NOTE: DIFFERENT VENUE AND TIME Upgrade! Boston: Lily & Honglei (杨熙瑛, 李宏磊) :: March 22, 2010; 3:00-5:00 pm :: Auditorium Room 222, O’Leary Library, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 71 Wilder Street, Lowell, MA 01854 [map]

Lily Xiying Yang and Honglei Li are new media artists from Beijing, currently based in New York City. Since 2005, they have been working under the collective name Lily & Honglei. They create new artistic expressions by integrating traditional and digital art forms. Utilizing online virtual world applications and digital animation, Lily & Honglei reinterpret Chinese folkloric traditions that metaphorically reflect current global cultures and societies. Continue reading

Upgrade! Milwaukee: Zach Lieberman — Making the Invisible Visible :: March 10, 2010; 7:00 pm :: Arts Center Lecture Hall (ACL 120), University of Milwaukee, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee WI.

In this talk Lieberman will present his interactive works and collaborations, focusing on the artistic process as research. He will show works such as Manual Input Sessions, in which an old school overhead projector is transformed into a magical audio visual performance device, and Lights On, a performance of sound and light commissioned for the 2009 opening of the new Ars Electronica center in Linz. He will also talk about openFrameworks, a C++ toolkit for creative coding which is being used by developers worldwide to make compelling interactive installations and performances.

Upgrade! Eindhoven: Tetsu Kondo (Japan) :: March 14, 2010; 8:00 -10:30 pm (doors open 7:30) :: Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

The next Upgrade! Eindhoven presents Albert van Abbe and MAD Artist in Residence, Tetsu Kondo discussing Kondo’s work and vision. Kondo is an artist, musician and researcher whose work includes drawing, installations and musical instrument design. He is currently teaching at Tokyo Polytechnic University.

Kondo will also demonstrate his Dendraw, a software instrument he developed, that transforms the beauty of visual programming into live interactive sound performances. The Dendraw generates specific sine waves depending on screen position. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Joseph DeLappe + Pete Froslie :: March 11, 2010; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: ACT - MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA (Entrance to the right of the MIT Museum).

Joseph DeLappe is an Associate Professor of the Department of Art at the University of Nevada where he directs the Digital Media program. Working with electronic and new media since 1983, his work in online gaming performance and electromechanical installation have been shown throughout the United States and abroad - including exhibitions and performances in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Peru, China and the Netherlands. Continue reading

Film, Video & New Media and the Upgrade! Chicago present: Danielle Wilde: Swing that Thing, a presentation on body-worn devices for performance and play :: February 9, 2010; 6:00 pm :: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MacLean building, Room 1307, 13th floor, 112 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Australian artist and scholar Danielle Wilde will elaborate an emergent definition of poetic body-worn devices for performance and play, that encourage people to move in unusual ways; and a series of non-augmented devices that explore how we might conceive of and develop technologies that we can’t yet imagine. By extending the body, mechanically, gesturally and sensorially we can encourage people to move in extra-normal ways, so view and experience their bodies from perhaps hitherto unknown perspectives. 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

Upgrade! Paris: Art of Failure presents Corpus on the occasion of the “Corpus” exhibition opening :: January 7, 2010; 6:30 pm :: Théatre Molière - Scène d’Aquitaine / OARA, 33 rue du temple, Bordeaux, France.

Corpus is a set-up which uses sound, architecture and multimedia technology to stage objects, furniture, architecture or a place and set them into pulsating vibration. The various elements which compose the inherent identity of place thus become active or ‘living’ and breathe life into sounds specific to their personality. The selected place becomes the instrument on which the duo of musicians play, offering their audience a unique physical experience of place at once richly sensorial and other-worldly. Continue reading

Upgrade! Zagreb: Maja Petrić Pajama Party :: December 22, 2009; 7:00 - 10:00 pm :: Nano Gallery, Gajeva 26, Zagreb, Croatia.

Maja Petrić is an artist and predoctoral associate at the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS). She holds a Masters degree in new media art from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunications Program and Masters degree in journalism from University of Zagreb, Croatian Studies.

Her work explores methods of manipulating spatial experience in function of art. Through transformative spatial experiences, she aims to create new opportunities for accessing the sublime – transcendent qualities, whether physical, emotional, intellectual, metaphysical or artistic. Continue reading

Upgrade! Tijuana: Elle Mehrmand, Zach Blas, Christopher Head :: December 19, 2009; 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: Protolab, Tijuana, Mexico.

Elle Mehrmand is a performance/new media artist and musician who uses the body, electronics, video, photography, sound and installation within her works. She is the singer and trombone player of Assembly of Mazes, a music collective who create dark, electronic, middle eastern, rhythmic jazz rock. Elle is currently an MFA candidate at UCSD, and received her BFA in art photography with a minor in music at CSULB. Elle has received grants from UCIRA and Fine Arts Affiliates. She is a researcher at CRCA and the b.a.n.g. lab at UCSD. Her performances have been shown in Los Angeles, Tijuana, Montreal, Dublin, San Diego, Long Beach, San Fransisco and Bogotá, Colombia. Continue reading

Upgrade! Zagreb: Crtić za laku noć Pajama Party :: November 26, 2009; 7:00 - 10:00 pm :: Nano Gallery, Gajeva 26, Zagreb, Croatia.

Projekcije kratkih filmova koje je izabrala kustosica Basak Senova. Radovi su djela mladih umjetnika i studenata novih medija iz Munchena, Vancouvera, Istambula i Zagreba. Teme selekcije su: Priče, Tragovi i Mjesta. Crtić za laku noć su dio Upgrade! Zagreb ciklusa događanja za promociju novo-medijske umjetnosti.

‘Crtic’ for good night: Projection of short movies made by young artists and students of new media arts from Munich, Vancouver, Istanbul and Zagreb.