Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning

For those of you interested in smart textile and low cost wearables as an artistic context to engage young women in technology and engineering in education, feel free to check the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT), ISSUE ON CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGIES CULTURES edited by Gianluca Mura (2011), p. 12-21. You can access the abstract here, or view a sample PDF here. The Guest Editorial Preface by Gianluca Mura, Politecnico di Milano University, Italy can be accessed here. You might as well like to refer the Journal (IJACDT) to a Librarian via this link.

“The International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT) links art, design, science, and culture with emerging technologies. IJACDT provides a forum for exchanging ideas and findings from researchers across the design, arts, and technology disciplines. This journal covers theoretical and practice experiences among industrial design fields, architecture, art, computer science, psychology, cognitive sciences, humanities, cultural heritage, and related fields. IJACDT presents different arguments within project culture from the historical, critical, philosophical, rhetorical, creative, pedagogic, and professional points of view.”

I ran across this interdisciplinary symposium disseminated via Yasmin:

The Universe Resounds: Kandinsky, Synesthesia, and Art Symposium
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
2–7 pm

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Peter B. Lewis Theater
1071 Fifth Avenue
(entrance on 88th Street)
New York City

http://www.guggenheim.org/universe-resounds

In conjunction with the final days of the Kandinsky exhibition on view through January 13, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is pleased to announce The Universe Resounds: Kandinsky, Synesthesia, and Art, an
interdisciplinary examination of painting, synesthesia, and abstraction from modern to contemporary times, including from the perspectives of art history, neuroscience, music, film, physics, and performance. A reception and exhibition viewing follows the symposium.

Topics and Speakers

Kandinsky’s Synesthetic Vision: Color/Sound/Word/Image
Magdalena Dabrowski, Special Consultant, Department of
Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York

Notes on Kandinsky and Schönberg
James Leggio, Head of Publications, Brooklyn Museum, New York

Kandinsky’s Legacy in Film and Popular Culture
Kerry Brougher, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Nonobjective Films
Courtesy the Center for Visual Music, Los Angeles

Neuroscience and Music
David Soldier, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Pharmacology, Columbia University Medical School, New York, with Brad Garton, Director of the Columbia Computer Music Studio, Columbia University,
New York

Hypermusic Prologue
Matthew Ritchie, artist, New York

Moderated Discussion
Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History and Director, History Theory Criticism Section, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston

For complete information, schedule, and tickets check online or call
the Box Office at 212 423 3587, Mon–Fri, 1–5 pm.

Eyetracking Forum
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
9 am
Martin Segal Theatre
The City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York City

Science & the Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Sackler Center for Arts Education are pleased to announce an Eyetracking Forum. This session for art and science professionals examines the science of
eyetracking from multiple perspectives, including filmmaking, interface technology, psychology, and data visualization, and concludes with an exhibition walkthrough.

Moderators: Adrienne Klein and Grahame Weinbren

Space is limited, RSVP required: publicprograms@guggenheim.org

Participants

Kenneth J. Ciuffreda, O.D., Ph.D., is the former Chairman of the Department of Vision Sciences at SUNY State College of Optometry, New York, whose current research involves normal and abnormal oculomotor
systems.

Isaac Dimitrovsky is a programmer who lives and works in New York.

Rebecca Shulman Herz is Senior Education Manager of the Learning Through Art program at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and author of Looking at Art in the Classroom: Art Investigations from the
Guggenheim Museum (Teachers College Press, 2010).

Bruce Homer is Associate Professor for the Ph.D. Program in Educational Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Adrienne Klein is Co-Director of Science & the Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Ken Perlin is Professor of Computer Science at New York University, directing the NYU Games for Learning Institute.

John F. Simon, Jr. is a practicing new media artist who works with LCD screens and computer programming.

Paula Stuttman is an artist, independent art lecturer, and part-time Assistant Professor at the New School, New York.

Grahame Weinbren is an interactive filmmaker whose work is represented in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum; he is also a member of the graduate faculty of the School of Visual Arts, New York.

George A. Zikos, O.D., M.S., directs the Manhattan Vision Associates/Institute Vision Research, New York.

via Yasmin, image via http://www.guggenheim.org

“Is this your luggage.com?” is a project by Luna Laboo. Since I am always worried about losing luggage on a flight (especially since we are not allowed to take a survival package in the hand luggage) I like the idea of this project, described on her Web site as follows, very much:

“I COLLECT LOST LUGGAGE, PHOTOGRAPH IT, AND THEN TRY TO FIND THE OWNERS.
IT’S A LITTLE ODD BUT NOT AS ODD AS STAMP COLLECTING, JUST A LITTLE HARDER TO FIND STORAGE SPACE.
WHEN A BAG GETS LOST THE AIRPORT OR AIRLINE WILL STORE IT FOR A WHILE AND TRY TO FIND THE OWNER.
IF THEY CAN’T IDENTIFY THE OWNER OF THE CASE THEY SEND IT TO BE AUCTIONED OFF WITH THE PROFIT GOING TO CHARITY.
I GO TO THESE AUCTIONS AND BUY THE CASES SO I CAN PHOTOGRAPH THEM FOR MY WEIRD VOYEURISTIC PASSION.
THE REASON FOR THE WEB SITE? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO TRY TO FIND THE PEOPLE WHO OWN MY SUITCASES, SO IF YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO HAVE LOST A CASE PLEASE GET THEM TO HAVE A LOOK.”

Via www.isthisyourluggage.com

See also: Interview With Luna Laboo: Is This Your Luggage?

Please have a look at the below exhibition on Shared Robotics to take place from August 21th to November 29th 2009 in Odense, DK:

“RoboDays are proud to present the exhibition “Shared Robotics” at Kunsthallen Brandts in Odense from August 21th to November 29th 2009. In “Shared Robotics” two fields: robotics and contemporary art are fused.

Today robot utopias and dystopias have collapsed: Robots are neither slaves nor doomsday machines; on the contrary robots are an increasing part of our everyday lives. The exhibition “Shared Robotics” displays artworks that incorporate custom built robotics and converts industrial robots for new purposes. The exhibition seeks to show, how the actual coexistence between humans and robots can lead to creative developments.

The exhibition presents four very different art installations, each offering their take on, how the fusion of technology and art can create works that speak of our high-tech society and the technological and social implications it brings with it. For the exhibition a website has been developed: http://www.sharedrobotics.com, which takes you back in time and show, how robotics in a cultural perspective has been interpreted over time. The site is presented as a multi-touch wall in the exhibition and gives the audience a chance to explore and examine the various works.

Several of the participating artists are working directly from the idea that knowledge should be shared, not locked in copyrights and patents. It allows others to develop new projects based on the artist’s original ideas without restricting their use. At the same time the visitors get the opportunity to recreate and build on the art from the manuals that can be found at the exhibition.

Artists:
Sabrina Raaf, http://www.raaf.org resides in Chicago and has previously worked with robotics in her art. For this exhibition she cooperates with Danish industrial robot manufacturer Gibotech A/S, based in Odense to create an installation, where one of Gibotech’s robots is reprogrammed to cut corrugated plastic in large patterns. Over time, the patterns will transform into a sculptural installation spilling out on the floor or the exhibition space, evolving through the exhibition period. Sabrina Raaf is a DIVA residency artist supported by The Danish Art Council and is therefore staying in Odense, and working at Gibotech until the opening of the exhibition. Afterwards she will be present and work on the project during the exhibition opening hours. Visit http://www.robodays.dk to see when.

The Danish artist collective Illutron, http://www.illutron.dk, show their work “N7331227″ that brings an old industrial robot back to life. Using computer vision the robot has been equipped with the ability to see and have been programmed to read and reproduce the visitor’s drawings on a big wall consisting of 96 light bulbs.

The German artist Ralf Schreiber, http://www.ralfschreiber.com/ experiments with what he calls minimal robotics. Schreiber’s contribution to the exhibition is called “Living Particles # 58″ and consists of a room filled with rows of small robots hanging from the ceiling and creating an impression of life kept in a strict order.

Douglas Repetto, who resides in New York, is participating with the work “Foal”. “Foal” is a very simple mechanical robot, which in shape and movement resembles a newborn foal, staggering around trying to gain control over its legs. In the exhibition several small foals will stagger around on their uncertain legs. The artwork is an open prototype that can be built by anyone who wants to grabble with robotics and simple mechanics. In the exhibition you can also find instructions on, how to build your own foal.

About RoboDays
The exhibition is part of RoboDays Robot Festival from 10 to 12 September in Odense. RoboDays is an organization established in cooperation with RoboCluster at University of Southern Denmark and gathers knowledge about robotics in Denmark: http://www.robodays.dk/

Shared Robotics is supported by By- og Kulturforvaltningen in the Municipality of Odense, the Arts Council, the European Regional Development Fund and RoboCluster.”

Shared Robotics
August 21th – November 29th 2009

Kunsthallen Brandts
Brandts Torv 1
DK-5000 Odense C

http://www.brandts.dk

Photos and text via e-flux

I am in Evora in Portugal at a two day meeting of the European funded ICONET project. ICONET builds on a previous project called Informal Competencies and their Validation (ICOVET) which developed an interview procedure for the validation of skills and competencies, a manual, and a programme for further training. ICONET is adapting and trying out the approach and tools in different sectors and different contexts in seven European countries.

The project has now only six months left to run and we have spent the afternoon discussing project dissemination. Mant of the discussions parallel recent talks in various Jisc programmes about how to ensure project sustainability and maximise the use of project outcomes following the end of external funding.

One measure is to design a range of dissemination products geared for different target audiences. New technologies can help gretaly – we havebeen looking at using video and audio as well as the more common brochures and flyers.

But the discussion today has also raised issues about what is realistic to expect from a modestly funded project. The ideas we have explored would require major changes to education systems if they were to be widely adopted. We do not have the infuence to do this. Probably the best that we can hope for is to show the possibilities of informal learning and hope that others will pick up and build on our ideas.