星期六, 10月 27, 2007

Pet Shop Boys include QR codes in new video


via Picturephoning.org
English synthpop duo, Pet Shop Boys just released their new video for “Integral” which includes embedded QR codes.

Viewers with a mobile phone and a small piece of software can take pictures of the codes, and then be transported to a website about personal freedom. [via Digital Experience]

“Integral” is a critique of the Big Brother surveillance state with the slogan “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear”. The QR codes are linked to websites containing info about issues of civil liberties. All the QR codes are available as downloads and people are asked to use them in their own videos, and upload them to a dedicated YouTube group."

Public art projects becomes commercial enterprise



Lumen Eclipse, a media art organization based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, champions the exhibition of the moving image in the public sphere--both on the street and online. Large outdoor video displays in Cambridge's bustling Harvard Square and on their website present a monthly series of original single channel works by artists, designers, and filmmakers. Drawing from the world of visual art, advertising, graphic art, cinema, and music, Lumen Eclipse offers viewers a wider picture of moving image culture than the art world often does. Their inclusion of work from the commercial sector reflects their own institutional make up. Not a 'non-profit' enterprise, Lumen Eclipse draws advertising revenues from their street installations and web sites and illustrates an interesting model for public art projects. And although their first year's roster included works by heavy weights Francis Alys, Michel Gondry, Brian Eno, and David Byrne (for the month of October they're profiling the work of animator/director Grant Orchard), their open submission policy and residency program promises to showcase a broad range of talents and genres.

More : Lumen Eclipse was awarded the 'Small Business of the Year' award by the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.

Ordering Big Mac by RFID


via Springwise
Working with SK Telecom, McDonald's in Korea is testing food ordering by RFID (radio-frequency identification). A pilot program in Seoul's Shinchon neighbourhood lets customers place an order by pointing their cell phone at the items they want. Actually, it's not quite that simple—they first need to download software to their phone and then, seated at their McDonald's table, plug an RFID reader into the phone and aim their handset at a menu with built-in RFID chips. Items are automatically charged to their cell phone bill. As soon an order is ready, a message is sent to the customer's cell phone, letting them know that they can pick up their tray at the counter.

According to SK Telecom, McDonald's "Touch Order" system is the first in the world that lets customers use RFID to place orders at a restaurant. Like GoMobo, the company that enables members to order food by text message at a growing number of US restaurants, Touch Order allows customers to avoid queues, making the buying process faster and more convenient for both the restaurant and its patrons. One to watch if you're in mobile commerce or the fast food business!

X|Media|Lab Beijing "Creative Economies: Digital and Virtual"

星期二, 10月 23, 2007

REMIXING CINEMA: FUTURE AND PAST OF MOVING IMAGES

Lev MANOVICH, internationally renowned media and art theorist
(Russia/USA)
Sean CUBITT, expert in film and media theory (Great Britain/Australia)

Cinema as a visual phenomenon has accelerated increasingly over the
last decades. Technical achievements at the material level like new
participatory models driven by the melting of Internet, Databases, TV
and Cinema are setting new standards and bringing a new dynamic to the
black-box of the movie theater.
Remixing, Coding, Remapping, and Recombination of visual manifestations
are revolutionizing the narrative form of film - new societal phenomena,
like the VJ scene, generate immersive viewing spaces and new forms of
moving image distribution. The domain of video, film, computer and
net-based installations stands on the threshold of a material
revolution: do they bring a new aesthetic?
Revolutionary possibilities in camera and projection techniques offer
increasingly faster development cycles that also allow for innovative
image languages. New historical perspectives of the cinematic revue
coalesce with innovative interpretations of our visual consumer culture
and foretell future developments. What can be expected ... what are the
consequences?

* Introduction: Oliver GRAU, Director Department for Image Science,
Danube University *

Danube TeleLecture # 4 from the MUMOK, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna
Time: Thursday, Nov 8, 2007, 7:00pm CET (Start of Streaming)
which is

+ You can attend the event in MUMOK or in realtime over the www +
http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dis

After the lectures the audience will have the possibility to ask the speakers questions.Internet users may join the discussion via e-mail.

Sean CUBITT
Current Publications: Projection: Vanishing and Becoming, in:
MediaArtHistories (2007); The Cinema Effect (2005); Aliens R Us: The
Other in Science Fiction Cinema (2002); Digital Aesthetics (1998);
Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture (1993).

Lev MANOVICH

Publications: Abstraction and Complexity in: MediaArtHistories (2007);
Black Box : White Cube (2005; Soft Cinema - Navigating the Database
(2003/5); The Language of New Media (2001)

The Department for Image Science at Danube University Krems created a new format of international lecture and debates on key questions of Image Science and Media Art with high-caliber experts - the DANUBE TELELECTURES. The discussion will be recorded by several cameras and transmitted live over the www. Online viewers can participate in the discussion via email. So far the debates have included: Machiko KUSAHARA, Sarat MAHARAJ, Gunalan NADARAJAN, Christiane PAUL, Paul SERMON, Jens HAUSER...


contact: Wendy Coones, M.Ed.
Tel: +43 (0)2732 893-2543
http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dis

星期日, 10月 21, 2007

A new wikipedia...oops..uncyclopedia


English
Chinese (traditional)
海納百川,有容乃大。
歡迎嚟到維基百科!
人人都寫得嘅百科。

X Ray Photography and Prints

Cremation
I work everyday with these X ray images and did a dance video of a mechanical doll (that shut her eyes when you lay her flat) many many years ago. The video is somehow embedded in the sea of video 8. :-(
Here I found that someone had done a great job with these beautiful images.
The artist duo have written a statement of their works.:
Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand create sensory immersion environments that merge physics, chemistry and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices. Current findings, particularly regarding wave phenomena, are employed by the artists to examine questions of perception and perpetuality. Such investigations are salient because the scientific picture of the world, which serves as the basis for contemporary thought, still cannot encompass the unrecordable workings of consciousness.

2007上海电子艺术节 Shanghai eARTS



Shanghai will host China's first – and the world's largest - eArts Festival this October.
The world's leading arts and media figures will gather in China's most dynamic city to showcase and share the best in digital arts, against the backdrop of Shanghai's vibrant cultural life.
Partners already confirmed include Centre Pompidou, MIT, Ars Electronica and ZKM.



Festival highlights include:

* New Vision E-concert (new commission in association with Ars Electronica, Shanghai Music Conservatory, China Academy of Arts, New Media Arts of Blue Phoenix and Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe)
* Interactive art installations across Shanghai
* Giant LED screens on the Bund
* International Opening Forum
* E-music concerts in partnership with ZKM (Centre for Art and Media Kahlsruhe)
* Ars Electronica exhibition at Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
* Fabrica:“Lex Yeux Ouverts”, Centre Pompidou at Shanghai Art Museum
* Open air screenings in Shanghai's parks, including winning films from the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy
* Group shows (in over 10 venues) including Shanghai MOCA Animamix Biennial in Central Shanghai
* Multi-disciplinary Media Lab symposium and exhibition, led by MIT's John Maeda
* "Shanghai - Paris" Animation - the Shanghai students creative program in collaboration with Gobelins film school and Supinfocom, Paris
* Graduate show with works from the New Media Department at the China Academy of Arts - showcasing China's first New Media Art graduates

星期六, 10月 20, 2007

A Breif History of Video & Media Art in China from 邱志杰Qiu Zhijie

中国录像艺术大事记
1989 张培力在中国现代艺术展上展出《30x30cm》
1990 ,汉堡美院的MIJKA教授带着8小时长的录像带国,在浙江美院分两次讲座
1991年,上海车库展,展出张培力《《卫字三号》》(洗鸡)作品
1995年,王功新在北京报房胡同家中展出录像装置《布鲁克林的天空》
1996年9月,现象与影像:中国录像艺术展,杭州,中国美术学院画廊,吴美纯策划
1997年9月,《1997中国录像艺术观摩》,中央美术学院画廊,吴美纯策划
1997年8月,《神粉1号:王功新个展》中央美术学院画廊
1997年9月,《邱志杰个展:5个录像装置》,中央美术学院画廊
1997年,《看》宋冬个展,北京中央美院附中当代美术馆
1997年9月,艺术家汪建伟和冯梦波的新媒体作品参加了第十届卡塞尔文献展
1998年3月,邱志杰携赵亮、乌尔善等人作品参加柏林录像节TVANSMEDIDE98
1998年,北京艺术家陈少平和邱志杰参加了科隆路德维希博物馆举办的《国际艺术家录像》
1998年,宋冬、汪建伟的作品参加了光州双年展白南准策划的《信息》特展
1998年底,长春技术学院由黄岩策划的《0431-中国录像艺术展》
1999年3月,在澳门当代艺术中心,由张颂仁策划的《快镜:中港台录像艺术展》首次凝聚两岸三地录像艺术资源
1999,朱加、李永斌的作品参加了在阿姆斯特丹举办的《世界录像节》
2000年9月,杨福东、徐震、杨振中在上海《有效期》展览
2001年初,北京藏酷新媒体艺术中心成立,主持人王功新、林天苗
2001年4月,李振华、邱志杰、吴美纯策划藏酷数码艺术节,北京藏酷新媒体艺术中心,
2001年9月,吴美纯在中国美术学院策划策划“非线性叙事”新媒体艺术节
2001年11月,王波的多媒体个展在北京藏酷新媒体艺术中心举办
2001年,中国美院开设新媒体研究中心,中央美院设计系开设数码艺术工作室
2001年,民间电影组织实践社举办了“首届中国独立映像节
2002年9月,杨福东电影《陌生天堂》参加了第十一届卡塞尔文献展
2002年,广东美术馆第一届广州三年展设中国录像艺术回顾专题,由邱志杰、吴美纯策划
2002年开始,凤凰卫视开设《DV新世代》栏目
2003年,中国美术学院成立新媒体系, 张培力任系主任
2003年9月, 张亚璇、曹恺等在南京策划“第一届中国独立影像年度展”。
2004年9月,第四届上海双年展“影像生存”
2004年11月,吴美纯在中国美术学院策划策划“迷宫”新媒体艺术节
2007年,姚斌在798艺术区开设专门的新媒体艺术空间--映艺术中心
2007年5月,李振华在北京阿拉里奥画廊策划《可持续幻想:中国新媒体艺术回顾》展览,同时在北京画廊博览会组织新媒体艺术论坛。
2007,中国美术学院新媒体系首届本科毕业生作品展

维他命空间要做德国录像艺术的回顾展,顺便也就要“趁这个契机,出版一个关于中国录像艺术的基本文献资料和展出一些中国录像艺术中的代表性的作品”,因此发来了调查的要求。晚上回想了一下,初步拉出一个单子。其实录像艺术的概念早就不合适了。给胡坊回信说:

胡昉 :
作品和大事记见附件。我记忆所及以及占有的资料多属早期,后期的因为自己兴趣的转移,不太关心了,资料就不全面了。
而且,我认为今天的局面很难用录像艺术这个名词来涵盖。
像我自己的工作,或者张慧、乌尔善这样的艺术家,已经由典型的录像艺术转移到多媒体现场表演,严格来说很难列入录像艺术,所以这一类的作品我都没有提到。
一些流式播放的动画,像老蒋和吴俊勇的Falsh,邱黯雄、孙逊等人的手绘动画,做得都很好,但是算成录像艺术也有点勉强。
98年以后的Dv运动中出现的很多纪录片和剧情片,是在盗版碟文化影响之下,手淫DV,意淫电影的结果,也和录像艺术有很大差别。但是独立影像节之类活动中,这类作品却经常是主要的内容。这也很让人为难。……

那个时候,大家都渴望有这么多电视机可用,但都弄不到,做方案的时候,手工剪贴照片意淫一下就很过瘾了。我还用黑卡纸、放大镜自己做过投影机呢!


作品
张培力《30x30cm》1989
张培力《洗鸡》1990
张培力《水-辞海标准版》1991`
张培力《儿童乐园》1993
颜 磊《1500厘米》1994
邱志杰《卫生间》1994
佟飚《触及》1994
朱加《永远》1995
李永斌《脸1》1996
王功新《玩蛋》 1997
陈文波《水份》1996
钱喂康《呼吸/呼吸》1996
陈劭雄《风景》1997
狗子,汤光明《鲁迅在北京》1997
赵亮《表情》1997
胡介鸣《心电图》1997
汪建伟《生产》1997
乌尔善《联接》1997
王劲松《我的一堂历史课》1997
王劲松,丰江舟《北京》2003
高世明,陆磊,高世强《被祖咒的个人主义者》1997
杨振中《梦游疗法》
陈劭雄《风景2》1998
宋冬《克隆》
邱志杰《乒乓》1997
乌尔善《环顾》1997
翁奋《身份,现在,过去,六个》1997
阚萱《哎, 阚萱!》(地铁)1998
赵亮《一次社会调查》1998
王功新《神粉一号》1998
张培力《审视》1998
翁奋《蝶》1999
刘韡《难于抑制》1999
王功新《我的太阳》2000
陈晓云《向夜晚延伸的若干个瞬间》12min 2003
蒋志《飞吧,飞吧》1997
高世明,陆磊,高世强《梦幻作为寓言》1997
邱志杰《物》-1997
崔岫闻《洗手间》1999?
王功新《膜拜》
杨福东《我并非强迫你》 1999
杨福东《后房,嘿,天亮了!》12min 2000
蒋志《食指》1998
宋冬《父子》1999
周少波《我的一天的几种状态》2000
杨振中《534颗米》2000
周啸虎《心欲之旅》2000
杨福东《城市之光》2000
佟飚《天使在那里》2001
石青《黄角坪》30min 2002
曹斐《戏》2001?
周弘湘《红旗飘》20min 2002
蒋志《片刻》2002
杨福东《竹林七贤》系列2003—
邱志杰《亚洲时间》系列2004-2006
张培力《冲锋》2004
张培力《遗言》2005
曹恺《南京长江大桥》2005
蒋志《香平丽》2005
高世强《室内剧》2005
陈晓云《丽丽皇后的花园》2005
陆春生《化学史》2006
高世强《革命》2007
The bold section is Qiu Zhijie explaining his personal and many others shift of practice/ interest of video art to multimedia or new media and therefore not included on the list.
I am wondering how can we interpret this history, and our history in Hong Kong, Taiwan.

Hong Kong's Body Brush is fallen out of art

In 2003, Young Hay presented Body Brush with Dancer Mui Cheuk Yin in Microwave Media Art Festival in Hong Kong and since then the work traveled to Ars Electronica and other festivals. The work initiated a swarm of discussions about how art and technology are intergrated but since then the project is shifting the paradigm from art to an therapeutic instrument.
From Positive Technology Journal:
An article recently appeared in Time magazine reports about Smart Ambience Therapy (SAT), a series of interactive technology programs designed by Horace Ho-Shing Ip to help children overcome the effects of abuse.
From the article:

Abused children are often withdrawn children. Ip had never considered using virtual reality to help them, but in 2002, he held a public exhibition of a virtual-paintbrush program he was working on and was surprised to see that emotionally closed kids took to it, using their bodies to create ebullient paintings. The kids' parents were shocked, but perhaps they shouldn't have been.

Since the 1990s, virtual reality has aided medicine by allowing victims of phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder to confront simulations of their fears: an oversize tarantula, a balcony on the 77th floor. Paint Splash was a natural outgrowth of those therapies.

Another program in the SAT product line helps abused kids confront aggressors by letting them shove away approaching grizzlies. A third teaches aggressive kids to reach out and touch virtual ribbons that dart away from jerky movements but glide toward smoother ones.

SAT has won a gold medal at Geneva's Salon International des Inventions, but Ip's success is evidenced best when kids come to use the lab. Many of them begin by covering the screen in black. "By the end," Ip says, "they're throwing blue. Art therapists will tell you, 'That's calm.'"





This website
provides more information about Smart Ambience Therapy, including a demonstration video:



The project Smart Ambientce Therapy aims to develop a new form of therapy treatment by integrating the existing art and drama therapy to the virtual environment through an innovative exploitation of the Body Brush technology.



1. To use the body as a brush in virtual reality space. Body Brush will be used as a tool for communication and a creative emotional outlet for young clients recovering from physical/ or emotional abuse.

2. The body, acting as a paintbrush, can be seen as a unique process of accessing one's internal world, as it can help a client get in touch with emotional material through kinesthetic movements.

3. The body brush medium will be integrated into the art therapy process to help address feelings around grief and depression, distrust, fear and anger and low self-esteem resulting from abuse. What can emerge from this creative outlet are new feelings of self worth, strength, hope and coping strategies to deal with changes.

4. Through using this technique, a sense of mastery in using computer can be achieved. The client can also 'get into' the image.

星期三, 10月 17, 2007

Skintile : Philips design again

via
Skintile, an electric jewelry, is partly affected by the mood of the wearer.

It happens many times, that we have feelings we can’t express. Why not let our jewelry express them for us? I don’t mean dressing in accordance of our mood. It’s the other way round.

Skintile was designed by Philips with the help of the European project, STELLA, for their ‘far-future’ research, Design Probes.

It surely looks beautiful, but do we really want our emotions to be - literally - out in the open?
Skintile the Electronic Sensing Jewelry further explores emotional and physiological sensing. It is a new genre of product; a generation of wireless, stick-on body sensors that re-define traditional body adornment. It explores a range of functionalities in new product forms that are playful, sensual, mood affected, bio activity stimulated, and arousal enhancing. It is a semi disposable, bio compatible, non-allergenic, breathable, mass customizable, self contained body worn accessory. (design.philips)

Hong Kong art Fair

Hong Kong Convention Centre
14-18 May 2008
http://www.hongkongartfair.com/home/index.php?lang=0

...There will be dedicated section to Print Publishers work and, in 2008, ART HK 08 will inaugurate the first of its City Focus programs, this year focusing on the burgeoning art scene in Hong Kong. ...

Advisory Group

buchsenhausen.air 2008/2009 International Fellowship Programme For Visual And Media Arts

Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen invites visual and media artists, art critics
and theorists to apply for a fellowship in the winter semester 2008/2009
or the summer semester 2009.

Details regarding the programme and the application procedure can be
found on the homepage http://buchsenhausen.at.

Closing date for submissions: October 19, 2007 (postmark).
Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen
Weiherburggasse 13/12
6020 Innsbruck, Austria

phone +43 512 278627
fax +43 512 278627-11

office@buchsenhausen.at
http://buchsenhausen.at

星期二, 10月 16, 2007

Video is a media technology, how will you use it?





For those who want to watch some more video : http://www.wemix.tv/
HK's Wong Ka Wai made this 8 min video for Philips-- light is all we see, all men are light, memory on this side of the screen is fading only light coming from the other side. He is beautiful.

The Third Chinese Blogger Conference will be held November 3-4, 2007, in Beijing


The Third Chinese Blogger Conference will be held November 3-4, 2007, in Beijing, China.

Please visit the official blog of cnbloggrrcon, http://cnbloggercon.org/blog, or follow the twitter agent of cnbloggercon at, http://twitter.com/cnbloggercon
As always this is a semi secrete event- Venue not yet announced, but the registration fee is RMB $150, on line registration $120
speakers:
1. 演讲者简介:Keso(洪波): Keso(洪波)五季咨询合伙人、咨询师 IT自由评论人 曾任八一电影制片厂纪录片部、中央电视台军事部编导 1996年参与IDG投资的.. http://tinyurl.com/2z6kcn
2. 潘海东: 潘海东 现任互动在线(北京)科技有限公司 首席执行官。曾任中国最大的办公用品电子商务网站”亚商在线”首席信息官。在美留学.. http://tinyurl.com/24g87c
3. Joichi Ito (伊藤穰一): 伊藤穰一先生是美籍日本人,目前居住于东京。他是“创作共用”(Creative Commons)组织的轮值主席,也是..

Joichi Ito (伊藤穰一 Itō Jōichi, born June 19, 1966), more commonly known as Joi Ito, is an American-educated Japanese activist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist.

Ito is the chairman of the board of Creative Commons and the chairman of Six Apart Japan. He is on the board of Technorati, Digital Garage, WITNESS, Pia Corporation, Socialtext and iCommons. He is the founder and CEO of the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd. In October of 2004, he was named to the board of ICANN for a three-year term starting December 2004. In August of 2005, he joined the board of the Mozilla Foundation. He served on the board of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) from March 2005 until April 2007. He currently serves as a Board Emeritus for OSI.[1] He was a founding board member of Ex’pression College for Digital Arts[2] as well as the Zero One Art and Technology Network.[3]
From Wikipedia

http://tinyurl.com/yudr64

4. 张利(vim) Title : 业余知识分子
年会演讲者及NPO专场主持人,演讲及专题主题:互联网时代的NGO
Website : http://vim.growup.net.cn
5. 刘晓原,北京市忆通律师事务所律师、中国卫生法学会会员、北京市法学会会员、百度知识专家团法律专家、新浪网驻站律师
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1239085290
6. Alan Tien
Alan Tien is the China GM for Geni. Prior to Geni, Alan was the China Country Product Manager for PayPal, an eBay company. During his 5 years at PayPal, he launched PayPal China and PayPal’s first set of APIs. He graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Electrical Engineering.
Alan Tien是Geni中国区总经理 。在此之前,曾任Paypal中国产品经理,在为PayPal工作的5年中,推出了贝宝和PayPal的第一套API,Alan毕业于斯坦福大学并获电子工程学士学位

More :
More info :China Web 2.0 Review: Meet Us On Social Application Panel, http://tinyurl.com/2a3fns
Netvibes page on CNbloggerCon:http://www.netvibes.com/cnbloggercon

Emmanuel Mieville Live in Hong Kong



Date: 26 October 2007 (Fri)
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Kapok
Address: G/F. 9 Dragon Road (behind Tin Hau temple), Tin Hau, Hong Kong
Price: $80
Supporting Act: Alok & No One Pulse
Co-Presented by Lona Records & Kapok
Supported by Para/Site
Enquiry: info@lona-records.com / info@ka-pok.com
Bio:

EMMANUEL MIEVILLE is a Paris born French sound artist and experimental musician who studied at the world renowned GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) in the field of musique concrete. He also studied sound engineering and attended a cinema school. His aesthetic concern and direction as a composer originate from a desire to give the listener a shifting or blurred perception of soundscapes. Musical experiments with sound-field materials or objects and instruments are undertaken within the intuitive and dynamic stream of unconscious brain stimulations. Some of his collaborations or improvisations yielding patterns or structures, that express ideas but most of the time, the idea of musical flux lingers on his works.His tropism towards sound scapes, sound sculpting and gathering of spatials tools for composition, provides him with a better understanding and perception of sound, as a vector for social awareness and wisdom.

He played for two years with a Javanese gamelan orchestra, and is interested in merging ethnic instruments into electroacoustic music. Amongst other collaborations, he has worked with several dancers for Butoh performances, with French composer/performer Eric Cordier a for live concert (2005), and with Korean video performer, Heesok Yu, for a concert. He also contributes and participates with much constancy to Framework, on Resonance FM (London), which is a radio show dedicated to field recordings.

Emmanuel's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/ongaka
For more infos and discography see: http://www.acousmafield.net

De.licio.us + Google Web History = Hooeey

Hooeey is a new bookmarking and tracking service for your browsing habits. You install a small toolbar in your browser, and it will quietly keep tabs on all your tabs, including which sites you're going to, how long you're staying at each one, and when you're doing it. At the same time, Hooeey adds a social networking layer, letting you share specific sites with others, both on the Hooeey network, and other, larger social bookmarking services like Del.icio.us and Reddit. The goal is to let you centralize your favorites, and make them easier to share with others, while combining some facets of other free tracking services like Google Web History to let you see which services you're visiting the most.

via

星期一, 10月 15, 2007

Oliver Laric, with versions of Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers



Berlin–based media artist Oliver Laric creates a new instrumental cover version and video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, composed entirely from video clips of amateur renditions found on video–sharing websites. The film reconstructs the song note by note, as an ever–multiplying audiovisual collage.



“The great thing is how many amateur versions of Under the Bridge exist. I found more than 50 just by doing a quick search on YouTube. Maybe that's a new measure of cultural significance, as opposed to sales and downloads.”

New series of new media art programme @ VAC


星期五, 10月 12, 2007

Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng: Online Collaborative Creations: Fortune Telling Practices in Taiwan


由黄专策划的“气韵(QI YUN)——中国抽象艺术国际巡回展”将于2007年6月1日至7月1日在中国深圳OCT当代艺术中心首次展出。同年8月和10月将继续移师北京、香港举行,08年将远赴美国展出。
Recently there seems to have some discussions about Qi Yun from recent abstract painting in recent art fair, artist commune and museum of art, thinking about Qi and net art, I found this :
Research Title: Online Collaborative Creations: Fortune Telling Practices in Taiwan

The research will be divided into two parts: the exegesis and the major creative project. Investigation of the developed circumstance of net art will be the main focus of the written section. The research on the modes of fortune telling in Taiwan will be served as the conceptual core for the major creative project. Thereafter, a series of net art projects will be created based on the research findings.

Net art has existed since the inception of the early World Wide Web in the 1990s, with several movements developing at the same time. In Europe, a core group of artists, among them Russian artist Olia Lialina(b.1971) and Alexei Shulgin(b. 1963), British artist and activist Heath Bunting, Slovenian Vuk Cosic, and the Barcelona- based team jodi (Joan Hemskeerk and Dirk Paesmans), who were connected through the online mailing list nettime- founded by media theorists and critics Geer Lovink and Pit Schultz and devoted to Internet culture and criticismdrew attention to the genre of art on the Net and formed the " net.art"( with a dot) movement. The term was officially used for the first when Vuk Cosic organized a small gathering- "net.art per se"- in Trieste in 1996(Christiane 2003, p. 112). Net art has become a broad umbrella for numerous forms of artistic articulation that often overlap(Christiane 2003, p. 109). In fact, Internet provides artists with the pleasant experience of combining virtual reality and the real world. Due to the feature of height - interactivity function and popularization of using Internet, I have decided to create projects using Internet as the medium. There are many kinds of art forms based on internet usage. Besides, attributing to the era of high technology, the art form found in the Internet still has many variations ongoing with. After more than one year of my research progress, I have decided to focus on the form of collaborative creation in the internet sphere.

Whether it is the East or the West, fortune telling has always been an interesting phenomenon. In Taiwan, fortune telling is linked to the icons and symbols of a lifetime from palm reading, facial features or even the interpretation of a mole on one’s body. The so-called Five Elements Performance within the nature, is represented by the term “Qi” which could also be explained closely in the relation to the word “Fate”. The ritual that is generated from the process of seeking for the unknown future destiny is all being demonstrated in an interesting symbolic form. The flourishing zodiac in the west is also an iconic sign for fate. Interpretation of the meanings and patterns from the icons, cards or Tarot can also be represented through a series of meaningful signs. From collecting, sorting, and analyzing the symbols, rituals and significance of the events that related to fortune telling, these meaningful signs could be categorized systematically and then utilized as the conceptual core for the creation project.

Although originating from the ancient times, fortune telling is a popular tool for divination which has been carried out continuously in the modern hi-tech society. Accordingly, the idea of creating fortune telling service has brought about an interactive behavior, which has become an indispensable basic element to engage with people. While appreciating the process to seek divination, one is also experiencing at the same time an alternative form of combined ancient and technical kinds of fortune telling. This kind of philosophy thought will be the paradigm for this research.
The entire research of this project incorporates the theme of Taiwanese traditional fortune telling practices, with the function of collaborative creation based on internet medium. Due to the execution of this collaborative creation project, it will require public involvement. Thus, stimulating and enticing user to participate and contribute to the project is a top priority of concern for this creative project.

In the sense of collaborative creation through Internet, the outcome of the image or totem will keep changing itself by the increased number of participant. In other words, each participant has an effect on the creation of the art work. However, the participants cannot predict the changes in the next step of the work. Similarly, based on the assumption of fortune telling in China, it is deemed that everything in the world is impacted by each other(Zhou jian nan 2005). For example, a person who somehow being connected with “some people”, every thing that he or she has done will become potential elements impacting “that some people” in some ways. The destiny between the person and with ‘that some people’ are said to be having involvement with each other. In short, both the collaborative creation and people’s destiny are in the same way based on the perception of an outcome which keeps changing itself by having people’s participation.

When exploring the originality of art, it can be categorized into three doctrines from the sociological point of view which are: Theory of Decoration, Theory of Labory, and Theory of Religion. It can be said that religious belief and art are in fact deeply connected from their originality. The fact that our forefathers were unable to decipher the mystery and metamorphosis of the mother nature, and the creation and birth of various rituals including Nature Worship, Animal and Plant Worship, Totemism, Fetish Worship, Idolatry and Man Worship, and Ghost Worship and Ancestors Worship. In the times that followed, additional objects of worship were also added such as the roles of wizard and sciomancy medium (using ghost or some kinds of sprite that common people cannot see or communicate with). Based on the theories of origin of art, it could be attributed to the ritual form through various religions in the ancient time, and the development of fortune telling is on the basis of such religious beliefs. Thus the idea of combination between art and fortune telling is built on this concept.

In addition, the theme of fortune telling encompassed in this creative project attempts to motivate and stimulate end user to contribute to this project. According to my field studies that I have done till now, majority of people will pay their attention when some people indicate that they have the ability to predict people's fortune. From this simple point of view, I believe that user will be very keen to participate in this kind of creative work with fortune telling as the theme.

From http://www.hss.uts.edu.au/research/research_students/yueh_hsiu_giffen_cheng.html
Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng will also write in this book 'Circulating Contexts--CURATING MEDIA/NET/ART,' by Cont3xt.net that will be launched at Vienna's Depot next Monday.
Here is his blog.

Tsang Kinwah @ New York



Always like about this young man who worked at Videotage and Visual Art Centre when he was a fresh graduate from Chinese University back in 2001.
Check out this video on his solo show at Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York.

Cyberbullying public service announcement


Presented by Sony Creative Software, the National Crime Prevention Council, and the Ad Council.

Cyberbullying is a growing problem among children and teenagers on the Internet. The anonymity and ease of communication the Internet provides can create a vehicle for bullying, harassment, and defamation, harmful actions that can make the Internet a hostile and dangerous place. Cyberbullying is a problem that must be addressed and solved.

Help end cyberbullying by creating a Public Service Announcement on the issue. Sony Creative Software is seeking entries from independent producers and academic institutions. The top submissions will be eligible for national broadcast, and their producers or sponsoring organizations will receive a complete multimedia editing suite for their facility or school (prize package valued up to $20,000).

Entries will be judged by: Barry Sonnenfeld, director/producer (Men in Black, Addams Family, and others); Steve Oedekerk, producer/writer (Bruce Almighty, Barnyard, and others); Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D., noted authority on social networking and cyberbullying; and members of the Ad Council's campaign review committee.

For more information, rules, and submission guidelines visit www.sonycreativesoftware.com/cyber

星期四, 10月 11, 2007

Dead Language

From 18th to 22th October @ICA London:


Platoons of the latest replicas of Banksy roam the landscape, led by General Clone Banksy, a talentless nobody who once found a sample of Banksy DNA on an empty spray can. A rowdy gang of Tracey Emins wrestle half a dozen dazed Andy Warhols to the ground. It is the future and all forms of art are free, perfect replicas exist of every masterpiece ever created, copyright and ownership are meaningless, ideas are cheap and replicated ad infinitum. Artists have realised that their own identity is the only thing they can own or control, so fans become clones of artists in order to spread their art/identity. One final piece of uncorrupted art remains, yet to be copied: a living story told by Neonate Muses. Come and experience the living story and see how the world died with FoolishPeople's immersive, evolving performance in the ICA theatre. On the Saturday afternoon, a workshop with writer and director John Harrigan will give participants a chance to examine the core concepts of Dead Language: open-source myth, weaponised art and the future of intellectual rights within a dead culture.


"There's a layer to art and entertainment now that's stopping us thinking, it's coming between us and common sense": read Loma-Ann Bonner's interview with Foolish People's John Harrigan in Open Magazine.

www.foolishpeople.org


Interesting !!

New face of New Museum @NY opens on 1st Dec


Design for New Museum of Contemporary Art. Design + Visualization: Sejima + Nishizawa / SANAA. Site Photography: Christopher Dawson.

On December 1st, the New Museum will open the doors to our brand new building at 235 Bowery (at Prince Street). The new New Museum will be the destination for contemporary art in New York and beyond.

Click here to see a complete calendar of opening events.

星期一, 10月 08, 2007

B3 and Mediamatic present the Moving Image Lab.

A unique hands-on approach to enable you to develop new media projects across a range of media platforms including podcasting, streaming media and participatory web 2.0 to mobile phones.

This programme is aimed at media artists such as directors, producers,filmmakers, designers and musicians. We aim to create a cross-pollination of creativity and ideas; where the emphasis will be on the art of storytelling through multimedia technology.

B3 has a limited number of FREE places are available for the Moving Image Lab.

Please email your application (download from www.b3media.net/lab) and biog/CV to caroline[at]b3media.net

The deadline for applications is 15th October 2007

Dates: The workshop will be held in the B3 Studios, Brixton, London.
Sunday 28th October to Friday 2nd November 2007.

Cost: The cost of the workshop is 294pounds (420euros)The workshop
includes lunch, equipment and technical assistance.

For more information and selection criteria go to www.b3media.net/lab

星期五, 10月 05, 2007

re:place 2007

The Second International Conference on the Histories of Media, Art, Science and Technology
Berlin, 15 - 18 November 2007
Introduction

re:place 2007, the Second International Conference on the Historiesof Media, Art, Science and Technology, will take place in Berlin from 15 - 18 November 2007 as a project of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt. This conference is a sequel to 'Refresh!', the first in this series, chaired by Oliver Grau and produced by the Database of Virtual Art, Leonardo, and Banff New Media Institute, and held at the Banff Center in Canada in September 2005, which brought together several hundred artists, scientists, researchers, curators and theoreticians of different disciplines.

re:place 2007 will be an international forum for the presentation and the discussion of exemplary approaches to the rapport between art, media, science and technology. With the title, 're:place', we propose a thematic focus on locatedness and the migration of knowledge and knowledge production in the interdisciplinary contexts of art, historiography, science and technology.

The re:place 2007 conference will be devoted to examining the manifold connections between art, science and technology, connections which have come into view more sharply through the growing attention to media art and its histories over the past years. It will address historical contexts and artistic explorations of new technologies as well as the historical and contemporary research into the mutual influences between artistic work, scientific research and technological developments. This research concerns such diverse fields as cybernetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nano-technology, and bio-technology, as well as investigations in the
humanities including art history, visual culture, musicology, comparative literature, media archaeology, media theory, science studies, and sociology.

Registration
Abstracts and CV of participants

星期四, 10月 04, 2007

5th DaDao Live Art Festival


In 2007, On the Move will host the Da Dao Live Art Event in Hong Kong. DaDao Live Art Festival is the only annual live art international festival in China since 2004. The 5th DaDao Live Art Festival will be held in October 2007 in 6 Chinese cities: Beijing, Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Xiamen.

Start Time:
Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 4:00pm
End Time:
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 9:30pm
Location:
opening @Kwun Tong Osage, Outdoor event @ Previous Queen's Pier, Workshop @FM Theatre Power Studio

On the Move Da Dao Live Art Event 2007 will present 25 overseas and Hong Kong performance artists in a 2-day gathering. Some of these renowned artists will make their first appearance in Hong Kong with new site specific performance. The opening performance is supported by the Osage Art Foundation and will be held at Osage Open Kwun Tong. The Outdoor performance will be held at the City Hall Plaza, Edinburgh Place, Central. The details of the event are as follows:


13 Oct 2007 Opening Performance

Artists:

Boris Nieslony (Germany)
Michael Klien (Austria), Lin Yuan Shang (France), Elena Giannotti (Italy)
Fearghus O'Conchuir (Ireland)
Tamar Raban (Isarel)
Giacomo Calabrese (Italy)
Man Yu(Beijing)
Shu Yang(Beijing)
Ng Fang Zhou(Macau)
Zhou Bin(Chen Du)
Chen Shi Shen(Hong Kong)
Mok Chiu Yu (Hong Kong)
Ricky Tse (Hong Kong)
Frog King (Hong Kong)
Kith Tsang Tak Ping (Hong Kong)

Venue: Osage Open

4/f Union Hing Yip Factory Building,
20 Hing Yip Street Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Time: 4-9pm Ticket: HK$85

Patchingzone from V2

General introduction
Welcome to The Patchingzone newsletter. The Patchingzone is initiated by V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media. V2_ is a widely acknowledged centre for art and media technology, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Patchingzone works closely with V2_ and builds on the knowledge and expertise gained in the V2_Lab; the research and development department of V2_ and the PhD research ‘Processpatching’, Defining New Methods in aRt&D by Anne Nigten. www.patchingzone.net www.processpatching.net
The Patchingzone starts pilot project: Cultuur Lokaal

The Patchingzone is excited to announce its first pilot-project: Cultuur Lokaal.
Cultuur Lokaal is a collaboration between the Waterwolf laboratories (Haagse Hogeschool lectoraat Society and ICT by Dick Rijken and three cultural institutions in Gouda: Public Library Gouda, Regional archive Central-Holland, Museum GoudA) and The Patchingzone. The Sia-RAAK public programme funds Cultuur Lokaal. Working with professionals in the three cultural institutions we will investigate new opportunities for collaborations with (in)formal local networks. Other parties involved in the realisation of the project are VPRO, Brekend Vaatwerk, Erfgoed Nederland and Syntens. The physical location for the project workspace will be in Gouda. The execution of the project will be supported both financially and technologically.

As this project will serve as a pilot for future Patchingzone projects there will be no subscription or entry fee for students to this project! www.patchingzone.net www.waterwolflab.nl


Call for proposals : Cultuur Lokaal
For the Cultuur Lokaal project we are looking for a small group of dedicated and prolific Master / PhD students to work together for 6 months on the theme of ‘local identity and the connection between the physical and virtual environment’. We would like the result to be a well researched and documented, interactive urban experience. We will have the opportunity and the technological backup to work creatively with high-tech materials, digital media and information technology but use of technology is not a requirement in itself. It is what you do with it that counts. The final project will be presented during a special public summer event in Gouda in July or August 2008, and there will be an opportunity to present papers or documentation of the research in a professional symposium in the early summer of 2008. Extended deadline for applications November 1st, 2007, download the application form www.patchingzone.net


The Patchingzone information event: October 24th, 2007 @V2
On Wednesday October 24th, The Patchingzone organizes an informal information event for Master and PhD students, professionals, educators, industry and all who are interested, as potential participants, collaborators or partners, in The Patchingzone philosophy and the ‘processpatching’ method. The a Rt&D triangle a support tool for collaborators with different backgrounds will be launched and demonstrated by its makers. The Patchingzone team hosts a discussion and Q&A session. Wednesday October 24th, 2007, 19:30 at V2_ Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012XL Rotterdam, free admission. www.v2.nl www.patchingzone.net

Hong Kong International Contemporary Art Fair 2007


6-9 October 2007 11am - 7pm
HK Exhibition Centre
Wan Chai

星期三, 10月 03, 2007

The Death of the Critic

In an age of book clubs, celebrity endorsements and a blogosphere staffed with thousands of amateur critics, what role is there for the professional critic as an arbiter of artistic value? Is cultural value just a matter of personal taste, with one opinion as good as any other? What function does professional criticism fulfil now, and should we lament the passing of the authority which previous generations of critics enjoyed?

Come and find out, as the ICA has assembled a line-up of expert speakers for this unique and unmissable event:

John Sutherland (author The Boy Who Loved Books)

Michael Coveney (whatsonstage.com)

Rachel Bowlby (author Carried Away)

Adrian Searle (The Guardian)

Chair: Ronan McDonald (author The Death of the Critic)

The ICA is located on The Mall, London SW1.
Open Monday 12pm-11pm, Tues-Sat 12pm-1am, Sunday 12pm-10.30pm
Galleries open daily 12pm-7.30pm during exhibitions

Extended Reading :


The Death of the Critic
Ronan McDonald
Due for release on 27/09/2007

The critic has long been a reviled figure, at best the mere handmaiden of the 'creative' arts, at worst a parasite upon them. For Brendan Behan, critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They know how it is done. They have seen it done every day. But they are unable to do it themselves. In an age of book clubs, celebrity endorsements and internet bloggers, what role is there now for the professional critic as an arbiter of artistic value? Are literature and the arts only a question of personal taste? Is one opinion 'as good as another'?Ronan McDonald's "The Death of the Critic" seeks to defend the role of the public critic. McDonald argues against recent claims that all artistic value is simply relative and subjective. This forceful, accessible and eloquent book considers why high-profile, public critics, such as William Empson, F.R.Leavis or Lionel Trilling, become much rarer in the later twentieth century. A key reason for the 'death of the critic', he believes, is the turn away from value judgements and the very notion of artistic quality amongst academics and scholars. Alert to the cultural and academic climate of both the USA and the UK, this controversial and timely intervention will engage scholars, students, critics and anyone concerned with the role of literary and artistic culture in the public sphere.

New Media Art @ Osage


10.10 to 18.11 with Kaola Yip (City SCM) Chris Lau (Emergency Lab), Samson Young (musician) and John Wong (Zuni), plus two overseas artists.

星期二, 10月 02, 2007

Leonardo Art & Climate project:

The Leonardo Lovely Weather Art and Climate Project and Leonardo Publications are inviting papers, special issue proposals and book proposals that deal with artistic approaches to weather, climate and their modifications.

As a result of massive urbanization and the development of the modern lifestyle, it has been possible to observe a deterioration of sensitivity to meteorology and climate. The existence of weather and climate is similar to that of landscape which does not exist in nature without the mind to perceive it as such. The perception of weather and climate, as well as that of landscape is the perception of anarrangement, a configuration of the real. Weather and climate are thus multidimensional phenomenons that include the combined contributions of nature, culture, history and geography, but also the imaginary and the symbolic. Art could help us to question our perceptions and relationships to weather, climate and their changes.

Leonardo seeks to document the works of artists, researchers, and scholars involved in the exploration of weather and climate, and is soliciting texts for Leonardo, Leonardo Transactions, special issue proposals for the Leonardo Electronic Almanac and book proposals for the Leonardo Book Series.

Sub-themes:

The following sub-themes have been defined (not restrictive):

- Environments: weather and climate works enabling new
experiences of environments

- Meteorological and climate sciences: artworks
questioning and linking to these sciences

- Weather and climate technologies: artworks
questioning and linking to these technologies

- Social and political action: weather and climate
works which may spur new thinking for action on environments

- Sustainability: artworks engaged in alternative
energy resources or climate memories for example

- Weather and climate perceptions and/or narratives:
poetical and/or political perceptions; narratives of weather
and climate phenomena

The "Lovely Weather" Editorial group on Art & Climate is: John Cunningham, Annick Bureaud, Ramon Guardans, Drew Hemment, Julien Knebusch (coordinator), Roger Malina, Jacques Mandelbrojt, Andrea Polli and Janine Randerson.

A discussion on the topic, moderated by Janine Randerson is being held on the YASMIN network:
http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin