[artinfo] Futuresonic - Social Technologies Summit

[Drew Hemment]

FUTURESONIC 2006
Urban Festival of Electronic Music and Arts
Manchester 20 - 23 July

Futuresonic celebrates its 10th anniversary with a festival programme
of over 100 acts and artists from around the world. Featuring an
international conference, ground breaking exhibitions and over 30
events, Futuresonic 2006 has it all.

No mud, no tents. Just 3 glorious days of sounds and sights at venues
across the city.

Futuresonic Live http://10.futuresonic.com/futuresonic_live.html
Off The Map http://10.futuresonic.com/off_the_map.html
Instrument http://10.futuresonic.com/instrument.html


SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES SUMMIT
THE FUTURESONIC 2006 CONFERENCE
MANCHESTER UK
20-23 JULY 2006
http://10.futuresonic.com/social_technologies_summit.html

Opening event Thursday 20th July, 4.30pm
Conference Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd July, 10am-5pm
Delegate Pass 45 GBP
http://10.futuresonic.com/tickets.html

Futuresonic 2006, Manchester's urban festival of electronic music and
arts, celebrates its 10th anniversary with the launch of a major new
conference strand, the Social Technologies Summit, bringing together
leading figures to explore "a whole new way of doing things in the air".

SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE:

Masaki Fujihata, last.fm, Regine Debatty 
(www.we-make-money-not- art.com), Steve Coast 
(openstreetmap.org), Share NYC (http://share.dj/ 
share/), Toshio Iwai (Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS), Matt Webb,
Richard Peckham (Galileo/Astrium), Inke Arns, Stephen Kovats, Tom
Carden, Atau Tanaka, Jose Luis de Vicente, Stanislav Roudavski, Steve
Benford, Rob Van Kranenburg, James Wallbank, Ben Russell, Drew Hemment.

Plus talks and presentations by festival artists including...

Zachary Lieberman, Simon Pope, Michelle Teran, Jen Southern, Pete
Gomes, Open Music Archive, Owl Project, Pete Hindle, Sven Koenig,
Victor Gama, mimoSa, Bandung Center for New Media Arts, and many more.


SUMMIT STRANDS

An Audience With... Toshio Iwai
Toshio Iwai, one of Japan's leading artists and star game developer
at Nintendo, explores the influence of a lifetime immersed in Japan's
technology culture, and looks at how it is possible for individual
artists to create the kind of projects that previously required a
major studio.

Social Arts
Regine Debatty (We Make Money Not Art) and José Luis de Vicente (Art
Futura) will look at the arts of social technologies, and also at
embryonic philosophies and practices that offer an approach that
differs from the European media art orthodoxy.

Collaborative, Creative and Commercial Digital Mapping
A cross section of digital mapping from Masaki Fujihata, who
pioneered the use of GPS in stunning, multilayered artworks as far
back as 1992, to Richard Peckham, Head of Business Development
(Navigation) at Astrium, the leading industrial participant in the
Galileo programme (Europe's alternative GPS system), to Steve Coast,
whose OpenStreetMap project is challenging entrenched assumptions
about how maps are made and who can own them through user-generated,
open source digital maps.

Social Technologies Tool Sharing
A quick live sampling survey of what tools the alpha, beta and omega
geeks are using, how they use them, and how they make all the pieces
fit together. Social technologies wouldn't be much use without users.
They are open, connected and intrinsically social. Shared,
collaborative technologies once the preserve of hackers in darkened
rooms are now a common part of everyday life: Myspace, Wikipedia,
Flickr, the internet itself.

Iterative Architecture (Built On An Internet Of Things)
SMS and low grade media have swept all before them over recent years,
with games consoles a lonely ghetto for high end visualisation, but
there are now some signs of integration with a resurgence of interest
in shared 3D virtual worlds such as Second life. Coming from this
background Tom Carden and Stanislav Roudavski along with Matt Webb
look at how models of behaviour derived from games, anthropology,
sensors and mobile devices can feed back into the experience and
iterative design of buildings, real and virtual.

Arphids & the Internet Of Things.
RFID is an interesting technology with all kinds of potential uses
but it is also a major social issue creating reactions as adverse as
those generated by GM food. Germany has been used as a testing ground
by the global 'arphid' industry, foreshadowing, it is said, what is
in store for the rest of Europe and beyond. A session co-presented by
HMKV (Dortmund) will explore industry perspectives as well as strange
alliances between fundamentalist Christians and left leaning artist- activists.

Build Your Own City
James Wallbank from Access Space, UK will be joined by
representatives from Bandung Center for New Media Arts, Indonesia,
and mimoSa, Brazil to explore how urban cultures around the world are
being reshaped by social technologies.

Social Music
Social change, it is said, can be seen first in music because it is
the most fluid and rapidly changing medium. Atau Tanaka (Sony CSL)
introduces new musical forms that have evolved in the mobile age.
Join the social music revolution with Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/).
Share NYC (http://share.dj/share/ ) come over from New York to
present open jam sessions, improvising on each others' signal. And
leading figures from the music world reflect on how the industry is
being reshaped.


WORKSHOPS: GET SKILLED UP!

Four free artist-led workshops introduce hands-on skills in physical
computing, digital video microscopy, game modification, generative
sound and live video performance. Developed for Futuresonic by
Creative Labs at the University of Huddersfield.

Game modification,  17th-19th July
Physical computing, 18th-19th July
Blender and sound, 19th-21st July
Build your own 8bit synth, 20th-21st July

http://goto10.org/-/futuresonic

The Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
Workshops free but early booking required.
Workshop bookings: creativelabs at futuresonic.com / 01484 472617


VENUE

1830 WarehouseThe Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester
Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester M3 4FP
0161 832 2244
http://www.msim.org.uk

The Futuresonic 2006 Conference will be staged in the room containing
a functioning version of Babbage's Baby computer, within the world's
first railway warehouse.


TICKETS

http://10.futuresonic.com/tickets.html

Delegate Pass: 45 GBP
Includes access to all conferences and workshops plus two major
exhibitions featuring 35 artworks including world premiers and UK
firsts. Also includes Weekender Wristband (normally 25 GBP) which
gives free access to over 20 events, entry to the Futuresonic Opening
Party and food & drink discounts.

Student Delegate Pass: 10 GBP
Includes access to all conferences and workshops plus two major
exhibitions featuring 35 artworks including world premiers and UK
firsts. Also includes  Loyalty Wristband (normally 3 GBP) which gives
discounts on over 20 events.

20 day passes will be available from 10am on each day of the
conference on a Pay-What-You-Can basis.


ACCOMMODATION

If you're looking for a place to stay, some of us will be staying at
the Britannia Hotel. Any hotels located within a half-mile of this
location will put you right at the heart of the festival's night-time
action.

The Britannia Hotel, Portland Street, Manchester M1 3LA.
0161 228 2288 / 0845 644 8444

http://10.futuresonic.com/accommodation.html


The Social Technologies Summit is curated by Ben Russell and Drew
Hemment, presented in association with PLAN (The Pervasive and
Locative Arts Network), and supported by EPSRC, University of
Nottingham, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Salford,
and Manchester Digital Development Agency.

http://www.futuresonic.com