Seminar

Albert Porta (Barcelona, Spain, 1946), has developed his work through the creation of two alternative identities, Zush, (1968-2000), a psychomanualdigital artist and Evru, (2000-present), an artsciemyst, that is to say: artist-scientist and mystic. The show is made up of a medium sized, retrospective selection of some of the most emblematic of the artist’s works, using traditional materials (paper, canvas and sculpture), and lays out an overview of his career from his first plaster sculptures of the 60’s, signed as Albert Porta, Gran Leda, 1964; moving to the works signed by Zush, The Bird of Africa, 1977, Father Mother of the World, 1981, Dijin Jesud, 1985, Seuba, 1998-99; before reaching more recent creations by Evru, Vurudo, Asdrivu and Suvla Conflict, 2006.

The two recurring themes in the artist’s work are the representation of the human body and the wish to define a personal space, either mentally or physically, both of which are evident throughout this exhibition. Female and male figures meet and separate. The deep autobiographical path of the display is followed through the self portraits and the variety of characters, based on real people from the artist’s life, who accompany us on our journey.

Zush-Evru is one of the most important Spanish artists of his generation, and stands out as a pioneer in the use of new technologies applied to plastic creation. In 1968 he created Evrugo Mental State for himself, an imaginary state that has its own currency, called tucares, its own national anthem and flag: he has even developed his own alphabet, the Asura. For this exhibition, the artist has created a special installation, the Evrugo Mental State Fluxus Office, where the visitor will be able to see a recreation of this State, including photos of Evrugo’s inhabitants, some of which are in large format and are going to be shown for the first time, such as Naenia and Yoladis.

This part of the exhibition is dedicated to work created via digital support, and completed with the Tecura computer program, a digital painting device which invites the spectator to use their inner artist and explore their own creative side, based on the images proposed by Zush-Evru.

Special attention has been paid to books, which are this artist’s tools of the trade and are, at the same time, full works of art in their own right. Hand-made by Zush-Evru, they are portable workshops where this special creator continuously builds his universe, with his characters, alphabet, and iconography all appearing in its pages. Now we have the opportunity to study a careful selection of 11 volumes, including one of his first, The Green Book, 1972.

The works of Zush-Evru have been shown in the most important contemporary art museums of Spain; in 2000 large exhibits were dedicated to retrospectives of his work in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, and in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MACBA) of Barcelona. Furthermore, he has been selected to participate in the most prestigious international exhibits such as Documenta in Kassel, in Germany. His work has been shown in the Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris and in the Guggenheim, New York and is part, with other centres, of the New York MOMA collection.

The contribution of Audio in the perception of speech and music consists of a multi-functional array of senses for perception, showing that the different individual parameters are interrelated and interdependent; consequently the perception via different senses is highly influenced by the other senses. Furthermore personal variations of the key-parameters make it difficult to define precise limits and values correlated to a certain perception.

Click HERE to read more about the lecture and the speaker.

My work involving augmented reality technologies is driven by the idea that most objects in our life serve dual roles as physical objects and as markers or containers for meaning and memories. Viewed in this light, the terms 'real' and 'virtual', when placed as extremes at either end of a continuum, cease to be interesting. My fascination with augmented reality lies in the way it bridges the realms of both sensory experience and of meaning. For this reason, my personal definition of augmented reality and mixed reality includes not just the visual mixing of real-world and computer-generated images, but anything that might blur the boundaries between sensory experience, information and meaning.

Unfortunately, using augmented reality to make art is made near impossible by the clunky state of the existing tools. The focus of my work is on developing tools, both conceptual and technical, that will allow a more fluid and spontaneous approach to AR art-making. Such tools must deliver AR as a medium, out of the hands of programmers and into the hands of artists and designers. I plan to develop a body of art work in parallel with these tools with the intention that the two will inter-inform one another.

As a prelude to all this, the talk will traverse various points of the last 20 or so years of my art practice and attempt to draw together various themes of artificial life, vital presence and the meaning of virtuality (especially what it meant before computers came along). If time permits, I would also like to touch on the need for a practice-based approach to research in this area and for technologies that might help support such an approach.

Born in Tasmania, Australia in 1963, Rodney Berry is currently a researcher at Nanyang Technological University's Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre. Previously, he spent six and a half years in Japan as a research scientist at ATR Media Information Science Laboratories, Kyoto. Prior to this, he was active as an artist and composer in Melbourne and in Sydney for more than fourteen years. At University of Western Sydney, he taught a unit on experimental music composition for two years. He also taught computer-based sound design at KVB Business College in North Sydney.

His work has ranged from sculptural musical instruments and sound installations to computer-based interactive artworks. His interest in artificial life, technology and biology, virtual reality and augmented reality, has placed him with one foot in both the artistic community and the scientific community.

His work has featured in such international events as the International Symposium on Electronic Art (in Sydney and Nagoya), Sound Culture (Tokyo, Sydney), Virtual Worlds (Paris), and several times at SIGGRAPH (New Orleans, San Antonio, San Diego and Los Angeles).

In 2003, he was Secretariat for the 8th International Conference on Auditory Display. As the only native English speaker on the organizing committee, his duties extended to include cross-cultural trouble-shooter and Master of Ceremonies.

His recent work focused on application of augmented reality to the composition and learning of music, and the creation of interactive art works. His group's Music Table system was voted 'Best Interactive' at Interaction 2004 in Tokyo. He is currently developing tools to enable non-programmers to author augmented reality in real-time without writing code.