We are very excited to announce: The HELP FOR JAPAN "Secret Postcard" Art sale presented by Francesca von Habsburg/T-B A21, Elsa König, Elsa Okazaki and Andrew Standen-Raz.

The HELP FOR JAPAN Charity Event for the Red Cross, held on April 17th, 2011 at the Pratersauna in Vienna, will be one of the largest line-up of leading musicians, artists, fashion designers & locally based businesses seen in Vienna for a long time. 3pm till ...
The event is a natural outpouring of solidarity and assistance from Vienna's artistic community to the victims of the catastrophic events still unfolding in Japan.



The event includes international DJs and live acts, such as Peter Kruder, Rodney Hunter, Dorian Concept, Bauchklang, Microthol and [dunkelbunt], a fashion sample sale by Wendy & Jim, Ute Ploier, Anna Aichinger, Mühlbauer and, following in the steps of the successful charity art sales held for the last 15 years at the Royal College of Art in London, HELP FOR JAPAN will also present a charity sale of original, "one-off" postcard-sized art from the following leading and emerging artists:

BEN-DAVID ANAT, OVIDIU ANTON, JOHANNA BRAUN, CANDICE BREITZ, JANET CARDIFF & GEORGE BURES MILLER, ANETTA MONA CHISA & LUCIA TKÁCOVÁ, DJ SPOOKY, THOMAS DRASCHAN, BARBARA EICHHORN, EVA ENGELBERT, CHASE ERACHI, MANFRED ERJAUTZ, KERSTIN VON GABAIN, DOROTHEE GOLZ, DANIEL HAFNER, MARLENE HAUSEGGER, FLORIAN HECKER, JEPPE HEIN, LUKAS HEISTINGER, MATTHIAS HERRMANN, JUDITH HUEMER, KATSEY, SUSANNE KLOBASSA, IVO KOCHERSCHEIDT, KARL KÜHN, MARKO LULIC, CONSTANTIN LUSER/STEFAN ARZTMANN, MAHONY, CARSTEN NICOLAI, MICHAEL NIEMETZ, IRIS NITZL, RITA NOWAK, ANNELIES OBERDANNER, ELSA OKAZAKI, JULIAN PALACZ, GERNOT PETJAK, DEREK ROBERTS, CONSTANZE RUHM, VALENTIN RUHRY, FIONA RUKSCHIO, LISA RUYTER, HANS SCHABUS, MAX SCHAFFER, EVA SCHLEGEL, yours truly SIRA ZOE SCHMID/MARKUS OBERNDORFER, ELFIE SEMOTAN, DEBORAH SENGL, NEDKO SOLAKOV, A. C. STANDEN-RAZ, ESTHER STOCKER, JUERGEN TELLER, MARTIN VESELY, BILL VIOLA, SALVATORE VIVIANO, KAY WALKOWIAK, HERWIG WEISER, ERWIN WURM, NATALIA ZALUSKA ... and many more!

In occasion of the centenary of the international women's day in 2011, femous - the Austrian wide networking festival taking place between March and September 2011 – is promoting female artists with the goal to make them more visible in cultural life and thus create on a long term more working opportunities.

A CENTENARY FEMOUS NIGHT is showcasing famous female artists. Austria’s best line up, crossing the genres, will lead through the night. International headlining acts, special performances, ... will support the visibility of female famous culture!

Opening Ceremony: Ministry of Women Mrs Gabi Heinisch Hosek
Moderation: Lucy McEvil & Grace Latigo


LINE-UP: Electroclash Icone PEACHES - New-Jazz Star NAILAH PORTER - Brazilian Bastardsound by CELIA MARA - Roma/Serbian Jazz Necomer MATILDA LEKO  - Female Jodeler CHRISTINA ZURBRÜGG – Songcontest Stars THE ROUNDER GIRLS - Chansonneuse TINI TRAMPLER – ...

DJ & VJ Line Up: ELECTRIC INDIGO – SWEET SUSIE – JOYCE MUNIZ – PIA PALME – ... Specials: YIASA (Youth ensemble from Zimbabwe) & FEMOUS ORCHESTRA – ... Visualz: JULIA STARSKY

more specific lineup, links, where to buy tickets and info HERE.

Leaning on a very nice project by photographer Richard Nicholson in which he is documenting some of the last remaining photographic darkrooms in London and a post by the Guardian that has been published under the headline of “the dying art of the photographic darkroom" and that featured this project, I tried to leave you some personal thoughts, that has been haunting me for a while.

Even more since I read an interesting manuscript called “Rauchzeichen aus dem Labyrinth, Der onthologische Anspruch der Photographie” by Steffen Kammler last year (N°6 in the series published as the “Rostocker Phänomenologische Manuskripte”).

Bringing what i read in the manuscript together with what i saw in Richard Nicholsons project and what I experience of being a photographer that still partly processes in the darkroom, i am wondering …  “What esle is going to be gone if the photographic darkroom really dies out? Where (if there) is this thin border between photography in the broader and photography in the narrower sense? The border, that after Steffen Kammler and in conjunction with the darkroom would have to be drawn behind “the negative that has been the last instance that has direct contact with the light and therefore carries the trace of the referent”? Something that digital photography can not claim for itself as “the lightsensor that literally takes the place of the photosensitive layer, in comparison does not show any trace of contact after the contact with the light …” because “the location of the light-contact is seperated from the location where the information is stored.” (Steffen Kammler, Rauchzeichen …, page 28).

I’m not a philosopher and I know that in the end it might not really matter for the (average) spectator. But still I do - as an artist - confront myself with the media I’m working with. As I had to deal with some slight problems after Kodak lately decided to stop production of a certain paper I partly used over the last 9 years of printing - and loved, I had to think about that question of the media even more and had to involuntarily compare those two (very different) crafts from an at least process oriented point of view:

“The craft and process of taking a negative, filterting colors and getting a result by printing in the darkroom” VS “the craft of ... Read more ...

Dear friends and family ... I'm going to start rolling up a little bit of our history from now on. A history that somehow started before we even realized that it would become our's too... Cause of course some of us were still shitting in the pants back then. It was the mid 80ties, that should be the beginning of a long era in Gmunden's "Freestyle Sport" and "Creative Mindz" history ...

In the first photo (1987) you will find two of those guys responsible for lots of that ... our dear long time friends Gerald Loidl (first from the left) and former flatland world champion Richard Vobr (second from the left). Both part of the "BMX Team Gmunden". I sadly never met the others as far as I remember, but in the back you see another really good friend of ours, that would accompany us over the years in various shapes and forms: The Ghetto-Blaster! Blaaasting Hip-Hop into my ears from the first day I remember joining the "Sportplatz-Force" in 1994. There are lots of stories I could tell from here, but for now i just want to "HOLLAAA!" at those who cleared the way for generations to follow.

And that's what all you "Skaters and BMX-freestylers" out there that enjoyed this pre-heated nest in Gmunden back then and the ever growing skatepark and freestyle sport community should do too. Hold still for a moment, think back and ... "HOLLAAAA!!!"'

Without the effort of Gerald, Rick, Mario, Rudi, ... a lot would have turned out different i suppose and maybe the one or other would have worshipped anything else but a miniramp, skateboard or bicycle. I'm writing this post, because i think it's important, to bring into our mind again, that there was a time when new ramps and obstacles were not suddenly falling from the sky. A time when we used to build those wooden ramps on our own; having the will to create!  (and of course we had a ghetto blaster in 1995, what did u think?!).
I can only speak for myself, but I think I don't do any wrong by saying that a part of this possee, the various groups existing within it and the freedom we all somehow experienced together changed and shaped my life. And I also believe that this time and this place where lots of us met, was also leading some of us to what they do now ...

... being free mindz, doing whatever they do, but doing their thing, making films, taking photos, doin graphics, producing, nerding on music ... and cars of course. KEEP CREATING my friends & DO YOUR THING!!!! Thx for one part in my personal "school of life" FAM!!! And to some of our friends that got lost along the path, R.i.P ... we won't forget the time we all had together!

Today @ 12:25h viennas academy of fine arts was occupied by by students and lecturers. The strike will last until thursday oct. 21st.

The reason for the protest is the adaptation of the us bachelor / master degree system(see the bologna process), In the opinion of many students and lecturers, this system encourages equation in the sense of standardization which leeds to unnecessary competition among educational institutions on a global scale.

Further the so called "automation" of the education system demands an adaptation of neo-liberal economic ideas and profit oriented thinking which often conflicts with the logic and philosophy of artistis. Many Academies and Universities are concerned about the new degree system, because they see their established and legitimate democratic rights replaced with a top-down-hierachy.(roughly translated and shortened from the german press-text)

more info (german only)
petition

Many of you might remember an album called The Grey Album by producer Dangermouse that came out a couple of years ago, many of you might remember the hard time it had, many might remember "Grey Tuesday" and the aftermath. Now, five years later, once again Dangermouse is held from releasing his OWN album by record label major EMI due to what they call "legal issues". Therefore, for the sake of protest, the album called Dark Night of the Soul is now released as a 100+ page book with artwork by David Lynch and a blank CD-R to be filled with mp3's downloaded via p2p networks. Here's the official statement taken from the release site, www.dnots.com

Danger Mouse's new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.

By the way, there already is a possibility to listen to the album, head over here to listen to the stream.

... a lot, so this post is supposed to sum it all up. let's take it from the top:

Tuesday Nov 4 '08 (= Today!) Kompact will be spinning records alongside Francoforte at Café Leopold, Vienna. more...

Friday Nov 7 '08 fresh out the box Rotaug member Simonaggio will be hosting EROBIQUE LIVE (International Pony) together with Bernhard Tobola at Brut, Vienna.

Saturday Nov 8 '08 Lens G. Jadepfahl will be teaming up with the First Lady of Bad Taste to blend genres into eternity at Rote Bar Volkstheater, Vienna. more...

Nov 5 - Nov 9 '08 - this is a Rotaug recommendation for all of those interested in styles off the beaten track. They should join the ELEVATE festival in Graz this week - lots of concerts, live-performances, discussions and the like. My personal recommendation would be this Thursday: DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid a.k.a. Paul D. Miller discussing "Commons of the Mind", starting at 19:30 @ Dom im Berg with a Live Performance right after...

Don't sleep this week! Peace.