Nik Nowak’s Panzer (2011) is a sound system made from metal frame of garbage container which works on the principle of hydraulics. It is made in the manner of Jamaican sound systems but places itself in contemporary sound research that problematize sound as the mean of manipulation and control of the crowds in contemporary society. The project is thus a crossroad of contemporary theoretical research in the field of sound, sound art, popular culture and scientific research in the field of military technologies. Panzer works as mobile sound system which through the form of intervention in public spaces reflects Jamaican musical culture from 70′s that is highly present in modern club culture and in electronic dance music. Panzer is an excellent example of coexistence of different concepts in contemporary sound art and in popular culture. The work was premiered at Todays Art festival 2012 and later on CTM in Berlin.

Nik Nowak is younger German artist, who lives and works in Berlin. Between 2001-2007 he studied Fine Arts at Universität der Künste (UdK) and finsished his master degree by prof. Lotar Baumgartner. Later on he studied also in Shanhgai and New York City. In his work Nowak is entering the traces of electornic music in the contemporary art environment, in the field of sculptures that has in Germany more than thirty years of tradition under the term Klangkünste. In wider context we can place his work in sound art. He is most interested in mobile, moving sound sculptures, which at the same time operate as mobile sound systems with which he is penetrating gallery spaces, clubs and public spaces in the form of sonic intervetions. He has so far present his work in Den Haag, moscow, Berlin, Hamburg, Wien and Shanghai.

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She experienced at this time society as very conservative, traditional and limited, while feminism, conceptual art and other new art directions were completely novel. New ways of thinking, new disputes and consequently a strong conviction that one had to work with new media. And at the same time new media also meant that female artists could express themselves in a new way especially due to the lack of establishes conventions.

This talk was recorded during Speculum Artium, Trbovlje 2012.

Piotr Jaros reflects on his latest project exhibited at WRO Atelier in October 2012  Analysis and Prognosis. Tester 2012. A project composed of 3 video works and an installation dealing with the topic of unemployment and unused human resources. The work is a reflection on survival in a polarized world and a reference to the existence of an artist who wishes to be independent and earn money at the same time.

Adam represents Wasilewski´s interest in simple situations that generate complex meaning but also pose questions about the relation between human and street as well as whom the public space in Poland belongs to.

Marek Wasilewski and Dominik Lejman´s work touches upon two themes. One – the chance of transgressing the boundary of quotation and the challenge to express oneself visually in a specific moment. The second -  architecture as a cultural and sociological phenomenon. This theme is illustrated in their work “Happiness” which is directly inspired by urban architecture (referring to a book by Alain de Botton “Architecture of Happiness” ).

On April 16th, Look, up in the sky! a mini-symposium with Honor Harger (art director Lighthouse, Brighton) and James Bridle (artist, publisher and technologist)) on art and drones in the age of ubiquitous technology will be held at BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. The symposium’s debate will be opened by Bram Crevits, curator of the exhibition ‘Drones/Birds : Princes of Ubiquity’, and moderated by Michel van Dartel (V2_Institute for unstable Media).

The first series of The Digital Now, entitled ‘Drones / Birds: Princes of Ubiquity’, is inspired by the way birds are reflecting our contemporary relation with technology. For this, inspiration is drawn from the New Aesthetic with a focus on the ways we experience our digital condition: always on, always there. Drones or UAV’s (Unmanned Arial Vehicles) have been related to this New Aesthetic debate ever since it started. The New Aesthetic has been a remarkable and often intense debate for about two years now, spread across platforms, groups, scenes, blogs, catalogues, sprint-books and festivals in off- and online worlds.

‘Drones / Birds: Princes of Ubiquity’ taps into the debate of an increasing autonomous technology, connected to a machinic vision, the post-human and the New Aesthetic. Core to the exhibition are digital artifacts and instances of the computational or digital in nature.

The exhibition is curated by Bram Crevits (BE) and will present work by internationally acclaimed artists such as David Bowen (US), Theo Burt (UK), Paolo Cirio (IT),  Marcus Coates (UK),Christoph De Boeck & Patricia Portela (BE/PT), Dries Depoorter (BE), HC Gilje (NO), Esther Polak & Ivar van Bekkum (NL), Erica Scourti (GR), Addie Wagenknecht (US) and Zimoun (CH).

Thirty-four years later he decided to travel to America to meet with artist and gallery owners, which Natalia LL met during her stay in US. Based on a few black-and-white-photographs and some names he began his artistic investigation. He interviewed Marina Abramovic, Carolee Schneemann, AA Bronson, the galerist Antonio Homem, critic Douglas Crimp(…). These protagonists recall the atmosphere of New York in the 1970s and convey a picture of what Natalia LL could be confronted with at this time. Karol Radziszewski raises a series of questions on issues such as conceptual art, feminist art, gender, queer and East-West relations and their impact in the art world during times of the Iron Curtain.

Gustowska, who is regarded as one of the most interesting and influential Polish video artists, works in diverse media including photography, painting, graphics, performance and multimedia installations, exploring in her work the issues of identity in relation to gender, time and individual emotions.

I think it fascinates me. That possibility, as well as surveillance, fascinates me, and appearance on Facebook, and also that it's possible to be entangled so much, that a human being can loose their identity, because of existing in such different dimensions... that can lose the awareness of which existence is the real one.

Gustowska’s works can be found in numerous collections, including the Contemporary Graphics Collection of the Edmonton Art Museum, the Albertina Graphic Collection of the Ludwig Foundation Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Lilja Graphic Art Collection in Mariefred, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, the Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and the WRO Art Center in Wrocław. Her works have also been presented at the Venice Biennale and twice at the Biennale in Sao Paulo. As a curator, Gustowska has organized numerous exhibitions and artistic events.