ISEA2009: session hopping

i began my day with artists' presentations in the bar, where floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides rendered the flat-screens more reflections than anything else. this made it difficult for the first presentation, "ribbons - a live cinema instrument" by tomas laurenzo. ribbons is an application is based on VJ tools but with the intention to combine more of the narrative possibilities of cinema with typical image-based club VJing. tomas talked about the "composing" of tools - where the creation of the tool has a strong impact on the artistic output, & the needs of both performer & public are integrated into the process of creating the tool. this resonated with me in respect to the development of UpStage, where we artists have initiated & driven the project. such an approach means the tool is as integral to the artwork as the content.

next was tahera aziz speaking about her work "relocate", based on the stephen lawrence enquiry & exploring issues of institutional racism and witnessing. the work is a sound installation, which made it a bit easier for her to present an exceprt in the overly-light space, altho we didn't have the immersive effect of darkness & surround sound. i appreciated her focus on the act of witnessing, putting the audience in the position of the witnesses & not attempting to represent the actual violent event.

i then hopped over to a different session, "positionings: local & global transactions". i snuck in during connor mcgarrigle's presentation of "joyce walks" but it was the following presentation, denisa kera's "the new theatre of the world: map mash-ups & web 2.0 space", that had caught my eye; however she was talking about the theatre of operations rather than artistic theatre, & delivered her presentation on high speed (perhaps because like everything else the session wa running late) which made it hard to listen to. during question time, several people in the audience were critical of the speakers' general lack of critique of the power stuctures behind the social media they were discussing. there was some lively discussion about the trade-off of privacy for information, the new economics of so-called web 2.0 & just how aware young people are of the motives of google et al. someone suggested that young people these days aren't as concerned about privacy as we older folk are, which made me wonder whether that isn't just part of reckless youth & the sense of invincibility. it will be interesting to see in 20 years or so how today's teenagers feel about personal privacy & the information trade-offs they've made.

i escaped to a nearby deli to buy a veggie wrap for lunch, which i ate in a moment of sunshine on the waterfront. belfast reminds me of my hometown dunedin in that even in the heart of the city you can easily see green hills; there are very few buildings higher than 3 or 4 stories.

the enormous main hall was the venue for angela barnett's presentation "the dancing body as a screen" which was a very interesting survey of some recent works such as lucy guerin's "melt" in which dancers performed incredibly precise movements synchronised to a projected video; and "glow" by chunky moves which involving motion tracking. it was an interesting presentation, altho it would have been better in a more intimate space - less intimidating for angela & more conducive to discussion.

i then struggled to choose between between camile baker & nancy mauro-flude - nancy won. slipping out of the main hall to find her presentation, i encountered nancy at the main desk, hastily printing out her talk & with only a vague idea of where she was supposed to be. in gallery one we learnt that the venue had been changed, so we hurried up to bar two where a small group were gathered at the far end around eric chi man siu, who was just finishing his presentation. again, this was a floor-to-ceiling window situation, so i ended up sitting beside nancy & watching her presentation on the computer screen rather than straining to see something on the flat screen with the bright sun and river behind it. nancy talked about her current project, bag-lady 2.0 which is a customised wireless media uploader and broadcaster - she can wander around capturing sound and images then when she finds an open wireless network upload everything & it's automatically deleted from the hard drive. great for performance activism : )

now i'm sitting in the bar which, oddly, isn't open; but coffee has been served & we're about to go into UBERMORGEN.COM's keynote, followed by a civic reception, & then performance by D-FUSE. more later ...