Blogs

It'll be a night to remember for lovers of underground music in Melbourne
Saturday 16 April Got Funk? returns for 2005 with the opening of its new monthly night UPTOWN UNDERGROUND

Opening night brings you a fresh mix of our city's most legendary DJs & brightest rising stars in breakbeat, electro & techy beat music
Feigan Rowie LilStormer DJ Ides & GKS

slappin down the funk @Deep 11

pspcasting : Wired is calling it the next big thing in mobile porn, but perhaps the videoblogging community will port their vids to mobile devices such as the new PSP from Sony. http://www.pspvideo9.com/pspcasting.html has software and instructions on how to convert your videos to psp format. check it out.

Yahoo! Seach has created a new search engine which scans the net for content covered by Creative Commons licence. Useful if you're looking to build your own content and want to reuse. http://search.yahoo.com/cc to search and for more details

"Dressed as a British pensioner, over the last few days Banksy entered each of the galleries [The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,The Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Natural History] and attached one of his own works, complete with authorative name plaque and explanation.

He says - "This historic occasion has less to do with finally being embraced by the fine art establishment and is more about the judicious use of a fake beard and some high strength glue." Banksy continues -"They're good enough to be in there, so I don't see why I should wait"

the Amoureux Artists Register
The Amoureux Artists Register targets the community of art enthusiasts.
Amoureux features original works and commission artists and acts as the meeting point for craftspeople, artists and Art Galleries.
Advertise yourself and your art or craft completely for FREE.
Use the Amoureux Artists Register as your personal web page complete with direct email and live links.

EarthCore is the world's first podcast-only novel: you can't find it in stores, you can't download the full audio, and the only way to find out what happens is to subscribe to the podcast. The author's goal is to generate 5,000 subscribers to this book, which will demonstrate the power of Podcasting and generate attention from publishers. The novel is a cross between episodic modern-action fare like "24" and classic sci-fi movies like Predator and Starship Troopers.

CCDNSW's Diploma in Community Cultural Development (online) provides participants with the competencies needed to work in community cultural development at a project and program management level. In particular this flexible diploma course is designed for cultural workers, organisers, artists, as well as people working in fields allied to community cultural development, including: environment, health, youth work, social work, Indigenous, and cultural diversity. Read more for details or visit http://www.ccdnsw.org/ccdnsw/training/405_dip.php

Cyclic Defrost Magazine is compiling a CD of independent Australian electronic music, avant rock, experimental sound and oddball local hip hop. It will be released in June between issue 11 (end April) & 12 (August). The CD will be made available for FREE at the following European festivals - Sonar 2005 (Barcelona, Spain), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) and Popkomm (Berlin, Germany). Limited quantities will also be given to distributors, promoters, music media, magazines and radio in Tokyo and London. Any left will be distributed locally to media in Australia. If your music fits into the Cyclic Defrost mode (check past issues as a guide), read more for details on how to submit your song/s or visit http://www.cyclicdefrost.com

The White House is a new artist-run space in Brisbane's CBD, promoting audio / visual artwork, discussion and general mischief. We are currently accepting expressions of interest and proposals for our program from artists, curators and raggamuffins who do strange things in their bedrooms at late hours of the evening. Proposal forms are available from www.whitehousespace.net

Electrofringe is a hands-on, all-in new media arts festival dedicated to unearthing emergent forms, highlighting nascent trends and encouraging young and emerginging artists to explore technology and its creative possibilities. Electrofringe will take place in Newcastle as part of the This Is Not Art Festival from the 29th September - 3rd. We are now seeking EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST from new media artists, curators, artsworkers, writers and producers. Possible areas for investigation include (but are not limited to) wireless, wearable, sensor based, sound, video, audio/visual, web, networked & online collaborations, software, art & science, robotics, custom electronics, experimental interfaces, media based installations, performance and hybrid practices. Submit via http://www.electrofringe.org/

Water, the source of life, today, has been deviously packaged into a commodity, creating a paucity of water and causing severe trauma to various peoples all over the world. The shortage of drinking water both in urban and rural areas has escalated to an acute level in the last five years, specially heightened by drought and war. This will have serious repercussions for the peoples of the world and the environment. One of the objectives of Water Journeys is to screen films on water issues, water struggles, water conservation and related issues in schools, colleges and communities to start a dialogue on the issue of control and use of water. It aims at networking with agencies involved in the protection and preservation of lakes, rivers and other water bodies. Further Water Journeys will soon start an international journal on water issues. It will address the socio-political and cultural implications of water, making it an interesting and enlightening knowledge source for action. In its 27 years of active involvement, Bangalore Film Society has been instrumental in screening films of internationally acclaimed film directors from all over the world, initiating a process of intercultural dialogue and creating avenues for divergent aesthetic experiences. read more for details or contact deepfocus@bgl.vsnl.net (Anupama Jayaraman, Co ordinator, Water Journeys).

Tsunami - A Virtual Memorial. www.a-virtual-memorial.org and [R][R][F]2005---XP www.newmediafest.org/rrf2005 initiate on occasion of this disaster in South East Asia and in solidarity with all affected people in this human tragedy a net based art project environment, entitled: Tsunami. Artists around the globe are invited to reflect these traumatic conditions of human life and submit art works, documents, texts or any other material connected the thematical context which can be submitted as digital file .

The inaugural Two Fires aims to discuss, promote, explore issues around environment, conservation, reconciliation and the arts. Held at the town of Braidwood, NSW 45 mins from Canberra, ACT. visit http://www.twofiresfestival.com for details

This workshop provides a 3 hour introduction to the latest the latest audio software available on Gnu/Linux. It's a hands-on course for women as part of Sheilafest. 2:00pm Thursday 24 March at SoundHouse @ the Powerhouse Museum. act] visit http://www.deprogram.net/blogger/blogger.html or http://lists.cat.org.au/cgi-bin/m/listinfo/sydney-calendar for more details on this event + more

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS - WAR WITHOUT TEARS.
COMPUTER GAMES AS A SOCIALCULTURAL PHENOMENON

As a rule Computer games remain to be the focus of media attention when Specific acts of violence which deeply horrify the audience (war and rampage Iraq and Erfurt) draw the public's perception to them. The first ever occuring impetus
then is aimed at a more or less serious examination of their dangerous and problematic aspects (blunting people's senses, playing down and provoking violence, player's loss of touch with reality, escapism, unsrupulousness, etc.). Beyond the dominating reflex of such an often monocausal, naive formulation of the topic, a thoroughly controversial yet most of the time superficial discussion about the critical sociocultural implications of computer games has been established. Even in the academic analysis the surely relevant, though by no means sufficient concentration on the link between computer games and violence is dominant. Up to now only few studies have offered a contextualizing view of the political, aesthetic, narratologic, economic, historic aspects with regard to their mutual connection. Accordingly this volume is meant to become an extensive account of the phenomenon 'computer games' with all its different genres. The various perspectives of analyses (aesthetics, economy, narratology, etc.) will thus provide the reader with a sound insight into the subject. Read more for details on how to submit your paper