“We are now using the sensitivity afforded by the optical tweezer as a very sensitive microphone,” said Professor Jon Cooper from the University of Glasgow, who is heading the micro-ear project.

“The optical tweezer can measure or manipulate at piconewton forces,” said Professor Cooper. A piconewton is a millionth of the force that a grain of salt exerts when resting on a tabletop.

The site includes sound samples and a visual representation of the capturing of the sound of bacterial flagella movement.

By exploring subversive artistic methodologies and developing (counter-) conspiratorial strategies to uncover new forms of expression and digital discourse Conspire… will attempt to enter the increasingly prevalent yet ambiguous worlds of network induced narratives, cryptic environments and speculative inquiry …”

transmediale.08 – Conspire …

festival for art and digital culture
berlin 29 January – 3 February 2008

festival for adventurous music and related visual arts
25 January – 2 February 2008

_Call for Entries_

:: Deadline: 7 September 2007 ::
Award Ceremony: 2 February 2008

Find the complete call and submission form for download at:
http://transmediale.de/08/pdf/tmctm08_call

*transmediale.08 – Conspire … & club transmediale.08 – Unpredictable*

Together, transmediale and club transmediale invite the submission of works and projects for the festival 2008. Submissions for both festivals participate in the transmediale Award 2008, for which an international jury will award prizes totalling ca. 10 000 EUR. Abstracts and papers for a proposed Vilém Flusser Theory Award are also being invited.

As one of the leading international festivals for art and digital culture, transmediale presents and pursues the advancement of artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural, political and economic impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience the technologies which impact virtually all aspects of our daily lives. As such, transmediale understands media technologies as cultural techniques that need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape global societies.

club transmediale (CTM) is a prominent international festival dedicated to contemporary electronic, digital and experimental music, as well as the diverse range of artistic activities in the context of sound and club culture. CTM presents projects that experiment with new aesthetic parameters and new forms of cooperation, develop possibilities for informational and economic self-determination, and reflect on the role of contemporary music against the backdrop of technological and social transformations. Now more than ever, music emerges as a laboratory for multiform experiments and as an active agent that allows for new cultural techniques to be tested and proffered to the wider world. CTM puts the focus on direct experience, risk-taking and personal interaction, and thereby emphasises the situational potential of live performance, the interplay of various media – sound and image, in particular – and candid exchange between sub-cultural and academic initiatives.

transmediale is a project of the Kulturprojekte Berlin in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt. transmediale is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. club transmediale is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds. ;

Other crazy links to iPhone hysteria on Boing Boing.

CALL FOR
EXHIBITION ENTRIES AND PAPERS

ACM
Multimedia 2007 is the premier annual multimedia conference, covering
all
aspects of multimedia computing. The ACM MM Interactive Art Program seeks
to
bring together the arts and multimedia communities to create the stage
to
explore, discuss, and push the limits for the advancement of both
multimedia
technology through the arts, and the arts through multimedia
technology.

This fourth
version of the Interactive Art Program will consist of a conference
track and
an art exhibition. We invite artists working with digital media
and
researchers in technical areas to submit their original contributions to
the
following tracks:

-
Conference track: we solicit papers describing interactive
multimedia
artworks, tools, applications, and technical approaches for
creative uses of
multimedia content and technology as well as technical
approaches for the
management of art-related media collections. Emphasis will
be given to novel
works that use a rich variety of media and those that are
interactive,
particularly works that exploit non-conventional human-computer
interfaces or
sensors in new and emerging areas. We strongly encourage papers
with a strong
technical content written by artists. Papers may be long (10
pages) or short (2
to 4 pages). Long papers are presented in front of an
audience and short papers
are presented in poster format. New Deadline for
full papers to the Arts
Program Conference Track May 22, 2007
Deadline for
short papers to the Arts Program Conference Track June 1,
2007

-
Multimedia art exhibition: “I / You / Other”. We seek artworks that
use
multimedia to explore issues of self-exploration, self-presentation
towards
another, the self in a group or the group as a self. We particularly
seek
interactive multimedia works that by combining multiple media,
technologies,
and novel technical ideas, realize strong artistic concepts
that give a new
perspective on the topic of the exhibition. New Deadline for
submission to the
Art Exhibition: May 22, 2007

For further
submission details please see
http://iap07.multimedia.fh-augsburg.de/

Accepted
papers and art works will be published in the ACM Multimedia
Conference
proceedings.
Important Dates
May 22, 2007 Long papers and art exhibitions
submission deadline.
June 1, 2007 Short papers submission deadline.
June
20, 2007 Authors notification.
July 20, 2007 Camera-ready papers
due.

Program
Chairs

Alejandro
Jaimes, IDIAP Research Institute , Switzerland
(Alex.Jaimes@idiap.ch)
Frank Nack, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
(frank.nack@liris.cnrs.fr)
Thomas Rist, FH Augsburg, Germany
(tr@rz.fh-augsburg.de)

Curatorial
Committee

Annet
Decker, Montevideo, Amsterdam
Anne Nigten,
V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam
Prof. Robert Rose, time based
media, Faculty of Design, Augsburg University of
Applied Sciences,
Augsburg
Alejandro Jaimes, IDIAP Research
Institute , Switzerland
(Alex.Jaimes@idiap.ch)
Frank Nack, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
(frank.nack@liris.cnrs.fr)
Thomas Rist, FH Augsburg, Germany
(tr@rz.fh-augsburg.de)

Some fun performance at about 5 minutes into the video.

The Net Squared conference will bring a dynamic mix of international leaders in emerging technology, politics and philanthropy together to discuss the future of tech enabled social change work. Tickets to attend the conference physically have sold out – but there will be a number of different ways you can enjoy the events online and the conversation won’t stop on the 31st of May. We hope you will explore the resources, news and views throughout the Net Squared site. Please see Netsquared.org/remote to learn more about online participation during the conference.

Call it Web 2.0, call it the Social Web or call it Information and Communication Technologies for Development; one way or the other – these are exciting times to prepare for and move into the future. Please join us for an ongoing conversation about collaboration, empowerment, inclusion and sustainability here at Net Squared – remixing the web for social change!

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. NMC member institutions are found in almost every state in the US, across Canada, and in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Among the membership are an elite list of the most highly regarded colleges and universities in the world, as well as a growing list of innovative museums, research centers, foundations, and forward-thinking companies.

2006 NMC Summer Conference
Cleveland, Ohio
June 7 – 10, 2006

The consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression, and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration, and recognize excellence among its member institutions. Through its many projects, its comprehensive web site, and its series of international conferences, the NMC stimulates dialog and understanding through the exploration of promising ideas, technologies, and applications.

Projects & Initiatives

The Emerging Technologies Initiative focuses on expanding the boundaries of teaching, learning and creative expression by creatively applying new tools in new contexts. The Horizon Project, the centerpiece of this initiative, charts the landscape of emerging technologies and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report. The 21st Century Literacy Initiative, the NMC’s newest, is a multi-year effort to explore and expand the potential of new developments in visual and digital literacy. In 2005, this initiative replaced the longstanding and very successful Learning Object Initiative.

The remaining two initiatives provide the foundation for the work of the consortium. The Dynamic Knowledge Initiative provides a mechanism for the NMC to generate, distribute, and share knowledge on topics of interest to the organization. The NMC’s Series of Online Conferences, through which the NMC is building a web of knowledge and online resources, is the most visible expression of this initiative. The New Collaborations Initiative encourages collaboration, knowledge exchange, and joint projects between colleges and universities, museums, libraries, research centers, and other learning-focused organizations. The Pachyderm Project is its centerpiece and experimental test bed.

As a central part of its mission, the NMC encourages and supports innovation in the pursuit of effective collaboration, especially in the activities and projects in which it plays a leadership role.

I went in with some preconceived notions that didn’t line up with the events that actually transpired.  I supposed that there would be a lot of high-end graphic design and architecture projects with folks showing the latest and greatest of what they’d been working on.  Instead the evening played out much more like a comfortable salon. 

Presenters dropped their images onto a central computer which projected slideshows as the rules of Pecha Kucha define: 20 people showing 20 images for 20 seconds each.  The presentations ranged from elevations and satellite photos of the greatest architectural environments created by humans to photos of album covers from late 60s to early 80s jazz and rock bands.  Some presentations were very personal such as a slideshow of work done by one presenter’s students and associates and another set of photographs of a rural mining ghost town in [West Virginia, Pensylvania]. 

The salon environment led to an easy atmosphere for conversation with the wall-to-wall crowd (I didn’t get a seat the whole night).  There was almost an air of this event being “Flickr Live”.  One bit of bashing I would like to do is to condemn the group that ordered pizza into 330 Ritch for their small table while the rest of us had to stand there and smell it – selfish and way out of line.

All-in-all this event was the kind of community building that continues to fight the anonymity of city living and I’m excited to see what develops.  In looking over past Pecha Kucha events in SF, it appears that a lot of the presenters have been the same over the last three months.  There were no shortage of folks in the room so hopefully some unique members of the audience will step up for future events.

Subscribe to the mailing list at the San Francisco Pecha Kucha site for info on upcoming events.

Essay by Kevin Killian

Curated by Margaret Tedesco

March 31–April 29, 2006

Opening reception, Friday March 31, 7–10 pm

Queen’s Nails Annex is pleased to present overundersidewaysdown the third in a series of guest curated exhibitions. This current project is curated by Margaret Tedesco and presents the latest work by San Francisco artists Mitzi Pederson , Wayne Smith, and David Hatcher from Los Angeles. Parallel to the exhibition an essay written by noted San Francisco poet, novelist, critic and playwright Kevin Killian.

over, under, sideways, down

backwards, forwards, square, and round

when will it end, will it

when will it end

hey

—From the song by The Yardbirds, 1966

The framework for the exhibition overundersidewaysdown is motivated by the notion of       

“surround sound”—that which conveys an experience where one is surrounded 360 degrees

by sound. The works of the three artists included paraphrase in their articulation and use of materials from drawing, sculpture, sound (i.e., sampling, field recordings, and live performance) to appropriated images and collaboration with formal histories and/or pop signifiers. The elements of origin figure prominently in front and behind encountering an enveloped fuzzy dissonance that tracks and overlaps a heightened sense of time and space.

About the Artists:

David Hatcher is an artist and nutritional psychiatrist based in Los Angeles and Berlin, Germany. Hatcher’s work investigates social, political, economic, philosophical and aesthetic discourse at the level of its material and optical artifacts. His ongoing project Oedipal Manoeuvres in the Dark, examines the visual forms and aesthetics of critical discourse in the West and has been exhibited and acquired in Europe, the US and Australasia in a variety of print and installation formats. His forthcoming book I Don’t Must (Revolver Verlag, Frankfurt, 2006) attempts to facilitate and record dialogue between aesthetic practitioners and protagonists from a range of interdependent fields, including activism around indigenous sovereignty in Aotearoa, New Zealand, the standardization industry in the European Union, the pitfalls of political asylum for citizens of Belarus wishing to leave their culture of origin, identity politics in East Africa and their relationship to the question of militancy and the history of blotter art in San Francisco and beyond. He is currently working as an independent analyst for Los Angeles based non-profit arts organization Art2102, and occasionally lectures and publishes on contemporary art and culture with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific Region.

San Francisco-based artist Mitzi Pederson’s practice revolves around aspects of reconsideration highlighting mistakes or amendments, and bringing attention to that which goes unnoticed. Pederson plays with visual and spatial conditions to confuse perception. Accumulation of elements, use of specific materials, light, and movement creates subtle and constant change. These arrangements explore how accumulated parts exist as distinct entities and simultaneously function as a whole and define tangibility. Pederson utilizes found objects and pre-fabricated materials, such as plywood or cinderblock. The result provides remnants that then manipulate and create a new object. This new altered object maintains a sense of history and former identity, while contradicting the previous perception of that object. The transformation involves meticulous reconfiguration and organization of the materials.

Pederson received her MFA in painting and drawing from California College of the Arts, San Francisco in 2004, and her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999. Her work has been shown both locally and internationally with a scheduled solo exhibition at White Columns, New York this year. Pederson is represented by Ratio 3, San Francisco.

Wayne Smith is a San Francisco-based artist who works in a variety of media including drawing, scanner-based photography, video and sound. His work has been shown locally and nationally. Smith’s sound work employs  a combination of sampling, field recordings and live performance. Recording as Aero-Mic’d, he has released two CDs: Aero-Mic’d and Under A Sun. A new disc, titled I Think You’re Great, to be released in conjunction with the upcoming show overundersidewaysdown. Smith has co-written several plays with local author Kevin Killian as part of SF Poet’s Theatre, currently his play Manual for a Block has been performed as part of Small Press Traffic’s Poet’s Theatre Festival, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He is currently collaborating with Berlin-based artist D-L Alvarez on a new sound/video installation about late-sixties California culture. Smith is an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA.

Kevin Killian is a US poet, novelist, critic and playwright. He has written a book of poetry, Argento Series (2001), two novels, Shy (1989) and Arctic Summer (1997), a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989), and a book of stories, Little Men (1996) that won the PEN Oakland award for fiction. A second collection I Cry Like a Baby was published by Painted Leaf Books in 2001. With Lew Ellingham, Killian has written many essays and articles on the life and work of the American poet Jack Spicer [1925-65] and co-edited Spicer’s posthumous books The Train of Thought and The Tower of Babel (both 1994). Their biography of Spicer, Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance was published by Wesleyan University Press in 1998. He and Peter Gizzi are currently (2006) editing Spicer’s complete poems. For the San Francisco Poets Theater Killian has written thirty plays, including Stone Marmalade (1996, with Leslie Scalapino) and Often (2001, with the late Barbara Guest). He is the film columnist for the new online journal Fanzine. His next book-in fact, his next two books—will be all about Kylie Minogue.

Queen’s Nails Annex is located in the Mission district of San Francisco and serves as a project space dedicated to presenting collaborative, site-specific and experimental works by artists. QNA hopes to challenge both emerging and established artists to work outside their ‘normal’ practice in order to produce unique projects. Queen’s Nails Annex is co-directed and curated by Bay Area visual artists Bob Linder and Julio Morales.

QUEEN’S NAILS ANNEX

3191 MISSION STREET

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110

415.706.1786 / 415.992.2041

www.queensnailsannex.com

THURSDAY-SATURDAY 12-6 PM