This Is Not Art festival 2009
This is Not Art is the parent arts, music festival of experimental and underground arts & music held annually in Newcastle, North of Sydney, Australia. The 2009 festival was held between October 1-5. The festival comprises of various festivals, listed below.

Electrofringe
Sound Summit
Critical Animals
National Young Writers' Festival
Crack Theatre Festival

video playlist : (all videos taken at the festivals - individual videos also in separate articles below)

Wide Open Space is a new all ages festival for Central Australia, showcasing inspiring local and national music and arts.

Held against the stunning backdrop of the East Macdonnell Ranges at the Ross River Resort 85 km from Mparntwe Alice Springs, Wide Open Space blends music, dance, art, environment, and desert culture with a unique outback camping experience.

The festival runs from May 1-3 2009 and features:

* Indigenous Opening ceremony and Welcome to Country
* Two Stages with a full line-up of live music, DJs, and performances with hip-hop headliners Urth Boy; dancehall maestro Mista Savona; Desert reggae blockbusters Tjupi Band, and festival beat master Spoonbill
* Colourful market place selling tasty treats, hand crafts and clothing from local and interstate designers

City Library Street Press is back after a short Summer break with a new program of free workshops starting on March 11th 2009.

City Library Street Press is an opportunity for all of those interested in the many aspects of street press to gather and discuss ideas, techniques and projects. Our last season of Workshops were a roaring success with every session fully booked, covering many topics from zines to creative writing, page layout and cartooning. This season is no exception and the details of the first half of the program can be found below :

11/03/08 : Clem Bastow and friends discusses Blogging
25/03/08 : Al Cossar of the Portable Film festival ponders the role of film in Street Press
08/04/08 : Geoff Lemon talks poetry
22/04/08 : Bernard Caleo from Cardigan Comics encourages everyone to draw, draw and draw some more
06/05/08 : The National Young Writers Festival (TBC)
20/05/08 : The Craft Cartel demonstrate how to spread a message through handmade goodies
03/06/08 : SYN Community radio shows the simple creation of podcasts

The workshops are generally practical in nature and run from 6 - 7.45 at the City Library, 253 Flinders Lane. Contact (03) 9658 9500 for more details and to book a space.

http://www.stickyinstitute.com for more details

not sure what a zine is? - here's an article called Zines Are Not Blogs: A Not Unbiased Analysis by Jenna Freedman (via Sticky's links page)

Announcing Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology Discussion Group on the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF)

Following the Synaesthesia Discussion on YASMIN Discussions List, during the month of February 2009, we wish to inform you that this discussion will continue on the Leonardo Education Forum on the topic of Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology.

To join the discussion, please register at: http://forum.lefnet.org/node/26

This Discussion Group invites comments on Synaesthesia, Art / Science topics as well as announcements on art projects, research and relevant events.

The LEF Synaesthesia Discussion Group is part of the Leonardo Synesthesia and Intersenses Special Project launched in 1999 by Jack Ox and Jacques Mandelbrojt (www.leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/synesthesia/synesthesia.html) and is currently moderated by Veroniki Korakidou, PhD Candidate - Research Associate at the University of Athens NT Lab, Communication and Media Department.

Electrofringe is now calling for proposals for the 2009 festival. We are looking for creative expressions from artists, sound artists, performers, media makers, digital filmmakers, researchers, cross-artform practitioners, curators, producers, writers, experimenters, enthusiasts and anyone who doesn't fit these boxes.

Electrofringe is a five-day festival of electronic arts and culture held from the 1st - 5th October 2009 in Newcastle, Australia. Electrofringe is part of a group of festivals collected together under the This Is Not Art umbrella. Electrofringe is committed to fostering creative and innovative use and re-use of technology and electronic artforms, while focusing on artistic development and skills exchange.

Senthil Kumar posted a video on WADI facebook group called "Arjuna the Archer : AD 2008"

he's also posted it to youtube :
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UPtfEkl_o

there's now a facebook page for Patta Chitra Katha

I wanted to find out more about this artform and technique, so I googled (without much luck, due to googling the wrong things) and asked the Sarai Reader list and received lots of helpful information from many people. after reading about it, it reminds me a bit of an equivalent to multi-media, or even video blogging from a few hundred years ago. multiple paintings / panels on scrolls (equating to video frames?) are read and music played whilst they're read, so there's a mixture of images, music, text, written / spoken word. the artists travel to different villages - equivalent to the communication methods / networks of today transmitting the multimedia messages & works. originally the works were made on cloth using vegetable based paints but these days modern paints are used and most works are done on paper. I hope the traditional methods are not lost completely! the style of painting comes from Orissa, West Bengal & Bangladesh. modern artists use both traditional, classical topics as well as current topics & stories - they are trying out new variations of the art too, to keep the method alive and to learn new techniques & skills.

I made a video for VloMo08 day16 explaining how I found out information about Patta Chitra Katha :

VloMo08 : day16 - Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language from kath on Vimeo.

read more for information about this special artform ...

looking for digital arts, new media & urban research projects or exhibitions in mumbai - I'm only here for 2 weekends so might not make it to any festivals. here's some I found so far - some are past projects & some are not strictly mumbai based but I came across them whilst following links for mumbai related items

:::

Comet Media & COSMOS
a non profit group working in educational communication & new media. they have festivals, projects & publications
http://www.cometmedia.org
http://groups.google.com/group/cosmos_mumbai
upcoming events
aliak.com Comet & Cosmos page

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Digital artists - THE WEBMUSEUM CYBERCULTURE RESEARCH LIBRARY page
http://www.lastplace.com/page177.htm

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CRIT
http://crit.org.in

http://groups.drupal.org/drupalchix
Drupal Chix

http://groups.drupal.org/node/13312 is the drupalchix thread about conferences

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some in Australia / NZ regions
interestingly, most of these seem to be using drupal too!

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https://conf.linux.org.au
from their site blurb : "linux.conf.au (LCA) is Australia's national Linux conference, and said to be one of the best in the world. It prides itself on being “seriously fun and seriously technical”. In January 2009 it's being held in Hobart, Tasmania, for the first time. So join us and march south! :)2009 will be the 10th anniversary for LCA. It will run from January 19-24 and end with an open-to-the-public Open Day"
- not strictly women, but I've heard it's a good conference
- they're calling for papers if anyone is interested :
http://freeasinfreedom.modernthings.org/d/doku.php?id=call_for_participa...

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http://au.linuxchix.org
AussieChix is the Australian regional chapter of LinuxChix, for women living in Australia, aimed at providing ways for women living in Australia to meet each other, talk about, and get involved in Linux, Free Software and related things. AussieChix welcomes women interested in Linux or Free Software at any level of experience.

:::

http://conf.au.linuxchix.org/2008-microconference-sydney-and-melbourne
AussieChix microconference in Sydney and Melbourne: October 25 2008 (it's tomorrow!)
- they have a list of other events in the calendar on their site
- there's also geekgirl dinners in sydney & melbourne (related to this site)

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http://linuxchix.org.nz
LinuxChix NZ is a community for women who like Linux, and for women and men who want to support women in computing. Linuxchix NZ activities will include support forums, mentoring, training courses, social meetups and linux install fests.

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other regions :

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http://eclectictechcarnival.org
The /ETC is a unique tech skill-share that has been held annually since 2002. The emphasis has always been women sharing their experiences, knowledge and skills around free software, open hardware and universal interoperability of systems in a fun way. The eighth Eclectic Tech Carnival will be held sometime in Septmeber 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.

:::

http://www.genderchangers.org/herstory.html has a list of others (past events, but you could search for them and see when the next ones are being held)
& the links page http://www.genderchangers.org/links.html has more women's groups/events

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http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009
OSCON

:::

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!

I visited the Sticky Institute in Melbourne yesterday and bought a few zines and recorded a video asking the team a few basic questions about zines. The store has a wide selection of zines, and there's a membership / mail list where you can sign up and receive zines in the mail. If you're a zine-writer, you can contact the store and have them stock your zines. Their website also includes an impressive "Zineopedia" of Melbourne based zines which is a great resource for anyone wanting to find out more about zines. Though the best way would be to visit the store if you're in Melbourne, their website if you're not in Melbourne, or a local zine-festival and buy & read some zines. Or even better, start your own!

visit http://www.stickyinstitute.com for more details
store details :
Sticky Institute
Degraves St Subway
Shop 10 Campbell Arcade Melbourne
stickyshop @ gmail.com (remove the spaces)
(if you're not from Melbourne like me, it's opposite the train station on Flinders St, about half way (Flinders between Swanston & Elizabeth) - go downstairs towards the station subway and you'll see it)

PO Box 310 Flinders Lane Vic Australia 8009

One of the zines I bought was the "Anyone can.. " zine (anyone can make a zine) which launched the same day by the City Library Street Press. The City Library Street Press are quite active, having a few projects on the go and regular meetings at the library for zinesters and writers to get involved with. The "Anyone can.." zine also includes a MAP of Melbourne city showing writers & zinester spots of interest eg libraries, stores, artist spaces.

I also bought Anna Poletti's book "Intimate Ephemera : Reading Young Lives in Australian Zine Culture" whilst at Sticky. I've been to some of her panel sessions at the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle & Critical Animals as part of This is Not Art (TiNA) over the years, so was glad to find her PhD book in the store too. The book is also available as an e-book (pdf) or d-book (pod / print on demand) from Melbourne University Publishing e-store

I haven't finished the book yet, but here's one passage about what a zine is [pg 11-12] :

"Personal zines do not share many of the characteristics of he texts that make up the bulk of sources studied in literary or cultural studies and, more specifically, scholarship on auto/biography. Of central importance to these non-traditional texts is the fact that sines are not mass-produced; they are not published by a professional publishing house, and thus not 'sanctioned as significant by [their] status as a mass produced commodity' (Huff 510). Moreover, zines are not easily available, do not participate in standardised modes of presentation and distribution, and are not well recognised within literary communities or among the reading (most commonly constituted as 'book-buying') public. Zines are homemade, ephermeral and amateur. They circulate among communities of readers through the mail, in out-of-the-way spaces, and are passed around hand-to-hand among social groups. They are also non-traditional because of the modes of emplotment that characterise them; in the case of personal zines, we find a unique mixture of established modes of life writing, such as the diary, alongside zine-specific narratives such as cut'n'paste collage. These material and textual idiosyncranasies challenge the literary critic to practise 'connected reading', which Gillian Whitlock describes as a practice which 'pulls at the loose threads of autobiography, and uses them to make sutures between, across and among autobiographical narratives' (Intimate Empire 204)".

I also like this definition by Richard A Stoddart and Teresa Kiser in Poletti's book [pg 27]
"Zines are a written product of the human need for self-expression. Beyond that, zines are hard to define."

on page 7-8, Poletti gives Duncombe's list for a 'zine taxonomy'. I thought this was very similar to the original definitions of video blogs when they'd first started (video blogs came after zines of course!) - my attempt was this video blog mind map before I realised it was crazy to try and define all the combinations - a simple all encompassing definition of 'video on a blog' was more appropriate, and did it matter anyway.. every now and then the videoblogging list starts up a new 'what is a video blog' thread - I suppose it is the same for all sub-communities that are less commonly known / new. the response below also reminds me of the videoblogging list arguments towards a simpler definition (or no definition), and at least a step away from a taxonomy.

"genres of zines: fanzines (broken down into subcategories by subject, that is music and sports), political zines, personal zines, scene zines (covering local and community events in the zinester's area), network zines (which review zine publications), fringe culture zines (covering UFOs, conspiracy theories and so on), religious zines, vocational zines (detailing 'life on the job'), health zines, sex zines, travel zines, comix, literary zines, art zines and 'the rest'"

... "the collapse of Duncombe's taxonomy into 'the rest - a large category' underscores the futility of attempting to solidify or organise a definition of zines based on their content. As Kirsty Leishman argues: 'Duncombe's work reveals that zines are ill contained and thus it is useful because it relieves subsequent researchers from pursuing such an arduous, yet futile, endeavour'(7)."

In October Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, will reprise VISIONARY HOLLYWOOD, a new hosted by San Francisco-based writer Erik Davis and inspired by his acclaimed 2006 book "The Visionary State". On this journey of exploration through the mystic realms of Los Angeles,passengers will join Erik on a guided tour of five extraordinary religious sites, meet followers of their respective faiths and explore the fascinating history of alternative religious practice in Southern California.

The tour departs from the Bodhi Tree in West Hollywood, where a booksigning with Erik and other LA mystical authors will be held after the tour. The tour includes visits to five extraordinary destinations:

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.

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

music is Indian Summer by Big Bud

I went along to the Sarai Independent Fellows 2006 workshops last weekend (26-27/08) @ Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi. I missed the first two days sessions, but here is a slideshow video of some of the saturday & sunday sessions. it was really interesting - both the presentations and the discussions afterwards. some sessions were in Hindi so I couldn't follow as easily. there were a wide range of projects though - art, music, urban issues. hopefully they'll link to some of the full papers on the sarai.net website. it was a great way to get another insight into life and goings on in India and related places.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/saraiifellows2006

http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com

http://www.sarai.net

The Korean Electro-Acoustic Music Society (KEAMS) was founded for the development of electro-acoustic music and computer music in 1993.

The Seoul International Computer Music Festival (SICMF) held annually since 1993 is one of the biggest electro-acoustic music festivals in Asia, and also internationally well-known.

Every year over 100 composers from various countries submit their works for the festival, and about 20 pieces among them are chosen and performed at the festival. We also have invited special composers or performers for the festival such as DEGEM, CCRMA and Meta Duo.

Celebrate the opening night of the 4th SOOB Festival with the knowledge that a public holiday is the next day! Below are some of the highlights of the SOOB 2006 program for Tuesday, August 15. For more information, visit the website @ http://www.straightoutofbrisbane.com

PUKAR is an innovative and experimental initiative that aims to contribute to a global debate about urbanization and globalization. It takes Mumbai as its conceptual base and laboratory for cross-disciplinary research projects. PUKAR also organizes seminars, workshops, talks and film screenings in English, Marathi and occasionally other Mumbai languages, and focuses specifically on producing a new space for critical engagement. Its goal is to generate new urban knowledge by encouraging maximum participation of Mumbai's citizens in this process, thus also contributing to the city's dynamism and sustainability. PUKAR's team consists of a group of scholars, social and cultural activists and professionals in the fields of art, journalism, film, architecture, urban planning and social sciences. The group was founded in 2001 by Professor Arjun Appadurai (Provost & Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, New School University, New York, USA), who serves as the President of its Board of Trustees.

Founded in 1995, Studio XX is Montreal's foremost women's digital resource centre. Through a variety of creative activities and initiatives, the Studio works with women to demystify digital technologies, to critically examine their social aspects, to facilitate women's access to technology, and to create and exhibit women's new digital art.

There's a couple of conferences coming up which I wouldn't mind checking out.. don't think I'll have a chance in person as I'm still in Delhi for work, but I think they'll have video / audio recordings of them so I can check out later.

Vloggercon 2006 is being held in San Francisco this year. Here's the blurb from their site:
"VLOGGERCON 2006 is the intersection between media-makers and technology. A space for dialog and interaction. Of creation and collaboration. A media village born on the internet, and making camp for one weekend in San Francisco.

In the past year, videoblogging has grown into a myriad of forms with a worldwide voice. And your voice is needed at Vloggercon– after all, the media is being made by you so it’s your voice that we want to hear! Vloggercon is a two-day collection of roundtable discussions about the emergence and the future of this new medium; not a series of lec-tures. This conference is created for meeting and learning from each other, so be ready to share your thoughts!

Vloggercon 2006 will be held June 10 & 11 at the Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market Street, San Francisco CA 94114. "
http://www.vloggercon.com/ - tickets are available online.

Where 2.0
This one's about locative and GIS / Google Earth, Second Life / Electric Sheep & similar web apps. Would be good to see what's happening on this front at the moment. Here's the blurb from their site :

" Everything happens somewhere. With open source and free web mapping tools like Ka-Map and Google Maps, we finally have a way to display location information. At last year's Where 2.0, we put the spotlight on the grassroots developers building mash-ups on platforms from Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google. This year we'll look at the latest developments in those platforms as well as the latest startups, civic projects, and labs experiments built on them.

In addition you'll find source mapping tools, open standards for data and location web services, and sensors for obtaining location data. We'll learn how the established geo industry is reacting to the first businesses making money from their grassroots geospatial projects. There's no better place to meet the people behind the mash-ups, the people behind the platforms, and the people looking ahead to the future of geospatial. "
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/where2006/

Not Still Art, a forum for artists working in abstract and non-narrative electronic motion imaging with music/sound design, disseminates artists' work via international screenings, live performances, conferences, publications, and hard and virtual media. Not Still Art produces historic and contemporary programs in collaboration with art institutions, broadcasters, publishers, and internet organizations.

Vade's blog has max patches and tutorials for creating glitch videos and other cool stuff.

Copyright in the Digital Age seminars - http://www.copyright.com.au/seminars_events.htm

Following the success of last year's Copyright in the Digital Age seminars, we will be holding a second free series in venues across Australia in May 2006.

Copyright in the Digital Age covers what you need to know when offering and protecting your work online.

From online search engines, e-book readers to digital rights management, we review what's happening with new technology and policy which affects all aspects of publishing. View the full program here.

The seminar will include a panel session, held in association with the Australian Society of Authors and featuring authors, publishers and copyright experts. They will review some of the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing Australian creators in the digital age.

All seminars run from 4.00pm - 6.00pm, followed by refreshments. Dates and venues are shown below:

* Perth: Tuesday 2 May, Art Gallery of Western Australia
* Adelaide: Wednesday 3 May, State Library of South Australia
* Sydney: Thursday 11 May, CAL offices
* Brisbane: Tuesday 16 May, Brisbane Council City Hall
* Canberra: Wednesday 17 May, National Library of Australia
* Melbourne: Wednesday 24 May, State Library of Victoria

To register

Register online or phone 02 9394 7600 for more information or to book your place.

This is a unique opportunity for practicing camera artists, senior level photography students, teachers, recent graduates and those with an established body of camera based work to gain first hand insight into up to the minute international currents in the art and project based photography world. The exhibition and workshop will be held at AUT University, School of Art and Design, January 19, 20, 21st 2006

At this session, Film Victoria's Documentary Manager, Steve Warne, will provide up to date information on documentary funding available from Film Victoria, how the fund operates and how to apply. The session will also include case-studies presented by documentary filmmakers who have previously received Film Victoria funding. Documentary filmmakers Jasmin Tarasin McGee (Pure Pictures Pty Ltd) and Sharyn Prentice (Flaming Star Films Pty Ltd) will present a case study of their documentary projects and their experience in submitting a successful funding application. visit http://www.openchannel.org.au for more info

South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, Outreach Unit, Granville College, Hype-in-Ackshun & Information & Cultural Exchange (ICE) present "scratch sessions with sarah love". All the way from London, Sarah Love has worked as a DJ for the past four years, setting new standards for aspiring DJ's, female or otherwise! Her musical accomplishments include composition, arranging, song writing, engineering and production. She has supported some of the best UK hip-hop acts, including JEHST, THE EXTENDED PLAYERS, MYSTRO and ROOTS MANUVA. She is an official 'MTV SOUNDSYSTEM' DJ, with whom she has toured across Europe. Sarah Love is making waves in the British music scene and internationally. She is taking time out of her music tour to run some workshops with young people. Visit www.ice.org.au for details