Archive for April, 2011

Game Design lecturer appointed in Wits Digital Arts

April 22nd, 2011 by christo

Hanli Geyser - new game design lecturer in Wits Digital Arts

Hanli Geyser has been newly appointed as the first Game Design Lecturer in Wits Digital Arts.  Her primary area of responsibility is the development of the new Game Design degree which will be launched in the 2012 academic year in collaboration with the Wits School of Electrical and Information Engineering. The course courses in the degree will be taken by both creative arts and engineering students – an entirely new arrangement at Wits, and, indeed, in any other South African university.  Hanli is also teaching on the Honours Theory programme and supervising the postgraduate students who are already undertaking research into games related topics.  For more information contact her directly:  hanli.geyserATwits.ac.za.

Posted in africa, announcements, Games, hanli geyser, interactive | 3 Comments »

From the archive – Interactive Performance 2004

April 22nd, 2011 by christo

From "terminal_extensions:departures", the mid-year exhibition of the 2nd Interactive Media class (then called Interactive Media Design). Dancer and physical theatre performer, Saul Garcia, in a self-designed interactive performance piece.  June 1974.

Posted in announcements, digital art, performance art, stimulus | 1 Comment »

Sitting on the Pixel Chair

April 18th, 2011 by christo

"Brooklynite and electrical engineer Steven J. Sasson had an interesting problem posed to him in 1975 by Eastman Kodak: Was it possible to make a film-less camera that could capture images electronically? Three years of hard work later Sasson, along with his Kodak supervisor Gareth A. Lloyd, was issued a patent. It would be many years yet before companies like Sony and Panasonic would pick up the digital ball and run with it, and companies like Canon and Nikon would stop wishing this bothersome new technology would go away, but Sasson had invented the first digital camera. His contribution to the current state of the world is incalculable; eBay, fashion photography, journalism and a host of other industries would not exist in their current forms if not for Sasson"[from Core77 Design Magazine & Resource]

Watch till after the credit to find out about the pixel chair. Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview from an ATjoburg perspective is Sasson's comment that the key insight when putting across a new technology is that you have to understand the culture you're dealing with – "first & foremost" – and present the idea in ways that the culture is used to. This was the case with the digital camera.

Inventor Portrait: Steven Sasson from David Friedman on Vimeo.

Posted in announcements, interview, reblog | No Comments »

João Orecchia – improvisations on the theme of Alice

April 11th, 2011 by christo

João Orecchia

João Orecchia with an image of a graphic score by Edgard Varese. His screensaver is from one of Nathaniel Stern's "Compressionist" works.

 

Poster for Svankmajer's film of Alice

The poster from Jan Svankmejer's surrealist masterpiece, Alice. The inspiration for the latest sound experiments by Joao Orecchia.

João Orecchia demonstrating the operation of tape loops through reel2reel tape recorders.

Jhb/Berlin musician and improvisor, João Orecchia, presented work in progress on his current project: a graphic score to guide the live performance of a soundtrack to the Czech surrealist masterpiece, Alice, by Jan Svankmajer. Intended to be performed in Johannesburg around the middle of the year, the soundtrack will be performed by musicians improvising with old analogue reel2reel machines running tape loops (using samples and fragments of recordings created by João). The audience will watch the a screening of the Svankmajer film together with the improvised performance by the tape players, while a young girl – of Alice's age – reads extracts from the original English Alice in Wonderland.

 

The original film only has sound effects and dialogue tracks which enabled João to find a space for his improvised orchestrations. It's a really interesting project and continues João 's explorations into chance, indeterminacy, and the different possibilities of improvisation. His "Joburg Melting" series at Arts on Main with Swiss instrumentalist and artist, Mario Marchisella, and video projections by Marianne Halter, established improvised music as an important new emphasis in avant-garde music in the city. Rigorously improvisational, the series ran weekly for a month and brought together a wide range of musicians from the various avant garde and underground scenes in the city.

. Joburg Melting

João Orecchia with Mario Marchisella in the Joburg Melting series.

Posted in announcements, audio, opportunity, performance art | 1 Comment »

The art of the miniature and the found object

April 11th, 2011 by christo

"Love Story"  by Wayne Barker. 

Originally uploaded by Christo Doherty

 

 

One of the assemblages from Wayne Barker's recent exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg. Entitled "Super Boring", the exhibition presented work from the last 25 years of the South African artist's often controversial career. This piece, with the title, "Love Story", made from oil paint and "found objects", is part of a series of tiny figures posed on pop art objects created out of common South African brands, such as Coke, IWISA mielie meal, and Sunshine floor polish. See more photos of the exhibition at http://tinyurl.com/barker-super-boring
"

Posted in africa art, sculpture, south africa, stimulus | No Comments »