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D-MARC

Digital and Material Arts Research Centre

University_of_Derby

Newsletter

No 3

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I’d like to thank all the contributors and attendees at our Digital Dialogues Symposium.  We have had really positive feedback both from attendees and at a number of University fora.  It is hoped to have highlights on the website soon. 

Opportunities

1) Online D-MARC Arts Project

We have been awarded funds to run, in collaboration with CTRG, an online research project on the theme of Digital Hybridity, leading up to the conference in June. It will be curated by Dr David Stent and will involve ten cross-disciplinary contributors from D-MARC and beyond.  The artists, musicians and writers will be both emerging and internationally established – hopefully including the conference keynote speaker Stelarc.

The notion of ‘Digital Hybridity’ can be characterised as a potentially volatile in-between space created by the blending of practices, media and cultures. The exploration of the theme will examine the effects that developing digital technologies – both hardware and software, changing interactions between man and machine – are having on representation, modes of perception, criticism and the materiality of information.

Participants will keep a blog charting the development of their project, and finished works will be shown in an online gallery presentation.  If you are interested in participating please send a proposal (300 word max) to John Goto by 6th March 2011.

2) Call for D-MARC conference papers; 

We would like to invite proposals for presentations at our next conference, Digital Hybridity, which will be held on 17 June, 2011.  If you would like to offer a paper please send an abstract (300 word max) to John Goto by 20 March 2011.  We will be hosting the event in collaboration with colleagues from East Midlands Universities Association (EMUA). 

Another development, which offers the potential to make this a memorable event, is that colleagues in Creative Technologies Research Group are planning to run a parallel research event, ‘Sounds in Space’, on the same day in adjacent lecture theatres.  This offers opportunities for crossover events as our interests so clearly converge around the creative use of digital technologies.

If you would like to attend Digital Hybridity you can book your place now by emailing John Goto This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Our keynote speaker is Stelarc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelarc

3) Propose a D-MARC Symposium

Looking beyond the summer to next January (2012) there is an opportunity to propose a topic and help organise a one-day in-house research symposium.  You will recall that we decided that a research day was preferable to a number of lunchtime research seminars.  What was particularly felt valuable about Digital Dialogues, was that it engaged researchers from other groups across the university, and this aspect might be developed? Please contact John Goto to discuss.

Not such good news, though not entirely unexpected, is the following announcement in the Research Bulletin  -

HEFCE announced on 2nd February 2011 that following the government steer, it plans to further reduce the research income in respect of 2* research which is international class research. It appears that the weighting for 2* will be reduced form 1.0 to 0.29 - reduction of around 70%. The weightings for 3* and 4* are not changing but the amount of money in the pot will increase a bit. These changes will reduce the Quality Related funding to the University in 2011/12 but not stop the funding altogether.  HEFCE has warned the funding for 2* will end altogether in 2012/13 and it is likely to remain in that state indefinitely. After 2012, our QR funding will be dependent on the recognised 3* and 4* research.

New to D-MARC website –

News events that can be read on the website include Peter Finnemore’s new work exhibited at Ffotogallery in The Silent Village; our participation in UK Young Artists event; John Goto’s Mosaic exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers; Tom Craig’s new book deal to write on the Horror Genre, and more… http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/news

An impressive archive of work 1981-2007 by Pavel Banka can be seen on his gallery page http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/gallery-pb

Peter Finnemore launches his new website  http://www.peterfinnemore.com/

Matthew Jones presents his panoramic photographs at http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/researchers/matthew-jones

Colin Wilson has work launched (or about to be so) at http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/researchers/colin-wilson

Robert Burstow gives a compelling account of his research alongside some stylish images at http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/researchers/robert-burstow

Matthew Leach and John Goto present their new augmented reality project The Invisible Artist at http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/invisible

Robert Clark presents new work at http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/researchers/robert-clark

Our new PGR student section on the website has been taken up by James Pyman, Jayne Falconer, and Cesario Alves who all now have pages.

No 2

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New contributions to the website include:

David Bryson has created a very accessible quick start video guide to registering and uploading work yourself onto the website.  It is very easy to do and gives you control of content and design. http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/videoreg
Kelly Holmes presents a synopsis of her short film ‘Dolls’ along with production stills.
Matthew Leach outlines his research area concerning Mixed Realities.
Robert Clark explores the creative potential of Slideshow software, combining images and texts in presentations of his series ‘That faraway look’ and ‘Under another name’.
John Goto and Matthew Leach describe an Augmented Reality project they are collaborating on.
David Bryson presents two on-going research projects; one into fluorescence using as his subject blocks of nougat (yes nougat!), whilst the other project looks at developing materials to support the identification of hairs of British species of animals, made in collaboration with Dr N. Beaumont (School of Biology, Forensics and Sport) and Steve Docker (Derbyshire Mammal Group).
Tom Craig outlines his current work with Sean Ford and Daniel Romero on a feature length documentary about the Derby West Indian Community Association. Production stills are included.
John Goto describes a book project he is working on with Autograph ABP, which will explore a series of portraits he made in Lewisham, London, in 1977.
Peter Finnemore links us up to his blog
Additionally we have a conference report on ‘Spaces of the Unconscious: Surrealism in the Digital Age’ held at The Anna Freud Centre, London, and chaired by Dawn Ades.
Our useful ‘funding resources’ directory is growing, to which you are invited to contribute links.
Finally a reminder if you haven’t already done so, to book your place at our research day Digital Dialogues symposium on 18 January by emailing Jessamie Self This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text39527 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

No 1

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Good news! - the Digital and Material Arts Research Centre has now passed the final hurdle and been validated by URRDC.  Thanks to all of you for contributing to this process.

David Bryson is holding the first of a number of consultation meetings about the D-MARC website.  The idea is that rather than impose a structure, the membership express their wishes, and the site is developed accordingly. The first focus group will be Wednesday 14 July 10-11.30 am room TBC.  If you would like to attend please email David   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Attached is an account of the Materiality of the Digital symposium http://www2.derby.ac.uk/dmarc/news?start=20 which some of us were able to attended at Loughborough University recently. We are planning to hold something similar next year which we hope you will participate in.

A few things to be thinking about over the summer - D-MARC have three research events planned over the coming 2 years, and we would like your suggestions for papers you might present, or speakers you think would be interesting to invite.  

The events will be incremental in both their ambition, scope and complexity. The first will be a 'Digital Dialogues' research day in late January 2011, which will be local/regional.  The aim is to gain awareness of the scope of digital practices and applications within UoD and the East Midlands region.  We will invite one guest speaker and 50 delegates from UoD. We would like to broker collaborative relationships between D-MARC members, for example, and computer scientists. We anticipate that the majority of papers will be given by D-MARC members, and we would especially like to encourage PGR students to consider this opportunity. 

The second event is the 'Digital Hybridity' symposium in June 2011, which we will present in collaboration with EMUA colleagues and will be regional/national in scope. The symposium will consider hybrid forms of arts practice brought about, or facilitated by developments in digital technology. It will further consider the impact on traditional disciplines, in terms of their discrete boundaries and the implications for pedagogic practice.

The third in 2012 will be a national/international conference entitled 'The Digital Past', which will consider the development of digital media historically, and the resulting shifts in our understanding of the past in relation to, for example, digital archiving.

We would very much appreciate your ideas and suggestions.