impakt festival - not really a review

[Claudia Westermann]

Hi you all,

two days ago, I came back from impakt festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands. 
It was a very nice festival, with very nice people and artists form all 
over the world. Some spirit.
(merci to all the people involved in it again and especially to Arjon and Anja)

Besides of many videos, installations and music events, there were shown 
also some web projects and cd-roms.
I do not really feel like writing a review. Some people mentioned to me, 
they would do it, so I hope, they will.
I just post the addresses of the web projects presented. This can also be 
looked up at www.impakt.nl.
You might have a look.

greetings Claudia


Namniyas Ashuratova - The Interactive Lexicon of Juxta
http://lex.namniyas.org/lexicon_e/
(website, Russia 2000)
"The Interactive Lexicon of Juxta" is an empty lexicographical system that 
users can fill in online with new items, images, and definitions. Namniyas 
Ashuratova’s source of inspiration was Andrey Velikanov’s essay "Virtual 
body of Juxta." Velikanov considers information to be the ultimate creative 
subject, a new kind of contemporary deity: Juxta. Ashuratova’s lexicon can 
be seen as a virtual embodiment of this ubiquitous information system.

Aleksandra Globokar - Cybervilla
http://www.architectivalia.org/cybervilla/
(webproject, Slovenia 2000)
Aleksandra Globokar designed a home for avatars, who until then she had 
considered to be homeless. "Cybervilla" is a three-dimensional, 
interactive, multi-user environment. This villa consists not only of the 
standard functional rooms like kitchens and bedrooms, but also offers a 
home for the avatar’s emotions.

Michiel Knaven ­ Soundboxes
The Handmirror
Conversations with Francesca
http://www.michaelmedia.org
(three websites, The Netherlands 2000)
A selection of Internet projects by Michiel Knaven. "Soundboxes" consists 
of small, sometimes interactive interfaces in which sound forms the point 
of departure for the navigation. In "The Handmirror," information such as 
youth, memory recollection, and family history are used in eight scenes. 
"Conversations with Francesca" consists of interpretations of the work of 
Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca, in which Knaven has the 
characters enter into a contemporary dialogue.

Mouchette - Lullaby for a dead fly
http://mouchette.org/fly/flies.html
(website, The Netherlands 2000)

7 interactive songs
http://mouchette.org/music/index.html
(website, The Netherlands 2001)
The virtual death of a fly, the symbol of the Net persona Mouchette, was 
the basis of "Lullaby for a Dead Fly." The website presents the funny, 
curious, empathetic, and sometimes even cynical reactions of the 
fly-killers, written on the occasion of the suicide she stages. In "7 
interactive songs," Mouchette has the audience undergo an intimate, 
minimalist audio-visual experience.

Melinda Rackham - carrier
http://www.subtle.net/carrier
(website, Australia 1999)
In the Internet project "carrier," Melinda Rackham creates a love story 
between the audience and the hepatitis C virus. With this project, Rackham 
investigates the phenomena of viral symbiosis in the biological and virtual 
domains. She surprisingly combines visions from scientific, 
molecular-biological research with the audience’s personal experiences. 
sHE, an "intelligent viral agent", guides the visitor through the website.

squid s o u p - altzero
http://www.altzero.com
(interactive 3D sound environment on the internet, United Kingdom 2000)
"altzero" is a three-dimensional interactive environment in which the 
audience members can communicate with each another via music and chat. The 
sounds made by the various users manipulate the image in real-time, which 
creates a three-dimensional, navigable landscape. The result is a dynamic 
"immersive environment," a constantly changing setting in which the 
audience directs the audio-visual experience.

Igor Stromajer - ‘what was he thinking about? berlin? praha? ljubljana? 
skopje?
(emotional virtual environment ­ intimate spectacle)
http://kid.kibla.org/~intima/city
(website, Slovakia 2000)
An Internet project about four "emotional atmospheres" in Berlin, Prague, 
Ljubljana, and Skopje. Igor Stromajer challenges his audience to freely 
associate based on quotes, links, and video fragments from the mass media 
and (cinema) history. And typically for him, he doesn’t address the meaning 
of his work, but instead gives way to the fantasy of the audience.

I hardly ever go, where I am supposed to go.... so I found more things 
worth to look at.
I found this entry: http://www2.arnes.si/~ljintima2/



this is a little aside, a cd-rom - I did not have the time to look through 
all of the cd-roms, but this one is a good work - so when you have the 
chance to look at it somewhere, do it.


mia mäkelä ­ PASSenger
(cd-rom, Finland 2000)
For "PASSenger," Mia Mäkelä interviewed various people in Brussels and 
Helsinki about their thoughts and actions of that day. On the basis of a 
map that combined the two cities, as well as their reproduction in time and 
space, she designed a "psychogeographic" map of a fictive city. The 
audience can travel through this constructed city by using audio navigation 
based on the interviews. In so doing, a new trajectory though the city is 
consistently being created that connects the separate locations and 
experiences.