Special Issue for the Fibreculture Journal: Networked Utopias and Speculative Futures :: Editors: Susan Ballard, Zita Joyce and Lizzie Muller :: Call for Proposals — Deadline: February 20, 2011

Since most of history’s giant trees have already been cut down, a new Ark will have to be constructed out of the materials that a desperate humanity finds at hand in insurgent communities, pirate technologies, bootlegged media, rebel science and forgotten utopias. — Mike Davis “Who Will Build an Ark: The Utopian Imperative in an Age of Catastrophe” in Telepolis Continue reading

Upgrade! East Midlands — Austerity vs Autonomy: DIY Funding :: November 17, 2010 :: One Thoresby Street, East Midlands, UK.

Times are tough! In the UK, the coalition government’s ‘austerity package’ has outlined unprecedented budget cuts across all sectors with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport headlining a 25% cut to spending on culture as of 2011. In these troubling times institutions, organisations and artists are being told to look to philanthropy from private investors, become more industrious and ‘pull together’ to sit out the storm.

This first network gathering during Sideshow, the independent fringe to the prestigious British Art Show 7, will explore the challenges surrounding funding arts practice in the era of austerity. Continue reading

We are thrilled to announce that this year’s ADA Symposium will take place in the unique surrounds of Whanganui (December 10-12, 2010). The programme will engage with the local environment and community through exhibitions, projections, and waka voyages on the Whanganui river, and as always there will be in-depth discussions on current work and interests in media art. This will be a major ADA event.

The topic of the symposium is Energetics and Informatics.

We have conceived the following broad thematics.

• Media and Energy
• exploring the material of media, information and energy in digital arts.
• Energy Networks
• new forms of energy production, distribution and storage infrastructural critique.

Continue reading

Unleashed Devices :: September 1 - October 22, 2010 :: Watermans, 40 High Street, Brentford TW8 0DS, UK.

Unleashed Devices is an exhibition of DIY, hacking and open source projects by artists who explore technologies critically and creatively. By reconstructing, remixing and reinventing everyday electronic devices, these take on a new life as they shift our vision of the use of data and purpose of technology. Playing with frontiers, such projects not only challenge our conception of technology but also music, art and design. Here, they reveal the power of DIY modes as tools to stimulate social reflection and participation. Continue reading

On Yasmin, Roger Malina wrote: … are any of you involved in the FABLAB network?

What is a Fablab? Fab Lab is an abbreviation for Fabrication Laboratory. It is a group of off-the-shelf, industrial-grade fabrication and electronics tools. Currently the labs include a laser cutter that makes 2D and 3D structures, a sign cutter that plots in copper to make antennas and flex circuits, a high-resolution milling machine that makes circuit boards and precision parts, and a suite of electronic components and programming tools for low-cost, high-speed microcontrollers. Continue reading

Interactivos?’10: Neighborhood Science :: until July 31, 2010 :: Medialab-Prado, c/ Alameda, 15, Plaza de las Letras, Madrid, Spain.

Interactivos?’10: Neighborhood Science is a digital art exhibition in which ten prototypes developed by nearly 70 artists, scientists, teachers, designers and a variety of professionals, students and fun of DIY and DIWO (Do It With Others) will be on show. This exhibition aims to offer a new and experimental point of view about what you can do with low cost tools applied to the work with the local environment, urban ecology, citizen collaboration networks, etc.

Visitors will be able to “listen” to satellites surrounding us (Birds Within); research urban water analisys methods (Lilipod); easily create solar powered electronic devices (Open Solar Circuits) and participate in a discarded objects project (re:tag), among others.

Makers: DIY Agents of Social Change by Alyce Santoro, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed:

Everyone Is an Artist

As our society collectively awakens to the realization that it must devise ways to stem the hemorrhaging caused by years of denial and excess and as the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement grows in popularity, Joseph Beuys’ words, “everyone is an artist” ring all the more true. Beuys, who referred to himself as a “social sculptor,” believed strongly not that everyone should make (so-called) fine art, but that everyone can live a richer and more meaningful life by infusing any vocation or action with his or her own personal creativity.

From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, Beuys expressed the notion that personal creativity could be cultivated and honed by connecting with nature and by developing a more intimate relationship with it. He believed that individuals as well as our entire society could be healed by returning to a simpler way of life and by becoming more attuned to the subtle, ineffable forces of the ecosystems we inhabit. Continue reading

City as Studio: EXB 10.03 presents Ghumakkad Baaja — An open collaboration between Prayas Abhinav, Hemant Babu, Ram Bhatt and Nishant Sharma :: June 26, 2010; 6:30 pm :: Sarai-CSDS, 29, Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi, India.

Ghumakkad Baaja is a demonstration of an open and unregulated way of doing audio transmissions along with discussions about transmissions, public networks and “selling air”.

* Can we be active broadcasters and not just passive consumers? * Can we create and share audio/video content in a widely accessible way? * Could there be a platform much like satellite T.V, but in an on-the-move outdoor friendly format without needing a multi-crore license? Continue reading

Cross(x)Species Adventure Club: A Molecular Gastronomy Workshop :: June 19, 2010; 3:00 - 5:30 pm :: Eyebeam, 540 West 21st Street, New York, NY.

We are recruiting the adventurous for a hands-on workshop introducing the use of molecular gastronomy in service of ecosystems design. Like the web 2.0 of the food systems, the Cross(x)Species Adventure Club develops participatory, DIY, and multi-platform food systems to improve environmental health and augment biodiversity … where food is a medium of art, adventure, pleasure and agency.

The Cross(x) Species Adventure Club enlists humans to explore a biodiverse and delicious future; to engage in culinary experiments; invest in food innovation; and participate in re-designing our collective relationship to natural systems. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: WWW-Enabled Noise Toy by Loud Objects (with funds from the Jerome Foundation):

Loud Objects, NYC-based circuit sorcerers, present a wacky way to learn hardware audio programming. The WWW-Enabled Noise Toy invites anyone with a web browser to write their own audio code, program it remotely onto a Noise Toy, and play it live via webcam. In the spirit of “try it yourself” software demos, the website provides a simple environment for experimenting with low-level microchip-generated audio. Load code from the Loud Objects’ own library of performance algorithms, hone your own noise techniques, and add your work to the online archive to share it with other microchip coders and create an open source noise community. Continue reading