"Life didn't take over the globe by combat but by networking."
This pronouncement from Anna Dumitriu who investigates "the relationship of the emerging science of bacterial communication to our own digital communications networks".."using images of live bacteria and of actual internet web traffic to show the similarities in the beauty and networking present in both."
Art from bacteria is a pretty cool idea on its own. But when it reflects back at us the patterns of human activity on the web, it starts to send chills up my spine. Is networking a basic biological function? And if, as Dumitriu suggests, life prevailed through networking and not war, does that make social interaction and connectivity the opposite of war? The antidote to it?
Anna Dumitriu is one of the very cool speakers at subtle technologies, a festival of arts and sciences taking place from June 10th to 14th in Toronto. Four days of symposia, workshops, exhibitions, performances and parties are all built on exploring the theme of networks in art and science.
The topics are diverse, cutting edge and challenging. Ine Poppe will screen part of her film Hippies from Hell, which documents an Amsterdam-based group of hackers, techies, artists and writers who setup the Netherlands first internet provider, xs4all(!). Ryan Stec is Artistic Director of Artengine. He'll be talking about how networked based technologies can help develop artistic communities -- something Canadian screenwriters know a lot about. Katja Mayer from the University of Vienna uses visual networking schematics to better understand how we communicate through media, politics and science. Sebastien Lasserre's symposium promises a "beautiful and epic" trip through the human brain.
I'll be presenting a symposium on my experiments in using the social networks for story telling on Friday morning as part of the conference. It should be very interesting to talk about fiction in this context. I'm so excited to be part of this amazing event, because I'm already thinking about networks in an entirely new way... and so far I've only read the descriptions of the talks. I can't wait to hear them!
For more information about the Subtle Technologies schedule, speakers and events, visit the website. You can also follow the conference on Twitter (@SubtleTech) and Facebook. For the ultimate in cool,the Symposium will be streaming live onto OCAD Island in Secondlife.
