Australia's largest festival of experimental electronic arts and culture, "Electrofringe", will burst through the cracks of Newcastle from October 2 – 6, 2008, for its eleventh year as part of "This Is Not Art". More than 100 emerging and established artists from Australia and overseas will take part in 80 events over five days including workshops, gigs, screenings, performance and public intervention.

Electrofringe in 2008 brims with new ventures. These include an artists-in-residence program and a three-week interactive media exhibition. New program gems include a hybrid media/dance performance, an all-girls soldering workshop, a chorus composed for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, an audiovisual "love-in", and a chamber recital for robots.

Special international guests include Birchville Cat Motel (NZ), Domenico Sciajno (Italy), xtine (US), The League of Imaginary Scientists (everywhere) and The Green Eyl & Sengewald (Germany). Japan is well represented by elongated harshcore musician Maruosa, noise artists Pig & Machine, and experimental multi-instrumentalist KK NULL.

Electrofringe 2008 features an impressive screening program including award-winning highlights from the Japan Media Arts Festival and SIGGRAPH 2008, surround-sound selections from New York's Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Centre and eclectic works from France’s Arcadi festival. There are also two specially curated screening reels called ElectroEtre and ElectroProjections compiled from open, international call-outs.

Head to: www.electrofringe.net for more details, and see you in Newcastle!

Electrofringe 2008 is directed by Alex White, Elmar Trefz and Somaya Langley.

-- electrofringe & the other festivals as part of This is Not Art are my favourite festivals in the world - very grassroots. Newcastle becomes abuzz with creativity and people at this time of year. I hope you can all check them out this year!

crowdsourcing is defined by Jeff Howe from wired.com on his site http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com as "Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." [The White Paper Version] and [The Soundbyte Version] "The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.". He coined the term then later wrote a book about the subject : Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business.

Hi there, I'd like to invite you to our exciting new social network at
Craft Spider (http://craft.craftspider.com)!!

We plan on building this network up rapidly to be a fantastic and fun
place to meet other crafters and to communicate with new and existing
customers!

Not only can you now build a detailed profile for your organisation, but
also join and start user groups on any topic you wish! We also have
forums, and the ability to upload and share as many photos as you want
about your work, or perhaps just items that inspire you!

We also have free classifieds so you can buy and sell treasures! You
also get a blog.. plus we have a global calendar where you can promote
events to everyone such as classes, your next sale or trade fair!

You can choose to make your groups public or private (by invitation
only), so its a great fun way to communicate with customers too. Also as
people sign up you can make new friends and invite them to your groups.

28th & 29th March – SYDNEY

B*Boys | B*Girls | MC's | DJ's | Graffiti Writers
Featuring
DEF WISH CAST | FOREIGN HEIGHTS, | STALKER’S STILTBREAK | MORGANICS | METABASS ALLSTARS | KROSSWERDZ CREW | WIRE MC | RELY | ARCH RIVAL | ABILITY | MATHMATICS | SHIME | SISTANATIVE | CHEZ | MISTERY | KING IPPY | VINA | BRAVO | VERSASTYLE | JAY TEE NICK TOTH | DAYS 1 | FLIX | RADICAL SON | EXCELLA | EMINENT FAMILY| CRUEL | UNIQUE B GIRL

AND FREAK THE TECHNIQUE B*BOY / B*GIRL BATTLE | GRAFFITI DEMO & COMP
FLEXING SKILLS JAM AND FREESTYLE NIGHT | LIVE HIP HOP SHOWS AND MORE…

Artistic Director: B Boy Rely

CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh | Nearest train: Redfern or Mcdonaldtown

Breaking Info:

The SALA-MANCA GROUP is a group of independent Jerusalem-based artists that creates in different fields: performance, video, installation & new media since 2000. Sala-manca's works deal with poetics of translation (cultural, mediatic and social), with textual, urban and net contexts and with the tensions between low tech and high tech aesthetics, as well as social and political issues.

Salon Mazal was established in 2001, in Tel Aviv, Israel, by a group of social-environmental activists. Salon Mazal is a non-for-profit registered charity that serves as an information distribution center for social, environmental and political change The place functions as a store (including books, magazines and fair-trade products), a lending library, an artist gallery, a vegetarian bar and a community center where movie screenings, lectures, workshops and meetings take place.

The place is run in line with anarchist ideology and values, which encourage an egalitarian, non-hierarchical community. Salon Mazal is run by a group of volunteers. Consensus decision-making is used to promote the expression of individual voices within the group in daily meetings.

Last November I took part in NaVloPoMo - videoblog posting month. it was a lot of fun and was a good way to remember to do something creative in between working. I know a lot of people can't help but be creative all the time, but I find sometimes I get so tired from work that I become passive and tend to watch more than do. so this was a good reminder to get into the habit.

in 2008, Semanal is happening - similar to NaVloPoMo but posting one video a week instead of one each day. this is much more manageable for me at least as I can usually make one on the weekend. the hardest part then becomes finding time to watch everyone else's videos!

Electrofringe 2007 programme is now online. This is one of my favourite festivals, and it takes place annually in Newcastle, north of Sydney, Australia. During the festival Newcastle comes alive with creatives from all parts of Australia and overseas. The umbrella festival is called This is Not Art. Last year's festival was really hands on, which made it extra fun. This year looks set to keep your creative juices flowing also, with sessions such as Physical Computing : 1, Radio Locus Workshops such as Build your own Radio, Mulchwerk, a Dorkshop Sense & Control, a Homemade Instruments workshop Gestural Control & Feedback plus heaps more. The electrofringe website has the full program and a day by day listing of each workshop / panel session / project presentation / gig and happening. The other bonus to the festival is stopping to chat with friends and strangers about the festival and projects everyone has been working on over the year. Some documentation from previous years festivals is on this site, or check out the previous years festivals links on the electrofringe site.

sull posted on the videoblogging maillist about crowdfunding, which is a concept becoming more popular with the rise of social sites etc on the interweb. it's an interesting concept and I'd like to try it with some Australian arts/music projects to try raise money for them to complete their projects. the havemoneywillvlog project has been successful in raising money for people to work on various videoblogging projects ranging from a documentary / series, an artistic experiment with travel organised by the contributors, a research project on sustainability, a documentation of issues on immigration and it's social impacts from a selection of people's pov, and most recently raising funds to help convert 8mm films to video to give them a new lease of life.

since upgrading to drupal 4.7, I'll be testing the chipin and ecommerce modules to see if they are of use.

it would be great to be able to help people realise their projects. I think it could also help them to practice making grant funding applications to larger organisations and government bodies. anyway, it couldn't hurt to try. if the people make pledges to support the project, then only pay for them once the full amount of money is raised then it's less risk for them. I've pledged and donated money in this way. $10 a month (or less if I decide to skip a project) is not much for me to pay - it's less than the cost of a cd and is another way to help support a project when you can't attend in person. I figure I've spent more than that on less important things, so it's one way to help give back to the community! also, as these days I don't make it to events I'd like to in person, this could be another way of supporting them without being there.

I wonder if others think this way also. it's hard to convince people to spend their hard earned cash. just as it's hard to get people to come along to gigs. an interesting experiment nonetheless. hopefully some of the projects would be able to offer something extra, an incentive if you will, to the financial contributors. drupal groups modules might be useful for this..

I was thinking of using these systems to help raise money for people to work on projects - small budget amounts. maybe to do a promo cd or put on a gig or get a small book published or attend a conference & report on it etc. the donators would be given credit in the project and maybe get special previews on how the project is going. I could put the documentation on my site.

the project would get to practice applying for grants, so would need to be professional about it, have a definite timeline to work towards, and there would have to be a final outcome they could report on and document so people who donated knew their money went towards something real and was not just lost.

the system could also be used to raise money for charities, or if you can't decide on a charity, then think of the artist as your target for giving.

anyway, here's some sites useful for research about this or showing examples of currently working systems :

http://havemoneywillvlog.com/ = funding site for videoblog projects

http://crowdfunding.com/ = research blog on crowdfunding

http://www.sellaband.com/ = raise $50000 towards funding your band / your fav band's promo/album costs

http://fundavlog.com/ = pay per view / raise money for vlogs

http://fundable.org/ = raise money for any projects, payment site

http://chipin.com/ = raise money for any projects, payment site

http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id... = article on crowdfunding for independent films

http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2006/09/19/a_swarm_of_ange.html = a UK film being made via donations

ARTunderground: Digital Art Gallery, Archive & Interaction &
Training Facility.

ARTunderground's mandate is to experiment with the integration
of computers into the creative process of expression, and

The Academy of Electronic Arts is a learning, sharing, mentoring, networking, benchmarking and empowering institution that evolves continuously to inclusively address *all* e-Creative Practices & Practitioners, whether already existing or as yet inconceivable, whether professional or not, and whether formally recognized as Art forms and Artists or not so, on a public-benefit basis into the future.

PixelPress' intent is to encourage documentary photographers, writers, filmmakers, artists, human rights workers and students to explore the world in ways that take advantage of the new possibilities provided by digital media. They seek a new paradigm of journalism, one that encourages an active dialogue between the author and reader and, also, the subject.

kites for independance day, originally uploaded by AliaK.

traditionally the children fly kites leading up to independance day (15/08) but I've been seeing them in Delhi since April. nice to watch in the afternoons if you're out and about. the kids get up on the roof of their apartment block and fly small hanky sized kites whilst dodging the power lines. I haven't been able to get a good shot but this one will remind me of them in the meantime.

CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) is a group of architects, scholars, technicians and artists who have worked together over the past seven years in Mumbai. Their collective was established in early 2003 with the aim of undertaking research, pedagogy and intervention on urban spaces and contemporary cultural practices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. CRIT regards this vast urban realm as its laboratory and terrain for articulating a critical urbanism. Our understanding of urbanism is based on the recognition that everyday exchange between disciplines and across sectors is the basic condition of metropolitan environments, and that collective research is essential to transforming urban spaces and civic life.

Comet Media Foundation researches and produces communication materials on themes related to development. The subjects of this work include education, environment, health, gender issues and the history of science. Our materials bring out alternative perspectives on these themes and tell of innovations by practitioners. The group was started in 1985.

I just received an email about Urban Stories website via the Sarai Reader list

Second Life devleopers community resource site. visit http://sldevelopers.com/ for more details

About Subterran

Subterran is a work in progress. We are an events and music organisation based in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, S.E.Qld, primarily involved in outdoor music events with an environmental focus. Subterran aims to push the outdoor party format deeper. Our belief is that to stay true to the original intention of outdoor dance parties: earth reconnection and exploration of fringe electronic music, the culture needs to start connecting and giving back to the earth in action, not just intention, and to be able to reinvent itself to match the high pace of evolution of electronic music. Subterran is committed to pushing environmental and community intentions to the forefront, and also to showcasing exciting new music.

a summary of the Sarai Reader 04 paper called "The Revenge of Lowtech : Autolabs, Telecentros and Tactical Media in Sao Paulo" by Ricardo Rosas.

the freemind mind map tactical_media_in_Brazil.mm is attached - this contains html links or expand / collapse the xhtml version below

http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/ is the new Sarai Reader link - they've changed their website and all the links have changed

http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/04-crisis-media/55ricardo.pdf is the new link for the article