New Network Theory

(text via the website)

Introduction : Rethinking Network Theory
International Conference
Dates: 28-30 June 2007
Location: University of Amsterdam
Click here to register.
Click here for the conference program.

Organized by: Institute of Network Cultures (Interactive Media, Amsterdam Polytechnic, HvA), Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, and Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.

The object of study has shifted from the virtual community and the space of flows to the smart mob. When the object of study changes, so may the distinctions that dominate, particularly the schism between place-based space and place-less space, both organised and given life by networks. We would like to exploit the potential of writing contemporary network theory that suits and reflects the changes to the objects of study that come to define our understandings of network culture – a post-Castellsian network theory, if you will, that takes technical media seriously.
It is time to look for elements that can make up a network theory outside of post-modern cultural studies (which marvelled at the place-less place) and ethnographic social sciences (which reminded us of the ground). What network culture studies needs is a ‘language of new media,’ perhaps even signage, to speak in terms of Lev Manovich; what it currently has is a science-centered ‘unified network theory,’ to paraphrase the language of Albert-László Barabási.

Whilst it may come as no surprise to critical Internet scholars, the notion that networks are not random but have underlying structures remains the key insight for network scientists. Instead of posing new questions, the work that follows from that insight often seeks to confirm that structure and its accompanying patterns, across more and more network-like objects. The question remains which specific contribution critical Internet scholars and practitioners can make to opening up network thought. Such is the purpose of the network theory conference. How must we rethink network culture with a renewed emphasis on technical media and social software?

Click here to read the New Network Theory program.

Filed under: academic, conferences, design, locative, new media, research, social, space/place, technology

NY Design week

( via fiftyrx3 )

It is hard to keep track of everything happening this week. Thanks to Core77’s list of events, things are easier to navigate. Last night I donned the new and improved umbrella dress and braved the crowd at the smashing opening of HauteGREEN. Then I ended up at the Core77 party at Botanica, where much relieved HG organizers could be seen blowing off steam on the dance floor. Tonight I will go to the launch of KIOSK books and possibly get caught in the ebb and flow of design friends and end up at some other events. Tomorrow @ 5pm is reserved for the Reclaiming Design panel, which is being moderated by Inhabitat and includes Tejo Remy of Droog, Carlos Salgado of Scrapile, designer Matt Gagnon and Sam Grawe of Dwell.

Happy Design Week!

Filed under: art, conferences, design, festival, graphics, social, space/place, technology

Psfk_conference london

( via psfk )

PSFK presents a series of presentations and discussions by leading innovators over the course of a day. We have invited some of the most brilliant thinkers who will lead tomorrow’s businesses to speak to an audience from the creative, media and marketing communities.

In the morning our speakers and panelists will explore new trends and ideas in areas like digital media and eco-consciousness; and in the afternoon the speakers will provide inspiration on how to apply the insights gained from looking at trends and ideas and applying them for new marketing, branding and design.

Confirmed Speakers

• Niku Banaie, Naked Communications
• Mike Butcher, TBites
• Russell Davies, Open Intelligence Agency
• Regine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art
• Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin Books
• Karen Fraser, Ethical Index
• Santiago Gowland, Unilever
• John Grant, BrandTarot
• Tamara Giltsoff, OZOlab brand
• Jessica Greenwood, Contagious Magazine
• Hugh MacLeod, GapingVoid
• Beeker Northam, Bloom
• Steven Overman, Lowe Worldwide
• George Parker, Madscam
• Simon Sinek, Sinek Partners
• Stan Stalnaker, Hub
• Iain Tait, Poke
• Diana Verde Nieto, Clownfish
• Amelia Torode, VCCP
• Timo Veikkola, Nokia
• Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly
• Faris Yakob, Naked Communications

Agenda For PSFK Conference London

8.00 Registration

8.30 Welcome – Piers Fawkes

8.45 How Digital Media Screwed The Media Business – Mike Butcher
Journalist Mike Butcher talks about how media owners are on a race for survival now against technology companies that put the power to publish in the hands of the ‘audience’.

9.15 When artists and designers mess around with technology – Regine Debatty (We Make Money Not Art)
Today artists explore electronics, digital bits and even the so-called “emerging technologies” such as biotechnology or nanotechnology. Why should it matter to us?

9.45 The Marketing Gap In Green – Chair: Karen Fraser (Ethical Index) Panel: John Grant (BrandTarot), Diana Verde Nieto (Clownfish), Tamara Giltsoff (OZObrand), Santiago Gowland (Unilever)
Could marketing departments and their agencies get left behind by both the corporations they serve and the consumers they supply?

10.30 Coffee

10.50 Five by Five – Niku Benaie (Naked)
Five themes. Twenty-five ideas, items to inspire and personal gems. One for every minute of the twenty five.

11.20 tbc – Timo Veikkola (Nokia)

11.50 Turning Trends Into Insights – Chair: Steven Overman (Lowe Worldwide / Jack Morton) Panel: Beeker Northam (Bloom), Faris Yakob (Naked), Simon Sinek (Sinek Partners),
Got trends and ideas? Now what do you do with them?

12.40 Lunch

1.30 How To Build Innovation Into A Brand – Jeremy Ettinghausen (Penguin)
Penguin brand marketing – past, present and future. The challenge of reinventing a traditional brand for a digital age.

2.00 Alternative Reality Games – Dan Hon (Mind Candy)
How to serve brand experiences with an injection of adrenalin and fun.

2.30 10 Reasons Why Digital Is Better Than Advertising – Iain Tait (Poke)
Some chap from a digital agency tries to argue that an industry based around a bunch of geeks playing with joined-together computers is somehow more interesting than advertising.

3.00 Can Planners Really Be The New Creatives? Chair: Jessica Greenwood (Contagious Magazine). Panel: Harry Fowler (MajorPlayers), Amelia Torode (VCCP), tbc
Do planners really have the skills, experience and intuition to apply creativity in their work?

3.30 Coffee

4.00 Wine 2.0 – Hugh MacLeod
How a small South African wine company shook up an industry with a web 2.0 approach.

4.30 Visual Business – Martin Cole
Trying to sell visual things to non-visually literate people.

5.00 Change The World – George Parker (Madscam), Russell Davies (OIA), Johnny Vulkan (Anomaly)
What is the future role of the marketing industry? A tool to do good or just more noise?

5.50 Close

(subject to change)

For information visit conference.psfk.com. Questions? sales@psfk.com

Filed under: art, conferences, design, locative, mobility, new media, research, social, space/place, technology

DesignMai5 in Berlin: Digitalability

( via treehugger )

Were you here celebrating the fifth year of DesignMai bringing cutting edge design trends to Berlin? If not, it was your loss. Around the theme of “Digitalability”, DesignMai sought to explore the interactions of design with the tools of the digital age as well as the possibilities for designing in the era of virtual reality. The interface of design with social action was pushed once again in the amnesty international competition in which designers were asked to submit designs supporting action on human rights campaigns for the “design on duty” competition. The best designs were shown in award ceremonies at the Kulturbrauerei (Q: just how cool is a city with a “Culture Brewery”?).

Two exhibits demonstrated viscerally the power of rapid prototyping for designing. In Sketch Furniture by Front, three dimensional air-drawings are captured by laser solidification of liquid plastic. Lines which appeared to be drawn in the air materialized as solid three-dimensional objects, completely obliterating the distinction between concept and reality. The second exhibit demonstrated the potential for absolute customization in sport glasses designed to fit exactly to the contures of the customer’s face. How do these new capabilities support green design? Of course, any technique for making more stuff creates a risk of over-consumption; but the ability to prototype designs is an important tool for waste minimization, energy- and material-efficient execution of projects and other goals of green designers.

Full article here >

Filed under: art, conferences, design, new media, space/place, technology

POSTOPOLIS!

( via bldgblog )

A few months ago, I got a call from Joseph Grima, the director of New York’s legendary Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery. Joseph wanted to put together some kind of event about architecture blogs – how blogs are participating in, redefining, and sometimes even leading the architectural conversation today, on the street, in the schools, at practicing design firms, etc.
If architecture blogs are now changing what people talk about in fields ranging from urban planning, public transport, landscape architecture, green design, architectural history, and even archaeoastronomy and documentary filmmaking, then surely there should be some way to celebrate that, and to mark it with a public event or exhibition?

[Image: New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture, with its famous hinged facade, designed by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci].

So I said yes, in an instant, then waited for things to develop – only to learn that the event would take place over five straight days of near-continuous activity, that I’d be flown all the way to New York City for it, and that Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, Bryan Finoki of Subtopia, and Dan Hill of City of Sound would also be involved (Alex Trevi of Pruned couldn’t make it).
The four of us would be given total freedom to plan whatever we wanted (provided it had at least something to do with architecture, space, landscape, and the city) – to take the same motivating energy behind our various blog posts, interviews, dialogues, plotlines, reviews, ideas, rants, histories, surveys, etc., and to recreate that in person, organizing lectures, panels, pecha kuchas, film screenings, live interviews, readings, casual mingling, wine drinking, purposeful caffeine experimentation, and maybe even some walking tours and site visits… and we’d do it at all from Tuesday, May 29, to Saturday, June 2, 2007.
The event would be called Postopolis! – exclamation point included.

[Image: The Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City].

The four of us are still in the process of assembling speakers and guests, from architects and city planners to urban explorers, military historians, novelists, and documentary filmmakers – not to mention musicians, photographers, ecologists, climate change scientists, plate tectonicists, and so on – and we’ll even be putting together an event within the event so that other architecture bloggers can join in.
After all, Postopolis! is meant to be about architecture blogs – not just about the four of us – so expanding the conversation to include as many other bloggers as possible only makes sense.
In any case, it should be awesomely and unbelievably fun – five days to talk about everything, nonstop, live from the Storefront in Manhattan.

[Image: The Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City].

More info will continue to come out on all of our blogs over the next month, so check back often – but if you’re anywhere near New York City that week, please feel free to stop by. You’ll see City of Sound, Inhabitat (check out Jill gracing the pages of Vogue this month), Subtopia, and myself, in person, with hundreds of our favorite blog posts printed out and plastered all over the walls…

Finally, thanks to Joseph Grima at the Storefront for Art and Architecture for asking us to put this together!

Filed under: architecture, conferences, design, locative, space/place, technology

Carole Collet’s talk at Luminous Green

via wmna

Design & Sustainablity – How to get textile designers on the case?

Carole Collet is Course Director of the MA Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins, College of Art & Design which is part of the University of Art in London. Although it is the biggest university in the world, its programs deal very little with sustainablity. She explained how her message wasn’t really heard when she first proposed the College to integrate sustainability issues into the course. She just went ahead with her idea without really waiting for an official blessing from the institution. I then realized once again that i tour design and art school and still strive to meet lecturers or students who acknowledge the importance of being more eco-conscious. There are exceptions here and there of course. Tom Igoe recently told me about his scheme to push a sustainability discourse at the ITP School of the Arts in New York. With success as the list of student projects to be presented at the ITP Spring show demonstrates: the projects developed with sustainability in mind are clearly tagged with a green label.

Why should we be particularly interested in textiles? Because we wear them, live in them, sit on them, they are used in design, architecture, they surround us. If you look at the bigger picture, you realize that textile has dramatic environmental impacts on the world. Within 40 years there will be 3 billions more people living on the planet. Textile is a very polluting industry. An increased world demand of textile, especially of polyester, can have appalling consequences. Problems range from the use of textile chemicals, pollution to waste water problems, conventional cotton culture is damaging (workers have to wear protective clothing, etc.) But there are alternatives: organic, recycled, more naturally coloured cotton.

Full article here >

Filed under: academic, art, conferences, fashion, new media, physical computing, technology

Mobile Asia Competition 2006

Mobile Asia Competition 2006

MOBILE ASIA COMPETITION 2006: ORGANIZED BY ART CENTER NABI, SEOUL, KOREA :: The progress of mobile technology characterized by mobility, connectivity, and dispersion seems to resonate with the diasporic experiences of Asians who are mobile, dispersed yet connected with each other through socio-cultural dynamics and relations. With the mobile market and its culture expanding beyond Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan to the Southeast Asia, the need should be raised for reflecting upon the currency of culture and the urgency of new identities that are evolving with mobile technology in Asian region.

Mobile Asia Competition 2006 hosted by Art Center Nabi pays attention to the role of media makers and artists in articulating and expressing the Asian mobile cultures. Artists and media makers always appropriate and challenge the given technology through creative ideas and critical practices to broaden the space of possibilities. Especially, the recent emerging ubiquitous mobile environments requires both popular sentiment and critical thoughts. Mobile Asia competition 2006 investigates the new forms of Asian identities and cultures in the creative works of artists and designers who dare to experiment, play, and wrestle with the mobile technologies.

CATEGORY

1. Works made to be viewed and experienced on mobile devices
(1) Game, Interactive Art
(2) Screen-based arts : Animation, Motion Graphic, Documentary, Music Video, Narrative film, etc.

2. Works made by mobile phones such as camera phone, video phone.

3. Idea proposal for wireless art projects on the theme of ‘connectivity and social network’. Art project that expresses the theme of social network and connectivity while exploring new and artistic ways of using diverse personal media such as mobile phones, laptop, PDA and internet network.

PRIZE: The total award money is US $20.000 and the selected works will be exhibited in various on and offline venues.

Category 1 & 2 (Mobile content): US $10.000

– One winner from each category will be awarded with $5000.
– The works by winners and other selected works will be screened and exhibited at Art Center Nabi, ResFest Korea 2006 (digital film festival), and Korean mobile phone service including DMB channel.

Category 3 (Wireless art proposal): US $10.000

– One winner will be awarded with $5000.
– Additional $5000 and technical support will be offered for the realization of the proposal if the work is decided to be realized for the exhibition at Art Center Nabi.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

.Category 1 & 2 seek for completed works, and Category 3 for project proposal.
.Projects that are under development will also be considered for Category 3.
.Project proposal should relate to the theme and topics of the Award
.The works that are already presented or won in other competitions are not eligible for entry.

_HOW TO SUBMIT

.All submissions should be processed through the official online platform.
.Biography, project proposal, and other supporting materials (image, sound, movie files) should be uploaded in appropriate format indicated in each section.
.However, the works applying for Category 1 & 2 should be sent via registered mail in the format of CD-Rom, DVD, Mini DV tape with a copy of filled-out online registration form printed from the website.

Please go to http://www.nabi.or.kr/pages/submission.asp to complete your submission. (all submissions)

Mail address (Category 1 & 2 only):
Art Center Nabi [Att: Mobile Asia Competition 2006]
99 Seorin-dong, Jongro-ku, SK bldg. 4th fl.
Seoul, Korea
110-110

_IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for Submissions
.Category 1 & 2: August 31, 2006
.Category 3: August 31, 2006 (*date has been extended from July 31)

Notification of winners September 15, 2006

CONTACT: For more information, please visit http://www.mobileasia.org.
Or contact at mobileasia[at]mobileasia.org

Art Center Nabi
99 Seorin-dong, Jongro-ku, SK bldg. 4th fl.
Seoul, Korea
110-110
http://www.nabi.or.kr

Filed under: conferences, locative, mobility, new media, research, social, space/place, technology, urban

CALL FOR PAPERS_MOBILE/ IMMOBILIZED

networked_performance: MOBILE/ IMMOBILIZED: Art, biotechnologies & (Dis)abilities

Call for Papers

MOBILE / IMMOBILIZED: Art, biotechnologies & (Dis)abilities :: Call for Papers for the colloquium :: Montréal, October 2007 :: Please submit, to the Centre Interuniversitaire en arts médiatiques :: gram[at]uqam.ca :: a short biography (15 lines) :: an abstract of 250 words maximum :: before September 1, 2006.

A human being would lack nothing, if one were to admit that there are a thousand ways to live. – Canguilhem :: Following the activities that took place within the framework of two colloquia, “Interfaces et Sensoralité” (2003) and “Arts & Biotechnologies” (2004), and based on the work with the handicapped conducted, over several years, by the group at Cyprès in Marseille, we believe it is opportune to provide a site for insightful reflections on questions relating to (dis)abilities. At the intersection of several contemporary art projects, bioscientific research and technological innovations, the notion of deficiency seems to be one of the most fertile and troubling forces. It certainly has a pronounced affect on the experimental art scene, where it generates a significant array of creative, phantasmagorical and symbolic artworks.

Redesigning the Human

Indeed, it seems important, at the present time, to evaluate how technologies and biotechnologies affect the condition of viability, of autonomy and disability of people, and to observe any signs of evolution that signal an increase in cognitive, mental, imaginary and symbolic capabilities. All disciplines involved in the redesigning of the human being are included within the framework of this colloquium. On the one hand, these disciplines occupy the central stage, determining and illuminating the orientation and objectives of the project Mobile / Immobilized, and on the other hand, they serve as a gauge, allowing one to evaluate the techno-anthropological and political impact of practices exerted by humans on humans.

The Augmented Body

Increasingly, technological developments give the impression that human beings are inadequately equipped. This section of the colloquium concentrates on artistic works whose orientation and experimental factors open up conceptual possibilities as well as practical applications for people with deficiencies or constraints (Virtual reality, biofeedback, motion captures, interactivity, synthetic voices, sound, technological extensions, implants, etc.) Artworks will also be presented by people with disabilities who have, because of their deficiencies and their differences, strengthened their sensorial capabilities, and so produce unique poetic and phantasmagorical worlds with technological tools (images, digital photographs, video…). Since such works are adapted to particular disabilities, in certain cases they may result in technical or technological solutions that offer potential uses for the broader
public.

Art as a Life Laboratory

The question here is the study of artistic approaches that propose an important slippage towards a centre of gravity different from the site of current art practices. It is a matter of considering new artworks and artistic processes as cognitive tools, charged at one and the same time with an emotion and with indissociable cognition, artworks that permit one to conceive of strategies for inventive learning and adaptation in order to try to find new symbolic and sensory forms. These approaches permit one to redefine artistic activity in terms of the laboratory of life by actively participating in the development of tools that work for, and in concert with, handicapped persons. This can be done by considering specific imaginaries, unique forms of creations and creativity, and modes of global communication.

Artists, theorists, (bio)scientists, and (bio)engineers) working in related fields are invited to present their artworks, ideas and research, as well as certain developments and applications in this domain.

Filed under: architecture, art, conferences, locative, mobility, new media, research, social, space/place, technology

CALL FOR PAPERS_Transubstantiate

Transubstantiate

Call for Submissions

Transubstantiate: a peer-reviewed, online journal for performance technologies praxis :: Call for submissions :: Deadline: November 1, 2006 :: Transubstantiate welcomes submissions for its inaugural issue on the theme of Disruptive Innovation. We seek examples of new thinking and practice that overturn and / or reassess existing performance technology praxis. Submissions may be presented as papers, reviews, audio, visuals (stills / video) and code. Authors may use multiple formats in a single submission.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Networked performance * Disruptive innovations & discourse * Pedagogy, ontologies and epistemologies * Choreography for iPod. Choreographies for iPod must be specifically devised works and may take the form of: * Video / stills * Audio description / instructions * Text description / instructions * Soundscore with text description / instructions.

Transubstantiate encourages submissions that take an alternative stance on established modes of mediated performance. Submissions should be equivalent to 3000 – 8000 words in .doc, mp3, .jpg or .mp4 (video) format.

The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2006. For more information or to submit please contact the editorial & curatorial board via curators [at] transubstantiate [dot] org.

The liminal is limited; transubstantiate

via turbulence.org/blog

Filed under: academic, art, conferences, locative, mobility, new media, physical computing, research, social, space/place, technology

perthDAC 2007 : The Future of Digital Media

perthDAC 2007 : The Future of Digital Media

Theme

The Future of Digital Media Culture
In the early 1990s, the very term digital was new and novel. However, it has taken only fifteen years for e-mail, the Internet, mobile phones, the power of searchable databases, games, film and TV special effects and workplace software tools to become a common and essential part of modern life. Research has not only described the arrival of these new forms, but is increasingly addressing the unexpected social and cultural uses of digital communications and virtual work/play environments.

In the same historically brief time, popular attention has turned to the potentials and problems of the newer new technologies, bio and nano. In addition, the global phenomenon of terrorism, super-epidemics and climate change have developed from distant concerns to everyday realities. Thus the context for digitally mediated processes is also very different.

perthDAC 2007 will explore the complex interaction of human behaviour and new technologies that will be The Future of Digital Media Culture.

Filed under: academic, architecture, art, conferences, locative, mobility, new media, physical computing, research, social, space/place, technology, urban

OPEN CULTURES – Free Flows of Information and the Politics of the Commons

OPEN CULTURES – Free Flows of Information and the Politics of the Commons

Open Cultures was a two day exploratory conference focusing on the politics of the infosphere and innovative ways to advance the free flows of information. A variety of international speakers inquired into strategies of a counter movement that is guided by the idea of the commons and discuss the role of new media.

Location: KARLSPLATZ Project Space, Kunsthalle Wien, Treitlstrasse 2, 1040 Vienna

Filed under: conferences, new media, opensource, research

Aula Network

Aula Network

The theme Movement points to mobile 2.0 (mobility meets web 2.0), the overlapping of the physical and the virtual, and the social movement-like nature of new technologies. On a personal level, movement is about not staying still but taking action to shape the big global issues we face in the future.

We’ll hear about movement from Clay Shirky the New York University professor who coined the term social software, Alastair Curtis the new Head of Design at Nokia, Martin Varsavsky founder of the global Wi-Fi network FON, and venture capitalist Joichi Ito who has invested in several successful second-generation Web companies including Flickr, SixApart and Technorati.

Movement also means a section of a piece of music, and the gathering will include interventions in music and dance. This event will be less of a conference, more an intimate gathering of people to discuss, detail and experience critical topics.

Aula 2006 is made possible with the kind support of Nokia and Fjord.

Filed under: conferences, locative, mobility, research, social, urban