I am in this city almost a month now. I think. I have stopped counting the days. 🙂 First I spent a few days with a group of 4 Canadian electronic artists and Kyd. They were part of the HTMLles Export 2 tour through Belgrade, Sofia and Istanbul and I had met them in Sofia. After they all left Istanbul – a big hello to Caroline who stayed a few more days [photos] – I met Bengue at a Halloween party in the cute Dogzstar club in Taksim, downtown Istanbul. Since then she is my generous host – thank you, Bengue. Sara, a friend from Denmark who was thinking to travel with me further south stayed with us for two weeks, but then followed her calling to start an apprenticeship in natural building in Oregon/USA. Sara, I wish you always a handful of clay and good luck with the course over there!
It has been a great month for the Free Software world so far. First Microsoft officially announces that they won’t bother Free Software developers with patent lawsuits anymore and then partners up with a leading Linux company (see open letter). A few days later the omnipresent Java technology is being handed over to the Free Software community by its producer. This is big big news for the community and will change the industry towards an economy based on cooperation.
At the weekend I visited a VJ performance, took part in a presentation of the Artificicial Eyes VJ group and attended a processing.org workshop, a programming environment for electronic arts and visual design based on Java. Amongst little exercises I created a bubble generator and a kaleidoscopic drawing tool. Stay tuned for some examples.
The last weeks have given me an intense insight into the world of media/electronic art and its inhabitants. Interesting.. I wonder what that will do to me in the future. 🙂