Intro
Piksel Festival
Piksel is an international network and annual event for electronic art and technological freedom. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free technologies.
The development, and therefore use, of digital technology today is mainly controlled by multinational corporations. Despite the prospects of technology expanding the means of artistic expression, the commercial demands of the software industries severely limit them instead. Piksel is focusing on the Free/Libre and Open Source movement as a strategy for regaining artistic control of the technology, but also a means to bring attention to the close connections between art, politics, technology and economy.
Piksel is a member of the Pixelache network of electronic art festivals – pixelache.ac – and one of the nodes in the Production Network for Electronic Art in Norway – PNEK
More info: piksel.no
Piksel is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway and others.
Program
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Perma/Soils
Studio 207Nov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–5:00 pmInterdisciplinary Strategies for Soil Recuperation Exhibition -
Piksel25 Exhibition
Alt Går Bra LokaleNov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–6:00 pmThe exhibition covers a spectrum of approaches: live-coding, speculative hardware, aesthetic sabotage... -
Opening Night
Studio 207Nov 20, 20258:00 pmThe 23rd Piksel Festival -
Screening and happening
Museum of Natural HistoryNov 22, 20251:30 pm–3:00 pmCompost Computacional by Marina Otero Verzier Umi No Oya (ウミノヲヤ) – The Mother of the Sea by Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet
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Artists presentations
Studio 207Nov 21, 20253:00 pm–6:00 pm12:00 ‘Hydra sCC’: A modular tangible user interface for live coding video performances with Hydra, Victor Mahecha 12:30 Compost Computer: More-Than-Human Design through Critical Climate Computing, Mariana Marangoni. 13:00 seismic2midi, Jeremy Leung -
Seminar Perma/Soils
Museum of Natural HistoryNov 22, 202510:00 am–1:00 pmInterdisciplinary Strategies for Soil Recuperation -
Screening and happening
Museum of Natural HistoryNov 22, 20251:30 pm–3:00 pmCompost Computacional by Marina Otero Verzier Umi No Oya (ウミノヲヤ) – The Mother of the Sea by Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet
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Streaming live performance night
Studio 207|Twitch Pikselfest Channel|FRIKANALENNov 21, 20259:00 pm–11:00 pmTroubèr, Michał Seta Crystallization, Andreja Andric, Malgorzata Zurada, Marija Sumarac Big Microsounds, Andreas Monopolis -
AV Performances night
ØstreNov 22, 2025 → Nov 23, 20259:00 pm–2:00 amINTERIM DISSONANCE by dr. Nexus & Lilu Herlambang Constructions of Collapse and Desire, by Natasha Barrett Elektronengehirn : Hardware, by Malte Steinar amazin project livecoding performance, by viasual_punk_ltd
Schedule
THU 20 NOV
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Alt Går Bra LokaleNov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–6:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–5:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 20, 20258:00 pm
FRI 21 NOV
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Alt Går Bra LokaleNov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–6:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–5:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 21, 20252:00 pm–7:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 21, 20253:00 pm–6:00 pm
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Studio 207|Twitch Pikselfest Channel|FRIKANALENNov 21, 20259:00 pm–11:00 pm
SAT 22 NOV
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Alt Går Bra LokaleNov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–6:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–5:00 pm
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Museum of Natural HistoryNov 22, 202510:00 am–1:00 pm
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Museum of Natural HistoryNov 22, 20251:30 pm–3:00 pm
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ØstreNov 22, 2025 → Nov 23, 20259:00 pm–2:00 am
SUN 23 NOV
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Alt Går Bra LokaleNov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–6:00 pm
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Studio 207Nov 20, 2025 → Nov 23, 202510:00 am–5:00 pm
PIKSEL Venues
Festival locations
PIKSEL 2025 – PLACES
- Studio 207 / Strandgaten 207
- Piksel Library / Strandgaten 207
- Alt Går Bra Lokale / Strandgaten 208
- Østre / Skostredet 3
- Museum of Natural History / Museplassen 3
Piksel Exhibition
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Signal
Paul MageeExhibition20 -23 NOVEMBERComputer controlled bank of signal generators that speaks by modulating sine waves to match the frequencies of a human voice. The dials on each box rotate back and forth and… -
The Tradwives
Malte SteinerExhibition20 - 23 NOVEMBERThis installation gives an insight into the ‘Tradwife’ phenomenon, promoting a life choice between 50s kink, right-wingend conspiracy theories, baking recipes, Christianity and anti-feminism.Malte Steiner developed a software which data… -
Cube Insect
Rajat MondalExhibitionAlt Går Bra Lokale20 - 23 November, 10:00am–6:00pmCube Insect is an installation that explores the tension between human advancement and environmental degradation through the interplay of air, mist, light, and sound. Using live wind data collected across… -
Speculative Evolution
Marc LeeExhibitionAlt Går Bra Lokale20 - 23 November, 10:00am–6:00pmDue to the threatening predictions of species extinction and global warming, scientists and farmers are increasingly relying on technologies such as genetic engineering, synthetic biology and machine learning. Speculative Evolution…
PikselSavers
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amazin poet
Lena PlotnikovaPikselSaversAlt Går Bra Lokale20 - 23 November, 10:00am–6:00pmIn this project, I use the Amazon website.I run several JavaScript scripts to play with it, break it, and make it much more beautiful, and much less useful.Then I use… -
KUNST KAPUTT
SENAIDAPikselSaversKUNST KAPUTT is a generative, collaborative album realized as an immersive web experience that explores how generative AI tools can be used to create new ecosystems for music creation and… -
A Series of Tubes
Nick MontfortPikselSaversA Series of Tubes is a 2D, 2KB, HTML5 homage to Windows 95’s Pipes screensaver, licensed under an all-permissive free software license. While Windows 95 is certainly not free software,… -
W.I.P.: Caete Scope
Francisco Ortiz De CarvalhoPikselSaversCaete Scope is a Work In Progress (W.I.P.) installation motivated by the feedback that the videogame Colateral Vertigo received by_Maite Cajaraville,_Gisle Frøysland and the general public in Piksel Festival 2024… -
I Act Comfortably With Others
Lee TusmanPikselSaversIn I Act Comfortably With Others distorted figures drift across the screen, each one carrying a constellation of invisible needs, traumas, desires, and hopes. Floating checkboxes accompany them – diagnostic… -
Bouquet v1.0
Hadaly VillasclarasPikselSaversBouquet v1.0 (2025) is a generative software based project that delves into the nature of a digital entity by exposing its data infrastructure. Through the browser, a generative 3D model…
PikselFlix
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_can you not drop this for me, plz?
Alina Bardavidvideo programeager to avoid pathologizing my fantasies, i lay before you, my entrails. urgency becomes to me both a methodology and a resistance: i must create immediately, compulsively. i need to… -
A Kinetic Exploration of Alzheimer’s Disease
Anna Diessnervideo programA Kinetic Exploration of Alzheimer’s Disease is a personal observation of the process of ageing.A machine shows the behaviour of my beloved grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.Initial fractures end… -
Cannibal Slops
Marta Revuelta and Laurent Weingartvideo program“Cannibal Slops” investigates the phenomenon of AI slop and the self-cannibalism of generative models. The project explores how recursive image-generation processes, encapsulated in infinite visual loops, expose the entropic drift… -
Intertwined
Vibeke Bertelsenvideo programIntertwined is a series of short looping animations that consists of intriguing geometric structures composed of organic and human elements. Human hands form a many sided sphere that morphs to… -
Cabinet of Cognition
Derek Curry & Jennifer Gradeckivideo programThe Cabinet of Cognition is an AI-generated short film tracing the evolution of cognitive labor—from the 18th-century Mechanical Turk to today’s global gig economy. Using AI-generated narration and visuals, the…
Presentations & Workshops
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FEED ME – A Live Cooking Noise Performance
APO33 CollectiveWorkshopStudio 20721 November, 2:00 pm - 7:00pmFEED ME is a participatory live cooking noise performance where the acts of preparing, mixing, eating, and sharing food become instruments of sound and collective ritual.For this edition, we propose… -
Compost Computing
Mariana Marangoni, Dr Eva VerhoevenPresentationThe increasing impact of digital infrastructures on planetary health demands urgent action in computational sustainability. We would like to present our compost computing project which demonstrates how critical design and… -
seismic2midi
Jeremy LeungPresentationGenerate music from earthquakes happens 24/7 around the globe to aid scientific communication, education in seismology and a tool for composition.seismic2midi is an open source python package that offers Seismological… -
‘Hydra sCC’
Victor MahechaPresentationA modular tangible user interface for live coding video performances with Hydra Hydra sCC is a modular, wireless Tangible User Interface (TUI) that integrates physical movement into code manipulation, enabling… -
desintegrations
Pierre-Yves Fave & Patrick FontanaPresentationnetworked, modular, open-source digital process for composing and display of text corpus elements in all languages. programmed using puredatait mixes french immigration codes of law and poetry, by Baudelaire.
Streaming Live Performance Night
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Troubèr
Telepæsants - Michał Seta, Dirk Johan StrombergStreaming liveTroubèr,Telepæsants’ continued investigation into telepresence, reimagines the medieval “trouvère” — the wandering musician who sought connection through song — as a metaphor for two contemporary performers navigating distance, digital fragmentation,… -
Crystallization
Andreja Andric, Malgorzata Zurada, Marija SumaracStreaming liveCrystallization is an electronic music work for a networked smartphone ensemble. It is at the same time a music composition, a piece of distributed computer software and a collective improvisation… -
Big Microsounds
Andreas MonopolisStreaming liveBig Microsounds is an innovative and immersive sound performance project by Andreas Monopolis, also known as MoCM. In this project, audiences are invited on an auditory journey through an evolving,…
Special Program: Perma/Soils
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On agriculture’s effects on algae growth and shoreline contamination.
Ewen ChardronnetSeminar Perma/SoilsMuseum of Natural History22 November, 11:15Ewen Chardronnet will present the More-Than-Planet programme (EU cooperation 2022-2025), its various projects and continuities. He will focus in particular on The Laboratory Planet #6 journal, dedicated to the Soil… -
The Poetics of Permafrost in a +2°C World
Taylor Alaina Liebenstein SmithSeminar Perma/SoilsMuseum of Natural History22 November, 10:40The artistic research project and resulting exhibition A feeling of longing that freezes and thawsexplore the poetics of permafrost in a warming climate through analog technologies. This project is the… -
Soil, migration, and belonging in Punjab, India—diasporic connections to land.
Davina Kaur PatelSeminar Perma/SoilsMuseum of Natural History22 November, 10:05In this talk, I will draw on my ethnographic relations with my interlocutor and co-theorist, Parmpal, an alternative farmer working to heal the paddy-wheat monoculture landscape and more-than-human health through… -
Soil Assembly -Soil Ecologies, Living Pedagogies, and Permacircularities
Maya MinderSeminar Perma/SoilsMuseum of Natural History22 November, 11:50The Soil Assembly brings together artists, designers, curators, architects, educators, activists, farmers, and hackers is to reunite people and to support the freedom of exchange of knowledge on soil practices. It… -
Computational Compost
Marina Otero VerzierSeminar Perma/SoilsMuseum of Natural History22 November, 12:30Otero’s lecture draws upon Computational Compost, a project addressing the environmental impact of data storage that proposes a synergy between technology and ecology, between advanced physics and regenerative design. It… -
The Toxins Colour System
Cecilia JonssonExhibition Perma/SoilsStudio 20720 → 23 November, 10:00 am–5:00 pmThe Toxins Colour System extends Jonsson’s long-term exploration of iron’s environmental legacies by investigating the ecological consequences of historical mining at the Litlabø pyrite mines on Stord, southwestern Norway. The… -
Computational Compost
Marina Otero exhibitionExhibition Perma/SoilsStudio 20720 → 23 November, 10:00 am–5:00 pmComputational Compost addresses the environmental impact of data storage and proposes a synergy between technology and ecology. It consists of a prototype using the heat emitted by computers running simulations… -
Industrial era permafrost: 0°C and rising, 1965, 2025
Taylor Alaina Liebenstein SmithExhibition Perma/SoilsStudio 20720 → 23 November, 10:00 am–5:00 pm5mm slide projector, carousel of 80 slides containing thawing permafrost samples and more. This sculpture is part of a larger artistic research project exploring the poetics of permafrost through analog… -
Solar4Rain, a PUNK atmospheric symbiosis
Maite Cajaraville, Gisle FrøyslandExhibition Perma/SoilsStudio 20720 → 23 November, 10:00 am–5:00 pmSolar4Rain, a PUNK atmospheric symbiosis, is an installation born from a question as simple as it is revolutionary: who owns the rain, the sun, or the energy that flows between…
Piksel Night
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INTERIM DISSONANCE.
Doctor Nexus and a.v.sualsPiksel NightØstre22 November, 9:00 pm–2:00 amINTERIM DISSONANCE The duo – founded by LILU HERLAMBANG aka A.V.SUALS & DR. NEXUS somewhere in berlins nightlife – creates dissonance, not just as noise or visual rupture, but as… -
Elektronengehirn : Hardware
Malte SteinerPiksel NightØstre22 November, 9:00 pm–2:00 amMalte Steiner is an Aalborg (DK) based German visual artist and musician. He began exhibiting and creating electronic music in the early 1980s. In 1996 he initiated the project Elektronengehirn… -
amazin project livecoding performance
Lena Plotnikova / visual_punk_ltdPiksel NightIn my work, I like to take existing systems and twist them into something new. I thought, if the capitalist system appropriates art, then let’s appropriate the system! amazin project… -
Constructions of Collapse and Desire
Natasha BarrettPiksel NightØstre22 November, 9:00 pm–2:00 amMedia, science, images, talk of a world in collapse. Yet The buildings around me are still standing. The nature outside still grows. The local station still receives and delivers its…