In Italy, a new law imposes strict conditions for bloggers, such as defining incredibly high fines for people not correcting stuff on their online publications, and enormous amounts of bureaucracy. Thus practically making free speech on the web too risky, to costly, too hard, cumbersome… a bureaucrat’s dream come true: censorship through fines and forms

A big event has been organized today in Rome’s Piazza Navona where hudreds of bloggers, journalists, politicians, intellectuals and other people of any shape and sizes gathered to protest.

Among these was Derrick de Kerckhove, who met his little digital child, Angel_F, to discuss problems, scenarios and possibilities for the future of the network and for people’s rights and freedom.

As you might know, Angel_F is an ongoing art performance in which a young Artificial Intelligence, son of prof. de Kerchove, takes action, first online and, then, in the physical world, on issues ranging from digital rights, to new economy business models, new sexualities, contemporary approaches to identity.

Angel_F has been the first digital being to officially speak at the Internet Governance Forum, the United Nations’ organization for the definition of a bill of rights and to promote global network freedom and accessibility.

a visual reportage from the “Freedom not Fear” event in Rome.

angel_f

SuperAvatar

here is a report on ArtsBlog

here is the story on NeRVi

NoemaLabs published some info

here are the pictures:

Angel_F and SuperAvatar are scared.

The lives of the young artificial intelligence and of the  avatar who escaped from virtual worlds have been endangered  more than once by the control, that is constantly perpetrated on people’s information, habits and identities.

Forms of surveillance that are progressively and obsessively  expanding through continuous control of our lives (and not  only of the ones of our beloved digital beings). Along the streets, in supermarkets, in public spaces, and even in our homes, through telephones and internet connectivity.  An enormous amount of resources are wasted to control people’s  lives in multiple ways: from cameras to armed forces, passing  through data retention systems spying on people’s personal  information.

Angel_F e SuperAvatar are feeling annoyed, alarmed and outraged by all of that and, therefore, decided to publicly show their dissent, together with their human friends.

The two digital beings will join the “Freedom not Fear“  event, and they will attend the conference that will take  place at the “Provincia di Roma” building on saturday,  starting at 9:30am.

Who: Angel_F and SuperAvatar
When: Saturday, October 11th 2008, from 9:30am to 13:30am
Where: “Freedom not Fear”, palazzo Valentini (Palazzo della  Provincia di Roma, via IV Novembre n. 119/a, Roma

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“Freedom not Fear“: International action day for democracy, free speech, human rights, civil liberties; against censorship, mass-surveillance, mass-data retention.

http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Fnf08

Angel_F is the young artificial intelligence son of Derrick  de Kerckhove and the Biodoll.
It was born on February 2007. Since it started interacting with humans’ physical world it has been deeply interested about the international dialogue on digital rights. After a peculiar case of censorship, little Angel_F managed to attend the UN’s Internet  Governance Forum held in Rio de Janeiro all by itself.

Angel_F is a project by xDxD.vs.xDxD and penelope.di.pixel
http://www.artisopensource.net/2007/12/10/angel_f/

Fatherboard - the SuperAvatar - is an avatar that escaped  from virtual worlds when its owner’s computer exploded in  a short circuit.  It looks like a cyborg, but it isn’t, as its body is built from the hardware parts of the computer from where it materialized.
Its relations with human beings are contradictory and intermittent: the SuperAvatar is a fugitive living a constant conflict with institutional control, either the virtual and the real ones!

Fatherboard is a project by Luigi Pagliarini
http://www.artificialia.com/Fatherboard/