The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival Launches Full Program #HRAFF #Melbourne #geekgirl

FESTIVAL OPENS WITH PAUL SIMON DOCO UNDER THE AFRICAN SKIES
15 – 27 May 2012

The fifth Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (HRAFF) will open on Tuesday 15 May with the highly anticipated documentary Under African Skies by award winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger.

Twenty-five years have passed since Paul Simon broke a UN cultural ban and entered South Africa to make the album Graceland. The album would go on to be a global phenomenon, salvaging his career while also polarising audiences. To mark this anniversary, Simon returns to South Africa to reunite with the Graceland musicians, and clear the air with his greatest critic, Artists Against Apartheid founder Dali Tambo. Under African Skies pays homage to this time.

Eleven days later, Jon Shenk’s The Island President will close the Festival. This is the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced. Having brought democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge. As one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable. The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009. At the screening there will be a live video Q&A with the former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

With 15 Australian premieres, other highlights of the 19 film program include: award-winning documentary At Night They Dance which sheds light on the chaotic world of Egyptian belly dancers working in downtown Cairo;  based on the award-winning comic novel (Paco Roca, 2007), Wrinkles is an animated feature film about Emilio, who, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, is sent by his son to live in an aged-care facility; Beer is Cheaper Than Therapy is a poignant documentary which examines the psychological distress suffered by numerous soldiers, offering a voice to those who are all too often lost in the discourse of war, the veterans themselves; and Australian feature film Fantome Island by Sean Gilligan which looks at Joe Eggmolesse, who at the age of seven was taken from his family, put on a train, and sent to a leprosarium on Fantome Island, located off the Queensland coast. Many years later, he returns to confront the memory of his childhood on the island, to pay tribute to those who lived and died there and to inscribe his own unique story into official Australian history.

FORUM - Extreme Reactions to Creative Expression
Sat 19 May, 5pm – ACMI, The Cube. Free Entry
Facilitator Richard Watts (3RRR) along with Ajak Kwai (singer/songwriter), Jeff Daniels (filmmaker) and Khadim Ali (artist) will discuss the cultural politics of extreme governmental responses towards creative expression.

FORUM – Off the Wall: Is Street Art an Appropriate Medium to Voice Human Rights Issues?
Wed 23 May, 5.30pm – Kaleide Theatre, RMIT. Free Entry
Public discourse surrounding street art is dominated by the continuing debate about cultural legitimacy and notions of ownership of public space. Yet, such discussions conceal one of the most important functions of street art, the creative freedom to be powerfully political and socially current. Partake in a lively discussion with facilitator Fiona Hillary along with Lachlan Macdowall (artist), Boo (stencil artist), Tom Civil (graffiti artist) and Kate Shaw.

FORUM - Flights of Fancy: the Ethics of Travel
Sat 26 May, 5pm – ACMI, The Cube. Free Entry
For many Australians, travel has become cheap and accessible. Yet, as the world keeps shrinking, and our mobility increasing, the decisions we make, be it as a high-flyer, a backpacker, or even a volunteer, have consequences on the world around us. Hear what facilitator Jeff Jarvis (International Research Unit Monash), and a panel including Jane Crouch (Intrepid), Andrew Abel (Surfing Assoc. of Papua New Guinea), Adam Pesce (filmmaker) and Dimity Fifer (Australian Volunteers International) have to say.

MUSIC – Rhythm & Rights
Sun 20 May, 1.30pm–7pm – Abbotsford Convent.
Move your feet, shake your body and feel the beat at HRAFF’s annual Rhythm & Rights event.  Tinpan Orange headline a full day of musical entertainment including: Sol Nation, The Hacketts, Alwan Bridgett, Cains Teame, Ersie Wadaiko, Rindo Musiki Manjaro, Leigh Woodburgess, Danny Al Sabbagh with Khaled Khalafalla as MC.  Taking over the Abbotsford Convent for one day only, the program consists of an exciting range of performers coming together over their shared commitment to the promotion of human rights culture through musical expression.

Art exhibition - Echoes of Others: Illuminating the gaps amid translation
Thu 17–27 May, 11am–5pm (Tue-Sat) 12pm–5pm (Sun) – No Vacancy, QV Building.
Human rights issues have become increasingly visible, broadcast through a variety of media, whose dissemination of information makes possible greater accessibility and detail. On the other, the inconsistencies of such technological access around the world continue to reinforce the widening gaps that exist between people and places. Whilst communication should be crisp and clear, it is, too often, broken, frozen and distorted, as the process of translation allows for interpretation, re-interpretation and, more often than not, misinterpretation. The work exhibited explores echoes both materially and conceptually, as voices are silenced, images fade and meaning is reconstructed.

Artists: Alexia Germain, Marliène Blain, Louis Philippelèvesque, Anita Belia, Baden Pailthorpe, Brad Haylock, Dinalie Dabarera, The Keiskamma Trust, Lex Randolph, Louise Hunter, Minela Krupic, Nasim Nasr, Sue Kneebone and Veronica Grow.

LISTING DETAILS
WHAT: The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival
WHEN: Tuesday 15 – Sunday 27 May 2012
WHERE: The Forum Theatre, ACMI and Abbotsford Convent
MORE INFO: www.hraff.org.au

Women in Engineering and IT Hands on Day Program for Girls! #girls #gurls #engineering #geekgirl

This year’s Women in Engineering and IT Hands on Day Program will be held at UTS Broadway Campus, (Sydney) [Australia] for schools on Friday  27 April and Friday 17 August : the aim is to make links for female students between the experience of technology studies, practice and research, and providing information on specific fields, courses and scholarships for school leavers.

It is a full day of Hands on Fun and most importantly, it is ‘GIRLS Only!’ Please read more about past Hands on Days here:

http://utswomeninengineeringandit.blogspot.com.au/search/label/HandsOn

To support planning for 2012 you are invited to encourage your daughters and nieces to attend and we encourage you  to discuss this event with their relevant school departments (Science/Maths/Technology/HSIE) and take advantage of the opportunity to register up to 30 students from these cohorts (Years 8-12) for both Hands on Days. We especially welcome students of diverse backgrounds, areas of interest and aptitudes. As well as those with aptitude in Maths and Sciences, successful engineers and IT professionals can start out with strong interests and ability in Geography, Geology, Design & Technology, Visual Arts and Agriculture. Students can attend by themselves if they have parents’ permission and the school is not willing to bring a group. We will be responsible for the welfare of students between the hours of 8:30am-3:15pm.

Previous Hands on Days have engaged many students with the prospects of engineering and IT as a choice of study and career. It is also a great opportunity for high school students to network with current engineering and IT students and hear from industry professionals, as they gain insights into university life.

If you would like to download a registration form, please click below or contact Karenmay.Belista@uts.edu.au for further information

http://www.feit.uts.edu.au/women/WIEIT-handsonday-application.pdf

Have fun!!!

Good Return Breakfast Event, meet 3 inspiring women: March 28th #Sydney #connectingwomen #geekgirl

good-return-brekkie-event

Our lives have been transformed by digital and we have never been more connected to one another. Technology is making it possible to reach across borders and connect in more meaningful ways than ever before. Good Return is just one organisation that employs technology to enable better futures for others.

Good Return is hosting an Expert Panel on the morning of 28 March 2012 to discuss how emerging technologies are changing opportunities for women – both in developed countries such as Australia, and in developing countries in the Asia Pacific. You’ll hear from digital innovators on how they view the transformative power of digital and how they have realised their ambitions through their businesses.

Panelists:

Rebekah Campbell: Founder and CEO of social commerce business Posse

Dominique Hind: Managing Director and founder of digital innovation business WiTH Collective

Nedahl Stelio: Journalist, editor, and founder of leading online fashion sales and style blog Cocolee.com.au

Poster for Kony 2012. Love the message – #bring #invisible #children #home #video #geekgirl

kony2012

http://www.kony2012.com/

The Hannah Arendt Prize in #Critical #Theory and Creative Research #geekgirl

The Hannah Arendt Prize in Critical Theory and Creative Research

The MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research Program www.pnca.edu/programs/mfa/c/criticaltheory

Application deadline: Thursday, March 15, 2012

Theme: The Visible, the Invisible, and the Indivisible Cash prize: 2,000 USD Winner announced by Sunday, April 15, 2012

The Hannah Arendt Prize in Critical Theory and Creative Research is an annual prize competition for anyone interested in the juncture of art and creative research and in the principles at the heart of the arts and humanities, including sense-based intelligence; the reality of singular, nonrepeatable phenomena; ethical vision; and consilience
between inner and outer, nature and reason, thought and experience, subject and object, self and world.

Application for the prize is open to the general public. Download the PDF application below and email the completed application and the essay (in a .doc or .pdf format) to ctcrprize@pnca.edu

Explication of theme: Whether rice infused with human DNA, new forms of warfare, fully playable nanoguitars, bots traversing blood streams, or transistors the size of viruses, the major developments of the 21st century are largely invisible and, as such, resistant to critique and intervention—what we call politics as a system of challenge,
contestation, and negotiation. How do we force invisible processes into visibility, and what do we do with them once they appear at this threshold? Conversely, what are the means by which the visible might be made to disappear? Are these the right questions?

See additional information at www.pnca.edu/programs/mfa/c/criticaltheory.

Call for Submissions :: #Siggraph 2012

Siggraph 2012 :: 5 – 9 August 2012  Los Angeles, USA
39th International Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques
Call for Submissions :: Various closing dates for different categories
The SIGGRAPH conference and exhibition is a five-day interdisciplinary educational experience including a three-day commercial exhibition that attracts hundreds of exhibitors from around the world. SIGGRAPH is widely recognized as the most prestigious forum for the publication of computer graphics research. In addition to SIGGRAPH’s leading-edge technical program, the conference’s installations provide close-up views of the latest in digital art, emerging technologies, and hands-on opportunities for creative collaboration. Catagories still open for submission include Emerging Technologies (closes 21 February 2012), Panel Discussions and Poster presentations (closes 21 February 2012), Computer Animation Festival (closes 9 April 2012) and Siggraph Dailies (closes 1 May 2012).

http://s2012.siggraph.org

Mark Amerika public lecture: Nov 15 #Melbourne #remixthecontext #transmedia #geekgirl

Mark Amerika public lecture and conversation with Dan Angeloro (Sodajerk)

The Centre for Creative Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, La Trobe University invite you to a public lecture:  Mark Amerika: “Remixthecontext: the transmedia artist in network culture”

The lecture will be followed by a Conversation between Mark Amerika and Dan Angeloro (Soda_Jerk)

When: 15 November 2011, 6.30pm
Where: Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library Victoria, Melbourne
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/visit/how-get-here

Remix is a widespread practice of recombining existing material to make something new —including covers, sampling, mash-ups, smash-ups, cut-ups. Mark Amerika looks at how new media artists, many of whom identify with the historical avant-garde, are expanding the forms of remix art to foreground an anti-disciplinary [anti-authoritarian + interdisciplinary] approach to both contemporary practice and theory. Amerika will discuss his experimental art, theory, and pedagogy, including his recent projects Immobilité and remixthebook.

Mark Amerika is a cult novelist, media theorist, web publisher, VJ artist, and remix artist. He has been named a “Time Magazine 100 Innovator” as part of their continuing series of features on the most influential artists, scientists, entertainers and philosophers into the 21st century. Amerika is widely exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at major art galleries and biennales. He is Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Principal Research Fellow at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne. http://markamerika.com www.remixthebook.com

Dan Angeloro is one half of Soda_Jerk, a collaboration working together since 2002. In their video installations and performance lectures, Soda_Jerk work with audiovisual samples to create speculative narratives that interrogate historical events and cultural trajectories. Soda_Jerk are the recipients of the 2011 Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship and a 2011 British Council Realise Your Dream Award. http://www.sodajerk.com.au

For futher information, please contact
Norie Neumark, Director, Centre for Creative Arts
n.neumark@latrobe.edu.au
or Natalie Pirotta, Coordinator, Centre for Creative Arts
CentreCreativeArts@latrobe.edu.au

GNOME Outreach Program for Women internships #gnome #opensource #downunder #geekgirl

In an effort to get more women involved in Free Software, the GNOME project is sponsoring several internships for women from December 12, 2011 to March 12, 2012. These dates are aimed at the college women from the Southern Hemisphere who will have a school summer break during this time, but any woman available for a full time internship is welcome to apply. Please consider applying for the program, encourage someone else to apply, or help us spread the word!

The application deadline is October 31. The applicants need to get in touch with individual GNOME projects that participate in this effort ahead of time to decide which project they are interested in working on and make a small contribution to the project.

Participants will work remotely from home, while getting guidance from an assigned mentor and collaborating within their project’s team and the rest of the GNOME community. The projects include developing software for the core desktop, file management, messaging, popular applications, educational activities, and the platform libraries. There are also non-coding projects, such as graphic design, documentation, and marketing. The stipend for the program is $5,000
(USD).

Please visit http://www.gnome.org to learn more and apply. The mentorship opportunities are also available throughout the year for anyone interested in getting started contributing to GNOME outside of the internship program.

Animal welfare & compassion in world farming activist Peter Stevenson guest lectures in Australia in August.

Victorian (Melbourne) date promoted here: but you can also view dates around Australia at the Voiceless website.

As a leading European expert on animal welfare, Peter describes Australia’s live export trade as “the world’s worst”. He explains that conditions in Indonesian abattoirs could not have improved in just one month and that the resumption of trade was met with shock in Europe.

In Australia for Voiceless’s Animal Law Lecture Series, Peter discusses European Union (EU) bans on some factory farming practices and how this cruelty continues in Australia. He suggests that better animal welfare can actually be more profitable for farmers and that changing consumer sentiments are driving more ethical products in Europe.

To listen to Peter’s full interview, please visit the website of ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Monday 15 August 2011
Time: 1.00pm – 2.00pm (doors open at 12.50pm)
Venue: Melbourne Law School
University of Melbourne
Ground Floor G08
185 Pelham St, Carlton, VIC 3053

Register Now! To view our flyer for this event, please download this pdf .

Details: This lecture, kindly supported by University of Melbourne Law School, will be chaired by Ruth Hatten, Legal Counsel of Voiceless and will feature guest speaker Peter Stevenson and Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan of the University of Melbourne.

AND

Monday 15 August 2011
Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm (doors open at 5.45pm)
Venue: Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Level 36, Bourke Place
600 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Register Now! To view our flyer for this event, please download this pdf .

Details: This lecture, kindly supported by Corrs Chambers Westgarth, will be chaired by Ruth Hatten, Legal Counsel of Voiceless and will feature guest speakers Peter Stevenson and Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan of the University of Melbourne.

Splinterfields: Mathematickal Arts #programming #mathematics #textiles #machineart #geekgirl

http://fo.am/mathematickal_arts ///

Start: 2011-07-23 00:00 GMT+2
End: 2011-07-25 00:00 GMT+2

What: Mathematics, Textiles & Computer Programming workshop
When: 23rd – 25th of July 2011
Where: FoAM, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, 1080 Brussels, Belgium

Mathematician & machine artist Tim Boykett (Time’s Up, AT) and textile designer & educator Carole Collet (Central Saint Martin’s, UK) will lead a 3 day workshop bringing together The Arts of Mathematics, Textiles and Computer Programming.

Mathematickal Arts workshop investigates the tangible, abstract and conceptual threads binding materials and machines in a series of practical and theoretical experiments. Participants will use knots, weaving, sorting algorithms, notation and geometry to explore unfamiliar territories of mathematics or crafts using familiar practices of artistic and technological experimentation.

If you are interested in taking part in this workshop, places are limited, so please send an email to info@fo.am with a brief statement of intent before 12th of July.

“To me the simple act of tying a knot is an adventure in unlimited space. A bit of string affords the dimensional latitude that is unique among the entities [...] another dimension is added which provides an opportunity that is limited only by the scope of our own imagery and the length of a ropemakers coil.”
–Clifford W Ashley, The Book of Knots.

This workshop is a part of Resilients (http://fo.am/resilients) and
Splinterfields (http://fo.am/splinterfields)