February 2012 - January 2013

  • January

  • Digital Flux #2 is an exhibition organised by La Vènerie. The theme of the exhibition is the flow of digital data and how it infiltrates our daily life.
    Michel Cleempoel will present three projects among which the game Yoogle!
    The exhibition also presents works of Sylvain De Vreese and David (…)

  • February

  • Constant is pleased to announce that the project «Yoogle!» has won the Winston Award at the occasion of the Big Brother Awards 2012 organised by La Ligue des droits de l’Homme and De Liga voor Mensenrechten.
    This award is given to a person or project defending the privacy rights of the (…)

  • Mélanie Godin invites the publishers Esperluète and the project of La Langue Schaerbeekoise to talk live about their work.
    Poésie à l’écoute is a live radio program on Radio Panik every Wednesday from 19h till 20h (105.4 fm or online streaming via www.radiopanik.org)

  • Radio broadcast on the sound dictionary with the crea-sounds of sound artist Daniel Martin-Borret and a conversation with Milady Renoir, writer, performer and inhabitant of Schaarbeek.

  • As part of the Artefact Festival in Stuk Leuven, organised around ’The Social Contract’, Constant will present Connection Protocols.
    Not only people but also bots, search engines and spiders abide laws and agreements. Whether we email, surf or chat ... rules and regulations are having an (…)

  • The women of Samedies will visit Constant’s project on Protocols for Transmission at Artefact in Leuven. Constant will host a special session for les Samediennes in the staircase of STUK.

  • The second ’Research meeting’ organised by the Libre Graphics Research Unit takes place in Brussels. LGRU is a collaboration between Medialab Prado (Madrid), Worm (Rotterdam), Piksel (Bergen) and Constant. Developers, designers and theoreticians from all over Europe will gather to imagine future (…)

  • During these meetings audio visual makers who are interested in Open Source, show what they are working on, exchange experiences. At these meetings we also plan future workshops, screenings, worksessions.
    The ’meet and screens’ are "Bar camp" style: there is no planning beforehand "” whoever (…)

  • An evening of performances in dialogue mode. With amongst others Alexandre Quessy (CA). Alexandre will perform Toonloop, a live stop motion animation software. It aims to show the creation process the the audience as well as the result of the creation. http://toonloop.com
    This evening is (…)

  • Are you working with children and multi-media? Toonloop is a tool to make animations on the fly. In this one day workshop you’ll be guided through possibilities offered by of the softwares. The main developer will be present so expect to be flashed with the latest features and benefit by having (…)

  • How can we re-imagine lay-out from scratch? What tools do we need to support decentralized collaboration? How can we bring together canvas editing, dynamic lay-outs, web-to-print and Print On Demand in more interesting ways? A conversation with designers and programmers about future Libre (…)

  • March

  • Radio broadcast on the sound dictionary discussing a collection of words from African origin.

  • It’s party time in a dozen neighborhoods in Brussels!
    Visit Brussels proposes a discovery week-end of neighborhoods that are usually not touched by the touristic flow. It is the people themselves, neighborhood committees, associations ... that will cook up for you a festive program.
    At this (…)

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  • During these meetings audio visual makers who are interested in Open Source, show what they are working on, exchange experiences. At these meetings we also plan future workshops, screenings, worksessions.
    The ’meet and screens’ are "Bar camp" style: there is no planning beforehand "” whoever (…)

  • April

  • In Schaarbeek you can hear heritage, litterally. Throughout the many languages that are spoken in this part of Brussels, one finds traces of various migration waves that have changed the neighbourhood. During this walk we look for stories and expressions of and about heroes of the past and the (…)

  • The project Expeditions to the Void, Science, Territory and subjective narratives, investigates the potential of subjective narratives created by a series of women artists who analyse, narrate and question the models of science and territory. The first phase of the project consisted in a (…)

  • Bodies are locations of political, cultural, scientific and technological negociations. They are objects of science and knowledge, they are flexible and vulnerable, but they are also sites of resistance and experimentation of possible futures and presents. A dialogue between Laurence Rassel and (…)

  • Radio broadcast with a selection of words of Brussels’ origin of the sound dictionary of La Langue Schaerbeekoise/De Schaarbeekse Taal.

  • (CC BY-NC 2.0) Some rights reserved, image by _kzr
    With an Arduino you can collect a lot of sensor data, from smelling gasses to measuring temperature or light and lots more. But how do you save these data? How do you actuate the outside world, transfer bits and bytes online, without using a (…)

  • May

  • The work at the Libre Graphics Research Unit (LGRU) is now almost halfway. Since June 2011, the Unit functions as a traveling lab where new ideas for creative tools are developed. LGRU is an initiative of four European media-labs actively engaged in Free/Libre and Open Source Software and Free (…)

  • The best part of May, Femke will be in residence at Medialab Prado (Madrid) to work on projects, presentations and texts in the context of the Libre Graphics Research Unit. She will report on her adventures at http://blogs.lgru.net/ft

  • On Saturday 12th May performer Delphine Auby returns to the heart of Schaerbeek to shout messages of the inhabitants at Cage aux Ours/Berenkuil. Ten days previously to the shout, she will deposit mailboxes on the square, inviting people to post their messages for the neighbourhood, as well as a (…)

  • Ten artists lead us to experience sound perceptions in the form of walks, discussions, experiments & workshops around the topic of Seeing Sound.
    Soundlab: auratory starts on May the 14th at Constant Variable.
    It’s the beginning of two weeks of lectures and walks:
    First week: 14th – 18th (…)

  • As part of the Open House event, Constant Variable will open its doors to the public from 17 to 19 May between 14 and 18h. This artistic laboratory behind the facade of a beautiful mansion in the street Gallait in Schaerbeek will surprise visitors with posters sibilants, rap’s experimental area (…)

  • Did it ever occur to you to wave at a surveillance camera? Or rather, at the person who is watching you at that moment in the control room? And how would it feel if that person would wave back and you would somehow be able to see or hear that?
    By using surveillance cameras and the free motion (…)

  • The Piet Zwart Institute Master in Media Design and Communication department launches its new publication with Mute publishing: Sniff, Scrape, Crawl"¦ on privacy, surveillance and our shadowy data-double. It includes contributions from: Birgit Bachler, Seda Guerses, Inge Hoonte, Men in Grey, (…)

  • What tools do you use in your artistic practice, where do they come from, how were they made? Are they digital or physical?
    Constant member Wendy Van Wynsberghe does a small intervention on this topic during Ladyfest Brussels. Afterwards, she will talk about why and how she uses F/Loss tools (…)

  • What would be a space that welcomes use and abuse, one that thrives on appropriation? How to make time and place for research, with life in the middle? What kind of interfaces could support collaborative work, and make different publics swap territories? Moving from the kitchen to the workshop (…)

  • June

  • The Piksel & Lines research seminar is the third international meeting in the context of LGRU. This edition is organised by Piksel and will have a particular focus on improvements, interoperability between and fringe use of F/LOSS graphic bitmap and vector softwares, as well as generative (…)

  • Radio broadcast in French with material from the performance by Delphine Auby at Cage aux Ours on Saturday 12th May, in the framework of the project of La Langue Schaerbeekoise/De Schaarbeekse Taal.
    Sound & Editing: Anthony Dupriez.
    Images of the day: (…)

  • For Documenta 13 Constantmembers Nicolas Malevé and Michael Murtaugh are developing a series of experiments in connection with the archive of Erkki Kurenniemi, the Finnish artist and technology pioneer of the 1960s. Over the years, Kurenniemi has obsessively documented his everyday activities, (…)

  • STARTING AT 15:00
    The last Samedies before summer is an occasion to get together and discuss past, current and future projects. On the table: Informal discussions, ad-hoc performances, improvised food and hands-on worksessions. Welcome!

  • Kdenlive is a complete open-source non lineair timeline edit software for Linux and OSX. This is the first of two meetings in which we will collectively discover the ins and outs of the software and how to make use of its strong points. Have a look at the software, (kdenlive.org) bring a (…)

  • July

  • Presentation of the LGRU project during the closing party of the Open Design Conference held in Barcelona, organized by the FAD. The conference brings together designers and thinkers who share an open practice of creativity.

  • Short Circuit / Short Process is the first edition of PiNG’s Summer Lab. Constant member Wendy Van Wynsberghe will host an atelier on salutations and greeting
    rituals. Make textile sensors that initiate new ways of greeting each other with Arduino, sound and conductive thread.
    This meeting is (…)

  • Kdenlive is a complete open-source non lineair timeline edit software for Linux and OSX. We will collectively discover the ins and outs of the software and how to make use of its strong points. Have a look at the software, (kdenlive.org) bring a project, preferably a machine and your curiosity (…)

  • September

  • For one month between April and June 2013 the Constant Variable residency studio will be open for artists who want to work on a F/LOSS-project. Constant Variable offers a free living & working space in exchange for a presentation of your work(-in-progress), bits and bites, artworks under (…)

  • During their residency in Variable, Ana Carvalho, Ginger Coons & Ricardo Lafuente, the editors of Libre Graphics Magazine, invite you to take part in the
    making of the upcoming issue.
    From 2pm to 6pm on Saturday, September 8, you can join them at Variable for a workshop with a focus on (…)

  • The Pure Data patching circles are free open workshops organized monthly to gather, share, learn and enjoy around the Pure Data software in a creative way. Aimed at artists and coders as well as a large public during specific events (performances and presentations), the patching circles in (…)

  • Please come & celebrate Variable’s first anniversary! Two more years of life ahead for the F/LOSS Arts Lab in the VGC building in Schaerbeek. And what better way to celebrate gathering around a barbecue to enjoy the last summer vibrations. Be welcome to spend an evening among friends (…)

  • For the past few months, Michael Murtaugh and Nicolas Malevé have been running a series of experiments with a subset of the archive of Erkki Kurenniemi, artists and technology pioneer who obsessively documented his everyday activities, collecting vast amounts of audio-visual-textual material to (…)

  • Constant member Wendy Van Wynsberghe was invited to organise a short workshop in the DSGNRMRKT in Genk. Come and learn the basics of textile and electronics, start with adding some light! For this workshop we will take an ingeniously simple design by Irene Posch and we will make our own summer (…)

  • Freedom not Fear is a yearly gathering of activists from different European countries. Subjects: Net neutrality, camera surveillance, smart meters, facial recognition, biometrics.
    The meeting is aiming to connect action groups, ngo’s, and everybody who is concerned with the ’arms race’ in (…)

  • The next Research Meeting Abstracting Craft will take place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands from 26-29 September 2012. The program is being developed by WORM in collaboration with FLOSS-Manuals.

  • In the context of the Libre Graphics Research Unit, Piksel is offering a collaborative research residency for one artist and one developer, to jointly explore the interoperability and expansion of functionality in self-produced and/or existing libre graphic tools, placed in a performative (…)

  • October

  • The exhibition ’Rendez-vous à la cage’ gives an overview of the actions that have taken place in the framework of the neighborhood contract ’Navez-Portaels’ that took place between 2009 and 2012. Constant organised the project De Schaarbeekse Taal that will be integrated in the exhibition.

  • In october Constant member Peter Westenberg will take part in the residency programme Creative Politics organised by Laboratório de Criação Digital
    The objective of this residency is to question and creatively intervene in politics. It is intended to question the role of politicians, but also (…)

  • Right before the local elections, on 12th and 13th October Z33 and FoAM organise a 2 day workshop, led by Heath Bunting and An Mertens. During this workshop you learn how you can create a legal identity for trees. With your guardianship they will be able to gain a voice in society, first (…)

  • At this autumn Code Tasting, we’ll try out Graphical Shell, a prototype
    developed by Pierre Marchand in the context of the Libre Graphics
    Research Unit. His proposal links the ’tick’ of a program to the rhythm of design
    through motioned histories, streaming and messaging. The idea behind the (…)

  • The reNUM textile, sound and digital map, based on the stories from the Breil neighbourhood (Nantes) could be seen and listened to during this event.
    See: http://www.renum.net/leblog/?p=743 &
    http://conference2012.artilect.fr/

  • Interview avec An Mertens dans Jardin Public sur Radio Panik, 18-19h, le 18 octobre 2012

  • Interview avec An Mertens sur Vivacité, Journal Parlé 7h45, le 19 octobre 2012

  • Interview with An Mertens on Radio 2 Vlaams-Brabant, 19 October 2012, 18h

  • The book Woorden uit de Berenkuil/Words from La Cage aux Ours will be festively launched in Passaporta, where we are hosted by Entrez Lire. There will beinhabitants reading fragments of the book, writer-performer Milady Renoir performing the fiction she wrote based on the words and slammer Maky, (…)

  • Report booklaunch Passaporta, Het Nieuwsblad, 22 October 2012

  • Interview with An Mertens on TV Brussel, 22 October 2012, News 18u

  • Interview avec Clémentine Delahaut sur le Journal Parlé de Télé-Bruxelles, 22 octobre 2012

  • Interview avec Clémentine Delahaut sur la publication ’Mots de la Cage aux Ours’ dans la Dernière Heure, 22 octobre 2012

  • Interview avec An Mertens dans la Capitale, 23 octobre 2012

  • Reportage leaving Schaarbeek to go to the booklaunch in Passaporta, Brussel Deze Week, 24 October 2012

  • Portrait of Cage aux Ours, Knack, 24 October 2012.

  • Medialab-Prado and The Libre Graphics Research Unit are seeking for projects to be collaboratively developed during a two-weeks workshop to be held in Madrid, 15-27 April, 2013. We are interested in your ideas for tools to design, edit, draw and write together. This edition focuses on (…)

  • November

  • ’How do you do’ is a low treshold meeting during which makers explain ’the making of’ succesful digital and technological projects.
    Peter Westenberg wil lead one session about Active Archives and one about Variable.

  • During this session, upon request of some participants, we’ll have a look at the different options available toward video treatment, for loop playing/mixing as well as video effects, with the libraries like Gem, PDP, gridflow, and gstreamer bindings. Having some abstractions at hand will also be (…)

  • NO ARCHIVE!
    #OP_HUMAN_CARGO - OPERATION HUMAN CARGO, RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRADICAL REAL TIME,
    !Mediengruppe Bitnik will be coming to Variable for a work residency for
    the whole month of November.
    They are currently interested in questions of (collective) identity, non-archiving, real (…)

  • Constant member Wendy Van Wynsberghe was part of this radio series on copyright and free licenses.
    You can re-listen to the broadcasting here:
    http://www.radiopanik.org/spip/Les-droits-d-auteur-a-la-hauteur
    http://www.radiopanik.org/spip/Brevette-bien-qui-brevettera-le
    or here (…)

  • Art house Z33 in Hasselt celebratesits 10th anniversary with you during a thirty-three-hour festive weekend.
    For Z33 Celebrates! PeterWestenberg will bring an exercise in invisibility. In times of excessive video surveillance, how can you find ways to stay out of the picture? Take part in the (…)

  • Your copier, scanner or mobile phone is broken and your local thrift store has kindly referred you to the dump? Don’t worry, inside these machines you can find all kinds of treasure, such as little motors, a lens, microphones or a little amplifier! In this workshop you will learn how to (…)

  • Your copier, scanner or mobile phone is broken and your local thrift store has kindly referred you to the dump? Don’t worry, inside these machines you can find all kinds of treasure, such as little motors, a lens, microphones or a little amplifier! In this workshop you will learn how to (…)

  • Constant members Peter Westenberg and An Mertens are invited to give a lecture about the project of La Langue Schaerbeekoise/De Schaarbeekse Taal for the students Master in the Social Work of the University of Gent, in the framework of the class ’Culture Studies’.

  • Your copier, scanner or mobile phone is broken and your local thrift store has kindly referred you to the dump? Don’t worry, inside these machines you can find all kinds of treasure, such as little motors, a lens, microphones or a little amplifier! In this workshop you will learn how to (…)

  • Constant member Wendy Van Wynsberghe was part of this radio series on copyright and free licenses.
    You can re-listen to the broadcasting here:
    http://www.radiopanik.org/spip/Les-droits-d-auteur-a-la-hauteur
    http://www.radiopanik.org/spip/Brevette-bien-qui-brevettera-le
    or here (…)

  • Constant members An Mertens and Wendy Van Wynsberghe will present the e-traces project and Yoogle! at the conference For Your Eyes Only, organised in the framework of the EMSOC-project.
    The objective of the conference is to bring together young and senior academics, representatives from public (…)

  • December

  • *Invitation*
    *Relaunch of CC-BE on 8 December @ iMAL!*
    Creative Commons is celebrating it’s tenth birthday this year. For this occasion there will be events all over the globe between December 7th and 16th and Belgium is taking part in the festivities. Creative Commons Belgium is (…)

  • The launch of the publication WJ-SPOTS #2 edited by Anne Roquigny will take place in Paris at La Gaité Lyrique (Digital art Center) during the Mal au Pixel Festival. It includes a text of Constant member Nicolas Malevé, a follow-up to his presentation in Imal on the Future of the Internet.

  • Neokinok.tv is a collective co-ordinated by artist Daniel Miracle who works in the field of experimental audiovisuals and television. From 1998 onwards Neokinok.tv has worked with streaming, temporary UHF and VHF channels, analogue channels, social participation, alternative internet access. (…)

  • During this session, we’ll have a look at different techniques and methods to "detect and react" to some conditions, in order to have an interactive behavior of a patch.
    As it is a need to be able to separate some interesting moments in a sensor/recording, we’ll see different ways that we can (…)

  • Blender worksession with focus on using Blender as render engine.

  • Our best wishes for 2013 to everyone who reads this message, supports us, inspires us, works with us!
    Our wishes are enriched by the impressive wealth of knowledge, information and beauty that today, like every year on this day, becomes freely available to humankind. Every year on New Year’s (…)

  • The Libre Graphics Meeting will take place 10-13 April in Madrid. The event welcomes your contribution and is looking for in-depth presentations on Libre Graphics technologies, showcases of excellent work made using Libre Graphics tools and new ideas for future approaches, tools and standards. (…)

  • Since march 2012 Jonathan & Yves Poliart started a workshop called « open
    sound lab » , a sound workshop devoted to the teenagers of the « Variable »
    neighborhood in Schaerbeek with no software or music practice.
    The idea is to give some tools to build instrumentals using only three (…)

  • Constant members Michael Murtaugh and Nicolas Malevé present a project that investigates the vast body of material generated by Finnish artist, nuclear scientist, futurologist and technology pioneer of the 1960s Erkki Kurenniemi. Entitled ’Data Radio: Erkki Kurenniemi (in 2048),the project is a (…)

  • Diverse collection of press articles on the group exhibition Systemics #1: Certain Peculiar Things And Ideas, Often Failed (Or, On Humans, Machines And Running Algorithms) in Århus Kunstbygning, Denmark in which Constant is represented with the work Dataradio on the legicy of Erkki Kureniemmi. (…)

  • Article about the Assange work conceived in Variable during Bitnik residency in november2012:
    "Two Swiss artists have used GPS tracking and live webcam to follow the progress of a parcel intended to reach Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
    Domagoj Smoljo and Carmen Weisskopf have posted (…)

  • Post parcel travels to Julian Assange Article by Ine Poppe Appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 18 january.
    text in dutch, translation below:
    On January 16, at 12.30, the Swiss art group Bitnik sends a box by mail to the Internet activist Julian Assange. The box contains a mobile phone and a (…)

  • The Patching Circles are open workshop session to learn and share about the pure-data software and other.
    During this session, we’ll see how we can stream sound video and datas from and to pure-data. we’ll look specially how to connect to an Icecast server (streaming audio-video).
    The (…)