Real-Time Realistic Rendering, docent Michael Doggett, Lund

Monday, 30 May 2011, 15.15-17.00 at Torget, Lindstedtsv 5, floor 6

More info

Professor Yvonne Spielmann, Chair of New Media, University of the West of Scotland, lectures on ”Hybridity in Media Arts”

on May 20, 10-12h, in room H1, Teknikringen 33, KTH

Abstract:
I will discuss those impure and heterogenous forms of interplay in the digital that are considered hybrid because they no longer refer to distinct media but to already mediated elements that can be seamlessly combined in simulation. I will also refer to approachs in media studies and in cultural studies where they agree that artists are the promotors of radical and critical hybridity as much as they reflect culural-aesthetic multiplicity and difference. With the focus on examples of Japanese media arts that are also circulating within Europe, I will then discuss in exemplary ways approaches toward aesthetics that reflect Eastern and Western cultural traditions, the modern and the tradition and the creative use of new technologies.

Professor Yvonne Spielmann (Ph.D. habil.) is Chair of New Media at The University of the West of Scotland, previously Professor of Visual Media at Braunschweig School of Art. She is author of the German language monographs ”Eine Pfütze in bezug aufs Mehr. Avantgarde” (1991), ”Intermedialität. Das System Peter Greenaway” (1998), and ”Video. Das reflexive Medium” (2005). The Engish edition ”Video. The Reflexive Medium” (published with MIT Press, 2008) was awarded the “Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Technics” in 2009. The Japanese edition is forthcoming from Sangen-Sha Press, Tokyo. The Polish edition is forthcoming from Oficyna Naukowa, Warszawa.

The most recent book on “Hybrid Culures” (2010) discusses on hybridity in digital media arts with a focus on Japan (English edition forthcoming).
Research grants and fellowships include the Getty Center (1989/90), The Society for the Humanities at Cornell University (2000/2001), The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study & Conference Center (2002), The Daniel Langlois Foundation (2003 and 2004), the Japan Foundation (2005), the National University of Singapore (2007), The Royal Society of Edinburgh (2008), the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (2009), the German-Swedish Research Award (2011). Website: http://www.yvonne-spielmann.com

Welcome!

–
Leif Dahlberg, PhD, Associate Professor

Igår, den 5 maj, ägde årets upplaga av Sthlm GDF rum, det andra i ordningen. Nästan hundra deltagare från företag som EA/DICE, Avalanche, Fatshark, Bitsquid, Paradox, Corncrow Games, Spotify m fl deltog. I utställningsdelen fanns Unity, Havoc, ARM och Pearson. Praten delades in i två olika teman: data-driven design och network technologies and Free2Play.

Tack alla för en fantastisk dag och jag hoppas vi ses igen nästa år.

Situating Ubiquity. Media Art, Technology, and Cultural Theory

International conference at KTH, Stockholm, 18-20 August 2011

The conference Situating Ubiquity brings into play what the expression “ubiquitous computing” means today (ten years after the hype) and how we relate to ubiquitous information and media technologies as “real” (rather than imaginary or utopian) phenomena. In trying to “situate” ubiquity, we enquire in particular:

- What are the implications of the shift in tense, from future tense to present tense?
- What are the users’ situation in relation to ubiquitous media technologies?
- In what ways are ubiquitous information and communication technologies (ICT) made visible (and invisible)?
- What are the ideologies of new media and ICT?
- How should one develop a critical discourse on ubiquitous media technologies?

The objective of the conference is primarily to bring together researchers working with these and related question, but also to formulate research questions and to disseminate new ideas and knowledge. Hence the conference consists of both academic parts (workshops, paper sessions and keynotes) and social activities, focusing on creating encounters and fostering open and critical dialogue.

Proposed thematic sessions:

Critical play – workshop (Annika Waern & Marie Denward)
Critical design uses designed artefacts as an embodied critique or commentary on consumer culture. Critical play design focusses on creating games and play activities that create, or occupy, play environments and activities to represent questions about aspects of human life. It is characterised by a careful examination of social, cultural, and political themes that function as alternates to popular play spaces. Pervasive and transmedia play and ubiquitous technology offer ample opportunities for critical play design. In this workshop we intend to investigate these opportunities from a broad spectrum of perspectives, including theory, experimental design, studies of pervasive critical play activities, and critical readings of pervasive productions. Participants must supply a abstract for presentation no later than one month in advance of the workshop. Contact: marie.denward@tii.se

Materiality/technology/embodiment – paper session (Jenny Sundén)
Accounts of new media technologies as ubiquitous miss an important component: Materiality. The discussion of ubiquitous information a decade ago rendered the technologies and bodies involved in “information exchanges” invisible and ultimately immaterial. This session engages in an ongoing materialist critique of how the specific materiality of technologies and of bodies come to matter in our encounters with media technologies. Media technologies are understood broadly, and may include not only “new media”, but also the technologies of for example literature and cinema. Contact: jsunden@kth.se

Participatory culture (in art & media) – workshop/paper session (Daniel Pargman)
The spread of computing resources has opened up new possibilities to communicate on time scales and in group sizes not previously possible, and we have gone from being (only) user to being (also) developers, from watchers to participants and from consumers to producers. How does participatory culture exhibit itself in current art & media practices? How has participatory culture changed said practices compared to 5 or 10 years ago? Contact: pargman@kth.se

Artistic research workshop on social media (Peter Hagdahl)
The theme for this workshop is how the relationship between private and public has been inverterted in much of contemporary media use. This makes possible a direct and concrete knowledege of people’s behaviour and reactions – what they do and think and what they do together. The workshop explores the material conditions and applications for art with the starting point in various ”sociala media”. Contact: peter.hagdahl@kkh.se

Museum, mediated presence and mixed reality – workshop session (Leif Handberg)
The theme of this workshop is the ”mediated museum” as a cultural heritage archway which enables remote presence at museums and heritage sites. By means of innovative media and new hybrid spaces, museums are redefined and extended beyond physical and architectural constraints: synchronous video-mediated spaces provide remote access to cultural heritage sites and artefacts in their original settings. The designs support mediated interaction between visitors in different locations. As an archway, the mediated museum opens for public participation in the (re)definition, (re)collection and dissemination of cultural heritage, thus enriching curatorial practices. Contact: leifh@csc.kth.se

Visualisation – workshop (Björn Thuresson)
Future life in a built environment. An exploration of datasets and representation practices for a new understanding of possibilities in
visualisation – a hands-on activity. Contact: thure@csc.kth.se

Deadline for registration and paper proposals is June 1, 2011

The conference is part of the Nordic network The Culture of Ubiquous Information (http://ubiquity.nu/), financed by Nordforsk

Organizing committee: Leif Dahlberg, Marie Denward, Peter Hagdahl, Leif Handberg, Daniel Pargman, Jenny Sundén, Björn Thuresson, and Annika Waern.
Contact: dahlberg@csc.kth.se

Nu är det alldeles snart byggstart för Visualiseringsstudion på Campus Valhallavägen! Diskussionerna kring de sista byggkalkylerna håller på att avslutas och annonserna ska snart kunna skickas. Det ska bli fantastiskt roligt att kunna erbjuda alla skolor på KTH och övriga aktörer i regionen tillgång till denna miljö!

Principen för studion är att det ska kunna bedrivas forskning på och utveckling av den ingående tekniken, såväl som forskning om användningen av tekniken. Teknikkomponenterna är modulära, vilket innebär att de ska kunna kombineras på en rad sätt för att kunna passa olika användningssituationer och –grupper.

Teknikkomponenterna är av avancerat slag och den kombinerade tillgången av dem är, om inte världsunikt, så av synnerligen ovanligt slag.

Exempel på teknik:
• Stereoskopisk 4k-projektor med bakprojektion på glasskiva
• Ljudsystem med biokvalitet
• Högupplöst videokommunikation med ögonkontakt
• Holografisk display
• Multitouch-enheter
• Haptiska arbetsstationer
• Tracking, såsom mocap, ögon mm
• Beräkningskluster