monochrome (group)

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The office and laboratory of the art and theory group monochrom in Quartier 21 of the Museumsquartier (December 2018).

monochrom is an international art-technology-philosophy collective with an office in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier (in the "Quartier for digital culture"). Monochrom was founded in 1993 by Johannes Grenzfurthner and Franz Ablinger. Other members of the group are Evelyn Fürlinger, Harald List, Anika Kronberger, Frank Apunkt Schneider, Daniel Fabry, Günther Friesinger and Roland Gratzer .

The group is known to work with different media and formats. Many projects have a performative character and prefer critical and discursive narratives. Johannes Grenzfurthner calls it "looking for the best medium for the message". monochrom sees itself as belonging to the political left . The strengthening of civil society public discourse is sought, sometimes with the help of subversive affirmation or over-affirmation as a tactic. The group represents the concept of context hacking .

On the occasion of the group's 20th anniversary in 2013, its pioneering role within contemporary art and its discourses was highlighted by numerous leading Austrian media.

History and philosophical point of view

Cover of the magazine monochrom # 8-10 (1998)

In the early 1990s, Johannes Grenzfurthner was an active member of numerous BBS forums. He used his online contacts to start a fanzine , an alternative magazine that was supposed to deal with art, technology and subculture. He was inspired by US magazines such as Mondo 2000 . Grenzfurthner clashed with the emerging Californian ideology of cyber cultures in the 1990s. He combined his political background in the Austrian punk and anti- fascist scene and applied it to the emerging technologies and cultures. Franz Ablinger joined Grenzfurthner, together they formed the core team of the publication.
The first issue of the magazine monochrom was published in 1993. The irregular issues include many interviews and essays, for example on Bruce Sterling , HR Giger , Richard Kadrey , Arthur Kroker, Negativland , Kathy Acker , Michael Marrak , DJ Spooky , Geert Lovink , Lars Gustafsson , Tony Serra, Friedrich Kittler , Jörg Buttgereit , Eric Drexler , Terry Pratchett , Jack Sargeant and Bob Black . The visual characteristic is the unusual experimental layout.

In 1995, the expanding group decided to open up further artistic fields. The members began to experiment with performing arts, computer games, robot construction, puppet theater, musicals, short films and comedy, to theoretically substantiate their findings in conferences and to disseminate them as online activists.

Johannes Grenzfurthner and Franz Ablinger, monochrome, exhibition "Pension MIDI", Klangturm St. Pölten (2001)
In 1995 we decided to break the shackles of the media format "fanzine". We recognized the goal of wanting to spread our statements virally. The question of the most powerful mass medium was recognized as the search for the best way to convey the politics of philosophical ideas. That was the Cambrian Explosion of Monochrome. We wanted to be experimental and practical; wanted to develop new ways of implementing our narratives. But that should never be seen as a means to keep the pace, to stay up-to-date or - oh bad word! - to stay "fresh". Of course, the rise of new media (and the artistic formats that come with it) is interesting. But engraving information in copper plates is no less exciting. We think the constant return of the "new", to quote Walter Benjamin , is nothing to report about - perhaps with the exception of the slave drivers in the fashion industry. The new was not of interest to us in itself, but solely in its accidental and sudden appearance. At the moment when things no longer fit, when productive confusion arises.

Between 1995 and 2006, all other members of the core team joined.

Grenzfurthner is the group's artistic director. He defines monochrome's artistic and activist approach as context hacking or urban hacking .

The group monochrom calls their primary working method context hacking . She thus refers to the hacker culture, which propagates a creative, emancipatory approach to the technologies of the digital age. With her, they turn against the continuation of the centuries of strained enslavement through a lack of knowledge and expertise. [...] Through context hacking, the hacker's goals and methods are transferred into those social contexts in which artistic production occurs and on which it depends. [...] One of the central efforts of context hackers is to bring together the fractions of the countercultures that have been split up in different directions.

Community and network

Advertising flyer for monochrom as a publication and event, 1996. Drawing by Gerhard Junker, flyer design by Michael Marrak.

Since it was founded, the group has described itself as a movement , a culture (as a reference to Iain M. Bank 's science fiction book series of the same name) and an "open field of experimentation". monochrom offered and offers numerous artists, activists, researchers and groups the possibility of publication in the form of a website or print publication ( edition mono ) and organizes meetings, screenings, radio broadcasts, debate groups, conferences or online platforms. All group members use these artistic and didactic appearances to work with and on the community. (See cultural work ).

Some of the collaborations were project-related, such as the publication of a border-scientific paper by Jakob Segal in 1993 or the administration of Dorkbot Vienna ; other collaborations have existed for many years and decades, for example with Michael Marrak , Cory Doctorow , Jon Lebkowsky, Fritz Ostermayer , V. Vale, eSeL , Emmanuel Goldstein , Jason Scott, Michael Zeltner, Anouk Wipprecht, Ben Dagan or the VSL Lindabrunn.

In cooperation with David "Daddy D" Dempsey (presenter of the mixed-language ORF radio station FM4 ) monochrom runs the do-it-yourself project "Hackbus". The group supports initiatives such as the Radius Festival , Play: Vienna , the Buckminster Fuller Institute Austria , RE / Search , the Semantic Web Company, the Wiener Hackerspace Metalab and the Porn Film Festival Vienna .

Johannes Grenzfurthner sees monochrom as a community and social incubator for critical and subversive thinkers. An example is Bre Pettis (the founder of MakerBot Industries ), who was inspired to deal with 3D printers during an artist-in-residence at monochrom in 2007. Pettis wanted to build a robot that would print shot glasses (in Austria: Stamperl) for the Roboexotica cocktail robotics exhibition co -organized by monochrom . To this end, he immersed himself in the RepRap project at Metalab . Shot glasses would also play a role in the further history of the MakerBots.

At the Vienna location, monochrome offers artistic collaboration. Since 2003 the group has been working on projects with artists, scientists and activists such as Suhrkamp author Johannes Ullmaier, pop theorist Stefan Tiron, performance artist Angela Dorrer, blogger Bre Pettis, photographer and activist Audrey Penven, media artist Eddie Codel, the sex work -Activist Maggie Mayhem, glitch artist Phil Stearns, illustrator Josh Ellingson, sculptor and designer Ryan Finnigan, media artist Jane Tingley, digital rights activist Jacob Appelbaum , sex technology expert Kyle Machulis, hacker Nick Farr and many more .
All project partners are honored by monochrom with the honorary title monochrom ambassador .

Monochrom has been the European correspondent for Boing Boing TV since 2007 .

Project examples

We buy souls

On November 1, 1998, monochrom opened a “spirituo-capitalist stand” in Vienna, where project members tried to buy the souls of passers-by.

Soviet Unterzögersdorf

Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf is a fictional Soviet enclave in the Austrian Weinviertel that was developed by monochrom in the late 1990s and is used as a background for various artistic projects (e.g. plays, computer games, interventions, films).

Eignblunzn

Eignblunzn is a performance from 2003. In a rustic Heurigen setting, members of the group ate blood sausage made from their own blood.

Georg Paul Thomann

monochrom created a fictional artist named Georg Paul Thomann and sent him to the São Paulo Biennale in 2002 as the official representative of Austria .

Lord Jim Lodge powered by monochrome

At the beginning of December 2005, monochrom took over the Lord Jim Lodge , an artists' association founded by Jörg Schlick , Martin Kippenberger , Wolfgang Bauer and Albert Oehlen . In March 2006 it was announced that monochrom had acquired all trademark and usage rights of the Lord Jim Lodge. In April 2006 monochrom was invited to take part in an art prize called “Coca-Cola Light Art Edition” announced by Coca-Cola Light. Quote monochrom: "This enables us to put long overdue synergies between Coca-Cola and the Lord Jim Lodge into action." Monochrom win the award and the "Lord Jim Lodge powered by monochrom" logo reaches 50,000 Coca-Cola Light bottles released.

Roboexotica

monochrom organizes Roboexotica , the annual international festival for cocktail robotics in Vienna.

Buried Alive

Buried Alive is a performance series that has been running since 2005 in which volunteer participants are offered the opportunity to be buried alive in a coffin underground for fifteen minutes.

Ass electronics

The Arse Elektronika festival took place annually between 2007 and 2015 and focused on the interaction between sexuality and technology . The festival presents lectures, workshops, sex machines and erotic devices, performances and films.

Carefully selected moments

Carefully Selected Moments is a compilation album released in 2008, the aim of which was to present a broad compilation of the artist group's musical output . The songs are political and humorous. For example Lidl Girl , a pop love song about a protagonist who is in a precarious, creative industrial work situation, who raves about the regular work processes and times of a Lidl cashier.

Wolfgang Lorenz Memorial Prize for internet-free minutes

The Wolfgang Lorenz Memorial Prize for Internet-Free Minutes (also Scheiß Internet Preis ) is a negative prize awarded by monochrom since 2008 . It is awarded to people "who have made completely unqualified statements against the information age through word and deed".

Kiki and Bubu: Rated R Us

Johannes Grenzfurthner (monochrome) with Kiki and Bubu

Kiki and Bubu: Rated R Us is a comedic musical puppet film by Johannes Grenzfurthner from 2010. The protagonists Kiki and Bubu are two neo-Marxist sock puppets that are theoretically educated, but still have a childishly naive approach to the world. The film deals with online dating, censorship, pornography and liberal ideology.

The Gstetten saga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl

The Gstetten saga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl is a satirical science fiction and fantasy film by Johannes Grenzfurthner from 2014, which is set in the post-apocalyptic period after the war between the last two superpowers - China and Google .

Traceroute

Traceroute is a documentary by Johannes Grenzfurthner from 2016. The autobiographical road movie deals with the history, politics and the effects of nerd culture.

Glossary of Broken Dreams

Glossary of Broken Dreams is an essayistic, experimental documentary by Johannes Grenzfurthner from 2018. The film, produced by monochrom, explains terms from the political discussion (e.g. capitalism, resistance, freedom, privacy) in short, played segments.

Publications (selection)

  • "Monochrom" / magazine and yearbook series. Published in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010 respectively

Filmography

Theater (selection)

  • Udo 77 (2004) : in the Rabenhof Theater
  • Waiting for Goto (2006): in the Volkstheater
  • Campaign (2006): in the Volkstheater
  • monochrom's ISS (2011): in Garage X and in Ballhaus Ost
  • Weltsterz (2015): at the komm.st festival
  • Wald (2016): at the pararflows festival
  • Steppenrot (2017): at the komm.st Festival and at the Spektakel Wien
  • The Hansi-Halleluja-Show (2018): at the komm.st Festival and at the Spektakel Wien
  • The scarlet force field (2019): at the komm.st festival and in the Spektakel Wien - director, book actor

Computer games

  • Soviet Unterzögersdorf - Sector 1 (2005)
  • Soviet Unterzögersdorf - Sector 2 (2009)
  • Portraying The Terran Condition: An Approach To Simulate A Civilization: A First Person Research Shooter (2012)

Discography

Cover of monochrom's LP "Carefully Selected Moments"

Studio albums

Musicals

  • Udo 77 (2004)

Exhibitions and festivals (selection)

  • They used to be better too. monochrom (1993–2013) / MUSA / Vienna / Austria, 2013
  • Who wolf? / Quarter Festival / Schönberg / Austria, 2010
  • A8 towards Vienna / Platform3 - spaces for contemporary art / Munich / Germany, 2010
  • It's a kind of magic! Mystification and demystification in the context of artist publications since 1960 / Study center for artist publications in the Weserburg / Museum for Modern Art / Bremen / Germany, 2010
  • techno (sexual) bodies / videotage / Hong Kong / China, 2010
  • Common History and its private Stories, Musa / Vienna / Austria, 2009
  • Absolutely Free - The Woodstock Effect / Landesmuseum Joanneum / Graz / Austria, 2009
  • Haip 08 Festival / Ljubljana / Slovenia, 2008
  • * Anna Kournikova deleted by memeright trusted system - Art in the Age of Intellectual Property / hmkv / Dortmund / Germany, 2008
  • Once upon a time there was the media, Volkstheater Wien, Vienna / Austria, 2008
  • Ass Elektronika: pr0nnovation ?, San Francisco / USA, 2007
  • Technology Myth Creative Summer Camp, 9th International Festival for New Media Culture, Riga / Latvia, 2007
  • Simultan 03 - Video and New Media Festival / Timișoara / Romania, 2007
  • position 02: work, House of Architecture Graz - Steirischer Herbst , Graz / Austria, 2006
  • Coke Light Art Edition. A feast for the senses. Ovalhalle, MQ, Vienna / Austria (2006)
  • Waiting for Goto, Volkstheater, Vienna / Austria, 2006
  • Pizzeria Casa Altavista (together with Ubermorgen), Tweakfest / HGKZ, Zurich / Switzerland, 2005
  • Fake: Critique of Pure Image, Plovdiv / Bulgaria, 2005
  • Unterspiel, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver / Canada, 2005
  • Netznetz.net, Festival of Net-Art, Künstlerhaus, Vienna / Austria, 2004
  • Grafist, Quo Vadis Logo!?, Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul / Turkey, 2004
  • world-information.org. Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade / Serbia, 2003
  • not not communicating does not count. lothringer13 / laden , Munich / Germany, 2003
  • Amateurs. Forum Stadtpark, Graz / Austria - Styrian State Museum Joanneum, Graz / Austria - Styrian Autumn, Graz / Austria, 2002
  • monochrome. cognitive dissonances 10 + -2. expanding realities. medien-art-festival, Salzburg / Austria - ARGE Nonntal cultural area, Salzburg / Austria, 2001
  • world-information.org. Center Bruxelles 2000 / Centrum Brussels 2000, België - Cinema NOVA, Brussels / Belgium - Technical Museum, Vienna / Austria, 2000
  • Robotronika. Public Netbase t0 Media ~ Space !, Institute for New Cultural Technologies, Vienna / Austria, 1998
  • The State. FringeWare, Austin (Texas), USA, 1998
  • Neoist World Congress. Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna / Austria, 1997

Prices

  • First prize at the E55 (Vienna / Berlin) 1999
  • In 2004 monochrom took 3rd place in the protest song contest with the song “I want planned economy”
  • Nestroy Theater Prize 2005 (Vienna) for Udo 77 (together with 'The Great Television Swindle' by maschek. And 'Friendship' by Steinhauer and Henning; Rabenhof season 2004)
  • Coca-Cola Light Art Edition (Lord Jim Loge powered by monochrom), 2006
  • Videomedeja Awards Special Mention (Novi Sad, Serbia) in the Net / Software category for "Soviet Unterzögersdorf / Sector 1 / The Adventure Game" (2006)
  • aniMOTION Award Honorary Mention (Sibiu, Romania) in the Interactive Tales category for "Soviet Unterzögersdorf / Sector 1 / The Adventure Game" (2007)
  • MEDIA FORUM / Moscow International Film Festival, Jury Special Mention (Moscow, Russia) for "The Void's Foaming Ebb" (2008)
  • nominated for the election of the Austrian of the Year , Category Creative Industries (2008),
  • Official Honoree for NetArt and Personal Blog / Culture in The 13th Annual Webby Awards (2009)
  • nominated for the Prix ​​Ars Electronica , Category Digital Communities (2010)
  • Artist in Residence ORF III (2013)
  • FWF Art Prize , Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research (2013)

Web links

Commons : monochrome  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://medium.com/narrativedesign-podcast/finding-your-weapons-of-mass-distribution-8a5241c3dc34#.osmbv9fe6 "Finding Your Weapons of Mass Distribution: A Conversation with Context Hacker Johannes Grenzfurthner", published in 'Narrative Design ', September 19, 2015
  2. ↑ 2004 blog post about monochrome's project MOBUTOBE
  3. ↑ monochrom: Context Hacking - Essay, August 12, 2016
  4. ↑ orf.at: "Context-Hacking mit Eigenblunzn", January 28, 2013
  5. ↑ fm4.at: "Be a Scientist", January 28, 2013
  6. ↑ Profile: "20 Years of Monochrome: Back to the Nerd", January 28, 2013
  7. ^ Falter: "Puberty at the highest level", edition 6/13
  8. ↑ Der Standard: "Blunzen gegen den Boulevard", January 28, 2013
  9. ^ Oe1 Leporello: "20 Years of the Monochrome Artists Group", January 25, 2013
  10. ↑ Interview with Johannes Grenzfurthner about Traceroute, Boing Boing magazine; April 14, 2016
  11. ↑ Futurezone: "Hacking drives us", February 20, 2013
  12. ↑ CRE062 by Tim Pritlove: "Monochrom: The somewhat different artist collective from Vienna", January 2, 2008
  13. ↑ Flip book: "Interview about Traceroute", February 11, 2016
  14. ↑ a b c Marc Da Costa, " Interview with Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom, Part 3 ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link accordingly Instructions , then remove this notice. ", Furtherfield. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.furtherfield.org
  15. ↑ Bernd Beier interviews Johannes Grenzfurthner in Jungle World: "The moment of shock is only self-marketing", September 18, 2014
  16. ↑ monochrom print, June 11, 2016
  17. ↑ 'monochrom # 26-34 Ye Olde Self-Referentiality', Neural, June 15, 2010 ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.neural.it
  18. ↑ Simulacrum Fisticuffs (Interview with Johannes Grenzfurthner), Rhysophocles, March 16, 2011 ( Memento of the original of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rhysophocles.tumblr.com
  19. ↑ Erin Kobayashi, " How to be buried alive, " Toronto Star , Feb. 6, 2007
  20. ↑ http://www.ecrans.fr/Pop-Guerilla,3513.html , Marie Lechner, Liberation, March 4, 2008.
  21. ↑ Context Hacking: Some Examples of How to Mess with Art, the Media System, Law and the Market , at O'Reilly ETech 2008, San Diego ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link became automatic used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / en.oreilly.com
  22. ↑ Urban Hacking: Culture Jamming in the Risky Spaces of Modernity , book review by Molly Hankwitz in OtherCinema, September 24, 2011
  23. ↑ a b monochrome: Context Hacking - Essay . Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  24. ↑ monochrome self-description
  25. ^ Edition mono, the publisher of monochrom, project page
  26. ↑ An exhaustive list of monochrome's performances since 1993
  27. ↑ FM4, Thomas Edlinger: "Better than getting better", January 27, 2014
  28. ↑ Prof. Dr. Jakob Segal: "The Origin of AIDS", edition mono online, 1993
  29. ↑ Hackbus, A Community Wiki For Mobile Hack Vehicles . July 17, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  30. ↑ Radius Festival Vienna, project page ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiusfestival.com
  31. ↑ Play: Vienna, project page
  32. ^ Edition mono and Buckminster Fuller Institute Austria: "How To Make The World Work", 2012
  33. ↑ "Linked Open Data: The Essentials", edition mono / monochrom, Bauer, F., & Kaltenböck, M. (2011)
  34. ↑ Made in my Backyard / Bre Petits .
  35. ↑ Brandon Griggs, CNN: Startup unveils 3-D scanner at SXSW . In: CNN . March 9, 2013.
  36. ↑ monochrome . Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  37. ↑ Monochrome: Bye Bye (a short film) - Boing Boing Video . Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 11, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tv.boingboing.net
  38. ↑ Context Hacking: Some Examples of How to Mess with Art, the Media System, Law and the Market (accessed May 2, 2010)
  39. ^ Exhibition It's a kind of magic! (accessed on May 2, 2010)
  40. ↑ Mystification and demystification in the context of artist publications since 1960  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 2, 2010)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wechselausstellungen.de  
  41. ↑ Ass Elektronika Archive. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
  42. ↑ "Scheiß-Internet" award - derStandard.at. Retrieved March 1, 2019 (Austrian German).
  43. ↑ Wolfgang Lorenz Memorial Prize for internet-free minutes. Retrieved March 1, 2019 .
  44. ↑ Achievements, smiled at intergalactically - derStandard.at. Retrieved March 2, 2019 (Austrian German).
  45. ↑ 09:28 am, 18 May 2015: KOMM.ST-Festival: Angerer Mafia Trigen in Chicago. May 18, 2015, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  46. ↑ eSeL: Room game forest at paraflows. Retrieved March 1, 2019 .
  47. ↑ marco-wise: "Steppenrot": The Sun King fell down . ( kurier.at [accessed November 20, 2018]).
  48. ↑ Sex, crime and a hallelujah for Hansi. January 6, 2019, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  49. ↑ Musical Udo77 on orf.at