Chris Sugrue is an artist and programmer whose works experiment with the magical and illusory possibilities of digital technology. She creates fictional worlds that have taken the form of interactive installations, audio-visual performances and algorithmic animations. Her works have explored topics in artificial life, computer vision, electromagnetism, optical effects, and augmented video. She has exhibited internationally in such festivals and galleries as Ars Electronica, Sónar Festival, Pixel Gallery, Medialab-Prado, Matadero Madrid, and La Noche En Blanco Madrid.

Sugrue’s interactive installation, Delicate Boundaries received an honorary mention from Vida Art and Artificial Life Awards and first prize from Share Festival. In 2009, she collaborated to help develop the EyeWriter, a low-cost eye controlled drawing tool for ALS patients. The EyeWriter was honored with Design of the Year award for interactive category, the Future Everything Award, and a Golden Nica from Ars Electronica.

Sugrue holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. She has worked as a creative engineer at the Ars Electronica Futurelab where she was the lead interaction developer for a stereoscopic interactive dance performance with artist and choreographer Klaus Obermaier. Sugrue was the recipient of a year-long fellowship at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York, and has held artist residencies with Hangar in Barcelona, La Casa De Velázquez in Madrid and Harvestworks in New York. She has taught courses in the Design and Technology department at Parsons School of Design, the Interface Culture program at the KunstUniversitat in Linz, Austria, and numerous workshops on visual and creative programming.

The multimedia artist and activist Annemie Maes will give us some answers and practical tips. She has long been involved in eco-technologies and grass-roots activism. In 2004, she and Guy van Belle set up OKNO, an artists collective that aims to develop innovative cultural projects linking art and technology. For example: Connected Open Greens – the outskirts of town where culture and nature can come together symbiotically, where regenerative energy technologies meet traditional gardening and where art projects might make new biotopes. The question is this: to what extent can new organisms, new surroundings and new landscapes be generated by merging the artificial with the natural?

OKNO members operate two Open Green Rooftop Gardens in Brussels. They observe and record the growth, flowering and decay of plants as well as providing a habitat for insects and keeping bee colonies.
In Zagreb, Annemie Maes will be talking about the Connected Open Greens project, one feature of which is urban bee-keeping.

C H A I N      R E A C T I O N

3rd Upgrade!International meeting

The meeting theme “Chain Reaction” illustrates the network itself, the way it works and functions, correlates and interacts. The Upgrade!International started as a creative spark that gradually grew into an international group of nodes influencing each other continually through permanent communication. The meeting gathers Upgrade! nodes into one core event in Macedonia and will hopefully cause a positive chain reaction. Upgrade! network gathers annually or bi-annually, each time in a different city for a festival by artists who participated in the Upgrade! meetings around the world.

“Chain reaction” was initiated by 5 partner nodes (Upgrade! Belgrade, Upgrade! Berlin – Public Art Lab, Upgrade! Sofia – InterSpace, Upgrade! Istanbul – NOMAD and Upgrade! Skopje – Line Initiative and Movement) that are responsible for the main coordination and communication of the project with other nodes from the network.

The outcome of the meeting is a 4 day festival with various activities that are created by common effort of the Upgrade! International nodes. On this occasion 50 international artists, curators, and arts producers will gather in Skopje to meet, present art projects and further develop the network. The artistic program of this project is rich, diverse and presents the latest developments of the new media scene on international level.

The artistic program comprises 6 parts:

+ Exhibition

+ Public interventions

+ Live a/v performances

+ Performances

+ Screening program

+ Workshops

These events will take place in different cultural spaces in the city centre. The vibrancy created by having the event happening throughout the city also serves to increase the opportunity for dialogue and place-making, letting the city and its people become part of the festival.

One major aim of the Upgrade! International 2008 meeting is to establish new forms of cultural exchange among the neighbouring countries in the Balkans. The partner nodes in the Balkans are working to show that culture continues to be a powerful force for regional cooperation. The nodes have already hosted smaller exchanges amongst themselves and have worked in a peer-to-peer mentorship capacity to help start and support new nodes in the area. This cooperation has allowed the organizers and local participants to foster a sense of confidence and unique identity amongst new media practitioners internationally. Due to our limited opportunities for mobility and cultural activism on a European and international level, the meeting in Skopje will be of great importance for the region. It’s an outstanding opportunity for many of the local cultural operators, artists, and curators to increase their knowledge and experiences and to share their expertise with others. Hosting the international meeting in Skopje in partnership with neighbouring nodes is a step forward towards creating ongoing cultural linkages in the Balkans.