Shadow Search Project (SSP) in CIS

Last year, n.e.w.s. a collective online platform for the analysis and development of art-related activity organized an open call: Shadow Search, which was looking for a specific algorithm. In particular this search engine would allow prospectors in the world of information and databases to discover ‘shadow art activities’ that are partially hidden, off-the-radar, stealthy. Last year a jury gathered at CIS to evaluate the 5 entries and after much deliberation, a winner was chosen, 'Narcissus', by Phil Jones and Aharon Amir. This algorithm is now being launched at CIS on March 31, 2011.

The corpus of objects being tested by the Narcissus search engine is the data uploaded from the students from the Dutch Art Institute, Srishti School of Art, Design, Technology, Shantiniketan and CKP for 'Space: the final frontier'. The past three weeks the students have been indexing the shadow worlds of Bangalore with various art projects, which were physically exhibited at CKP on March 17th, 2011. The Shadow Search Project (SSP) will continue at the Center for Experimental Media Arts (CEMA) at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology this year as a full-time project, in which various aspects of art-related activities as well as their visibility, searchability and accessibility will be investigated by participants and visiting faculty. 

Also included in the day's activities is a discussion encircling the concept of 'search' with local guests (Nishant Shah, Prayas Abhinav, Renée Ridgway, T B Dinesh, Ajai Narendran) and those from abroad via Skype (Geert Lovink, Stephen Wright, Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff) This is a continuation of a series of Skype chats from the past year in Amsterdam (INC) and Bangalore at CIS in which 'search' as a larger concept is being rethought. Now more than ever, in an era where Google hegemony is being tested by Facebook linkage and alternative search models are surfacing, we need to keep the 'world's knowledge' open and not proprietary. Please join us!

Agenda