‘Artspotter’ is a free app that lets you discover and interact with art wherever you are.

You can, for example, search for nearby galleries or exhibitions, add your own tips or upload a photo of a piece of art.

Artspotter has been created by Raphaëlle Heaf as part of the ignite100 programme hosted in the North East.

While the initial artspotting has focused on London, the online community is open and available for anyone from across the world to join.

DataRama is hosted by an independent artists-led organisation, The Polytechnic. Picture from: http://ptechnic.org/datarama/

The 15th DataRama event, featuring talks from local new media artists, was held at the Tyneside Cinema last week.

The bi-monthly event, which is hosted by The Polytechnic, an independent artists-led organisation based in Newcastle, is an open event where people passionate about data can showcase their work and share experience.

The evening featured a mix of talks about gory sound effects, the terrain of Mars and Artificial Intelligence. Local web and mobile developer Peter Bull sent us his write-up on the event.

Rachel Lancaster – Artist in Residence- Foley & Sound Effects

Rachel Lancaster talked about the Foley and Sound effects project which revolves around sound and film.

She gave some examples from unlikely matches between sounds and visuals such as a seed drum being used to simulate the sound of the sea or using cornflower for snow. A convincing sound of stabbing or mutilation can be created by cutting some lettuce. Add in a few tomatoes to make great gloop and gore sounds.

Sounds are normally set to visuals, but the team has also done the reverse and set visuals to the sounds for their work.

One of the project’s works in progress is filming treacle then flipping the footage upside down so it appears to drip upwards and the sound of this – wet chamois leather.

They’re considering using the Pepper’s Ghost effect, which made through the use of reflections and mirrors to give a ghost-like quality to enhance their performance as they enjoy how sound and imagery can create atmosphere like in horror films.

Katie Goodwin – Artist in Residence – Wizard of Oz leader animation

Katie Goodwin talked about their project using the ‘leader film’ from the 1939 film, Wizard of Oz. The leader is the part of the film from a reel that goes through the projector before the actual images on the reel.

Their piece is a playful ode to the unseen and the unheard in cinema. Although only made up of around two seconds of footage, this is enhanced with repeated elements, animation and a soundtrack which extend and enhance the experience of the unseen part of film movie making.

The piece was created in 6 weeks and lasts around five minutes.

Kelly Richardson – Artist in Residence – Mission to Mars

Kelly Richardson spoke about her work which makes use of the decline of the environment and the psychological landscape where the line between fact and fiction has become blurred.

One of her previous works, The Erudition, pictured a landscape of southern Alberta enhanced with the periodic appearance of ethereal-looking trees. The piece is projected on three large 49ft-by-9ft screens.

Her latest work is recreating the Martian landscape using actual NASA terrain data from Mars.

That data is then visualised using Terragen to create renderings of the digital landscapes from the terrain models. Actual photos from the Mars Rovers are also used as a reference to make sure the landscape is as accurate as possible.

The landscape will show the planet over fifty years in the future and will be littered with Mars probes and landers decaying and buried on the surface from past, present and future.

Added to this is a soundtrack called Symphonies of the Planes from NASA which contains the audible frequencies emanating between the planets, however none from Mars itself as any probes sent there with microphones failed to make it to the planet’s surface.

The work will also be a 3-Channel video projection which will be displayed in Newcastle in August 2012 before going on a short tour.

Peter Nelson – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Peter Nelson’s talk was based on Stanford University’s online course on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which he has been doing for the past two weeks.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all about computers doing smart things – this could be something embedded in an environment or an agent inside a system.

One of the examples Peter mentioned in his talk was how essential it is for a robot vacuum cleaner, such as Roomba, to have deterministic behaviour. If it had a map, it could plan the route around a room. However, as this isn’t the case, it has to find its own way around – know when to move, suck up some dirt and also be able to adapt to changes in the environment such as a cat walking through leaving more dirt in the room.

Another example Peter mentioned was related to the challenges in the use of computer vision. Things like handwritten digit classification for cheques or something more complex like having a computer observe a driver for a short time and then being able to take over the vehicle. Another example he mentioned was the Stanford Autonomous helicopter which can perform manoeuvres that a human pilot would find difficult or impossible to perform themselves.

DataRama is part of Pixel Palace, the Tyneside Cinema’s exciting new programme of new media art.

When a song is played on an iPhone, the sound activates the stored image collection, layering latent images into random artistic compositions.

The app has been created by a Sunderland-based artist Peter McAdam, who came up with the idea in 2002 when his old photos were ruined by flooding at his home.

The effects in the water-damaged photos inspired Peter to explore memory and erosion in his work.

“I was amazed at the textures and chance transferance of imagery”, Peter wrote on his website.

“I then investigated the idea that a photograph never stops recording, ie. surface damage, exposure, etc.”

In 2008, Peter launched in interactive desktop art solution called Coda, which is now followed by the iPhone and iPad app.

The app, which is described by users as “pure genius” and “the best art programming I have seen on the app store”, is available to download from the iTunes store at $1.99.

Artists from the fields of photography, film, digital or computer-based art are invited to get in touch by the deadline of 16 May.

The artwork will be included in the major exhibition ‘In the Blink of an Eye’, which opens at the National Media Museum in March next year.

The exhibition will explore the themes of movement and motion, and is part of imove, a new and imaginative celebration of human movement, bringing together the best creative talent from the region to produce a programme of events.

Imagination & inspiration

Up to £15,000 is available for each selected proposal, of which £5,000 is allocated as a fixed artist fee, and up to £10,000 available for development and production costs.

Colin Harding, Curator of the exhibition, said the museum is looking for ‘imaginative, ambitious and inspirational’ artworks.

“As a general guideline the proposals should aim to explore the ways in which art and science can be used to express movement, engage with key items from the National Collections of Photography, Film and Television, and use a range of new-media platforms to offer an interactive experience for visitors”, he said.

Application forms and submission guidelines can be downloaded here.

Face of Tomorrow's average male face in Florence, London and Rio de Janeiro.

A new digital art project, Face of Tomorrow, is looking at the way globalisation effects our identity.

By combining images of current inhabitants of a city, the project argues that you would be looking at the future face of that city.

The project is a brainchild of a South African photographer Mike Mike, who travelled around the world taking photos of the first 100 people in each city he visited.

Mike came up with the idea a few years ago in London while travelling in the tube.

“I was intrigued by the sheer diversity of the place – Somalis, Indians, Americans, Zimbabweans, Scandinavians and a hundred other nationalities vying for their place in the metropolis”, he wrote on his website.

“I thought ‘what is this place, what is a Londoner’?”

Face of Tomorrow's average female face of Florence, London and Rio de Janeiro.

Mike compares modern London to ancient Istanbul.

“A thousand years ago Istanbul was the capital of the remnants of the Roman Empire – home to an astonishing variety of peoples from Greece, Rome, central Asia, Arabia and the Russia.”

“Yet now this diversity had coalesced around a mean – almost everyone dark haired, brown-eyed and olive-skinned. And I thought if one could merge all the people in a place like London one would be looking at the future of that place – one would have some notion of what a Londoner is or will become.”

The exhibition can be viewed on the web or at the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Gery, in the virtual world Second Life.

Cities featured include Sydney, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, London, Cologne, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Istanbul.

Offering free digital graffiti workshops, North East based Sonodrome is using technology to help young people in the region.

The innovative technology uses infrared spray, bringing graffiti artwork from the streets onto a screen. It’s just like real graffiti, only without the mess and with the benefits of digital format – artwork can easily be saved and printed out as t-shirts and such.

Sondrome’s Kat Pattinson said the company has done a lot of work with young people, particularly those from under-privileged backgrounds.

“The ones who have had the chance to use the digital graffiti wall have gotten so much from the experience”, she said.

“A lot of these kids wouldn’t normally have the chance to use a system like this mainly due to cost, so giving them that experience for free is really worth it.”

“It’s all about taking the technology to people who will benefit – community centers, youth clubs, children’s hospitals, anywhere we can make a difference.”

The company is now calling for funding help to keep the project going and take it around the UK.

In the spirit of community they are using crowdsourcing website WeFund.co.uk to raise the funds.

“We’d really appreciate any and all support that you can lend to this project”, Kat said.

“Whether it’s helping to spread the word, or by making a donation, it all helps towards doing something great for a lot of deserving young people.”

Donate here:
http://www.wefund.co.uk/project/digital-graffiti-project

Or get in touch with Sonodrome by email.

Children can now learn about art restoration through an online game developed by educational games company Ideonic.

‘ART LAB’ takes children behind the scenes of one of the UK’s top galleries and into a forensic-style laboratory to experiment with an array of art restoration tools.

The game takes players through five time-limited stages: brushing off loose dust, wiping away grime with saliva, removing varnish with a solvent, applying filler in any cracks and retouching missing paint.

Newcastle-based Ideonic worked closely with the Tate gallery on the project which sees a selection of paintings from the Tate collection displayed on the walls of a virtual gallery, with players choosing one to restore.

Players are given an A-F grade for each stage and their overall performance. They can view the painting before and after restoration, and save it to the in-game gallery and their own gallery on the site to share with friends and family.

Traditional and digital art combined

Ideonic developed the game using photorealistic 3D renders for the gallery and an assortment of real-time photo manipulation effects, similar effects to those used on their MediaGuradian award-winning MirrorMe project earlier this year.

Cora Stone, Digital Artisan at Ideonic, described the project as inspiring and challenging, allowing her to combine her passion for traditional and digital art.

“I’ve learnt a great deal during this project and I enjoyed finding out about the immense amount of work that goes into maintaining art beyond the view of the public”, she said.

“My favourite bit was learning that human saliva is one of the best tools for removing built-up grime!”

ART LAB is now live on Tate Kids:
http://kids.tate.org.uk/games/art-lab/

In a project called “Dead Drops”, Aram Bartholl has embedded USB sticks into walls across New York.

Each USB contains a readme text file explaining the project and listing the locations of other USBs.

“‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer file-sharing network in public space”, Bartholl explains on his website.

“I am ‘injecting’ USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. You are invited to go to these places (so far five in NYC) to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your files.”

Read more about the project on Aram’s blog:
http://datenform.de/blog/dead-drops-preview/

Photos Aram Bartholl

Falun Gong practitioners suffered severe Human Rights abuses in China during the communist regime and the practice has also been the subject of strict Government-led internet censorship during recent years.

The persecution of Falun Gong started shortly after the Great Firewall of China was constructed and the practice has since been at the top of the list of banned search terms in China.

The exhibition, titled ‘The Art of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance’, will open on 17 July and it will run until 15 August.

More about the art work here: http://www.falunart.org/

‘The Art of Truth Compassion Tolerance’ will be exhibited at Curtis Mayfield House (above WHQ Club), Carliol Square, Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Please note that the exhibition is open Saturdays and Sundays only.

Launched in the beginning of April, Kyeo.tv is using the latest multimedia technology to deliver news and in-depth features on local arts, music, film, theatre, comedy, food and literature.

The site will also feature audio and video interviews with artists, musicians, writers and politicians.

Andrew Fenwick, the editor of Kyeo.tv, says the launch has gone incredibly well. The response to the content as well as from the advertisers has exceeded everyone’s expectations.

He said: “I think, like us, the advertisers saw a big gap in the region for quality, independent video-led arts content. Multimedia technology is something which other publishers in the region just don’t seem to be embracing as much as they probably should.”

Kyeo.tv is run by a small editorial team, but is looking to utilise crowd-sourcing to provide its content.

The site features fully integrated Twitter and social bookmarking capabilities, innovative mobile applications and a daily email bulletin service.

Have a look at Kyeo.tv here: http://www.kyeo.tv/