brigit's blog

Action for Children's Arts is an organisation dedicated to the promotion, development and celebration of all the creative and performing arts for and with children, aged 0 - 12 years. This week they launched their Manifesto for Children's Arts

Last weekend I attended Open Sourcei City, a festival exploring open source practice in the production of media art and music, a collaboration between folly and Sound Network.

I was there to help out, but one of the perks of this type of job is that you get to attend the event and I certainly appreciated the opportunity to listen to the enlightening talks, attend the evening performances and observe the workshops.

A new report by Professor David Gauntlett and Lizzie Jackson of the University of Westminster show that virtuali worlds are beneficial for children's development. They are also a "powerful and engaging" alternative to more passive pursuits such as watching TV, said the BBC-sponsored study.

Check out The Flowfield Unity's take on the future of art created using computers...

Bill Thompson, presenter of Digitali Planet, observes a lack of interest in computer programming, and a loss for the UK software industry and asks that the the Arts Industry recognise their reliance on computers.

Read the article here

I agree, programming is a useful and creative skill, as demonstrated by the open-ended possibilities provided by open-source software and the digital art that we here at folly advocate.

Margaret Hodge MP has said that there are few too women in key roles in UK arts organisations. You can see Jude Kelly's response here.

The BBC report today on Microsoft's consultation with leaders in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. The predictions are that by 2020 the terms 'interface' and 'useri' will have become obsolete as computers merge closer with humans.

I commented the other day to someone in the office that I longed for the day when I can control my computer with my brain, doing away with the mice and keyboards, use of which blights many of us with RSI.

Further to my previous blogi about some fellow (with what seems an unending amount of spare time on his hands) who has mapped the flows on his energy through social networks.....its also worth considering the flows of electrical energy...read Bill Thompsons's consideration of the debate over energy saving pixels and avatars' carbon foot-print here

Andrew Shuttleworth has visally mapped, in diagramtic form,  how information flows through the social networkingi and media sites that he uses. The results are quite complex!

I image it would be facinating, if not a little scary, if we did a similar acitivity for folly!

US scientists have revealed the next-generation 3-D technology that they said provided realistic, updatable holograms in nearly real time...

Our discussions concerning fully immersive installations could really be taken to another dimension, with audiences being able to interact with holograms! Now that's the stuff that science fiction is made from!

Read the full story here

Brigit Colton
Operations & Development Coordinator