We are currently looking for volunteers / NGOs / Academics / Researchers / Institutions who have interest and would be willing to contribute to the two month Urban Body studio organised by Spacelab research laboratory for urbanism / city from Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands with a special focus on Mapping Dharavi, Mumbai.

The project aims at exploring and mapping the complexity of elements, which constitute the urban, social and cultural texture of squatter settlements in the city of Mumbai. Considering these areas within the broader framework of urban transformations and redevelopment projects, the studio looks at the slums as forms of ‘emergent’ urbanities, which function with a multiple logic and structure of relations both within itself and with the outside. Continue reading

In 2008, TRANSIT LOUNGE becomes an experiment in remote collaboration, as 15 artists work between Berlin, Brisbane, Perth, Muttama, Melbourne, Sydney, on the evolution of a complex, emergent structure. The platform for this trans-disciplinary exchange is the TRANSIT LOUNGE website, powered by open-source, wiki software. An organic structure, the site grows in multiple directions as the content is layered and interlinked, tracing remote interactions and local interventions between artists. The latency of these dialogues across time zones and locations creates feedback loops (local interventions – web – local interventions) opening up spaces for mistranslation resonating between the different cities. Continue reading

Blink (2007) by George Legrady [Full wall projection, dimensions variable; 1 4000 lumens (or brighter) digital projector and computer] - Blink consists of a matrix of eyes that open and close based on their neighbor’s behaviors. Each eye’s decision is dependent on statistically evaluating what its neighbor eyes are doing, dynamically calculated in realtime. The process goes back and forth between states of stability where all eyes try to be like their neighbors, and states of transitional disruption where the eyes look at their neighbors but can’t fully decide if they should be like them or not. The status of the overall image at any given moment in time is a consequence of the various stages of each eyes’ individual behaviors, and therefore guarantees a statistically extreme low possibility that the image will fully repeat itself. Continue reading

ArtCamp07: Re:use :: September 8, 2007; 10 am - 6pm :: Intersections Digital Studios (IDS), Emily Carr Institute, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada :: Reception to follow.

The aim of ArtCamp07: Re:Use is to bring the open, participatory and creative energy of BarCamp to the world of art in an interdisciplinary forum. As an unconference, it’s about using principles of self-organization to bring people together, and to create an emergent format where people may talk, meet, show work, present ideas, receive input, and generally discuss, view, and advance ideas, research and projects. The unconference format is borrowed originally from the technology community, where it was observed that conversations happening outside formal sessions at traditional conferences were often more enjoyable, productive and illuminating than the sessions themselves. Continue reading

“[…]Self-organizing protests do occur, even in nations which have adequate and well-tested mechanisms for the redress of grievances; all it takes is a minority sufficiently energized and empowered – with wireless technologies – to spread the word … While the vast majority of Australians might be horrified at the results of such a spontaneous act of self-organization, the power to do so is always latent, wherever pervasive wireless networking has become part of the incorporated environment. Call it democracy, call it fascism, call it freedom, call it terrorism. The labels matter not at all. We don’t have a good name yet for just what this is; it isn’t mass action – not in the sense that we knew it in the 20th century. These are not peasants storming the barricades, nor unionists fighting private security forces at the gates of the factory. These are arisings, not uprisings. Continue reading

A 4 Day Cultural Festival

HABITATS: a 4 day Cultural Festival :: Artists, scientists, and cultural commentators are joining together to create a collective vision of a sustainable habitat. The Habitats conference and festival is a 4 day event organized to promote an exchange between art, technology, and environment. With public and private cooperative efforts leading to cleaner water, the Gowanus Canal area has experienced an increase in wildlife and improved prospects for commercial and cultural revitalization. Habitats celebrates this process. Instigated by Eidolon Culture, The Habitats conferences will include speakers such as best-selling author Steven Johnson (“Emergence” and “Mind Wide Open,”); long-standing community organizers such as the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (GCCDC) ; electronic artists such as Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening Foundation) ; site specific sound and video recordings, live music performances, site specific installations, collaborative projects, recycled art, workshops and active audience participation. Continue reading