For those of you who don’t speak Bulgarian, below is a short re-cap in English of my presention that night. Below that, I’ve shared my original slides.

We had about a dozen wonderful presentations for the first Ignite Sofia event. You can find the videos (all in Bulgarian) on IgniteShow.

My presentation was based on 15 years of seeing all the different ways in which Bulgarians have been able to resist change in every aspect of society. Hence the title.

How to resist change

Or how to thoroughly botch up any hope of change.

In several easy steps.

Based on a real story.

All of the quotes below are taken from real-life situations that I have been in over the last 15 years in Bulgaria. Though some are universal, collectively they provide an understanding of Bulgarian resistance to change during what is generally referred to as the “transition period” — the last 21 years since the fall of the Communist regime. Where possible, I’ve added the specific context in which the remark was made.

“I reject”

Almost every day, I receive an invitation to join a Facebook cause “against” one thing or another.
It seems that Bulgarians just love to “reject” things. No arguments or counter-ideas required, positions are defined purely by the act of rejecting.

“That is not possible” / “This cannot happen”

There is nothing more encouraging to start a process of change than an outright claim that you are attempting to achieve the impossible. Let’s go for it!

“Nobody does that” or “You are insane”
(source: business)

It wouldn’t be a change if everyone did it. Sure, I might be insane, but it feels great to be insane. And guess what, normal people don’t cause change.

“What will others say”
(source: grandmothers and aunties)

Others consider themselves normal, which is why they don’t cause change. What can we expect them to say?

“That is not accepted here”

Of course it is not! If it was, we would be seeing a lot more change.

“Don’t bother”

Changing the status quo is very much worth bothering with. In fact, there is hardly anything that is more worth the effort.

“That is dangerous”

Change is only dangerous for those who are scared by it or who have an interest in continueing the status quo.

“The law does not allow this”
(source: administration)

There seems to be a persistent myth, specifically in Bulgarian administration, that laws need to define what you can do and how you should be doing the things you do.

You don’t have to be a member of the bar to see how that doesn’t work.

“There is an ordinance that prohibits this”
(source: administration)

This is what I call Plan B for when the previous argument fails. The suggestion is that regulations can forbid what is allowed under law.

Logic turned on its head.

“That is a lot more work”
(source: administration)

Work will be different. Probably your work will completely change. But more often then not, change ends up creating less and easier work.

“We can not be sure the new will be better than the old”
(source: Academia)

This argument came up in a context where the new could hardly be more broken than the old.

If all else fails, make sure you do the new thing the old way

If you want to take part in one of the upcoming Ignite Sofia events, send an email to ignitesofia at gmail do com.

This has taken months of preparations and has endured countless interruptions, but here it finally is!

A lot of the stuff that you will find on this site now, has never been available online. Some of it was available at some point, but had since disappeared. I have tried to bring back what I could. Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll add more material, so be sure to check back regularly.

If you want to receive email notifications of new posts on the blog, you can subscribe below. The frequency will be fairly low and I promise to keep the content interesting.

I hope you enjoy the new site.

Systems for Interactive Arts / Системи за Интерактивно Изкуство
Курсът по Интерактивни Системи за Изкуството цели да запознае студентите с теорията и практиката на интерактивното изкуство, независимо от формата й. Курсът разглежда общи концепции за интерактивни пърформанси и инсталации, както и тяхната реализация.

Чрез презентации в часа, групова работа, както и индивидуално упражнение и домашна работа, студентите ще развиват практическите умения за реализиране на интерактивни проекти, ползвайки PureData, GEM и Gridflow. От всеки студент на края на курса се очаква с да е реализирал индивидуален интерактивен проект, базиран на един от моделите на интеракцията които се разглеждат в теоретичната част.

След курса се очаква от студентите да имат основно познание на теоретичната рамка на интерактивно изкуство и да могат самостоятелно да разработват и изпълняват свои собствени интерактивни проекти.

Screen-based Arts / Екранни изкуства
Този модул разглежда по задълбочено екранните изкуства от най-ранните механични експерименти за записване и възпроизвеждане на движещи се изображения, през ранното експериментално кино, „експандед синема”, видео-арта и влияниeтo им в съвременните артистични парадигми.

След модулът, се очаква студентите да имат основно познание на историята и контектста на екранните изкуства, от раните форми на кино, през експерименталното кино, до последните съвременни тенденции. Студентите трябва да могат да правият самостоятелно анализа на художенствено произведение, и да отговарият на следните въпроси: Каква е концепцията на дадената работа? Как се отразява концепцията в избора на материал, форма, структура и презентация на работата?

Net Art / Нет арт
В този предмет се разглежда онлайн пространството, както като пространство за изящни изкуства, така и като пространство за дизайн и комуникация. Предметът комбинира история и теорията на нет арт с техническо знание. Този курс покрива основните уеб технологии (XHTML, CSS, wiki, социални мрежи, CMS, blogs, и др.), достъпност, стандарти за съвместимост, SEO, както и теория и практика на “content management” и “content representation”.

По време на курса студентите ще разработват нет арт проект, практическо прилагане и експериментиране с наученото от курса.

След курса, от студентите се очаква да могат свободно да ползват “web 2.0″ апликации като blog, wiki и социални мрежи за нет арт проекти, и да могат да правият елементарна уеб страница ползвайки HTML и CSS.

В този кратък курс се разглежда Мошън капчър или така наричения “компютър вижън” технологии и приложения.

Чрез презентации и практически упражнение по време на курса, студентите ще се запознаят с различни подхода за начина как компютърът може да анализра и да разбира образа, както и обекти около него и движения.

Курсът надгражда върху преподаденото в модулите Електроника за художници и Системи за интерактивно искуство.

След курса, от студентите се очаква да общо познание на теорията и принципите на компютър вижън и да могат да ползват тази технология в техните проекти.

The course description seems to have gone missing. When I find it again, I’ll post it here.

The course was taught between 2008 and 2009 within the Digital Arts MA programme of the National Academy of Arts.

randomize.qt_

Randomize.qt is a patch for Max/MSP and Jitter. The patch is based on the ‘narrative_destroyer’ created by Kurt Ralske and HC Gilje during a workshop hosted by BEK in Bergen, Norway, in August 2000.

Changes compared to narative_destroyer:

• uses jitter instead of nato.0+55
• modified and optimized randomization routine
• added in and out point selection for randomization in source movie
• added quicktime export routines

Requires Max/MSP and Jitter

JansZoon Koster

A set of abstractions for Max/MSP and nato.0+55 which enables smooth slowmotion by interpolation.

Requires nato.0+55 and therefor Mac OS 9.

242.fbuffer

Requires the janszoon abstractions [see above]
Much like 242.buffer, but with added functionality;
The 242.fbuffer abstraction behaves like 242.buffer, but has 2 extra functions;

• read (int) (filepath)
  works like the read message for 242.film
  int – sets whether newly loaded film is appended to the buffer or replaces it
  0 – the imported data is appended
  ( 242.buffer : n2inewimage err = -108 == Insufficient memory available )
  1 – the buffer is cleared
  optional filepath sets film to be loaded
  int or float
• float
  outputs image at the frame number entered, and interpolates if and as needed

Optional argument for 242.fbuffer makes the buffer remote accessible using faust

Requires nato.0+55 and therefor Mac OS 9.

Antipodes premièred at the Kiev International Media Art Festival in October 2002 and was performed later that year at the PEK festival in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2009 Beekman and van Wersch revisited the concept with a performance at DA Fest in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Antipodes – people with feet opposite ours is about the act of crossing boundaries between sound and image, control and output, between performer and computer.

The two performers are joined by the computer as a third, independent performer, with a mind of his own, which records, decodes, interprets and interferes with actions of the human performers. Collectively, they shape sound and vision through shared control strategies.

Central to the concept of performances by Beekman and van Wersch is the coming to terms with the realisation that there are people with feet opposite ours.