Aesthetica is looking for entries to the 2009 International Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. The 2008 Competition was a successful springboard for artists’ careers around the globe.

The Aesthetica Creative Works Competition: Artwork, Photography & Sculpture, Fiction and Poetry
Three winners will be awarded £500 each
All finalists will be published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual, in stores December 2009
Entry to the 2009 Aesthetica Creative Works Competition is £10
This allows you to submit up to 5 images, 5 poems or 2 short stClosing date to receive Creative Works is 31 August 2009

The winners and finalists from last year, went on to secure further exhibitions, commissions and publications. The winners and finalists were published in the Aesthetica Annual. It's a great opportunity to bring your work to a wider audience.

Streaming Festival and Geborgen Kamers present:

Fragments

15 - 17 April 2009

Fragments brings together video work that in some way address the idea of fragmentation, whether through visual technique or concept. Several films in this selection focus on the object of the photograph -a reminiscent of a fraction of time and memory. Others are based on the structural elements of film making such as the close up shot and abstraction as the basis.

The Ventura Film Festival, which was started in 2004 by Jordan Older and his father, has recently concluded its first event of 2009 at the Majestic Ventura Theater in Ventura, California with the Ventura Film Festival "Fun Day" on February 16, 2009 at 2pm. The Ventura Film Festival is a combination online and traditional film festival requiring all submissions to be uploaded online and submitted via traditional means. The Ventura Film Festival has maintained that one of it's main goals is to give a large part of any proceeds to forest and ocean preservation efforts. The Ventura Film Festival features independent films from around the world and from local film makers focusing on environmental issues such as forest and ocean preservation, humanitarian issues, surf, skate, extreme/action sports, sports, martial arts, and music films. read more or visit http://venturafilmfestival.org for more details

there was a question on the Acoustic Ecology mail list about permanent outdoor sound installations. some of these were mentioned by people on the list :

:::
Derek Holzer mentioned Max Neuhaus & his talk at the Tuned City seminar :

"check the sound installation work of Max Neuhaus, particularly his Times Square piece:"
http://www.max-neuhaus.info/soundworks/

"... His work is quite subtle and very strong conceptually. One piece in particular I remember him presenting at Tuned City in Berlin http://www.tunedcity.de was a piece for a public park, where the speakers were hidden under the ground and the sound emerged from what appeared to be drainage grills. Actually, the sound didn't seem to emerge from ANYWHERE, which was the beauty of it. Max said he spent quite a bit of time developing the (weather and vandal-proof) sound systems for these kinds of installations." -- Derek Holzer

:::

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:

GPS Film is new media artwork from filmmaker Scott Hessels that invents a new way of watching movies based on the viewer's location and movement. Using a GPS-enabled PDA or mobile phone, the audience creates a new type of film experience that reveals the story through their journey. Released as a free, open-source application, the project will premiere on 4 September 2008 along with the first film made specifically for the system, Singaporean filmmaker Kenny Tan's chase comedy "Nine Lives".

The GPS Film application, source code, and "Nine Lives" are available for free download on the project website www.gpsfilm.com. The application allows for a developer to create story spaces of any size. The movies are also interchangeable and easily matched to any place. The software default is currently "Nine Lives"—a prototype film comedy that can unfold in nine directions depending on the viewer's journey around downtown Singapore.

Scott Hessels is an internationally recognised media artist and filmmaker who merges cinema with new technologies to create innovative media experiences. For GPS Film, he collaborated with film and engineering students at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The project uses emerging technologies to bring story into real space; neighborhoods, architecture, and landscapes become part of the cinema experience. Movies can be personalized and localized. Storytelling becomes a physical, viewer-controlled experience; a journey of fiction ties directly to a journey of fact.

A press conference will be held Thursday, 4 September at Kay Ngee Tan Architects Gallery with the artist, filmmakers, and programmers present as well as handheld devices for demonstration. The presentation starts at 2pm, but the device will be available for trial and demonstration till 4pm.

read more for details

just saw this amazing video graffiti on youtube - how long would it have taken to paint / animate!

the artist is called Blu
his blog shows works in progress and other projects he's worked on. well worth a look!

http://www.blublu.org/
The new short film by Blu: an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.
Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche)

http://www.blublu.org/
http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm

music by Andrea Martignoni
produced by Mercurio Film
assistant: Sibe

more videos at:

NEW COLLABORATIVE WORK

SOUND/ Jerome Noetinger (Rives, France)
VISUALS/ Liz Racz (Melbourne)

It's 3.14 a.m. In darkness, the audience armed with torches gather to experience the outcome of residency collaboration between visual artist Liz Racz and Jerome Noetinger, an internationally recognised improviser using electroacoustic devices.

The artists' work is connected across distance by the idea of erasure; sounds being erased from tape by magnets and images rendered by being erased from the blackened walls.

Noetinger was a guest of the Melbourne International Biennale of Exploratory Music and the Liquid Architecture Festival. The collaboration with Racz being conducted by email, letters and photographs of sketches will extend her practice of ‘memorable large dark works’ (Penny Webb, The Age, 17 August, 2007).

LUPA/ art: A new space in Northcote hosting collaborative residencies with happy cross-disciplinary outcomes.

Sound Unbound
Sampling Digital Music and Culture
Edited by Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid
MIT Press, 2008

Contributors include Pierre Boulez, Chuck D, Cory Doctorow, Brian Eno,
Jonathan Lethem, Moby, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Steve Reich, Saul Williams,
and more.

Buy the book @ Amazon
http://tinyurl.com/63phj2

List of Contributors
http://tinyurl.com/5vbbth

Download "Fear of a Muslim Planet" chapter by Naeem Mohaiemen @ http://shobak.org/text/hiphop.shtml - this was honourably mentioned by the jury of the Vilém Flusser Theory Award

Women in Games Conference: Call for Papers and Participation

Date: 31 May 2008
Venue: University of Warwick, UK
Website: www.womeningames.com

The Women In Games conference encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. If games are to become a true sibling medium to music and cinema, the industry needs greater balance in its audience and its workforce. The Women In Games conference takes place from 10-12th September 2008 and welcomes participants from both industry and academia, providing a forum for presentation and discussion of issues relating to all aspects of women's involvement in games, including game development, game playing and women as portrayed within games.

Although this conference is concerned with women and games please note that men are also very welcome to participate! The industry needs a meaningful dialogue between the sexes as it moves forward.

POPVOX - The People's Choice Awards for Digital Media @ The 5th Annual Vancouver International Digital Festival

ONLY 1 WEEK LEFT TO GET YOUR ENTRIES IN!

Submission Deadline - April 30th 5pm PST
Voting Occurs - May 1 -12th
Winners Announced at Gala Awards - May 23rd

BE THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE IN ONE OF 11 CATEGORIES

Best Digital VFX - Best Animated Short - Best Digital/Viral Campaign - Best User Generated / Crowdsourced Content Site - Best Score - Best Game for Console / PC - Best Casual Game - Best Mobile Application - Best Mobile Game - The Do-Gooder Award for Best Venture Dedicated to Social Change - The Homegrown Award for Best BC Based Venture!

The PopVox Peoples Choice Awards for Digital Media have returned for the 2008 season and we invite the digital media community at large to participate in this annual celebration of international talent.

** NEW THURSDAY CLUBS: CHANGES and UPDATES **

Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE
SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor,
right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

** PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DATE FOR ELENA COLOGNI'S CLUB SESSION HAS BEEN
CHANGED FROM THE 28th of FEBRUARY TO THE 6th of MARCH **

--

*28 FEBRUARY with RAYMOND HARMON
:
Painting in Light: Experimental Film and the Advent of Improvisational
Cinema*

The traditional model for cinematic expression is as a controlled
environment moving forward in a linear direction. From its inception the
art of filmmaking has been dominated by a single form of chronological
development. Each film exists as a series of frames that are static at the
start of the film.

Improvisation, a language largely defined within the practice of music, is

a collection of audio recordings, field recordings and sound walks I've done over the years. most of these are on minidiscs or files not uploaded yet, so this is a work in progress as it's probably about time I sorted them out and uploaded some. not sure if they're of interest to anyone else, but they help recall memories for me.

The "Boom Book" was a project carried out during 2007 as a commemoration of Portugal's Boom Festival's 10th anniversary. The goal was is to independently release a book about Boom but also to highlight its main contribution to today's world - as leader in incorporating novel approaches to entertainment and providing experiences lived through a festival which can pioneer new perceptions and visions, enhancing all of us and our relationship with the world we live in.

This book is a collaborative project put together by anthropologists, journalists, designers, illustrators, poets, musicologists, and photographers to capture the essence of the Boom Festival. The Boom Book includes essays, interviews, visionary art by Alex Grey, Robert Venosa or Android, and innovative texts about psy-trance. It is a cultural record of striking importance, capturing the beauty of Boom and also the role of subcultures in a modern world.

visit http://www.boomfestival.org/boombook/ for information about the Boom Book, or http://www.boomfestival.org/ for details about the festival.
the 2008 Boom Festival will be held from 11-18th August. you can virtually visit the Boom Festival location in google earth.

Watch the video

Not So Pretty @ Hope and Anchor, Islington, London - 3 of 3

the song is Dunno - from their myspace page. they played this song as part of their set. this is a photo slideshow using photos taken during their set. apologies - some are blurry as the guys move around a lot during their set!

www.myspace.com/notsopretty22 - not so pretty myspace page

www.birth.co.uk - birth records

Watch the video

joseph macwam @ Hope and Anchor, Islington, London, 27/10/2007

Watch the video

Not So Pretty played @ Hope and Anchor, Islington, London 27/10/2007 - 1 of 3

I liked their sound, and thought they had a great look for performing. I was standing a bit close to the speakers so the audio is a bit distorted in the video. it sounded good on the night though.

http://www.myspace.com/notsopretty22

http://www.birth.uk.com - birth records

Watch the video

Not So Pretty played @ Hope and Anchor, Islington, London 27/10/2007 - 2 of 3

I liked their sound, and thought they had a great look for performing. I was standing a bit close to the speakers so the audio is a bit distorted in the video. it sounded good on the night though.

http://www.myspace.com/notsopretty22

http://www.birth.uk.com - birth records

this weekend I went up to london to visit Tolli. we saw Tim's band Personal Space Invaders at the Hope and Anchor in Islington. I took a few photos and videos - am still uploading them. the bands were :

Mr Workaday
Not So Pretty - http://www.myspace.com/notsopretty22
Joseph Macwam
Personal Space Invaders - http://www.myspace.com/personalspaceinvaders

DrupalCon was held recently in Barcelona. I didn't make it this year. the schedule looked good though, and from all reports it was the best drupalcon ever (as it is each year!!). there's a wrap up post on the drupal site with links to some of the slide presentations, videos of the sessions on archive.org - search for drupalconbarcelona2007 tag, or try the mirror site.

drupal for facebook was a session by Dave Cohen. he's started a Facebook project on the Drupal site. the video of his presentation is online as well as the slides
there's a demo on facebook. I'm already feeding facebook with my drupal site blog entries using the RSS capabilities of Blog Friends and the built in Notes application, but it'll be interesting to see what the Drupal guys build.

and, speaking of facebook, mashable have reviewed widget box, a wizard for creating Facebook apps

The program MediaArtHistories starts this November for the second time and is currently accepting applications. MAH conveys the most important developments of contemporary art through a network of renowned international theorists, artists and curators like: Steve DIETZ, Erkki HUHTAMO, Lev MANOVICH, Christiane PAUL, Paul SERMON, Edward SHANKEN, Jens HAUSER, Christa SOMMERER; Gerfried STOCKER, Knowbotic Research, Charlie GERE, Oliver GRAU and many others. Using online databases and other modern aids, knowledge of computer animation, net art, interactive, telematic and genetic art as well as the most recent reflections on nano art, CAVE installations, augmented reality and wearables are introduced. Historical derivations that go far back into art and media history are tied in intriguing ways to digital art. Important approaches and methods from Image Science, Media Archaeology and the History of Science & Technology will be discussed. visit the MediaArtHistories website for more information and to apply

For all of the Fellowships we are seeking applications from artists, hackers, designers, engineers and creative technologists to come to Eyebeam for a year to undertake new research and develop new work. The ideal Fellow has experience working with and making innovative technological art and/or creative technology projects and has a passion for collaborative development. Fellows will bring this experience and working approach to their own independent projects, projects initiated by other Residents or Fellows and projects conceived collaboratively during the Fellowship period.

Read more for details or visit
http://www.eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page=felcall

If you have any questions, please email fellowshipinfo@eyebeam.org or visit the online application page @ http://www.eyebeam.org/production/onlineapp/

The eighth edition of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition (RAT) conference, sponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies, once again aims to provide a participatory and scholarly space in which to reexamine, reinvigorate, and make relevant the social and political tradition of anarchism.

At previous conferences, presenters have proposed topics that ranged from the character of social change to the ongoing relevance of categories such as class, community, and labor; from the changing shape of the state and capital to emergent forms of both domination and resistance in a globalizing world; from the character of twenty-
first-century technology to the functions and potentials of anti-authoritarian art and propaganda; and from anarchism's relation to geopolitical concerns such as terrorism and war to its ability to grapple with issues of identity such as race, gender, and sexuality.

Read more for the Calls for Proposals or visit http://anarchiststudies.org/node/146 for more details. http://www.homemadejam.org/renew has archives of previous year's conferences.

The First International Art Tech Media Congress has been set up in order to reflect upon and analyse questions currently being raised about art and new technological media within an international context.

artechmedia.net is calling on all creatives of the world to participate. Submissions will be accepted from the following categories:

A
- Video art
- Net-art
- 2D & 3D Computer Animation
- Blog, videoblog
- Creation for mobile platforms
- Digital Music
- Videodance

B
- Digital Communities
- Geospatial storytelling
- Artificial Life, Software art, Transgenic art, Generative art

read more for more information or visit www.artechmedia.net

Solely shown on the internet, solely broadcasting independent films, that's the Streaming Festival.