Memory Tapes "Yes I Know"

A beautiful video and if it can be believed a testimony to the amazing powers of AE. http://vimeo.com/24637555

Massumi (body/object/event)

'On the list of distinctions it becomes difficult to sustain in any categorical way are those between artefact and thing, body and object-and even thought and matter. Not only do these relay in reciprocal becomings; together they ally in process. They are tinged with event.'

Massumi on Body and its indeterminacy (or openness)

‘If at any point I thought of this refreshing in terms of regaining a “concreteness” of experience, I was quickly disabused of the notion. Take movement. When a body is in motion, it does not coincide with itself. It coincides with its own transition: its own variation. The range of variations it can be implicated in is not present in any given movement, much less in any position it passes through. In motion, a body is in an immediate, unfolding relation to its own nonpresent potential to vary. That relation, to borrow a phrase from Gilles Deleuze, is real but abstract.’

‘Here, abstract means: never present in a position, only ever passing. This is an abstractness pertaining to the transitional immediacy of a real relation-that of a body to its own indeterminacy (its openness to an elsewhere and otherwise than it is, in any here and now).’ (Massumi, 2002 pp. 4-5)

Projection and Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ApWKEVgYg&feature=related

Stunning choreography working with a fantastic set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rkDlgu95PQ&feature=youtu.be

Draw a dance? or Dance a drawing?

This performance explores dance as the inhabitant of space, leaving beautiful, large drawings behind. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker explains the project here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1OHl8_MPEg&feature=share

Tangible Interactive Artwork

While researching work done on Augmented Reality, I came across James Alliban and his work in the field. I became an instant fan, particularly for his recent collaborative piece Cell. His blog is a great source of information and insights. http://jamesalliban.wordpress.com/

Scott Sona Snibbe's website and a look at Björk's Biophilia App Album

http://www.snibbe.com/

The website explores new media work produced by the artist, including a beautiful piece installed at the LA International Airport Tom Bradley International Terminal.

A fantastic new find of ENESS for me

ENESS-artist collective working with projection, video and immersive surfaces, creating magical environments that question our preconcieved notions of reality. http://www.eness.com/?r=Projects

Beautiful cinematography!

http://vimeo.com/31356055

Kathrine Elizabeth Anker The Sense of Being Moved

'I see the space of installation art, based on new technology and science, as a possible laboratory or the speculative 'mind', to which such investigations could be successfully related. I find that contemporary installation artworks can-if successful-induce an activation of processes intrinsic to the bodymind, which can bring forward new imaginations, new metaphors and extended self-understandings' (Anker, 2010 p.167)

Tony Orrico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWqH1oIWJJY

'Shaping the Ride' looks great at the V&A

Just back from V&A, London and the short movie 'Shaping the Ride' looks really good. It seems to reflect well The Power of Making philosophy and celebrates local craft, although it still is a shame that waves were too small on the day.

The link for the show: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/power-of-making/

The link for the video: http://vimeo.com/27098546

The making of Sony Two Worlds by Spy Films

I really good short documentary of the making of Sony Two Worlds. http://vimeo.com/30392783

The making of 'Nuit Blanche' by Spy Films

The making of 'Nuit Blanche' shows the absolute attention to detail and the deeply involved process. http://vimeo.com/9076775

'Nuit Blanche' a stunning video by Spy Films

A stunning video Nuit Blanche: http://vimeo.com/9078364

France Cadet 'Hunting Trophies'

Regine Debatty's lecture@NTU

A successful blogger Regine Debatty from http://we-make-money-not-art.com/ presents a lecture on robots with a social conscience as part of the MA/MSc Smart Design Lecture series @ NTU.

What artists are bringing to the table? They question the nature of technology. What is behind technology and what comes next?

Kevin Grennan The Smell of Fear

The RSA post of the Humanity 2.0 debate

http://www.andymiah.net/2011/10/18/humanity-2-0/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Interview with Katherine Elizabeth Anker

http://www.tveuropahd.com/video/172/interview-with-katherine-elizabeth-anker-cultural-theorist-writer
Mindbody

Olek and Dev Harlan "Suffolk Deluxe Electric Bicycle, 1"

Dev Harlan's "Parmenides 1"

Light sculpture by Dev Harlan...fantastic piece of work.

Art as becoming

'That artworks are not being but a process of becoming…Their continuity is demanded technologically by the particular elements. They are in need of continuity and capable of it by virtue of their incompleteness…It is as a result of their own constitution that they go over into their other, find continuance in it, want to be extinguished in it, and in their demise determine what follows them.' (Adorno, 2004 p.232)

Circumspective Concern

…the theoretical attitude towards the ‘world’ ‘arises’ out of circumspective concern with the ready-to-hand. Not only circumspective discovering of entities within-the-world but also the theoretical discovering of them is founded upon Being-in-the-world. The existential-temporal Interpretation of these ways of discovering is preparatory to the temporal characterization of this basic sate of Dasein. (Heidegger, 2008, p.408)

A beautiful BASE Jumping movie with stunning shots!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1oKPwA/gizmodo.com/5841313/base-jumping-off-cliffs-never-looked-so-scary-awesome%3Ftag%3Dwatch-this

Visual Effects Research Lab at Rewire2011

Really impressive stuff from VERL with calls for proposals coming soon.

http://www.northseascreen.eu/skills-news-details.cfm/nID/289

Glow from Chunky Move

A very short clip from Chunky Move, however it shows a perfect symmetry between the performer and the digital projection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc83SMKGjPY&feature=related

Jon Cates at Rewire 2011

Jon Cates on his teaching of Media Art Histories: concept, content and reading. His website: http://mediaarthistories.ning.com/

Mike Leggett gave a great paper at Rewire2011 on physical cinema.

Exploring early cinema and the notion of physical cinema as active audience participation.

Here is his vimeo site:

http://vimeo.com/legart

Ahmed Basiony

29th September 2011 to 28th November 2011

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ

Gallery 2
Daily 12:00 - 18:00 except Saturdays 11:00 - 18:00
FREE

Ahmed Basiony was one of the few contemporary artists in Egypt who was consistently experimenting with the tools of new media. One of them, Thirty Days Of Running In Place (2010) reveals Basiony jogging daily for one hour whilst wearing a suit of electronic sensors that picked up how far he ran and how much sweat he produced. Visualised by computer and projected onto a large screen, the data formed an abstract portrait of a body not just in motion but changing physiologically under the influence of exercise. The piece is all the more poignant as it contains the last echoes of Basiony's life in the form of the data he collected: the artist was killed during the Egyptian uprising just a few months later.

In light of this, AND and FACT are proud to begin considering the legacy of this unique artist with the UK premiere of Thirty Days Of Running In Place. Coinciding with Rewire, the fourth international conference on media art histories, the exhibition is an excellent opportunity to examine new media outside the conventionally Westernised axis of thought and in the Arab world in particular

Shezad Dawood

17th September 2011 to 26th November 2011

Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
Monday to Saturday 10:00 - 17:00 except Tuesday 11:00 - 5:00
Closed Sundays

Conceptual cousin to the film of the same name, Piercing Brightness is an exhibition of new work by Shezad Dawood.

Premiering prior to an international tour, the exhibition features Trailer, an experimental cut of the Piercing Brightness film, together with new textile and neon sculptural works. It also features New Dream Machine Project, 2011, a film based on the ‘Dream Machine‘ invented by legendary poet, painter and performance artist Brion Gysin.

Shezad Dawood will be making two appearances at the Harris during the exhibition: first on September 24th to give a talk about his work and second on October 2nd in conversation with scholar Mark Bartlett.

The Piercing Brightness film will be screened in full on October 1st in Liverpool

Video for ZEE

http://andfestival.org.uk/blog/zee-teaser-trailer

ZEE Kurt Hentschlager

29th September 2011 to 28th November 2011

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ

Gallery 1
Daily 12:00 - 18:00 except Saturdays 11:00 - 18:00
FREE

Kurt Hentschläger has spent a lifetime creating artworks that push the viewer into a state of sensory overload.

Zee is no exception. As one visitor to put it: "It is really hard to say something smart about something so sensual". Variously described as "insane", "like entering Heaven" and "another planet", Zee is an installation of fog, light and sound that will transform Gallery 1 at FACT into an out of body experience. An installation “like death” that has audiences struggling to believe the evidence of their senses, this manifestation of Hentschläger's distinct and mind-altering artwork is a UK first.

Please note: Due to the sometimes disorienting nature of Zee, suspended ropes are on hand to guide first timers through the installation. Visitors are nevertheless free to roam the exhibition space if they wish.

“...this is the world as viewed by a dying robot clone from the inside of a Turner landscape painting...” Claudia Hart

AND festival 2011

Heath Bunting, credits himself as both co-founder of net.art and sport-art movements and is banned for life for entering the USA for his anti-GM work. Attempting to combine three obsessions, Buddhism, computer science, and network hacking - Heath embarked on The Status Project in 2005. Forming part of this labyrinth project and intrigued by his proposal for identity mutation, AND challenged him to map out normality and survey the system that constructs identity in Britain today. Consisting of data drawn from everyday bureaucracies for example the use of a television license, rail card or mobile phone contract through governmental databases and the Internet. These are then linked to each other according to their dependencies and overlaps.

From 'Database Aesthetics. Art in the Age of Information Overflow'

'Artists have always been concerned with the representation of the body as a mirror or our collective state of consciousness. And I believe our artistic perspective is worthy of consideration-or at least is useful as another viewpoint for ongoing public debates regarding identity and the rights of individuals. This is especially important in the light of the inherent assumptions in the media of what constitutes a "body," how biological "life" is defined, and how political answers are separated from larger philosophical issues of the ways in which we, as society, may be changing our perceptions of self.' (Vesna, 2007 p. 8)

Motion Control

Motion Control

Liz Aggiss/Billy Cowie/David Anderson's groundbreaking dance for camera film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNXk1JZems&feature=related

Weightless by Erika Janunger

Weightless by Erika Janunger

A beautiful video, rupturing the sense of gravity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiJhRjBEm6o&feature=share

From 'Dancing in Space and Time'

'For me, it seems enough that dancing is a spiritual exercise in physical form, and that what is seen, is what it is...Dancing is a visible action of life.' (Cunningham, 1998 p. 39)

From 'Digital Practices. Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology'

'This potential embodiment is central to digital practices where both physical and virtual bodies continually become-other, where, various imperceptible intensities are at play. It is these intensities, together with their ontological status that give rise to new modes of perception and consciousness. For Deleuze and Guattari, no longer is there a '"Self" ... an organism that functions but a BwO that is constructed' (1999a, 162). Their view of art as 'sensation'-as a 'force' that ruptures everyday opinions and perceptions 'to make perceptible the imperceptible forces' (1999b, 182), provides the means of theorizing the unpresentable or sublime of digital practice.' (Boradhurst, 2007 p. 43)

From 'Practice as Research. Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry'

'The innovative and critical potential of practice-based research lies in its capacity to generate personally situated knowledge and new ways of modelling and externalising such knowledge while at the same time, revealing philosophical, social and cultural contexts for the critical intervention and application of knowledge outcomes.' (Barrett, 2010 p.3)

From 'Practice as Research. Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry'

'An elaboration of the subjective nature of the artistic research process can also be found in the principles of problem or action-based learning. A basic premise of such pedagogies is that knowledge is generated through action and reflection... The experiential approach (Kolb 1984) starts from one's own lived experience and personal reactions. Learning takes place through action and intentional, explicit reflection on that action. This approach acknowledges that we cannot separate knowledge to be learned from situations in which it is used.' (Barrett, 2010 p. 5)

AND festival

'Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is an energetic festival, taking place across the Northwest of England.

A catalyst for production and experimentation, AND is a call to arms inviting anarchists of the imagination to propose striking perspectives on technological, physical and social normality' http://www.andfestival.org.uk/

ReWire conference Liverpool

ReWire 2011 conference kicks off on the 28th of September. There are some amazing speakers on the schedule.

http://www.rewireconference2011.org/

Looking forward to attending Art and Science, Philosophies and Media Art Histories sessions.

ISEA2011 Istanbul

Program for the ISEA2011 Istanbul event.

http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/sites/isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/files/uploads/ISEA2011%20Istanbul%20Program.pdf

ISEA2011 Istanbul

The program from the ISEA2011 Istanbul conference.

http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/sites/isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/files/uploads/ISEA2011%20Istanbul%20Program.pdf

'Shaping the Ride' has been accepted for The Power of Making exhibition at the V&A

My short film 'Shaping the Ride' has been accepted for The Power of Making exhibition at the V&A. Please come along and see!

Heidegger The Question Concerning Technology

'One is that techni is the name not only for the activities and skills of the craftsman, but also for the arts of the mind and the fine arts. Techne belongs to bringing-forth, to poijsis; it is something poietic.'

'Technology is a mode of revealing. Technology comes to presence [West] in the realm where revealing and unconcealment take place, where aletheia, truth, happens.'

'The revealing that rules throughout modern technology has the character of a setting-upon, in the sense of a challengingforth. That challenging happens in that the energy concealed in nature is unlocked, what is unlocked is transformed, what is transformed is stored up, what is stored up is, in turn, distributed, and what is distributed is switched about ever anew. Unlocking, transforming, storing, distributing, and switching about are ways of revealing. But the revealing never simply comes to an end. Neither does it run off into the indeterminate. The revealing reveals to itself its own manifoldly interlocking paths, through regulating their course. This regulating itself is, for its part, everywhere secured. Regulating and securing even become the chief characteristics of the challenging revealing.'

From 'Digital Practices. Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology'

'The modern techne, in contrast to the original Greek meaning of the term that was poetic an revealing art.. causes us to refute the revelation that art can bring us. For Heidegger, in attempting to overcome this alienation and assure 'our redemption', art and technology must be reintegrated.' (Broadhurst, 2007 p. 35)

From Heidegger's Being and Time

'Ontically, "letting something be involved" signifies that within our factical concern we let something ready-to-hand be so-and-so as it is already and in order that it be such. The way we take this ontical sense of 'letting be' is, in principle, ontological. And therewith we Interpet the meaning of previously freeing what is proximally ready-to-hand within-the-world. Previously letting something 'be' does not mean that we must first bring it into its Being and produce it; it means rather that something which is already an 'entity' must be discovered in its readiness-to-hand, and that we must let the entity which has this being be encountered.' p.117

From Heidegger's Being and Time

'The ready-to-hand is encountered within-the-world. The being of this entity, radiness-to-hand, thus stands in some ontological relationship towards the world and towards worldhood. In anything ready-to-hand the world is always 'there'. Whenever we encounter anything, the world has already been previously discovered, though not thematically.' P113

My 'Shaping the Ride' film submitted for The Power Of Making competition

I have submitted a short film for The Power of Making exhibition at the V&A. The submission can be seen at http://vimeo.com/groups/pomopensub/videos/27098546

Heidegger's month of July

The month of July was spent on getting to know mr. Heidegger a little better. Unfortunately not sure that this was entirely achieved. However Hubert Dreyfus was very helpful here.

Transfer

The transfer event seems to have gone smoothly. Although it is such a strange process.

'Immortal' in London

'Immortal' in London

'Immortal' in London 2nd of June

'Its is within... tension filled liminal spaces of physical and virtual interface that opportunities arise for new experimental forms and practices.' (Broadhurst, 2007 p.69)

'Immortal' in London 2nd of June

The concept and the title of the project have been inspired by Borges' short story by the same title, recounting a journey of a protagonist who attempts to find immortality. He finds a society that due to their immortality have a very complicated and contradictory relationship with their bodies, both being absent about physical hardship yet nourished by pleasure..

The project consists of two projected cubes and a performer who constantly attempts to re-align her digital selves only to see them jumbled up again.

From 'Digital Practices. Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology'

'Significant questions relate to the use of sophisticated technologies within contemporary art and performance practices. Since, as i have argued elsewhere, language without the body does not 'mean' at all, as corporeality provides language with meaning under sociocultural and thus temporal constraints (Broadhurst 1999b, 17), what then are the implications for a virtual body? Therefore my overall question is: as digital technologies are becoming increasingly prominent in art practices, does the resultant physical/virtual interface give rise to a new aesthetics? What are the theoretical and practical implications of this?' (Broadhurst, 2007 p. 1)

Show in London

The new collaborative installation/performance 'Immortal' will be exhibited at the Wayward gallery in London on the 2nd of June. The project is a collaboration with Wrap3. The preparation has not been easy considering the busy work period this time of the year is. Several trips over to Bristol to film, re-film and rehearse.

One of the most amazing websites I have ever seen

http://wonder-wall.com/#project/en

Towards the Science of Consciousness conference and live feed

http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/

http://www.mindevent.se/