Venue : The Media Centre, Northumberland street, Huddersfield
Date : Saturday 13th October 2001
Time : From 6.00pm
Price : Free

Tech and the City
The medialounge is a new showcase for digital media on the ground floor of The Media Centre in Huddersfield. In a new custom-designed space, the medialounge presents innovative projects from their artistic research programme, from Media Centre tenants, and from partner organisations across the UK. The medialounge is also the first public exhibition space in the UK to feature the innovative 'HoloPro' display system - a technology that allows daylight projection of digital video and interactive installations, creating new possibilities for showcasing work in more sculptural and diverse environments.

Inspired by the launch of the Speakers Corner street interface and The Media Centre's innovative text-messaging projects, the first medialounge programme demonstrates work that takes digital content off the screen and into our streets, buildings and even furniture.

Mobile Computing
The first section of the medialounge looks at the impact of mobile networks devices, and the creative possibilities of new formats like SMS (text messaging) and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). Projects include the Media Centre's collaborations with Tim Etchells, Rachel Baker and Unlimited Theatre, The-Phone-Book.com's WAP short stories, and Media Centre Tenants Interactive Solutions and Gen-Sys showing SMS projects and the world's smallest PC.

Greyworld - Urban Sketches
London artists Greyworld have made some of the most innovative digital public art of the last 5 years, including commissions at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Greenwich Foot Tunnel, The Hayward Gallery and Eyestorm Gallery in New York. For this exhibition, Greyworld are showing an interior version of their interactive park bench, a two-screen installation of their 'Greyworld TV' (last seen in Huddersfield as part of the 'Opening' public projection project) and a series of new sound awards -an ongoing project recognising the sonic beauty of urban environments.

The-Phone-Book.com
The Phone Book commission 'micro-stories' - 250 words or less - for display over the web, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or SMS. For the medialounge, the Phone Book have created a sound installation that places these 'mobile' stories in a new physical context.

Re-Distributions
US curator Patrick Lichty recently launched Re-Distributions - an online exhibition showcasing artists' work with mobile technologies, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and 'nomadic interfaces' such as GPS, the global satellite positioning system. Included in the exhibition is a wide range of artworks and essays that you can download, interact with and read about from our web terminals, including The Media Centre's Speakers Corner and The Phone Book.com's Wap stories.

The Medialounge is supported by Yorkshire Arts Regional Arts Lottery Programme and Kirklees Council Cultural Services.