Hiya. I got yet another announcement for an upcoming event, namely for The Bodily Turn held at Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst in Amsterdam coming Friday. Yes, it will overlap with Robert Overweg’s exhibition opening – will they ever learn to not plan interesting programs simultaneously?

Anyhow, although UvA professor Jan Simmons is involved in the first session, I have really no clue of what to expect from this workgroup’s aims and/or findings, more or less the same goes for the rest of the program with exception for Karen Lancel’s ‘Tele_Trust‘ project which I’ve been following since it first (?) appearance at V2_’s Test_Lab.

Here’s a copy of the official press release:

An evening conversation on interface studies.
Location: NIMk
Date: Friday June 18, 2010
doors open 8:00 p.m., program begins 8:30 p.m.
Entrance free
Please make reservations (elena@salto.nl)
(English spoken)

At this evening session, the Interface Studies Group will present the ‘interface’ as the centre of technology mediated experience and will reveal trends, notions and tangible prototypes that stretch and challenge the still predominant screen – spectator arrangement.
In contrast with traditional cinema and TV, in what may be called the ‘post-PC’ era, mobile and haptic interfaces and Reactive Environments are putting the embodied presence of the user back on stage. By engaging other senses and modalities such as touch, voice, movement and mobility and by taking into account the user’s sensorial and affective dimensions, new forms of interaction, knowledge production, and forms of sociality are made possible.

Program:

20:00 Doors open with DJ/VJ Emile Zile. Artist and Performer.

20:30 Welcome by Heiner Holtappels, Director of NIMk.

20.35 hrs Jan Simons – Beyond the desktop’. Presentation of the Interface Studies research group and lecture.
Media Theory author and researcher, Associate Professor ASCA/UvA.
20.55 hrs Ben Salem – ‘Designing reactive environments’.
Architect, Assistant Professor TU/e. Going beyond Ambient Intelligence into enhanced environment. (http://bsalem.info/)

Break

21.30 hrs Lilia Pérez, – ‘Just Touch’. An overview on touch as a paradigm for human-computer interaction. (http://liliaperez.net/)
Digital Artist, Interaction Designer and Researcher, PhD Candidate
21.45 hrs Jorge Alves Lino, ‘Responsive environments in the context of public space and large scale installation’ (http://jorgelino.com/)
Concept Designer, PhD Candidate TU/e
22.00 hrs Noam Knoller, ‘Interface Visions of Storytelling’ (http://www.knoller.com/)
Interaction designer/artist, filmmaker, PhD Candidate ASCA/UvA
22:15 hrs Karen Lancel, ‘TELE_TRUST in the context of artistic interfaces’
Digital artist, PhD Candidate ASCA/UvA. (http://lancelmaat.nl/)

22:30 Feel the bodily turn! – Drinks, Music and Interaction!

After the lectures, works in progress and interesting prototypes will be presented by guest artists and designers and made available for the public to try.

Special guest Installation: Social Soundmachine – feeling the music!
by Ramon Schreuder (Lewis & Davis – studio for experience design)
“Social Soundmachine is an interactive tabletop, on which people can create electronic music together. It uses a special multi-touch surface with a number of tangible game pieces.” URL: http://socialsoundmachine.com

Hope to see you all there!

Update: I just couldn’t resist to create this playlist: