Chris Joseph Electronic writer and artist

Jan van Eyck Academie research and production residencies, Maastricht, The Netherlands – deadline 15 April 2010

http://www.janvaneyck.nl/

Call for applications
Deadline: 15 April 2010

Artists, designers and theoreticians are invited to submit research and production proposals to become a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Candidates can either apply with a topic of their own or for a project formulated by the institute itself. In order to realise these projects, the Jan van Eyck offers the necessary made-to-measure artistic, technical and auxiliary preconditions.

The Jan van Eyck Academie is an institute for research and production in the fields of fine art, design and theory. Every year, 48 international researchers realise their individual or collective projects in the artistic and critical environment that is the Jan van Eyck. In doing so, they are advised by a team of artists, designers and theoreticians who have won their spurs globally. The researchers can also avail themselves of facilities that support their projects from first concept to public presentation. All in all, the Jan van Eyck offers artists, designers and theoreticians time and space to do research and realise productions, either about topics of their own choosing or as part of a project formulated by the institute itself.

Multi-Disciplinary Research
Artists, designers and theoreticians at the Jan van Eyck Academie work alongside each other and establish cross-disciplinary exchange. The academy is not led by predetermined leitmotivs. Artists, designers and theoreticians can submit independently formulated proposals for research and/or production in the departments of Fine Art, Design and Theory. They can also participate in research projects formulated by the departments.

The research projects, miscellaneous in nature, make the Jan van Eyck a multi-disciplinary institute. This also shows in the programme of the institute. Researchers, departments and the institute organise various weekly activities, to which special speakers are invited: lectures, seminars, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, discussions, … The Jan van Eyck community and external interested parties are welcome to attend this programme. The result is a dynamic and critical exchange between the different agents from within and outside of the Jan van Eyck.

Facilities
Researchers are advised by a team of artists, designers and theoreticians who have won their spurs globally. They receive their own studio and a stipend. Furthermore, researchers can make use of all kinds of facilities which support their projects, from first concept to public presentation, including the library, the documentation centre and various workshops: materials (wood and other materials); time-based productions; analogue and digital (online and offline) publishing (including photography and silkscreen). They can also get assistance with their print work, the editing and distribution of publications and the publicity of events. more info

Applications
Candidates applying for Fine Art, Design or Theory are asked to propose an individual research project. They can also indicate their interest in participating in one of the projects that are offered by the department of their choice or one of the other departments.

The academic year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Research candidates can apply for a one-year or two-year research period starting annually on 1 January. It is also possible to apply to do research for a different period and with a different starting date. more info

Video messages
Please visit our website on a regular basis for the upcoming series of video messages by Kim de Groot, designer of the JVE 2010 recruitment campaign.

Call for Applications: New Media MA, University of Amsterdam – deadline 1 April 2010

Overview

The International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture (NMMA) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is accepting applications for 2010-2011 academic year. The NMMA is a one-year residence program undertaken in English at UvA in the heart of Amsterdam. Students become actively engaged in critical Internet culture, with an emphasis on new media theory and aesthetics, including theoretical materialist traditions and practical information visualization trends. Our permanent faculty are recognized experts in their fields, who are committed to their students. The program admits approximately forty students per year, classes are usually no larger than 20 and often smaller, and the faculty-to-student ratio is 1:8.

Curriculum and Academics

1st Semester: students follow a course in academic blogging, led by critical Internet theorist and tactical media practitioner Geert Lovink. Their entries form the internationally noted Masters of Media site, http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/, regarded as a top blog for new media research and nominated for a Dutch blog award for best education blog. The concurrent new media theories course focuses on classic texts by innovators from Alan Turing to Tim Berners-Lee. The final first semester class, Digital Methods, given by the program Chair, Richard Rogers, trains students in novel techniques for Internet research, http://www.digitalmethods.net/.

2nd Semester: the student chooses between courses on digital aesthetics, new media politics or information visualization. The digital aesthetics course is theoretically inclined in the traditions of art history and visual culture, and the new media politics class is concerned with the transformations the Internet is bringing to politics. Information visualization is a joint theoretical-practical collaboration between designers, programmers and analysts, where the product is an online tool, digital visualization or interactive graphic. The course of study concludes with the M.A. thesis, an original analysis that makes a contribution to the field, undertaken with the close mentorship of a faculty supervisor. The graduation ceremony includes an international symposium with renowned speakers. Graduates of the NMMA have gained an analytical and practical skill-set that enables diverse careers in research and practice-related areas that make use of the Internet, including business, government, NGOs, and creative industries that are evolving with emerging new media. Our graduates include Lotte Meijer, winner of a Webby award, and Eva Kol, whose MA thesis, Hyves, was published by Kosmos in 2008 and sold over 5000 copies its first year in print.

Student Life

The quality-of-living in Amsterdam ranks among the highest of international capitals. UvA’s competitive tuition (see below) and the ubiquity of spoken English both on and off-campus make the program especially accommodating for foreign students. The city’s many venues, festivals, and other events provide remarkably rich cultural offerings and displays of technological innovation. The program has ties to organizations including PICNIC, the Waag Society, Institute for Network Cultures, Virtueel Platform, Netherlands Institute for Media Art, govcom.org, and other cultural institutions, where internship opportunities may be available, in consultation with the student’s thesis supervisor. Students attend and blog, twitter or otherwise capture local new media events and festivals, while commenting as well on larger international issues and trends pertaining to new media. The quality of student life is equally to be found in the university’s lively and varied intellectual climate. NMMA students come from North and South America, Africa, Asia and across Europe and from academic and professional backgrounds including journalism, art and design, engineering, the humanities and social sciences.

Call for participation – Soft Borders Conference & Festival, Brazil – deadline 30 April 2010

We invite proposals of papers, posters and workshops for Soft Border – the 4th Upgrade! International Conference & Festival on New Media Art, that will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from Oct 18th to 21st. All the information about submitting proposals and the event can be also found online at the conference official website at http://www.softborders.art.br/eng A brief summary only is required for the selection process. This should be submitted electronically via the online submission system, by 30/April/2010. You will be asked to create an account with the system before uploading your summary.

We require a summary proposal of 500 words maximum. The title, authors’ name, affiliation and contact details including email address must be provided as well. You don’t need to upload the full paper now. The selected works must upload the full paper file after the notification of acceptance. In case of problems, please email program-chair@softborders.art.br.

Subject coverage
Soft Borders embraces a wide variety of topics, cross-displinary approaches and presentations of cutting edge technologies. Within the overall theme of soft borders, the subject areas may include but are not limited to the concepts and practice of:
• Authorship
• Body / Machine
• Reality / Thought
• Collaborative Actions
• Displacements: global & local transactions
• Nomadic spaces
• Ways of interaction and Interfaces
• Digital Narratives
• Art & Code
• Visualising ideas and concepts
• Digital performance
• Immersive environments
• Web 2.0 technologies in art and culture
• Sound, music, film and animation
• Technologies of digitisation, 2D and 3D imaging
• Virtual and augmented worlds
Case studies may be accepted, provided that they include discussions of wider principles or applications using the case study as an example.

Publication
Papers / posters / worshops are peer refereed and may be edited. Publication is in hard copy as conference preprints and also online. Full papers are up 2.000 words in length and may include images. Publication is not essential: if you do not wish to submit a paper for publication we can publish an abstract.

Acceptance and deadlines
The deadline for submitting abstract is 30 April 2010.?We aim to send notifications of acceptance of proposals by 19 July 2010.?The deadline for uploading full papers of the accepted proposals will be 19 August 2010.

Registration
There is no registration fee for the accepted speakers. However, each presenter must cover his/her costs for participating of the conference.

Sponsorship and demonstrations
There are also attractive opportunities for organisations to support an aspect of the conference such as the publication or a reception or coffee breaks, or conference materials. Please contact sponsorship@softborders.art.br if you are interested in sponsor the event in some way.