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Language of Life: #Biomimicry in #Architecture, Art, Design and Science #Sydney #binarism #geekgirl

Language of Life - Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science

What is the song a hummingbird sings? What do graffiti artists and street cats have in common? What formations are shared between a microcosm and the universe? Can buildings be interactive?

Biomimicry seeks to solve human problems using ideas from our biological world. Deeply embedded in nature are formulas that aid in finding solutions in our everyday lives. The exhibition ‘Language of Life’ showcases a shared interest between architects, visual artists, fashion designers and scientists in a collection of works that not only transcribe nature into their own fields, but identify and interpret what is useful to them, opening a conversation between these different fields.

Lucian Gormley and Hugo Raggett challenge the notion of architecture as static with their adaptive constructions of interactive hexagonal cells. Guy Morgan interprets the night sky in his vast paintings and video works that play with the psychology of vision, drawing out the colour that is there, but invisible to us at low light. Nicola Coady, combining two forms of culture, explores microbe colonies as living decorative devices by coating lampshades in yoghurt and allowing nature to take its course.

In contemporary design, architecture and the visual arts, we are increasingly working with material phenomena, interactive behaviour and complex, interdependent, structural relationships that are deeply embedded in nature. These works interrogate the familiar fabric of our existences that deem us human. Between nature and nurture, between artifice and art, they challenge our notion of the human/nature binarism.

Language enables conversation, by initiating communication, and this is what the exhibition aspires to do, opening a platform for interdisciplinary communication. ‘Language of Life’ explores artistic, technological, computational and philosophical trajectories through observations of natural expressions and biomimetic processes. The exhibition collates installations, paintings, animations, experiments and devices developed in different disciplines of the University of Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts; The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning; Medical Science, and the School of Engineering. Curated by Dr Dagmar Reinhardt, Lecturer of Digital Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, and Greg Shapley, Verge Gallery.

WHAT: Language of Life: Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science (art exhibition)
WHO: Artists include: Caitlin Abbott, Eduardo Barata, Iain Blampied, Nicola Coady, Michiru Cohen, Armando Chant, Kate Dunn, Lisa Fathalla, Lucian Gormley, Tyrone Jandey, Flora Mavrommati, Guy Morgan, Luke O’Donnell, Hugo Raggett, Donna Sgro, Ian Stewart, Alexandra Smith, Will Swan, Sara Sweet and Elmar Trefz. Curated by Dagmar Reinhardt and Greg Shapley
WHEN: Opening March 29, 6pm. March 30-April 6 (Monday-Friday 10am-5pm)
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

CONTACT: Greg Shapley on (02) 9562-6218 or email g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

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/

Rayna Fahey’s politically dangerous exhibition – It’s Never Too Late To Mend #radical #craft #Melbourne #geekgirl

it's-never-too-late-to-mend

It’s Never Too Late To Mend – an exhibition of Rayna Fahey’s politically dangerous and exciting application of conscious craft love. A survey of Fahey’s commitment to the radical application of craft through the method of cross stitching.

Editor of radicalcrossstitch.com, co-founder of the infamous Craft Cartel and founder of the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle, Fahey is best known for reclaiming ugly industrial settings and transforming them through conscious craft love.

Her work has featured in exhibitions across Australia, Aotearoa, Sweden and Lithuania. Fahey was also featured in the critically acclaimed documentary, Making It Handmade which screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival and on ABC2.

Making It Handmade will have a special screening at the Incinerator Gallery with its director Anna Brownfield in attendance.

Fahey said her work uses seemingly innocuous craft to communicate challenging concepts about society and our environment, in a thought provoking manner. ”In light of the recent resurgence in the popularity of craft, this exhibition is not only about asking questions about the reasons we craft, but is also a call out to the craft community to strive for excellence in design.

“I am truly honoured to be pressing these discussions in a building connected to such a strong design history of function and beauty.

“The exhibition challenges traditi onal views on the nature of craft and will allow audiences to get a fresh perspective on its use in the 21st century.

“Kitsch and irony have been used by artists for decades to convey their message, but I reject kitsch and instead pay upmost respect to the history and traditions of craft.“

It’s Never Too Late To Mend celebrates ‘domestic arts’ as more than just a passive pastime, showing that conscious craft is an active, intelligent and even politically dangerous craft,” said Miss Fahey.

Just as the Incinerator use to be used for burning rubbish and is now a gallery, Rayna Fahey is using traditional craft to make contemporary statements on the world around us.

It’s Never Too Late To Mend will have a twilight opening on Friday 13 April at 6pm. The exhibition will run until Sunday 13 May.

Making It Handmade will screen on Thursday 19 April at 7pm at the Incinerator Gallery.

Incinerator Gallery
180 Holmes Road
Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
incineratorgallery.com.au

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.

Meg Petrie in Close to You #Melbourne #Comedy #Festival #geekgirl

Meg Petrie in Close to You

Close to You is a story of darkness, dysfunction, and disillusion set to the music of Karen Carpenter.

Close to You takes place in two houses: Meg’s suburban childhood home and her adult, cat-infested share house. The quirky characters in these houses include:

 * a nanna who feels sorry for Schapelle Corby

* a nightdress wearing father

* a perpetually vacuum cleaning mother,

* and an agoraphobic woman waiting for a UFO to beam her up.

A ukulele, drum kit, and home videos help bring Meg’s off-beat characters to life.

Karen Carpenter’s mother scrubbed keyholes. Meg’s mother vacuumed a bird cage non-stop with Karen Carpenter singing in the background. Karen died in a closet. Meg has a skeleton in her closet.

Meg isn’t shy to indulge in the odd gag, pun, word-play, singing, and slapstick. There is a chunk of heart in this show and a whole lot of dark ridiculousness.

Joining Meg is percussionist Dan Violato. Her presence adds depth and poignancy to the connection with Karen Carpenter who was herself a skilled drummer.

Meg Petrie in Close to You was mentored by Felicity Ward and performed to sold-out houses during 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival. Meg has also performed in Papa Don’t Preach at 2010 Midsumma, and Hot Caz and The Runaway Muff at 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

____________

Close to You
Northcote Townhall, Studio 2
189 High St, Northcote
8:30pm – 9:30pm

April 12th-15th, 19th-21st

Tickets
Full: $15
Concession/Preview/Group: $10

YouTube: http://youtu.be/VW31NL7v4CI

Web: http://www.megpee.com/

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The HTMlles 10 RISKY BUSINESS #Feminist #festival of media arts and digital culture #gender #geekgirl

 The HTMlles 10
 RISKY BUSINESS
 Feminist festival of media arts + digital culture
 10-18 November 2012

 The 10th edition of the HTMlles will take up the notion of risk. To risk: to gain or to lose (it is uncertain), to expose oneself to a possibility… Risk is a potential. Whether used positively or negatively, the idea of risk implies that of evaluation, action and distribution, and thus, power. While the term “risk” evolved with the development of capitalism, the concept of “risk society” is about twenty years old and has been used by scholars to describe how modern society organizes around the idea of risk, that is, in response to a future (which society should be able to manage). By simply invoking or imagining the future, one immediately engages in risky behaviours. Anything and everything can become risky… Indeed, there exists a global economic and industrial complex organized around monitoring and moderating “risk”, from insurance companies to investment products, as well as technologies and approved, standardized methods of risk assessment and risk management. There are also whole sets of techniques of calculation, “optimization” and social control that rely on the presence of a notion of “risk,” from so-called “at-risk populations” to who are considered “vulnerable,” “suspect” or, increasingly so nowadays, “insolvable.”
 
In such a critical moment, it is perhaps crucial to ask (ourselves) some questions. How does the language of risk articulate itself today? What is at risk today? How can one take risks today? What are the different levels of risk in our various (trans)actions? What is the relationship between risk, technology and power? How is risk both managed and created? How is it distributed? Since when does one  “invest” in one’s future and what does it actually mean? Do “crises” serve to pacify the communities being affected by these “crises”? Who are they? What do artists have to say about these so-called risks and crises? How is making art risky today? Who speaks? To whom and in the name of what?
 
The HTMlles 10 welcomes project proposals from self-identified women, trans and gender non-conforming artists of all origins on the theme of risk, as well as proposals for risky projects…
 
The HTMlles is a feminist festival of media arts and digital culture produced in Montreal by Studio XX, a bilingual feminist artist-run centre for technological exploration, creation and critique. Initiated in 1997, the HTMlles is an international platform dedicated to the presentation of women’s, trans and gender non-conforming artists’ independent media artworks from all facets of contemporary technological creation,  including but not limited to: digital storytelling, cyber art, short film and video art, audio and electronic art, radio art, installation, locative media, 3D animation, game art, augmented reality, electronic publishing, design, bio art, public interventions, community-based practices, performance and interdisciplinary practices.
 
The HTMlles 10 will be a multi-sited festival, which includes Studio XX’s new gallery space, the XX Files radio show, .dpi electronic periodical and Matricules online feminist archive. RISKY BUSINESS will be co-presented with several partner artist centres (to be announced) that focus on either (or both) media arts or feminist practices, in
Montreal. Participants receive honoraria.
 
OPPORTUNITY FOR EMERGING CURATORS: The current call is also open to project submissions by self-identified emerging curators.
 
To submit a proposal to the HTMlles 10, please follow the guidelines and email it to: festival (at) htmlles (dot) net
 
*Deadline: Monday, 2 April 2012*
 
Download submission guidelines  http://www.htmlles.net/2012/Call_HTMLLES_2012_EN.pdf

Feature post: Next Nature – Fly like a bird, cooking apes, shoes that mend themselves and anthropomorphobia #design #nextnature #geekgirl

Fly like a bird, cooking apes, shoes that mend themselves and anthropomorphobia, public enemy number one. Welcome to another issue of the Next Nature newsletter, from the website http://www.nextnature.net/, which explores the nature caused by people.

Follow Next Nature on Twitter: and Facebook
: ==================================================
CONTENTS

-NANO Supermarket Call for Entries
-Next Nature Book Reviews + Discount
-Blog Highlights
-Next Nature Internships

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NANO SUPERMARKET CALL FOR ENTRIES

After two successful years touring the globe, the NANO Supermarket is now entering its second edition. Next Nature is calling upon designers, technologists and artists to submit their speculative nanotech products for the supermarket’s next round. A selection of the most innovative products will be shown in the physical exhibition space, and featured in the accompanying catalog. The best product overall will win a € 2500 prize. (some kind of money!)

Nanotechnology is an important emerging technology  – it radically intervenes with our sense of what is natural – yet most people are still relatively unaware of its consequences. The Next Nature NANO Supermarket is a physical “supermarket” that features debate-provoking visions on nanotech products that could be expected to hit the shelves between now and 2020.

For more information and examples of past products, please visit http://www.nanosupermarket.org

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BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

What is Next Nature?

In this snappy video from the 2011 Next Nature Powershow, Koert van Mensvoort answers the question: Just what is Next Nature?

11 Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design

In this 11-part series, we examine how designers can successfully integrate human-like forms and behavior into their work. Learn how to inspire with anthropomorphic design inspire, instead of confusing, irritating, or offending.

Apes Like Cooked Food and What that Means for Human Evolution

Humans are the only ape that cooks, but our ape relatives also naturally prefer cooked to raw food. Learn the surprising implications of cooked food for the evolution our super-charged brains.

Essay: Anthropomorphobia

Has fear of the uncanny valley become a major cultural affliction? This essay discusses how products are behaving more like people, and how people are quickly turning into products.

Protocell Shoe Mends Itself

If you’re tired of mending rips in your shoes, Rachel Armstrong has the (speculative) shoe for you. Using organic, semi-living cells, these shoes can sense and repair damage.

Fly Like a Bird? Get Human Birdwings

Engineer Jarno Smeets dreams of flying like a bird. Using accelerometers and a wiimote, Jarno is creating a pair of giant “wings” to propel a human into the sky.

Playing with Pigs

Ever wanted to play tag with a pig? Students at the Utrecht School of Arts have designed Pig Chase, an iPad game that allows players to remotely interact with piglets.

Fake Leaf is Twice as Efficient as the Real Thing

With a new “bionanodevice,” researchers have combined proteins from bacteria with nano-scale wire to create a “leaf” that generates electricity from solar energy and CO2.

GIRRL girrlsound:: digitalgirrl – CALL OUT-SoundAffects #girrlsound #geekgirl

CALL OUT FOR PROPOSALS OF SOUND WORK

GIRRL girrlsound:: digitalgirrl
This is an international call out for sound-work, digital and sonic recordings, performances, and installation type works, by women, that deal in some way with the extra or surplus quality of sound. Work will be exhibited/performed/presented at Queensland University of Technology, in Brisbane on Friday 27th April.

SoundAffects intends to bring together a plurality of approaches that engage with sound as both mediated and unmediated experience. The event/performance/exhibition
primarily addresses what sound is when it presents itself as sonic art. In order to push the boundary of interdisciplinary sound studies into new areas, we encourage contributions from all approaches and disciplines. As the event is sonic and an interdisciplinary approach to sound for and by GIRRLS

Proposals

Please send your proposals and a short bio (200 words) to the address below.
Please include the title, duration of work and your contact info.
You may send your files showing your work by email, drop box or snail mail to the address below and/or you may include links to examples of your work.
Digital projection and sound file playability are available.
Proposals can be submitted to girrl (at) gmail(dot) com no later than April 10th 2012
Or posted to                                                            
GIRRLSOUND- SoundAffects                  
C/o Donna Hewitt QUT Room KG OB410                                      
Cnr Musk and Victoria Park Rd
Kelvin Grove QLD Australia 4059

Part of GIRRL’s 2012 Events  http://www.girrl-girrlsound-digitalgirrl.org/

Queer Fruits Film Festival – 2012 Call for entries: without a box #GLBTIQ #Queer #films #geekgirl

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Queer Fruits Film Festival is open to innovative, entertaining, intelligent and celebratory films of all lengths; from short films, to selected features completed within the last three years.

QFFF is looking for films which uplift and inspire; films which explore the serious realities and issues that confront the GLBTIQ communities.

 Fabulous films, which exude a charisma.

**Judging:**

A Distinguished Festival Jury will again independently judge the films and select award winners in all categories, with two special prizes : **Local Filmmaker Incentive** (open to queer filmmakers who are Northern Rivers’ residents) and **Jury Prize** to be awarded.

**PRESTIGIOUS NEW AWARD:**

In 2012, all Australian GLBTIQ films entered with a production date within the calendar year (from December 1st 2011) and 27 minutes or less in duration (including credits) will automatically also be eligible to be considered as Queer Fruits Film Festival’s nomination for the National Film & Sound Archive acquisitive award, now called The **NFSA Orlando Short Film Award** which carries a $5,000.00 cash prize and which will be awarded annually

 **ENTER YOUR FILM ONLINE NOW** – click [here](www.withoutabox.com/login/7806)

Earlybird – until Friday March 30th, 2012