Archives

Isabella Buczek (Planetary Collegium/IB-Creations, Germany), Luke Christison (i-DAT, UK), Coral Manton (i-DAT, UK), Michael Strauebig (i-DAT, UK)

ib@ib-creations.com

luke.christison@plymouth.ac.uk

coral.manton@plymouth.ac.uk

michael.straeubig@plymouth.ac.uk

The FullDome Workshop will explore the development of dynamic lens based and digital 3D FullDome content.

The workshop will explore the sourcing, editing and compositing with interactive and real-time data elements in order to build immersive experiences within the FullDome environment – a different sense of place.

Located in the Immersive Vision Theatre the workshop will take place on the Tuesday morning with a screening within the scheduled FullDome screenings.

Spaces limited to 10:

Workshop Registration Required: https://bunb2017.eventbrite.co.uk

The VR/IVT Research Group:

The VR/IVT Research Group is a transdisciplinary Postgraduate Research initiative on the topic of Virtual Reality (VR). It is based around the Immersive Vision Theatre as a shared virtual reality experience that artists and technologists can tap into forming opportunities for collaboration and the creation of new work. The research initiative will be centred on Plymouth to firm the hub of an international network of research into immersive media. This network builds on the strong research history of the IVT and its existing international collaborations, such as the European Mobile Dome Lab (EMDL.eu) EU Culture funded project and Fulldome UK, but will also connect other PGR centres, suchas the Fulldome Research Group at the Royal College of Art.

The research initiative will form a hub for opportunities for practice based researchers and artists to learn new skills and collaborate. Initially this will take the form of an event inviting researchers, artists, performers, and composers etc. to acquire new skills in digital immersive technologies and shared virtual reality experiences. This event will act as an incubator for new inter-disciplinary collaborative artworks to screen in the new Plymouth dome and in portable domes during its construction.

http://www.isabellabuczek.com/

IB-Creations is a ten years old creation studio. The most convincing creations are presented in the Portfolio under the following categories: 1. Science Communication, 2. 3D Animation, 3. 2D Animation, 4. Drawings, 5. Experimental, 6. Photography. I am in particular interested in orders for exhibition projects, films and animation in the field of knowledge transfer for science centers, museums, planetariums and media art institutions. I wish you a joyful browse through. With warm Regards, Isabella Beyer (born Buczek)

Luke Christison

Coral Manton

Michael Straeubig

The event will be hosted at i-DAT, Plymouth University in the Roland Levinsky Building digital studios:

Friday 18 and Saturday 19^th.

With a presentation on:

Monday 21^st in the Balance-Unbalance Conference.

Roland Levinsky Building Rooms 208/209/210.

DATA Play 7 Data Visualisation will focus on liberating ecological data from the City and the surrounding environment to create prototypes, solutions, tools and experiences.

Book Tickets here:

The event will build on previous DATA Play projects such as:

• Air Quality Monitors:
  Elixel and Controlled Frenzy worked together to create low-cost air quality monitors with a vision to run a pilot in schools to raise awareness of poor air quality in the city.
• Urban Forest:
  Collaboration between Plymouth Tree Partnership and i-DAT.
• Environmental Monitoring Sensors:
  Created by students on the BA/BSc (Hons) Digital Media Design Programme.

The Balance-Unbalance Data Visualisation DATA Play event is a collaboration with Plymouth City Council and TheData.Place collaborating organisations. It is the seventh event in the DATA Play series of data-hackathons which feed off Plymouth’s open data as a resource being developed over the period of more than a year to support the development of Plymouth’s digital economy and provide a resource for all of Plymouth’s communities to find, publish and use data.

Data sources are available at The Data Place Ltd which provides low cost open data infrastructure: find out more (and get your own open data portal) at http://www.thedata.place

The Data Place uses CKAN a ‘powerful data management system that makes data accessible – by providing tools to streamline publishing, sharing, finding and using data.’ https://ckan.org/

Schedule:

Friday 18 August:

10.10: Welcome and Introduction

10.30: Balance Unbalance Presentation. Mike Phillips.

10.45: Environmental Data Stuff

11.00: Setting out and discussing the challenges

12.00: Immersive environmental representations (Fulldome). Luke Christison.

12.30: Lunch.

13.40: Collecting & Visualising Greenspace Usage Data. Simon Lock

14.00: “Buoy Oh Buoy” – Playing with visual representations of Marine Data. Simon Lock.

14.30: Map Jam Feedback

15.00: Time for Tableau. How visualising data can balance/unbalance perceptions

15.30: North Devon Biosphere Data Collection Presentation. Mike Phillips.

16.15: Pub rendezvous in Bread and Roses.

Saturday 19 August:

There are some really interesting talks scheduled for today, which tends to be more relaxed so feel free to come along and work on your project and play with some tech / art.

10.10: Welcome and Introduction

10.30 Hannah Sloggett: How to Win at Bids (also available for discussion on Friday)

12.00: Lunch

14.00: Undergrads talking about stuff they’re interested in data / tech wise.

15.30: Pub rendezvous in Bread and Roses.

DATA Play invite / DATA Play 7 – Itinerary / DATA Play 7 – Challenges 

Throughout the two days please help yourself to refreshments, feel free to move around and join in
with whatever takes your interest, meet panel members, chill out in the play room, take the
opportunity to chat to the many organisations supporting DATA Play.

Specifically, Hannah will be on hand to share her experience of what submissions can do to get
more noticed by the judging panel.

There are three £2,000 rewards to help progress some of the most interesting ideas around
the challenges…

To enter you need to provide:
Team name, names of people who have worked on the idea, contact details and a short description
of your idea. Your pitch needs to take about 5 minutes to look at – this could be a film, screenshots,
text, pictures… whatever works for you! It can be on paper, memory stick or sent via We Transfer.

You have until Tuesday 22nd August at 23:59 to get your idea ready for the panel – good luck!
Email DATAPlay@plymouth.gov.uk or visit goo.gl/yvApfy

Thanks to The Data Place who came to the previous DATA Play days, we have a new and easy way
for you to access the data we are opening, share your projects and read the DATA Play blog. The
Data Place is set up as a social enterprise.

What’s next for DATA Play… Remember, we are on the look-out for potential investment
opportunities in good ideas. If you have such an idea, then please speak to Tom, Hannah or
one of the team, or email GISplanning@plymouth.gov.uk.

DATA Played…Don’t forget…if you do something with our data we would like to share and
celebrate it! Please let us know or post it on www.dataplay.org

If you would like to see if we can open some data, or would like to partner up, please talk to
Plymouth City Council over the two days or contact GISplanning@plymouth.gov.uk #DATAPlay

Thank you to everyone who supports the Council with DATA Play!

Play Time!

Good at coding? – come and code.

Good at analysis? – come and analyse.

Good at maps? – come and map.

Good at graphics? – come and draw.

Good at thinking? – come and think.

Whatever you’re good at, there’ll be something interesting for you.

Develop your ideas using Council data, create a project and pitch your work… it’s free to join in and lunch is provided on both days!

Play as a team, meet people on the day, or experiment on your own – whatever works for you.

The three ideas that have the most potential for the city and benefit/support neighbourhood planning will be given support to take it forward.

DATA Dome:

and a bit of data visualisation in the inflatable dome.

DATA Play:

DATA Play Booklet

DATA Play Day 1 was an experiment to test whether the Council opening up data could help understand the city, better support innovation and new ideas and create opportunities for the Council to work with the local tech community.

DATA Play 2 developed these opportunities further by offering financial rewards for ideas, the support of a panel of experts and leaders in the city and a range of workshops to build skills and great ideas.

DATA Play 3 focused on Communities and the three prizes awarded were for the benefit of communities, using communities based data.

DATA Play 4 took a look at Environmental Challenges and resulted in an amazing response with loads of great ideas, from collecting better information about greenspaces to using Minecraft to engage young people and their families with their environment.

DATA Play 5 focused on Health and Wellbeing challenges which resulted in us funding three projects now in their early stages. It was an amazing turn out with people from multiple sectors coming along and sharing expertise alongside the TedMedX conference which was happening at the same time.

DATA Play 6 is here and we will be focusing on Arts & Culture Challenges. It will be taking place at Ocean Studies, Royal William Yard.

This work is supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government through Delivering Differently in Neighbourhoods funding and Local Planning Reform funding.

SOUNDCAMP

contact@soundtent.org

Abstract

Description

Author Biography

DR Pierre Pepin

Visiting Assistant Professor in art and media, USA.

Through traditional approach of sculpting and innovation way to paint through the spectrum to digital images sound video,video VR and performance.

Photographic Cubism Contemporary Art
Abstraction through the spectrum of light, motion, space, dimension…

For many years using also science, art and technology to express his art forms the artist explores diverse techniques: drawing, watercolor, acrylic, collage, hologram, photography, VR and now multi-media. His latest scientific approaches to art and technology now have merged. With this method he experiences a very personal way of paint and sculpt with light.

The artist sculpts, by hand through time, space, and motion, through the full color spectrum and produces abstract and composites of natural color images using transparent shapes and forms to build 3D images with depth on frames of 2D images. Through his research the artist casts the beauty of light through the lens of his camera.
By study and playing with all the components, his exploration with the reflection and refraction of light through static sculpture enables him to animate them in motion. He seizes a certain period of time and space (the moment) of the images and its reflection is his inspiration of the moment. Creating the magic of colors in motion he experiences a very personal way of painting with light.

Description

The Continuing Process
Painting and sculpting with light in motion is a fascinating experience that explores all the multimedia development processes and much more. ( Video, animation, graphics design, sculpture, environment, performance, and sound processing, etc.) By discovering the surprising effects of the decomposition of light, this phenomenal artistic research of color and light creates a truly moving painting to reproduce all the colors of the solar spectrum.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIE(S):
Pierre Pepin (PhD) has led a teaching career and International training for educators in visual and media arts in Canada, United States, and the Middle East. He has given workshops to teachers in art at international conferences in the United States, Europe, in the Middle East and the Far East.As an International Trans-disciplinary Professor and experienced as a researcher, an artist, graphic designer, writer, my career goal is to use media, animation, photography, writing and performance to develop innovative approaches and techniques to teach the arts in media, science and technology. I move beyond the classical approaches of teaching through interactive multimedia, supporting a new generation of educators and students in conceptual development processes which combine art, science and technology. My techniques allow students, and myself, to experience performance and exhibition, learning, researching, teaching, and mentoring processes while responding to various services of the department and university. We also experience a strong knowledge in studio practice, teaching experience, and discussion of the critical issues facing art foundations and advance programs.…

Rocio von Jungenfeld (Canterbury, UK) and Vincent Van Uffelen (Berlin, Germany).

r.von-jungenfeld@kent.ac.uk
hi@vincentvanuffelen.com

Workshop Registration Required for Minibus: https://bunb2017.eventbrite.co.uk

Location:

Dolton Village Hall and http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/reserves/halsdon

North west Devon, near the village of Dolton
Nr Great Torrington
Devon
EX19 8ND

Map reference
SS 553 131

Schedule:

09.00 am    Minibus pick-up at Plymouth University
11.00 am    Workshop starts (location Dalton Village Hall)
11.30 am    Guided walk along (location River Torridge)
13.30 pm    Lunch break
14.00 pm    Co-working (stick-chart making)
16.00 pm    Presentation & discussion
15.00 pm    Minibus returns to Plymouth University

What to Bring:

Pens / pencils
Sticks
Walking shoes
Coat / jumper (in case)
Bottled water
Minibus transport provided.

A workshop that explores making as a means to understand the flows, relationships and resonances between things in an environment by adapting a century old technique.

For millennia the Polynesian seafarers steered their small boats over the vast open Micronesian Pacific ocean reaching their goal with astonishing precision. To navigate they made use of a few simple, albeit over time refined, techniques one of which we will take as starting point for an exploration into another sea. One of flows, relationships, and resonances that constitute our multi-layered techno-natural-cultural environment.

Using the stick charts – a mapping technique that uses simple materials such as sticks, threads, and shells – the Polynesians did not represent the geospatial surrounding but the phenomena which can only be perceived by the trained eye: the complex interactions of wind, waves, and islands. Each map was unique, representing the personal perceptions of the maker, the frictions between materials and what was to be represented, and was often closely guarded by the owner to protect the knowledge.

In the workshop we will explore how the making of adapted versions of the stick charts could be used to learn more about our surrounding, how we could represent its elusive relationships, flows, or processes, and how we could use the making of humble objects to communicate our personal experiences, creating a shared understanding of our environments.

DESCRIPTION​:

Our workshop will explore how low-tech mapping techniques can reveal the complexity of flows that constitute our environment and make these flows accessible to interested parties. In this context, we do not aim to focus on the (visual) representation of quantifiable data (e.g. traffic, rain, geo-location) but on the often invisible and highly subjective representation of existing flows, relationships, or processes that constitute the environment.

Based on one exemplary technique, we will discuss and test how simple technologies can be used in the pre-design phase to gain tacit knowledge of the flows in the environment. It is our assumption that once brought to the surface, by means of our workshop methodology, the knowledge about the flows of humans, objects/matter, energy, or information will enable participants to make informed decisions about how these flows are used and how they can be re-channelled, altered or reinforced to design flows in a way in which they, the involved, want them to flow.

In our one day workshop, which we would like to hold in nature (possibly at Beaford Arts Centre), we will introduce an ancient mapping technique, the Marshall Islands stick charts (Micronesia, Pacific Ocean), as a potential means of personal investigation into the underlying flows and their interrelations. These simple charts made of sticks, stones, shells, and thread, are humble in appearance, but represent a complex knowledge of waves, wind, islands and orientation that have instructed the initiated how to navigate between remote islands for centuries.

During the workshop we aim not only to teach a mapping technology but also to discuss underlying motivations, such as that in an increasingly complex world of design and designers we might need novel approaches to gain, not only quantitative but also qualitative understandings of the environments we inhabit. Furthermore, we would like to discuss aspects of making physical objects, its advantages and disadvantages, and how the manipulation of matter, with its physical properties and constraints, can actually aid the process of learning about an environment. Here, we especially would like to discuss the necessity and advantages of gaining a visceral non-lingual/symbolic understanding of the interrelations constituting the context in which design processes take place. Lastly, we would like to discuss how, the co-creation and presentation of such physical maps aid the development of mutual understanding and the connections between a group and its participants.

As artists and designers we feel that our environment as a whole is more than quantifiable data, it is a techno-natural-cultural entanglement in constant flux, a sea of flows and interrelations, navigated by its inhabitants and based on decisions coming from subjective experiences. One of the prerequisites of being able to design for the future is to be able to understand this environment in its complexity, and this might mean simplifying by abstraction in order to unpack the different levels of complexity.

In late March 2017 we will hold a second workshop at the Research Through Design Conference (RTD 2017) in Edinburgh that will explore our topic of interest and the means of physical low-tech representations of flows and relationships further. We are confident that we will gain further understanding of the topic and can further the concept of the workshop that we would like to hold at Balance-Unbalance 2017.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIE(S):

Rocio von Jungenfeld is a creative practitioner, media researcher and Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Kent. She studied arts, media and design in the UK, Germany and Spain, and her research interests are collaborative media production, contemporary and interdisciplinary art, hybrid environments, outdoor and mobile projections, and interaction design. She has presented her artistic, collaborative and research work in the UK, Europe, USA and China.

Vincent Van Uffelen uses code, low-tech materials and custom electronics as medium for his artistic enquiry into process, complexity, systems, and the fleeting moments of experience. Driven by his interest in change and the entanglement of human, technology, and nature, he his practice focusses on collaborative learning and performative aspects. He has presented his work and given workshops in UK, Europe, and Asia.

Victoria Douka-Doukopoulou

Artsciene Interfaculty , The Hague, Netherlands

doukavictoria@gmail.com

http://www.dkdkpl.com

Much like a GPS that has lost satellite connection and cannot find all the desired streets on a terrain, the human eye lacks the capability of seeing everything that surround us. Microorganisms go by unnoticed, although they make up about 1.5 kilograms of an individual’s weight and our surroundings.

During the workshop participants will have the opportunity to grow and visualise a map of the bacterial landscape they carry and the bacterial landscape they are, examining if it is possible to differentiate. By growing the microorganisms  that exist in their shoes, hands or mouths, the participants will be encouraged to reconsider the sometimes vague and abstract terms that exist in the peripheries of our vocabularies like microbes, pathogens, or mould and their precise meaning. The workshop will guide participants through the processes of bio-hacking and DIY culture to explore methodologies and strategies in dealing with complex issues that one might be unable to see .

In the ever changing ecological landscapes, where separation is easier traceable than fusion, its residents stand on maps  tracing the separation of urban, natural, cyber and legal borders while missing the fact, that they, themselves are a map of fusion of their surroundings.

DESCRIPTION:

all the landscapes you are is a workshop that explores the possibilities of visualising complex issues what we are familiar with but not precisely comprehending.

The workshop takes microorganisms as a departing point to discuss greater and more complex biotic processes from biocrusts to climate change to monocultures. It aims at introducing concepts that are repeatedly mentioned like epidemics, pathogens or yeasts and  deciphering what they actually mean.

By involving the participants in creating  bacterial maps of parts of their bodies, it encourages discussion around borders, the nature of separating, and whether it is possible to trace the liability between separation lines. It moves into raising a discussion about the difference between micro and macro scales and how much “seeing” change influences actually realising you are undergoing change. It hopes to do so, by demonstrating bio-hacking and DIY culture to showcase how it is possible to deal with large complex issue or even hyperobejects in a grassroots manner, while using the DIY framework as a tool and a form of discourse.

The workshop aims to showcase the need for plurality and complexity when discussing “nature” and ecological processes. It does so, by pointing out the demonisation of microorganisms, and how commercial products like dettol® claim to have to easy attainable solution against all,  when the general public is not even sure what this “all” includes.

To help with planning please register: https://bunb2017.eventbrite.co.uk

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIE:

victoria douka-doukopoulou lives in the hague (nl) where she studies at the artscience interfaculty of the royal academy of the art, the hague and the royal conservatory and plans to attain a degree in 2017. as a filmmaker, she gathers and assembles the invisible, the unthinkable and the unappreciable and usually turns them into films, sometimes into bio-things. her work grows and moves, literally —

Penelope Boyer, PhD, Land Heritage Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA penelope@penelopeboyer.com http://www.penelopeboyer.com

Jose Chapa, artist, San Antonio, Texas, USA thatjose@yahoo.com www.chapa-art.com

Carol LaFayette, Director, Institute of Applied Creativity; Professor, Department of Visualization, Texas

A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA  lureen@viz.tamu.edu www.clafayette.com

Matthew Eric Mendez, artist, San Antonio, Texas, USA  artoparts@gmail.com www.artoparts.carbonmade.com

Emily Royall, independent technologist/cultural manager, San Antonio, Texas, USA emilybroyall@gmail.com www.emilyroyall.com

Luz María Sánchez-Cardona Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Arts & Humanities, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Lerma campus, Mexico City, Mexico. luz@luzmariasanchez.com www.luzmariasanchez.com

This workshop will contextualize reGEN: Art & Science Addressing Climate Change as an annual transdisciplinary collaborative event held at Land Heritage Institute in San Antonio, Texas—the seventh largest U.S. city–1200 acres of open space along the Medina River under development as a land museum with 20+ miles of hike/bike/bridle trails, 2+ miles of pristine hardwood riparian forest, a STREAM Center [Science|Technology|Reading/Writing|Environment/Engineering|Arts|Math] for students of all ages and spaces for artist/scientist residencies. Following presentations on the land museum/ethnobotanical center and its internal projects including Museo Paseo, a growing series of trail-accessed artist installations and biennial art-sci symposia, workshop participants will be asked to engage in a pro-active dialogue laying out possibilities for reGEN as a model for regenerative-minded community-based climate change confabs. The workshop will provide a platform for participants to generate reGEN activities for inclusion in future iterations of reGEN (including fall 2017) that can be conducted IRL or remotely, and for reGEN leadership to:

• confirm and enhance reGEN’s mission
• receive field feedback for reGEN’s future
• better locate reGEN within a global regenerative context
• identify methods to more actively address climate change –identify global allies/collaborators

DESCRIPTION:

This presentation/workshop will context reGEN: Art & Science Addressing Climate Change as a transdisciplinary collaboration between students, science practioners and artists engaged in a productive dialogue about how science, technology and art can collectively address climate change; reGEN exists to provide a community-based public forum for moving beyond the traditional framework of sustainability and present a platform for regenerative practices. Principles outlined in the Regenerative Development Manifesto inform what the reGEN collaborative seeks to achieve for San Antonio, South Texas and— ultimately–globally.

reGEN convenes annually at Land Heritage Institute, 1200 acres of open space in south San Antonio, Texas—the 7^th largest U.S. city. This property, under development as a land museum, has 20+ miles of hike/bike/bridle trails through wilderness including 2+ miles of pristine riparian hardwood forest (95% of Texas riparian has been compromised or destroyed), a trail-accessed network of contemporary art installations, a bunkhouse sleeping twenty, camping hook-ups, archeological evidence attesting to continual human occupation for over 10,000 years and a built environment including an 1850s sandstone home built by settlers from the American South with slaves of African descent overbuilt by a two-story wood frame farmstead home to a ranching family who worked this land for over a century, plus a sustainable

(solar and water-catchment) STREAM Center [Science | Technology | Reading/Writing |

Engineering/Environment | Arts | Math/Media] re-purposed from a WWII-era Quonset hut once used by Ford Motors to test tractors.

reGEN has manifested itself as pop up exhibition, multi-media presentations and lectures about climate change, artist talks and film screening.

With a spring 2017 planning workshop at Texas A&M-College Station’s Institute of Applied Creativity, including a mini-residency by the Land Art Generator Initiative, reGEN is preparing itself for its future incarnations.

The next reGEN event will be in autumn 2017; it will be conducted as the creative and proactive component of the 2017 LHI Art-Sci Symposium. The Balance-Unbalance Transdisciplinary Workshop will provide an ideal opportunity for reGEN leadership to seek out and stimulate ideas for reGEN as a model for other regenerative-minded community-based climate change confabs. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to steer reGEN’s direction by:

• providing field feedback for reGEN’s future
• confirming or enhancing reGEN’s mission
• further developing ideas for the convening’s fluid shape and structure
• locating reGEN within a global context of regenerative activity
• finding ways to pro-actively and actively address climate change
• identifying global allies/collaborators
• considering how new roles will fit reGEN’s ever-changing structure
• looking toward output by the project, especially the development of an anticipated chapter in a proposed publication Regenerative Development: Urbanization, Climate Change & the Common Good under consideration by Routledge

To help with planning please register: https://bunb2017.eventbrite.co.uk

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIE(S):

Penelope Boyer, PhD, is Art-Sci Projects Director, Land Heritage Institute/LHI (San Antonio, Texas).

San Antonio-based artist Jose Chapa’s installation, Pon la Mesa, addressing dietary crises diabetes/obesity, is located at LHI.

Artist Carol LaFayette, Institute of Applied Creativity Director and Professor in the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M University-College Station, collaborates with the sciences to invent interconnective experiences of flora/fauna/phenomena in her laboratory/studio: a regenerating former ranch. Her work with leaf-cutting ants is documented in PBS’ “State of Tomorrow”: a 3D-immersive experience of an Atta texana colony.

San Antonio-based artist Matthew Eric Mendez recently completed the art-practice/travel program, Land Arts of the American West. Mendez will be helping organize the San Antonio contemporary artist component of reGEN2017.

Emily Royall is an independent technologist/cultural manager based in San Antonio, TX. She holds a B.S. Neuroscience and B.A. in Arts from the University of Texas-Austin, and a Master’s Degree in City Design & Development from MIT.

Transdisciplinary artist, scholar and author.  Luz María Sánchez-Cardona, Ph.D., received First Prize at the inaugural Biennial de las Fronteras (2014); she was awarded the prestigious grant of the Mexican System of Art Creators by the National Institute of Arts and Culture in Mexico (2015).