London’s student hothouse comes to Ars Electronica

1 September 2005

Tutors – Armin Medosch and Jim Wood, and students – Jee Hyun Oh (Korea) and Shan Yin Hung (Taiwan) from the post-graduate MA programmes at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in London, will be at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria from 1-6 September 2005

Professor Karel Dudesek, the course leader, will also present the Prix Forum "Net Vision" which takes place on Monday 5 September from 10.30 - 13.30. There will be presentations of the winning projects - “Processing”, “ubermorgen.com” and “yugop.com” - followed by an open discussion.

There will then be a forum on the topic - "What drives forward the vision of a democratic, open Internet? How relevant is the freedom of code for social innovation?”

Forum participants will discuss the subversive power of digital tools such as Processing and BitTorrent. The participants are:

• Ben Fry and Casey Reas - processing.org
• Karel Dudesek - jury representative – Ravensbourne College
• Matthew Fuller
• Pablo Machón - FSF
• Bernd Lutterbeck

Ravensbourne offers two unique post graduate MA programmes: MA Interactive Digital Media and MA Networked Media Environments. They attract students from all over the world.

Examples of the post graduates’ projects can be seen at Ars Electronica, in the Electro Lobby of the Brucknerhaus, Untere Donaulaende, where there is also an opportunity to discuss the programmes with Professor Dudesek, the tutors and students.

The Interactive Digital Media programme focuses on developing interaction strategies with audiences on various hard and software-based platforms related to art and design. It offers a hothouse postgraduate community working digitally, experimentally and collaboratively.

Networked Media Environments is for content creators, information designers, writers and editors who have a particular interest in rethinking existing information and communications platforms for the Internet.

Students on the post-graduate programmes produce a printed and on-line magazine – MAzine. Its aim is to contribute to the discourse on interactive and new media, and to encourage collaboration and the cross-pollination of ideas, through articles and features from established artists and designers from the new media community, and by showcasing postgraduate research and projects. ( http://www.mazine.ws )

Further information:
A full press pack is available on request from the Ars Electronica press office or contact Professor Karel Dudesek to make an interview appointment:

• +44 7714 207528 (UK mobile)
• 0699-12277677 (Austrian mobile)
• e-mail: k.dudesek@rave.ac.uk

Further information on Ravensbourne College’s post-graduate MA programmes: http://www.ma.rave.ack.uk

Tutors attending Ars Electronica

BIOGRAPHIES

Karel Dudesek - course leader postgraduate courses
An ex-performance artist, musician, TV and radio activist. Currently Professor at Ravensbourne College leading the postgraduate courses in Interactive Digital Media and Networked Media.

He re-established the department for Visual Media at the University of Applied Arts Vienna where he was Director and Professor. He became known with Minus Delta, The Bangkok Project, IUPA, Van Gogh TV , Web3Dart and the Ponton Media Lab:

Armin Medosch - senior lecturer, subject leader MA Networked Media Environments
A media artist and theorist, working as Senior Lecturer teaching on the post graduate course in Networked Media. After initiating the media art project Radio Subcom, and the art ship Stubnitz project, he was co-editor-in-chief of the influential Telepolis online magazine.

Publishing widely on art, open source and internet related themes, his latest publications include a book on free networks and the catalogue and cd rom DIVE (with Kingdom-of-Piracy).

Jim Wood - tutor, subject leader MA XR Lab for space based design
An artist, musician and PhD candidate. Currently tutor at the Ravensbourne College leading the XR Lab for space-based design of the MA in Interactive Digital Media.

Student exhibitors attending Ars Electronica

PROJECTS and BIOGRAPHIES

Jee Hyun Oh - GORI. My Node Garden
Imagine you are a gardener. You grow your own network garden where each plant, which you have already selected and planted, grows up fed by your communication data.
GORI means ‘an open hook’ in Korean and it is often used to represent human relationships. Here it is used to express the image of ‘fastening or loosening the relationship at your will’.
The project intends to explore the relation between an individual and his or her everyday social experience in the network and represent it by using metaphors of nature. Audiences are introduced to the author’s own garden where each GORI vibrates to the data retrieved from her own mobile during watering time. In the same way that plants move when the breeze blows on them.

Biography
Jee Oh studied music and product design before her MA studies in Networked Media Environments at Ravensbourne College. She has a particular interest in networked culture and user-centred interface design. She is currently developing further the project exploring the relationship between network and nature.
Gori.network@gmail.com
http://gori.manme.org.uk

Shan Yin Hung - Farmer Brown's Journal
An internet project, Farmer Brown's Journal is an online community aimed at the flattening of food supply chains. In Kent, the garden of England, local farmers' markets are an example of decentralised food supply chains, as well as the preservers of local tradition.
By providing an online space with direct communication between producers and consumers, Farmer Brown's Journal is infusing vitality into traditional markets. The data extracted from users will be visualised on a geographic map of Kent as an indicator of the growth of community. These visualised figures present the social relationship between the user and local markets; and also reveal the possibility of business.
Biography
After studying in Industrial Design for six years, personal interests and work experience inspire Shanyin to explore Network territory. Now she is a MA student in Networked Media Environments at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication.

http://www.lo-co.org.uk/
shanyin.hung@gmail.com

MAzine

MAzine is unique in its format and is the only publication which focuses on the postgraduate community of the creative media sector world wide – media art and design, media theory and research.

The printed MAzine is published twice a year. The online version - www.mazine.ws - is the interactive platform which allows the digital community to update and contribute live comments and statements on current topics in the magazine.

MAzine is produced by the MA students at Ravensbourne College.

Further information on Ravensbourne College’s post-graduate MA programmes: http://www.ma.rave.ack.uk

Further information

Professor Karel Dudesek may be contacted as follows:
• +44 7714 207528 (UK mobile)
• 0699-12277677 (Austrian mobile)
• e-mail: k.dudesek@rave.ac.uk