The Arts of Crowd Control

Got and email today about the HTMlles conference coming up from Studio XXX - an nerdy woman hotspot that is one of those things (like Ile Sans Fils) that make me go Aw Dam, I dig Montreal.

In 1996, Studio XX became the first feminist artist-run centre in North America as a non-profit organisation with the main objective of supporting technological creation, exploration and critique by women.

Some thoughts pre-press conference (which is tomorrow, after which I’ll know more, for now I know it’s called “Crowd Control” and has that can of sardines as it’s logo.Heh)… I wonder, will we get to discuss control and social networks on the web? For example, how Facebook (and Myspace, but that’s another kettle) claim collectivity and communications values when it suits them, but are deleting the accounts of some of the Admins working on the campaign to support the now-missing monks in Burma? Hmm? I wonder.

(You can see the group that’s become the hub for the only news leaking out from the Burmese people here. Normally I don’t encourage linking to sites where you need to be a member to see content, but this seems important (plus with all their new privacy adjustments, who knows, you may be able to see it unsigned-in no problem). Anyway. End of digression.)

Let’s celebrate women in art and technology, and the fact that we can both celebrate and question, praise and protest!

Something fishy is going on in Montreal from October 17th-21st… It’s the 8th edition of The HTMlles! StudioXX’s biannual festival celebrating women, art and technology in a global society, invites Montrealers to experience a packed program of international artists rounded up under the theme Crowd Control. For five days, over 30 artists and digital agitators converge in Montreal to present new media and interdisciplinary works that explore social, political, territorial, personal, and conceptual mobility. Works include public interventions, tools for web activism, a chilling look at global warming, streamed online performances by a globally networked collective, a searching look at Google, and a cheeky blurring of the lines between commerce, art and the digital domain.