Urban Screens Melbourne 08

Urban Screens Melbourne 08 is the third, ground-breaking international conference and multimedia exhibition in a series of worldwide Urban Screens events. It will mark the official launch of the International Urban Screens Association and will take place 3rd-8th October at Federation Square, Melbourne.

Conference: Mobile Publics 3-5 October 2008
Outdoor Multimedia Program: 3-8 October 2008

The event will promote a lateral trans-disciplinary approach to exploring the growing appearance of moving images in urban space and the global transformation of public culture in the context of large new multi media precincts such as Federation Square and various networked forms of urban screens. It will build on the successful events held in Amsterdam in 2005 and Manchester in 2007 and will be the first Urban Screens held in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through an integrated program of keynote lectures, panel sessions, workshops, curated screenings and multimedia projects, it will bring together leading Australian and international artists and curators, architects and urban planners, screen operators and content providers, technology manufacturers, software designers and public intellectuals.

Keynote speakers include:

Prof. Saskia Sassen (Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University)

Aaron Tan (Director, Research Architecture Design)

Andreas Broeckmann (Independent Curator)

For registrations and more information: http://www.urbanscreens08.net/

Mirjam Struppek Public Lecture at the Univervsity of Melbourne

 'Interactionfield: Urban Space, New Media and the Public Sphere'

Thursday 16 August 2007 5.15-6.30 pm

Room G-23, Ground Floor East Tower
John Medley Building, University of Melbourne

Over the past decade interactive media installations and performances have emerged as a new art form in urban space. Screen installations, public projections, interactive façades and shopwindows, public communication sculptures and messageboards, psychogeographic performances and location-based mobile games attempt to create new visual experiences in increasingly commercialised urban spaces. This paper will investigate the interconnectedness of urban public space, interaction and new media through a discussion of the strategies and tools utilised to engage and mobilise urban audiences.

Mirjam Struppek works as an urbanist, researcher and consultant in Berlin. Her research focuses on the livability of urban space and the acquisition and transformation of the public sphere through new media. Since 2002 she has developed the online-information-platform 'interactionfield' about the relation between interaction, new media and public space. In this context she organises the monthly lecture and discussion evening 'Urban Media Salon'. She developed the first Urban Screens international conference in 2005 and is currently working on further implementing the concept of utilising screens for a sustainable urban society.
www.interactionfield.de
www.urbanscreens.org

This seminar is free of charge and open to all staff, students and members of the public.
For more information:
http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/events.html

Urban Screens Conference 2007: 'It's About Content'

Conference: 11-12 October 07
Art & Events: 11-14 October 07

Urban Screens Manchester will focus on the development of non-commercial content for urban displays such as LED, media façades & projections onto buildings.

For program and registration details please go to the UrbanScreens Manchester website.

New ARC Discovery Grant

Nikos Papastergiadis, Scott McQuire and Sean Cubitt have been awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (2007-2009) for their new project: Public Screens and the Transformation of Public Space. The key hypothesis of the project is that the new generation of interactive public screens offer unique opportunities for public participation and civic revitalization. The aim of the project is to produce a critical analysis of the impact of large electronic screens on contemporary forms of social agency in public space.

Details of the Australian and UK launches of Nikos Papastergiadis's new book Spatial Aesthetics: Art, Place and the Everyday:

The Australian launch of Spatial Aesthetics will be held at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne. Spatial Aesthetics will be introduced by Professor Paul Carter, Professorial Research Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Paul and Nikos will discuss their shared interest in the complex patterns of cultural exchange and the diverse forms of social interaction that inform collaborative art practice. Structured around the themes of the everyday, cultural identity and place, their conversation will trace the spatial aesthetics underwriting a variety of contemporary photo-media and performance projects.

When: Wednesday November 15, 2006 at 6.30pm

Where: Centre for Contemporary Photography
404 George St, Fitzroy, Melbourne.

The UK launch of Spatial Aesthetics will be held at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Glasgow, Scotland as the key launch of the CCA Art Book Fair, and will be introduced by Francis McKee.

When: Friday November 24, 2006 at 4pm

Where: Centre for Contemporary Art, 350 Sauchichall Street, Glasgow www.cca.glasgow.com