*

May 28-29
“Pandemic of Virtual”. Strategies of image and representation in times of ontological confusion. Physics, politics and poetics as modes of tactical virtualization of the normative real. Inherently panoramic axiom of real entails a gesture of opening (or starting up) windows, in fact, opening them to the mirrors—we are still in Plato’s cave, albeit better illuminated one. So, the problem (if there is any, really) is not with the virtual, the problem is “real”.

USEFUL SYMBIOSIS at Palacký University of Olomouc (Chech Republic).

May 31st
Current tendencies in the interactive an gaming sector of EU. The presenter will address a shifting paradigm of the interactive content, once regarded as a mono-platform, single-perspective individual experience and will present examples of cross-platform, multiplayer transmedia projects. Focus of the presentation will be on a shift in the narrative structure of the games, expansion of the types of interactivity and changing ways of financing, marketing and distributing of gaming content.

Forum on future of gaming at Riseba University, Riga (Latvia)
together with Latvian Ministry of Economics.

* image: John Baldessari, from “Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of 36 Attempts),” 1973

The Interdisciplinary & Collaborative Practices Cluster at the University of Hull invited Paidia Institute for a presentation of past and future work, projects and practices.

Remixing, Referencing, Reaction, Reworking and Recreation are important strategies in media art: also and especially while working with the game medium. Paidia Institute uses these strategies in projects yielding art and artistic research, focusing on diverse forms of play – from deconstructions of the dispositive of computer gaming to performances and site specific interventions.

In their presentation, strategies and art projects from Paidia’s past will be shown and the concept for a future event will be presented and put up for discussion. This future event will consist of a workshop-like setting/interactive laboratory in developing formats for the site specific use of “embedded technologies”.

February 29, 2012 3:30 pm

Scarborough Campus, University of Hull, Filey Road, Scarborough, United Kingdom, YO11 3AZ

http://www.ihull.org/events/icp-cluster-food-4-thought/

http://icpcluster.org/events.php?yr=2012

Paidia Institute is represented in Scarborough by Prof. Zilvinas Lilas, Tincuta Heinzel, Lasse Scherffig, Susanna Schoenberg, Björn Theis

transmediale 12 in/compatible

The cycle Paidia Laboratory: feedback examines computer games as closed feedback systems. In an ongoing series of artistic experiments the feedback behaviour of games is studied, by coupling their in- and output through modifications of hard- and software. The focus lies not on the usability of games, but rather on an archeology of interaction – determining the limits and boundaries of games in order to understand the media specific characteristics of computer games.

This analysis of interaction focuses on the process of inquiry and becomes manifest in an open and evolving structure of artefacts and schematics. The rhythm generated by mutual opening and closing of two PS2-sleds can be seen at the transmediale 2012 exhibition in/compatible. At the same time further works of feedback-experiments are presented at the Computerspielemuseum Berlin.

Paidia Institute is represented with Paidia Laboratory: feedback by Jonas Hansen, Thomas Hawranke, Karin Lingnau and Lasse Scherffig.

On Wednesday, February 1st, Lasse Scherffig will take part in the presentation at transmediale 2012: in/compatible research practices, the event following the path of the In/compatible Research PhD workshop/conference organised last November by the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre of Aarhus University and the reSource for transmedial culture at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Lasse Scherffig will briefly introduce his research on feedback machines and present a work-in-progress movie (in cooperation with by Thomas Hawranke) accentuating the topic of visual research as part of a methodological process.

29.01. – 05.02.2012, 29.01. 17:00 Vernissage
Special exhibition CSM_Berlin
Computerspielemuseum, Karl-Marx-Allee 93a, 10243 Berlin

31.01. – 05.02.2012
Transmediale exhibition: Dark Drives. Uneasy Energies in technological Times
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin

Paidia Laboratory: feedback, Flyer (PDF)

http://transmediale.de
http://computerspielemuseum.de
http://hkw.de

more at paidia laboratory: feedback

Producing field recordings and refeeding realities, marking territory and producing public voice in the South of Sardinia.

from left: Franziska Windisch COAL ROOM 2011, Susanna Schoenberg EXTERIOR #20090311_0058 2009, Malgorzata Calusinska AUFFALTUNG 2009

returnable: a fitting specification for this short program of artistic research on field–while looking for some specificities of the intervention site–could be: landscapes and realities to be returned.

Participating artists:

Malgorzata Calusinska (*1979)
lives in Cologne. She studied law (University of Bielefeld), slavic studies (University of Cologne) and media arts at KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Her artistic production includes drawings, video, sound and object installation, frequently site-specific concepts.

Martin Rumori (*1976)
lives in Cologne and Graz. He studied musicology, computer science and philosophy at both Technical and Humboldt Universities in Berlin. From 2005 to 2010 he worked in Klanglabor at KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Since 2011, he holds a research position at Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics Graz, Austria.
His main areas of interest are sound installations, field recordings, reactive environments, software development in artistic contexts, workshops, talks and publications.
http://www.rumori.de

Susanna Schoenberg (*1967)
lives in Cologne. She studied political sciences, sociology, cinematographic techniques and media arts. 2004 she launched re-active platform at KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
Her artistic production includes experimental film and video, photography, installation and performance.
http://www.susanna-schoenberg.net/
http://www.re-activeplatform.de

Dirk Specht (*1968)
lives in Cologne. He studied architecture (TU-Berlin) and media arts (KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne). Since 2011 he is lecturer at KHM Cologne, in charge of the local Klanglabor– lab for music, sound, noise–.
Fields of artistic work: sound art, composition, sound design, installation. Collaborations for radio productions, stage music for contemporary choreographies and theater, installations, cinematographic soundtracks. Workshops on recording techniques, sound and media art, ambisonic. Realization and organization of exhibitions (Raummusik und so, Frequenzwechsel, Son Detour, Hörabende).
http://www.therapeutischehoergruppekoeln.de
http://www.frequenzwechsel.net
http://www.nook-audio.de

Franziska Windisch (*1983)
lives and works in Cologne and Brussels. Her work concentrates on the recording of movement in time and space in the sense of formalization and transfer. Various aspects of those translation practices are investigated in audio-visual installations, concerts and site specific performances.
http://www.franziskawindisch.com

Paidia Institute is part of the exhibition and panel programme of Next Level Conference 2011. As part of the conference, Paidia Institute takes part in Cologne’s Long Night of Museums 2011 as well.

In a panel on game art education, Jonas Hansen will present game art developments at KHM and Paidia Institute. In the exhibition, a workshop/laboratory/installation project is shown which couples a number of computer games, controllers and physical artifacts into a self playing machine. The project expands upon Paidia Laboratory: Feedback realizing a Rube Goldberg machine that crosses boundaries of platforms, interfaces and genres.

Participants: Björn Theis, Jonas Hansen, Karin Lingnau, Lasse Scherffig, Sebastian Thewes, Thomas Hawranke

Paidia Institute will be part of the Platine 2011 (Cologne, August 15th-19th) with the Paidia Laboratory: Feedback.

„I was walking down Granville Street […] and I was looking into one of the video arcades. I could see in the physical intensity of their postures how rapt the kids inside were. It was like one of those closed systems out of a Pynchon novel: a feedback loop with photons coming off the screens into the kids’ eyes, neurons moving through their bodies, and electrons moving through the video game.“
William Gibson, author of “Neuromancer” und inventor of the term Cyberspace

Feedback is a mechanism, process or signal that is looped back to control a system within itself. In systems containing an input and output, feeding back part of the output so as to increase the input is positive feedback (regeneration); feeding back part of the output in such a way as to partially oppose the input is negative feedback (degeneration).

Paidia Laboratory examines computer games as closed feedback systems. In series of artistic experiments the feedback behaviour of games will be studied and put in new correlations through modifications of hardware and software. The focus lays not on the usability of games, but rather to determine their limits and boundaries to understand the media specific characteristics of games.

The results of the laboratory will be presented at Platine 2011: http://www.platine-cologne.de/11/

Following the four week workshop eNTERFACE’09 in Genova in 2009, two articles on gaming with the brain have been published. They are based on the game Bacteria Hunt that combines Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology with traditional (keyboard) input in an action game setting. Experiments with the game inquire the possibility of affecting the game world and its rules by measuring spontaneus brain activity (alpha-power) and stimulus induced activity (SSVEP) via EEG.

The game and the experiments have been created by a group of scientists from University of Twente (Human Media Interaction), TNO and other institutions, with participation of Lasse Scherffig of Paidia Institute.

Bacteria Hunt: Evaluating multi-paradigm BCI interaction
Christian Mühl, Hayrettin Gürkök, Danny Plass-Oude Bos, Marieke E. Thurlings, Lasse Scherffig, Matthieu Duvinage, Alexandra A. Elbakyan, SungWook Kang, Mannes Poel, Dirk Heylen, in: Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, Volume 3, 2010
PDF (600 kB)

Bacteria Hunt: A multimodal, multiparadigm BCI game
Christian Mühl, Hayrettin Gürkök, Danny Plass-Oude Bos, Marieke E. Thurlings, Lasse Scherffig, Matthieu Duvinage, Alexandra A. Elbakyan, SungWook Kang, Mannes Poel, Dirk Heylen, in: Proceedings of the 5th International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces (eNTERFACE’09), A. Camurri, M. Mancini and G. Volpe (Eds.), DIST-University of Genova, Genova, 41-61, ISBN 13-978-88-901344-7-0, 2010
PDF (full proceedings, 8.4 MB)

There also is a Bacteria Hunt research poster (by Hayrettin Gürkök of HMI).

Eight+, the result of the last Play09 Game Lab, will be presented on the gamescom (18.-22.08.2010, Cologne) at the Creative Gaming booth. From the last exhibition at the AMAZE.Interact Festival the game was again completely redesigned and will now be shown as Eight++.

Eight+ a synaesthetic-user-generatedcontent-post-new-rave-multiplayer-shooter in 2D.

Eight+ is an anarchic mix of rhythm, action, sounds and visuals provoking the conventions of standardized content and feedback loops in computer games. In this multiplayer game, players shoot at objects drawn live by other players. The longer they interact, the more distortion emerges. The borders between parties blur as ever more content is created and destroyed. The installation explores the social behaviors of groups as well as the limits of game design.

Eight+ is is developed by Jonas Hansen, Thomas Hawranke, Karin Lingnau, Marek Plichta, Jakob Penca and Lasse Scherffig.

August 16th-19th, 2010, Cologne

PLATINE festival showcases electronic media ranging from art to alternative forms of gaming. The works are shown in local pubs and offices in Cologne Ehrenfeld. Among the works shown are CollecTic and Thumbs Down by Jonas Hansen.

Web: http://www.platine-cologne.de

Hyperkult is an annual workshop/symposium on computer science, culture and society at Leuphana University Lüneburg. This year’s theme is “Mobiles – You Are Now Here”. The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) participates with a talk/performance entitled “Context Aware Devices – Context Aware Users” presenting artistic strategies for mobile devices and data spaces. The presentation is given by Jonas Hansen, Thomas Hawranke and Lasse Scherffig of Paidia Institute, together with Laura Popplow and Martin Rumori. In addition to works of these, the presentation will also feature the work of the “Büro für Unabwägbarkeiten”.