Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory

Ljudmila in lights, Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, the predecessor of Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory.

Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory was established in 2010 as a successor to the Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, a programme of the Open Society Institute Slovenia (since 1993) and the KUD France Prešeren Arts and Culture Association (since 2001). It strives to connect research practices, technologies, science, art and civil society. It engages in the development and popularisation of open culture, free licences and software, and in new ways of data distribution. It detects how the communication transformations affect the society and encourages innovative art practices. From 2011 Ljudmila acts also as a public lead of Creative Commons Slovenia.

Ljudmila runs Strictly Analog Festival and the PIFcamp.

Since 2010 Ljudmila operates (editing and developing) the Culture.si portal for international cooperation. As a somewhat complementary project to that, the Kulturnik.si (metasearch engine and cultural news and events aggregator) was launched in 2013. Both portals have been funded by the Slovene Ministry of Culture.

Background

Self-proclaimed as 'the latest spin-off' from the Open Society Institute - Slovenia (1992–2000), the Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory was established by 10 new & all media artists, developers, hackers, programmers, and computer engineers, engaged in the Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, a programme of KUD France Prešeren Arts and Culture Association.

The founding members of the Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory are Urban Belina, Mitja Doma, Luka Frelih, Tomaž Ižanc, Žiga Kranjec, Igor Križanovskij, Zoran Obradović, Alenka Pirman, Robertina Šebjanič, and Živa Zupan.

video sofa @ ljudmila by fullmoonunit on YouTube

Strictly Analog Festival and PIFcamp

In 2013 Ljudmila launched the Strictly Analog Festival, an international joint project with partner institutions in Graz, Trieste, and Tokyo as well as locally based Lighting Guerrilla Festival, MoTA Museum of Transitory Art, and Projekt Atol Institute.

In 2015 the first edition of the PIFcamp, a temporary nomad hacker-base, took place in Trenta. As a part of the European Changing Weathers it was organised by Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratoy and Projekt Atol Institute. The participants took active part in exploration and representation of climate, economic, ecological, technological, social, political, cultural, artistic and geopolitical changes and tensions of past, present and future Europe, in DIY, DIWO and DITO manner. Several hands-on workshops, presentations, field trips and laboratory research was assisted by experienced local and international guests from different fields.

PIFcamp 2015 by Ljudmila on Vimeo

Education

Ljudmila organises regular workshops in basic and advanced use of open source software (Blender, Pure Data, MediaWiki), as well as the Free Circuit workshops and Digital Dish public lectures and artist talks by international new media artists. The Prosto-vezje programme in general engages in the experimental ("circuit bending", "tinkering" and "kits") development and making of the electronic circuit hacks based on the free software. The participants are encouraged to develop further uses and include the findings in their artistic work. Since 2013 Ljudmila has developed the education programme in collaboration with the Projekt Atol Institute.

Theremidi Orchestra

As a result of a theremin and theremidi physical interface workshop at Ljudmila in 2011 the electronic noise ensemble Theremidi Orchestra was founded in 2011, in collaboration with Borut Savski, Cirkulacija 2. The Theremidi audiovisual public presentations at festivals are usually combined with open workshops for making DIY instruments and gadgets.

Theremidi Orchestra, group of enthusiasts from Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory performing at Mladi levi Festival and 7th edition of U3 Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Arts, 2013

Portals and digital agenda

In 2013 Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory was invited by the Ministry of Culture to collaborate with the National and University Library and Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and organise a line of discussions related to Digital Agenda in the Field of Culture in order to identify the issues and outline basic standards and recommendations for a common strategy. The working group led by Ljudmila focused on data acessibility, while the other two groups discussed the processes of digitisation and permanent data preservation.

External links

Ljudmila Lab website
Powered by Ljudmila - exhibition at City Art Gallery Ljubljana in June 2011
Documents of the programme Digital Agenda in the Field of Culture, 2013 (in Slovenian)
The final document Digitalisation Guidelines - Cultural Heritage Long-term Preservation and Access (in Slovenian)

Gallery

Od oblike do oblike [Form from Form] in Match Gallery by Dan Adlešič, Tilen Sepič and Matic Potočnik, Lighting Guerrilla Festival in co-production with Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory, 2013

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana, Domače Volt Orkester, Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, Autonomous Interactive Radio, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, organized by Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, TeleVotón, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, Ophiodea, Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, organized by Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, Mycophone, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future taking place at Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, Repurposing of abandoned printing devices through physical computing and open source software and hardware, 2012

Mentors of the Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Ida Hiršenfelder (Slovenia), Luka Frelih (Slovenia), Yago Torroja (Spain) and Chris Sugrue (USA), Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future at Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

3D Printing of a case for Raspberry Pi as part of Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future at Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, 2012

Projects review at Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, 2012

Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, taking place at Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Reid Bingham(USA), testing Autonomous Interactive Radio, part of the Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana by Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Reid Bingham (USA) presenting Autonomous Interactive Radio at Lightning Talks, part of the Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana, organized by Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012

Janez Janša at Lightning Talks, part of the Interactivos?’12 Ljubljana: Obsolete Technologies of the Future, organized by Ljudmila - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, 2012