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.
Get involved by submitting your own projects and registering to vote for the 12 days of PopVox running from May 1st - 12th.
DETAILS AND SUBMISSIONS @ WWW.POPVOXAWARDS.COM
]]>T h e F i r s t I n t e r n a t i o n a l A r t T e c h M e d i a C o n g r e s s
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
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
In a globalised world, dominated by communication technologies, with
countless questions concerning a future that affects our everyday
life, it is essential to make this analysis and to consider, from
different perspectives, how our polyhedral, altered reality is being
effected by the widespread use of new technology as a support for new
ideas and possibilities that are almost infinite. We need to
investigate how this occurs in different societies and cultures and
to propose models that may go beyond what has been known until now.
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.
Within this context, an intensive debate needs to take place on the
influence and transformations that new media is producing in art,
there needs to be a greater understanding of the foundations for more
effective cooperation between the different sectors linked to digital
art, and proposals need to be devised for the development of national
and international collaborative networks in order to improve
production, research, exhibition and promotion.
Last year, Art Tech Media 06 encounters had been held at nine Spanish
museums, and given the great participation and the opinions
collected, its seems clear that this is an ideal time to celebrate
the First International Art Tech Media Conference. It represents a
great opportunity to hold a transversal debate in order to devise
proposals that will lead to greater and better coordination among the
different sectors of art, aimed at strengthening its development.
www.artechmedia.net/artechmedia06.htm
Art Tech Media 06 headquaters: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofía, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Unión Fenosa, Presidencia Gobierno
de Canarias, Museo Domus Artium 2002, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte
Contemporáneo Artium, Fundación BilbaoArte, Centro Párraga, Museo de
Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo EsBaluard, Centro de Cultura
Contemporánea de Barcelona.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
<<< GENERAL REGULATIONS Art Tech Media 07 art call - Works must have been produced after January 1st, 2006. Projects: - Those interested in submitting work in these categories must send a DEADLINE: 16th march 2007 SELECTION AND JURY - Works presented will be selected by a committee of the organization. SELECTED WORKS must include: - Technical credits. >registration form> enter ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1st International Congress Art Tech Media www.artechmedia.net ______________________________________________
- The number of submissions is not limited.
- Works may be presented in any language. However, a transcript of dialogues
must be included in either Spanish or English,
- The organization reserves the rights to use parts of the works for
media broadcasting, within the
promotional framework of artechmedia.
- Following the process of selection based on abstratcs, all
participants will be notified in writing of
the result and the required format for the presentationof their work,
preferably on DVD.
- Authors will be responsible for copyright of their works.
- Works selected will be exhibited in artechmedia.
- A electronic catalogue will be produced in Spanish and English,
including all the works.
- Artists with works selected shall agree to assign a copy to
artechmedia, which may be
used in the subsequent exhibitions.
- The organization is not responsible for the content of works in
order to preserve freedom.
completed entry form.
- The net-art @blog, videoblog must include the URL address in the entry form.
- A part from the entry form, those interested in taking part in
video art and computer animation
must also send a DVD with their work.
- Digital Music must be sent both in digital format and as a hard copy by post.
- All mail is to be sent to the office central art tech media
Art Tech c/Méndez Nuñez 102, 6ºD. 38001 S/C Tenerife. Canary Island. Spain
- In each category a jury composed of experts will select the works.
- Jury's decision is final, and is not open to appeal.
- Technical requirements for its showing.
- Two colour photographs of every work sent.
- A short biography of author or representative organization.
- A transcript of dialogues in spanish or english.
- All works must include in their front page: the work's title, the
delivery address, and the
data of author or representative organization.
- In case of not providing a correct delivery address, the
organization will not be
responsible for the works.
- Submission of a work implies the acceptance of these regulations.
artechmedia@artechmedia.net
8-9-10-11 th may . Madrid. Spain
SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
Info, archive and help:
http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
Scene.org is a non-profit organization aimed at providing the 'electronic art scene' with a forum for communication and for sharing their work.
We provide ftp and web space for groups and individuals who apply for them and whose applications are accepted. If the application is not approved on the first try, we encourage people to try applying again in the future. Meet other sceners on our IRC network (irc.scene.org) or on the forums. The site is maintained by a voluntary team of around 15 members contributing from around the world.
"A demo is a program that displays a sound, music, and light show, usually in 3D. Demos are very fun to watch, because they seemingly do things that aren't possible on the machine they were programmed on." - Trixter's PC Demos Explained.
Scene.org cannot be explained in just a few words. On one hand it is the central source for the demoscene community but on the other hand it is an online digital community, consisting of several talented individuals across the world with the desire of creating something for the scene.
To be honest, scene.org is not just for the scene, it is for everyone who is interested in this sub-culture. Some might consider scene.org just as a service, and while it is part that, for us it is an ambition.
And of course this all would not be possible without the volunteers in the scene.org staff and our sponsors.
* The mission *
At it's heart scene.org is all about the demoscene. We have the latest productions and the fastest ftp and we offer webspace for FREE, the only thing we want is that you put the free space in to best use possible and not just for "Not Yet Finished" graphics. It's a bold statement from us, especially as scene.org has taken so long to become something else than just storage space, which certainly IS important for the scene's productions. Scene.org was always envisioned as a scene information source, an ftp site mixed with web-based content.
We simply cannot give out accounts to all groups/individuals who request them, we do our best to go through the applications as quickly as possible.
Scene.org runs on "custom" hardware that we have put together with the help of contributions from our sponsors and staff. We offer free web accounts and services, so naturally we have to be selective when it comes to granting these accounts. However if you don't get an account, that doesn't mean you cannot enjoy scene.org. There is still the latest files to download, news to check out and files to upload.
visit http://www.scene.org for more information
]]>http://braintrustdv.com/roundtables/ipod.html#Anchor-34275 has some interesting points of view from media analysts.
when holographic data storage becomes widely used in consumer devices (eg psp/ipod or future flavours) data storage worries are out the window. these are due for professional gear in 2006 (broadcasters have been testing with hdtv off holographic data storage this year)
http://www.hiptechblog.com/2005/11/25/maxell-introduces-groundbreaking-h...
http://www.inphase-technologies.com/
exciting times!
]]>Chapter 1
Locating Interactive Media Production
(page 2)
[quote]
A few media/cultural studies writers began to look at the social
and cultural impact of new media, Sherry Turkle (1985) Second Self:
Computers and the Human Spirit; Carolyn Marvin (1988) When Old
Technologies were new; Philip Hayward (1990) Culture, Technology and
Creativity in the Late Twentieth Century; Jay Bolter, (1991) Writing
Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing; Philip
Hayward and Tana Wollen, eds. (1993) Future Visions: New technologies
of the Screen and Roger Silverstone (1994) Consuming Technologies:
Media and Information in Domestic Spaces
[/quote]
This paragraph has an interesting point.. there's not many books or published educational materials for teaching 'new media' - I suppose the plethora of academic papers are not used for this purpose??
(page 9-10)
[quote]
8. Maintaining curriculum integrity - quality teaching resources
There are other difficulties facing interactive media course designers
within any academic context. There is an impoverished supply of good
academic sources and few records of the historical development of design
for CD-ROM or the web. Compared with the sources we can draw on for
the teaching of video and film production for example, good books in the
field of interactive-media production are rare. A simple request to fellow
course leaders of interactive media in 7 different institutions for their
favourite production books, revealed that we are resourceful when it
comes to choosing teaching materials but also that most of our books were
over 4 years old and some were very old indeed. This is their list:
Curt Cloninger, Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the
Underground (New Riders) 2001
Bob Cotton and Richard Oliver, Understanding Hypermedia 2000,
Multimedia Origins, Internet Futures (Phaidon Press, London) 1997
Mark Elsom-Cook, Principles of Interactive Multimedia, (McGraw-Hill
Education) 2000
Elaine England and Andy Finney Managing Multimedia (Addison-
Wesley) 1996 revised 2001
Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
(Penguin Books) 1980, anniversary publication 2000
Bob Hughes, Dust and Magic: The Secrets of Successful Multimedia
Design (Addison-Wesley) 1999
Richard Lanham, The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology and the
Arts (University of Chicago Press) 1995
Brenda Laurel, Computers as Theatre (Addison-Wesley) 1991
Brenda Laurel, ed., The Art of Human Computer Interface Design,
(Addison-Wesley) 1990
Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, (MIT Press) 2001
Mullet and Sano, Designing visual interfaces (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
1995
Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck, The future of narrative in
Cyberspace (MIT Press) 1997
Donald A Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books)
Original 1988, revised ed. 2002
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry
into Values (Bodley Head) 1974, latest publication 1999
Oliver Sachs, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador) 1986
Tom Standage, The Mechanical Turk: The True Story of the Chess-playing
Machine that Fooled the World (Allen Lane The Penguin Press) 2002
Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information (Graphics Press UK) 1990
Tay Vaughan, Multimedia - Making it Work (Osborne McGraw-Hill) 1994
revised 1998
Jefferey Veen, The Art and Science of Web Design (New Riders
Publishing) 2000
Lynda Weimann, Deconstructing web graphics 2.0, (New Riders
Publishing) 1998
Jeffrey Zeldman, Designing with Web Standards (New Riders Publishing)
2003
[/quote]
[quote]
Notes
1. Oren, Tim. “Designing a new medium” in The Art of Human
computer Interface Design, ed., Brenda Laurel, 467-479.
Addison-Wesley, 1990.
2. SEEDA and Human Capital. Skills for the Digital Media
Industry-Research and Recommendations for the South East of
England Development Agency, Final Report, June 2000
3. England, Elaine. UK i-professionals–Education, Training and
Development Audit. ATSF ltd. in conjunction with the BIMA,
2002. Details from www.atsf.co.uk/atsf
4. Department of Culture Media and Sport. Creative Industries –
Internet Inquiry:’snapsjhot of a rolling wave’ – The Report of the
Creative Industries Task Force Inquiry into the Internet.
February 2000. PDF available www.culture.gov/internetinqpdf/
5. SkillSet. Identifying Functions relating to the Computer Games
Industry project, report published by SkillSet, 2002
6. Media Employability Project. 2002 Joint project between
University of Sunderland, Sheffield-Hallam University, De-
Montfort University and the University of Central England. The
project’s aims are: To identify skills and attributes (specific and
transferable) which can be defined as enhancing the
employability of Media Studies graduates. To identify those
elements of curriculum and pedagogic practice which deliver
these skills.
Bibliography
Bolter, Jay. Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of
Writing. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 1991.
Marvin, Carolyn. When Old Technologies were new: Thinking about
Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century. Oxford
University Press Inc., USA, 1988.
Hayward, Philip. Culture, Technology and Creativity in the Late Twentieth
Century. University of Luton Press,1990.
Hayward, Philip and Wollen, Tana eds.. Future Visions: New technologies
of the Screen. London: BFI Publishing, 1993.
Silverstone, Roger. Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in
Domestic Spaces. Routledge,1994.
Turkle, Sherry. Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. Pocket
Books, 1985.
[/quote]
========================================================================
Chapter 2
The Difficulty in Communicating with Computers
Kurzweil has some interesting ideas about reverse engineering the brain. I wonder how he can pinpoint dates/years though for when these ideas will come to fruition. is it a case of talking about it will make people develop the tools/technology like some ideas that have become reality and were originally based in science fiction??
(page 17-18)
[quote]
Despite the discouraging results the mechanistic view is still
viable. For example, Pattie Maes’ (1997) view is that the way agents differ
from ordinary software is that an agent is personalized. It means, among
other things, that an agent is proactive, which in her view means that it can
take its own initiative rather than only react to events. According to Maes
another difference between current software and software agents is that
agents can run autonomously while the user goes about doing other things.
She also argues that the reason to call it an agent is the fact that the
software agent’s actions are based on its knowledge of the user’s
preferences.
Here Maes, however in good company, seems to overlook the
very nature of autonomy. It is not only the knowledge of the user that is of
concern for autonomous agent but the possibility to refer to itself. An
autonomy, with its reference to self, refers to some language, because
reference is a linguistic phenomenon. In Maes case, autonomy refers to a
well known language, viz. a programming language or in this context we
may speak of the programming language since the expressability is the
same in all programming languages. However, according to Tarski
(1956), no language can completely free itself from external influences
meaning that a metalanguage is necessary to understand complete
autonomy. Hence, the autonomous agents that Maes refers to, are given an
operational and objective description in a mathematical or formal
language, which leaves the understanding of the autonomy outside the
description. So, here we see that the machine metaphor does not succeed
in describing autonomy because it leaves out of account the language in
which the autonomy is described.
Ray Kurzweil (1999) goes several steps further than does Maes,
arguing that by reverse engineering of the brain we may create computers
that are much more intelligent than the person whose brain is transferred.
This is only a question of time not of biological hurdles. We only have to
await the progress in nanotechnology. Kurzweil (1999, pp. 220-222)
predicts that in 2029, the vast majority of “computes” of nonhuman
computing is now conducted on massively parallel
neural nets, much of which is based on the reveres
engineering of the human brain.
Many – but less than a majority – of the specialized
regions of the human brain have been “decoded” and
their massively parallel algorithms have been
deciphered. […] The machine based nets are
substantially faster and have greater computing and
memory capacities and other refinements compared to
their human analogues. [T]here is extensive use of
communication using direct neural connections. This
allows virtual, all-enveloping tactile communication to
take place without entering a “total touch enclosure”[…]
The majority of communication does not involve a
human. The majority of communication involving a
human is between a human and a machine.
In 2099, Kurzweil anticipates that the reverse engineering of the
human brain appears to be complete. Furthermore (p. 234):
Even among those human intelligences still using
carbon-based neurons, there is ubiquitous use of neural
implant technology, which provides enormous
augmentation of human perceptual and cognitive
abilities. Humans who do not utilize such implants are
unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with
those who do.
[/quote]
Chapter 3
Accounting for User Needs and Motivations in Game Design
[quote]
“If we were always to judge from reality, games would be
nonsense. But if games were nonsense what else would there be left to
do?” -- Tolstoy
[/quote]
I wanted to gather together URLs for purchase etc. of my work available
online. This is probably incomplete, but for those who are interested,
it
is probably useful. Note that Printed Matter carries a number of things.
I definitely recommend the books - VEL, The Wayward, Sophia, .echo.
There
are days I wish I was a store. Those are the days I could still wish.
- Alan
========================================================================
Current Books, CDs, DVDs, etc.:
VEL
by Alan Sondheim
$16.00
Based on Virtual Environment work, an intense selection of recent texts
on motion capture, avatars, online experience, and language. A must!
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/browse/Ne-6_N-1203+1016+20472268_nr-1_bt-1
.echo
by Alan Sondheim
Alan Sondheim's new ebook, .echo, takes you on a fascinating journey
with
Nikuko Meat-Girl into the language of avatars, transliterate lovemaking
and virtual subjectivity. While interacting with Sondheim's ebook of
mystical eroticism, the reader will lose themselves in a net.fiction
charged with sex, obsession, codework and real bodies pushed to the
limit.
A provocative theory-world presented in the guise of experimental
narrative, .echo takes the reader on a high-speed, yet zen-like trip
through a hallucinatory landscape that one can imagine used to be the
world. There's never been anything like this book as it confounds the
relationship between America and Japan, prosthetics and aesthetics,
visible words and invisible intelligences. Enter at your own risk!
http://www.altx.com/ebooks/echo.html
Sophia
Sondheim, Alan; Sophia, ISBN 1 84254 583 3; published July 2004,
reprinted November 2004
One of the author's rare texts of philosophy, an extended meditation on
world and worlding, written with a unique style and structure. Perhaps
the
best guide to reality ever written!
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/writersforum/WFstock.html
writersforum@britishlibrary.net
The Wayward
Salt Books
The Wayward is an exploration into virtual life and theory. It uses
tools
from codework to traditional genre; much of its work is the result of
programming intended to create systems of circulating texts. Think of
The
Wayward as a poetics of the imaginary, stumbling over the grounds of the
real - constantly questioning linguistic referents and 'meaning in
general.' The work is a ground-breaking exploration of the roots and
structures of online and offline life, in which language simultaneously
explodes and implodes. Conversations among 'emanents' dominate
inconceivable landscapes; sexualities are constructed and deconstructed.
There's not another work like it.
http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844710475.htm
Being On Line, Net Subjectivity
Edited by Alan Sondheim 1996-7.
Note: This may or may not be available at this time.
Being on Line is an historic exploration of the theory and practice of
virtual identity as well as its effects. Unlike many recent books on the
Internet, it focuses both on the promises of the technology and the
actual
content being developed by users of this form of exchange. Among the
thirty-two authors are Angela Hunter, Ellen Zweig, and Nesta Stubbs; net
feminist Doctress Neutopia; anthropologist Roger Bartra; and theorists
Friedrich Kittler, Slavoj Zizek, Mark Poster and Gregory Ulmer. Artists
include Mike Metz, Alice Aycock, Peter Halley.
208 pages, with 16 pages of color and 192 illustrated pages in black and
white. In English and Korean. ISBN 1-882791-04-5 Paperback 7 x 91/2 in.,
208 pages, 16 color. $15.00 U.S.
http://www.thing.net/lusitania/Online/current.html
Can probably be ordered from:
D.A.P/ Distributed Art Publishers
155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, N.Y. 10013-1507
or call toll-free 1-800-338-BOOK
The Case of the Real
Potes and Poets Press, 1998 (2 chapbooks)
Note: Most probably available.
Volume One 44 pages ISBN 0-937013-90-9
1998 $7.00 New Chapbook Series #15
Volume Two 41 pages ISBN 0-937013-91-9
1998 $7.00 New Chapbook Series #16
2 Volume Set for $13
Potes & Poets publications are available from:
Small Press Distribution
1341 Seventh St.
Berkeley, CA 94710
www.spdbooks.org
T'Other Little Tune (CD)
Artist: ALAN SONDHEIM
re-recording of vinyl lp
Catalog #: ESPCD 1082
http://www.espdisk.com/store2.html
1968-9
Ritual-all-7-70 (CD)
Artist: ALAN SONDHEIM
re-recording of vinyl lp
Catalog #: ESPCD 1048
http://www.espdisk.com/store2.html
1968-9
The following are available through Printed Matter:
http://www.printedmatter.org/
Sampler
DVD+ - for computer playback only
Alan Sondheim
Tremendous collection of current work!
New York, NY: A. Sondheim. 2005 $25.00
Forlorn Matter
Alan Sondheim
Self-published text (a second version appeared in the anthology
Unnatural Bodies). $8.00
Archive 3.7 CDrom
Alan Sondheim
Brooklyn, NY: Sondheim. 2001
Archive 3, 7, previously Sub/Con/Text, is a complete collection of the
artist's work. It includes several web suites, over 5000 pages of text,
500 images, numerous videos and sound works, computer programs, and all
sorts of additional materials. There are several book-length
manuscripts,
a number of articles, and the full Internet Text, described as a
"continuous meditation on philosophy, language, and virtual
subjectivity."
The cdrom will open in Mac or PC; only the web suites might be a problem
in Mac, although all materials are completely accessible through the
directories. (Please note: This is somewhat superceded by Sampler, but
is
an excellent snapshot of work 1995-2001.) $14.00
New Observations. No. 120 (Winter 1999) Cultures of Cyberspace
Alan Sondheim, editor New York, NY: New Observations Ltd.. 1999 Begun in
the early Eighties, this artist-run periodical features a wide range of
visual art, artists projects, essays, poetry, and fiction; each issue is
guest-edited and devoted to a specific cultural theme. Editor Alan
Sondheim collected texts about the Internet with images chosen as a
counterpoint -- "they reflect spaces and bodies that are effaced,
occluded, ghostlike." Contributors include: Laurie Cubbison, Alexanne
Don,
Jerry Everard, Amy Fletcher, Radhika Gajjala, Eve Andree Laramee, Nick
Mamatas, Jon Marshall, Caitlin Martin, Michael W. Spirito, John Suler,
Ryan Whyte, and others. Images by Robert Cheatham, Emily Cheng, Janieta
Eyer, Nancy Haynes, Hokusai, Ichi Ikeda, Fanny Jacobson, Eve Andree
Laramee, Kim McGlynn, Barbara Simcoe, David Smith, Tyler Stallings,
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and Thomas Zummer, among others. $6.00
Damaged Life
Denise de la Cerda, Alan Sondheim
Dallas, TX, 1986
This exploration of space, lines, and existence is realized through
electronics, tape recorders, keyboards, drum machines, mixers,
miscellaneous acoustic instruments, and an accompanying booklet of black
and white drawings of the artist recording these sounds.
Cassette. Damaged life was a post-industrial group whose recordings were
generally distributed on Spasm Cassettes, Austin. $7.00
Current active URLs:
http://www.asondheim.org/
http://biblioteknett.no/alias/HJEMMESIDE/bjornmag/nettext/
http://www.as.wvu.edu/clcold/sondheim/files/
http://www.as.wvu.edu:8000/clc/Members/sondheim
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm
Wiki essays at:
http://www.as.wvu.edu:8000/clc/projects/plaintext_tools/
========================================================================
A few other titles:
Disorders of the Real
Station Hill, 1988. Note: This may not be available at this time.
http://www.stationhill.org/sondheim.html
Individuals: Post Movement Art in America
(anthology) New York: Dutton Books, 1977. Not available: check abe
The Structure of Reality
(Self published through Nova Scotia College of Art and Design), 1977.
Not available: check abe
Strata
NSCAD, 1972
Not available: check abe
An,ode
Burning Deck Press, 1968
Experimental work, check abe
========================================================================
]]>First monday of every month at Lanfranchi's Memorial Discoteque. Level 2. 144 Cleveland st. Darlington. 7:30 pm. Free. Popcorn.
Monthly screenings with a simple goal of showing interesting and
experimental film and video works in an appropriate setting,
comfortable seating - 5.1audio - large scale projection - free
Month of July (07.07.03)
We will open the night with a few pieces of video jazz the from 242.pilots "Live in Bruxelles" DVD (winner of the transmediale.03 Image award). Our first feature will be the Ingmar Bergman masterpiece "Persona" with introduction by Hamish Ford, followed by a locally produced short "Edges".
Screening last will be the uber-strange "Dementia". After that I think you'll all want to go home.
... Service announcement ...
A few people have asked why http://obscura.lanfranchis.com/ is alwaysdown. It should be fixed by late next week, but you can also reach the same details via the less sexy URL http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~keirs/camera/
These pages host our archive, the add a movie page, upcoming screenings and now a mailing list thingy. We intend to migrate to just using the mailing list, to avoid sending people spam, so if you are interested in the
screenings please add yourself to the list.
We're also interested in suggestions for screenings and local works that you or someone you know has made.
... now back to the regular programme ...
Excerpts from 242.pilots DVD "Live in Bruxelles"
242.pilots are "three video artists who perform collaboratively. using their own custom software, 242.pilots expressively improvise rich, layered
experimental video works in real-time (both as a trio and as soloists).
improvising as a group, the three artists respond and interact with each other's images in a subtle and intuitive way. images are layered, contrasted, merged, and transformed. the degree of interplay and unspoken communication between the artists is akin the best free jazz
ensembles."(www.carparkrecords.com)
Local Short Edges
(1998 Duration 2 Minutes)
"Edges" is a digital animation created collaboratively by Cindi Drennan, Danielle Hickie (animators) and Justin Maynard (audio) in 1998. The trio began with the concept of "Edges", and explored the ideas of boundaries,
borders and frontiers through a kind of chinese whispers. The process involved trading end and beginning frames via the internet... so that the end "edge" of one person's animation would be the beginning edge of another. At the end, all the separate sequences were stitched together to
create a single sequence.
Persona
Written & directed by Ingmar Bergman, Cinematography by Sven Nykvist
Starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, Sweden, 1966.
"Persona is one of those films many people have heard of, but most likely never seen. At least in Australia, the film is somewhat like Ingmar Bergman himself - emblematic of quintessentially serious, angst-ridden "arthouse" business that is never actually shown. Well, here's a very rare chance to actually see this extraordinary film which is considered by many to be both the peak Bergman's achievements, and a towering work of film modernism in its own right. Even if you managed to catch the film on
SBS a few months back, on Monday the 7th of July at 7.30 you can see Persona on a big screen, via a beautiful dvd...
Bergman was the biggest cult director the late-'50s with a string of arthouse hits. However, many viewers increasingly found his '60s work too difficult and confronting. Though not necessarily any more thematically and affectively "anguished" than his other work, compared to Bergman's most popular films - The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries (both 1957), Cries and Whispers (1972) and Fanny and Alexander (1983) - Persona exemplifies
a much more direct engagement with the avant-garde. Here art-cinema's most persistant and weighty explorer of "big themes" - and who (unlike many an intellectual European director) also deals in very raw and confronting
emotional terrain - articulates his content through some of the boldest form (in the process, totally breaking down any such distinctions) ever offered in a commercially-
released film.
The combination of a feature filmmaker's long-form narrative and thematic development with the aesthetic radicalism more usually associated with the avant garde is part of what makes Persona so special and endlessly
rewarding. And alongside the much more coventional The Seventh Seal, the film sits at the epicentre of what is for me the richest ouevre (Bergman's nearly 50 films) in world cinema.
Like The Seventh Seal, Persona features some famous faces of post-war arthouse cinema - Bergman's stars. In her first performance for Bergman, Liv Ullmann here plays an actress in psychiatric care for refusing to speak, while Bibi Andersson plays her nurse - making for a two-hander where only one party provides the lines. As the two women move to a summer house by the sea they enter into violent pychological relations, as the film incrementally
prods what lies beneath "persona" - the masks and performances that are our daily identities. This thematic inquiry is not limited to the drama of human
beings in crisis; through a very precise and idiosyncratic reflexivity, Bergman as author and cinema itself are also interrograted as to their "essence" and reason for being...
Don't miss this unique chance to see one of the most thematically rich and aesthetically sublime films ever made." Hamish Ford.
Dementia
John Parker - 1953, B&W, 57min
"An entirely unique and utterly bizarre rediscovery, John J. Parker's Dementia is a 1950s-style foray into the mind of psycho-sexual madness. Set entirely in a nocturnal twilight zone that blends dream imagery with the
cinematic stylings of film noir, Dementia follows the tormented existence of a young woman haunted by the horrors of her youth, which transformed her into a stiletto-wielding, man-hating beatnik. Accompanied by George
Antheil's sci-fi score, the camera follows a "Gamin" (Adrienne Barrett) on a surreal sleepwalk through B-movie hell, populated by prostitutes, pimps and would-be molesters, all photographed by William Thompson (Plan 9 From
Outer Space, Maniac, Glen or Glenda?)." (www.kino.com)
"One of the strangest movies ever made." - Jim Morton.
As always, check the site for details:
http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~keirs/camera/
and mail us if something tickles your fancy camera_obscura@cse.unsw.EDU.AU
team camera obscura
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]]>Wednesday July 9
@ Lanfranchis Memorial Discotheque
Lvl 2, 144 Cleveland St, Chippendale
From 8pm. $5 donation.
Featuring:
Pimmon
Hinterlandt
Ueda
This month features a rare performance by Australia's king of glitch, PIMMON. Paul Gough is one laptop performer who is
always interesting to watch. His music can be intense, beautiful, noisy, melodic, quiet - often all at once.
http://www.fallt.com/artists/pimmon.html
The project of expatriate German musician Jochen Gutsch,
HINTERLANDT is a flexible entity, with an emphasis on
improvisation. For Disorientation, Hinterlandt will include Tim Fagan (wind/reed instruments), Shaun Hemsley (electronics) and a special guest appearance from Peter Hollo (of Fourplay) on cello and electronics. http://hinterlandt.says.it/
Well known for her graphic/web design work, UEDA, aka Yew-Sun makes her debut performance with a set of post-digital music and video, using Max/MSP/Jitter software. http://ueda.nu
DISORIENTATION is a monthly series of events, aiming to bring together both well-known and emerging artists working in audio or audiovisual performance. For a performance opportunity contact Shannon.ONeill@uts.edu.au
DISORIENTATION is supported by:
Media Arts and Production, UTS
Lanfranchis Memorial Discotheque
2SER-FM
2MBS-FM