Chris Fortescue
PhD Candidate
Centre for New Media Arts

"liminalTransitions: towards a cognitive aesthetics of the threshold"

There is no pure perception. Every sensation, conscious and unconscious, is culturally mediated - by language, the group mind (cultural memory), personal history etc. Subjectivity is a dynamic self-organising scale-free network in which perception, cognition and interpretation are mutually enfolded. There's no inside or outside; everything that can be known or experienced is expressed in terms of the network. All the nodes within the network have variant time signatures.

It's kind of like a termite's nest.

I'm interested in what could be described as phase transitions in the subjectivity network. And in the role of metaphor (inference preserving cross domain mapping) in the production of new pathways within the network in order to incorporate/facilitate change.

If 'things' and 'signs of things' are indivisible, then so are other dualities - presence/absence, unity/multiplicity, etc. My work is somehow an experiment with metaphorical structure, setting up epistemological loops using sound, images, objects, narratives.

Chris Fortescue

http://www.haresbreath.com/fortescue

James Sheridan
PhD Candidate
Centre for New Media Arts

Project Title: Thought Train – A Mind Wandering

Project Description
“Where shaped by our environment, it all depends where your time is spent” Nightmares On Wax - Environment

To get things done we need to focus on them, focus to much and our ideas become boring, stale and routine, focus to little and what more are they than a passing thought or forgotten scribble.

My project aims to explore the relationship between attention and creative inspiration. This will be done by constructing a system to track brainwaves and visual focus and then using these to influence a persons thinking style.

Goals

• Create adaptive interface systems
• Investigate aspects of attention related to interfaces and creativity
• Create systems allowing natural information capture and retrieval

Background
Growing up on a farm in regional NSW James had lots of time and opportunity to explore a multitude of practical systems for getting things done. There were always new and different jobs to be done, many often long, tedious and boring. This left much time to think about how they could be done in ever quicker, easier and often fun ways. This lead to a constant building and creation of things ranged from practical (profitable) welded metal sculptures to the not so practical laser guided tractor system.

Computers instantly took and held my attention being a medium where there was always something new, always something changing. Here is a place so unexplored, so powerful and so accessible.

Education
Australian National University Canberra, ACT
2002–2003 Information Technology Honours
1998–2000 B.A. Information Technology (Software Engineering major)

Ettore Siracusa
PhD Candidate
Centre for New Media Arts / Film Studies

Works on film and video
Ettore Siracusa's short films and videos are inspired and informed by a tradition of visionary or extra-realist cinema keen to bear witness to the more perplexing and strange in the everyday. In his latter video work Ettore has sought to extend his film documentary fictions, on migration and the depiction of urban environments, to exploring ideas on film memory and baroque architectural forms. The video essay, The House of Doctor Duende , (1997), presents a fictional portrait of an Italian baroque city, Lecce, in a collage of voices, fragmented remembrances and overlays of interpretations. His most recent work, Picture Palaces is a documentary multi-screen video installation for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image,   Federation Square, Melbourne.

Research
par Film, Memory, Architecture.
A PhD research project which sets out to developing a conceptual and creative practice on   the relationships of film memory, architecture and new media technologies. It looks to explore questions of cultural memory in built form and urban environments as performative and transformative acts of remembrance.   Principally a practice-led research, the project proposes to produce a video/installation piece and an archive database of city life of Melbourne on film.

Films and Videos
Picture Palaces (2003, Video multi-screen installation at ACMI, Federation Square);
Shanghai Daily (2001, 20 mins, Video documentary);
Jadi Jadian (1998, 50 mins, Video for stage projection);
Lecce: locations for unmade film (1997, 25 mins, Video);
The House of Doctor Duende (1997, 28 mins, Video);
Italians at Home (1991, 29 mins, 16mm, col.);
Yours Faithfully (1969, 5 mins, 16mm, b&w);
The Occupant (1984, 25 mins, 16mm, col.); co-directed with Peter Lyssiotis and Michael Karris;
Natura Morta (1980, 14 mins, 16mm, col.);
Lost (1971, 5 mins, 16mm, b&w);
Short Story (1970, 8 mins, 16mm, b&w).

Select Bibliography
"2 Films", Catalogue, The First Australian Filmmakers' Festival, 23 August 1971.
"L'imagine dei settant'anni", Antonio Di Pierro, Il Messagero, page 17, March 1979.
"The Occupant", Interview with Peter Lyssiotis, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 49/50, April 1986.
"Alike/Unalike: Cultural Diversity in Australian Independent Film", Bill Mousoulis, Art Link, Vol 11, No. 1, Autumn 1991.
"At Home with Ettore Siracusa", Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes No. 65/66, October 1991.
"Screen", Julie Rigg and Adrian Martin, ABC Radio 3NR, 25 April 1991.
"Wit's End. The ways of irony", Gabrielle Finnane, Catalogue, Museum Contemporary Art, Sydney, May 1993.
"Screen", Vikki Riley, ABC Radio 3NR, 13 May 1993.
"The New Breed of Ethnic Filmmakers", Pat Gillespie, Cinema Papers, No. 90, October 1992.
"Cultural Difference and Ethnicity in the Australian Cinema", John Conomos, Cinema Papers , No. 90, October 1992.
"Dream and Drives: Australian Experimental Cinema", Adrian Martin, Catalogue, Australian Focus - Week of Experimental Cinema, Madrid, 1994. "Something Strange Disturbing Us Everyday Day", Ross Gibson, Catalogue, Australian Experimental Cinema, Madrid, November 1998.

David Hirschausen
Master of Philosophy
Centre for New Media Arts

I have always had a keen interest in electronics, computers, music and installation art. After returning from a trip to Europe I felt inspired to make a work that combined these interests. I am currently working on a sound art installation. The work consists of an array of sensors, speakers and microphones that monitor the movements of people through a designated space. Using a computer, captured sounds and sensor data are manipulated into a soundscape composition. By shifting focus back to the auditory sense I seek to create a contemplative space where ones awareness of space and how we interact with it becomes activated.

Education
2004 Currently undertaking Masters of Philosophy (Digital Arts), Centre for New Media Arts, Australian National University.
2000 Bachelor of Applied Science Materials Science (Honours), University of Technology, Sydney.

Employment History
2005 Instrumentation Officer, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University.
2000-04 Research Officer, Department of Physics, Macquarie University.
2000 Research Assistant, UTS Civil Engineering Laboratory.
1998–99 Research Assistant, CSIRO Division of Building Construction & Engineering.

Michael Hood
Master of Philosophy
Centre for New Media Arts

Research Intentions
Investigate how modern training aids/VR and Ancient Buddhist training can work together to gain insight into the nature of reality. Can VR be used to learn about real life situations or is the virtual work too unlike the real? What then makes VR believable? What is it that makes our reality seem real? Could we use this technology to treat mental disorders? How could the Buddha Dharma be combined with the VR technology to treat mental affliction?

NMA Direction
Generating 3D worlds without bounds. Create things we cannot in this physical realm. Learn how to use the tools to express inner thoughts and be able to get a message across in innovative ways. Create the illusion of a real, material work of art brought to life with animation. Explore beyond the physical and cost limitations that apply to art in non-digital environments. Develop a use for computer game engines for art related projects. Use VR to present work in a more intuitive, natural environment; going beyond the flat screen experience.

Biography

• Completed College at Dickson College in 1998.
  http://www.dicksonc.act.edu.au/
  
• Gained basic and advanced Certificate 4 in 3D computer animation for the Canberra Institute of Technology.
  http://www.aie.act.edu.au/
  
• Industry experience working for Micro Forte (1999-2000). Employed a 3D artist, worked on the computer game Fallout Tactics.
  http://www.microforte.com/games/bos.htm
  
• Interest in photography and digital manipulation.
  Completed the sculpture “Material Man” in 2004
  http://www.machinista.org.uk/submissions/hood/

Chi-Hsia Lai
Master of Philosophy
Centre for New Media Arts

Chi-Hsia Lai, a current Master of Philosophy (in New Media Arts) student from the Australian National University (ANU) graduated from the ANU with a Bachelor of Music in Performance with First Class Honors. Her various symphonic affiliations includes Sidney Sinfonia, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Choral Society and Utah Youth Symphony Orchestra (USA).

She is the recipient of various music awards includes various prizes in the Australian Percussion Eisteddfod and a first prize winner of the Australian Marimba Competition. She is also an active chamber musician where she has performed with groups such as time4 and DRUMatix, one of her previous project included the world premier of Kalabash (percussion quartet) by renowned Australian composer, Nigel Westalake. Her current research project is a study of percussion performance into the realm of new media arts.A Study of percussion performance into the realm of new media art

“One of the appeals of all music is the magic of performance in real time with live musicians.” (Holmes, p.125) A live music performance on stage brings the indescribable energy to both the performer and the audience. In my MPhil research, I am looking at the relationship between the performer and technology of a real time performance.
Technology brings opportunities for artists and musicians to have a choice to explore the unexplored realm, and to expand the constrained imagination. The electronic music performance begins its development in the early twentieth century, by electronic pioneers like Theremin and Cahill. In the late 1950s, the idea of electronic music improvisation in live performance was starting to be experienced. In electronic music improvisation, performer often deals with sound elements such as, frequency, amplitude, duration and effects. The numbers of new art forms and mix-media art practices are increasing. For instance, in the field of new media art, some of the current art works are called or catalogued as interactive installation art, live electronic music, audio and visual performance. Therefore, the growth of art practices in involving with the use of technology is rising.

My aim in this research is to explore the interactivity and the relationship between the performer and technology of a real time performance. This project includes discovering both audio and visual aspects in a live performance, and the performance is an experimental improvisation. I am using the following electronic elements for this research project.

* A video camera capturing the performer’s movements.
* MIDI drum pad for performer to send MIDI numbers to the computers.
* A microphone picking up the acoustic audio sound.
* Two networked computers passing/receiving the OSC messages.
* A video projector and sound system illustrate the final result for the audience.

There are a few ways in performing with this stage setting; the set-up can be composed differently. For instance, the performer can be sitting behind the screen instead of being on the stage with the projector screen; and the values, which generates through the performer’s movements, played audio sounds, and MIDI, can be sent to both computers instead one of the computer. Since the setting of the stage is changed, the performer has to deal with a different performing consideration. One part of my research is about discussing what are these different considerations for an interactive performance between the performer and the technology.