The Huarte Art Centre is pleased to announce the first net.art solo exhibition by Spanish artist Roberto Aguirrezabala. His works are focused in his two fetishes subjects: the concept of identity and the interpersonal relations in the age of Internet. His projects avoid the stereotype of the website, do not exhibit banners or navigational menu and manage to address the user towards unforeseen thematics developments. The show displays three net.art works:

what:you:get (1999) is a project that spies the user and configure a profile of his/her personality, analyzing the identity signs that he/she generates while browsing the website. Badplayer (2002) is a project developed in a context of artificial intelligence in Internet, that uses chat to reveal the new problematics related to the communication. Easyfriend (2006) investigates hybrid formats of expanded cinema on the web, throughout the interactive story of an artist in crisis. With the help of conversational robots, mails, chats, passwords and virtual alter ego, Aguirrezabala obliges the users to interact with many characters without knowing if they are real persons or just bots.

Roberto Aguirrezabala has been exhibited in numerous international festivals, exhibitions like net_condition (ZKM, Karlsruhe) and awarded, with acknowledgements such as the first prize for best work for net.art “X Canariasmediafest” (2002), the “Mobius Barcelona” award (2006), among others. He is currently investigating the development of fictional narrative systems of expanded cinema, using mediums between cinema, the installation, photography and Internet.

The Huarte Contemporary Art Centre: Located in Huarte (Navarra), 5 km from Pamplona, this new cultural space inaugurated in October 2007, is located barely an hour and a half from some of the most important contemporary art centres and museums such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Artium in Vitoria, the future Krea Contemporary Expression Centre in the same city or what will be the future International Contemporary Culture Centre of San Sebastian. The Huarte Centre is the first cultural facility in Navarra, specifically conceived to house exhibitions and activities related to contemporary art, with special attention to the emerging international scene.

FatherBoard, The SuperAvatar @ Share 2008 - Robot Art

Lynn Hershman Leeson: A Real + Second Life Symposium coincides with the major retrospective exhibition Autonomous Agents: The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson. The Guardian’s preview of the show spoke of Hershman as an artist for whom the creation of self-identity is less a vain game than a matter of profound political import. Working in performance, installation, video and film, new media and technology, Lynn Hershman Leeson has explored identity, politics, surveillance and artificial intelligence, operating at the vanguard of artistic innovation from the 1960s onwards. Autonomous Agents, A Real + Second Life Symposium considers the accumulation of Hershman Leeson’s practice and its habitation within live space, cinematic space, the buildings of museums and galleries and most recently, the virtual space of Second Life.

Through 20 minute long presentations, a range of academics and artists will talk about Hershman Leeson’s practice, as well as identity, politics, surveillance and artificial intelligence. Confirmed speakers include Prof Gabriella Giannachi (Exeter University), Prof Amelia Jones (University of Manchester) and Prof Nick Kaye (Exeter University) as well as the artist herself - Lynn Hershman Leeson.

Autonomous Agents, A Real + Second Life Symposium is in collaboration with The Performing Presence Project, a four-year partnership between the University of Exeter, Stanford University and University College London funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), UK and with the support of Stanford Humanities Lab, California.

A recurring image in contemporary society is the growing speed of digital information. Technology evolves and absorbs information at a dizzying speed, whereby knowledge is transmitted to intelligent machines in a process which seems to be leading us towards a post-human hybrid state. The exponential evolution of information technologies may produce the means by which artists will be able to create beyond their own vision and knowledge. On this occasion, the PAN has turned its attention to research and production in the field of robot art. Intelligent machines - once an oxymoron - are becoming commonplace. Robots are present in science and technology as well as in our homes, in art, in cinema and literature. Their importance is growing in diffuse sectors like industrial production and entertainment. At a deeper level, indeed, robotics raises fascinating cultural issues involving philosophers, artists, scientists and technologists. Experiments in this field started as early as in the 1950s with, for example, Edward Ihnatowicz’s Senster or Cybernetic Serendipity at London’s ICA, and are hosted also in the main contemporary art events, as it happens at the Mexican pavilion of the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Contemporary robotics is the field in which the comprehension of human intelligence materialises; it is a topic that has always been transversal to scientific and human disciplines alike, and that has brought together research fields into neuroscience, engineering, computer science, biology, mathematics, psychology, philosophy. Transferring the processes of animal and human brain to robots is an ongoing effort which, besides technical difficulties, raises crucial questions on more general issues too: can an “intelligent” robot also imitate and learn, experience the world and become aware of it? What social status, what rights, what responsibilities will this and other types of “artificial life” have? What relationship will such a robot be able to establish with human beings? Will it be possible to design creative robots, able to act in a drama together with actors or to become recognised authors? How will aesthetics theories have to renovate themselves to account for this new dimension of art, where the artist can become a robot designer and the creation can eventually be a work and a process at the same time? These are the questions which the artists invited to Fastforward on New Media Art: Robots try to give an answer to, discussing many of these issues with varying experiences and results.

The exhibition hosts artists such as Moura and Robotlab, who propose robots that create art, or as Rinaldo, Glissmann and Faubel, who present robots that are works of art themselves or, finally, as Cadet and Goldberg, who create works inspired from the imaginative world related to robots and electronics.

TECHNARTE is an international conference on art and technology that seeks to become the most important event of its kind. The aims are to present technological developments that enhance a broader expression of modern art, and to provide a forum for debate and reflection on the convergence between technology and art. Modern art, stimulated and encouraged by new technologies and its own impetus for innovation, is advancing in a surprising manner. Art and technology, science and creativity are influencing each other, and that influence has proved extremely fruitful over the last few decades to the point where the two disciplines now seem inextricably joined.

The Innovalia Association, a non-profit-making organization, wishes to reflect that artistic fusion, and from that wish TECHNARTE was born as a conference where the most important thinkers in the sector and the most advanced technologists can be heard. It is aimed at specialists in all areas of art, including artists, gallery owners, museum staff, teachers, public authorities, foundations, events, etc.

TECHNARTE will cover four main thematic areas:

» Management & Technology:

.: Technology for art, new management models
.: Virtual Museums and cultural heritage
.: Security in enclosed or closed spaces: new developments
.: Art Competitions & new technologies: absolute route

» Art & Technology:

.: Painting & technology, a new paradigm of artistic creation
.: Art and Artificial Intelligence
.: Sculpture & technology, an alliance in permanent development
.: Fractal Art
.: Digital Stamping
.: Public Art from the electronic media
.: Photographic & digital techniques

» New artistic disciplines:

.: Digital Art
.: Net.art as a collective experience
.: Work as a team, multidisciplinary synergies
.: Software art
.: Video on-line
.: Ascii-art
.: Mail-art
.: Robotics Sculpture

» Reflection & Innovation:

.: The disappearance of the frontiers between Art & Science
.: Technoethic, the meeting between Technology & the Mind
.: Art, communication, technology & development
.: Cyberspace Philosophy: the homo-cyber
.: Interactivity, new artistic concepts
.: Synesthesia, Interactivity, Catharsis: New artistic concepts

Using flashlights and mirrors, the people at the exhibition could nevertheless take part in the conversation between the machines. With this installation, Pask brought to a conclusion his idea for an «aesthetic potential environment».To give significance to the communication between the machines, Park designed the Colloquy of Mobiles as a social system. At the same time, the form of communication that he conceived referred unmistakably to a sexual analogy: hung from the ceiling were two «males» and three «females». After a phase of inactivity, the females (made of fiberglass) began to glow more intensely and the three males emitted a ray of light. When the ray of light struck the mirror inside the female mobile’s structure, by way of rotating the mirror, she tried deflecting the ray back at the free-hanging light sensors above and below the male’s aluminum body. The goal of communicating was to achieve this moment of satisfaction, and the mobiles learned to optimize their behavior to the point where this state could be reached with the least possible use of energy. With the help of flashlights and mirrors, the exhibition visitors could assume the roles of the mobiles and influence the learning process.” - Margit Rosen, Media Art Net.

At the core of the fundamental questions of “what is art” and “what is technology” we focus The Handbook of Research on computational Arts and Creative Informatics at the convergence of computer science and artistic creativity. We seek to discover new ways to conceptualize art and investigate new methods of self expression through the use of technology. Here we are inviting experts in a wide range of disciplines to discuss the emergence of expression and art through that of science, information technology, computer science, artificial intelligence and many other related fields. We see this book as a comprehensive recourse where artists and scientists can collaborate on ideas, practices and experimentations on these topics. As technology becomes meshed further into our culture and everyday lives, new mediums and outlets for creative expression and innovation are abound. We are emphasizing the creative nature of technology and science itself. How does the human side of technological achievement influence our creative abilities as technology is a creation in itself? Has the ontology of the information age influenced society at the level of both the human and non human? Through this handbook we are addressing novel concepts from creation, interaction, communication, interpretation and emergence of art through various technological means and mediums.

The Handbook of Research on computational Arts and Creative Informatics will provide a comprehensive range of topics regarding the interaction of the sciences and the arts. Key concepts, theories and innovations involving the computational side of the arts and other creative technologies will be discussed. This particular volume will feature chapters (8,000-10,000 words) written by experts and leading innovators of their respective fields.

Recommended topics include, **but are not limited to**, the following:

+Essays and Discussion on Art and Technology
+Art and web design
+Fractals, tessellations and Creativity through mathematical expression
+Interactive and computational sculptures and artworks
+Kinetic sculptures
+Creativity as an emergent property of art and science
+Digital art and creative expressions
+The creative process in IT education
+Art created by Artificial Life and Intelligent Agents
+Creativity in computer interface and web design
+Creativity from emergent properties
+Art expressed or created by multi-agent systems
+Virtual spaces and Art of synthetic/ virtual worlds
+Art and expression through information visualization
+Animation, simulation and modeling
+3-D artwork
+Art for the blind and visually impaired- Universal Creativity
+Human expression through cybernetics
+Robotics and Art
+Future trends in Art as influenced by emerging technologies

Submissions: Interested individuals are invited to submit a 1-2 page manuscript on their proposed chapter by November 15, 2007. We encourage the inclusion of related topics not mentioned above that may be related to both the theme of the handbook and your particular research area or expertise. Upon acceptance of your proposal, you will have until February 28, 2008 to submit a completed draft of your chapter.

A set of guidelines will also be sent to you upon acceptance. Each potential author will receive notification on their acceptance status by November 30, 2007.

This book is tentatively scheduled for publishing by Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference) an imprint of IGI Global (formerly Idea Group, Inc.) in 2009.

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to: computationalArts at gmail.com

Or

James Braman
Department of Computer and Information Sciences
Towson University
8000 York Rd, Towson, MD 21252
jbraman at towson.edu

Or

Giovanni Vincenti
Research and Development
Gruppo Vincenti, S.r.l.
Via dei Gracchi, 123
00192 Rome, Italy
giovanni.vincenti@gmail.com

Olafur Eliasson together with Hans Ulrich Obrist convenes the 24-Hour Experiment Marathon which blurs the boundaries of art and science and creates a laboratory of experience. A huge variety of experiments exploring perception, artificial intelligence, the body and language, takes place in and around the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen.

The Marathon starts with a session convened by renowned scientists Israel Rosenfield and Luc Steels of Sony Robotics Lab, looking into the brain’s interpretation of reality, artificial intelligence and out-of-body experiences; Beau Lotto demonstrates Why the Sky is not Blue, Paul Drew analyses the notorious Yo, Blair conversation, explaining how we understand language, and Angela Sirigu presents the famous Phantom Limb experiment, in which amputees continue to experience the presence of a lost body part.

John Brockman, founder of Edge.org, leads a session that includes award-winning psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen who will test the claim Do women have more empathy than men? Contributions from Steven Pinker, Armand Leroi and Lewis Wolpert are followed by an EDGE-Serpentine presentation of Formulae for the 21st Century which includes formulas from Richard Dawkins, David Deutsch, Brian Eno, Jana Levin, Lisa Randall, Martin Rees, J. Craig Venter, and many more.

Pedro Reyes brings his Three Way Kissing Booth for a public experiment on the permutations of male and female desire and world-famous performance artist Marina Abramovic cleans the house in a renowned experimental work exploring subjects of the body, pain and endurance.

Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment stages a 24-hour, online continuous writing event, passing a cumulative piece of writing from time zone to time zone.

Artist Matthew Ritchie leads an experimental panel for The Morning Line, a public art project investigating alternatives to traditional museum space, developed in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

An artists’ laboratory will include experiments conducted by John Baldessari, Paul Fryer, Jonas Mekas, Gustav Metzger and Tomas Saraceno.

The 24-Hour experiment Marathon builds on the enormous success of the Serpentine Gallery 24-Hour Interview Marathon last October, which featured interviews with 64 leading cultural figures including Brian Eno, Gilbert and George, Zaha Hadid, Damien Hirst and Doris Lessing, conducted by Serpentine Gallery Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and architect of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006, Rem Koolhaas.

Marathon times: 12 noon, Saturday 13th - 3pm, Sunday 14th October, 2007
Tickets: TicketWeb / 08700 600100 / Serpentine Gallery Lobby Desk: 020 7402 6075 / or at the door.

Rose Dempsey 020 7298 1520, rosed[at]serpentinegallery.org
or Tom Coupe 020 7298 1528, tomc[at]serpentinegallery.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPdP1jBfxzo

The robot Keepon (by Hideki Kozima and Marek Michalowski) dancing to the Spoon song, “Don’t You Evah.” Keepon and Spoon will reunite at WIRED NextFest 2007. This video is available to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.

Related: Robot maker with a penchant for realism builds artificial boy.

Fundación Telefónica is attempting to promote the convergence of Art, Science and Technology by holding an international competition which rewards those works of art developed using Artificial Life technologies. At previous editions, prizes were given to art projects created with robots, electronic avatars, chaotic algorithms, knowbots, cellular automatons, computer viruses, virtual ecologies which evolve by interacting with the participant and works which delve into social aspects of Artificial Life.

Prizes: A total of 20,000 euros will be awarded to the projects selected by the jury: First prize: 10,000 euros; Second prize: 7,000 euros; Third prize: 3,000 euros.

Exhibition: The selected projects will be exhibited at the International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO) in Madrid in February 2008.

Incentive for Production: The competition’s second category will help finance Artificial Life art projects (and those of associated disciplines) that have not yet been made. The competition is open to participants from anywhere in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Jury: The works submitted will be examined by an international jury that will be meeting as of November 7, 2007. The prize winners’ names and special mentions will be announced at an award ceremony.

Members of the Jury: Mónica Bello Bugallo, Spain; Daniel Canogar, Spain; Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Canada/Mexico; José-Carlos Mariátegui, Peru; Nell Tenhaaf, Canada; Simon Penny, USA/Australia.

You may send your proposal in along with the application form and required materials to any of the following addresses:

SPAIN
Ángeles Pérez Muela
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundación Telefónica
Gran Vía, 32. 5a planta
28013 Madrid, Spain
Phone: 34 91 584 23 05
Fax: 34 91 584 0656

PERU
Ana María Castañeta
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundación Telefónica
Av. Arequipa 1155
Santa Beatriz
Lima, Peru
Phone: 511 210 1544
Fax: 511 419 0501

ARGENTINA
Silvana Spadaccini
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundación Telefónica
Arenales 1540
1061 Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone: 5411 4333 1317
Fax: 5411 4333 1307

CHILE
Claudia Villaseca
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundación Telefónica
Providencia, 111 - P. 25
Santiago, Chile
Phone: 562 691 3741
Fax: 562 236 7138

BRAZIL
Adriana Lomonaco
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundação Telefônica
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 1188 — conjuntos 33 e 34
CEP 01451-001 São Paulo-SP, Brazil
Phone: 5511 3035 1956
Fax: 5511 3035 1950

MÉXICO
Francisco Mijares
VIDA 10.0
International Competition 2007
Fundación Telefónica
Av. Prolongación Paseo de la Reforma, 1200 — piso 08
Colonia Cruz Manca. Cuajimalpa de Morelos
C.P. 05349 — México D.F. México
Phone: 5255 1616 7587
Fax: 5255 1616 8053

For further information on the competition, please write to: Ángeles Pérez Muela: angeles.perezmuela[at]telefonica.es

Applicants may consult the winning projects from previous years at the VIDA website in order to determine whether their projects fit in with the philosophy of the prize.