Co-curated by FACT and interdisciplinary design collective body>data>space, Robots and Avatars is a major new exhibition showcasing the most exciting visions and innovations from international artists, designers and architects, and exploring their impact on the future of work and play.

Exploring the increasing overlap of the virtual and physical world, and our own steady assimilation of new technologies, this playful group show offers immersive experiences – from physical limbs rendered into pixels through the act of touch, collaborative landscapes stretching beyond the confines of popular gaming, to wearable and interactive technologies that guide and confound.

Robots and Avatars departs from pop culture imagery and re-imagines these technologies for a new reality: how do we envisage our future relationships with robotic and avatar colleagues and playmates, and at what point does this evolution cross our personal boundaries of what it is to be a living, feeling human being?

Louis-Philippe Demers – Blind Robot (new work). Germany/Canada/Singapore
An artistic investigation into the role of Social Robotics, Demers’ new work explores the degrees of engagement – intellectual, emotional or physical – that are generated when a robot intimately touches a person. Visitors are invited to engage into a non-verbal dialogue where the robot delicately explores the visitor’s face – in the same way that blind humans recognise a person or an object. The machine then produces a visual rendering – a window to the robot’s soul – of what its fingertips have “seen”.

Michael Takeo Magruder – Visions of Our Communal Dreams (commission)UK/US. Visions of Our Communal Dreams is a mixed-reality art installation blending virtual, physical and networked space that explores issues of hybridity, embodiment and collective creativity made possible through the use of avatars and virtual worlds. Artist Michael Takeo Magruder will run a set of workshops in which young participants from Liverpool will learn skills relating to virtual worlds customisation and collaborative content creation that will feed back into both the artwork and its underlying creative processes. 

Karina Smigla Bobinski – ADA. Poland/Germany. Nominated for Prix Ars Electronica 2012, Polish artist Karina Smigla Bobinski’s ADA is a giant interactive analogue installation with the appearance of a membrane-like globe that floats freely in the gallery space. Constructed to have her own will, ADA does not follow programmes or commands but is an autonomous artwork enhanced by the people’s reaction to her.

Alastair Eilbeck – MeYouandUs. UK. MeYouandUs is a series of three interactive plasma-screens that encourages passers-by to interact with them, allowing each participant to create their own narrative. Each installation requires different levels of involvement – from an instant reaction to a gradual response.

Lawrence Malstaf – Compass. Belgium. Situated somewhere between art and theatre, the ‘living’ installations of Belgian visual artist require visitors to bring them to life. Like Shrink, the artwork shown at Abandon Normal Devices festival in Manchester 2010, Compass is an individual performance experience. Wearing a machine around the waist, the visitor can either resist the forces it exerts, or allow themselves to be taken on a tangible but immaterial journey across an invisible map. 

Chris Sugrue – Base 8. Spain/Slovenia/US
An artist and programmer developing interactive installations, audio-visual performances and experimental interfaces, Chris Sugrue makes work that investigates topics such as artificial life, eye-tracking and optical illusions. Inspired by a 19th century theatre trick called “Pepper’s Ghost”, Base 8 explores the negative spaces and movements between fingers, hands and arms, hinting towards an holographic illusion of a world floating in air.

Matthieu Cherubini – Rep.licants.org. Switzerland. An online work by Swiss artist Matthieu Cherubini, replicants.org is an online service allowing people to install a bot on their Facebook and/or Twitter account that can build a greater social reputation for the user. Rep.licants.org explores the reality of who is really who on social networks and examines the potential extensions of our social interactions on the social networks.

The Robots and Avatars exhibition is co-produced in the UK by body>data>space (London) and FACT (Liverpool) in collaboration with the National Theatre (London). European co-organisers are KIBLA (Maribor/Slovenia) and AltArt (Cluj Napoca/Romania). With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union, this project was conceived by lead producer body>data>space in association with NESTA.

Full information can be found here: http://www.robotsandavatars.net/exhibition/

Notes to Editors

16 March 2011 – 27 May 2012 FACT, Wood Street Liverpool www.fact.co.uk. FREE Entry

body>>data>>space is an East London design collective creating innovative connections between performance, architecture, virtual worlds and new media. We work to share and extend future scenarios of virtual / physical blended space. We produce action-research projects, commissions, exhibitions, debates, conferences, learning experiences and websites with a wide range of sectors. www.bodydataspace.net

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) has been leading the UK video, film and new media arts scene for more than 20 years with groundbreaking exhibitions, education and research projects. It aims to pioneer new forms of artistic and social interaction with individuals and communities.

Visions of Our Communal Dreams by Michael Takeo Magruder with Drew Baker, Erik Fleming and David Steele, 2012. (credit photo) 

Commissioned by body>data>space and the Royal National Theatre in association with FACT and King’s College London for the “Robots and Avatars” project. supported by the EU Culture programme.

The commissioned project: me and my shadow, by UK artist Joseph Hyde

A telepresence/motion capture portal simultaneously active in 4 cities involving creative participation by the public. me and my shadow is a multisite telepresence project that will take place place in four European cities (Istanbul, London, Mons and Paris).

It consists of a virtual environment experienced in four installations (one in each city), which act as portals to an online space. These portals are also remotely viewable through a website, which will frame and document the project. The portals are built around the Microsoft Kinect sensor, revolutionary because it enables the introduction of full motion capture into a domestic environment. me and my shadow expands this technology to allow a new form of interaction with collaborative 3D space.

The aim of the project is to explore new relationships between physical and virtual worlds, made possible by this technology. This creates permeable media interfaces which are distinct from current forms of virtual, augmented or pervasive media. The user will be invited to interact creatively with a 3D environment, available equally and synchronously to all four portals (in all four cities) and
viewable in real time on the project documentation website.

To some extent the paradigm is comparable to collaborative 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life however the method of interaction and the aims of it are very different – almost in opposition to more established virtual worlds. Whereas a virtual world gives users the opportunity to create an alternative to the physical environment, me and my shadow allows users to ‘project’ aspects of their physical selves into virtual space – a phenomenon analogous to the casting of a shadow.

The ‘shadows’ a user can project into this space take a variety of forms. Gestures can be used to draw shapes, or sculpt three-dimensional objects. These gestures need not be simple hand gestures – any of the major points of the human body can be traced and followed, singly or in combination, allowing a wide variety of complex and organic forms to be created.

Blog de l’artiste : http://www.we-made.eu/eng/?p=27

BIO

Joseph Hyde
Artist
Joseph Hyde’s background is as a musician and composer, working in various areas but in the late 90s – and a period working with BEAST in Birmingham (UK) – settling on electronic music, with or without live instruments. Since then, his work has diversified: whilst music and sound remain at the core of his practice, collaboration has become a key concern, particularly in the field of dance. H ere he works both as a composer and in a broader capacity working with video, interactive systems and telepresence. His solo work has also broadened in scope to incorporate these elements: He has made a series of audiovisual ‘visual music’ works, and is currently engaged in a long term study of (early abstract cinema artist) Oscar Fischinger’s creative process, supported by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. His interest in movement and interactive systems has led him to an intensive exploration of the revolutionary Microsoft Kinect sensor, through several collaborative arts projects and theoretical writings.
Hyde also works as a lecturer/academic, as Professor or Music at Bath Spa University in the UK – as well as teaching on the BA Creative Music Technology, he runs the MMus in Creative Sound and Media Technology and supervises a number of PhD students. Since 2009 he has run a symposium on Visual Music at the university, Seeing Sound.

Phill Tew
Programmer
Based in Bristol and graduated in Fine Art/Contemporay Media at the Newport School of Art and Design. Phill Tew is a curious blend of programmer and installation artist, leveraging skills gathered from an early age and honed in industry to create artworks that play with generative processing, physical modelling and creativity itself.

Exploring and supporting new forms of European digital coproduction and mobility

The MADE project is:

> 8 workshops organised in the 4 partner countries, around the theme ‘Digital arts and the new esthetic experiences for public space and/or stage and exhibition spaces’.
> 1 European Call for Project to select a project dedicated to digital arts that will be co‐produced by the four MADE partners and developed over 12 months.
> 1 European coproduction developed during residencies resulting in each of the 4 partner countries.
> A Premiere at centre des arts d’Enghien‐les‐Bains in June 2012.
> A Website dedicated to the MADE project will also be used as a platform for the international digital arts community ‐ www.we‐made.eu
> Publications ‐ documentation of the project and white papers as a guide about European coproduction in terms of digital creation processes.

The european cooperation project MADE has been awarded by the European Commission within the frame of the Culture Programme supports.

More info on : www.relais-culture-europe.org and on the European Commission website :  ec.europa.eu.
The aim is to create a Europe an environment that promotes reflection on digital art, creating trans-European works and enabling the public to understanding of this art form.

Site du projet européen MADE: http://www.we-made.eu/eng/?p=14

Contact coordination : Marie Lesage / +33 (0)1 39 64 11 02 / mlesage@cdarts.enghien95.fr

Etienne Rey investigates the invisible and mutual relationships which take place between human and his environment. Prize-winner of the 1st call for projects of the RAN, its project of immersive installation Tropique puts in link the perception of the space connected to the movement, to the light and to the sound. Within the framework of a residence of creation in the Centre des arts, the object of which is ” to sculpt the light “, he presents a work in progress of this installation.

First of all, the public is invited to experiment the bright and perceptive environment of the installation then a discussion will enhance the genesis and the approach of this project.

With the participation of Etienne Rey, artist, Philippe Baudelot, artistic coordinator / Digital Performance and Culture and Laurent Perrinet, researcher, specialist of the perception and the cognition / CNRS(NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH) the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences of the Mediterranean Sea. 

www.ondesparalleles.org

Executive producer : Seconde Nature. www.secondenature.org Tropique est une oeuvre réalisée dans le cadre des Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée – Marseille Provence 2013, capitale européenne de la culture en partenariat avec l’IMéRA, et L’institut Neuroscientifique de la Timone. En coproduction avec le GMEM, centre national de création musicale, Marseille. Avec le soutien des Mécènes du Sud, du ministère de la culture et de la communication-Dicréam et de la Région PACA.

RAN members coproducers : Centre des arts-Bains numériques (Enghien-les-Bains) ; Artefact-La Laiterie-Festival Ososphère (Strasbourg).

Taking dance away from the stage, finding unusual places, is to refer to the journey in the map. Narrative literature is often accompanied by maps or atlases. The cartography of places maintains an ambivalent relationship with choreography and engenders a space of narrative, it allows us to understand that the linear nature of the story is in reality part of a system of permanent spatial relationships.

The extension of the choreographic field to objects other than the body reveals its temporary invisibility. The gap in the space of the image extends the discrete electronic world to a macroscopic level and carries on by dierentiation from other elements such as places, frames, the interlocking of sequences, objects and machines.It is no longer the screen that we are looking at. You enter through pathways scattered here and there. The body is sometimes guessed, sometimes glimpsed, it passes on the baton, vanishes into the suspension of the edit. The dance is still there, even if the body disappears, because the movement written, chosen and determined, is composed infinitely, leaving the reader free to associate the elements relating to his own journey, his own enigma.

Dowload the article of Yves Zoberman: ” Finding man in the plurality of his movements” Prize: 20€

Buy the book online: http://www.cda95.fr/editions

Enghien-les-Bains  _  9-16 JUNE 2012

Call for submissions : visual arts / choreographic arts / sound arts 

An international competition for the digital arts is again being run to mark the 7th year of the digital arts festival Bains numériques. Works (not previously seen in the Ile-de-France region) will now compete in three separate fields: visual arts, choreographic arts and sound arts.

During the festival, a selection of nine works (three in each of the above categories) will be presented to the public and a panel of professional judges. Three prizes will be awarded at the end of the festival, one in each category.

Each prize will help the work to be published or distributed, plus contribute towards promotional material (DVD/booklet).

 Dead line : 15th of February 2012

• Download the call for submissions
• Submit your application on-line

> A cross-disciplinary online digital arts guide

> A Watch on new uses and activities in the area of performing and visual arts

Project no. 1 Support for pilot projects

> to create an economy of production and distribution through international cooperation

A selection of artistic projects and digital tools (creation of performing arts shows, installations, software and materials) corresponding to a specific call for projects will receive the support of RAN members in 2010. The teams selected will be given the opportunity to complete a “research and creation programme” which includes a mobile residency in specific locations (training centre, research laboratory, cultural site, etc.) and incorporates critical observation and mediation experiences with the general public. The projects will be followed by a Support Committee and will receive co-production aid from RAN members.

+ download :

Call for proposals_RAN

CP  RAN winners projects

Project no. 2 / A cross-disciplinary online digital arts guide

> catalogue skills and connect talents

This online guide is intended as an open and flexible tool aimed at cultural, scientific, business and industry professionals as well as the general public. The purpose of this vast “real-time” directory – to which contribution is voluntary – is to catalogue and centralize opportunities and specific skills in the area of digital arts and above all to draw up a national map of resource sites. It is also a means to collect and organize the contact information of suppliers and documents by area of interest, but also to keep people informed, put contributors in contact and publish data on line.

Project no. 3 / A Watch on new uses and activities in the area of performing and visual arts

> to enhance professional training

Through the recognition of new skills and new professions emerging in the world of digital arts, the purpose of this Watch is to draw the attention of institutions and professional organizations to the benefits of building stronger bridges between the professional and university spheres and to implement more pluridisciplinary “art and science” training.

Tropique is an environmental installation, a space empty of matter which becomes more dense in sound and by light waves activated and modulated in the presence of human activity. People are surrounded by a luminous aura of sound which fluctuates according to the movements and proximity of bodies.

www.ondesparalleles.org

This experimental call for projects launched by the RAN privileged projects developed by artists and scientists in three categories: Live performances / Installations / Net.art

Winners projects

Within the framework of the professional days on the digital arts organized by the Centre des arts of Enghien-les-Bains June 24th and 25th of this year, joining the programming of the Future festival in the Seine, members of the RAN jury have auditioned 10 projects preselected.

The RAN emphasized the necessity for the teams to elaborate a common methodology of coproduction between artists and researchers.

At the conclusion of deliberations, three projects have been selected. They were chosen as their formal variety going of the live performance to the visual arts, of the performance in the immersive installation and for the requirement of their artistic and scientific approach and in the broad sense, of the body, the perception and the language.

This selection involves the guarantee, for these three artistic projects carrying the label “RAN selection”, of a coproduction of at least three structures of the network RAN (45 structures of artistic, scientific and industrial research, production, distribution and training(formation)) working in synergy.

The projects prize-winners are:

TROPIQUE

Etienne Rey (FR)

This project will benefit from a specific accompaniment consisting of a follow-up by professionals’ committee and documentation (paper and video) on its process of creation.

OUTREACH : Crystallising Movements

Alex Haw (atmos) & Mauritius Seeger (dr. mo) (UK)

C2M1 (c’est demain / it’s tomorrow)

Siegfried Canto et Magali Desbazeille (FR)

Besides, the jury chose to award a “quotation” to the project S.U.N. – SEON (ZEN) UNIVERSEL NUMERIQUE of the cie Corée’graphie, Young Ho Nam as example of collaboration art / science and between the members of the RAN.

JURY :

The jury was composed by artists, directors of cultural venues and by scientists, which was representative of the variety of expertise of the RAN:

Philippe Baudelot (Digital Performances & Culture) _ Verniolle / FR

Ghislaine Boddington (body>data>space) _ London / UK

Pauline Chasseriaud (Acces – cultures électroniques) _ Pau / FR

Thierry Danet (Artefact – La Laiterie – Les Nuits de l’Ososphère) _ Strasbourg / FR

Christian Delécluse (Digital Flesh) _ Paris / FR

Philippe Franck (Transcultures) _ Mons / BE

Francis Lestienne (Modesco _Université de Caen Basse-Normandie) _ Caen / FR

Dominique Roland (centre des arts) _ Enghien-les-Bains / FR

Nicolas Schelté (Artefact – La Laiterie – Les Nuits de l’Ososphère) _ Strasbourg / FR

Stages

This first call for proposals of the RAN have been launched on January 2011.The RAN members choose to select couple with artist and scientist. 92 applications have been received, 32 projects was preselected.

Between March and May 2011, this 32 projects have been evaluated by around 12 members of the RAN. Then, 10 projects carried the label « RAN Selection » were in the final selection.

Auditionned on 25th of June, projects of the 10 teams have been inspected with differetns criteria, as the global artistic value of the proposal, the quality of the Relationship between artist and scientist, the innovative nature artistically and technologically and the possibility to integrate RAN members and producers/distributors in the program and production policy.

The accompaniment of this 3 projects will be proposed to the others RAN members.

This supports will depend on nature of the projets et could be a coproduction, a residency, a support, expertise…

Timetable

January > launching of the call for proposals

March > reception of the 92 applications

April > administrative preselection of 32 projects

May > First selection of 10 projects

June > audition of 10 projects et selection of 3 winners projects

July – September > proposition of accompaniment to others RAN members

> a voluntary dynamics of structures artistic, scientific and industry research, training, production and dissemination structures working in the domain of digital creation.

> an open space opened in interdisciplinary exchanges and reinforce ties between art, science and technologies

> A Watch on new artistic and scientific ways and the shared expertises

> A driving force for the cultural economy impulsing new models of coproduction and distribution

+ download the presentation file in .pdf

In 2007, the Centre des arts in Enghien-les-Bains, a venue for the promotion of digital creation subsidized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, launched a project to create a network of structures for artistic, scientific and industrial research, production, distribution and training in the area of digital creation, in France and internationally.

The Digitals Arts Network, or RAN in French, offers a unique platform where art, science and industry converge, removing the barriers between these sectors and opening up a pioneering space for creation and innovation where experts from various professional fields can come together.

The RAN seeks to develop a collaborative approach aimed at fostering exchange, reflection and co-production between artistic, scientific and industrial structures. It promotes the synergy of cross-disciplinary expertise and helps bolster national and international cooperation.

Objectives

> To promote interdisciplinary exchanges and reinforce ties between art, science and industry

> To pool resources, know-how and methods between digital arts research, production, distribution and training structures

> To develop co-production and the joint distribution of works and tools, and promote the mobility of those working in the area of digital creation

> To communicate on and support training and awareness initiatives

The network currently comprises 43 members located both in France and beyond its borders (8 different nationalities are represented). The members include artistic production and diffusion sites, university research laboratories, industrial R&D hubs, resource and training centers, etc.

+ download the list of the members