[artinfo] The Influencers - Barcelona, april 2004

[v]

THE INFLUENCERS
Festival of culture jamming, modified technologies and radical entertainment
http://www.d-i-n-a.net/influencers

April 1-2-3, 2004
Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona

with the participation of Institute for Applied Autonomy, Joey Skaggs,
tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Evolution Control Committee, Guerriglia
Marketing, Carbon Defense League and Run Level Zero, Reverend Billy.

Organized by d-i-n-a
Production by d-i-n-a and CCCB.

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The rapid spread of digital technologies during the 90s made new types
of creative intervention possible in the troubled area where art and
communication merge. Since then, the grassroots exploitation of the
styles, strategies and tools of mass communication have produced many
unusual contributions to social and artistic innovation. Three different
cultures: visual/performing arts, social activism and the culture around
experimentatiion with digital technologies began to converge on common
ground. THE INFLUENCERS aims to present and empower this emerging scene
where "artists" work with communication.

During the three-day event artists, hacktivists and internationally
recognised experts will present their projects based on media
performance, independent soft/hardware modifications and direct
intervention on the products, icons, styles and strategies of popular
culture.

The invited projects go much further than just criticism or
counter-information. They share an ironical, surprising and sometimes
surreal attitude that enables them to target one of the most potent hubs
of collective attention and awareness in western societies: media as
entertainment. THE INFLUENCERS are about performing a new kind of
radical entertainment by subverting common expectations and continuously
reappropriating ideas and techniques.

The variety of approaches used by THE INFLUENCERS (guerrilla
communication, music plagiarism, media performance, hacking of digital
technologies, etc.) reflect conscious and strategic choices made by the
initiators of these projects. Their practices show that more effective
results are obtained when knowledge and resources from different fields
are brought together and connected in unexpected ways.

For this reason, THE INFLUENCERS do no fetishize digital technologies as
high-tech gadgets. The guest artists or groups sense that the real
change made possible by the Internet, peer-to-peer protocols and the
mass availability of digital communications technologies in general is
their potential to filter directly into daily life, and create a
radically new type of public arena, and new potential and desire to act
within it.


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PROGRAM

CCCB - Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona
carrer Montalegre 5
http://www.cccb.org

Presentations with projections and discussion. Last hour changes and
off-program events will be announced here and during the festival.

Free admission.


THURSDAY APRIL, 1
CCCB, Hall


20 h
Institute for Applied Autonomy

21.30 h
Joey Skaggs


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FRIDAY APRIL, 2
CCCB, Auditorium and Hall

19 h, Auditorium
"Reverend Billy and the church of stop shopping"
Documentary film
Lucía Palacios and Dietmar Post, play loud! productions
Germany - Spain - USA, 2002, 60' Digital Video
Original version with Spanish subtitles.
More infos: http://www.playloud.org

20 h, Hall
tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE

21.30 h, Hall
Evolution Control Committee


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SATURDAY APRIL, 3
CCCB, Hall
19 h
Guerriglia Marketing

20.30 h
Carbon Defense League
in collaboration with Run Level Zero

22.30 h
Reverend Billy

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