October Contemporary art fair

Running along with October Contemporary presenting the HK G8 (the lvy league of HK Art Org.) is the Sotheby's fair again.

I am amazed that HK is getting up in the game- as a place for business transactions, welcoming world buyers, international artists. I think I am caught between being an art producer (artist) and a producer (curator), even though I enjoy promoting new ideas. I think I should appreciate the share intelligence in the market. That is market value, if I can figure that out.

Well, if ideas is what you are looking for, I recommend this project "tagging as curating" to you.

CALL FOR SHORT STEREOPHONIC SOUNDSCAPE & HOERSPIEL WORKS & SONIC POETRY

>A DIAMOND IN THE MUD<
A Miniature Audio Exhibition of Stereophonic Soundscape & Hörspiel Works

PROJECT CONCEPT:
It is an Asian concept rooted in Buddhism that self-cultivation can be developed at home as a householder and is not merely confined to a temple or monastery. Buddhist believe that enlightened beings are those who "grew" out of the "mud" of the material world. So, like the lotus flower, which penetrates through sullied mud and water, but emerges unspoiled, enlightened beings are beautiful and pure even though they grow up in the material world. The phrase "a diamond in the mud" is an analogy for this and in keeping with it the Digital Art Weeks would like to issue this call to artists and to submit pre recorded works (Soundscape, Hörspiel, Poetry) in regard to the beautiful and the sullied. The works will be chosen on their ability to transcend the listeners into a "moment of tranquilly" and out of the confines of the everyday, or as expressed in the Diamond Sutra: "Dwell upon nothing and produce the pure mind."

PLAYBACK SYSTEM:
Constructed as a dock for Apple's famed iPod, the iCarta stereophonic audio playback system will be used to play back all of the selected works. The systems not only offers an interesting solution for public pod-casting, but it also acts uniquely as a bathroom dispenser for the indispensable: Le papier toilette.

- Art Clay, DAW, Artistic Director (c) 2008


DEADLINE: Moday, 15th September 2008. Notification of acceptance of proposals will be sent out on or before Monday, 22nd September 2008.

APLLICATION FORM:
http://www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch/web/DAWPlus/SoundScape08

For more information regarding the call please write directly to: arthurclay@mac.com; for more on past Digital Art Weeks, please see: www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch; for technical information on the iCarta, please see: http://www.atechflash.com

Chinese Farmers Build Birds Nest Stadium Out of Bamboo [DIY]

vs

via gizmodo

There is not enough Africa in computers

Recently from ted talk's Kwabena Boahen on a computer that works like the brain, I heard this statement : There is not enough Africa in computers. Then I came across it again here.Brian Eno - artist, composer, inventor, thinker - spoke to Kevin Kelly about the meaning of Africa for music and technology.

Do you know what I hate about computers? The problem with computers is that there is not enough Africa in them. This is why I can’t use them for very long. Do you know what a nerd is? A nerd is a human being without enough Africa in him or her. I know this sounds sort of inversely racist to say, but I think the African connection is so important. You know why music was the center of our lives for such a long time? Because it was a way of allowing Africa in. In 50 years, it might not be Africa; it might be Brazil. But I want so desperately for that sensibility to flood into these other areas, like computers.

What’s pissing me off is that it uses so little of my body. You’re just sitting there, and it’s quite boring. You’ve got this stupid little mouse that requires one hand, and your eyes. That’s it. What about the rest of you? No African would stand for a computer like that. It’s imprisoning.

Excerpt taken from Wired Magazine (May 1995). Kevin Kelly was Wired’s co-founder and executive editor. You can find the complete interview at wired archive.

Re:live : Call For Papers – Deadline 19th December 2008

Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology
Melbourne 26-29 November 2009

Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology.The next iteration of the Media Art History conference is Re:live which is to be held in Melbourne, Victoria in 2009. The event follows the success of the two previous Media Art History conferences, re:fresh (Banff 2005) and re:place (Berlin 2007). The conference series is an initiative of Leonardo/ISAST (International Society for Art, Science and Technology) whose International Advisory Committee will publicise the event and referee papers.
In developing the Re:live conference, we have established a national committee, to promote awareness and interest in the event across Australia. This committee is comprised of individuals who can drive forward these newer connections and reconnect with the ongoing themes established by the ‘re’ conferences. Australia provides an excellent geographic, geopolitical and geocultural space for hosting this conference. It connects regionally with both Asian and Pacific cultures and the ongoing exchange of media arts between, northern and southern hemispheres.
When I look into their web archive, I can see very good documentation of their conference and this one particularly catch my eye on archive.

Conference chairs: Dr Paul Thomas, Professor Sean Cubitt

Gallery for fashion in Kwun Tong

8640 fazhion+idea gallery has established since May 2007 in Hong Kong. The gallery conjures up a group of University of Arts London alumni in Hong Kong and provides a platform to provoke collaboration between each other. The gallery dedicate in exhibition, promotion and collaboration of contemporary and creative ideas from arts / different design disciplines.
Current exhibition China2.0 from 20/6 - 16/8.

What had everybody done before

Lists and links are so important resources these days. I like very much when people feedback to me that there are a lot to see and read in my blog. I understand it is not original and not personal, lacking two of the selling point of great traffic blog. I mantain the blog because I want to display the bookmarks that help me to understand new media and art and generate new idea and possibilities for others.

I went to Golin Levin's (an artist that has quite a number of fans in Hong Kong)FLONG and find out that the list that he looks at is gone... and he had rebuild from other sources a very interesting list... I sure find very interesting stuff here. And thank you for sharing.

I also find an interesting interview on the competition for writing on web (hypertext?!)-"active/onBlur: an interview with Talan Memmott conducted by Mark Amerika".

When I met Andreas in Singapore, he said that there were many archives in the world for new media and they did not have the same system but all claimed to be unique, even though there were things that were overlapped. In the end, some will survive and some will die. I am wondering what list / archive will live on. I also go to this archive (trAce) and think about a search method today.