+ - now

**apologies for cross-postings - please circulate to your lists**

Next up @ Beta_space:
Cyberworlds Gallery, Level 1 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

+- now, by Jen Seevinck
CCS Researcher

Exhibition Dates:
16 April - 31 May 2008

Opening Event:
Thursday 1 May

4:30-5pm - Artist's talk and Demonstration
5pm (sharp) - All guests retire to L3 Education area for drinks and nibbles
Please note that if you arrive after 5pm, you must enter by the security gate on MacArthur Street

RSVP essential to Deborah Turnbull on [email protected] or 0400 920 761

Description:

"+-now" is an interactive art system in two parts. The first is the interface comprised of fine white, beach sand, also acting as the projection surface for imagery. Hand gestures in the sand are rendered on the sand's surface. As gestures accumulate over periods of time, producing visual echoes, the image behaves like a liquid, affording an immediate sense of play. The second part os the system consists of a separate projection on a large screen, thus offering the user a more reflective experience. Though the sand remains the input point to the aesthetic outcome, here the visual echoes can lead to new shapes at varying shades of opaqueness.

A related element to the overall experience of /+-now /is to improvise in time, or with the history of one's gestures. The created objects now become perceived objects that exist, though not directly a product of the computer. An everyday comparison might be cloud gazing, and the interpretation of shapes and figures one might attach. As one starts to interpret form and infer meaning, are they not losing themselves in their surroundings? The focus of /+-now /will be the effectiveness of the interactive experience resulting in the sense of immersivity, or "getting lost" in the activity.

Artist's Biography:

Jennifer Seevinck is an electronic artist and researcher. She is currently pursuing an art practice-based PhD in interactive art at the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology, Sydney; and in receipt of an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship. Her areas of immediate interest are interactive art, emergence, perception and the Gestalt, tangible computing, virtual reality and medical simulation.

http://www.smArtnoise.net
http://www.creativityandcognition.com/people/jen.html

Acknowledgements:

This work has been supported by the Creativity and Cognition Studios; the Facutly of Information-Technology at UTS; an Australian Postgraduate Award; and the I-Park artist in residency programs.

Press Information:

For a copy of the Press Release or electronic flyer, please contact:

Deborah Turnbull, Beta_space Curator.
[email protected]
0400 920 761

For more information on Beta_space, please visit: www.betaspace.net.au