open_digi

'open_digi' events aim mix live digital artists and activists working online and from other digital media, talking about and showing their work and ending with a digital jam session with visual projections and sounds mix. open_digi home base is Brixton, South London.

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CYBER-WRESTLING: NET.CHAMPIONS
SUBCULTURE.COM (Antonio Mendoza) VS. UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS.COM (Arcángel Constantini)

by LELE LUCHETTI (The Referee)

This fight was organized by curator Andrew Forbes (UK) as part of the new media festival NODE London. The event, together with various other installations and performances, was located at Area10 in Peckham (South London), an independent, multi-purpose art space. The cyber -wrestling match was witnessed from two different rings, the offline ring in Peckham and the online ring on the Infomera Web server.

The offline ring - an actual wrestling ring with three tables fro the two fighters and the referee - was surrounded by three projections, two showing the desktops of the laptops of the two contenders, and a third showing the NET-RING, which consisted on the Web page that was being hacked by the fighters and a popup window showing a streaming video of the live event.

The rules for the match were brilliant in their simplicity: Each fighter had 300 seconds to program his cyber assault. If the fighter could not complete his move within the allotted time, he was penalized with a shot of tequila. Other than that, everything was permitted.

The event started with the referee elaborately introducing the fighters who entered the ring, cheered by the excited public and backed by images of their net.art pieces. First Arcángel Constantini of UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS entered the ring, wearing a grey suit and a metallic mask with one eye "crossed" out, like the cartoon cyclops that populate some of his net.art pieces. Arcángel, a consummate gentleman/pirate, gracefully waved to the crowd and started hitting the keys of his PC.

Then Antonio Mendoza of SUBCULTURE jumped onto the ring wearing his traditional ultra-terrorist/superhero outfit - black overalls, black baklava and a cape with the words SUB/CULTURE written in silver. Keeping true to his confrontational persona, he instantly grabbed his MAC and started spitting out images of sex and violence.

The ref - trying to set the scene for a clean fight - reminded the two rivals of the few rules, flipped a coin and Arcángel of UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS was set to start. The match began with a quick sequence of actions and reactions by both fighters that were both stultifying and electrifying.

The two cyber-wrestlers clearly came packing a load of punches and weren't planning on holding any of them back. Soon the match becoma entangled in a series of low blows and taunting betrayals that turned the most despicable moves into admirably heroic gestures. All preparation and training was forgotten as both fighters found themselves struggling to survive the onslaught from their rival.

As SUBCULTURE launched a frontal attack with a screen reading "YOUR DATA STINKS", Arcángel answered back with a cleverly hacked remix that read "SUB-DATA STINKS", adding to the screen Mexican folk imagery charged with irony and loaded with unpredictable links.

Everything seemed to move as planned until the third turn when Mendoza, of SUBCULTURE, became inexplicably stuck on an audio file that he was unable to load onto the server and was penalized with a shot of tequila, which clearly affected his subsequent mental agility.

Arcángel, failing to take advantage of the situation and instead acting with the presumptuousness of someone already crowned the champion, gave the audience an impromptu concert of his signature ATARINOISE in an attempt to disconcert and demoralize his rival. But instead UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS ran out of time before making his move and was penalized with a generous gulp of tequila.

Unlike his rival, SUBCULTURE was able to take advantage of the situation and uploaded a complex JavaScript action, which UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS immediately erased from the server, leading to another penalization and more tequila, which Arcángel was glad to accept. By then, SUBCULTURE realized that his rival was more interested in drinking than in coding, so he left his seat, marched to his rival and gave him what some would call a "Dirty Sanchez". Arcángel, shocked by his rival's assault on his dignity, physically attacked his opponent leading to pile up of bodies in the center of the ring. Mr. Luchetti, the referee, who had been struggling all night long to keep the fight clean, was eventually able to restore order by showering both fighters with a flurry of yellow cards.

As the level of mayhem and alcohol increased, the screen of the cyber-ring crashed. Nonetheless, tempers are settled and the battle continues, but now it's powered by a sense of personal revenge.

By now, the faces of the people surrounding the ring were a kaleidoscope of horror, shock and dismay. As far as the online public was concerned, the most lethal blows had been inflicted by UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS who should have been leading the count. But his advantage was practically nullified by the series of penalties accumulated by the dirty tricks the Mexican cyber-wrestler was constantly pulling out of his hat.

As the battle reached a fevered pitch, both rivals were hunched over their laptops crunching bytes and compressing jpgs to squash their rival. But the 300 seconds allotted for each turn were never enough to complete their increasingly complex attacks, that were tempered by the also increasing consumption of tequila.

The side projections of the respective desktops vomited HTML code. Photoshop hacks, and GIF animations, perfectly denoting the virtues and vices of the two artists. As they upload and download to the Infomera server, the central screen showed a panoply of dancing skeletons and warning signs of impending nuclear attacks. SUBCULTURE'S continuous references to his sex life and derogatory representation of his beloved nation's political leaders became horribly intermixed with Arcángel's oneirically real and imagined Aztec iconography. Finally the gong rings, signaling the end of the first part of the match. After a half an hour break, the fighters would return to the ring for a 10-minute "NO-HOLDS BARRED" SUDDEN DEATH MATCH.

The gong rings again signaling the start of the DEATH MATCH but neither of the fighters was in the ring. SUBCULTURE barely makes it into the ring while UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS is seen wandering around Area 10, clearly disoriented. He is finally corralled and helped by an organizer back onto the ring. It seems that both fighter have been seriously crippled by their numerous penalties, which one would guess they have continued to inflict during the break.

When the DEATH MATCH begins the Infomera page is blank. It's SUBCULTURE'S turn and he fails to successfully upload anything during his allotted 300 seconds. Perhaps he was planning a horribly complex attack, a merciless secret string of code to destroy his rival, but instead he offered his head in a platter to Arcángel, who, incredibly, was also unable to upload his hypertext and win the DEATH MATCH. As virtual tears filled Arcángel's eyes, SUBCULTURE, who had already accepted his demise, intuitively loaded a final page, a mortal blow -- right before the final GONG - that appeared on the central screen like a death sentence for UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS. The match is concluded as the fighters - and the audience - stagger to the floor.

Though everyone is either punch-drunk, or plain drunk, a winner has to be chosen. Clearly UNOSUNOSYUNOSCEROS won the first round, but considering the penalties he accumulated and SUBCULTURE'S final death blow, the results are far from certain. The ref, unable to reach a verdict, left the decision in the hands of the public, who are slightly more in favor of SUBCULTURE. And so, with all the pomp and circumstance afforded by the occasion, SUBCULTURE is declared the winner of the 2006 WWW CYBER-WRESTLING: NET.CHAMPIONS.

Will they remember what happened the next day when they wake up?

	Buses 12, 36, 37, 63, 78, 436, 345, 177, 312, 343 Train: Peckham Rye Station

SUM(1,4,6) is one of the closing events of node.London March '06 new media arts season at the huge and diverse spaces of the Area10 arts venue (3D tour here) in Peckham, south east London. Starting in the early afternoon and into the night the programme will host meetings, concerts, digital shorts, installations, performances, VJs and DJs, laptop musicos, cyber-wrestlers, CCTV hackers and circuit benders + much more.
For full programme check below or http://www.nodel.org/events.php?ID=1

check out arcangel
pre-match – main URL

your email?

coming to SUM(1,4,6)?

Arcangel (Mexico City) vs SUBCULTURE (LA). Two web artists (net.legends) will face-off in the wrestling ring to hack a web page live. The artists will duel – using images, sounds, flash, HTML and javascript – for two hours assembling and disassembling the work and coding of their opponent. Lele Luchetti (from Valencia), announcer/referee, will comment live as the battle develops. The winner will be resolved by popular acclaim.

FIGHT SITE LIVE HERE http://www.infomera.net
from 21:00 GMT Saturday April 1st '06

Use the email inputs to left and right to choose your net champion and at the SUM(1,4,6) event you will be presented with a special FREE fan item from your champion of choice.

check out subculture
pre-match – main URL

your email?

coming to SUM(1,4,6)?

SUM(1,4,6) includes

DIGITAL PERFORMANCES
10pm-11pm and 11.30pm-12.30pm (Main Hall)
NET.CAMPEONES (see above)

9pm - 10pm (Main Hall)
live CCTV manipulation and live city sounds from clebrated London based net-artist Stanza

VISUALS
1am-2am
(Main Hall and other times in Sawmill)
multiAmaze 3D sound sensitive animated visuals from London digital and network artist, atty

1am-2am
(Main Hall and other times in Sawmill)
CLAVE 3Dimensional interactive datascapes of video and audio data from Ruairi Glynn

1am-2am
(Main Hall and other times in Sawmill)
PIXEL LAB Processing, 3D and other digital animated visualisations from Elout de Kok (Amsterdam)

SCREENINGS
exploding cinema presents full programme of digital screenings http://www.explodingcinema.org 4pm and repeat 9.30pm

FEET UP
Slackers Lounge with Turkish Tea stall and OpenLab workshop 3pm onwards

INSTALLATIONS
most installations will only be shown during the afternoon and early sessions, 3pm to 9pm

CYCLONE.SOC by Tom Corby & Gavin Baily

node drawings #4 & #5 low-fi
spax-oid Cube Joel Cahen & Julian Ronnefeldt

Human Conducted Tele-Vision Apparatus Georgia Chatzivasileiadi

Unfurnished Mónica de Miranda

Radio Noodles Safetycat

Cityscapes: Social Poetics Public Textualities Maria Mencia (AHRC funded)

Times of Play Edgar Oliveira

Anaraknaphobia Renegade Electrons

Folk Songs for the Five Points The Folksong Collective

SCAN featuring PeacePod and Talkaoke http://www.scan.fm

Around One (changing Winds) Paulo Henrique

Deptford TV Adnan Hadzi

SOUNDS
1am-2am (Main Hall)
Man from Uranus live analog wig out

1am-2am (Sawmill)
Neuschul the full acid breakfast badger-core audio visual set from cornwall’s finest farm hands

11.30pm-1am (Sawmill)
Lektrolab Dance Party End of term dancefloor monster mash. DJs Emma Davidson and Paul B. Davis of Lektrolab

11pm-11.30pm (Main Hall)
openlab->cracktuxan audio/visual performance using only free and open source software from OpenLabChun Lee and Olivier Laruelle in collaboration with OpenLab

10.30pm-11.30pm (Sawmill)
Death Biscuit eejeet rave, busted disco and familiar mutants.

10pm-10.30pm (Sawmill)
slub projecting their screens for the curious, but are just making music as best they can.Ade Ward and Dave Griffiths

9pm-10pm (Sawmill)
Noakes Pressure vs Yimkinan augmented DJ set/distressed signals and a little live manipulationDavid Lintern and Projector

7.30pm - 9.30pm (Music Room)
Improvised music programme Benedict Drew, Matt Davis, Mattin, Rob Flint (vj) in collaboration with Small But Perfectly Formed

Initiated in December 2002 by open_digi and OFFLINE before the US/UK invasion of Iraq the >wartime< project now brings together over 150 participating digital and network artists to produce work reflecting on and reacting against wars, past, present and future. LIVE shows of the >wartime< project ocurred 27 times all over the world, check here

'open_digi' is presented by and association with

+ club.net-art
the live events arm of http://www.net-art.ws

+ soundtoys
Convergence > New audio visual experiences, online and offline.
Soundtoys features offline contributions from julian baker , pelado, stanza, boredom research, andy forbes, squidsoup, jey malaiperman, andrew allenson, rechord , iriealists, amy alexandra, karsten scmitt , ixi, golan levin, leafcutter john, michaelmedia ++++ and online contributions from ian andrews, antionne schmitt, andy wilson, soda, backeria, rain ashford, adam rogers , michael van der haagen, brian judy, jim andrews , peter luining, sub meta ++++
info+>>>

+ OFFLINE
international association of net art practicioners dedicated to the execution of public offline events and installations using network and digital media. Members include 3code (JP, ES), 6168.org (CA), 8081 (IT), alundale (FR), arcangel (MX), area3 (ES AR AU), atty (UK), dextro (AT), dream7 (US), elout (NL), fakeshop (US), fllanos (MX), gabriel (ES), HELLO (KR), kalx (US), lokiss (FR), oculart (US), real (NL), recombo (BR), redsmoke (US), RSG (US), salsabomb (US), snarg (US), stanza (UK), subculture (US), superbad (US), toxi (UK), vibri (UY), vuk (SI),