[Left: Drew Hemment opening the conference, Right: Wifi-Hog installed in the exhibition]

Day 2 of the Futuresonic festival (see link below) was filled with some startling discussions and interesting feedback on projects and presentations. The opening session with Matt Adams of Blast Theory began with some interesting points – such as a new version of Hakim Bey’s “Temporary Autonomous Zones” (TAZ) played out over mobile phone telephony as a “Temporary Performative Zone” (TPZ) where people have to adjust their body language and voice depending on their location and the social circumstances of their immediate surroundings. Matt received some harsh criticism from the audience, accusing him of selling out to corporate sponsorship and partnership – rather than sticking to “pure” art practice. The reality of course is that any technology based art depends on people having a certain amount of capital to engage or get access to the tools of creation or the means of experiencing the work. Some other interesting talks from Marko Pelijan and Resonance FM, a radio station that does live broadcasts from the street through mobile phones and performance artists. Tomorrow we head to Riga, Latvia where we will be participating in the RAM 5 workshop on “open source media architecture”. Cya on the flipside…