Design And Performance Lab

European Culture 2000 partner research project i-Map i-MAP (Integration of Media Art and Performance)   Project Plan i-MAP is an interdisciplinary collaborative project implemented through a trans-European network of three participating media art organizations, dedicated to fostering new and innovative works of art through effective integration of interactive technologies and live performance practices. i-MAP' s primary aims are to support research and analysis of new media technologies, education of professionals in their use, and a backbone for development and presentation of co-productions on a trans-European level. Additionally, this project aims at opening a European discourse examining the way todayís society interacts with technology, and integrates itís benefits on the structure of global communication, and the way in which digital art is changing our perception of the world. Objectives To broaden and improve creative and collaborative experimentation with new interactive technology in the European performing arts community. To develop a highly challenging performance/installation event, developed and created through collaborative means by the co-organizing bodies and to present this co-production and the outcome of the research to a large European audience. To establish four core research laboratory periods for the developing of new tools in the field of interactive media and development of the final performance/installation event. To stimulate critical public debate about the social and cultural effects of technological development through proposed research periods. To create opportunities for public and professional community participation by providing skills, tools and environments hosted by a transnational media centers partnerships through a program of open public participation during the four research periods. To encourage, by means of cooperation, artistic and cultural creation in Europe and by these means to promote the knowledge and transmission of digital culture.   Within the context of the core research trajectory to foster the circulation of new critical understanding of digital media technologies amongst various academic and cultural disciplines in Europe and develop further mobility of knowledge by putting emphasis on exchange of professionals both from participating partners and other European organizations. To document and disseminate the results, as both core research outcomes as well as performance work, as widely as possible, making it openly available for access to the European community public. The four teams are as follows: amorphy.org (Athens, Greece) Lead Project Facilitation and Development - Ash Belayev & Tzeni Argyriou, Ioanna Tsinividi amorphy.org is a non-for-profit organization devoted to production of original works of live performance and installation, through constant pursuit of practical investigation fusing media art technologies and live performance practices. Although concentrated in the sector of new media and interactive technologies, other issues repeatedly surface in the companyís work such as difficulty of communication amidst never-ceasing technological advance, impact of close proximity urban living, politically and sociological inspired topics of interest, and other evolving fascinations. InteraktionsLabor Goettelborn / Brunel University Research and Development - Dr. Johannes Birringer InteraktionsLabor, under the direction of Dr. Johannes Birringer (Brunel University, Digital Performance), is an organization which focuses on research in communications technologies, interactive media, performance and virtual environments. Located in a former coal mine undergoing infrastructural transformation by the IKS (Industriekultur Saar gmbH), InteraktionsLabor examines the links between reality and virtuality, body and environment, movement, sound, visual space, and postindustrial nature and architecture. The development of multimedia convergences, sensitive environments and networked performance as a basis of research into interactive communications media and innovative technologies provides the focus of the Lab, which also plans to become a training center for regional artists (in the Saarland/Luxemburg/France border region). InterSpace (Sofia, Bulgaria) Development of Streaming Technologies - Galia Dimitrova, Petko Dourmana InterSpace is a New Media Art Center, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was founded in 1998 as a non-profit association of professional artists, informatics engineers, do-it-yourself media makers. InterSpace works for the establishment of a social attitude to new media art forms, through the development of alternative means and possibilities of artistic expression in new media technologies. The center aims to concentrate intellectual, creative and technological potential in working out the adequate structure and working conditions for production and popularization of new media art projects. The mission of InterSpace is to establish a media art community in Bulgaria and enable their active collaboration in an international context. De Waag (Amsterdam, Holland) Development of Sensing Technologies - Sher Doruff, Floor van Spaendonck Waag Society for Old and New Media is a knowledge institute operating on the cutting edge of culture and technology in relation to society, education, government and industry, established in 1994. De Waag Society carries out research, develops new concepts and software applications and initiates the debate in the form of public events on the cutting edge of old and new media. Its research and development program is focused on the possible ways in which people express themselves, how they can learn and how they can work together using (new) media. De Waag Society bases its expertise in four programs: Creative Learning, Interfacing Access, Public Research and Sensing Presence. Also, Waag Society was appointed Center of Expertise for cultural courses and ICT by the Dutch Ministry of OCW. * * * Through this collaborative inter-media creation process participating artists, scientists and invited guests of varied disciplines - robotics, programming, electronics, performance, architecture, video - will work together to create a challenging and innovative event, suitable for large theater venue presentation, allowing for greatest amount of viewing audiences. Spectators in each presentation venue will be able to actively participate in the advancing of the performance, however defined by a rigid dramaturgical structure. The purpose in this final phase of the overall project is to connect two main concentrations (Interactive Technologies/Live Performance Arena and Virtual Domain/Society) with an emphasis on a development of a dramaturgical structure capable of fusing these two distinct elements, and addressing the issue of a malleable relationship between technology, art and society. Additionally, through the use of streaming technological capabilities, traditional performance arena will be empowered to address and actively include larger communities of participants, bringing advanced possibilities to both artists and today's audiences.