[Arts + Sciences x Technology = Environment / Responsibility]
A Sense of Place
August 21 to 23, 2017
i-DAT, Plymouth University, UK.
The 6th edition of the BunB conference will be held from August 21 to 23 of 2017 in Plymouth, UK. Produced by i-DAT in collaboration with the Sustainable Earth Institute and Art and Sound at Plymouth University, BunB17 is being produced in collaboration with the North Devon’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Beaford Arts and Fulldome UK.
The theme for BunB 2017 is “A Sense of Place”.
Our increasingly mediated relationship with the environment brings new insights to the invisible forces that affect complex ecologies. From meteorological data flows to temporal climate change models, our relationship with our environment is becoming more abstract, simulated and remote – tempering our desire to act. Could it be that we know more and experience less? BunB17 maps the coordinates of our Sense of Place – the horizontal landscape to the vertical transcalar spaces of the macro/micro. http://balance-unbalance2017.org/
i-DAT is proud to partner Fulldome UK 2016, the 5th international celebration of the Fulldome. For its fifth year as the UK’s leading immersive festival, Fulldome UK returns to the National Space Centre for inspirational screenings and events for everyone to enjoy. Two years in the making, this years festival will have a jam-packed programme of immersive films, live VJ performances, radical debates and forward thinking visions in sound and image.
Murmuration was one of the outcomes from the E / M / D / L – EUROPEAN MOBILE DOME LAB for Artistic Research (http://www.emdl.eu/) partnership of European and Canadian cultural organisations funded by EU Culture Program. This post contains information and documentation on this project component.
murmuration:
1: the act of murmuring: the utterance of low, indistinct, continuous whisper of sounds or complaining noises, a mutter, the murmur of waves.
2: an abnormal whooshing sound emanating from the heart.
3: the mass cloud like flocking of starlings.
Late Middle English: from French, from Latin murmuratio, from murmurare 'to murmur'. A collective noun dating from the late C15th.
E/M/D/L Context:
E/M/D/L presents: Liminal Spaces, Dream Collider, and Murmuration, the culmination of a EU funded collaboration between Canadian and European partners. This research project was carried out through eight international residencies and is presented in the Satosphere of Montreal’s Society for Arts and Technology (SAT). Articulated through the fulldome environment as an instrument to explore transdisciplinary forms of artistic expression, these experiments oscillate between performance, interactive installation and immersive event.
Liminal Spaces:
We are made up of layers: the physical ones of skin and tissues, but also the intangible ones of history, tradition, images, and words. In the strata of sensations and accumulations of meanings, what strategies can be used to subjectivate such heterogeneous materials and find coherence among them? Where should borders be porous and where should they be strengthened? How can we let them breathe and allow them to change their contours? How to inhabit the threshold between two states, conditions, or regions – the transitory, the indeterminate? Sheltering layers of performance, interactivity and image, sound and text, the dome becomes the intermediary membrane between inside and outside, as it is explored and pierced through at the limit of palpable space. Organizations: Digital Art Department, Vienna, Austria / kondition pluriel, Montreal, Canada / Trans-Media Akademie, Dresden, Germany Participants/Collaborators: David Campbell, Carla Chan, Matthias Härtig, Johannes Hucek, Martin Kusch, Marilou Lépine, Armando Menicacci, Marie-Claude Poulin, Audrey Rochette, Ruth Schnell, Alexandre St-Onge, Nikola Tasic
Dream Collider:
Through an interactive journey in the narrated dreamland of crystallized daily scenes, Dream Collider questions the intertwined states of diverging oneiric ideas, the raise and collapse of these subconscious mind constructions, and the iterative processes leading the exploration of self-generated worlds. Initially created with the intent of expressing grammatical results issued from artistic research in the field of immersion, this dome installation highlights the relation and cohesion of physical and virtual spaces, and the place of the user as a living presence in between the layers of this multi-perspective narrative. Abstract collisions, premonitory visions or interneuronal recovery fluctuations; dreams have always been intriguing and are haunting our nights’ and days’ perceptions. Organizations: Society for Arts and Technology [SAT], Montreal, Canada. Participants/Collaborators: Derek deBlois, Bruno Colpron, Sébastien Gravel, Jean Ranger, Dominic St-Amant and Louis-Philippe St-Arnault.
Murmuration
Murmuration [muttering of low, indistinct, whispers / abnormal heart sounds / mass cloud like flocking] is a series of trans-scalar and recursive transitions from the imaginary to infinity: i∞. Constructed from bio-imaging technologies and modeled fractured architectures, the low-poly-aesthetic of murmuration navigates its audience through playful interaction with particle swarms of digital detritus and real-time manipulation of virtual/physical audio-visual objects and the environmental experiences afforded by their continuously transforming arrangement. Algorithms of repulsion and attraction maintain the cohesion of nano/molecular landscapes harvested by atomic force. Bio-forms, like artificial organs, and boney architectures, temporarily seem to come to life, create cavities and cavernous voids, conjuring uncanny atmospheres of elation, intrigue and awe. Organizations:
Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media (UoA NTLab), Athens, Greece / i-DAT (Institute of Digital Art and Technology), Plymouth, U.K. Participants/Collaborators:
Dimitris Charitos, Luke Christison, Phil Mayer, Cameron Micallef, Lee Nutbean, Alexandre St-Onge, Mike Phillips, Olivier Rhéaume, Haris Rizopoulos, Ben Stern, Iouliani Theona, Penny Papageorgopoulou
Phage shell fabrication: Iain Griffin.
[From the published SAT event info pamphlet]
[Time lapse video by SAT]
murmurationis a series of trans-scalar and recursive transitions from the imaginary to infinity : i∞
Swarming ‘Phage’ [particles/fragments/epithelium/boids] traverse the three domains, providing a focus for audience interaction and navigation. A murmuratiuon of Phage sweep noisily through the hollow space. Access to each domain is unlocked by interactions through the physical remains of fallen Phage. This detritus (control and feedback devices) is scattered around the floor of the SATosphere.
The Trans-scalar recursive spaces are reminiscent of biological architectures, planes and volumes reconstructed, nano/molecular landscapes harvested from Atomic Force Microscopy, skin from surface scans and deep structures and cavities from MRI scans. Radical shifts in perspective between these states of scale, the vast cavernous spaces and towering structures create uncanny atmospheres of elation, intrigue and awe.
Micro architectures emerge as structural entities hovering the void, nestling between abstract biological forms, like manufactured organs. Their structures are pliable and noisy, wailing and screeching like dysfunctional machinery. They dominate the view until they absorb the viewer. Now the inside out their forms become totally immersive to the point of transition back into the void.
Other larger scale assemblages of fractured phage-like objects, barely held together by semi-transparent scaffoldings, afford playful interaction with members of the audience and as they rotate and translate in unpredictable ways, they emit sounds and after a while are ‘ελκονται απο την αρνητική βαρύτητα and move onto the ominous global kelyfos enclosure of the “world”. Ultimately, the assemblages are dismantled to reveal the recursiveness of the movement within/through these consecutive worlds; one world nested into the other and revealing themselves to the audience in a recursive sequence..
Fluttering and buzzing in fits and starts of attraction and repulsion, the swarming Phage slowly become the thing they were once part of, fragments now form the whole.
The swarming Phage begin to converge, forming new figurative structures which congeal and begin to rise, escheresque from the abyss.
The Trans-scalar recursive spaces are:
Physical Phage and their inner spaces: detritus scattered across the floor
The Phage as a particle swarm… volume and the algorithms of repulsion and attraction – separation, alignment and cohesion. Tumble blindly…
Bio-architectures: nano/molecular landscapes harvested from Atomic Force Microscopy…
skin from surface scans… deep structures/cavities – MRI scans: vast cavernous voidsand towering structures conjuring uncanny atmospheres.
Fractured architectures… interactive and noisy, reconfiguring fractured forms of diverse scales, anchored to the seemingly existent scaffoldings fluctuating between inner and outer spaces.
Converged Phage Figures… the swarming Page coalesce into rising figures in partial transition partial form.
The Rise: Dante/Escher-esque Concentric Circles of…. Part evolution, part escape, the slow parallax rise through the reformed bio-architectures, spiral across the universe.
murmuration builds on the research themes explored through the EMDL project:
From the myriad experiments and technical investigations the following instances provide a non-exclusive substrate for murmuration.
Trans-scalar navigation and experiences
Recursive spaces and transitioning between them
A sense of human scale and perspective
Manipulating the dome surface
Emphasising or ignoring the surface of the dome as a canvas for representation
Direct manipulation of virtual objects
Interaction with fulldome elements
Physical and virtual objects
Audience participation
3D sonic spaces
Dialogues between visual & auditory object manipulation (visual music perspective)
Nano-macro scanning
Flocking and particle spaces
Low-poly-aesthetic
Phage:
A particular output of this collaboration was the development of ‘Phage’ technologies, collaborative physical instruments that allow the manipulation of virtual objects within the projected dome space. These technologies are now flowing out of the Fulldome space and are being deployed within cultural and heritage institutions as a means of accessing new knowledge from museum artefacts, enhancing audience engagement and constructing a shared heritage through crowd participation.
Each physical Phage has its own characteristics and behaviours they: illuminate, listen, mutter, shudder, reveal inner recursive domains.
They are instruments for connecting across the membrane of the fulldome into dimensions beyond. This reach beyond the dome surface cultivates navigation through the recursive spaces and interaction with the dynamic evolving architectures. In the case of one of the environments, they are instruments for controlling the translation, rotation and corresponding evolution of the audiovisual fractured objects which surround the audience in the dome.
The design of each Phage is based around a set of parameters and personalities:
Phage: Weishaupt – the illuminated one.
Weishaupt’s radiant DNA seeps across the other Phage, providing general enlightenment. Audio responsive pulsating optical communication. Glow. Technical: Internal lights and LED’s create a glow which responds to sound levels. Reference: Weishaupt was the founder of the original Bavarian Illuminati.
Phage: Orare – the confessor.
Orare listens, the confessions of others feed the environment, the murmuration of crowds. Technical: Bluetooth transmission of recordings to the mixer. Reference: Orare is latin for worship but also the origin of the oratory or confessional.
Phage: Uto – the muttering one.
Uto the muttering oracle, the babbling Phage. Technical: Embedded speaker, possibly live audio feed or looped recordings. Reference: Uto, the first Oracle (Egyptian).
Phage: Raptus – Phase state of transition.
Raptus shudders under the stress of a constant state of transition, phasing between dimensions, neither here nor there… Technical: constant variable vibrations and gyroscope . Reference: Raptus, root of Rapture, Latin for carrying off.
Phage: Sanctorum – the hollow one.
Sanctorum, “my god, it’s full of stars” – the inner sanctum, a portal to another world, the recursive space physically bound in stasis inside the guts of the Phage architecture. Technical: Hollow, recursive space with embedded screen, illuminated and animated. Reference: Sacntorum, Latin for holy place…
Transcalar Transitions:
Central to the navigation of these trans-scalar recursive architectures is the transitions between states, domains, architectures and sequences.
These include the shifts between the:
Phage swarms as they flock around the architecture. The start of murmuration, from the darkness and the fall of the physical Phage to the floor.
Bio-architectures: AFM, surface scans and MRI scans. The spatial shifts that take place between these spaces and surfaces.
Micro-macro architectures: to/from the bio-architectures and inside/outside. The transition from the space which contains them to view and interact with them but also the transition inside.
The Converged Phage Figures, from the Phage swarm to the figure. How the Phage swarm to form the bodies and how low polygon they remain…
The Rise: Dante/Escher-esque Concentric Circles. The transition from either the micro-macro architectures or the Bio-architectures to the
circles of the Rise.
Audio:
The sounds of murmuration are complex, interactive and 3dimensional. They are attached to swarm Phage, located in physical Phage and anchored in the dimensional spaces of the bio and micro-macro architectures. They include:
murmuration of the Phage swarm
acoustics of each bio-architecture, 3D and distributed in various structures
processing of the live recordings of Phage Orare – the confessor
the sounds from Phage Uto – the muttering one emited from its bowls
each transition (see #5: murmuration)
the acoustics of the fractured architectures
the interactive sounds of the fractured architectures
the sounds of the Phage swarm convergence into the Rise figures
the environmental acoustics of the Rise circles.
With thanks to the MRI Department, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust for the full body MRI Scan.
Space Interface II – a collaborative exhibition/performance by Mathew Emmett & Eberhard Kranemann (formerly of Kraftwerk).
KARST 2-10 September, Plymouth [https://goo.gl/maps/siKynfuYf1x]
Space Interface II is a collaborative exhibition between Kranemann and Emmett who synthesise hybrid space through mixed reality performance. Kranemann and Emmett act cooperatively to acculturate the audience’s perception of physical space by creating a multilevel immersive environment in which the performers and audience are encouraged to simultaneously occupy multiple points on the mixed reality continuum.
In addition to exhibiting the original Space Interface works previously shown at Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf (2015), Kranemann and Emmett will include new and complementary works, that address the themes and discourse of their ongoing collaboration resynchronising the boundaries of art and science. Artist Biographies:
Eberhard Kranemann is an innovator in audiovisual art and avantgarde music. Having previously worked with Joseph Beuys, his collaborative practice continues to be an important testbed for the origination of experimentation. He is also known for cofounding electronic music bands such as Kraftwerk, Neu! Pissoff, and later assumed the pseudonym Fritz Müller. Mathew Emmett is an artist and architect specializing in site responsive installation, sound and interdisciplinary research in situated cognition. He trained at the Bartlett, Architectural Association and attended Karlheinz Stockhausen’s summer school, and has since performed at the TATE, exhibited internationally, and continued collaboration with dance choreographer Adam Benjamin with projects in Japan, Perception Lab, Germany and the architectural theorist Charles Jencks. Emmett and Kranemann are represented by the Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf. http://www.mathewemmett.com / http://i-dat.org/dr-mathew-emmett/ http://www.ekranemann.de/ http://www.weithorngalerie.de
Space Interface is a partnership exhibition between KARST and Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf and is supported by i-DAT, Plymouth University, & Arts Council England.
Hybrid City is an international biennial event dedicated to exploring the emergent character of the city and the potential transformative shift of the urban condition, as a result of ongoing developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and of their integration in the urban physical context. It aims to promote dialogue and knowledge exchange among experts drawn from academia, as well as researchers, artists, designers, advocates, stakeholders and decision makers, actively involved in addressing questions on the nature of the technologically mediated urban activity and experience. The second installment of the Hybrid City, that took place in 2013 boasted seven keynote speakers, sixty-eight paper presentations and diverse parallel events, that were documented in the printed volume of proceedings.
Hybrid City Conference 2015 in Athens, Greece will consist of three days of paper presentations, panel discussions, workshops and satellite events, under the theme “Data to the People”. The events are organized by the University Research Institute of Applied Communication (URIAC), in collaboration with New Technologies Laboratory, of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, of the University of Athens. The main venue of the conference is the central, historic building of the University of Athens, while workshops, projects’ presentations and parallel events will take place in other University venues and collaborating centers and institutions, in the center of Athens.
…..
reciproCITY – from data to ta-da!
The harvesting of data from citizens, communities and buildings is a contemporary obsession. It is a concern that the desire to build real-time data models should so strangely mimic the historical preoccupation with building traditional architectural models. The history of vaulting ambition in urban planning is littered with photographs of the architect, town planner and City Mayor looming over a balsa wood and card model of the future. The sense of distance, dominance and control is tangible. And this history is being recycled in Smart Cities all over the planet. data
Pronunciation: /ˈdeɪtə/
Definition of data in English: noun
da·ta \ˈdā-tə, ˈda- also ˈdä-\
Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis: “Data is a precious thing…” (Berners-Lee, T.)
1: factual information (such as numbers or symbols) used to make decisions, inform policy or calculate solutions
2: Facts are simple and facts are straight. Facts are lazy and facts are late. Facts all come with points of view. Facts don’t do what I want them to. Facts just twist the truth around… (Byrne, D. Eno, D. et al)
3: Numerical values generated by a sensor, such as environmental or biological monitor.
4: ta-da spelt backwards (see ta-da)
Mid 17th century (as a term in philosophy): from Latin, plural of datum.
Most cities are littered with data sets, trapped in preparatory software and a variety of incompatible formats. Before meaningful modelling can commence there is usually a need for a significant data archaeology, cleansing and standardisation through a rigorous curatorial process. Or maybe it is simpler to forget the past and start the harvest afresh. Either way data is useless without effective analytics.
It is extremely difficult to see patterns and relationships in diverse data sets. The coupling of qualitative and quantitative data is problematic and even the interpretation of correlations between disparate data sets is challenging, often requiring, either hypothesis driven or good old fashioned intuitive decision making.
In addition to the easily measurable metrics and indices, the social and economic, a more holistic approach to capturing the intangible impacts of civic activity, such as mood, feelings, participation and engagement is needed. These qualitative metrics provide real-time feedback on how the City ‘feels’ and have the potential to encourage a greater democratic engagement and reciprocity between stakeholders.
Complex data analytics such as hotspot detection, correlation of data sets, sentiment analysis and analytical models based on modern integrative, sub-symbolic, computational techniques (Artificial Neural Networks, Self-Organising Maps and Deep Learning Networks) need to be deployed to generate new meaning from human urban behaviour. Primarily used in robotics and the complex analysis of economic data, these techniques offer great potential for the social and cultural sector to better understand and utilise qualitative and quantitative data, offering new analytical and predictive methods and tools which could assist in enhancement of reciprocal democratic processes, planning and engagement. Some kind of magic. ta-da
Pronunciation: /təˈdɑː/
(also ta-dah)
Definition of ta-da in English: exclamation / interjection “abracadabra, ta-da!” (Houdini, H.)
1: A simulated trumpet fanfare (typically to emphasise an extraordinary entrance, point or revelation.) Often following a dramatic build up and complemented by jazz hands and an exclamation mark.
2: data spelt backwards (see data)
Mid BC (possibly predates the invention of the trumpet): from Latin, plural of ta-datum.
Some kind of alchemy, a different kind of model. With a focus on real-time analytics and processes for directly engaging individuals and communities, this presentation zooms in on the little bits and bytes of data, the smiles, nods, “hello’s” and “thankyou’s”, the myriad of micro transactions that calculate in real-time the value (- &+) of a social urban landscape.
i-DAT present at and coordinate the Creative Cities: ICT, the Arts and the City workshop at BOZAR, Le salon de réception, part of the STARTS Symposium. An event co-organized by BOZAR and European Commission, Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology June 22-23 at BOZAR, Brussels. http://www.ictartconnect.eu/resource/id/55683c2cfda147b677efcf8a
Today, an increasing number of high tech companies and research institutions, world-wide, assert that the critical skills needed for innovation to happen and to be of value for society are – in addition to scientific and technological skills –skills such as creativity and capacity to involve all of society in the process of innovation. In this context, the Arts are gaining prominence as a catalyst for an efficient conversion of S&T knowledge into novel products, services, and processes.
Working at the nexus between Science, Technology, and the ARTS, we begin to see opportunities for piloting cross-sectorial collaboration to enhance and promote innovation. To foster such collaboration, the European Commission is launching its STARTS –S&T&ARTS programme.
In the STARTS symposium, we will explore the catalytic role of the Arts for innovation in business, industry and society and how to foster it. Possible synergies will be analyzed from an entrepreneurial, technological, scientific, social, and artistic angle. Already existing collaboration of S&T with the Arts in European Commission funded projects will be particularly highlighted.
E/M/D/L presents: Liminal Spaces, Dream Collider, and Murmuration, the culmination of a EU funded collaboration between Canadian and European partners. This research project was carried out through eight international residencies and is presented in the Satosphere. Articulated through the fulldome environment as an instrument to explore transdisciplinary forms of artistic expression, these experiments oscillate between performance, interactive installation and immersive event.
The overall research benefitted from the sharing and development of the latest tools for capturing, synthesizing, and re-visioning the world by the imaging and sonification methods of sampling, IR analysis, MRI, Atomic Force Microscopy, 3-D scanning, photogrammetry and point cloud visualization.
These works capture the multiple, heterogeneous forms of presences generated by a digital culture but also critique the intrinsic homogeneity that emerge through processes of surveillance and control.
This transdisciplinary research interrogates the language of the new creative environment of the fulldome, creating the possibility of a rich experience of audience participation: a world of multi-user interactions, navigating through trans-scalar, recursive imaginary territories, harnessing both physical and synthetic worlds.
The Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT) has been a core transdisciplinary instrument in i-DAT’s research and production for a number of years. We have now rebooted the project thanks to the collaboration with Gaianova (http://gaianova.co.uk/)and the European Mobile Dome Labs (http://emdl.eu/) EU Culture Programme funded research project. With the re-ignition of the FulldomeUK (http://www.fulldome.org.uk/) festival at the National Space Centre the future of fulldome is eluminescent.
The IVT is a transdisciplinary instrument for the manifestation of material and imaginary worlds, and forms a substrate for i-DAT’s research at http://dome-os.org/
More details of fulldome related projects, hiring the space or inflatable dome for shows or enquiries about fulldome productions/research, check out the IVT page here: http://i-dat.org/ivt
In August we hosted the search for the country’s best young coders, overseeing Young Rewired State’s Festival of Code.
A thousand young people stayed, slept and hacked in Plymouth University’s Roland Levinsky Building for the 48-hour code-fest, which climaxed in a code showcase judged by leading technical minds.
“We had some awesome judges and a thousand kids,” said i-DAT’s Creative Director Birgitte Aga. “The work they did and the quality of what they pitched was exceptional”.
Teams of young coders from all over the country worked on apps in the following categories: a brilliant idea that should exist; best example of coding; community-minded apps for coding a better country; best design and best in show. The event came to a climax in Plymouth Pavilions.
Best in Show was an app called YouDraw – a crowd-sourced video animation platform allowing anybody (creator or otherwise) to submit a video for animating by the community. Anyone who wishes will be given a random frame to draw and over time, a video will gain more and more drawn-over frames resulting in a completed YouDraw project: a fresh, new, hand-crafted animation based on any fan-favourite music video.
Best Design winner was Tourify, which creates a custom guidebook just for the user – the perfect app for travellers.
Best Use of Code winner was Let’s Combine, an app for the web, iOS, Android and Androidwear which allows the user to choose a specific location and then see different datasets available at that location, combined to show interesting or funny results.
Code a Better Country winner was an app called CityRadar for users to photograph and report problems to the correct council.
Winner of the Should Exist category was Miles Per Pound which calculates how far your car can travel with a single pound, just by entering your car’s number plate.
Judges and guests at the event included Israeli musician Yoni Bloch, famed for his interactive music video work, Kerensa Jennings, the BBC’s Head of Strategic Delivery and award-winning programme-maker, broadcaster and communications consultant Tetteh Kofi, Australian entrepreneur, venture capital investor, diplomat, author and speaker Bill Liao, Katrina Roberts, acting Vice President, GNICS Technologies at American Express, and Sathya Smith, head of partner solutions at Google.
Special guest was political wordsmith George The Poet, one of the hottest names in spoken word.
In the run-up to the final weekend, i-DAT hosted a coding centre where young people worked with data and mentors to research ideas with social impact. Other coding centres were hosted throughout the UK, but i-DAT hosted the first international coding conference with young people aged from seven to 18 from the US, Germany and the UK. Computacenter with Plymouth University arranged robust internet connections that allowed for heavy bandwidth usage throughout the event with no downtime – another first in the event’s history.
“i-DAT and Plymouth University proved that we can be the coding centre for the app developers of the future,” said i-DAT’s Operations Director Dawn Melville.
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