ARTBOTS 08
Art Bots 08 features 15 works by 16 artists from 9 countries, as well as performances, workshops, lectures, and an awards ceremony. Participating works were selected from an international open call for "robotic art and art-making robots", and represent a broad and inclusive cross-section of the tremendous range of creative art and robotics activity.

Sound artist Ray Lee (UK) will open the show with "Forcefield", a kinetic sound machine performance. Metal fabricator/artisan Phillip Isohe (Kenya) has created this year's Robots' Choice Award, and designer Eliza Gauger (USA) created the 2008 ArtBots logo. Members of the EU funded Living with Robots and Interactive Companions project will lead a workshop/panel discussion with the artists...website

Culture Geeks - 3D Virtual Reality Technology for Cultural Heritage: More than computer games
Culture Geeks brings people from museums and cultural organisations with IT professionals together. People who are interested in exploring the possibilities of technology in the cultural sector.

The use of 3D technology in Cultural Heritage is becoming increasingly popular, but many people still think of it in terms of "computer games", without considering fully its potential to enhance documentation, research and communication.

This presentation will describe 3D Virtual Reality technology in a friendly way. It will also encourage discussion on ways in which this technology can contribute to the heritage sector as well as support and challenge visitors' interpretation of the heritage displayed in museums and cultural sites.

There is no bar, but you can bring your own drinks. So feel free to bring drinks for yourself and to share!...website

P O L A R R A D I O - A talk & performance by r a d i o q u a l i a
A talk and sound performance presenting Polar Radio - Antarctica's first artist-run FM radio
station.

In 2007, Adam Hyde from r a d i o q u a l i a voyaged to Antarctica to help establish the first
phase of Polar Radio - a research project which tests the feasibility of establishing community radio stations in the two Polar Regions - Antarctica and the Arctic Circle. He was part of the first Interpolar Transnational Art Science Consortium (I-TASC) reconnaissance expedition to Antarctica, and was a guest of the South African Antarctic Programme, based in the Dronning Maud Land sector of Antarctica, at the base, SANAE IV. (72ƒ 03' S 02ƒ 47' W)

Adam and the I-TASC crew created a mid-range FM radio station. This involved installing and configuring FM transmitters and receivers, designing and erecting antennae in the Antarctic ice. The first prototype radio station began FM broadcasts on 29 December 2006.

The broadcasts consisted of radio art developed by r a d i o q u a l i a and hundreds of hours of music, radio art, sound art, DJ-sets, documentaries and podcasts produced by musicians, documentary makers, podcasters and DJs from around the world, collected via a public call for content.

This informal event will consist of a presentation about Polar Radio and a discussion about working in Antarctica, followed by a sound performance by r a d i o q u a l i a.

The talk will give an overview of the establishment of Radio SANAE, the first node of Polar Radio, in Antarctica, and will cover such salient points as:

* the role of radio in Antarctica
* how to build your own antenna from found objects
* what the net looks like over a 1k connection shared between 70 scientists
* can artists really teach scientists anything?
* common symptoms of contextual hyper neurosis

...website

Two artists show how their illness fuelled their creativity, and a neurologist talks about his daily challenges...website

LESS REMOTE
For the first time, the arts and humanities have been invited into the professional space explorers global meeting place -The International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow. Artists, thinkers and writers will contribute to debates about going back to the moon and on to Mars, living in space, art in zero gravity, the future of the International Space station and the search for life and human origins in scientific missions.

Less Remote features presentations by Tomas Saraceno, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Marko Peljhan, Zbigniew Oksuita, Rachel Armstrong, Andy Miah, Sarah Jane Pell, Nina Czegledy, Lowry Burgess and many other key contemporary figures who have worked either with space agencies or in the space context recently...website

Remixing the Masters
Four interviews by artist-filmmaker, Lynn Hershmann Leeson, partially shot in the virtual world of Second Life, Hershman Leeson and Tilda Swinton, pose questions to a selection of guests, including a politician, journalist, scientist and lawyer.

Subverting the distinction between real and simulated, the interviews explore interwoven themes of revolution, empowerment, technology and the remix. Each interview examines how new and mass media mechanisms have generated change and how cultural and technological infrastructures have shaped the ability of individuals to have social and political impact.

Gilberto Gil discusses his exile from Brazil and his involvement in The Tropicália movement, how after living and playing music in London, he returned to Brazil, eventually taking up the position of Minister for Culture, where he continues to promote free culture.

Elena Poniatowska, a renowned journalist and author dedicated to the promotion of equality and human rights, discusses how the mass media in South America remained silent at the time of the student massacres in Mexico in 1968 and how, through her use of publishing and distribution mechanisms, she inadvertently shifted state and cultural consciousness with an account of those events.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who is credited with having identified “the aging gene” or Telomeres in our DNA discusses how this information shifts our understanding of who we are as humans, how in fact we are ourselves a genetic remix; and how advances in macro photographic processes have aided that revelation.

Lawrence Lessig, the mastermind behind Creative Commons, discusses open content licensing and how it will function globally in allowing people to use copy left to shift the boundaries of ownership and shared knowledge...website

Under Scan was originally commissioned by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and is being produced in London by ArtReach, with partnership support from Arts Council England, Art Lights London, the Canadian High Commission, Haunch of Venison, ICA, the Mexican Embassy, the National Gallery, the Science Museum, Tate Media and Tate Modern and Québec Government Office...website

Interactive art: a practitioner’s perspective - Nigel Johnson
Nigel Johnson’s individual research and practice since 1978 has been focused within the domain of small and large scale, "real-time" interactive installations, whilst attempting to bring clarity, insight and new understanding where the art - science boundaries meet and overlap. Recent projects include: “G-Vision,” a Scottish Enterprise funded project in collaboration with colleagues from the School of Computing in the development of a vision based, gesture recognition software application for interactive installations and performance scenarios. Another project, “A-Life”, is a large-scale, real-time, interactive
computer installation paying retrospective homage to the early work of John Conway’s “Game of Life”, incorporating elements of artificial life and gaming.

A-Life is currently showing at the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow) until September 13th as part of the Alt-w: New Directions in Scottish Digital Culture exhibition. Current collaborative activities include research into the latest developments in “cognitive” software, interactive installations based on RSS data and participating in the European Mobile Lab for Interactive Artists...website

The Age of Electronic Art: Dianne Harris, Art Director, Kinetica Museum
Dianne Harris will explore the rationale for automatic and kinetic forms of art and the
background to the Kinetica Museum.

Kinetica Museum aims to actively encourage the convergence of art and technology,
providing an alternative platform to static traditional forms of art such as painting and
sculpture. The museum champions artistic innovation and showcases work which utilises and warps technology to explore, nurture and comment on our evolutionary processes.

Kinetica focuses on work which has extended and enriched the dialogue between human and machine through the use of groundbreaking technological advancements. This re-
presentation of pioneering works from the past and new 'wave' of works in reference to the
metaphor of our 'great' machine 'the Universe', has inspired artists to explore scientific
discoveries and challenge technological life. Kinetica has found a growing audience with a
fascination for art that has a life of its own, one that is kinetic.

Dianne will present an overview of the history and future of Kinetica Museum...website

ARTS & TECHNOLOGY: THE ROLE OF THE ARTS IN DEMOCRATIC POLICY MAKING
When it comes to developments in science and technology, public perceptions
on these issues are influenced largely by the various sources in the public square including the media and the arts. When it comes to the particular issue of emerging technologies, developments in this field have been at best met with caution, at worst with a negative response. Yet where has the real conversation concerning these issues taken place?

Over the years there have been numerous novels, films and visual arts projects which have explored and enriched the dialogue concerning many of these pertinent technologies. One only has to look at Michael Crichton’s 'Prey', Marge Piercy’s 'He, She, It,' to say nothing of the films 'I, Robot', 'Gattaca' and 'Bladerunner' as examples of this fact. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that to date the main discussion concerning these new technologies has taken place within the arts arena more than the policy arena.

How can the arts conversation shape and develop public policy? Do the arts add to the hype or do they really help to inform the public of the truth about these issues? Can the arts and public policy arenas work more closely to further enrich the dialogue? If so, how? What can policy makers learn from the arts in this area?...website

The Conquest of Imperfection - Masaki Fujihata
The Conquest of Imperfection is the first major UK exhibition of Japanese media artist Masaki Fujihata's acclaimed interactive work, featuring eight installations created by the artist between 1996 - 2008 and a new work specially created for the Manchester exhibition.

Fujihata uses interactive art, virtual reality and networking to probe the fundamental questions of human perception and awareness. He uses new technologies as parodies of how we learn to use language for understanding things, media and our environment. His installations pose questions such as why humans communicate, and what happens through the user’s touch in interactive media work. The title of this exhibition arises from the artist’s conception that reality is probably more imperfect than the virtual realm. Ultimately, Masaki Fujihata questions what reality is, how it is realised and how we should approach the new world that will be enabled by the media of the future.

While his work exhibits an intrinsically Japanese aesthetic, Fujihata also addresses the core issues occupying media artists across the world. He has created pioneering work in all fields of digital media, including computer graphics, interactivity, the Internet, location based and distributed computing, nano technology, data mining, inhabited information spaces, and GPS...website

Kinetica presents 'Creatures Great and Small'
October will begin with a special Kinetica exhibition at the Concrete and Glass festival in Shoreditch. Kinetica Museum's group show 'Creatures Great and Small' showcases the work of 10 UK and International Artists experimenting with evolution, hybridisation and
the infiltration of technology.

The artworks vivify inanimate materials with energatic vitality and are a comment on the
relationship between our technologically enhanced society and the natural world...website

Create IT! CREATIVE SOFTWARE COURSE
Get creative with your computer this autumn! A new evening course at Forum28 in Barrow, allowing local people to explore free creative software for their computer.

Each Wednesday you can learn how to manipulate motion, video, sound, illustration, images, internet technologies and office tools, all using “open source” software that you can download for free and use on your computer at home. The course will not just show you how to use your computer, but how to be creative with your computer...website

15, 22 & 29 Oct 08
19 & 26 Nov 08
03 Dec 08

1800-2000

Forum28, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria

The Kinetica season of talks at Bishopsgate Institute focuses on the groundbreaking ideas of the infamous and pioneering cybernetic Ratio Club of the 1950s through to the ICA's landmark Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition of the late 1960s.

The series will offer an exciting overview of some of the most innovative thinkers and revolutionaries in the world of robotics and cybernetics this century. This series of panel discussions will be chaired by Kinetica Director Tony Langford. Events in the season include:

* Workshop: Artist Balint Bolygo presents New Technologies in Drawing 11 Oct 08, 1400-1800
* Talk: Art, Cybernetics and Robotics 14 Oct 08, 1930
* Talk: New Collaborations: Scientific Materials and Artistic Practice 28 Oct 08, 1930
* Talk: Man & Machine: The Convergence 11 Nov 08, 1930
* Workshop: Sound Performance Workshop with artist Ray Lee 15 Nov 08, 1400-1800
* Performance: RAY LEE: Force Field 20 Nov 08, 1930

...website