Open Codes

In preparation for the exhibition »Open Codes. Digital Culture Techniques« at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, the ZKM initiated the »Coding Culture Hackathon« at the Goethe-Institut Mumbai in February 2018. The winners of the Hackathon were awarded in April 2018 in Mumbai and travelled to Europe's second largest hacker meeting in May 2018, the »Goulash Programmers Night« at the ZKM.

A total of ten teams took part in the Hackathon, which brought cultural institutions in Mumbai together with the Programmer-Scene: Established cultural institutions such as the CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India) and the Dr. Bhau Dji Lad City Museum in Mumbai were connected with the Indian Programmer-Scene to test new forms of cooperation. Over a period of two days, not only experimental apps and websites has been developed for the expansion of museum services, but also artworks were created that move in the field of tension between »Code« and »Art«.

The team »Morpheus«was selected as the winner for the project »KHOJ - Key to Historical Object Juxtaposition«. With its system, based on Google Inception / Tensorflow, the project aims to categorize large quantities of badly or not at all sorted images in an uncomplicated way, usable for museums as well as for the public. The team trained artificial neural networks with 4,500 known images and categorized them using color palettes and hash values.

»Open Codes. Living in digital worlds« is conceived as a pilot project, an experimental space for creative encounters that challenges existing exhibition formats. It disrupts predispositions and calls for different forms of knowledge creation and circulation in the sense of a free, open and unrestricted sharing of ideas. The further development of this venue for India, called »Open Codes. Digital Culture Techniques«, explores the creative usages of codes as new source for creation.

The exhibition brings together fourteen artworks, which explore immersive technologies and negotiates different modalities of code. It transforms the exhibition space into a place of experimentation, action, and transformation through new forms of encounter. The works in the exhibition are exemplary of the new participatory formats of engaging with art and technology, in which visitors engage with artworks in new forms and themselves become participants. Six artworks were selected for presentation in India, of which two are works by Indian artists. Those artworks were new and not shown in Karlsruhe.

The works are seen as a starting point for discussions, so workshops and accompanying discussion events were an elementary part of the exhibition in Mumbai. In order to fan out the diverse facets and uses of codes, the exhibition team had initiated collaborations with local initiatives and protagonists in order to emphasize the complexity and networking of the acquisition of knowledge.

From a creative point of view, code provides a cognitive space for imagination which blurs boundaries and dissolves physical constraints. The digital world of codes has unveiled a new dimensionality, a realm of continuous re-creation and new formation. The digital world of codes is also challenging the boundaries of what is thinkable and perceptible to the human, transforming our ability to use and understand information. Images and words become encoded and re-appropriated, opening up a space for creation and breaking up linear modes of thought, which allows for the investigation of new ontological landscapes.

»Open Codes. Digital Culture Techniques« explores the creative usages of codes as new source for creation. The exhibition brings together an array of artworks, which explore immersive technologies and negotiates different modalities of code. It transforms the exhibition space into a place of experimentation, action, and transformation through new forms of encounter. The works in the exhibition are exemplary of the new participatory formats of engaging with art and technology, in which visitors engage with artworks in new forms and themselves become participants.

Previous »Open-Codes«-venues und cooperations: