[filter] Australian electronic music, arts, media, project listings

Non profit underground music entity DEMUS, is proud to announce...

FRIDAY 28th NOV 2008
Blue Velvet - 60 Smith Street Collingwood
8pm Start - $8 at Door

Live music performances by:

SAROPHONY
http://www.myspace.com/sarcophony
Melbourne based Industrial Metal producer is releasing his new CD "TV is Bad For You" on the night, featuring remixes from local and international artists, and rare tracks.

DJ SARCO vc DJCMYTH
Will be playing sets of local music, tracks from the Sarcophony release and a dark range of other goodies.

DJ INFECTIOUS UNEASE
http://www.infectiousuneaseradio.com
Need we introduce the wide ranging Noir tastes of the founder of Infectious Unease Radio?

MxDxM
http://www.kostar8.com
http://www.myspace.com/kostarproductions
MxDxM (aka K.O. StaR) specializes in creating Underground Electronic Metal Dance Music. MxDxM's approach is based on simplicity and minimalism.

SOBRIQUET

Senthil Kumar posted a video on WADI facebook group called "Arjuna the Archer : AD 2008"

he's also posted it to youtube :
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UPtfEkl_o

there's now a facebook page for Patta Chitra Katha

I wanted to find out more about this artform and technique, so I googled (without much luck, due to googling the wrong things) and asked the Sarai Reader list and received lots of helpful information from many people. after reading about it, it reminds me a bit of an equivalent to multi-media, or even video blogging from a few hundred years ago. multiple paintings / panels on scrolls (equating to video frames?) are read and music played whilst they're read, so there's a mixture of images, music, text, written / spoken word. the artists travel to different villages - equivalent to the communication methods / networks of today transmitting the multimedia messages & works. originally the works were made on cloth using vegetable based paints but these days modern paints are used and most works are done on paper. I hope the traditional methods are not lost completely! the style of painting comes from Orissa, West Bengal & Bangladesh. modern artists use both traditional, classical topics as well as current topics & stories - they are trying out new variations of the art too, to keep the method alive and to learn new techniques & skills.

I made a video for VloMo08 day16 explaining how I found out information about Patta Chitra Katha :

VloMo08 : day16 - Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language from kath on Vimeo.

read more for information about this special artform ...

looking for digital arts, new media & urban research projects or exhibitions in mumbai - I'm only here for 2 weekends so might not make it to any festivals. here's some I found so far - some are past projects & some are not strictly mumbai based but I came across them whilst following links for mumbai related items

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Comet Media & COSMOS
a non profit group working in educational communication & new media. they have festivals, projects & publications
http://www.cometmedia.org
http://groups.google.com/group/cosmos_mumbai
upcoming events
aliak.com Comet & Cosmos page

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Digital artists - THE WEBMUSEUM CYBERCULTURE RESEARCH LIBRARY page
http://www.lastplace.com/page177.htm

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CRIT
http://crit.org.in

some links to follow up - mostly relating to the books i've recently purchased here in india - an ongoing list

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Asmita
ASMITA (literally, identity) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists. Its general objective is to fulfill the existing gap in participation, representation and access to media of women. It is committed to find new ways and directions for women's progress. Its major aim is to produce various publications on women in the media. ASMITA is the one and only feminist alternative media organization in the country, and it functions as a pressure group for the advancement of women through media activism. ASMITA Women's Publishing House, Media and Resource Organization (in short, ASMITA) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists, and started to publish the first feminist magazine of Nepal. The magazine was named Asmita which means "dignity" and "identity". In fact, this was the first movement of the organization for Nepali women's human right and empowerment through media.

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Women's World of India
Women's WORLD (India) was set up in July 2002. It is part of Women's WORLD (International), a free speech network of feminist writers, which has ongoing projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. The primary aim of WW(I) is to provide a space for women writers in South Asia to analyse the circumstances in which women write, are published and read in this region, to identify the issues facing women writers here, and to develop a strategy for working on them at the national, regional and international levels.

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Blaft Publications
Blaft Publications is a new independent publishing house based in Chennai, India. Their releases so far include an anthology of Tamil pulp fiction, a translation of an experimental Tamil novel, a book of drawings, and a book of English short stories. However, in the future, Blaft has much wider goals. They are planning to eventually branch out into translations of fiction from other regional languages of South Asia, English fiction, comic books, graphic novels, children's books, non-fiction, textbooks, how-to-manuals, encyclopedias, and kitchen appliances.

The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction
- selected & translated by Pritham Chakravarthy
- edited by Rakesh Khanna

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Feminist Fine Print
A moderately priced, handy new series that offers two, three or four core essays on a single issue, from a critical feminist perspective. The essays may be single-authored or have multiple authorship depending on the issue, its significance within India and South Asia, and its theoretical and political implications.
- http://www.womenunlimited.net/catalogue2.htm for list of book details currently available

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Zubaan Books
An imprint of Kali for women

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Women's resources in Delhi
- a list of organisations

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Yoda Press
YODA PRESS is an independent publishing venture based in New Delhi. With a view to developing dynamic non-fiction lists, both academic as well as popular, which can make available interactive spaces for further discussion, scholarship, and writing, this young venture is currently focusing its attention on areas like urban studies, sexuality and the body, gender, cinema, contemporary art and popular culture, and new perspectives in history. In doing so, the larger YODA PRESS list hopes to effectively capture the non-mainstream, alternative, yet critical reality of contemporary India. The Press invites feedback, constructive criticism, and the ever enriching exchange of ideas, which can often lead to a stunning new publication.

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Sarai
http://www.sarai.net/about-us/introducing-sarai/overview
Sarai researches the urban experience, the city, the publics and practice of (old & new) media, "information and society", free & open source software, language and digital cultures and the interface between urban transformation, contemporary culture, and development. Sarai research has flowed into conferences, books, articles, art Installations and even school textbooks. Our researchers Include scholars and practitioners. Sarai places a premium on the research process as a whole, rather than just the final outcome. This means that Sarai research material continually reaches the public domain through collaborative mailing lists, CD's, small essays, apart from conferences and research articles.

Sarai publishes books (The Sarai Readers, The Deewan-e-Sarai and the Series), pamphlets (The Media Nagar Series), broadsheets (Sarai.txt, Cybermohalla Broadsheets) and occasional publications ('By Lanes', 'The Book Box' etc.) on paper as well as on the web. All Sarai publications are copyleft and maybe freely downloaded for non commercial & edycational use from the Sarai website.

Sarai embodies a continuing engagement with creativity in urban neighbourhoods through the 'Cybermohalla' Project in collaboration with a 'Ankur' Society for Alternatives in Education, a Delhi based NGO with a proven track record of more than two decades of work in the field of critical pedagogy and community mobilization in poor neighbourhoods in the city.

Sarai supports a growing network of independent researchers, practitioners and students all over India through fellowships and stipends. Over the last five years we have supported more than 400 independent researchers from all over the country.Many of these come from small towns such in the hinterland and in spaces marked by conflict such as Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. Half the proposals that have been supported have been sent in by women, a significant proportion of supported candidates belong to ethnic and religious minorities and oppressed communities. All the proposals investigate areas that would find little or no support, either in academia, or in mainstream media, although several of the candidates have gone on to make further meaningful work in academia and the media, to a large measure due to the ground that they were able to cover in the course of the Sarai independent research proposal.

Sarai invites critical reflections on the nature of the contemporary moment, by holding regular screenings and discussion of curated programmes of fiction, documentary and experimental films and video, and by acting as a convivial context for online and offline conversations through discussions, mailing lists and blogs in English and Hindi at the Sarai space and on the Sarai website.

Sarai engages with the Hindi/Hindustani public domain through publications, translation, lists, web content, software localization, events and workshops.

Sarai organises events such as - conferences, seminars, workshops, summer schools, colloquia, colloquia and hosts occasional residencies around themes thatthemes that reflect the programme's intellectual and creative interests.

Sarai produces media (video, audio, print, web) and contemporary art works, CDs, radio and software. Works produced at the Sarai Media Lab have been exhibited in several international venues such as Documenta11, and the Venice, Liverpool and Taipei Biennales.

Sarai collaborates with organizations and initiatives locally, regionally and internationally/globally on events, processes, networks, projects and publications.

Sarai reaches out to students and faculty in colleges, institutes, university departments and student societies to organize talks, discussions, readings, screenings, screenings, informal interactions and conversations.

Sarai archives different facets of contemporary popular culture, urban space and media forms with a view to making information about them available to a wide public of researchers and practitioners.

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The Tract House is a "spread-the-word" project that debuted at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore on May 31, 2008. The Tract House tracts were written by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, visitors to this website, and friends of friends. While most popular tracts are religious, The Tract House tracts can be nearly anything— manifestos, diatribes, stories, rants, poems, or lyrics. They can be about whatever the writer finds pressing, whether it be something personal, professional, political, domestic, local, or global. Gallery visitors are encouraged to peruse the many tracts and take home what they wish. Visitors of this website are encouraged to print the tracts on their home printers. It is hoped that the tracts will educate, activate, infuriate, obfuscate, titillate, inspire, upset, and irritate.

Today at 1900hrs (GMT), we opened the 3rd edition of the Streaming Festival. We are proud to announce that this edition contains a variety of artistic films that come from all over the world.

What?
The festival selected 130 filmmakers, and will show 190 films of which 106 are being premièred on the Streaming Festival! All those works were selected by the festival staff and divided into 14 programs, each program lasting from one to two hours.
http://www.streamingfestival.com/program/special-programs

I just saw the email for the upcoming Maybe Logic Academy courses - there's another by Douglas Rushkoff called Corporatized - An Alternative To Corporatism & Beyond coming up in January 2009 - scheduled for 6 weeks from January 12 to February 22. his last class "Technologies of Persuasion - From Propaganda to Paranoia" was great - the class was very popular and had a lot of people in it. the first few weeks moved really quickly, by the last few weeks it was running at a slower pace so I could try and catch up. I was doing the The Crazy Wisdom of Philip K. Dick class with Erik Davis at the same time, so I was running behind on the Rushkoff class as the PKD class was so interesting! Fingers crossed there might be another PKD class with Erik Davis too - I asked and they said Maybe! (excuse the pun :)

I think Rushkoff's new class will be really interesting, especially as in the Persuasion class he mentioned his thoughts on the global economy and how we should be using a different 'money' system & alternative currencies. He's written many books, and columns with newspapers such as New York Times & Guardian of London. He now also writes for Arthur Magazine, which I think in some ways has taken over from where Mondo 2000 and previously Reality Hackers magazines started. Arthur No. 29, May 2008 has one of his articles, Riding out the Credit Crisis which I think was very timely considering the state of economic affairs around the globe now with some regions stating they are in a recession. this month's Arthur # 31 - October 2008 has another article by Rushkoff called "No Money Down" (pages 26-27) which is worth a read too - the pdf's are available to download on their site (part A has this article). he also has a forum on his site where some of the discussions can take place & continue from previous (and I'm assuming future) MLA courses, boing boing posts, Arthur articles and his books.

from Riding out the Credit Crisis :
"Whatever the case, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your interests is to make friends. The more we are willing to do for each other on our own terms and for compensation that doesn’t necessarily involve the until-recently-almighty dollar, the less vulnerable we are to the movements of markets that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with us."

...

"Think small. Buy local. Make friends. Print money. Grow food. Teach children. Learn nutrition. And if you do have money to invest, put it into whatever lets you and your friends do those things."

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Reunion Rave @ The MET in Brisbane
10/10/2008

I hadn't been out to a dance club for maybe 4-5 years, about 7 years since being in brisbane, so the Reunion Rave dance party whilst I was up there on holidays was perfect timing. heaps of older crew were there - it was so great to see them all and spend the night dancing as we used to back in the day.

the music was fantastic too - Thief took us back to Magic Roundabout @ Metropolis & the Site (if my memory serves correctly) in the side room & looked like he was enjoying playing the tunes too. "Insomniac - I'm asleep", Moby's "Thousand", Custa knows the rest of the track names - some Rabbit City Records tracks? I remembered that track with the "Reanimator" (movie) sample though I'm not sure what it's called.

Sasha "Injected with a poison - are you listening to me!" later, Paul Holden (is Golden?! :) doing the hand movements to "I kiss your lips and close my eyes - take you away to paradise ... let everybody see that I love you and you love me ..." with the lasers forming whirlpool clouds of different coloured smoke above the dancing crowd in the main room. then "Everybody's Free - to feel love" with starry skies spinning behind him on the screens - reminding me of the Dome and it's starry skies when the retractable ceiling was pulled back (even if the songs were different there)

Rousey & Kesson played heaps of songs towards the end of the night that Dufty & Angus (rip) used to play (which was great but a little sad at the same time). I liked what Rousey said - something like "it's nice to come out to work and see people I know again".

Vision Four 5 played a great live set - hadn't seen them play in years. the videos looked great too - a huge Lolli dancing & singing to Funkify Yourself & Purple Lamp was played later in the set & the block text for Everything You Need. half way through this song I went down the front and after a couple of tracks, some younger people were asking who this great band was, so it's great to see another generation loving the tunes too! Ben & Noel were jumping around like they used to - was so cool to see!

I loved the screens in the different rooms - the videos shown were so crisp & clear & the lasers helped set the mood too.

at the start of the night (I'd gone early to catch Dizzy's set - nice!) I was a little worried as most of the people were wearing really tight clothes and very high stilettos and had trouble finding the beat when dancing but when everyone came later, the tables turned, and some of the younger people dancing seemed to be staring at how the rest of us were dancing - it was almost like they'd never seen it before or been to a dance party ?!?!

I kept forgetting I had the camera as I was too busy talking or dancing (now I remember why I don't have pics from years ago) so there's only a few clips at different parts of the night. the video runs for about 12mins though so is a little long. my camera's not very good in low light, so you can't really see the people - but this video should give you a sample of what the night was like.

thanks to everyone who played & organised the gig and all the people I spoke to & saw out.

can't wait for the next one!!

This Saturday 11th October at the Empire Hotel Annandale, Sydney band Super Massive will be headlining a trio of bands that fearlessly deliver performances of extroverted theatricality, whilst exploring their own different blends of electro/pop/rock.

The event will be happening at the Empire Hotel, Cnr Parramatta Rd & Johnston St Annandale. Entertainment begins at 9pm. Entry is $10.

Super Massive take dance rock/pop to new heights with the funkiest live rhythm section in town and powerful songs of recklessness, love and reckless love, guaranteed to make you want to hit the dancefloor.

Led by dynamic frontwoman Malina, whose vocals and stage presence have been compared to Peaches, Shirley Manson and Siouxsie Sioux, and described as 'Kylie's porno double', Super Massive are an underground force to be reckoned with.

Graffiti Technica is dedicated to the progression of hardcore electronic art and 3d graffiti. The graffiti designs and lettering on the site are completely digital - to explore new ways of creating pieces.

The site owner & Brisbane based designer Brad Schwede explains some of his influences :

Graffiti has always influenced me since the first time I saw works from trains on the way to the school... All the back industrial lots were covered in styles from generic tagging to intricately designed works. Back and forwards to school gave me loads of time to understand the styles and colors that were being used. It was so far advanced from anything that was in the modern culture that it was no wonder that people didn't understand it.

OPEN FRAME is room40's annual festival of sound and media. This year it is being held at Brisbane Powerhouse's Rooftop Terrace over two evenings 2nd-3rd October.

Thursday 2 October 2008
* oren ambarchi
* domenico sciajno
* kim myhr
* antony milton

Friday 3 October 2008
* kk null
* lucky dragons
* birchville cat motel
* spartak

Also the works of experimental film maker Makino Takashi will be screened each night - featuring beautiful soundtracks by Jim O'Rourke
Tickets are available from http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/events/view/open-frame-1 or visit http://www.room40.org/events.shtml for more details

Australia's largest festival of experimental electronic arts and culture, "Electrofringe", will burst through the cracks of Newcastle from October 2 – 6, 2008, for its eleventh year as part of "This Is Not Art". More than 100 emerging and established artists from Australia and overseas will take part in 80 events over five days including workshops, gigs, screenings, performance and public intervention.

Electrofringe in 2008 brims with new ventures. These include an artists-in-residence program and a three-week interactive media exhibition. New program gems include a hybrid media/dance performance, an all-girls soldering workshop, a chorus composed for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, an audiovisual "love-in", and a chamber recital for robots.

Special international guests include Birchville Cat Motel (NZ), Domenico Sciajno (Italy), xtine (US), The League of Imaginary Scientists (everywhere) and The Green Eyl & Sengewald (Germany). Japan is well represented by elongated harshcore musician Maruosa, noise artists Pig & Machine, and experimental multi-instrumentalist KK NULL.

Electrofringe 2008 features an impressive screening program including award-winning highlights from the Japan Media Arts Festival and SIGGRAPH 2008, surround-sound selections from New York's Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Centre and eclectic works from France’s Arcadi festival. There are also two specially curated screening reels called ElectroEtre and ElectroProjections compiled from open, international call-outs.

Head to: www.electrofringe.net for more details, and see you in Newcastle!

Electrofringe 2008 is directed by Alex White, Elmar Trefz and Somaya Langley.

-- electrofringe & the other festivals as part of This is Not Art are my favourite festivals in the world - very grassroots. Newcastle becomes abuzz with creativity and people at this time of year. I hope you can all check them out this year!

crowdsourcing is defined by Jeff Howe from wired.com on his site http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com as "Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." [The White Paper Version] and [The Soundbyte Version] "The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.". He coined the term then later wrote a book about the subject : Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business.

The Friends: Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services blog is devoted to the use of online social networking sites for any and all types of library-related programs or services. One article on their blog is A Face(book) In The Crowd: Online Social Networks For Engaged Learning which has video slideshows broken into these sections :
Part 1: Introduction to Social Networking Software
Part 2: Introduction to Facebook
Part 3: ISU and the Library in Facebook
Part 4: Putting it all together
University video page : http://www2.lib.iastate.edu/video/homepage.html

article abstract :
"In April 2006, there were nearly 22,000 members of the Iowa State University community registered in Facebook. Two years later there are nearly 35,000 members, an increase of nearly 60 percent."

The Holga is a 120 film toy camera that produces colourful, sometimes vignetted photos and is used in the field of LOMO photography otherwise known as lomography. There are different models of Holga cameras.

the lomography.com site has thousands of examples of lomographic photos such as this one :

there's lomographic exhibitions too which feature lomowalls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga
http://goholga.com - modifications for the Holga camera

WGBH Network is hosting a lecture and debate on the limits of intelligent machines. their site has an mp3 download version, streaming audio and video version. the debate features David Gelernter & Ray Kurzweil (inventor, writer) and is moderated by Rodney Brooks.

"A Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Alan Turing's Seminal Paper "On Computable Numbers" featuring a debate on the limits of intelligent machines and a lecture on Turing's contributions."

the transcript is available at KurzweilAI.net too (attached)

info via the generative.net mail list

Phil Price designed kinetic sculpture called 'cytoplasm'. located at Waitemata Plaza, Auckland - near Viaduct / waterfront. video taken 4th June 2007

The Auckland city what's on site has some more info on auckland city sculptures

"Phil Price's kinetic work is one of the most popular on the Viaduct walkway. It comprises 16 pod-like discs that move both individually and collectively in the wind. No two views of the work are the same, and herein lies much of Cytoplasm's attraction."

The Re-Cycle Wallah blog outlines a project to attempt to redesign the Indian cycle rickshaws in Ahmedabad with aims of "lowering human exertion by at least 30% and lower maintenance whilst keeping prototyping cost under re.5000; the outcome retail price is also to be under re.5000(around $125). Simultaneously providing a micro-credit loan scheme so the riders can own their own rickshaw rather than renting from a middle man." they are interested in ideas and feedback - you can post a reply to one of the articles on their site.

there was a question on the Acoustic Ecology mail list about permanent outdoor sound installations. some of these were mentioned by people on the list :

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Derek Holzer mentioned Max Neuhaus & his talk at the Tuned City seminar :

"check the sound installation work of Max Neuhaus, particularly his Times Square piece:"
http://www.max-neuhaus.info/soundworks/

"... His work is quite subtle and very strong conceptually. One piece in particular I remember him presenting at Tuned City in Berlin http://www.tunedcity.de was a piece for a public park, where the speakers were hidden under the ground and the sound emerged from what appeared to be drainage grills. Actually, the sound didn't seem to emerge from ANYWHERE, which was the beauty of it. Max said he spent quite a bit of time developing the (weather and vandal-proof) sound systems for these kinds of installations." -- Derek Holzer

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RUDE BWOYZ FAREWELL FREE PARTY!!

upfront drum'n'bass and jungle vibes baby!

Downstairs @The Step Inn (cnr st pauls Tce & brunswick st, the valley)
Saturday 4th October!

Well Brisbane, its sad to say it, and as some of you out there may have heard; the inaugural Brisbane clubbing event 'RuDe BwOyZ' is closing its doors...... but not until its given a propa jungle goodbye to this fair city by throwing a monster 'FAREWELL FREE PARTY' downstairs @The Step Inn!

RuDe BwOyZ has been a seminal event on the Brisbane clubbing calendar for the last 6 years, renowned for launching the Brisbane drum'n'bass scene out of obscurity and establishing itself as the longest running Independent dance-event in Brisbane history! At the birthplace of the underground bar, RuDe BwOyZ provided local junglists with the city's first monthly drum'n'bass event and paved the foundation for the vibrant scene Brisbane enjoys today.