my case I have a small toddler home to keep me busy, so soon I realised it would be much more difficult to work (at home) than before. After accepting the facts, I work with a different pace now, enjoy time with my family and try to watch the minimum news possible about Covid-19. I’m still aware and not disconnected of all around but I think it’s wise to try to keep a “safety distance” from getting overwhelmed. I would say that more than trying this moment to work more (and get stressed about it), maybe this is a time to slow down and accept it. Sooner or later we’ll all gonna go back to crazy schedules so we better enjoy while we can.
To find out more about Boris Chimp 504, see their artist page
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Boris Chimp 504 – Miguel Neto (Sound) and Rodrigo Carvalho (Visuals & Interactive Systems) – tells the tale of Boris 504, a chimpanzee sent to the moon by the soviets in 1969 getting stuck in space forever. Since then he has been exploring the space-time continuum, jumping between several dimensions of the universe. With this starting point, Miguel & Rodrigo have been exploring the relation between sound & image since 2010 mixing techno, psychedelia and noise, along with audio-reactive visuals generated in real time, creating an immersive voyage strongly influenced by science fiction, interspersing with the most current scientific discoveries and merging reality and fiction into a narrative of its own.
Boris Chimp 504 has presented both av performance & interactive installations on festivals such as Sonar (Barcelona), Mutek.Es (Barcelona), ADAF (Athens), BAM (Liège), ECHO (Dubai), Stereolux (Nantes), Iminente (Lisbon) among many others.
Feature image and hero image photo credit: Ariel Martini, for Sònar 2017
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