TransPiksel 2021

Piksel Latam

Four days of workshops, exhibitions, audiovisual concerts and a BioARt Lab with international and local artists working on art and technology with a special focus on bioart, enviromental sciences and DIY electronics to be held in Arequipa (Perú), Quito & Pujili (Ecuador) , Mexico D.F. (MX) and Medellín (Colombia).

August - September 2015

Keywords

sound art, sound installation, video research, interactive video, video performance, interactive installation, stand alone video loop (pikselsavers), textile gadgets, DIY BioHacking, visual programming and live coding.

Partners

Colombia Museum of Modern Art – Jorge Barco, http://www.elmamm.org/

Platohedro - Juan Jaramillo, http://platohedro.org/

Colaboratorio, Parque Explora - Camilo Cantor http://www.parqueexplora.org/colaboratorio

Mexico Autonomous University of Mexico - Maria Antonia González, http://www.artemasciencia.com/

Bioscénica - Minerva Hernández, http://bioscenica.mx/

Ecuador CAC, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo - José Luis Jácome y Tania Navarrete, http://www.centrodeartecontemporaneo.gob.ec/

Pujinostro - José Luis Jácome y Tania Navarrete, https://residenciadeartistaspujinostro.wordpress.com/

Perú Asimtria - Marco Valdivia, http://asimtria.org/ Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, http://www.cultural.edu.pe/

Project Description

Piksel is organizing with its partners Piksel Latam, a South American tour comprising 4 countries: Mexico, Perú, Colombia and Ecuador. Our partners are museums, artist-run organisations and other non-profit cultural institutions.

Four days of workshops, exhibitions, audiovisual concerts and a BioARt Lab with international and local artists working on art and technology with a special focus on bioart, enviromental sciences and DIY electronics.

Piksel Satellites will be held in Arequipa (Perú), Quito & Pujili (Ecuador) , Mexico D.F. (MX) and Medellín (Colombia).

The Piksel curatorial team (Maite Cajaraville & Gisle Frøysland) have chosen a representative group of artists and works from Piksel Festival participants in order to present the most innovative artistic research on new and emerging technologies based on openness and free cultural practice.

International group of artists: Egil Paulsen (NO), Gisle Frøysland (NO), John Hegre (NO), Alexander Castonguay (CA), Maxim Demancour (CA), Erin Sexton (CA), Maite Cajaraville (ES), Servando Barreiro (ES), Cristian Delgado (MX) and Constanza Piña (CL).

The works range from sound art, sound installation, video research, interactive video, video performance, interactive installation, stand alone video loop (pikselsavers), textile gadgets, DIY BioHacking, visual programming and live coding.

At each city/country, a group of local artists will be selected from an open call using Piksel festival management software which includes artists automatically at the growing artists database. Curatorial tasks will be shared with local curators and directors.

Curators Gisle Froysland (Norway), Maite Cajaraville (Spain), Marco Valdivia (Perú), Camilo Cantor, Juan Jaramillo and Jorge Barco (Colombia), José Luis Jácome y Tania Navarrete (Ecuador), Maria Antonia González, Minerva Hernández (Mexico).

PIKSEL Latam events, acting as a pilot project, aim to establish a longlasting collaborative network in South America. The goal of the project is to establish a rhizomatic network of interconnected nodes to work with in the next years.

August - September 2015

Curatorial text

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.

With the emergence of internet and the democratisation of computers, the public are increasingly confronted with hybrid software and hardware, made by qualified artists using different titles: Artist programmer, software artist, digital artist or new media artist. These artists create their digital tools either by making them themselves or in close collaboration with programmers.

Piksel argues that the artists in all disciplines should have control over their own production. Therefore tools like open source software and open hardware is considered as the best practice. Internationally Piksel might be the most important forum for participants in this field, which more and more appear as a expanding movement with increased attention directed towards it.

Although coming from different economical and social backgrounds, Northern and Southern countries share a common interest in free culture: free and open source and technologies.

As curators and artists we aim to share our areas of interests: Do It Yourself (DIY) technologies, historical traditions of craftsmanship, environmental sciences, ancient biodiversity knowledge, synthetic molecular biotechnologies, understanding of plants, seeds and biochemistry traditions. All together intertwined with art practices.

As a pilot project, we expect to generate long lasting collaborations between our countries, our cultural associations and artists.

Exhibition Program

Exhibition PikselSavers, Several artists. Solar kinetic sculptures, Egil Paulsen (Oslo, Norway) Cociclo, Alexander Castonguay (Canada) From DNA to NSA, Maite Cajaraville (Spain) & Gisle Frøysland (Norway) TemporAir, Maxim Demancour (Canadá) TBD, Constanza Piña (Colombia)

Concerts & performances Hammer and chisel, Gisle Frøysland / John Hegre (Noruega) Artificial Stupidity, Servando Barreiro (España) TBO

Workshops TBD, Constanza Piña (Colombia) Cociclo, Alexander Castonguay (Canadá) Mapping with processing, Maxim Demancour (Canadá) Building simple instruments using guitar pedals, John Hegre Electrical signal feedback, Gisle Frøysland Solar kinetic sculptures, Egil Paulsen CrisisRus, Maite Cajaraville

DIY Biotechnology Lab DIY BioLab: How to mix molecular biology and electronics as new performances, Cristian Delgado