We've built a Tagtool (http://www.tagtool.org) for our Frontline project and other activities in Darwin. It great for live digital drawing and animation. I trialled it with kids at Manunda Terrace Primary School last week; it didn't break, the kids had fun. We're working on a show, probably based on a children's story. First big outing will be at Palmerston Festival in May this year. We used a plastic Tupperware-like container for a case temporarily; not pretty, but it works (see http://www.frontlinemedia.org.au/node/25).
One day into the Australian Centre for Virtual Art's lab/workshop at ACMI. I'm here to meet other artists, share ideas and experience, and have a good think about what it is I do. I've only recently begun framing some of my R&D as art so a lot of the language at the workshop is unfamiliar. Fascinating to see how artists frame their work and hear how their intentions are described.
I have been invited to create a work for the 2010 Gertrude Projection Festival. I am proposing a building projection that is controled via text message. Does anyone know anyone in Melbourne that would be interested in collabrating on this with me? Preferable someone who has had experience with GPRS. I need to know by Friday.
Augmented reality technology and "intelligent" architecture texts from: Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Golan Levin, Pierre Proske, Mark Shepard and Marilena Skvara.
Two questions: One of these I have a lot to say about the other I just raise because it is an extension of a conversation during day 2.
1. 1. ACVA – Australian Centre for Virtual Art. The question was raised of the relevance of the term centre (or even literal realization of a physical centre) in a networked environment. My question goes further and asks how do we deal with the notion of a defined regional (Australian) centre within a global network?
2. 2. How important is it to define what virtual art actually is? One answer posited to this is to simply leave this sort of thing to posterity. We won’t know what it is until we have done it and someone else defines it for us.
But (and this is a very big but), if we don’t develop the critical language to define our own space now we run the risk of falling into the ubiquitous - “new media” as catch all - trap. This does not make it any more of any easy task to do (and I know many people feel that to define is to limit) but I do see it as an imperative to define the concept behind the acronym.
In the middle session of today participants broke off into groups of three and brainstormed the aspirations of what an artist would like from ACVA. Here is the raw list of thoughts promoted by the participants.
be the centre of immersive interactive environments, augmented realities, tactile interfaces, 3DTV, stereoscopics, head tracking, holographics and all things cool.
Longevity – follow up. Meeting again P2P - flesh meet
Link to participants web presence online
Membership – Model for membership
What is the ACVA Lab? – Develop mission statement
What is a solid understanding of Virtual Art vis a visNetwork Art.
The Centre? Where is the centre. Strategic alliances with real spaces.The centre is a node in a network
Inspiring Art
High Stakes: Creative Commons etc, Proceed with Trust and Respect. Openness etc. Code of practice and practical information about IP & CC etc
Self regulation by artists: Online activism, rather than censorship etc. Good use of forum space
Establish approach to engagement with moral/social/political issues. (provide a voice on key issues)
Online spaces for workshopping, meeting, sandboxing
Creative Commons approach to tutorials and content
Networking access - Keep project momentum.
Knowledge of university departments etc to assist projects (connecting in with interested students for example)
Validation of what we do – knowledge base – key papers and precedents
ACVA database skills and resources+ forum, reinforcing the network
ACVA Lab develops a program of projects. Eg call for artists, commissioning works, exhibition works, or competitions etc.
Quick turn-around funding – $$$, or resources for accessible server space as an example of subsidized resources
Showcase of ACVALab, illustrate ideas behind ‘non singular’ approach to platforms and potentially use data as a common source for reinterpretation
Justin Clemens (apologies for the paraphrasing but i think i have the gist right here) "one of the things i don't like about a lot of contemporary online art...is that it is without 'juice'... the technology itself is so libidinalised that you forget in giving other people something [in the form of your art's content] that they need to get some 'juice' out of it as well"
Melinda Rackham (and this is a very loose paraphrase) "we need to remember that we have just lived through what may have been a short lived bubble of the free and open internet. Legislation before parliaments all around the world at the moment could mean that in a very short time this bubble in history will burst and the internet will be a very different and far more controlled thing"
