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!