msdm: mobile strategies of display & mediation

I’ve been browsing through the UPGRADE! INTERNATIONAL DIY book published for the occasion of the Oklahoma City (NOv-Dec) 2006 Upgrade meeting. This was actually the second only physical reunion of the international Upgrade! network of new media artists and curators, initiated in New York in 1999 by Yael Kanarek, when she decided to invite three other new media artists-friends to an offline chat. What started with a desire for face-to-face contact with others sharing similar interests in culture & technology, developed into a tactical global network of collaborators, which includes over twenty cities, of which Lisbon has for the last year and a half been part of. That’s how I got involved with Upgrade, when Luis Silva who has ben organising regular gatherings at Lisboa 20 art gallery, invited to publish a diy recipe, side by side with contributions from the artists that have been contributing glocally to Upgrade! Lisbon: Andre Goncalves ( turntable drawing machine activated via microphone input) , Andre Sier (free flight av works), Patricia Gouveia & Nuno Correia (Role Playing Egas networked play) and Susana Mendes Silva (art_room skype enabled performance). The book designed by Upgrade! NY’s Muhon Zer-Aviv (full flip demo available here) is a must-have intro to diy, art and techonology.