Urban Screens Melbourne 08: Conference: Mobile Publics; October 3-5, 2008 :: Exhibition: Connected Communities; October 3 – 8, 2008 :: BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne :: Registration Reminder.

Urban Screens Melbourne 08 (USM08), hosted by Federation Square Pty Ltd, is the first international urban screens conference and exhibition to be staged in the Asia Pacific region, following successful events in Amsterdam in 2005 and Manchester in 2007. USM08 will present an integrated conference program of keynote lectures and panel sessions in the BMW Edge Theatre and an outdoor multimedia program of curated screenings, skype enabled “townmeetings”, joint broadcasting, interactive and participatory screen-based projects.

Registrations are now open for the Mobile Publics conference, which will explore the impact of digital technology and new media on the public space of contemporary cities in relation to urban screens. Keynote speakers will include:

* Aaron Tan, renowned architect and Director of RAD, Hong Kong, who has been a driving force in the urban development of Asian cities,
* Andreas Broeckmann international curator, founding Director of the prestigious Transmediale Festival for Art and Digital Culture in Berlin,
* Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, and eminent globalisation scholar who wrote the seminal text The Global City.

A range of panels will be presented on themes such as Art, Technology and Public Space9, Strategies for Urban Regeneration9 and Cross-Cultural Public Networks9 with guest speakers from Australia, Japan, Korea, Germany, Netherlands, Taiwan, UK, and USA including: Professor Ien Ang, ARC Fellow, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney; Patrick Fox, Manager of the tenantspin project at FACT, Liverpool; Mike Gibbons, Head of Live Events London 2012; Manray Hsu, curator of the 2008 Taipei Biennial; Yann Le Belligo, Sales Director, Barco Media, Asia Pacific; Dr Yoshitaka Mori, Tokyo University of the Arts; Dr Melinda Rackham, Director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology; Jan Schuijren, curator of Contemporary Art Screen Zuidas in Amsterdam; Mirjam Struppek, President of the International Urban Screens Association; Professor Leon van Schaik AO, Architecture, Innovation Chair, RMIT Melbourne; Soh Yeong Roh, Director of Art Center Nabi in Seoul.

There will be single tickets available for the keynote session on Friday night and also on Saturday night. They must be booked in advance.

USM08 is initiated by the International Urban Screens Association and developed by Federation Square, in association with the University of Melbourne.