SCALE - screens, audiences and spaces

Venue : Odeon Cinema (Screen 1), The Headrow, Leeds
Date : Friday 12th October 2001
Time : 10.30am - 4.30pm
Price : £10/£7 (Click here for booking information)



After examining the convergence of gaming, film and interactive media in 1999 and 2000, the Evolution conference will explore the idea of Scale and ask - How does the narrative of a computer game transfer from a 20inch TV to a 30ft cinema screen? What happens when mobile phones enable the public to interact with public LED displays in Huddersfield? Does my refrigerator really need an internet terminal?

From mobile phones, PDA's and laptops to monumental public screens Evolution brings together an international selection of digital pioneers to examine the impact of scale upon digital communications. Evolution scratches the surface of the 'seamless' future of technology to reveal that in a supposedly 'virtual' world, architecture, film making, product design and the human body itself have never been so important.

Evolution will locate these debates within the public architecture of Leeds, from heritage buildings like the Queens Hotel to symbols of Leeds' current growth, including Millennium Square and Harvey Nichols. How does architecture and product design affect audience reaction to digital content? How much of our experience of digital media is based on our social environment? What is the difference between watching a film in the dark with 300 strangers, playing a computer game with 4 friends in your living room and reading a text message from your lover on the train?

An audience of creative professionals, filmmakers, students, artists and academics will explore these questions during a one day conference presented against the backdrop of the Odeon's impending closure; a fitting context for a discussion which will address changes in audiences, technology and venues for interactive content. Housing one of the largest projection screens in the north of England and with a seated capacity of 1000, the venue will create a powerful forum for a series of inspiring and thought-provoking presentations.

  


Matt Locke
Chair
Matt Locke is Creative Director of the Media Centre in Huddersfield, responsible for developing research in creative uses of emerging digital technologies. Current research activities are focused on exploring social technologies and urban space, particularly developing interfaces and content for mobile and architectural sites. Recent projects include www.speakerscorner.org.uk - an innovative public interface connecting the street, the web and SMS; Surrender Control - a new narrative SMS project by Tim Etchells; and interaction development for The Guardian's SMS Poetry Competition. In addition to developing research projects, Matt writes and lectures regularly on issues related to digital technologies and urban space, and teaches modules on Visual Culture & Technology at Huddersfield University.

Speakers

Malcom Le Grice
After studying painting in Plymouth and at the Slade, Malcolm Le Grice was one of those artists who, in the 60's experimented with a wide range of media. He exhibited video and performance work in the UK in 1967 and pioneering computer art which was exhibited through the Computer Arts Society in 1970, but his main reputation as an artist was initially gained as an experimental filmmaker. His earliest films were amongst the first British work to make an impact internationally through tours, exhibitions and festival screenings in Europe and the USA. His work developed during the 70's and 80's to include performance, multi-projections, works for TV and more recently an exploration of video, digital and interactive computer systems. His work is in national archives and private collections in Australia, the USA and throughout Europe and has been shown at the Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate and Hayward Galleries in London.

As well as his work as an artist, over the years Le Grice has published widely on the history and theory of experimental film including books, critical essays and recently theoretical articles on the implication of digital technology on cinema. He has also been deeply involved in the public cultural support for experimental film. He was one of the founders of the London Filmmakers Co-operative Film Workshop, the originator of the film department at St. Martin's School of Art, and a member of funding committees of the British Film Institute and the Arts Council of Great Britain.
In education he has been a member of committees for the Council for Academic Awards, was a panel member for the Higher Education Funding Council's Research Assessment Exercises in 1992 and 1996 and for the Research Assessment conducted by the Hong Kong Universities Funding Council in 1994. After twelve years as Professor of Media Arts and Head of Design and Media at the University of Westminster he is currently Professor and Head of Research at the Central St. Martins College of Art and Design of the London Institute.

Creative Time


Creative Time was founded 29 years ago - a time when artists around America began to establish alternative arts organisations as a positive response to their frustrations over the limitations of more traditional exhibition venues. Almost immediately Creative Time became an international leader in presenting new works by visual artists, performers, musicians, poets, filmmakers, architects and choreographers in unlikely, under-explored, and even abandoned public spaces. Today, they continue to work closely with artists of all disciplines to bring cultural expression to New York City's urban landscape while introducing the public to cutting-edge contemporary art practices.

Anne Pasternak
Anne Pasternak is the Executive Director of Creative Time, a non-profit public arts organisation dedicated to presenting new and experimental works by artists of all disciplines. Before coming to Creative Time in Fall 1994, Ms. Pasternak was the co-founder and director of BRAT, an arts organisation committed to bringing innovative works of artistic merit to the public realm. She has worked as an independent curator and writer, served as a curator for Hartford's Real Art Ways where she organised gallery exhibitions and public art programs of emerging and under-represented artists, and managed contemporary gallery spaces in both New York City and Boston. She curated the traveling exhibition Garbage and has published articles in such journals as Bomb Magazine, the Columbia Journal of American Studies, the Journal of Contemporary Art and essays in select exhibition catalogues.



Carol Stakenas
Carol Stakenas is the Deputy Director and Curator of Creative Time, New York City's multidisciplinary public arts presenter. Recently she created and moderated the seminar series, Blur: New Creative Practices in Developing Technologies, with Thundergulch, the New School and Parsons School of Design which brought together artists, curators and new technology experts to discuss the evolving nature of cultural production and artists' uses of new technologies. In addition to Creative Time, she is a Conjunction Arts board member and is on the advisory committee for the International Film Seminar's upcoming Digital Flaherty seminar to take place in Fall 2002 at RPI. Until recently she served on the board of the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO). In June 2000 she was the conference chair of NAAO's 12th National Conference, Open Source: Networking Artists and Artists Organisations. She was the web advisor to School's Out: The Naming Project to initiate their on-line activities and has also curated several exhibitions including Lo-Fi Baroque at Thread Waxing Space.

François Penz
François Penz is Cambridge University Moving Image Studio (CUMIS) Director and teaches in the Department of Architecture where he runs courses on 'Architecture and the moving Image'. He is co-editor of the book 'Cinema & Architecture' with topics ranging from a careful scrutiny of early films with special architectural interest (Early Images of the City) through reflections on how the representation or creation of the city on the cinema screen feeds back into architectural practice and vice-versa (The Modern City), to the ways in which development in computer science are bringing about new alliances between cinematic and architectural vision and practice (The Virtual City). He has organised a number of 'Architecture Film' seasons at the Arts Cinema. He is a fellow of Darwin College and a founder Director of Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd.

Tom Loosemore
Tom Loosemore is currently Head of Broadband and New Platforms at the BBC, developing the corporation's future strategy for a diverse range of content and delivery platforms. Previous to this, Tom was Applications Development Director for Chello Broadband, the biggest broadband interactive service outside of the USA and has held key positions in organisations such as Wired magazine, BBC online, AZTEC and Capital Interactive. In his spare time, Tom is part of the team that developed the ground-breaking www.faxyourmp.com, winner of the BT Overall Merit award at the 2001 New Statesman New Media Awards.