News

ISEA2004 Conference Outlines Announced

May 17, 2004

'I will be on the ferry because when I attended the ISEA94 in Helsinki, as a part of the conference we also had a 3 day ferry trip to St. Petersburg. It was the best conference experience I had in my life!'
-Lev Manovich, Associate Professor, Visual Arts Department, UCLA
ISEA2004 CONFERENCE OUTLINES ANNOUNCED

ISEA2004 conferences in Helsinki and Tallinn, and on a luxurious cruiser ferry  connecting them, are key elements of the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Arts (August 14th-22nd). ISEA2004 starts with the electrified Interfacing Sound cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm, after which the Networked Experience cruise from Stockholm to Tallinn via Mariehamn inspires a range of panels, poster sessions and workshops. There will also be networking sessions hosted by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Asia Europe Foundation, for example.

After two dazzling nights on the ferry, ISEA2004 participants convene in Tallinn to cover the themes of Wearable Experience, Geopolitics of Media and Critical Interdisciplines: research/science, art and collaboration. Wearable technologies are explored through project presentations of state-of-the art ubiquitous computing in fashion and cultural practices. Issues of technology and embodiment provide a critical context to this discussion. Geopolitics of media looks at the ways in which new media practices reflect diverse media geographies and their relation to real life locations, globalization and activism. Part of the agenda of ISEA2004 is to assess where new media culture and arts are at the moment. To this end the Critical Interdisciplines theme digs deep into the questions of relationships of computer engineering, design, media studies, anthropology and new theories emanating from natural sciences in relation to networked and other new media practices. Tallinn keynote speakers include Arturo Escobar (University of North Carolina; Colombia/USA) and Sarah Kember (Goldsmith College; UK).

After Tallinn sessions, ISEA2004 culminates in Helsinki, exactly ten years after ISEA94, when the net was still an emergent field. This time Wireless Experience, Histories of the New, Open Source and Software as Culture and Critical Interaction Design will be explored.

Wireless experience maps current emerging cultural and social practices of mobile and other wireless media such as radio and WiFi networks. A key theme is how wireless experience is enabling new ways to approach urban cultures and turn public spaces into "writable and participatory media". Histories of the new is a key theme to unravel not only the recent ten years of change within the Networked experience, but to look at diverse local histories of creative "new" media use since the 1960s. The theme also explores the very logic of how new technologies become integrated into the social and the cultural "sediments" of everyday life experience.

Critical interaction design seeks to foreground critical discourse and work around sensitive, contextual, critical work on interactivity. It is also a platform for dialogue bringing together interface designers, computer scientists, media and cultural theorists as well as media artists (who are often hybrids of these). Open source software as culture addresses politics, economical or legal logic, and various cultural and social politics regarding open source, and software at large. The theme positions software as a cultural and a political object and as a subject for debate. Helsinki keynotes include Erkki Huhtamo (UCLA; Finland/USA), Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Brown University; USA), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai New Media Initiative; India) and Matthew Fuller (Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam; UK).

***To download the full conference programme by sessions, visit our website:
http://www.isea2004.net/programme.html ***

HOW TO JOIN ISEA2004 AT THE MOST AFFORDABLE PRICE?
By combining the conference with the cruise, you will not only experience the full journey but save money on tickets. Our FULL EXPERIENCE offer to you is:
- ISEA2004 conferences in Tallinn and Helsinki: 100,00 euros
- ISEA2004 cruise: 2 nights, 2 buffet dinners, 2 breakfasts on the ferry: 204,00 euros
- Fast ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki: 20,00 euros
--- !!!
Your entire ISEA2004 package, a full week of business and pleasure;-)
324,00 EUROS PER PERSON
!!! ---

HOW DO I GET THESE BENEFITS?
Book on-line before FRIDAY MAY 28 at http://www.isea2004.net/tickets. Please note that there is a limited availability in this cabin category. On the website, you will find more information on pricing, including different cabin categories and accommodation possibilities in Tallinn and Helsinki.

TRAVELLING IN A GROUP?

If you wish to make a group reservation for several cabins, contact me at  mika@isea2004.net or by telephone +358 40 719 2280. I’m happy to save your time and take care of your booking arrangements.

Warm regards,Mika Minetti + ISEA2004 crew