Upgrade! Joburg has organized and will host a new art and technology group primarily based in Johannesburg but with members from across South Africa.

The Hacksaws group had its first meeting today in the Seminar Room of the Digital Arts Division. The group has 16 members to date and anyone with an interest in art and technology is welcome to join. This group is made up of professionals (not necessarily artists) who have an interest in Art and Technology. We hope that the group will be a place to form collaborations for new projects and exhibitions; work towards the generally uplifting and furthering the practice of art and technology in South Africa.

ElectroSmog - International Festival for Sustainable Immobility :: March 18 - 20, 2010 :: Amsterdam  | New York | Madrid  Riga | London | Banff | New Zealand | Munich | on-line.

ElectroSmog festival means zero travel (no presenter will travel beyond their local or regional boundaries to participate in this event, and a crucial dimension of the festival will be its on-line presence), going beyond the broadband enclaves (remote connection to lower bandwidth spaces, do-it-yourself telematics, and information technologies for the majority world will be central concerns the festival will address) and includes thematic discussions, presentations and connected debates (a series of interlocking thematic programs, connected discussions and debates all transmitted live over the internet), as well as satellite events. Continue reading

[Image: Merry-go-Round by Lily & Honglei] Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds :: Call for Papers — Deadline: August 30, 2010.

Submissions are invited for an edited book with the working title Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds. Machinima - referring to “filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies” as well as works which use this animation technique, including videos recorded in computer games or virtual worlds - is challenging the notion of the moving image in numerous media contexts, such as video games, animation, digital cinema and virtual worlds. Continue reading

City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community :: June 11–13 & 19, 2010 :: Invitation to Submit Proposals — Deadline: March 1, 2010 [Application Form]

Recent exhibitions, festivals and conferences across the US and in Europe have taken wireless networks, public space, locative media and urban environments as sites of intervention, creativity, and critique. Formulated within the emerging context of networked urbanism and mobile media, City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community will focus upon dynamics of the shifting, locative, cartographic and social space of the city. It is organized by educational, arts, community-based and civic organizations and asks how locative media can act as a platform and venue for community-led expression. Continue reading

[Image: From "Lifetracing: The Traces of a Networked Life" by Anne Helmond] Facebook: The role of the human agent in a non-neutral technology by Dr. Thomas Giagkoglou:

Abstract: It is hard to dispute the popularity of online social networking especially amongst the young generation. Yet there is little consent about the moral dimension of social network sites, such as Facebook, Bebo and Friendster. For social critics they are merely a means of surveillance and control, while for many members of the digital audience they are a fascinating way to create and validate friendships in a virtual world and place oneself on public display in an almost exhibitionist manner. This essay aims to explore the ‘non-neutrality’ of online social networking (Facebook) in contrast to the significance of the human agent and his-her purposeful use of the technology. Light’s argument on the relevance of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) developed in the work of Latour will be examined and contrasted with the social constructivist view that the actual behaviour of the human agent who uses the technology towards a purpose that sustains a personal meaning may render the alleged amoral dimension of the technology less significant for the individual.

Casco Office for Art, Design and Theory presents If You Lived Here Still… An archive project by Martha Rosler :: January 17 – March 14, 2010 :: Opening: January 16; 5:00 pm :: Open forum: January 17; 2:00 - 5:00 pm :: Nieuwekade 213-215, 3511RW Utrecht, The Netherlands.

In 1989-1991, artist Martha Rosler organized her project ‘If You Lived Here…’ at the Dia Art Foundation in New York City. ‘If You Lived Here…’ was a seminal group project on housing, homelessness and the systems and conditions underlying them such as gentrification, bureaucratic complicity or non-compliance and increasing privatisation of the public sector. It took a radical approach toward art and institutions of that time, in a mode that might be called cross-disciplinary and “participatory”. Continue reading

Craftivism :: December 12, 2009 - February 14, 2010 :: Arnolfi, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, UK.

With Kayle Brandon + Heath Bunting, Rhiannon Chaloner + Manuel Vason, glorious ninth, GOTO10, Rui Guerra, Household, Christine + Irene Hohenbüchler, JODI, Mandy McIntosh, Gloria Ojulari Sule, Trevor Pitt + Kate Pemberton, Janek Simon, Stephanie Syjuco, Clare Thornton and projects produced with local residents.

Craftivism responds to the resurgent interest in craft as it relates to socially-engaged art practice. It involves fourteen projects developed by artists and collectives that work with craft-based traditions and activist practices, and who employ the tactics of ‘craftivism’ (combining crafting + activism) to question and disrupt the prevailing codes of mass consumerism. Continue reading

Ephemeral City: Speakers: Kora Van den Bulcke and Thomas Soetens (Workspace Unlimited), Jason Crow, M.Arch Ph.D. candidate, Department of Architecture, McGill University; Direction: Chris Salter :: December 3, 2009; 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: CCA/Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Maison Shaughnessy. 1920, rue Baile, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

What can games and gaming experience reveal about the city? How does play in public spaces differ from solitary play. What new aesthetic social practices might arise as a result of the mixing between the physical urban space and the digital realm. This forum will feature research and artistic projects that take gaming beyond the single computer screen and into the urban realm, both real and imaginary. Continue reading

Produce your own customized Artistic License in a matter of minutes using your web browser. Instead of biometrics and radio frequency ID chips, Artistic License embraces freedom, collaboration, sharing, and imagination as keys to a more appealing modernity. While your Artistic License does not require that you look like yourself, and it does not impose factual restrictions, it nonetheless has the truthiness coveted by authority. And, if you make yours before December 15, 2009, you will be eligible for a free laminated Artistic License.

Choose from among these rationales for participation or invent your own: Continue reading

Stream | Peninsula Artist Commission: Performing Social Space :: November 2009 – July 2010

Stream is a creative production agency based in the London Borough of Greenwich, where our programmes bring together innovative art practice and local people. We invite artists to find inspiration in the geographies, peoples and locales in which our projects are sited and offer a stimulating environment in which to realise ambitious new work. We work in collaboration with the artists we commission to realise the full potential of projects, and are committed to creative excellence and meaningful participation in all the work we produce. We look for artists whose practice combines a conceptual sophistication with a lightness of touch, and are keen to support the professional development of the artists we commission Continue reading