PORTFOLIO (3)
BIO
Jonah Brucker-Cohen is a researcher, artist, and writer. He received his Ph.D. in the Disruptive Design Team of the Networking and Telecommunications Research Group (NTRG), Trinity College Dublin. He is an adjunct assistant professor of communications in the Media, Culture, Communication dept of NYU Steinhardt School of Culture Education and Human Development and has also taught at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). From 2001-2004 he was a Research Fellow in the Human Connectedness Group at Media Lab Europe and from 2006-2007 he was an R&D OpenLab Fellow at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York City. He received his Masters from ITP in 1999 and was an Interval Research Fellow from 1999-2001. His work and thesis focuses on the theme of “Deconstructing Networks” which includes projects that critically challenge and subvert accepted perceptions of network interaction and experience. He is co-founder of the Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA Group) and a recipient of the ARANEUM Prize sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Art, Science and Technology and Fundacion ARCO. His writing has appeared in numerous international publications including WIRED Magazine, Make Magazine, Neural, Rhizome.org, Art Asia Pacific, Gizmodo and more, and his work has been presented at events and organizations such as DEAF (03,04), Art Futura (04), SIGGRAPH (00,05), UBICOMP (02,03,04), CHI (04,06) Transmediale (02,04,08), NIME (07), ISEA (02,04,06,09), Institute of Contemporary Art in London (04), Tate Modern (03), Whitney Museum of American Art’s ArtPort (03), Ars Electronica (02,04,08), Chelsea Art Museum, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art (04-5),Museum of Modern Art (MOMA - NYC)(2008), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) (2008).
Art In Your Pocket 3: Sensor Driven iPad and iPhone Art Apps
PXL, Rainer Kohlberger, 2012
As the iPhone just celebrated its fifth year on the market, artists have already made a substantial dent in the commercially lucrative world of Apple’s AppStore. Despite this success, artists are still pushing forward to build apps that further integrate with the device’s sensors and location-based capabilities. Rather than working solely within the context of software art as I have covered in two previous articles on the subject for Rhizome, there is a focus now on artists who are interacting with the physical world by using the device’s internal sensors, location capabilities, constant Internet connectivity, and built-in cameras.
“Konfetti”, Stephan Maximillian Huber, 2012
Using the camera as a sensor, “Konfetti” by German based designer Stephan Maximillian Huber visualizes the image of its subject into countless dots. In effect, the camera image is translated into virtual confetti that follows any movement and creates an ever changing images based on which camera is selected. The dot’s movement is correlated to the detected flow captured by the camera and by repelling other dots, which also move as you touch and drag them. Huber explains over email how the app works as a reflection based art tool. “The app started as an iPad-only app, and on an iPad the app acts like a mirror, showing an abstract reflection of yourself. You'll get a clear image of yourself only when you concentrate on the process of the app, and don't move too fast. It's like contemplating about yourself and the image of yourself. And as your thoughts and emotions aren't static the image the app generates is dynamic and adapts to minimal movements and new ...
Art in Your Pocket 2
In the summer of 2009, I wrote an article here at Rhizome about the burgeoning activities of media artists creating new works or updating versions of their older interactive screen-based projects for Apple's iPhone and iTouch mobile devices. As the article made its way throughout the blogosphere, comments surfaced ranging from criticism of the "closed world of Apple's App Store and iPhone devices" to a championing of the availability of inexpensive multi-touch technology now available to artists who had been waiting for a platform that could adequately display and allow for the type of interaction their projects demanded. A year after the article came out, the draw of these devices and their potentially expansive audience has become even more irresistible to artists enough so that several more "apps" have surfaced. The following article catalogs several new iPhone works which have emerged over the past year, works that are pioneering the next generation of portable media art.
Top 5 - 10
Jonah Brucker-Cohen is a researcher, artist, professor and writer. His writing has appeared in numerous international publications including WIRED Magazine, Make Magazine, Neural, Rhizome, Art Asia Pacific, Gizmodo and more, and his work has been shown at events such as DEAF (03,04), Art Futura (04), SIGGRAPH (00,05), UBICOMP (02,03,04), CHI (04,06) Transmediale (02,04,08), NIME (07), ISEA (02,04,06,09), Institute of Contemporary Art in London (04), Whitney Museum of American Art's ArtPort (03), Ars Electronica (02,04,08), Chelsea Art Museum, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art (04-5),Museum of Modern Art (MOMA - NYC)(2008), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) (2008). He received his Ph.D. in the Disruptive Design Team of the Networking and Telecommunications Research Group (NTRG), Trinity College Dublin. He is an adjunct assistant professor of communications at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and in the Media, Culture, Communication dept of NYU Steinhardt School of Culture Education and Human Development.
2009 was an important year for the Internet as a whole. The advent of web 2.0 and "crowdsourcing" initiatives has enabled a much richer array of content from users who might never have ventured onto the Internet in previous years. My top 10 sites for this year cover a wide range of topics from art made for mobile devices with iPhoneArt.org to evidence of both information saturation with Information Aesthetics and physical and pseudo intellectual abundance with This is Why You're Fat and There I Fixed It, to strange observances of mistakes in the public realm with Fail Blog. In addition to these crowdsourced content sites, I also see some ongoing potential with artist-created sites such as Brett Domino's lowtech approach to music making ...
Art In Your Pocket
As the niche genre of software art expands beyond the web and into mobile devices, media artists are finding ways to integrate their work into a new form of business model. Instead of giving away your work for free on the web, Apple's iPhone and iTouch devices provide an ample platform for distribution (through the Apple App Store) and hardware support for novel ways to experience screen-based work.
Report From FutureSonic 2009
Focusing on a wide array of themes such as the context of a rapidly changing planet, our evolving human / natural ecosystem, the growing global strain on natural resources, and the advancement of artistic methods on potential of technological infrastructures, the 10th edition of the FutureSonic festival spanning 14 years integrated a wide and impressive array of international speakers, workshops, exhibitions, and performances. Scattered around the bustling city of Manchester in the United Kingdom, the festival took into account both its local strengths and its global outreach to encourage debate and showcase a wide arrange of artistic projects that examined just how far we have come in these debates and how far we have to go to make sense of the evolving technological apparatus that surrounds us.
Interview with Angie Waller
Interview with Angie Waller
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Introduction
A few months ago, I wrote a Net Art News for Rhizome about LA based
artist Angie Waller's project: "Data Mining the Amazon". The project
(released as a book available from Waller's website) catalogs and
graphs relationships between books customers bought on Amazon.com and
music CDs purchased by users with similar tastes. Waller's approach
adds a political slant by profiling relationships between liberal and
conservative titles, popular books among the US military, and
profiles on world leaders such as George W. Bush and Margaret
Thatcher. Her aim is to repurpose a supposedly helpful customer
service into a window of collective reflection on popular culture and
values. The project also asks how media and commercial trends
disseminate into public opinion through both national and global
outlets like Amazon.com. My main interest in Waller's work comes from
the focus on subverting networks from one purpose to another by using
existing information to draw new types of correlations and reactions.
Below is an interview I conducted with Waller about the project and
her motivation as an artist, avid consumer, and data cartographer.
Name: Angie Waller
Age: 27
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation / Title(s): Artist
URL: http://www.couchprojects.com
JBC: How did you start the "Data Mining the Amazon" project? What was
the impetus?
AW: I started data mining Amazon.com as a loyal customer. I am a
sucker for e-shopping and I never checkout with only one item. As a
frequent shopper, I started to develop a very specialized home page
on the site. I became more and more interested in the movies and CDs
recommended to me based on my purchase history of art theory and
computer programming books. One day a friend and I were talking
about some band she had never heard of and I described them by saying
"if you like band x and band y you might like band z." She knew
instantly what I was referring to, and I realized that Amazon.com had
become a huge influence on my vocabulary.
JBC: Your work seems to pick out cultural memes and play around with
them. Is this intentional or do you see it fitting into a larger
exploration? If so, what?
AW: I think the next morning I woke up with the idea to hit the
political memes. Aesthetics and culture used to be of high importance
in the political sphere, but these days we are being led by
philistines. As an artist, I have a problem with that. Exploring
Amazon became an easy way to relieve some of the tension.
Popular culture such as movies and CDs are the strongest cultural
arena and I was excited to find associations between pop culture and
books that described a specific political ideology. Although we all
consume a lot of the same popular culture it is also a way to
describe our aesthetic tastes. It is a bit of a teenager mentality
when looking over your friend's CD collection. But there is still
some truth in what type of person listens to what types of things.
JBC: The political angle of the piece is really striking since most
people would probably overlook these connections. Why did you focus
on political icons vs. any other types of relationships?
AW: After the last election between Bush and Gore, it seemed like the
party lines were fading together. The Bush and Gore debate became
more about their personalities and presentation. During that
climate, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start
pin-pointing the differences between democrats and republicans based
on the types of music they listen to. I am sure the Amazon database
it not the most diverse sampling, but it couldn't be inferior to the
election polls we are already accustomed to.
JBC: What was surprising or unexpected about the results you found?
AW: At first I had a few surprises. I was surprised that books about
military battles and corporate takeovers pointed to the soothing CDs
of Enya and Sarah Brightman. But, on second thought, it was not so
unusual. I also enjoyed the eerie specificity with some of the
bigger figures like Hitler and Mao Tse Tung.
JBC: Did you find that people who saw your correlations were
surprised by the connections? If so why?
AW: A lot of people use the charts to see if they fit one profile or
the other which can be entertaining. A lot of people look for truth
in the information and are defensive when they see what music they
are "supposed" to like. Then the charts become about profiling and
how none of us really make a perfect fit even though companies place
a lot of importance on this information.
I have taken a passive attitude towards companies profiling me.
Sometimes I buy things because they were recommended to me.
Sometimes I fantasize that the schizophrenic profile I created is
triggering a flashing red light at some corporate headquarters
causing a database shutdown and an internal investigation. I
probably suffer a little paranoia.
JBC: Why should people be interested in your findings?
AW: People should be interested in my book because we would all love
to know what George W. has in his CD collection. It creates the
opportunity for consumers to profile leaders in a similar way we are
profiled as voters.
JBC: I know this is an older piece, but what (if any) future
directions could this work take?
AW: Maybe companies like Amazon will have more fun with the free
associations that their database provides. I see an excellent dating
service on their horizon. On a grander scale, maybe our current
administration will make their tastes public knowledge. I would love
to know what they are reading, listening to, watching and if there
are any artists they like.
Personally, I am only visiting Amazon to shop these days. My art
work has a tendency to use tools against their original intentions in
search of greater things. I am sure another database project is on
the distant horizon. The book will be different things over time. It
is my first publication and I like that it will not be outmoded by
technological progress. I am certain it will always be interesting
to look at, it gives an unmediated look at the political climate of
2001-2002 with a popular music twist.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.simpletext.info - performance in UK - Nov 27-29!
http://www.coin-operated.com/blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Introduction
A few months ago, I wrote a Net Art News for Rhizome about LA based
artist Angie Waller's project: "Data Mining the Amazon". The project
(released as a book available from Waller's website) catalogs and
graphs relationships between books customers bought on Amazon.com and
music CDs purchased by users with similar tastes. Waller's approach
adds a political slant by profiling relationships between liberal and
conservative titles, popular books among the US military, and
profiles on world leaders such as George W. Bush and Margaret
Thatcher. Her aim is to repurpose a supposedly helpful customer
service into a window of collective reflection on popular culture and
values. The project also asks how media and commercial trends
disseminate into public opinion through both national and global
outlets like Amazon.com. My main interest in Waller's work comes from
the focus on subverting networks from one purpose to another by using
existing information to draw new types of correlations and reactions.
Below is an interview I conducted with Waller about the project and
her motivation as an artist, avid consumer, and data cartographer.
Name: Angie Waller
Age: 27
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation / Title(s): Artist
URL: http://www.couchprojects.com
JBC: How did you start the "Data Mining the Amazon" project? What was
the impetus?
AW: I started data mining Amazon.com as a loyal customer. I am a
sucker for e-shopping and I never checkout with only one item. As a
frequent shopper, I started to develop a very specialized home page
on the site. I became more and more interested in the movies and CDs
recommended to me based on my purchase history of art theory and
computer programming books. One day a friend and I were talking
about some band she had never heard of and I described them by saying
"if you like band x and band y you might like band z." She knew
instantly what I was referring to, and I realized that Amazon.com had
become a huge influence on my vocabulary.
JBC: Your work seems to pick out cultural memes and play around with
them. Is this intentional or do you see it fitting into a larger
exploration? If so, what?
AW: I think the next morning I woke up with the idea to hit the
political memes. Aesthetics and culture used to be of high importance
in the political sphere, but these days we are being led by
philistines. As an artist, I have a problem with that. Exploring
Amazon became an easy way to relieve some of the tension.
Popular culture such as movies and CDs are the strongest cultural
arena and I was excited to find associations between pop culture and
books that described a specific political ideology. Although we all
consume a lot of the same popular culture it is also a way to
describe our aesthetic tastes. It is a bit of a teenager mentality
when looking over your friend's CD collection. But there is still
some truth in what type of person listens to what types of things.
JBC: The political angle of the piece is really striking since most
people would probably overlook these connections. Why did you focus
on political icons vs. any other types of relationships?
AW: After the last election between Bush and Gore, it seemed like the
party lines were fading together. The Bush and Gore debate became
more about their personalities and presentation. During that
climate, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start
pin-pointing the differences between democrats and republicans based
on the types of music they listen to. I am sure the Amazon database
it not the most diverse sampling, but it couldn't be inferior to the
election polls we are already accustomed to.
JBC: What was surprising or unexpected about the results you found?
AW: At first I had a few surprises. I was surprised that books about
military battles and corporate takeovers pointed to the soothing CDs
of Enya and Sarah Brightman. But, on second thought, it was not so
unusual. I also enjoyed the eerie specificity with some of the
bigger figures like Hitler and Mao Tse Tung.
JBC: Did you find that people who saw your correlations were
surprised by the connections? If so why?
AW: A lot of people use the charts to see if they fit one profile or
the other which can be entertaining. A lot of people look for truth
in the information and are defensive when they see what music they
are "supposed" to like. Then the charts become about profiling and
how none of us really make a perfect fit even though companies place
a lot of importance on this information.
I have taken a passive attitude towards companies profiling me.
Sometimes I buy things because they were recommended to me.
Sometimes I fantasize that the schizophrenic profile I created is
triggering a flashing red light at some corporate headquarters
causing a database shutdown and an internal investigation. I
probably suffer a little paranoia.
JBC: Why should people be interested in your findings?
AW: People should be interested in my book because we would all love
to know what George W. has in his CD collection. It creates the
opportunity for consumers to profile leaders in a similar way we are
profiled as voters.
JBC: I know this is an older piece, but what (if any) future
directions could this work take?
AW: Maybe companies like Amazon will have more fun with the free
associations that their database provides. I see an excellent dating
service on their horizon. On a grander scale, maybe our current
administration will make their tastes public knowledge. I would love
to know what they are reading, listening to, watching and if there
are any artists they like.
Personally, I am only visiting Amazon to shop these days. My art
work has a tendency to use tools against their original intentions in
search of greater things. I am sure another database project is on
the distant horizon. The book will be different things over time. It
is my first publication and I like that it will not be outmoded by
technological progress. I am certain it will always be interesting
to look at, it gives an unmediated look at the political climate of
2001-2002 with a popular music twist.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.simpletext.info - performance in UK - Nov 27-29!
http://www.coin-operated.com/blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SimpleTEXT: a mobile-phone enabled performance
Hopefully people in the UK can make it out to this!
Jonah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
SimpleTEXT
*a mobile phone-enabled performance*
URL: http://www.simpletext.info
About:
SimpleTEXT is a collaborative audio/visual public performance that
relies on audience participation through input from their mobile
phones. The project focuses on connecting people in shared spaces by
attempting to merge distributed devices with creative and
collaborative experience. SimpleTEXT focuses on dynamic input from
participants as essential to the overall output. The result is a
public, shared performance where audience members interact by sending
SMS, voice, or through a web-based text input to a central server
from their input devices.
These messages are then dynamically mixed, cut, parsed, and spliced
to influence and change the visual and audio output. These
communications are also run through a speech synthesizer and a
picture synthesizer. The incoming images and text are dynamically
mixed according to specified rule sets such as pixel values, length
of text, specified keywords, and inherent meanings.
Live Events:
BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art
Gateshead, UK
November 27th, 2003, 7pm
Limehouse Town Hall
London, UK
November 29th, 2003, 7pm
City Arts Centre
@ DATA:EVENT:15
Dublin, Ireland
TBA
Time: 7 pm (GMT)
Price: Free
*All live events are Free*
Support/Sponsors:
SimpleTEXT is a collaboration between Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Tim
Redfern. It is commissioned, sponsored and funded by Low-Fi, a new
media arts organization and collective based in London, UK.
URLS:
Low-Fi http://www.low-fi.org.uk/
Jonah Brucker-Cohen - http://www.coin-operated.com/projects
Tim Redfern - http://www.forwind.net/pixelcorps
Jonah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
SimpleTEXT
*a mobile phone-enabled performance*
URL: http://www.simpletext.info
About:
SimpleTEXT is a collaborative audio/visual public performance that
relies on audience participation through input from their mobile
phones. The project focuses on connecting people in shared spaces by
attempting to merge distributed devices with creative and
collaborative experience. SimpleTEXT focuses on dynamic input from
participants as essential to the overall output. The result is a
public, shared performance where audience members interact by sending
SMS, voice, or through a web-based text input to a central server
from their input devices.
These messages are then dynamically mixed, cut, parsed, and spliced
to influence and change the visual and audio output. These
communications are also run through a speech synthesizer and a
picture synthesizer. The incoming images and text are dynamically
mixed according to specified rule sets such as pixel values, length
of text, specified keywords, and inherent meanings.
Live Events:
BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art
Gateshead, UK
November 27th, 2003, 7pm
Limehouse Town Hall
London, UK
November 29th, 2003, 7pm
City Arts Centre
@ DATA:EVENT:15
Dublin, Ireland
TBA
Time: 7 pm (GMT)
Price: Free
*All live events are Free*
Support/Sponsors:
SimpleTEXT is a collaboration between Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Tim
Redfern. It is commissioned, sponsored and funded by Low-Fi, a new
media arts organization and collective based in London, UK.
URLS:
Low-Fi http://www.low-fi.org.uk/
Jonah Brucker-Cohen - http://www.coin-operated.com/projects
Tim Redfern - http://www.forwind.net/pixelcorps
Report from E-culture Fair 2003
Report from E-Culture Fair
http://www.eculturefair.nl
October 23-24, 2003
Paradiso, DeBalie, Melkweg
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Although adding the letter "e" to words like
"culture" might seem a bit too 90s, the 2nd
E-Culture Fair (first was in 2000) lived up to
its name as a comprehensive showcase of over 50
projects, experiences, and performances that
combined the virtual and physical. The fair,
which took place in Amsterdam, was spread over
several venues into three distinct categories
including "My-Mode" (wearable technology and
fashion), "Mobile Home" (networks at home and
dispersed in urban settings), and "Toys4Us"
(gaming and playful interfaces). This fair's
theme centered on "Research and Development" in
new media and took a hands-on approach to showing
work with an eclectic mixture of live demos and
events. Despite the potential brain overload, I
managed to tour most of the venues and even sit
in on several project presentations.
Walking into the newly renovated Paradiso
theatre, My-Mode resembled a hybrid fashion show
turned trade fair. The setup consisted of a wide
range of fashion tech hybrids that emphasized the
integration of technology on the body in
everything from fabric design to reactive
clothing. Taking a playful approach to adverse
weather conditions was Elise Co's "Puddle
Jumper", a raincoat with electro-luminescent
panels that lit up when water fell on the coat.
Also on display was International Fashion
Machines' "Electric Plaid", a panel of interwoven
conductive thread and silk-screened thermochromic
inks that slowly changed colors when electricity
was applied to the thread. This demoed solid
technological know-how, but less interesting
implementation other than some sewn light
switches and pretty wall mounts. On the more
practical side was "Inside/Outside", a series of
networked handbags that measure localized
pollution (smoke, audio, exhaust, etcS) and
connect to each other over an ad-hoc (or
spontaneous) network to exchange data and
aggregate a diary of exposure levels over time.
Focusing on biometric feedback was Sompit Moi
Fusakul's "Interactive Ornaments: Emotions in
Motions" which measured the wearer's heart rate
and transposed this result on kinetic and
illuminated jewelry. Also included was Jenny
Tillotson's "Smart Second Skin", a dress that
emits odors depending on biometric feedback from
the wearer. I got really close and out came a
Whiskey smell which means that either I remind
people of drinking or the day was getting too
long.
Despite the wide array of perspectives presented
in MyMode, there seems to be a continual emphasis
on cause and effect relationships with wearable
technology. Something happens in the environment,
space or activity the wearer is engaged and the
clothing or device acts as a display or
highlights these actions. The next step might be
to look at reciprocal relationships between the
object and the wearer where each plays a crucial
role in each other's development and output over
time. Is it possible to create objects and
clothing that are not only aware of their
inhabitants, but also of each other?
Spread over DeBalie and Melkweg venues, the
"Mobile Home" theme displayed projects that
featured fixed technologies for interacting in
both public and private space. Victor Vina and
Hector Serrano's "NetObjects", were a quirky
collection of networked household objects
including an umbrella that relays weather reports
and a koo-koo clock that displays headlines from
rightist and leftist newspapers. Another
experiment in connected familiar spaces, the
"Remote Home" featured networked furniture in
each building, where sitting on a couch would
trigger a linked couch to boot off the person
sitting in the other space. Despite the playful
interplay with the furniture, questions arose as
to the importance of transposing identity as well
as presence across distance? If you are unsure
that the ambient display is outputting the
movements of your significant other, does that
cause more anxiety than reassurance?
Escaping the confines of indoor space,
wireless-based projects seemed to pervade the
fair.
Delivering mobile wireless hotspots was Shu Lea
Chang's "RICHAIR", featuring three wired up
roller skate girls carrying mobile 802.11b
repeaters and mini-computers with embedded
webcams for relaying network connections and
images across town. There was also an emphasis on
the social impact of technology through Doors
East's "Mapping Mobile Phone Usage Among Auto
Rickshaw Drivers", a project examining the
changes mobile technology has had in Bangalore,
India for taxi drivers. The main implementation
would be to create a mobile phone booth by
integrating a pay system into cell phones
integrated into the rickshaws. Finally, Marc
Tuters' "Geograffiti" project envisions a future
of collaborative cartography based on localized
information exchange where public 'digital' space
is annotated with graffiti.
Moving onto the playful side of technology, the
"Toys4Us" exhibit looked at everything from
collaborative DJ scratching and virtual puppetry
to public installations of shared stories. Marcus
Kirsch's "Rashomon" pit video capture with Street
Fighter gaming where visitors' kicking and
punching moves were captured and imported as game
characters into a two-player fighting match. Also
integrating public input was Merel Mirage's
"Holy", a networked vending machine with an
embedded LCD screen that allowed visitors to
www.holy.nl to author animations and send them to
the display. Also STEIM showed up with some
impressive MIDI instruments and sound experiences
including a pair of headphones with tilt sensors
that sped up beats-per-minute on the audio
depending on how fast you shook your head.
After two full days of demos and talks, questions
arose as to the cyclical nature of information
and interface design. On one hand there is a
trend to build interfaces that encourage social
interaction, but there's also a tendency to
create experiences that discourage chance
occurrences by highlighting personal experience.
There should be a way to balance experiential
design so that it not only allows for
collaboration but also maintains an ambient
presence that blends seamlessly into everyday
activity. This was evident in some of the
projects at the fair, but most had trouble
escaping their categorization. Nevertheless,
events like the E-Culture Fair are great for
encouraging cross-pollination of research and
practice along with showcasing the current state
of the field. By emphasizing interactivity and
the participatory nature of projects, the event
had a distinct science fair-like atmosphere. This
approach succeeded in presenting not only the
latest gadgets and whimsical interfaces to come,
but also the experience of participating in this
landscape.
-Jonah Brucker-Cohen
http://www.eculturefair.nl
October 23-24, 2003
Paradiso, DeBalie, Melkweg
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Although adding the letter "e" to words like
"culture" might seem a bit too 90s, the 2nd
E-Culture Fair (first was in 2000) lived up to
its name as a comprehensive showcase of over 50
projects, experiences, and performances that
combined the virtual and physical. The fair,
which took place in Amsterdam, was spread over
several venues into three distinct categories
including "My-Mode" (wearable technology and
fashion), "Mobile Home" (networks at home and
dispersed in urban settings), and "Toys4Us"
(gaming and playful interfaces). This fair's
theme centered on "Research and Development" in
new media and took a hands-on approach to showing
work with an eclectic mixture of live demos and
events. Despite the potential brain overload, I
managed to tour most of the venues and even sit
in on several project presentations.
Walking into the newly renovated Paradiso
theatre, My-Mode resembled a hybrid fashion show
turned trade fair. The setup consisted of a wide
range of fashion tech hybrids that emphasized the
integration of technology on the body in
everything from fabric design to reactive
clothing. Taking a playful approach to adverse
weather conditions was Elise Co's "Puddle
Jumper", a raincoat with electro-luminescent
panels that lit up when water fell on the coat.
Also on display was International Fashion
Machines' "Electric Plaid", a panel of interwoven
conductive thread and silk-screened thermochromic
inks that slowly changed colors when electricity
was applied to the thread. This demoed solid
technological know-how, but less interesting
implementation other than some sewn light
switches and pretty wall mounts. On the more
practical side was "Inside/Outside", a series of
networked handbags that measure localized
pollution (smoke, audio, exhaust, etcS) and
connect to each other over an ad-hoc (or
spontaneous) network to exchange data and
aggregate a diary of exposure levels over time.
Focusing on biometric feedback was Sompit Moi
Fusakul's "Interactive Ornaments: Emotions in
Motions" which measured the wearer's heart rate
and transposed this result on kinetic and
illuminated jewelry. Also included was Jenny
Tillotson's "Smart Second Skin", a dress that
emits odors depending on biometric feedback from
the wearer. I got really close and out came a
Whiskey smell which means that either I remind
people of drinking or the day was getting too
long.
Despite the wide array of perspectives presented
in MyMode, there seems to be a continual emphasis
on cause and effect relationships with wearable
technology. Something happens in the environment,
space or activity the wearer is engaged and the
clothing or device acts as a display or
highlights these actions. The next step might be
to look at reciprocal relationships between the
object and the wearer where each plays a crucial
role in each other's development and output over
time. Is it possible to create objects and
clothing that are not only aware of their
inhabitants, but also of each other?
Spread over DeBalie and Melkweg venues, the
"Mobile Home" theme displayed projects that
featured fixed technologies for interacting in
both public and private space. Victor Vina and
Hector Serrano's "NetObjects", were a quirky
collection of networked household objects
including an umbrella that relays weather reports
and a koo-koo clock that displays headlines from
rightist and leftist newspapers. Another
experiment in connected familiar spaces, the
"Remote Home" featured networked furniture in
each building, where sitting on a couch would
trigger a linked couch to boot off the person
sitting in the other space. Despite the playful
interplay with the furniture, questions arose as
to the importance of transposing identity as well
as presence across distance? If you are unsure
that the ambient display is outputting the
movements of your significant other, does that
cause more anxiety than reassurance?
Escaping the confines of indoor space,
wireless-based projects seemed to pervade the
fair.
Delivering mobile wireless hotspots was Shu Lea
Chang's "RICHAIR", featuring three wired up
roller skate girls carrying mobile 802.11b
repeaters and mini-computers with embedded
webcams for relaying network connections and
images across town. There was also an emphasis on
the social impact of technology through Doors
East's "Mapping Mobile Phone Usage Among Auto
Rickshaw Drivers", a project examining the
changes mobile technology has had in Bangalore,
India for taxi drivers. The main implementation
would be to create a mobile phone booth by
integrating a pay system into cell phones
integrated into the rickshaws. Finally, Marc
Tuters' "Geograffiti" project envisions a future
of collaborative cartography based on localized
information exchange where public 'digital' space
is annotated with graffiti.
Moving onto the playful side of technology, the
"Toys4Us" exhibit looked at everything from
collaborative DJ scratching and virtual puppetry
to public installations of shared stories. Marcus
Kirsch's "Rashomon" pit video capture with Street
Fighter gaming where visitors' kicking and
punching moves were captured and imported as game
characters into a two-player fighting match. Also
integrating public input was Merel Mirage's
"Holy", a networked vending machine with an
embedded LCD screen that allowed visitors to
www.holy.nl to author animations and send them to
the display. Also STEIM showed up with some
impressive MIDI instruments and sound experiences
including a pair of headphones with tilt sensors
that sped up beats-per-minute on the audio
depending on how fast you shook your head.
After two full days of demos and talks, questions
arose as to the cyclical nature of information
and interface design. On one hand there is a
trend to build interfaces that encourage social
interaction, but there's also a tendency to
create experiences that discourage chance
occurrences by highlighting personal experience.
There should be a way to balance experiential
design so that it not only allows for
collaboration but also maintains an ambient
presence that blends seamlessly into everyday
activity. This was evident in some of the
projects at the fair, but most had trouble
escaping their categorization. Nevertheless,
events like the E-Culture Fair are great for
encouraging cross-pollination of research and
practice along with showcasing the current state
of the field. By emphasizing interactivity and
the participatory nature of projects, the event
had a distinct science fair-like atmosphere. This
approach succeeded in presenting not only the
latest gadgets and whimsical interfaces to come,
but also the experience of participating in this
landscape.
-Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Report from Ars Electronica 2003
Hopefully this isnt too late - but for those who missed it (and those
who made it) just thought I'd send out my annual report....
Jonah
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report From Ars Electronica 2003
Sept 6-11, 2003
Linz, Austria
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Along the banks of the Danube river in Linz, Austria, the world
famous Ars Electronica festival opened with a heavy duty roster of
theorists, performers, artists, and practitioners. This year's theme,
"Code: The Language of Our Time," was meant as a starting point to
examine code and software art's development, aesthetics, and
implications. Debates centered around the question: If code is the
language of technology what does this mean for the future of art
practice? Despite a wide range of answers from participants, the
human side of the equation was ignored. For instance, how do we react
to code? It might sound sentimental, but how does code make us feel?
Machine code might be integral for computers to function, but
ultimately humans dictate their use. I tried to answer these
questions during the six day event, but felt overall that user
experience remained an afterthought to most of the discussions and
exhibited work.
The symposium began with hard-hitting theorists of code and
information visualization. The approach was to emphasize the
framework of the conference topic as existing within a larger body of
work from sociology to political to personal contexts. I arrived on
the second day of the symposium, when an adamant Richard Kriesche
spoke about code as a set of interconnected signs wherein code itself
could be seen as art form in itself. Roman Verostko, an artist and
theorist provided a nice alternative when he presented his graphic
drawing machines built in the 80s as examples of rule-based
sculptures illustrating how changing a single variable in a process
can create infinite and unpredictable behaviors. Following this
presentation, Casey Reas, co-creator of Processing (proce55ing.net),
argued that programming languages are materials, like other enabling
media, and that despite their flexibility, they can also be limiting.
His inspiration for Processing stems from the processes of code
executing, rather than the act of writing code, or the code's output.
At the Q&A session after his talk, Andreas Broeckmann (co-curator of
Transmediale) posited to Reas the simple question:"Why do you
program?" Of which Reas replied, "Because I have to". Coding might be
a biologic need for some, but the debate raged on as to how code can
translate from one medium to the next.
Other symposium sessions focused on the scalability of code into new
forms including community and networks to physical devices and
objects. During the "Social Code" panel, Howard Rheingold, author of
"Smart Mobs", spoke about the battle over code where conflict of
ownership ultimately curbs innovation. Florian Cramer disputed the
festival's theme by emphasizing the appropriation of code as art and
how this distinction creates and artificial relationship between code
and language. Looking at biometrics, Fiona Raby, formerly of the
Royal College of Art, threw some humor into the mix by outlining the
"BioLand" project, a virtual mini-mall of bio-metric devices and
gadgets including a human DNA encoded pet pig. Also, Hiroshi Ishii,
professor of Tangible Media at the MIT Media Lab, spoke about
decoding code through physical interaction with objects and how by
creating these dynamic relationships could contribute to a new human
language of collaborative design. Finally Crista Sommerer, artist and
professor at IAMAS in Japan, spoke about her various installations
that attempt to transcend the aesthetics of the machine such as two
haptic squash-encased devices that share people's heartbeats across a
Bluetooth connection.
Escaping the talks for some fresh air, I wandered down to the
exhibition across town. Toned down from last year, the show featured
a wide range of interactive projects from the CyberArts Honorary
Mention category. Walking up the O.K. Center's long concrete
stairwell, visitors were tracked and illuminated by Marie Sester's
"Access", a responsive spotlight that follows your movements as
dictated by online participants. On the first floor, the
Japanese-based musical group/corporation, Maywa Denki's amazing
electronic and human controlled musical instruments were set up,
including several interactive guitars and drum machines with
electronically controlled mallets connected to custom software
running on a PC. Other highlights included the "Biker's Horn" a
saxophone like instrument with flashing lights and multiple tubes and
the "Drum Shoes", wherein the CEO of Maywa Denki wore actuated shoes
with mallets as toes that were triggered by tapping his fingers on
custom built gloves with keys. Down the hall was Daniel Reichmuth and
Sybill Hauert's "Instant City", a block interface based musical
system where visitors could build structures that depending on the
amount of blocks placed triggered different samples. Another simple
yet effective musical interface was "Block Jam", a collection of
small reconfigurable blocks with embedded LED displays that allowed
people to create custom rhythms based on the blocks position,
orientation, and proximity to each other. Finally, in fine contrast
to the high tech installations was Iori Nakai's, "Streetscape", a
pen-based interface that played city sounds as users traced an
embossed map of Linz.
Scattered throughout the main venues were various performances and
special events that kept Ars visitors occupied. The main event was
Golan Levin and Zachary Leiberman's "Messa di Voce", an experiment in
interactive 3D graphics and sound, where vocalists Japp Blonk and
Joan La Barbara's cacophonous utterances came to life amid a giant
triple projection screen backdrop. Instead of focusing on a distinct
theme, the piece felt more like a collection of unique vignettes that
emphasized universal appeal over any distinct viewpoints. On the
music side, Steve Reich's monotonous "Drumming" performance featured
countless percussionists pounding repetitive rhythms in a room of
swirling visuals provided by FutureLab resident artist, Justin Manor.
The last night of Ars featured the bizarre "POL - Machatronic"
performance in the PostHof with actors donning robot exoskeletons
while reenacting a sausage themed love story. Afterwards, the late
night Code Arena at the Stadtwerkstatt pitted programmers against
drunken audiences who voted for the first ever Chocolate Nica Award
presented by Sodaplay creator, Ed Burton.
As the festival ended and all the code was compiled, there still
seemed to be something missing. Despite all the featured examples and
practice of software aesthetics in execution, code as language, input
and output, and modes of representation, there was little discussion
about experiencing the code itself. For instance, who uses all of the
code produced? What are we thinking, feeling, and experiencing when
code is used and what reactions exist in these instances? Although
insight was gained on how producers and theorists of this medium
postulate connections with code to cultural and social phenomenon,
there was little focus on the human response. Ultimately it is this
distinction which makes our experience unique and allows us to
understand the technology we interact with everyday. Perhaps in an
art context this might seem elusive, but the debate seemed incomplete
without uncovering the fundamental source of our frustration and
happiness with code.
-Jonah Brucker-Cohen
who made it) just thought I'd send out my annual report....
Jonah
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report From Ars Electronica 2003
Sept 6-11, 2003
Linz, Austria
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Along the banks of the Danube river in Linz, Austria, the world
famous Ars Electronica festival opened with a heavy duty roster of
theorists, performers, artists, and practitioners. This year's theme,
"Code: The Language of Our Time," was meant as a starting point to
examine code and software art's development, aesthetics, and
implications. Debates centered around the question: If code is the
language of technology what does this mean for the future of art
practice? Despite a wide range of answers from participants, the
human side of the equation was ignored. For instance, how do we react
to code? It might sound sentimental, but how does code make us feel?
Machine code might be integral for computers to function, but
ultimately humans dictate their use. I tried to answer these
questions during the six day event, but felt overall that user
experience remained an afterthought to most of the discussions and
exhibited work.
The symposium began with hard-hitting theorists of code and
information visualization. The approach was to emphasize the
framework of the conference topic as existing within a larger body of
work from sociology to political to personal contexts. I arrived on
the second day of the symposium, when an adamant Richard Kriesche
spoke about code as a set of interconnected signs wherein code itself
could be seen as art form in itself. Roman Verostko, an artist and
theorist provided a nice alternative when he presented his graphic
drawing machines built in the 80s as examples of rule-based
sculptures illustrating how changing a single variable in a process
can create infinite and unpredictable behaviors. Following this
presentation, Casey Reas, co-creator of Processing (proce55ing.net),
argued that programming languages are materials, like other enabling
media, and that despite their flexibility, they can also be limiting.
His inspiration for Processing stems from the processes of code
executing, rather than the act of writing code, or the code's output.
At the Q&A session after his talk, Andreas Broeckmann (co-curator of
Transmediale) posited to Reas the simple question:"Why do you
program?" Of which Reas replied, "Because I have to". Coding might be
a biologic need for some, but the debate raged on as to how code can
translate from one medium to the next.
Other symposium sessions focused on the scalability of code into new
forms including community and networks to physical devices and
objects. During the "Social Code" panel, Howard Rheingold, author of
"Smart Mobs", spoke about the battle over code where conflict of
ownership ultimately curbs innovation. Florian Cramer disputed the
festival's theme by emphasizing the appropriation of code as art and
how this distinction creates and artificial relationship between code
and language. Looking at biometrics, Fiona Raby, formerly of the
Royal College of Art, threw some humor into the mix by outlining the
"BioLand" project, a virtual mini-mall of bio-metric devices and
gadgets including a human DNA encoded pet pig. Also, Hiroshi Ishii,
professor of Tangible Media at the MIT Media Lab, spoke about
decoding code through physical interaction with objects and how by
creating these dynamic relationships could contribute to a new human
language of collaborative design. Finally Crista Sommerer, artist and
professor at IAMAS in Japan, spoke about her various installations
that attempt to transcend the aesthetics of the machine such as two
haptic squash-encased devices that share people's heartbeats across a
Bluetooth connection.
Escaping the talks for some fresh air, I wandered down to the
exhibition across town. Toned down from last year, the show featured
a wide range of interactive projects from the CyberArts Honorary
Mention category. Walking up the O.K. Center's long concrete
stairwell, visitors were tracked and illuminated by Marie Sester's
"Access", a responsive spotlight that follows your movements as
dictated by online participants. On the first floor, the
Japanese-based musical group/corporation, Maywa Denki's amazing
electronic and human controlled musical instruments were set up,
including several interactive guitars and drum machines with
electronically controlled mallets connected to custom software
running on a PC. Other highlights included the "Biker's Horn" a
saxophone like instrument with flashing lights and multiple tubes and
the "Drum Shoes", wherein the CEO of Maywa Denki wore actuated shoes
with mallets as toes that were triggered by tapping his fingers on
custom built gloves with keys. Down the hall was Daniel Reichmuth and
Sybill Hauert's "Instant City", a block interface based musical
system where visitors could build structures that depending on the
amount of blocks placed triggered different samples. Another simple
yet effective musical interface was "Block Jam", a collection of
small reconfigurable blocks with embedded LED displays that allowed
people to create custom rhythms based on the blocks position,
orientation, and proximity to each other. Finally, in fine contrast
to the high tech installations was Iori Nakai's, "Streetscape", a
pen-based interface that played city sounds as users traced an
embossed map of Linz.
Scattered throughout the main venues were various performances and
special events that kept Ars visitors occupied. The main event was
Golan Levin and Zachary Leiberman's "Messa di Voce", an experiment in
interactive 3D graphics and sound, where vocalists Japp Blonk and
Joan La Barbara's cacophonous utterances came to life amid a giant
triple projection screen backdrop. Instead of focusing on a distinct
theme, the piece felt more like a collection of unique vignettes that
emphasized universal appeal over any distinct viewpoints. On the
music side, Steve Reich's monotonous "Drumming" performance featured
countless percussionists pounding repetitive rhythms in a room of
swirling visuals provided by FutureLab resident artist, Justin Manor.
The last night of Ars featured the bizarre "POL - Machatronic"
performance in the PostHof with actors donning robot exoskeletons
while reenacting a sausage themed love story. Afterwards, the late
night Code Arena at the Stadtwerkstatt pitted programmers against
drunken audiences who voted for the first ever Chocolate Nica Award
presented by Sodaplay creator, Ed Burton.
As the festival ended and all the code was compiled, there still
seemed to be something missing. Despite all the featured examples and
practice of software aesthetics in execution, code as language, input
and output, and modes of representation, there was little discussion
about experiencing the code itself. For instance, who uses all of the
code produced? What are we thinking, feeling, and experiencing when
code is used and what reactions exist in these instances? Although
insight was gained on how producers and theorists of this medium
postulate connections with code to cultural and social phenomenon,
there was little focus on the human response. Ultimately it is this
distinction which makes our experience unique and allows us to
understand the technology we interact with everyday. Perhaps in an
art context this might seem elusive, but the debate seemed incomplete
without uncovering the fundamental source of our frustration and
happiness with code.
-Jonah Brucker-Cohen
DATA::::EVENT::::13.0
+++ Please Forward Around to People Who Might Be Interested++
+++ Below is info on how to join the Mailing List as well +++
---------------------------------------------------
DATA::::EVENT::::13.0
When: Tuesday, July 29th, 2003 - 7pm
Where: Stags Head Pub (Upstairs Room), Dame Lane, Dublin, Ireland
DATA 13.0 wont be unlucky! Featuring presented
work by artists/designers Romek Delimata (747-X
Flight Simulator), Niki Gomez (Cybersalon.org),
Rebecca Allen (MLE, UCLA, Virtual Reality), Short
Film by Aki Aro (AKUMA) + special guests,
screenings/animations and more!!
All D.A.T.A. events are FREE and open to the public!
More info on DATA 13 Presenters:
Romek Delimata
URL: http://homepage.eircom.net/~romek/sim\_site/Page\_1x.html
Romek is an artist / motion-picture special
effects designer based in Dublin, Ireland. For
the past five years he has built a homeade 747-X
flight simulator (from the discarded cockpit of
an Aer Lingus Boeing 747) in a shipping container
behind his studio space. The simulator has all of
its original controls and interfaces to an EPIC
capture card and is networked to computers
running a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The
simulator is currently on exhibition at EuroJet
Futures exhibition at the Royal Hibernian
Academy, Dublin. He's also worked on films such
as Braveheart, Behind Enemy Lines, and Flight of
the Pheonix.
exhibit URL: http://www.royalhibernianacademy.com/HTML/upcom/eurojet03.html
Niki Gomez
URLs:
http://www.watermans.org.uk/
http://www.cybersalon.org/
Niki is head of new media arts at Watermans arts
centre, West London which consists of gallery,
theatre and cinema spaces. Previously, she headed
Cybersalon, a monthly independent event at the
ICA, London which brings together digital
artists, business and education to discuss ideas
and showcase new work. Cybersalon has given birth
to Cybersonica - London's only festival of
electronic music and sound art. Niki has an MSc
in Interactive Multimedia and has worked in new
media building web sites, teaching and writing.
Previously Niki worked for the Cybertheatre,
Brussels, the world's first arts venue devoted
solely to digital art- www.nirvanet.com. She has
also worked in Brussels in the European
Commission and Parliament in areas of Media and
Human Rights.
Rebecca Allen
URL: http://www.rebeccaallen.com
Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognized
media artist inspired by the potential of
advanced technology, the aesthetics of motion and
the study of behavior. Her work,
which blurs the boundaries between physical
reality and virtual reality, between biological
life and artificial life, takes the form of
interactive art installations, computer animated
films and live multimedia performances. Allen
received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design
and MS from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. She was a member of the Architecture
Machine Group at MIT (now known as MIT Media Lab)
followed by the NYIT Computer Graphics
Laboratory, a world renowned computer animation
research center. She was founding co-director of
the UCLA Center for DigitalArts and founding
chair of the UCLA Department of Design |Media
Arts, where she is currently a professor.
Aki Aro
Aki is a Dublin-based audio-visual artist. He is currently working as a
graphic designer and a music producer. His main interest at the moment is in
digital video and audio production.
AKUMA Synopsis
The past comes to haunt Richard when a data CD is delivered to his door. The
virtual ghost of Hans, a man Richard once set up for a murder, is hungry for
revenge. Hans traps Richard into the virtual-reality world. Richard's fri=
end
Lynn is trying to trace a strange computer signal with a computer hacker. T=
he
signal happens to be the very same signal that Hans is controlling. Lynn
becomes Hans' next victim.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---------------------------
Please bring your work to show! We encourage
people to bring projects/ works in
progress/ideas/and any other types of media to
show/perform the night of the event or just think
is cool and think others should know about it!
If you have something specific in mind please
contact us beforehand to arrange for specific
equipment, etc.. Thanks!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--------------------------
ABOUT D.A.T.A.:
Dublin Art and Technology Association
D.A.T.A. Group
The Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA)
is a group formed with the intention of
promoting, exploring, discussing, and exhibiting
art and technology in Ireland and the world.
Based in Dublin, DATA is built on the idea that
collaboration between artists, musicians,
technologists, and academia is the key element in
creating a rich cultural environment for the
dialogue and conception of technological art
practices. We aim to create an informal space
where art and technology can meet and allow
people from multiple backgrounds to come
together, collaborate, and explore new directions
and art practices.
DATA is dedicated to both showcasing the work of
local technologists, musicians, and artists using
technology as well as providing a meeting point
for the intersection of these disciplines.
Our aim is to encourage collaboration between
group and non/group members and support an open
forum for ideas, practice, and presentation. All
forms of art and tech are welcome for showing at
the group events - from interactive work to
net-based projects to digital video to audio
projects to theatrical performances to
installations - and we will be asking for an open
call for people to present their projects at the
various events and venues around Dublin.
----------------------------------------------------
Contact Info:
Website: http://www.data.ie
To Join Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/datagroup/
Co-Founders:
Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Nicky Gogan (nicky\_gogan@yahoo.com)
----------------------------------------------------
All D.A.T.A. events are FREE and open to the public
+++ Below is info on how to join the Mailing List as well +++
---------------------------------------------------
DATA::::EVENT::::13.0
When: Tuesday, July 29th, 2003 - 7pm
Where: Stags Head Pub (Upstairs Room), Dame Lane, Dublin, Ireland
DATA 13.0 wont be unlucky! Featuring presented
work by artists/designers Romek Delimata (747-X
Flight Simulator), Niki Gomez (Cybersalon.org),
Rebecca Allen (MLE, UCLA, Virtual Reality), Short
Film by Aki Aro (AKUMA) + special guests,
screenings/animations and more!!
All D.A.T.A. events are FREE and open to the public!
More info on DATA 13 Presenters:
Romek Delimata
URL: http://homepage.eircom.net/~romek/sim\_site/Page\_1x.html
Romek is an artist / motion-picture special
effects designer based in Dublin, Ireland. For
the past five years he has built a homeade 747-X
flight simulator (from the discarded cockpit of
an Aer Lingus Boeing 747) in a shipping container
behind his studio space. The simulator has all of
its original controls and interfaces to an EPIC
capture card and is networked to computers
running a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The
simulator is currently on exhibition at EuroJet
Futures exhibition at the Royal Hibernian
Academy, Dublin. He's also worked on films such
as Braveheart, Behind Enemy Lines, and Flight of
the Pheonix.
exhibit URL: http://www.royalhibernianacademy.com/HTML/upcom/eurojet03.html
Niki Gomez
URLs:
http://www.watermans.org.uk/
http://www.cybersalon.org/
Niki is head of new media arts at Watermans arts
centre, West London which consists of gallery,
theatre and cinema spaces. Previously, she headed
Cybersalon, a monthly independent event at the
ICA, London which brings together digital
artists, business and education to discuss ideas
and showcase new work. Cybersalon has given birth
to Cybersonica - London's only festival of
electronic music and sound art. Niki has an MSc
in Interactive Multimedia and has worked in new
media building web sites, teaching and writing.
Previously Niki worked for the Cybertheatre,
Brussels, the world's first arts venue devoted
solely to digital art- www.nirvanet.com. She has
also worked in Brussels in the European
Commission and Parliament in areas of Media and
Human Rights.
Rebecca Allen
URL: http://www.rebeccaallen.com
Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognized
media artist inspired by the potential of
advanced technology, the aesthetics of motion and
the study of behavior. Her work,
which blurs the boundaries between physical
reality and virtual reality, between biological
life and artificial life, takes the form of
interactive art installations, computer animated
films and live multimedia performances. Allen
received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design
and MS from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. She was a member of the Architecture
Machine Group at MIT (now known as MIT Media Lab)
followed by the NYIT Computer Graphics
Laboratory, a world renowned computer animation
research center. She was founding co-director of
the UCLA Center for DigitalArts and founding
chair of the UCLA Department of Design |Media
Arts, where she is currently a professor.
Aki Aro
Aki is a Dublin-based audio-visual artist. He is currently working as a
graphic designer and a music producer. His main interest at the moment is in
digital video and audio production.
AKUMA Synopsis
The past comes to haunt Richard when a data CD is delivered to his door. The
virtual ghost of Hans, a man Richard once set up for a murder, is hungry for
revenge. Hans traps Richard into the virtual-reality world. Richard's fri=
end
Lynn is trying to trace a strange computer signal with a computer hacker. T=
he
signal happens to be the very same signal that Hans is controlling. Lynn
becomes Hans' next victim.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---------------------------
Please bring your work to show! We encourage
people to bring projects/ works in
progress/ideas/and any other types of media to
show/perform the night of the event or just think
is cool and think others should know about it!
If you have something specific in mind please
contact us beforehand to arrange for specific
equipment, etc.. Thanks!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--------------------------
ABOUT D.A.T.A.:
Dublin Art and Technology Association
D.A.T.A. Group
The Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA)
is a group formed with the intention of
promoting, exploring, discussing, and exhibiting
art and technology in Ireland and the world.
Based in Dublin, DATA is built on the idea that
collaboration between artists, musicians,
technologists, and academia is the key element in
creating a rich cultural environment for the
dialogue and conception of technological art
practices. We aim to create an informal space
where art and technology can meet and allow
people from multiple backgrounds to come
together, collaborate, and explore new directions
and art practices.
DATA is dedicated to both showcasing the work of
local technologists, musicians, and artists using
technology as well as providing a meeting point
for the intersection of these disciplines.
Our aim is to encourage collaboration between
group and non/group members and support an open
forum for ideas, practice, and presentation. All
forms of art and tech are welcome for showing at
the group events - from interactive work to
net-based projects to digital video to audio
projects to theatrical performances to
installations - and we will be asking for an open
call for people to present their projects at the
various events and venues around Dublin.
----------------------------------------------------
Contact Info:
Website: http://www.data.ie
To Join Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/datagroup/
Co-Founders:
Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com)
Nicky Gogan (nicky\_gogan@yahoo.com)
----------------------------------------------------
All D.A.T.A. events are FREE and open to the public
