Founded in 1999 by media artists Michael Mastrototaro and Sabine Maier in Vienna, Austria, they work in different fields: Netart, short and experimental films, streaming projects, interactive installations, and art in public space. Projects, exhibitions and screenings have been held in Africa, Europe, Central America and the United States of America.

Projects (Selection)

• "X-COM"(2008)

„X-com“ is an acoustic map of Johannesburg that was developed by MACHFELD (aka Michael Mastrototaro & Sabine Maier) during their stay in South Africa in 2007. Together with students of the Cityvarsity Johannesburg and of University of Wittwatersrand Johannesburg, the artists explored the multicultural identification of the city of Johannesburg. An approach was to investigate in how far sounds are subject to cultural conditions.

MACHFELD apply old, analogue recording devices as well as new, digital ones in order to develop a cross-continental space of communication for their piece. http://kunstradio.at/2008A/13_01_08en.html (Kunstradio Stream)

• "JOYES"(2007)

media.art.exhibition by MACHFELD (aka Sabine Maier & Michael Mastrototaro),

Is it necessary to have knowledge about "the foreigner" in a cross continental communication process? Where does a transdisciplinary language intersect? What does it overleapt? MACHFELD dedicated itself to these questions during their stay in South Afrika (Cape Town -X-Cape Biennale and Johannesburg).

Formats of this artistic reflection are different art-works all related to the main topic communication.

Although there have been multiple definitions of culture, the definition by Hofstede is regarded as a fundamental. Hofstede defined culture as, “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. Including the definition of Hofstede, there is a general notion that culture is based on shared values. As for the compositions of culture, Parsons and Shils present that culture consists of a set of values, norms, and symbols that guide individual behavior. Geertz presents that the culture is composed of three layers: assumptions about existence, values and norms, and explicit products and artifacts.

http://www.machfeld.net/joyes

• "VED vs. JOBURG"(2007)

Live Performance by MACHFELD (aka Sabine Maier & Michael Mastrototaro), live Sound by M18J92T

The Premises Gallery at The Johannesburg Civic Theatre, 13.04.2007, Johannesburg, South Africa

This evening was consist of visual contributions in the form of text, image, video, and animation collages which are transformed and subverted as they are fed through Machfeld’s interactive analogue performance in collaboration with The Trinity Session (Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetter)

http://www.machfeld.net/projects/VED_VS_JOBURG

• CROSSOVER III / CROSS TALK (2006)

A project by Alien Productions and Machfeld

Both artist cooperatives alien productions (Martin Breindl, Norbert Math, Andrea Sodomka) and Machfeld (Sabine Maier & Maichael Mastrototaro) were given a concept from the Fotogalerie Wien's Crossover for a shifting of positions to radicalization but also a sign that media art does not stand for the most part as a solitary artistic effort but as a collaboration. Which in their case is an essential part of the strategy, all alien production and Machfeld can be is encompassed under the title CROSS TALK a joint installation using all rooms in the gallery.

The installation consists of 3.1. (three to one) modules, whereas each room of the gallery becomes one field of perception out of which a so-called reality is constituted. The big exhibition room is dedicated to the picture the small room to text and the cinema only to Sound. As .1-Module functions as the electronic radio room of the ORF (Austrian State Radio) art radio the installation (in a live emission) as transmission of networks and radio apparatus diffuses.

Alien Productions and Machfeld construct on one hand a complete virtual media environment, of which the starting point is the digital domain as it is produced in a variety of software programs (3d- animation, text to speech generators etc.). On the other hand they are explicitly influenced by technique and media history where the newly produced images sounds and texts are spatially perceptible through 'old media" like the simple mirrored effect of stereoscopic projections or the speaking stylus or classical sound wave effects as a construction of reality from a virtual environment.

• IVI (2005)
• The moving image has been a long time only a media of documentation. This was caused by the time delay between filming and broadcasting - a lack of technology possibilities. The possibility of live broadcasting created a new situation. Now it is possible to attend an event at the same moment as it happens.

In the interactive installation IVI the medium video will be extended by the support of image recognition. The complex interaction between the media and the human body creates a new platform of experience.

The recipient will be a visual part of the installation and nan instant interaction instrument - hence: There is a possibility of collective as well as individual influence.

• VISP (2005)
• VISP is a creative process that visualize computer viruses and spam as part of an artistic project. Similar to a biological virus the art project will mutate during the process. In this regard, one can see the result of this video projection and net installation as mutation examples.

http://www.machfeld.net/visp

• )(PIONEER (2003)
• 1st Viennese War Walking Contest with subsequently raster search.

http://www.machfeld.net/pioneer

• The Game1 (2002)
• Interactive Game.

the game was a comparative experiment about the social behavior of individuals as a function of the medial context. the comparison took place between the real and the virtual world: participating people thought they were safe as art recipients (-consumers), in reality they were investigation objects (and also victims of their own desires and emotions). Lack of scientific accuracy created liberty- there was no claim on extensive explanatory power. A game abides a game / is not a game?

• Stroemung 01 (2002)
• Stroemung null.eins was an experiment of border-crossing between reality and imagination.

With digital video and streaming technology projects are live-broadcasted on www.machfeld.net. A simultaneous installed chat gives the user the chance to participate in the event.

• 1999-2002 (1999)
• International online Shortfilm collection.

Media Art Festivals (Selection)

• LA Freewaves, 10th festival of new media arts: Too Much Freedom?, Los Angeles, USA (2006)
• VDANCE, International Video Dance Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel (2006)
• Lausanne Time Film Festival 2006, Lausanne, Switzerland (2006)
• VIPER, 25th international Film, Video & New Media Festival, Basel, Switzerland (2006)
• Pixel Dance, Video Art Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece (2006)
• bac 05 ! international festival of contemporary art / Barcelona (2005)
• 11th international Media Art Biennale Wroclaw, Polen (2005)
• Framemakers, Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change, Limerick, Ireland (2005)
• 6th international ART + COMMUNICATION Festival, Riga, Latvia (2003)

Distribution

Screenings (Selection)

• Museum of the Word Ocean, Kaliningrad / Russia (04/06)
• Whitechapel Art Gallery, The Wormhole Saloon, London / UK (11/05)
• Potenz , die weibliche, OHO. Oberwart (10/05)
• kurzfilmfestival kaiserstrasse, www.wolke7.at
• PROLOGUE, Cornerhouse - Manchester UK, www.cornerhouse.org
• OASE Festival, 09/05, Vienna, AT
• FRAMEMAKERS, Limeric / Ireland, www.daghdha.ie
• “coming out”, Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt, www.kunstvereinkaernten.at
• NEXT FESTIVAL, Cinema "Lietuva" – Vilnius / Litauen , www.nextfestival.net
• Independent Arts Festival, Academy of Fine Arts / Sint-Niklaas - Belgien, www.sztuka-fabryka.be/festival
• Diagonale 05, Festival des österreichischen Films, Graz- Austria, www.diagonale.at
• Galeria Medium, Bratislava & Tanzquartier Wien, www.abp.sk, www.tqw.at
• Kino Cafe / Bratislava, 19.10.2004, Bratislava / SK

Lectures (Selection)

• "V-SL, Lecture about Second Life", University of California, Santa Barbara, (Santa Barbara / USA). 2008
• "Artist Talk, Visual Art Department", University of Western Ontario, (London / CA). 2007
• "An evening with Machfeld", Artist Talk, Tom Thomson Art Gallery (Owen Sound/ CA). 2007
• "About people in Second Life", Lecture about personal behavior in Second Life by Michael Mastrototaro (Schloss Wolkersdrof/ A). 2007
• "X-Com", Public Lecture at the Cityvarsity Johannesburg /ZA. 2007

Awards

• "Förderungspreis", for Video- and Media Art from the Austrian Government. 2008
• "GATE III", nomination for the best experimental-video. International Filmfestival, Dahlonega/Atlanta, USA.
• "Schreiben zwischen den Kulturen 2002", Best Lyric, Edition Exil, Vienna / A.
• "Kupele Central", Jury- & Public-Award, Wolke 7, Vienna / A. 2005

Literature

• Cyber-Novel, by Michael Mastrototaro 1999.

http://www.machfeld.net/machfeld (German version only)

External links

• http://www.machfeld.net (Official Site of MACHFELD)
• http://www.myspace.com/machfeld