Cuttlefish Blog
I attended a very interesting lecture by Eduardo Kac on Tuesday evening at the Royal College of Art. He was talking about the life and work of Brazillian-based artist Waldemar Cordeiro. Cordeiro was born in 1925 and died in 1973, and in his relatively short life worked in many creative fields, being particularly known for his work with the Concrete Art movement in Brazil.
He was also a pioneering computer artist, spending the last five years of his life producing computer-based artworks using the technology available at the time - dot-matrix printers and plotters.
Eduardo's talk was very engaging, demonstrating a high degree of knowledge of the subject, but also a clear admiration of the artist. Eduardo Kac is known for his artworks that use technology and biology in new ways - perhaps most famously in the creation of a fluorescent rabbit called Alba that contained a jellyfish gene (the ethics of doing this are clearly a major part of the piece).
The talk was organised by the Computer Arts Society.
On Friday we had the first public sharing of the The Loneliness of the Long Distance Diva at Curve. A good-sized audience saw Carol Leeming perform part of the script with multimedia elements supporting.
The three-sreen stage set worked well and Sally's video and Andy's lighting looked great. There are certainly plenty of areas where we can improve the synchronisation between the performance and the visuals, but feedback was very good and we are happy with progress so far.
The first complete performance of the production will be at Curve in June, with the installation at Phoenix Square being scheduled for November. Pictures of work in progress can be found here on Flickr.
Limbo is a project by artist Simon Faithfull. Using a custom iPhone app created by Cuttlefish, Simon is able to create drawings on his phone and upload them to the internet. Subscribers can then view the drawings on a website or via a specially-created iPhone app.
Recently Cuttlefish updated the viewer app to include extra features, such as comments, and added a new Limbo Lite app to the iOS store that allows you to view Simon's artworks for free on your iPhone (the full Limbo app is available for £1.49 and gives extra features such as alerts when you are near the location of a drawing).
Limbo is proving to be a very successful project. It's also been listed as a highlight of 2011 by arts website Culture 24 (see http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art371254).
To download the new Limbo apps simply search the iPhone App Store for "Simon Faithfull". To browse the artworks on the web visit the Limbo web site at http://limbo.simonfaithfull.org/.
On the 13th and 14th January Phoenix Square hosted the Max For Users Convention. Local news agency Citizen's Eye were in attendance and filmed some great interviews with attendees, speakers and exhibitors. I've produced a playlist of their videos at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6ACF01A1BAA40586.
You can also watch them on your iPhone via the Citizen's Eye iPhone app. You'll find this on Apple App Store by searching for "Citizen's Eye".
Friday 13th January saw saw the latest Interact Live event at The Interact Gallery, Fabrika in Leicester. A good sized audience was treated to an exhibition of interactive artworks in the upstairs gallery and live music downstairs.
The artwork on display included Jackie Calderwood's "Colour Chords", Sean Clark's "Memory Mirror", Lee Scott's "Laser Harp", Craig Clarke's "Simaesthesia", Honest Dave's "Bath Time" and Stuart Smith and Mike Gatt's "Sound Tree".
Music was provided by ASMO, Fortran, Protofuse and Wife Divorces Man Accused of Hotel Leap, with visual provided on the night by Blend.
It was a very good night. I'm particularly happy with the art/live mix of these events. The next one will probably be organised in the Spring. Join my e-mail list or follow my social networks to be told when it will happen.
See http://www.seanclark.me.uk/interactlive2.html for pictures, videos and audio recordings from the night.
The "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Diva" project has been under conceptual development for a while now, but it is now starting to move in to the production stages. Based around a narrative developed by Carol Leeming, it will involve a performance at Curve in the summer and an installation at Phoenix Square in the autumn. More information about the project can be found on my website.
The Shine project that I was involved in over the summer now has a new website at http://www.shine-northamptonshire.com. You'll find lots of pictures, videos and audio from the events, plus background on who was involved in the project.
Dropsketch has been updated to fully support iOS5. Sorry about the delay in doing it - but I've been quite busy over the past month. Get ready for more updates to the app in the new year, with sketch 'replies' and Tweeting planned. You can get Dropsketch from the App Store for free.
Ola Szmidt's latest "St Nicholas Church Sessions" event took place at the weekend. The artists performing were Ola and Friends, Sleuf and Envelope and the amazing Origamibiro. It was an excellent night. Pictures from the event can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157628461490475/
With videos at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0m6s6wUH4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DweoJMEi8t0
Two new Cuttlefish iPhone apps have gone live this week. The updated Go Leicester Shire app provides information about Arts & Culture, Food & Drink and Heritage in Leicester and Leicestershire. It can be download for free from:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/goleicestershire/id466923529?mt=8
The One Leicester app provides news about the planned 2012 Olympics related activities around Leicester. It's also free and can be found at:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/one-leicester/id391148930?mt=8
