CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Haptic InterFace 2012The Wearables Lab* is pleased to announce Haptic InterFace 2012: a new challenge for designers, artists, developers and creative practitioners who want to come face to face with the unexpected and new. This event will take place from November 10th to 20th, 2012.

Professionals and creative thinkers from a range of backgrounds are invited to engage in an innovative trans-disciplinary laboratory that explores the borders and intersections of art, science and technology.

Our aim is to develop new ideas in relation to the body through the creative use of materials and praxis. Haptic InterFace considers an intermediary zone; not clearly part of the body (the intimate-self) or of the public (the communal-self) it can be viewed as a space of depth rather than surface. The affordances** of the body may undermine and even revise existing practices of embodiment and lead to new processes for navigating the alternative geographies of post-modernity. As our societies are increasingly reliant on technology, what becomes obvious is the unique contribution that corporeal experience plays in creativity, and creativity plays in research. Scholarship in art creation is equal to that in scientific research. Art creation in some cases may also be the result of research.

Hong Kong is an ideal location to explore new research paradigms.  As a high-density and hi-tech urban centre, it has a long history as a site of multi-cultural engagement and is a rapidly growing centre for the arts.  In close proximity to Shenzhen, the Wearables Lab has easy access to diverse and affordable materials and high-technology components as well as production facilities.

This is an un-conference-style event that is participant-driven. Participants will be encouraged to mash-up materials and technology and to find ways to let innovation happen in real-time. The underlying hypothesis is that an ethos of collaboration and real-time feedback may generate effective and engaging research environments, blending haptic and cognitive praxis with play.

* The Wearables Lab is a research hub at the Academy of Fine Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.
** An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action.

How to apply:
As there are a limited number of places available, selection is based on quality of previous work and creative capacity to contribution to the overall group.

Please submit images of your work (max 10), a short biography and a covering letter stating why you wish to be involved not later than 1^st August 2012.

The participants will be invited to make a 10-minute presentation about their practice to HKBU students and the general public during the event.

Prototypes/concepts will be exhibited in the Haptic InterFace exhibition at the end of the 10-day un-conference. It is anticipated that the resulting works should be finished within 12 months.

Cost: 
3000 HK$ (aprox. US$ 385) includes 10 days workshop, a materials budget, basic meals. The cost helps subsidize the expenses of this non-profit event.

Limited UGC funded places are available to outstanding candidates.

Some subsidised or billeted accommodation is available.

For application submission or any enquiry, please contact us: katia@hkbu.edu.hk or (852) 3411 8196.

Haptic InterFace exhibition
The un-conference will run parallel with the Haptic InterFace exhibition November 21^st– December 16^th at the Koo Ming Kwon Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong. It will feature art/design/multi-media work in the form of body-related objects from leading artists and designers around the world. Concepts and prototypes developed in the Wearables Lab will be added to the core exhibition at the end of the un-conference.

Who will be in there

• ANDERSEN, Kristina (Wearable Computers, Netherlands). Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) and Founding Research Fellow of the Research Institute in the Converging Arts & Sciences (ICAS) at the University of Greenwich.
• CHUNG, Bryan (Interactive Multimedia, Hong Kong). Interactive Media Consultant and Assis. Prof. at HKBU.
• FLANAGAN, Tricia (Wearables and Public Art, Hong Kong). Wearables Lab Director and Assis. Prof. at HKBU.
• FUKS, Hugo (Computer Science, Brazil). Head of the Groupware Research Group and Assoc. Prof. at PUC-Rio.
• GILGEN, Daniel (Intermedia Design, Germany). Intermedia Design Fachhochschule Trier – Hochschule fuer Technik, Wirtshaft und Gestaltung at University of Applied Science.
• HO, Siu Kee (Sculpture, Hong Kong). Assoc. Prof. at HKBU.
• JAMES, Johnathan (Print as object, Australia). Printmaker/Stylist and Lecturer School of Drama Fine Art and Music, Faculty of Education and Arts at Newcastle University.
• KOCHHAR-LINDGREN, Kanta (Choreography, USA) Assoc. Prof. at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at University of Washington Bothell.
• SHAW, Elizabeth (Jewellery and Small Objects, Australia). Acting Convenor of Fine Art at Queensland College of Art Griffith University.
• TILBURY, Nancy (Fashion design, wearable technology) Studio_XO, London, UK.
• VEGA, Katia(Computer Science, Brazil) Researcher at the Groupware Research Group, PUC-Rio.
• WILDE, Danielle (Interactive Multimedia, Australia). Visiting Research Fellow at Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University and Prime Minster’s Australia Asia Research Scholar at The University of Tokyo in 2011.

Sponsors:
If you are interested in being one of our sponsors, please contact katia@hkbu.edu.hk  or (852) 3411 8196 .