DASH Archives - June 2008

CAS-Xtra 24 June 08

CAS members are invited to the London BOOK LAUNCH of

A Computer in the Art Room:
the origins of British computer arts 1950-80
by Catherine Mason
with a Foreword by Professor Clive Richards, Coventry School of
Art & Design
published by JJG: 2008

Central London launch of this new publication on the evening of
Tuesday 24th June

As availability is strictly limited, admission is for CAS members
by invitation only. If you would like to attend, please email
your postal address to Catherine.mason@dsl.pipex.com and an
invitation will be sent to you with further details.

If you are not yet a member of CAS, please sign up (it's free!)
at JISC:

	Go to http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk
	Open an account
	Join list CAS
	(you may also be interested to join list DASH - Digital ArtS
	Histories)

About the book:

Based on four years of research and numerous interviews with
practitioners, this book uncovers the little known history of
early British computer art.  A number of art schools played a
crucial role in fostering these important cross-disciplinary
digital collaborations.  These are described for the first time
here, along with over 140 illustrations, many not seen in print
before.  The book introduces British artists in the post-war
period who were inspired by science and began to consider the use
of computing.  They found the requisite technology and expertise
at innovative art schools including the Royal College of Art, the
Slade School of Art, Leicester Polytechnic, Middlesex Polytechnic
and Coventry Art School. A direct link is traced from tutor to
student through the British art school system. This was a unique
period in which art students could learn to program computers and
construct their own hardware, before the onset of PCs and
user-friendly systems.

About the author:

Catherine Mason began researching the history of British computer
arts at Birkbeck, University of London with the CACHe Project
(Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc.), funded by the UK’s
Arts & Humanities Research Council.  In 2006 she produced Bits in
Motion, a screening of early British computer animation, at
London’s National Film Theatre.  She has contributed to Futures
Past: Twenty Years of Arts Computing published by Intellect, 2007
and White Heat, Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980,
forthcoming MIT Press.

Look out for a special offer price for CAS members in the coming
weeks

1968 to 2008 = CAS 40 - 40 years of supporting the computer arts

http://www.computer-arts-society.org

====
Paul Brown - based in the UK May - June  2007
mailto:paul@paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
UK Mobile +44 (0)794 104 8228 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====

CFP This call for abstracts is open now (closes 31 July 2008).

Historical / philosophical contributions are very welcome.

Stephen Boyd Davis
Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
 


==========================================
Completing the Circle: 
Incorporating Evaluation Methods in Creative Work
==========================================

==========================================
A one-day symposium in January 2009
organised by the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Middlesex University, London, UK
==========================================

This is a one-day symposium supported by the Computer Arts Society and the Design Research 
Society. Papers will focus on the use of novel methods, or methods newly borrowed from other 
disciplines, in evaluating the user's or audience's response to media such as websites, portable 
media (such as iPods, PSPs), pervasive games, film, videogames, technology-rich performance, 
interactive art. 

An aspect of interest is the use of interactive technologies to assist evaluative processes as well as 
to deliver interactive experiences. The aim is to share knowledge about evaluation methods and to 
debate the role and value of different forms of evaluation in relation to the arts and media. With 
this in mind, well-argued papers questioning the very idea of evaluation (especially scientific 
evaluation methods) in the arts, will also be accepted. 

All papers will be peer-reviewed by an international panel. The best papers will be expanded and 
edited for a special issue of the journal Digital Creativity.



For details see: http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=59&item=31


==========================================
The Call for Papers -- Abstracts invited now
==========================================
Researchers, artists, designers and others worldwide are invited to respond to the following 
deliberately provocative statement:

"The days when artists, media-makers or designers could work solely from personal conviction -- 
regardless of the reception of their work -- are gone. The intelligent artist or designer is now 
deeply interested in discovering the audience's or the user's response, and keen to use the many 
techniques and approaches now available for doing so."

Papers should focus on the use of novel methods, or methods newly borrowed from other 
disciplines, in evaluating the user's / audience's response to media such as websites, portable 
media (such as iPods, PSPs), pervasive games, film, videogames, technology-rich performance, 
interactive art. An aspect of interest is the use of interactive technologies to assist evaluative 
processes as well as to deliver interactive experiences.

Examples include: 
+ the use of eyetracking to study how people watch films
+ using galvanic skin response to discover game-players' level of arousal
+ repertory gird technique to analyse players' preferences in videogames
+ building art-making machines in order to reflect on art practice

The aim is to share knowledge about evaluation methods and to debate the role and value of 
different forms of evaluation in relation to the arts and media. With this in mind, well-argued 
papers questioning the very idea of evaluation (especially scientific evaluation methods) in the 
arts, are welcome.

Intending authors should send an abstract of less than 1,000 words.


The Call for Abstracts closes on 31 July 2008. 


For details see: http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=59&item=31


==========================================
Central London location of the Symposium 
==========================================

The Lansdown Symposium 2009 will be held on Monday 19th January 2009 at the
    British Computer Society
    The Davidson Building
    5 Southampton Street
    London, WC2E 7HA
    United Kingdom


_____________________________________________________________
Stephen Boyd Davis
Reader in Interactive Media
Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts  EN4 8HT
United Kingdom
Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072
.............................................................
The Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/

Dear all,
I saw this via the BBC Backstage list - and thought it might be of  
interest to the CAS (and DASH?) lists.

Stephen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Conrad Taylor 
Date: 2008/6/24
Subject: [KIDMM] Petition to save Bletchley Park
To: BCS-KIDMM@jiscmail.ac.uk


Hi all,

It's come to my attention that there is currently an e-petition
to the Prime Minister, asking for action to secure the future
of Bletchley Park, the former Government Code and Cypher School
where the Enigma code was broken during WWII.  As you may know,
the British Computer Society has helped with funding for the
projects that have led to the reconstruction of the Bombe and
Colossus code-breaking machines which are now on display there.

Can I urge you to add your names to the petition, and let other
people know about it?  The other way to show support for Bletchley
is to visit it: I'm hoping to make a couple of visits this summer.

The supporting text for the petition reads (and the grammar
is the petition author's, not mine):

As has been reported elsewhere, Bletchley Park "have
two to three more years of survival".

The Bletchley Park Trust receives no external funding.
It has been deemed ineligible for funding by the
National Lottery, and turned down by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation.

Please do not allow this crucial piece of both British
and World culture to disappear. If ever an example
were needed of Britain leading the world, this surely
would be it. To allow it to fall into the hands of
developers would be simply unconscionable.

Sign up here:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BletchleyPark/

Conrad

====
Paul Brown - based in the UK May - June 2008
mailto:paul@paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
UK Mobile +44 (0)794 104 8228 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====