Axel Stockburger

HOMO LUDENS LUDENS
LOCATING PLAY IN CONTEMPORARY
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Exhibition: 18th April - 22nd September 2008
Symposium: 19th - 20th April 2008

LABoral Centro de Arte y
Creación Industrial, Gijón
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial presents HOMO LUDENS LUDENS, an international exhibition and symposium exploring games as a critical element in our daily lives and a speculation on the emergence of the “Homo Ludens Ludens”: the contemporary playing man. What does it mean “to play” and to be “a player”?

The goal of this Symposium, organised jointly with The Planetary Collegium, is to provide the framework for contemporary play, to highlight its interdisciplinary nature, and to show the multifaceted reality of our present-day entertainment society.

ARTISTS PARTICIPATING IN THE EXHIBITION: John Paul Bichard, France Cadet, Derivart, Devart, Hannah Perner-Wilson & Mika Satomi, Ge Jin, Vladan Joler, Radwan Kasmiya, John Klima, La Fiambrera Obrera & Mar de Niebla, Danny Ledonne, Valeriano López, Ludic Society, Marcin Ramocki & Justin Strawhand, Martin Pichlmair & Fares Kayali, Brian Mackern, Larry Miller, MIT Lab - Drew Harry & Dietmar Offenhuber & Orkan Telhan, Molleindustria, Julian Oliver, Orna Portugaly & Daphna Talithman & Sharon Younger, Personal Cinema & the Erasers, Rolando Sánchez, Alex Sanjurjo, Gordan Savicic, Axel Stockburger, Silver & True, Román Torre, David Valentine/MediaShed (ft. Methods of Movement), Volker Morawe & Tilman Reiff, William Wegman.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS: Roy Ascott, Laura Baigorri, Laura Beloff, Erich Berger, José Luis de Vincente, Julian Dibbell, Daphne Dragona, Wolfgang Fiel, Gonzalo Frasca, Luis Miguel Girão, Margarete Jahrmann, David McConville, Guto Nóbrega, Julian Oliver, Paolo Pedercini, Mike Phillips, Martin Pichlmair, Michael Punt, Nicolas Reeves, Natacha Roussel, Semi Ryu, Anne Marie Schleiner, Natasha Vita-More, McKenzie Wark, Monika Weiss.

CURATORS:
Erich Berger, Chief Curator, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón
Laura Baigorri, New Media Arts Curator, Barcelona
Daphne Dragona, New Media Arts Curator, Athens

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial is a space for artistic exchange. It is set up with the purpose of establishing an effective alliance between art, design, culture, industry and economic progress and the goal of becoming a space for interaction and dialogue between art, new technologies and industrial creation. It throws a special spotlight on production, creation and research into art concepts still being defined.

Opening Hours: Wednesday to Monday, 12 noon - 8 pm
LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries
Los Prados, 121
33394 Gijón (Asturias) Spain
Tel: +34 985 185 577
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org
info@laboralcentrodearte.org

curated by Sarah Sparkes

Layla Curtis, CMPW (Chris Coombes, John Moseley, Julian Wakeling, Harry Pye),
Gordon Beswick, Sarah Doyle, Lizzie Hughes, Romain Forquy, Axel Stockburger,
Heidi Stokes, Geraldine Swayne, Ricarda Vidal, Josie Wood,
Andrew Cooper and Sarah Sparkes (fabrication of Agit Train Cinema).

Private View 4-8pm Thursday 6th March
Exhibition continues March 7th – 15th 2008
Opening hours: Thursday - Friday 4-7, Saturday 1-6
Portman Gallery, Morpeth School, Portman Place, London E2 0PX
(Tube: Bethnal Green)

What is real? how can we be sure that this world is nothing more than an illusion, and that life is just a dream? ‘Real life’ is an exhibition in which artists use film and photography as a means to capture their own sensations and experience of the external, whether analytical, intellectual or emotional, and allow us a transitory, illuminated insight into the world from behind their eyes.

Saturday Matinee - ‘The Stuff of Life’ artists’ film screening, curated by Ricarda Vidal,at 3pm on Sat 15th March

Performance - Axel Stockburger / Nicolas Jasmin - Friday 18.01.08/18h

arge kunst / galerie museum - Via Museo 29
I - 39100 Bozen - Bolzano

tel +39 0471 971 601
fax +39 0471 979 945

tue-fri 10 am - 1 pm, 3 - 7 pm, sat 10 am - 1 pm, sun and mon closed
info@argekunst.it

ABSTRACTS OF SYN - Edition Medienturm, curated by Sandro Droschl

Rosa Barba / Jan St. Werner, Tomas Eller, Tina Frank / Florian Hecker, Karø Goldt / rashim, Andrés Ramírez Gaviria, G.R.A.M. / reMI, Dariusz Kowalski / Stefan Németh, Annja Krautgasser / Martin Siewert, Jan Robert Leegte, Lia / @c, Christopher Musgrave / Xopher Davidson, N.I.C.J.O.B. / Hüseyin Evirgen, Karina Nimmerfall, Dietmar Offenhuber / tamtam, Pfaffenbichler.Schreiber / Bernhard Lang, reMI, Axel Stockburger, Gerold Tagwerker / Siegrun Appelt / Martin Brandlmayr, Marius Watz.

The Presentation is part of a series of events called 6 sessions that runs until January 2008. The films of the American artists Gabriel Shalom and Nate Harrison presented by Axel Stockburger were first seen in Europe in 2005 as part of the screening program organized in Stuttgart by Cornelia and Holger Lund of FLUCTUATING IMAGES.

HOUSE (USA, 2005) by Gabriel Shalom
is a video documentation on the various styles of house music and the corresponding music machines, such as the legendary Roland TB 303 Bass Line.

BASSLINE BASELINE by Nate Harrison (USA, 2005)
is a video essay that follows the invention, the failure, and the subsequent return of the Roland TB 303 Bass Line over the last two decades of the 20th century. After the screening, Axel Stockburger, prompted by an idea from the French theorist Jacques Attali, will consider the extent to which developments affecting technological, economic, and social aspects of the musical field have consequences for the cultural landscape as a whole.

www.gabrielshalom.com

http://nkhstudio.com

As part of the program ON/OFF at the Architectural Department RWTH Aachen, 19.11.2007. Invitation by Georg Rafailidis.

Panel Discussion : YOUR SPACE IS NOT MYSPACE- User Generated Content meets Contemporary Fine Art

protophysik

Sat 17.11.2007, 18h, at kM > showroom, Gumpendorferstr. 23, 1060 Vienna.

As part of the exhibition protophysik 1 at km>showroom F.E.Rakuschan und Axel Stockburger discuss issues surrounding social networks and contemporary fine art.

At the London Games Festival Fringe 2007, HTTP Gallery presents the Zero Gamer exhibition in the festival lounge at 01zero-one before its presentation at HTTP Gallery. 22-26.10.07- continues at HTTP gallery -2-18.10.07.

Curated by Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett (HTTP/Furtherfield.org) and Corrado Morgana.

Zero Gamer looks at games played, unplayed and unplayable, the spectator and the spectacle. Sometimes we just like to watch, and machinima, gameplay videos and spectator gaming events take the activity out of interactivity. Zero Gamer presents games that play themselves, video documents of in-game performance, game engine experiments and challenging documentaries on gameplay.

With: Myfanwy Ashmore, JODI, Axel Stockburger, Corrado Morgana, Eric Fredricksen, Ljudmila.

I also wrote a keynote text for the show that can be read here >>>

a project by spike art magazine in cooperation with Into Position
Opening: 25.09., 6 pm
Duration: 26.09. until 07.10.
Bauernmarkt 1, 2. Stock, 1100 Vienna

One artistic work leads several different lives: as an original, a reproduction, a story and a memory. The exhibition Images is concerned with the idea of the reproduction as a picture. Not as appropriation, but rather as part of everyday life: the reproduction of artistic works in catalogues, books, magazines, portfolios, press folders, archives and on websites, as well as their aesthetic structures. In the variety of ways they appear, these “secondary pictures”, which are omnipresent in the art world, constitute an enormous parallel exhibition above and beyond temporal and local conditions. In this sense, these “pictures of pictures” are not actually a secondary phenomenon at all, but a separate field with its own definable significance. Images asserts that parallel pictures are autonomous and have an aura of their own, which is derived from the particular features of their materials, colours and dimensions, but is also based on the paths these pictures take through the imagination - as well as the pragmatism of their distribution.
With: John Armleder, Daniel Baumann, Catrin Bolt, Burghard, Plamen Dejanoff, Severin Dünser, Christian Egger, Cyprien Gaillard, Mario García Torres, Liam Gillick, Hans-Jürgen Hafner, Nicolas Jasmin, Christian Kobald, Sonia Leimer, Christian Mayer, Jonathan Monk, Marcus Neufanger, Flora Neuwirth, Falke Pisano, Seth Price, Stefan Sandner, Christoph Steinegger, Axel Stockburger, Betty Tompkins, Rita Vitorelli, Arye Wachsmuth

CAMP Festival, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 17.08.07 19h
I have been invited to give a talk about Visual Music by Holger and Cornelia Lund of fluctuating images.
The talk discusses the emergence of audiovisual aesthetical systems designed by artist for an active audience as a novel paradigm in opposiion to the cassical performer - audience divide.

OPENING 26 JULY, 6PM - 11AM-8PM, 26 JULY-1 SEPTEMBER
PROJECT ARTS CENTRE, 39 EAST ESSEX STREET, TEMPLE BAR, DUBLIN 2, IRELAND.

Yael Bartana (IL), Ralph Borland (ZA/IE), Joost Conijn (NL)
Gintaras Makarevicius(LT) & Axel Stockburger (DE)
Curated by Jonathan Carroll

'Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It's madness. Nowadays the Controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.' Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932.

Play Safe is a group exhibition exploring the interest of artists in several aspects of the creativity of play, from children's inventiveness and adventure to artists who use new media to explore the area of computer games. While play has developed into a sophisticated means of simulating war it has also become a method of peaceful protest against civil and other injustices. In an increasingly regulated society, play is one of the few remaining arenas where scenarios can be tested without risk of censure. Play Safe encompasses play from the innocent play-acting of children to adults who return to a form of play as a political tool.

Project Art Center, Dublin, Ireland - 26 JULY 6PM - 4.30PM

The Presentation addresses the overwhelming presence of war related
imagery and action in contemporary digital games. It aims to trace the relationship between
military research and the entertainment industry that has led to the emergence of the military
entertainment complex and presents critical approaches to this subject by artists.

Fr 29.06.2007 19:00 - Sa 04.08.2007 16:00 Ausstellung

Festival of contemporary art aspects
a cooperation of medien.kunst.tirol & Kunstraum Innsbruck

Im Rahmen der Ausstellung: Pensée Sauvage – von Freiheit (29.05-08.07) Frankfurter Kunstverein
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg, Markt 44, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So: 11-19 Uhr

SPEAKING OF OTHERS

TALK: PLAYING AT FREEDOM 22.06.07 - 19h

Der Vortrag positioniert Spiel als einen idealen Ort um den Begriff
menschlicher Freiheit zu untersuchen. Unter anderem wird die paradoxe
Situation dass gerade aus regelgebundenem Verhalten im Spiel eine
spezifische Form der Freiheit entstehen kann angesprochen. Die Rolle
des Spiels als einer Form, die alle anderen menschlichen
Tätigkeitsfelder gegenwärtiger Gesellschaften beeinflusst, wird dabei
in Bezug zu Fragen nach den Bedingungen politischer
Handlungsfähigkeit gesetzt.

WORKSHOP: BEING PLAYED (23 June 14-18h)

Der workshop beschäftigt sich mit dem Begriff der Freiheit in der
gegenwärtigen Computerspielkultur. Wie frei ist der Spieler eines
Spieles tatsächlich? Während des Spielens werden Themen wie die
Konfigurierbarkeit von Spielen, sowie ökonomische und legale
Strukturen in den gegenwärtigen Unterhaltungswelten von den
Teilnehmern gemeinsam untersucht.

30 June - 29 Juli, Private View June 29 - 6-9 pm

Gameworld explores video games as an art form and presents contemporary art related to video games. Via these dual lines of investigation, the exhibition explores video and computer games as entertainment, art form, agent of innovation, and cultural force.

Gameworld is conceptualized as two hemispheres, one focusing on internal considerations (game history and design) and the other on external considerations (how games are shaping culture), linked via a third, intermediate, section devoted to alternative games and current games research.

Participant artists:

Peggy Ahwesh (US)
Cory Arcangel and Paper Rad (US)
Aram Bartholl (DE)
Jonathan Blow / Number None (US)
Ian Bogost/ Persuasive Games (US)
Chris Burke (US)
Thatgamecompany (Jenova Chen, Niki Clark, Austin Wintory)
Brody Condon (US)
Joseph DeLappe (US)
Dirk Eijsbouts (NL)
Eastwood Group (SV)
Mary Flanagan (US)
La Fiambrera Obrera (ES)
Fur Collective (DE)
Brent Gustafson (US)
Friedrich Kirschner (DE)
John Haddock (US)
Hitlab (NZ)
Walter Langelaar (BR)
Joane Leandre (ES)
Danny Ledonne (US)
The Ludic Society (Margarate Jahrman and Max Mowitzer) AT/CH)
Miltos Manetas (US/GR)
Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) (IT)
Julian Oliver (DE/NZ)
Ken Perlin and Gerry Seidman (US)
Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern (US)
Niklas Roy (DE)
Douglas Edric Stanley (FR)
Eddo Stern (US)
Axel Stockburger (DE)
Keita Takahashi (JP)
Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn) (BR)
Workspace Unlimited (Thomas Soetens and Kora Van den Bulcke) (BR)

Group-exhibition curated by Christiane Krejs, Kunstraum Noe
November 17 - 26, 2006, RCM Museum, Nanjing, China.

showcases my work Boys in the Hood.

FESTIVAL AVANT-PREMIERE - AT THE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU - NOV 16TH AT 8PM
Screening + electro lounge - Address: Place Georges Pompidou - 75004 Paris - M° Châtelet-Les-Halles/ Rambuteau / Hôtel de Ville.

E:vent Gallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU

28/10/2006 - 19/11/2006

iimage: Nikolaus Gansterer (2003) Micro Society

Curator: Axel Stockburger
Artists: Axel Stockburger, Josh Muller, Nicolas Jasmin, Jonathan Quinn, Nikolaus Gansterer, Douglas Fishbone
Private View: Friday 27 October, 6–10pm
Gallery opening hours: Fri - Sun, 12 – 6pm
Opening night performance by Douglas Fishbone, 9pm
The group exhibition GROUNDED brings together a diverse range of international artists. It aims to show work that deals with processes of modeling and simulation, activities that form the conceptual backbone of digital culture. However all of the artists involved are tackling this subject with an array of practices that are firmly rooted in physical environments, from architecture to installation thus addressing important elements of digital culture with essentially non-digital means. In this sense the exhibition attempts to question the notion of media art as overtly shaped by technology in order to foster an understanding that reaches beyond technological determinism.

more info at: info@eventnetwork.org.uk
020 7613 0300

Salon or Seminar @ E:vent
What does media art and digital media mean to you?
Discuss its connotations, relevance and influence with an influential panel of experts.
Drinks from 6pm, debate 7-8pm
Tuesday 24th October 2006
Panelists include:
JJ Charlesworth (art critic/writer),
Axel Stockburger (artist and games theorist),
Sue Thomas (author of Hello World: Travels in Virtuality)
Marina Vishmidt (writer, installation artist)
Chaired and organised by Cecilia Wee (Rational Rec, Resonance FM)

Technopolis, Athens Greece 4-8.10.2006

The exhibition is part of the 7th International Art + Technology Festival
and the GAMING REALITIES Conference

More information and details:
www.mediaterra.org and Gaming Realities
or contact us

tel +302106460748
FAX +302106470069

The video We Accept has been selected for the international V.I.V.A. Festival at Zwolle, NL.

Curators:
Niels van Tomme, Belgium
Claire Cooke, onedotzero, London
Celine Brouwez, Belgium
Pim Trooster, Holland

Reza Aramesh has invited me to contribute to CENTREFOLD the artist book series he curates.

CENTREFOLD will be presented at ZOO Artfair in London between 13.10.06-15.10.06

Saturday 26.08.06 - Sunday 12.11.06 - Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand

My piece PSX Warriors: Gran Turismo is part of the collection/show.

In 2001, the exhibition Good Work brought classic works from the Jim Barr and Mary Barr loan collection together with works recently acquired by the Wellington collectors. Reboot takes stock of a further five years in the collection’s life and showcases the multimedia energy of their recent acquisitions – from videos through to wall paintings. Including young New Zealand artists such as Eileen Leung and Glen Hayward alongside international luminaries such as Paul McCarthy, Ricky Swallow and Gillian Wearing, Reboot reveals the international range of the Barrs’ recent acquisitions, and testifies to their belief that collecting art ought to be a ‘partisan, passionate and polemical’ act.
A Dunedin Public Art Gallery exhibition.

Rua Simpatia 265, Vila Madalena, Sao Paulo, Brazil

curated by Fernanda Chieco, Juliana Monachesi, Ana Texeira, Renato Dib

I have been invited to one part of the 5 part Art and War series organised by Cecilia Wee on the London based Radio Station Resonance FM. We will talk about the relationship between computer games and the military entertainment complex and the impact of military topics and themes on game culture.
If you are interested tune in on Saturday 05.08.06 - 12:00 - 12:30.

- 5 June – 1 July 2006

Starkwhite is pleased to present Brilliant City from 5 June to 1 July 2006. Located in New Zealand on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists’ projects, solo shows, iindependently curated exhibitions and occasional forays into new music and interdisciplinary practices. Starkwhite also represents artists from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific rim.

Please contact the gallery for further information on the exhibition.

Starkwhite
510 Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 3070703
info@starkwhite.co.nz
Monday to Friday 11.00am to 6.00pm
Saturday 11.00am to 5.00pm
www.starkwhite.co.nz

,
Studio Lainer at Acadamy of Fine Arts Vienna, May 24/06 14:00.

May 19/06 - video performance with the South African sound artist Mark Schreiber at - International video/sound experimental festival in Timisoara , Romania.