• Film Premiere in Cyberspace Links Brazil, U.S. and Japan
    FILE 10 in Brazil


    San Diego and Sao Paulo, Aug. 3, 2009 -- The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at the University of California, San Diego and partners including the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) staged the first feature film premiere to be streamed on three continents simultaneously in 4K – the super-high-bandwidth format that offers four times the resolution of high-definition TV.

    Audience at FILE 10 in Sao Paulo attends a Q&A session after the film premiere. Clockwise from top left: film director Beto Souza (at podium); wide shot of the conference hall; Calit2 division director Ramesh Rao onscreen in uncompressed HD stream from San Diego; and HD stream from Keio University in Japan. [Photo courtesy Michael Stanton, Director of Innovation, Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa, Brazil]


    The film by Brazilian director Beto Souza, "Enquanto a noite não chega" (While the Night Doesn't Come), made its debut to a packed theater at the Electronic Language International Festival (FILE 10) world festival in Brazil on July 30. The film (actually, 4K is a video format) was exhibited in Sao Paulo and streamed in real time over high-speed optical networks to the Calit2 Auditorium in Atkinson Hall at UC San Diego, and to Keio University's Design Media lab in Yokohama, Japan.

    The somber yet beautiful film – shot with a Red 4K camera – was produced at a resolution of 8 million pixels per frame, and it was streamed to San Diego and Japan with only a few glitches that were quickly fixed.


    Still frame from the Brazilian film, "Enquanto a noite não chega" (While the Night Doesn't Come), by director Beto Souza

    "Hollywood has dreamed of this for decades," reported CRCA Director Sheldon Brown, who is also Calit2's Artist in Residence and led a large contingent from UC San Diego to FILE 10. "Now an extensive collaboration of artists, technologists and scientists from around the globe – spearheaded by CRCA – has made history."

    According to Brown, the "global networks being joined together were upgraded to 10 Gigabits per second to support the high bandwidth required for this historic transmission." Brown attributed much of the credit for the success of the event to its Technical Director, CRCA's Todd Margolis, who coordinated all aspects of the streaming, network setup and teleconference setup.

    On July 31, the same high-speed network was used to stage a trilateral videoconference using HD feeds among high-ranking government and cultural representatives in Sao Paulo, Yokohama and San Diego , including Calit2 Division Director Ramesh Rao. The HD streams from Keio and Calit2 (pictured bottom left and right windows, respectively on the 4K screen) were in uncompressed HD at approximately 1.5 Gigabits per second.

    Map displaying network links required to get the film from FILE to Keio University in Japan and Calit2 in San Diego. [Network map courtesy Michael Stanton, Director of Innovation, Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa, Brazil ]


    FILE 10 has also become an important venue for new-media artists affiliated with CRCA and Calit2. At this year’s event, Sheldon Brown is showing his Scalable City , while Todd Margolis, Ruth West and colleagues are showing ‘ATLAS in Silico,” which had its premiere two years ago at SIGGRAPH in San Diego. 'Between Bodies' by CRCA’s Nina Waisman is on display in Sao Paulo’s SESI Gallery, and Tristan Shone performed 'Dub Machines' in the SESI Theater on July 30 following the 4K film premiere.

    In addition to Brown and Margolis, Miller Puckette, Brett Staulbaum, Calit2 Software Studies Initiative Director Lev Manovich and Calit2's Sonic Arts R&D Director, Peter Otto, were all scheduled to participate in various panels, presentations and workshops throughout the first week of the month-long festival, which runs from July 28 to August 30.

    UCSD's Lev Manovich leads a workshop on cultural analytics at FILE 10 in Sao Paulo. [Courtesy: Cicero Silva/FILELabo ]
    Also in Sao Paulo working behind the scenes: Calit2's Hector Bracho, who worked with Margolis in Sao Paulo and the Calit2 audio-visual team back in San Diego to ensure that the streams from Brazil to Calit2 and Keio happened with as few glitches as possible. "We've averaged two-and-a-half hours of sleep each night for the past ten days," reports Bracho, "and my whole team at Calit2 has been working continuously to assist us remotely."

    Calit2 loaned its two Zaxel Systems 4K streaming servers and other A/V equipment for the effort, and Bracho & Margolis oversaw 4K local playback in Brazil , including content encoding and tech setup (notably installation of the Zaxel servers, and 4K projector calibration at the Brazilian venue).

    On the San Diego end, the film was displayed in the Calit2 Auditorium, while Calit2's Rao participated in the July 31 videoconference from Calit2's HD Studio – when he conversed with representatives from Keio University in Japan and the hosts in Brazil . Calit2 shared the cost of Bracho's travel with its CineGrid partner, Pacific Interface, and Brazil ’s Mackenzie Presbyterian University (a major sponsor of FILE). Calit2's Events committee also supported the effort with cost-sharing to permit use of the 4K playback and Calit2 Auditorium for the film premiere.

    CRCA Director and Calit2 Artist in Residence Sheldon Brown at FILE 10. [Courtesy: Cicero Silva/FILELabo ]
    The network connectivity to support the first 4K film premiere between South America, North America and Asia was a patchwork of super-high-bandwidth (typically 10Gbps) links. The bulk of the U.S. connectivity was supplied by Cisco Systems’ C-Wave, an extensive Layer-2.5 switched network deployed on the National LambdaRail (NLR), and several regional optical networks such as the Pacific Wave between the West Coast and Chicago , primarily for the academic community to conduct application experiments.

    CRCA- and Calit2-affiliated visual arts professor Lev Manovich led a workshop on 'cultural analytics', and authored the introductory text in the FILE catalog this year. In it, he argues that a well-known 20th century computer-graphics technique for representing smooth surfaces -- Non Uniform Rational Basis Spline, or NURBS – is evolving into a new tool for cultural theorists in the 21st century, along with other computer graphics and visualization tools.

    FILE editorial board member Jane de Almeida (at podium) in Brazil speaks via HD video feed with Calit2's Mike Toillion in San Diego, before Toillion introduced his 4K short, BeatBox 360 . [Courtesy: Cicero Silva/FILELabo ]
    According to the FILE program, the Beto Souza film deals with “a theme that torments all human beings since the beginning of their existence – the end of life,” according to the late Josué Guimarães, author of the novella on which the eponymously-named film is based. “If the end is too close and everything around is finishing, the only thing left to do is the crossing with some elements that still exist. And all that with much dignity.”

    “The movie, while sad, was quite touching,” noted Calit2’s division director at UCSD, Ramesh Rao, after the screening. “I found myself watching the movie instead of the streaming technology.”

  • posted on: August 04, 2009
  • Becoming Dragon is subject of article in the San Diego Reader.
  • posted on: March 30, 2009
  • Check out these links for more information on the Scalable City installation at FILE in Rio.

    Rolling Stone
    MTV
    UOL
    O Globo
    The second most important newspaper in Brazil
    Yahoo
    Diário do Rio de Janeiro
    IG
    OutraCoisa
    Oi Futuro
    Friends from UIC/EVL showing their artwork at FILE too

  • posted on: March 17, 2009
  • UC San Diego and IBM Launch Center for Next-Generation Digital Media to Power Tomorrow's Virtual Worlds IBM has awarded a System z10 mainframe computer and related equipment to a team led by Calit2's Artist-in-Residence Sheldon Brown. The computer will be used to innovate new virtual worlds (including one based on Brown's Scalable City), multi-player online games and high-fidelity digital cinema.
  • posted on: March 17, 2009
  • Jaime Oliver's Silent Drum won first place in the first Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology announced. The competition - supported by the philanthropic family of Tech alum Richard Guthman - showcased new uses of technology to enhance participation in music performance and music creation. Nearly 30 inventors from seven countries performed on Georgia Tech's campus in the competition for more than $15,000 in prizes. Read more at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29595999/ or at http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS127889+09-Mar-2009+PRN20090309
  • posted on: March 10, 2009
  • Monday, January 18, 2010
    Taller de Experimentación Sonora
    Taller de Experimentación Sonora

    Monday, January 18, 2010 at 6:00pm
    End Time:
    Friday, January 29, 2010 at 8:00pm

    Location:
    PROTOLAB / Blvd. Agua Caliente # 10535 Edificio Gallegos Planta Baja.

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  • Friday, November 20, 2009
    ResoNations - An International Telematic Music Concert for Peace
    4:30PM PST Performative Computing Lab, CRCA @ UCSD

    Renowned musicians in five international locations perform new contemporary music works for peace through the telematic music medium. Telematic music is real-time performance via the internet by musicians in different geographic locations. The performance will take place on high-bandwidth internet connections with JackTrip audio software developed by Chris Chafe and Access Grid video software developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The concert will have local audiences and a world-wide webcast.
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  • Thursday, November 12, 2009
    Prospectives.09 - International Digital Arts Festival
    Prospectives.09
    International Digital Arts Festival
    November 12-14, 2009, University of Nevada, Reno

    Featuring UCSD MFA Candidates Elle Mehrmand, Rob Duarte, Stephanie Lie and UCSD Visual Arts
    Lecturer Micha Cardenas

    This event presents a unique opportunity for graduate and phd candidates to share and interact with fellow practitioners and the general public a diversity of approaches to experimental, digital practice in the visual, performing and auditory arts.

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  • Monday, October 05, 2009
    Tijuana/San Diego: Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface
    This is to invite you to the exhibiton Tijuana/San Diego: Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface, where we will present MediaWomb, a Cubo Project made in collaboration between Camilo Otiveros, Giacomo Castagnola, Nina Waisman, and Felipe Zuniga.

    Los invito a la exhibicion Tijuana/San Diego: Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface donde estaremos presentando MediaWomb, proyecto creado en colaboracion con Camilo Otiveros, Giacomo Castagnola, Nina Waisman y Felipe Zuniga.
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  • Friday, October 02, 2009
    Mixed Relations / Technesexual - Mixed Reality Live Audio Performances and Workshops
    WHAT: Mixed Relations / Technesexual - Mixed Reality Live Audio Performances and Workshops
    WHO: Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas
    WHEN: Oct. 2th, 4th, 15-17th, 2009

    Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand will be doing a performance called Technesexual that uses DIY biometric sensors that were made by hand to create live audio which will be heard in real space and virtual space at the same time. It is a Mixed Reality performance exploring relationality between people and between people and technology.

    Cardenas and Mehrmand will be performing Technesexual in Tijuana at Entijuanarte, in San Francisco at Arse Elektronika and in Montreal at Artivistic. They will also be doing a 3 day workshop in Montreal, sharing the technology used for the performance with workshop participants including DIY electronics, Second Life and Puredata.
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  • Thursday, August 27, 2009
    Transborder tool at ISEA 2009
    Transborder tool at ISEA 2009:

    August 27, 2009 - September 1, 2009

    National College of Art and Design in Dublin

    "ISEA2009, the 15th International Symposium on Electronic Art is a major international event that provides a premier and unprecedented showcase for creativity and innovation at the intersection of art, design, science and technology. Under the theme of Engaged Creativity in Mobile Environments it offers a rich and vibrant platform for debate, display and networking across and between different and diverse disciplines and perspectives."
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  • Friday, August 21, 2009
    New Hacktivism: From Electronic Civil Disobedience to Mixed Reality Performance
    HEMI: CRCA lab researcher Micha Cardenas will be presenting a workshop at this year’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics (HEMI) Summer Encuentro in Bogota, Colombia.
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  • Saturday, August 08, 2009
    Social Climbing Part I: On the Move
    Social Climbing Part I: On the Move

    August 8, 2009 - September 26, 2009

    2040 India Street, San Diego CA 92101

    Luis De Jesus is very pleased to announce an exciting, two-part group exhibition titled SOCIAL CLIMBING. The first segment of the exhibition, subtitled PART I: ON THE MOVE will open on August 8 and run through September 26. (Part II will open on October 2 and remain on view through December 5, 2009). You are cordially invited to attend the opening reception for SOCIAL CLIMBING—PART I: ON THE MOVE on Saturday, August 8th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
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  • Friday, July 17, 2009
    MFA Conversations Part II
    MFA Conversations Part II at the I-5 Gallery

    At I-5 Gallery in the Brewery Artist Colony
    July 17th, 2009 7PM to 10PM
    July 17 to September 11, 2009
    Artist Talks: July 25 and August 22
    2PM to 4PM

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  • Saturday, July 11, 2009
    Tower Sounds: Ancient Voices and Electronics
    Tower Sounds: Ancient Voices and Electronics
    by Shahrokh Yadegari
    Saturday, July 11 @ 1pm

    featuring performances by:

    Siamak Shajarian, Vocals
    Kate St-Pierre, Vocals
    Keyavash Nourai, Violin
    Dmitri Mahlis, Oud
    Satnam Ramgotra, Tabla and Percussion

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  • Saturday, July 11, 2009
    Music Under the Influence of Computers
    Music Under the Influence of Computers an evening of work by composers and artists under the influence... Saturday, July 11 @ 7pm with a sound installation beginning at 6pm in the Calit2 Black Box Theater

    program:

    Duoquadragintapus by Adam Wilson and William Brent
    Dovetails by Chris Otto
    Lidércfény by Trevor Baca
    New Windows on an Old World by Rick Snow
    L'écume des jours by Alex Sigman
    e80i.3 for Sol Lewitt by Rama Gottfried
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  • Saturday, June 13, 2009
    Opening Reception at the Escondido Municipal Gallery
    Join us at the Gallery this Saturday for a day of interesting conversations and art! Invite a friend and enjoy the day. The evening will pulse with live fractal projections, sound and seismic installations.

    Saturday, June 13, 2009 5:30pm-8:00pm
    2nd Saturday ArtWalk
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  • Monday, June 08, 2009
    Recombinant Serendipity
    Please join the graduating class of Interdisciplinary Computing and Arts Majors (ICAM) from the Music and Visual Arts Departments at a week long event showcasing 28 artists at any of four different receptions. Events occur throughout the week of June 8 through 12 in three different locations. View installations, presentations, performances and keynote speakers on 4 different nights. Light snacks and drinks provided at each reception.

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  • Thursday, May 28, 2009
    Arte Nuevo InteractivA ‘09 : Mérida Biennale
    May 28, 2009 - June 30, 2009

    For the fifth time, Mérida joins other art centers of the world such as Venice, Havana, New York, Paris, and Istanbul, to name a few, in hosting a "Biennale".
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  • Saturday, May 16, 2009
    Music department's Annual Spring Festival
    UCSD DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC PRESENTS FESTIVAL MAY 16-23 ‘Soundisfaction’ to Take Place in the New Conrad Prebys Music Center April 27, 2009

    Need a sound fix? Come get a heaping dose of cutting edge high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech art music by internationally renowned young performers and composers around UCSD including the new Conrad Prebys Music Center during the UCSD Festival of New Music ‘Soundisfaction’. Taking place May 16-23, this student run festival kicks off with a jam-packed weekend full of world premiere performances, and continues into the week with nightly showcases of work by current UCSD graduate students. All events are free and open to the public.
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  • Wednesday, May 13, 2009
    UPGRADE! Tijuana Event
    7:00pm - 9:00pm
    Location/Ubicacion:Calle Jose Maria Larroque 273, 2nd Floor, Int. 6 Colonia Federal Tijuana, Baja California 22300

    UPGRADE! Tijuana is a monthly meeting with visual artist, musicians, programmers and involved people interested in the development and promotion of electronic culture.

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  • Tuesday, May 12, 2009
    Interdisciplinary Meeting
    Rhythm and melody in music and language: Empirical Comparisons
    12:10 - 2:00 at Room 4004 Atkinson Hall
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  • Tuesday, April 21, 2009
    Meet Composer Christine Southworth
    Thursday 4/23/2009 12pm - 1pm Atkinson Hall Rm 2004 Award-winning composer Christine Southworth will give an in-depth look at her creative process and her innovative work with robots and technology. Through her work with robots and automated music systems as co-founder and Director of Ensemble Robot, Christine Southworth is making groundbreaking music based on the interaction between technology and creativity. Compared to Thurston Moore (Boston Phoenix) and Laurie Anderson (Boston Globe), Southworth is introducing a brand new genre of music to Boston, born out of the area’s complex community of scientists and artists.
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  • Monday, April 20, 2009
    Olga Mink Performance
    Olga Mink will present a Live Cinema Performance "The Nature of Being' Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 4:30 PM in the Atkinson Hall Theater on the UCSD campus.
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  • Monday, February 23, 2009
    Lunchtime Artist Talk with Andrea Polli
    Lunchtime @ CRCA: "Sonic Antarctica and Ground Truth" by Andrea Polli
    Monday, Feb 23, 2009 @ 12:30pm
    Atkinson Hall 5004 (5th Floor, across from elevators) UCSD campus

    Media artist, Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program at the University of New Mexico Andrea Polli will describe two projects resulting from her seven-week National Science Foundation residency in Antarctica during the 2007/2008 season. Refreshments will be served.

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  • Sunday, February 22, 2009
    CRCA Artist Series Presents for February 2009
    Three artists will present at CRCA the month of February. The artists, topics and type of presentations all serve to highlight the variety of work which comes through CRCA. This month, visiting media artist Andrea Polli, UCSD Music graduate researcher Rick Snow and visiting artist Michael Century will be providing details of their diverse work.
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  • Tuesday, December 02, 2008
    Speculating on Nature and Culture through Art and Literature
    will take place in the UC San Diego, Atkinson Hall Auditorium, Tuesday, December 2 at 5:30 p.m. Artist Sheldon Brown, Calit2’s Artist in Residence and Director of CRCA, will discuss the genesis of the project "Scalable City" and its multiple incarnations. Accompanying him will be writers Geoff Ryman and Kim Stanley Robinson. This creative trio will be seated on stage while the images and progression of "Scalable City" is being projected in 4K video behind them. The evening will include UK-based Ryman, current Writer in Residence at CRCA, presenting the premiere of his new short story, “Care,” which is set in the world of the Scalable City. Ryman describes Brown's piece as a “breathtakingly visual” artwork. Ryman will also read from his just-published novel, “The King's Last Song.” Kim Stanley Robinson, a distinguished science-fiction author and graduate of UC San Diego, will be reading from his Orange County trilogy, set before a background of early digital artwork of Sheldon Brown.
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  • Saturday, November 15, 2008
    Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery features CRCA Researchers in digital art
    ATLAS in Silico, a collaboration, and Scalable City by Sheldon Brown, are featured installations at the new exhibit 'DIGITALEYES 2008: New Esthetic Dimensions in Computer Visualization Technology' in Los Angeles running from November 6 thru Jan 18, 2009 in the South Gallery. Scheduled events include a Conversation with the Artists Saturday November 15 at 2pm, December 5 at 7pm, and January 10 at 2pm. A free family Animation Festival and Workshop is 12/14 from 1 - 4pm. Additional digital works include a selection from the ACM SIGGRAPH Traveling Art Show from SIGGRAPH 2007.
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  • Saturday, October 25, 2008
    Multiplicities; An inter-arts Telematic Performance
    Multiplicities: An Inter-Arts Telematic Performance
    Date: October 25th, 2008
    Time: 8 p.m.
    Location: Black Box Theater at the Visual Arts Facility on the UCSD campus, and Auditorium in the CALIT2 builind on the campus of UC Irvine

    This multi-art experience will feature original music compositions, live painting and dance collaborations from two locations simultaneously. Five performers will be working in real time using advanced internet technologies to bring their work together.

    Featured performers at the two sites, are:

    In Irvine: Oguri, dance; Myra Melford, piano; and Michael Dessen, trombone.

    In San Diego: Mark Dresser, bass; and Nancy Ostrovsky, painting.

    Event is free and open to the public.

    The event will be broadcast in Quicktime, live starting at 7pm Oct. 25th.
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  • Friday, September 14, 2007
    Virtual Unreality at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
    Virtual Unreality, Interactive Digital Artworks Using Game Technology. Three Internationally-Known Artists Embrace the Unreality of Virtual Spaces. September 14 through January 7, 2008 Our world is edging more and more towards digital environments. What are the societal and cultural implications? Does it change the way we think? The way we feel? Virtual Unreality, a new interactive exhibition in the Exploratorium’s Seeing Gallery, brings together three digital artworks by internationally-known artists that use game technology to explore the unreality of virtual landscapes. The works are Life Spacies II by Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, Scalable Cities by Sheldon Brown, and Oceans (2000-2007) by Dan Torop. Virtual Unreality is open to the public from September 14, 2007-January 7, 2008.
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Micha Cardenas
Micha's website

Micha Cárdenas / dj lotu5 / Azdel Slade is a transgender artist, theorist and trouble maker. She will be a Lecturer in the Visual Arts department at UCSD in Fall and Winter of 2009. She is an Artist/Researcher in the Experimental Game Lab at CRCA and the b.a.n.g. lab at Calit2 . Her interests include the interplay of technology, gender, sex and biopolitics. She blogs at Transreal.org . Micha holds an MFA from the University of California San Diego, an MA in Media and Communications with distinction from the European Graduate School and a BS in Computer Science from Florida International University. Micha is a curator and collective member of the Lui Velazquez space in Tijuana. She has exhibited and performed in Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Egypt, Ecuador, Spain and many other places. Micha has received grants from UCIRA, calit2 and Ars Virtua and her work has been written about in publications including the LA Times, San Diego Union Tribune and Rolling Stone Italy.