Cicada

cicada is a collection of artists who work with landscape - urban, natural, constructed and imagined... a combination of results occur, including site-specific installations, performances and interactive pieces... cicada also make other bits of sound+image works for theatre, dance and performance projects... and occational urban gifts of unexpected enlightenment...

Cicada projects have included :
* Mob - an installation exploring the crowd as a discrete organism.
* Saltmilk and other wonders - work resulting from a residency in the West Australian wheat town of Kellerberrin.
* Amensal - an interactive street level installation, a purely negative urban symbiosis.
* Re_Squared - an immersive outdoor audio visual performance celebrating moments of discovered beauty in the city.

visit http://www.cicada.tv for more details

Tim Gruchy

Tim Gruchy is a prolific Australian video art, music & installation artist who has performed since the 1980s. his website has examples & listings of his video works, exhibitions, fashion events, parties, corporate events, theatre & opera works, and academic lectures & courses. http://www.grup.tv

Soundclash - new music funding grant from Australia Council

'Soundclash' is an initiative of the music board of the Australia Council and is open to individuals and groups engaged in projects involving the creation and performance of experimental, creative and innovative contemporary popular music. In the past ten years, the field of contemporary popular music (pop, rock, hip hop, electronic dance music and other, related modern music forms) has become increasingly hybrid, challenging the boundaries of the form itself. 'Soundclash' seeks to address these developments by supporting contemporary popular music that takes risks and demonstrates a strong commitment to experimentation. The initiative aims to support experimental, creative and innovative music projects across all styles of contemporary popular music. Musically successful innovation within the popular music format is a key consideration in the assessment of this initiative. read more for details on eligibility and how to apply or visit http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/soundclash

Soundclash

via http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/soundclash

Soundclash is an initiative of the music board of the Australia Council.

Closing date: Monday 20 April 2009 (decisions advised June 2009)

Purpose

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ENZYME 8 - Industrial Noise Electro Dark Ambient - Jan 30 Melbourne

ENZYME 8 - Friday January 30th 2009 @ Blue Velvet - 60 Smith Street Collingwood featuring EYE / DJ Citizen (Canberra), sig.int, Manticle, BasticH, Cassandra's Myth, DJ Infectious Unease.
EYE are releasing the long-delayed "Propaganda Machine Vol.1" CD "Post-Industrial Music for an Information-Age" on the night! read more or visit ENZYME website for more details

gnosis / knowledge / insight

Erik Davis is teaching another class at MLA called Gnosis Now! from February 23 - April 5 2009.

Gnosis Now! (from MLA course page)

Gnosticism is one of the most potent, complex, and misunderstood elements of western esoteric spirituality. Rooted in the apocalyptic era of early Christianity, gnostic mysticism animates hermeticism, alchemy, and magick, and has profoundly influenced modern pop culture as well (Philip K. Dick, The Matrix, even Scientology). Because gnosticism is rooted in direct experience of the divine, it remains open to many different interpretations; scholars bicker about it constantly.

http://www.maybelogic.org/courses.htm for more info on the course or read more for the reading list

This class proposes to study a few of the most accessible and transformative gnostic texts, both ancient and modern, and to bring their tricky wisdom to bear on the state of consciousness today. In addition to online discussion threads, the course will feature weekly podcasts from Erik Davis, a celebrated speaker, as well as a few group voice-over-IP chats. Modestly-sized texts will include ancient gnostic gospels as well as accessible scholarly interpretations and modern short stories.

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expanded cinema blog

Expanded Cinema is an online platform for experimental film, early video, and sound-based, durational work. All of the material is being curated from available media online, emphasizing an overlooked facet of the archival function of new media. The site has collated videos of Derek Bailey, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Mark Leckey's "Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999)" - a video exploration of subcultures, iconography and dancing with footage from 70s-90s in UK. plus many more. visit http://expandedcinema.blogspot.com for more details

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Apell releases third album "Reconstituted"

"Reconstituted" is the third Apell album and sounds like the groovier half of Amon Tobin sampling George Clinton with a jazzy electric bass. The album features a drum n bass version of Neil Young's "Don't Let it Bring You Down" and a chill out reworking of George Harrison's overlooked gem "Long, Long, Long" from The Beatles White Album. Another album highlight is the track "Dubya" featuring lyrics inspired by inane quotes from President George W Bush's speeches and his life story.

For more information about this album, Apell's music and to listen to audio samples visit http://www.apellmusic.com

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[brisbane] BF09 UNDER THE RADAR - call for applications

After the immense success of "BF08 UNDER THE RADAR", Brisbane Festival 2009 is putting the call out for applications for the 2009 event. A 16 day theatrefest within a festival, BF09 UNDER THE RADAR celebrates the creation of new work, taking risks, self discovery and pushing the boundaries!

BF09 UNDER THE RADAR is now calling for applications from artists and companies with brave, stimulating, relevant and innovative shows that the world needs to see. We're looking for fresh ideas and the crossing of art forms. We’re after stories that explore the big questions or transform the everyday and mundane. It has to be new - the rest is up to you. Surprise us!

plays | burlesque | physical theatre | street theatre | theatre of image | dance theatre | musical theatre | cabaret | junkyard | circus | public performance – all welcome to apply.

Read more or go to www.brisbanefestival.com.au OR www.myspace.com/bf08utr for more information

From Friday 18 September to Saturday 3 October BF09 UNDER THE RADAR will take over Brisbane's Metro Arts building for the third time, aiming the spotlight at young and emerging theatre artists who operate under the radar of the mainstream.

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Bluetech returns with "Phoenix Rising" release

Bluetech returns with his first new material since 2005. after splitting his musical expression into multiple aliases, Phoenix Rising marks his return to eclectic, ecstatic, and emotional electronic music, and exists as a precursor to an expansive album entitled The Divine Invasion coming early 2009 on aleph zero records.

music incubated in dreams, flows of energy from ancestral sources, the shape of the wind.

grab one while they are here, as they are only available from the somnia website and limited to 777 copies worldwide, soy inks on recycled paper, sewn and sealed in wax with incredible cover art by ray massini

Audio samples, digital files and CD available at: http://www.somniasound.com or visit http://www.bluetechonline.com for more details on Bluetech

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ENZYME 7 - Live experimental industrial and electonica in Melbourne. Friday Nov 28.


Non profit underground music entity DEMUS, is proud to announce...

FRIDAY 28th NOV 2008
Blue Velvet - 60 Smith Street Collingwood
8pm Start - $8 at Door

Live music performances by:

SAROPHONY
http://www.myspace.com/sarcophony
Melbourne based Industrial Metal producer is releasing his new CD "TV is Bad For You" on the night, featuring remixes from local and international artists, and rare tracks.

DJ SARCO vc DJCMYTH
Will be playing sets of local music, tracks from the Sarcophony release and a dark range of other goodies.

DJ INFECTIOUS UNEASE
http://www.infectiousuneaseradio.com
Need we introduce the wide ranging Noir tastes of the founder of Infectious Unease Radio?

MxDxM
http://www.kostar8.com
http://www.myspace.com/kostarproductions
MxDxM (aka K.O. StaR) specializes in creating Underground Electronic Metal Dance Music. MxDxM's approach is based on simplicity and minimalism.

SOBRIQUET

Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language

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 ...

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mumbai digital arts, new media & urban research links

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

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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

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Women in India & book related links

some links to follow up - mostly relating to the books i've recently purchased here in india - an ongoing list

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Asmita
ASMITA (literally, identity) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists. Its general objective is to fulfill the existing gap in participation, representation and access to media of women. It is committed to find new ways and directions for women's progress. Its major aim is to produce various publications on women in the media. ASMITA is the one and only feminist alternative media organization in the country, and it functions as a pressure group for the advancement of women through media activism. ASMITA Women's Publishing House, Media and Resource Organization (in short, ASMITA) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists, and started to publish the first feminist magazine of Nepal. The magazine was named Asmita which means "dignity" and "identity". In fact, this was the first movement of the organization for Nepali women's human right and empowerment through media.

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Women's World of India
Women's WORLD (India) was set up in July 2002. It is part of Women's WORLD (International), a free speech network of feminist writers, which has ongoing projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. The primary aim of WW(I) is to provide a space for women writers in South Asia to analyse the circumstances in which women write, are published and read in this region, to identify the issues facing women writers here, and to develop a strategy for working on them at the national, regional and international levels.

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Blaft Publications
Blaft Publications is a new independent publishing house based in Chennai, India. Their releases so far include an anthology of Tamil pulp fiction, a translation of an experimental Tamil novel, a book of drawings, and a book of English short stories. However, in the future, Blaft has much wider goals. They are planning to eventually branch out into translations of fiction from other regional languages of South Asia, English fiction, comic books, graphic novels, children's books, non-fiction, textbooks, how-to-manuals, encyclopedias, and kitchen appliances.


The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction
- selected & translated by Pritham Chakravarthy
- edited by Rakesh Khanna

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Feminist Fine Print
A moderately priced, handy new series that offers two, three or four core essays on a single issue, from a critical feminist perspective. The essays may be single-authored or have multiple authorship depending on the issue, its significance within India and South Asia, and its theoretical and political implications.
- http://www.womenunlimited.net/catalogue2.htm for list of book details currently available

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Zubaan Books
An imprint of Kali for women

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Women's resources in Delhi
- a list of organisations

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Yoda Press
YODA PRESS is an independent publishing venture based in New Delhi. With a view to developing dynamic non-fiction lists, both academic as well as popular, which can make available interactive spaces for further discussion, scholarship, and writing, this young venture is currently focusing its attention on areas like urban studies, sexuality and the body, gender, cinema, contemporary art and popular culture, and new perspectives in history. In doing so, the larger YODA PRESS list hopes to effectively capture the non-mainstream, alternative, yet critical reality of contemporary India. The Press invites feedback, constructive criticism, and the ever enriching exchange of ideas, which can often lead to a stunning new publication.


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Sarai
http://www.sarai.net/about-us/introducing-sarai/overview
Sarai researches the urban experience, the city, the publics and practice of (old & new) media, "information and society", free & open source software, language and digital cultures and the interface between urban transformation, contemporary culture, and development. Sarai research has flowed into conferences, books, articles, art Installations and even school textbooks. Our researchers Include scholars and practitioners. Sarai places a premium on the research process as a whole, rather than just the final outcome. This means that Sarai research material continually reaches the public domain through collaborative mailing lists, CD's, small essays, apart from conferences and research articles.

Sarai publishes books (The Sarai Readers, The Deewan-e-Sarai and the Series), pamphlets (The Media Nagar Series), broadsheets (Sarai.txt, Cybermohalla Broadsheets) and occasional publications ('By Lanes', 'The Book Box' etc.) on paper as well as on the web. All Sarai publications are copyleft and maybe freely downloaded for non commercial & edycational use from the Sarai website.

Sarai embodies a continuing engagement with creativity in urban neighbourhoods through the 'Cybermohalla' Project in collaboration with a 'Ankur' Society for Alternatives in Education, a Delhi based NGO with a proven track record of more than two decades of work in the field of critical pedagogy and community mobilization in poor neighbourhoods in the city.

Sarai supports a growing network of independent researchers, practitioners and students all over India through fellowships and stipends. Over the last five years we have supported more than 400 independent researchers from all over the country.Many of these come from small towns such in the hinterland and in spaces marked by conflict such as Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. Half the proposals that have been supported have been sent in by women, a significant proportion of supported candidates belong to ethnic and religious minorities and oppressed communities. All the proposals investigate areas that would find little or no support, either in academia, or in mainstream media, although several of the candidates have gone on to make further meaningful work in academia and the media, to a large measure due to the ground that they were able to cover in the course of the Sarai independent research proposal.

Sarai invites critical reflections on the nature of the contemporary moment, by holding regular screenings and discussion of curated programmes of fiction, documentary and experimental films and video, and by acting as a convivial context for online and offline conversations through discussions, mailing lists and blogs in English and Hindi at the Sarai space and on the Sarai website.

Sarai engages with the Hindi/Hindustani public domain through publications, translation, lists, web content, software localization, events and workshops.

Sarai organises events such as - conferences, seminars, workshops, summer schools, colloquia, colloquia and hosts occasional residencies around themes thatthemes that reflect the programme's intellectual and creative interests.

Sarai produces media (video, audio, print, web) and contemporary art works, CDs, radio and software. Works produced at the Sarai Media Lab have been exhibited in several international venues such as Documenta11, and the Venice, Liverpool and Taipei Biennales.

Sarai collaborates with organizations and initiatives locally, regionally and internationally/globally on events, processes, networks, projects and publications.

Sarai reaches out to students and faculty in colleges, institutes, university departments and student societies to organize talks, discussions, readings, screenings, screenings, informal interactions and conversations.

Sarai archives different facets of contemporary popular culture, urban space and media forms with a view to making information about them available to a wide public of researchers and practitioners.

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The Tract House

The Tract House is a "spread-the-word" project that debuted at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore on May 31, 2008. The Tract House tracts were written by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, visitors to this website, and friends of friends. While most popular tracts are religious, The Tract House tracts can be nearly anything— manifestos, diatribes, stories, rants, poems, or lyrics. They can be about whatever the writer finds pressing, whether it be something personal, professional, political, domestic, local, or global. Gallery visitors are encouraged to peruse the many tracts and take home what they wish. Visitors of this website are encouraged to print the tracts on their home printers. It is hoped that the tracts will educate, activate, infuriate, obfuscate, titillate, inspire, upset, and irritate. The tracts can be treasured or passed on, crumpled in disgust or venerated, folded up and put through the laundry, or left on a car windshield. visit http://thetracthouse.com for more details

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The Streaming Festival is now Streaming!

Today at 1900hrs (GMT), we opened the 3rd edition of the Streaming Festival. We are proud to announce that this edition contains a variety of artistic films that come from all over the world.

What?
The festival selected 130 filmmakers, and will show 190 films of which 106 are being premièred on the Streaming Festival! All those works were selected by the festival staff and divided into 14 programs, each program lasting from one to two hours.
http://www.streamingfestival.com/program/special-programs

What’s different?
In contrast to previous editions, visitors can now view the films separately from the main program. So, it is possible to enjoy the films one by one, or execute a program of your choice and sit back and relax. Visitors can comment on films on the Streaming Festival forum, or send the filmmaker a personal message.

Video Player
We use the Silverlight player program as our main player. Be sure to install Silverlight to view the films in the best possible quality. If you can’t install Silverlight, try the lightwindow or external player option. However, these seem to work slower.

Finally..
Obviously the rules at an Internet festival are different from those at a regular offline festival. The unique experience of the Streaming Festival is as different for each viewer as much as we each differ from our fellow man and woman.

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