international

Water, the source of life, today, has been deviously packaged into a commodity, creating a paucity of water and causing severe trauma to various peoples all over the world. The shortage of drinking water both in urban and rural areas has escalated to an acute level in the last five years, specially heightened by drought and war. This will have serious repercussions for the peoples of the world and the environment. One of the objectives of Water Journeys is to screen films on water issues, water struggles, water conservation and related issues in schools, colleges and communities to start a dialogue on the issue of control and use of water. It aims at networking with agencies involved in the protection and preservation of lakes, rivers and other water bodies. Further Water Journeys will soon start an international journal on water issues. It will address the socio-political and cultural implications of water, making it an interesting and enlightening knowledge source for action. In its 27 years of active involvement, Bangalore Film Society has been instrumental in screening films of internationally acclaimed film directors from all over the world, initiating a process of intercultural dialogue and creating avenues for divergent aesthetic experiences. read more for details or contact deepfocus@bgl.vsnl.net (Anupama Jayaraman, Co ordinator, Water Journeys).

Tsunami - A Virtual Memorial. www.a-virtual-memorial.org and [R][R][F]2005---XP www.newmediafest.org/rrf2005 initiate on occasion of this disaster in South East Asia and in solidarity with all affected people in this human tragedy a net based art project environment, entitled: Tsunami. Artists around the globe are invited to reflect these traumatic conditions of human life and submit art works, documents, texts or any other material connected the thematical context which can be submitted as digital file .

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS - WAR WITHOUT TEARS.
COMPUTER GAMES AS A SOCIALCULTURAL PHENOMENON

As a rule Computer games remain to be the focus of media attention when Specific acts of violence which deeply horrify the audience (war and rampage Iraq and Erfurt) draw the public's perception to them. The first ever occuring impetus
then is aimed at a more or less serious examination of their dangerous and problematic aspects (blunting people's senses, playing down and provoking violence, player's loss of touch with reality, escapism, unsrupulousness, etc.). Beyond the dominating reflex of such an often monocausal, naive formulation of the topic, a thoroughly controversial yet most of the time superficial discussion about the critical sociocultural implications of computer games has been established. Even in the academic analysis the surely relevant, though by no means sufficient concentration on the link between computer games and violence is dominant. Up to now only few studies have offered a contextualizing view of the political, aesthetic, narratologic, economic, historic aspects with regard to their mutual connection. Accordingly this volume is meant to become an extensive account of the phenomenon 'computer games' with all its different genres. The various perspectives of analyses (aesthetics, economy, narratology, etc.) will thus provide the reader with a sound insight into the subject. Read more for details on how to submit your paper

Electroacoustic Music Studies Sound in Multimedia Contexts. From the advent of the first electric instruments, the phonograph, radio, telephone, and subsequent electronic and digital inventions, the approaches to technologies relevant to the art of sound have been limited only by the imagination of the musician. In recent years, there seems to have been a proliferation of studies relating to music incorporating these technologies However, the investigation of such a varied musical repertoire raises a number of issues that the EMS conferences wish to examine. The themes of the conference therefore emphasize questions of resources, discourse, and analytical tools relevant to electroacoustic musics. visit the EMS-05 website @ http://ems05.musique.umontreal.ca/index.html for more information

The satellite based Global Positioning System (GPS) allows us to record basic information about their location, direction, altitude and speed. Using small hand held devices, artists can record and interpret this data to create mapping, locative, durational and other works. GPS allows us to take back knowledge of our whereabouts, and to annotate this knowledge, or to reuse it as we wish.

Artists can use access to this locative data that forms the background to all our lives, to add another layer of information to work. Whether we want accurate information or chaotic disinformation, the gps satellites transmit unceasingly 24 hours a day, not caring whether we make use of their datastreams or not. We can anonymously take up their offering and convert it to human data. This one day live workshop will introduce the basic functioning of the GPS and demonstrate GPS devices and software along with digital cameras. Participants will be able to use GPS devices and digital cameras in the field to create their own personal mappings of the locality. These mappings will form the basis for a workshop in creating combined and annotated maps and images. We will spend the day looking at software and hardware and discussing psychogeographic and locative issues while making our own maps, playing gps games and adding to the global store of waypoints. visit http://locative.x-i.net for details

hack.it.art - Hacktivism in the Context of Art and Media in Italy is being held from January 15th till February 27th 2005 at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin. The project hack.it.art is an exhibition and event about technological, artistic and political activism in Italy. There will be workshops and events on various aspects of Hacktivism. More info on: http://www.ecn.org/aha

The Interactive Design Competition is back. Last year we received hundreds of entries from ad agencies, freelancers, design studios, artists, museums, galleries, broadcasters and non-profit organizations.

All selected websites will form part of an exhibition online and at the festival. Your work will also be celebrated at our Awards ceremony. All winners will be featured in the VIDFEST program and receive a VVIP Pass - access to all the activities, conference sessions, and parties of VIDFEST.

Until January 23rd, you can catch the Jenny Holzer exhibition at the Kukje Gallery in Seoul, Korea. visit http://www.kukjegallery.com for more details