NASA hunts for its rubber ducks

photo: (CC) Gaetan Lee
Sailors, fishermen and cruise passengers should be on the alert. If anybody spots a yellow rubber duck bobbing on the ocean waves, Nasa would like to know.

The US space agency has yet to find any trace of 90 bathtub toys that were dropped through holes in Greenland's ice three months ago in an effort to track the way the Arctic icecap is melting. Scientists threw the ducks into tubular holes known as "moulins" in the Jakobshavn glacier on Greenland's west coast, hoping they would find their way into channels beneath the hard-packed surface, to track the flow of melt water into the ocean.
News

oh can't believe someone did it, my microwave greeting

SIGGRAPH announces the call for Art Papers for SIGGRAPH 2009, taking place 3-7 August in New Orleans, Louisiana

via
SIGGRAPH encourages paper submissions on topics that explore the creation of art and its place in society, helping people understand the changing roles of artists and art creation in the increasingly computerized, online world. The papers should present challenging ideas in accessible ways with the goal of informing artistic disciplines, setting standards, and stimulating future trends. In addition to the core topics of the digital arts and interactive techniques, Art Papers will also be accepted on the theme of the SIGGRAPH 2009 juried art gallery, BioLogic Art. Art Papers submissions will be accepted through 8 January 2009 at 22:00 UTC/GMT.

New this year, SIGGRAPH will collaborate with Leonardo, (The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology) to publish a special issue specifically highlighting SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers. Publication of this special issue will coincide with SIGGRAPH 2009, and will also include visual documentation of works exhibited in BioLogic Art.

"SIGGRAPH concerns itself with the innovation and education crossroads of art, science, and technology," stated Jacquelyn Martino, SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers Chair from IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. "So, naturally we are thrilled to collaborate with Leonardo in the publication of this year's Art Papers. We hope to further emphasize the process and research behind the creation of art in today's digital world as well as its greater impact on our society and culture."

Art Papers at SIGGRAPH 2009 will be presented in 20-minute sessions by their authors, with the opportunity for participants to pose questions following the presentations. A full schedule of accepted Art Papers will be available online in May 2009.

For complete details on the SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers program, including submission information and deadlines, visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/submissions/art_papers/index.php.

For information on this year's conference or to download a copy of the SIGGRAPH 2009 Preview Video visit www.siggraph.org/s2009

What is the future of cash or a world without cash?

kashklash:: exchanging the future

It is another project from fiction writer Bruce Sterling and many others, like "we-make-money-not art" Regine Debatty and Irene Cassarino, the manager of the online collaborative cinema project "A Swarm of angels".

Interesting blogging ...

Pregant robot

I am impressed that the teaching of baby delivery not only on the surgeon or the midwives but on the team. They even get someone to play the mother creatively. Isn't it a very different thinking to the practice in HK hospital where the team and the patient is quite invisible?

The world's first timesculpture TV ad,

production details


I am thinking about the concept and the making, I think the film "matrix' did a much better use of time sculpture, but sure it is a lot of hard work and money.(creatively vs logistically)

Web 2.0 Studies // Critical Internet Theory with Geert Lovink

Research Methodologies Workshop
December 15th and 16th, 2008
School of Culture and Communication
University of Melbourne

The School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne is seeking applications from researchers who wish to take part in a two day methodologies workshop with Professor Geert Lovink (Director, Institute of Network Culture, Amsterdam). Participation is free but places are limited and will be restricted to participants who are engaged in research relating to the theme of Web 2.0 studies and
critical Internet theory. Participants will be chosen based on a competitive application process and priority will be give to postgraduates and early career researchers. The workshop will include a discussion of the work of Geert Lovink and presentations from successful applicants.

Workshop Theme

This two-day intensive workshop will focus on critical methodologies for studying Web 2.0. In relation to the contemporary Internet, there is an obvious need to move beyond cultural studies approaches to fandom, where active consumption is simply recast as participatory culture without any assessment of the economic and technological forces driving user-generated content. Rather than relying on the Jenkins-style models of convergence and the notion of collective intelligence, this workshop will encourage participants to consider the alternative possibilities and theoretical problems facing a materialist understanding of network culture.

For instance, to what extent can software studies move from engineering issues and technologically-focused specifications to outline a broader analytics of power? What sort of creative concepts are available for understanding the everyday practices of blogging? How can organized networks transform their dependence on free labor to reach greater economic sustainability?

While the theme is framed in part by Geert Lovink's ongoing theoretical work, this workshop also allows for the opportunity to discuss some of the more general difficulties facing Internet research, including questions of scale, speed and temporality, theories of technology, debates around networked politics and modes of
collaboration.

Some key topics:

- organized networks
- theories of blogging
- recent web 2.0 literature (Bruns, Zittrain, Shirky)
- software studies and protocol (Fuller, Galloway)
- distributed aesthetics
- free labor and collaboration

The ARC Cultural Research Network has agreed to fund 3 stipends of up to $750 to support travel and accommodation costs of participants from outside Melbourne.

How to Apply: Applications are due by Friday Nov 21, 2008.
Applications must include a 250-word summary of your research topic,
highlighting links to the theme and a one-page curriculum vitae.

Applications and further information should be sent to Michael Dieter
at mdieter {AT} unimelb.edu.au

Geert Lovink, founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures(INC), is a Dutch-Australian media theorist and critic. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and in 2003 was based at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. In 2004, Lovink was appointed as Research Professor at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam. He is
the founder of Internet projects such as nettime and fibreculture. His recent book titles are Dark Fiber (2002), Uncanny Networks (2002) and My First Recession (2003). In 2005-06 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin Institute for Advanced Study where he finished his third volume on critical Internet culture, Zero Comments
(2007).

Geert's weblog: www.networkcultures.org/geert

Grow your own media lab (the graphic novel)

Text by James Wallbank
Pictures by Michael Tesh
Design by Scott Hawkins
Access Space, 2008
ISBN 978-0-95500-913-6
Access Space is an open access media lab based in Sheffield. Access Space encourages people to learn how to use hardware re-used from local companies and Free Software from the GNU project and others. This saves money and builds skills. Those skills can then be shared to build a self-reliant and sustainable community around the lab.

Since being founded in the year 2000 Access Space has thrived where many community and government schemes have failed. This has drawn attention from groups eager to understand and reproduce its success. This has led to the Arts-Council-funded study "Grow Your Own Media Lab", of which the final report is the graphic novel of the same name "Grow Your Own Media Lab (The Graphic Novel)" or GYOML for short.

GYOML is a 114-page A5 perfect-bound book. The cover is a vivid black and yellow composition. Part Principia Discordia, part Emigre, it will look equally at home in gallery bookshops and alternative press outlets. Curious browsers will be hard pressed to resist taking a look. Inside, the book is black & white throughout with an introductory text followed by alternating pages of titles and comic-book illustrations of case studies.

Most books that use a Creative Commons licence either don't specify the licence or use one of the more restrictive licences. You'd be surprised how many cheerleaders for Free Software and Free Culture have restrictive licences on their books. Kudos to Access Space for getting the licence right (the copyleft "Attribution-ShareAlike" licence) and making sure that it's explained clearly in the book's front matter. This ensures that GYOML continues the Access Space ethos of sharing cultural and technological wealth in a principled and practical way.

The comic-book illustrations by Michael Tesh are in fanzine style, a characterful and evocative aesthetic for a small press publication. I found myself smiling at the clear inner thoughts of some of the people Tesh depicts, and if you meet one of Access Space's personnel after seeing his depictions of them you'll feel you already know them. What makes Tesh's art the perfect illustration for the case studies is that he is an Access Space regular.

Rather than providing an instruction manual for using software, which the book's introduction rightly points out would quickly become outdated, GYOML presents a series of case studies of users of the lab and the situations that they encounter. The case studies include a shy teenager, a nervous work placement, a mature student and a refugee dissident, all people learning from and contributing to different aspects of the running of Access Space. This illustrates the value of Access Space's approach and explain how, and more importantly why, to recreate it.

Despite not being a software manual there is a surprising wealth of technical and administrative information delivered surprisingly painlessly mixed in with the case studies. Such as how and why to use computers that businesses will pay you to take away from them, how and why to use Free Software, and how and why to make a server to keep users' work safe if one of those reclaimed computers breaks down. The names of Free Software operating system and art software is mentioned, as is how to learn more about them, so it is easy to find out more. And I didn't know how to crimp an RJ-45 ethernet cable before reading GYOML. Now I do.

For all the talk of "grass roots activism" and "alternative governance" on mailing lists, in universities, and at conferences there is often a disconnect between the rhetoric of technological radicalism and actually doing anything in society. We can learn a lot from Access Space's determination to get their hands dirty and to use technology as a means to the end of empowering people. A few years ago I helped out at Remix Reading's open access lab, which was inspired to adopt Access Space's way of working, so I can say from personal experience that running a lab is a rewarding experience.

GYOML is an effective and persuasive exposition of the virtues of Access Space's way of doing things. It is inspirational, unpretentious and informative. We need more like Access Space, and GYOML shows us how to do it. Let a thousand media labs bloom.

Jan van Eyck Academie - Call for Applications

via
Artists, designers and theoreticians are invited to submit proposals for individual or collective research projects for a one-year, two-year or variable research period in the department of Design

Extrastatecraft: Hidden Organizations, Spatial Contagions and Activism, a new project of the Design department, initiated by Keller Easterling, researches underexplored territory in the world's infrastructural and organizational strata. The work focuses on shared protocols, managerial subroutines and financial instruments as they produce and program physical space around the world. Perhaps because these organizations operate in the background, in an active and relational rather than nominative register, their political outcomes are often at once pervasive and mysterious.

For instance, how do organizations like the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or McKinsey determine management protocols? How do construction networks, more than the singular creations of architects and urbanists, disseminate materials and processes that determine how the world is calibrated? How do markets and financial instruments create templates that shape space?

The research also explores the political leverage latent in this renovated conception of global infrastructure. Some of the most radical changes to the globalizing world are being written, not in the language of law and diplomacy, but rather in the language of architecture, urbanism and infrastructure. Armand Mattelart argues that global infrastructure is a field that is 'young and uncharted' largely because it is often still considered in terms of national rather than international histories. Moreover, the political instrumentality of these increasingly familiar global spheres is still frequently theorized in terms of militarization or universal rationalization, when they might really be agents of more discrepant or obscure forms of polity. The notion that there is either a dominant logic or a proper forthright realm of political negotiation usually acts as the perfect camouflage for parallel political activity - the medium of subterfuge, hoax and hyperbole that actually rules the world.

Extrastatecraft will consider a number of tools effective in manipulating active organization, but will pay particular attention to the ways in which these organizations are really populations of repeatable components and formats, the arrangement and chemistry of which possess a political disposition. The project will research multipliers in the organization that make components contagious and powerful as shapers of polity, and will consider these as stealthy tools of activism. New objects of practice and entrepreneurialism, redefined in a relational register, reflect the network's ability to amplify structural shifts or repeatable moves. If icons of piety, collusion or competition often escalate tensions, might alternative design ingenuities distract from them? Having customarily absented itself from official political channels, architecture, as extrastatecraft, finds itself in an unexpectedly consequential position, manipulating codes of passage and points of leverage in the thickening back channels of global infrastructure.

While researchers will find in the topic many points of entry, some anticipated research agendas address the managerial and infrastructural substrates of space related to finance, construction, trade and marketing. Travel, language skills, archival experience and fieldwork will serve the research. Textual, graphic or design documents may contribute to the final collective product.

Candidates interested in this project can apply with a research proposal. Selected candidates gain the position of researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academie.

Deadline applications: 24 November 2008.

Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art) : A Juried International Competition

Call for Proposals
Deadline - December 15, 2008
"A networked book is an open book designed to be written,
edited and read in a networked environment."
(Institute for the Future of the Book)

Five writers will be commissioned to develop chapters for a networked book about networked art. The chapters will be open for revision, commentary, and translation by online collaborators. Each commissioned writer will receive $3,000 (US).
Details.

Media Matters launches phase 2

A consortium of curators, conservators, registrars, legal advisors, and media technical managers from New Art Trust, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and Tate has launched the second phase of Media Matters, an innovative website designed to provide international guidelines for the care of time-based media works of art (e.g. video, slide, film, audio, and computer-based installations).Here

Where's The Chicken: A Locative Robotics Project

This project, presented by the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, aiming for the foundation of future hub in media art research, especially for installation art, locative media and robotics art. It features the exclusive opportunity in Hong Kong for young creative professionals, artists & students to develop their creative concepts through collaboration with the invited artist, Annie On Ni Wan, PhC from Center For Digital Arts & Experimental Media, University of Washington, Seattle, US.

香港浸會大學視覺藝術院冀望通過本計劃逐步為香港發展首個以裝置藝術、公共藝術和機械藝術為重點的媒體藝術平台，本計劃邀請本地藝術家溫安妮與具專業水平之視覺藝術人才和學生合作，為媒體藝術平台定立基礎。


Step 1: Professional Workshops
All workshops provide unique hands-on training within the context of contemporary experimental art scene. Selected workshop participants will be invited to a number of individual project consultation meetings with the artist and participate in the 10-days arts festival during Summer, 09. All exhibition material costs and equipments will be provided. Each workshop costs $390 (12 hours/ workshop) and workshop participants must be enrolled in at least 2 workshops.

此工作坊目標為培養各學員成為優秀藝術人才，促進他們在當代藝術領域上的創造力與實踐能力。工作坊的藝術專業顧問將會由本地媒體藝術家溫安妮擔任，屆時，被挑選的參加者會被作出個別指導，並創作其個人作品，他們的作品將會於為期10天的藝術節中展出，而本藝術院將會為被挑選的參加者提供展覽的物料和成本。每個工作坊的材料費為 $390 (12 小時/ 工作坊)，而每位參加者必須參與至少兩個工作坊。


I: Sound & Telematics Art (Registration Deadline: 19, Dec 2008) 2, 9 Jan 2009 1900-2200 & 3, 10 Jan 2008 1000-1300
II: Introduction to Sensing & Control Systems (Registration Deadline: 9, Jan 2009) 16, 23 Jan 2009 1900-2200 & 17, 24 Jan 2009 1000-1300
III: Mechatronic Art, Design & Fabrication (Registration Deadline: 6, Feb 2009) 6, 13 Feb 2009 1900-2200 & 7, 14 Feb 2009 1000-1300
IV: Performance Art & Locative Media (Registration Deadline: 20, Feb 2009) 20, 27 Feb 2009 1900-2200 & 21, 28 Feb 2009 1000-1300

For more information about workshops & the project,Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University Tel: 2353 5170 URL: http://va.hkbu.edu.hk E-mail: va@hkbu.edu.hk

This project is supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council

When, why and how are individuals moved by a piece of art in a museum or gallery?

via

What links a neuroscientist with a social anthropologist and the UK’s premier independent art charity?

The answer is the visual perception of art. When, why and how are individuals moved by a piece of art in a museum or gallery?

These are the questions to be examined between the world renowned Department of Museum Studies and the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester, in collaboration with The Art Fund.

Social anthropologist Dr Sandra Dudley, and Professor of Bioengineering Rodrigo Quian Quiroga are each facing what they admit is one of the biggest research challenges of their careers.

Working with the Director of The Art Fund, Mr David Barrie, in the supervision of a new PhD student dedicated to the project, Ms Jennifer Binnie, they will develop a totally new, interdisciplinary approach to the perception of gallery art.

Dr Dudley commented: “What we’re studying is a basic level of human experience of the material and visual world. It doesn’t always happen that an individual will feel the wow factor when they look at a piece of art in a museum, but it does happen sometimes. What causes that? Why does certain art appeal to certain people? What lasting impact does it have on their lives?”

We don't need education, we don't need critics, we don't need art. It is all direct visual stimulation and we can generate inspiration with preset remix of images in the future.

Call for Net Art in Hz

On-line journal Hz is looking for articles on New Media, Net Art, Sound Art and Electro-Acoustic Music. We accept earlier published and unpublished articles in English. Please send your submissions to hz-journal@telia.com

Hz is also looking for Net Art works to be included in its virtual gallery. Please send your URL to hz-journal@telia.com

Deadline: 25 November, 2008

Hz is published by the non-profit organization Fylkingen in Stockholm. Established in 1933, Fylkingen has been known for introducing yet-to-be-established art forms throughout its history. Nam June Paik, Stockhausen, Cage, etc. have all been introduced to the Swedish audience through Fylkingen. Its members consist of leading composers, musicians, dancers, performance artists and video artists in Sweden. For more information on Fylkingen, please visit http://www.fylkingen.se/about or http://www.hz-journal.org/n4/hultberg.html

How much is that art in the window?

via
Christie’s New York Pop Culture: Punk/Rock sale on November 24 will continue to bring fresh, new markets to auction with a Punk and Rock collection, and a selection of Designer Toys.

PUNK
The sale is highlighted with imagery and artifacts of the late seventies and early eighties Punk explosion from both sides of the Atlantic. The most important venues, bands, designers and writers of the Punk movement are showcased through fanzines, flyers, posters, t-shirts, records and photographs. With over 120 lots, estimates range from $300 to $6,000. Musicians and bands include; Blondie, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Mick Rock, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Sid Vicious, The Clash, The Cure, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Smiths, and The Velvet Underground.

Posters and flyers featured include — a rare concert poster for The Ramones seminal appearance at the Roundhouse, July 4, 1976, which notably attracted other bands in the audience such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned (estimate: $2,000 – 3,000); the most significant Punk flyer to appear at auction, The Screen on the Green Presents a Midnight Special featuring Sex Pistols + Clash + Buzzcocks, August 29, 1976 (estimate: $3,000 – 4,000); and a flyer for The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Subway Sect and The Slits at The Coliseum, March 11, 1977 (estimate: $1,500 – 2,000).

A complete press kit from the 1977-78 U.S. Tour of The Sex Pistols is signed on the cover by Malcom McLaren and includes signed publicity photos by Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Sid Vicious (estimate: $5,000 - 6,000). The first piece of tattoo memorabilia to appear at auction is a hand-crafted, Art Deco-style chest created by the legendary and influential tattoo artist Amund Deitzel (1890 – 1973), for use in his tattoo parlor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (estimate: $3,000 – 5,000).

DESIGNER TOYS
After introducing Designer Toys to the auction market in Christie’s June Pop Culture sale, Christie’s is pleased to offer an expanded selection of over 25 lots in the November sale, with estimates starting at $100. This twenty-first century art movement is a unique multidisciplinary mode of expression, which employs painting, sculpture, graphic design, fashion, graffiti, industrial design, metal craft, and woodworking. This is a movement that has brought art to the masses and sits between the worlds of fine and commercial art.

Highlights include — Frank Kozik’s complete sets of his ‘Ludwig Van’ and ‘Ho Chi Minh’ busts (estimate: $3,000 - $4,000 each); KAWS’ ‘4ft. Companion’ (estimate: $7,000 - $9,000); and Huck Gee’s Customized Mega Munny (estimate: $4,000 - $5,000). Other artists represented are; Suckadelic, Carlos Enriquez Gonzales, Amanda Visell, Cupco, Luke Chueh, Dalek, Thomas Han, and Mark Nagata. Manufacturers include; Munky King, Kidrobot, Medicom, and Max Toy Co.

ROCK
Several rare and well-documented concert instruments are features in the auction. An exciting highlight is the Vox Continental Portable Organ played by John Lennon at the historic Shea Stadium concert, August 15, 1965, the Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, August 13, 1965, and at the studio recording of I’m Down (estimate: $150,000 – 200,000). The concert at Shea Stadium is arguably one of the most famous in rock history. Lennon’s memorable frenzied rendition of I’m Down, while pounding on the organ, resulted in it not working properly for the next show. The organ has since been repaired and is fully functional.

A Yamaha SC 1000 electric guitar owned and played in concert by Bob Marley during the final worldwide tour of Bob Marley and The Wailers in 1979, is another highlight (estimate: $30,000 – 40,000). Marley was presented with the guitar upon his visit to the Yamaha factory in Hamamatsu during the Tokyo leg of the tour, and photographs of legendary singer playing at Tokyo and Osaka venues are sold with the guitar.

A collection of three original tapes and five handwritten boxes by Jimi Hendrix are available from the famous sessions that would become the classic album Electric Ladyland (estimate: $20,000 – 30,000). The boxes include handwritten production notes and were given to a member of the The Amen Corner, who toured with Hendrix in the UK.

Other highlights include a bass guitar played by a young Kurt Cobain while recording demos at his Aunt’s house in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1982 and 1985 (estimate: $60,000 – 80,000). For fans and collectors of the Beastie Boys, is the original artwork for the cover of the band’s 1986 debut album License to Ill by David Gambale (estimate: $20,000 – 30,000).

New Media @ Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre

In response to the flourishing of new media to create works which are edgy and contemporary, some ink artists begin to think-out-of-the-box and create works which are beyond two-dimensional. Some young artists even turn their heads to animation as the new media to bring the spirit of Chinese Ink Art forward, since they believe that the incorporation of ink art and technology will open up new possibilities in artistic creation. As a matter of fact, Traditional Chinese Ink Art becomes far more complicated than it used to be, and this makes the appreciation and judgement basing on the long-established aesthetic criteria no longer appropriate. As different from animated works from Japan and the West, Chinese Ink Animation is exquisite, smooth and imbued with meanings carried by the Chinese Ink Painting tradition. At a time when young artists are gaining more exposures in international arenas, contents of new Chinese Ink Animation is not restricted to traditional cultural issues alone, but rather a mix of cultural qualities of the East and the West and the artists' experiences of living in this hybrid society. For it is also a platform for artists to experiment crazy artistic concepts, contemporary Chinese Ink Animation is becoming an art form with eclectic styles. In respect of this exciting new look of Chinese Ink Animation, Moving Ink is the new seasonal theme that includes demonstrations on Chinese Ink Animation and a mini-exhibition of works by Vincent Mak. Through these activities, it is hoped that the audience are presented a new perspective on appreciating Chinese Ink Animation.

Ink Animation Demonstrations

What interactions can we expect when elements of Chinese ink, animation art and computer technology are put together? In four different sessions, new media artist Vincent Mak will demonstrate the art of Ink Animation and shows us how far he can reach out integrating the traditional art medium with the new.


Somewhere
Vincent Mak Shing-fung
Ink Animation
12 mins
2006


Gear City
Vincent Mak Shing-fung
Ink Animation
5 mins
2007

Artist: Mr Vincent Mak (in Cantonese)
Venue: 4/F Multi-purpose Room
No. of participants: 15
Free admission
Dates, time & topics:
15.11.2008 4:30 — 6:30pm Stop Motion Ink Animation
22.11.2008 3:00 — 5:00pm Visual Elements in Ink Animation
29.11.2008 4:30 — 6:30pm Movement and Sound in Ink Animation
06.12.2008 3:00 — 5:00pm Other Types of Ink Animation

Contemporary Art on 5/F
Moving Ink — Works by Vincent Mak

Craziness, out-of-the-box creativity, flexibility are some of the unique characteristics of animation. In the eyes of Vincent Mak, these are the charming qualities that drive him to create animation video works. Since his days in the University, Vincent Mak has been exploring new approaches to reinterpret the traditional Chinese Ink Art with technology. His earlier work, "Somewhere" (2006) demonstrated his determination in combining software and painterly skills in Chinese Ink Art, such as brush strokes, the stylistic composition and the spontaneous movement of water and ink in animation. Mak shows his interests in Traditional Ink Animation and absorbs Chinese cultural contexts in his work, whilst on the other hand, he experiments and plays with contents which mirrors the shocks of being a Generation Y people living in a highly dynamic and internationalized world, as seen in "Somewhere" (2006) and "Gear City" (2007). Moving Ink will display past and present Ink Animation works by Vincent Mak. Through this exhibition, one can see the artist's effort in striking a balance between technology and fine art as well as his commitment in seeking a fresher way out for Traditional Chinese Ink Art in contemporary art.

Date: 1.11 — 31.12.2008 (except Tuesdays)
Time: 4:00 — 9:00pm*

SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES SUMMIT

via
13-16 May 2009
Manchester UK

Digital culture burns bright with social connectivity

Futuresonic's acclaimed international conference, the Social Technologies Summit brings 500 opinion formers, futurologists, artists, researchers, technologists and scientists from the digital culture, technology and art communities together around shared issues to do with social media, society, art and the city.

The Social Technologies Summit has prefigured new trends and is a place where important international discussions take place on the latest developments in social media and their implications for society. Discover the small sparks that unfold into new ways of seeing the world and critically explore the latest upgrade affecting
today's digital culture.

It will combine keynotes, critical debates, demos and experiences with open space and participatory sessions, in a fun and engaging event.

Computers have become social interfaces for sharing digital media and collaborating to build online communities and folksonomies. Social technologies create an extension of social space, and new ways for people to come together, meet and share in today's society.

The Social Technologies Summit will explore the new social spaces and the social implications of technologies for the many different kinds of people who make, use and are affected by them. In keeping with the Environment 2.0 theme of Futuresonic in 2009, this year it will also explore the interface between our digital footprint and our environmental footprint, and new thinking on sustainability in a globalised world.

Inviting proposals for talks, presentations, workshops and session themes. Submissions of innovative formats for social interaction and experimentation are encouraged.

Call For Submissions -- Deadline extended 5pm, 3 November 2008

Download an application form / guidelines here:
downloads.futuresonic.com/social2009.zip

See also -- A GBP 5000 commission plus many other opportunities are available in the Futuresonic 2008 Art & EVNTS calls for submissions.
http://www.futuresonic.com/getinvolved

WALLED GARDEN by Virtueel Platform

WALLED GARDEN
by Virtueel Platform
20 & 21 November 2008, Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam

Virtueel Platform invites you to take part in WALLED GARDEN. This international working conference will approach the development and future challenges of the current Web 2.0 through exploration, experimentation and exchange of knowledge. Our goal: a blueprint for policy makers, funders and practitioners that works towards a public garden.


WALLED GARDEN will address issues of identity, mobile communities and networks by focussing on the tendency towards online gated and closed communities. How does this affect the (in)accessibility of information and knowledge? Now is the time to identify success factors and failures of Web 2.0 and to initiative new tools and strategies for the future Web. Keywords: trust, transparency, accountability, enforcement, privacy, personalization, context-awareness.

Virtueel Platform sows the seeds with lively debates but we need your expertise!


WALLED GARDEN breaks with the traditional conference format. Structured participative group dialogue will be interspersed with inspirational presentations from artists, researchers and technologists. Registration is open until Monday 10 November.


Speakers and moderators

Sessions will be led by international researchers, including:

Bronac Ferran (Royal College of Art, London),
Tom Klinkowstein (Media A, New York),
Tapio Mäkelä (University of Salford),
Erin Manning (Senselab, Montreal),
Aymeric Mansoux (goto10.org),
Sabine Niederer (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam),
Matt Ratto (University of Toronto),
Edward Shanken (University of Amsterdam),
Adam Somlai-Fischer (The Kitchen, Budapest)


Virtual and physical presentations by:

Celia Pearce (Georgia Tech),
mez breeze (_Augmentology 101_ ),
Aenimae (Performing Creativity Platform),
Aymeric Mansoux & Marloes de Valk (Metabiosis),
Tom Klinkowstein and Irene Pereyra (2030 – a day in the life of..) and many more.


Registration closes on 10 November 2008!

If you want to be part of WALLED GARDEN please mail to workshop@virtueelplatform.nl

Since there is a limited number of seats available, a selection process will take place if the quantity of applications succeeds this number. Therefore, please send us a short statement of max 250 words describing why you want to participate and what you would like to gain by taking part.

The fee is 150 euro (students 75 euro) for two days, including lunches and dinner.


About Virtueel Platform

Virtueel Platform is an independent expertise centre that stimulates innovation and supports knowledge exchange in the field of e-culture in the Netherlands. Virtueel Platform has an international orientation and provides insight in Dutch e-culture for the international cultural community. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has given Virtueel Platform the task of supporting interdisciplinary e-culture. Our aim is to encourage new kinds of partnerships, particularly between parties who would not normally work together. The resulting projects then go on to serve as examples of good practice.

Creative Commons community outreach

The creativity of Asia's people will be supported and shared thanks to a new long-term strategic partnership between the DotAsia Organisation (DotAsia, www.registry.asia) and Creative Commons (CC).

DotAsia, the not-for-profit registry operator for the ".Asia" Internet top-level domain, plans to commit US$100,000 to Creative Commons in support of its cause, outreach and community efforts in Asia. In addition, DotAsia will contribute time and effort into assisting in the coordination of events, activities of CC's regional chapters and various other socio-technical initiatives, such as a next generation copyright registry project.

The partnership will be announced by the CEO of Creative Commons, Mr. Joi Ito, and Mr. Edmon Chung, the CEO of DotAsia, during the launch ceremony next Saturday afternoon (Oct 25) for Creative Commons Hong Kong (CCHK) at the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, Kowloon, Hong Kong. For more details about the launch event visit: http://hk.creativecommons.org.
.....

Kraftwerk Live in Hong Kong: Man and Machine in Perfect Harmony

KRAFTWERK
Live in Hong Kong
5th December, 2008
AsiaWorld-Expo Hall 9

One of the most influential bands in music history, the Godfathers and pioneers of electronic music – Kraftwerk - will be performing at AsiaWorld-Expo Hall 9 on December 5, 2008 for the first time ever in Hong Kong!
The electro pioneers Kraftwerk started their vision of the future nearly forty years ago. They created the masterplan for so many contemporary music styles such as electro – synth pop – trance and techno.

Now in 2008, Kraftwerk have programmed their robots for a multimedia show with computer animation and digital surround sound. Fans will see Kraftwerk performing not only their innumerable hits from the past 40 years but also a multimedia spectacular that promises to delight their loyal army of fans.

The line up for Kraftwerk 2008 Live in HK will be: Ralf Hütter / Fritz Hilpert / Henning Schmitz / Stefan Pfaffe.


The Kraftwerk Story…
Approximately 40 years ago, in the cold, clean recesses of one Kling Klang studio laboratory located in Düsseldorf, Germany, a collective that called itself Kraftwerk began churning out from an assortment of electronic equipment and their own secret inventions what they termed “machine music”, the likes of which had never been heard before. Cold, precise, minimal, repetitive and almost wholly electronically-processed, this new brand of stiff was released on an unsuspecting public in the 70s, and pop music was never the same again…
Beginning as a duo in Germany’s late 60s experimental music scene and evolving into a notoriously reclusive synth-pop quartet in the mid 70s, Kraftwerk is today both an institution and an enigma. The group that once expressed an intention to “make music that sounded like Germany” has had its distinctive sound – drum machine beats, synths, vocodered vocals – copied and sampled by musicians such as David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, New Order, Art of Noise and Afrika Bambaataa across genres from techno and new wave to rock and hip-hop.
Strikingly antiseptic and yet strangely compelling, Kraftwerk’s spare melodies, precise programming and curiously facile lyrics (“Radioactivity is in the air for you and me”) reveal a deadpan humour and an appreciation of the absurd. Experienced live, a Kraftwerk show is a perfectly synchronised visual spectacle with four besuited guys (and their robot doubles) standing quite still behind consoles onstage, against a backdrop of perfectly synchronized visual projection, lights, robotics and pure theatre.

Tickets: HK$680 (All Standing)
Tickets on sale at 10am – October 30 , 2008 at HK Ticketing and
Tom Lee Outlets
Booking Hotline: (852) 31-288-288
Online Booking: www.livenation.asia / www.hkticketing.com
General Enquiries: (852) 2989 9239

James Nachtwey awarded TED prize for work on War and disease

photo from wikipedia
via

Last year, acclaimed war photographer James Nachtwey was honored with the 2007 Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize for his work documenting images of war, disease and political unrest across the globe for over 25 years. Along with President Bill Clinton and Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, Nachtwey was awarded $100,000 to help him bring "one wish to change the world" to fruition.

James' wish was to share an underreported worldwide story, prove the power of news photography in the digital age and raise awareness about a global health issue that has the potential to become a worldwide pandemic — Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB).

Nachtwey will unveil the images of the disease he hopes to combat at a special screening at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. His poignant images will be used to offer awareness about the worldwide spread of tuberculosis through a multimedia campaign on all seven continents, in 50 cities around the globe, and across the web. You can find out more information about screenings and the images at www.xdrtb.org.

The webpage said "creating awareness of extremely drug resistance TB".

I just X-Rayed two walk in patients with active TB tonight, they are coughing all along and their radiographs show the disease, it is scary, we are so close to it.

Damien Hirst - Beautiful Inside My Head Forever London September 15 & 16, 2008

The remarkable success of the Damien Hirst auction, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, has raised several questions about the relationship between the financial markets and the art market. The surprisingly strong numbers have also caused many to wonder about the state of the art market itself. But the results of the sale are quite plain on the subject of Damien Hirst and his stature as a contemporary artist.

This report cannot make arguments about whether the Hirst auction is or is not representative of the art market as a whole or even indicative of the Contemporary art market. But it can draw some important conclusions about the history of the Hirst market.

Act/React: Interactive Installation Art Makes its World Premiere at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Playful, intuitive, first of its kind—Act/React: Interactive Installation Art makes its world premiere at the Milwaukee Art Museum October 4, 2008–January 11, 2009. Showcasing a growing body of contemporary art that is visitor dependent—without the use of specific interfaces like keyboards or touchscreens—this exhibition of motion-driven installation art empowers guests to exercise their creativity and act on their curiosity. Act/React features the work of six pioneers of responsive art, including an Academy Award-winning Jurassic Park special effects designer, in the Museum’s Santiago Calatrava-designed Baker/Rowland Galleries.

Imaginatively diverse in both form and function, each of the ten environments in the 10,000-square-foot exhibition space is designed to constructively respond to the physical presence of visitors. There is a table that speaks when touched (Janet Cardiff, To Touch, 1994), a floor of projected, colorful forms that reconfigure in the wake of passing visitors (Brian Knep, Healing Pool, 2008), and walls of painterly projections that respond to “brushstrokes” of human movement (Camille Utterback, External Measures 2003, 2003; Untitled 5, 2004; Untitled 6, 2005). Liz Phillips contributes a room of responsive neon lights and synthesized sound (Echo Evolution, 1999), while Daniel Rozin’s Peg Mirror (2007) and Snow Mirror (2005) configure and reflect captivating portraits. Scott Snibbe’s Boundary Functions (1998) and Deep Walls (2003) bring visitors together in works that require more than one participant.

“If in the last century the crisis of representation was resolved by new ways of seeing, then in the twenty-first century the challenge is for artists to suggest new ways of experiencing. Through interactivity, contemporary artists mirror, distort, and confuse the audience’s experience not of representation but of reality itself,” notes guest curator George Fifield, founder of the renowned Boston Cyberarts Festival. “This is contemporary art about contemporary existence.”

Act/React is guest curated by George Fifield, founding director of Boston Cyberarts, Inc., and coordinated at the Milwaukee Art Museum by Curatorial Assistant John McKinnon.

Free Culture and free society: Lecture by Lawerence Lessig

The Inaugural Lee Shu Pui Leung Wai Hing 利樹培梁蕙卿 Distinguished Lecture on the Media
Friday, October 24, 2008
Time:
5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location:
Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House
Street:
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road
City/Town:
Hong Kong, Hong Kong

PLEASE REGISTER AT http://hk.creativecommons.org/events/oct24-lecture/


About Prof. Lessig:

Professor Lawrence Lessig is the world’s foremost authority on copyright and intellectual property issues, a visionary seeking to reconcile creative freedom with marketplace competition. A leading authority on cyber law, he has focused his scholarship on the problem of how law should govern the exchange of information and ideas in a digital age. He is also a strong advocate of social institutions that would unleash the creativity impulses at all level of society.

Professor Lessig is the founder and co-director of Stanford law school’s Center for Internet and Society, chair of the Creative Commons project, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has taught at University of Chicago Law School and Harvard Law School. After completing his legal studies, Professor Lessig clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001), Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999) and Code 2.0 (2006). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired.

For more information about Creative Commons:
* Creative Commons website http://creativecommons.org/
* Creative Commons Hong Kong website http://hk.creativecommons.org/

Asia Art Forum- lectures starting October

Arthub is delighted to support a new educational initiative, Asia Art Forum- a dynamic series of lectures, featuring respected members of the Chinese contemporary art world discussing the emergence and historical development of Chinese contemporary art and its cultural institutions, as well as issues pertaining to the collection and market of Chinese art.

 For the first time, this dynamic and fast changing period of Chinese art history will be unpicked and laid out, enabling a steady assessment and understanding of these extraordinary developments. Taking 1978 as its starting point the course will move forward chronologically focusing on key movements, specific groups and significant exhibitions that form the backbone of this startling rise in Chinese contemporary art. To date, Beijing has always been the focus of any study of contemporary Chinese art history, this course will redress the balance, shifting the focus to include the significant role played by Shanghai&r squo;s artists and art scene.



Fostering direct encounters with leading members of the Chinese contemporary art world, the program offers a privileged access to first-hand information on subjects relating to the Chinese contemporary art history and the collection of art. The forum encourages the exchange of ideas by means of guest lectures and personal contact with the lecturers and other guests, and will provide a unique opportunity to art professionals, collectors and enthusiasts to study the history of Chinese contemporary art.

Each two-hour seminar will take place in varying locations across Shanghai, either leading galleries or museums and will be presented by some of the most prominent experts in the field.

The course will be supplemented by with private gallery visits and specially organised social events which will provide informal meetings with leading gallerists, artists and critics at the forefront of Shanghai’s art scene.




Asia Art Forum is an educational initiative in collaboration with Arthub, produced by Pippa Dennis, with consultation from Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio. Arthub has supported Asia Art Forum on framework, educational content, and scholarship.


Programme to include:
• Chinese Aesthetics: a background to Chinese Art History
• Birth and Rise of the Avant Garde: 1979-1989
• Turning Abstract: Shanghai Art from 1976 to 1985
• Political Pop: Post Tianamen Trends and the Ascent of Painting
• The Rise of Shanghai: Experimental Exhibitions, the Shift from Painting to Photography, Video, and Installations
• Sensation to Legitimization
• Performance and New Media in China
• Art Market Trends and ‘What’s Next?’

Speakers to include:

Philip Tinari is a writer and curator based in Beijing. He is Contributing Editor of Artforum, and founding editor of artforum.com.cn, the magazine’s Chinese-language website. His writings have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, Parkett, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chinese journal Dushu, as well as exhibition catalogues for museums including the Guggenheim and the Serpentine Gallery. He is China Advisor to Art Basel. In 2007, he founded Office for Discourse Engineering, an editorial studio focused on publishing and translation related to Chinese contemporary art.


Karen Smith has been in Beijing since 1992 researching Chinese contemporary art. She is the author of Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China and the forthcoming monogrpah on Ai Weiwei. Her curatorial work includes The Real Thing at Tate Liverpool, 2007; The Chinese, Kunstmuseum Wolfsberg, Germany, 2004; and Illumination; Ai Weiwei and Tibetan Plateau, Beijing Girls: Liu Xiaodong both at Mary Boone Gallery, 2008.

Davide Quadrio, co-founder of BizArt, China’s first not for profit art centre, and creator of Arthub, apan Asian arts organisation that supports mobility, research and process based artistic work in Asia and the Middle East. He is based in Bangkok and Shanghai and works as art director, curator and educator committed to supporting artistic endeavours crossing the boundaries between east and west.

Defne Ayas is based in Shanghai since 2005, and working as an art history professor at New York University in Shanghai and as a program consultant to Arthub, serving China and the rest of Asia. Ayas is also curator of PERFORMA, the biennale of visual art performance with base in New York City, where she spends part of the year. Prior to joining PERFORMA, where she has been developing and presenting performances since its inception in 2004, Ayas worked as the Education and New Media Programmer at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

Zhao Chuan is a writer, theatre director and critic. He writes arts columns and regularly publishes in major newspapers and the art press in mainland China and Taiwan. He’s the guest lecturer in the ChinaArt Academy and New York University’s Shanghai Center. His book Shanghai Abstract Story was published in 2006.

Michelle Blumenthal is an art specialist based in Hong Kong and Shanghai. She originally trained in Chinese traditional porcelain, ceramic, textiles and furniture, later moving into Chinese contemporary art as a curator and art consultant. Her specific area of expertise focuses on the development of Chinese abstract art from the late 1970’s.


Course I
designed for Shanghai residents
21 October – 2 December 2008
8 weekly sessions, Tuesday evening, 7.30 – 9 pm

Course II
designed for non-Shanghai residents
21 November – 23 November 2008
3 day course, daily, 9-12am and 2-4pm
Both courses will cover the same topics with the aim that Course II will enable overseas people to take advantage of this singular opportunity.

Prices
Course I 8,000 RMB (due on registration)
Course II 8,000 RMB (due on registration)
15% of all profits donated to Arthub, a non profit art and cultural organisation that promotes contemporary art creation in China and Asia.



For more information please contact:
Pippa Dennis
M (China) +86 138 1611 7193

Maria Turke
M (China) +86 131 2791 4091
asiaartforum@gmail.com
arthub.org.cn/asia-art-forum

Just love Roy Andersson

Miserable is funny, comical, and so miserable. I think this is what "hyper-reality" means to the director of "song from the second floor " and "you, the living", Roy Andersson. He made ad for a living and here are some of them, still you can see "him" in the video


And here is a little the scene behind "you, the living".

NJP Centre opens

The Nam June Paik Art Center is located in Yongin, a city on the outskirts of Seoul. It is supported by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and Gyeonggi Province. The center was discussed with Nam June Paik and is under development since 2001. The NJP Art Center opened its permanent building in April 2008. Under the current director, Young Chul Lee,(and Chief curator Tobias Berger, former Director of Para-Site HK) it aspires to reactivate the experimental and interventionist spirit of 20th century and contemporary art practices in order to become a locus where aesthetic, political and social potentialities contribute to questioning and redefining the relationships between art, philosophy, media and life.


I like the branding of the museum. It is said in the home page:

The enigmatic mathematical symbols used for the main logo image of Nam June Paik Art Center are derived from the numerical expression that Paik used in an article for the magazine De/collage No.3 in 1963 and re-used commemorating his 54th birthday, and they represent Paik's rich imagination and unique sense of humor. The logo image shows that when a question is reversed and transformed into a new question, endless transformations and recurrences take place: it incorporates the identity of Nam June Paik Art Center aiming to be an experimental space that doesn't cease to question established answers.

The first event : Now Jump
NOW JUMP, the festival's title, originates in an Aesop punchline: "Hic Rhodus, Hic saltus!" NOW JUMP is an appeal to exceed past achievements: NOW is always the time to act. An invitation or call to action, this festival also represents the ambition of the Nam June Paik Art Center to leap into the future through the NJP Festival.

NOW JUMP is organized according to the concept of 'Stations,' simultaneously encompassing a state of stillness and of motion or anticipation of motion. In our everyday experience these can be places where trains or buses regularly stop; broadcasting stations; power stations; research institutes; studios; local headquarters; habitats; social status or postures. For NOW JUMP five stations exist as concurrent initiatives: exhibitions, performances, and platforms to establish discourse.

Station_1 is a point of departure gathering Nam June Paik archival material and works, and combining it with that of his friends, colleagues and references. Recontextualizing the artist's work within the history of his own practice, that of Fluxus and other trends of the 1960s, it is an attempt to highlight the complexities of creativity and its social and political significance. Ultimately the goal is to renegotiate the influence of Nam June Paik within the practice of new generations of artists.

Station_2 is a state of anticipation - reintroducing the notion of potentiality into the actualized exhibition space and implanting an openness that the exhibition loses when it comes into being. Different forms of performance are given a platform from which they can be regarded and from which they can also look at each other. By producing their own space, time and durational place these works expose the circuits into which they are inserted and begin to expand into the realm of lived experience.

Station_3 is a journey that has already begun. Unlike Stations 1 and 2 which are mainly presented in the Art Center building, Station 3 intersperses artworks into a new private gallery and an existing high school gymnasium. The specific characteristics of these buildings create shifts in mood and tone. Whereas before the works were in dialogue with the past and the contemporary present, here the dialogue ranges from domestic and introspective to imposing and controlled, reminiscent of being in urban space. In this context, the practices presented dwell on creativity as an ability to open lines of flight from reductive definitions and restrictions.

Station_4 and Station_5 are spaces of transit offering temporary points of arrival, moments for reflection, and a place from which to embark on new departures. Respectively, they correspond to workshops, seminars and publications and to the establishment of the NJP Art Center prize.

Artists List
Station_1: Allan Kaprow, Anzaï, Bas Jan Ader, Byungki Whang, Charlotte Moorman, Eunjoo Lee, George Brecht, George Maciunas, Hans G. Helms, Hermann Nitsch, Joe Jones, John Cage, Joseph Beuys, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Klaus Barisch, Kulim Kim, Kunyong Lee, Larry Miller, Manfred Leve, Manfred Montwé, Mary Bauermeister, Merce Cunningham, Nam June Paik, Naoki Ishikawa, Neungkyoung Sung, Otto Muehl, Peter Fischer, Peter Moore, Peter Weibel, Robert Filliou, Shiomi Meiko, Shuya Abe, Sukhi Kang, Sylvano Bussotti, Ulrich Bassenge, Wang Xingwei, William Gedney, Xiao Zhuang, Yiso Bahc, Yuji Takahashi

Station_2: Annie Vigier & Franck Apertet, Antonia Baehr, Boris Charmatz, Byungjun Kwon, Claudia Triozzi, Donghee Koo, Dora Garcia, Forced Entertainment, Guido van der Werve, Guillaume Désanges, Hwayeon Nam & Younggyu Jang, Hyoungmin Kim, Kris Verdonck, La Ribot, Peter Welz, Romeo Castellucci, Ryoji Ikeda, Rimini Protokoll, Toshiki Okada, Vincent Dupont, William Forsythe

Station_3: A kills B, André Gonçalves, Aurélien Froment, Bik Van der Pol , Bomin Kim, Changsub Choi, Choongsup Lim, Dujin Kim, Herwig Weiser, Hontoban – Anthony Bannwart, Jackson Hong, Jan Fabre, Joongki Geum, Jueun Lee, Kiyoshi Kuroda, Kyungwon Moon, Manon de Boer, Marjolijn Dijkman, MeeNa Park, Minsuk Cho, Namaiki, Paolo Soleri, Paul Granjon, Rene Daalder, Rostarr, Sasa [44], Sergio Prego, Seungmo Seo, Stephan Reusse, Stephen Smith/Neasden Control Centre, Susie Lim, Sulki & Min, Wolsik Kim, Yangachi, Zilvinas Kempinas

Station_4: A special project by castillo/corrales

NOW JUMP from October 8, 2008 to February 5, 2009

http://www.njpartcenter.kr

To find out more contact:
Nam June Paik Art Center
85 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu,
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do
446-905
Republic of Korea
T: + 82 (0) 31 201 8543
F: + 82 (0) 31 201 8515
c.pestana@njpartcenter.kr

Media Facades Festival Berlin 2008

Myths and Potentials of Media Architecture and Urban Screens

Artist Workshop: 2.-4. July 2008
Testscreening: 30. August, Lange Nacht der Museen

Exhibition: October 16 - December 12 2008
Conference: October 17 - 18, 2008
Urban Screenings: 17. October - 3. November 2008

Taipei Art Bienniel

I still miss the Taipei Biennial, it is interactive, energetic and touched on sensitive issues such as immigration, prostitution, homeless, poverty, cyberbully, artivists... etc
The side event is great, the "Tokyo Drift- an International Workshop for Art Academies 2008" posted in their blog
Again like Guangzhou Triennial, there is a multi cities discussions on "Dictionary of War" here. even that involves mainly around European Cities or should I said German sites, I think that informs not only what the artists are doing but also shifting an spectacle event into a humanistic discussion.
The site "Taipei drift" is cutie and provides a lot of readings. I am sure art students like it.

ZKM opens The Discreet Charm of Technology: Arts in Spain

After a long list of Shanghai earts festival news, seeing how new media relates to creative industry, investment and spectacle(I mean I am really happy to see how they openly ask for sponsorship for Stanley Kwan "s "Yellow River" also noted that the creative industry week that runs along with earts), I would enjoy this kind of academics and cultural exhibition for new media, for a break...from ZKM, well, it is just too long way to go from here to there.

Manuel Barbadillo, Enera, period 1968-1979, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm,
Jane Weber Collection, © J. Weber.

From ZKM :

Luis Buñuel made more than a hint at his ambiguous, ironic intent when he entitled one of his most memorable films "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie". Apart from making an acid social critique, the film also shows us the fragile boundaries that exist between different ways of acting on reality.

Exploring the ambiguous relationship between art and technology, this exhibition suggests the existence of another form and another content inherent in the practice of media art. Technology as an instrument gives way to technique as a procedure that artists use to create visual poetics, sensory and formal explorations, and conceptual developments. The discreet charm of media art lies precisely in this potential to blaze new trails.

The exhibition features 119 works produced in Spain and of exceptional aesthetic and historic value. In it, the 13th century is linked to the 21st through a modular approach that focuses on five key themes representative of the artistic condition: the formal code; the visual code; the sensory and space-time code; the body and the identity; and the construction of reality. The accent on Spanish works is not merely a question of geography; rather, the exhibition tries to establish a dialogue between creative practices and artists that had never before been brought together in the same space at the same time.

It is precisely these conceptual links between the works, and not the materials or the chronological connections, which weave the discursive thread in each module. Moreover, by interweaving the five essential themes together, the exhibition generates new narrative itineraries that can stimulate viewers into creating their own personal interpretations.

ACTING ON THE FORMAL CODE

In the Middle Ages, Ramon Llull, an eminent Catalan philosopher, designed a binary and combinatory system for coding language. Conceptually, this was a precursor of today’s binary computer code. His "disc apparatus" was the first attempt to examine the human-machine relationship from the point of view of knowledge automation. Various 20th-century theories based on new technology, such as Cybernetics, also have a bearing on this relationship.

In the 1960s artists who were influenced by Cybernetics, such as Barbadillo or Alexanco, applied combinatorics (the mathematics of combinations and permutations) to their work and used computers and programming — for the first time in Spain — to create artistic forms automatically, paving the way for generative art. The jump from programming computers to reflecting on the art of the code was made by artists such as Leandre and Marino, who investigated programming from the artistic point of view.

ACTING ON THE VISUAL CODE

Instruments for seeing what is not immediately visible have been widely used by science to overcome the limitations of the human eye. Microscopes and microphotography helped Ramón y Cajal, an eminent Spanish scientist, to examine nerve tissue and to formulate his neuron theory, which revolutionised neuroscience. Up to the present day, this theory continues to influence many fields of knowledge, ranging from artificial intelligence and telematic networks to art.

The invisible side of the visible is being explored in art using the latest technology. The new capabilities open up surprising possibilities for perception and for understanding and interpreting the world. Furthermore artists can use them to undertake the journey from the exterior to the interior world. This concept generates new models of visual exploration and changes the way artists work.


ACTING ON THE SENSORIAL [SPACE-TIME] CODE

The analysis of space, time and the position of the spectator were masterfully investigated by Velázquez who knew how to dismantle the dichotomy between fiction and reality and how to go beyond the limits of the canvas. His influence can still be seen today in the works of Dalí, Pujol and Eguillor. The use of audiovisual, IT and telecommunication techniques increases the ways of representing space-time dimensions linked to the construction of reality.

The great achievement of José Val del Omar was to make sensorial signals visible, the immaterial tangible and to give space-time substance. He envisioned cinema as an all-encompassing experience that would communicate with all the spectator's senses simultaneously and called this "plurisensorial supervision". His ideas opened new paths for audiovisual exploration and they have been re-examined by contemporary artists such as Sistiaga, Balcells, and Garhel.

ACTING ON THE BODY'S INTERFACE

The furthest and most intimate recesses of our minds and bodies — our interface to the world — are beyond our reach. Thus, identity is not completely under our control. It is encoded and decoded through deliberate strategies designed by ourselves and by society. This uneasy situation is frequently examined by contemporary art. Perhaps such questions reflect our growing desire to define our place in the world.

The works in this section of the exhibition are different approaches to the various aspects of this situation. They include the role of our bodies in the life-death relationship, interior-exterior worlds; the influence of external conditions on the construction of identity and the way in which gender codes underpin conventional ideas of femininity and masculinity. Other works explore the concept of the body as a place where everything we have experienced is written; the use of masks and unstable identity; and macrostructural control of individuals.

ACTING ON THE REALITY INTERFACE

The notion of reality depends on what is observed and how it is observed. New media are increasingly replacing the in situ experience of reality with prefabricated images of this "reality" on a screen. We humans no longer live exclusively "in" the world or express ourselves "in" language (an essential skill of existence) but "in" images: in the images we make and in the images that we receive through technical media. Fiction and reality are fused together. This process encourages hedonism and fun-morality, which debilitate any sense of justice and equality.

The artists in this section tackle these questions in their work from the perspective of the individual and also of the family (where individuals forge parallel realities). Others make reference to public space or the mass media, where consensus or confrontations arise about the explanation of reality.

关锦鹏最新作品黄梅音乐剧《长河》Stanley Kwan directs opera"Yellow River"

一、 艺术家组合
这是一批国际艺术奇才的空前组合。主要创作队伍如下：
1、 导演：关锦鹏（中国香港）
曾获意大利都灵国际电影节特别大奖、柏林国际电影节银熊奖、芝加哥国际电影节最佳导演奖、香港金像奖最佳导演奖等。由于他执导的《胭脂扣》、《阮玲玉》等电影，把梅艳芳、张国荣、张曼玉等演员推上国际巨星的宝座。
2、 作曲：鲍比达（菲律宾）
毕业于美国波士顿柏克莱音乐学院、洛杉矶迪格罗夫音乐工作坊。曾为五十多部电影配乐，获“亚太影展最佳音乐奖”、“二十世纪最佳中文歌曲奖”。在华人歌手中，鲍比达曾担任徐小凤、张国荣、许冠杰、林子祥、甄妮、蔡琴、苏芮、张信哲、萧亚轩、李玟等人的音乐制作人，由他创作的“新不了情”、“往日情”等曲目传遍整个华人世界。
3、 人物造型：张叔平（中国香港）
曾获戛纳电影节最佳成就奖，四度获香港金像奖，两度获台湾金马奖。曾与王家卫导演合作电影《旺角卡门》、《阿飞正传》、《东邪西毒》、《重庆森林》、《春光乍泄》、《堕落天使》、《花样年华》，佳评如潮。被公认为香港美术指导的第一把交椅。
4、 编舞：金星（中国大陆）
曾任美国舞蹈节首席编舞，比利时皇家舞蹈学院现代舞教授、北京现代舞团艺术总监、联合国（TIPS）东方文化艺术上海中心艺术顾问。曾获美国舞蹈节年度最佳编舞奖。
5、 主演：马兰（中国大陆）
黄梅戏表演艺术家。迄今为全国戏曲界同时囊括舞台剧全部最高奖项和电视剧全部最高奖项的唯一人。2007年获美国纽约市文化局、林肯艺术中心和美华协会联合国颁发的“亚洲最佳艺术家•终身成就奖”。
此外，还有几位神秘的国际艺术家参与此剧创作，请观众拭目以待。

二、 剧情片断
这是一个具有国际音乐剧审美标准的东方故事。为了保守必要的艺术机密，可以透露一些片断性场面——
一个女孩子在母亲死后，产生了对母亲思念了整整二十年的失踪父亲的强烈好奇。她扮成男子搭上考生的船千里寻找，却遇到了半夜冰灾。所有的船只都被困死，全部考生又冷又急只能在坚冰之上跳踢踏舞，却出现了一个凿冰人……
一个公主为了寻找一个合意的恋人，在考场的门缝里偷窥了几天，终于看中了一个。但这个人再也找不到了，那天在大街上，她却看到这个人被绑在一把椅子上被人抬着，细细看着街上的每一个行人……
父亲很快就要找到，不知为什么女孩却决定不再寻找。她知道父亲在人群里便向父亲说话，谁知父亲的对话声却从天宇间传来……
妈妈的思念变成了画笔。女人画丈夫的面容越画越乱，最后终于变成了毕加索的笔触……
——整个戏有很多眼泪，更有很多欢笑。眼泪和欢笑都在启示着一种人生哲理。

三、 投资前景
1、 此剧将在今年12月首演于上海大剧院，然后展开国内外巡回演出。无论是延伸时间还是延伸空间，都远远超越一般剧目；
2、 由于国际艺术家群体的奇特组合，又由于这种组合是此剧总策划编剧余秋雨先生为了合力打造中国戏曲音乐剧的一次创新，已经足以引起中外媒体长时间、多焦点的强烈关注。而且，这种关注具有探索和创新的文化深度，而不流于浅薄；
3、 投资者可以在海报、票务网站以及巡回演出中制作相应广告，也可以在媒体报道此剧时附带广告并使之超值；
4、 投资者可以参加该剧的新闻发布会、研讨会和酒会，参于与导演、演员的互动，并获赠戏票和CD；
5、 投资者可以享有对本剧进行产业化运作的优先权。

earts festival 策展人工作坊

开始时间: 9月29日 周一 11:00
结束时间: 9月29日 周一 16:00
地点: 上海 大拇指广场，浦东芳甸路199弄28号
发起人: 证大艺术馆
构建中：策略-模式-联系
　　
　　地点：证大现代艺术馆
　　主办：证大现代艺术馆，澳大利亚新南威尔士大学当代艺术及政治研究中心
　　
　　上海证大现代艺术馆将于2008年9月29日（星期一）举行《建构中：策略—模式—联系》工作坊/讨论会，敬请您参加。
　　
　　 该工作坊由上海证大现代艺术馆和澳大利亚新南威尔士大学当代艺术与政治研究中心联合主办，由皇甫秉惠女士和Jill Bennett女士共同担任策划和主持。
　　
　　 本次工作坊旨在探讨如何通过艺术来建立我们与这个纷繁多变的世界之间的互为关系，并将重点关注展览的模式。
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　拟定议题：
　　
　　1. 展览不是简单地呈现现有的文化思潮，还将催生新的社会网络和可能性。
　　
　　2. 策划当代艺术展不受地域人种的限制，旨在让不同地区的作品产生互动。
　　
　　3. 艺术不是展示现成的观念状态，而是作为一种渠道，与日常生活发生联系。艺术的这一功能是如何体现的？
　　
　　4. 对话是如何通过美学术语呈现的？一个展览的动态空间有哪些社会因素构成？
　　
　　5. 跨学科实践是否正朝着改变、颠覆原有学科和领域的方向发展？还是说这种跨学科实践是对原有学科和领域的扩大、延伸？
　　
　　6. 这是否是连接艺术与公众的一种新方式？或者它促进了各类艺术文化更加固守其原来的形式？
　　
　　电话咨询：50339801-2004
　　
　　
　　
　　拟订议题请见图
　　
　　本活动需要预约：请各位发邮件给我们留下姓名，手机
　　电话咨询：50339801-2004

Using your own iphone for performance

亲爱的iphone用户们：
　　
　　我们召集诸位在10月19日晚前往浦东张家浜陈逸飞创意街沿岸体验一趟转为iphone所有者所制作的新媒体互动表演。
　　
　　在19日晚的演出中来自日本的电子艺术巨匠“赤松正行 Masayuki Akamatsu”将为您带来半小时名为“云彩”的演出。
　　“云彩” 是为现场观众随身带来的iPhone 手机而设计的视频／音频演出。每一个iphone都会化身为演出者，共同呈现一场庞大宛如交响乐般的华丽盛会。
　　
　　我们将召集50台以上的iphone参与演出，iphone玩家们，赶紧带上你的爱机参与这场河上秀吧。
　　
　　参与本次活动请将您的联系方式发送至eartsyan@gmail.com
　　2008年10月10日之前哦！
　　
　　当天还将呈现Autechre的现场电子表演，以及其他来自奥、日、美、英及中国本土艺术家的精彩表演！
　　
　　活动免费！
　　没有iphone也欢迎参与哦！！！
　　

Workshop in earts- 数字天地——电子艺术基地

For English
上海电子艺术节（eARTS）工作坊项目：
　　
　　汇聚才智、呈现思维、开启创意——eARTS2008为您而设5项主题工作坊，力邀6国一线新媒体艺术机构汇聚“数字天地——电子艺术基地”。

开始时间: 9月8日 周一 20:00
结束时间: 10月25日 周六 23:00
地点: 上海 徐汇路石龙路395号 电子艺术基地
　　
　　凭借技术与艺术的沟通、专家和公众和对话以及创意和产业的链接，共同实践激荡而生的艺术创想，并为未来的生活勾画出我们的愿景。
　　
　　我们欢迎拥有创意、乐于分享的您一同参与到各项工作坊中来，无论是技术、艺术、创意传媒的行内人士、相关专业的在校学生或是关注新媒体艺术的社会大众，“数字天地”都将为您开启。
　　
　　我们为您与您的机构设立了下述5项工作坊，他们是——
　　
　　（A） Fabrica：“设计思想”工作坊
　　位于意大利的Fabrica是举办创新性工作坊和创造性研究项目的顶尖机构，“电子艺术基地”内将展现“远程工作坊”的实践成果，并开启新一轮次的“设计思想”长期计划。来自各个艺术设计领域的专家们将会带领年轻的项目参与者，以团队的形式进行远距离在线创作。该项目将为参与活动的年轻学生打开新的远景，突出交互式文化学习的重要成果。
　　工作坊形式：作品发布、研讨
　　
　　（B）ICC：“概念建筑体”工作坊
　　来自日本ICC艺术中心的艺术家将在“电子艺术基地”内建设一座与周遭环境实时互动的“建筑”装置。环境参数将被反馈在“建筑体”的结构之上。创作该装置的艺术家将在现场解析他的创作理念，邀您一同延展和开拓对“空间”与“建筑”的认知。
　　工作坊形式：现场制作、作品展示、艺术家讲座
　　
　　（C）V2：“城市空间•玩乐时光”工作坊
　　从荷兰远道而来的新媒体艺术家将带领大家一同开发一款城市空间内的公众游戏。工作坊将涉及对城市空间游艺、艺术行为和游艺介入行为的DIY设计。在“电子艺术基地”之内，参与者们将在导师的带领下完成“游戏”项目，而游戏成果将在工作坊的后期开放性地呈现在城市空间区域。
　　工作坊形式：项目开发、驻村创作、讲座、作品展示
　　
　　（D）VS：“创意作品”工作坊
　　法国的Visual System将为“电子艺术基地”现场创作和展示三项装置作品并邀您参加一个以手机为媒介的游戏项目。VS的优秀艺术家和新媒体专业的学生们将以讲座等方式为工作坊的参与者们解析他们的创作理念，并与大家一道体验城市空间内的新媒体游戏。
　　工作坊形式：驻村创作、作品展示、讲座
　　
　　（E）传媒公司：创意与产业研讨会
　　多家中外传媒公司将汇聚“电子艺术基地”，共同研讨创意与产业链接的可能性。

bTWEEN“影像打水漂” 照片征集

上海电子艺术节eARTS08 浦东跨界展演节目之一——
　　
　　bTWEEN“影像打水漂”
　　
　　私影像 x 户外公共大屏幕
　　
　　想让你的私人影像记录出现在1000平方米的户外大型环幕上吗？现在就来参加吧！
　　
　　bTWEEN“影像打水漂”照片征集~~~~
　　
　　大家对小时候玩的石头“打水漂”一定都记忆犹新吧：找一块扁平的石子，找一个近于水面的倾斜角度，用石子打击水面看它能在水面上弹起几次。在eARTS08的NOTCH单元的bTWEEN节目，观众向大屏幕发送短信（石子），短信内的关键字将激发“影像海洋”里具有相似语义关键字的影像回应。回应（在水面上弹起）次数要看两者语义相关性能往下传递多远。在bTWEEN，文字（短信）和影像（大屏幕）两种不同的媒介让陌生人用一种新的（艺术化的，更具想象力）方式产生沟通并不断扩散。
　　
　　现征集你自己拍摄的关于“城市化风景”的照片，参与eARTS/NOTCH现场大屏幕互动。照片可以是城市化的视觉风景，也可以是人文，社会，虚拟世界。总之发挥你的想象力和对“城市化风景”的个人理解。
　　
　　参与方式：
　　非Flickr用户：
　　1. 从你拍的照片中挑出你认为有“城市化风景”含义的照片（精度不限）；
　　2. 将照片打包成一个zip或rar文件；
　　3. 邮件的正文写上每张照片的英文关键字（如照片1：street, happy；照片2：friend, festival, birthday）。如果你的英文不熟，可用中文，我们帮你翻译；
　　4. 邮件署名（真名或网名都可）
　　5. 将邮件发到 btween2cultures@gmail.com
　　6. 截止日期：2008年10月18日
　　
　　Flickr用户：
　　1． 将你的“城市化风景”的照片（精度不限）上传到你的flickr空间；
　　2． 记得每张照片要维护tag（英文）。并且每张照片的tag必须含有UL （活动代码）；维护好的tags可以在每张照片的右边栏看到。例如这张：http://www.flickr.com/photos/take10/141772774/
　　3． 截止日期：2008年10月19日
　　
　　现场：
　　时间：2008年10月19日晚7点到8点，10月20日 – 22日晚8点到9点
　　地点：浦东上海科技馆旁湿地广场
　　活动：现场将搭起一个直径30米，高15米的环幕。欢迎来现场向环幕发送短信看你的照片能否出现在公众面前！
　　
　　提示：
　　想让你的照片有更高的机会出现在现场大屏幕上，每张照片维护的关键字越多越好，但要和照片内容相关喔！
　　
　　
　　上海电子艺术节 http://www.shearts.org/

The Burden of Interconnectedness

During HKIAFF, 3-7 Oct at HK Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 3. there is an interesting talk, not to be missed.
Presented by:October Contemporary
Date:5 Oct, 2008.
Time:14:00-15:00
Speaker: Ms. Pamela Kember
Topic:"The Burden of Interconnectedness"
Pamela will be talking about "delinking" in art and cultural politics.
Register

October contemporary is an annual month-long curated platform that promotes contemporary visual art and artists in Hong Kong. Inaugurated in 2007, October Contemporary has quickly become one of Hong Kong's leading cultural events through its dedication to presenting timely and insightful contemporary arts-related events centered around a cohesive curatorial theme. This year's curatorial discourse, "Attr/Attraction," was selected as a response to the large scale public events such as biennials and the Olympics that have peopled Asia this fall. The curatorial theme seeks to analyze the political and social processes that inform these events' public reception through a series of lectures, exhibitions, workshops and screenings.

The opening reception for October Contemporary Tuesday, September 30, 8 pm - 12 am at the Hong Kong Art Museum and will include a special screening and live performances.

Art and the New Culture City: Hong Kong, China and the World Art System

Friday, October 3, 2008
9:00am-5:30pm
Leavey Library Auditorium, University of South California
association with the visit of artist Choi Yan-chi, this one-day symposium examines the current rise of international interest in Chinese contemporary art in relation to the politics of its contexts of production in the new art spaces and studio districts at the core of China’s economic transformation.

Panel 1:
"HK 97+10': Art and the City In-Between"
Speaker: Choi Yan-chi, Artist, Co-founder, Hong Kong Baptist University, Provost's Distinguished Visitor, USC
"Beyond Beyond"
Speaker: Matthew Turner, Professor of Design, School of Creative Industries, Napier University

Panel 2:
"Rise of China as an Aesthetic Question"
Speaker: Richard Kraus, Professor of Political Science, University of Oregon
"Multicentric Themes in Chinese Time-based Art"
Speaker: Meiling Cheng, Associate Professor of Theatre/Critical Studies and English, USC

Panel 3:
Visual Presentation: "Hong Kong Art Outside the Limelight'"
Speaker: Choi Yan-chi, Artist, Co-founder, Hong Kong Baptist University, Provost's Distinguished Visitor, USC

Panel 4:
"When East Really is West: A Look at Some Models of Cultural DupliCities"
Speaker: Henry Tsang, Artist; Head, Critical & Cultural Studies, Emily Carr University of Art & Design
"The Struggle to Make Space for Art in an Era of Creative Industry"
Speaker: Carolyn Cartier, Associate Professor of Geography, USC

Panel 5:
"Emergence: Contemporary Chinese Art in Beijing and LA"
Speaker: Karon Morono, Co-owner, Morono Kiang Gallery, Los Angeles
"Hybridity as Cultural Capital"
Speaker: Jenny Lin, Doctoral Student, Department of Art History, UCLA

"Competition of Making Flowers"

Choi Yan-chi
Artist, Co-founder, Hong Kong Baptist University, Provost's Distinguished Visitor, USC

Thursday & Friday, October 2nd and 3rd, 2008
9:00am-5:00pm Exhibit
Lindhurst Gallery, USC School of Architecture, 2nd Floor

Sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center, Provost's Distinguished Visitor's Program, U.S.-China Institute and USC College Visual Studies program, and made possible by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation.

Please rsvp to eascrsvp@usc.edu.

Sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center, Provost's Distinguished Visitor's Program, and Visual Studies

Liverpool Biennial TV

TVC advertisement of an art festival can be done without cutting and mixing excerpts of artists' video and images, not new but would required a much higher skill from the production. I am wondering what is the standard and how is it related to the branding of the festival.

The festival site
2008 Theme : Make up, an exploration of artistic imagination

If you could be a ___ what would you be ?


The Joyful Tree
Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Arbores Laetae (Joyful Trees) launched on 20/08/08 before a delighted crowd. The fantastic work is a trailblazer for MADE UP - this year's International 08 exhibition which opens on 20 September. Rick Scofidio, visiting from New York, officially opened the work, describing it as "beautiful, wonderful and a little bit frightening."

The 3rd digital Art Festival Taipei 2008

Date:12th September ~9th November ,2008
Place: Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.
39 ChangAn West Road Taipei 103, Taiwan ROC

This year, with the theme "Trans", the festival highlights include: International digital art exhibition, Performances, Artist Forum, and Digital Art Awards. A "digital art platform" will be presented through the festival, as an exploration and integration of art and technology, opening a new prospect for digital art world.

Video of international artists.

EXPERIMENTA JOB VACANCY - CURATOR

Experimenta is seeking a curator to drive its exhibition, touring and project activities. The ideal candidate will have experience in the curation and commissioning of media art, and more broadly, contemporary art, production management experience in the hosting of large scale exhibitions and events and the ability to create exceptional curatorial projects.
Details.
Closing date: 3rd October 2008, 17:00 hrs Australian Eastern Standard Time

Google 10th anniversary

Via

As part of their 10 year anniversary – in 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim made out a $100,000 check to Google Inc. – Google released an interactive time line of the company history........

Google also starts off something called Project 10100, a contest in which you should submit your idea of how to help the most people in the world. You need to assign a category to your idea, like community, energy, health and education. Later on, 100 selected ideas will be voted on publicly to find 20 semi-finalists, of which 5 will then be selected as finalists, and Google promises to commit "$10 million to implement these projects" (what you win is not a prize for yourself but, as Google puts it, "the satisfaction of knowing that your idea might truly help a lot of people"). The deadline for submitting an idea is October 20th....

Urban Screen Melbourne 08

Urban Screens Melbourne 08 is hosted by Fed Square Pty Ltd, and is the third international conference and multimedia exhibition in a series of worldwide Urban Screens events. It will also mark the official launch of the International Urban Screens Association, taking place 3-8 October at Federation Square, Melbourne.


Conference: Mobile Publics 3-5 October 2008 Full Program

What caught me are the case studies from Manray Hsu :

2008 Taipei Biennial - A case study

Urban screens have become a kind of meta-architecture. Through their ubiquity and fluidity, these screens, especially the large ones, constantly redefine the spatial relationships of the urban environment. They are new defining architectures of architecture. The 2008 Taipei Biennial utilized some of these screens as part of its venue for showing video-based works. On the one hand, this presents both an opportunity for more unpredictable encounters between art and urban space users, and offers challenges for the recontextualization of these works. On the other, it also poses the question of whether art is able to destabilize a public space generated and maintained by these meta-architectures, to add ambiguities to the certainty of information, of the social dream of the capitalist society. Aside from these curatorial and artistic aspects, my presentation will also touch on practical and technical aspects such as the technology of display, timing and encountering.

and also from Andreas Broeckmann

'Intimate Publics. Memory, Performance, and Spectacle in Urban Environments'
Cities are sites of spectacle. We walk around, looking into faces, checking out shop windows, posters, screens and facades, scanning for the new, the unexpected, the beautiful, and the wicked. The 'screen' of the city is cluttered with surfaces and items, vying for attention. A barely distinguishable mix of mediated messages we either look for - whether as street signs, clues we want to find again, or maybe as oversized TV screens during a popular sports event - while other items we barely notice, or learn to ignore. What does it mean to 'look' in public space? Are we being cheated, or caressed, by the empty billboards whose surface time no advertiser has rented? Do the large video screens testify to the triumph of a post-urban anonymity, or are they mere signs of a failed attempt at competing with the intimate media that vibrate in back pockets, and that cocoon the gaze and the listening mind? What does Josef Robakowski's 1978 video, From My Window, tell us about the multiple layers of public and private observations, about the interlacing of personal curiosity, voyeurism, and state surveillance? Who are the subjects of viewing in public space? And what does it mean to perform the city space, furrowed with surveillance technology, like those people in Noise (1998) who left their anonymous video messages to the recording box that Zoran Todorovic placed in the streets of Belgrade? The view from the window of Berlin's Staatsbibliothek cafeteria in 1998, out onto the wasteland of Potsdamer Platz, before the fall of the Wall, an age before the construction of the Sony Center: a personal memory, shared by many, a lost image reflected in Wim Wenders' movie, Wings of Desire (1987), that has Curt Bois stumbling across what used to be Potsdamer Platz, unable to find a real equivalent for his half-century old memories of the city's face. Each city, wherever people live, is rife with such imaginations, a cultural stage, and a container of mediated memories.

The Urban screen community is the development of Mirjam Struppek whose blog has been inspiring for almost a decade.