Interact News
A Cybernetic Ecology Exhibition
Posted: Fri, 25 Nov 2016 23:51
Having organised The Art of Crass and Microworld Leicester exhibitions this year, we are ending 2016 with an exhibition of new work by Sean Clark. "A Cybernetic Ecology" is the result of more than four year's work and features both solo and collaborative pieces. The exhibition will take place at the LCB Depot Lightbox between the 6th and 23rd December. Read More »
Welcome to Microworld Leicester
Posted: Fri, 19 Aug 2016 20:06
Join Interact Digital Arts and Genetic Moo at Wot SPACE in Leicester's Highcross for a week of digital art experimentation and free workshops. Microworld Leicester will feature artwork from the award-winning artists together with plenty of opportunities for people to get involve and learn about digital technologies such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BBC Micro:bit, 3D Printing and much more. The event has been supported by Leicester City Council and the Arts Council and runs between 20th and 28th August at Wot Space on Shires Lane.
Art.CHI Workshop and Exhibition 2016
Posted: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 22:06
For the second year running we have been involved in the organisation of the Art.CHI workshop and exhibition at the ACM CHI Conference and produced the Art.CHI website. This year's event took place in San Jose in Silicon Valley. The website contains information about the digital artworks that were selected for inclusion in the workshop (7th and 8th May) and the exhibition at the nearby Works Gallery. The website can be found at http://art-chi.org and includes a link to last year's artworks as well as this year.
Interact Events Guide
Posted: Fri, 12 Feb 2016 15:41
The Interact events guide now not only features Interact Digital Arts events, but other digital arts events in Leicester, and selected events from the Midlands, the UK and beyond. We hope that you find it useful.
Perhaps the first thing you might notice is that there is a really interesting collection of exhibitions happening in London at the moment. The first, Big Bang Data has been running at Somerset House since December and explores the impact "Big Data" on our lives from a creative perspective. Next, Electronic Superhighway at The Whitechapel Gallery is a look back at 50 years of computer and internet art. Held over three floors it's quite comprehensive. Finally, a new show of solo work by pioneering digital artist Manfred Mohr as just opened at the Fletcher/Carroll Gallery. This is a rare opportunity to see new work by one of the masters of computer art. If you can, having a day out in London and visiting all three while they're all on would be a good thing to do.
Closer to home, The Canvas of Resonance exhibition is still on in Leicester, and Silent Signal is on in Derby. Next week sees the Visible Bits Audible Bytes conference at Phoenix too. Visit the Interact events guide at http://interactdigitalarts.uk/diary.
Pictured: Manfred Mohr at the Carroll/Fletcher Gallery, London.
Jorge Ramos Talk Video
Posted: Sat, 30 Jan 2016 18:11
We hosted a very interesting talk by Jorge Lopes Ramos from ZU-UK at Interact Labs on Wednesday. Jorge took us through his experiences of running the interactive/participatory performance Hotel Medea and other arts activities.
His talk was very relevant to anyone interested in the nature of interactivity and audience participation and it generated lots of questions and discussion with the audience. A recording of the talks (and some of the questions) can be found here on Vimeo. If you are interested in knowing more about Hotel Madea there are also plenty of other videos available.
The talk was arranged by the Computer Arts Society Leicester and IOCT.
New Code Club Sessions
Posted: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 15:58
We have booked the next series of Code Club sessions in the Lab. The group will now be meeting fortnightly (on a Monday, 4:30pm until 6pm) and there are still a few places left. You will need to be quick if you want one though, we are limited to 10 youngsters at the moment and the club is proving popular.
This season's group project is an autonomous drawing robot that we are calling "Pollock" (after the famous artist Jackson Pollock). During the six planned sessions we will be learning how to make the robot, program it and create your own drawings with it. We then hope to show off our work at the Spark Children's Arts Festival later in the year.
We are keen on making this project as "open" as possible and even if you aren't able to come to the Code Club sessions you are welcome to get involved. If there is interest we will run additional public Saturday or evening sessions.
To find out more about Pollock visit the project web page.
Welcome to Interact Digital Arts
Posted: Fri, 01 Jan 2016 15:16
A new year and the start of a new venture! As of today Interact Digital Arts Ltd is officially open for business. We have been using the name for a few of months now, but 1st January 2016 marks the formal launch of the project. Read More »
Phoenix Code Club
Posted: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:42
Yesterday was the last Phoenix Code Club of the year. Having started in October, we have built up a great team of seven regular attendees and two STEM Ambassadors. We have spent time working on Scratch programming, getting to know the 3D printer, a little bit of Minecraft and looking at how the Arduino and Raspberry Pi work.
We have been wondering how to develop the group further and have decided that we will now go from meeting monthly to meeting fortnightly. We will also start to become more project focussed, with one group project (maybe a robot!) and individual projects for those who want them.
If you are interested in your child coming along as an attendee (ages 9 to 11) or want to to volunteer as a helper then please get in touch. We will be announcing the dates of the next club meetings in the new year, but they will remain on Monday afternoons from 4:30 to 6pm.
Computer Drawing Exhibition
Posted: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 14:51
We're really pleased to announce that we have been successful in getting Arts Council funding for our "Computer Drawing: DP Henry and Beyond" exhibition. This is something we've wanted to host for a while and the funding allows us to run it in the way we had always wanted!
The exhibition runs from the 2nd until 17th December across two sites. A collection of DP Henry originals will be shown in the Phoenix CaféBar in Leicester and a connected exhibition of artworks by contemporary artists who use drawing in their work (not always drawing machines) will be shown in the LCB Lightbox just 2 minutes away.
There will also be two Saturday workshops at LCB on the 5th and 12th December and an evening of talks at Phoenix on the 17th. It is going to be a fascinating exhibition with some great work on show. Visit http://interactdigitalarts.uk/computer-drawing-exhibition for full details.
Creat-A-Con: Plus - CANCELLED
Posted: Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:26
Following a highly successful Creat-A-Con: Kids event in February, Leicester-based event organisers SideFest will be hosting Creat-A-Con: Plus aimed at College age and above.
Creat-A-Con: Plus will be held in Queen's Building, DMU on Saturday 7th November and is being supported by the Square Mile Project.
Though independent of STEMnet, both Creat-A-Con events support their goal of inspiring members of the public with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics through engagement with local and national organisations, such as Interact Labs and Hackspaces.
You can expect to see a variety of 3D printing, Raspberry Pi, and Oculus projects, as well as indie games, reverse-engineered gaming, and other interactive medium that defy conventional labels!
We have heard that the event has been cancelled. It should hopefully happen next year.
