Dear Readers,

I’m participating in Network Cultures Winter Camp, Amsterdam, March 3-7, 2009, so don’t expect any new content until March 9.

The Institute of Network Cultures invited Upgrade! International to participate in Winter Camp, along with Blender Foundation, Bricolabs, Dyne.org, Edufactory, Floss Manuals, freeDimensional network, Genderchangers, MyCreativity, and Planetart.

I will represent Upgrade! Boston (BTW, check out our new website, best viewed in Firefox).

Warm Regards,
Jo

NanoArt 2008 – 3rd Edition is open for public viewing online.

NanoArt is a new art discipline at the art-science-technology intersections. It features nanolandscapes (molecular and atomic landscapes which are natural structures of matter at molecular and atomic scales) and nanosculptures (structures created by scientists and artists by manipulating matter at molecular and atomic scales using chemical and physical processes). These structures are visualized with powerful research tools like scanning electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes and their scientific images are captured and further processed by using different artistic techniques to convert them into artworks showcased for large audiences. Continue reading

paraflows 09 – festival for digital arts and cultures: Urban Hacking :: Call for Proposals: DEADLINE: March 15, 2009.

The city of Vienna has a long tradition of art performances and interventions in public spaces. This year’s festival paraflows09 would like to connect these approaches to public and urban spaces while at the same time comment on the roles of digital media by exploring, challenging, and constructing urban infrastructure.

We are interested in projects that investigate the use of urban space for performances, the hacking of and intervention with urban publics. How can areas of freedom be created, discovered and be put to use? Continue reading

CollaborationTransmission — Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, 14 rue Bonaparte, 75006, Paris, France with with Leeds Metropolitan University, Civic Quarter, Calverley St, Leeds, LS1 3HE, UK :: Call for Student Group Collaborations.

We announce the online project, entitled CollaborationTransmission. CT aims to link students of art academies, university cultural departments, or independent organisations, to collaborate through the space of transmission. collaborationtransmission.com is designed to be operational as an open forum built upon the self-initiating principle of broadcast live TV; the online provision of both the discussion and production of collaborative works and independent initiatives. Continue reading

dorkbot BUFFALO — Featuring presentations by Marc Böhlen, Bill Sack, and Nick Stedman :: March 4, 2009; 7:30 – 9:30 :: Sugar City, 19 Wadsworth St., Buffalo, NY.

Marc Böhlen is an artist-engineer. His practice, realtechsupport, offers technology support, the kind of support technology really needs today. Marc is currently Associate Professor of Media Study at the University at Buffalo and Visiting Artist at the AILAB Zürich.

Bill Sack is a composer, musician, and gadgetmaker based in Buffalo. He has a Ph.D. in music composition from the University at Buffalo, where his primary teachers were Jeff Stadelman and Cort Lippe. He is currently employed as the Technical Director at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Continue reading

Public Avatar — Interactive public experiment :: March 6, 2009; 2:00 – 6:00 pm :: Gallery Simulaker, streets of Novo Mesto, Slovenia

Public Avatar , an extraordinary new art project by media artist Martin Bricelj will bring to the streets a real avatar! You will be able to control Public Avatar – a human agent in real space via the project’s web page. You will be able to move Public Avatar, talk to him, visit your friends, test the local food, visit parties, movies, bars, meet the locals and much more! Discover Slovenia! Join thousands of users across the globe! Make sure the game will be interesting and join in!

Generative Nature: Aesthetics, Repetitiveness, Selection and Adaptation by Marco Mancuso, critic, curator and Digicult director (for Mr. Bruce Sterling’s workshop “Designing Processes Rather Than Art” November 25-28 2008, Fabrica)

In his De Rerum Natura, Lucretius denies any kind of creation, providence and original bliss and maintains that people freed themselves from their condition of need thanks to the production of techniques, which are transpositions of nature. A god and some gods exist, but they did not create the universe, nor do they deal with people’s actions. Lucretius maintains that the rational knowledge of nature shows us an infinite universe that is made up of complex forms and constituted by atoms; it follows natural laws, it is indifferent to people’s needs and can be explained without gods. Continue reading

Upgrade! São Paulo: Coletivo OlhoCaligari :: March 7, 2008, 10:00 am (9:30 for coffee) @ i-People: Av Vergueiro 727, next to the Vergueiro Subway Station.

Creating sound images from the group OlhoCalegari integrates poetical and visual artworks, based on the interactive possibilities, the unpredictability and the spontaneity of the musical improvisations is the challenge for the group. Utilizing software and hardware for sound processing and expanding the use of the instruments beyond their traditional possibilities, the group join popular and contemporary erudite music, live-electronics, videoart, sound and digital poetry, aiming to disrupt the defined classifications and genres in order to amplify the artistic expression of the group’s compositions. Continue reading

4th Annual ATA [Artists’ Television Access] Film & Video Festival :: October 2009 :: Call for Entries: Deadline (postmark) — May 29, 2009.

Artists’ Television Access invites experimental film and video makers to submit their work (20 minutes or less) to its 4th Annual ATA Film and Video Festival. Video, Super 8 and 16 mm animation, documentary, narrative, abstract, found footage based and other works will be accepted.

The ATA Film and Video Festival is committed to showcasing films and videos that use an unconventional stylistic and technical approach and bring up subjects or concepts that not only entertain, but also provoke, our diverse audience. Continue reading

Intelligent Environments 09 Conference :: July 20-21, 2009 :: Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona :: Call for Papers — Deadline: March 13, 2009.

I would like to invite those of you who are active in the field of Intelligent Environments and particularly on the design of intelligent spaces for supporting human everyday activities or mediated communication as well as the critical use of these technologies for artistic expression, to submit a paper for the session that me and Prof Rieser chair on the issues of “Art and Design of Intelligent, Hybrid Environments” …

Also, the submission is in full paper format (max 8 pages). Continue reading