Wednesday 3rd February 2010
British Computer Society
First Floor, The Davidson Building
5 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HA

Speakers include: Robin Baker, Maria Chatzichristodolou, Paul Coldwell, Stroud Cornock, Douglas Dodds, Fra ncesca Franco, Darko Fritz, David Garcia, Jeremy Gardiner, Sue Gollifer, Janis Jefferies, Isaac Kerlow, Nick Lambert, George Mallen, Bonnie Mitchell, Frieder Nake, Michael O'Rourke, Helen Plumb, Jane Prophet, Bruce Wands, Richard Wright

Ideas Before Their Time - Connecting the past and the present in Computer Art CAT Project Symposium
"There is a mine, a treasure trove, a hoard - I cannot emphasize this too strongly - of art ideas that emerged in the early decades of computers that still have not remotely been explored. We know how this happens. The next big thing comes along and the Zeitgeist has its demands: things get left behind ... "- Brian Reffin-Smith

The Symposium
Taking Brian Reffin-Smith's quote as an inspiration, we intend to explore the ideas that have arisen over the lifetime of "computer art" since the 1960s but have not been fully developed. Over the past four decades, computer artists have innovated in sign ificant ways but many of the concepts they explored were never taken to their conclusion. Primitive technologies and changing art practices consigned many of these ideas to obscurity. In the course of the CAT Project, and the CACHe Project that preceded it, some intrigu ing ideas came to light. We intend to re-examine those ideas in order to create a synergy with current practice, both in theoretical and practical terms. The areas we are examining are presented as f ive broad themes:

- Computer Art & Cybernetics
- Computer Art & Aesthetics
- Computer Art & Space
- Computer Art & Output
- Computer Art & Technocultures

A dedicated website with online booking is available at http://www.technocultures.org.uk/symposium.html

CAT Project Team: Nick Lambert, Jeremy Gardiner and Francesca Franco

Papers presented at a Symposium at the V&A,3 Apr 2009. www.faderesearch.com/digitalsurface, 2009, 96 pp, Colour Illustrations throughout, Paperback, 240 x 190 mm + DVD, £10. ISBN 978 0 9558628 9 2

This informative book of papers presented at a symposium in April this year is full of delight. The papers offer a history of digital art in all its forms, the thought processes of its many accomplished practitioners, curators' perspectives on its acquisition and experts' views on its technical aspects. A DVD with additional research papers, case studies and interviews is also included.

Intaglio printmakers have long played with the surfaces of the plates they use, as well as enhancing the printed surface with multiple plate printing and chine colle. Digital printmakers get a similar buzz from the huge variety of approaches described here. I found Paul Coldwe11's conversation with Michael Craig-Martin particularly interesting and thought-provoking. There is an immense amount of detail and copious notes. My only gripe is that the images in both book and DVD are very small-luckily I've enjoyed seeing works by Paul Thirkell RE, Michael Craig-Martin, Charlotte Hodes, James Faure-Walker and, of course, Richard Hamilton many times.

Next time when looking at a digital print, I shall turn it on its edge and imagine the thought processes of the artist beneath the surface and enjoy the depth of the personalized surface above.

Gerry Baptist RE
Artist-printmaker

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, Wilson Road, Camberwell College of Arts, SE5 8LU

Ten years ago we were talking about a wired world, not a wireless one. Some predicted that art as a whole would ‘go digital’. Few anticipated the extraordinary evolution of mobile phones and social networks. ‘Digital Art’ is becoming harder and harder to define, and mainstream art absorbs new technology - even ‘traditionalists’ use blogs. This series of talks looks at some adjustments we may need to make. With the decline of newspapers, what happens to the art critic’s column? Can we incorporate the power of computer graphics, the reach of the ‘wireless’ world, and make something that really counts as art? Or should we continue with ‘old media’ as if nothing has changed?

Thursday, November 26, 5pm:

Matthew Collings

Matthew Collings is an art critic and artist who has written many books about art, including "Blimey!" and "This Is Modern Art". The latter was based on a TV series by the same name, which he wrote and presented for Channel 4 (it won a Bafta). Matthew's paintings are done in collaboration with his wife, the mosaicist, Emma Biggs. They are exhibited regularly at the Fine Art Society in London.

Thursday, December 3, 5 pm:

Martin Rieser

The Art of Mobility

Martin Rieser gives an overview of contemporary artists' work, including his own practice, using mobile phones and related media in public space, including the aesthetic and perceptual issues emerging around mapping and narrative in this new wireless world of augmented place and space. In 1989 he curated the Electronic Print exhibition at the Arnolfini, the first show of its kind in the UK.

These are RNUAL events following on from SCIRIA research, open to all PhD students. These events are funded by Roberts training money as part of the RNUAL programme. Co-ordinator is James Faure Walker, Reader at Camberwell.

Image: Matthew Collings/ Emma Biggs "Melchior" oil and collage 2008

5-6 November 2009, 10am-5pm
Camberwell College of Arts
MA Digital Arts Room
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

The workshop explores how physical objects can be made to be responsive to input from web users. Participants will be formally taught how to create interactive objects that are linked to the Internet. Using the knowledge acquired in these workshops participants will be able to create objects that can be affected by changes in online web content or can respond to web user input.

Course structure and content

The course consists of a lecture followed by a series of practical hands on exercises, and then concludes with a project and discussion. Participants will be given a formal understanding of how to interface physical objects with the Internet. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to discuss how this can be used in their own studio practice. The main components of the workshop will require participants to work in pairs designing scenarios where networking objects through the Internet could prove either useful and/or entertaining. Participants will present their ideas to the group and after a discussion the most interesting ideas will be built in larger groups under guidance of the tutor

Part 1: Networking objects
- Lecture "Mixed reality continuum"
- Designing physical networks
- Presentations and discussions

Part 2: Implementation - Using Arduino
- Connecting arduino to the internet
- Developing new scenarios

To coincide with the exhibtion Points of Contact which will be shown in the Triangle Project Space at Chelsea College of Art & Design from 28 Sept to 3 October 2009 we will be staging a symposium in the Main Lecture Theatre in Wilson Road, Camberwell College of Arts on Wednesday the 30th September 2009 between 2 and 5pm. This symposium will feature a number of the artist included in the exhibition Points of Contact, Prof. Paul Coldwell, Dr. Tim O’Reilly, Jonathan Kearney and Maria Lucia Cattani. The speakers will discuss the work that they are exhibiting and place it within a context of their overall research interests. All welcome.

Venue:

Camberwell College of Arts
Main Lecture Theatre
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU
Date and Time: Wednesday the 30th September 2009, 2-5pm

Wed 17 June 2009 from 2pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
MA Digital Arts Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

You are invited to attend three presentations followed by discussion:

1. ‘Buildings that draw themselves (to a close)’ by Manuela Antoniu (Artist-Architect)
‘How would a building gesture, faced with its own demise? What traces, what kind of mark-making would enable it to outlast, if only for a moment longer, the demolition that would reduce it to so much inert matter?’

2. ‘Pure Data/Graphical Programming/Triggered Interaction’ by Edward Kelly (Composer, performer, engineer, developer of Pure Data software and teacher)
Edward Kelly is a British composer and software designer living and working in London, UK. His work encompasses live performance, live video composition, information feedback, electroacoustic composition and traditional notated music (http://www.sharktracks.co.uk).

3. Andy Stiff (Course Leader MA Digital Arts Camberwell)
Andy’s presentation will connect the presentations above.

Wed 3rd June 2009 from 2pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Games Art does exactly what it says on the tin, art that uses, abuses and misuses the materials and language of games, whether real world, electronic or both. The imagery, the aesthetics, the systems, the software and engines of games can be appropriated or the language of games approximated for creative commentary. It is just this re-use that excites and stimulates.

Digital games are important not only because of their cultural ubiquity or their sales figures but for what they can offer as a space for creative practice. Games are significant for what they embody; human computer interface, notions of agency, sociality, visualisation, cybernetics, representation, embodiment, activism, narrative and play. These and a whole host of other issues are significant not only to the game designer but also present in the work of the artist that thinks games. Re-appropriated for activism, activation, commentary and critique within games and culture, artists have responded vigorously.

Media arts has always been involved with playful practice but only recently has it engaged with videogames directly. This presentation will look at the work of online media arts organisation Furtherfield.org’s gallery arm HTTP and its work with games art for the past 4 years. An ongoing process that has, in collaboration with The London Games Festival Fringe, attempted to bring together artists, gamers, hackers, theorists, curators, activists, thinkers and doers all of kinds.

Corrado Morgana is a Media artist, electronic musician (retired) and researcher. He is currently a part time research student at University of the Arts London. He has recently co-curated 'Zero Gamer' and also 'Game-Play', a national touring exhibition which explores playful interaction and goal-oriented gaming through media arts practice. He has also been involved in various large scale collaborative projects. These include Node.London a practical framework for media arts whose March 2006 season presented over 140 media arts events within London and also Open Congress at Tate which mapped free, libre and open source strategies onto general cultural production. He has produced video work, collaborative online projects and performed live electronica at various international venues, has dabbled in virtual reality research and has taught extensively about online practice. He has worked in a variety of digital guises from web developer to computer salesman. Most importantly he is an incorrigible gamer.

http://gamecritical.net
http://furtherfield.org
http://blog.game-play.org.uk/
http://www.http.uk.net/zerogamer/
http://www.furtherfield.org/gamesart_networking.php
http://www.londongamesfringe.com/

13-14 May 2009, 10am-5pm
Camberwell College of Arts
MA Digital Arts Room
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

The workshop explores how physical objects can be made to be responsive to input from web users. Participants will be formally taught how to create interactive objects that are linked to the Internet. Using the knowledge acquired in these workshops participants will be able to create objects that can be affected by changes in online web content or can respond to web user input.

Course structure and content

The course consists of a lecture followed by a series of practical hands on exercises, and then concludes with a project and discussion. Participants will be given a formal understanding of how to interface physical objects with the Internet. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to discuss how this can be used in their own studio practice. The main components of the workshop will require participants to work in pairs designing scenarios where networking objects through the Internet could prove either useful and/or entertaining. Participants will present their ideas to the group and after a discussion the most interesting ideas will be built in larger groups under guidance of the tutor

Part 1: Networking objects
- Lecture "Mixed reality continuum"
- Designing physical networks
- Presentations and discussions

Part 2: Implementation - Using Arduino
- Connecting arduino to the internet
- Developing new scenarios

1st April 2009 @ Falmouth University College (Tremough Campus)

Presenters:

• Dr Barbara Rauch (SCIRIA Director)
• Richard Osborne (SCIRIA Associate)
• Tim Pickup (SCIRIA PhD Candidate)
• Jem Mackay (SCIRIA PhD Candidate)

For Pilgrims, Diggers, Robinsons and Drifters

In celebration of the 360th anniversary of the Digger's planting Saint George's Hill

The True Levellers (the Diggers) led by Gerard Winstanley, planted vegetables on the common land of Saint George's Hill Cobham in 1649. "England is not a free country, till the poor that have no land, have a free allowance to dig and labour the commons…" Winstanley 1649

You are invited to participate in The Dissenters Driftsong

Driftsing to William Blake, Daniel Defoe and John Bunyon

IN: Bunhill Fields, City Road, EC1 (near Old Street station)

On: Sunday 1st March 2009 at: 1. o'clock

Score for a multivoiced driftsong

1) In an open space, be your arms length away from the next.
2) Stand silently and still, listen to the sounds around you.
3) The first begin softly vocally sounding in response to the place.
4) The nearest mimic that sound, and pass it flowing from one to another, in a wave.
5) Repeat
6) Then all begin to walk slowly through place, sounding in response to place, renew the noise as required.
7) Continue this driftsong for five rounds or longer.

Sound is received and reflected by beings and places. Driftsinging explores the sonic interaction between place and practitioner.
This event will examine how sound as it travels through place, impacts the character and interpretation of place, and is itself affected by that space.

By Maryclare Foa

Thu 26th February 2009
2-5pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Henri Matisse (1869-1954), one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, attached fundamental importance to his drawings, in particular to the 'Themes et Variations' series. These were made following a precise method starting with arduous life studies and evolving into brilliant spontaneous creations. A recently "rediscovered" 1946 archival documentary film showing the artist drawing four portraits was shot in such a way as to allow a detailed eye-hand interaction analysis of the process by which the artist translated visual information from the external world into marks on the paper. Together with the artistÊs own remarks made throughout his lifetime, the results provide us with a cognitive interpretation of Matisse's drawing method and a tantalizing insight into his creative method.

The talk will be introduced by a description of how eye and hand movement studies and brain imaging investigation are used to understand the activity of drawing. A demonstration of an eye tracker experiment will follow the talk (time allowing).

By John Tchalenko, Moshe Ladanga and Angie Brew

Thu 29th January 2009
2-4pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Presentations (2-4pm):
• Dr Katie Bunnell (Autonomatic) ‘Autochina’, an online design tool for ceramic tableware surface design.
• Tavs Jorgensen (Autonomatic) ‘One Liner’, the use of motion capture technologies in the creation of slumped glass forms.
• Drummond Masterton (Autonomatic) ‘The creative application of CNC milling technologies in the production of decorative patterning for metalwork’
• Dr Justin Marshall (Autonomatic) ‘Automake’, an interactive generative design tool for creating one-off rapid prototyped forms.
• Steve Brown (Royal College of Art) ‘The Physicality of Print and the Role of Interpretative Mediation Within Applied Art Screenprinting Practice’
• Andrew Folan (Lecturer at National College of Art & Design, Dublin) – ‘Grasping the Untouchable’

Autonomatic, a Research Cluster at University College Falmouth, explores the use of digital manufacturing technologies in the creative process of designing and making three dimensional objects.

‘We are design practitioners with skills and experience in designing in ceramics, metals, glass, plaster, plastics, amongst other media. As creative researchers we have a basic urge to invent new ways of making things, to ask “what if?” , “so what?” and “what next?”. Through our individualistic and autonomous approach to using digital technologies we hope to inspire other designers and makers to approach digital technologies with a creative mindset.’

Mon, 8th December 2008, 6-8pm
@ Chelsea College of Arts & Design
The Card Room
Millbank
London

• Presentation
• Discussion groups
• Feedback

Jordan Hatcher is a lawyer and legal conusltant specialising in copyright and trademark issues, open content, free and open source software (FODD), and anything where digital technology and law meet.

This event is going to be an exploration of collective wisdom. The method will be based on 'World Cafe' (www.worldcafe.com) - a way in which a whole group can tap into the knowledge, skills and experience of each person there.

Thu 6th November 2008
2-5pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Please RSVP (use 'Send email' below)

• 2-3pm Presentation
• 3-5pm Practical Workshop

Melissa Bliss is an artist based in London. She has a long history of social engagement with technology and her work is often collaborative. Her key interests are people and place and internal and external geographies. Her works use a variety of media such as performance, installation, sound and video. She has shown work nationally and internationally in Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost in New York, Beacon Art Projects in Lincolnshire, FRED in Cumbria, EASTinternational in Norwich and node-l media arts festival in London. She has worked with young people for several years using mobile phones to make videos, take photographs and record sound. Her work can be found at www.livingcinema.org. She is also a director of Living Cinema, an independent film company which makes unusual documentaries www.livingcinema.com.

23-24 October 2008
10-4:30pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Please RSVP (use 'Send email' below)

You are invited to attend a two day electronics workshop conducted by Leon Barker (PhD Candidate SCIRIA, Camberwell).

Day 1: Introduction to electronics

• Create responsive objects from simple electronic components
• Making proximity sensors with Arduino, infrared emitters and detectors

Day 2

• Making interactive objects from toys and electronic circuits
• Programming interaction using Wiring / Processing

Please visit http://ccw-public.wikispaces.com/Electronics for updated information.

Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 1-4.30pm
Ground Floor Seminar Room (G17)
Research Office
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

You are invited to attend a Research Seminar at SCIRIA. There will be presentations about Early Computer Art by Catherine Mason and Nick Lambert:

Lunch 1 pm, talks 2 – 4.30 pm

Catherine Mason will talk about her new book, ‘A Computer in the Art Room’:

The origins of British Computer Arts 1950 - 1980'. This uncovers the little-known history of early British computer art. Described for the first time is the crucial role played by art schools in fostering important cross-disciplinary digital collaborations. This was a unique period in which art students could learn to program computers and construct their own hardware, before the onset of PCs and 'user-friendly' systems.

Dr Nick Lambert from the Computer Arts and Technocultures Project (CAT), a joint venture between Birkbeck and the V&A, will discuss ‘Parallel Evolution’:

The development of computer arts in the 1980s to 90s’. The art show at the SIGGRAPH graphics conference was a major American and international venue for computer art. From the late 1970s onwards, the Los Angeles-based art historian Patric Prince collected a significant amount of early computer art that was closely linked with SIGGRAPH, and this was later donated to the V&A, becoming the research material for CAT.

9-10 July 2008
10-4:00pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Participants will gain first hand experience of using the Developer Tools and Cocoa framework to build a fully working software application. The emphasis is upon utilising existing tools and functionality, requiring no previous programming experience. Conducted by Mark Hill (SCIRIA Research Assistant).

Day 1: Developer Tools
• Interface Builder
• Xcode

Day 2: Building An Application
• Step-by-step tutorial
• Additional resources (site, forums, and documentation)

Requirements: A Mac computer running OS X 10.4+ with the developer tools installed (these can be found on the OS X installation disc).

4-5 June 2008
10-4:30pm
@ Camberwell College of Arts
Seminar Room Basement
Wilson Road
London SE5 8LU

Please RSVP (use 'Send email' below)

You are invited to attend a two day electronics workshop conducted by Leon Barker (PhD Candidate SCIRIA, Camberwell) and Marcus Kirsch (RCA Interaction design graduate).

Day 1: Electronics workshop - Making interactive circuits with Arduino boards:

• Driving motors
• Using Sensors
• LEDs

Day 2: Writing programs using Processing 1.0 / Java

• Implementing code
• Good practice
• Troubleshooting

Please visit http://ccw-public.wikispaces.com/Electronics for updated information.

Wednesday, 23 April 2008,
6.30pm
Chelsea College of Art & Design
Banqueting Hall
16 John Islip Street
London SW1P 4JU

A striking parallel between contemporary algorithmic art and classical Islamic art is that both are full of examples of text trying to become figure, or image that reverts to its basis in text. In digital art, the medium consists of code, which may or may not be expressed as image, sound, action, etc. In religious Islamic art, the written and spoken word of the Qur'an are considered to be the direct speech of God. Yet despite the constraint of clear and unambiguous Sunni scripts, I observe a fascinating will to figuration in Sunni Islamic art whereby letters and words start to look like bodies. I will show examples Islamic artworks where the text seems inexorably to give rise to a figure, and digital artworks that struggle to make manifest code that wants to stay latent. I "explain" the "will to figuration" drawing from new media theory, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, and the thought on latency and manifestation developed in Shi'i Islam.

Laura U. Marks, a Canadian writer and curator of artists’ media, is the author of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses (2000) and Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (2002). She is researching relationships between classical Islamic art and new media art, for a book prospectively titled Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art. Dr. Marks is Dena Wosk University Professor in Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Canada. www.sfu.ca/~lmarks

Image: Detail, Album containing the surah Al-Fâtihah, signed by Muhammad Kazim (Iran, 1802-3)

An evening to launch and discuss Richard Colson's new book, Fundamentals of Digital Art, which examines how digital technology is forcing a rethink of creative priorities for artists today. Colson, senior lecturer in digital arts at Thames Valley University, has spoken to practitioners and theorists in digital arts across the world and, alongside examples of digital art from the last four decades, offers practical know-how for readers involved or looking to become involved with digital art.

A panel discussion will include: Ed Burton, research and development director at creative development agency Soda and creator of the Bafta-winning Sodacontructor (go to sodaplay.com to try it yourself); James Faure Walker, painter, digital artist, and writer, and research fellow at arts and science research group Sciria; Charlie Gere, author of White Heat, Cold Logic and director of research at the Institute for Cultural Research at Lancaster University.

£7 / £6 Concessions / £5 ICA Members.

ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

Tuesday 18 March 2008 7:30 pm Nash Room

TFRG - University of the Arts London

The Textile Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London (UAL) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) explore the coded enquiry of three artists and researchers. Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, TFRG Guest Artist, Dr Barbara Rauch, Deputy Director SCIRIA (Sensory Computer Interface Research & Innovation in the Arts), UAL and Nicola Naismith, Lecturer at Norwich School of Art and Design.

Following presentations, Dr Jane Harris , Director of TFRG, Helen Sloan, Director of SCAN and Jess Laccetti, Institute of Creative Technologies, will conduct a panel discussion with the artists.

Tickets are £10 / £8 Concessions / £6 ICA Members

Available from the ICA: www.ica.org.uk / Box Office: +44(0)20 7930 3647

Institute of Contemporary Arts, 12 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH.

Wednesday March 5 2008, 12.30 - 5 pm at Camberwell College of Arts, Research Office, Wilson Road

There will be four short presentations covering a wide range of subject matter, with interesting points of connection:

• Eva Kekou (PhD Candidate, SCIRIA Camberwell) Wireless Artists’ Groups
• Ilze Black (Curator, Watermans Arts Centre) New Media Projects
• Bernie Law (PhD Candidate, Cranfield University) Luxury in Cars
• Mark Hill (Research Assistant, SCIRIA) Digital Drawing

By James Faure Walker

February 20 2008, 2pm
Research Centre
The Centre for Drawing Project Space
Wimbledon College of Art

22-23 November 2007 in Wilson Road, basement

Simple practical introduction to basic circuit construction, driving motors, LEDs, flashing lights, how to fit sensors into circuits (simple light effecting circuits)

• Day 1 - Project: build a simple battery device with sensor (car, remote controlled device, etc)
• Day 2 - Connect remote controlled device to sensor using a microchip. Example: Connect remote car to guitar tuner, temperature measurer or proximity device

15-20 participants (groups of 3 or 4)

By Leon Barker and Tobie Kerridge