[artinfo] Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN)

[Drew Hemment]

Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN)
A new international network of practicing artists, technology 
developers and ethnographers working in pervasive and locative media.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION - deadline extended
Submissions are invited. Deadline for submissions has been extended 
to Friday 10th December. Guidelines for full submissions may be found 
below.

PERVASIVE AND LOCATIVE ARTS NETWORK (PLAN)
A new international and interdisciplinary research network in 
pervasive media and locative media has been funded as part of the 
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Culture & 
Creativity programme. The network will bring together practicing 
artists, technology developers and ethnographers with the aim of 
advancing interdisciplinary understanding and building consortia for 
future collaborative projects.

Focus
A new generation of pervasive technologies is enabling people to 
break away from traditional desktop PCs and games consoles and 
experience interactive media that are directly embedded into the 
world around them. And locative media, the combination of mobile 
devices with locative technologies, supports experiences and social 
interaction that respond to a participant's physical location and 
context. Together these convergent fields raise possibilities for new 
cultural experiences in areas as diverse as performance, 
installations, games, tourism, heritage, marketing and education.

Objectives
To support the formation of a new interdisciplinary research 
community to investigate how the convergent fields of pervasive media 
and locative media need to evolve in order to support future cultural 
and creative activities.
To catalogue interdisciplinary collaborations, and to review the 
research agenda, methods, and community.
To identify the key research issues that need to be addressed.
To seed future projects by bringing artists, scientists and industry 
together in a creative environment so that they can generate and 
practically explore new ideas, and also to provide a forum for 
publicly demonstrating some of these.
To produce online and offline resources to support researchers, 
artists, industry and to promote public understanding of this 
emerging field, including a public website, an online document 
repository for members and a newsletter and DVD.
To lobby for additional funding for this area.
To link international networks.

Activity
The network will stage three major gatherings. Each gathering will 
have a distinct form and focus: an initial workshop to launch the 
network and assess the state of the art; a technology summer camp for 
artists and technologists, including hands-on prototyping sessions 
using the facilities at Nottingham's Mixed reality Laboratory; and a 
major public conference and participatory exhibition as a central 
component of the Futuresonic 2006 festival in Manchester; as well as 
a supporting web site and other resources.


INITIAL NETWORK
Steve Benford, University of Nottingham
Drew Hemment, University of Salford
Henk Muller, University of Bristol
Matthew Chalmers, University of Glasgow
Michael Sharples, University of Birmingham
Geraldine Fitzpatrick, University of Sussex
Christian Heath, Kings College
Jon Hindmarsh, Kings College
Ben Russell, Headmap/Locative Media Lab
Marc Tuters, Locative Media Lab
Dennis Del Favero, NSW iCinema
Steve Sayers, NESTA
Toby Barnes, EM Media
Richard Hull, HP Labs
Denny Plowman, City of Nottingham Council
Sara Diamond, Banff Centre, Canada
Andrew Caleya Chetty, Metapod
Amanda Oldroyd, BT Exact
Matt Adams, Blast Theory
Nick Southgate, Ricochet TV
Annika Waern, iPerG
Giles Lane, Proboscis
Minna Tarkka, m-cult, Finland
Carsten Sorensen, LSE
Chris Byrne, New Media Scotland
Paul Sermon, University of Salford
Nina Wakeford, INCITE, Surrey
Chengzhi Peng, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
Lalya Gaye, Future Applications Lab, Viktoria Institute, Sweden
Michael Longford, Mobile Digital Commons Network, Canada
Gini Simpson, SPACE
Giulio Jacucci, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Finland
Sangwook Nam, art center Nabi, South Korea


JOINING THE NETWORK

The network is open to individuals, art companies and industry 
research labs as well as institutions.
To join the Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN) please write 
to stating the nature of your interest and why the network is of 
relevance to the kind of area you are working in. An email is 
adequate. (Please contact us for further details or a template 
letter.)

Please send to: ben at open-plan.org

Or by post to the address below.


GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING TO FIRST EVENT

The first network event will be a two day public workshop with 
papers, demos and discussion sessions and will take place at the ICA 
in London on 1st and 2nd February 2005.

Submissions of project outlines, position papers, technical 
demonstrations are invited. Note - The length of presentations shall 
be limited to create time for discussion and networking.

Of interest are:
 art projects
 cultural or community-based projects
 games projects
 tourism and heritage projects
 technology research projects
 technology demonstrations
 theoretical and social science position papers

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for inclusion in the 
first network event please make sure you include the following:
1. Title
2. Outline
3. Biography - single paragraph
4. Institutional affiliation (if appropriate)
5. Supporting material (as appropriate)
6. Contact details

Proposals should be no more than a single side of A4 or electronic equivalent

Please send to: ben at open-plan.org

Or by post to:
Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN)
Mixed Reality Lab
University of Nottingham
Computer Science Building
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB

Deadline for full submissions is 10 December 2004

We request that participants seek support for travel and subsistence 
from their institutions. For participants without institutional 
affiliation the network shall support applications to funding 
councils and foundations, please contact us for further details.

http://www.open-plan.org - full site live from 1st December 2004