DIGITAL’08: Imagination On Behalf Of Our Planet - deadline 10 August 2008

DIGITAL’08: Imagination On Behalf Of Our Planet
10th International Digital Print Competition/Exhibition to be held at the New York Hall of Science
October 4, 2008 - January 25, 2009
Organized by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)

What are the artists, scientists, and technologists of the twenty-first century thinking about our current environmental challenges? Can their artwork imagine new, positive approaches to sustaining life on planet Earth? Can it inspire us to confront the consequences of our current ways of living? Through the almost limitless possibilities of digital image technologies, we invite our competition entrants to examine their environmental concerns, indulge their fantasies, and then share their fabricated/ montaged visions of how a sustainable future might look, which might include new types of hybrid forms: plants, animals, humans, cities, transportation systems, food, etc. Let’s boldly envision on behalf of our planet!

CO-JURORS:
~ Michael John Gorman, Director of the Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
~ Cynthia Pannucci, Founder/Director, Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)

ENTRY DEADLINE: Aug. 10, 2008
GUIDELINES & ENTRY DETAILS:
http://www.asci.org/artikel981.html
JUROR BIOS: http://www.asci.org/artikel984.html

CFP: Ubiquitous Sustainability: Citizen Science & Activism - deadline extended to 7th July 2008

Call for Papers
Ubiquitous Sustainability: Citizen Science & Activism
Workshop at the 10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing ( UbiComp 2008 )
21 September 2008, Seoul, South Korea

In this workshop we want to explore new approaches to bring about real environmental change by looking at the success of empowering technologies that enable grassroots activism and bottom up community participation. Ubiquitous computing is transforming from being mostly about professional communication and social interaction to a sensor rich personal measurement platform that can empower individuals and groups to gain an awareness of their surroundings, engage in grassroots activism to promote environmental change, and enable a new social paradigm - citizen science. This workshop brings together fresh ideas and approaches to help elevate individuals to have a powerful voice in society, to act as citizen scientists, and collectively learn and lobby for change worldwide.

Full call for papers and the accepted workshop proposal submission:
http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/Ubicomp2008/

Key Dates:
27 June: Submission deadline for workshop position papers (2-4 pages)
25 July: Notification for position papers
21 Sept: Day of workshop

If you are on facebook, please join the Urban Informatics group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2493830797

and rsvp for the workshop at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22061180539

More on the Pedal-A-Watt

From the manual, which I have received today…

———————-

The Pedal-A-Watt, creates 200 watts of power. If you pedal for 2 hours, then you have created 400 watt-hours ( 200 watts x 2 hours) of power.

This 400 watt-hours would power a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours, a 200 watt
large screen TV for 2 hours and so on.

If I am pedaling and creating 200 watts of power and I keep pedaling for 2 hours, I create 200 Watt-Hours, or:

200 Watts x 2 Hours = 400 Watt-Hours

Now, with 400 Watt-Hours stored in the battery, I can power:

A 400 watt TV for 1 hour (400 Watts x 1 hour = 400 Watt-Hours)
A 200 Watt TV for 2 hours (200 Watts x 2 hours = 400 Watt-Hours)
A 20 Watt laptop PC for 20 hours (20 Watt x 20 hours = 400 Watt-Hours)
A 15 Watt fluorescent bulb for almost 27 hours (15 Watts x 26 hours = 400 Watt-Hours)

Power Consumption of Typical Appliances:

Small TV - 100 watts
Large TV - 200 watts
Laptop PC - 10 watts
Desktop PC - 75 watts
Stereo - 20 watts
Charging a cellphone - 5 watts
Hi Effic Desk lamp - 15 watts
Refrigerator - 700 watts
Dishwasher - 350 watts
Dryer - 400 watts

————————

Projectors, I think, are in the region of 200-300 watts. So a projector, stereo and laptop might be too much for one person to generate, unless I can find a relatively low power projector.

Pedal-A-Watt

The power behind this project will come via the Pedal-A-Watt (image below).

This should allow me to place a bicycle in the stand and generate electricity from pedalling. The main stand has arrived… once I have the inverter and battery I can start testing to see how much I will actually be able to power directly from a bike. There should be enough for a laptop, but a projector and then amplified audio output might be too much for the rider to generate… we’ll see!

Universe update

The NRG Universe has spread to two pages - one to contain this blog, the other for the online bits I’m collecting that relate to the various themes in the piece. As well as some general definitions of energy, there are videos and definitions for wind, solar and hydroelectric power.

Blog - http://www.netvibes.com/chrisjoseph#NRG_blog
Bits - http://www.netvibes.com/chrisjoseph#NRG_bits

Bike film festival - Leicester, 27-29 June 2008

http://bikefilmfestival.org/

The 7th Film Festival is part of Ride Leicester 2008 - A week long festival of bike rides, film, photography and more!

Also, includes 2008 Film & Animation Awards Launch & Ride Leicester Photography Exhibition.

FREE Mobile Cinema Bike Film Screenings for Community Groups are available from May 23rd to June 29th – email cycle-city [at] leicester.gov.uk for details.

Grand Theft Bicycle: A Game-Installation by Steve Gibson, Justin Love and Jimmy Olson

Grand Theft Bicycle: A Game-Installation
By Steve Gibson, Justin Love and Jimmy Olson

Experience the excitement, glamour, fear, violence and mayhem of a genuine Middle Eastern battle! Better yet, get your fat shooter-playing ass off the console and onto the revolutionary Borgcycle™, a sensor equipped bike that allows / forces users to get a heart-pounding workout while hunting down some baddies.

Netvibes Universe - www.netvibes.com/chrisjoseph

http://www.netvibes.com/chrisjoseph

I’m currently experimenting with this Netvibes Universe in combination with this blog as a way to archive ongoing development, as with the Flight Paths project, but without any reader participation (for the moment, at least).

Hoping to this all public very soon, but I’m battling my instinct to post finished thoughts and pieces rather than dead ends and orphaned fragments!

NRG - a people-powered multimedia narrative installation

This is the space for me to document my IOCT (Institute of Creative Technologies) Digital Writer in Residence project. I’m using the working title NRG, because it is short, and to refer to a key theme of the piece, Energy.

Outline of the project

A people-powered multimedia narrative installation.

A self-sustainable piece of electronic art: a multimedia narrative powered through a bicycle to a standalone generator and battery.

The narrative will be heavily visual (video clips – linear and non-linear and/or looped), with music, sound effects and possibly speech.

The narrative will possibly be from a first-person perspective, and may include the following themes:

- cycling and travel
- (environmental) issues: our reliance on power, sustainable and renewable energies
- the requirements and social etiquettes of sharing (the setup will be such that a viewer must eventually cycle in order to experience the narrative, though during an installation this may not be necessary for many viewers)

The narrative may offer alternative plot options, for example determined by which particular power source (human, wind, water, biofuel, solar or nuclear) the viewer selects.