okno//.. research and networking : mxhz.org [Guy Van Belle]
Guy Van Belle (Amsterdam/Brussels) has been prominently involved in the use and development of multimedia for artistic purposes since 1990.
As an independent art worker he cooperated with Waag Society Amsterdam on the development of collaborative creative tools for networked installations and performances. For that purpose he set up \An`a*tom"ic\ "Related to the structure of an organism", a weekly open studio for young and unconventional artists, linked to international partners by fiber optic wire: New York, Reykjavik, Tokyo, Athens, Sofia, Prague, Bratislava, Belgrade, Budapest, Brussels, Mooste ... <http://anatomix.waag.org>
Since 2000 he has been working under the name of the collective digital band mxHz.org (machine cent'red humanz), creating collaborative performances, concerts, workshops, exhibitions and unexpected experimental/abstract art projects. He performed recently in Amsterdam, Bratislava, and Berlin.
MxHz.org are currently participating at http://www.artbots.org in new york with 2 sets of autonomously communicating heliumbots. The title of the project is "thoughts go by air".
He just finished an Balkan/Central/Eastern Europa tour to work on a new sustainable kind of collaborative projects. One project was a remake of Tony Conrad's pre-techno classic 'From The Side Of Man And Womankind' (1972).
A new project - just starting up - is a net-remake of John Cage's Imaginary Landscapes #4 (for 12 radios and 24 performers) and some historical texts by innovative radio artists. The project started in Prague during the FM@dia conference and will lead to a final version during 2005.
With Akihiro Kubota he started the 'Society of Algoritm' in 2001, working on netbased music performances. They participate both in festivals, connected concerts, and plan a working residency exchange Europe-Japan with a open release of material.
He is also a curator (Leonardo Music Journal CD 1999, currently sound programmation for deaf04), reviewer (European Photography, Leonardo, ...) and lecturer (weekly guest at Piet Zwart Institute october-november 2003).
For more than 10 years he has been advising the Media Lab at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts Antwerp for their projects and realisations. He worked for 10 years at University of Ghent, teaching and managing (international) research projects for education and arts, and the electronic studio IPEM.
Recently he started to work at an hommage to Arseny Avraamov, scheduled for 7 November 2022 in Baku. It is an exercise in very longterm planning, collaborating, curating, evaluating, organizing, ...
In a press clipping he was referred to as: "Experimental- und Medienmusiker, A/V-Jockey und Netzkuenstler; Arbeit in internationalen Experimentalstudios und unabhaengigen Audioaktivitaeten im Netz" (Golo Foellmer)


okno//.. open-studios and development : code31 [Gert Aertsen]
Gert Aertsen studied fine arts at the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, Brussels. Trained as a classical painter and installation artist, his interest lay in contemporary iconography. His work represented a pseudo-philosophy based on imagery, provided by popular media as lifestyle magazines, advertising industry, television... He received his Master’s Degree in 1998, cum magna laude.
In September 2000 he enrolled at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts Antwerp. He started focusing on the possibilities of new media and technology for the use in his installations. He designed different interactive projects and applications. He used these projects as models to experiment with real size/time effect on people. Furthermore he built 3D environments and concentrated on specific 3D languages such as VRML and Open-GL.
Since august 2001 he's part of Machine Centred Humanz, a multi-disciplinary collective of artists exploring the different fields of technology, arts, robotics, and experimental music… The collective has collaborated with different organisations: Starbot Ensemble, Fcca, Worm, … Gert Aertsen was asked to join in to start working on the first mXhz project, Roving Walter Walter. He stayed involved focusing on the technical aspect of the mxhz projects. His interest within mXhz lies in the challenge to rebuilt common-use technology for artistic purpose. Exploring it’s possibilities of artistic expression and innovation. Besides artbotics he works on mXhz’s audiovisual installations and performances.
In the mxhz way of working research is closely related to development and consequently performance. No outcome is strictly refined, but rather showes a step in development. Each performance –or installation for that matter- creates the necessary feedbackloop for validation of the mxhz’ hypotheses and ideas. This creates developments nodes that leave enough space for experiment.
All of mXhz’ 2002 activities were produced by Gert Aertsen for [lahaag.org). He co-founded this organisation in February 2002 to cope with the many projects initiated by mXhz. Furthermore [lahaag.org] assists other artist with the technical aspect of their installations. Recently [lahaag.org] assisted Bud Blumenthal with his Dance-piece “Les Reflets d’Ulysse”.
In april 2003 Gert Aertsen founded Code31 together with Pieter Heremans (lab[au]) and Hendrik Leper (Boutique Vizique). Code31 is an open studio for research, development & discussion about techniques & methodologies in media-art. It is an initiative that stimulates interchange between arts in serveral disciplines and serves the space needed to experiment with these new technologies. Code31 wants to gather artists, engineers & researchers -- people who want to concentrate on the symbiosis of art & technology, through research, experiment & reflection.
Currently he is working on a new project for Mxhz, Thoughts go by air. This project involves two sets of independently flying robots that fly and perform simultaniously at different locations around the globe. It is the first test of a flock of balloons that can typically communicate with another flock in a distance, and exchange information regarding its own shape and movement. The robots can learn to adapt and act differently than local observations would suggest. Hence they will enact on human forms of gathering like: parties, openings/closings, bingo events, artbot shows, exhibitions and performances.


okno//.. production and presentation : Looking Glass [Annemie Maes]
Annemie Maes studied graphic design at the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, Brussels. Besides her development as an artist she started working at the cultural center Ancienne Belgique Brussels, where she was responsible for communication and partly also for production.
In 2002-2003-2004 she enrolled for a Masters Degree in Cultural Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, with the research-topic : production, presentation and perception of collaborative multi-media projects.
Curator, programming and production:
In 1986 she co-founded with Jan Bultheel the experimental filmproduction company Pix & Motion, which she managed during 15 years and where she produced numerous productions as there are: shortfilms, animated TV-titles, videoclips and commercials. She worked as well with young, emerging Belgian filmdirectors, as with internationally reknowed directors.
End 1997 she started Looking Glass, a window-gallery in the center of Brussels. Looking Glass always presents site-specific work which aims to relate to the (often unsuspecting) audience.
Openness, challenge and communication are thus starting points for the interventions. Artistic image and sound open up a dialogue with the cacophony of images and sounds on the street. Besides the specificity of the space and the location, process is an important tool to challenge the audience. Where a lot of (the same) people pass each day, the attentiveness and imagination of the audience is challenged.
From 1997 till today, Looking Glass presented 35 original, site-specific projects by Belgian and international artists. Looking Glass offers, with these interventions, a platform to young contemporary artists on a prominent location in the city of Brussels. In this way Looking Glass aims to contribute to the cultural and artistic image of the city on a local and international level.
Since 2002 the philosophy and concept of Looking Glass is focussing on art and new media. Its aim is to identify innovation and change in new aesthetical presentation techniques. All projects are linked to the problematization of new art in the publicspace, from a socio-cultural background. New technology including internet as a medium for performing, is predominantly present in the exhibitions and installations. As such Looking Glass wants to stimulate the awareness of the public, confronting them with unexpected interactive installations, performances,concerts and lectures.
The profile of Looking Glass, with its window-space in downtown Brussels as a permanent basis, is moving towards a mobile and dynamical concept.
The city as a nomadic map of traces left by its occupants, yet building up a present and history, is the next challenge.
Since 2004 Looking Glass programme’s a series of multimedia projects that are conceived [site specific] for the historical location of the ice cellars at the VUB Brussels. Due to the accoustic and spatial qualities of the location, most of the presented projects will concentrate on the perception of sound, and the related image, in different forms [time, space, movement, connection, interference, visualization of sound).
With this methodology Looking Glass positions itself as a junction in an international research-and presentation network for new media art.
Artistic work:
She positions herself as a multimedia artist focussing on new media, with a strong interest for soundinstallations and collaborative projects. Her aim is to bring innovation and change in new aesthetical presentation techniques.
Most of her projects are linked to the problematization of new art in the publicspace, from a socio-cultural background. New technology, including realtime audiovisual processing and motiontracking, as a medium for performing is predominantly present in her installations.