***workshops*** Networked Art Forms: Tactical Magick Faerie Circuits

Ask anyone how the postal system works and they would give a vaguely correct description. Few however would come close to describing how email, let alone a computer network itself, actually functions. With this lack of knowledge comes a risk; we lack the practical understanding to effectively read the infrastructural and political implications of our increased dependency on this technology.

In this intensive workshop Oliver and Vasiliev will teach low level networking using only command line tools. In doing so, students will learn both how to manipulate computer networks and how they manipulate us.

No prior knowledge of computer networking is required.

A small scale model of the Internet will be created in class for the purposes of study with which we will interact with another self-built local network. By learning about routing, addressing, core protocols,network analysis, network packet capture and dissection, students will become dexterous and empowered users of computer networks.

In the second phase of the workshop students will learn to read network topologies as political control structures, seeing how corporations and governments shape and control the way we use computer networks. Students will learn to study these power structures by tracing the flow of packets as they pass over land and sea. Macro-economic and geostrategic speculations will be made.

Oliver and Vasiliev will provide all students with a LiveUSB operating system complete with tools familiar to both the hacker and network engineer alike. Complete documentation will be provided.

Participating in this workshop requires no prior knowledge of computing or computer networking.

Attent!ion Som(t)a(c)tic is a workshop to reflect upon our physical and physiological relationships toward our communication tools. In a kind of somatic confessional, participants will be brought to describe their (intimate, pleasant, difficult or binding...) relationships with their computers and to propose ways of subjugating those routines. Those confessions will work as an opportunity to gather participants confidences about their work habits and to suggest some ideas for both individual and structural empowerment.

A series of workshops will follow, exercises and explorations will guided the participants to question the governance of their workplace and the relationships they maintain with their communication tools. They will be invited to explore avenues of creative empowerment by suggesting techno-humanists thematic improvisations. The results of these workshops will be presented in a multimedia installation and performance entitled Working Still / Still Working.

In a first series of workshop, the participants will be lead to move and enhance their body awareness while keeping a constant relationship with their computer. Starting in a seated position, with the laptop on the desk reflecting how the “social norm” subscribes the way we should be working. The facilitator will then lead the group into working in different positions at their computer, from sitting to standing, and going to the floor always with the machine and the body in different postures and spatial relationships.

In a second series of workshop, mobility is introduced by helping participants to move away from their computer, taking a walk, lying on the floor...etc. Gentle dynamic stretching exercises will be introduced, while they rethink their relationship to their computer. The floor will be explored, as a grounding force, where each human can take root to re-enforce the connection with gravity, and the elements that the body encounters unconsciously everyday.