[aha] Raise Your Flag! at The Influencers 2011

[Domenico Quaranta]

Raise Your Flag!
The first Speed Show in Barcelona

Curated by Domenico Quaranta - http://domenicoquaranta.com/
for The Influencers 2011 - http://theinfluencers.org/
When: Saturday, April 16, 2011
Where: Bornet Cyber Café - C/ Barra de Ferro, 3 - 08003 Barcelona, Spain

The Speed Show Exhibition Format - http://fffff.at/speed-show/

«Hit an Internet-cafe, rent all computers they have and run a show on  
them for one night. All art works of the participating artists need to  
be on-line (not necessarily public) and are shown in a typical browser  
with standard plug-ins. Performance and life pieces may also use pre- 
installed communication programs (instant messaging, VOIP, video chat  
etc). Custom software (except browser add-ons) or off-line files are  
not permitted. Any creative physical modification to Internet cafe  
itself is not allowed. The show is public and takes place during  
normal opening hours of the Internet cafe/shop. All visitors are  
welcome to join the opening, enjoy the art (and to check their  
email.)» SPEED SHOW Manifesto by Aram Bartholl 2010

Concept

Since the mid Nineties, the Internet proved to be a powerful platform  
for artists who wanted to bypass the traditional art system and bring  
their work directly to the spectator (more often a user, a  
collaborator or a prosumer), outside of any institutional framing.
After the first, pioneering years, for many artists the Internet  
stopped to be the only legitimate platform of activity, and most of  
them reconciled with the art world. However, today the Internet is  
still a radical environment, that is often chosen to make things and  
explore possibilities not available elsewhere. It is still the place  
where, in Bijörk's words, you can start your own currency, make your  
own stamp, protect your language, make your own flag and raise it. It  
is the studio, the exhibition place and the audience. It is the place  
where art happens without frames and labels, where it meets popular  
practices and occasionally becomes one thing with them. It is, as  
video was in the Seventies, “the vacancy of art”.
The art that happens there may sometimes migrate elsewhere, but while  
on the Internet, it often requires its own contexts and platforms.  
Some of them are started by artists, and often perceived as artistic  
projects themselves: relational platforms where art, in the best  
net.art tradition, happens in the dialogue, in the connection, in the  
exchange, in the collective manipulation of images, data, archives,  
myths.
Raise Your Flag! is, in a way, a tribute to the two frame projects it  
happens within: the Speed Show series, started by artist Aram Bartholl  
in 2010, which reclaims a public space - an Internet cafe - as an  
exhibition space; and the festival The Influencers. The show collects  
works that are, above all, platforms: places of gathering, discussion  
and organization of online and offline events; production platforms  
offering simple tools that may help you to join the never ending flow  
of works; curated or open content aggregators; group blogs; individual  
artworks that are, themselves, the starting point of an evolving  
creative process.
Our tip to the user is not only to look at them, explore and enjoy  
their contents; but also to get involved, contribute, create and share  
new contents and, when not possible, to steal the idea, upgrade it,  
start a new platform and raise your flag.

Domenico Quaranta & The Influencers, 2011

Artists:

Ryder Ripps, Scott Ostler, Tim Baker & Stefan Moore (US)
Jon Rafman (CA), Parker Ito (US), Micah Schippa (US), Tabor Robak (CA)  
& John Transue (US)
Iocose (IT)
Ryan Trecartin & David Karp (US)
Anonymous
Oliver Laric (DE)
Aaron Meyers (US)
Aaron Koblin (US) & Daniel Massey (ME)
Spirit Surfers (US)
Johnatan Vingiano & Brad Troemel (US)

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Domenico Quaranta

web. http://domenicoquaranta.com/
email. info a domenicoquaranta.com
mob. +39 340 2392478
skype. dom_40