ABOUT JOHN BUTLER
To make a living Butler knocks out tabloid newspaper adverts and computer animations. As an artist, he prefers to use his techincal skills to make provoking alternatives/variants to his assignment work, that are often misinterpreted. He shows these short animations on the internet and at international media festivals.

WORKSHOP: SYNTHETIC INFORMATION
Prior to this event, John Butler will be giving a three day workshop called  Synthetic Information, on Tuesday 28, Wednesday 29 February and Thursday 1 March. He’ll guide the participants into making their own graphic clip of ironic propaganda. The results will be broadcasted on Urban Screens in Amsterdam, The Hague and Eindhoven. Join in!

To what extent are interferences in the urban environment able to influence human behavior? This question has been topical ever since urban planning & development issues have come into being. The matter becomes even more pressing when urban planning is used to solve specific political dilemmas, or rather: when architecture is at the root of such dilemmas. How can urban planning foster political inequality, and to what extent can algorithms or even concrete play a role in moral issues?

Next to physical architecture, there is a – possibly – even more complex territory to explore. Indeed, our social and professional behavior increasingly takes place in virtual environments. Behind our computer screen lies a world of predetermined constructions, restrictions, prerogatives and fantasy. How abstract is this world?

Architectures of Exclusion investigates the interrelationship between politics, morality, urban and virtual interference.

Impakt invited three guest speakers to shed light on this subject from various angles.

Gideon Boie studied architecture and philosophy in Ghent and Rotterdam and is co-founder of BAVO, an independent research and cultural activism institute engaged in the political dimensions of art, architecture and urban planning.

Architecture theorist Edwin Gardner currently works as a research fellow at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. His research centers on the correspondence between cognition in relation to design processes, our ways of interacting with the city and the modes of computer functioning.

Juha van ‘t Zelfde is an independent researcher, publicist, musician and curator. He is co-founder of VURB, a European network for policy and design research issues in relation to urban and digital environments.

Please note: this event will be in Dutch!

On March 1st, Butler will close the workshop off with an artist talk and the presentation of the results – that will be broadcasted on Dutch urban screens in Eindhoven, amsterdam and The Hague.

In February, John Butler will be Impakt WORKS artist in residence. Professionally he works for commercial, semi-informative newspapers, but he prefers to use his technical skills to make short animations that show a strong resemblance to military propaganda. Films by Peter Watkins, like “The War Game” are of inspiration to Butler – grimm scenarios where citizens are imperatively instructed, indoctrinated and warned for glooming disaster, like nuclear danger or – in the case of this workshop – financial warfare.

During his stay in Utrecht, Butler will work on short animations by which he thematically offers survival techniques to the current financial emergency – with excesses like fraudulent lotteries, deceitful offers or other trickery. The works are primarily text based but with a strong graphic form, backed up with 3d visuals – to project a vivid message that will stand out in a crowded public space.

In the workshop, Butler invites the participants to dive into the codes that are used to address our fellow citizens: by means of the shock and awe effects you will be joining in on making your own clip, that might resemble a message of public interest. You will be guided by a professional artist towards conceptualizing and producing your own visual message or animation. Results of the Synthetic Information Workshop will be broadcasted on Dropstuff‘s Urban Screens!

The participants are expected to individually bring software like After Effects, Combustion or a 3D-package to the workshop, and that they are able to work with it. Due to the visual objective of the results, sound will be of minor importance.

Want to join in? Please submit your participation via the RSVP button at the top of the page or send an email at rsvp[at]impakt[punt]nl.

Costs for the three day workshop are E25 – including daily lunch and a dinner on the last day prior to presentation. The price for just the closing presentation by John Butler on March 1 for non-participants is E5.