Digital Week 09 - events are happening across Yorkshire from 9th - 14th November

Should have blogged about this ages ago but better late than never!

So it's nearly digital week, with events this year being held not just in Leeds but also Huddersfield, Scarborough, Bradford and Sheffield. You can find all the info including an online calendar of events on their website:

http://www.digital-week.co.uk/

Highlights from the many, many events taking place include:

An official launch event on Monday 9th in Leeds by way of a knowledge auction - chocolate money is somehow involved so who could resist!

The Bradford Animation Festival on Tuesday 10th at the National Media Museum, the UK's longest running and biggest animation festival.

Wednesday 11th sees an unusual event called Musical Chairs: Fun and Games with Cool Pink which will debate the effectiveness of digital games development for tangible return on investment.

Thursday 12th has quite a few things that caught my eye including a 3D Cinema Workshop in Sheffield and a Digital Ghost Hunt in Scarborough!

Friday 13th sees the return of the Drum Awards for Digital Industries, or DADIs, to Leeds, with the keynote address given by Tom Loosemore from 4iP.

And last, but definitely by no means least as i've raved about these events on this blog before, will be a Barcamp on Saturday 14th. Barcamp Bradford will be held at the WOW Academy in the morning and the National Media Museum in the afternoon.

All in all an exciting week!

This month's Creative Networks event - How do artists contribute to Innovation?

Thursday 29th October 2009

For this month’s ‘Creative Networks’ – the largest and most well attended professional network in Yorkshire for the Creative, Digital and Cultural Industry sectors – attention is turned to the “worth” of artists and the wider creative community.

In the 21st century, the UK’s economic competitiveness and social wellbeing will increasingly depend on our ability to innovate. A significant part of the innovation process revolves around ‘creativity’ – the ability to generate new ideas, or to restructure and redeploy old ones.

Presenting the facts and leading the debate will be Kate Oakley, respected writer and policy analyst, who specialises in the creative industries, cultural policy and regional development.

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Leeds College of Art
Blenheim Walk, Leeds, LS2 9AQ
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18.00 – 19.00 Hot Food and Registration
19.00 – 19.30 Welcome and opening pitches
19.30 – 20.30 How do artists contribute to innovation?
20.30 till late Networking in the Mosaic Bar

This event is free to creative, digital and cultural industry professionals.

If you would like to join, please contact Creative Networks on 01422 399444 or email Bridget March at bridgetm@leeds-art.ac.uk

Microsoft's "Get on the Bus tour" hosted by the University of York IT Academy

Microsoft's "Get on the Bus tour" is making a stop in York on October 29th 2009 from 6pm - 9pm at the National Science Learning Centre at the University of York. Doors open at 5pm for informal networking.

The tour, which goes to 11 locations across Europe, starts in Milan and finishes in Berlin with York being the only UK location for the tour - a real coup!

The event is free and worth attending if you're interested in:

Finding out how IT Skills are critical to business development and how Micorsoft is driving IT Skills.

Learning how to improve and develop the IT systems in your business.

Finding IT training from a range of specialised IT providers.

Witness top technology leaders present on the latest releases.

Networking with sector professionals.

Feedback your ideas and comments on learning and certification directly to Microsoft Learning.

Grab exclusive Microsoft giveaways.

Seats are dissapearing fast so if you're interested get yourself signed up:

Event: The Cultural Evolution, Creative York Symposium Part of the Illuminating York Festival

I'm told The Cultural Evolution is The Biggest Event of the Year :-)

The Symposium contains a huge selection of excellent speakers from all over the UK and Europe, and the event is crammed full of interesting and inspiring presentations and demonstrations. Cost is £40 for the day, (£26 of which is the catering cost per individual and includes a fabulous lunch and drinks reception).

This is a real chance to bring together the experts in new technologies, inventors, innovators, electrical, lighting and sound specialists, mobile, touch-screen and GPS developers, as well as digital and social media technologists, communicators, tourism industries, heritage centres, planners, city strategists, developers and architects, councillors, creative practitioners and students to name a few.

The Symposium aims to provide a unique opportunity to bring together the movers and shakers as well as the enablers, specialists, informers and supporters, inspiring those people to act together in catalysing progress in Yorkshire.

The symposium has three main sections:
‘New interpretation of City and Culture,’
‘New Interpretation of Heritage and Culture’ and
‘Age of interactivity – Engage with the Target Audience.’

Each session will have three speakers from various organisations talking about the topic, followed by plenty of time to ask questions, comment and discuss the content during Q&A sessions.

Speakers include
* Simon Smith of LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International)
* Belinda Kidd and Arthur Stafford of Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium
* Julia Unwin of Joseph Rowntree Foundation
* Jane Field of BEAM
* Mairi Robertson of New Media Partners
* Lucy Wurstlin of 4IP
* Mat Lazenby of LazenbyBrown
* Marcus Romer and Kit Monkman of Pilot Theatre and KMA who will be exhibiting their 5Circles installation as part of the previously mentioned Illuminating York Festival.
* Ben Stern and Markus Dorninger of Gaia Nova and OMA International who will be exhibiting their ‘Tagtool’ technology during Illuminating York
* Chris Walker of BrightWhite LTD who will be exhibiting ‘Vespertine,’ also as part of Illuminating York.

Full details can be found online at:
www.creativedigitalyork.wordpress.com

Or if you want to book a place register at:
https://www.yorktheatreroyal.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk/public/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=275

Future Technologies September - 3D Technology

I have now heard a few things about new 3D technology which made me decide to write this months future technologies article about it.

3D Television is already being showcased in public spaces and at exhibitions around the world.

The likes of Samsung and Mitsubishi have already sold over two million 3D TVs in the US, but they don't currently promote the fact that their TVs are 3D-enabled because there is no 3D content.

However, several 3D films have recently been released, so far all in the area of animation and aimed at a young audience (i.e. Ice Age 3) but will James Cameron's new 3D movie Avatar bring the technology to the mainstream?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_JBMrrYw8

Spaceships, aliens, all very futuristic...

3D gaming also looks to be the next big thing according to Blitz Games, following the release of their new game Invincible Tiger, a kung fu platform game. Invincible Tiger is the world's first true digital 3D console game - i'm not sure what 'true digital 3D' means, as opposed to 'false digital 3D' I assume?!

The game works in anaglyph 3D mode on all TVs - not just special 3D capable TVs.

Also, Sky announced last month that it will launch the UK's first 3D channel next year. It will be available via the current HD set-top boxes but in order to watch viewers will also require a new '3D Ready' TV, expected to be on sale in the UK next year. Sony, Panasonic and Phillips LG certainly seem to be ramping up their commitment to the new technology.

Music is also getting in on the act with performances being filmed in 3D - a great idea to differentiate yourself and introduce new financial models to replace illegal downloading.

Certainly for the cinema industry this could really inject some life back into the experience - especially while people don't have 3D TVs at home.

However it seems there is still some way to go towards standardising the technology and in particular exactly what kind of glasses will be needed to view 3D (seems to be lots of talk of shutter glasses whereby the lens shutters open and close 200 times a second working with a transmitter on top of the television to deliver slightly different images to each eye. And just think, one pair of glasses for each member of the family, at least... could get expensive.

3D video conferencing is also here, check out this very cool project that allows pseudo 3D video conferencing using only a single generic webcam at each end:

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/3dvideo/index.html

So when will our monitors / laptops / mobiles have 3D screens? Just a matter of time surely...

Creative Networks. David Rogerson, Digital and New Media Manager for ‘Sound and Music’

This Thursday evening's Creative Networks event speaker is David Rogerson, Digital and New Media Manager for ‘Sound and Music’, the UK’s landmark organisation for new music and sound.

Former Publishing Director of Sonic Arts Network, David will deliver an exciting exploration of Sonic Arts; what it is and why it has become such an incredibly rich Art form – crossing over so many different platforms. True to the Art form and subject matter itself, David will offer lots of really interesting audio visual ground-breaking examples that will capture the imagination of even the most hardy of enthusiasts.

Sound and Music have worked on some ground-breaking projects including a two day festival of performance in June this year in which, installation, video, broadcast, podcast and discussions explored the beauty, memory and personal identity of sound in domestic environments. They are also working on technology to help deaf children see sound.

Date: Thursday 24th Spetember 2009
Venue: Leeds College of Art Blenheim Walk, Leeds, LS2 9AQ

Timetable:
18.00 – 19.00 Hot Food and Registration
19.00 – 19.30 Welcome and opening pitches
19.30 – 20.30 David Rogerson – Sonic Arts “put a Donk on it!!”
20.30 till late Networking in the Mosaic Bar

This event is free to creative, digital and cultural industry professionals. If you would like to join, please contact Creative Networks on 01422 399444 or email Bridget March at bridgetm@leeds-art.ac.uk.

Yorkshire Music Network - Invitation to Tender

Screen Yorkshire is seeking an individual or company to develop and manage a network for the Music Industry in Yorkshire. The need for a music network was identified through research commissioned by Yorkshire Forward and Arts Council England. Arts Stra then undertook a specific piece of work to engage key industry leads in a consultation exercise.

Interested parties can find out more information (including access the previous work carried out) and download the tender document at:

http://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/news/news-archive/yorkshire-music-network-invitation-to-tender

Key dates:-

Date tender issued: Thursday 10 September 2009
Deadline for tender: 12.00noon, Wednesday 30 September 2009
Interview date for tenders: 5 October 2009
Date of award decision: 9 October 2009
Anticipated contract start date: 15 October 2009

Any questions regarding this tender can be directed to Emma Cheshire, emma@screenyorkshire.co.uk