creativity

e-festival of ideas is coming soon to vibewire.org (online festival)

Vibewire Youth Inc. is proud to present their six-year running online conference for young people. This year, held in conjunction with the Australian Innovation Festival, the festival is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to log on and create or join conversations with a range of exciting guest panellists.

WHAT IS e-FESTIVAL OF IDEAS?
The festival has four general areas on politics, human rights, the economy and generation Y. Within those there are forums with discussions on issues such as:

* What's the upside of the current economic downturn?
* How much do online profiles affect (or create) jobs?
* What's missing from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
* How is Facebook and Twitter making a social change?
* How is 24-hour news cycles affecting politics?
* Is the quest to save the environment just really about politics and power?

read more for details or visit http://www.vibewire.org, @vibewire or e-FESTIVAL facebook event

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4th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2009) in India

The 4th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2009) is scheduled to be held February 27 to March 1, 2009, in the sylvan spaces of Sattal Estate, just above Bhimtal, near Nainital, in the Lower Kumaon of the new Himalayan Indian state of Uttarakhand.

As always, this will be about Presentations, Performances, Exhibits, Meetings, and Screenings, involving direct and indirect participation of e-Creative Practitioners of all description from around India and the world, spread over 3 days of intense private, and also public, creative interaction.

read more or visit http://www.theaea.org/cec%5Fcac/cec09/ for more details

Organizers :
The Academy of Electronic Arts (The AeA) is a Private Trust that serves as a learning, sharing, mentoring, networking, benchmarking, empowering and broadly inclusive, but non-educational, institution.

Managing Trustee of The AeA & Incident Director for CeC 2009: Shankar Barua

Co-Curator: Ima Pico (Spain)
Co-Curator: Wilfried Agricola de Cologne (Germany)
Co-Curator: Moritz Neumuller (Spain)

program :

Friday, February 27 (time to be announced)

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Magic Squares - video project?

could a maths story work?

at scanz there was a paper called "Complexity and Cybernetics Redux" by Nina Czegledy and it mentioned Magic Squares. these cover topics such as mysticism, philosophy, mathematics. could the game/puzzle be to solve the magic square. the game leaders send out clues which reflect the numbers& people go out and find the item that has been uploaded to represent each square. eg, so people could film clues like numbers from different places, a quantity of subjects (eg if the number was 10, then film collections of 10 things in a single clip), or even make a video about a saying/piece of writing that might represent the numbers. whatever people can think of

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SCANZ 2009: Raranga tangata - The Weaving Together of People (New Plymouth, New Zealand)

SCANZ 2009: Raranga tangata
The Weaving Together of People

Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) is the interCreate Research Centre's major project, a two week residency for artists, producers, writers, theorists and curators will be held in New Plymouth New Zealand from January 26th to February 8th 2009. Project partners are the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Puke Ariki integrated library and museum.

Raranga tangata refers to the weaving together of people, a phrase used to describe the internet and adopted by Sally Jane Norman and Sylvia Nagl in their work. The aim for SCANZ 2009 is to weave an enduring fabric of people and technology, located in this place: Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, Pacific Ocean.

Residency
January 26th–February 8th

Symposium
February 7th–8th

Residency
January 26th–February 8th

The residency themes are Environmental Response and Participate/Display. Occurring along side the residency are a two day symposium (February 7 and 8), presentation evening & opening event (February 7), and curatorial workshop.

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ENZYME 7 - Live experimental industrial and electonica in Melbourne. Friday Nov 28.


Non profit underground music entity DEMUS, is proud to announce...

FRIDAY 28th NOV 2008
Blue Velvet - 60 Smith Street Collingwood
8pm Start - $8 at Door

Live music performances by:

SAROPHONY
http://www.myspace.com/sarcophony
Melbourne based Industrial Metal producer is releasing his new CD "TV is Bad For You" on the night, featuring remixes from local and international artists, and rare tracks.

DJ SARCO vc DJCMYTH
Will be playing sets of local music, tracks from the Sarcophony release and a dark range of other goodies.

DJ INFECTIOUS UNEASE
http://www.infectiousuneaseradio.com
Need we introduce the wide ranging Noir tastes of the founder of Infectious Unease Radio?

MxDxM
http://www.kostar8.com
http://www.myspace.com/kostarproductions
MxDxM (aka K.O. StaR) specializes in creating Underground Electronic Metal Dance Music. MxDxM's approach is based on simplicity and minimalism.

SOBRIQUET

Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language

Senthil Kumar posted a video on WADI facebook group called "Arjuna the Archer : AD 2008"

he's also posted it to youtube :
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UPtfEkl_o

there's now a facebook page for Patta Chitra Katha

I wanted to find out more about this artform and technique, so I googled (without much luck, due to googling the wrong things) and asked the Sarai Reader list and received lots of helpful information from many people. after reading about it, it reminds me a bit of an equivalent to multi-media, or even video blogging from a few hundred years ago. multiple paintings / panels on scrolls (equating to video frames?) are read and music played whilst they're read, so there's a mixture of images, music, text, written / spoken word. the artists travel to different villages - equivalent to the communication methods / networks of today transmitting the multimedia messages & works. originally the works were made on cloth using vegetable based paints but these days modern paints are used and most works are done on paper. I hope the traditional methods are not lost completely! the style of painting comes from Orissa, West Bengal & Bangladesh. modern artists use both traditional, classical topics as well as current topics & stories - they are trying out new variations of the art too, to keep the method alive and to learn new techniques & skills.

I made a video for VloMo08 day16 explaining how I found out information about Patta Chitra Katha :

VloMo08 : day16 - Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language from kath on Vimeo.

read more for information about this special artform ...

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Women in India & book related links

some links to follow up - mostly relating to the books i've recently purchased here in india - an ongoing list

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Asmita
ASMITA (literally, identity) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists. Its general objective is to fulfill the existing gap in participation, representation and access to media of women. It is committed to find new ways and directions for women's progress. Its major aim is to produce various publications on women in the media. ASMITA is the one and only feminist alternative media organization in the country, and it functions as a pressure group for the advancement of women through media activism. ASMITA Women's Publishing House, Media and Resource Organization (in short, ASMITA) was established in 1988 as a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization by a nucleus of young enthusiastic women journalists, and started to publish the first feminist magazine of Nepal. The magazine was named Asmita which means "dignity" and "identity". In fact, this was the first movement of the organization for Nepali women's human right and empowerment through media.

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Women's World of India
Women's WORLD (India) was set up in July 2002. It is part of Women's WORLD (International), a free speech network of feminist writers, which has ongoing projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. The primary aim of WW(I) is to provide a space for women writers in South Asia to analyse the circumstances in which women write, are published and read in this region, to identify the issues facing women writers here, and to develop a strategy for working on them at the national, regional and international levels.

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Blaft Publications
Blaft Publications is a new independent publishing house based in Chennai, India. Their releases so far include an anthology of Tamil pulp fiction, a translation of an experimental Tamil novel, a book of drawings, and a book of English short stories. However, in the future, Blaft has much wider goals. They are planning to eventually branch out into translations of fiction from other regional languages of South Asia, English fiction, comic books, graphic novels, children's books, non-fiction, textbooks, how-to-manuals, encyclopedias, and kitchen appliances.


The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction
- selected & translated by Pritham Chakravarthy
- edited by Rakesh Khanna

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Feminist Fine Print
A moderately priced, handy new series that offers two, three or four core essays on a single issue, from a critical feminist perspective. The essays may be single-authored or have multiple authorship depending on the issue, its significance within India and South Asia, and its theoretical and political implications.
- http://www.womenunlimited.net/catalogue2.htm for list of book details currently available

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Zubaan Books
An imprint of Kali for women

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Women's resources in Delhi
- a list of organisations

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Yoda Press
YODA PRESS is an independent publishing venture based in New Delhi. With a view to developing dynamic non-fiction lists, both academic as well as popular, which can make available interactive spaces for further discussion, scholarship, and writing, this young venture is currently focusing its attention on areas like urban studies, sexuality and the body, gender, cinema, contemporary art and popular culture, and new perspectives in history. In doing so, the larger YODA PRESS list hopes to effectively capture the non-mainstream, alternative, yet critical reality of contemporary India. The Press invites feedback, constructive criticism, and the ever enriching exchange of ideas, which can often lead to a stunning new publication.


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Sarai
http://www.sarai.net/about-us/introducing-sarai/overview
Sarai researches the urban experience, the city, the publics and practice of (old & new) media, "information and society", free & open source software, language and digital cultures and the interface between urban transformation, contemporary culture, and development. Sarai research has flowed into conferences, books, articles, art Installations and even school textbooks. Our researchers Include scholars and practitioners. Sarai places a premium on the research process as a whole, rather than just the final outcome. This means that Sarai research material continually reaches the public domain through collaborative mailing lists, CD's, small essays, apart from conferences and research articles.

Sarai publishes books (The Sarai Readers, The Deewan-e-Sarai and the Series), pamphlets (The Media Nagar Series), broadsheets (Sarai.txt, Cybermohalla Broadsheets) and occasional publications ('By Lanes', 'The Book Box' etc.) on paper as well as on the web. All Sarai publications are copyleft and maybe freely downloaded for non commercial & edycational use from the Sarai website.

Sarai embodies a continuing engagement with creativity in urban neighbourhoods through the 'Cybermohalla' Project in collaboration with a 'Ankur' Society for Alternatives in Education, a Delhi based NGO with a proven track record of more than two decades of work in the field of critical pedagogy and community mobilization in poor neighbourhoods in the city.

Sarai supports a growing network of independent researchers, practitioners and students all over India through fellowships and stipends. Over the last five years we have supported more than 400 independent researchers from all over the country.Many of these come from small towns such in the hinterland and in spaces marked by conflict such as Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. Half the proposals that have been supported have been sent in by women, a significant proportion of supported candidates belong to ethnic and religious minorities and oppressed communities. All the proposals investigate areas that would find little or no support, either in academia, or in mainstream media, although several of the candidates have gone on to make further meaningful work in academia and the media, to a large measure due to the ground that they were able to cover in the course of the Sarai independent research proposal.

Sarai invites critical reflections on the nature of the contemporary moment, by holding regular screenings and discussion of curated programmes of fiction, documentary and experimental films and video, and by acting as a convivial context for online and offline conversations through discussions, mailing lists and blogs in English and Hindi at the Sarai space and on the Sarai website.

Sarai engages with the Hindi/Hindustani public domain through publications, translation, lists, web content, software localization, events and workshops.

Sarai organises events such as - conferences, seminars, workshops, summer schools, colloquia, colloquia and hosts occasional residencies around themes thatthemes that reflect the programme's intellectual and creative interests.

Sarai produces media (video, audio, print, web) and contemporary art works, CDs, radio and software. Works produced at the Sarai Media Lab have been exhibited in several international venues such as Documenta11, and the Venice, Liverpool and Taipei Biennales.

Sarai collaborates with organizations and initiatives locally, regionally and internationally/globally on events, processes, networks, projects and publications.

Sarai reaches out to students and faculty in colleges, institutes, university departments and student societies to organize talks, discussions, readings, screenings, screenings, informal interactions and conversations.

Sarai archives different facets of contemporary popular culture, urban space and media forms with a view to making information about them available to a wide public of researchers and practitioners.

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The Tract House

The Tract House is a "spread-the-word" project that debuted at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore on May 31, 2008. The Tract House tracts were written by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, visitors to this website, and friends of friends. While most popular tracts are religious, The Tract House tracts can be nearly anything— manifestos, diatribes, stories, rants, poems, or lyrics. They can be about whatever the writer finds pressing, whether it be something personal, professional, political, domestic, local, or global. Gallery visitors are encouraged to peruse the many tracts and take home what they wish. Visitors of this website are encouraged to print the tracts on their home printers. It is hoped that the tracts will educate, activate, infuriate, obfuscate, titillate, inspire, upset, and irritate. The tracts can be treasured or passed on, crumpled in disgust or venerated, folded up and put through the laundry, or left on a car windshield. visit http://thetracthouse.com for more details

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knitting links

knitting resources and links

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knitty (online) magazine
http://knitty.com

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online knit communities

knit-list
wooly thoughts yahoogroup
wooly thoughts site
subversive yarn

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knitted toys

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knitlist/message/90742
Squid Hat
Chicken hat
Knit Spider
Knit Veggies
Knit Dinos
Jess Hutchison - Her pattern booklet is fantastic!! but now out of print (i have a copy)

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ELECTROFRINGE 2008 :: 2nd - 6th October :: Newcastle, Australia

Australia's largest festival of experimental electronic arts and culture, "Electrofringe", will burst through the cracks of Newcastle from October 2 – 6, 2008, for its eleventh year as part of "This Is Not Art". More than 100 emerging and established artists from Australia and overseas will take part in 80 events over five days including workshops, gigs, screenings, performance and public intervention.

Electrofringe in 2008 brims with new ventures. These include an artists-in-residence program and a three-week interactive media exhibition. New program gems include a hybrid media/dance performance, an all-girls soldering workshop, a chorus composed for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, an audiovisual "love-in", and a chamber recital for robots.

Special international guests include Birchville Cat Motel (NZ), Domenico Sciajno (Italy), xtine (US), The League of Imaginary Scientists (everywhere) and The Green Eyl & Sengewald (Germany). Japan is well represented by elongated harshcore musician Maruosa, noise artists Pig & Machine, and experimental multi-instrumentalist KK NULL.

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I love TED!

I love watching the TED Talks. it's great they publish the videos as it's REALLY expensive to attend the conference. tonight I've watched a few :

Sir Ken Robinson : Creativity and Education
his talk was very entertaining - he's quite funny!, and he raised some good points and examples of how modern education system is designed towards getting people jobs, since it was formed since the introduction of industrialisation. as we don't know what will happen in the future, how can we educate children correctly to prepare for the future. and how creativity has a lesser importance in the education system of today. I liked a couple of comments he raised - listed below. the full transcript is on the TED blog page

"creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status"

...

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Consciousness is the Key - by Propaganda

here's a video from Propaganda & his friends - he's been in a couple of the online MLA courses I've done. I really like it - the message, the music, the whole thing!!

it's on http://postmoderntimes.com also - which is also a great video / online magazine

here's the blurb from youtube about it :

episode features four underground hip hop artists -- Naada, Propaganda Anonymous, 2HL, and iLL SpoKKinN -- and producer euphAmism in an animated music video packing lyrical and graphical punch in a call for global awakening.

Please go to www.iclips.net/2012 to see the rest of the episodes (more)

consciousness

some research and links on consciousness

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scientists find the dawn of creativity date is possibly earlier than originally thought

I came across a couple of interesting articles in the UK Telegraph paper today - about the history of art and discovery of 11000 year old paintings that seem to be painted in a modern geometric style.

'Oldest' wall painting looks like modern art
"French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old work of art in northern Syria which is the oldest known wall painting, even though it looks like a work by a modernist.

The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo.

"It looks like a modernist painting," said Eric Coqueugniot, the team leader. "Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee. Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9,000 BC."

...

The dating makes the designs at least 1500 years older than wall paintings at Çatalhöyük, the famous 9500-year-old Turkish village, among one of the first towns. Cave art dates back much further but it was not until the so-called Neolithic Revolution that people began marking up human-made surfaces.

Scientists are fascinated by the birth of art because it marked a decisive point in our story, when man took a critical step beyond the limitations of his hairy ancestors and began to use symbols. The modern mind was born."

related articles :

The birth of our modern minds ...

Two pieces of ochre engraved with geometrical patterns more than 70,000 years ago, were recently found at Blombos Cave, 180 miles east of Cape Town. If the current dogma is accepted, this means people were able to think abstractly and behave as modern humans much earlier than previously thought.

Lord Renfrew would argue that art, like genetics, does not tell the whole story of our origins. For him, the real revolution occurred 10,000 years ago with the first permanent villages. That is when the effects of new software kicked in, allowing our ancestors to work together in a more settled way. That is when plants and animals were domesticated and agriculture born.

...

Lord Renfrew puts his faith in "cognitive archaeology". This is not "thinking prehistoric thoughts" but has a more modest aim of revealing how ancient minds worked by studying what they did - how they counted, made flint tools or used measures.

Intriguingly, he argues, in his book Figuring it Out, that contemporary art also provides insights into how proto-societies grappled with the material world.

Cave find dates dawn of creativity

TWO pieces of ochre - a form of iron ore - engraved with geometrical patterns more than 70,000 years ago reveal that people were able to think abstractly and behave as modern humans much earlier than previously thought.

The discovery in a South African cave suggests that humans have created art for twice as long as suggested by previous discoveries, notably by cave paintings from France that have been dated to less than 35,000 years ago.

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While genetic and fossil evidence suggests that humans were anatomically modern in Africa before 100,000 years ago, scholars are not yet able to agree on whether human behaviour and physique developed in tandem.

Some believe that modern behaviour arose relatively late and rapidly, 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, while others believe that it evolved earlier and more gradually.

The diversity of views reflects the lack of agreement among scientists on what behaviour best defines the difference between modern humans and their earlier ancestors.

But there is a general consensus that a clear marker of modern behaviour are the cognitive abilities that would be used, for example, to create abstract or depictional images.

"Archaeological evidence of abstract or depictional images indicates modern behaviour," Prof Henshilwood said. "The Blombos Cave engravings are intentional images."

Stone Age masterpieces shed new light on the origins of art

EUROPE'S oldest cave paintings - a menagerie of lions, rhinos, bears and panthers drawn at least 30,000 years ago - are so sophisticated that they may force scientists to think again about the origins of art.

New radiocarbon datings of the Chauvet cavern paintings in Ardeche, France, have confirmed that their Stone Age creators were as skilled as painters 15,000 years later.

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"Prehistorians, who have traditionally interpreted the evolution of prehistoric art as a steady progression from simple to more complex representations, may have to reconsider existing theories of the origins of art."

The caves have challenged the conventional theory of the evolution of art which states that it had crude beginnings in the Aurignacian period followed by gradual progress over thousands of years.

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tina 2006 - chat with Richie on sound toys and playful instruments

direct video link
video page on blip.tv

a chat with Richie, from Melbourne band / crew WD40, who builds sound toys and instruments for outdoor parties and festivals - for both kids and adults. he discusses his thoughts on the importance of play. midway through some people walk past and one starts playing a piano down the other end of the room so there was a nice chat about instruments and the piano Richie has at home.

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