WORKSHOP: LEONARDO EDUCATIONAL ART FORUM ART SCIENCE CLOUD CURRICULUM WORKSHOP  

Cloud

Developing Cloud Curriculum in Art and Science
‘So what would a “Art Science Cloud Curriculum” be in the face of networked culture?’

This Leonardo Educational Art Forum Art Science Cloud Curriculum workshop is to generate and build an internationally recognised and Leonardo endorsed art and science cloud curriculum course outline. The workshop outcome would be a curriculum that could become a benchmark of what we see as quintessentially important to engage in the world of research at the core of Art/Science.

This workshop is established in collaboration with the research being developed for the SEAD curriculum white paper and STEAM. The proposed workshop would be able to define and construct an actual sample curriculum that would be placed on the art sci cloud curriculum wiki under a creative commons license.

The workshops would happen in real-time with invited collaborators at two significant events in 2012;

1. The Re-New The Interactive Media Arts Conference (IMAC) is an annual interdisciplinary and international conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It provides the ideal framework for artists, curators, researchers, engineers and students to meet, present and discuss their findings in new media art. IMAC 2012 is held in parallel with the re-new 2012 digital arts festival, on November 19-24 2012 and for this year, IMAC 2012 wishes to take a fresh look at Cybernetics.

2. MutaMorphosis: Tribute to Uncertainty CIANT– Prague CIANT from December 6, December 8, 2012. MutaMorphosis II should therefore be contextualised in a world undergoing a complete mutation, jolting at all its points of articulation, whether political, economic, diplomatic, geographic, ecological, technological or communicative.
The workshop would encourage contemporary scholars, artists, scientists and theorist in the area of art and science to discuss, suggest and create the aims, attributes, readers and course work that should be undertaken to produce a fundamental set of considerations that would enable students to engage in the world of art and science.

The workshop would utilize contemporary networked technologies to build the curriculum in real-time that would become the foundation of an art and science cloud curriculum wiki. The project aims to use the wiki to affect a shift in the perception of art and science students and staff toward an understanding of new paradigms of research and learning that challenge and transcend disciplinary boundaries. The curriculum will privilege metacognitive interrogation of content and (re)visioning of traditional disciplinary research methodologies using a syncretic integration of heuristic and practice-based inquiry..

The workshops will build on the previous Leonardo Education and Art Forum: Transdisciplinary Visual Arts, Science & Technology Renewal Post-New Media Assimilation workshop held in 2011.

‘Somehow the “Art-Science Cloud Curriculum” needs to respond to the new realities of the evolving organization of research and knowledge. It may be that universities are mal-adapted to evolve to the new situation; the whole diploma structure (BSc, MA, MFA, PhD) was designed for a world that no longer exists; even the new distance learning and on-line institutions such as the Kahn Academy are a premature response that will be overtaken by new systems. If a student really wants access to the best education that addresses the STEAM vision, that allows for multiple educational “pathways” through science, engineering, arts and humanities, maybe we need a ‘serious game’ environment that summons at the appropriate time the best teacher or mentor on the planet for the problem at hand, that mobilises collective group learning technologies of massive collaborative games, that matches budget to the best educational opportunities, that optimizes ‘blended learning” approaches to combine face to face time, on line collaboration time and access to distant learning resources’. Roger F Malina

Paul Thomas

College of Fine Arts, UNSW.
Leonardo Education and Art Forum: International affiliate.

THE WORLD IS EVERYTHING THAT IS THE CASE

DATES: 14.09.2011 – 07.10.2011 TIMES: 10:00 – 19:00 Istanbul Turkey
From the portable mu­seum to the make-shift stand of the street cor­ner trader, the mi­grant’s bat­tered suit­case tied with string acts as an echo of Wittgen­stein: “The World is every­thing that is the case”. (In each case) The con­tribut­ing artists ex­plore the mi­gra­tory na­ture of artis­tic prac­tice; act­ing as a global me­di­a­tion be­tween the aes­thet­ics of trade along the pere­grine, wan­der­ing routes that lead to­wards mean­ing.

Pub­li­ca­tion: UN­CON­TAIN­ABLE: The World Is Every­thing That Is The Case

UN­CON­TAIN­ABLE: The World is Every­thing That is The Case
Aus­tralian Rep­re­sen­ta­tion at ISEA2011/Is­tan­bul

CU­RA­TO­RI­ATE:
Sean Cu­bitt, Vince Dziekan & Paul Thomas

CON­TRIBUT­ING ARTISTS:
Karen Casey, Mark Cypher, Tina Gon­salves, Mark Gugliel­metti, Nigel Helyer & Mitchell Whitelaw

From the portable mu­seum to the make-shift stand of the street cor­ner trader, the mi­grant’s bat­tered suit­case tied with string acts as an echo of Wittgen­stein: “The World is every­thing that is the case”.

The suit­case which is also the table where the three-card trick draws in the pun­ters, or where the gains get played away on end­less trains across the count­less bor­ders of Eu­rope and Asia. The “boite-en-valise” of the im­port-ex­port man (the artist?), the smug­gler (the cu­ra­tor?) and his know­ing in­no­cence, the ‘who me?’ look, and the ready lie. Artist as itin­er­ant trader; the art­work as mi­gra­tory, both ready to make their case given half a chance.

In this case, the ex­hi­bi­tion (as­sum­ing the form and con­ceit of the port­man­teau) ex­plores the mi­gra­tory na­ture of artis­tic prac­tice to act as a global me­di­a­tion be­tween the aes­thet­ics of trade along the pere­grine, wan­der­ing routes that lead to­wards mean­ing.

The case (suit­case) is ex­plored as a space that em­bod­ies (con­tains?) the trans­for­ma­tion of cul­tural prac­tice under con­tem­po­rary aes­thetic con­di­tions, oc­cur­ring across states, bor­ders and de­mar­ca­tion zones of con­tin­u­ous pro­duc­tion. The suit­case is self con­tained and its con­sign­ment com­pressed (“zipped”); cu­ra­tion op­er­ates as CODEC. When un­com­pressed, its con­tents man­i­fest the spa­tial sci­ence of the Mul­ti­ple.

Each of the artists in­cluded (in the case; in this case) have been ap­proached to con­tribute a work de­signed to tog­gle be­tween ma­te­ri­al­i­ties and modes of dis­play (the “ma­te­r­ial man­i­fest”, the pixel-as-con­tainer). So demon­strated, the cu­ra­to­r­ial pro­ject is pred­i­cated upon “un­pack­ing” the ten­sions that are brought into ex­is­tence and am­pli­fied be­tween:
– con­tain­ment and the un­con­tain­able (con­tents con­tained in­side other con­tain­ers, in­side other con­tain­ers, in­side… other…)
– the sited (placed, in tran­sit, hold­ing areas) and un­sighted (in­vis­i­ble, un­fore­seen, non-vi­sual)
– the rev­e­la­tion of the deep focus X-ray scan of carry-on lug­gage (in­spec­tion, ma­te­ri­als dis­crim­i­na­tion, de­tec­tion; scan­ning, op­ti­miz­ing, vi­su­al­iz­ing). and the port­man­teau (the “un­der-mean­ing” of the dou­ble en­ten­dre; de­cep­tive, in­con­spic­u­ous; what re­mains hid­den, un­de­tected, lurk­ing in the shad­ows).

Lan­franco Aceti, ISEA2011 Is­tan­bul Artis­tic Di­rec­tor and Özden Şahin, Pro­gram Di­rec­tor

UN­CON­TAIN­ABLE: The World is Every­thing That is The Case at ISEA2011 Is­tan­bul is part of the Of­fi­cial Par­al­lel Pro­gram of the 12th Is­tan­bul Bi­en­nial.

 

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Call for Papers:Experimental Arts Conference Double-Event

“What a building desires” 2005 Excerpt from Richard Goodwin’s Porosity Research into Public space.

Double conference:
19-20 August 2011  Main Conference and Discussion Forum
17-18 August 2011 National Postgraduate Conference
Location: Scientia Building, UNSW
Deadline for Abstracts: 27 April 2011 _______________________________________________________________________________________________ “We have entered the experimental age…Experiments are no longer conducted just in the laboratory. They have become collective experiments that concern each and every one of us.” Bruno Latour, 2004

What is experimentation? What makes art ‘experimental’? What are the results of aesthetic experiments and why do we need them? Could artists invent new modes of experimentation with/for science? What are the differences between experiments and inventions; experiments and failures; experiment and innovation? How do we set up ethico-scientific-aesthetic experiments?

This conference will showcase and discuss innovative arts projects by leading practitioners, thinkers and research groups that model new forms of transdisciplinarity and offer new ways of addressing real-world issues. These include works that have successfully ‘changed the world’ as well as speculative initiatives that radically change the way we think. It will survey the results and potential of Experimental Arts, inviting leaders in the field to discuss how we can extend and support a platform for path-breaking experimentation.

The main conference will be preceded by a two-day National Postgraduate Conference on Experimental Arts.

Confirmed speakers include: James Crutchfield(Complexity Sciences Centre, University of California, Davis) and David Dunn (Art and Science Laboratory, Santa Fe); Adrian McKenzie (University of Lancaster); Geert Lovink (University of Amsterdam); Pia Ednie- Brown (RMIT); Joyce Hinterding (University of Sydney), Terry Smith (University of Pittsburgh); Richard Goodwin, Paul Thomas, Douglas Kahn, Anna Munster, Nigel Helyer, Jill Bennett (NIEA, UNSW); iCinema, Centre for Interactive Cinema, UNSW with on-site demonstrations of iCinema’s immersive audio-visual environment.

Abstracts of approximately 300 words and a short biography should be sent to: niea@unsw.edu.au for the Main Conference t.gregory@unsw.edu.au for the Postgraduate Conference. In the email subject title, please state: Abstract Submission (Main Conference) or Abstract Submission (Postgraduate Conference).

Poster-presentations will also be considered for the Postgraduate Conference. Abstracts of approximately 300 words and a short biography should be sent to t.gregory@unsw.edu.au with the email title Abstract Submission (Poster Presentation).

Deadline for Abstracts: 27 April 2011
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Dr Paul Thomas

Examining Life at a Nano Level.

Stonehouse Lecture Theatre Portland Square.
University of Plymouth.

17.00-18.00 on Friday 3rd December.

In this talk Paul Thomas will demonstrate via the nano art project ‘Nanoessence’, ideas on what constitutes the real and the artificial. The ‘Nanoessence’ project aimed to create a visual expression of life at a sub-cellular level, re-examining boundaries and materiality within the human context. A single engineered immortal skin cell was scanned in vitro with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to create a visualisation of the space between, life and death at a nano level. The paper will explore how nanotechnological research is challenging humanistic ideas concerning life and what constitutes materiality.

Paul Thomas: Dr Paul Thomas, is currently Head of Painting at the College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales. Paul chair numerous international conferences and is the co-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference 2010.  In 2000 Paul instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.

Paul has been working in the area of electronic arts since 1981 when he co-founded the group Media-Space. Media-Space was part of the first global link up with artists connected to ARTEX. From 1981-1986 the group was involved in a number of collaborative exhibitions and was instrumental in the establishment a substantial body of research. Paul’s current research project ‘Nanoessence’ explores the space between life and death at a nano level. The project is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Nanochemistry Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology and SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia. The previous project ‘Midas’ was researching at a nano level the transition phase between skin and gold. Paul has recently completed working on an intelligent architecture public art project for the Curtin Mineral and Chemistry Research Precinct.

Professor Douglas Kahn

Professor Douglas Kahn, NIEA’s Media and Innovation Professor will be giving his inaugural lecture at COFA in the third week of November.

When: 17th November 2010, 6.00pm
Where: EG02 Lecture Theatre, COFA UNSW
Cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington
Lecture Title: Experimental Sound in the Arts and History
Lecture Synopsis:
About a decade ago “sound art” burst onto the official world stage and has since become widely accepted. This was concurrent with the rise of “sound studies” in history, anthropology, cultural studies, histories of the arts, science and technology studies and other disciplines. Now courses in “sound” are found across the curricula, symposia and events are regularly held across the world, fellowships, theses, performances, exhibitions… Experimental aesthetics once asked for “more new sounds”: what is it going to do now that it has them? How might they resonate with other disciplines in academe and other activities in society?

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The first International Conference on Transdisciplinary Imaging at the Intersections between Art, Science and Culture.

“New Imaging: transdisciplinary strategies for art beyond the new media”

takes place at on 5th 6th November at Artspace, 43/51 Cowper Wharf Rd, Sydney, NSW 2011.

Deadline for Abstracts: June 25th 2010

Conference partners: College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales;  University of Melbourne, Faculty of the VCA and Music; Artspace

A profound shift is occurring in our understanding of postmodern media culture. Since the turn of the millennium the emphasis on mediation as technology and as aesthetic idiom, as opportunity for creative initiatives and for critique, has become increasingly normative and doctrinaire. Mediation and the new media arts have in fact become the new medium of critical and pedagogical discourse: like water is for fish, like culture is for cultural studies, mediation is a concept that is taken for granted now because it is itself the medium in which we think and act, in which we swim.

We need a concept that is amphibian, and that can leave its medium. The concept we propose is a remediated apprehension of the image: an active image and activity of imaging beyond the boundaries of disciplinary definition, but also altering the relations of intermedia aesthetics and interdisciplinary pedagogy. This concept will need to incorporate a vibrant materialism of the image’s sensory and cognitive strata and an evanescent immaterialism of its affective qualities.

Rather than locate our conference in the space of negotiation between disciplines or media (the “inter-“), we propose the opposition, transit and surpassing of the interdisciplinary by a “transdisciplinary aesthetics”, and its conceptual and physical practice of a “transdisciplinary imaging.”

Conference chairs: Associate Professor Su Baker and Associate Professor Paul Thomas

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CRASH@COFA presents a lecture by Oron Catts Director of SymbioticA: Substrate as context

Oron Catts Director of SymbioticA : The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of
Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia.
Visiting Professor of Design Interaction, Royal College of Arts, London.
Where: Room EG02, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (cnr Greens Rd and
Oxford St)
Time: 13th May – 1pm – 2pm
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher and curator whose work with the Tissue Culture and Art
Project (which he founded in 1996) is part of the NY MoMA design collection and has been
exhibited and presented internationally. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, an artistic research
laboratory housed within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western
Australia. Under Oron’s leadership, SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica
Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008. In 2009 Oron
was recognised by Thames & Hudson’s 60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future book as one
of five in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20
Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.
Oron was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School and a visiting Scholar at the
Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University.