NATURE’S TOOLBOX : call for entries

ART WORKS FOR CHANGE INVITES VIDEO ARTISTS TO SUBMIT SHORT VIDEO ARTWORK
FOR CONSIDERATION FOR EXHIBITION IN CHINA AND JAPAN, 2010

Art Works for Change (www.artworksforchange.org), in cooperation with the United Nations Environ-
ment Programme is pleased to announce a call for entries for “Nature’s Toolbox,” an art installation to
be exhibited at the United Nations Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, from July 4-31, 2010. In addition, the
work may be shown in Nagoya, Japan, as part of the United Nations COP10 meeting on biodiversity in
October 2010.

We will be creating a multi-screen digital media installation addressing the theme of urban biomimicry
and biodiversity, incorporating state-of-the-art technologies.


WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?

Biomimicry (from “bios,” meaning life, and “mimesis,” meaning
to imitate) is a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and
imitates these designs and processes to solve human design prob-
lems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example.
Think of it as “innovation inspired by nature.”

The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already
solved many of the problems humans are grappling with. Animals,
plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have
found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what
lasts here on Earth. This is the real significance of biomimicry:
Over the past 3.8 billion years, nature’s designs provide the secret
to survival for humans and other species.

http://biomimicryinstitute.org/about-us/what-is-biomimicry.html


VIDEO CRITERIA
1. Up to 3 minutes in duration.
2. Visually compelling video artwork
3. Tell a simple story about an urban creature (a plant, animal, microbe, fungus, insect) and show
 how it teaches us lessons for solving humans’ pressing problems — environmental, social, food,
 shelter, water, etc. Include an urban context.
4. The story can be reality-based, visionary or science fiction
5. We want to stress the importance of what we lose if these “critters” disappear
6. Animation and entertainment are encouraged
7. We discourage the usage of words or language. Music or abstract sound is acceptable.

For guidance, visit the website of the Biomimicry Institute (http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/) or their
Ask Nature database (http://www.AskNature.org/), which provides hundreds of examples of how nature
inspires design solutions.

For more information on Art Works for Change and its programs, visit www.artworksforchange.org

The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games.

The GDC attracts over 17,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers,artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the Think Services Game Group, a division of United Business Media.

This market defining conference features over 400 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts. In addition, the GDC expo showcases all of the most relevant game development tools, platforms and services helping to drive the industry forward. The conference also features the twelfth annual Independent Games Festival, where new, unpublished games compete for the attention of the publishing community, and the tenth annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the premier accolades for peer-recognition in the digital games industry.

Copper Pot Pictures has paired with the Picture Book Project and Schools for Salone to hold an online art auction to benefit the schools featured in its documentary, BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT.  The auction includes over 150 pieces created by some of the top names in animation as well as children’s book, graphic novel and comic illustration, including Oscar-winning director Chris Wedge, Toy Story 3 Art Director Daisuke Tsutsumi, renowned illustrator Peter DeSeve and legendary Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney.

Each artist was given a birchwood postcard and asked to create a unique work based on the theme, “PEN PALS.” The completed pieces will be available from March 6-13 on eBay.  All proceeds will be used to build a school for war orphans in Freetown, Sierra Leone and to develop a library for at-risk youth in Brooklyn.

BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT follows the growth of the children in Sierra Leone and New York when they are paired together as pen pals.  Fundraising efforts inspired by the film have raised $24,000 of the $100,000 needed for the two schools.

Anima 2010

The countdown has begun!

The next Anima, the Brussels International Animation Film Festival, will take place in Flagey from 10 to 20 February 2010

Over one hundred and fifty films in the international competition (shorts and features, commercials, music videos), retrospectives, exhibitions, lessons, workshops for the kids, the Futurama professional days, round-table discussions, numerous guests and film concerts make Brussels an international appointment not to be ignored. It's also the place to find out about Belgian animation with a national competition and screenings in panorama. Add to that a very "Animated Night" full of films, and Anima easily confirms itself a "must" for the thirty thousand spectators that flock to Flagey, the prestigious cultural centre of Belgium's capital city.

The Anima 2010 competition

Award for the best feature filmAwards for the best short filmsAward for the best graduation filmAward for the best commercialAward for the best music videoNomination for the Cartoon d'Or

Deadlines

Registration: 15 October 2009

Films received: 20 January 2010

Rules (pdf)

Entry Form (pdf)

Entry Form (doc)

imagina is the leading European event for simulation and visualisation based 3D design and decision-making solutions.

Over a period of three days, imagina’s conference cycle brings you all the relevant information regarding the current state of the 3D market, exploring the key issues involved and providing feedback from different economic sectors including Industry, Architecture and Territory Planning and Media & Entertainment.

For the second year running, imagina 2010 will host a Digital Village devoted to local authorities, towns, cities, regions and local governments. 

 imagina is not only a professional event, but also a ‘3D Industry Innovation Ecosystem'. Whether you are a designer, publisher, service provider or a distributor of software and 3D IT products, exhibiting at imagina and its Exhibition Hall - which features over 4,000 m2 of floor space - enables you to respond to an ever-increasing range of related challenges, each with a high return on investment.

The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design presents The Storyteller, an exhibition exploring how contemporary artists use narrative as a way to understand the social and political events of our time. An opening reception will be held on Jan. 19 from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Curated by independent curators Claire Gilman and Margaret Sundell, The Storyteller features video, still photography, drawing, mixed media and installation works that engage the documentary capacity of art to bear witness to the rapid, sometimes violent, transformations of our time.

Featured artists include Hugo Boss Prize finalist Cao Fei, Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller Mike Figgis, Bucksbaum Award winner Omer Fast, Mounir Fatmi, Ryan Gander, Lamia Joreige, Joachim Koester, Emanuel Licha, Missing Books (Maria Barnas, Maxine Kopsa and Germaine Kruip), Steve Mumford, Adrian Paci, Michael Rakowitz, Liisa Roberts, and Hito Steyerl. with filmmaker

A colloquium will be held on January 30 from 2-3:30 p.m. Colloquium participants include exhibition artist Steve Mumford and exhibition curators Claire Gilman and Margaret Sundell, and will be moderated by Kate Fowle, executive director of iCI (Independent Curators International).

For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/sjdc.

Future Film Festival presents the news about the programme of the 12th edition that will take place, as usual, in Bologna, Italy, from 26th to 31st January 2010 at Teatro Duse (Via Cartoleria 42) and Palazzo Re Enzo (Piazza del Nettuno) that will host the Future Village (press conferences, accreditation office, workshops, kids area, cocktails and relax area) and for the first time will be a screenings venue too.

Since eleven years, the Bolognese event dedicated to animation and special effects is the most important date in Italy to notice the changes of digital imaginary, and to analyse the evolution of cinema and animation. The Future Film Festival has made known also in Italy important names of the International cinema, now well known by the audience and valued by International festivals as Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Osamu Tezuka, Satoshi Kon, Bill Plympton, Tsui Hark, Phil Mulloy, Nobuo Nakagawa and Paul Driessen or animation companies at the top of box offices as Pixar Animation Studios, Aardman Animations, Blue Sky. Moreover, in its history the FFF has explored cinematographies not well known like the Iranian and the South American cinema, and the new generations of artists from all over the world.

The Future Film Festival 2010 programme, directed by Giulietta Fara and Oscar Cosulich will present the news of cinema but not only. The focuses on stop-motion and on Motion Graphics will take stock of the contemporary uses of these techniques. The 3dDAY, after the success of the last January, will reveal the secrets of stereoscopic technique with key figures (distributors, theaters owners, producers) and the works for the cinema, tv and videogame. A special thanks to the City of Bologna, Province of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna Region and Emilia-Romagna Film Commission which support the event.

Since its first edition, Future Film Festival for its image has created a strong link with visual arts: every year the Festival asks an artist of the last generation to create an original work that will become the image-icon of FFF, looking for links and synergies between cinema, visual arts, photography and street-art. The FFF2010 has entrusted its image to the young writer UFO 5 who will realize a wallpainting that will be the symbol of the new edition. Amongs symbols and signs of his imaginary, UFO 5 will interpret the Future Film Festival changeable identity.

FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL 2010 FOCUSES

Saul Bass & Motion Graphics
Future Film Festival 2010, following its constant analysis of animated image, will dedicate a focus to the Motion Graphics, one of the most contemprary techniques used by young artists, in which the graphic applications give the illusion of movement.

The Future Film Festival will focus on some key figures of contemporary motion graphics as Mischa Rozema, cofounder of Post Panic, the production company based in Holland, and author of commercials and videos for well known brands as Nike and MTV, and the English artist Rob Chiu, (alias The Ronin)  author of a lot of works for Nokia, BBC, EMI, Greenpeace and many others. The FFF will focus on also their source of inspiration: the work by Saul Bass, great opening titles’ author and pioneer of motion graphics.

Saul Bass (1920-1996) is one of the key figure on graphic headlines for cinema. Thanks to Saul Bass, this work became an art. When he was young, he became his carreer as assistant in the art department of Warner Bros. based in New York and he gained experience in the field of Costructivism and Bauhaus. After some experiences as graphic designer, in 1954 Bass collaborated with Otto Preminger for the Carmen Jones poster and opening titles. After that, he realized The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Big Knife (1955), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) title sequences. In 1959 he realized the Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder poster and opening animated sequence with the original jazz score by Duke Ellington.

 

Gallery 1988 and Mattel present:
“Under The Influence: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”
100 artists reinterpret the influential 80's toy and cartoon property.
Opening reception date is Friday, January 8th, 7-10 pm. The show will run through January 29.

Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Contact : (323) 937-7088
http://www.nineteeneightyeight.com/entry/home.html

Join us for the November Backlot as wttw11 opens their doors to Women in Film Chicago! The Backlot series provides our members with access to selected Chicago film, television, commercial, sound and new media production facilities. These businesses provide an overview of how their companies approach and support the creative process in the Midwest. Don't miss this behind-the-scenes look into one of Chicago's premier televisions stations, wttw11, the most-watched public television station (PBS) in the country. The home of such popular shows as Check, Please!, Chicago Tonight, and Soundstage, the facility also houses WFMT, Chicago's classical music station. Members of the wttw11 staff will provide attendees with insight into the various roles and responsibilities of operating a successful, public-broadcast television or radio station. Guided tours will be given.
Free for Members/ $5 Non-Members
RSVP NOW: rsvp@wifchicago.org