Focus #5 - Hacking the past and the present

The fifth Focus programme celebrates hackers, artivists, rebels, innovators in the field of video and new media. It gathers historical works which creatively and critically engage with media technologies, revealing their often hidden, material and ideological, dimensions. 

From pioneer experimentations with analog video signal (Woody Vasulka, Dan Sandin), subversions of live TV broadcast (Richard Serra), artivist implementations of early computer graphics (Dana Plepys, Barbara Hammer), explorations of computer games as political and social tools (Gun Holmström) to whimsical commentary of internet censorship made in primitive code (Clint Enns) – these works rebel against the standardized use of technology, they open it, dissect it, make visible its internal functioning and invite us to do the same.

They belong to, what film scholar Nicole Brenez called, a larger counter-history of technical disobedience – a history of avant-garde dissidents who refused to play by the industry rules. 

However ! Quoting a notable free software activist Richard Stallman, we should not forget the spirit of playful cleverness that defines the hacking activity. Thus, after the screening, Lyon-based artist Ralt144MI will immerse us in the depths of the computer software in his lively audiovisual performance, where the joyful magic of algorithms is liberated and freely shared with the audience. Have fun and enjoy !