The Thursday Club, which is organised by Goldsmiths Digital studios, has now got its own website. So if you’d like to keep up-to-date with the latest information on stimulating Club events check out :

http://www.thethursdayclub.net

Supported by the Goldsmiths Graduate School and Digital Studios

6pm until 8pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME. No booking required.

11 OCTOBER with CHRIS BOWMAN

GEO Landscapes and other sites of investigation…

Chris Bowman (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) gives an overview of his recent project GEO Landscapes. This presentation is an introduction to Phase 01 of the GEO Landscapes project which was recently demonstrated at BetaSpace, an experimental exhibition venue for interactive artworks at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and explores prototype narrative structures which simulate ‘on-site’ engagement by a
potential visitor to a given site ( in this instance the Brickpit Ring walk at the Sydney Olympic Park) or multiple sites of investigation. The long-term aim of GEO Landscapes is how to create an augmented interactive audio-visual story-telling experience using interpretive mobile technologies and this will be defined over an iterative series of
phased developments. The ultimate experience is designed to be accessed through three principle technologies; a) handheld mobile devices, b) interactive audio visual public display and c) and web-community.

Bowman’s creative work for GEO Landscapes and other ‘sites of investigation’ features an exploration between corresponding video sequences, selected narratives and site-specific information (GPS) captured across two or more locations. Socially, this drawing together
of the virtual and the augmented space is designed to enrich the presence of the individual in the spaces or places and thereby enhance the interconnectivity of the user in the associated environment that supports remote creative collaboration and information access.

CHRIS BOWMAN is an Australian based artist, writer, director and teacher who works with film, and convergent media display systems. His research interests include interactive narrative systems, schematic representations of spatio-temporal interactive artworks and related film theory. Chris currently lectures in the Visual Communication Program in The Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at UTS. He is an active
member of the Creativity and Cognition Studios and Co-Director of the Digital Design Group both at UTS.

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1 NOVEMBER with VERONIQUE CHANCE & RACHEL STEWART

Live Run(ner) & Thinking Blue Sky

Veronique Chance’s research project (PhD Candidate Goldsmiths) considers
the dynamic relation between the physical presence of the body and its
presence as a screen image, through which she examines the impact of
visual media technologies on our conceptions and perceptions of the body
as a physical presence. The effects of these technologies on traditional
notions and conditions of physicality and representation mark, she
suggests, a shift in our relationship to, and understanding of the body
as a physical presence as we become more used to interacting and
communicating with the body through the immediacy of screen images. This
has led to questions regarding the body as a material presence and to
the technologically mediated image becoming associated with notions and
ideologies of disappearance and disembodiment. Chance understands the
condition of the body as being very much embedded in the material world
and approaches her project through the proposition of what she calls
‘the physicality of an image’, through which she argues for a
reconceptualisation of the materiality of the body through its physical
presence as an image.

For the Thursday Club Chance will present Live’ Run(ner), an artwork in
progress that will record and transmit live the Great North Run through
her own live experience of running the event. The idea is to recreate a
live transmission of her eye-view in real-time, as she run the course,
(literally ‘moving image’). Viewers would experience the event through
her eye-view as she runs, through being able to ‘pick up’ a signal on
their home computers and at wireless hotspots in the City.

VERONIQUE CHANCE is an artist practitioner and educator working across a
range of media. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Fine Art by Practice
at Goldsmiths. She also works as a Mentor for Artists in Residence
Project, Morley College, London; Associate Lecturer, Foundation Course,
Wimbledon School of Art; and Visiting Tutor, Fine Art/ArtHistory,
Goldsmiths.

&

Rachel Stewart’s research (PhD Candidate Goldsmiths) is based around an
engagement with the psycho-geography of the everyday sky and its
representation with contemporary visual culture. Stewart is interested
in how experiences of freedom, imagination, spirituality, orientation
and weight are contextualised within manifestations of the skies of the
post-human landscapes of C21st.

Her research addresses the literary and visual trope of the sky,
specifically the blue sky. The specific material she will discuss is an
index of sky photographs that she has been collecting for a number of
years. The photographs all detail a sky at the occurrence of ‘a sky
event’ i.e. the sky above the screening of James Benning’s Ten Skies, or
the Whitechapel exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s Atlas, or the sky above
Manuel de Landa talking of the sky as a painting of intensive different
at the Creative Evolutions Conference in 2005. The photographs detail
only the particular sky and contain no other visual information. They
could be construed as ‘eventless’. However, seen together these images
create a visual subject, a subject that works in a familiar way but also
starts to describe a new set of relations with this space.

RACHEL STEWART is a contemporary art curator and PhD candidate at
Goldsmiths Visual Cultures. As a curator she has worked both in
partnership with Helen Hayward and on behalf of other organisations on
commissions that include working with Mark Wallinger, Amy Plant, Lothar
Goetz, Daziell+ Scullion, James Ireland, Simon Periton, Mark Titchner,
Florain Balze and Rose Finn-Kelcey. From 1994-1998 Stewart set up,
edited, published and distributed independent arts magazine ENGAGED.

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22 NOVEMBER with JOSEPH TABBI

Toward a Semantic Literary Web: Three Case Histories

Supported by Goldsmiths Department of English and Comparative Literature

In this talkm, Joseph Tabbi introduces a new literary and arts collective, Electronic Text + Textiles,whose members are exploring the convergence of written and material practices. While some associates create actual electronic textiles, Tabbi has explored the text/textileconnection as it manifests itself in writing produced within electronic environments. His online laboratory consists of two literary web sites, EBR, a literary journal in continuousproduction since 1995, and the Electronic Literature Directory , a project thatseeks not just to list works but to define an emerging field. Rather than regard these sites as independent or free-standing projects, Tabbi presents their development in combination with the current (and similarly halting) development of semantically driven content on theInternet (e.g., The Semantic Web, or Internet 2.0).

His purpose is to determine to what extent concepts can flow through electronic networks, as distinct from the predominant flow of information. The latter, in which documents are brought together by metatags, keywords, and hot links, is arguably destructive of literary value. Where tagging and linking depend on direct, imposed conectivity at the level of the signifier, the creation of literary value depends on suggestiveness, associative thought, ambiguity in expression and intent, fuzzy logic, and verbal resonance. At a time when powerful and enforced combinations of image and text threaten to obscure the differential basis of meaning as well as the potential for bringing
together, rather than separating, rhetorical modes, Electronic Text + Textiles seeks to recognize and encourage the production of nuanced, textured languages within electronic environments.

JOSEPH TABBI is the author of two books of literary criticism, Cognitive Fictions (Minnesota, 2002) and Postmodern Sublime (Cornell, 1995). He edits EBR and hosted the 2005 Chicagomeeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is Professor of Literature at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

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13 DECEMBER with ALEX GILLESPIE, BRIAN O’NEILL & ROBB MITCHELL

Cyranoids…

How can “speaking the thoughts of others” enhance and subvert social
interaction both face-to-face and remotely ?

What is a cyranoid ? Cyranoids are people whose speech is being
controlled by another person. The term comes from the character Cyrano
de Bergerac in Edmond Rostand’s 19th Century play. Cyrano, who is ugly
but articulate, helps his handsome but inarticulate friend win the heart
of Roxane by providing eloquent and witty prompts from the sidelines.
The outcome is that Roxane falls in love with Cyrano’s mind through
interacting with the body of his friend. Stanley Milgram, a social
psychologist, in the 1970s coined the term cyranoid to describe a person
whose utterances were being controlled by a second person, the source,
via radio transmission. The cyranoid wears a headset which receives
input from a microphone in a different location. The source then speaks
into the microphone, and the cyranoid just has to repeat what they hear
in their ear. So that the source knows what is going on, the cyranoid
also wears a microphone which transmits everything it hears back to the
source. In this way one person can control the utterances of another
unbeknownst to other people. While the headsets used by Milgram were
conspicuous and limited to transmitting verbal data, now, it is possible
to use incredibly inconspicuous equipment to transmit both verbal
instruction and for the source to receive a video stream of what the
cyranoid is seeing. The internet means that the cyranoid and the source
can be separated by huge distances, with sources simply ‘logging in’ via
the web to a given cyranoid, being able to see and hear what the
cyranoid hears and sees, and then being able to transmit thoughts to the
cyranoid or living, breathing avatar.

The audiences are invited to participate in a social event cum
performance seminar and experience being cyranoids, synchronoids or
sources…

ALEX GILLESPIE holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of
Cambridge. His research concerns the Self and self-reflection and
explores the social interactional and cultural basis of the self. He is
a Lecturer at Stirling University and, currently, Co-chair of the
Organising Committee for the Fifth International Conference on the
Dialogical Self.

BRIAN O’NEILL is a clinical psychologist at Southern General Hospital,
Glasgow. He is interested in cognitive impairments, the disability they
cause and how assistive technology for cognition might provide useful
treatments. He also is founding member of Thunder Bug sound system.

ROBB MITCHELL is an artist, curator and events organiser who has
exhibited and lectured widely in the UK and abroad, among other venues
in: Market Gallery (Glasgow), Edinburgh College of Art, Intermedia
Gallery (Glasgow), Galerie Bortiers (Brussels), Artspace (Sydney), FACT
(Liverpool), Mediabath (Helsinki), ICA (London), CCA (Glasgow), National
Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh), Ars Electronica (Linz) and Eyebeam (NYC).

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THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone
interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity,
interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in
today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

THURSDAY CLUB BOARD

MIGUEL ANDRES-CLAVERA PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Member of Social Technology and Cultural Interfaces Research Group.

MARIA CHATZICHRISTODOULOU [aka MARIA X], Thursday Club Programme Manager; PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Sessional Lecturer Birkbeck
FCE; Curator; Producer.

BRONAC FERRAN Director of boundaryobject.org; Member of DCMS Research and KT
taskgroup; Director of Interdisciplinary Arts at Arts Council England until March 2007.

JANIS JEFFERIES, Thursday Club Convener; Professor of Visual Arts, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths; Co-director Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Director Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles; Curator; Artist.

SARAH KEMBEDr.; Reader in New Technologies of Communication, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College; Writer.

MICHELA MAGAS PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Co-director Stromatolite
Design Studio.

CARRIE PAECHTER

Professor of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths College; Dean of the
Goldsmiths Graduate School.

ROBERT ZIMMER Professor of Computing, Goldsmiths College; Co-director Goldsmiths
Digital Studios.

For more information Maria X at drp01mc@gold.ac.uk

To find Goldsmiths check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/

The Thursday Club is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s). The Club is supported by the Goldsmiths Digital Studios (GDS) and the Goldsmiths Graduate School.

Originally set up in October 2005 by GDS as a more informal setting for research discussions, it has grown to include over 150 members, artists, technologists, scientists, in fact, a growing diversity of people from different communities worldwide, that are now connected via a mailing list and online forum.

There are also regular meetings in ‘real’ space at the Ben Pimlott site of Goldsmiths, University of London. Anyone can attend these events. By keeping these meetings free, informal and open to all, we provide a platform for diverse and open ended discourse, for people who perhaps would not have the opportunity to discuss ideas outside of their chosen discipline.

The Thursday Club brings together people from diverse fields and degrees of expertise, aiming to initiate discussion and debates among postgraduate students, researchers, academics, artists, theorists, and other cultural practitioners.

Since it focuses on interdisciplinary practices, the Club is interested to experiment with innovative formats of presentation that are appropriate to the nature of the subject. We particularly welcome the proposal of round table discussions, panels, screenings, ‘hearings’, live gigs and performance lectures as well as more traditional presentations. We are also interested to platform experimental work-in-progress, of both practical and theoretical nature.

Submission Materials

1. An A4 size page with your proposal (about 500 words); any relevant links; 1-2 pictures if relevant.

2. A 200 words CV

3. Your contact details: name, address, email and telephone number

4. Selected additional audiovisual information (e.g. audio and video files) preferably as a link.

Please send any submissions by email to Maria X at <drp01mc@gold.ac.uk> writing ‘Thursday Club Submission’ as a Subject.

The deadline for the submission of proposals is 29 JULY 2007. The submissions will be reviewed by the Thursday Club Board.

THURSDAY CLUB BOARD

Miguel Andres-Clavera
PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Member of Social Technology and Cultural Interfaces Research Group.

Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X], Thursday Club Coordinator
PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Sessional Lecturer Birkbeck FCE; Curator.

Bronac Ferran
Director of boundaryobject.org; Member of DCMS Research and KT taskgroup; Director of Interdisciplinary Arts at Arts Council England until March 2007.

Prof. Janis Jefferies, Thursday Club Convener
Professor of Visual Arts, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths; Co-director Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Director Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles; Curator; Artist.

Dr Sarah Kember
Reader in New Technologies of Communication, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College; Writer.

Michela Magas
PhD Candidate Goldsmiths Digital Studios; Co-director Stromatolite Design Studio.

Prof. Carrie Paechter
Professor of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths College; Dean of the Goldsmiths Graduate School.

Prof. Robert Zimmer
Professor of Computing, Goldsmiths College; Co-director Goldsmiths Digital Studios.

 

Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8:30pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

Issues of policies have frequently emerged at Thursday Club presentations, specifically in relation to the funding and curation of digital/ media arts, art-science collaborations, and interdisciplinary work in general. So, for the summer term 2007, we invited four distinguished speakers to take part in a round table discussion addressing the question:

Is curation as a practice relevant within the field of interdisciplinary work such as digital /media arts, sci-art, and networked arts? If so, what type of curation is appropriate to, and can support such practices?

The speakers are:

>> KELLI DIPPLE

Kelli is currently Webcasting Curator at Tate, London. Working on the development, programming and production of live webcasts and interface design in conjunction with Digital programmes – Tate Online and Education and Interpretation at Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Kelli has worked for the past decade at the intersection of digital technology and performance practice under the name of Gravelrash Integrated Media, specializing in the integration of visual, interactive, communication and network technologies into live events for live audiences.
More info: http://www.macster.plus.com/gravelrash/

>> FURTHERFIELD.ORG [RUTH CATLOW & MARC GARRETT]

Furtherfield is an online platform for the creation, promotion, and criticism of adventurous digital/net art work for public viewing, experience and interaction. Furtherfield creates imaginative strategies that actively communicate ideas and issues in a range of digital & terrestrial media contexts; featuring works online and organising global, contributory projects, simultaneously on the Internet, the streets and public venues. It focuses on network-related projects that explore new social contexts that transcend the digital, or offer a subjective voice that communicates beyond the medium. Furtherfield is the collaborative work of artists, programmers, writers, activists, musicians and thinkers who explore beyond traditional remits.

Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett are Furtherfield’s co-founders and co-directors. They are both artists involved in research into net art and cultural context on the Internet. They co-curate works featured on Furtherfield.

>> ARMIN MEDOSCH

Armin is a writer, curator, artist, and Associate Senior Lecturer in digital media at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. He has written and edited several books on new media and network culture, his latest work including texts on wireless community networking and free and open source culture.

His latest work as a curator includes a contribution to the exhibition OpenNature at NTTICC Tokyo and the exhibition Waves, Riga 2006. In his spare time he is conducting research on collaborative and participative art forms, open cartography and mobile and interactive travelogues. Armin is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths Digital Studios.

>> CHAIR: PROF. JANIS JEFFERIES

Janis is an artist, writer, curator, and Professor of Visual Arts at the Department of Computing, Goldsmiths College. She is Artistic Director of the Goldsmiths Digital Studios, Director of the Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles, and Convener of the GoldsmithsThursday Club.
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THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right) Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

IGLOO

We believe in growing pieces and exploring ideas of being in other peoples stories, allowing audiences to join the dots, providing libraries of motion for play and provoking imagination so that certain things can be left unsaid. We experiment with different formats & new methods of interaction. Our ideas demand many skills therefore our work is collaborative. We go under the umbrella name of igloo & invite different artists to create with us. igloo are developing ways of blurring the boundaries between spectator & participator both passively & actively viewing ‘interactivity’ as a new kind of audience engagement.

International and award-winning artists igloo create intermedia artworks, led by Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli.

‘In the mid-sixties, Fluxus artists began using the term ‘intermedia’ to describe work that was ….composed of multiple media. The term highlights the intersection of artistic genres and has gradually emphasized performative work and projects that employ new technologies.’ [Marisa Olson – Rhizome.org]

igloo projects are created with teams of highly skilled practitioners drawn primarily from performance, music, design, architecture, costume, computer science and technology backgrounds. Their work combines film, video, motion capture technology, music and performance with digital technology. The work is developed in a variety of formats and made for distribution across a range of platforms, including gallery installation, internet sites, large and small scale performance and Cd Rom.
—

THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

For more information email maria x at drp01mc@gold.ac.uk
To find Goldsmiths check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/

Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Lecture Theatre at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

DIGITAL PRACTICES

Performance and technology in all its divergent forms is an emergent area of performance practice which reflects a certain being in the world – a Zeitgeist; in short, it provides a reflection of our contemporary world at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In a relatively short period of time there has been an explosion of new technologies that have infiltrated all areas of life and irrevocably altered our lives. Consequences of this technological permeation are both ontological and epistemological, and not without problems as we see our world change from day to day.

Exemplary digital practices are Blue Bloodshot Flowers (2001), featuring an avatar called Jeremiah, Merce Cunningham’s Biped (2000) with its virtual dancers, and Stelarc’s “obsolete body”; in film, the digital innovation and creativity of The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003) and the Star Wars prequels (1999-2005); in sound and new media interactive practices, the digitally manipulated sound of Optik, the “intermedia” of Palindrome, and the “electronic disturbance” of Troika Ranch; and in Bioart, the “recombinant theater” of Critical Arts Ensemble, and the “phenotypical reprogramming” and “functional portraits” of Marta de Menezes.

In my opinion the quintessential features within much of this performance demand a new mode of analysis which foregrounds the inherent tensions between the physical and virtual. These practices, in different ways, emphasize the body and technology in performance and they explode the margins between the physical and virtual and what is seen as dominant traditional art practices and innovative technical experimentation. Therefore, my main premise is the exploration and investigation into the physical/virtual interface so prevalent within the digital.

As a development of my previous theorization on liminality I believe that aesthetic theorization is central to this analysis. However, other approaches are also valid, particularly, those offered by recent research into cognitive neuroscience, particularly in relation to the emergent field of “neuro-esthetics” where the primary objective is to provide “an understanding of the biological basis of aesthetic experience” (Zeki 1999).

SUE BROADHURST is a writer and performance practitioner, Reader in Drama and Technology, and the Head of Drama Studies in the School of Arts, Brunel University, West London. She is author of Liminal Acts: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and Theory, London: Cassell/New York: Continuum, 1999, Digital Practices: Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology (forthcoming, 2007), Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) together with various articles including ‘Interaction, Reaction and Performance: The Jeremiah Project’, The Drama Review, MIT Press 48, (4): 47-57. Sue is currently working on a series of collaborative practice based research projects entitled, “Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance,” which involve introducing various interactive digital technologies into live performance including, artificial intelligence, 3D film, modeling and animation, and motion tracking. She is also editor of the Body, Space & Technology on-line journal.
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…and the last Thursday Club of this term will be on

22 MARCH with IGLOO

International and award winning artists igloo create intermedia artworks, led by Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli.

‘In the mid-sixties, Fluxus artists began using the term ‘intermedia’ to describe work that was ….composed of multiple media. The term highlights the intersection of artistic genres and has gradually emphasized performative work and projects that employ new technologies.’ [Marisa Olson – Rhizome.org]

igloo projects are created with teams of highly skilled practitioners drawn primarily from performance, music, design, architecture, costume, computer science and technology backgrounds. Their work combines film, video, motion capture technology, music and performance with digital technology. The work is developed in a variety of formats and made for distribution across a range of platforms, including gallery installation, internet sites, large and small scale performance and Cd Rom.
Visit www.igloo.org.uk/

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Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW [To find us check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/ ]

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

THE HOME HEALTH MONITOR

Domestic ubiquitous computing systems often rely on inferences about activities in the home, but the open-ended, dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the home poses serious problems for such systems. In this work, we propose that by shifting the responsibility for interpretation from the system to the user, we can build systems that interact with people at humanly meaningful levels, preserve privacy, and encourage engagement with suggested topics. We describe a system that embodies this hypothesis, using sensors and inferencing software to assess ‘domestic wellbeing’ and presenting the results to inhabitants through an output chosen for its ambiguity. In a three-month field study of the system, customised for a particular volunteer household, users engaged extensively with the system, discussing and challenging its outputs and responding to the particular topics it raised.

BILL GAVER is Professor of Design at Goldsmiths, and a Principle Investigator on the Equator IRC. Bill has pursued research on innovative technologies for over 15 years, his work spanning auditory interfaces, theories of perception and action, and interaction design. Currently he focuses on design-led methodologies and innovative technologies for everyday life.
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Other Thursday Club events this term:

8 MARCH with SUE BROADHURST

DIGITAL PRACTICES

Sue is Subject Leader, Reader in Drama and Technologies at the School of Art, Brunel University of West London. Sue is also a writer and practitioner in the creative arts. Her new book /Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity/ has just been published by Palgrave. She is co-editor of the /Body, Space and Technology /online journal and is currently working on a series of collaborative practice based research projects entitled “Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance”.
—

22 MARCH with IGLOO

International and award winning artists Igloo create intermedia artworks, led by Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli.

‘In the mid-sixties, Fluxus artists began using the term ‘intermedia’ to describe work that was ….composed of multiple media. The term highlights the intersection of artistic genres and has gradually emphasized performative work and projects that employ new technologies.’ [Marisa Olson – Rhizome.org]

Igloo projects are created with teams of highly skilled practitioners drawn primarily from performance, music, design, architecture, costume, computer science and technology backgrounds. Their work combines film, video, motion capture technology, music and performance with digital technology. The work is developed in a variety of formats and made for distribution across a range of platforms, including gallery installation, internet sites, large and small scale performance and Cd Rom.
Visit www.igloo.org.uk/
—

THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

For more information check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/gds/events.php or email maria x at drp01mc@gold.ac.uk

The Thursday Club is supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

DIGITAL ART IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART CONTEXT

If you are a digital artist wishing to present work in the contemporary art context, you face some practical, cultural and theoretical hurdles. In this talk I’ll discuss some of these challenges, drawing on lessons I’ve learned as a computer scientist studying on the Goldsmiths MFA in Fine Art program. I’ll show work I’ve done as part of the program and talk about common responses. My goal is to start a discussion about useful strategies for contemporary artists using digital media.

JON MEYER is a digital artist, working in London and New York. Meyer received a B.A. in Artificial Intelligence from Sussex University and an M.S. in Computer Science from New York University. His artwork has been in group shows in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles and Osaka, including the SIGGRAPH 2005. He is currently in the final year of his M.F.A in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College.
Jon has over fifteen years of experience in the software industry, specializing in computer graphics, animation, and user interfaces. He worked as a Program Manager on the Sparkle team at Microsoft and as a Research Scientist at New York University’s Media Research Laboratory. Jon has taught multimedia at NYU and at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. http://www.jonmeyer.com
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THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

For more information email maria x at drp01mc@gold.ac.uk
To find Goldsmiths check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/

**THURSDAY 25 JANUARY with MICHAEL YOUNG**
Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE
SCHOOL

25 JANUARY, 6-8PM, BEN PIMLOTT BUILDING, GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
NEW CROSS, SE14 6NW. Seminar Rooms, Ground Floor, Right.

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

*AUR(O)RA: EXPLORING ATTRIBUTES OF A LIVE ALGORITHM*

This presentation proposes attributes of 'living computer music', the
product of live algorithmic behaviours. The improvisation system
"aur(o)ra", in development, illustrates how these can inform creative
design.

A live algorithm (LA) is the function of an ideal autonomous system able
to engage in performance with abilities analogous (if not identical) to a
human musician. An LA is distinct from established AI which generates
music from a rule-base, and is most relevant where structure and character
are emergent properties, products of interaction with the heterarchical
group. Living computer music diffeers from traditional live electronics
and fixed-media work by avoiding performer control or explicit a priori
knowledge (compositional design, notation). Instead, a number of other
properties are desirable...

Dr Michael Young is Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and
composer. Michael completed a PhD in composition in 1995. He has lectured
at the University of Wales, Bangor and Oxford Brookes University. His
music has drawn upon a range of live and electroacoustic resources; more
recent work has focused on interactive and generative music systems. An
undercurrent in his output is collaborative and interdisciplinary
practice; he has worked with jazz musicians and improvisers in the role of
pianist, laptop musician and/or composer, and has been commissioned to
provide electroacoustic music for performance in theatre and gallery
exhibitions. He is co-director, with Tim Blackwell, of the Live Algorithms
for Music Research Network, creaetd with funding from EPSRC.

For more information on the Thursday Club check
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/gds/events.php or email maria x at
drp01mc@gold.ac.uk

Supported by the Goldsmiths DIGITAL STUDIOS and the Goldsmiths GRADUATE SCHOOL

6pm until 8pm, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW

FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

11 JANUARY with CHARLOTTE FROST
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NEW FUTURES IN NET ART

Charlotte is the editor of Furthertext as well as a net art critic and PhD candidate at Birkbeck. Visit http://www.charlottefrost.info/
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25 JANUARY with MICHAEL YOUNG
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LIVING COMPUTER MUSIC? Recent Compositions and Explorations with Max

Michael is Lecturer at the Music Department at Goldsmiths. His music explores a variety of live and electroacoustic resources, and has reflected his interests in jazz and collaborative/interdisciplinary practice. His current research interests focus on interactive live electronics and improvisation. Michael is co-investigator with Tim Blackwell, Department of Computing, for the Live Algorithms for Music research network.
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15 FEBRUARY with JON MEYER

Jon is a digital artist who specializes in computer graphics, animation, and user interfaces, and has worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft and as a Research Scientist at New York University’s Media Research Laboratory. Jon has taught multimedia classes at NYU and at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. He is currently doing an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths. Visit www.cybergrain.com
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22 FEBRUARY with BILL GAVER

Bill is Professor of Design at Goldsmiths College. He has pursued research on innovative technologies for over 15 years, his work spanning auditory interfaces, theories of perception and action, and interaction design. Currently he focuses on design-led methodologies and innovative technologies for everyday life.
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8 MARCH with SUE BROADHURST
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DIGITAL PRACTICES

Sue is Subject Leader, Reader in Drama and Technologies at the School of Art, Brunel University of West London. Sue is also a writer and practitioner in the creative arts. Her new book /Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity/ has just been published by Palgrave. She is co-editor of the /Body, Space and Technology /online journal and is currently working on a series of collaborative practice based research projects entitled “Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance”.
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22 MARCH with IGLOO

International and award winning artists Igloo create intermedia artworks, led by Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli. “In the mid-sixties, Fluxus artists began using the term ‘intermedia’ to describe work that was ….composed of multiple media. The term highlights the intersection of artistic genres and has gradually emphasized performative work and projects that employ new technologies.” Marisa Olson – Rhizome.org

Igloo projects are created with teams of highly skilled practitioners drawn primarily from performance, music, design, architecture, costume, computer science and technology backgrounds. Their work combines film, video, motion capture technology, music and performance with digital technology. The work is developed in a variety of formats and made for distribution across a range of platforms, including gallery installation, internet sites, large and small scale performance and Cd Rom.

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THE THURSDAY CLUB is an open forum discussion group for anyone interested in the theories and practices of cross-disciplinarity, interactivity, technologies and philosophies of the state-of-the-art in today’s (and tomorrow’s) cultural landscape(s).

For more information check http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/gds/events.php or email maria x at drp01mc@gold.ac.uk