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Upcoming: Academia, Wikipedia and Social Media’s Reframing of Academic Power/Knowledge Arrangements

Posted by on October 4th, 2010 · Research, Researching Learning and Teaching

Dr Henk Eijkman, ADFA
11 October, 12.30 – 2pm
Learning & Teaching Workshop (Room 416), Level 4 Mathews Building

While there is much hype about academics’ attitude to Wikipedia there have been few if any empirical studies. The aim of this research was to ascertain how academics respond to Wikipedia as an iconic social media application built around the socially constructed nature of knowledge.  Results of the research will be presented, along with implications. 

You must register to attend.  For more information and to register online, go to: www.edtec.unsw.edu.au/event_rego/events.cfm

SEAM 2010 Public Symposium: AGENCY and ACTION

Posted by on October 3rd, 2010 · related topics

SEAM 2010 Public Symposium: AGENCY and ACTION

15 & 16 OCTOBER at Seymour Centre, Cnr of City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale, Sydney

Early bird bookings end Tuesday 5 Oct!
For bookings, please contact the Box Office at Seymour Centre.
Box Office, Seymour Centre
P: 02 9351 7940
http://www.seymourcentre.com/

If you’re interested in the cutting edge connection between dance, performance and technology, then take a look at what’s happening during SEAM 2010. The focus will be on Embodiment in Digitally Mediated Environments and includes a 2 day Symposium at the Seymour Centre (15 and 16 Oct), public talks and artist performances/ presentations by local and international Artists. The international artists include Igloo (Ruth Gibson, UK), Holger Deuter(DE), Frederic Bevilacqua, leader of Real Time Musical Interactions at the Institute for Music/Acoustic Research in Paris (FR) and Christian Ziegler (DE). The national artists include Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move), Stelarc, George Khut, John Sutton, Kathy Cleland, Lian Loke, Hellen Sky, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Scott McQuire, Paul Thomas, Mike Leggett, Lyndal Jones, Vicki Van Hout, Linda Dement, Petra Gemeinboeck, Garth Paine and Kate Richards amongst others.

Leave general comments about the FMP here

Posted by on September 30th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Leave any general comments about the Financial Management Program here. We welcome views on how the Program as a whole could be more effective in building financial stability and capability amongst disadvantaged people. Please use professional courtesy in framing your comments: posts will be monitored and any defamatory or derogatory comments will be removed.

M-Node &; NABA Media Design & New Media Art Symposium

Posted by on September 29th, 2010 · related topics

M-Node & NABA Media Design & New Media Art Symposium

in collaboration with NoemaLab

New Media Art Education & Research: Always Already New

Thinking Media, Subversing Feeling, Scaffolding Knowledge: Art and Education in the Praxis of Transformation

December 16 – 18, 2010

NABA, via Carlo Darwin, 20, Milan

http://conferences.noemalab.org/

Celebrating the 30 years of the Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti – New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, NABA, and as part of our blueprint program aimed at exploring the relations among culture, art and technologies, the PhD Program of the Planetary Collegium’s M-Node and the NABA School of Media Design & New Media Art, in collaboration with NoemaLab are organizing a 3-day meeting on December 16 – 18, 2010, in Milan @NABA to challenge, foresee and debate in a subversive, non linear, anarchic and non academic free way, future strategies and forms of education in Media, Art & Design and the role of the research and production spaces for artists and creative professionals working with technologies.

“Always Already New” is part of the New Media Art Education & Research conferences that the PhD Program M-Node and the NABA Department of Media Design & New Media Art have been organizing for a few years. The education and research programs will provide opportunities for discussion and engagement with a wide range of professionals: teachers, researchers, scholars, curators, meetings’ experts, from art and technology labs across Italy and worlwide.

After the three days with international participants from many realms NABA Media Design & New Media Arts and M-NODE in collaboration with NoemaLab will also identify the key topics for a follow-up expert’s meeting as well as some urgent research areas to focus on in the 2011 symposium.

Keywords

• Art on the Edge: new strategies for sustainable creativity;

• The New Creativity: art and education in the time of transformations;

• Transdisciplinary Territory: the limits of Video in Media education;

• Changing visions: new models of art in education; Beyond Sensibility: new perspectives on art and its formation;

• Authoritarian dreams imaginary, vision and utopias, beyond dreams;

• New Instruments for Teaching and Learning: do they change anything?

• Relevant experiences and case histories.

Language

The official language of the symposium is English.

Submission of Abstracts

Abstracts (500 words maximum) are due by October 15, 2010. They should be submitted as an attached document in Text (txt), Rich Text (rtf), Open Document (odt) or Acrobat (pdf) formats by e-mail to: symposium2010@noemalab.org. Please, indicate in the text of the email that it is the abstract for the “Always Already New” symposium.

Acceptance

Abstracts will be acknowledged on receipt, and authors will be notified of acceptance by October 30, 2010.

Submission of Full Papers

Papers (no more than 2500 words) will be required by November 30, 2010. Papers received after this date will not be published. Full details of copy-ready requirements will be supplied at the time of acceptance.

Presenters’ fee

In order to be included in the Conference Program, Conference Proceedings, publicity and announcements, the Registration Fee for presenters is 150 €. Payments are due by November 15, 2010. Details on how to pay the registration fee will be given at the time of acceptance.

The Conference Proceedings will be digitally published with an ISBN number before the beginning of the symposium. A printed release will follow on demand.

Entrance fee

– Full conference (3 Days): 100 €

– The students pay no fee.

Website

http://conferences.noemalab.org/

Information on the venues and accommodations will follow. Stay tuned!

Weird Bug

Posted by on September 28th, 2010 · lectures

In last week’s lecture I had some trouble with the script:

// GUI.js
var label : String;
var rect : Rect; 

function Update() {
   GUI.Label(rect, label);
}

Unity was giving the error:

Assets/GUI.js(5,13): BCE0019: ‘Label’ is not a member of ‘GUI’.

I’ve finally worked out why. When you create this script it makes a new class called “GUI” which overrides the built-in GUI class. So when I try to call GUI.Label() it looks for a Label method on this script. There is none, so it causes an error.

The moral to the story is: Make sure your scripts don’t have the same names as builtin Unity classes. So don’t call your script GUI or Transform or GameObject.

Lab 10 – GUI

Posted by on September 28th, 2010 · Lab

Task 1: Build a GUI with a label and a button. The label should show the number of times the button has been pressed.

Task 2: Build a “Security Panel” GUI with buttons labelled “0” through “9” and an “Enter” button. Allow the player to unlock the panel by entering the correct 4 digit PIN. Demo here.

Showstoppers of Cloud Computing – and how to overcome them

Posted by on September 27th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Herbjorn just posted this nice blog on the top 3 showstoppers of cloud computing – and an unexpected one.

Agree!

Now – there are additional ways of gaining trust – testing the water via carrying out cloud platform evaluations; doing a proof of concept of deploying a slice of an existing business application, and see what you learn in dimensions around performance, security, licensing, maintainability etc ; gaining better control in terms of forecasting how much cloud resource you will need, and how much it will cost; and of course, as Herbjorn mentioned, rigorous contractual conversations with your favourite cloud vendor.

I would also expand on the ‘challenge of CapEx – to – OpEx’, to also include enterprise organisations that already has multi-year outsourcing arrangements… the adoption of cloud represents a radical shift in an enterprise’s IT process, particularly in the management, governance and service delivery aspects, not to mention the expected changes in people’s roles and responsibility. 

The big prize will go to the innovative System Integrators that work out a way to continual provide enterprise strength IT services, while incorporating effective and efficient wrapper support services over some attractive public IaaS offerings…

Architecting Cloud Applications Tutorial at APSEC 2010

Posted by on September 27th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Many thanks to everyone that has expressed interest in our presentations at the SOACloud Symposium in Berlin.

For those of you that cannot make it all the way to Berlin, I intend to share a lot of the experiences right here at home – Sydney, 17th Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference on 30th Nov. Hope to see you there!

Toward a Science of Consciousness 2011 CFP

Posted by on September 25th, 2010 · related topics

Toward a Science of Consciousness 2011

Brain, Mind and Reality

May 2-8, 2011

Aula Magna Hall

Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

http://consciousness.arizona.edu/TSC2011AnnouncCALLforABSTRACTS.htm

*

*

Toward a Science of Consciousness is an interdisciplinary conference

emphasizing broad and rigorous approaches to the study of conscious

awareness. Topical areas include neuroscience, philosophy, psychology,

biology, quantum physics, meditation and altered states, machine

consciousness, culture and experiential phenomenology. Held annually

since 1994, the conference is organized by the Center for Consciousness

Studies at the University of Arizona, and alternates yearly between Tucson,

Arizona and various locations around the world. Toward a Science of

Consciousness 2011 will be held at Stockholm University, Aula Magna Hall,

Stockholm, Sweden, May 2-8, 2011.

Nine recent developments related to the understanding of consciousness

will be addressed:

1) Electromagnetic fields and massively coherent neuronal activities

correlate

with consciousness in the brain

2) Transcranial therapies aimed at brain fields and neuronal targets promise

utility in various mental disorders

3) Neuronal connection maps enable computer simulations of brain !

functions, but

are axonal and/or dendritic processes! necessa ry/sufficient for

consciousness?

4) Anesthetic gases selectively erase consciousness and block coherent gamma

synchrony EEG acting in a distributed array of dendritic proteins

5) Warm temperature biological quantum coherence and ballistic conduction in

microtubules have rejuvenated quantum approaches to consciousness

6) Physics and cosmology are approaching the nature of reality, time and the

place of consciousness in the universe

7) Libet backward time referral of subjective experience is now observed in

mainstream neuroscience, perhaps accounted for by quantum physics

8) Surprising end-of-life coherent brain activity suggests a physiological

correlate for so-called near death experiences

9) Eastern philosophy and secular spirituality accommodate quantum physics

and cosmology

Speakers (preliminary list)

Anirban Bandyopadh! yay

Dick Bierman

Moran Cerf

Lakhmir Chawla

Deepak Chopra

Nicholas Franks

Stuart Hameroff

Germund Hesslow

Anthony Hudetz

Tarja Kallio-Tamminen

Menas Kafatos

Johnjoe MacFadden

Rafi Malach

David McCormick

Leonard Mlodinow

Sue Pockett

Paavo Pylkkanen

Allan Snyder

Jack Tuszynski

W. Jamie Tyler

Pim Von Lommel

Eric Wasserman

and others

Special Pre-Conference Workshop

Deepak Chopra  Vedic approaches to consciousness

Monday May 2, 2011

Sessions, Themes and Speakers

1) Brain fields and coherence: Evidence and theory suggest brain

electromagnetic

fields and large scale coherent potentials, ignitions and avalanches

correlate

with consciousness and feed! back on neuronal activities, bolstering

longstanding

electro magnetic field theories of consciousness.

David McCormick, Yale, Brain electric field feedback

Johnjoe McFadden, Surrey, Electromagnetic field theory of consciousness

Sue Pockett, Auckland, E-M field theory of consciousness

2) Transcranial therapy of mental states: New therapeutic modalities based

on

brain stimulation aimed at conscious mental disorders include transcranial

electric and magnetic fields and ultrasound vibrations. Mechanisms and

utility

in relation to consciousness and memory will be discussed.

Allan Snyder, Sydney, Transcranial Electric fields for memory enhancement

W. Jamie Tyler, Arizona State, Transcranial ultrasound for mental disorders

Eric Wasserman, NIH, Transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression

3) Neuronal computation and brain simulation: What systems, levels and

specific

brain activities are critical for consciousness: axonal firings, dendritic

synchrony, macroscopic fields, complexity, intraneuronal processes, quantum

states? Will mapping the brain explain consciousness?

Germund Hesslow, Lund, Complex spike timing

Rafi Malach, Weizmann Institute, Neuronal ignitions

4) Anesthesia and consciousness: Anesthetic gases selectively erase

consciousness and block high frequency gamma synchrony EEG while sparing

non-conscious brain functions, acting by weak quantum forces in a

distributed

array of post-synaptic proteins

Nicholas Franks, Imperial College London, Anesthetic sites of action

Stuart Hameroff, Arizona, Hydrophobic quantum pockets in dendritic proteins

Anthony Hudetz, MC Wisconsin, Anesthetics and gamma synchrony

5) Quantum biology: The role of quantum phy! sics in consciousness has been

discounted by the ass! umption that the biological brain is too warm and

wet.

But quantum coherence, entanglement and ballistic conductance have now been

recognized in warm photosynthesis, DNA and microtubules.

Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Tsukuba, Ballistic conductance in microtubules

Jack Tuszynski, Alberta, Microtubule information processing capabilities

6) Consciousness, reality and the universe: Does the conscious observer

collapse

the wave function? Is consciousness an emergent property of complex

computation,

or irreducible and intrinsically related to spacetime geometry? How did the

universe arise from nothingness? What is entanglement?

Menas Kafatos, Chapman University, The holographic universe

Leonard Mlodinow, CalTech, Grand design (with Stephen Hawking)

Paavo Pylkkanen, Helsinki, Bohm and the quantum universe

7) Time, prec! ognition and consciousness: The Libet experiments and

parapsychology have long suggested backward time referral of subjective

conscious experience of hundreds of milliseconds in the brain. Now such

effects

are seen in mainstream neuroscience. Can they be explained through quantum

physics?

Dick Bierman, Amsterdam, Pre-sentiment

Moran Cerf, NYU/UCLA, Pre-cognition in human brain neurons?

9) End-of-life brain activity: Recent clinical studies report a surge of

coherent, high frequency EEG at the time of human death, when neuronal

metabolic supplies are depleted. Historically, nearly all civilizations have

reported so-called near death experiences with remarkably consistent

phenomenology. Have brain monitors captured the correlate of near death

experiences?

Lakhmir Chawla, George Washington, End-of-life br! ain activity

Pim von Lommel, Arnhem, Near death expe! riences< /div>

9) Eastern philosophy, quantum physics and cosmology. Buddhism and Vedanta

have

much in common with quantum physics and cosmology. Is consciousness inherent

in

the universe?

Deepak Chopra, Chopra Center, Vedic approach to consciousness

Tarja Kallio-Tamminen, Helsinki, Quantum physics and Eastern philosophy

In addition to Keynote and Plenary talks, the conference will feature

Pre-Conference Workshops, Concurrent Talks, Poster Sessions, Art/Tech

Demos, Social Events and Side Trips in the Stockholm tradition.

*Special Pre-Conference Workshop*

Deepak Chopra – Vedic approaches to consciousness

Monday May 2, 2011

TSC Stockholm 2011 Conference Abstract System will be available via the CCS

website after September 20.  All Abstracts must be submitt! ed via the

online

system. Accepted abstracts will be included in the conference program book

and posted online.

Schedule of Deadlines:

Abstracts Due       November 15

Decisions           December  20

Registration        January  5

Final Edits         February 15

Pre-Conference Workshop Proposals:

Proposals (500 words or less) should be sent to: center@email.arizona.edu no

later than October  25 (notifications by November 15)

Workshops will be held in 4 hour sessions on Sunday May 1 and Monday May 2

Sponsors

Perfjell Wellness Center

Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona

Mind Event SA

Chopra Foundation

Agora for Biosystems

Organi! zing Committee

Stuart Hameroff (University of Arizon! a)

Paavo Pylkkanen (University of Helsinki)

Christer Perfjell (Perfjell Wellness Center, Mind Event SA)

Deepak Chopra (Chopra Center)

Adrian Parker (University of Gothenburg)

Hans Liljenstrom (Stockholm University, Agora for Biosystems)

Annekatrine Puhle (University of Gothenburg)

Abi Behar-Montefiore (University of Arizona)

Arlene ‘Abi’ Behar-Montefiore | Manager

Center for Consciousness Studies

c/o Dept. of Anesthesiology

University Medical Center

POB 245114

Tucson, AZ 85724-5114 USA

Office/DL 520-621-9317 | Cell 520-444-2813 | Fax: 520-626-5596

center@u.arizona.edu | www.consciousness.arizona.edu

Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme

Posted by on September 23rd, 2010 · Sept 2010, Short courses

The application process for the 2011 JET Programme is open.

The Application Pack for the 2011 JET Programme is available for download here: link

We need to receive all applications by 5PM Wednesday, 01 Dec 2010.

The Official JET Website by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations: www.jetprogramme.org

The JET Program Alumni Association (JETAA) also maintains a very useful web site at www.jetalumni.org, as does the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs: www.mofa.go.jp/jet/

Contact details for JETAA in your state are here.

(Information for Australian Applicants)

The 2011 JET programme application process is open .

The general time-line for recruitment is as follows

Applications are screened over December and January, with applicants being informed of their results by early February. Interviews for short-listed applicants are held from mid to late February in Canberra and each state capital.  Interviewees are informed of the results of their interviews in April. Placement details are usually available in May or June, and successful candidates leave for Japan late July or early August each year. Contracts are for one year, and can be renewed in certain instances for a further one or two years. Please note that no interviews are conducted overseas – including in Japan – for Australian applicants.

NB: These pages contain information for Australian citizens only. Citizens of other countries are advised to contact a Japanese diplomatic mission in their home country, regardless of Australian Permanent Residency status.

Further information about the JET Programme is available from:

The JET Desk
jet@cb.mofa.go.jp
Telephone: (02) 6273 2679
Facsimile: (02) 6273 4332

Brisbane
Consulate-General of Japan
(07) 3221 5188
Melbourne
Japan Information and Cultural Centre
(03) 9639 3277

Perth
Consulate-General of Japan
(08) 9480 1800

Sydney
Consulate-General of Japan
(02) 9231 3455