The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be by M. Beatrice Fazi, Mute:

Tackling the conundrum of the future’s relationship to the present through the prism of digital culture, this year’s Transmediale festival strayed into some chaotic philosophical territory. In her review, M. Beatrice Fazi dismisses conceptions of the future as linear effect of the present, instead embracing models of ‘atemporality’ and untimeliness

From the main stage of Transmediale, Berlin’s annual international festival for art and digital culture, one of the keynote speakers, information technology businessman Conrad Wolfram, tells an anecdote: ‘My four-year old daughter enjoys making paper laptops by folding a sheet, drawing a screen on the top and a keyboard on the bottom. I asked her,’ he continues, ‘”When I was your age I didn’t make paper laptops. Why do you think that was?” After one or two minutes of reflection she said “No paper?”‘ The audience laugh. Continue reading

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: Usman Haque's Natural Fuse] ZER01, xClinic and Pachube.com call for Out of the Garage, Into the World :: September 4 - 20, 2010 :: South Hall, San Jose, California :: Open Call for Projects — Deadline: March 29, 2010 (application).

ZER01: the Art and Technology Network, in collaboration with xClinic and Pachube.com is soliciting proposals from artists to create environmental health projects and lifestyle experiments that make use of Pachube (a web-based sensor data storage and brokerage system that makes it easy to publish geolocated time-series data in real-time and to couple local and remote sensors and actuators). We are looking for truly innovative projects that push the boundaries of both environmental analysis and action, projects that don’t just “make data public” but help the “public make data,” projects that consider very carefully the relationship between all sorts of systems, human and non-human alike, technological and cultural. You will need to do a lot more than just plug a sensor into a tree and get it to tweet! Continue reading

Lovebytes - A Festival of Digital Creativity and Culture :: Opening: February 12, 2010; 6:30 - 10:00 pm @ Sheffield Winter Garden and Millennium Gallery :: Lovebytes, Workstation, Sheffield, S1 2BX, United Kingdom.

Lovebytes is a cultural festival for the digital age. A season of extraordinary events taking place at some of Sheffield’s landmark venues and public spaces, from February to June 2010. The festival opening night features a late night opening of the digital art exhibition Code:Craft along with with live performances by Francisco Lopez, Russell Haswell and Mark Fell. 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

Upgrade International 2010: Soft Borders :: October 18-21, 2010 :: Sao Paulo, Brazil :: Call for Participation — Deadline: April 30, 2010.

We invite proposals of papers, posters and workshops for Soft Borders - the 4th Upgrade! International Conference & Festival on New Media Art, that will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from Oct 18th to 21st.

All the information about submitting proposals and the event can be also found online at the conference official website.

A brief summary only is required for the selection process. This should be submitted electronically via the online submission system, by 30/April/2010. You will be asked to create an account with the system before uploading your summary. Continue reading

Digitale Afrique: Call for Dance + New Technology Proposals :: 8 works (including at least 1 from Africa) to be performed at International Digital Arts Festival of Enghien-les-Bains (France) :: June 11-19, 2010 :: Deadline for Proposals: January 8, 2010.

For the 5th edition of the Bains numériques Digital Arts International Festival, the Centre des Arts is organising an international competition for creations mixing dance and new technologies. This international call for project proposals aims at pre-selecting 8 hybrid stage form to be presented during the festival. A dedicated Committee will be assigned to select projects coming from the African Continent in order to ensure representation of African Digital Art and to select an African Project which will join the 7 other Works in competition. Continue reading

ElectroSmog: International Festival for Sustainable Immobility :: Amsterdam / New York / Madrid / Helsinki / Riga / London / Banff / New Zealand / Munich / & on-line No Travel Allowed! :: March 18 - 20, 2010 :: + International Design Competition.

ElectroSmog is a new festival that explores the concept “Sustainable Immobility” in theory and practice. Sustainable Immobility is first of all a critique of the growing global crisis of mobility. Current forms of hyper-mobility of people and products in travel and transport are ecologically increasingly unsustainable. The will to slow down, however, seems thoroughly absent. The economic crisis may have temporarily slowed matters down, long term projections still point towards exponential growth of worldwide mobility and exploding energy needs. Alternatives for the current state of hyper-mobility need to be designed urgently. Continue reading

090909 UpStage Festival Showreel from UpStage on Vimeo.

Open Call for 101010 UpStage Festival >>

Plazaplus Festival: Explorations in Media Art and Live Performance :: January 14-16, 2010; 6:30 pm :: Plaza Futura, Leenderweg 65, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Live cinema, music, audiovisual performance, screenings, installations, artist talks, dance performances, lectures and more. Plazaplus is an international art festival that focuses on emerging and established artists, musicians and filmmakers. Presenting new collaborations, special projects and performances of all kinds, Plazaplus is an event that you will have to experience live!

Haushka’s unique “Ghost Piano show”, is a commisioned project by Plazaplus in collaboration with Jeff Desom. This years Artist in Focus is Sophie Clements, who will show her mesmerising awarded piece ‘Evensong’, and will also perform with her band. Continue reading