dear dLux member and colleague

we hope that the following information
will be of interest to you and your associates.

regards
alessio cavallaro
director

(apologies if you receive more than one copy of this notice.
should you wish to have your address removed from our d.base,
please reply UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. thank you.)

>> | \\ >> //

dLux media arts
presents
futureScreen 99

AvAtArs | phantom agents
identities + role play in web worlds

symposium | online performances
featuring inter/national artists

presented in association with Powerhouse Museum
and the cooperation of Artspace Australia

who do you want to be today?

Your avatar can look anyway you want it to, up to the limitations of your
equipment. If you're ugly, you can make your avatar beautiful. If you've
just gotten out of bed, your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes
and professionally applied makeup. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon
or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse.
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

An avatar is your cyber alter-ego who represents 'you' to the other players
in a virtual environment. Cyberspace is rapidly becoming populated by these
roaming, often elaborately designed fantasy creatures.

Avatars were popularised through sc-ifi/cyberpunk novels such as William
Gibson's Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and first appeared
on the internet in text based meeting places known as MUDs (multi user
domains). They can now represent you as three dimensional, fully animated,
photo realistic, personalised characters in graphic based web worlds.

Are we moving towards the kind of experience sci-fi writers have
envisionsed for years?
Are these graphic personifications the future in computer interaction, or
just a passing fad? What are the implications for the workplace, for
performance, for fiction, for filmmaking? How will the new Australian Net
Censorship laws affect the usage of avatars? Who do you want to be today?

>> | \\ >> //

SYMPOSIUM | AVATAR PERFORMANCES

sat 6 + sun 7 november
Target Theatre, Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris St Ultimo, Sydney

half-day saturday $20 full / $15 conc / $10 dLux
sunday $25 / $20 / $15
both days $30/ $25 / $20
bookings essential tel (02) 9380 4255
sinsite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

sat 6 november

1pm     introduction

1.15    Invisible Interludes 1: Santaman's Harvest
        Adriene Jenik (usa) special guest
        Assistant Professor of Computer and Media Arts
        University of California, San Diego, USA
        international online performance

2.00    Avatar and Golem, Inc.
        Jeffrey Cook (nsw)
        Director, 3V digital production and distribution
        researcher/writer, media technology futures

2.30    break

2.45    Does Your Software Agent Cry?
        Suresh Sood (nsw)
        Director, Business Consultancy, TIBCO Finance Technology

3.15    Juxtapositions in Avatar Environments
        Fletcher Andersen / Facter Pollen (wa)
        Virtual Learning and WWW Supervisor, Curtin University, WA
        consultant in virtual environment design and implementation

3.45    break

4.00    Have Avatar, Will Travel: Colonising the New Cyberspace
        Bruce Damer (usa)
        President and CEO, DigitalSpace Corporation
        Director, Contact Consortium + author Avatars (Peachpit Press 1998)
        introduced by Merryn Neilson + Dave Rasmussen (vic)
        directors, Titan's Guild Studio's, 3D virtual reality and web design
        international online performance

4.45    close

>> | \\ >> //

sun 7 november

10.15am introduction

10.30   keynote presentation
        Live From Any-Space-Whatever
        Adriene Jenik (usa)
        Assistant Professor of Computer and Media Arts
        University of California, San Diego, USA

11.15   Fiction in 3D Worlds
        Miriam English (vic)
        artist/writer/programmer/virtual world builder
        founding member, Virtual Reality Association

12pm    break

12.15   The Role I was Born to Play
        Mistress Eve Black
        bondage & discipline professional, adult industry advocate

12.45   Fractal Personalities
        Graham Crawford (nsw)
        web artist + director, EXILE online gallery
        Corporate Website Producer, Solution 6

1.15    lunch

2.30    Suzanne Treister's Rosalind Brodsky:
        Invading Ancestral Spaces Through the Privileged Violence of Technology
        Dr Jyanni Steffensen (sa)
        ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow
        Department of Social Inquiry, University of Adelaide

3.00    The Avatar and Virtual Humanoids
        Simon Hill (vic)
        performer/writer/VRML designer
        co-founder, The Men Who Knew Too Much (TMWKTM)
        Adam Nash (vic)
        performer/VRML programmer/composer
        case study of live and online project by TMWKTM

3.30    break

3.45    Movatar: inverse avatar and motion capture system
        Stelarc (vic)
        cyber performance artist (video paper in absentia)

4.15    Being and Cyberness
        panel discussion chaired by Kathy Cleland (nsw)
        curator, Cyber Cultures

5.00    close

please note
* program details correct at time of printing; minor changes might occur at
short notice
* lunch not included in admission fee

>> | \\ >> //

TELEMATIC DANCE PERFORMANCE

Company in Space : Escape Velocity
followed by televideo discussion by John McCormick

tues 9 november 7.30pm
Artspace 43-51 Cowper Wharf Rd Woolloomooloo, Sydney
$10 / $8 / $6 dLux and Artspace members + symposium delegates
bookings essential tel (02) 9380 4255
sinsite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two solo dancers - Hellen Sky in Sydney, Louise Taube in Melbourne - are
joined through ISDN link. Their bodies merge in a virtual fourth dimension
which is projected onto large screens in both locations.

Escape Velocity is a unique amalgam of choreography, visual imagery, sound
and real time video interaction. The dancers are 'actual avatars'; their
performance questions the body's relationship to physical and virtual
corporeality, technology and gravity.

Led by Hellen Sky and John McCormick, Company in Space is one of
Australia's most innovative performance companies, utilising computer and
communication technologies to create new pathways between performer and
audience.

>> | \\ >> //

* for further information please contact
alessio cavallaro, director, dLux media arts
po box 306 paddington nsw 2021 australia
tel 61 2 9380 4255 fax 61 2 9380 4311
sinsite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ozemail.com.au/~sinsite

_____________________________________





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