fw: digital research unit / four commissions

[claudia westermann]

http://druh.co.uk/seminar_2003/seminar_2003.html

Four Commissions: Tom Betts, Michael Atavar, Alexei Shulgin, Rachel Reupke

The DRU initiates, supports and disseminates creative research and 
production activities in digital, interactive, and network media, 
linking artists, researchers, academics, and creative networks. 
The DRU delivers a dynamic and challenging range of work from artists 
at the forefront of digital media practice, bringing new ideas and 
working practises to the fore.

Date
Friday 17 October 2003

Location
The Media Centre
7 Northumberland Street
Huddersfield
HD1 1RL

The DRU Seminar 03 is a free event, open to everyone, but places are 
strictly limited, so please register interest by emailing us at:

info at druh.co.uk or telephone Clare Danek on 0870 990 5007.

The Digital Research Unit opened on 17 October 2003. This event marks 
the first anniversary of the facility and creates a platform for us 
to present and discuss the four artists' commissions 
produced in the past 12 months. The DRU Seminar 03 is a day long 
event built around presentations by the four artists commissioned: 
Tom Betts; Michael Atavar; Alexei Shulgin; Rachel Reupke.

The seminar will take place in the Conference Room on the first floor 
of The Media Centre in Huddersfield. The schedule described below 
will be followed as closely as possible, so that we all get 
the opportunity to meet and talk outside of the seminar itself. Lunch 
will be held in the Café Bar at The Media Centre, which is downstairs 
from the Conference Room, and will be taken with all 
the attendees, and should be a good time to chat/network etc.

+ The Café Bar at The Media Centre is now a free wireless zone, so if 
you're wireless enabled you can now use the internet for free in that 
space.

The artists' presentations will address the development, production 
and publication/exhibiton of their commission. Some artists will 
contextualise the commissioned work in relation to their other 
practice, and will present other work. Each artist has been allocated 
1 hour, which includes 15 minutes for a Q&A session at the end of 
their presentation, leaving about 45 minutes to present the work.

At the end of the day there will be a panel discussion, Chaired by 
Derek Hales [Director of Research, Department of Architecture, 
Huddersfield University] including Tom Betts ,Michael 
Atavar ,Alexei Shulgin ,Rachel Reupke and Tom Holley [Creative 
Director, The Media Centre] to discuss general issues relating to the 
Digital Research Unit Commissions, and how 
we might evolve and improve what we do. We also hope for a lively 
audience led Q&A session to round off the day.




The Commissions


Tom Betts | QQQ
2002 | http://www.q-q-q.net

Originally exhibited at the Evolution Festival, Leeds 2002. In 
collaboration with Lumen .

The digital arenas of Quake are manipulated using generative 
programming techniques to produce
abstract architectural forms. Players paint afterimage trails and 
motion smears, creating a continuous stream of glitched and distorted 
images.

http://www.nullpointer.co.uk


michael atavar | [four  walls]
2003 | http://www.druh.co.uk

[four walls] architecture and virtual reality 2002/3 where a wall is 
a window and the sky a tree where a house is a car and a barking dog 
a door

http://www.atavar.com


Alexei Shulgin & Victor Laskin | WIMP

2003 | http://www.wimp.ru

WIMP is a program for creating visual animations synchronised with 
sound in real time. WIMP exploits the Graphical User Interface [GUI] 
of the Windows Operating System.

http://www.easylife.org


Rachel Reupke | Pico  Mirador

2003 | http://www.picomirador.com

Three webcams look out over the spectacular Pico Mirador region, each 
view presenting an unremitting report of the ebb and flow of life and 
the seasons.