Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

Please join us for the book launch for around which dissonant satellites cluster: 20 år med Bergen senter for elektronisk kunst, and the video premiere of Equalize all media! Narratives from the interdisciplinary art scene in Norway 1999-2003.

Sunday 20 February
16:00
BEK, C. Sundts gate 55, 9th floor
Free and open for all (no registration required!)

We´re serving an informal hot meal as part of the event!

Book launch

around which dissonant satellites cluster: 20 år med Bergen senter for elektronisk kunst

In 20 years, technological development has escalated quickly while our relationship to technology has changed substantially. When BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts – was founded in 2000, the need for digital communication on the internet and artistic experiments in new technology merged to form a new entity. The book examines BEK´s development as a locally anchored resource centre for art and new technology in touch with the international art scene. The history outlined is anything but one-track; curiosity, generosity and ambitions are among the elements connecting the many big and small cross-disciplinary events of BEK´s history.

Editor Vilde Salhus Røed and Dušan Barok, who wrote the centrepiece essay of the book, will meet in conversation at the launch. Critic Grethe Melby moderates the talk.

The book consists of an essay and a presentation of four commissioned works. The essay The Extensions of Many: 20+ Years of Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts was written by researcher and artist Dušan Barok. In addition to diving into a multitude of publications, articles and websites, Barok has interviewed many of the people who have been central to BEK. Their anecdotes, thoughts and reflections provide a diverse and polyphonic account of BEK´s history as an institution. The four commissioned works are made by the artists Hanan Benammar and Maren Dagny Juell, and the authors Marit Eikemo and Thure Erik Lund. The works touch on questions concerning art and technology in contemporary society, with the last 20 years as a backdrop: the influence of social media on our lives, digital units as extensions of the body, the dream of artificial intelligence and surveillance, technological sovereignty and migration. Book design by Vera Gomes, editor: Vilde Salhus Røed.

Video premiere

Equalize all media! Narratives from the interdisciplinary art scene in Norway 1999-2003
by Marieke Verbiesen

In 2020, we celebrated the 20-year existence of the Bergen Centre for Electronic Art. In the light of this event, we are now looking back at cutting-edge developments that took place in our founding years – through projects that were initiated and got shaped by artists that had an interest in novel technologies, and used collaborative approaches for expressing creativity. The birth of the internet and its plethora of possibilities, contributed largely to the curiosity and new advances in art and technology.This video highlights a compilation of key projects and interviews with artists that shared an interest in developing creative expressions, and being at the forefront of this technology, taking place between 1999-2003.

Through recently restored archival material, throwbacks and interviews with key players from BEK, Motherboard, Verdensteatret, and others, the video gives a multi-faceted, polyphonic account of a DIY culture with artists jumping at the chance of trying out new tools and formats at a time when the internet was still far from being a mass phenomenon.

Marieke Verbiesen will be present at the video premiere.

Back to the full programme for BEK Opening Week 2022

Images: book design for around which dissonant satellites cluster by Vera Gomes, still image from Equalize all media! by Marieke Verbiesen.