The next get together is Tuesday, 2nd February in Ipswich from 8pm. We’re the guests of IP1 this week at their offices (43c Buttermarket, IP1 1BJ - map). From the street go through the “Blue Arrow” door, up two flights of stairs and it’s at the end of the corridor. BYO drinks and nibbles.
The Curiosity Collective will be at the Maker Faire in Newcastle again this year, March 13th & 14th.
This year we propose something slightly different… we intend to walk from Ipswich to Newcastle - bringing a traveling band of curious technologies!
In our preparation for Maker Faire 2009, one evening in the pub we consulted Google Maps on the iPhone to determine the route to drive from Ipswich, where we are based, to Newcastle. Google told us to go via Harwich and the Netherlands with two ferries making up the route - it had defaulted to a walking route but presented us with an adventure!
Evidently this is the quickest way to walk from Ipswich to Newcastle. The folly of this suggested to us that we should indeed make this trip for Maker Faire 2010 and that we should take as many of our portable makes with us as we can - especially those which give our curious take on wayfinding, navigation, geographical information, mobile social networking and the like.
At least some of our walk will be aided by a homemade sextant, an Arduino powered pedometer which dead reckons progress on the route, a device for calculating latitude from how a webcam registers the hours of daylight, an iPhone-based geographical misinformation system for psychogeographical tourists, and so forth. We intend to document the walk as it happens through social networking sites (e.g. twitter and twitpic) and conduct some impromptu performances and presentations of our work on ferries and in Dutch coastal villages.
On arrival in Newcastle we shall share our journey through the images, music and data we have created along the way. We will encourage people to try out our low-tech location devices, so they can prove they really are in Newcastle! In addition we will bring some of our new curiosities from recent shows - including the dark show.
Our journey recaps some historical trading routes which now, it seems, bring nerds to Newcastle.
We are delighted to announce the Curiosity Collective’s dark show, Friday 15th to Sunday 17th January 2010.
Friday - Open at nightfall (5pm) until 9pm, reception at 7:30pm
Saturday - 5pm to 9pm
Sunday - 4pm to 6pm, talk by the artists at 4pm Free admission
The setting is the mediaeval St Mary-at-the-Quay Church, in the heart of Ipswich’s historic dock area, where the creations of the Curiosity Collective will be at play after dark.
Using a mixture of sound and light, our technological curiosities will delight, surprise and perhaps confound. Allowing the visitor to experience this atmospheric space in new ways.
We anticipate it being pretty cold, so please wrap-up warm.
The dark show will be our sixth exhibition in Ipswich since we emerged in 2005.
With thanks again to our friends at Key Arts for the use of the space.
St Mary-at-the-Quay is ten minutes walk from the bus and train stations, with nearby parking available (map).
Darknoise - John Bowers & Angela McLellan
Sounds produced, heard and understood in the dark - of the dark, about the dark, from the dark.
Bubble Machine - David Chatting, Craig McCahill & Robert Lenne
A child’s toy modified to be triggered when a torch illuminates it in the dark making bubbles.
Can you keep it up in the dark? - Matthew C. Applegate
LED lights inside balloons. Challenging adults to play like children.
Inflatable Sculpture - Tom Juby & David Chatting
Explores the use of light and air to create an illusion of life.
Drawing in Light - David Chatting & Tom Juby
Drawing with light pens in the air, computer vision simulating a long exposure photograph.
(de)construction - Tom Juby & David Chatting
Reprojection of an old photograph back into the space, interacting with computer generated objects.
Laser Light - Tom Juby
Laser shins through a rotating lumia wheel to generate interference patterns.
Cock Robin - Angela McLellan & John Bowers
Cock Robin is a natural sound observation experiment of this active night songbird.
Reflections in Cider - David Chatting
An interactive video mirror made from 64 cider bottles.
Lunula - Mike Challis
In Lunula a culture of living Pyrocystis Lunula algae in seawater create their own light when agitated by sound waves.
Trickle Down - Jonathan Clift
An animation of LEDs light trickling down the wall, reflecting on economic theory.
The Cube - Chris Reason
Make a path through the EL wire maze.
PIKELPUSHER
(generates video out of a controlled chaos of photographic images, simple shapes, animations, sounds, and live video feeds. All software is homemade, all imagery are created live)
BUTTERCUP INSURGENT
(dark ambient catharsis on the most basic of equipment; a mobile phone, guitar, radio and manual distortion)
Tuesday 29th December - from 8pm - Ronnie’s Bar - in McGinty’s - Ipswich (map).
(the event on Facebook)
The next get together is Tuesday 15th December in Ipswich from 8pm - we’ll be in the Green Room at McGinty’s again opposite the library on Northgate Street, Ipswich.
The next get together is Tuesday 1st December in Ipswich from 8pm - we’ll be in the Green Room at McGinty’s again opposite the library on Northgate Street, Ipswich. Not the 2nd as I previously mistyped!
Should be a good one - I know there’s been a bunch of things happening - bring anything you what to show. I’ve even got something to show that should be finished and working! We also need to work out what we’re doing for the next Maker Faire in Newcastle and what merriment we might have around the Winter solstice. And of course how things are progressing on the Dark Show - so we’ll have a first go at making a list of likely pieces and sorting some details out for the publicity.
In preparation for The Dark Show, and to learn some psychogeography, and cos it’ll be fun, and because it ends in the pub - next Tuesday we’re going on the Ipswich Ghost Walk!
It starts at 8pm from the Ipswich Tourist Information Office. I should think there’ll be some time afterwards in the pub to catch-up on people’s adventures and the progress towards the show.
Let Angela know if you’ll be coming along and bring curious friends too! Here’s the event on Facebook.
The Empty Shop Revival Fund has been made available by central government to help reverse the decline of high streets in these recessionary times, so there is money available for installations to be made in disused shops and windows.
When in Boston a few years back Cefn and I saw a whole set of great tech-art shop window interactions - including Jeff Lieberman’s Slink, plus some solar creatures, video pieces and interactive displays. There have also been some very nice street based multitouch systems such as CityWall in Helsinki. All pretty ambitious but shows what can be done in these spaces.
Tom and I went to see the folk at Slack Space in Colchester in the summer - where artists had taken over empty shops for galleries and workshop spaces.
I think this is a very exciting initiative indeed and would like to discussing ideas if you’re interested too
The Curiosity Collective is a group of enthusiasts, designers and artists working in Ipswich, UK. Many are technologists seeking a fun experimental outlet for their technical skills. Other contributors are audiovisual specialists, photographers, art curators. Any enthusiastic participants who can contribute their skills are welcomed.
