*They've been at it ten years, y'know.
Dec 1-13 2011
Lynn Margulis In Memoriam
As an Endosymbiont, SymbioticA farewells Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) an inspiration to us all.
1. SymbioticA
2. Opportunities
3. Conferences, Talks & Symposiums
4. Exhibitions & Theatre
5. Resources
6. Soapbox
7. Stuff we like
1.a SymbioticA related activities
News from former SymbioticA residents:
Congratulations to Abhishek Hazra for winning the Art categoty of the 2011 Sanskriti Awards.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-25/delhi/30438006_1_sanskriti-awards-awards-committee-social-achievement
Congratulations also to Daisy Ginsburg for her success in the 2011 World Technology Awards, in the Design category.
New Art/Science Affinities Book
Sixty international artists and art collaboratives are featured in this new book, including SymbioticA. The book focuses on artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology, was produced by a collaborative authoring process known as a "book sprint." Derived from "code sprinting," a method in which software developers gather in a single room to work intensely on an open source project for a certain period of time, the term book sprint describes the quick, collective writing of a topical book. New Art/Science Affinities is available to buy from Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/new-artscience-affinities/18161322
or as a FREE PDF download from:
http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/nasabook/newartscienceaffinities.pdf
Surface Tension: Future of Water
Catherine Higham: Still Life
Science Gallery, Dublin
21 Oct 2011 - 20 Jan 2012
Catherine Higham's short film Still Life will be presented at The Science Gallery as part of the Future of Water Exhibition. This work origniated with Higham's research into water quality with SymbioticA's Adaptation Project.
http://www.sciencegallery.com/surfacetension/screening-room
Lisa Carrie Goldberg (MbiolA) + Jade Markham (Honours student Biological Arts)
The Sleep Social (residency at Fremantle Arts Centre) November 2011 - January 2012
Lisa Carrie Goldberg & Jade Markham's residency at Fremantle Arts Centre will be used to develop and design a new performance work entitled The Sleep Social. This work focuses on the notions of collective sleep, while harnessing sleep as an artistic medium. Our performance work is about highlighting the elusive terrain of sleep. Our interest in sleep has more to do the continuous daily interaction with this seemingly banal, invisible force, the ‘other’ to our waking life, and less with the physical location in which the practice of sleep occurs, such as the bedroom. Through The Sleep Social, we aim to find ways of materially crossing over to the other world as a strategy for giving it a form. With sleep being so mysterious, we want our roles throughout this process to reflect that ambiguity. It is our intention to create an art experience out of collective sleep.
1.b SymbioticA Residents
Libby Straughan (UK)
Residency: Nov 2011- Feb 2012
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/iges/staff/research/ers6/
Kirsten Hudson (Australia)
Residency: 2010-2011
Website: http://www.artificialsweetness.com/
For more info: http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/residents
1.c SymbioticA seminar series
The Coppelia Project
Date: 2 Dec 2011
Time: 3:30pm
Location: SymbioticA
Speaker: Geoffrey Drake-Brockman
The Coppelia Project is a programme of research, development, and artwork production aimed at the creation of a troupe of four robot ballerinas able to learn and perform dance movements and interact with an audience. The project is being undertaken by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman with assistance from The West Australian Ballet. The Coppelia Project is inspired by imagery and conceptual sources associated with the story about a clockwork girl from the ballet by Delibes written in 1868. The robot ballerinas have articulated head and arm joints, while their legs are fixed in an 'en pointe' pose, but able to rotate on a mount. Each of the Coppelia robots has an aluminium skeleton with a fibreglass shell, and a series of motors to animate it. The motors are linked to specially developed electronics and software that is able to capture and play back a dance sequence. In exhibition-mode the system interacts with its audience via movement sensors and a learning algorithm.
Geoffrey Drake-Brockman (1964) is a Perth based artist specialising in robotics, lasers, and optical interactive installations. His practice investigates the role of technology in mediating contemporary human experience.
Geoffrey studied Computer Science at UWA before completing an MA in Visual Arts at Curtin University. He has been exhibiting since 1986 with shows in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Singapore, New York and London. He has had solo exhibitions at Goddard de Fiddes, Fremantle Arts Centre, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Greenhill Galleries, and the Singapore Art Museum. He has also shown work at the at the National Gallery of Australia in 2001 (National Sculpture Prize - Highly Commended) and in 2005 (People’s Choice) along with the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award in Melbourne, The Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Sculpture by the Sea (Bondi, Cottesloe, and Aarhus, Denmark), Collaborative Concepts in New York and The Hooper Gallery in London.
Geoffrey has completed laser-based public art commissions ‘LaserWrap’ and ‘Transfiction’ for the ACT Government and installed permanent robotic installations at Kwinana Automotive TAFE and Christchurch Grammar School. He is currently working on commissions for The Perth Arena and Northbridge Police Headquarters. Geoffrey won the Sir Charles Gardiner Art Award in 1993, the Princess Margaret Art Award in 2003 and the 1997 AIIA National Award for Excellence in Information Technology.
2. Calls for papers, proposals and applications
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
ANAT is calling for applications from artists and science and research organisations for the 2012 Synapse Residency program. Now in its seventh round, the program is a core element of the Synapse initiative of the Australia Council for the Arts and ANAT, which supports collaboration between artists and scientists. The residencies are open to Australian artists with a demonstrated interest in science working in any discipline and/or medium. Australian-based residencies of 16 weeks’ duration that take place during the 2012 calendar year will be supported. †o ensure a good fit between the artist and host organisation, a joint application must be submitted. It is the responsibility of the project partners to establish contact and to identify the nature of the proposed collaboration prior to application. Those with existing relationships are strongly encouraged to apply. The Synapse residencies have a creative research focus and it is not expected that they will result in the production of new work. The residencies may also be approached as a platform for testing and informing a more comprehensive, longer-term research project suitable for submission to the ARC Synapse Linkage program.
Due: 5PM, FRIDAY 24th of FEB 2012
http://www.anat.org.au
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
SIGGRAPH 2012
Showcase your unique talents and skills at the 39th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 5-9 August 2012 in Los Angeles. From students to studio executives, from scientists to artists, SIGGRAPH is the world's largest annual gathering of the best and brightest minds in computer graphics. This is your opportunity to present your best work at SIGGRAPH 2012.
http://s2012.siggraph.org/submitters
Submission Deadlines:
Art Papers and Art Gallery:
10 January 2012
Technical Papers:
17 January 2012
Student Volunteer Team Leader Applications:
24 January 2012
Student Volunteers Applications:
13 February 2012
General Submissions (Courses, Emerging Technologies, Panels, Posters, Talks, Studio):
21 February 2012
Computer Animation Festival (Competition Films) and Real-Time Live!:
9 April 2012
SIGGRAPH Dailies! and Late-Breaking Work ( Late-Breaking Posters, Late-Breaking Talks):
1 May 2012
CALL FOR ARTWORKS
Santa Fe International New Media Festival
22 June - 8 July 2012
This year submission categories include single channel video, video and sound installation, interactive new media, animation, computer/software modulated sculpture, multimedia performance, experimental and interactive documentary video, Digital Dome projection, art gaming and web art.
Due: 1 Feb 2012
http://www.currentsnewmedia.org/submissionguidel.html
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Transformative Museum: Participation Between Place and Space
23-25 May 2012
Roskilde, Denmark
Globalising trends in knowledge economies, digital participation and changing community needs catalyse transformations of museums, galleries and science centres. The conference will present a rich set of analyses of the current situation and raise important questions about the future for material and immaterial cultural and natural heritage.
http://www.dreamconference.dk/
Due: 6 Jan 2012
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
2012 Subtle Technologies Festival
Toronto, Canada
May 24-27, 2012
Submissions deadline: December 15, 2011
http://www.subtletechnologies.com
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 2nd Annual Conference of the Popular Culture Association of Canada May 10-12, 2012 Ontario, Canada We invite proposals for papers and/or panels on theories of popular culture, research methods in popular culture, the teaching of popular culture, and any epiphenomena of popular culture, past or present.
Our broad definition of popular culture encompasses communicative texts, practices and experiences, mediated and unmediated, contemporary and historical, Canadian and non-Canadian (including the local and the global).
We share an interdisciplinary vision of this Association. We are particularly interested in featuring papers from scholars and/or producers and practitioners of popular cultural phenomena from the humanities, the arts, and the sciences.
http://www.canpop.ca/
Due: January 15 2012
CALL FOR PAPERS
ANIMAL DEATH Symposium (((only on BEYOND THE BEYOND, ladies and gents)))
University of Sydney Camperdown Campus
13 June 2012
This symposium brings together cross-disciplinary voices on the topic of Animal Death. We seek papers which explore how animal and human death are conceptualised, diverge, differ and also connect in profound ways. Papers could explore issues of sacrifice, ‘necessary’ expendability, utility, species extinction, human survival, climate change and conservation.
Please send 200 word abstracts to Dr Jay Johnston: [email protected] by January 16th 2012
CALL FOR PAPERS
Probing the Skin: Cultural Representations of Our Contact Zone
April 24-26, 2013 Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena
Skin protects, adorns, and identifies us; it is what makes us knowable at first sight. Our skin is in the most literal sense our contact zone, the border where the body meets the world, where we feel heat, cold, pain, caresses and where we, voluntarily or involuntarily respond to various stimuli with goose bumps, shivers, blushing, bleeding, or physical signs of lust. The conference intends to bring together discussions of skin across various disciplinary fields and academic discourses. We want to explore artistic reflections of skin related themes in literature, art, media studies, and anthropology.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Caroline Rosenthal and Prof. Dr. Dirk Vanderbeke [email protected] / [email protected] Abstracts due: January 15 2012
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION INAUGURAL ART PRIZE
Artists are invited to nominate for the Department of Environment and Conservation inaugural Art Prize. Total prize money $13,500. Works to be developed in situ at the Tree Top Walk on Saturday 7 January 2012 and artists are encouraged to continue to work on-site up to submitting completed works on Wednesday 25 January 2012. Exhibition Dates 28 January – 10 February 2012 Official opening and announcement of winners on Saturday 28 January 2012 at 2pm, at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk, between Denmark and Walpole.
Contact Julie Ross
[email protected]
Deadline: 8 December 2011
CALL FOR ENTRIES
The SCRIPT Award is a prize rewarding creative writing by scientists and health care professionals. The task: to write a "Mini Epic" in exactly 100 words. The prize: $1000(CAD). Any topic is acceptable, especially those non-scientific.
http://www.scriptmedical.com/script-award.html
Due: Dec 21 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS
Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology
Book contributions that will expand the conversation about Doctor Who and race, taking it in new directions and covering new ground. The proposed book will bring together some of the already-published works for the first time, but the bulk of its content will be new writings.
http://doctorwhoandrace.blogspot.com/
Expressions of interest due: 15 December 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS
Out of the Ruins: The University to Come
This special issue of TOPIA seeks contributions (articles, offerings, review essays and book reviews) that reflect on the contemporary university and its discontents. (((Heaven forbid that it should be about frat-boys singing at beer busts, Betty Coed getting lots of dates with cool guys, or anything life-affirming and jolly)))
http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/topia/announcement/view/88
Due: 15 Feb 2012
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Minding Animals Conference 2:
Utrecht 2012
Building bridges between science, the humanities and ethics
http://www.mindinganimals.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=215&Itemid=241
Due: 15 December 2011
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Empathy Project
Carl Scrase: Social Engineering Research Initiative Posters have already started appearing in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Scrase's Viral Poster Project uses questionnaire posters to ask members of the public: "Is our empathy on the rise?"
http://www.seri.net.au/
CALL FOR PAPERS
First International Conference of "Science Art", Moscow State University.
April 4-5, 2012.
Areas for discussion: Science art as a synthesis of scientific and artistic ways of knowledge, Scientific foundations and strategy of development of new forms of actual art, the experience of supporting and popularization of science art, Bio-, genetic-, transgenetic- and other forms of art using methods and technologies of biology and genetics. ((("Russian genetic art." Yup, can't wait)))
For forms and details: [email protected] Submissions due: 15 December 2011
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Systems theory, enactive cognitive science, Gaia theory, biosemiotics, and media theory provide scholars today with conceptual vocabularies broad enough to connect life, mind, and society with their natural and technological environments, to study the interpenetrations of consciousness and communication, and to extend the insights of linguistics, information theory, and semiotics toward biological and social systems.
Published by Fordham University Press, Meaning Systems communicates bodies of systemic knowledge in relation to the materiality of corporeal and technological mediations. It offers a dedicated venue for both established and rising thinkers bringing the discourse of systems to a new level of cultural prominence and productiveness.
For more information: [email protected]
CALL FOR PAPERS
Critical Climate special issue of symploke
Welcome are contributions that critically explore the discursive shape and texture of what we call climate change. Specifically, we begin with the premise that climate change asks of cultural theorists nothing more or less than a re-evaluation of ourselves, even while it challenges us to put to use the critical tools we have to hand.
Contact: Dr. Adeline Johns-Putra [email protected] Submissions due: 31 December 2011
2.a Careers + Education + Advisories
Prime Minister's Education Assistance Program for Japan
The Program will support short term, two-way education exchange between Australia and affected areas of Japan (including Tokyo). It is designed to provide opportunities for students, academics, researchers and professionals in Australia to travel to the affected areas of Japan to study or to continue or enhance their collaboration in education with their partner institutions, and vice versa. Applicants will be able to seek financial support for an exchange occurring in 2011 or 2012.
http://www.aei.gov.au/News/Latest-News/Pages/Article-OpeningofapplicationsforthePrimeMinister'sEducationAssistanceProgramforJapan.aspx
3. Conferences, Talks, Workshops & Symposiums
People doing strange things with electricity
13th December 2011 Sydney Australia
This month Sydney’s Dorkbot goes to Performance Space as a part of the Clubhouse Program, to present 4 incredible projects from a variety of super nerds (((oh come on who can't like this))) including: Petra Gemeinboeck and Rob Saunders with their installation ‘Zwischenräume’ embeding curious robots into our architectural fabric, Michaela Davies who uses live percussion and sonified data to control motor function in performers via electric muscle stimulation (EMS), Aras Vaichas and his Micro Patch Synthesizer and Balint Seeber and Matt Robert who track planes in 3D by decoding RADAR using high-tech radio.
http://dorkbotsyd.boztek.net/
SONIC VIBRATIONS: AN EXPERIMENTA WORKSHOP
19 January 2012
Albury NSW Australia
Combine everyday objects with the power of basic tech to create and take home a fully functioning sonic manipulator. Plug your instrument straight into a mini amp and play your unique musical experiments as loud as you want! (((NO EVEN LOUDER!!!))) End the day by showing off your snazzy instrument and hot new tunes in a collaborative jam session.
http://www.experimenta.org/education-public-programs/tags/current-5.html
PROFESSOR MIKE JOYNER TALKS
UWA Fulbright Senior Specialist 2011
Frank R. and Shari Caywood Professor of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic Deputy Director and Vice Dean for Research, Mayo Clinic http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/staff/joyner_mj.cfm
Professor Joyner will present 2 Lectures entitled:
Privacy and Consent in a Post Individual World
Informed by Mike's human ethics and regulatory experience at the Mayo Clinic and with the NIH 6pm Monday December 5th 2011.
John Bloomfield Lecture Theatre, School of Sports Science Exercise and Health, 1st Floor, Parkway Entrance number 3, Crawley http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus-map
Stalking the 2-Hour Marathon
An insight into the limits of human performance and function
Thursday December 8th 6pm.
John Bloomfield Lecture Theatre, School of Sports Science Exercise and Health, 1st Floor, Parkway Entrance number 3, Crawley http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus-map
Design Interactions Open Day
RCA London (((Oh lordy!)))
7 Dec 2011
Students thinking of applying to the course can visit the department, listen to presentations about the course and speak to current students in the studio.
www.design-interactions.rca.ac.uk
Familiar but Strange: Exploring our Relationships with Robots
Monday, December 5, 2011 The New York Academy of Sciences You see a film about a group of robots that seem human, but there is something off about them that you can't quite pinpoint. It makes you feel a little creepy inside, and you don't know why. At that moment you're experiencing the uncanny valley, a phenomenon in which the more human-like a robot becomes, the more unsettled by it we humans become.
http://www.nyas.org/Events/Detail.aspx?cid=a1db4e89-3566-4f08-b479-3f96f8341f14
4. Exhibitions & Theatre
GIANT THEREMIN
Robin Fox
Northbank Flinders Walk Melbourne Australia until 29th Feb Standing more than seven metres tall, the Giant Theremin was created by local audiovisual performance artist Robin Fox.
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutMelbourne/ArtsandEvents/GiantTheremin/Pages/GiantTheremin.aspx
ALTERNATING CURRENTS
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
November 12 - December 31
Perth audiences will be thrilled, provoked and surprised by the work of six contemporary Japanese artists as they take over the entire PICA building and spill out into the Perth Cultural Centre for the upcoming exhibition Alternating Currents.
The show will highlight contrasts between Japanese and Australian cultures, with an emphasis on exploring the 'currents' that connect us. These new projects have been conceived in Japan over the past year, but will be created here in Perth. Many of the artists are making site-specific works that actively engage audiences and respond to the tsunami of March 2011 and resulting nuclear crisis.
http://www.pica.org.au/view/Alternating+Currents/1278/
Experimental Station
until 9th April 2012
LABoral
Gijón, Spain
Estación experimental [Experimental Station] presents the work of those artists whose work is inspired by an irrepressible impulse that connects them to the purest part of scientific research. Steering away from pre-established guidelines in contemporary art, these creators share a certain fascination in their work for extra-artistic themes - not only for what happens in the field of reality but also in the beyond.
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/exposiciones/estacion-experimental
TRAUMA Group Show
GV Art Gallery, London UK
2 December 2011— 18 February 2012
Traumas are both personal and impersonal, physical and psychological, short-lived and long-lasting. Sometimes only visible through the lens of a microscope, their impact can be both unique and universal. This exhibition, curated by Dr Jonathan Hutt and Bojana Popovic, attempts to understand the various manifestations of trauma both natural and man-made; revealing the intimate experience of those who live with trauma while also investigating perceptions of sometimes concealed mental distress. The artists involved in this project employ a diversity of approaches, charting the full dimensions of trauma from the micro-molecular to those on a global environmental scale.
http://www.gvart.co.uk/
Primate Cinema: Apes as Family
7 December 2011, 7pm
Nottingham Contemporary UK (screening and talks) In Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, the artist imagines a primate social drama in a contemporary urban context and shows this to a chimpanzee audience. Her two-screen video installation juxtaposes the drama enacted by humans in the guise of apes (of a young female city ape befriending a group of outsiders) with mesmerising footage of the reactions of its ape audience at Edinburgh Zoo.
http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/detail/Primate_Cinema_Apes/
Dreaming of a Butterfly
António Caramelo
4th November – 31st December 2011
London, UK
In London, the Portuguese artist António Caramelo will present his artwork DREAMING OF A BUTTERFLY. By interactively utilising surrounding sound, the work produces an illusion of living butterflies inside the box.
http://epacpublic.eu/
RELIQUARY HOUSE: An Evening with Oneothrix Point Never and Nate Boyce
17 December 17 2011
The Museum of Modern Art,New York
Oneothrix Point Never and Boyce re-imagine the canon of modernist sculpture through hallucinatory reconstructions of works by David Smith, Jacob Epstein, and Anthony Caro, among other sculptures in MoMA's collection. Boyce uses computer-generated imagery to transform these sculptures into kinetic apparitions that inhabit incongruous and "impossible" landscapes and architectural environments. Abetted by OPN's sound design, Boyce reconfigures the museum setting, pulling historical art objects into a new context.
http://www.moma.org/poprally/upcoming#event2
Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda
November 17, 2011–February 20, 2012
MOMA, New York
Epaminonda is internationally known for her photographic assemblages constructed from found books and magazines of the 1960s, and for her video installations, in which television footage culled from Greek soap operas that she used to watch as a child on Sunday afternoons in Cyprus, are reshot and re–edited in new sequences, creating a web of elusive associations. This exhibition presents Epaminonda's three–channel video installation Tarahi IIII, V, VI (2007), part of an ongoing series that enlists the use of reverse shooting, montage, cuts, superimposition, and repetition of motifs to address the permeability of memory.
Barry Flanagan: Early Works 1965-1982
Tate Britain until 2 Jan 2012
Barry Flanagan was one of Britain's most original and inventive artists and a key figure in the development of British and international sculpture. He is best known for the large-scale bronze hare sculptures that he began producing in the early 1980s and that can be seen in many galleries and public spaces around the world.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/barryflanagan/default.shtm
Print/Out
February 19-May 14, 2012
The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery The Museum of Modern Art presents Print/Out, a major survey of prints, books, multiples, and ephemera that examines the evolution of artistic practices related to the print medium over the last two decades.
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1169
5. Resources (Read/Watch/Listen)
READ
John Holland: Curious
An Introduction to Big Ideas in Nature, Science, and Art http://naturescienceart.wordpress.com/
WATCH
Soft Robot Walking and Crawling
LISTEN
Sonic Graffiti
http://www.mrunderwood.co.uk/news/sonic-graffiti/
So Crazy it Might Work
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/450/so-crazy-it-just-might-work
6. Soapbox
Back NYC Love Motels for Insects!
Imagine large glowing UV-light sculptures that attract nocturnal nature and give us urbanites a chance to explore a side of ecology most of us have never seen. That is what "Love Motels for Insects" sculptures will do.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1941001894/love-motel-for-insects
7. Stuff we like
Autistic artist draws from memory:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html
Most expensive photograph/Funny money:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/11/15/142342119/meet-the-worlds-most-expensive-photo-part-ii?sc=fb&cc=fp
LITERATURE/LINKS (((These SymbioticAns are a busy crowd)))
http://totalartjournal.com/
http://www.experimenta.org/
http://www.visualarts.net.au/
http://www.e-flux.com/
http://www.jar-online.net/
http://www.afterall.org/journal/
http://www.criticalnetwork.co.uk/
http://www.diatropebooks.com/
http://kkartlab.in/
http://www.euppublishing.com/toc/dls/3/2
http://www.utpjournals.com/ars/ars.html
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/
http://ijlm.net/
http://journal.fibreculture.org/
http://www.leonardo.info/
http://www.artscatalyst.org/index.html
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/index.php
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/ (((http://maillists.uwa.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/symbiotica
to unsubscribe to the e-DIGEST, please click on the link above
SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts School of Anatomy and Human Biology
M309 The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley 6009 Western Australia
Phone: +61 8 6488 7116
Fax: +61 8 6488 1051
www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts is a jointly funded initiative between The University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts.
SymbioticA was founded in 2000.
