The Computer Arts Society celebrates CAS 40 - 40 year of supporting the computer arts

CAS is pleased to announce the launch of its Autumn programme with an afternoon/evening joint meeting with the TESLA Group at UCL. All CAS meetings are free and open to the public though please note an RSVP is necessary for the afternoon session.

The CAS AGM will be held in the break as indicated

Venue University College London, Gower Street - room to be confirmed
Tuesday 2 September 2008

15:00 Registration and coffee
15:15 Murray McKeitch http://tinyurl.com/56o74o
16:00 Peter Bentley http://www.peterjbentley.com/
16:45 Julie Freeman http://www.juliefreeman.co.uk/
17:30 Drinks and refreshments (60 min)
CAS AGM (in parallel - 20 min)
18:30 Peter Zinovieff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Zinovieff
19:30 ~ Pub/Dinner (BYO)

A further announcement will be made with detail of talks and location. Due to catering arrangements an RSVP is required if you intend to attend the afternoon session and break/CAS AGM. The evening talk is open to the public and no RSVP is necessary.

RSVP to Paul Brown - paul [at] paul-brown.com

http://www.computer-arts-society.org

Registration is open for the 5th Research into Practice conference at the Royal Society of Arts in London on 31 October 2008. You can register online at
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/res2prac/regcgi2008.html

The conference will explore the problem of interpretation in research in the visual and performing arts. The keynote speakers will be W.J.T. Mitchell (Chicago) and Griselda Pollock (Leeds).

THEME

It is characteristic of research outputs, reports and theses in traditional disciplines that they are expressed in unambiguous language. One reason for this is to establish the grounds and argument from which the conclusions derive. Another reason is to be quite clear and explicit about what is being claimed as original by the author for the research. This characteristic has the effect of reinforcing the dominant knowledge models such as “the scientific method”, “empirical methods”, etc. However these models come from disciplines whose aims and objectives may differ from those in the arts and humanities. There has been much discussion about the suitability of such models for the visual and performing arts, which seem to rely on a more pluralistic approach to interpretation which values the fact that different generations and different cultures find their own value in the artefact.

Does this difference of explicitness between traditional disciplines and the arts mean that their research outputs cannot be compared? What is the status of the outcomes of research in the visual and performing arts in terms of what is known or discovered? Is research in these areas actually trying to achieve something quite different, and if so what? Is the value of research something constructed by the receiver, and if so what would that mean for knowledge-models in the arts? Are its outcomes more contingent than those in other disciplines because of this difference in the role of interpretation by the reader/viewer? Does the scientific method really result in unambiguous interpretation, or conversely is interpretation really so subjective in the arts?

The conference will focus on the theory of interpretation in research in traditional disciplines and on the emerging theory of interpretation in research in the visual and performing arts.

Conference website:
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/res2prac/confhome.html

http://www.upstage.org.nz

080808, the second UpStage festival of online performance, will take place on 8 August 2008, featuring 15 performances by artists from around the world.

The foyer has been cleaned and is ready for guests. The performers are busy doing their dress rehearsals and technical checks; the schedule has been finalised and links to the stages will be live from the programme page when 080808 begins in less than 24 hours!

The 080808 UpStage Festival begins at 7pm NZ time on Friday 8 August (find your local time here: http://tinyurl.com/63ovln). Performances begin every half hour (with a few breaks) with the last one starting at 1pm NZ time on Saturday 9 August (http://tinyurl.com/67cu8d).

Audiences: we recommend that you load each stage about ten minutes before the performance time, as some of the stages may take a few minutes to load. Please be patient. If you have problems loading a stage or can’t find where to go, come to the 080808 foyer for assistance. If you can’t get anything to load, restart your browser and try again.

“Bring your own lists”

Ripped, honed, years of preparation, for that moment, when all your competitors are beaten. Yes, its the arts awards season. Booker wil beat Orange, Cannes will beat Oscars, Brat will beat Brit, brave reporters will struggle amongst the fighting to comment on frocks, and at the end, the awards speech…… Amongst the plethora questions come - how can a book be better than another, what makes a film more worthy than another; isn’t it all personal and subjective. Are creative types selling out by seeking prizes? Should art itself not be its own reward? Why mark out of ten? Why not have an award for everything, best thing this year?

Tuesday 5th August 6:30 - 8:30 LCB depot Leicester

Exploring the relationship between visual arts and education

A Process of Living includes
John Aiken
Ed Allington
Glenn Boulter
Copenhagen Free University
John Hilliard
John Latham
Measure by Measure
Michael Craig Martin
Bruce McLean
United Nations Plaza
Annika Ström
tenantspin
Gary Woodley

Open 11 July to 29 August
Tuesday to Friday 11am to 6pm
Saturday 10am to 5pm

The City Gallery
90 Granby Street
Leicester
LE1 1DJ
0116 223 2060

city.gallery@leicester.gov.uk
www.leicester.gov.uk/citygallery

for further information and press please contact:
Hugo Worthy on hugo.worthy [at] leicester.gov.uk
or +44 (0)116 223 2063

Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living
- John Dewey

Come along to hear about practical interventions to support UK games developers innovate and grow through funding of specific business development initiatives, the creation of an industry wide database to facilitate recruitment, cooperation and job swapping, funded internships, and public service commissioning of content.

Register here

Speakers include:

* Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent - Key Note Address
* Richard Wilson, TIGA - a pilot in shared staff resourcing and job swaps
* Adam Gee, Channel 4 - as a public service commissioner of content
* Paul Durrant, Dare to be Digital - funded innovation internships
* Chaired by Charles Cecil, MD, Revolution Software

Date: Monday, 7 July 2008
Time: 11.30am-12.45pm
Registration from 11.00am; presentations at 11.30am followed by a networking lunch until 1.30pm

Venue: NESTA, 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool UK
From Friday 27 June - 31 August 2008

One of the world’s most celebrated artists, Pipilotti Rist, draws together a body of work that explores what it is to be human. In her trademark heady mix of bright light, lush colours and zany feminine energy, the work in this exhibition explores the loss of innocence. It challenges viewers to look at art differently: whether lying on the floor, peering into a small dark crack in the floor or perched on oversized furniture.

Exploring the third element of FACT’s 2008 Human Futures programme: my world, Pipilotti Rist examines our relationship with the natural environment. Often playing the lead within her films, she re-works the well-worn cliché of woman as a symbol of nature, andman as a symbol of culture.

Address: 88 Wood Street Liverpool L1 FDQ

Opening times: Mon - Fri: 10.00am - 6.00pm Sat & Sun: 11.00am - 6.00pm

For further details please visit: www.fact.co.uk

Creative Writing and New Media MA showcase

The Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University is designed for writers interested in experimenting with new formats and exploring the potential of new technologies in their writing. This first annual CWNM Salon is a unique opportunity to enjoy the best work from the first two years of the course with installations and talks from the following authors:

Claudia Cragg http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ccragg/ “If you build it, they will come”. To what extent does this apply to Facebook and MySpace sites and, if no one comes, just exactly what can you do about it? Claudia will discuss this and other questions in relation to her Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma) Lab research Participatory Media project ( http://108presentsforsuu.googlepages.com/home ).
Toni Le Busque http://www.lebusque.com Miffy Johnston’s Toenails and Other Stories - a combination of fiction and non fiction 100 word stories using Sophie ( http://www.sophieproject.org ), an open-source platform for writing and reading rich media documents in a networked environment, created by The Institute for the Future of the Book.
Chris Meade http://www.chrismeadeoverleaf.com Presenting his work drumming - becoming - forgetting ( www.drummingandme.blogspot.com ), a ‘blunder… a cross between a weblog, a ponder, a wander through time and a terrible mistake.” This one is about the role of percussion in his life.
Kirsty McGill Discussing her ongoing project to develop a next-generation rich-media tour for the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bath.
Alison Norrington http://www.alisonnorrington.com Showcasing Staying Single, Alison’s first cross-media work of fictional blogging which gave readers a variety of ways to engage, participate with and receive the story, including fragmented chapters emailed to subscribers, SMS alerts through Twitter, mini documentaries of real-life stories, meet-ups in Second Life and Machinima films. She will also offer a sneak-preview of her plans for her second cross-media fiction I ♥ NY.
Christine Wilks http://www.crissxross.net Fitting the Pattern: or being a dressmaker’s daughter - a memoir in pieces (embroidered) Cutting through the memories, stitching up the fabrications, pinning down the facts, unpicking the past… An interactive memoir, created in Flash, exploring aspects of my relationship with my dressmaking mother.

Applications for entry in Autumn 2008 are currently being considered.
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/pg/ma/cwnm.jsp

Course Website: http://www.creativewritingandnewmedia.com

How to Talk to Images
Exhibition by Richard Wright
4th July - 3rd August 2008
Opening Reception: Friday 4th July 6-9pm
Exhibition open: Fri-Sun 12noon-5pm
www.http.uk.net

No one is sure how many images there are on the Internet. Google has nearly a billion. Some say it is hundreds of times more than that.

For “How to Talk to Images”, Richard Wright has compiled a database of 50,000 random Internet images as the raw content for two artworks. “The Internet Speaks” and “The Mimeticon” use this database to create a world where we can “read” pictures, browse “libraries” of endless images or learn to draw with alphabets.

MAIN

In this era, finding our way through the world of images is so overwhelming, that the dominant mode is to “search” rather than to “see”. An image is an answer to a question, a search query. The Internet Speaks gives us one of the simplest imaginable ways of searching this set of images, stepping through them, one by one in random order, without context. In contrast, The Mimeticon is a wilfully complex and ‘baroque’ search engine that allows us to search for images by visual similarity rather than by typing in keywords. These ’search images’ are ‘drawn’ using letters from the history of the alphabet.

As part of How to Talk to Images, Richard Wright’s first solo exhibition in London, a selection of Wright’s animated films demonstrates the development of his current interest in the Baroque. The exhibition is also the occasion of publication of a limited-edition poster featuring an essay by the artist illustrated by the entire visual history of the Western alphabet – from its pictorial Egyptian origins 5,000 years ago to its perfected form under the Romans, as well as a new book documenting the artists twenty year long practice.

Richard Wright has been making digital animation and interactive pieces since the eighties. Heliocentrum, an animation about Louis XIV, was described by writer Hari Kunzru as “…an amazingly effective way of showing how a sovereign manipulated power” and The Bank of Time was nominated for a BAFTA in 2001. Richard was most recently a member of artists group Mongrel and is currently working on an urban media project called “decorative surveillance”. Since summer 2007 he has been Artist in Residence at Furtherfield.org.

Opening Reception
Your chance to meet Richard Wright, to enjoy a few drinks and conversations about the exhibition.

Contact:
Lauren Wright, HTTP Gallery
lauren [at] furtherfield.org

HTTP Gallery
Unit A2, Arena Design Centre
71 Ashfield Road
London N4 1LD
+44(0)79 8129 2734
www.http.uk.net

Click here for map and location details

Further info:
www.futurenatural.net

HTTP Gallery is Furtherfield.org’s dedicated space for exhibiting networked media art. Furtherfield.org is a not-for-profit, artist-led organisation. Based in Harringay, North London, we provide an online and physical platform for creating, exhibiting, commissioning, and discussing networked media arts.

The Joy Of Box & Kit Anderson @ Broadway on Monday 23rd June

Would you like to take part in a cinematic experiment?

We need volunteers to make up an audience.

You will be shown a short show reel in Broadway’s Screen 4 and asked to participate in a short discussion thereafter. The discussion part of the experiment will be filmed and excerpts from it will be projected in the Broadway Cafe Bar later in the year.

The whole process will take up to 1 hour and there are two lunchtime slots: 12-1 and 1-2.

If you are interested then please send a confirmation e-mail to me giving your preferred time slot.

Contact: anna [at] broadway.org.uk.

For the purposes of the experiment we must ask all participants to arrive no later than the start of each alotted time slot as the experiment requires that participants must be present for the complete process.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you!

Please forward this if you know someone who might be interested and has time.

Anna Petry
Digital Arts Development Officer
Broadway Cinema and Media Centre

14-18 Broad Street
Nottingham
NG1 3AL

T 0115 952 6600
F 0115 952 6622
www.broadway.org.uk