NMI 07 – part II
I am a bit slow these days, but here comes the summary of the NMI 07 of Thursday June 28, Section D+E
Section D: “Model(ling), individual cinema” started with a keynote and performance by professional fashion model Anina with the title: Anina 2.0 – a new kind of business model. In the talk Anina explained her various activities. In particular she detailed how she decided at one point to make a brand of herself in order to have a better position as a fashion model. Since she had always been tech-savvvy like by visiting coding camps etc. she decided to become a technology-model and in particular a technology-role-model for other fashion models. This means among others that Anina tries to use and promote the latest mobile (phone) technology, that she has a website, which hosts not only a blog and her own promotion but also her big project called 360fashion.net, which is an interface for a social network of professional fashionistas. Apparently it is not so easy to enter this network, since on one hand people need to learn the involved interface technology and on the other hand it is a community which is built on mutual trust and recommendations.
Anina was always surrounded by a big crowd during breaks so I didn’t get too much chance to ask her about the technology she uses. Sofar one of her main sponsors seems to be Nokia and so – among others – she seems to use jaiku via widsets.(?) In her talks she was talking about a new browser for her network which works rather on the concept of mind maps (?) reminding me of the Berlin based project DeepaMehta and their mind/concept (maps).
Her website design is in collaboration with british kurst.co.uk but it is unfortunately partially in Adobe’s flash, which means that there are no direct links possible. As Anina told me she wants in particular encourage eastern-european models, which are often completely without a useful network, to engage in technology and to use it for making safe business contacts. However, as she pointed out, her intention is likewise to contribute to the process of building a bridge over the gap between females and a rather male-dominated technology world.
At the end of her talk Anina visualized the virtuality of the contact via technology in a very nice performance. She and collaborator Sven (blue jacket) immerged into two screens made of nylons and “kissed” each other through the air (a bit hard to explain please see below images).
After Anina Prof. Dietrich Sauter of the IRT gave a talk with the title: HDTV Standards- Confusion or Enrichment?, where I have to admit that I lost a bit the overview during the talk, so I feel unable to report on it.
The next section E: “Creative and recreative” started with Dr. Martin Richartz, Senior Technology manager at Vodafone Group R&D in Germany speaking about “Mobile Arts driven Innovation” and in particular about projects at the “Mobile Art Lab” like the Song für C by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zuerich or the Mobile Journey – a fringe event at the 52nd Venice Biennale. The mobile Art lab is intended for speeding up the process of finding innovative business applications in mobile technology.
After Dr. Martin Richartz Jochen Schmidt of Realmix GmbH was talking about “Twilight Zone – A mutation scenario for alternative play grounds”. He was analyzing how the narrative structure of the story Roadside Picnic by the Strugatski brothers and the emphasis on psychology changed with Tarkovskijs Stalker and finally with the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a game which displays a bleak renaissance of Chernobyl and which should – as it sounds – be played by all proponents of nuclear energy in order to get the right feeling for the matter.
After this talk Julean Simon spoke about “What does the image show sound: On audio-visual coupling”. He talked about various forms of audio-visual couplings and exemplified them with examples of his works. His talk was filmed to a great extend by Anina and in the video one can also see how Anina distracted me by filming into the audience..:) (and filming how I took the above foto of her..:)) Unfortunately the sound in the video is not so good. In the evening, at the roof party, Julean Simon was playing Cello Bach Partitas with his Yamaha Wind Midi controller.