February 2018 - January 2019

  • February

  • From January to April 2018, Femke curates the research centre at a.pass, a programme for advanced performance and scenography studies in Brussels.
    As part of this, she proposes five Monday Readings + an additional Saturday that bring habitual tool-situations apparent in a.pass in conversation (...)

  • The first Algolit session of 2018 welcomes Nicolas Malevé, with the second part of a workshop he organised in the framework of the Algoliterary Encounters in November 2017 in Maison du Livre in Brussels.
    The morning from 10h till 12:30h will be open for participants who were not present at the (...)

  • In this workshop we write loveletters using the material from the archive developed for the installation: the weekly video addresses by Barack Obama, cut to precise clips of words and small sentences. We start with a quick exploration of the the software, algorithms and interfaces used to (...)

  • The lifecycles of different species are linked via electronic circuits with limited lifespan: accessories that measure biorhythms or monitor the growth-rate of specimens; interactive medical implants, networked pacemakers or wireless defibrillators are an everyday reality. As minerals, plants, (...)

  • From January to April 2018, Femke curates the research centre at a.pass, a programme for advanced performance and scenography studies in Brussels.
    As part of this, she proposes five Monday Readings + an additional Saturday that bring habitual tool-situations apparent in a.pass in conversation (...)

  • March

  • Algolit, the workgroup around FLOSS literature and code, will organise a meeting on datasets. Based on the Algoliterary Encounters of November 2017, we will present one or more algorithmic recipes to explore as an algoliterary writing exercise.
    There is no need for programming knowledge, but (...)

  • What does a feminism that has adapted to technological mediation, abstraction, the virtual, and complexity look like? And what are the new forms of occupying, segregating and contesting space that automation can facilitate? Femke participates in a debate organised by the Royal Academy, London (...)

  • TRANS // BORDER takes the work of Nathalie Magnan as its point of departure and looks at the relevance of her work through the creations and research of a number of artists, scientists, (h)acktivists and students who are continuing to cultivate the territories she was exploring.
    As a (...)

  • Algolit, the workgroup around FLOSS literature and code, organises a meeting in Rotterdam around word embeddings. Word embeddings are an algorithmic method by which a machine learns language by looking at the contexts of words in large datasets. We will start the day by going step-by-step (...)

  • From January to April 2018, Femke curates the research centre at a.pass, a programme for advanced performance and scenography studies in Brussels.
    As part of this, she proposes five Monday Readings + an additional Saturday that bring habitual tool-situations apparent in a.pass in conversation (...)

  • Catherine Lenoble and An Mertens present Algolit and their activities during this study day at La Cambre.

  • MENSES ANTIDOTE, by Isabel Burr Raty, is a Totem, whose hybrid nature intertwines an invigorating melting genital substance with an "electronic DIY nervous system", programmed to manufacture a cure-tonic that Isabel drinks. In this installation the visitors are invited to interact with the (...)

  • April

  • Every year Constant commissions another designer or design collective using Free, Libre and Open Source tools, to work on the two-monthly flyers for Constant_V.
    In 2017, we invited Ecran Papier, a Brussels-based design collective.
    For every new edition of Constant_V, Florence Grosse, Ophélie (...)

  • An Mertens will give a lecture and host a workshop at l’Ecole Supérieure d’Arts et Design de St Etienne on the use of the Python programming language for literary creation.
    A line of code is like an action of a recipe. One prepares an ingredient, applies the action and the ingredient will be (...)

  • Workshop Oulipo in EADSE, St Etienne, France

  • Algolit, the workgroup around FLOSS literature and code, will organise a meeting on word embeddings. A few Algolit members will present physical scores that we try to play out, in order to fully understand one of the techniques used in machine learning to turn text into numbers and make the (...)

  • An Mertens will speak about her experience with automated processes as part of literary creation, in the framework of the workshop ’Chatbots as a poetic tool’, organised by poet Maartje Smits in collaboration with Botsquad, Perdu and Hackers & Designers. The presentation is open for (...)

  • From January to April 2018, Femke curates the research centre at a.pass, a programme for advanced performance and scenography studies in Brussels.
    As part of this, she proposes five Monday Readings + an additional Saturday that bring habitual tool-situations apparent in a.pass in conversation (...)

  • Trasformatorio was a temporary laboratory that took place in Sicily between April 20th to May 1st, 2018. It was organised by Dyne.org in collaboration with the town Giampilieri in Italy.
    Trasformatorio was the first residency in the framework of the Iterations project, a collaboration between (...)

  • With an on-line presentation, Femke contributes to What is the archive?, a yearly laboratory organized by Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa, Videoteca. This three day meeting proposes to examine the current destabilization of the concept and practices of Archive namely due to deep technological (...)

  • bolwerK, combines in the project Crystelling parascientific history, anthropology, and technology to familiarize ourselves to the electromagnetic spectrum and to how radio and farming metaphors intertwine.
    Marthe van Dessel and some other artists from the bolwerK galaxy will run an open lab in (...)

  • The Menses Antidote electronic totem had its opening on the 31st of March at Constant and its running an ongoing exhibition for one moon cycle - from full moon to full moon - until the 30th of April 2018. You are welcome to pass by any time, as it stands looking into the street passers, and you (...)

  • May

  • Warp and weft are terms for the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. Inspired by Constant’s rich history of events and their diverse on-line manifestations, Constant is reweaving its on-line presence.
    As a way to narrate in-between concerns, projects, events (...)

  • Algolit, the workgroup around FLOSS literature and code, organises a meeting on term frequency–inverse document frequency (tf-idf), a numerical statistic that reflects how important a word is to a document in a collection or corpus. It is often used as a weighting factor in searches of (...)

  • Every year on January 1st, copyright expires on thousands of works that subsequently enter the Public Domain. In Belgium, copyright protection lasts 70 years after the death of the author and consequently in 2018, the works of authors who died in 1947 will be released.
    This year we welcome the (...)

  • Close Encounters is a series of presentations and public conversations organized by the a.pass Research Centre. These informal events are designed to take the time to meet, listen and evaluate an idea, a project, a research, or a specific point in a research trajectory. What to study? What to (...)

  • Plus-Tôt Te Laat occupies Constant’s window with various works printed in risograph, that are inspired by writers who died in 1947 and whose works are in the public domain in 2018.
    This installation is a re-mix of the vegetal Art Deco style of the Belgian Victor Horta, and the 9th art of William (...)

  • On Friday 17 Frifek of the year Zek, a qualifier Demolineutron reduces the Large Zone of Zendium the size of a vibratory pudding, which has dramatic consequences for the lovers Xavan and Jaluka.
    This comic by Peter Westenberg is a remix of paintings and drawings by Leon Spilliaert. The (...)

  • The installation Wonderwoman meets Horta created by Plus-Tôt Te Laat in the window of Constant, will be part of the weekends of the Parcours d’artistes St-Gilles 2018. Anyone interested in author rights, public domain and the possibilities of artistic creation when sources become a public good, (...)

  • June

  • The installation Wonderwoman meets Horta created by Plus-Tôt Te Laat in the window of Constant, will be part of the weekends of the Parcours d’artistes St-Gilles 2018. Anyone interested in author rights, public domain and the possibilities of artistic creation when sources become a public good, (...)

  • In machine learning Naive Bayes is a simple probabilistic classifier that is widely applied for spam filtering and sentiment analysis. During this session we first look at its history, its application in daily life decisions, as well as how this classifier can be used in Python. Next, we will (...)

  • Festive launch of XPPL: Xperimental Potential Pirate Library, Xperimental Private-Public Liaison, Xperimental Pretentious Performative Labor, Xperimental Platform for Potential Legality, Xperimental Post-Public Library.
    "XPPL is a space for potential pirate librarianship aimed at people who (...)

  • From January to April 2018, Femke curates the research centre at a.pass, a programme for advanced performance and scenography studies in Brussels.
    As part of this, she proposes five Monday Readings + an additional Saturday that bring habitual tool-situations apparent in a.pass in conversation (...)

  • Life limited electronics link the life cycle of humans, animals and machines; growing older biologically intersects with the lifespan of pacemakers and defibrillators. How do ageing bodies and their technological partners keep each other company, now and in the future?
    Film programme within (...)

  • How do ageing bodies keep each other and their technological partners company? What account do they give of their generational specificities? Can we develop ecosystems that transcend time and scale in solidarity? At the closing of the worksession Ageing companions / Geprogrammeerde veroudering (...)

  • July

  • Somatopologies screens: from sunset to sunrise!
    For the summer edition of Constant_V, Possible Bodies feat. Spec presents Somatopologies, materials for a movie-in-the-making. In the vitrine you will find 3D-renderings of diverse densities, wondering about the regimes of truth that converge in (...)

  • Possible Bodies (Jara Rocha, Femke Snelting) will contribute to the conference How to relate:
    "How to relate? To each other, to something? Questions about relations are relevant for a knowledge in the arts. For just which knowledge can be produced depends on the success or failure of (...)

  • Alchorisma alludes to the relationships between algorithms, charisma, rhythm, alchemy and karma. Alchorisma is a Constant worksession which looks at integrating cosmogenetic views with the charisma surrounding technology. We look at ways to infect existing algorithmic models with positions that (...)

  • August

  • Constant will be closed from 1 till 31 August.
    We wish you all a wonderful Summer and look forward to meeting, exchanging, collaborating again from September onwards, with renewed energies!

  • September

  • Live from WTC25 and on-line at http://observatory.constantvzw.org/stream
    Door closes at 18:30. Broadcast: 19:00-20:30
    The Techno-Galactic Guide to Software Observation gathers methods from the Techno-Galactic Software Observatory, a worksession that took place in June 2017. It was (...)

  • Networks Of One’s Own is a periodic para-nodal publication that is itself collectively written in a network. Each of the episodes is thought of as the ’release’ of a software stack, contextualised in its specific practice. The series aims to document a set of tools, experiences, ways of working (...)

  • Opening: Thursday 20/09 @ 18:00
    What future for digital collective artistic work? How to stimulate sustainable art practices that consciously engage with network technology, collectivity, communality and difference?
    Iterations is an artistic relay which traverses different countries. Artists (...)

  • During this information session we explain methods and contents for the workshop that will happen in Mundaneum in Mons from 8 to 12 October 2018 (10-18h), organised by the teachers of Digital Arts ARTS² and artists from Algolit, Constant’s research group on free code and text. The workshop is (...)

  • In machine learning Naive Bayes is a simple probabilistic classifier that is widely applied for spam filtering and sentiment analysis. Based on the documentation of the previous session, we now use this technique as a recipe for potential literary creation - that can be physical, computational (...)

  • October

  • From October 1 until the end of 2018, Constant will share its studio on the 25th floor of the WTC building with Mia Melvær. Mia is a Norwegian visual artist working at the intersection of sculpture, technology and ways of archiving. Often in collaboration with the Brussels-based collective Just (...)

  • Gijs de Heij and An Mertens, two members of the Algolit team organise a workshop in Mundaneum in Mons from 8 to 12 October 2018 (10-18h), in collaboration with the teachers of Digital Arts ARTS². The workshop is aimed to students of ARTS2, University of Mons and other schools, but can be joined (...)

  • How do different flows and different forms of power intersect on the Muntplein/Place de la Monnaie in Brussels? For five days, Alex Zakkas and Kurt Tichy joined the ranks of various human and machinic agents already watching over the square. Starting from their observations, Constant hosts an (...)

  • Contribution to a debate. With Marije Baalman, Jennifer Kanary, Femke Snelting and Luis Lobo Guerrero. Chair: Danielle Arets.
    "Technology offers many people the opportunity to participate in society. Technology as enabler of accessibility. The practice is different. The paradox of technology (...)

  • For the second residency in the framework of the project Iterations, 8 artists were invited to develop a collaborative art project during a 15 days residency at Hangar. Some were selected through an open call, others ones were going to participate to the next iterations residency. At the (...)

  • November

  • At the FLAT Art Book Fair of Torino, Femke will present Books With an Attitude.
    According to Constant, books deserve the hallmark "with an Attitude" when they are made with Free, Libre and Open Source Software and published under an open content license. The books and their ingredients are (...)

  • Linear Regression is one of the most well known and well understood algorithms in statistics and machine learning. It has been around for almost 200 years. It is an attractive model because the representation is so simple.
    During this session we first look at its history, its application in (...)

  • From 19 to 21 November 2018 we organise a 3-days workshop where we will build cameras from scratch, experiment with their design and shoot SuPi8 footage.
    The SuPi8 is a digital camera ... but built inside a Super8 camera. More precisely, it is a digital sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi, (...)

  • The SuPi8 is a digital camera ... but built inside a Super8 camera. More precisely, it is a digital sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi, stuck inside a 8mm or Super8 camera.
    From November 19 to 21, Constant is organizing a 3-day workshop where we will build cameras from scratch, experiment with (...)

  • Algolit members Gijs de Heij and An Mertens will organise a workshop on ’Futures for Experimental Literature’ and algorithmic storytellers in the framework of the studyday ’Daarom lees ik’ (’Why I read’) organised by UGent.
    In the morning there will be a lecture and panel discussion about classical (...)

  • Contribution to a symposium organised by Q-02 werkplaats in collaboration with Melissa E. Logan (University of Craft Action Thought / Chicks on Speed). With Christian von Borries, Prodromos Tsiavos, Femke Snelting, Melissa E. Logan, ooooo, Yoni Van Den Eede.
    "The one-day symposium and (...)

  • December

  • Alchorisma alludes to the relationships between algorithms, charisma, rhythm, alchemy and karma. Alchorisma is a Constant worksession which looks at integrating cosmogenetic views with the charisma surrounding technology. We look at ways to infect existing algorithmic models with positions that (...)

  • On Tuesday evening, Z33 organizes, in the context of the Alchorisma worksession, a screening of two films that focus on the themes of magic and spirituality. The two films show how artists respond, in their own way, to our contemporary interaction with elements from the earth and nature. (...)

  • Bela is a multilanguage (Pure Data, Super Collider, C/C++) interactive music platform for ultra-low latency audio signal processing. The platform consists of Open Source software and hardware. Bela is used by audio enthusiasts, interactive artists, musicians, wearable technology designers, (...)

  • Linear Regression is one of the most well known and well understood algorithms in statistics and machine learning. It has been around for almost 200 years. It is an attractive model because the representation is so simple.
    Based on the documentation of the previous Algolit session, we will use (...)

  • January 2019

  • 7-13 April 2019 @ Antwerp/BE
    "Networks do not tell all stories equally. Networks, like all entities with stories, tell most readily those stories in whose reflection they see themselves." [Eleanor Saitta, 2012]
    The internet is dead, long live the internets! In 2025, the internet will consist (...)

  • In the context of Any Change Calls for Resistance, this year’s winterschool at RITCs curated by Christoph Meierhans, Constant contributes with The Streaming Hypothesis. This two week workshop will be a hands-on experience with the politics and technologies of streaming.
    On 15 January, invited (...)

  • In the course of 1948, the lives of the authors Sergej Eisenstein, Louis Jean Lumière, Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire, Jacques Feyder, Cissy van Marxveldt and many others came to an end. Seventy years later, in 2019, the intellectual property protection on their oeuvre expires. Finally, their works (...)

  • CHANGE OF PROGRAM & PLACE:
    Due to planning issues the recording session of the podcasts at Radio Panik is postponed to Friday 1-3. We will spend some time during this session on: a case of Propaganda Detection: https://www.datasciencesociety.net/hack-news-datathon-case-propaganda-detection/

  • XMPP is a long standing protocol for libre federated chat which in recent years brought the federated chat ecosystem to modern mobile clients, cross device chat and end-to-end encryption.
    Running up to FOSDEM, the XMPP community hosts a design sprint in Brussels. More info + how to join: (...)

  • The 2019 edition of transmediale focuses on the role of emotions, empathy, and cultural emergence in digital culture. Constant co-moderates one of its two Study Circles on Affective Infrastructures and in addition, is involved in multiple workshops and events:
    The Affective Infrastructures (...)