Lighthouse

IMPROVING REALITY FILMS

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:10:36 +0000

As part of Brighton Digital Festival, Lighthouse presented a one-day conference looking at how artists, designers and filmmakers are using digital technology to improve reality.

Improving Reality featured some of the biggest names in digital art, such as Prix Ars Electronica winner, Julian Oliver, Blast Theory and Matt Hanson, as well as some stellar guests from the worlds of technology film and education including the BFI’s director of Digital, Paula Le Dieu, gaming gurus Adrian Hon and Alice Taylor, and designer and developer, Aral Balkan. The presentations covered a wide range of projects including interactive artworks, locative cinema experiences, mobile games, design-fictions, storytelling platforms, digital toys and distributed documentaries.

Session 1 – Reality Hacking
How artists and designers are shifting perceptions of place and time, by overlaying increasingly complex and imaginative layers onto our lived environment, through the use of augmented reality, 3D printing and other technologies. Speakers:

Julian Oliver – artist, critical engineer & winner of this year’s Prix Ars Electronica

Aral Balkan – user experience designer & curator of the Update conference
Jose Luis de Vicente – curator, writer and cultural researcher

Session 2 – Beyond Cinema
How filmmakers and artists are shifting our ideas about what cinema can be, adding cinematic drama to reality and reinterpreting creative processes and traditional business models. Speakers:

Matt Hanson – filmmaker, writer & creator of A Swarm of Angels

Lizzie Gillett – producer of the hit documentary film, Age of Stupid

Matt Adams – co-founder of Blast Theory, makers of the locative cinema experience, A Machine to See With

Jamie King – filmmaker, director of the acclaimed Steal This Film and co-founder of VO.DO

Session 3 – Gaming for Good
How artists and designers using games and play to morph and shift social and cultural reality. Speakers:

Tassos Stevens – co-founder of Agency of Coney, artist and maker of games like Papa Sangre & Nightmare High

Adrian Hon – next-generation storyteller and co-founder of Six to Start

Time’s Up – artists and makers of playful interactive experiences, including Stored in A Bank Vault

Alice Taylor – blogger, gaming guru and founder of MakieLab

Improving Reality was part of Brighton Digital Festival – a month-long celebration of digital culture, made up of events, exhibitions, performances, workshops, conferences and meet-ups that took place in venues and outdoor spaces across the city throughout September – http://brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/
It is part of PARN (Physical and Alternate Reality Narratives) – a pan-European project, developed by FoAM, Lighthouse, Blast Theory and Time’s Up.

Supported by Arts Council England, the EU Culture Programme and Screen South.

SHE SAYS - TALKS

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:04:29 +0000

Lighthouse was delighted to host the first She Says Brighton event which offers women high quality free networking opportunities. The event was called ’What’s Your Secret – Success and Serendipity’ and featured talks from inspirational guest speakers Emma Sexton, Rachel Blackman and Emily Toop.
The event promised a fun, positive mix of networking, with inspiring speakers, a proper bar, and Angel Food bakery cupcakes courtesy of Mind Orchard.
She Says is a global organisation that works to help women in the digital and creative industries through networking.

Speakers:

Emma Sexton
Emma has over 15 years design experience and a proven track record of leading, building and transforming creative teams into profitable and highly respected design practices in their own right. She has an MA in Design Management from the London College of Communication (formally LCP) and is also an executive coach.

Rachel Blackman
Rachel is an award winning performer, theatre maker and teacher, she writes and performs her own plays as Stillpoint. Her solo works have toured nationally and won several awards.

Emily Toop
Emily is the CEO of Radical Robot, an agency specialising in developing mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. She was involved in organising the Brighton Girl Geek Dinners, started Brighton Robotics, a group for robotics hobbyists and founded BuildBrighton, Brighton’s hackerspace.

Date: Thursday 10 November 2011 

Venue: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 4AJ 

Arts Minister Visits Lighthouse

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:56:22 +0000

We were very pleased to welcome Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, and Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and leader of the Green Party, to Lighthouse on Monday 3 October.
They were visiting to discuss Brighton Digital Festival, the month long celebration of digital culture that took place throughout Brighton in September. During their visit we discussed how Brighton’s thriving digital creative industries worked together with Brighton’s equally vibrant arts community to develop the festival. We also talked about Lighthouse’s role as a meeting place between the arts sector and the digital sector, and the importance of providing a platform for the public to experience high quality digital culture. Ed Vaizey toured the building meeting the five creative companies based here – Culture24, Liquid Light, South East Dance, Clearleft and Mind Orchard. Following the visit to Lighthouse, we then visited Phoenix Brighton to see Solar Systems by Semiconductor.
Both were visibly impressed with the quality of the exhibition, and the way it incorporated elements of art, science and technology.

Brighton Digital Festival Closes on a High

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:22:51 +0000

Its been a whirlwind of a time here in Brighton as lovers of all things technological came together to celebrate digital culture throughout the month of September. Brighton, already well known for its digital and new media companies, did not disappoint, welcoming over 11000 visitors to over 60 events happening throughout the city.
The festival kicked off on 1 September with the launch of A Machine to See With by Blast Theory. As the month went on the festival showcased a diverse range of exhibitions, screenings, conferences, workshops and events.
The public’s awareness of the festival was raised by digital and creative communications consultancy Fugu PR who worked closely with our partners, including the Brighton Dome and Arts Council England. Many leading digital commentators and journalists attended the festival and coverage of the festival featured on ITV and BBC Click, as well as in print via The Guardian, The Argus and many other newspapers.

BBC Click: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k404s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/digitalp
BBC Radio Sussex: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k5s4z
ITV Meridian:
http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/secret-agents-needed53391/
http://www.itv.com/meridian-east/digital-goldie72888/
http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/fullprogramme

The high visitor turn-out and rave reviews of festival events, are a real testament to the community that organised the festival. It was indeed a grassroots effort. I think its safe to say that the organizers and the everyone involved in the Brighton Digital Festival can give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done.

Stored in a Bank Vault Launch

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:28:29 +0000

Stored in a Bank Vault is a dynamic installation, which forms part of the Brighton Digital Festival. It provides a unique opportunity for the viewers to explore the secret hideout of a group of Bank Robbers and attempt to deduce their activities. It is now entering its final week of exhibition after opening on the 23rd of September.

During the preview of the exhibition, I had the unique opportunity of working as a tour guide, taking people from Lighthouse to Grey Area, where the installation is taking place. It was clear on the tour that people were excited about seeing the Project but had no idea what to expect. Some thought it was going to be an exhibition with paintings of Bank heists while others deduced that it would be a look into a Bank Robbers hideout. When we got there though everyone was quite surprised at the level of detail that went into the creation of the space and the amount of research that it must have required to pull it off, it seemed like Time’s Up left nothing to chance and this made the experience all the more special.

Upon getting to Grey Area, I was amazed to see how enthusiastic people were about rummaging through the material in the space, all caution thrown to the winds as everyone put their thinking caps on and got to work deciphering the clues around them. This of course led to some interesting theories about what the robbers were up to, from exotic artifact smugglers to gold thieves. I personally am yet to come up with a concrete theory but I know it probably has something to do with a Bank?…

http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/times-up-stored-in-a-bank-vault

You can find more information on their work at: http://www.timesup.org/overview/works

BBC News Film Lives at War - our new online game

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:04:36 +0000

Today we are launching our new online game made for young people. Lives at War animates the dramatic history of Brighton during World War II, bringing the past vividly to life.

To mark the launch, the BBC are at Lighthouse interviewing some of the inspiring older people, whose stories and memories made the game into the rich narrative experience that it is. They’re also talking to the students from Longhill School who helped create the game, together with our collaborators, Corporation Pop

The immersive online game is set in Brighton in the 1940s. The virtual world uses game mechanics to draw players in to the lives and experiences of air‐raid survivors. Each player chooses an avatar through which to explore the world. Much of the content of the game was developed with a group of school children from Longhill, working with older people from Brighton who remember the war. Together they have visited museums, galleries and archives, participated in creative workshops, and investigated artifacts and archive films from Screen Archive South East.

Lives at War is built using the game engine, Unity3D, a powerful tool for creating video game environments, architectural visualizations, and interactive media installations. Using Unity3D enabled the developers to give the game stunning visual depth and excellent interactive features.

We’ve been working on this for well over a year, as part of our Past Present project, supported by Digital Film Archive Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Whilst primarily designed as a teaching tool to help secondary school children learn about life on the Home Front during World War II, the game will have appeal to anyone curious, and we hope you’ll check it out.

We are tremendously grateful to Jamie Wyld from our team, who directed the project, Juliette Buss, who coordinated the project and made the amazing resource pack for teachers and filmmaker, Annis Joslin who worked with the students right the way through.

We hope you an make it along to the launch tonight.
But if you can’t, please do tune into the 6 o’clock news on BBC One this evening.

And have a play of the game and let us know what you think!
Play the game

Brighton Digital Festival is Underway

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:45:36 +0000

Brighton Digital Festival launched on Thursday 1 September, and has, thus far, proved to be a resounding success.

At Phoenix Brighton gallery on Thursday evening, at the Private View of Solar Systems, stirring speeches by festival steering group member, Aral Balkan, Brighton & Hove City Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, and Arts Council regional director, Sally Abbott, emphasised how significant it is for Brighton to have a festival that raises the profile of its vibrant digital community.

The artistic programme kicked things off in fine style. Blast Theory‘s A Machine to See With wowed its first set of ’players’ who took on the lead role in a heist film, played out on the streets of Brighton. *Semiconductor*’s remarkable exhibition, Solar Systems is a homage to our nearest star – the Sun – and it dazzled those who came to the private views on Thursday and Friday. And Katy Connor’s Pure Flow installation at Permanent Gallery impressed and intrigued everyone from local passers-by to the BBC World Service.

On Friday, the first of Brighton Digital Festival’s six major conferences – dConstruct 2011 – packed out Brighton Dome. The conference had sold out months before, with it’s 800 tickets being snapped up in an incredible seven hours.
Over the course of the day, some the world’s major thought-leaders in digital design surprised and delighted a full house.

My highlights included Craig Mod’s wonderfully surreal tale of the origin of the book; Kars Alfrink’s thought-provoking account of the social disconnection which is rife in so many cities in Europe; Matthew Sheret’s charming account of timelord technology; and Kevin Slavin’s barnstorming reprisal of his MoMo Amsterdam lecture, Reality is Plenty, Thanks – an erudite critique of the new wave of augmented reality applications.

On Saturday Brighton’s first Mini Maker Faire opened it’s doors at Brighton Dome, and almost immediately was full of visitors of all ages. The faire showcased the ingenious and mind-boggling creations of over 40 makers, hackers and crafters from around the country. RepRap 3D printers, sat next to reel-to-reel tape loops; giant pantograph machines operated alongside BBC Micro computers; people played games of gingerbread chess, whilst Daleks held up traffic outside. Six-year olds learned to programme in BASIC and kids helped make 3D computer games. There were remote control submarines, a machine that made music from water, and live aquatic monsters you take could home as pets.

Mini Maker Faire attracted an incredible 5473 visitors over the day, showing just how vibrant the maker scene is, and how valuable it is to have a space where hackers, crafters and artists can meet.

On Sunday, the second conference of the festival got underway with a special banquet at Brighton’s iconic Royal Pavilion. Update 2011 – curated by Aral Balkan – focused on user experience design for mobile platforms. On Monday, in front of nearly 500 attendees at Brighton Dome, Update hosted talks on user experience design by leading lights Matt Gemmell and Sarah Parmentier, a passionate defence of open standards and the web by Jeremy Keith of Clearleft, a conversation with co-founder of Apple, Ronald Wayne, and an entertaining piece of live-coding by local developer and artist, Seb Lee-Delisle.

The team from BBC’s Click show – Bill Thompson, Colin Grant and Gareth Mitchell – were on hand to see it all, and a special edition of Click devoted to Brighton Digital Festival will be out later in September.

The festival is only it’s 9th day, and is already exceeding the expectations of the grassroots community that organised it. With over 60 conferences, exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, meet-ups and events throughout the month, there’s still plenty more to come.

For more see:

Brighton Digital Festival
A Machine to See With by Blast Theory
Solar Systems by Semiconductor
dConstruct 2011
Brighton Mini Maker Faire
Update 2011

Our 25th Birthday Celebration

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:25:09 +0000

To mark a quarter of a century, we invited staff and board members, past and present, and a few of our friends and colleagues to celebrate with us.

It was an opportunity for us to look back on what we’ve done over the past quarter century – and we were very fortunate to have Jane Finnis, a past director of Lighthouse, with us, to help us do that. But also just as importantly, we looked ahead to the immediate future.

Our party was on the eve of the launch of Brighton Digital Festival, a month long celebration of digital culture, put together by Brighton’s vibrant digital community. The festival has been bootstrapped by an amazing group of designers, developers, artists and tech companies, including our friends, Clearleft, and we were pleased to welcome their dConstruct 2011 crew to our event.

We previewed some of the projects that Lighthouse is presenting at the festival: A Machine to See With by Brighton’s digital heroes, Blast Theory, which you can experience using your mobile phone on the streets of Brighton over the next three weeks. And Black Rain by Semiconductor, which is showing in our stunning new exhibition we’ve curated at Phoenix Brighton, called Solar Systems

We also hosted live AV sets using Processing & PD, by Bartosz Dylewski and Barry Prendergast.

And of course no 25th birthday would be complete without a makeover! So we unveiled our new look and feel, plus our new website. We love the work that our designers, dandelion & burdock, have done for us, and were pleased to have them with us.

So all and all, a good way to mark 25 years of working at the interstices between art and technology.

Lighthouse celebrates 25th birthday with rebrand

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:58:52 +0000

It’s our 25th Birthday today. And to mark the occasion, we felt it was time to refresh our identity. So, we are proud to reveal a new visual identity and a new website.

Created by design consultancy dandelion & burdock, our new identity is fresh and energised. Our new logo includes a subtle suggestion of moving lights – something that resonates perfectly with our work, and with our organisation’s name.

It’s been an exciting year for Lighthouse. We’ve welcomed a dynamic new director with a strong vision for our future, and unveiled a bold new programme. Our new visual identity puts us in good stead to navigate the bright future ahead.

Our new website is simple, easy to navigate and rich with images and information about our programmes, and is designed to help us better connect with our audiences. We’ll use our new blog to share behind-the-scenes reports, news flashes, event updates and musings from our dedicated team.

Lighthouse’s rebrand is the result of a long period of reflection, research and hard work. We’d like to thank our incredible communications consultant, Janette Scott, and dandelion & burdock for working with us.

To see more of their work please visit: http://www.dandelion-burdock.com/

Claire Hooper shortlisted for Jarman Award 2011

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:47:53 +0000

Claire Hooper is one of 10 artists to be shortlisted for the highly regarded Jarman Award. Set up to celebrate artists who follow in the spirit of Derek Jarman, the Award acknowledges artists for taking risks, experimentation and inventiveness with the medium of film.

Earlier this year, Hooper was successfully selected from almost 70 applicants for the commission Sea-change, a three-month long residency at the Picture This Atelier in Bristol, where Hooper will shoot her latest film. This new work, provisionally titled Eris, will feature in a solo exhibition at Picture This’ Atelier space in early 2012. In addition, the work will be premiered in collaboration with Lighthouse at a venue in the South East.

Hooper’s work has been shown widely internationally, including recent and upcoming shows at Lothringer 13, Munich; MUMOK, Vienna; Sketch, London; IT Park Taipei; Kunstwerke, Berlin, and various Serpentine gallery events. She is represented by Hollybush Gardens London and her work is distributed by Lux. She was the 2010 winner of the Baloise Art Prize at Statements, Art Basel.

To read more about Claire Hooper and Jarman Award 2011, please visit http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk

Brighton Digital Festival Launches!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:56:52 +0000

Lighthouse are delighted to be working with Brighton’s digital community on the 2011 Brighton Digital Festival. The festival features over 60 exhibitions, performances, meet-ups, workshops and outdoor events that meld Brighton’s big-ticket digital conferences into a month of the fabulous, the futuristic and the unfathomable. Expect to see, hear and experience local and international artists – including Blast Theory, Semiconductor, Ben Fry, Joshua Davis, and Random Dance – and thinkers, doers and storytellers like Kevin Slavin, Robin Ince and Remy Sharp. The festival is a grassroots and community-run by a diverse range of people, including tech companies, arts organisations, designers, developers and people passionate about digital culture. It is coordinated by Lighthouse with support from Arts Council England.

Lighthouse are pleased to be leading on several programmes at the festival. Kicking it off is the English premiere of Blast Theory’s A Machine to See With, a fast-paced locative cinema experience, which lets you star in your own heist movie on the streets of Brighton. Blending secret missions and high adrenalin, you will be in an interactive movie playing the lead role in bank robbery. Later on in September, we explore a different side of the anatomy of a heist, with the enigmatic installation, Stored in a Bank Vault by Time’s Up, which gives us a tantalizing glimpse into the lair of bank robbers. Visitors enter a dark cellar; plans are laid out, a story unfolds, and it soon appears that the robbers may still be in the next room …

Lighthouse are proud to present a major new exhibition by internationally renowned digital artists and filmmakers Semiconductor. Their beautiful Solar Systems exhibition at Phoenix Gallery, brings together three installations that use different technologies – photography, satellites, and CGI – to explore the relationship between the Sun and the Earth.

Lighthouse is also presenting an education programme which inspires young people to use digital technology in new ways. One of the highlights is the launch of Lives at War, an exciting new online game made for young people. Bringing history vividly to life, this game puts players in the centre of a story unfolding on the streets of Brighton during World War II.

Brighton Digital Festival features no less than 6 major conferences, exploring different aspects of digital culture. Our own one-day conference is Improving Reality, an inspiring day of talks that explore how of how artists and designers are shifting our perceptions of the world, not only using technology to augment reality but to actually improve it! Major names in digital art including Julian Oliver and Agency of Coney, join filmmakers Jamie King and Matt Hanson, and digital opinion-formers Adrian Hon and Alice Taylor. Not to be missed.

Rounding the month off is Data is Nature, an eye-popping array of audio-visual performances showing us where digital technology meets nature. Bringing Brighton Digital Festival to a close, this night of audio-visual delights and surprises includes stunning performances by audiovisual artist, Quayola, renowned musician Mira Calix, and rising star, Paul Prudence.

Brighton Digital Festival has a so much to offer, whether you’re a digital culture-vulture or not, there’s something for everyone. See you there!

To see the festival’s full line-up, please visit www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk

Guiding Lights Social

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:46:29 +0000

One of the (many) strengths of the Guiding Lights mentoring programme is the network it has created among participants (both mentees and mentors), industry friends, sponsors, peers and partners.

The strength and vibrancy of this network was evident on Thursday evening, in the bustling Benugos bar at the BFI Southbank, where current and previous Guiding Lights mentees gathered to catch up, talk film, and get a little merry.

It was a fantastic turnout, with participants present from across all four years of the scheme and 100% attendance from the twelve newest mentees – particularly impressive given that six of them had travelled from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Liverpool!

With Lighthouse’s Head of Film, Emily Kyriakides and Guiding Lights Coordinator, Becca Ellson making introductions, and many of those present already familiar with each other, the room was soon alive with film industry chatter. In fact, people seemed to be getting on so well, it won’t be long till we see more inter-mentee collaborations.

YOUNG REPORTERS AT BRIGHTON DIGITAL FESTIVAL

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:29:38 +0000

Brighton Digital Festival the focus of the first news campaign from Longhill High School’s new press team.

Students from the school will use different formats to capture and comment on the festival, including blogging, photos, video and social media to take a snapshot of the festival in September.

Culture 24 will publish some of the students’ work as guest reporters, showcasing their words and pictures.

Thanks to Arts Council England and Culture 24.

SHORT FILMS

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:51:55 +0000

In 2009-10, Lighthouse and BBC Film Network commissioned and produced four short films. Showcasing the talents of four exciting filmmaking teams, the films cover a range of styles and genres from drama to animation, and feature familiar faces such as John Henshaw, Celia Imrie, Jodie Whittaker and Jim Carter.

In 2011, two of the shorts were nominated for major film industry awards, the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs. All of the films have been well received on the international film festival circuit with official selections at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Soho Rushes and LA Shorts Film Festival amongst many others.

WISH 143 (UK – 2009 – 22 mins)
Writer: Tom Bidwell
Director: Ian Barnes
Producer: Samantha Waite
Cast: Jim Carter, Jodie Whittaker, Annette Badland, Sam Holland

A fifteen-year-old boy with only months to live is granted one wish from the Dreamscape Charity. But David doesn’t want to go to Disneyland or meet Gary Neville; all he wants is an hour alone with a naked woman.

TURNING (UK – 2009 – 10 mins)
Writer/Directors: Karni & Saul
Producers: Kat Armour-Brown, Alison Sterling
Cast: Patrick Gibbs, Audrey Holt, Maureen Wild, Carol Kirkland

On his sixth birthday, Robert receives three beautiful broken old birds in his mother’s sitting room. A memory of an afternoon with tea and cake, lace pink slips and a tale of an emperor with no skin. Co-funded by Stink.

MUNRO (UK – 2009 – 16 mins)
Writer/Director: Michael Keillor
Producers: Daniel Healy, David Reilly, Pete Thornton
Cast: David Hayman, Jamie Michie

Enduring an ill-judged camping trip into the wild Scottish Highlands, father and son Bill and Robbie have to face up to the difficult secrets they’ve kept from each other. Starring David Hayman and Jamie Michie. Co-funded by Scottish Screen.

CONVERSATION PIECE (UK – 2009 – 5 mins)
Writer/Director: Joe Tunmer
Producer: Enrico Tessarin
Cast: Celia Imrie, John Henshaw

One sleepy Sunday morning, Jean notices a chip on a treasured vase. Employing a variety of tactics, she attempts to get to the bottom of the situation. Celia Imrie and John Henshaw star in this unique musical-of-sorts set to the music of jazz cornetist Rex Stewart.

MONTHLY TALK – GRAHAM HARWOOD

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:33:57 +0000

Graham Harwood is one of the most significant names in media art. Together with his long-term collaborator Matsuko Yokokoji, he co founded the artistic collective Mongrel in 1995, who created powerful artworks addressing race, identity and politics. Their collaborative work fuses art, electronic media and street culture, and reaches beyond the hierarchies of power and knowledge to involve those normally excluded from expression and collaboration. Their recent works, which explore the socio-historical context of technology, include the transmediale prize winning project, Tantalum Memorial, and Coal Fire Computers, exhibited at the 2010 AV Festival.
Their works have been nominated for a BAFTA award and are affiliated to the permanent collections of the Pompidou Centre Paris and the Centre for Media Arts (ZKM) in Karlsruhe.
This talk marked something a return for Harwood, who was born in Brighton.

Date: Thursday 4 August 2011

Times:
6.30pm: Doors & Bar
7.00pm: Event start

Venue: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 4AJ

LABORATORY LIFE

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:31:50 +0000

Laboratory Life was a unique, interactive art-science laboratory, open to the public. Conceived and led by artist Andy Gracie, a group of international artists and scientists from the UK, Spain and the US worked with young doctors, scientists and emerging artists, to create a series of projects exploring the cutting edge of medical technology in a living laboratory at Lighthouse. These projects were showcased in an exhibition at Brighton Science Festival.
What makes this project unique was its open nature. Most laboratories are closed to the public, and we have little idea of what goes on inside them. But Laboratory Life adopted a radically open structure, inviting the public to come and visit the laboratory, meet the artists and scientists as they were working, and discuss what they were doing.
Visitors met artists Andy Gracie, Adam Zaretsky, Kira O’Reilly, Bruce Gilchrist, and Anna Dumitriu, who were working with sixteen exceptional doctors, scientists and artists, Sarah Roberts, Brian Degger, Melissa Grant, Kate Genevieve, Simona Casonato, David Louwrier, Daksha Patel, Kuiashen Auson, Janine Fenton, Meredith Walsh, Valerie Furnham, Columba Quigley, Genevieve Maxwell, Zack Denfield, Helen Bullard and Simon Hall. Scientists, John Paul (Health Protection Agency), Helen Smith (Brighton & Sussex Medical School), and Tom Shakespeare (World Health Organisation) provided expert advice.
The artists and scientists created five art-science projects which formed the basis of a fascinating exhibition at Lighthouse, featuring DNA tattooing, astrobiology, microbiological textiles and much more which was open to the public 2-6 March 2011.
On 3 March, Andy Gracie, Kira O’Reilly and Anna Dumitriu spoke about their experiences of taking part in the Lab, and will discuss the process of making work using biomedical technology.
On 5 March, Lighthouse hosted a public forum, where the public can debate the role of new technology in medicine.

To find out more about what they got up to, check out the participants’ blog: http://lablife.posterous.com/

The Projects

Public Misunderstanding of Science
Led by Bruce Gilchrist.
Collaborators: Kate Genevieve, Simona Casonato, David Louwrier, Daksha Patel
This group of artists and scientists spent several days testing the public’s understanding of science. Visitors to their laboratory were invited to draw and illustrate their understandings of scientific information and protocol, while listening to scientific discourse on synthetic biology.
Their exhibition of work-in-progress is an animated film, which features the drawings sound-tracked with the original discourse and field recordings made on-site at a medical laboratory.

Infective Textiles
Led by Anna Dumitriu
Collaborators: Rosie Sedgwick, Sarah Roberts, Brian Degger, Melissa Grant
This group of artists, doctors and scientists worked on the development of a textile-based artwork that takes the form of a Regency-style dress stained with bacterial pigments and patterned by antibiotics.
Their exhibition features the Regency style dress, which has now been pasteurized so that the bacteria are no longer living, video documentation of their project, framed works (which show slides of cultured bacteria and moulds, Gram’s stain paintings embroidered with antibiotic threads and drawings made by visitors to the lab) and a table of items used in their lab.

The Quest for Drosophila Titanus
Led by Andy Gracie
Collaborators: Kuaishen Auson, Janine Fenton, Meredith Walsh
This group of scientists and artists were engaged in an astrobiological experiment using various phenotypes of Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly), one of the most important organisms used in developmental biology and genetics.
Their exhibition of work-in-progress includes the experimental chamber, video documentation of the experiments, a printed manual which describes the experimental process, the breeding colony and the memorial to failed individuals.

Tattoo Traits
Led by Adam Zaretsky
Collaborators: Zack Denfield, Helen Bullard, Simon Hall
This group of artists and doctors examined the feasibility of a new notion – “DNA Tattooing”. They explored the ethical, legal, and health issues that might be raised by such a process. Their work involved the creation of a “new media” which they have referred to as Shecan, and the extraction of hybrid DNA from this media. They then adapted a tattoo gun, with the intention of tattooing a novel sequence of hybrid DNA into the nucleus of a living cell, something which is statistically improbable, but conceptually possible.

The Garden Shed Lab
Led by Kira O’Reilly
Collaborators: Valerie Furnham, Columba Quigley, Genevieve Maxwell
This group of artists and scientists created a space for exploring the relationship between biotechnologies and domestic everyday experiences, such as cooking, tinkering, composting, and gardening.
Their exhibition of work-in-progress features their garden shed, containing their home-made sterile hood and incubator, their laboratory equipment and photographs and video they made whilst on site.

Dates:
Open Laboratory: 20 – 28 February 2011
Exhibition preview: 01 March 2011, 6-9pm
Exhibition: 02 – 07 March 2011, 11am-6pm
Talk by Lead Artists: 03 March 2011, 7pm
Open Forum: 05 March 2011, 2pm

Venue: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 4AJ

Laboratory Life was organised by Lighthouse and The Arts Catalyst
Support from the Wellcome Trust
It was conceived by artist Andy Gracie, based on the Interactivos? model developed by the Media Lab Prado in Madrid.
Part of Brighton Science Festival.

All five projects will be presented this November as part of the Microwave Festival.

LYNETTE WALLWORTH TALK

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:29:30 +0000

To celebrate and contextualise her exhibition at Brighton Festival 2011 Australian artist Lynette Wallworth gave a gallery talk at the University of Brighton galleries.

Lynette Wallworth’s artistic practice spans digital media, video installation, photography and film. Her work has been presented at the Auckland Triennial, Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Sydney festival as well as being exhibited internationally from Arnolfini, The Young Vic and Festival d’Aix en Provence in Europe to New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the United States.
Wallworth’s responsive environments lead visitors to transcend their everyday selves and to connect with universal themes that include and describe their own existence. Always experimenting with the newest digital technologies, Wallworth’s ability to build a sense of community and compassion with these tools is startling. Beauty, revelation and wonder are celebrated in her works, fusing mind and body through the fundamental means of the haptic and the optic, light and touch.
Lynette describes her intention as “bringing together technological advances and ancient understandings, new media and old practices, electronics and the electricity of human touch.”

Date: Sunday 8 May 2011

Time: 3.30pm

Venue: University of Brighton Gallery, 58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton

Presented at the University of Brighton galleries in partnership with Brighton Festival.
Supported by Arts Council England

IMPROVING REALITY

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:23:24 +0000

Improving Reality featured some of the biggest names in digital art, such as Prix Ars Electronica winner, Julian Oliver, Blast Theory and Matt Hanson, as well as some stellar guests from the worlds of technology film and education including the BFI’s director of Digital, Paula Le Dieu, gaming gurus Adrian Hon and Alice Taylor, and designer and developer, Aral Balkan.
The presentations covered a wide range of projects including interactive artworks, locative cinema experiences, mobile games, design-fictions, storytelling platforms, digital toys and distributed documentaries.
Watch them here

Conference Overview

Session 1 – Reality Hacking
How are artists and designers shifting perceptions of place and time, by overlaying increasingly complex and imaginative sedimentary layers onto our lived environment, through the use of augmented reality, 3D printing and other technologies?
Speakers:
Julian Oliver – artist, critical engineer & winner of this year’s Prix Ars Electronica
Aral Balkan – user experience designer & curator of the Update conference
Jose Luis de Vicente – curator, writer and cultural researcher
Panel and Q & A. Moderator: Honor Harger – director, Lighthouse

Session 2 – Beyond Cinema
How are filmmakers and artists shifting our ideas about what cinema can be, adding cinematic drama to reality, and reinventing the rules by reinterpreting creative processes and traditional business models?
Speakers:
Matt Hanson – filmmaker, writer & creator of A Swarm of Angels
Lizzie Gillett – producer of the hit documentary film, Age of Stupid
Matt Adams – co-founder of Blast Theory, makers of the locative cinema experience, A Machine to See With
Jamie King – filmmaker, director of the acclaimed Steal This Film and co-founder of VO.DO
Panel and Q & A. Moderator: Paula Le Dieu – Director of Digital at the BFI

Session 3 – Gaming for Good
How are artists and designers using games and play to morph and shift social and cultural reality?
Speakers:
Tassos Stevens – co-founder of Agency of Coney, artist and maker of games like Papa Sangre & Nightmare High
Adrian Hon – next-generation storyteller and co-founder of Six to Start
Time’s Up – artists and makers of playful interactive experiences, including Stored in A Bank Vault
Alice Taylor – blogger, gaming guru and founder of MakieLab
Panel and Q & A. Moderator: Matt Locke – founder of Storythings and former Head of Multiplatform Commissioning at Channel 4.

Date: Friday 23 September 2011

Times: 9.30am – 6.15pm

Venue: Pavilion Theatre, 29 New Road, Brighton BN1 1UG

Supported by Arts Council England and the EU Culture Programme.

Part of Brighton Digital Festival
http://brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/

SUSPENDING DISBELIEF

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:14:20 +0000

Suspending Disbelief brought together works of contemporary art and design which exist in the interstices between the real and the fictional. The artists who participated in the exhibition materialise speculative ideas, near-futures, or illusory realities, in a series of verisimilar devices, sculptures, interactive objects, photographic scenarios and installations which challenge our perception of what is plausible. All the works shown in Suspending Disbelief were being shown in Brighton for the first time.

The exhibition was part of Brighton’s major digital design conference, dConstruct, which each year brings leading names in design and user interaction to the UK. It is organised by the design agency, Clearleft and takes place at Brighton Dome on 3 September 2010, featuring speakers such as Brendan Dawes (magneticNorth) and David McCandless (Information is Beautiful).

The exhibition extends the notion of design thinking into the physical realm, taking place across two sites: At Lighthouse, the work of Caleb Larsen, Julian Oliver and Andrew Friend were on display from 28 August – 5 September. At Brighton Dome, Becca Gill & Jay Kerry showed their work for the audiences of dConstruct on 3 September, accompanied by a film documenting the other works in the exhibition, made by Toby Amies.

The works in Suspending Disbelief go beyond being mere puzzles: they were reality hacks, conceptual conundrums and physicalised thought-experiments which call into question everyday logic and its interaction rules and rituals. They included a physical sculpture made by American artist, Caleb Larsen, that is perpetually attempting to auction itself on eBay; a series of uncannily real yet seemingly impossible devices created by London-based designer, Andrew Friend; a 3D spatial memory game made by Berlin-based artist Julian Oliver, that takes the form of a digital Echeresque-world; and an installation by Bristol artists, Becca Gill & Jay Kerry where the trickery and illusion of 19th century magic is materialised through pervasive media.

Suspending Disbelief was a pilot project, developed in partnership with Arts Council England and Clearleft, which looks at the relationship between art and digital creative industries. In 2011, we will extend this pilot by delivering Brighton Digital Festival, which further explores digital culture and the interplay between, artists, audiences and makers, and designers.

Dates:
Lighthouse: 28 August – 5 September 2010, Brighton Dome: 3 September 2010.

Times: 11am – 6pm

Venue: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN14AJ

Supported by Arts Council England and Clearleft

KUTLUĞ ATAMAN - Mesopotamian Dramaturgies

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:57:58 +0000

Lighthouse were delighted to be part of Brighton Festival 2011. We partnered on the presentation of two major exhibitions by contemporary artists, Kutluğ Ataman and Lynette Wallworth.
Animating the atmospheric disused space of the Old Municipal Market, Ataman’s exhibition brought together two works which use the theme of water to meditate on political change. The centrepiece is the world premiere of Mayhem. In this new multi-screen film installation, commissioned by Brighton Festival, water is used to subtly symbolise the transformational energy of revolution. It is presented with Su, a video installation shown in the UK for the first time.
The Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2011 is Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate. Inspired by her, the festival celebrates themes of freedom of expression, liberty, and the power of the individual voice in society. These works by Ataman strongly resonate with these themes, at a time where revolutionary change is sweeping through Ataman’s own region. Ataman passionately believes in the need for democracy and freedom of expression in his native Turkey, and in the wider region.   
In Mayhem, Ataman transports us to another Mesopotamia – “la Mesopotamia” in Argentina, itself located between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. Here, in what Ataman describes as an “alternative promised land”, we are confronted by the spectacular and chaotic energy of the Iguazu Falls. In what he refers to as a direct response to the uprisings taking place in his own region, Ataman casts water as both a cleansing and destructive force. Just as water shapes and transforms nature, the Arab Spring is sweeping aside old structures and allowing new ones to evolve.
Su takes its name from the Turkish word for water. It was filmed over a year, and illustrates the different moods of the Bosphorus strait, the narrow strip of water that separates Europe from Asia. Formed of two split-screen installations, each a mirror image of the other, Su calls to mind the fluid, constantly changing nature of geographical boundaries. As visitors enter, they are met with one of the key phrases of Islam – “There is no God but Allah” – written in cuneiform script, superimposed onto the shifting waters. In one screen the text is reversed, as it is in some mosques in Turkey.  In Su, two realms often thought of as separate and opposite are united.
Ataman intends to complete filming for Mesopotamian Dramaturgies in Syria, and was only recently prevented from doing so by the current political instability there.
Kutluğ Ataman is a filmmaker and contemporary artist. His work has been shown internationally at major forums such as Documenta, and the Venice Biennale, and at notable exhibitions at the Serpentine, Istanbul Modern Art Museum and many other galleries. His work is in international collections, including those of MoMA and Tate Modern. He is a recipient of the highly prestigious Carnegie Prize and has been nominated for the Turner Prize. Kutlug Ataman is represented worldwide by Thomas Dane Gallery.
Press:  
BBC World Service The Strand: http://is.gd/thestrand
BBC Radio 4 Start The Week: http://is.gd/starttheweek
BBC Radio 4 Front Row: http://t.co/CeIQjXc
The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/07/this-weeks-new-exhibitions
Culture 24: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/sculpture+%26+installation/art355655
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/photography+%26+film/art356409

Dates: 7 May – 29 May 2011

Times: 5:00pm-9:00pm, Monday to Friday & 12:00pm-7:00pm, Saturdays and Sundays

Venue: The Old Municipal Market, Circus Street, Brighton, BN2 9QF

Mayhem was commissioned by Brighton Festival and Vehbi Koc Foundation, Turkey. 
Su was commissioned by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. 

With thanks to Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove City Council, University of Brighton and Thomas Dane Gallery.
Presented in association with Lighthouse.