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Knowbotic Research

biography
bibliography


Knowbotic Research, KR, (Yvonne Wilhelm, Christian Huebler, Alexander Tuchacek) formed in 1991, is based in Zurich/Switzerland. The art group has been experimenting with urbanity, construction of knowledge and political representations in mediatised public spheres.

The transformation of the public sphere is a continuous process that is intimately linked not only to the development of media technologies, but also to the ways in which different agents act in the difference of their physical and symbolic contexts. Most recently KR have been investigating the construction of meaning and communication in a series of playfully 'test cases' that raise important questions about the constitution of subjectivity under the conditions of an information society.

While the earlier, network-based projects had concentrated on structures important to virtual networks, the recent test cases emphasise the aspect of transcoding in real spaces. By 'transcoding', Knowbotic Research mean the translation of abstract social and political facts and conditions which are removed from the classical public sphere, into situations that can temporarily be observed and negotiated. The testcases thus become instruments that can be deployed in manifold ways. They embody a material, almost sculptural translation, both experimenting with and disrupting their conceptual contexts. As explorative oscillations between materiality and mediality they often (re)enact symbolic representations in local and translocal interchanges.

Their work has been shown in major exhibitions, discussed in various international publications and conferences and has received major awards including: the Claasen Prize for Media Art and Photography, Cologne; the international ZKM Media-art award; August Seeling-Award of Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum; Prix Arts Electronica, Golden Nica. Since 1998, Knowbotic Research has a professorship at the Department of Art and Media at the University of the Arts Zurich.



Selected (E)Exhibitions, (P)resentations, (Per)formances

2009 (E) ARoS, Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Enter Action-Digital Art Now, 6. Feb.- 26. April 09
(E) Museumsquartier Wien, Freiraum, 7. Februar bis 29. März 2009
(E) Kunsthaus Mürz, Glanz und Verderben, 7.11.-29.3.09
coming up:
(E) Netherlands Media Art Institute Amsterdam, Hawara Checkpoint
(E) Ludwigsburger Skulpturenprojekt 09
(E) Laboral Gijon, FEEDFORWARD - The Angel of History
(P) Kunstpassanten Zürich
Beam me up, online exhibition 09, xcult.org/beam.me.up/
2008

(E) "Synthetic Times", NAMOC Beijing
(Per) Kunsthof Zurich
(Per) Cabaret Voltaire Zurich
(E) Center of Contemporary art, Tenerife
(E) "Surveillance and Control" 2, Centre of Art La regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
(E) "Conspire", Transmediale Berlin
((P) WRO Art Center, Wroclaw
(P) Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk (PL)
(P) Cabaret Voltaire Zurich
(P) Galerie 5020 Salzburg
2007 (E) Hongkong Shenzen Biennal
(E) (P) SHIFT Festival, Basel
(E) BLACK BENZ RACE - Big Wash, E:VENT Gallery London
(E) INVISIBLE INVICIBLE, Curators without Borders Berlin
(P) Translocal Practices, Kunsthalle Zurich, Conference/Workshop, June
(P) Donau Universität Krems, Zentrum für Bildwissenschaften, May
(Per) BlackBenzRace-Inauguration Parade, DEAF-RO Theater, Rotterdam
2006

(E) Skuc Gallery, Ljubiljana, "Room for Maneouvre", solo exhibition
E) Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, "Was ist Plastik? Das Jahrhundert moderner Skulptur"
(E) Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, "Designing the Truth"
(E) Akzente Duisburg, "PubliCity"
(E) "BlackBenz Race", Zürich-Pristina-Tirana

2005 (E) Kunsthalle St. Gallen, "Mapping New Territories"
(E) Transmediale Berlin, "Naked Bandit v3.0"
(E) ICC Tokio, "Open Nature"
(E) Puls5 Zürich, "lateshift"
2004

(E) TENT, Witte de With Rotterdam, "Tracer"
(E) MOCA Taipeh, Taiwan
(E) "10 years SONAR", Madrid
(E) ITAU Sao Paulo: ART.FICIAL EMOTION
(E) ArchiLAB Biennale, Orleans
(E) Ciberart Festival Bilbao, 'Evident Traces'
(P) Conference Ciberart Festival Bilbao, 'Synaptic Cartographies'
2003 (E) Palacio Virreina, Instituto Cultura Barcelona, "El banquete", installation
(P) DEAF Rotterdam, Open Territories
(P) Shopping the virtual, Art Basel
(P) Ars Electronica, CODE Symposium
(E) Videotage Hongkong, MIMAR
(P) Lissabon Biennal, Mille Plateaux
(P) Third International Image and Electronic Arts Festival, Medellin
(E) “The Conquest of Ubiquity”, Murcia, net.exhibition
(E) Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid
2002

(E) Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul media art biennale, "Luna's Flow", installation
(E) Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, ""Sans commune mesure", web-project
(E) New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, "Open_Source_Art_Hacking", installation
(E) Barcelona, HAMACA; "miralles", web.project
(E) Alda Fendi Foundation Rome, "De Re Publica", solo-exhibition
(P) Walker Art Center, Summer Lectures on Information and Architecture
(P) Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Symposium: "mediations: archaeologies and tranformations in the electronic sphere"
(P) Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, performance lecture
(P) Urban Drift Conference, Berlin
(P) ELIA Conference, Dublin, European League of Institutes of the Arts
(P) New Museum, New York, panel on Open Source, Art Hacking 
(P) Institute for Media Theory Basel, conference on netculture
2001

(E) Fondation Beyerle, Basel “Abstraction and Ornament”
(E) Bauhaus Dessau,” Paradiese der Moderne”
(E) LISTE Basel, “anonymous databody muttering
(E) Borderhack 2.0; "Defining Lines, Breaking down borders", online-exhibition
(A, P) Biennale for Architecture and Media, Graz, "Infospheres"
(P) Institute for Contemporary Arts, Praha, "Excavating the Future"
(P)Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, "Transurbanism"
(P) Transmediale Berlin, “netbased participation and social software”
(P) Arteleku Bilbao, „cell culture“
(P) Royal Institute of British Architects, London, “E_Futures”

2000 (E) Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle Bonn, "Heute ist Morgen"
(E) Museum Ludwig, Köln, "Kunst mit Fotografie und und andere mediale Eskapaden"
(E) Kunstverein in Hamburg, "Aussendienst"
(P) Jan van Eyck Academy Maastricht, "What is enlightment?"
(P) Bauhaus Dessau (
P) ZKM Karlsruhe, "Sciences of the Interface"
(P) ISEA Paris
1999 (E) Biennale Vendedig (Österr. Pavillon), "IO_lavoro immateriale"
(E) Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, "Connected Cities"
(E) ZKM Karlsruhe, "net_condition"
1998 (A, P) DEAF 98, Rotterdam, "The Art of the Accident")
(E) Arco Electronico,Madrid, "The best of the 2 Worlds"
(E)Ars Electronica, Linz, "Infowar"
(P)" schau Vogel schau", Leipzig
(P) Hamburger Woche der Bildenden Kunst, Umzug ins Offene
(P) BLAST, NY, artistic practice in the networks
1997 (E) Steirischer Herbst Graz, on dis/place/ment
(E) Fabrica Europa, Florenz, Anonymous Muttering,
(E) Artlab Tokyo, I0-DENCIES
(P) Dokumenta Kassel, Konfigurationen zwischen Medien und Kunst
(P) Civic Gallery of Contemorary Art Torino, Shadows of the Networks
1996 (E): Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Oslo, Electra
1995 (E): Hamburger Kunstverein, Interface;
(E): Kunstraum Vienna, mobil.machung
(E)ARTEC Biennale, Nagoya City Museum;
1994
 (E)Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, ISEA;
(E): Karl- Ernst Osthaus Museum Hagen, Platons Höhle;

bibliography
/selected
 - Mapping new territories. Schweizer Medienkunst international = Art media suisse international = Swiss media art international. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2005
- Aminima, volume12, new media actual art, Barcelona 2005
- SchnittStellen Herausgegeben von Schade, Sieber, Tholen. Basel 2005.
- aRt&D; Research and Development in Art, Ed. Anne Nighten, V2 Rotterdam, 2005
- Under Fire.2: The Organization and Representation of Violence, Ed. Jordan Crandall, Rotterdam: Witte de With, 2005
- Sarai READER 05: BARE ACTS, Editors: Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi + Geert, Lovink Guest Editor: Lawrence Liang; Delhi, 2005 [cc] Aminima, Madrid Naked Bandit, - - - - - Transcoding the sovereign, knowbitic research, Eigenverlag 2005
- "CODES BAD GUYS SPACE" in Transurbanism, ed. V2/NAI, Rotterdam 2002
- "Connective Force Attack", in Aussendienst, Hg. Kulturbehörde Hamburg, Modo Verlag Freiburg, Deutschland, 2002
-"Urban Agency- Making Interfaces inflammable" in Designing for a digital World, ed. Neal Leach, Wiley-Academy, London Royal Architecture Institute 2002
- Interaction-artisctic practice in the network, ed. Eyebeam Atelier, Jorden Crandall, NY 2001
-"Für eine künstlerische Praxis mit Medien", in Kunst und Interkontextualität, Ed. Bühler, Koch, Salon Verlag Köln, 2001
-"IO_dencies" in net_condition, Ed. Druckrey/Weibel, MIT Press 2001
-IO_dencies, questioning urbanity, CD_ROM, ed. KR/HGKZ Zuerich
- "slamming" in: Medien, Kunst, Interaktion (80-er, 90-er Jahre), Ed. Frieling, Daniels; ZKM Karlsruhe, Goethe Institut; 2000;
-"Wirksamkeitskonstruktionen", mit Andreas Broeckmann in: Heute ist Morgen, Ed. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2000
-"IO-lavoro immatriale" in: Offene Handlungsfelder, Open Practices, Ed. Peter Weibel, Ecke Bonk; DuMont Verlag Koeln, 1999;
- Knowbotic Research in: Art at the turn of the Millenium; Riemschneider, Grosenik (Hg), Taschen Köln 1999
-"IO_Ruhrgebiet" in: Connected Cities, Kunstprozesse im urbanen Netz, Lehmbruck Museum; Hantje Cantz Verlag, 1999 (Ausstellungskat.)
-" IO_dencies, questioning urbanity" in "Virtual Dimension-Architecture, Representation and Crash Culture", Princeton Architectural Press, Ed. J. Beckmann 1998
- "IO_dencies, questioning urbanity" , Artlab Tokyo,1998 (Ausstellungskatalog)
- C. Hübler, Sprache und Wahrnehmung an Schnittstellen zwischen Maschinen und Menschen Gespräch;
in: Sinn der Sinne, Schriftenreihe Forum der Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle Bonn (Hg), 1998;
- 'Dialogue with the Knowbotic Souith, in : Jenseits von Kunst, Peter Weibel (Hg), Wien 1997
- 'Non-Locations / Event: Under Construction', in: Interfacing Realities Hrsg: V2, Rotterdam 1997
- 'The Urban as a Field of Action'; in: Technomorphica, hrsg: V2, Rotterdam 1997
- Discovering Cyber Antarctic, in: Digital Delirium, hrsg: A. und M-L. Kroker, 1997
- 'Computer Aided Natur'- Knowbots und Navigationen Hans Ulrich Reck und KR,; in: Lab 2, hrsg: KHM Köln 96
- 'Postorganic Immortality', in: 'die Zukunft des Körpers' ,Kunstforum Bd 133, 1996
- 'Virtuality and Subjektivity (mem_brane)', in: Revue virtuelle, Centre George Pompidou 1996
-'Der Trick des Descartes'; Klaus Peter Dencker und Knowbotic Research, in: Medienkunstpreis, ZKM 95
-'Co-realities', in: Nonlocated Online, Medien.Kunst.Passagen 4/94, Knowbotic Research (Hrsg), Passagen Verlag Wien 1994