Focus #5 - Hacking the past and the present

✴ 8pm - Hacking the past and the present

The fifth Focus program celebrates hackers, artivists, rebels, and innovators in the field of video and new media. It brings together historical works that engage creatively and critically with media technologies, revealing their often hidden dimensions, both material and ideological.

From pioneering experiments with analog video signals (Woody Vasulka, Dan Sandin) and subversions of live television broadcasting (Richard Serra) to artivist implementations of early computer graphics (Dana Plepys, Barbara Hammer), explorations of video games as political and social tools (Gun Holmström), and playful commentaries on internet censorship created in primitive code (Clint Enns)—these works rebel against the standardized use of technology, opening it up, dissecting it, revealing its inner workings, and inviting us to do the same.

They belong to what film critic Nicole Brenez describes as a vast counter-history of technical disobedience—a history of dissident avant-gardists who refused to bow to industry rules.

But! To quote famous free software activist Richard Stallman, we must not forget the spirit of joyful mischief that defines hacking. So, after the screening, Lyon-based artist Ralt144MI will take us deep into the bowels of software with his energetic audiovisual performance, where the joyful magic of algorithms will be unleashed and shared freely with the audience. Have fun and enjoy!

✴ 22h - Performance, Live Coding by RALT144MI

Under the pseudonym Ralt144MI, Rémi Georges composes hybrid electronic music, blending the raw energy of techno, the unique aesthetic of the demoscene, and the richness of electroacoustic experimentation.  His live coding performances, improvised live programming, explore the theme of technological archiving, interweaving complex rhythmic patterns and captivating visuals.