A major event of artworks, talks and a workshop curated by Anna Dumitriu for Digiville at Lighthouse.

See video of the event here.

1st September 2007

7pm

Speakers:

•    Anna Dumitriu to introduce the event and talk about the decisions she made in selecting the artworks, speakers and related events.

 

•    Simon Park will discuss his recent research into bacteria and digital art. Simon is a lecturer in the School of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Surrey and teaches bacteriology and molecular biology. As an internationally recognised bacteriologist and he has published over 50 papers in international refereed journals, books and other periodicals.

 

•    Milton Mermikides (Royal Academy of Music) - A musician/composer who has created music derived from physical processes in the human body including the tracing of the coronal suture, blood cell production, bacterial growth & MRI imaging. Milton is Professor of Music Technology and Composition, and Director and Designer of the award-winning Creative Technology Lab, at the Royal Academy of Music. His compositions have been performed internationally and he has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Brian Eno, John Williams & Tod Machover. www.miltonmermikides.com

 

•    Blay Whitby  (University of Sussex) – A technology ethicist, philosopher and author. Blay will consider the implications of artists working with forms of life as seen in this Digiville event.

 

10am-5-pm

Artworks:

•    Microcosmos by Milton Mermikides, Simon Park, Steve Downer and Pattie Hendrie.

Bacteria, nature’s smallest independent life forms, often invoke fear or revulsion, but never awe. Microcosmos is an audio/video installation that uses the latest developments in video and audio technology to provide a breathtaking glimpse into the hidden yet stunning world of bacteria. The listener is immersed in a soundscape derived directly from the colour, shape and DNA sequences of each individual bacteria species. Microcosmos presents us with a breathtaking glimpse into this immensely complex & alluring world. In a profound juxtaposition we find that there are reflections of the Universe’s largest structures in the forms that some of its smallest entities adopt. (image above).

 

•    chromos and SAND LINES by Paul Brown

Since 1974 Paul Brown’s main tool in his artwork has been the computational and generative process. He has established a significant international reputation in this field of work and was recently described by Mitchell Whitelaw as... one of the ... pioneers of a-life art  (Metacreation - Art and Artificial Life, MIT Press, 2004). Paul’s work is based in a field of computational science called Cellular Automata or CA’s.  These are simple systems that can propagate themselves over time.  CA’s are part of the origins of the discipline known as Artificial Life or A-life.  Paul has been interested in CA’s and their relationship to tiling and symmetry systems since the 1960's. Anna Dumitriu met Paul Brown through her residency at The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics where he is currently a visiting Professor working on the DrawBots project.  

www.paul-brown.com

 

•    Normal Flora by Anna Dumitriu

The Normal Flora Project is a major investigation of the microbial life that we co-exist with. Anna works with installation, performance, digital technology and traditional craft based techniques. Anna is also director of the Institute of Unnecessary Research, which considers the role of art in science, and research.

www.normalflora.co.uk

www.unnecessaryresearch.org

 

•    TURBULENCE  by Jon McCormack

TURBULENCE is a menagerie of synthesised forms, evolved within the computer using a process of artificial selection. A video laserdisc contains over 30 minutes of computer generated animation. Animated sequences on the disc are accessed via a touch-screen interface. The interactive is a collection of poems, ideas, information and imagery relating to the philosophical impact of evolution on contemporary thought.

www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jonmc/

 

 

•    International Airport Montello by eteam

eteam¹s members are Franziska Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger. Since 2002, most of their projects are based on random pieces of land they buy on ebay. Once they have located their lots, they activate the possibilities that are inherent in the site and turn them into temporary realities. This often happens in collaboration with people who live or work in the respective area.

 

Their projects have been featured in exhibitions at the PS1, NY; MUMOK, Vienna; Neues Museum, Weimar; Momenta Art, Brooklyn, Vertexlist, Brooklyn, The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain, among other venues. Videos by the eteam have been screened at Transmediale, Berlin; The Marler Video Kunst Preis, Germany, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taipei; New York Video Festival, NYC, 11th Biennale of Moving Image, Geneva,  and other festivals in the US, Europe and Asia. They have been awarded a NYSCA Grant, a Harvestworks Artist Grant, an EYEBEAM Production Grant, and an Experimental Television Center Finishing Fund. In 2005 they have been selected for the "New Commissions Program" with Art in General, NY and were awarded a Digital Matrix Commission. They are fellows of Yaddo and the Mac Dowell Colony.

 

They live in Sunnyside, Queens and are currently studio artists at the Smack Mellon Studio Program in DUMBO. One of them is Professor of Digital Media at the Art Department, of the City College of New York.

www.internationalairportmontello.com/

 

•    Visible Human Bodies by Peta Clancy

 

Peta Clancy is based in Melbourne, Australia. She has held solo exhibitions at Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, United Kingdom; and RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) Project Space, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces and Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. She was shortlisted for the 2007 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Australia. She was commissioned by the Mozart 2006 Festival in Salzburg, Austria for the collaborative exhibition "Genetic Genie". She was recently awarded a New Work grant from the Australia Council for the Arts and in 2004 she was awarded the Australia Council for the Arts London Studio. Her work has been featured in Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Magazine and Microbiology Today. She has a Master of Arts (Media Arts) from RMIT and has lectured in Photomedia at Monash University, Melbourne since 2002. Peta Clancy is represented by thirtysevenº Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in Sydney, Australia. Artist's website: www.petaclancy.com

 

•    Micro-Biomes by boredomresearch

boredomresearch are interested in creating landscape environments online that develop overtime, where users can explore and manipulate these environments, creating an individual experience which is both contemplative and rewarding.

www.boredomresearch.net

Email for more info on the event.

 

10am-4pm

Workshop:

A one-day Physical Computing Workshop with Tom Keene using Arduino Boards.

 

Arduino is an affordable computing platform, which is particularly useful for artists, and designers who want to build physical interactive projects. Arduino takes input from a variety of switches or sensors, and can control a variety of lights, motors, and other outputs. 

 

In this workshop you will learn how to work with the basic USB Arduino, the layout of the board, how to connect hardware and some basic programming skills. We will provide Arduino boards and a basic electronics kit, which you can take away with you after the workshop.   

 

Please bring your laptop (if you have one) & download the latest version of the Arduino Software (currently Arduino 0008) from www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software.

 

Tom Keene is founder of The Anthill Social. Tom is an open-source programmer, artist and designer for web, networks and physical computing platforms. Recently commissioned by Lighthouse, Brighton, he collaborated with Kypros Kyprianou of Electronic Sunset to create Aristoles Office: Nine objects and an interface (pictured below), an animated network of office furniture controlled by multiple Arduino boards. This work is currently on display at Lighthouse.

www.theanthillsocial.co.uk

www.electronicsunset.org/node/310