YOUR CULTURETV BLOG ON GLOBAL ART NEWS, VIDEOS, MUSEUM, GALLERY, PICKS & TIPS

Friday, September 29, 2006

medi@terra 7th International Art + Technology Festival GAMING REALITIES

What role do videogames play in our lives today?

As the boundaries between the virtual and the real blur more and more in the new gaming worlds we have come to inhabit, new conditions arise.

With the theme Gaming Realities medi@terra 06 aims to explore the different dimensions and developments in the gaming fields and the impact they have on the different fields of society today. This year�s Festival and International Conference set up to explore the diverse ideas, narratives, and ideologies involved in the video games.

Videogames express and reflect today�s world � its aesthetics and technologies, give rise to new identities and new mentalities.

Medi@terra Festival has invited individuals who have realised the importance and dimensions which this field has acquired, asking them to deposit their viewpoints and experiences with regard to the connections of the game to society, the identity and psychology of the player, the space and narration of the game, new technologies and conceptions and possibilities for the computer game to comprise the key art of 21st century.

'Gaming Realities: the Challenge of Digital Culture' is a three days International Conference [6-8 October, Athens] organised by Fournos Centre for the Digital Culture.

57 papers will be presented in the following thematic units:

Gaming Situation: Game-Player-Society
[Gaming Society / Identity and Psychology of the Player / Game Politics]
Gaming Environments
[Game in Urban Space / Gaming New Narratives / Gaming Technologies / Immersion in Game]
Game Art
[Game Art and Culture / Game as art]

Keynote speakers include:
Adrian David Cheok
, Director of Mixed Reality Lab, NTU Singapore, Associate Professor in the Schools of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Celia Pearce, Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication & Culture, Ivan Allen College, Georgia Institute of Technology
Chris Crawford, Game Designer (Atari), Author 'The Art of Computer Game Design'
Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer, CEO, Gamelab
Espen Aarseth, Associate Professor and Principal Researcher Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief Gamestudies
Frans M�yr�, Director of Research, Hypermedia laboratory, University of Tampere, President of DIGRA
Gonzalo Frasca, IT University of Copenhagen, Editor www.ludology.org, Co-editor of www.gamestudies and www.watercolergames.org
Julian Dibbell, Contributing Editor Wired Magazine, Author 'My tiny life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World'
Julian Oliver, Free-software developer, composer, media-theorist, Founder of www.selectparks.net
Kristian Lukic, writer, artist, cultural and game researcher, Founder of Eastwood, Real Time Strategy Group
Manthos Santorineos, artist, Artistic Director of medi@terra festival, Assistant Professor Athens School of Fine Arts
Margarete Jahrmann, Professor for media arts & game arts, University of Arts and Design, Department of New Media Switzerland
Matt Adams, member of the Blast Theory
Micheal Mateas, Faculty Member University of California, Santa Cruz, Creator of FA�ADE
Tom & Vicky Arundel, Creators of the Darwinia, Introversion Software
Xavier Lardy, Storyboarder, game designer, founder of www.machinima.fr

[online registration available at www.mediaterra.org]

The conference will follow an exhibition of Game installations / Political games / Game mods / Text adventures / Game multiplayer environments / Machinimas / Sound based games


Exhibition: Alter Gaming
4-8 October, Athens, Greece

Exhibition Opening: October 4, 20.30

30 game projects by independent creators and artists from the international field that work on the new media and explore the possibilities given by the videogaming platforms. Different �unseen� sides of today�s gaming realm are proposed with games characterised for their interdisciplinary character, the socio-political messages they convey, the technical and aesthetic innovations they introduce and the subversion of game standards imposed by the gaming industry.

Featuring games by
Christoph Anthes / Blast Theory / Benjamin Chang / Dimi Christopoulos / Devart / Eastwood Group / Sylvia Eckermann / Gerald Nestler / Christof Cargnelli / Oliver Irschitz / Fiambrera / David Gauthier / Henri Marino / Laurie Prevot / Jean Batiste Spieser / Troy Innocent / Introversion Software / The Ludic Society / The mamayans / Michael Mateas & Andrew Stern / Panagiotis Koutlemanis / Dimitris Dinieas / Axel Stockburger / Persuasive Games / Molleindustria / Nick Montfort / Personal Cinema / Persuasive Games / ATI / Prof. Marie-Helene Tramus / Cedric Plessier / Orna Portugaly / Daphna Talithman / Sharon Younger / Serious Games Interactive / Axel Stockburger / Tale of Tales / Julian Oliver / Steven Pickles / sheismartha / Alexandros Plakidas Dasios / University of the Aegean / Mathias Fuchs + Oliver Farshi

Machinimas La petite Anthologie de Machinimas
A compilation by Xavier Lardy (founder of machinima.fr) presenting some of the most interesting machinima works created in the last years. A collaboration of Paris Cinema, the Forum des Images and Machinima.fr that premiered in Paris last July.

Including projects by:
Ethan Vogt / Bernie Burns / Dave Lloyd and Matt Kelland / Pierce Portocarrero / Hugh Hancock / Ezra Ferguson and Terran Gregory / Katherine Anna Kang / Paul Marino / Friedrich Kirschner /
G Hoffmann / Alex Chan

PLUS!
Special Sound performances + parties
by the Videogame Orchestra
Mathias Fuchs + Oliver Farshi
that mix old video game tunes with contemporary electronic sounds offering a different unique navigation in a audiovisual environment

More information and details
www.mediaterra.org
or contact us
info@mediaterra.org
tel +302106460748
FAX +302106470069

Monday, September 25, 2006

Ooglive 29.09 Amsterdam

Ooglive is a live evening program in the Westergasfabriek in which audiovisual and performing artists comment on news in a direct and visual way. Ooglive is an evening divided in two parts about news, arts and media. In Ooglive the audience will experience the scale, urgency and
diversity of the news, placing the audience in the middle of the news experience.

In Ooglive more then 35 well known artists from Holland and abroad will be presenting works most of which will be unique pieces made for this Ooglive, which can only be seen at this event. The first part of the program, 'The Interface', takes place on and around an interface, projected on a cinematic scale and inspired by the organized hysteria of 24 hour TV news channels where all media streams converge onto a single screen. The multiple possibilities of multi-media and live performance will be combined: from SMS to print media, from pre-recorded presentations to live feeds, from visual to performing artists. The interface will be developed by Joes Koppers , whose work has recently been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

For the second part of the program, called 'The Newslounge' the audience will be invited to come to 'Zuiveringshal Oost,' In a bazaar like environment, Ooglive will present installations, performances and VJ's. Here Ooglive will join other acts which are part of the Picnic at Night event. Amongst others:
Riciotti Ensemble and Pipslab. Along with enjoying the performances and installations, the audience can have a drink in the many lounge area's and dance to the beat of DJ Phill Horneman.


Ooglive, the Interface, presents audio-visual contributions by: Annie Abrahams, Jonathan Barnbrook, Persijn Broersen en Margit Lucács, Cut 'n Paste, Eddie D., Robert Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma (Fucking Good Art), Jonathan Harris, Han Hoogerbrugge, Jimpunk, Max Kisman, Jeroen Kooijmans, Yvonne Kroese, Nils Mühlenbruch, Jochem Niemandsverdriet, Richard Rogers, Robin Sloan, Doron Solomons, Theatre of War, Vandejong, Jody Zellen and Sylvie Zijlmans.

and live performance by: Sonja Dover, Yvonne Kroese, Jochem Niemandsverdriet, PJ Roggeband, Richard Rogers, Frank Starik, Theatre of War, Dick Tuinder and Peter de Wit.
host: Bart Oomen

live music by: Han Buhrs and the POW ensemble
interface design: Joes Koppers en Bente van Bourgondiën

Ooglive, the Newslounge, presents installations by:
Bass Beek, Cut'n Paste, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht school of Visual
Communications , Kesselskramer and Mauzz.
performance and installations by: The Geuzen, Kwasten met die Gasten en Lancel en Maat.
and VJ-ing by: SF&L and VJ-Moto
artistic director: Nanette Hoogslag
production: Maarten Duinker, Paradiso

For more information about Ooglive and the participating artists, please check the website
www.ooglive.com

Sunday, September 24, 2006

PREVIEW BERLIN – THE EMERGING ART FAIR 29.09-03.10

The newest of Berlin’s art fairs, Preview Berlin was a resounding success during its inaugural run in 2005. With more than 9000 enthusiastic visitors and strong support from the artistic community, Preview Berlin has positioned itself as an important event on the international art fair circuit.

The Idea

Preview Berlin was launched in 2005 as a joint effort by four galleries in Berlin - Förderkoje®, Galerie Jarmuschek und Partner, Galerie Kuttner Siebert and loop - raum für aktuelle kunst. Administered by a highly professional organisation, Preview Berlin offers low-priced booth space for the introduction and promotion of high quality, emerging contemporary art. This gives art collectors, art lovers and art professionals the opportunity to view and discover an extensive range of exciting new work from around the world gathered in one location. The format is of great benefit not only to buyers, collectors and aficionados, but also to the participating galleries and their artists.
Preview Berlin coincides with the ART FORUM Berlin as an enrichment of the already established art fair market.

The Profile


Preview Berlin is a platform from which a new generation of galleries and project spaces can introduce and promote the work of their artistic prodigies. The primary focus is on the exciting work of emerging artists from the explosive art scene in Berlin, as well as from other international hotbeds of artistic production. Exhibitors are selected by a committee based on the recommendations of galleries, curators and other art professionals whose expertise and networks ensure that Preview Berlin plays host to a multifaceted spectrum of original emerging contemporary art.

The Venue

Backfabrik is our venerable location situated in the heart of Berlin's vibrant gallery and art scene near Alexanderplatz on Saarbrückerstrasse 36-38 in Berlin-Mitte. Conveniently accessible by public and private transport, the premises can accommodate ca. 45 galleries and project spaces. A spaceous lounge serves as the lively meeting point for German and international visitors.

ART FORUM BERLIN 30.09-04.10

ART FORUM BERLIN, the international trade fair for contemporary art, will take place at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 30 September to 4 October 2006. Organized by Messe Berlin GmbH in cooperation with an international art gallery advisory board, ART FORUM BERLIN is one of the most innovative, world-class art shows.

With 120 galleries from 25 countries, ART FORUM BERLIN showcases the works of established artists and newcomers. The spacious, historically protected exhibition halls 18-20 offer ideal conditions for exclusive art presentations from galleries selected by an international jury. With its compact, clearly targeted approach, ART FORUM BERLIN provides a unique venue offering information and dialogue for contemporary art dealers and agents.

Friday, September 22, 2006

ROBODOCK FESTIVAL 2006 - ALCHEMY

The 9th edition of the Robodock Festival will be at the NDSM-wharf in Amsterdam-Noord. It will take place from 20 till 23th of september 2006. The theme of this festival edition is alchemy. This will be the leading thread within the program and a source of inspiration for the participating artists.

Robodock is a unique international festival with a main core of technology, spectacle theatre, multi-media and industrial installations. In cooperation with artists, technology students and theatre makers the festival is styled by re-using scrap and other industrial left-overs. Nowadays Robodock has an important international workshop-function.

The festival shows unpredictable combinations of different disciplines and bizar theatral applications, of which fire and steel are important elements. No disciplines are excluded: theatre, plastic arts, music, dance, film, multimedia, acrobatics, technical experiments, deejays.

With a surprising and renewing program Robodock shows four days 'state of the art' - projects that have no like in Europe and that are specially developed for and by the Robodock Festival. On every day of the festival there will be a different program.

Theme of 2006: Alchemy

Alchemy is the old secret science that, by using the 'philosopher's stone', aimed at brewing a life-elixer out of precious metals. In 2006 Robodock will research the question wheter this science is still actual in our modern times. Do modern technologies contain a life-elixer?

Alchemy not only is a inspiring theme. It is also a theme that touches the search in our present society to spirituality, mysticism, symbolism and religion. Functioning as a experimental platform Robodock will become a alchemist laboratory. These are the corners of our focus this year.

History

The Robodock Festival takes place since 1998 and is organised by the ADeM foundation. The festival can be traced back further in time to the former cultural hotspots of the 90ies like the Graansilo and Vrieshuis Amerika. For many years the festival took place at the ADM-wharf in the western harbour of Amsterdam. After one edition in Rotterdam in 2003, the festival came back to Amsterdam.

In 1998 Robodock was the initiator of the Amsterdamse Broedplaats Policy. Nowadays Robodock has a sharp identity within the the field of international festivals. In cooperation with NEMO Robodock also organises conventions on technology, creativity and art.

In short: Robodock gives an exciting and lifely face to the creative industry of Amsterdam.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Rooftop Shots


Rooftop Films presents Rooftop Shots
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/show_06-shots.html
Friday, September 22, 2006
8:30PM: Live Music by Scream! Hello | 9PM: Short Films
Tickets are $8 and available at the door or online
Venue is located on the lawn of the Automotive High School
(50 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

Animation, comedy, drama, documentary, drama -- the weirdest and most wonderful, the upsetting and uplifting, these are the films too sharp to be called shorts. Come out one last time to enjoy the last nights of summer and fantastic films fired into the night sky: Rooftop Shots.
ence, but fails to win the poet a free beer.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

CONFLUX

CONFLUX
The Annual NYC Festival for Contemporary Psychogeography

Thursday, September 14 - Sunday, September 17

http://www.confluxfestival.org

Conflux is the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice.

At Conflux, participants, along with attendees and the public, put their investigations into action on the city streets. The city becomes a playground, a laboratory and a space for the development of new networks and communities.

Conflux events are free and open to the public. They include works from over 75 participating artists and presenters:

* walks and tours
* lectures, workshops, and panels
* street games and tech-enabled expeditions
* interactive performance
* social / environmental research
* public art installations
* audio / video / film programs

CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE: http://www.confluxfestival.org

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Blindate Berlin 10.9. Galapagosartspace NY

The recent exodus of New Yorkers to Berlin can stop now because Berlin is back in town. If you want to get a whiff of the real Berlin air, where a cosmo isnt just a drink, we dare you to go on a blind date with Berlins No 1 curator of splendid night besides the mainstream, Jim avignon. Not only has he been doing extraordinary events in clubs such as Maria, WMF and White Trash, since 2001 he has also been running his own " who is afraid of friendly capitalism " lounge.

For the berlin Blinddate at galapagos expect everything and regret nothing. Nova Hutas fakegaydisco will mix into Florian Thalhofers love story project and the dynamic mysterious noises of Roman game and room will switch to fragile avantgarde pop by Frau Kraushaar. If you thought the first one was fun, this one will be a real blast.

Featuring music from Neoangin, NovaHuta, Frau Kraushaar, Roman game, and room

DJ team JackewieHose

with multimedia installations by Florian Thalhofer

Decoration and livepainting by Jim Avignon

Sep 10 | 8pm | 70 North 6th | Brooklyn
http://www.galapagosartspace.com

When contemporary art invades Eastern Paris


Hoping to boost the circulation of contemporary art and to inspire a newfound energy in the burgeoning neighborhoods of Eastern Paris, the following seven contemporary art spaces teamed up together last spring: Café au lit, Cosmic Galerie, le Frac Ile-de-France/Le Plateau, La Générale, la Galerie Italienne, la Galerie Jocelyn Wolff and la Vitrine of l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy.

To celebrate this special collaboration, a simultaneous opening of all new shows is scheduled to take place four times a year, giving art seekers the chance to hop from one gallery to the next in a single night.

The next event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 13th from 6:00 to 10:00pm, and shall include a course through neighborhoods as lively and diverse as Belleville, Oberkampf, Mouzaïa and Buttes-Chaumont.

Both public (art centers, schools) and private (galleries), these seven art spaces invite you to discover the following new shows for the upcoming fall season:
Café au lit : fatal – fatale – fatal, solo exhibition by Gabriele Basch.
Cosmic Galerie : group show by the Kimberley Clark Collective, with Iris Van Dongen.
Le Frac Ile-de-France/Le Plateau : Practice zero tolerance, solo exhibition by Adel Abdessemed.
La Générale : Solo exhibition by Pier Francesco Lerose and Echappement, group exhibition
&NBSP: Apocalypse Now
La Galerie Italienne : ZIG-ZAG, selection of the best Italian design of the last 10 years.
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff : group show with Katinka Bock, Andreas Fogarasi, Marlene Haring, Jan Mancuska, Tina Schulz, Christoph Weber.
La Vitrine : Le monde propre, solo exhibition by Fayçal Baghriche.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

“COME OUT & PLAY” FESTIVAL TURNS CITY STREETS INTO A PLAYGROUND SEPTEMBER 22-24 NY


“COME OUT & PLAY” FESTIVAL TURNS CITY STREETS INTO A PLAYGROUND SEPTEMBER 22-24

On Hudson Street, an advertising copywriter is racing to reach Barrow before an invisible Voodoo spirit does. But they arrive at the same place at the same time, and his cellphone resets with the spirit’s face on the screen.

Two Venture Capitalists are running down Sixth avenue. They are trying to protect a payphone from their opponents, editors of a popular trendspotting journal. It’s a valuable payphone: it’s generated 10 points in the last 10 minutes.

A high school teacher standing in Times Square looks up from her cellphone, and shouts, “Okay, I need a gorilla, I’ve got to find a gorilla.” She turns to her teammate: “Peter, act like a gorilla.”

Mobility and the Urban Playground

By now, everyone has experienced the Office Without Borders. Cellphones, PDAs, Blackberries and wi-fi have redefined how and where we work.

Now these same technologies are transforming how we play.

Games and entertainment are no longer tied to the wires of a PlayStation console, or a desktop monitor. Cell phone games, a burgeoning industry, are leaving behind the approximations of aging arcade titles, and are taking their game elements from the real world… through the lens of the camera, SMS, the location of the laptop, even the contact list of friends.

These factors have led to an explosion of interest in Big Games, multiplayer games for the real world. There’s even a class in Big Games at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Adjunct Professor Frank Lantz, who teaches the class, says “These games provide a glimpse of a future where smart objects and networked spaces blur the line between the real and the imaginary.”

Big Games are equal parts future and the past, says Lantz, “Big Games also represent a return to gaming’s roots in physical activity and face to face social interaction.”

Big Games gain ground

The genre has been developing over the last few years from Tokyo to Adelaide to Helsinki. But this September, New York will be the capital of Big Games. :

  • Come Out and Play, the first ever festival/conference/meetup centered around the emerging genre of Big Games. Curated and organized by some of New York’s most elite game developers, Come Out & Play will run over 25 Big Games through the weekend, all day and all night (premiere September 22)
    http://www.comeoutandplay.org/about/

Says Come Out & Play Organizer Greg Trefry, “With over 25 games from all over the world, Come Out & Play really shows exciting new directions in the way we play. Through Big Games, cities can become chess boards, battlegrounds, ships at sea or places for a little public performance. Technology allowed us to make the local Starbucks an office, now it’s allowing us to make the streets around it a playground.”

Big Games mean business

Even big business is paying attention: Nokia is running a game, Manhattan Mash-up as part of Come Out and Play. Using state-of-the-art Nokia cameraphones, it’s an opportunity for Nokia to display its technology, and put it in the most enthusiastic hands around: game players.

Beyond Nokia, the festival will showcase innovative new work from leading professional Big Game designers Area/Code, Jane McGonigal, The Go Game and SFZero, as well as games designed by up-and-coming artists and students.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Come Out & Play is the first festival dedicated to big games, running events over three days. Among them:

  • There will be a pirate themed game in which people move their laptops to different wi-fi "ports" around the city.

  • Players navigate the streets using a map of Baghdad overlaid on New York City.

  • Space Invaders will slide down the side of a building while players dance on the street to destroy them.

  • Nokia’s research group will deploy a collaborative storytelling game around Times Square.

  • Players will run back and forth playing a remix of Pong using their sense of hearing to track the ball and their body as a paddle.

The festival will feature roughly 25 official events from September 22-24, 2006. Games will take place throughout New York City, see details below. The opening on Friday night will feature a number of games starting at Eyebeam, and will include a panel discussion at Eyebeam on Saturday.

Work will remain in the office and the streets will become a playground.

For more information visit: http://www.comeoutandplay.org

DATES

Festival: September 22-24

LOCATION

Headquarters at
Eyebeam - Art & Technology Center

540 W. 21st Street

New York, NY 10011