The Art & Economics group investigates the intersection of art and political economy and this was the last in a series of four discussions held in 2007. Topics included political economy as a theme in art, the economics of art production and economic activity as an action based art practice. Tanja Ostojić herself became known throughout Europe overnight in late December 2005 as a result of the “EU Panties” poster, a satire of Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde. Ostojić’s version displayed her own crotch, photographed by David Rych, but clothed in blue underwear complete with EU stars. The image is meant as an ironic suggestion that foreign women are only welcome in Europe when they drop their underwear. Along with other works, this poster was selected from an ongoing art exhibition to publicly promote Austria’s presidency of the European Union. Vienna’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper turned this into something of a scandal, expressing its outrage over state-funded pornography and its concern for Austria’s world image.

The discussion of the evening started with an introduction of the recent project Slum TV by the guest of the evening, Alexander Nikolic, dealing with the art of empowerment projects, as much as with micro-economies of representation in cross-cultural exchange. He explained that Slum TV wants to document the lives of the people in the slum of Mathare and to reevaluate these lives through the camera, because a camera always attracts attention: „Our partners from the slum film and document the life in Mathare.” The small movies are then shown in public places in Mathare, like a newsreel. In Mathare, there exist a variety of self-established cinemas. Mostly American and African films and European football is shown there. Analogous to weekly news-shows in the early age of television our partners want to show their contributions in these cinemas, and maybe to charge a small entree fee
in order to finance videotapes and other material. Copies of the videos are sent to Vienna. From the proceeds the manufacturers in the slums benefit again.

A couple of days later war brakes out in Kenia. Pictures of men hacked to death, churches burnt to the ground, thousands of people on the move, men dressed as policemen pulling out AK- 47s and firing into the crowd were beamed across the word. BBC and The Independent report that „Slum TV presents the other half of the Kenyan story.” [*] Ironically, Vienna’s tabloid Heute soon picked up the story, turned the whole argument around and now accused Slum TV of sugarpainting Kenya’s political situation. (Heute’s publisher is Eva Dichand, dauther-in-law of Hans Dichand, himself publisher of Kronen Zeitung.) Best of all, the next day Austria’s extrem right wing party FPÖ themselves accused Slum TV and Stadtrat Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, Vienna Executive City Councilor for Culture and Sciene, of censorship and the City of Vienna and the Austrian Development Agency were accused that they finance such a “again communist notion” propagandist project and attacked Slum TV in Vienna City Council on 24th of January.

So, who’s the censor now?

References

[*] Steve Bloomfield, Slum TV presents the other half of the Kenyan story. The Independent (London) Jan 9, 2008; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20080109/ai_n21187573

Slum TV Website: www.slum-tv.info

theSCREEN.tv is “an internet streaming platform for arts, performance, discourse and public discussion. It is set up as a network of co-operation and contributing partners: individual film, video and media producers, art associations, networks, or collectives who share the interests to publish and visualize contemporary video and media works beyond the parameters of re/presentation in music-, art- and media-industries.” (Thomas J. Jelinek, LABfactory)

the SCREEN.tv project derives from konTEXTlab, a series of public events developed within a permanent transdisciplinary laboratory, directed discourse dealing with contemporary issues in culture, arts and politics, and their contexts.

Beside various public forums of discussion, communication and performance presented in open LABs, the series konTEXTlab is putting the current artworks and developing process into the context of its present, at the same time being a contemporary form of theatrical performance.

The current project theSCREEN.tv is broadening the communication space into a electronic, world wide network.

http://nualart.com/labfactory/stream

Tip:

21-02-2007, 8 pm @ LABfactory

konTEXTlab 21
pan!c-room : hysteria 08

http://labfactory.at

Call for Application: Artist in Residence 2008

Once again, Vienna will become the capital of audio-vision in January and February 2008. For one month, major locations here are going to dedicate themselves to PROJECTION, SOUNDS and AUDIO-VISUAL CULTURE.

sound:frame, the festival for visualizing electronic music presents in various forms artworks, performances and theories of the crème-de-la-crème of international and local visualists, video-artists and sound-artists.

sound:frame the exhibition presents installations, projections and video-art-works of selected artists at Wiener Künstlerhaus from 18th January to 9th February.

In addition, on weekends you can once again enjoy the interplay of sound and projections at different live events.

You are cordially invited to attend several special audio-visual evening performances. International and local A/V artists are going to enchant you with their sound- and video-performances.

The sound:frame conference will be an important contribution to the international discourse. International experts, theoreticians, organizers et al. will present and debate their ideas every Saturday.
I must thank curator Eva Fischer for inviting me to discuss Frederic Baker’s new book - The Art of Projectionism - on Sat, 26th Jan 4:30 pm.

And to finish it all off, sound:frame offers many additional workshops for visualists, sound-artists and fans in cooperation with the faculty of architecture (TU Vienna).

The opening will take place next week on Friday 18th at 7 pm - don’t miss & cu there!

19.01. - 10.02.2008

Künstlerhaus k/haus
Karlsplatz 5
1010 Vienna

Webtip: sound:frame

On Friday, 14th of September a happy anniversary party will be celebrated in quartier21. See the Mitchel Brothers at FM4 Stage, join Monochrom’s Photoshooting for Sojwet-Unterzögersdorf II, visit the new net.culture.lab and net.culture.space, Subotron’s „from PONG to PS3″, and get in touch with people from Transforming Freedom and Quintessenz.

Check out details.

Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist of Ukrainian ancestry born in Pasco, Washington and now living in Vancouver, Washington. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one of the largest centralized followings of any author on the Internet, based around his official website.

11th September 8pm
Rabenhof

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GALERIE DANA CHARKASI | plattform aktueller kunst

lädt zur Ausstellung

SUSANNE SCHUDA
die schudas reloaded - ich lass’ die betten runter

Eröffnung: Freitag, 07. September, 19 Uhr
Dauer der Ausstellung: 08.09. - 23.10.2007
Sound: Florian Schmeiser
die schudas im Radio Ö1-Kunstradio: So, 21. Okt., 23:05 Uhr

GALERIE DANA CHARKASI | plattform aktueller kunst
A-1010 Wien, Fleischmarkt 11, Griechenbeisl-Haus, 2. Stock
Mo, Mi, Fr 11-14 Uhr sowie Di, Do 16-19 Uhr u. nach tel. Vereinbarung
Tel.: 532 1029, Fax: 532 1979, Mobil: 0699 10498865
office@dana-charkasi.com | www.dana-charkasi.com

florian schmeiser
++ 43 1 9719824
++ 43 650 3308094
contact@schudaschmeiser.net
www.schudaschmeiser.net

– snap –

– snip –

Das net culture lab im MQ wird gemeinsam mit dem Sponsor Telekom Austria TA AG, vertreten durch den CEO Rudolf Fischer, eröffnet.

In der Podiumsdiskussion „Freiraum für Kreativität schaffen - ein alternativer Zugang zu Innovationen?” werden wir das Konzept vorstellen und das Potential, aber auch die Grenzen solcher Initiativen abstecken. Es diskutieren:

Rudolf Fischer, CEO Telekom Austria TA AG
Karin Hakl, Abgeordnete zum Nationalrat
Jürgen Wutzlhofer, Gemeinderat und Abgeordneter zum Wiener Landtag in Vertretung von Stadträtin und Vize-Bürgermeisterin Landeshauptmann-Stellvertreterin Renate Brauner
Eva Czernohorszky, Geschäftsführerin LISA VR und Vertreterin ZIT
Roland Alton-Scheidl, Fachhochschule Vorarlberg, Kurator net culture labs und stellvertretender Vorsitzender creativwirtschaft.at

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FER’s new website www.ferakuschan.at is online!

F.E. Rakuschan aka FER is a well known terrorizer, media epistemologist, and lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna / Department Digital Arts. Since 1989 collaborations with a variety of artists, since february 2006 member of L.S. - Ludic Society, lives as independent writer in Vienna and Berlin.

Viewed politically, FER is a criminal and an anarchist at the same time, by following the selfish principle of society with the utmost consequence on the one hand and by challenging and opposing society as ´a self-assured individual´ on the other. (R.G., Berlin 2007)

The first newsreel of the Vienna-based SLUM-TV project, produced by their Nairobi SLUM-TV team, is online. Within the next days, you’ll also find a fantastic 15 min drama performed by Mediocre, from Mathare Slum, dealing with the Christian Church, online. The drama is very funny, but the languages are Suaheli and Sheng, so you may not understand the spoken text, but you’ll enjoy it a lot.

@ their page http://www.slum-tv.info

Visuals and visual media installations have become an integral part of modern club culture and public environments. The artists creating visual experience with diverse media technologies are often invisible.

Today, visualists are on the verge of becoming an important professional group within art, event and party culture, and the media world. Technology is a central issue and has strongly influenced the artistic development of the scene:

VJ’s, projection designers, visual and media artists, philosophers, media theorists and pictorial scientists are working together to make Vienna an international hot spot for visual art and culture.

v-port is a new showroom of Vienna’s VJ-artists located in Museumsquartier Wien.

Opening: Tue, 4th September 19:00

With: Motionlab