Turbulence Commission: We Ping Good Things To Life: An Interactive Networked Installation In 5 Acts by Ephraim & Sadie Hatfield:

We Ping Good Things To Life is an ever evolving and expanding interactive networked installation that brings together elements of Toy Theater, Vaudeville performance, Surrealism, and consumer culture. Users can activate dozens of store-bought, found, and donated objects to create a unique performance, alone or with others, via the live streaming video feed.

Inspired by the work of friend and artist Jarvis Rockwell, Act 1: Remember When We Used to Have Fun? explores the hidden lives of toys. Continue reading

[3D Alignment Forms. Animation of dancer's traceforms in One Flat Thing, reproduced mapped to 3D space. Synchronous Objects Project, The Ohio State University and The Forsythe Company.] Goethe-Institut New York presents Objects in Performance: Continue reading

Intact Workshop — Teleshared Actions. Connection and Cognition :: September 23-25, 2011; 10:00 am - 7:00 pm :: Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industria, Gijón, Spain — In collaboration for remote connection: Hangar.org, Barcelona, España.

Teleshared actions are procedures for collaborative creation in real time. The works are produced online between two or more users by means of interactive systems or telepresence. These expanded performative practices generate new spaces, languages and narrative forms. The possibility of the “body-less” message. And all of this founded on a basic concept: transform space into time. The workshop consists of teleshared actions which give an incentive to experimentation and critical reflection in relation to remote communication processes. Continue reading

Blowup: The Era of Objects with Julian Bleecker (Nokia, Near Future Laboratory), Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino (Really Interesting Group), and Anab Jain (Superflux) in an exploration of speculative design :: September 29, 2011; 8:00 -11:00 pm :: V2_, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam + streamed live.

We are rapidly entering (and perhaps even have already entered) an era where we are able to print 3D objects at our desks, make and share laser-cut gifts for friends, and use off-the-shelf tools to plug these creations into the web and have them send status updates on our behalf. We have some commonly-held visions of the future, but what could our very wildest dreams (and nightmares) look like, beyond the cliché of the flying car? What answers can we find in speculative design? Our expert guests will explore these questions in collaboration with the audience in a hands-on, “open think-tank” format. Continue reading

Powers of the Hoard: Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett :: September 13, 2011; 6:30 pm :: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor, New York City.

How can objects sometimes be vibrant things with an effective presence independent of the words, images, and feelings they may provoke in humans? This question is posed by Political theorist Jane Bennett delivers the inaugural lecture as the Vera List Center for Art and Politics embarks on a two-year exploration of “Thingness,” the nature of matter. In the face of virtual realities, social media and disembodied existences, the center’s programs will focus on the material conditions of our lives. Continue reading

[Adam Greenfield @ Systems/Layers Walkshop] Some implications of networked sensing for privacy in public space: Toward a taxonomy of public objects by Adam Greenfield:

[...] “My feeling is that the complexity of this terrain is such that abstract principles and so-called “best practices” aren’t particularly likely to be useful in guiding us toward better decisions unless they’re firmly grounded in a concrete consideration of some present-day actualities. In our attempt to think more clearly about these issues, therefore, we start by considering five real-world informatic systems, all developed and deployed in the past three years. These are arrayed along a spectrum of concern, from a sensor I think of as self-evidently non-threatening, to something I believe the privacy community particularly — and advocates of high-quality public space in general — ought to be deeply troubled by…”

Lumia: art/ light/ motion is an exciting new media exhibition presented by State Library of Queensland in partnership with Queensland-based Kuuki collective artists Priscilla Bracks and Gavin Sade :: until June 5, 2011 :: slq Gallery, level 2, Cultural Centre, State Library of Queensland, Stanley Place, South Bank, Brisbane, Australia.

Explore contemporary life and encourage thought about the future through an extraordinary collection of hand-crafted and interactive electronic creatures and installations. These beautifully crafted new media artworks in Lumia: art/light/motion combine the bespoke with art and technology to create strange but intriguing objects. Continue reading

Read | Write Re-Locating by Yasmine Abbas — in Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art):

ABSTRACT: Stress is an undesirable offshoot of any kind of travel, forced or voluntary. To soothe the stress of travel, today’s mobile individuals — neo-nomads — engage in tactics of re:location, the practice of re-assembling a familiar and cushioned personal space, an image of home. The spaces and objects we design with mobility in mind should focus on bringing comfort to these mobile individuals. We learn however that in today’s consumerist, “liquid” and hypermobile world, linkages between PIGS — People, Information, Goods and Spaces — matter more than PIGS themselves. The territories of neo-nomads relate to linkages and are dynamic as a result.

The Smart Frrridge by Nicolas Ceccaldi, Simon Denny, Yngve Holen, Ilja Karilampi, Morag Keil, AIDS-3D (Keller / Kosmas), Marlie Mul :: Curators: Sandro Droschl, Yngve Holen :: until February 19, 2011 :: Kunstverein Medienturm, Josefigasse 1, 8020 Graz, Austria.

The current fridge interface contains many flaws that could be improved and expanded. For example you can’t see everything in your fridge at a glance. You thought you’d bought hot sauce, but you don’t see it anywhere. Or imagine it’s dark, it’s the middle of the night, you turn to your fridge and when staring into the light you can’t remember when you bought something. When exactly did you put those leftover fish-sticks in there? How old is that Bircher-muesli? What’s up with that asparagus? Continue reading

Electrohype 2010 — The Sixth Biennial for Electronic Art :: November 27, 2010 – January 30, 2011 :: Opening: November 27; 12:00 - 4:00 pm :: Ystad Art Museum, St. Knuts torg, Ystad, Sweden.

The theme for this year’s biennial is objects, a suitable theme for an exhibition that will be presented in an art museum, where the object, in the sense of an artwork often is focused upon. Both historically and in contemporary art. Continue reading