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Digital Creation in Europe

In 2013, nearly 70 years after the birth of first computers, it is difficult to imagine that, on that time, English, German and (a little less) French engineers laid the bases of computer science and industry. The war, then the aggressive marketing of American firms (IBM, mainly) with European divisions and errors to oust of the game major players like ICL (UK), Bull (France), Siemens (Germany), Philips (Netherlands) and Olivetti (Italy). That has not been without consequence on art, as appears in our historical figures (see below).

- The European Media Art Network offers residencies for Media Artists in the fields of digital media, including Internet and computer-based artists, filmmakers, and those working in media based performance, sound, or video. Artists with European residence, or a European passport, can apply for a two-months long residency at one of the following institutions:
- Impakt , Utrecht, Netherlands
- Bandits Mages, Bourges, France
- Fact, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- HeK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel, Switzerland http://www.hek.ch
- Werkleitz Centre for Media Arts in Halle, Germany
Students are not permitted, but young artists are encouraged to apply. However, there is no age limit!

www.emare.eu / call.emare.eu


- Interview of Plastikman in A Nous Paris, 12/20/2010 (our translation):
. May American people see Europe as a freer creation field. Is it your feeling?
. Yes. That counted in my decision to live in Berlin. In the US, to progress, you need the support of radio stations, and your work quickly becoms a product. The Europeans have always found a better balance between culture, way of life and art. Specially in Germany and France, where you find a long tradition of openness and support to non-popular works.

- The cybernetic tower, by Nicolas Schoefer, was an important testimony of early digital arts. Postmodern architecture and multimedia were widely present.

Austria: violent waltzes

Forget Mozart and the Blue Danube! Klimt and Schonberg have broken the sweet mirror and to day Kurt Hentschlager and Ulf Langheinrich Ulf will use any means to destabilize you. Don't forget that Ars Electronica has been for years an important digital world event. But it's also an Austrian thinker and leader, Johannes Grenzfurthner, who leads the hacking label monocrhom and (in San Francisco, CA), the Arse Electronica festival about sex and technology.

- Index of the Austrian digital artists presented in diccan.

Graz
- Modern art museum, architecture by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier.
- Robot Dreams exposition (in cooperation with Basels Tinguely museum).
- Elevate festival
Hellbrunn (near Salzburg). Water plays at the Castle: in the park, a miniature town is full with animations controlled by a paddle wheel in a river.
Krems an Donau. Donaufestival
Linz
- Ars Electronica Center. Wikipedia. About the 201 Dominique Moulon.
- Ars Electronica festival and conference. Notes about 2013 session, 2012 session, 2011 session, by Dominique Moulon.
Vienna: Paraflows festival, Sound Frame in 2010.

Belgium: small but ambitious

Liege has demolished its famed tower due to Nicolas Schöfer. But Brussels has its part in the 2013 digital spring, with the Imal research center, the LKFF gallery and Villa Empain, with an annual rendezvous at Art Brussels and Slick. Dance is not forgotten with Florence Corin and the journal Nouvelles de Danse, strongly oriented towards digital interaction.
Among the most famed Belgian artists, we can quote Peter Beyls, Thom Demeyer, Thomas Israel and Van-Tongerloo.

- Index of Belgian artists presented in diccan.

Ans. At Fort de Loncin "an immersive scenography, peer to the tragic history of the place" (Annick Hémery, in Sonovision 5/2011).
Biddinghuizen. Salle 4D at Wallabi park.

Brussels
. Digital Spring in Brussels (Art Brussels, Slick, Villa Empain, LKFF)
- Cimatics. Festival.
- Slick, in 2013. Slick Brussels website.
- Imal. Art research center about digital and multimedia production. Our notice.
- Festivals: Cimatics, Acousmatique, Performatik, Vrak.- Villa Empain, Foundation Boghossian.
- Galleries: LKFF, Aeroplastics.

Liège
- Artefact festival.
- Cybernetic tower and Conference Center, Palais des Congrès by Nicolas Schoeffer (now destructed; there would be a reconstruction project).
- Archeoforum (sound walk).

Brussels, Imal, 2011. Live surfing by Isabelle Arvers and Anne Laforet. More information.

Lierre: Astronomical clock.

Mons
- Numediart Intitute at the University.
- Festival Transnumériques in cooperation with many French cities.
- City Sonics
- Transcultures. Interdisciplinary center for electronic and sound cultures.

Finland

Helsinki (Finland).
- Pixelache festival. A note (and an article of 4 pages by Dominique Moulon in MCD June-July-August 2011).
- Professional chapter of ACM Siggraph.

Jyväskylä (Finland). Art and music center. Architecture by Ocean North studio..

Kilpirsjârvi (Finland). Finnnish bio-art society.

Germany

Music is the domain where Germany has played the major role in the predigital era. The well-tempered harpsichord of J.S. Bach and the Gesamtkunstwerk of Richard Wagner are top forerunners of digital art, transmedia included. Herbert Von Karajan is also deemed to have been the first to foresee the power of CD-Roms.
Berlin is in the 2010's the world center of techno music.
Today, Henke Robert breaks new ground in generative music.

For painting, among digital German artists, we can quote Hans Dehlinger, Frieder Nake and Georg Nees. Robotics is used by Matthias Gommel and multimedia by Knowbotic Research. Advanced interactive dance is developed by the Palindrome_Inter-media_Performance_Group . In movies, German students have frequently awards in Siggraph.

One may ask why such a great nation, with its traditional strong engagement in art as well as in science and logic, does not do more in digital art. There are historical reasons. Up to the 1930's, Germany was an important leader, not only in music but also in plastic arts with the multi-talented Bauhaus. The Nazi regime made many artist flee off, and notably contributed to the rise of American art. After the war, reconstruction, economic development, cold war then re-unification were more important aims than art development. Would it be only because Germany is not easily attracting tourists.

Today, the forces seem concentrated on two regions: Berlin and the Rhine valley, with for instance Kassel (Documenta, annual show), Karslruhe (ZKM vast center of arts and Art Karlsruhe), Stuggart (FMX conference and show, State Academy of Art ). For the scientific aspects (computer graphics) Fraunhofer Institute has its headquarters in Munich

- Index of the German digital artists presented in diccan.
- ZKM, Transmediale, Ikeda and Bartholl, an analysis by Dominique Moulon.

Augsburg. Festival Lag.30
Bayreuth. It was not yet digital, but Wagner made a breakthrough in formalization and multimedia with "Gesamtkunst".

Berlin. Festivals: Netaudio
- Societe. An exhibition space launched in 2016 by Lab(au)
- Transmediale/CTM.12. A note on 2011 by Dominique Moulon.
. A general note by Dominique Moulon. Alson on his website.
. The SAP Corporate building is a "reactive building", following the project The Hidden World of Voice and Noise by Golan Levin and Zach Lieberman (who constituted, on that time, around 1990) the Ars Electronic Futureland group.

Bremen; In the University, the work Wandern im Wissen. See note.
Cassel. Documenta wikipedia.
Köel: Phantasia land, amusement park.
Dresden. Cynetart festival.
Frankfurt am Main: Node (Forum for digital arts, festival).
Halle Werkleitz Centre for Media Arts

Hambourg
- Elba philharmonia (architecture).
- Miniature train models of the Braun brothers, in the Wunderland: 700 trains, 1800 square meters, large computerized control room.
Heilbronn. Astronomical clock.
Worms. The Niebelungen museum had a permanent cave installation about the Niebelungen legend, due to Olivier Auber. This work has been removed.

Karlsruhe, the ZKM.

Karlshruhe
- See our visit to Art Karlsruhe and ZKM in 2012.
- The ZKM collections. One of the most important places for digital art in the world. Part only of the collections are exposed at a given time.
- Some digital art in the annual show Art Karlsruhe. Our paper about the 2012 show.
. A note in 2012 by Dominique Moulon.

Limenau. Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology. An important research center and think tank about new technologies.
Luneburg. Postmedia Lab at Leuphana University CDC (Center for Digital Cultures).
Oldenburg. Edith Russ Haus.
Osnabruck. Emaf. European Media Art Festival.

Stuttgart:
- FMX (graphic arts conference and show).
- Mercedes-Benz museum (architecture).
.- HauptBahnhof, by Ingenhoven Architects, Technical comments in [Burry].

Weimar, Bauhaus memory.

Italy

With the cooperation of Valentina Peri.

- Not only an immense historical patrimony (Vitruvius...) but also the most up to date design! Historically we should tend to say (to be checked) that digital art had a quite good time in Italy during the 1960's, due to the strong cultural involvment of Olivetti, as shown by the creation of Gruppo N and Gruppo T. We can suggest also a sort of "Adriatic" community, with a then united Yugoslavia, and the formation of groups like Nove Tendencje. All that disappeared with the universal domination of American computer manufacturers, and the worldwide loss of excitement from computers and cybernetics. But some dynamism kept going, for instance around Arte Generativo or a Siggraph chapter in Milano.

- Index of the Italian digital artists presented by diccan.

- Magazines: Neural, Digicult.

Ancona. Festival Acusmatiq.
Avellino. Flussi Festival of New Media Art.

Bologna
- Netmage festival. (2001-2011).
- Robot Festival. Digital paths into music and art.

Brescia
- Link Art Center: Center for the arts of the Information Age. See note.
- Otolab. Arts center, education.

Firenze: Festival MUV

Ivrea
- The city of Olivetti, who was an important mechanical then electronic computers.
- Interaction_Design_Institute Interaction design Institute, The Arduino control card was developed here. Now closed, but the cards are still produced in the Olivetti factories in Ivrea

Mantova. Astronomical clock.

Milano
- Generative Art (Arte generativo), annual conference. Website. All the papers presented from 1998 to 2012 are online.
- Milano in digitale. An art center.
- Kernel Festival, in Desio.
- Hotel Exedra Boscolo (5 stars). "The spa is nothing else than a pure marvel of design and quasi-spatial decoration. The services are on peer, but atmosphere and permanent light play make it a surprising UFO... They had to dare the intergalactic spa. It is real. And it is in Milano". (Christian Moguérou in La Parisienne, Nov. 2010. Our translation).

Modena. Festivale internazionale di musica elettronica e live media.

Pescara. PEAM, Pescara Electronic Artists Meeting.

Roma
- The Maxxi. Museo nazionale delle arti des XXI secolo. Delirious architecture by Zaha Hadid. Content: paintings, installations, video art.
- Festival LPM (Live performers meeting).
- Digitalife.
- Dissonanze
- Interferenze Festival,

Torino. See Ivrea (above) , a nearby city.
- Share festival.
- Evomusart "European Event on Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Music, Sound, Art and Design".
- Some consider than the Turin Shroud is a sort of forerunner of chemical reproduction.

Venice
- The Biennal is not digital oriented, but the 2013 edition has made some investment on the theme. See a note in Media Art Design, by Dominique Moulon. See his reports about 2013 session, 2011 session/
- Toolkit Festival. Interactive art.

Netherlands

- Index of the Dutch artists presented in diccan.

Amsterdam
- Mediamatic
- NIMK. Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst
- Sonic Acts festival. Interdisciplinary art.
- Waag Society.
- Rijkmuseum. Offers high resolution images for free downloading (International Herald Tribune, 5/23/2013).


Arnhem. Arnhem Central, by UN Studio. Description in [Burry]: structure in Klein bottle shape.
Doetinchen D-Tower.
Eindhoven.
- STRP festival. A note in 2011 by Dominique Moulon.
Enschede
- Gogbot festival
- Rijkmuseum Twenthe. Exposition Obsessions. Frow Wunderkammer to Cyberspace, in 1995. See [Vroege].
Haarlem HydraPier par Hani Rashid et Lise-Anne Couture.
The Hague: Todaysart festival.
Het Gooi. Möbius House. an UN Studio. Description in [Burry]. An architectural implementation of the famed ring.
Leiden. The Arts and Genomics Center.
Neelte Jans (Isle of) Water pavilion de Lars Spuybroek.

Rotterdam
- V2. Institute for the Unstable media.
- Professional chapter of ACM Siggraph.
- Isea. Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts.

Utrecht
- Impakt , an arts center.

Zeeland: fresHtwoOexpo. See Neelte Jans above.

Norway

Bergen
- Piksel festival.
- BEK. Bergen Center for Art and Technology

Oslo
. Atelier Nord.

Oslo: Generator X

- Generator.X
- Architecture museum.

Tromso : Insomnia festival (future music, techno culture).

Spain

- Index of the Spanish digital artists presented in diccan.

Barcelona. Known for its lively "Ramblas" avenues, the Gaudi architecture, and recently the Störung festival.
- ArtFutura. Since January 1990. New media, interactive design, videogames and digital animation. Its activities include exhibitions, conferences, workshops, interactive installations and live performances
- Sonar, festival Störung 7.
- Macba (Museu d'art contemporani de Barcelona).
- La Sagrada Familia, by Gaudi, is built upon mathematical formulas, see [Burry].
- Hotel Prestige Forest, by Cloud 9 Architecture. Project described by [Burry].

Bilbao. Guggenheim museum (architecture), by Frank Gehry, using Catia software.
Gerona. VAD festival.
Gijon. Laboral Center for Art and Industrial Creation

Ibiza. Metamachine performance, July 2015.

Madrid.
- Museo de artes décorativas Multimedia projects.
- Medialab-Prado

Sevilla.
- Art and design Biennal.
- Zemo festival

Sweden

- Index of Swedish artists presented in diccan.

Lund. Astronomical clock.
Malmö. Full Pull festival.
Norrköping. New Media Meeting festival.
Umea. Made festival (contemporary dance, performance, electronic music).

Switzerland: arts of the clock

Famed for its precision mechanics, Switzerland has not failed to transfer its specialty into arts. In the predigital era, the Jacquet-Droz automata and Jean Tinguely derisive (and sometimes generative) contraptions remain historical stages. Today, Zimoun uses "prepared motors" for many different effects, and Hanspeter Kyburz builds generative music.

- Zurich is another major pole, since the town was a refuge for many German people in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Dada group was born here also. Markus Gross and teams at ETH push solid research in digital arts in a very open way, as has shown the conference they organized in 2007: Transdisciplinary Digital Art (in cooperation with Victoria, Canada; proceedings edited by Randy Adams, Steve Gibson and Stefan Müller).
- Index of the Swiss artists presented in diccan.

Basel
- Shift festival
- HeK (House of Electronic Arts), an arts center.
- Tinguely Museum. And a Tinguely fountain in the city (came controlled, we are in the pre-digital era).
- Art Basel and colocated salons.

Bern
- Astronomical clock. Zytlogge.
- Klee foundation, for the collections but also for the architecture.

Geneva
- Electron festival.
- Mapping festival (visual-audio and deviant electronics).
- Présence "électronique" festival. 4 pages by Laurent Catala in MCD June-August 2011.

Gruyères. Giger lounge bar and museum. Impressive and artistic. Not properly digital.

L'Auberson. Museum of automata.

Lausanne
- Electronic cultures festival.
- The Rolex building at EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne). Architecture years 2009-2010.


Luzern
- Theater (architecture par Jean Nouvel) on the border of the lake.
- Transportation museum (The younger will love the rail train simulator and a gigantic marshaling yard dummy).
- Richard Wagner museum, in his Tribschen villa.

Neuchatel, Jacquet-Lagrèze automata: designer, harpsichordist, writer.

Neuchatel. Automata by Jacquet-Lagrèze (notably the designer).
Sainte-Croix. Museum of automata.
Seewen. Museum of automata.
Yverdon. Maison d'ailleurs.

Zurich
- Dominating the downtown, Zurich University and the "poly" (EPF, or ETH), where the halls host frequently interesting expositions (for example, on Fibonacci), and two departments are related to digital arts: computer graphics (Markus Gross) and software engineering (Betrand Meyer and his "touch of class").
- Artists in labs. A collaboration between the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts ICS and the Federal Office for Culture (FOC). The artists-in-labs program is a program devoted to the processes, participation, collaboration and documentation of shared experiences between the Arts and the Sciences. The headquarters are located at the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts ICS.
- In the Hauptbahnhof halle, Nova, "the first in the world bivalent 3D color screen", a gift of EPF students.
- Tweakfest festival
- Wesendonck mansion, where Wagner abode long years during his exile, until his departure for Luzern then Bayreuth.
- Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie.

- Souvenir of the Cabaret Voltaire, where the Dada movement was borne.
- A Tinguely's machine is permanently installed in the large park along the lake.

United Kingdom: Turing and markets

The UK holds strong positions, and a generative orientation:
- in music, The-Beatles played a major role in the use of new technologies; then Brian Eno or the Archive group have the ship going,
- in painting, Sue Gollifer, in games of light Helen Evans,
- in cinema, Peter Greenaway,
- in animation, William Latham in the 1980's and later Geoff Cox give life to generative techniques,
- in robotics, Rob Myers or Patrick Tresset,
- important tools have been offered by Frédéric-Fol Leymarie then by Simon Colton, Karsten Schmidt.

Liverpool

- Fact, an arts center

London, with the auctioneer Christies, the Tate Modern gallery is an important hub for digital art.

- Index of British artists presented in diccan.

Birmingham: Selfridges store, architecture by Cook & Kaplicky
Brighton. The Institute of Unnecessary Research
Edinburgh. New Media Scotland
Leicester: John Lewis megastore, by Foreign Level architects studio.
Liverpool. Le Fact.

London:
- Victoria and Albert Museum. A unique collection of early computer art. See our note.
- Penguins pool in the zoo. Helicoid architecture/sculpture by Berthold Luberkin.
- Serpentine Gallery

London: the Tate Modern.

- Tate Modern. A large collection of contemporary art. In 2003, The Weather Project, by Olafur Eliasson. Comments in [Quaranta] p. 21.
- Design museum, and its Web Wizards project.
- Festival Netaudio.
- Backspace.
- The Arts Catalyst
- Furtherfield arts center.
- Museum of London. A large LED wall by The Light Surgeons.
- At the University of London, The Goldsmith Institute gives hand on education to computer graphics (notably drawing).

Malvern Hills. The Big Chill festival.

Manchester
- Future Everything festival.
- Professional chapter of 'ACM Siggraph

Sheffield. Sensoria festival.

Other European countries

Athens (Greece). Parthenon. More digital than you would think.
- Quoted in [Berger-Lioret] p. 15.

Brno (Czech Republic): New new! festival.

Bucarest (Romania). Rokolectiv festival.

Budapest (Hungary)
- C3 Center.
- Kitchen Budapest.

County Laois (Ireland). Electir Picnic.

Dublin (Eire).
- DEAF, Dublin electronic arts festival.
- Science Gallery

The Golden Ring (Russia). Trimurti festival.

Hostebro (Danemark). Cybernetic sculpture, lasers Chaos Temple (make sure that it is operational when you come).

Koranica-Plitvicka (Croatia). Lost Theory festival

Ljubljana (Slovenia)
- Ljudmila, Lujbljana Digital Media Lab.
- Pomladi festival.
- Animateka. Animation festivals page.

Madeira (Portugal): Madeira Dig Festival

Minsk (Bielorussia): LPM (Live performers meeting) festival

Moscow (Russia Federation) Mmoma, Moscow museum of modern art.

Novi Sad (Serbia). Kuda, New Media Center.

Paros (Greece)
- Ipac. International Paros Art Center.

Poznan (Poland). Contemporary art biennal, including digital works (in 2010, notably, a work by Sommerer & Mignonneau).

 

Praga (Czech Republic)
- CIANT (Centre international d'Art et des nouvelles technologies), founded in 1998 by Pavel Smetana.
- Enter Festival.
- Sperm festival (digital music and arts).
- Astronomical clock. See Dailymotion.
- Remember: Praga is the Golem's city.

Reykjavik (Iceland). Festivals: Iceland airwaves and Sequences

Riga (Latvia) Rixc. The Center for New Media Cuture.

Tallinn (Estonia): Festivals: h2>T and Plektrum.

Wroclaw (Poland) International Media Art Biennale