UC Santa Cruz is now accepting applications for Fall ‘08 in its MFA program in Digital Arts and New Media.

The 2-year MFA program brings together faculty and students from across the academic spectrum to pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research and practice. The program includes core courses, project groups and a thesis project culminating in publication of artistic and theoretical research and the opportunity to exhibit in the program’s annual MFA Exhibition. Project groups are small clusters of students collaborating with professors and engaging in artistic, technical and theoretical research in one of three focused areas: Participatory Culture, Performative Technologies, and Mechatronics.

Artists and students interested in futhering their work any any of these areas are encouraged to apply. The application period closes February 15, 2008.

For more information on the program and application process, visit http://digitalarts.ucsc.edu or contact Felicia Rice, Program Manager, fsrice@ucsc.edu.

UCSC Digital Arts and New Media: “Expanding our Collective Imagination.”

Announcing: Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow
by Victoria Vesna, editor

Electronic Mediations, volume 20. University of Minnesota Press, 2007

About:
Database Aesthetics examines the database as cultural and aesthetic form, explaining how artists have participated in network culture by creating data art. The essays in this collection look at how an aesthetics emerges when artists use the vast amounts of information as their medium. Here, the ways information is ordered and organized become artistic choices, and artists have an essential role in influencing an critiquing the digitization of daily life.

Seven members of UC DARnet from six campuses are represented in this volume!
Victoria Vesna (UCLA)
Sharon Daniel (UCSC), Steve Dietz, Lynn Hershman-Leeson (UCD), George Legrady (UCSB), Lev Manovich (UCSD), Robert F. Nideffer (UCI), Marko Peljhan (UCSB), Warren Sack (UCSC).

Michael Heim writes:
“This book ranges over a rich data bank of thoughts about and descriptions of digital media: from the software engines of video games to the conflicting interest of the cinematic narratives, from the many skins of the stock market to the artificially intelligent spy, from the design of chip implants for the human body, to the recombinant poetics of virtual worlds. Database Aesthetics claims the attention of anyone attuned to the design of current and incoming reality.”

Contributors:
Sharon Daniel, Steve Dietz, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Eduardo Kac, Norman M. Klein, John Klima, George Legrady, Lev Manovich, Robert F. Nideffer, Nancy Patterson, Christiane Paul, Marko Peljhan, Warren Sack, Bill Seaman, Grahame Weinbren.

UC Santa Barbara Professors of Art and Media Arts and Technology
Exhibit at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Marcos Novak and George Legrady, faculty from the Media Arts &
Technology and Department of Art programs at UC Santa Barbara, have
been selected separately to participate in a prestigious exhibition
of new media arts, to be featured throughout the summer in the
Rotunda Gallery at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.
Fourteen internationally active artists representing the state of new
media arts will be showcased in this exhibition between June and
August, 2007. http://www.hfa.ucsb.edu/artsnews/

More info: http://www.hfa.ucsb.edu/artsnews/featurestory3.html

George Legrady
http://www.georgelegrady.com/

Marcos Novak
http://www.centrifuge.org/

UCLA ART|SCI CENTER PRESENTS:
TESLA: VISIONS + INSPIRATIONS

a symposium at The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)

570 Westwood Plaza, Building 114

JUNE 8TH, 2007, 5 - 8pm

NikolaTesla’s visions and inventions were at the core of the generation, transmission and use of electricity that has transformed our world. His genius and his importance to humankind is now only beginning to be fully appreciated, particularly as we become wireless and more energy conscious. Join us to hear about Tesla through the work of artists, scientists and engineers who have been inspired by his legacy.

Participants:
Greg Leyh, Nevada Lightening Lab - featuring a phased pair of Tesla coils, 122 feel tall. http://www.lod.org/LightningLab

Susan Joyce, director Fringe gallery, Los Angeles

Milos Ercegovac, Professor, Computer Science

Paulette Phillips, artist, Homewrecker electromagnetic sculpture

Gisèle Trudeland Stéphane Claude, AElab Sparks - experimental documentary on the life of Nikola Tesla.

Nina Czegledy, The Resonance project co-curated with Louise Provencher.

Organized by Victoria Vesna, Art | Science center director

A gathering of artists, scientists, scholars, activists and community
organizers sharing their work
concerning food production, consumption & distribution.
Curated by Lisa Tucker

Symposium: April 13th
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. UC, Irvine
For more information, registration or for live webcast and chat go to
www.foodbioneers.com

Presenting:
Beatriz da Costa, Melanie DuPuis, Sheila Fennoy, Fritz Haeg, Pearl Ho, Roman Jaster, Grant Kester, Martha L. Orozco-Cardenas, Claire Pentecost, Stephen Vines, Claude Willey + Deena Capparelli

Screening of “Milk in the Land, Ballad of an American Drink”: April 13th, 8:00 p.m. UC, Irvine (SSPA 1100)

Tour: April 14th, 10:00 Santa Monica Farmer’s Market
12:00 Fritz Haeg’s Garden: tour and picnic
3:00 UC, Riverside Plant Transformation Research Center

Exhibition: April 26th - May 11th
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12-5 p.m.
Room Gallery, UC, Irvine
Including work by Deena Capparelli, Fritz Haeg, Pearl Ho, Roman Jaster,
Christine Nguyen, Claire Pentecost, Lisa Tucker and Claude Willey

Exhibition Opening Reception: April 26
Room Gallery, UC, Irvine
6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Reading by Lesley Stern, UCSD
Demonstration by Alyssa Pisano, Master Gardener
Performance of “Scanner Spectrophotometer” by Pearl Ho

Please contact Lisa Tucker at: tuckerl@uci.edu or go to
www.foodbioneers.com for more information
Events generously supported by the Bren Foundation, Claire Trevor
School of the Arts, UCDARnet, UCHRI and UCIRA
All events are free and open to the public, though reservations are
required for the symposium and tour due to limited seating.