Uncommon Ground
April 30, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Ideas | Add a comment
iShed and Watershed's long and productive relationship with HP Labs, is explored in a book launched this week called Uncommon Ground: Creative Encounters between Sectors and Disciplines, written by Bronac Ferran and based on interviews with Clare Reddington and Erik Goelhoed.
This book investigates the new culture of collaboration which emerged from recent developments in which areas of art and design have creatively fused with media and technology.
Uncommon Ground is based around case studies involving both major institutions and companies along with smaller independent experimental networks. The result is a range of practical and inspiring examples providing insight into the complex rewards and challenges of both interdisciplinary and cross sector collaboration.
This book is the first published outcome of a programme of research on collaborative practice that began with a Virtueel Platform expert meeting in Amsterdam in September 2006.
Enter - this week
April 23, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Add a commentA reminder about a spectacular new Festival and very interesting conference in Cambridge this week
The programme will combine experimental digital work created by artists - which will be open to all ages to play and experience in public spaces around the city, with a high profile conference that addresses important questions about society and technological innovation - the speakers list includes open source activitists, commercial games developers, academics working on social technology projects, media lab pioneers from across Europe, cultural theorists, social scientists, creative industries experts and bloggers from China, Cambridge and many other places.
The programme will also see the Launch of an exciting new Anglo-Dutch publication called Uncommon Ground - which contains essays and case studies by Charlie Leadbetter, Garrick Jones, David Garcia, Anne Nigten, Sher Doruff, Matt Ratto, Rob Van Kranenberg, Anne Galloway and others on the challenges of artistic collaboration, cooperation and intervention within different disciplinary fields.
The emerging Bricolabs phenomenon - which brings together various different interest groups around the world concerned with creating a generic infrastructure in relation to technological resources - is featured both within the conference and the publication.
Further information is at the website:
http://www.enternet.org.uk/unknownterritories
Creativity gets a leg up in Bristol
April 18, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Innovation | 1 comment so farBristol has taken an important step towards securing its place as the most creative city in the UK, outside London.
A £6.4 million investment from the South West of England Regional Development Agency, announced today, will help grow creative talent in the city. Home to some of the world’s leading creative producers including Aardman, Endemol, RDF TV and BBC Natural History, Bristol is already a hotspot for creativity.
The Agency’s investment will create a new fund to support the creative media sector in Bristol and enable Watershed to buy its home, the historic dockside E&W sheds. more…
The Shock of the Old
April 5, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Ideas | Technology | Add a commentDavid Edgerton on The Shock of the Old
Festival of Ideas: 22 May
18.00-19.00 Watershed £3.00/£2.00
We think we live in an age of new technology. David Edgerton’s new book The Shock of the Old challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change. Interweaving political, economic and cultural history, it will show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance. Standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions but The Shock of the Old argues that to have a full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what things everyday people used – and when they actually used them. It reassesses the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology such as corrugated iron and sewing machines. Simon Jenkins in The Guardian said this ‘is a book I can use. I can take it in two hands and bash it over the heads of every techno-nerd, computer geek and neophiliac futurologist I meet.’
http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/
Takeaway Festival
April 5, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Technology | Add a commentThe Second Takeaway Festival is here 9. + 10. + 11. May 2007 The three day extravaganza of talks, workshops, performances and exhibitions returns for the 2nd time to the Dana Centre in London. The silent revolution goes on! Technology continues to quietly transform creative possibilities, social structures, communication networks and business opportunities. The Takeaway Festival is a non profit making organization. Our interest is in promoting and exploring the D-I-Y philosophy in relation to media, design and technology.
A SILENT REVOLUTION IS TAKING PLACE
More and more people are transforming themselves from media consumers to producers - using the new tools, software and technologies now at their disposal. From the expanding realm of free and open source software (FLOSS), to peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution and 'pervasive' mobile and locative technologies, the possibilities exist as never before to create and disseminate our opinions and experiences through our own media. TAKEAWAY, the Festival of do it yourself Media, will help you to understand what it's all about and how to take part in the revolution.
