Research Colloquium at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology in Surrey presents

SIAT Research and Beyond: Grads in the World

Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 1:30 pm

Room 3875, SFU Surrey Campus, third floor Central City Tower in the Research Labs

Camille Baker

PhD Research - Working Title:

Liveness and Networked Performance with Mobile Devices: Emerging Perspectives

abstract

The aim of my PhD research is to investigate the qualities of “liveness” and “presence” within the context of networked new media performance, to uncover any new understandings that may have emerged from the use of new technologies. This is practice-based research work-in-progress for my PhD in the SMARTlab PhD program at the University of East London under the Director Dr. Lizbeth Goodman.

This research will traverse many knowledge domains, including video art, non-linear narrative and database cinema/narrative, VJing /live cinema, locative media and wireless devices in art and performance, performance practices and media technology, live and performance art history and practices, philosophy and theories of virtuality, liveness, presence, phenomenology, time, space, reality, memory, performance, networked, wireless and communication technologies and their development, media art reception and interactivity, community, social software and practices and possibly more.

In this practice-based PhD research, I will investigate: performing presence: live versus simulated/virtual; new media art and performance media practices that investigate role of performer, the experience of the viewer; how current explorations in new media performance practices address the presence of the performer in time and space; how this then affects the audience and their reception of or participation in the performance; audience as performer or the interchanging roles of performer/audience; social aspects and site-specificity of networked performance events; curatorial issues and practices that have been challenged by current presentation and performance modes.

bio

Currently, Camille is beginning a PHD at SMARTlab at the University of East London (UK) in Networked Performance Media. Her research interests include: mobile devices, video art, live cinema, performance and interactive media, responsive environments, media art installation, telematics, new media curating and networked communities.

Her background ranges from music composition, singing and performance (ultrapuss + Spiritual Heroine), to Executive Director/Curator of The Escape Artists Society, and Lead Curator, Conference Director and Co-Performance Art Curator for New Forms Festival (2002-2004), to media art instructor, to web editor-in-chief of a pop-culture relationship support magazine, Tales of Slacker Bonding, (2000-2003, offline now), to new media and web design /development, to documentary and online video and animation, to visual arts curating, to sculpture and modern dance performance.

As an curator/artist/researcher within various forms of art practice (installation, experience design, video art, web animation, performance and music), Camille continues to redefine her practice, both conceptually and practically. She sees her work about creating experiences using technology, not necessarily about manifesting her own creative vision or aesthetic per se, a creative facilitator, using art, performance, music, social science, philosophy and other disciplines as sources of tools to borrow from.

Mark Brady

abstract

Drawing from my collaborative background, thesis work and pedagogical and art-research activities I will describe the role I envision for myself as cultural worker, engaged in questioning technology.

I will also present a overview of my recent activities and projects, including:

• Tree Studies (Gwangju Biennale 2006 (Korea))
• Doppler Corridor (People Choice Award Winner, eyeTeasers Video iPod Show)
• Soundwalks & Performance of John Cage's Variations (Vancouver New Music)
• Lost (SIAT M. Sc. Thesis)

bio

Mark Brady makes software, sound and light art. As a collaborative and reflective practitioner the ephemeral qualities of software, sound and light afford opportunities to explore alternative cultural and cognitive hypotheses in our techno-fetishistic milieu.

Mark has exhibited work in Toronto, London and Tokyo, he teaches at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology, and is a founding member of Vancouver’s Intermission Artists Society.

Susan Clements - Vivian

abstract

My research questions if we are currently experiencing a break with older forms of vision in response to the shift from analogue to digital media. I look at earlier breaks in vision, such as that which occurred in the late 19th century, as a model to understand both the significance and nature of this shift. In this presentation I will present my video work "Hope BC, Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World" as a research object which addresses the relationship between perception and form. This research draws from the work of Jonathan Crary, in particular, the relationship he constructs between cultural practices, technological innovation and the aesthetics of representation.

bio

Susan Clements-Vivian holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and a Masc. from Simon Fraser University in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. She currently teaches at Simon Fraser University in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology. Her current work addresses the relationship between personal narrative and place as it is mediated through technology.

Aleksandra Dulic

An Intelligent Instrument for Situated Media Performance

abstract

In this presentation I will discuss my current research in An Intelligent Instrument for Situated Media Performance. An intelligent instrument embeds culturally significant meaning and enables the expression of this meaning through its playing. On the level of artistic craftsmanship it encapsulates compositional techniques and methods for situated media performance. The design of the instrument’s intelligence is aimed at enabling a structured compositional environment for situated media performance and entails the encoding of higher-level animation processes, compositional strategies, management of time-based arrangements and performance-tracking techniques.

This research extends my doctoral dissertation, Fields of Interaction: From Shadow Play Theatre to Media Performance, which is a cross-cultural study of the emerging practice of situated and interactive media performance. The performing animator developed through my doctoral research is designed for very general-purpose control and makes high demands on the performer to specify many details of the performance. The design of the intelligent instrument focuses on more nuanced aspects of the performance at a higher level, providing a dynamic relationship—one of collaboration with an interactive system.

bio

Aleksandra Dulic is a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Poetics Research Group at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University and she received her Ph.D. from School of Interactive Art and Technology in 2006. Dr Dulic performs research in aesthetics of computational media performance and installation as well as in a design of compositional instruments and a tool-set to enable artists working in the computational medium to compose, produce and present their work. Her artistic work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she is also active as a curator, a writer, and an educator, teaching courses, presenting and publishing papers, across North America, Australia, Europe and Asia.

Brad Paras

Learning to Play – Understanding How Games Teach Users How to Play

abstract

Video games are an enormously popular form of entertainment and much can be learnt from the ways in which videogames are able to intrigue and envelop their users. In attempt to harness these inherent abilities, many have looked into the possibility of using videogames as educational tools. While developing educational videogames for a CIHR funded research project focused on the creation of games that teach young hockey players about concussion, it became apparent that before learning from and with games, users must learn and understand the game’s mechanics. In this presentation, Brad will discuss research performed on a game called Symptom Shock wherein which this problem was discovered. From here, he will describe his efforts to create a games database focused on information about training in games. From this work, he established a framework for in-game training that addresses when the training takes place and how it is delivered. And finally, Brad will discuss results from a study in which he compared training that took place prior to game-play versus training that took place during game-play.

bio

Brad Paras is a Producer at Electronic Arts, working on next-generation game systems as a game-play designer. He has a Bachelors of Science in Interactive Arts from Simon Fraser University Surrey, and recently completed a Masters of Arts degree at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU. Prior to joining Electronic Arts, Brad worked with the Motor Behaviour Lab at SFU to develop hockey games that teach young hockey players about concussion. Brad’s interests lie in more deeply understanding the ability for games, which are ever-increasing in complexity, to teach users in ways that are effective and fun.