Text-based AI - Computer Arts Society

Nothing artificial here by María Cecilia Reyes (Xeh)

I will be participating at the talk “Text-based AI - Computer Arts Society”.

SPEAKER

Geoff Davis, AI Researcher at Creative Computing Institute UAL UK. Computer art in Computer Arts Archive.

SYNOPSIS

Join us for an insightful event featuring discussions on various aspects of AI text generation, its ethical considerations, and applications in both education and the arts. Geoff Davis, editor of the AI Creative Writing Anthology and AI researcher at UAL, will provide an overview of text generation and delve into the ethical implications, and also will cover the use of text generation for computer coding.

Shu Wan and Maria Reyes will each present on the educational aspects of AI text generation, highlighting its potential in essay writing, annotating, and its use by both students and lecturers.

Tivon Rice and Ray LC, talented mixed media artists, will showcase their AI text-based art, while the renowned AI text and poetry artist, Sasha Stiles, will be discussed in relation to her celebrated book, ‘Technelegy.’ Additionally, Mark Webster's innovative 'Hypertype' art, which utilizes Sentiment Analysis for text generation, will be featured.

The event will culminate in an interactive questions and answers session, allowing attendees to engage with the speakers. The entire talk will be recorded for future reference.

Ricerca-creazione: Quando le forme creano valori

Sono stata invitata a partecipare della Giornata di Studi “Ricerca-creazione: quando le forme creano valori” il venerdì 20 e sabato 21 gennaio 2023 a Palazzo Ducale-Fondazione per la Cultura di Genova (Italia), dove presenterò la mia esperienza di ricerca-creazione nello sviluppo della mia tesi di dottorato “Interactive Fiction in Cinematic Virtual Reality: Epistemology, Creation and Evaluation”.

Da circa vent’anni, con il nome di “ricerca-creazione” è nato un movimento che si è diffuso in circuiti accademici in Canada, negli Stati Uniti e in Francia. Con questo termine si designano pratiche che mirano a decompartimentalizzare le arti e le scienze al fine di rinnovare le forme della conoscenza, di pensare in azione, di produrre nuove maniere di apprendere le realtà sociali, di rendere visibili i problemi pubblici e di costruire altre forme di vita. Queste pratiche privilegiano le attività di indagine, osservazione, ricerca basate su dispositivi artistici che spostano le prospettive e ci inducono a vedere diversamente ciò che a volte abbiamo davanti a noi senza accorgercene, o che ci permettono di sperimentare altri modi di fare e di vivere insieme. Le pratiche della ricerca-creazione si concretizzano sia in attività di ricerca nelle accademie artistiche, sia all’università o in residenze in spazi culturali. Possono essere attività individuali o di gruppo, più o meno radicate nelle istituzioni. Queste pratiche contribuiscono non solo all’osservazione e alla valutazione della realtà, ma anche alla creazione di valori.

La ricerca-creazione si basa sul principio che la ricerca può rinnovare i suoi metodi, gli strumenti e i concetti lavorando a stretto contatto con le pratiche artistiche. Un punto di partenza è l’idea che sono le forme a creare i valori, dato che i valori non possono essere decretati a priori. Le pratiche artistiche diventano così le alleate del ricercatore che, attraverso di esse, cerca di spostare, comprendere, modificare le strutture relazionali sottese alla costruzione dei valori su cui si basano i nostri modi di esistere.

La giornata di studio franco-italiana scommette che queste pratiche che si stanno diffondendo nel mondo e in Italia, generando saperi e forme di vita alternative, non rivendicando necessariamente il nome di ricerca-creazione, ma prendendone la forma.

Same Different at 36. Stuttgarter Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media 12.1.-15.1.2023

Special Filmprogramm

talents‘ encounters, Part 2: Akademie Schloss Solitude & Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg

Fri 13.1.23 16-17h

Short films presented by the Haus für Film und Medien

The association „Haus für Film und Medien Stuttgart e.V.“ (HFM) is a collective of currently 24 non-commercial institutions from the areas of education, academy, media education, art, research, science, film and media festivals, film and creative industry, and cinema, media and cross culture - all based in and around Stuttgart. Among these are our five academy members: Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Hochschule der Medien (HdM) und Merz Akademie. For the second time, the Haus für Film und Medien presents a joint selection of varied works by young film and media creatives studying at one of these academies at the 36th Filmwinter Stuttgart. The aim of this institute, which is scheduled to be fully set-up by 2027 in Stuttgart's city centre, is to offer young talent in the fields of art and media opportunities to realize their own productions and introduce them to a wider audience. The series Talents' encounters will give the audience a foretaste of the broad range of young creatives.

#Datos_y_Relatos: La Virtualidad como Última Frontera

El próximo 26 de Agosto estaré compartiendo reflexiones sobre la virtualidad como frontera migratoria en el segmento #Datos y Relatos de la Cinemateca de Bogotá.

Con la aparición de nuevas interfaces para la realidad aumentada, mixta, o virtual, nos hemos convertido en migrantes de la virtualidad. Nos ponemos el visor y partimos hacia nuestra exploración. En el mundo digital atravesamos constantemente innumerables fronteras, a veces sin darnos cuenta. Migramos del espacio al ciberespacio, del universo al metaverso, de lo físico a lo digital, de lo documental a lo ficcional, de lo natural a lo artificial, sin siquiera preguntarnos ¿Qué es lo real?. Hoy en día, la visión distópica de una catástrofe natural que podría generar un éxodo hacia la virtualidad, no resulta ya una idea absurda. Frente a la vastedad del espacio virtual, dejamos de ser solo migrantes para convertirnos en colonizadores de una realidad que aún debe ser construida y habitada. En esta charla, propongo un viaje hacia la virtualidad como última frontera de la experiencia humana.

Nijolė has not died

I am happy and honored to share with you the results of the hard work of months together with the curators of the Triennale and the Mockus Sivickas family:

Nijolė's work will be showcased at the small-scale sculpture Triennale of Fellbach (Germany), from June 4th to October 3rd 2022.

In parallel, the city gallery of Fellbach has dedicated a Solo Exhibition of Nijole's graphic work. Some of these artworks portray pieces of her life in Stuttgart and Fellbach, after WW2 when she was a student of the Fine Arts Academy of Stuttgart.

People visiting the city of Fellbach this summer will be able to get closer to Nijolė's sculpture and graphic work and watch the documentary.

This is Nijolė's first posthumous exhibition. The sculptures were her last curatorial selection.

Sivickas, Nijole

Nijolė Šivickas (Lithuania, 1925–Colombia, 2018) never died; she vibrates with her work as a single being. If you get close enough, you can see her hands shaping each one of her creations, and you can hear her sculptures reciting poems that come from the bowels of the earth, mixtures of blood and bones, of pain and hope. Her beings expand in time and space, welcoming with a warm hug to whoever visits. They defy the laws of physics via impossible shapes and volumes, and her characters shake the foundations of society with fierce humility. Šivickas’ work mixes ceramics, metals, wood and oxide, exposing her bond with the natural quality of her materials.

This selection displays different stages of her oeuvre, from figurative to abstract and installation. Beings that talk about the human condition: Señora (Lady) is a confident mature woman. Idiota (Idiot) is each one of us, clueless but calm before the mystery of existence. In Escena de Cinco (Scene of five), Šivickas becomes a film director assembling a mise-en-scène of five beings expressing their individuality within the collectivity. Pesadilla (Nightmare) enters a dark and dense dream with begging hands, dead feet, and eyes that scrutinize. Colgado (Hanged) stages a tragic death within the immensity of the unknown. From this void, we are born again with Semilla (Seed): a sacred egg that is being delicately cut by an invisible hand. And with a playful smile on her face, Šivickas makes us feel the pain of the burning iron on our skin, branding us like cows with the label: MUJER (WOMAN).

"I’m not in front of the material. The material is next to me. I look at it and it watches me. And so the dialogue begins: I am raising an object from you and you are forcing me to hold you in my hands while you also try to raise. Are we fighting? you ask. We are two beings, you are already an object, and I am within you. Look, you hurt my hand and leg. But you were carving me with a knife." And so the dialogue never ends ...

Text: Maria Cecilia Reyes. Deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler

Hybrid ICIDS 2021

The 14th International Conference on Interactive Storytelling “Interconnectedness and Social Impact” ICIDS 2021 was a hybrid conference taking place at Tallinn University and online through Worksup.

ICIDS is the premier conference for researchers and practitioners concerned with studying digital interactive forms of narrative from a variety of perspectives, including theoretical, technological, and applied design lenses. The annual conference is an interdisciplinary gathering that combines technology-focused approaches with humanities-inspired theoretical inquiry, empirical research and artistic expression. This year is the 14th edition of the conference. ICIDS is the main academic conference of the Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives (ARDIN).

I had the honor to serve as Co-Virtual Chair, together with Josh Fisher, taking care of the website and spatial venues for Demos, Posters and Coffee Breaks on Mozilla Hubs.

Online and Inspiring ICIDS 2020

The 13th edition of the International Conference on Interactive Digital Narratives - ICIDS 2020 just ended. After months deliberating if having a mixed conference or a totally online conference, we finally agreed that the best solution was to have an virtual conference.

The virtual Live/synchronous conference was articulated through different platforms: a single room on ZOOM for all the academic events (papers, keynotes and debates) which gave us the feel of continuity, that feeling of being in a conference leaving the jacket on the auditorium to come back after the breaks; a Discord Server with multiple dedicated channels for discussion, questions, announcements, and videoconference tables to “meet the artists” or meeting the presenters of posters and demos; and finally a Gather Town space to socialize after the academic talks.

We also had 3 live artistic performances: An interactive theater piece The Evidence Chamber (twice) and the netprov Fantasy Spoils: After the Quest, and an one-hour radio show: ARDIN Radio, everynight with a recap of the conference day.

The asynchronous conference had space through 3 different websites:

The main website of the conference with the schedule and general info.
The website of the Art Exhibition “Texts of Discomfort”_ with 18 selected pieces. Each piece contained a link to download the artwork or a link to web-based artworks, and a video in which each artist presents their work. In this way interactors were able to enjoy the pieces in their own time and space, protecting that intimacy between the digital art piece and the visitors.
The website of ARDIN - Association of Research in Digital Interactive Narratives_ This website contains all the academic presentations with 20’ videos, and the recordings of all the live ZOOM sessions of the conference.

A very dynamic conference with several pros regarding the physical conference, and not a lot of cons, as we might have thought at the beginning. For sure, nothing replace the physical contact with researchers and artists, however now we can’t go back from this virtual experience, and everything indicates that the future is hybrid.

Invited Speaker - Monthly ARDIN Online Social

On September 30th we will be hosting our first ever ARDIN social and grad student meet-up!

Time: 1 pm to 3 pm EST | 7 pm to 9 pm CET

Agenda:

• ARDIN Social: Discussion of news relevant to the community, 1 invited speaker (Josh Fisher), member's announcements, academic speed-dating session.

• Grad Student Meet-Up: A roundtable discussion of what our community's graduate students are working on, 1 invited speaker (Maria Reyes). Graduate students, come ready to briefly pitch the projects you're working on!

About the Speakers:

Josh Fisher: I work with emerging media forms to facilitate social change. My specific focus is on community storytelling and I collaborate with community leaders, artists, educators, writers, and students on stories of communal significance. For example, I developed an augmented reality storytelling platform for Georgia Tech. Then, as part of my research, assessed the impact of the platform through both qualitative and quantitative methods. Over the years, I have become an established public speaker and storyteller with performances, lectures, and talks on digital publishing, interactive narratives, and augmented reality design. I have had the pleasure of teaching courses on visual design, interactive storytelling, communication and culture, mobile and web design.


Maria Reyes is a Colombian researcher and screenwriter based in Italy and working as a researcher at the Institute of Educational Technologies at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ITD). She holds a double PhD degree in Digital Humanities from the University of Genoa (Italy) and in Communication Sciences from Universidad del Norte (Colombia). Her research focuses on interactive digital narratives, immersive technologies and distance learning processes. 

During her career, Dr. Reyes - known to her friends as Xeh -  has worked as lecturer in digital storytelling and cinema; as a screenwriter and editor for cinema; as a creator of interactive VR projects; and as a radio producer at the Latin American Association of Educational Radio (ALER). She is researcher-in-residence 2020-2021 at Schloss Solitude Akademie. Co-curator of ICIDS 2020 Art Exhibition.
 

Link to Join Meeting on Gather.town

Password: ARDIN_social_space1


We hope to see you there!

Nijole en DOCS Barcelona

Sinopsis de Nijole en DOCS Barcelona 2019

“Arte y política, Lituania y América Latina, madre irreverente e hijo activista. La inimitable trayectoria de Antanas Mockus, ex-candidato a la presidencia de Colombia, habría sido imposible sin los consejos visionarios de su madre, la artista nonagenaria Nijole Sivicka. Juntos se embarcan en un viaje íntimo de descubrimiento mutuo y nos dan una lección vital llena de coraje y vulnerabilidad.

Dicen que las mejores ideas salen de mezclas insólitas, a veces desconcertantes. La creatividad también podría ser una cuestión de transmisión familiar. El director italiano Sandro Bozzolo construye un cóctel inclasificable e inspirador que nos adentra hacia un viaje íntimo a las profundidades de sus vidas. Del presente marcado por la fragilidad de sus cuerpos, a las raíces lituanas que Nijole tuvo que dejar atrás, descubrimos dos historias vitales extraordinarias.”

Sección Oficial - Panorama

Sección competitiva que agrupa una selección de los mejores documentales del panorama internacional más reciente. Las películas de esta sección compiten por el Premio DocsBarcelona TV3 al Mejor Documental y el Premio Nuevo Talento a la mejor película de los directores debutantes.

Salon Olympia a Torino

Nella serata dedicata al lancio della raccolta di pellicole all'interno dei quartieri della Circoscrizione 3 del Comune di Torino, si è realizzata la rassegna Parole&Cinema coordinata da Edoardo Peretti, con la presentazione del libro “A raccontar la luce” di Sandro Bozzolo.

Ieri, 17 Ottobre 2018 abbiamo presentato lo spettacolo dedicato all'incredibile storia dei fratelli Francesco e Vincenzo Di Domenico, migranti italiani d'inizio Novecento e pionieri del cinema in Colombia. Lo spettacolo si compone di proiezioni di materiali d'archivio selezionate dall'autore e sonorizzate dal vivo da Pier Renzo Ponzo, il tutto accompagnato da brani estratti dal volume “A raccontar la luce”, interpretati da me.

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