User:Sophia.r.7/sandbox/Michael Mastrototaro

{{subst:AFC submission/submit} Michael Mastrototaro (born 1970 in Graz) is an Austrian author, media artis t and visual artist. He is best known for his media art, as well as his novel MACHFELD written in 1999.

Life and Career
Michael Mastrototaro was born in Graz in 1970.

From 1976 to 1978 he was a member of the children's choir at the Graz Opera, where his performances included singing a duet with Josep Carreras. Following this, he performed at the youth stage at Schauspielhaus Graz.

He has been living in Vienna since 1991. In 1994 Mastrototaro completed a speech choir training with Einar Schleef in Berlin. Back in Vienna, he studied at the Institute of Electroacoustics at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna for two years, from which he did not graduate.

Upon interrupting his studies, Mastrototaro focused on his professional work as an artist. In the following years, several works in various artistic fields came about, such as projects in the disciplines of net art, experimental film, public installations, radio art, media art and literature. Mastrototaro's artistic focus lies in dealing with social trends and tendencies.

In 1999, him and the Austrian media artist Sabine Maier founded the artist duo Machfeld, which was granted the Prize for Video and Media Art from the Federal Chancellery of Austria. The same year, he wrote MACHFELD, a prescient cyber novel foreshadowing the mining of an alternative currency. The story in the novel was created with the help of automatic writing.

He has made projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Central America, North America and the USA. Highlights include projects at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, the Kunsthalle Basel and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Since 2004, Mastrototaro and the media artist Sabine Maier have been running the Machfeld studio in Vienna, as an off-space dealing with the themes of cross-border transdisciplinary art practices. Since 2017 he has been focusing mainly on visual arts.

Michael Mastrototaro has two sons. He is a member of the writer's association Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung and Fluss — the Lower Austrian Initiative for Photo and Media Art. His works can also be found in several private collections, as well as in The Life Collection in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Awards and Prizes

 * 2000 — Literature Prize "Schreiben Zwischen den Kulturen", Edition Exil, Vienna
 * 2008 — Prize for Video and Media Art, Federal Chancellery of Austria.

Features

 * 2012 — presented by Galerie Raum mit Licht at Viennafair, Vienna, Austria
 * 2012 — presented by Galerie Raum mit Licht at fotofever, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2013 — presented by Galerie Odile Ouzieman at Paris Photo, Paris, France
 * 2013 — presented by Galerie Raum mit Licht at Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2014 — presented by Galerie Raum mit Licht at Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.

Publications

 * Sagen reloaded, Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-7076-0705-5.
 * Funkhausanthologie, Sonderpublikation, Verlag Autorensolidarität, Vienna 2017.
 * Ein Alphabet der Visuellen Poesie. edition ch, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-901015-46-5.
 * das große ABC buch, Das Fröhliche Wohnzimmer, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-900956-86-8.
 * mörder planeten säuger, Edition Exil, Wien 2002, ISBN 3-901899-16-2.
 * Fremdland, Edition Exil, Wien 2000, ISBN 3-901899-08-1.
 * Machfeld, Cyber Roman, Wien 1999.

Filmography

 * 1999: Walk Alone
 * 2002: Flieg Nicht Rückwerts
 * 2006: S1
 * 2008: Banska
 * 2016: Gnu for Zoo
 * 2016: Unseen

Cryptographic Projects
In 2019, Michael Mastrototaro founded the KONJUNGATE project, a cryptography blockchain that is based on his novel MACHFELD, which describes the mining of cryptocurrencies nine years before Bitcoin appeared on the cryptocurrency horizon.

20 years after the novel was published online, KONJUNGATE appears as a media art project with the aim of decentralizing the investment in and funding of contemporary artists and art institutions. Its aim is to build a new trusted global ecosystem for the arts through open-source, open-innovation research.

He founded the artist community project wendy.network in 2020, which aims to fund contemporary art through the KONJUNGATE Core cryptocurrency.

Konjungate sponsors the following institutions:


 * mur.at — Verein zur Förderung von Netzwerkkunst, Graz, Austria.
 * hipermedula, Ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina.
 * Walkin Studios, Bangalore, India.

Weblinks

 * MACHFELD Website'
 * Curator Jing Yi Teo's interview with Michael Mastrototaro about the KONJUNGATE project So Far Online-Publikation.
 * Curator Jing Yi Teo's interview with Michael Mastrototaro about the KONJUNGATE project So Far Online-Publikation.