Nato.0+55+3d

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The correct title of this article is nato.0+55+3d. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

nato.0+55+3d

A typical nato patch.
Developer:	Netochka Nezvanova
Latest release:	nato.0+55+3d.modular / 2001
OS:	Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9
Use:	interdisciplinary m9ndfukc
License:	Proprietary
Website:	eusocial.org (archive)

nato.0+55+3d (previously nato.0+55) is a set of modular video processing and QuickTime control objects, authored by the enigmatic Netochka Nezvanova. Built upon the Max software environment (on the Macintosh platform), it provides tools for recording, playing, combining, creating and manipulating video in real time, and allows flexible integration with internet/networks, 3D, text and sound.

At the time of its release (the summer of 1999), nato.0+55+3d was without any real equivalent in the field of live video manipulation. The software Image/ine developed in 1997 at STEIM was drawing in a similar direction, but the fact that nato.0+55+3d was operating inside the Max/MSP framework, using its "visual programming" protocol, provided at the same time greater ease of use and more flexibility, allowing the user to create his own applications and tools. Therefore, despite (or perhaps thanks to) the controversy raised by the authors aggressive PR strategy (aka "korporat warfare"), it became quickly popular among video artists and performers, which were using it for a large variety of purposes, prominently for live performance and interactive installation.

After two years, the development of nato.0+55+3d came to a halt, the last published extension being the object 242.nasdaq, released in June 2001 (an external that allowed the interfacing of Max/MSP with stock exchange data). While at that time, Macintosh users were shifting towards the new operating system Mac OS X, nato.0+55+3d was never ported to OS X and cannot run in classic mode. Most users regard it nowadays as obsolete, since it is not possible to run it on computers produced after 2003.

[edit] nato.0+55 pilots

Some of the most prominent users of nato.0+55:

242.pilots (Kurt Ralske, HC Gilje, Lukasz Lysakowski) - live video improvisation ensemble, winners of the Transmediale award 2003 in the category "Image" for their video performance DVD Live In Bruxelles, released on the Carpark imprint in November 2002. [1]
Farmers Manual - the Austrian collective was among the first artists to integrate nato visuals into their performances. Their twelve-hour performance "Help Us Stay Alive", which was presented and awarded at FCMM festival in Montreal, October 1999, was using the nato software. The group held a max/nato/pd workshop at Avanto festival 2001. [2]
fiftyfifty.org - media art collective based in Barcelona. Its members Pedro Soler and Mia Makela (aka SOLU) were very active promoters of nato, organizing numerous workshops and using the software in life performance. [3][4]
Johnny Dekam - founder of VIDVOX. Used nato to create 'Revision History', a software that autonomously downloads and transforms images from the Library of Congress' Database. His commercial VJing software VDMX (released in 2001) was originally based on nato.0+55. [5]
portable[k]ommunity - Japanese audiovisual duo (Jun Horikiri and Taeji Sawai). Made extensive use of nato.0+55 in their video installations and live shows, at locations inlcuding ISEA, sónar and ICC Tokyo. Gave a nato workshop at Kyushu Institute of Design in 2001. [6]
Fork Unstable Media - German design team. Did an installation using nato at Sónar 2000 (Barcelona Museum of Modern Art). Created shprootC3ll, a freeware videomixer built with nato, in 1999. [7]
John Dekron - developed the first version of his commercial VJing software ES_5 (now ES_X) with nato. [8]
Meta - produced numerous videos and internet applications built with nato. [9]

Significant workshops centered on the use of nato.0+55+3d were held 2000-2002 at many locations including: Bergen (BEK, summer 2000), Paris (IRCAM, October 2000), Rotterdam (DEAF_00 festival, November 2000), Sheffield (Lovebytes festival, March 2001), New York (Harvestworks, April 2001), Leipzig (HGB, Mai 2001), Amsterdam (STEIM, Mai and December 2001, April 2002), Barcelona (Hangar, June 2001), Paris (Betaville, September 2001), Helsinki (Avanto, November 2001), Fukuoka/Japan (Kyushu Institute of Design, November 2001), Stuttgart (XML, January 2002), Berlin (Underscan, September 2002), Newcastle/Australia (Electrofringe, October 2002).