Sunday, December 20, 2009
Urban Screens Conference & Exhibition: Call for Interactive Media and Video Art (2010, Toronto, Sept. 24-30) Cross Post
I've been fascinated by urban screens for a while, and this is a passion that is shared by a growing number of people who come to the "screenspace" from a wide range of disciplines. I received an email this morning about a call for interactive media and video art for the 2010 Urban Screens conference and exhibition that will be held in Toronto between September 24th-30th 2010. This is a great reason to plan ahead for a trip to that fantastic city!
Below is a description of the urban screens concept, the details for potential conference and exhibition partipation, and a section of links and resources related to this topic.
The theme of the conference is "I am here; what can we do?"
"Public screens – or rather large screens situated in public space – are proliferating in cities all over the world. How should we understand the emergence of the electronic screen from the domestic interior onto the streetscape of contemporary cities? What are the implications of the merging of screens with architecture, which turns the surface into a communication resource? How will the overlap between streetscape and datascape shape public space in the future?
– Scott McQuire, “Mobility, cosmopolitanism and public space in the media city” (2009).
"Urban screens are digital displays and visual interfaces situated in urban public spaces. They include LED screens and signs, plasma screens, projections, information terminals as well as intelligent architectural surfaces and media facades. They support the idea of using public space as a platform for creation and cultural exchange, strengthening the local economy and encouraging public interaction and discussion." - Urban Screens Association
Call for Interactive Media And Video Art
The exhibition “I am here; what can we do?” is part of Urban Screens Toronto 2010, an international urban screens conference and exhibition taking place between September 24th-30th 2010; produced in collaboration with the International Urban Screens Association (IUSA).
Urban Screens Toronto 2010 will promote a multifaceted approach to exploring the growing appearance of moving images in urban space and the global transformation of public culture in the context of networked forms of urban screens. It will build on the successful events held in Amsterdam, Manchester, and Melbourne and will be the first international Urban Screens conference held in North America.
Through an integrated program of keynote lectures, panel sessions, workshops, curated screenings and multimedia projects, it will bring together leading Canadian and international artists and curators, architects and urban planners, designers, ad agencies and brand managers, screen operators and content providers, academics, activists, policymakers, technology manufacturers, software developers and more.
I am here; what can we do?
Public Call For:
New or existing experimental, interactive artwork suitable for urban screens.
Short-format video works relevant for presentation on urban screens.
Interactive design & advertising works created for urban screens including past commercial interactive work from advertising agencies and designers.
Student work interactive and video work by students from any institution worldwide.
Themes include, but are not limited to: The meeting point of the real and the virtual; work that incorporates media technology and contemporary building/architectural technology; user-generated content; multi-site, networked projects; work that addresses public spaces and civic engagement.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Submission deadline: MARCH 1 2010
Submission format: Please submit PDF files only, no larger than 3 MB.
Proposals should include:
1) Brief 50-word summary of your artwork
2) Full proposal or description of the project (maximum 2 pages)
3) Maximum 10 images and URL where work can be found online if applicable
4) Documentation of this work if it has previously be exhibited, or of another exhibited work by the artist.
3) Detailed list of technical requirements
4) Curriculum Vitae (maximum 3 pages)
Fees: There is no entry fee. Reasonable presentation fees will be paid, for new and existing interactive work and videos. Fees will not be paid for design & advertising work. Students will not receive a fee, but will be automatically considered for a prize. Please note that we cannot fund the creation of new work.
Submit; In the subject line please write URBAN SCREENS PROPOSAL
Email to JURY at: urbanscreenstoronto@gmail.com
The jury will be comprised of Toronto Urban Screens committee members Michelle Kasprzak, Janine Marchessault, Gabe Sawhney, Suzanne Stein and Sharon Switzer.
Notification: April 1, 2010
RELATED
International Urban Screens Association
Urban Screens Blog
Urban Screens' Resources
Urban Screens '09 Videos "The City as Interface"
Urban Screens' Blogroll
Digital Urban
Infosthetics
Interactive Architecture
Luminapolis
The Mobile City
Urban Projection
Visual Foreign Correspondents
We make money not art
Urban Screens Reader
I'm re-visiting all of the above blogs and will share what I find after I surface from the digital rabbit-hole!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Urban Screens, Urban Scenes, Media Facades: Obscura Digital's Outdoor iGoogle Artist Themes Launch in NYCU
The event took place over a year ago, but I thought it was worth re-visiting, given the theme of this blog. For more pictures, visit the photo gallery of the event on the BizBash New York website.
"Google wanted to make a big impression for the debut of its iGoogle Artist Themes. Obscura Digital delivered by transforming New York City’s MeatPacking district into a massive outdoor art gallery for three nights. Using sixteen projectors perched atop three rooftops at the intersection of Little West 12th, 9th Avenue, and Gansevoort, we projected the artist themes onto the exteriors of ten buildings in a synchronized, animated display complete with audio. Many of the 70 participating artists—including architect Michael Graves, artist Jeff Koons, designer Marc Ecko, and photographer Anne Geddes—came out to see their work writ large. In spite of the rainy night, the brightness of 30,000-lumen projectors was hard to miss and people on the street stopped to take in the spectacle"
Monday, March 30, 2009
nnub: Local Community Interactive Noticeboard Software
"Nnub Moggill is a touch-screen digital noticeboard located at the Moggill General Store. All content on the digital noticeboard is generated by users of Nnub Moggill and by aggregating content relevant to the local community from other sources. Content can be uploaded to the digital noticeboard at http://www.nnub.net."
"Nnub aims to help build better, searchable, indexable, information for local communities. Our philosophy is that anyone can post. At Nnub we moderate web submissions only for porn and profanity."
The Moggill nnub follows the principles of the Seattle Community Network
"Nnub is a research project conducted by researchers at the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland as part of the Australasian CoOperative Research Centre for Interaction Design (ACID).RELATEDNnub: Getting to the Nub of Neighbourhood Interaction (pdf)
Urban Interfaces (pdf)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Locative and Mobile Media & The Mobile City Blog
In February 2008, a conference was held at the Netherlands Architecture Institute: The Mobile City: A Conference on Locative Media, Urban Culture and Identity I'll be visiting the site again soon, partly because there are quite a few interesting links. I just visited Christian Nold's BioMapping.net site. Biomapping is a community mapping project in which people weare Galvanic Skin Response recording devices as they explore their environment to create communal emotion maps that include data as well as personal observations. The project has grown and now has several map projects with their own websites. Christian Nold's main website is also worth exploring.
"The Mobile City is an initiative that focuses on locative and mobile media, urban culture and identity. We aim to bring professionals from different disciplines (academics, urban professionals, media designers, artists, telecom operators, etc) together to address the question: what happens to urban culture when physical and digital spaces merge?"
I think it is important to take an interdisciplinary approach when we think of emerging technologies, especially those that play out in public spaces, especially if we are interested in promoting these technologies for the "greater good".
It is worth exploring the Mobile City Blog. You can link to videos from the keynote speakers, find information about related conferences, such as the Digital Cities 6 Workshop (June 24, Penn State University), and check out the blogroll, which I've included in this post for convenience.
I especially liked the thoughtful review by Michiel de Lange of a chapter of a new book edited by Rich Ling and Scott W. Campbell. "The Reconstruction of Space and Time: Mobile Communication Practices" 
Backround
"The Mobile City is an initiative by Martijn de Waal and Michiel de Lange. The first Mobile City Conference was organized with the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the research groups New Media, Public Sphere and Urban Culture at the University of Groningen, and Playful Identities at the the Erasmus University Rotterdam & University of Utrecht. Tijmen Schep is an occasional contributor to The Mobile City Weblog."
Here is the awesome Mobile Cities blogroll:
‘Playful Identities’ - Michiel de Lange Adam Greenfield Air Roots
Andrea Gaggioli Anthony Townsend ArchiNed - de architectuur site van Nederland
Blog Like You Give A Damn Changeist cityofsound Digital Urban
Digitaler Urbanismus Doors of Perception weblog
Home - Berkman Center for Internet & Society IFTF’s Future Now Informationlab
Institute for the Future - Future Cities Institute of Network Cultures Jan Chipchase
LIFT Conference Blog Mark Shepard Martijn de Waal Mimi Ito -Weblog
MIT Convergence Culture Consortium: Weblog Mixed Realities MobHappy
Mobi Mundi Mobilities neo-nomad New Media & Society recent issues
New Mobilities: Ce-more about what’s happening in the mobile world
Nicis Institute - Nicis Kenniscentrum Grote Steden pasta and vinegar
Performative Environments Planetizen Purse Lip Square Jaw
Relevant History Rhizome Ronald.waag.org Ruimtelijk Planbureau
Situated Technologies Small Surfaces Smart Mobs
Smartspace - Smartspace Journal Space & Culture The End of Cyberspace
The Mobile City The Where Blog thinkwhere Timo Arnall
urbanscreens.org varnelis.net - network culture Villes 2.0
we make money not art weekly INCITE Where
Where 2.0 - O’Reilly Conferences zengestrom.com
