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As the sparks fly upwards...

As the sparks fly upwards... is really on it's way now. The piece, which uses Isadora to bring live dancers and film clips together, had it's first showing last Friday with very positive results.Lights are attached to dancers' bodies which are then tracked in the space by a camera and used by Isadora to trigger specific pre-recorded film clips. The movement is the same for the live and filmed dancers but the order is completely different. Sometimes in unison, sometimes in canon, sometimes completely out of sync.Initial feedback includes comparisons to photographic dark rooms watching images develop, appraisals of the dynamic, fluid movement and claims of 'this is the future of screendance'.View the Isadora output...

Or mobile phone footage from the performance...

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kudu_mixer.jpg

Kudu at MIXER, June 14.
Photo: Christine Taylor.

We come in several original summer flavors

It’s the end of June and Eyebeam is about to burst with interactive activity with the launch of Interactivos?@Eyebeam, Summer School and Digital Day Camp.

You can also catch the tail end of the Dewar’s commission for resident artists show Tourists and Travelers, and get a tour with Charlie the robotic duck to Central Park before we kiss our Spring 2008 residents goodbye, and usher in the Summer 2008 residents.

And for the memories, hot MIXER pics are online now. Summer is finally HERE kids!


This Week at Eyebeam:

June 26: Upgrade! launches Interactivos?

June 27: Interactivos? workshop and public skill-share begins

June 28: Camerautomata Charlie walking tour

July 1: Eyebeam Summer School is in session

July 7: Digital Day Camp begins

New from our Labs:

June – August 10: Sarah Cook presents Broadcast Yourself at Cornerhouse

June: TouchKit API version 2.0 to be released

June: Ayah Bdeir’s littleBits in Berlin

July 5: Anti-Advertising Agency’s OFFFice in Chicago

On the road again: The Eyebeam Roadshow call for Fall 2008 hosts

Eyebeam community news:

HeHe’s Pollstream – Nuage Vert wins 2008 Golden Nica


June 26: Upgrade! launches Interactivos?

Upgrade!
Date: Thursday, June 26, 7PM
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC
Cost: Free

Join us on Thursday, June 26 at 7PM for the Upgrade! New York launch of Interactivos?: Better Than the Real Thing. R&D OpenLab fellow Zach Lieberman will set the scene with a presentation about Interactivos? and its beginnings at Medialab-Prado. Discussions of the real, the fake, and spoofing will ensue, with a presentation by The Yes Men. Informal discussion and a reception will follow. Eyebeam projects on display, that evening, will include BoozBot by Eyebeam senior fellow Jeff Crouse and Eyebeam Production Lab fellow David Jimison.

Upgrade! is an international, emerging network of autonomous nodes united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides. Upgrade! New York has been in existence since April 1999 and partnered with Eyebeam in March 2000. Upgrade! meetings present new media projects, engage in informal critique, and foster dialogue and collaboration between individual artists.

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June 27: Interactivos? workshop and public skill-share begins

Miseong Lee, Through Time Tunnel

Interactivos?: Better Than the Real Thing
Dates: June 27 – July 12, 12 – 6PM
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC
Cost: Free
http://www.eyebeam.org/learning/learning.php?page=interactivos
Stay tuned for the official Interactivos? project website launch!

Join us daily between June 27 and July 12, from 12 – 6PM to witness the transformation of Eyebeam’s main space into a lab for the creation of interactive art projects.

From an open-call, Eyebeam selected nine new projects to be realized by artists from around the world, with the collaboration of Eyebeam resident artists and fellows and over two dozen very skilled artists, engineers, musicians, programmers, designers, and hackers (also selected from an open call). The projects investigate interactivity in all of its forms, and usually feature a mix of hardware tinkering, software coding, and conceptual hacking.

During the intensive two-week Interactivos? workshop, the lab will be open and the public are welcome to drop in, see the artists and collaborators at work, and participate in discussions, critiques, and other social activities investigating interactivity in the context of this year’s Interactivos? theme: the blurry line between the real and the fake. A full schedule of events will follow. On July 12 the lab will be transformed into an exhibition, Double Take, which will be on view through August 9.

Interactivos? was initiated two years ago by the Medialab-Prado program and the Madrid City Council. This is the first time it has taken place outside Spain.

The full list of projects can be found here:
http://www.eyebeam.org/learning/learning.php?page=interactivos
and an additional Interactivos? project website will be launched during the next two weeks.

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June 28: Camerautomata Charlie walking tour

Date: Saturday, June 28, 2:30PM
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC

As part of the Tourists and Travelers exhibition and in conjunction with Interactivos?: Better than the real thing, come see how a robotic duck can take better tourist photos than you can. Join the guided tour of tourist sites with the magical image-digesting robotic duck Charlie. The tour will start at Eyebeam at 2:30PM (participants are encouraged to check out the exhibition before setting off!) when they’ll join the artist and the duck as they walk and take public transportation to Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, where they will then wander around the park with other tourists. The tour will take about 2 hours. Participants may also meet the group at the Bethesda Terrace at around 4PM.

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July 1: Eyebeam Summer School is in session

Dates: July 1, 3, 8, 10, 15, 19, 22, 6PM
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC
http://www.eyebeam.org/learning/learning.php?page=workshops

Eyebeam Summer School is an annual adult workshop series designed to encourage the creative use of technologies for personal expression, activism, communication and community involvement. For more information and to register, email: bookstore AT eyebeam DOT org.

Tuesday, June 1: Illegal Billboard Workshop with IllegalSigns.ca and The Anti-Advertising Agency. Presenter: Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert.

Activists estimate that half the billboards in New York City are illegal. Worth millions in profit, outdoor advertising has become a corporate black market that doesn’t stop short of breaking the law to get your attention. On July 1, the Anti-Advertising Agency and Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca will lead a free workshop on how to identify illegal advertising and get it taken down. Canadian activist group IllegalSigns.ca is responsible for the removal of more than over 100 illegal billboards in Toronto. Rami Tabello will reveal how the billboard industry gets away with breaking the law and will offer suggestions on what New Yorkers can do to stop it locally. To sign up, email: workshop AT antiadvertisingagency DOT com

Thursday, July 3: Eyebeam senior fellows Steve Lambert and Jeff Crouse will lead a workshop on A Basic Sentence Markup Language (ABSML)—an artist statement generator—and a new email spam-inspired project to Keep an Army Recruiter Busy.

Tuesday, July 8: New Tools for Collaborative Practice. Presenters: Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert; Mushon Zer Aviv and Dan Pfeiffer; NOR_/D: Eyebeam Production Lab fellow Addie Wagenknecht with Stefan Hechenberger.

  • Subversion (SVN): a version control system used to maintain current and historical versions of files for source code, web pages, and/or documentation—like a wiki, but for code.
  • Shiftspace: an open source layer above any website. It seeks to expand the creative possibilities currently provided through the web, allowing for the creation of online contexts built in and on top of websites.
  • TouchKit: a modular multitouch development kit with the aim to make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion. Learn the basics of how to set up your own multitouch system, the supplies you need and where to get them. We supply the open source API, schematics, source code and demo applications.

Thursday, July 10: What do artists and audiences think of interactivity? Presenter: Beryl Graham.

As part of Interactivos?, and in preparation for the opening of the exhibition Double Take, we present a lecture on how artists and audiences consider interactivity, led by Professor of New Media, Beryl Graham. Examples of high and low-tech projects in gallery and publically-sited contexts will be shown, and a rousing discussion with artists based on their own experiences will follow. This evening is in conjunction with Eyebeam research partner CRUMB, the resource for curators of new media art, based in the UK.

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July 7: Digital Day Camp begins

Dates: July 7 – 25, Monday – Thursday, 1 – 5PM in the Education Lab
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC
http://www.eyebeam.org/learning/learning.php?page=ddc

In July 2008, Eyebeam will produce its ninth annual Digital Day Camp (DDC) program for NYC public high school students. DDC is a paid three-week summer intensive program, this year focused on the theme of Better Than the Real Thing—taking off from the Interactivos? workshop series.

Selected participants will explore the tension in distinguishing “real” from “fake”. Among the questions to be addressed: What is authentic in the real of the digital? Can something be so fake that it becomes real? How can hoaxes, recreations, and illusions be used aesthetically and critically? DDC 2008 will investivage this through the creation of interactive art projects, which will join the projects produced during Interactivos? in the exhibition, Double Take, July 29 – August 9. DDC participants will publicly present their final projects on July 29, 7PM at Eyebeam.

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New from our Labs:

Doug Hall, Chip Lord, Jody Procter, The Amarillo News Tapes, 1980, Photo: copyright the artists

June: Sarah Cook presents Broadcast Yourself at Cornerhouse

Broadcast Yourself
Date: June – August 10
Location: Cornerhouse. 70 Oxford St., Manchester, UK
http://www.broadcastyourself.net

Broadcast Yourself is an international group exhibition of artists’ interventions into television and strategies for self-broadcasting from the 1970s to today, co-curated by Kathy Rae Huffman and Eyebeam curatorial fellow Sarah Cook.

Artists include: Active Ingredient (Rachel Jacobs / Matt Watkins); Shaina Anand; Ian Breakwell; Chris Burden; Stan Douglas; Alistair Gentry; Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Adriene Jenik; Doug Hall, Chip Lord and Jody Procter; Joanie 4 Jackie (Miranda July et al.); Pat Naldi and Wendy Kirkup; TV swansong (curated by Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie); Bill Viola; Van Gogh TV; 56KTV Bastard Channel (curated by Reinhard Storz / xcult.org).

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June: TouchKit API version 2.0 to be released

The Opensource Multitouch software development kit TouchKit developed in part by Eyebeam Production Lab fellow Addie Wagenknecht will be released as the API version 2.0 in the coming two weeks. Sign up for the mailing list: http://nortd.com/touchkit/list.html to be the first to know when the newest versions and updates go live, and stay on top of upcoming free workshops around the US!

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June: Ayah Bdeir’s littleBits in Berlin

Eyebeam R&D OpenLab fellow Ayah Bdeir is participating in the Friends of Fritzing Summit in Berlin, where she will present an early prototype of littleBits: a library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny, magnetic circuit boards. The project is in collaboration with Jeff Hoefs: http://www.jeffhoefs.com, and Smart Design: http://www.smartdesignworldwide.com.

http://www.fritzing.org/events/friends-of-fritzing-summit-08
http://www.ayahbdeir.com/littleBits

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July 5: Anti-Advertising Agency’s OFFFice in Chicago

The Foundation For Freedom (Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert) is thrilled to announce our new temporary world headquarters at 6932 North Glenwood Avenue in Chicago. Starting today, and over the next four weeks, we’ll bring our mission and services to all the brilliant Chicagoland advertisers, marketers, and PR people ready to contribute to society in a meaningful way. The oFFFice will be open weekdays from 9AM to 4PM, through July 15 Brazil time, in solidarity with the visionaries who banned outdoor advertising (11AM to 6PM CST). We’re holding several events in our first week to celebrate! Come by and learn more: http://antiadvertisingagency.com/news/offfice-hours

Steve also has drawings at the Haterdorn Museum in New Jersey: http://visitsteve.com/news/hunterdon-museum-the-house-that-sprawl-built/

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On the road again: The Eyebeam Roadshow call for Fall 2008 hosts

The Eyebeam Roadshow is looking for hosts for its Fall 2008 tour. The Eyebeam Roadshow consists of a vibrant series of mini-lectures and skill-share workshops, from the distinguished roster of artists who have worked within Eyebeam’s Labs.

Lecture topics may include: art and technology; copyright; open-source hardware and software; public space; hacking as an art form; how to write the world’s worst artist statement; creating tools for dissent; and other nascent projects developed at Eyebeam.

If you are interested in hosting The Eyebeam Roadshow, please contact the Eyebeam production manager Stephanie Hunt: stephanie AT eyebeam DOT org with possible dates.

More information about the Roadshow visit: http://roadshow.eyebeam.org

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Community news:

HeHe’s Pollstream – Nuage Vert wins 2008 Golden Nica

HeHe (Eyebeam alumni Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen) Pollstream – Nuage Vert: http://www.nuagevert.orghttp//www.nuagevert.org transforms clouds into projection surfaces. As such, these indefinable, constantly and chaotically changing products of the condensation of water vapor become media bearing political ideas and messages. Or aestheticized symbols of environmental pollution caused by carbon emissions. Pollstream – Nuage Vert was developed in collaboration with experts in laser technology, computer science, electrical engineering, energy generation and air quality monitoring. Development commenced in 2002 and concluded in February 2008 with a performance in Helsinki that demonstrated how art is capable of encompassing an entire city—its public sphere, its industry and its inhabitants—and unfolding sociopolitical relevance.

Pollstream – Nuage Vert is the recipient of the Prix Ars Electronica 2008 Golden Nica in the Hybrid Art category.

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MICHEL WAISWISZ 1949 - 2008

Michel was gentle and always curious about my work when I was an artist in residence at STEIM. He was an inspiration and always willing to have a good conversation. In my last visit to STEIM in March, he was to kind to concede an interview that I have not finished because sound problems. This is the great material that he gave me and I placed it here from Live Electronic Music Festival (LEF) Paying with "The Hands" 11/22/2006 From STEIM message: Michel Waisvisz died peacefully in his home on Wednesday June 18 after fighting the mean cells in his body for the last eight months. He was born on the 8th of July 1949 and lead STEIM as Director for 27 years. He left us on a day when artists and friends from around the world gathered downstairs to perform for a full-house season-closing concert. Michel was a musician, visionary and occasional gardener - touched by sound and forever happy to be surprised. He was the source of an enormous surge of energy that continues to flow through STEIM into the world. We will miss his touch, crackle, inspiration and constant improvisation of the now. You can leave condolences at http://www.steim.org/michel/. MY DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO MICHEL'S FAMILY AND TO STEIM TEAM
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Dear friends and colleagues,Our second round of DANCE MOViES Commissions are underway!Below is our official announcement email, if you'd like to post the info anywhere or forward it to people...The full press release, which includes the short list, is attached as well. Our website is going to be updated in the next week so don't visit it for more info yet!Best wishes,Hélène LesterlinCurator, EMPAC----THE EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2008 DANCE MOViES COMMISSIONS!EMPAC – the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - announces the four recipients of the 2008 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission. Chosen from a short list of 28 projects by an international panel of dance-film practitioners, curators and producers, the projects range in format, style and emotional tone: from single-channel video installation to 16mm film, from the spectacular to the surreal.The projects will receive awards ranging from $7,000 to $40,000 and will be premiered in the fall of 2009 at EMPAC.EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2008 Recipients(in alphabetical order of titles)"Body/traces" by digital media artist Sophie Kahn and choreographer Lisa Parra (US)A single-channel video installation reanimating 3D laser scans of the body in motion, resulting in a ghostly imperfect trace of the dancer's movement at human-scale."Eyes Nose Mouth" choreographed and conceived by Noémie Lafrance, directed by Patrick Daughters (USA)A dance film in which one take follows a single figure, streaming through fast-changing and surreal environments, ceaselessly swept forward in the flux of urban time."Looking Forward - Man and Woman" directed by Roberta Marques, choreographed and performed by Michael Schumacher and Liat Waysbort (Brazil/Holland)The third film in a trilogy experimenting with the reversing of movement and time in video and dance, creating mind-binding illusions in partnering while on a Sunday walk on the beach."Sunscreen Serenade" directed and choreographed by Kriota Willberg, sound by Carmen Borgia, illustration/animation by R. Sikoryak (US)A global warming-themed Depression-era musical spectacle populated by scantily costumed hand puppets.The selection panel comprised Leonel Brum (Brazil), Lynette Kessler(USA), Christina Molander (Sweden), Laura Taler (Canada), Hélène Lesterlin, dance curator at EMPAC, and Johannes Goebel, the director of EMPAC.The DANCE MOViES Commission is a program launched by EMPAC to support the creation of new works in which dance meets the technologies of the moving image. As the first major commissioning program for dance film established in the US in 2007, it is already having a significant national and international impact. The four film projects commissioned in last year’s round will premier at EMPAC’s upcoming opening celebration in October 2008.The Commission is supported by EMPAC’s Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and the Performing Arts. It is open to artists based in North and South America who are making video, film and installation work.For more information, including the work selected for the short list , please visit www.empac.rpi.edu.
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Package LessThurs-Sun, June 19*, 20, 21 &22, 2008 8 PM, (*Benefit Performance on June 19)Tickets are $18/$12 students and seniors, to purchase please click here or call 212-352-3101Please join us for our Benefit PerformanceThursday June 19, 8 PM to 11 PM includes artist talk and receptionTickets are $50, $25 & $18. To purchase tickets click here or call 917 531 1171.Proceeds from the benefit performance help us to pay for expenses related to “Package Less”LocationJoyce SoHo155 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince Street) New York, NY917-531-1171Martha Williams’ new choreography for four dancers and one actor Package Less examines and overlaps ideas on the societal need to be constantly re-educated, re-organized and re-informed for one’s basic survival/success and how this differs between men and women. Exploring the concept of “Human Capital” and the role of self-help therapies, the choreographer deals with the constant need of being functional and flexible in order to deal with the economic aspects of the American society. For this work, Ms. Williams is inspired by Micki McGee (Self-Help, Inc.) and her perspectives on productivity and the psychological aspects of economy.Director/Choreographer: Martha Williams / Dancers: Toby Billowitz, Tess Blanchard and Jen Kosky / Actor: Michael Wiener / Writers: Martha Williams and Michael Weiner / Sound Designer: Norm Scott / Lighting Designer: Jay Ryan
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Interact with us

FireBox will be spending next week at the UK Theatre School courtesy of the Dance House working on new material for an interactive dance performance. The exciting part is...that as well as being able to watch the FireBox dancers performing, you will also be able to get involved and get interacting with the piece. Don't worry you don't need to dance if you don't want to, you just have to be willing to hold a light and move around the room. Easy.Come along on Friday 20th June at 6pm for your chance to watch it, try it out or both!UK Theatre School - opposite the old Odeon cinema4 West Regent Street,GlasgowG2 1RW
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The Practice Room, The Poles and The Paper

It's been a busy time for FireBox recently with a few breakthroughs in terms of my degree project, the first draft of my masters due in and working on a dance film with some contemporary/pole dancers.Isadora is starting to behave herself in the Practice Room at The Arches just in time for my Dance House creative lab at the UK theatre school next week. I've got nice LED lights to use as a trigger and the dancers have been working on some great sequences that will be used as the basis for their improvisations. I'd asked them to choreograph their own combos as I'd wanted something different from my usual style and they ended up creating 4 different combos that are very much my style - perhaps we've all been working together too long!I still need to get all my extra dancers together one weekend to film the movie clips for the piece and, as always, I'm expecting that to be a logistical nightmare.Two of my dancers, Gill Smith and Suzi Kelly, have been going to pole dancing classes recently and were keen to combine it with contemporary dance so we got together and made a film with them showing off their new skills. The first edit is done and as soon as they've signed off on it I'll be punting it around different events and getting it shown.

Finally, the dreaded paper. The first draft is in and I'm waiting on some feedback before I get stuck in to completing it. There are some things I already know need to be expanded upon and clarified but the basis is there so I just need to get my head down and get on with it.
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Our new Interactive Installation

Hello,with my group d-flesh (Christian Delecluse and myself) we are showing a new interactive installation called "Dans le noir" (In the dark) in the third edition of festival "Bains numériques" in Enghien-les-bains. It is in the Centre des Arts, the theatre we are in permanent residency as associated artist during the 2007-2008 period. In the second edition we performed Under-score (see the pictures I've posted).It is a sound installation for one spectator about losing the sense of self creating a trouble in the perception of his/her own movements. It lasts 4 minutes and each spectator is alone in the total darkness. sounds are triggered and spatialized over 8 channels of sound by his/her movements.Sorry, no pictures (total darkness:-)
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In my Kinetic Interface blog, I'm very interested in the connection among dance, movement, and new body and movement-centric interfaces. I compiled a guide to videos of new interfaces that you can review.I'm curious to what extent dancers and those trained in Laban Movement Analysis might contribute to the creation and analysis of new body and movement-based interfaces?Along these lines, I came across a paper titled "Understanding Movement for Interaction Design: Frameworks and Approaches." (L Loke, AT Larssen, T Robertson and J Edwards, in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 11, no. 8, 2007, 691-702. You can read the paper in PDF format.Here is the abstract:"The results of a study of two computer games, that use human movement as direct input, were analysed using four existing frameworks and approaches, drawn from different disciplines that relate to interaction and movement. This enabled the exploration of the relationships between bodily actions and the corresponding responses from technology. Interaction analysis, two design frameworks and Laban movement analysis were chosen for their ability to provide different perspectives on human movement in interaction design. Each framework and approach provided a different, yet still useful, perspective to inform the design of movement-based interaction. Each allowed us to examine the interaction between the player and the game technology in quite distinctive ways. Each contributed insights that the others did not."I would be curious what dance-tech community members think about the use of LMA in conjunction with the other frameworks used to analyze human movement as direct input in the context of the Sony EyeToy.If you were conducting this or a similar study, what frameworks would you use?If anybody knows of the application of movement analysis in a commercial setting, I would very much like to know about this work.I look forward to your thoughts.
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Dancing in the Fields : Site Specific Video

via The Clytemnestra ProjectI'm spending the first few weeks of June in Skidmore with the Martha Graham Dance Company leading a class in Dance Media.Along with Peter Sparling, who is teaching Composition during the residency, we shot and edited this video today. The video features original choreography from 37 individual dancers.
Dancing in the Fields from Jaki Levy on Vimeo.Believe it or not, the Martha Graham Dance Company is moving boldly once again.
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BIBAP - body in bits and pieces

A project by Carolien Hermans, V2_ and NPS2006-2007Dancers: Kyungsun Baek, Jefta van Dinther, Aimar Perez Gali, Maria Mavridou, Pere Faurawww.bibap.nlIn the Kinkerbuurt, Amsterdam West, a man is chased. His pursuer wants his skin, literally: he wants to take over his body. BIBAP is about the physical act of running, about exhaustion, about breathing, about keep-on-going even while you can’t. BIBAP is about rhythm, about repetition, about what will happen when you eventually stop running.Body in Bits and Pieces (BIBAP) is a cross media dance project, initiated by choreograper and director Carolien Hermans. BIBAP contains a thriller-like dance movie and a poetic online dance story. After the realization of the prototype for the BIBAP interactive Internet project in 2006, V2_ coordinated the realization of the final version of the BIBAP online application. This application cleverly combines dance film with gaming technology by integrating dance movie clips into an interactive application. Through a combination of physical and virtual interaction with the application a user is immersed into a virtual world in which a story unfolds based on expressive dancing and many interactive surprises. The virtual world is inspired on Amsterdam ‘Oud-West’ and several parts of this area in Amsterdam have been recreated in the virtual world of BIBAP. While the full dance movie by Danslab is about a running man chased by 'body-invaders', this relation is reversed in the Internet application. There the user takes the perspective of the running man, but this time he is chasing the 'body invaders', leading to many exciting dance encounters.Bibap is funded by the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NPS) and the Stimuleringsfonds voor Nederlandse Culturele Omroepproducties (STIFO).
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Dance Away Your Debt

Hi Dance-techers! My friend just sent this to me - I thought it was an interesting project - Let me know if you end up participating!CALL FOR DANCERS/CHOREOGRAPHERS OF ALL TYPESDANCE AWAY YOUR DEBTPerformance piece by Alexis Clements & New Acquisition (www.newacquisition.org)Casting:We're looking for dancers, choreographers and/or groups who would like to dance, in any way they like, as part of our Dance Away Your Debt performance at FIGMENT 2008 (http://figmentnyc.org/).Production Dates:June 28 & June 29 (Sat & Sunday) -- we aren't going to be there on the Friday. We're going to have two 3-hour slots, one on each day for the performance.Production Location:Governors Island (specific location TBD)Rehearsals:We'll have one meeting before the performance to sort details and scheduling. This meeting will be mandatory. No other rehearsals will be set up.Compensation:No pay but possibility of continued work on the piece beyond this performance--we're looking at a couple other festivals for the summer and maybe a couple DIY performances in town.About the Show:New Acquisition is a series of free literary pamphlets--brief pamphlets filled with writing and art focused on a variety of themes--and performances inspired by the pamphlets. Design inspiration and themes for each issue are drawn from early and contemporary American religious and political pamphlets. (read more here: http://www.newacquisition.org/content/view/26/42/)Dance Away Your Debt is a reaction to the ever-growing amount of personal debt that Americans are taking on. These days everybody's got debt, in one form or another, or is headed toward having debt, and everybody's frustrated by how little progress they seem to make in paying it off and how much more quickly they are accumulating new debt—we're all feeling the pinch with the economy in its current state. Riffing on the get-rich-quick and be-debt-free scams that abound in the United States, the pamphlet (which has already been printed) takes a slightly different approach. We're encouraging them to get their debt frustrations out by dancing, which keeps them healthier so that they don't have more health care bills, and keeps them happy and occupied, so they don't go out and buy more stuff, and so on. We'd like to choreograph a specific Dance Away Your Debt dance which we will post to YouTube, but we'd also like to get videos of other people dancing away their debt. To that end we'll be taping people at the event and encouraging people to submit their own video responses and dances. The performance at FIGMENT 2008 will involve setting up a collapsible tent with a table, pamphlets and other information. We will then also have pamphleteers working the crowd. Then, beside the tent, we'll have a mix of professional dancers (contemporary dancers, ballroom dancers, step teams, belly dancers, ballet dancers, freestyle dancing, etc) and those from the audience, involved in a collective effort to Dance Away Your Debt.(read the contents of the pamphlet here: http://www.newacquisition.org/content/blogsection/10/78/)About Figment:FIGMENT is an annual participatory arts event on Governors Island in New York Harbor. The mission of FIGMENT is to provide a forum for community-based participatory art and experience. FIGMENT strives to build community among artists and participants, to foster the participatory artsin New York City, and to demonstrate a vision for the future of Governors Island as an international arts destination.FIGMENT was launched on July 8, 2007 as a one-day cultural event. More than 2,500 people attended. In 2008, it is expanding to three-day event from June 27 - 29. With the foundation of last year's success and the increasing popularity of Governors Island as a cultural venue, many more people are expected this year.TO PARTICIPATE:Please send a brief bio or information about your group, any video clips that are available and/or links to your website. We'll be in touch soon after we get your info. The meeting for participants will take place during the week of June 24. Please submit all information and links to alexis@newacquisition.org.IF YOU CAN'T BE THERE BUT WANT TO SHOW US YOUR MOVES ANYWAY - SUBMIT A VIDEO. Please start Dancing Away Your Debt, tape it, post it to YouTube and tag it with 'New Acquisition' and 'Dance Away Your Debt' and then send us the link, then we'll embed the video on our site.
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From TED: Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves, passing from brain to brain like a physical virus. At TED2008, Blackmore makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new category of meme, the "teme," which spreads itself via technology -- and invents brand-new ways to keep itself alive. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:28.) Do you know of anybody researching "memes" and movement? are dance styles "memes"?
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dance-tech.net with the support of its institutional partner Eroktronix is launching the contest "Interfacing Motion with MidiTron Wireless" to support a young active dance/performance artist in his or her initial explorations on interactive multimedia control for live performance of movement. For each of two consecutive 6-month periods,a selected artist will be given a new MidiTron Wireless to be used as an interface in new project involving the use of physical sensors for gestural control of multimedia during live performance. The selected artist commits to document and share the creative process using rich multimedia (writing, photos and videos) using his or her blog in dance-tech.net at least once a month during 6month after receiving the MidiTron Wireless The selected artist will also be eligible for a one month residency at LEMUR in Brooklyn (http://lemurbots.org). Who can apply: -Only dance-tech.net members -Based in the US. -Independent artists that are not full faculty at any university -Artist must have technical facility to understand wiring and hooking up sensors or have a collaborator with this facility. -The artist must be in beginning stages of exploration on interactive performance -Basic knowledge in any interactive software platform such as: Isadora, Maxmspjitter, Pure Data, sound-platforms, etc How to apply: -Send project proposal via email to marlon@dance-tech.net with the subject: Interfacing Motion with the MidiTron Wireless -Brief Bio and url of website -Artistic statement -One page project proposal with a clear description of your concept, system and the specifics of the out-puts. What kind of sensors will you use? diagrams? drawings? what kind of outputs are you planning to use. - Video documentation of 2 recent projects uploaded in dance-tech.net -When would you start the project (you can select of a year after receiving the Miditron) -State if you are interested in the residency at LEMUR in Brooklyn (http://lemurbots.org). Selection jury: Eric Singer (Director of Lemuplex) Down Stopello from Troika Ranch (http://www.troikaranch.org/) Marlon Barrios Solano (dance-tech.net) Deadline: July 15th/midnight Eastern time Selected artist will be announced July 25th Email for any inquires to marlon@dance-tech.net See video [pdcasts about the Miditron Wireless
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