Die Wiener Künstlergruppe monochrom kommt zum PolitCamp Graz. Am Freitag (30. Mai 2008) Abend erwartet die PolitCamp-Teilnehmer eine 90-minütige Performance der österreichischen Künstler.

In den späten 1950ern und frühen 1960ern zeichnete sich der Niedergang des großen Kinos ab. Der neue Konkurrent "Fernsehen" wilderte beträchtlich in den Jagdgründen der Kinoindustrie. Die Studios versuchten gegen diesen Schwund anzugehen... und eine Möglichkeit war cineastischer Bombast. Spektakel. More is more. Und wundersamer Weise funktionierte das manchmal auch.

Nachdem er so gewichtige Filme wie "Das Urteil von Nürnberg" und "Wer den Wind sät" drehte, hat Stanley Kramer 1963 den Wunsch, etwas "weniger schweres" zu machen. Und die Studios wollten Massen ins Kino locken. Nun, an der Komödie "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" ("Eine total, total verrückte Welt") gibt es gar nichts, was der Beschreibung "weniger" gerecht werden könnte. Mit seinem angeberisch wirkenden Cast, der sich ausschließlich aus Stars zusammensetzt -- darunter Schauspiellegende Spencer Tracey in seinem dritten von insgesamt vier Projekten mit Kramer - wird der überlange Film häufig als die "ultimative" Komödie gehandelt. In der Tat ist der Einfluss der "total verrückten Welt" in sämtlichen Road Comedies von "Cannonball Run" bis "Rat Race" festzustellen.

1. über die urschuld des urheberrechts
2. über den schuldbegriff im "kultur"-zyklus des science-fiction-autors ian banks

As shareholders at Google's annual convention were counting their well earned dividends, America's premier billboard improvement corporation, Billboard Liberation Front, assisted the Austrian arts collective monochrom in a monumental advertising coup designed to celebrate Google's online partnership with the Peoples Republic of China.

China's heroic effort to protect their enormous internet market (162 million!) from an overload of useless information includes a moratorium on abrasive, ugly, and thoroughly misleading concepts such as truth. China's Internet "Cultural Revolution" is made possible through support from America's most leviathanesque behemoth, Google Inc. 'Don't be evil' says Google's PR department!

During Dr. Eric Schmidt's keynote address on China, BLF and monochrom agents worked feverishly to improve signs on Google's campus.

monochrom came to the USA to promote a singular concept called Sculpture Mobs. "No one is safe from public sculptures, those endless atrocities!" explained Johannes Grenzfurthner, "All of them labeled 'art in public space'. Unchallenging hunks of aesthetic metal in business parks, roundabouts, in shopping malls! It is time to create DIY public art! Get your hammers! Get your welding equipment!"

At the Maker Faire in San Mateo earlier this month, Johannes and accomplice Daniel Fabry trained attendees to erect public sculptures in a simulated Wal-Mart parking lot in just 5 minutes before "security" was called. Google and the PRC proved to be the ideal test case clients for this new advertising improvement technique.

Said Grenzfurthner, "We needed to maintain a low standard of political metaphor to give American citizens a chance to understand it. From an aesthetic perspective, The Great Firewall is radically mediocre. In the end, China's stoic indifference to Western art insanity is quite impressive."

As BLF CIO (Blank) DeCoverly pointed out in his power point presentation,
* My god they are so lucky, those rice picking peasants
o not having to grapple with the incessant flood of information
o The veritable 'Tower of Babble' we Americans and to a lesser extent our European cousins have to digest from our
  + iPods
  + Computers
  + Televisions
  + PDFs
* Each and every day

"The truth is a bummer," agreed BLF CEO Jack Napier, "it's confusing, and they're damn lucky Google has such a lovingly orchestrated filter to shelter them from it"

The BLF (http://billboardliberation.com) has been improving outdoor advertising since 1977. Prior campaigns have included work for Exxon, R.J. Reynolds, General Motors, Revlon and Apple Computers.

monochrom (http://monochrom.at/english) is an Austrian based worldwide collective dealing with technology, art, context hacking and philosophy since 1993. Some of them are afraid of skin cancer.

Jesse is a pirate, rebel, post-postmodernist, rent-a-muse and neo-archetype in progress. Hacking protocols and drawing on formal and informal explorations of archetypology, disposable culture and beauty myths, she walks across the channels and works across the platforms in search of hypotopia­ the organic autonomous aesthetic that grows on the psycho-geographic underbelly of popular and consumer culture.

Aficionados of alcohol and androids alike celebrated the first stateside gathering of cocktail-serving robots this weekend at Roboexotica.

Patrons delighted in drink-making droids that ranged from a fire-spewing drink warmer, a fully automated mind-reading mixologist and a shot-pouring conveyor belt built entirely from Legos.

"You have liquor, fire and robots," said Johannes Grenzfurthner, Roboexotica organizer and member of art collective monochrom in Austria. "How could we go wrong?"

The annual gathering of booze-pouring robots is usually held in Vienna, Austria. To celebrate its approaching 10-year anniversary, organizers threw a San Francisco satellite event.

Though the U.S. event was slightly smaller than its Viennese counterpart, the barbots landed with a booze-fueled bang.

What could be better in life than robots and cocktails? Well, nothing! Roboexotica is the premier cocktail making robot event which happens in Vienna each year. This week it comes to San Francisco. Join us for good music, cocktails, and robots that pour you drinks, insult you, and test your BAC. Several different artists from around the Bay Area and Europe will be presenting their work for your imbibing pleasure.

Next Saturday the first US Robexotica exhibition is opening at Space, 354 5th St. San Francisco.

The Austrian cocktail robots that came to the Bay Area for Maker Faire will be joined by several local creations, ones that have been to Vienna for Roboexotica before, and some that haven't.

You are invited to join us at the grand opening on Sat. May 10th from 8pm-2am!

I Can't Be Blamed For Transfiguring History But For Laziness, Though

A musical gala evening with monochrom featuring Damon Smith (acoustic bass), Phillip Greenlief (saxophone), Weasel Walter (drums), Aurora Josephson (vocals).

The folks at monochrom who brought us Arse Elektronika 2007 are back, asking the question on everyone’s mind: Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep? Check out their call for presenters, performers, and collaborators. [...] Having heard so many good things about last years conference I can't wait to see what comes out of this one. It's rare to find an event that strives to engage sexuality in academic, artistic, and pornographic ways all at once. With the recent success of Sex2.0 and the announcement of a second Arse Elektronika, I'd say things are looking up.

Mit dem Wien-Graz-Bamberger Künstlerkollektiv "monochrom" mischte er die Biennale 2002 in São Paulo auf. Jetzt hat ihn auch seine Heimatstadt Bamberg entdeckt und ausgezeichnet: Der 37-jährige Richard Wientzek erhält im April den mit 5.100 Euro dotierten Volker-Hinniger-Preis. Unter dem Motto "Tagwerk" werden seine Bilder und Zeichnungen in der Stadtgalerie Villa Dessauer vom 26. April bis zum 1. Juni ausgestellt.

It is time for SCULPTURE MOBS!

monochrom offers free courses, in-depth training and invites people on a couple of guerrilla field trips.

Where? At Maker Faire Bay Area 2008! May 3 and 4!