11.00  Alexei Blinov. INTRODUCING HIVE
Hive Networks is an organisation that is liberating commonly available embedded computers for the use by digital artists. The repurposing of these devices signals nothing less than a paradigm change in creative computing. This time it is not the artists asking technicians for a creative solution, it is the engineer-artists who are proposing a framework for which artists and other media practitioners are asked to come up with project ideas. HIVE Networks transcends the boundaries between engineering and art. It is a work of art as well as a platform for other artists to create works. It also combines the element of content with the element of networking.
Each HIVE device is capable of gathering content (through webcams, microphones, sensors) and disseminating it (web server, audio/video live streams, bluetooth, wlan). At the same time each HIVE device also acts as a node in the network, which means that it is capable of storing and forwarding data. Taking those two elements together means that the perception of the network as such changes.
The network is no longer only a connectivity structure through which access to the global internet is facilitated, but it becomes a content structure, a hiving network of desires and cultural/artistic creations. This dream is driven by a dream to open up the world of embedded computing and make it available to the highest possible number of people. http://hivenetworks.net

Alexei Blinov (UK) is an artist and pioneer of quantum and information technology arts. He is founder of Raylab.com company working on Interactive electronic media design and implementation. Blinov has recently received funding from Arts Council England on a Hive Network research and development initiative. Through out the 90' Alexei Blinov has been developing a series of projects exercising the diverse forms of laser and optical technologies.

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