Four workshops new media
September, Oostende, Belgium

Call for participation - Deadline 15th of June 2004

Initiative and organisation : vzw CARGO asbl
Support : VAF Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds
Location : Oostende, Belgium
Period : September 2004 (4 workshops, 5 days each)
Participation fee : 150 EUR


General

The workshops introduce methods of creating media in networked environments=
(web, tools, interactive installation modules, game-structures and weblog/=
cam community platforms). They investigate the kind of places these methods=
and forms of creation might occupy within computing and wireless communica=
tion.

The workshops welcome all those who can't stop making media and creating wo=
rks that involve or incorporate new media, emerging technologies, and/or el=
ectronic art, design and tools. They draw on a combined background of art, =
(wireless) technology, architecture, game, interaction design and web.



Four workshops: Four practices

Workshop1 : Open content
What we hope to find with www.becoming.be, is not just new prototypes for m=
aking media online, but essentially a tool, with which we can contribute be=
tter and more actively and creatively to already existing systems, around w=
hich fellowships are being formed. Open content is essentially about creati=
on and close communication, in environments of communal computing.
Your mentor : Nicolas Maleve.
Please try this context : www.becoming.be (a new tool by Dominique Callewae=
rt, developed as a research project for the Jan Van Eyck Academy, Maastrich=
t).

Workshop 2 : Mediacreation in network context
We think that the strength of having an audiovisual work on the Web does no=
t come out of a well designed and accessible presentation of the final (eve=
ntually streamed) result, but out of online prototypes, that offer entries =
for visitors to get into the ways and procedures that finally resulted in t=
he final work.
More mentors : Stefaan Decostere, Bart Goossens and Jeroen Peys.
Invest this context : mEYEtime, as site and as surveillance (game) platform=
.

Workshop 3 : Narrative structures in rich interactive environments
The latest technological tools (sms/gsm, wireless computing/communication) =
point to the development of new types of interactions in an enhanced media =
and network environment. This is the context for the development of innovat=
ive playgrounds which explore new patterns for sharing content, for exchang=
ing experiences and practices, and for interacting together. What type of s=
cenarios, how to create dynamic interactions triggering "interesting" behav=
iors and exchanges, how to design system of rules for these specific worlds=
embedded in the physical realities?
Your mentor : Yves Bernard.
Develop this context : mEYEtime, extended with interactive modules.

Workshop 4 : Enhanced TV
Imagine a world where there are two kinds of media power : one comes throug=
h media concentration, where any message gets authority simply by being bro=
adcast on network television; the other comes through grass-roots intermedi=
aries, where a message gains visibility only if it is deemed relevant to lo=
ose network of diverse publics. Broadcasting will place issues on the natio=
nal agenda; bloggers will reframe those issues for different publics.
Your mentor : Jensen Dehaes.
Challenge the context : local tv, radio, docside CANVAS (with some reserve)=
.

mEYEtime

During the workshops a special environment will be set up in an empty house=
in the port of Oostende. The framework of this environment is mEYEtime, a =
shared platform for creative work exploring the playful, emotional and appr=
opriate incorporation of technology into everyday creative practice.

mEYEtime is a surveillance game-platform. It will be proposed to the partic=
ipants as an unfinished installation, to be completed and defined by them d=
uring the workshops in September. It is a toolkit with surveillance cameras=
, gsm's and a specially designed webplatform.

Participants are invited to appropriate the space and to fill its many room=
s with objects of their own. They can install surveillance camera's. Build =
a world. They can investigate a room and suggest a story. Who is the owner =
of that room? They can propose a map; suggest some entries; invent some rul=
es. They can design an intervention or system. They can prototype an experi=
ence and take it public.


For all further descriptions about the workshops, updates and mentors pleas=
e check www.cargoweb.org/forum
On this forum you access the form to REGISTER, or go to www.becoming.be/wor=
kshopform.php

After registration you will be invited on the info day, 5th of June in Brus=
sels


*** Please forward this mail to anyone who might be interested ***