Museum Victoria is offering a $5,000 award for up to 2 young emerging new media artists

Museum Victoria are looking for innovative proposals for digital projects that can be exhibited online as part of a 3 year project called Talking Difference.

The aim is to inspire conversations between and within cultures about difference and commonality.

Your project could utilise any form of digital media. It could be a short film, interactive game, online interactive artwork, digital public art project, mobile phone application… the possibilities are endless.

 For more information and application form go to:
 http://museumvictoria.com.au/talkingdifference

2010 Emerging Writers Festival – Friday 21 – Sunday 30 May #Melbourne

Venues: The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas Melbourne Town Hall ● State Library of Victoria ● City Library ●Federation Square  

Bookings:  www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au

New Festival Director Lisa Dempster is thrilled to announce the the program for the 2010 Emerging Writers’ Festival, Australia’s only literary event dedicated to writers of all ages and styles.

2009 saw 6000 people attend the festival’s 15 sell out events with 300 writers, performers, publishers and mentors contributing to the event. In 2010, the EWF will double in size, curating 30 events and featuring 350 writers and artists as the festival stretches the definition of writing styles to include song writing, copywriting, poetry, prose fiction, comedy, writing for video games, journalism, screenwriting, theatre, experimental writing forms, memoir, blogging, opinion, comic writing and more.

2010 Emerging Writers Festival highlights will include:

First word – BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square, 7.30pm, Friday 21 May
The Emerging Writers’ Festival burst into life by presenting the best of the festival – exciting new works by emerging writers, a Call to Arms by romantic fiction writer Toni Jordan, and a comic debate asking  ‘Love Vs Angst – what makes a better writer?’ Come and feel the love!

Zine Bus – various locations, 11am to 5pm Saturday 29 May NEW EVENT 
All aboard the world’s first mobile zine fair! Travelling the streets of Melbourne and culminating in a guerrilla zine market  at Federation Square, the zine bus will be fully stocked with independent emerging zines, with the most innovative displays of art, creativity and DIY ever to take to the streets!

Twitterfest – twitter.com/emergingwriters – May 24 – 28 , 2pm daily  NEW EVENT
Taking the Emerging Writers’ Festival to the world. Daily throughout the festival, Twitterfest will host discussions and interview writers… on Twitter! It’s social media mixed with literary debate – jump online to join the discussion. Hosted by writers from across Australia.

Wordstock – BMW Edge – 7.30pm Thurs 27 May
New work inspired by the songs of AC/DC. With songs, comedy, short plays and performance pieces, rock n roll will be given a different sort of spotlight. A one night only event and a performance highlight of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Wordstock will reveals a whole new side of AC/DC. It will blow your mind (like dynamite.)  Hosted by iconic Melbourne rocker Clem Bastow.

You Can’t Stop The Musing: Disco Lecture – Horse Bazaar, 397 Little Lonsdale St Tues 25 May, 6pm NEW EVENT
Everybody knows disco is fun. But is it good for you? Now that Disco is back (trust us, it is), the time has come to determine, once and for all, whether it’s part of the problem or part of the solution. *Triple J’s Craig Schuftan *presents the case for and against in You Can’t Stop the Musing – the world’s first Disco-lecture. Expect to hear from The Silver convention, The Chic Organisation and the Frankfurt School

48-hour play generator – Malthouse Theatre – 5.30pm, Sunday 24 May
Six (somewhat) rehearsed readings. Six emerging playwrights are given just two days to write a new play each. Teamed with an established director and team of actors, the results are presented on a Sunday evening of madcap and totally raw theatre. Previous 48 hour plays have developed into full length works.

In the Pub series – 26 May 7.30pm, The Workers Club Fitzroy
I Write What I Want, When I Want. We lift the shroud on the mystery of freelance writing. Our freelance experts talk about their journeys as freelancers, the ups and downs as well as their secrets to success. From journalism to comedy, our panellists will entertain and enlighten. Panellists: Chris Flynn, Ben Pobjie and more. Hosted by Joanna Brookfield. 

The Page Parlour – The Atrium @ Federation Square, 12 to 5pm, Sunday 23 May
Featuring over forty stalls selling everything from posters to books, literary journals to hand-crafted stories – all the good stuff that you won’t find in Borders. The Page Parlour is an independent press fair gathering the undiscovered, the underground, the obscure and the amazing all in one convenient market location.

Town Hall Program – Melbourne Town Hall, 9am to 5pm, May 29 – 30
A range of panels, interviews and conversations about the art, craft and business of being a writer.. Covers all styles of writing, from prose fiction, to song writing, theatre, video games, copywriting, poetry, comedy and more! Guests include: Michi Girl, Guy Blackman, Benjamin Law, Patrick Cullen, Jill Jones, Sean Riley, Julian Shaw, Katherine Charles, Declan Fay, Tom Taylor, Mel Campbell, Jeff Sparrow, Steph Bowe, Jan Sardi, and many, many more!

Bike Polo #Melbourne

The Bike Polo crew have been playing in Melbourne for just over 2 years, in vacant car parks and on disused basketball courts, even under freeways.  The crew play every Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon, basically anywhere they can find an enclosed space that’s large and flat enough.

You could say they’re at the same place skate boarders were before there were skate parks, and when people were making equipment themselves.

The Bike Polo crew make their mallets out of old ski poles and plumbing pipe and use street hockey ball and traffic cones for goals.

They ride whatever bikes that they used to get around town, but the more we play, the more we realise we’re spending more time on the court, than on the street, hours and hours at a time, and late into the night, (if we can find a place with lights).  We lower our gear ratios and seats, put protective discs on our wheels and even cut our handlebars short on one side.

Groups like the one in Melbourne have started up in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, and more recently, Castlemaine and Frankston have started up too. Sometimes we play against each other.

Role Playing Girl Zine #zines #geekgirl #gamers

Role Playing Girl Zine, a yearly publication about women in gaming, is seeking submissions of essays by women gamers, designers, researchers and others interested in role playing games. Cartoons also welcome. The 2010 theme: International Update.

http://rpgirl-zine.blogspot.com/

Women in Games, Sydney event

AIE Sydney will be hosting a Women In Games event in November for High School girls in grades 10, 11 and 12 to find out more about the games industry. Female guest speakers from the industry will be invited to the event to talk about what the industry is like for women and why it is important for more girls to get into games. There will be networking opportunities throughout the evening and will be extremely beneficial to girls wanting to  pursue a career in the games industry.

Thursday 19th November 2009
6pm till 8pm
Level 2, Wentworth Park Grandstand
Wattle Street, Ultimo, NSW, 2007

More info: sydney@aie.edu.au

Website: women in games

Academy of Interactive Entertainment

Ludean systems generate new work as print, object and moving image.

The Ludeans come from a generation that has grown up with games, abstract machines, and digital processes. It has become second nature for them to make abstractions of reality in terms of models, systems, processes, and flows. The world of Ludea explores the post-human condition and unstable nature of contemporary existence via three contrasting experiences of place. This occurs through signs and symbols that are mapped onto real-world locations to create meaningful connections and experiences across three different public spaces: virtual, networked and physical.

The World Machine originates in Ludea and augments the streets of Melbourne to provide a suitable habitat in which the Ludeans may reside. It’s seven tags appear in scenes that are at once familiar and alien; simultaneously read by humans and machines; augmenting and mutating urban space.

The ‘floating system’ brings the ‘passive player’ to life via ‘hardened code’ ::: ludea.net

Something is going on at the Hugo Michell Gallery, 260 Portrush Rd, Beulah Park, Adelaide 5067. (I wouldn;t visit alone)! *weg*

I have a feeling that Troy Innocent is involved too.

AFTRS in conjunction with the IGDA Sydney are running GameJam 09

Intense show’n’tells, pitches, discussions and lots of interaction!

An interactive event by gamers for gamers – a day of playing, learning about and making games. Come be a spectator, play to win, or get involved in the creative jam session. This free one day event features gaming competitions, seminars, networking and creative activities. The JAM starts with a gaming forum where anyone can register to be a presenter – share YOUR latest discoveries, opinions & ideas for games and virtual worlds. The JAM ends with a workshop & competition – where creative teams engage in a battle of ideas & rapid game-design, with prizes for best pitch!

Register to come along and/or participate – online at: http://www.gamejam.org.au

Show everyone YOUR latest ideas for games and virtual worlds

If you want to present for around 10-15 mins please book yourself a talk slot by checking out the GameJam wiki site

ADMISSION: Free!
LOCATION: AFTRS building at the Entertainment Quarter, 130 Bent St. Moore Park (next door to Fox Studios) Syd, AUS
WHEN: Saturday 10th October 2009
WHO: YOU’RE the stars, but we will have some cool folk like Dan Graf (Dr D Studios) & Ian Brown (Unity & CG creator)

OPEN TALKS & SCHEDULE
The talks will be about anything to do with
1 developing for or playing with console, pc games, alternate reality games, augmented reality, smart mobiles, serious games
2 offline, online games or creating and using virtual worlds
3 games, film cross-over, machinima, writing, artificial intelligence, social games
5 educational, fun or just plain ‘wtf’!.
6 The user or creator angle is fine (in otherwords talk us through one of your must play games!) – just make sure it is not too geeky or too fanzy!

Demos around the areas: big screen displays, play new games and demos.

Screen Worlds to open at ACMI

Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture is a globally unique, dynamic, interactive and immersive exhibition charting the past, present and future of the moving image from cinema’s early beginnings to the rise of television, games, the internet, new media and the dominance of the digital age. Screen Worlds explores the impact each form has had on our senses and emotions, and the role they’ve played in shaping our society, from Australian perspectives and in an international context.

Screen Worlds is permanent to ACMI and opens on Sept 20, 2009

Some of the games content includes:

GAMES LAB: The new 14-computer Games Lab allows you to explore different genres of games through a curated selection of playable titles. Built into the heart of ACMI’s new SCREEN WORLDS space, the lab is designed for single and multiplayer use (such as four players for Quake, two for Mario Kart), has an enclosed M15+ section and includes facility to watch live gameplay on the big screen. Some of the curated games include: Quake, Tetris, Lemmings, Sensible Soccer, Pro Evolution Soccer, Civilisation, Spore, Project Gotham Racing, Little Big Planet, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario Kart.

SPOTLIGHT ON KROME STUDIOS: One of 14 spotlights of prominent Australian creators given their own ‘spotlight’ exhibit within Screen Worlds, Krome Studios are Australia’s largest videogame developer. Krome Studios is a leading independent studio in the worldwide games development community. Founded in 1999 in Brisbane by Steve Stamatiadis, John Passfield and Robert Walsh to make surfing games, it has now expanded into Melbourne and Adelaide. They are best known for their TY the Tasmanian Tiger titles among others. This exhibit will explore the work of this fascinating Australian success-story.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger ZOETROPE: Located in the ‘Sensation’ section of the exhibition, venture into the theatrette and as the lights go down and the strobe light kicks in, see the illusion of animation come to life in this spectacular 3D zoetrope. Starring Australia’s own boomerang-wielding videogame superstar – Krome Studios’ TY the Tasmanian Tiger – and his friends, this new installation is a world premiere.

Pong vs Tennis: Commisioned by ACMI and created specifically for the Screen Worlds exhibition, Pong vs Tennis allows you to play videogame graphics across time in this full-body interactive experience. Player One has a retro-style paddle, while Player Two has a fully motion sensitive wireless controller. Who will win? WORLD PREMIERE

THE EMERGENCE OF VIDEO GAMES: throughout the ‘emergence’ section of the exhibition we take a look at the past, present and future of video games via exhibits and interactive displays. Some of the features of this section include; playable vintage consoles including Magnivox Odyssey, the worlds’ first home console which allows you to play Pong; Space Invaders (on Amiga); early games from Beam Software one of Melbourne’s most important games publishers, such as Way of the Exploding Fist (Commodore 64); as well as playable Super Mario 3, Super Mario 64 and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. This section will also feature a life-size model of Lara Croft. There is also a specially-commissioned world-premiere ‘modding’ game developed by programmers at by Swinburne Uni and Primal Clarity – a ‘mod’ of Unreal Tournament called Mod Splodge! in which players play paint-ball in the Fed Square carpark. Your enemies are the ‘paint bots’ – packs of paint gun weilding automatons who try and splat the walls and you, in the brightest of colours – and your goal, as the cleaner, is to both clean and neutralise as many of the bots as possible!

ALL FREE!
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Federation Square, Melbourne
www.acmi.net.au
http://www.acmi.net.au/screen_worlds.htm

Here Endeth The Netwurker Input…

Along the lines of “Here Endeth The Lesson“, the above title simply means that darling Rosiex will be back in ye olde Geekgirl saddle as of tomorrow. Thanks all + Thank You, Mario [you'll totally get that random reference in a sec, I promise].

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my shiny time playing Guest Editor + leave you with [what else?] a Super Mario Brothers text screen generated screenbyte [via @__nkO]:

THANK YOU GEEKGIRLERS!

Teleportation Device Request for _Game of War Weekend_?

Consider this official: I totally *need* one of you luverly Geekgirlers to create a Teleportation Machine so I can get to this bangin’ event:

“On Saturday the 26th, Class Wargames presents ‘Marcel Duchamp meets Blue Peter’, a day of making and playing Guy Debord’s The Game of War.

Sunday is the World Premier launch of the Class Wargames’ film – The Game of War. Directed by Ilze Black; script writers Richard Barbrook and Fabian Tompsett; xenography by Alex Veness, voice over by Hayley Newman and Alex Veness.

For more information about Class Wargames and players:
http://www.classwargames.net.”

[All teleportation device donations gratefully accepted. K-thx-bai;)]