[artinfo] Fwd: CYBER HAPPENING FOR PARTICIPATION

[Artpool Art Research Center]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Fred Forest <forest at unice.fr>
> Date: November 19, 2005 4:07:53 PM GMT+01:00
> To: artpool at artpool.hu
> Subject: CYBER HAPPENING FOR PARTICIPATION
>
> PRESS RELEASE
>
> "DIGITAL STREET CORNER" FRED FOREST
>
> http://www.fredforest.com
>
> ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2005
>
> Is it possible to surf around in cyberspace and hang out on the  
> street corner at same time  (global + local = glocal)?  French  
> artist Fred Forest will show us how at a world premiere event that  
> will take place November 30-December 4 in the prestigious context  
> of Art Basel Miami Beach 2005.  Forest invites the Internet users  
> of the world to meet him down in the street outside the Bass Museum  
> of Art in Miami Beach for a memorable cyber-happening.  There's no  
> need to reserve a plane ticket because the setting will actually be  
> a "corner" of virtual reality, specially created with the help of a  
> new open source peer-to-peer software program developed by Joachin  
> Keller Gonzalez of France Télécom R&D.  On the dates indicated,  
> Forest aims to make art history by creating a unique real-time  
> digital work of art with the help of online participants near and  
> far.  This work will consummate the official (esthetic and  
> economic) recognition of a new model of art whose content and  
> format bear no comparison to those of the past, an art for the  
> wired societies of the information age.
>
> Forest is no neophyte in the field of new media.  He is widely  
> recognized as a pioneer of video art in Europe and co-founded two  
> major avant-garde movements with a focus on interactive media  
> hybrids, Sociological Art and the Esthetics of Communication.  In  
> reference to his hacker-like tactics, Vilem Flusser called him "the  
> artist who pokes holes in the media."  Forest is also a Net Art  
> pioneer.  He won the City of Locarno Grand Prize at the Locarno  
> Festival of Electronic Art in 1995 for his work "From Casablanca to  
> Locarno."  People are still talking about his virtual reality- 
> enhanced "Cyber-marriage," which took place live online in 1999  
> (his best man was none other than the "father of the Internet,"  
> Vinton Cerf).
> The "DIGITAL STREET CORNER" Web site, http://www.fredforest.com,  
> will open on November 20, 2005 in order to give members of the  
> public a chance to upload their free "ticket" to Miami Beach and  
> carve out their very own niche in cyberspace.  Don't miss your  
> chance to strut your stuff in Miami Beach in the company of your  
> new digital friends.  A wealthy art collector from the world of  
> high finance has already paid a fortune to be the first in line!
>
> On November 30, 2005, a special cyber-happening is scheduled to  
> take place at "THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER" between 9 PM and 11 PM  
> (local time).  Forest himself will be the DJ, at the commands of  
> his four computers, his console, and his turntable. To participate  
> in the happening, visit http://www.fredforest.com
> Everything that happens at "THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER" will be  
> projected live onto the exterior walls of the Bass Museum in Miami  
> Beach throughout the four-day duration of the event.  And the  
> festivities of the cyber-happening will be webcasted live for  
> millions to see on the "DIGITAL STREET CORNER" Web site.  Don't  
> miss your chance to meet and party with people from around the  
> world on this virtual street corner, located for a short time only  
> in "real" space at 2121 Park Avenue in Miami Beach.
> Project Sponsors:France Télécom, Bass Museum, Cartier Foundation  
> for Contemporary Art
> Cultural Service of the French Embassy in New York, French  
> Consulate General in Miami, webnetmuseum.org
>
> Contact: forest at unice.fr    tel: 33 6 12 29 47 69   tel : 33 (0) 1  
> 45 86 26 64
> http://www.fredforest.org/book
>