:: Friday, November 28, 2003 ::

Here is an odd and interesting magazine:

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R E A L T O K Y O MAIL MAGAZINE
http://www.realtokyo.co.jp/




[This Week's Index]

(1) Out of Tokyo Vol. 075
Waratte iitomo,
by Ozaki Tetsuya

(2) Event Pick of the Week
Sonore Japan Tour
by Andreas



This week's RT Picks:

art+cinema+music+stage+design+town = 44 events
including 9 new ones!
Plus new entries on our 'book/disk' page.

Check them out!

http://www.realtokyo.co.jp/
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:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

How creative artists can be with so little always amazes me. Take, for example, small squares and a set of lines and combine them with simple scripts in a Flash interface; then add sound of explosions and a gridlike background of an urban terrain. The result is an allegorical combination of the ideas of war and networks. This is what immediately comes to mind when experiencing Nuzita.net's online project W4R.

The user is instructed to click on the little squares during the introduction. Such a simple action proves to be not so easy; the dots are constantly shifting from one area of the screen to another in what seems to be a random fashion. After playing with the dots for a bit, I started to think about the event as a form of abstract battle with no specific enemies or allies. My only aim was to be able to hover a square and then click. I was finally able to do this and my reward was a pop-up window displaying a set of consecutive images -- details, actually, of the background graphic in the main interface. After clicking on a few more dots, I thought about my pointless drive and the fact that I still wanted to do it. The images repeated everytime another pop-up window appeared. I eventually stopped and simply looked at the dots and lines moving. And I considered W4R an animated abstract painting with added sound. No. It was the idea of war abstracted to be digested as a type of object of reflection. No. It was the drive to interact with others reflected through signifiers of war as a non-productive form of communication. No. And then I realized that the best analogy is as commentary on video games and the banal hype of skilled repetitive actions for the sake of a higher score to eventually beat the game; only here, there is no score, there are no sides, there are only the basic signifiers of violence in battles abstracted and carefully combined with specific ideas of the network through which W4R is also actually disseminated. Then I thought this was not it, either. In the meantime the dots kept moving.
Artist: Antonio Dominguez
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Brazilian new media festival FILE (Electronic Language International Festival) launched it's 2003 edition book called "NOVAS MIDIAS/NEW MEDIAS". It contains amongst others writings by Ricardo Barreto, Paula Perissinotto, Artur Matuck and Ricardo Rosas. All in all it could make an interesting piece of writing. But what is even more interesting is that somebody of the organisation took an enormous effort to make jpg images of all pages of the book, resize them and make the ready for the net. What resulted in what seems to be an endless series of html pages with images of pages that are, because they're just too small in size, unreadable. Which makes it in my eyes an absurd piece of promotion that unintentionally could become a source of inspiration for net artists. Start your experience of this non event here:
http://www.file.org.br/file2003/english/
livro/file_livro_capa.htm

:: Peter Luining [+] ::
...

Here is an opportunity for people invested in writing and theorizing on New Media:
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CALL FOR PAPERS - CIBER@RT BILBAO 2004 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Submission Deadline for Conference "Challenges for a Ubiquitous Identity" Extended until January 7th 2004 The International Conference will be held within the International Festival of New Technologies Ciberart Bilbao 2004 which will take place from April 26th to 29th 2004 (Bilbao – Spain). We are inviting you to present your papers for the key themes of the Conference which include: Computational Sociology, Televirtuality and Telepresence, Body and Nets, Synaptic Cartography, Planetary Art, The Museum of the Ubiquitous Art. The Scientific Committee that will select the submitted papers is formed by the following theorists: Roy Ascott (UK), Victoria Vesna (USA), Ángel Kalenberg (Uruguay), Elisenda Ardèvol (Spain), Guilia Colaizzi (Italy), Peter Andres (USA), Alex Galloway (USA), Josu Rekalde (Spain), Lourdes Cilleruelo (Spain), Ramón López de Mantáras Badia (Spain), Javier Echevarría (Spain) y Pierre Bongiovanni (France).

April 29th, last day of the Conference, will be dedicated to the Planetary Collegium presentations, group of theorists directed by Roy Ascott. A list of the speakers is available at the Festival’s web page.

We invite you to visit our web page for further information about the Conference and Festival: ciberart-bilbao.net

We would also like to remind you that deadline for Artwork submission is December 15th 2003.

Contact:
congres@ciberart-bilbao.net
programacion@ciberart-bilbao.net
www.ciberart-bilbao.net
Tel: +34 96 373 01 81
Fax: +34 96 373 05 45
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:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Here is something for all you video freaks, who do not mind some online compression:

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Compression vidéo pour le web

Dans le cadre du Programme de formation continue offert par le Conseil de la culture des régions de Québec et de Chaudière-Appalaches, En collaboration avec LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE

29 et 30 novembre 2003
9h à 17h
Durée: 14 heures

LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE
185, rue Christophe-Colombe Est
Québec

Nombre maximal de participants: 6 personnes
Coût: 95,00$ taxes incluses

Cette formation, à la fois pratique et théorique, se divise en deux étapes et a pour objectif de stimuler la réflexion sur la création d'oeuvres Web tout en dotant les participants de connaissances pratiques, susceptibles de favoriser le développement de leurs projets de création sur le Web. Pour l'étape d'exploration, les participants seront appelés à travailler en équipe.

Rencontre et présentation d'oeuvres Web : Slobodan Radosavljevic

Expérimentation:
-Prise de vue sur vidéo (Final cut)
-Exploration de différents traitements de la vidéo (AfterEffect)
-Exploration de différents formats de compression (Flash et QuickTime)
-Visionnement en ligne et transfert sur CD de différents traitements
vidéo et formats

Formateurs:
Slobodan Radosavljevic et Marc Bernier Originaire de Bosnie, Slobodan Radosavljevic s'installe en 1996 à Québec où il vit et a travaillé comme designer d'interfaces pour la compagnie Recruitsoft. Il est actuellement Webmestres et agit auprès de différents organismes. Après ses études en arts plastiques à Sarajevo, il devient bachelier en communication graphique et titulaire d'une maîtrise en multimédia de l'Université Laval. Dans sa production artistique, il s'intéresse d'abord à la photographie, à l'installation vidéo, à l'image de synthèse et l'art Web.

Marc Bernier a étudié à l'Université York de Toronto en communication et en informatique. Il crée des oeuvres d'art Web et est également photographe. Depuis 2000, il assume la fonction de technicien Web à LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE.
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:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Here are the latest additions to the New Media Fix:

Electronic Cities is an odd combination of commercial resources meeting the educational field.

Net Art Museum is committed to supporting net art.

The recommended fix for this week is Amsterdam Editions.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...