ADA - Aotearoa Digital Arts Network

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>On Apr 29, 2008, at 23:38 PM ANAT Communications wrote:
>What to do with what you've (not) got: Impairment & Augmentation
>
>Media Release  **Apologies for cross posting**
>
>The Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) is pleased to
>announce the May discussion on the Synapse elist which, throughout
>2008, is investigating the leading-edge of art and science research
>collaboration.
>
>The use of augmenting technologies for different types of bodies
>results in very different things. Issues related to functional
>impairment and the use of prostheses to extend ability are not the same
>as those raised by the use of prostheses to achieve a type of
>'super-functionality' on the one hand, or to question what bodies are
>and could be, on the other.
>
>Throughout the month of May the Synapse elist will discuss impairment
>and augmentation and, specifically, artistic engagement with this
>field. The discussion will look at different types of augmentation
>practices and tease out the impacts of each on how we think about,
>inhabit and use our bodies. Also under investigation will be the way in
>which artistic concerns intersect with experiences of impairment and/or
>augmentation - from the synaesthesic nature of communication aids, to
>the questions raised by an artist's use of network-driven prostheses.
>
> DISCUSSION GUESTS
>
>LIZBETH GOODMAN is Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and
>Magic Gamelab at the University of East London. She established (and is
>now Director of) the Trust Project for children in hospital, which uses
>gaming and haptics to enhance the physical well-being and learning of
>those with limited physical ability.
>http://www.smartlab.uk.com/1about/director.htm
>
>JU GOSLING, aka ju90, is a London-based artist, writer and activist who
>works primarily with digital lens-based media, but also with
>performance, text and sound. In 2006-07, she undertook a residency at
>the UK's National Institute of Medical Research, where she explored how
>science affects the way we perceive ideas of disability and normality,
>leading her to develop a scientific model of disability.
>http://www.ju90.co.uk
>
>BRAD NUNN, an artist, has been exhibiting since the late 1980s. He
>holds a PhD in Visual Arts and teaches sculpture and fine art programs
>at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 1993 Brad had a serious
>brain haemorrhage, leaving him with physical and neurological deficits.
>Since then, his artistic practice has explored and engaged with the
>prevailing ideas of the prosthesis in contemporary culture.
>http://www.synapse.net.au/people/brad_nunn
>
>STELARC is an Australian performance artist who has presented his work
>extensively in Japan, Europe, and the USA. His projects have included
>the Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture and Exoskeleton, a six-legged
>walking robot. His present project involves surgically constructing an
>extra ear on his arm that will be internet enabled. He is Chair in
>Performance Art at Brunel University and a Senior Research Fellow at
>the MARCS Labs at the University of Western Sydney.
>http://www.stelarc.va.com.au
>
>
>
>To subscribe to the elist visit: www.synapse.net.au and select
>'Discussion List'
>
> ___________________________________________________
>ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia
>Council http://www.ozco.gov.au its arts funding and advisory body, by
>the South Australian Government through ArtsSA http://www.arts.sa.gov.au
>and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian,
>State and Territory Governments.