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23/1/2002

Read_Me Festival 1.2

Macros-center, Moscow

Call for Entries: Read_Me Festival 1.2: software as a work of art or artistic software manipulations

First International Media Art Festival, Moscow, Russian Federation

The International Festival Read_Me 1.2 is dedicated to the artistic contemplation of software: its creation, modification and deconstruction. The Festival is organized by MACROS-CENTER, Moscow and supported by the State Center for Museums and Exhibitions ROSIZO. All project entries submitted since the beginning of Read_Me 1.2 are available online on the festival site, so the visitors can download programs and vote for them. The authors of the best works, in the opinion of the international jury, will be invited to Moscow for the presentation of their works to the public. Authors of the best works will be awarded special money prizes from ROSIZO and MACROS-CENTER. A CD-ROM catalog of the best works will be released based on the results of Read_Me 1.2.

Deadline: January 31, 2002. Preliminary judging: February 2002. Festival: May 2002, Moscow.

CONCEPT:
A rather problematic question regarding the relationship between artists, "hi-tech" production technologies, and production itself remains unresolved. What position should an independent artist or activist take in the face of mass produced hi-tech tools intended to serve the needs of an artist, an intellectual or an average user?

Current situations:
Public and personal spaces are being filled with mass produced software; it's commercial and often doesn't function properly: sometimes, open source programs work better. It's been suggested that specific software working methodologies constrain people to a specific way of thinking.
A number of programs are regarded as artistic tools, finally giving artists an opportunity to "create" in the computer medium. But in reality they time and time again manipulate artists, limit creative freedom, and direct artistic activities into predefined sets of behaviors.

The battlefield for public attention, for cultural influence has almost completely moved into the social space of media technologies. An artist motivated exclusively by self-expression, even one who uses media technologies, has no chance to be heard. In order to stay current, an artist must acquire new methods of working in social spaces and react to the questions that concern society. An artist immersing himself in the production and software development spheres - areas allegedly intended to facilitate our lives through "progress" - has a chance to find his audience and to actually influence culture.
An artist who parodies commercial software development is able to influence perception and the thinking of people to whom otherwise she would not have access.
An artist creating or using software "differently" is able, at least for the time being, to conquer the omnipresence of commerce and to introduce art into such spheres - spheres in which its presence wasn't previously contemplated.

The international festival read_me 1.2 is dedicated to the artistic contemplation of software: its creation, modification and deconstruction. The impact on the typical perception of a program and on what is commonly understood as media space, the demonstration of profound properties and qualities of programming, the support of open source ideology, alternative working methodologies and even artistic self-expression... continuing the list of software art ideas is up to the festival participants!

PROGRAM:
All project entries submitted since the beginning of read_me 1.2 will be available online on the festival site. You will be able to download programs and vote for the ones you like most. The special Audience Choice prize will be given based on the voting results.
The authors of the best works, in the opinion of the international jury, will be invited to Moscow, where they will present their works to the public. During the festival there will be exhibitions and presentations of works by their authors, lectures by invited artists and theorists, concerts and parties. The Awards ceremony will be held on the last day of the festival.

A CD-ROM catalog of the best works will be released based on the results of read_me 1.2.

AWARDS:
Authors of the best works will be awarded special money prizes from "ROSIZO" and "Macros-center":
1st prize - 500 USD
2nd prize - 400 USD
3rd prize - 300 USD

JURY:
Amy Alexander
Cue P. Doll
Florian Cramer
RTMark
Alexei Shulgin

IMPORTANT DATES:
call for entries: October 2001 - January 2002
deadline: January 31, 2002
preliminary judging: February 2002
festival: April 2002, Moscow.

SPONSORED AND SUPPORTED BY:
"ROSIZO" - State Center for Museums and Exhibitions, Moscow

ORGANIZERS:
"Macros-center", Moscow: Sergey Teterin and Olga Goriunova

COORDINATOR:
Ekaterina Lazareva

CONSULTANT:
Alexei Shulgin

"Macros-center" was founded in autumn of the year 2001 in Moscow under State Center for Museums and Exhibitions "ROSIZO". It is an initiative intended to react to interesting and nontraditional phenomena in the sphere of media-art, in the area of intersection of arts, culture and new technologies. "Macros-center" is focused on art adequate to information society and new world order, on artistic and theoretic interpretation of the new reality. The activity of Media-art-center is directed toward creating the field of the working ideas on actual media-art, toward stimulating interest in new artistic strategies and projects, toward organizing space capable of supporting and initiating different artistic and critical media-activities.
"Macros-center" site

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