Chris Joseph

Thursday 1st May 2008, 6.00pm - 7.15pm

Paul Brown, Origins and Emergence - a brief history of the digital arts

Doors open at 5.30pm for drinks. This event is free and open to the public, however places are limited - please email info [at] ioctsalon.com to reserve a seat.

Download the flyer for this event (PDF)

This illustrated presentation will give an overview of the history of the digital arts from their origins in the analogue kinetics and Jazz/Poetry performances of the 1950’s to current practice. Key themes like Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life/Emergence, Computational and Generative, Interaction, Convergence, Communication and Networking will be identified and discussed. In particular the speaker will revisit predictions he made in the late 1980’s when he suggested that any new media need a minimum 40 year gestation period which he suggests is now coming to term. He will illustrate this hypothesis by using current web2 manifestations as examples of digital media emerging in their own right in contrast to our previous metaphorical adaptations.

About Paul Brown:

Paul Brown is an Anglo-Australian artist and writer who has specialised in art, science & technology since the late 1960s and in computational & generative art since the mid 1970s. His international exhibition record spans four decades and includes the creation of both permanent and temporary public artworks. He has participated in shows at major venues like the TATE, Victoria & Albert and ICA in the UK; the Adelaide Festival; ARCO in Spain and the Venice Biennale. His work is represented in public, corporate and private collections in Australia, Asia, Europe, Russia and the USA.

From 1997-99 he was Chair of the Management Board of the Australian Network for Art Technology and he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards for LEA, the e-journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (MIT Press), and the journal Digital Creativity (Routledge). From 1992 to 1999 he edited fineArt forum, one of the Internet’s longest established art ‘zines and he is currently Chair of the international Computer Arts Society (CAS) and moderator of the DASH (Digital ArtS Histories) and CAS e-lists.

During 2000/2001 he was a New Media Arts Fellow of the Australia Council when he spent 2000 as artist-in-residence at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. From 2002-05 he was a visiting fellow in the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he worked on the CACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc…) project and he is currently (2005-08) visiting professor and artist-in-residence at the CCNR, University of Sussex where he is working on a project to evolve robots that can draw.

He lives on the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland, Australia.

Examples of his artwork and publications are available on his website at http://www.paul-brown.com.

Read more

“Buddy Rivers Live at the Leroy (the automatic comedian)” by Dave Miller
Venue: 55 Leroy St, Bermondsey, London SE1
Date: 26 April 3-6pm

The Leroy Club was a legendary venue in the 1950’s comedy circuit, where many famous comedians started out. One of these was Buddy Rivers, who’s returned to do this benefit performance to help save the venue. He hasn’t done standup for years and fears he’s lost his edge, so now uses computer programs and Internet searches to generate his jokes. How will the audience react? Join in the show from 3-6pm at the Leroy or online at:

http://davemiller.org/experiments/buddy_rivers_leroy

‘Buddy Rivers Live’ is a live performance experiment in networked and collaborative narratives. Dave Miller (http://davemiller.org) tells stories through images and text-based works, mixing topical social and
political real-life issues, news and events, with his own experiences, views and observations. His practice spans several art forms, from net art exploring collaboration, networks and generative forms, to live mapping events and printed booklets and prints.

Travel:

Underground: Elephant & Castle, London Bridge, Tower Hill, Tower Gateway

National Rail: Elephant & Castle, London Bridge

Bus: 1, 42, 188

55 Leroy St: Further Investigations is a project by The Space In-Between. The Space In-Between is an umbrella for a series of
experimental research and development projects. It aims to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations that extend artistic practice and provide opportunities for artists and creative individuals to share new work with interested audiences.

For further information contact Linda Duffy on 07905 408 121 / lm_duffy [at] yahoo.com

Matt Watkins of Active Ingredient at the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT), De Montfort University, Leicester, UK on 1st February 2007. Supported by the Arts Council England.

Love City was a mobile phone game by Active Ingredient launched on Valentine’s Day 2007, played between the 3 cities of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, where players sent messages of love to one another. At this Salon Matt talks about the project and Active Ingredient.