[spectre] user_mode = emotion + intuition in art + design, 9 - 11 May
honor
honor at va.com.au
Fri Apr 11 18:27:03 CEST 2003
hi spectres,
for those of you based within the UK, or within travelling distance to
London, i wanted to let you know about the major international symposium we
are staging at tate modern, 9 - 11 may, called user_mode = emotion +
intuition in art + design.
the event features artists, designers and researchers such as gary hill,
sara diamond, natalie bookchin, foam, joshua davis, and lev manovich and
many others.
i'd be absolutely delighted if some of you would be able to come along.
best
honor
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USER_MODE DESCRIPTION AND PROGRAMME
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user_mode
= emotion + intuition in art + design
an international symposium
London, UK
http://www.usermode.net
Friday 9 May, 1030 1830
Saturday 10 May, 1030 2200
Starr Auditorium,
Tate Modern
Sunday 11 May, 1330 - 1800
Wellcome Wing
Science Museum
London
Tickets: £60 (£30 concessions)
For tickets, please contact: Tate Ticketing
Email: ticketing at tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7887 8888
user_mode is major collaboration between Central Saint Martins College of
Art and Design and Tate Modern, supported by Intel Corporation, with the
Science Museum
user_mode is an international, multidisciplinary symposium looking at
interactive art and design practices. It will examine one of the key
concerns for many creative practitioners - engaging the emotions of the
audience/user.
Participants include: Gary Hill (artist, USA), Sara Diamond (Banff Centre
for the Arts, Canada), David Ross (former Director of SFMOMA, USA), Stuart
Jones (composer and sound artist, UK), Lev Manovich (new media theorist,
USA) and Tobi Schneidler (Interactive Institute, Sweden).
Full list below.
The event will feature:
- a two day symposium at Tate Modern, featuring leading international
artists, designers, theorists and technologists
- an electronic music concert at Tate Modern on Saturday 10 May, which
includes live performances by leading musicians, Akufen, Golan Levin and
Janek Schaefer
- a wireless media lounge
- an interactive exhibit at the Science Museum, RemoteHome by Tobi
Schneidler, which envisages the living spaces of the future through
interactive furniture and a live connection between London and Berlin
- an activity day at the Science Museum, featuring guided tours of
interactive art works
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USER_MODE PARTICIPANTS
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- Akufen [ Canada ]: a musician who constructs electronic compositions from
micro samples of radio broadcasts
- Dr Maribeth J. Back [USA]: a researcher, formerly at MIT, who will be
presenting the Listen Reader book
- Simon Biggs [ UK ]: an artist who creates immersive art installations
- Natalie Bookchin & Jacqueline Stevens [ USA ] an artist and a political
scientist who are presently working on online multiplayer artworks
- Jonah Brucker-Cohen [ Ireland / USA ]: an artist and designer whose work
addresses physical interfaces
- Anthony Burrill [ UK ]: a graphic designer working with sound toys and
interaction
- Carole Collett [ UK ]: Course Director, MA Design for Textile Futures,
Central Saint Martins, London
- Susan Collins [ UK ]: an artist who creates participatory and immersive
artworks
- Joshua Davies [USA]: a designer and artist who makes evocative web-based
artworks
- Sara Diamond [ Canada ]: Artistic Director of Media & Visual Arts &
Research, Banff Centre, Canada
- Arthur Elsenor & Remko Scha [Netherlands]: artists and researchers who
work with robotics and facial expression
- The Faraway Project [ Sweden/Italy ]: a group who work with wireless
navigation and emotional space
- FOaM [ Belgium/Netherlands ]: a group who create immersive envionments in
sound, interactive textiles and visual media
- Masaki Fujihata [ Japan ]: an artist who works with interactive installation
- Peter Higgins [ UK ]: an interaction designer who creates interactive
discovery environments
- Anna Hill [ Ireland ]: an artist who uses sound recordings from the
Aurora Borealis and human breath to create interactive experiences
- Gary Hill [ USA ]: an artist who works with video installation
- Crispin Jones [ UK ]: an interaction designer who works pain and fear
- Stuart Jones [ UK ]: a sound artist who is presently working with
responsive architectural environments
- Golan Levin [ USA ]: an artist and engineer who works with interactive
sound and performance
- Lev Manovich [ USA/Russia ]: a theorist and writer of new media
- Irene McAra-McWilliam [ UK ]: Professor of Interaction Design at Royal
College of Arts (RCA), UK
- Gordana Novakovic [ UK/Yugoslavia ]: a theorist presently exploring
relationships between theatre and interactive installation
- Hannah Redler [ UK]: curator for c/PLEX, West Bromwich, UK
- David Ross [ USA ]: a curator and former Director of SFMOMA and the
Whitney, USA
- Janek Schaefer [ UK ]: a musician who works with the vinyl record as
compositional tool
- Tobi Scheidler [ Sweden ]: an architect and designer at the Interactive
Institute, Sweden
- Selectparks [ Australia ]: a group of games developers working with
multiplayer games, music and architecture
- Jenny Tillotson & George Dodd [ UK ]: a designer and a scientist working
with the artistic properties of aroma
- Brendan Walker [ UK ]: a designer who is presently exploring methods of
engineering thrill
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USER_MODE ABOUT THE EVENT
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user_mode will examine one of the key concerns for many creative
practitioners: how to engage the emotions of the audience|user. Artists,
designers and critics frequently refer to ‘emotional engagement’ but what
is meant by this? Is it immersion, rapture, agency, reflection? This
question is crucial to interactive art and design practice where the user's
response is sensitive to context and can influence not only the form and
content of the work but also, in some cases, the future direction of
technological development.
Ubiquitous computing and mobile technologies are so embedded in our
environment they play a significant role in the forming and reforming of
personal identity and the flux of social relations. We are on the cusp of a
wireless revolution that promises increased access to communications
networks and significant changes to how we work, play, learn and live our
lives. Attention is moving away from the machines themselves to the value
of the experience they can offer. How do they enable us feel and behave?
How can they enhance that intangible thing, our humanity?
user_mode is a constellation of international artists, designers,
technologists and theorists whose work addresses these issues from a range
of practices. There will be presentations of art installation, AI,
architecture, electronic music, networked role playing games, graphic
communication, interaction design, net art, performance, smart textiles and
wearable technologies. The symposium is a framework for discussion and
exchange through which different disciplines can offer their perspective on
user engagement and benefit from each other’s insights. The symposium will
ask if the participatory nature of interactive art and design offers a more
profound experience than traditional forms of art and design.
user_mode is a collaboration between Central Saint Martins College of Art
and Design and Tate Modern. It is a follow up to the two-day international
conference “The Allure of the Digital” held at Tate Britain in 1999.
Central Saint Martins’ role is to challenge conventional wisdom and promote
new insight through inspired creative practice and this event is a
significant opportunity to drive forward the growing interest amongst
staff, students and researchers in humanising technologies. Tate Modern has
a wide-ranging programme of Public Events events which facilitate, foster
and make public multi-disciplinary debates on modern and contemporary
visual art and culture. user_mode is part of the dynamic Culture and
Technology strand of programming, which seeks to examines the impact of new
technologies on artistic practice.
The symposium is the first of its kind at Tate Modern to be structured
around an international Call for Papers. The huge number of proposals
received and the inspirational quality of the work demonstrates the spread
of the practice and the currency of the topic. The symposium reflects the
breadth and concerns of the submissions. On the first day it explores the
poetics, techniques and purpose of engaging the user’s emotions and then on
the second day goes on to discuss subjectivity, identity and social ecologies.
The event will culminate at the Science Museum where the audience will be
able to view the interactive art installations and the RemoteHome, a piece
specially commissioned for the symposium.
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USER_MODE PROGRAMME
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DAY ONE: FRIDAY 9TH MAY
1100 1300
Session 1: Poetics and Spectacle
Is there a tension or conflict between metaphor and spectacle in
interactive work? Metaphor creates a chain of associations and provides a
pathway to engagement, interpretation and participation while the ultimate
spectacle stuns and overwhelms an audience reducing them to passive
spectators. Is spectacle intrinsically non participatory? This session will
feature presentations by installation artists and theorists, who are
exploring metaphors for interaction and poetic approaches to engaging
visitors in an interactive experience. Each presentation will last for
approximately 20 minutes, and will be followed by a discussion, with
audience feedback and questions.
Chair: David Ross
• Gary Hill [USA] makes some of the world’s most compelling video art
installations which continually seek to trick the senses into perceptions
beyond their comprehension
• Gordana Novakovic [UK/Yugoslavia] interactive installation artist will
address mixed realities, fear, spectacle and global (un)conscious]
• Masaki Fujihata [Japan] explores the fluidity of physical space in his
interactive art installations, which deeply engage the emotions of the user
Lunchtime Demo:
The Remotehome Tobi Schneidler, the wireless lounge
1400 1600
Session 2: Interactivity & Subjectivity: the quality of experience
How do we conceptualise interactivity and incorporate emotional values?
Each presentation will last for approximately 20 minutes, and will be
followed by a discussion, with audience feedback and questions.
Chair: Irene McAra-McWilliam
• Stuart Jones [UK] works on environments that respond to a person’s
presence as an organism.
• Maribeth Back [USA] will present the The Listen Reader, an experimental
book originated at Xerox PARC which illustrates how new technologies can
contribute to the emotional experience of reading.
• Brendan Walker [UK] investigates how the emotion of thrill can be
practically engineered
1630 1830:
Session 3: Session 3: Sensory Experience: perception and feeling.
Artists and designers seem compelled to expand the sensory capabilities of
our bodies. What do we gain through this process? How does your work
change how we experience perception and feeling?
This session will feature presentations by aroma researchers, installation
artists and designers who explore the science of sensory experience in
their work. Each presentation will last for approximately 20 minutes, and
will be followed by a discussion, with audience feedback and questions.
Chair: Sara Diamond
• Jenny Tillotson and George Dodd [UK] explore what they term the most
emotional of our senses smell. Can art be created using aroma?
• Anna Hill [Ireland] uses sound recordings from the Aurora Borealis and
human breath to create interactive experiences
• Crispin Jones [UK] explores the use of pain and fear in art installation
and product design
DAY TWO: SATURDAY 10 MAY
1100 1300
Session 4: Data Aesthetics: extending the palette
If aesthetics are visual conventions do they limit experience? Are the
aesthetics of screen media and interactive experience a self-referential
system? How do you extend this aesthetic palette?
This session will feature three presentations by media theorists and
artists, whose work addresses the aesthetics of digital media and
interactive experience. The session will explore the way artists and
designers visualise information. Each presentation will last for
approximately 20 minutes, and will be followed by a discussion, with
audience feedback and questions.
Chair: David Ross
• Lev Manovich [Russia /USA] theorises that an entirely new language is
needed to discuss new media and digital aesthetics.
• Joshua Davies [USA] creates highly evocative web projects and is one of
the internet's most noted creative talents
• Jonah Brucker-Cohen [USA/Ireland] produces highly physical, often
mechanical, artistic interfaces for digital processes
1400 1600
Session 5: Immersion: the individual and the social subject
How does immersive experience change our point of view? How can interactive
experience create a social as well as an individual subject? This session
will feature three presentations by installation artists and interactive
environment designers, who will address the way in which interaction can
assist with the process of creating immersive experiences. Each
presentation will last for approximately 20 minutes, and will be followed
by a discussion, with audience feedback and questions.
Chair: Sara Diamond
• Simon Biggs [UK] creates large scale immersive interactive art
installations and participatory internet and CDROM artworks
• Golan Levin [USA] makes interactive systems which allow people tocreate
and perform animation and synthetic sound in real time
• Susan Collins [UK] makes artworks which engage users in the collective
creation of interactive fiction as immersive experience
• Selectparks [Australia] create artistic multiplayer games which recreate
architectural spaces as games and allow gaming engines to be used as
musical instruments
1630 1830
Session 6: Social Ecologies: learning, playing, belonging
How do we create work that sustains human relationships and social
dynamics? This session will feature presentation by interaction designers,
architects, games developers and artists who will focus on how interactive
technology can be used to create social experiences. Each presentation will
last for approximately 20 minutes, and will be followed by a discussion,
with audience feedback and questions.
Chair: Irene McAra-McWilliam
• Natalie Bookchin [USA] creates internet art projects and Jackie Stevens [
USA ] is a political scientist who interrogates the politics of online
multiplayer games
• Peter Higgins [UK] designs museum exhibits which use play to engage
visitors in interactive learning experiences
• FoAM [Belgium/Netherlands] create physical and audio-visual worlds
insound, interactive textiles and visual media, and enable participants to
be the active shapers of these worlds
• Tobi Schneidler [Sweden/Germany] focuses on the convergence of
architectural space with interactive technologies. His RemoteHome
installation shows how remote technologies can be used to create a
flat-sharing scenario across two cities.
2000 2200
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USER_MODE ELECTRONIC MUSIC CONCERT
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user_mode = emotion + interaction in electronic performance electronic
music concert Akufen, Janek Schaefer & Golan Levin
Complementing the user_mode symposium, this event will feature live
performances by leading electronic musicians and performers. In tandem
with its exploration of the emotional dimension of electronic music, this
event will show ways that interactive techniques can dissolve the boundary
between musician and listener, artist and spectator, and producer and user.
• Akufen (Marc Leclair) constructs invigorating electronic compositions
comprised of microsamples of radio broadcasts
• Janek Schaefer is a musician and sound artist based in London whose work
addresses the role of the vinyl record as a compositional tool.
.
• Golan Levin is an artist, composer, and performer from New York, who
works with interactive performance, installation, software design and
mobile telephony
Ticketed seperately: £10 (£6 concessions)
For tickets, please contact: Tate Ticketing
Email: ticketing at tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7887 8888
DAY THREE: SUNDAY 11 MAY
13:30 15:00
user_mode activities at Science Museum: Proximity, Distance and Communication
Does person to person connectivity in the home and community lead to an
enclosed personal world or to an open world where self and society
interact? A seminar featuring interaction designers, artists and games
developers will illustrate how technology can be employed in the creation
of emotionally engaging interactive experiences. The seminar will be
followed by a guided tour of the Science Museum’s interactive art displays,
paying particular attention to Tobi Schneidler’s RemoteHome exhibition,
which has been installed especially for user_mode.
Chair Hannah Redler
• Tobi Schneidler and Carole Collet on the RemoteHome
• The Faraway project , Kristina Andersen [DK/UK], Margot Jacobs [Sweden],
Laura Polazzi [Italy] investigate how emotions can be communicated over
distance using physical wireless devices connecting remote locations
• Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha [Netherlands] show "artificial emotions"
on a computer-controlled human face.
• Anthony Burrill [UK] graphic designer who has developed a series of sound
toys, which can be played as 'live' instruments that help users interact
with the computer in a simple and non threatening way
15:00 - 17:00
Tours of the interactive art projects in the Wellcome Wing
17:00 - 18:00
Reception in the "Fellows Room"
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USER_MODE THEMES
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• How do you engage and sustain the interest of the user/visitor/player in
an interactive experience whether it is reflexive architecture, interactive
film, art installation, responsive environment, computer games,
performance, wearable technologies, product, communication or experience
design?
• Does interactivity promise a more profound experience than more
traditional responses to art and design? What does it add? How is it measured?
• Is there more sense of participation within interactive work when
compared to conventional cinema, theatre, painting or architecture in
emotional terms?
user_mode will seek to identify models of emotional engagement, aiming to
question, extend and rework the most topical of the categories outlined below:
• Emotion as content or theme of the work
• Emotion as agency and control
• Emotion as subjective experience
• Emotion as a cognitive and physical process
• Emotion as an element of discovery learning in interactive exhibitions
• Emotion and navigation in architecture
• Emotion and narrative in film
• Emotion and gaming
• Emotion in sound composition and audio environments
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USER_MODE COLLABORATORS
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Tate Modern
http://www.tate.org.uk
Tate Modern is Britain's new national museum of modern art. Housed in the
former Bankside Power Station, Tate Modern displays the Tate collection of
international modern art from 1900 to the present day. There is also a full
range of special exhibitions and a broad public programme of events
throughout the year. Tate Modern is committed to education, and as a new
national museum is determined to seize the opportunity to pioneer
innovative approaches to education and interpretation. Tate Modern's
wide-ranging public programme includes talks, courses, films, conferences
and symposia involving artists, critics, writers and academics. user_mode
will be the latest in a strand of events which explore the context of
culture and technology.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
http://www.csm.linst.ac.uk
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design has a worldwide reputation
for fostering creativity and innovation. The courses and research
activities are a key part of the international contemporary art world and
design industries. From communication design, industrial design to fashion
design and performance the college aims to develop practitioners with
agility and intelligence who question convention, anticipate change and
experiment with new forms and new technologies. Central Saint Martins
College of Art and Design is part of the London Institute. user_mode is a
collaboration between Tate Modern and The School of Graphic and Industrial
Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and represents an
ideal opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of topical themes
within a multidisciplinary context.
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USER_MODE CONTACT INFORMATION
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Honor Harger
Webcasting Curator, Interpretation & Education, Tate Modern
Email: honor.harger at tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7401 5066
URL: http://www.tate.org.uk
Tricia Austin
Director of the MA Critical Context Programme,
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design
Email: p.austin at csm.linst.ac.uk
URL: http://www.csm.linst.ac.uk
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