Critical-Digital-Matter:
The 6th Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium examines the critical
intersections between digital materials and art practice. We ask: what
is the relationship of the digital to
matter? How do we forge connections beyond art practices? And, what is
the role of critical discourse in contemporary art practice? These
issues will be explored through keynote presentations, discussions,
artist presentations, workshops, a screening programme, and an
exhibition.
The symposium features a keynote presentation by internationally
renowned sound and intermedia artist Phil Dadson, and a remote
conversation with London-based media theorist Matthew Fuller via De
Balie, the centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam.
Conference sessions include: materiality in digital art; developing
critical discourse in a small digital arts community; and forging
connections beyond art. A wide range of artists and researchers from
Wellington and around New
Zealand present current projects.
Friday June 26 is dedicated to hands on workshops including: working
with Arduino, Urban Screens, copyright, and teaching practice in
digital media.
A screening programme at Thistle Hall on Friday June 26, curated by
Alex MacKinnon, includes films by Daniel Crooks, Janine Randerson, Kurt
Adams, Nathan Pohio, Sam Hamilton and Eve Gordon, and live performances by Expansion
Bay, Tim Coster (with film by Aliki Boufis), and Discomedusae (with
film by Edie Stevens and Discomedusae)
In association with ADA, Enjoy Public Art Gallery are
showing Strata,
an
exhibition of digital art curated by Siv B. Fjaerestad and including
work by Phil Dadson, Mike Heynes, Stella Brennan, Janine Randerson,
Damian Stewart and Giles Whitaker (June 18 - 28).
ADA, the Aotearoa Digital Arts Trust, invites artists, researchers,
curators, art enthusiasts and all those interested in critical digital
material practice from Wellington and around New Zealand to
participate. More detail on presenters and associated events follows.
Critical-Digital-Matter takes place June 26-28, at
the Victoria University School of Design, 139 Vivian Street, Wellington
Cost: $50 (waged), $30 (unwaged), this includes Enjoy opening,
screening, and the 'ADA free lunch'
For registration and more information email:
symposium@aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz
Critical-Digital-Matter is supported by Creative New Zealand, Victoria
University School of Design, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, None Gallery, De
Balie Centre for Culture and Politics, Leonardo Education Forum, Otago
Polytechnic
Programme:
Friday June 26:
workshop day - tools, skills, and issues.
See the following section for details on the workshops
Registration: 9:30-10am
workshops 10am-1pm
* Urban Screen -
Morgan Barnard
* Introduction to Copyright in NZ - Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and
Matthew Holloway.
Registration 1:30-2pm
workshops 2pm-5pm
* Leonardo Education
Forum Aotearoa - Su Ballard and Trudy Lane
* Introduction to Arduino and physical computing - Phil Lindsay
* Installing open source software - Brenda Wallace
Friday Evening June
26: Exhibition opening and film screening
6pm Opening of exhibition, curated by Siv B. Fjaerestad
Enjoy Public Art
Gallery, Level
1/147 Cuba Street
8pm Film Screening, curated by Alex MacKinnon
Thistle Hall, cnr
Cuba and Arthur Streets
* screenings:
Daniel Crooks -
static No. 10 (falling as a means of rising)
Janine Randerson - Rorschach Clouds
Sam Hamilton and Eve Gordon - Pixle Dust
Kurt Adams - White Drawing
Nathan Pohio - Landfall of a Spector
* Live performances with film:
Expansion Bay
Tim Coster (film by Aliki Boufis)
Discomedusae (film by Edie Stevens and Discomedusae)
Saturday June 27:
Conference
Victoria University School of
Design, 139 Vivian Street
9:00 to 9:30 Registration
Tea, Coffee, and
Bikkies
Victoria University Design Campus atrium, Vivian Street.
9:30 to 10:00 Introduction
Notes from the ADA
Chair (Zita Joyce)
10:00 to 11:30 Keynote
Phil Dadson: Digital Resonances
(see below for more detail)
11:50 to 13:00 Short presentations:
- Peter Gorman - Toward a Mind Controlled Strange
Attractor
- Morgan Barnard - Improvisation as a methodology for
content creation in Live Cinema
- Emil McAvoy - A New Mediation of New Zealand
Government Photography
- Max Bellamy - Microcosms
- Stella Brennan and Zita Joyce - Cloudland
- Laura Preston - The Future is Unwritten exhibition as proposition
- Tim Coster - Beyond digital processing and distribution
13:00 to 14:00 The ADA Free Lunch
14:00 to 15:30 Conversation:
Critical Conversations: developing art discourse in New Zealand
CHAIR: Stella Brennan
CONVERSANTS: Charlotte Huddleston and Jude Chambers
(format and topic details below)
15:30 to 16:20 Afternoon tea and visit to Enjoy exhibition
16:20 to 17:30 Short presentations
- Simon Fraser - Digital Design at Victoria University
- Nathan Thompson - Concrete Shoes- music from the
groove
- Martyn Coutts - Wayfarer: Instrument of Change
- Nathan Pohio - Between the Devil and the deep blue sea
- Sally McIntyre - Radio Cegeste
- Johann Nortje - Performing Digital Digital Spaces
- Damian Stewart - Post-Conceptual Art: escaping the flood of concepts
17:30 to 20:30 Free time
20:30 to 22:00 Networked Keynote
Su Ballard talks with
Matthew
Fuller (London) and Eric Kluitenburg (De Balie, Amsterdam)
(more details on the format of this event below)
Sunday June 28:
Conference
Victoria University School of
Design, 139 Vivian Street
10:00 to 11:30 Conversation:
Materiality in
digital art
CHAIR: Morgan Barnard
CONVERSANTS: Su Ballard and Julian Priest
(format and topic details below)
11:30 to 11.50 Morning tea
11:50 to 13:00 Conversation:
Forging material
connections beyond art
CHAIR: Janine Randerson
CONVERSANTS: Caro McCaw, Rachel Rakena, and Lawrence McDonald
(format and topic details below)
14:00 to 15:00 Short presentations
- Zita Joyce - Electrosmog International Festival of
Sustainable Immobility
- Karen Karnak - Embodiments of the author in MediaWiki
research tools
- Phil Lindsay - Christchurch Creative Space
- Naomi Lamb - ‘VJ’ is not a dirty
word - Complexities in using the term VJ
- Andrew Ruthven - Linux.conf.au 2010
- Giles Whitaker - Interactive abstract painting
15:00 to 15:30 Conference closing...
An open mic session
for feedback, continuing discussions, and plans
15:30 to 17:00 Afternoon tea and soccer
Workshops:
Workshops will be held at the Victoria University School of
Design on Friday, June 26.
Workshops are included in the cost of the whole symposium ($50 / $30)
For workshops alone the cost is $20 for a full day (two) or $15 for one.
This cost includes lunch and coffee.
Urban Screen, 10am
- 1pm
- Morgan Barnard
This workshop will
explore how
urban screens function by creating create dynamic, networked content
for displays in the public space. Participants in the workshop will
collaborate to create content for two screens; one in the Atrium of the
School of Design and the other at Courtenay Place and Tory Street.
Content generated at the conference will be data-mined and incorporated
into the collaborative design of the screens. This screen content can
also be downloaded by remote viewers to tune in to the symposium from
afar.
Quartz Composer, a free developer tool for OSX will be used to create
these lightweight, graphic rich compositions. Yahoo Pipes will be used
to collect and filter RSS feeds. This workshop will take place in the
Media Lab at the VUW School of Design.
Introduction to
Copyright in NZ, 10am - 1pm
- Bronwyn
Holloway-Smith and Matthew Holloway.
Join Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Matthew Holloway from the Creative
Freedom Foundation for an introduction to the weird, wonderful, and
confusing world of copyright: its history, how it works in NZ and
internationally, how it is changing, and what this means for artists,
educators, and other producers and users of copyrighted works. This
workshop will dispel some of the myths surrounding copyright in NZ and
facilitate discussion in the eternal hope of finding that elusive
balance between public and private rights to that which is copyable.
Leonardo Education
Forum Aotearoa, 2-5pm
- Su Ballard and Trudy Lane
This is a forum
where issues in
digital media practice as these impact education are discussed.
Following the setting up of an Aotearoa New Zealand LEF at SCANZ in
February, we have the opportunity to be networked world wide with
educators who are examining some of the same issues. Drawing
on
the concerns of LEF we will address four focus issues in the workshop:
1. The Role of Research in media art & science &
technology
This topic is searching for a statement of the issues involved in
applied research across disciplines - easy or hard here, and how important?
2. The role of Curricula: Mapping the terrain
Mapping Histories of digital media practice and education in New
Zealand. What are the issues?
3. The role of Institutions: Institutional / Organizational Capacities
and
Benchmarks. Do existing criteria for research in Aotearoa adequately
meet the demands of electronic media practice and processes?
4. Network-centric and Intercultural Learning Methods and Processes.
An opportunity to state the adequacy of academic institutions in
addressing fundamental issues of place, awareness and knowledge. What
is the contribution from Aotearoa to the international community on
this subject?
In the workshop we will make a start at addressing these issues, share
information, resources and ideas, and the future direction we take will
be determined by those who participate. This workshop is open to anyone
working within media arts education in Aotearoa; whether in studio,
theory or workshop environments. For further information visit the
symposium website, or contact the workshop chairs: Su Ballard su.ballard@gmail.com, and Trudy Lane trudy@scanz.net.nz
relevant links to begin our discussion:
http://forum.lefnet.org/
http://www.intercreate.org/view/leonardo-education
http://www.sharewidely.org/
http://vectors.usc.edu/thoughtmesh/
http://www.diigo.com/
http://www.delicious.com
http://wikieducator.org/ANZAAE2009_digital_literacy
http://www.nomad.net.au
http://mass.nomad.net.au
Introduction to Arduino and physical computing, 2-5pm
- Phil Lindsay
This workshop will
provide an
overview of how Arduino works, and how it can be used to add an
interactive element to projects. There will also be an opportunity to
try setting up and using an Arduino board and software.
Please email symposium@aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz by Friday June 20 if
you are interested in attending this workshop.
Installing open
source software, 2-5pm
- Brenda Wallace
This workshop will
help you find and install the open source software you really need and want to use. Bring a computer.
By the
end of the workshop you will have installed and used new open source
software, ranging from photo editors to complete operating systems.
Phil Dadson - Digital Resonances:
Time: 10:00 to 11:30am
Date: Saturday June 27: Victoria University School of Design, 139
Vivian Street
In
terms of pure sound, I am attracted to intricate texture; the
microscopic, the unexpected, the naturally rhythmic and the
adventurous; to sound atmospheres and layered perspectives, to sounds
that conjure mood and imagination, that convey ideas and express the
human heart and soul.
Phil Dadson
Phil Dadson is an artist working in sound, music, performance and
moving image. His practice includes solo and collaborative
performances, video, installations, sound-sculptures and invented
experimental musical instruments. An artist imbedded in the physicality
of sound, whose practice straddles the physical and the digital, Phil
will be presenting work from early performances and events utilising
radio to recent collaborations.
An Arts Foundation Laureate widely recognised as one of New Zealand's
leading artists, Phil has performed and exhibited internationally since
the 1970s. Born in Napier, New Zealand 1946, Phil studied at Elam
School of Fine Arts. Travelling to London, from 1968–9 he was a
member of the foundation group for a scratch orchestra, with Cornelius
Cardew, Michael Parsons and others. Returning to New Zealand to
continue his studies, in 1970 he founded scratch orchestra (NZ) and
From Scratch (1974–2002). Phil was lecturer in Intermedia
at Elam from 1977–2001.
From Scratch's innovative performances included sculptural,
ritual and theatrical elements. Large custom-built instruments of
industrial and natural materials were used to create a variety of
non-electronic sounds and energetic rhythms. In 1998, Global Hockets, a
collaborative project with Frankfurt-based group Supreme Particles
toured Europe. Since 2002, Phil has continued working under the name
sonicsfromscratch. Co-author of the From Scratch Rhythm Workbook, he
has also collaborated on two international award-winning performance
films of From Scratch with director Gregor Nicholas, has released
numerous LPs and CDs and is a co-author with Bart Hopkin of Plosive
Aerophones, a book on the design and construction of slaptube
instruments (see www.windworld.com/emi).
Phil Dadson contributes a unique understanding of Critical-Digital-Matter, exploring materiality through resonance.
http://www.sonicsfromscratch.co.nz/
http://www.artsfoundation.org.nz/phil.html
http://sounz.org.nz/contributor/composer/1026
Digital matters: keynote
conversation
Matthew
Fuller (London),
talks with Su Ballard (Wellington) and Eric Kluitenburg (Amsterdam).
Time: 20:30 to 22:00
NZ.
Date: Saturday June 27: Victoria University School of Design, 139
Vivian Street
Second Life Venue: Outside Wellington Railway Station.
At Koru educational sim (owned by NMIT in Nelson, NZ) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Koru/111/22/33
[The Wellington Railway Station 3D build is part of the art
installation: "In the Company of Strangers" by Mike Baker (aka
Rollo Kohime in SL)]
Regular live stream can be picked up here:
www.debalie.nl/live
In "Media Ecologies", Matthew Fuller called for an embedded approach to
digital materials as they are encountered in different cultural and
social contexts. When media systems interact with art unpredictable
things happen. This remote conversation will test the materials of
digital networks, hosts and remote relays to enable an open discussion
of the materiality of the digital. Fuller and Ballard share a concern
with digital matter, and the employment of things digital in concrete
engagements with art. They will discuss the pervasiveness of digital
matter, the engagement of art and the digital, and address the problem
of artists in new media art finding their time taken up with attempts
to make their work interesting to contemporary art, creative
industries, humanities, etc., and forgetting to intensify the work that
directly engages the crucial aspects of the field. This conversation is
one attempt to rectify this. Through a direct focus on the materiality
of the digital we will engage a discussion of the materiality of
computational and networked digital media.
The conversation will begin from the following short reading list:
Matthew Fuller,
2004/2006
“Softness: interrogability; general intellect;art
methodologies
in software,” ISEA Helsinki 2004 and Digital Research Unit at
Huddersfield University, http://www.interfacekultur.au.dk/enhed/aktiviteter/fuller/fuller_softness
Su Ballard, 2005, “Entropy and digital
installation,” Fibreculture issue 7. http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue7/issue7_ballard.html
Adrian Mackenzie, 2009, "Intensive movement in wireless digital signal
processing: from calculation to envelopment" Environment and Planning A
41(6) 1294 – 1308
http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=a40351
Anna Munster, 2001, “Digitality: Approximate
aesthetics” ctheory.net Article a093, 3/14/2001.
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=290
M. Beatrice Fazi 2009, “’The simple
expression of a
complex thought’: For a Media Theory of
Expression.” Mute:
culture and politics after the net, http://www.metamute.org/en/content/the_simple_expression_of_complex_thought_for_a_media_theory_of_expression
All texts available via: http://delicious.com/sub.a/6thADAsymposium
The conversation will be relayed as a regular live stream (watch and
listen only) over the internet, and then retransmitted in Second Life
in a virtual theatre. This will enable second life 'residents' from
around the globe to follow the discussion and respond via the in-built
text-chat in Second Life. The conversation will also be
viewable
via two urban screens in Wellington: one in the Atrium of the School of
Design at Victoria University, and the other at the corner of Courtenay
Place and Tory Street. This screen content will be downloadable.
Further information on how and where to connect to the remote
conversation will be announced on this website.
Matthew Fuller is
David Gee Reader in Digital Media at the Centre for Cultural Studies,
Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of Media
Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture
(MIT Press, 2005) and Behind the Blip: Essays on the
Culture of Software (Autonomedia, 2003). He has worked closely with the
artists collective Mongrel, and was a member of the
speculative
software group I/O/D from 1994-1997 and most recently
initiated
the 'Digger Barley' project shown at Futuresonic and Manifesta 7. Along
with architect Usman Haque he is author of 'Concurrent Versioning City'
a FLOSS-inspired quasi-licence for urban construction. He is
particularly interested in the cultural effects of technology.
Eric Kluitenberg is a theorist, writer, and organiser on culture, media and technology. He is head of the media program at De Balie
- Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam. He lectures and
publishes regularly on culture, new media, and cultural politics
throughout Europe and beyond.
Conversation sessions
This year at the ADA symposium we wanted to develop a structure that
would invite more discussion and be generally more engaging and
informal than the usual paper presentation or panel formats.
We've borrowed this idea of 'conversations' from the 'Blissful Dialogues' sessions run by CRUMB (Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss) at ISEA
last year. These conversations were set up between curators of
contemporary art and new media art to explore common ground and
crossovers between them. The conversational structure created space for
explaining ideas and approaches and teasing out the similarities and
differences between practices.
So for our conversation sessions at Critical-Digital-Matter, we have
invited two, or three, people to ask each other questions, effectively
to interview each other, around a particular topic. The intention is
that this will give the conversants space to compare and explore ideas
and approaches, and to share projects that are relevant to the
conversation as it develops. The idea is basically to cut out the
awkward part of giving a paper and cut straight to the discussion
We have scheduled an hour and a half for the sessions, and imagine that
each conversation will itself take 30-40 minutes, though this will be
flexible depending on how things progress.
We encourage symposium participants to contribute ideas, questions, and
further discussion to develop the ideas raised in the conversations. To
start things off, the conversation topics, conversants, and some
framing questions are below:
Critical Conversations: developing art discourse in New Zealand
This 'critical' conversation will reflect on art discourse in New
Zealand, and the spaces available for productive criticality in a small
country.
Participants:
Charlotte Huddleston: Curator Contemporary Art, Te Papa
Jude Chambers: Senior Programme Adviser, Arts Development Team, Creative New Zealand
Stella Brennan (Chair): artist, writer, curator and teacher
Framing questions:
Why do we want to enhance critical thinking?
Will it help artists make better art and curators make better shows?
What are the special issues that we have in NZ?
Materiality in Digital Art:
The Materiality in Digital Art Conversation will reflect on the
outcomes from the Digital Matters Keynote Conversation and open a
discussion on digital aesthetics, the physicality of digital media
culture and the location of materiality in digital art.
Participants:
Julian Priest: Artist and Independent Researcher, The Green Bench
Su Ballard: Academic Leader, Principal Lecturer Electronic Arts, Otago Polytechnic School of Art
Morgan Barnard (chair): Lecturer Digital Media Design, Victoria University of Wellington School of Design.
Framing questions:
Is the digital future utopian or dystopian?
What does post digital ethics mean?
As we move more towards the virtual, how does the body relate to digital practice?
Forging Connections beyond digital art:
The ‘forging connections’ discussion will follow three
separate strands: community participation in digital art events,
science and the digital arts, and connections between cinema screenings
of digital art and the gallery audience.
Participants:
Rachael Rakena: an artist whose
practice extends to collaboration with animators, dancers, musicians
and Maori community groups.
Caro McCaw: Senior Lecturer in Communication Design at Otago. Her
practice is at the nexus of situated creative work, participatory art
and design, and particularly the relationship between material location
and networked culture.
Lawrence McDonald: a writer and supporter of experimental and
mainstream New Zealand cinema, performance and media arts as Editor of
Illusions magazine. His recent essay on Darcy Lang (2008) chronicles an
experimental media artist and film-maker, with a social science
orientation who forges connections ‘beyond’ media arts.
Janine Randerson (chair): a media
artist who has collaborated with scientists and science institutions
outside the media arts sphere. She is currently working towards a
climate change research project with artists and scientists from RMIT
and Monash in Melbourne.
Framing questions:
How and why are interdisciplinary connections are formed and fostered?
How do artists, designers or film-makers work collaboratively across diverse domains?
Logistical details:
The Comfort
Hotel Wellington,
at 223 Cuba Street, has offered us a special price for accommodation
for the symposium. Please mention Aotearoa Digital Arts when booking.
It's not super cheap but it's super handy.
Children are always welcome at ADA symposia, and this time we will have
a dedicated parents room where where attendees + kids can take time out
from the conference sessions.
A
map of venues, accommodation, food, and other useful things:
View ADA
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