We have written a short text for this new publication launching in Paris at La Gaîté Lyrique this Thursday evening.  Here's the blurb on the book and event, which is a retrospective snapshot of artists work online over the last twenty years or so:

NOUVELLE PUBLICATION | "NET ART - WJ-SPOTS#2"
Les artistes s'emparent du réseau / Artists take over the network

LANCEMENT / LAUNCHING: 19h00 - 20h30
Jeudi 13 décembre 2012 / Thursday December 13th 2012

La Gaîté Lyrique, rue Papin  - 75003 PARIS
M° Réaumur Sébastopol / Arts et Métiers

Entrée libre / Free entrance
inscription / registration : info@digitalmcd.com

Avec la participation de /with the participation of:

ALEJO DUQUE // ALESSANDRO LUDOVICO //ANDRÈS LOZANO a.k.a. Loz ANA CARVALHO // ATAU TANAKA // AYMERIC MANSOUX // BRAD TROEMEL // BRIAN MACKERN // CARL.Y & LABOITEBLANCHE (((NOMUSIC))) // CHRISTIANE PAUL // CONSTANT DULLART // DANIIL (DANJA) VASILIEV // DAPHNE DRAGONA // DAVID BLAIR // DEAN WHITBREAD // DOMENICO QUARANTA // EVAN ROTH // FRANCK ANCEL // GEERT LOVINK // GENCO GÜLAN // GÉRALDINE GOMEZ // GORDAN SAVIÇIC // GWENOLA WAGON/STÉPHANE DEGOUTIN // HANS BERNHARD // HEATH BUNTING // I-WEI LI // IGOR ŠTROMAJER // JEAN-BAPTISTE BAYLE // JEAN-PAUL FOURMENTRAUX // JODI // JULIEN LEVESQUE // JULIEN OTTAVI // KAREN DERMINEUR (KRN) // MAGRÉT ELISABET ÓLAFSDÓTTIR // MAJA KALOGERA // MARIA PTQK // MARIE PETIT // MICHAËL SELLAM // MILTOS MANETAS // MINDAUGAS GAPŠEVIČIUS// NICOLAS MALEVÉ // PAULA PERISSINOTTO // PEDRO SOLER // PER PLATOU // RAPHAEL BASTIDE & YANNICK ANTOINE // REYNALD DROUHIN // RICARDO MBARKHO // SAKROWSKI // SHU LEA CHEANG // STANZA // STÉPHAN BARRON // THOMAS CHENESEAU  // THOMSON & CRAIGHEAD // YVES BERNARD//

AFC / With:

Isabelle Arvers http://www.isabellearvers.com
Anne Laforet http://sakasama.net

Atau Tanaka - www.ataut.net  (US)
Andrés Lozano a.k.a. Loz - http://andre-lozano.org  (FR)
David Blair - http://www.waxweb.org (US)
Evan Roth - http://www.evan-roth.com (US)
Franck Ancel - http://twitter.com/franckancel (FR)
Géraldine Gomez - www.centrepompidou.fr (FR)
Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir - http://reykjavikmedialab.is (IS)
Marie Petit - www.chambrebleue.eu  (FR)
Michaël Sellam - http://michaelsellam.com (FR)
Shu Lea Cheang - http://www.mauvaiscontact.info  (US)
Thomas Cheneseau - https://www.facebook.com/thomas.vaneecloor  (FR)

Rédactrice en chef invitée / Guest Chief Editor
Anne Roquigny
Directrice de la Rédaction / Editorial Editor
Anne-Cécile Worms
Rédacteur en chef / Chief Editor
Laurent Diouf
Visuel couverture / visual cover
Olia Lialina "Agatha Appears" 1997

Bilingue Français - Anglais / Bilingual English - French
9 euros - Disponible aussi au format PDF / Also Available in PDF format
MCD : www.digitalmcd.com

(FRANÇAIS)
Les artistes, critiques, chercheurs et commissaires artistiques, invités à participer à cette publication nous donnent des clés, des repères et des éclairages pour comprendre les différentes formes artistiques qui cohabitent sur la toile, dans ses interstices et ses périphéries. D’un point de vue artistique, les auteurs témoignent de ce qui s’est passé sur Internet ces deux dernières décennies et ils expriment la façon dont ils ont perçu, vécu et traversé cette période. D’un point de vue social, politique et artistique, les participants nous expliquent : comment le réseau a changé leur rapport au monde, à l’espace et au temps; comment il a bouleversé leurs usages, leurs pratiques et leur manière de penser; et comment il est devenu un espace de partage, d’échange et de création.

Dans une démarche prospective, ils imaginent les années qui viennent et se demandent si Internet sera toujours un territoire intéressant à explorer dans le futur, s’il sera toujours un terrain fertile pour produire des formes artistiques hybrides où le monde physique et le monde virtuel fusionnent, se frottent et se télescopent. Les participants proposent aussi une sélection de sites internet marquants et emblématiques à leurs yeux.

(ENGLISH )
The artists, critics, researchers and curators invited to contribute to this publication are giving us the keys, references and insights to comprehend the various art forms that coexist on the net, in its interstices and its peripheries. From an artistic point of view, the authors reflect upon what has taken place on the internet in the last two decades, and express how they perceived, experienced and lived through this era. From a social, political and artistic point of view, the contributors tell us: how the network changed their relationship to the world, time and space; how it transformed their uses, practices and ways of thinking; and how it became a space for sharing, exchanging and creating.

In a prospective approach, they are forecasting the coming years, wondering if the internet can stay a territory worth exploring in the future and if it will still be a fertile ground to produce hybrid art forms in which the physical and virtual worlds merge, rub off on each other and collide. The contributors also present a selection of websites they regard as significant, iconic and essential.

MORE INFOS : Http://www.wj-s.org

PARTENAIRES / PARTNERS
Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Secrétariat général (SG) Service de la coordination des politiques culturelles et de l’innovation (SCPCI), Département de l’éducation et du développement artistiques et culturels (DEDAC),  Orange, Institut Français, Communauté Française de Belgique, Région de Bruxelles capitale Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, Relais Culture Europe Production,Sidebyside Studio, Maison Laurentine, Transmediale, Betahaus, iMAL, Festival Mal au Pixel, La Gaité Lyrique, Arscenic, Selfworld, WJ-S, Digitalarti, MCD.

We are showing Decorative Newsfeeds as part of the exhibition Paraphrasing Babel opening in Heerlen and Maastricht this week.  If you're in the area then please go take a peek.  The various artworks in the show are distributed across public spaces in both cities.  More info on the website here: http://www.paraphrasing-babel.eu

More information on Decorative Newsfeeds here:
http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/decnews.html

The single screen version of our documentary artwork, 'Belief' is screening tonight at The Duke of York's picturehouse in Brighton as part of the Jarman Award touring programme.  It includes works by all ten shortlisted artists and is a 140 minutes long, so brace yourself!  More info here:

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Duke_Of_Yorks/film/The_Jarman_Awards_2012/

Oh and if you can't make it you can watch it online at Animate Projects:
http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2012/belief

Our karaoke videos More Songs of Innocence and of Experience are reviewed in this article about the Film & Video Umbrella's online exhibition Our Mutual Friends. Take a look here:

http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/2012/10/our-mutual-friends/

Our latest documentary artwork, 'October' about the early rise and fall of the global Occupy movement in 2011 opens at the Brighton Photo-biennial tomorrow night (Friday 5th October).  We're really excited about it and it looks great in situe: the installation team have done a fantastic job.

So please come along if you can.  The whole biennial is on for a few weeks.
More information on the Brighton Photo-biennial here:

http://www.bpb.org.uk/2012/whats_on/thomson-and-craighead/

and you can see some documentation here:
http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/october.html

A single screen version of our new work Belief is being screened at FACT in Liverpool TONIGHT as part of the Jarman Award touring program organised by Film London.  You can find out more about the touring program > here <

You can find out more about Belief here:
www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/belief.html

A new written piece on our work by Morgan Quaintance is now available on the Lux blog at http://www.lux.org.uk/blog/thomson-craighead. It focuses on our video works available at Lux, but Morgan contextualises this with our wider practice too.  Have a read if you get a moment...

We've just made More Songs of Innocence and of Experience as part of Our Mutual Friends commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella, London.  This online exhibition launches at Jerwood Space in London on 30th August and also includes work by Graham Hudson, Gayle Chong Kwan and Janice Kerbal.

More Songs of Innocence and of Experience are a series of karaoke videos that take a fresh look at unsolicited spam emails and their affinities with the romanticism and realism in Charles Dicken's novel, 'Our Mutual Friend'.  In both Dicken's novel and our online culture the language of romanticism and realism becomes intertwined with languages of exploitation whether it be the scam email, the hard luck story that attempts to extort or more generally the realms of advertising, evangelical religion, politics etc.

You can see the first three videos in this series here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/songsofinnocence100

The exhibition website for Our Mutual Friends launches on 30th August, 2012.  Our Mutual Friends is commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and presented in partnership with Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Turner Contemporary, Margate and Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth.

We're just finishing up a new artwork we've been asked to make for this year's Brighton Photo-biennial.  The installation is called, 'October' -a documentary artwork about the burgeoning Occupy movement.  We'll post more information about the piece closer to the time of exhibition but for now you can find out more here:

http://www.bpb.org.uk/2012/whats_on/thomson-and-craighead/

A single screen version of our new installation Belief is now available to view online at Animate Projects.  Here's the copy from the Animate press release with links to the essay and interview too:

"Animate Projects is delighted to present the new film, Belief, by Thomson and Craighead. Belief is the final work in the desktop documentary trilogy, following on from the AnimateTV commission Flat Earth (2007) and A Short Film about War (2009/2010). The three films can be viewed online at animateprojects.org.

Belief comprises a series of fragmented broadcasts about belief, all sourced from the video sharing community YouTube.  Belief premiered in installation at Inspace in Edinburgh as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.

An essay by Morgan Quaintance and an interview with the artists accompanies the exhibition of the work online.

Belief is Supported by Creative Scotland's Vital Spark programme, New Media Scotland's Alt-w Fund, ATLAS Arts and Animate Projects.

Belief > animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2012/belief
Essay > animateprojects.org/writing/essays/m_quaintance
Interview > animateprojects.org/interviews/thomson_and_craighead_belief

If you're in Berlin this week then our short film about war is screening this Thursday as part of Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid: new cinema and contemporary art.  The festival itself opens tonight at the Haus der Kuturen der Welt and runs until 8th July.  So take a break from the thunder storms and watch movies...

More info here: http://www.art-action.org/en_index.htm

Download a full programme here: http://www.art-action.org/site/_download/berlin_2012/programm_berlin_2012.pdf

Artist Wendy McMurdo has posted about our new documentary artwork, Belief for the Dutch photography blog and zine FOAM.  It includes a brief interview with us on the work.  You can read the post in full by following this link: http://foam.org/foam-blog/2012/june/belief

Belief is currently being staged at Inspace in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (http://www.thomson-craighead.net/belief), but a single screen version of the work is also going to be hosted by Animate Projects from July with a short accompanying essay by Morgan Quaintance.  We'll post the link here when it goes live!

We are premiering our new documentary artwork, Belief as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival. It's the final work in our Flat Earth Trilogy following on from Flat Earth (2007) and A short film about War (2009/2010).  Come along this Thursday if you're nearby! Big thanks too to New Media Scotland and Inspace for their support.

'Belief', Inspace, Edinburgh.  21st June - 1st July 2012, 8:30-9pm and followed by a screening of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire

e-flyer: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/belief

We will be showing, 'A short film about War' as part of this group show -it opens on Friday.  'Image Counter Image', Haus der Kunst, Munich.  10th June 2012 – 16th September 2012.

Artists: bureau d’études / Nin Brudermann / Harun Farocki / Omer Fast / Hans-Peter Feldmann / Téo Hernandez / Monika Huber / Alfredo Jaar / Adela Jušić / Langlands & Bell / Radenko Milak / Trevor Paglen / Thomas Ruff / Roy Samaha / Wilhelm Sasnal / Ahlam Shibli / John Smith / Sean Snyder / Thomson & Craighead / Jasmila Žbanić.

more info: http://www.hausderkunst.de/index.php?id=132&no_cache=1&L=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=170

We are showing, 'BEACON' for the second leg of Gateways exhibition in Basel. Artists: boredom research / Ingo Günther / Hanna Haaslahti / RIXC / Thomson & Craighead / Timo Toots / You Must Relax / etc.

'Gateways: Art & Networked Culture', Haus für elektronische Künste, Basel. 2nd June 2012 - 19th August 2012. More information here:

http://www.haus-ek.org/en/content/gateways-art-and-networked-culture?loc=EX

We are showing our installation The distance travelled through our solar system this year and all the barrels of oil remaining as part of this exhibition opening TONIGHT!  The exhibition runs from 16th May until 15th September, so if you're in Preston at all this summer, do pop along and take a look.

You can find out more about this exhibition here.

You can find out more about The distance travelled... here

We've updated our website and added some new documentation at http://www.thomson-craighead.net. Two main additions are: A live portrait of Tim Berners-Lee (an early warning system) currently showing at the National Media Museum in Bradford and documentation for Tallinn Wall & London Wall (N4) still on show at the new Furtherfield gallery in Finsbury Park, London.  Links below:

A live portrait of Tim Berners-Lee (an early warning system):
http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/tbl.html

Tallinn Wall & London Wall (N4):
http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/tallinnwall.html

Our new artwork A live portrait of Tim Berners Lee (an early warning system) is launching tonight as part of the new Life Online gallery openings at National Media Museum in sunny Bradford.

There's video about the work here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68_dOoIVRv0 

Come see it if you can, or say hello if you're going tonight...

Revue Bleuorange based in Montreal asked us to rework our 2001 webwork e-poltergeist for Issue 05 of their online journal available right here.  

e-poltergeist (2001/2012) is an online art work made entirely out of automated actions that intervene and interfere with normal browsing activity. As the disruptive 'poltergeist' spawns unwanted windows onto the user's desktop, live search data begins to form into a series of messages that appear to be directly addressing the computer user -a lost voice perhaps, caught in the ether. 

This version of e-poltergeist is a reworking of the original piece first commissioned for the exhibition 010101: Art in Technological Times held at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2001. It has also been translated into French especially for the fifth issue of bleuOrange.

Ok so it's not quite spring yet, but we do have a few things coming up that take us through to the end of March.

First off, we are part of the inaugural exhibition 'Being Social' in the new Furtherfield Gallery slap bang in the middle of Finsbury Park, North London where we will be showing a version of our 'London Wall'.  It opens this Saturday afternoon.

http://www.furtherfield.org/programmes/exhibition/being-social

Next up; we'll be showing a new projected version of 'Flipped Clock' as part of the exhibition 'Mirror Neurons' at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.  The exhibition is curated by Sarah Cook for the 'As slow as possible' AV Festival which launches at the end of next week in Newcastle and Sunderland.

http://www.nationalglasscentre.com/whats-on/2012/03/01/mirror-neurons.html

Then we have our desktop documentary, 'Flat Earth' showing in the next Travelling Gallery exhibition, which launches on 2nd March at Inspace in Edinburgh.

http://www.travellinggallery.com/futureexhibitionsdefault

We've also completely revamped our 2001 online artwork 'e-poltetgeist' for the Canadian journal 'BleuOrange', which goes live on 20th March at 0300hrs GMT. 

http://revuebleuorange.org/

And finally, our new artwork, 'A live portrait of Sir Tim Berners Lee (an early warning system)' will be part of the major new exhibition, 'Life Online' launching in the National Media Museum on 29th March.

http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/PlanAVisit/Exhibitions/LifeOnlineExhibition/TemporaryExhibition.aspx

Do come and see the work if you can!

We're just recovering from last night's Samsung Art+ Prize opening, which was busy busy busy! Anyway, there's a piece on the exhibition today on we-make-money-not-art.  Take a look:

www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2012/01/samsung-art-prize.php

We are showing Horizon and A short film about War at the BFI Southbank, London as part of the Samsung Art Prize opening next week.  The exhibition only runs until 29th January but please do come along if you are in London during next couple of weeks.  Also there is a pull out magazine on the artists involved in tomorrow's (Saturday 14th January 2012) Financial Times.

More info here: http://www.samsung.com/uk/artplus/

The new London-based Carroll / Fletcher gallery website has just gone live.  We're delighted to be a part of this and are looking forward to the inaugural exhibition in their fantastic new gallery space opening in February.  More info here: http://www.carrollfletcher.com