Mes-etoiles (My stars) is an interactive wall that responds to the proximity of people, and provides feedback in the form of light. This means that users are able to use their bodies to draw with the light. The wall consists of numerous squares that each holds a collection of white lights. When a person stands in front of the wall, his or her silhouette will activate the corresponding square of light. Movements will produce dynamic drawings and because of the built-in delay it’s possible for one person to create rather large images.

The developers mention various uses of the wall such as users being able to express themselves, to play, to communicate or to make collective creations. The wall might also break the psychological barriers that appear between the people sharing a given space. Check out the video. There are two more videos and a lot of pictures on the wall’s website. [blogged by Jonas Petersen on Digital Experience]

5VOLTCORE premiered a self-fulfilling cybernetic system that played with the senses and perceptions of the User and the sensors and the processes of the Machine for DEAF07. The Robot is equipped with a knife that the Machine uses to s(t)imulate the test of courage - a kind of game known as Mumblety-Peg. The User puts his hand into the Machine and starts the knife game at the push of a button. The knife starts to hit the space between the fingers, first slowly then continually getting faster. The Machine knows where to chop by receiving signals of a sensor that guides the knife to the place between the fingers. Continue reading

“Shadows are being used by Japanese researchers as an non-intrusive way for friends to stay in touch. Called Teleshadow the system pipes video of what people are doing at home via the net to their friends’ houses. But instead of showing images in full motion and colour, Teleshadow turns them into shadow outlines projected on the inside of a small decorative lamp. Creator Shunpei Yasuda said the shadow presence system aims to fill the gap between live video and static images.

Mr Yasuda, a post-graduate student in Media Design at Japan’s Keio University, said the inspiration for the system came from Japanese history. For many years, he said, Japanese homes have had Shoji or paper walls that divide some rooms. The thin walls preserve some privacy but the shadows cast on the paper as people move about also act as a reminder of that person’s presence…” Continue reading Shadow lamps to connect friends by Mark Ward, BBC News.

On Everything by Pall Thayer - “I’ve set up another CodeChat page for the visualization applet for my piece On Everything. Setup and installation took all of about 1.5 minutes following the installation guide that comes with CodeChat’s source. I hope that others here who are creating code-based artwork will also use the CodeChat system to open-source and generate theoretical discussion for their own code.”

On Everything generates a real-time audio/visual presentation of everything by appropriating material being shared by the worldwide public in the form of shared images and diaries. The source material is endless, thus the work goes on forever. Material is synthesized, mixed and, ultimately, abstracted, to allow for varied interpretation. “On Everything” knows nothing of the content of these materials. It reflects everything while reflecting on nothing. That is up to the viewer.

SOCIAL FABRICS LEF Exhibition: Call for Proposals :: Submissions are invited for wearable technology proposals for an event-style exhibition of wearable technology art, to be held at the College Art Association 2008 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

Social Fabrics will explore artists’ creative deployment of mobile, socially interconnective media as wearable attire or personal accoutrements. This event-style exhibition, curated by Patrick Lichty and Susan Ryan, will demonstrate convergences between fashion as expression / statement, and the phenomenology of “network culture.” Works presented will include technological attire and accessories, as well as works that engage the implications of our contemporary media and fashion driven lifestyles. Continue reading

The Premises Gallery at The Johannesburg Civic Theatre presents Karaoke Confessions by Antoinette Murdoch :: Opening: August 25, 2007; 6pm :: Exhibition closes: September 15, 2007 :: Loveday Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa :: thepremises[at]onair.co.za.

You don’t have to like me: the collective title for approximately 20 “speech-bubbles” form part of Antoinette Murdoch’s installation and performance exhibition entitled Karaoke Confessions. These text works are simple quotations picked up from individuals (who were at one point or another close to the artist) or just declarations by the artist. Continue reading

Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference :: May 29 - June 1, 2008 :: Vancouver, Washington :: Call for Proposals :: Deadline: November, 30, 2007 :: Sponsored by Washington State University Vancouver & the Electronic Literature Organization :: Dene Grigar & John Barber, Co-Chairs.

Producing a work of electronic literature entails not only practice in the literary arts but sometimes also the visual, sonic, and the performative arts; knowledge of computing devices and software programs; and experience in collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and hybridity. Continue reading

Upgrade! Tijuana: Eduardo Navas + Ford Proco :: August 29, 7 -10:00 pm ::@ cecut.

Eduardo Navas es artista, historiador y crítico especializado en nuevos medios; su obra y teorías han sido presentadas en varios lugares en Estados Unidos, Latino América y Europa. Ha sido jurado para ” Turbulence.org” en 2004, también fue jurado para las comisiones de “Rhizome.org” de 2006-07, en Nueva York. Navas es fundador y editor contribuyente de “Net Art Review” (2003-2005), y co-fundador de “newmediaFIX” (desde 2005). Actualmente, Navas es docente de práctica de multimedia en la Universidad del Estado en San Diego (SDSU), y es candidato al doctorado en letras en el Departamento de Historia de Arte y Medios de Comunicación, Teoría y Crítica, en el programa de Bellas Artes en la Universidad de San Diego California (UCSD). Continue reading

The League of Imaginary Scientists is a non-exclusive society for creative scientists, mechanically-inclined artists, absurdist inventors, and self-proclaimed quacks (think subterfuge meets centrifuge). The League specializes in building mega-media constructions of scientific mythologies. Media artist Lucy H. G. is a returning LKV artist-in-residence, having worked and exhibited in Trondheim in winter, 2005. As Dr. L. Hernandez Gomez, she acts as coordinating researcher for the League, pulling from the collective creativity of local and remote artists to realize interactive mega-media installations. Collaborators for The Childhood Machine include Matt Solomon from Los Angeles, artists Anne Helga Henning and Pol Buyesen of Trondheim, with remote engineering by Jeremy Schwartz and Steve Shoffner in Los Angeles and sound development by Imaginationandmymother in London. Continue reading

Argos, Centre for Art & Media, and The Institute of Network Cultures (INC) present: Video Vortex: Responses to YouTube conference :: October 5, 2007; 11:00 am :: ARGOS, Werfstraat 13 rue du Chantier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium :: +32 2 229 00 03 :: stoffel[at]argosarts.org.

Speakers: Lev Manovich, Nora Barry, Keith Sanborn, Tomas Rawlings & Ana Kronschnabl, Simon Ruschmeyer, Peter Westenberg, Johan Grimonprez. Others tbc; Moderated by Geert Lovink - Over the past years the moving image has claimed an increasingly prominent place on the internet. Thanks to a wide range of technologies and web applications it has become possible, not only to record and distribute video, but to edit and remix it on-line as well. Continue reading