INTERSTICES – ◯ ◯ ◯

Page content salvaged from the original CAiiA-STAR server & unpublished CD-ROM (beta available below):

[SPACE/TIME: 24 and 25 August 1998, at Port Eliot House in St Germans, Cornwall]

INTRODUCTION:

CAiiA-STAR invites you to participate in the first INTERSTICES Symposium,’The Architecture of Consciousness’ to be held on 24 and 25 August 1998, at Port Eliot House in St Germans, Cornwall.

Following the CAiiA Conference at UWCN, a Symposium on new developments in interactive design and cyber architecture, set in the context of Consciousness Reframed, will be organised by STAR at the University of Plymouth in St Germans at the historic Port Eliot House. The Symposium will explore the impact of digital technologies on the institutions, locations and structures of cultural production and consumption, and will cover such topics as: new media arts and research centres, educational structures, interactive publishing/broadcasting, intelligent environments and public interfaces.

The Symposium will give participants the opportunity to share and discuss the institutional and architectural implications of the issues raised at the CAiiA Conference. The STAR Symposium will be largely visually-based, utilising interactive multimedia systems (CD ROM, video, projection and the Internet), offering the opportunity to construct, present and view new developments and proposals in a number of cultural, educational and technological contexts from around the world.

The Seminar will take place on 24 and 25 August (a Symposium meal will be held at Port Eliot House on the evening of Sunday 23). Transportation from the CAiiA Conference site at the University of Wales, Newport to the STAR Symposium accommodation at the University of Plymouth’s Robbins Conference Centre will be arranged for participants. Inexpensive individual en-suite accommodation will be available at the Centre.

STRUCTURE:

INTERSTICES uses a simple structure to map the Architecture of Consciousness. The initial briefing of participants presents an ’empty’ computer generated model. This model will be developed by the participants during the Symposium. The interactive 3D model is navigable and capable of containing a variety of interactive multimedia components (writing, drawings, diagrams, photographic images, text audio, video, etc.) These assets will be collected by a production team through an intimate process of documentation.

The body of the Symposium will be subdivided into 3 groups each with a theme, ‘MEMORY’: ‘ACTION’: ‘DREAMING’. These groups will then define a series of questions that will be used to map the Architecture of Consciousness. The process of documentation will continue over the period and will allow participants (with the help of the production team) to edit and assemble elements of the model. These elements may include the ‘COORDINATES’ brought by the participants.

During the proceedings a production team will assemble the assets mapping out the landscape. Towards the end of the Symposium the groups will recombine to view the assembled ‘map’ of the Architecture of Consciousness. The intention is that this ‘map’ will ultimately be used to produce a number of publications (paper-based, CD ROM, and WWW). These productions will be made available to the participants following the event.

FORMULATION: The formulation of questions during the initial briefing will be developed through the three groups:

MEMORY:

will explore the past, architecture remembered, half forgotten places, plans, recordings, annotations, documenta…

ACTION:

program and production, proposals, buildings (real and virtual), constructions, developments, activity, communication…

DREAMING:

the future…

The groups will have plenty of opportunity to cross reference and reform during the sessions and related activities.

DOCUMENTATION: A small production team will circulate through the three groups documenting the discussions and activities.

PRODUCTION: The production team will assemble the collected multimedia assets into the model.

COORDINATES:

In order to provide individual starting points for debate and production within the themed groups, each participant is requested to bring a digital ‘element’. A set of coordinates are given to provide an overall coherence to these contributions.

The coordinates are:

X AXIS: 640 pixels.
Y AXIS: 480 pixels.
Z AXIS: – ° to + ° (optional).
t AXIS: 120 seconds.

In other words standard 640 by 480 screen size (or PAL/NTSC video), optional Z axis for 3D models (VRML, 3DMF, Open GL), 120 seconds long (these coordinates may be repeated).

These elements may be generated from any form (analogue and/or digital), such as diagrams, sketches, animations, video, film, text, audio, etc, but must be available in a digital form suitable for screening from a Macintosh G3 Power PC at 640×480 resolution, or on PAL or NTSC SVHS/VHS format.

Each element provided by the participants will be incorporated into a show reel on site by the production team. These elements will be screened on Monday 24 August during the late evening Symposium party in the grounds of Port Eliot House, the elements will also be incorporated into the productions generated by the Symposium.

THEMES:

In order to map out the Interstices of the Architecture of Consciousness, past, present and future, three themes have been identified as offering suitably rich starting points for discussion. Each theme will occupy a third of the participants for the majority of the Symposium. Each group will be subdivided into four groups of five for focused discussion and production.

DREAMING:

“…series of pictures or events in mind of sleeping person; day-dream, fantasy; ideal or aspiration; beautiful or ideal person or thing; experience dream; imagine as in a dream; think of as a possibility; ideal or imaginary land; imagine, invent…”

ACTION:

“…process of doing or performing, exertion of energy or influence (demand for action; action of acid on metal); thing done (useful actions); series of events in drama, sl. events going on around one (a slice of the action); mechanism of instrument; mode or style of movement of an animal or human…”

MEMORY:

“…faculty by which things are recalled to or kept in the mind; this is an individual (a good memory); recovery of one’s knowledge by mental effort; act of remembering; person or thing remembered; posthumous repute (of happy memory); length of time over which memory extends (within living memory); store for data in computer; in memory to keep alive the remembrance of…”

(OED)

INTERSTICES CD-ROM:

So close – so far away. The INTERSTICES CD-ROM was authored in Macromedia Director but time and money ran out before the it was distributable. Here you can see glimpses of the interface and content along with the beta version which can be downloaded here INTERSTICES CD-ROM BETA. The .exe runs in Windows only. Lots of bugs and QTVR (mainly in the Dreaming section) is no longer supported on any contemporary platform.

Video clips from the CD-ROM:

TIMETABLE:

Sunday 23 August:

1.00pm: Transport from the Consciousness Reframed Conference in Caerleon.

3.30pm: Arrive at the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth.

6.00pm: Transport to St Germans.

6.20pm : Arrive at Port Eliot House.

7.00pm: Welcome and introduction to Port Eliot House by Lord St Germans. Introduction to Interstices by Professor Roy Ascott

7.30pm: Symposium Meal. Following the meal participants will be invited to tour the House and the Port Eliot Estate.

10.30pm: Return to the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth.

Monday 24 August:

9.30am: Transport to St Germans.

10.00am: ‘Mapping the Territory’, Symposium briefing and presentation of the ‘model’ and the themes. Symposium body divides into themed groups.

1.00pm: Lunch.

2.30pm: Themed groups divide into workshops (groups of five) for focused debate and production.

5.00pm: Tea Break.

6.00pm: Workshop.

8.00pm: Dinner followed by Symposium Party and screenings of individual ‘coordinates’.

Midnight: Return to the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth.

Tuesday 25 August:

10.00am: Transport to St Germans.

10.30am: Workshops.

1.00pm: Lunch.

2.30pm: Mixed Workshops

4.00pm: Reassemble themed groups to coordinate elements for inclusion in the ‘Model’.

5.00pm: Construction of ‘Model’ and final presentation.

6.00pm: Buffet meal.*

9.00pm: Return to the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth.

FINI…

*Participants may wish to leave for Plymouth Train Station, last train to London 6.30pm.

Times are approximate and may change according to circumstances.

A minibus will be available to ferry Participants between Port Eliot and the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth throughout the Symposium.

LOCATION:

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Interstices will take place at Port Eliot House, St Germans in Cornwall, 20 minutes from the University of Plymouth accommodation at the Robbins Conference Centre. Transport will be provided for participants from the Consciousness Reframed Conference at Caerleon to the Robbins Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth.

Daily transport from the Robbins Centre to Port Eliot House will also be provided. A minibus will also be on hand to ferry small groups to and from the City. The short drive from the University to St Germans passes over the Tamar Suspension Bridge, running alongside the famous Brunel rail bridge, out into the Cornish countryside before entering the Port Eliot Estate.

The historic grounds of the Port Eliot House provide a unique landscape for the Symposium, and Port Eliot House itself provides an incomparable environment for the debate and production to be generated over the two days. Port Eliot House has a unique history, stretching back to the first landings of the Phoenician tin traders of the first millennium B.C. Rumours of Joseph of A’rimathéa visits are embedded in the surrounding hills, and the remnants of past civilisations and conquests pervade the structure of the building.

Now Port Eliot House is in stasis. For millennia it has transformed and evolved. Internal walls, which were once the external (Norman) shell, mark the various evolutionary stages, like the growth rings on an Oak. Now, with grade one listed status, it can no longer evolve. It is as if it has reached its mid-point, equidistant between the past and the future. Looking back at history, Interstices, the Architecture of Consciousness, finds the perfect location to study the present and envision the future.

INTERSTICES PARTICIPANTS:

Roy Ascott

Emmanuelle Baron

Fatima Bueno

Carrie Holt