A hazardous journey across the mid andes in a 4x4 passing all the various para military check points without a hitch, we finally arrive at our second destination PIXELAZO MEDELLIN.
Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia



Here we are to present our work and perform in around the various Communas, as part of the cultural exchange network - PIXELAZO

Pixelazo is the new Colombian node in the Pixelache festival network. Organised by Intermundos.org and in collaboration with Pixelache Helsinki a festival of electronic and digital arts which we performed at during April 2005.

Pixelazo has developed and become informed by the need for dialogue, encounters and collaborations between Westernized Cultures and the more developing cultures of the world. Using art and technology as its mode for communication and discovery.

This cultural exchange can be seen in divide -

South * North
‘Developing countries’ * ‘Developed countries’
Traditional culture * Western culture
Marginalized communities * International creative networks
Natural/Organic * Digital/Synthetic
Lo-tech * High-tech
Slow * Quick

So far a great deal of Latin America has been left out from the Western media art events and through the Pixelache / Intermundos exchane program it is intended that both communities gain valuable experience from one another.



The goals of Pixelazo are:

* To make possible exchanges between artists from the Southern and Northern hemisphere.
* To introduce electronic art and culture to populations that have not had an opportunity to come into contact with these forms of expression. Ex.; marginalized communities; rural population; indigenous communities.
* To promote multidisciplinary collaborations through involvement of scientists, media professionals, philosophers, indigenous people, writers etc.
* To introduce alternative spaces for working with and showing electronic art.
* To share and multiply knowledge through conferences, round table discussions and theoretical or practical workshops.
* To generate encounters that foster creativity and plural and multidimensional thought.



The Pixelazo schedule includes workshops, conferences and public events, These have been concentrated in one of the marginal neighborhoods of Medellin (comuna 13). The goal, to introduce the local audience to electronic art and the idea of open communication tools and technologies, and through this process Intermundos will be able to locate the urban artists living in Medellin and who are already working with new medias and interested in developing this global network and cultural exchange practice with western artists.

Pixelazo will run monthly events throughout the next few months with a final program to be scheduled for July and to take place at the SELVATORIUM JUNGLE LABORATORY - Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia

Bogotrax 2007 in Bogotá, Colombia // ‘Laboratorio Urbano’ //

The Pointless Creations crew travel again. This time myself Dava Bernard and Dan Norton will be Presenting a series of workshops on DIY screen construction and midi triggers for live digital performance as well as an extensive live set performance schedule, creating visuals for some very big acts on the international electronic music circuit.

Bogotrax is an alternative, independant festival, which as the name laboratario urbano suggests, becomes a place for artisitic and social experimentation. Bogota becomes the meeting place where artists from different cultures come together. Producers, Deejays, Veejays, Free software creators, digital live performers, graffitti artists, programmers and musicians freely share the exchange of information between themselves and the public. All events and parties are free to attend and are presented within different parts of the city each night ensuring even the most remote of communities are reached. This year Bogotrax's fourth year, there is a real focus on the interchange and exchange between art and the society. A celebration of all the diverse types of cultural and subcultural appropriation. For this laboratory. the city, immersed in the continuous transformation that the technologies impose on society, is the point of beginning. The music and the arts bringing people together, enabling participants to traverse new ideas in a more global context.

As one of the Bogotrax founders explained to me - 'An urban laboratory is the way and the place in which we experience elements both of human and technological networks that escape any precise definition'.

Check out these photos from Bogotrax in Flickr and more info at Bogotrax website.
There is also a report from Bogotrax 2006 by Juhuu / Pixelache.