Annemie Maes

Annemie Maes, (Belgium) a media artist and an activist, holds a masters degree in fine arts and cultural studies. She is founder of SO-ON, a group of artists working with image, sound and technology. In their art projects they research the transversal field of installations, performances and audio-visual compositions. Most of the projects are linked to the problematization of new art in the public space, from a socio-cultural background. The focus is to identify innovation and change while developing artistic projects, and research new aesthetic presentation techniques. Annemie Maes is co-founder of OKNO (an artist-run organisation working with art & technology) and is responsible for OKNO’s day-to-day management. In her personal artistic research she focuses on the behavior of language in its many appearances: textual, sonic and visual, as well as gestural or body language. How do these disparate elements relate to each other and how do they organize within a system, which includes human and computer as a sender and a receiver [and vice versa]? Her artistic research and cultural activism projects are publicly presented as the ongoing project ‘politics of change’ - Daad (Do and act Differently), with a focus on the topics womenempowerment, ecology and public space. DaaD is about a bottom up approach for designing human environments that have the stability and diversity of natural ecosystems. Integration of renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, food/gardening systems, natural building, rainwater harvesting and urban planning along with the economic, political and social policies that make sustainable living possible and practical. How can these ecosystems be generated, controlled, enhanced or imagined in artworks? Is our environment programmable? How does the fusion of natural and artificial matter produce new organisms, new environments, new natures? How does technology animate nature and space, and how do users and programs animate matter? More information: OKNO: www.okno.be
Annemie Maes: thoughtsandtalks.so-on.be