ok, so the symposium was boring, most of the exhibits not very good (especially the ok center), the festival lacking focus spread out as it was all over the city without a central hub and the weather absolute crap… but as regine rightfully told me, we might bitch and moan, or maybe silently mumble insults under our breath, but ars electronica is still amazing each and every year giving us so much inspiration. that’s why we keep coming back.
my highlights were:
– manu luksch’s film faceless (i R proud owner of a copy)
– the campus2.0 exhibit neoanalog (incidentally organised by hyperwerk basel, a school for Postindustrial Design, hmmm)
– dr. whippy
– drumcorps (US) live!!! (he fcukin Rawkkssssssssss!)
– ted nelson‘s talk (that was arrogance in it’s purest form – it also made me re-read the curse of xanadu, brilliant story and such a metaphor for the history of computers and the web)
– the launch of fairmusic.net (tally me banana)
– hearing joi ito speak four times and ogling his leica m8 (someday …)
– eating at pa’a 5 times (vegetarian haven in linz)
most notably, i rediscovered radical, urban, anarchistic performance art through the work of lottie child that she calls street training. her approach first reminded me and then made me want to reconnect with keith hennessy, jules beckman (he lives in marseille now!) and all the contraband crowd, the guys i was lucky enough to hang out with during my san francisco days.
but i also discovered (yeh, i R noob) the two mail artists, ray johnson (the documentary how to draw a bunny is ordered) and on kawara and found me a new motto: i am still alive.
in that sense, i can’t wait till next year in linz. cuu all soon