Dear friends,

I finally decided to launch new version of Random Magazine - www.random-magazine.net
As you probably know, it has a long story: the first version went online in 2001 as a single webpage hosted by the art portal Exibart.com, but it soon grew into a bigger project. I used to post everyday a short article about Net Art, using the site as a public diary of my daily surfing sessions.
In 2005 I decided to get Random a brand new web address and a real publishing platform. A lot of people started to contribute and the topics began to widen, including all forms of digital creativity (video, installations, music, games). Last year I decided to take a rest, giving myself the time to think about the future of this project I love so much.

In 2009, Random Magazine is back, and it’s the place where I share links about art & technology. Hope you enjoy it.
p.s. (Any feedback would be much appreciated!)

Valentina Tanni
www.random-magazine.net
www.valentinatanni.com

The artist Natalie Jeremijenko, well know for her extraordinary capacity to combine tecnological innovation with social and environmental causes, invited us at the Lift2009 conference in Geneva to reflect on tecnology resources from a new perspective, based on energy efficiency, recycling and the battle against pollution.

“(sans femme et sans aviateur) is a browser-based work that was inspired by Eric Rohmer’s film The Aviator’s Wife. It depicts contemporary Paris, happened upon following the main locations of the movie. The photographic imagery and the audio material were recorded during walks, and bus and metro rides, in a manner similar to the Nouvelle Vague film maker — although without any pre-arrangements for settings and observations; and with repeated visits to the locations. My intention was to honour Rohmer’s powers to get me interested in Paris, and at the same time make a work that discovers the city, even if only for myself . The work was also made with (the) intention to use the browser as a presentation tool that is independent of user interaction”
- Jorn Ebner

MMIF 2009 is the first edition of an annual global film festival in cyberspace and simultaneously in Amsterdam (NL). In Amsterdam MMIF 2009 will happen at the very last day of the ‘Dadamachinima’ media-art exhibition by PLANETART about avant-garde videogame modification, started 18 December 2008.

MMIF 2009 is a celebration of machinima: a new cinematic art form, created with 3D virtual worlds and online computergames. All the actors (avatars) are individually operated real-time by real people while movie scenes are directed and recorded. On 3D web platforms like Second Life, directors can even build complete movie sets for relatively low costs. MMIF 2009 aims to bring machinima to a wider audience, online
and offline.

Over forty short machinima films are screened at MMIF 2009, from all over the world. Machinima created wih all 3D web platforms and online games are welcome.

At the MaMachinima Theatre in Second Life, the artists and directors from many countries will be present in real time to talk about their creations. And to meet other machinimatographers and an international audience online.

The audience in Amsterdam can view the machinima films live via Second Life on a big screen at the auditorium of the PLANETART artspace in the former Volkskrantbuilding, .
Free entrance. Free wireless internet and electricity provided for audience laptops.

Project Oekonux researches the economical, political and social forms of Free Software and similar forms of production we collectively call peer production. In Project Oekonux, different people with different reasons and different approaches get together to build something new. A lot of participants want to know, whether and if so, how, the peer production can serve as a basis for a new society.

For the 4th Oekonux Conference Project Oekonux cooperates with the P2P Foundation. The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives researches, documents and promotes P2P practices in every domain of social life. It’s a global cyber-collective and aims to be a knowledge and internetworking platform for open/free, participatory, and commons-oriented initiatives on a global scale.

During the past decade the phenomenon of Free Software has become successful and well-known. It is still amazing how in the realm of software the creativity of so many volunteers leads to products which are useful for the whole mankind. Ten years after Project Oekonux was founded the world has changed. As expected by us the principles of the development of Free Software are spreading out to other fields. Wikipedia and Open Access are two of the most interesting examples among many. It is time to look at peer production from a broader perspective.

The World of Peer Production takes up this development and widens the perspective from Free Software to other fields of peer production. Project Oekonux and P2P Foundation are proud to welcome nearly 30 invited contributors which will share their experience, studies and insights with us on the following topics:

* Peer production beyond Free Software
o Free Design of material goods for less industrialized countries
o Open Source Car
o Free Science with Open Access
o Open Street Map project
o Peer production in art
o Free Farming
o Free Knitting
* Aspects of Free Software
o Free Software in Latin America
o Innovation in Free Software
o “Others” in the community
o Communities and single developers
o Women in Free Software
* Peer production and social movements
o The Hipatia project
o Social movements and peer production
o Indigenous movements and cyberspace
* Theories on peer production
o Patterns in peer production
o Market and peer production based economies
o Peer production and the concept of truth
o Organization in peer production
* Future of peer production
o Current limitations of peer production
o Money and peer production
o Ideas for expanding peer production
o Political scenarios for expanding peer production

Nicolas Nova at LIFT Conferences 2009.