Social
Spaces

In early ‘2011, the Media and Design faculty in Genk participated in the exhibition Alter Nature, where works from around twenty international artists explored how humankind manipulates nature. We got to know what synthetic biology is and how much more manipulative ‘design’ can be in this field. We also learned that as media designer or artist one can imagine and visualize a future with synthetic biology, which makes it interesting to collaborate with scientists. When me, (media) designer and a (graphic) designer where asked by our design school (MAD Faculty) to join the iGEM competition – a competition between universities on the topic of synthetic biology – we took advantage of this unique opportunity. Between June and November 2011 we collaborated with bioengineers and biomedical science students. In iGEM, teams make or use existing biological parts to build biological systems and operate them in living cells(1). For instance, a student team could be designing a microbe that detects toxic chemicals and outputs a corresponding color.

In the public space module Social Design in Public Space the students of C-md (new media design) created some quite interesting concepts. Some were interesting technical experiments, while others were examples of a good contextual research into needs of semi-public environments.

How to play Pong in public environments on multiple screens:

POOONG from chrisalexmuller on Vimeo.

How to fly a helicopter around with only audio input.

How to share energy via a Internet of Things Platform in a Peer-to_peer way:
http://internetofthingsenergiedelen.blog.com/

How to react against a Belgian proposal to make child care environments pay for playing music? These students created a remix tool for children’s songs:
http://achildsworldcopylefted.wikispaces.com/

Technarte – International Conference on Art & Technology has launched a call for papers. If you send in your paper before the 1st of November, it will be featured at the Technarte conference that merges art and technology. It takes place at the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall in Bilbao (Spain) on the 19th and 20th of May 2011. Here you can find examples of the topics that were discussed on previous editions of Technarte.

According to its website, “Technarte will bring together in Bilbao, Spain, artists, experts of Centres of Technological Research and professionals of the art world and technology in all its forms (researchers and developers of art centres and research labs, professionals of museums, universities, etc.), with which you can share your experiences and who will show you the most innovative artistic disciplines.”

If you want to know more (and for more details on the call), see: http://technarte.org/en/

On 23rd – 25th of August, the research group Social Spaces will be present at the E-Culture Fair 2010 in Dortmund (Germany). The fair is organized by BAM, the Flemish institute for visual, audiovisual and media art, “Virtueel Platform” and “Medienwerk NRW” and is part of RUHR 2010, the European Capital of Culture and ISEA 2010 (16th International Symposium on Electronic Arts). The E-Culture Fair revolves around (cross-disciplinary) projects on (media) technology, art, research and creative industry. Here, companies, schools, universities, research groups and artists from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany will present their work. At a booth at the Fair, Social Spaces will present itself and several of the projects the group currently is involved in (closely collaborating with Z33 – house for contemporary art, the Province of Limburg and the Expertise centre for Digital Media).

ELECTRONIC VISUALISATION AND THE ARTS
EVA London 2010
Monday 5th – Wednesday 7th July 2010

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: 15th January 2010

http://www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/

Visualising ideas and concepts in culture, heritage and the arts: digital arts, sound,
music, film and animation, 2D and 3D imaging, European projects,
archaeology, architecture, social media for museums, heritage and fine art, photography, computer arts

OFFERS OF PAPERS, DEMONSTRATIONS AND WORKSHOPS by 15 January 2010

We invite proposals of papers, demonstrations or short performances,
workshops or panel discussions. Only a summary of the proposal on not more
than one page is required for the selection process. this must be submitted
electronically according to the instructions on the EVA London website,
http://www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/.

Proposals may be on any aspect of EVA London’s focus on visualisation for
the arts and culture, broadly interpreted, including technology, use and
users, creative, visual and performing arts and music and visualisation for
museums, historic sites and architecture. Papers are peer reviewed and may
be edited. They will be published as hard copy and online. Other
presentations may be published as summaries or as papers.

If your proposal is a case study, we will be looking for discussions of
wider principles or applications using the case study as an example.

Bursaries to attend EVA London will again be available if you don’t have
access to grants.

EVA London’s conference themes will include, but are not limited to:

   * Digital and computational fine art and photography
   * Reconstructive archaeology and architecture
   * Visualising ideas and concepts
   * Moving and still images in museums and galleries
   * Digital art
   * Digital performance
   * Historic sites and buildings
   * Immersive environments
   * Web 2.0 technologies in art and culture
   * Visualisation in museums and historic sites
   * Sound, music, film and animation
   * Technologies of digitisation, 2D and 3D imaging
   * Virtual and augmented worlds
For further information see http://www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/

EVA London 2010 will be co-sponsored by the Computer Arts Society, a Special Interest Group of the British Computer Society, and by the BCS.