Monday, August 30, 2004
CALL: Zoie Films’ First Annual Cellular Cinema Festival 2004
Online and on mobile phones
December 1, 2004
http://www.zoiefilms.com/cellularcinema.html
Deadlines:
Early - October 1, 2004
Late - November 1, 2004
We are the proud sponsors of this innovative film festival for the cellular screen...to showcase the video content and technology that will be screened via Tin Can Mobile and Nokia mobile phones. Cellular video and flash entertainment is an exploding market worldwide and one that offers a new forum for filmakers to be seen. Zoie Films is presenting sponsor and partners with Tin Can Mobile and Nokia cell phones to present this unique festival.
FilmFest Description:
This is your opportunity to dig deep into your film archives and re-edit features, shorts animations, documentaries and digital content. Works must be under 5 minutes and a minimum of 1 minute.
FilmFest Rules:
All genres. All formats including PSAs, Music Videos, TV Commericals. Entries must be submitted via NTSC vhs or .wmv or .mpg formats.
Works under 5 minutes. Please submit work via vhs or mpg format. If selected for the Cellular Cinema Film Festival, filmmakers may also include a 2-minute biographical video to be encoded and showcased with their films.
Entry Fees:
* Early Deadline: October 1st l $35.00
* Late Deadline: November 1st l $45.00
* Entry Form
* Festival starts December 1st
Winning films will be screened via ZoieFilms.com and the cellular screen of Tin Can Mobile and Nokia cell phones. Awards and prizes include: a week at the lavish golf resort spa, Boracay Island.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Yury and his MagicBike
Thanks to this week’s protests of the Republican convention, the streets of Manhattan have become an outdoor gallery for the latest trends in the fusion of art and digital technology.
A loose network of tech-savvy activists has been working for months—in some cases years—to construct intriguingly bizarre electronic contraptions for creative resistance. This new breed of wireless activists is moving the Internet’s power off the screen and into the streets.
Processing - A Visual Programming Language
Processing is a programming language and environment built for the electronic arts and visual design communities. It was created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook.
The software is currently in a prerelease stage, but bug fixes are being made as we head toward a more complete “1.0” release. Processing will be free to download and available for Mac, PC, and Linux.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. In 1989 he received a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Electronic artist, develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. His work has been shown in two dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), the Liverpool Biennial (UK), the Itau Cultural (Brazil), the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Japan), the Istanbul Biennial (Turkey), the Cultural Capital of Europe Festival (Holland), the ARCO art fair (Spain), Bienal de la Habana (Cuba), Architecture and Media Biennale (Austria), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), the Musee des Beaux Arts (Canada), European Media Art Festival (Germany) and others. In 1998 he was comissioned to develop a monumental interactive art work in the Zocalo Square in Mexico City for the Millennium Celebrations.
At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica (2000), a distinction (2002) and two honourable mentions (1995 and 1998). He also won a BAFTA British Academy Award for Interactive Art in London (2002), “Best Installation” at the IDMA awards in Toronto (1996), a “Design Review Gold Award” given by I.D. Magazine (2002), a Cyberstar award in Cologne (1996), a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco (2001), “Artist/performer of the year” at Wired Magazine’s Rave Awards (2003), an Excellence Prize at the CG Arts Media Art Festival in Tokyo (2001), WTN award in the Arts Category (2003), a Rockefeller fellowship (2003), a Langlois Grant (2003), the Trophee des Lumieres in Lyon (2003), HorizonZero best interactive installation (2003) and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany (2002).
He has given many workshops and conferences, most recently at the MIT MediaLab, the Guggenheim Museum, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, UC Berkeley, Berlin Transmediale, British National Museum of Photography, Imagina in Montecarlo and the Art Institute of Chicago.
His writing has been published in Kunstforum (Germany), Leonardo (USA), Performance Research (UK), Telepolis (Germany), Movimiento Actual (Mexico), Archis (Netherlands), Aztlan (USA) and other art and media publications. He has been in several international juries and committees, including the Fondation Daniel Langlois, ISEA, Hexagram, Prix Milia d’Or in Cannes, GMD in Bonn, the International Art and A-life award and Cyberconf in Madrid. He has been a resident artist twice at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Zack Booth Simpson
Zack Booth Simpson, born 1970, lives in Austin Texas. He has worked as a software engineer since he dropped out of high-school in 1987. Working as a game developer from 1990 to 1997, he served as the Director of Technology for Origin / Electronic Arts and Titanic Entertainment creating games such as Ultima, Wing Commander, and NetStorm. He began creating interactive artwork in 1999 while living in Barcelona, Spain where he founded the group “Mine-Control” which, with the help of many game developer friends, has created an array of interactive artworks installed in museums worldwide such as The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, The Tech Museum of San Jose, Sony Museum of New York, Eyebeam NYC, and many others. His series “Shadow Garden” was shown in the art gallery of SIGGRAPH 2002 in San Antonio. He currently works as a molecular biology researcher investigating biological computation in metabolic networks and synthetic biology at the Marcotte Lab, University of Texas at Austin, as well as continuing to produce new artwork.
Marcus Neustetter
Marcus Neustetter has been developing projects addressing the relationship between art and technology. These take the form of mobile, installation, and web artworks tackling the translation of data through different online and offline platforms. In this process he has been exploring the digital and analogue ways of representing virtual experiences. Marcus Neustetter has exhibited and been actively involved in developing opportunities and platforms for local digital art through projects in South Africa and Europe, these include ARS Electronica (Austria), Transmadiale.03 (Germany) and E-tester (Spain). Local projects have also focused on curated digital art exhibitions, community research and training programmes and lectures and seminars. As director (with Stephen Hobbs) of the trinity session and Sanman (Southern African New Media Art Network) and The Gallery PREMISES, Marcus Neustetter is actively involved in developing cultural industry strategies through a range of projects informed by cultural and ICT industry experience in South Africa and research conducted for the ILO on the Visual Arts and Crafts Industries in the SADC region. Currently he is developing the UNESCO Digi-Arts Africa network strategy.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
NOW HIRING: INdTV - The Digital Correspondent Program
Deadline: October 1, 2004
The Digital Correspondent Program
Do you have fascinating stories to tell?
Can you captivate an audience?
Do you already shoot and edit your own video?
Are you a natural with a camera?
PROVE IT.
INdTV is seeking up-and-coming creative talent to join the network as Digital Correspondents (DCs).
DCs will think, write, shoot, edit and potentially appear on-air. They will work in a fast-paced, competitive environment, alone and in teams, out in the field and traveling the world. They will work with some of the best programmers, producers and editors in the business. And some of the content they produce will become a part of our network programming.
We welcome candidates who already have television industry experience, but we’ll train those of you who don’t.
FAQ
1) What is INdTV?
INdTV is a new independent media company founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to develop an innovative television network with and for young adults.
2) Is this a political channel?
No.
3) Where will you be based?
We will be headquartered in San Francisco. We will have advertising sales and some production capabilities in New York City.
4) Will I have to relocate to San Francisco if I want to work for INdTV?
No.
5) How is Al Gore involved in INdTV?
Al Gore serves as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, and he is actively involved in driving the strategy and managing the business.
6) What kind of programming will INdTV feature?
Compelling, real-life stories created by and for young adults.
7) What kind of programming will DCs be producing?
A broad spectrum of programs from magazine to documentaries to reality to comedy and satire.
8) Will the DC positions be full-time?
Yes. They will be full-time, two-year, salaried positions with benefits.
9) What makes an ideal DC candidate?
An excellent storyteller who understands the interests and life experiences of our 18-34 year-old audience, and who is passionate, smart and a self-starter.
10) What happens if I get accepted?
You will be put through a rigorous, 4-week training course. Then you will work with other DCs and our senior production and programming teams to produce programming for the network.
11) Who will pay for the training course?
INdTV.
12) When will INdTV’s programming air?
In 2005.
13) Where will INdTV’s programming air?
On digital cable and satellite in almost 20 million U.S. homes initially, with future growth expected.
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For more information about INdTV, check out this article from SF Weekly:
Looking Inside INdTV
http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2004-07-28/feature.html
Frank M. Rinderknecht
Frank M. Rinderknecht is CEO of Rinspeed Inc. of Switzerland which he founded in 1979. Rinspeed is the leading company for exclusive automotive accessories, customized cars, conversions, custom fabrication and prototypes - for the end-user, the dealers and the industry.
Visit their site for a complete list of their amazing designs over the past decades but here are a few of their projects since 2000:
2000 World novelty Rinspeed Tatooo.com - a 50s hot roddish pick-up truck with the “X-Tra-Lift”
2001 World novelty Rinspeed Advantige R-one - an environment friendly and lowest sports car in the world
2002 World novelty Rinspeed Presto - the versatile city car and roadster powered by a bi-fuel engine
2003 World novelty Rinspeed Bedouin - the oriental quick-change artist powered by natural gas.
Relaunch of the Rinspeed Porsche Tuning Line
2004 World novelty Rinspeed Splash - in your wildest dreams
Needle, Thread and Memory Sticks
Although her machine is no longer state of the art, Ms. Zepeda was part of a quiet revolution that has overtaken the world of sewing. Conventional machines have given way to souped-up stitching monsters that combine data-processing muscle with “design for dummies” versatility. Loaded with large memory caches and floppy disk drives (U.S.B. ports are soon to come), machines like Husqvarna Viking’s Designer I function as ancillary computers for hobbyists, many of whom augment their sewing workstations with laptops so they can continually update software and stitch patterns. In essence, sewing machines are now computers with needles and thread attached.
Chris Ewels
Chris Ewels is a research scientist working in nanotechnology at Paris. His ray-traced images reveal some of the strange and wonderful structures that form spontaneously at the atomic and molecular scale.
“Working in nanoscience often gives me something of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ feeling. We work with things that are so incredibly small that sometimes the sense of scale catches up with you - like lying on your back at night looking at the stars, but in reverse.” The images often play with this scale, placing objects of incomparable dimension in the same frame and confronting their different worlds.
At the same time all the structures shown come from real scientific calculations. “It’s important for me that the images are grounded in reliable science. The complex geometries and beautiful symmetries all arise spotaneously at the molecular scale - what looks like black soot can often contain breathtakingly elegant molecular architecture”.
The images primarily focus on the new nanoscale forms of carbon such as fullerenes (or ‘buckyballs’
and nanotubes. They have been used in a range of print and televised media (including an international HP advertising campaign), and were recently displayed at the Miami University Art Museum in Ohio as part of their Nanotechnology exhibition.
Chris Ewels has contact details and an online gallery of images at http://www.ewels.info
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
A technology whiz strives to make life simpler: At home with MIT Professor John Maeda
John Maeda is a man with a lot on his mind. The MIT professor of media arts and sciences thinks about how to make technology simpler; he thinks about using the computer as a mode of expression rather than simply as a tool; he thinks about making digital art from Cheetos and sugar crystals.
Be creative, go to Cy-Bar van
AN OLD horsebox packed with state-of-the-art digital technology is helping youngsters get creative.
The Cy-Bar van has been in Mitcham allowing up to six people at one time create art and graphics on computers.
The van is run by artist Martin Hewth, funded by charity Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art (ACAVA).
Martin said: “Digital art is great because the young people don’t have to be able to draw to achieve good results.
“With the Cy-Bar van we can just roll up and give a high quality digital art workshop anywhere.”
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Moving Away From the Mouse and Keyboard
Imagine a tabletop where you can see a virtual representation of shared work areas, collaborative games, or art projects. At Wired’s NextFest in May 2004, Dr. Chia Shen’s research group at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), demonstrated a collaborative table utilizing a multi-user multi-touch DiamondTouch surface combined with DiamondSpin virtual tabletop applications. If you want to interact with the tabletop, you simply touch the screen!
This team is definitely thinking ahead to the real world. The DiamondTouch surface allows multiple people (up to 4 now) to touch and interact with the table surface *simultaneously* as it tracks each user. How many of us like to set things on our worktable? Not to worry, the surface is debris-tolerant--go ahead and keep stacking those coffee cups, soda cans and other items while you work as it won’t interfere with the interactivity.
DiamondSpin is a Java Tool Kit that enables around-the-table interactions. For the technical details, visit: http://www.merl.com/people/shen/research.html
Also at the show was Breakout for Two, from the Media Lab Europe in Ireland. Similar to soccer, dodgeball or bombardment that we played as kids, in this game, players in separate locations must throw or kick a real ball against a real wall to break through a projection of virtual blocks that partially hide a live video image of the other player. The object is to break the blocks. The first hit produces a crack and subsequent hits produce more cracks until the block breaks and disappears. The player who breaks through the most blocks first, wins!
Instead of sitting in front of a screen to play a game, this allows you to be active and maintain a sense of community in a physical way. At the show, it was set up to throw the balls at each other and, needless to say, it was one of the most popular attractions for kids.
http://www.medialabeurope.org/hc/projects/breakoutfortwo/
In the Emerging Technologies area of SIGGRAPH 2004 in August, the NTT Cyber Solutions Lab from Japan demonstrated their “Air Jets Interface” which alllows a user to receive a sense of touch (force feedback) from virtual objects. Unlike many attempts to do this in the past, there are no wires or attachments to hinder user comfort. The air jets interface system that creates the feeling of touching a three-dimensional object consists of a detector, a display and a force feedback unit. Some examples of possible uses are video media that allows people to touch their pet or other virtual animal; teaching history by allowing a class of students to touch a dinosaur and feel it breathe on them; or in the creation of music by hitting or pressing a series of virtual musical instruments.
http://www.siggraph.org/s2004/conference/etech/untethered.php?=conference
Monday, August 23, 2004
List of Major How-To Computer Book Publishers
These are some of the major how-to computer book publishers. I’m working on a similar one for training DVDs/videos, so if you have any suggestions, please email me at .
Addison-Wesley Professional
http://www.awprofessional.com/
Publishes books for programmers, developers, engineers, and system administrators.
A K Peters, Ltd.
http://www.akpeters.com/
Is an independent book and journal publisher serving the graphics community with titles for graphics researchers, game programmers and animators.
Charles River Media
http://www.charlesriver.com
Publishes books covering major 3D applications and high-end techniques.
Course PTR
http://www.courseptr.com/
Publishes books covering today’s hottest animation and graphics topics.
Focal Press
http://www.books.elsevier.com
Publishes books on film, video, graphics and animation, audio, multimedia, photography and imaging, media technology, and theatre.
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
http://www.mkp.com
Publishes technical books about computer graphics, human-computer interaction, multimedia information and systems, and artificial intelligence.
No Starch Press
http://www.nostarch.com
Named one of the Top 101 Independent Publishers in 2003, they focus on Open Source, security, hacking, web development, programming, gaming, and alternative operating systems.
O’Reilly Media
http://www.oreilly.com
A leading source for books and conferences about computer technologies.
Peachpit Press
http://www.peachpit.com
They partner with Apple, Adobe, Macromedia, G4techTV, and others to bring you how-to books on topics such as iTunes, Photoshop, Flash, game design, Mac and PC troubleshooting, the iPod, digital video and photography, motion graphics, 3D animation, and web design.
Springer-Verlag NY, LLC
http://www.springer-ny.com
Publishes books and journals on computer graphics, imaging, and computer vision.
Sybex, Inc.
http://www.sybex.com
An independent publisher of books on a wide range of computer and business topics, including graphics, certification, operating systems, and programming. They partner with Alias for Maya Press titles.
Wiley
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-2925.html (Computing)
Publishes a wide range of books in addition to their computing section.
Art as Game: Genres
On G4techTV....
Four different and distinct video game genres are represented, per segment, throughout the show: Shooters, fighting games, platform games, and action RPGs. One can always look back to the origins of specific categories, but it is the rare game that can prominently stand forth as a seminal piece of work—one that, while it may not have been the first to cement a certain design dynamic, stands firm as the pre-eminent work of digital art of its’ era.
On Tuesday, August 24, viewers will have the opportunity to see some of the genre defining games that have shaped today’s video game landscape. Tune in to Cinematech at 10:30pm ET / 7:30pm PT to catch the “Art as Game.”