New Club Night on 7 September with JON MCCORMACK

NEW CLUB NIGHT on Thursday September 7th, 2006 at 6pm until 8pm in the Lecture Theatre, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Corss, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

Dear friends

We hope you had a lovely summer and are ready for a new round of Thursday Club events…

… starting on SEPTEMBER 7, 6-8pm with a presentation by JON MCCORMACK, Co-director, Centre for Electronic Media Arts, Monash University (Australia)
::

*SIMULATION, SYSTEMS, ARTIFICE*

In this talk I will give an overview of how I have used generative processes as a creative system. My aim is to enable new modes of creative expression with computation that are unique to the medium. Most existing software tools borrow their operational metaphor from existing creative practices: for example Photoshop uses the metaphor of a photographer’s darkroom; 3D animation systems borrow from theatre, film and conventional cell animation. In a tool with an oeuvre as diverse as the modern digital computer, one would hope that computation itself as a medium might have things to offer that are not based on metaphors borrowed from other media. I will illustrate some possibilities using the software systems I have developed over the last 15 years and the creative works that I have produced with them. These works include: Turbulence: an interactive museum of unnatural history (1994); Eden an evolutionary ecosystem (2000-2005) and the Morphogenesis series of evolved forms (2002-2006). Examination of these works will be placed in a philosophical framework and historical context. I will also discuss some possibilities for future development of generative software based on these ideas.

About Jon McCormack:
John is an Australian-based electronic media artist and researcher in Artificial Life and Evolutionary Music and Art. His research interests include generative evolutionary systems, machine learning, L-systems and developmental models. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and co-director of the Centre for Electronic Media Art (CEMA) at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. CEMA is an interdisciplinary research centre established to explore new collaborative relationships between computing and the arts. John’s artworks have been exhibited internationally a wide variety of galleries, museums and symposia, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Tate Gallery(Liverpool, UK), ACM SIGGRAPH (USA), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia).



…And this is only the beginning… Now get your diaries and make a note for the rest of the Autumn term’s Club nights, as you’ll want to be there…
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**NEW CLUB NIGHTS** NEW CLUB NIGHTS** NEW CLUB NIGHTS**

on 5 OCTOBER with MICK GRIERSON

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*AUDIOVISUAL COMPOSITION AND THE AVANT-GARDES*

Mick is a musician, film-maker and researcher. He recently became a Research Fellow at the Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios.

on 19 OCTOBER

*UNEASY SPACES*

Opening of a photo /video show in collaboration with the New York University

on 20 OCTOBER, CONFERENCE

on 26 OCTOBER with ADNAN HADZI & MARIA X

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*ON STRATEGIES OF SHARING: THE DEPTFORD.TV PROJECT*

Adnan is a PhD candidate and Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths (Media and Communications). Maria is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths (Digital Studios & Drama) and Visiting Lecturer at Birkbeck.

on 2 NOVEMBER with BRIAN KAVANAGH
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*SONIC SENSORIUM*

Brian is an artist and musician. He is just completing his MA in Interactive Media at Goldsmiths.

on 16 NOVEMBER with TIM HOPKINS
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*ELEPHANT AND CASTLE: A PRESENTATION OF WORK-IN-PROGRESS ON A LYRIC THEATRE PIECE*

Tim is an opera and multimedia lyric theatre director, and a NESTA Fellow.

on 30 NOVEMBER with MARK D’INVERNO

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*CELL: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECT LOOKING AT NEW THEORIES OF STEM CELL BEHAVIOUR*

Mark is Professor of Computing at Goldsmiths with a research interest in intelligent agents and multi-agent systems.

on 14 DECEMBER with SPEAKER TBC

For more information on the Thursday Club check here or email maria x: drp01mc@gold.ac.uk

LETTRE DE JEAN MICHEL BRUYERE

Le 26 juin 2006
Bonjour,

Vous le savez, le CICV a été fermé en juillet 2004.

 

On peut le regretter et même s’en émouvoir, sachant que sa liquidation fut directement conséquente d’un rapport des inspecteurs du ministère de la culture, invraisemblable charge contre l’indépendance du C.I.C.V vis-à-vis des critères esthétiques et des ambitions symboliques établis par l’administration culturelle centrale ( consultation du “rapport”) .

On peut aussi penser qu’après 14 ans, sa structure, telle qu’elle ne pouvait plus beaucoup évoluer, ne satisfaisait plus aucune des nouvelles conditions de la création vidéo définies par une transformation très profonde des moyens techniques de l’image et du son. On jugera alors que la fermeture du CICV évite l’entretien inutile du énième de ces alluvions à encombrer les bords d’une institution culturelle sans vigueur.

Enfin, il est très possible aussi de s’en contreficher complètement, de rester à ne s’occuper que du déclin ou de l’éclat de ses propres affaires dans sa propre maison, comme d’être lancé déjà dans quelque bataille dont l’enjeu serait plus grand.

Mais, il ne sera pas nécessaire de s’accorder tous sur ce sujet pour se rassembler dans un acte de réprobation du sort réservé à Pierre Bongiovanni dans cette opération de liquidation. Car, à Pierre Bongiovanni, fondateur en 1990 du CICV et directeur de l’établissement jusqu’à sa fermeture contrainte, le simple droit d’un salarié licencié est refusé : on ne veut pas lui remettre le document attestant de son emploi de quatorze ans. Ce refus, exactement inutile à la liquidation, geste gratuit des liquidateurs, ressemble fort à une punition idéologique. Le résultat en est que Pierre Bongiovanni, sans emploi depuis deux années, ne bénéficie d’aucune aide des caisses d’allocations chômage auprès desquelles il a pourtant cotisé mensuellement pendant 37 années.

Les liquidateurs, pour justifier de leur geste, affirment que le lien de subordination du directeur à son employeur n’est pas certain et que la réalité de son travail de direction n’est pas prouvée. Toutes sortes d’enquêtes, dont une financière, ont été diligentées sur Pierre Bongiovanni, dans l’espoir de trouver contre lui quelque chose d’un peu plus consistant et croustillant que cela. Aucune malversation, aucun acte délictueux, pas même une petite erreur de gestion ne sont apparus. Pourtant, devant la détermination des liquidateurs, le Tribunal des Prud’Hommes réuni en mai 2006 n’a pas voulu juger et s’est déclaré incompétent. Une procédure en Contredit est lancée (automne 2006).

Nous avons tous travaillé pour ou avec le CICV, accueillis par Pierre Bongiovanni. Nous avons collaboré avec Pierre, avec son équipe, et utilisé les moyens de la structure, à laquelle, en échange et dans le temps, nous donnions sens.

S’il est à présent déclaré que Pierre Bongiovanni n’a pas été vraiment directeur du CICV, cela signifie donc que nous ne sommes pas vraiment vidéastes ou cinéastes, compositeurs, ingénieurs, monteurs… S’il est dit qu’il n’a pas vraiment travaillé, c’est alors que nos œuvres ne sont pas vraiment des œuvres. Et nous-mêmes, ne comptant pas davantage devant les liquidateurs et les juges que devant les inspecteurs de la culture, il paraîtrait donc que nous ne valons rien.

Pour nous regrouper en une association dont l’unique objet serait le respect de l’application des droits salariés de Pierre Bongiovanni (trois membres volontaires seraient désignés pour suivre l’affaire, nous rendre compte et nous représenter), nous n’avons pas besoin d’accorder nos points de vue sur ce que fût ou ne fût pas le CICV, sur les choix et les orientations de Pierre Bongiovanni le dirigeant. Il faut et il suffit que nous partagions un certain goût pour la vérité, que nous estimions imbécile qu’un homme soit contraint pour rien, à plaisir ou par vengeance et que nous tenions à l’existence d’une société qui soit sans pouvoir jamais mépriser ses propres règles et lois et surtout pas quand un désir de rigueur idéologique vient à piquer ses fonctionnaires.

JEAN MICHEL BRUYERE


 

Un premier site de réprobation a été ouvert  ici .


 

Commentez, réagissez, adhérez et proposez en écrivant à : reprobation@bongiovanni.info

Merci de faire circuler l’information dans les listes qui pourraient être concernées.


Un texte d’association en réprobation vous est ci-dessous proposé.

 

Artistes et équipes artistiques, cinéastes, vidéastes, auteurs, compositeurs, musiciens, plasticiens, graphistes, techniciens, ingénieurs… ayant été une fois, plusieurs fois ou régulièrement accueillis par le Centre International de Création Vidéo (CICV) de son ouverture en 1990 à sa fermeture en 2004, pour y concevoir, développer, finaliser ou valoriser nos créations, ayant toujours reçu là le soutien d’une équipe compétente et agile et trouvé les meilleurs effets d’une hospitalité savante, désapprouvons que le fondateur et directeur du CICV, M. Pierre Bongiovanni, se voie refuser par ses liquidateurs les simples pièces justificatives de son emploi de 14 années. Nous désapprouvons qu’il se trouve ainsi interdit de l’exercice de ses droits salariés les plus communs (indemnités de licenciement) et ne puisse pas, alors qu’il est sans emploi depuis juillet 2004, recevoir l’assistance des caisses d’allocation chômage auprès desquelles il a cotisé chaque mois durant 37 ans.

Pierre Bongiovanni a bien été le directeur salarié du CICV depuis sa création jusqu’à sa fermeture. Il a même, selon notre expérience directe , pleinement, seulement et courageusement rempli sa fonction. Nous fûmes, dans nos travaux d’art, les premiers bénéficiaires de son intégrité en exercice et nous nous opposons à toute volonté de la contester finalement. Nous réclamons que le droit salarié de Pierre Bongiovanni soit dit, dans une dignité égale à celle qu’il mit lui- même à servir son employeur, le CICV, et à maintenir l’objet de celui- ci en toute circonstance : le développement des arts électroniques et l’appui aux artistes.

De Pierre Bongiovanni dans son emploi au CICV, outre le lien de subordination, la réalité du travail, paraît-il, ne serait pas prouvée. Mais, nous saurons bien en attester s’il le faut ; nous qui en sommes, en nous-mêmes, la meilleure preuve.

Nous remarquons qu’un rapport d’inspecteurs du Ministère de la Culture, tel que ceux-là s’y montrent bien sûr désespérés et comme toujours haineux de ne pouvoir soumettre tout le monde et sans faille aux effets de la propagande idéologique qu’ils défendent, figure dans l’instruction des liquidateurs contre le directeur du CICV. Mais, tout inspecteur qu’on les nomme, ceux de culture ne sont pas encore de police et si la plupart de leurs activités de rapporteur sont en un sens, c’est certain, de bien tristes charges, aucune n’est de celles dont on peut instruire un procès, sinon au prix d’une subordination ultime : la subordination de la Justice à l’Administration.

Nous nous regroupons en une association pour le respect et l’application des droits salariés de Pierre Bongiovanni. Parmi nous élisant un bureau de trois membres, nous le chargeons de suivre de près l’évolution de la procédure et de nous rendre compte.

Nous invitons les membres du Conseil d’Administration et l’équipe du CICV, aussi, ceux qui en furent les stagiaires, ses partenaires, ses soutiens et même ses détracteurs à ajouter leurs voix à la nôtre.

Selon le résultat du recours en Contredit (tenu à l’automne 2006), notre association soit sera dissoute, soit entrera en action et n’aura alors plus de cesse, que le bon respect du droit.

 

Deptford @ Spitafields Market

RSVP @ Spitalfields Market

Deptford.TV will present the Deptford.TV reader/diaries for the RSVP event at Spitafields Market. The diaries will also be published on this blog…
quoted from attainable utopias: RSVP is a quarterly networking event organised by the project management team at Raw Nerve. In the past RSVP has sought to strengthen the Deptford Creative industry by bringing it together in a relaxed setting. In September 2006 RSVP aims to transport the event into Central London in order to showcase Deptford’s Creative Industry. The intention is to create awareness about the wealth of creative business and talent within Deptford’s creative community. This will result in broader networking and business opportunities.

RSVP will be featured in the free LDF ‘Official Guide’ with an estimated print run of 80,000 and distributed in over 200 venues across London. RSVP will also be featured on the LDF website which, during the 2005 event, received 70,000 unique visits.

RSVP will exhibit approximately 22 Deptford designers and artists showing furniture, graphics and products. The exhibition will run from Friday 15th September to Sunday 17th September 2006, with a private view/opening on the Friday. The exhibition will be held in a purpose built space on Crispin Place, in Spitalfields’ new market, designed by Norman Foster (Fosters and partners). Like Deptford, this location has gone through a massive amount of regeneration in the past 15 years and is said to hold one of the greatest concentration of artists and craftsmen in Europe. On a normal Sunday the Spitalfields’ markets receive over 25,000 visitors.

This site will act as a satellite site for the Deptford’s creative community. It will showcase Deptford’s designers and makers, creating an awareness and curiosity for London Design Festival and Spitalfield visitors of what Deptford’s Creative community has to offer.

Deptford Design Festival Newspaper

This year, Deptford Design will be publishing a Festival newspaper.
A showcase for Deptford’s talented designers, the newspaper will contain the Festival’s programme of events and a map of where events will be taking place. There will be feature stories on high profile designers such as Committee and Based Upon. Laban and Cockpit Arts will feature in the regeneration section of the newspaper, celebrating Deptford’s changing status in London. The food section will guide people to restaurants and bars in the area – a welcome break from visiting the exhibitions.

The newspaper will be 16 pages and will be just smaller than tabloid size.
The print run will be 15,000 and it will be distributed in several locations across London:

  • To Deptford and Greenwich residents
  • To the Cockpit Arts mailing list (+/-3,000)
  • At the RSVP event in Spitalfields, at the heart of the new Spitalfields Market
  • At the London Design Festival office in the Old Truman Brewery for the length of the festival 15th-30th September 2006
  • At London Design Festival information points around the capital
  • At the Paddington Development Trust events in West London

London Design Festival

Established in 2002 to celebrate and promote London as the creative capital of the world, The London Design Festival (LDF) has rapidly grown to become one of the key constituents of the UK’s burgeoning festival season, along with London Fashion Week, Frieze and the London Film Festival.

Speaking at the opening of last year’s Festival, The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP observed that:
“…(the festival) has built up a world-wide reputation for its events, its vision, for cradling the British genius”, and that “…it is a symbol of the message that I believe the LDF is sending around the world – in the new economy success does not happen by accident, it happens by design”.

The LDF has seen visitor numbers increase from 100,000 in 2003 to more than 475,000 in 2005.

The festival received widespread media coverage including over 100 articles and 11 TV and 10 radio features, adding up to £2 million in equivalent advertising spend.

Deptford Design Festival History

The Deptford Design Festival has been running since 2003 and we are now entering into our forth year as one of the main delivery partners for the London Design Festival.

  • In 2003 14 Deptford design companies mounted a fairly traditional exhibition of their work which was displayed in the newly refurbished arches at Resolution Way.
  • In 2004 the companies were challenged to make an exhibit from a 200 litre metal wheelie bin – the theme being Re-Use. The Deptford design companies rose to the challenge and produced a range of exhibits from a metal sofa to a working kiln.
  • In 2005 the resident Deptford design companies produced a “portable table mounted exhibition” – better known as a book. Entitled ‘What’s So Great About SE8?’ the book provided acted as a showcase for the Deptford area and its talented designers.

what’s great about se8

quoted from raw-nerve:

What’s So Great About SE8?

© Raw Nerve© Raw Nerve© Raw Nerve

Now in its third year, the Deptford Design Festival has become a firm local fixture, linking Deptford to the London-wide London Design Festival. In 2005 Deptford based companies decided to create a book that responds to the question ‘What’s So Great About SE8’. Raw Nerve contributed an illustrated fantasy map of area, which reveals all the weird and wonderful things that which make it such a unique place.

LINK: Deptford Map
LINK: How to buy the book

Future City

now at the barbican – utopia in architecture, quoted from the barbican website:

What would it be like to live in a hairy house, a floating city, or an inflatable pod? Pure fantasy or the shape of things to come?
From extraordinary houses and incredible towers, to fantasy cityscapes and inhabitable sculptures, Future City showcases the most radical and experimental architecture to have emerged in the past 50 years.
Featuring a who?s who of architecture, the exhibition includes 70 visionary projects by influential and groundbreaking architects who have challenged convention to radically shape and influence the way we live.
From the visionary artist-turned-architect Constant Nieuwenhuys, to 1960?s giants Archigram and SuperStudio, to deconstructivists Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid and contemporary digitally inspired work by Nox and Decoi, this is the most comprehensive survey of experimental architecture to be held in the UK.
Featuring 300 original models and drawings, plus photographs and film, Future City reveals classic projects: from Kisho Kurokawa?s Floating City (1961) and Rem Koolhaas?s Delirious New York (1978), to unusual and innovative houses including Shigeru Ban?s Paper Log House (1995) and Watanabe?s Jelly Fish house series (1990-97) .

A series of exciting evening events accompanies the exhibition including talks by Rem Koolhaas, Lord Norman Foster, Nigel Coates, Fashid Moussavi and Will Alsop. .

666 dyne II is out

On June 6th, 2006 Dynebolic II was released.

“:: THIS IS RASTA SOFTWARE

Jah Rastafari Livity bless our Freedom! This is free software, share it for the good of yourself and your people, respect others and let them express, be free and let others be free. Live long and prosper in Peace!

But, no Peace without Justice. This software is about Resistance inna babylon world which tries to control more and more the way we communicate and we share informations and knowledge. This software is for all those who cannot afford to have the latest expensive hardware to speak out their words of consciousness and good will. This software has a full range of applications for production and not only fruition of information, it’s a full multimedia studio, you don’t need to buy anything to express your voice. Freedom and sharing of knowledge are solid principles for evolution and that’s where this software comes from.

Inna babylon, money is the main requirement to make a voice possible to be heard by others. Capitalist and fundamentalist governments all around the world rule with huge TV monopolies spreading their propaganda, silencing all criticism.”

– Release announce here ftp://ftp.dyne.org/dynebolic/latest/README

TV Hacking II

In the week of the 2nd of June the Bitnik media collective visited Deptford.TV at Deckspace and the second TV Hacking session was held together with people from the Hacklab, PureDyne, OpenStreetMap and Boundless projects.

We discussed the editing and publishing systems of Deptford.TV. The decision is to design a memory stick on which all the production software is installed so that every contributor can use any computer connected to the internet.

Therfor the Dynebolic system using Cinelerra is ideal. For the distribution bitinik wants to release the copyfight as an installer towards march next year. Hopefully by the next Node.London session (if there will be one) Deptford.TV can present the system flow running from production to distribution on FLOSS systems.

For Deptford X in November Deptford.TV plans to hold mini DIY soldering TV transmitter workshops on the concept & idea of the hut project, see similar project on radio transmitters presented at Briklane in the same week, from the hut project website:

Dispersed Radio Network / FM Transmitter Workshops

On the 1st of June 2006, from a location on Brick Lane, The Hut Project made the first in an ongoing series of public radio broadcasts, beginning the first leg of our Dispersed Radio Network project. Over a four-day period, our broadcast, covering a 2-mile radius, invited listeners to come to a micro-FM transmitter workshop. We have mappped the location of every transmitter that was built during this first workshop event, and will be asking everyone who built a transmitter with us to take part in a simultaneous broadcast in the next month. Our broadcasts will now be spreading out across London, the UK and wherever we else we get to, as and when the opportunity arises, allowing participants to construct their own micro-radio transmitters, and broadcast their own programmes to their homes, buildings, and streets. At intermittent periods, as we request that all those whio have taken part in our project take part in simultaneous broadcasts, we will be creating, momentarily, a dispersed micro-radio network. We will soon be publishing the map of transmitter locations on this site, and we’ll announce the times of any broadcasts by the network. An archive of all the material broadcast by the network will be stored here as and when it develops.

for the metadata editing we will try out the meta data hootenany, what a name! quoted from metadata hootenany:

Metadata Hootenanny

This is a page about my latest piece of clever software: Metadata Hootenanny.

What Is It? It’s a viewer/editor for all the spiffy metadata you can put into QuickTime movies. You know how you can view, edit and sort by your mp3s’ ID3 metadata in iTunes? Well, a similar metadata system exists for all your QuickTime movies, too, but until now the only way to access it was through the horrid interface of QuickTime Pro Player (You can see certain metadata items in QT’s Info window, and add them in the Movie Properties window under Annotations).

Metadata Hootenanny lets you access this information more easily (and for free!). You can make a playlist of all the videos in your collection with a certain director or writer. You can search your videos for a certain performer, or a keyword in the description. Of course, you have to add all this information to your movies yourself…which is a breeze with Metadata Hootenanny.

Why Would I Ever Want To Have Metadata in My Movies? Ok, ok. Most people probably don’t care about movie metadata yet. The best use I see for this program is for people (like me) who have large collections of TV shows or music videos, somewhat short movies that might conceivably be played back-to-back, or collected into small lists based on subordinate criteria, as might be stored in QuickTime movies’ metadata tags (like writer, director, author, album, etc).

What Kind of Metadata Are We Talking About Here? The Program supports all the Annotations that Quicktime uses (Album, Artist, Author, Comment, etc). Custom categories can be used as well, if they are four characters long and starting with ‘©‘, like “©CMT.” You can type a © in MacOS with option-g. In Addition, there are (mostly) read-only properties about the movies, like video/audio formats, file size, and movie length. Finally, it lets you add or edit Chapter Tracks, which are a cool little feature of the QuickTime container format that is seldom used. They’re like little bookmarks in the movie with a popup-menu that lets you jump between them. In QuickTime Pro, in order to make a chapter track, you have to create a text file formatted in a certain way, with timepoints you must type out by hand, then import it to QuickTime, add it to your movie, un-enable it, and set it as a chapter track.

My way is much easier, trust me, plus if you have a problem or better yet a suggestion, I will be happy to fix it for you. And in case you feel nostalgic for the QTPlayer way, Metadata Hootenanny exports chapter lists to the QuickTime text format, ready for import.

That’s Fine, But What Else Does It Do? I’m glad you asked. In addition to adding metadata and chapters, you can also add DVD-style interactive menus, using QT’s wired sprites. Menu buttons can have images from image files or from the movie itself, and have rollover and on-click pictures as well. Button actions include going to a certain chapter, enabling audio or text (subtitle) tracks, and stepping forward or backward.

Other features include integrated www lookup with IMDB.com, EPGuides.com, TVTome.com and BlockBuster.com, and reading of chapter times directly from the DVD drive or from other movie files. Also movie playback features like fullscreen and rate control.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, although little risk is really involved. The program never even tries to write to the original files (unless of course you choose the unrecommended “save-in-place” option from the save-as window); it only creates new files [NOTE: an unexpected “feature” of the QuickTime API had lead to version 1.0 modifying input files when chapters are added. It is fixed in the “unstable beta” version] I don’t know what it would do if you ran out of hard drive space, though….

Download
unstable beta (check out the version notes and latest beta changes in News + History)
source code (I have a sourceforge project but apparently I’m not competent to use their cvs, so if someone who is wants to upload the source let me know and I’ll add you as a dev on the project)
Here is the source code of what I’m working on for the next version. It has some interesting new stuff, and just about everything is broken in some way. Since I don’t anticipate having much time to fix it, I encourage you to mess around with it in any way you like.

Please email me with any bugs you find and I will fix them toute suite. You can also receive prompt technical support by visiting the 3ivx forums.

Here’s a little picture of it

Presentation at B.Tween forum

Raw Nerve Director Kieran McMillan took part in a panel at the the B.Tween Interactive Media Forum, 26th of May 2006, in the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford. He spoke in the Creative Pioneers Session about some of Raw Nerve’s recent projects and to projects related to Deptford, such as Deptford.TV.

Adnan & Kieran