The Big Blip 04 is a two day festival exploring the creative potential of combining art, science and technology. This free event has international artists, speakers and performers and is open to the public from 10.30 am to midnight on both days.
Friday
2-4pm
Worlds Apart will bring together artists, scientists and members of the public to discuss the nature of sci/art collaboration.
7pm onwards
We begin a generative music evening with a demo of some systems by Drew Gartland-Jones (evolutionary music) Tim Blackwell (swarm music) and Rodney Berry from the Augmented Reality Labs in Tokyo, followed by a lively debate on the future of generative music with members of the audience, chaired by Margaret Boden OBE (author of ‘The Creative Mind’). The rest of the evening will include performances by Simon Longo & Bela Emerson, Steven Wolff, and decadnids.
Saturday
There are cutting-edge talks by: artist Jane Prophet and mathematician Mark D’Inverno on their collaborative research into biological cells; architect John Frazer on artificially evolving buildings; and Dutch artists Maria Verstappen and Erwin Driessens on how they use technology to create the unforeseen, the unthought and the unknown.
12.15 – 2 pm Rachel Cohen will present a generative drawing workshop ‘Chinese Whispers’
7pm to midnight live performances by critically-acclaimed audio-visual improvisers the Laptop Jams and Nogales, whose netjacking software creates an endless symphony out of found images and live global talk from the Internet and has been praised by Brian Eno.
On both days there is an exhibition of generative art by international and regional artists. The goal of generative art is to produce work that has novel or surprising qualities not envisaged by the artist and it is often created with computers which are set running and then left to operate independently.
Australia’s leading new media artist, Jon McCormack is exhibiting the award-winning interactive animation Turbulence that explores what life would be like if it were made from computer algorithms rather than flesh and blood. You can also see Richard Brown’s mimetic starfish, a life-like animation that responds to human touch and was described as “the best bit of the entire Dome”by The Times. Other exhibits include machine drawings by Roman Vorostko and Hans Dehlinger, biologically-inspired robots, interactive skipping and sound installations.
Saturday is child friendly during the day and there will be lots of opportunities for hands on exploration of the exhibits and to talk to the many of the artists.
VISIT: www.blip.me.uk for more information
