Tag Archives: Prof Jeremy Ramsden

Back from the 2009 International Symposium on Electronic Arts

I was a little optimistic about being able to blog while I was in Ireland and Northern Ireland for the 2009 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA). I’d forgotten just how jampacked conference schedules can be.

First off, my presentation (Nanotechnology, storytelling. sensing, and materiality which was part of the Posthumanism: New Technologies and Creative Strategies track) was on Aug. 26, the first day (thank goodness), and according to the moderator, it went well. It’s the first time I’ve had a relatively full room for one of my presentations. Of course, I had a typo on my first slide … I’d misspelled my name. We had some good discussion after my talk which is usually a sign that people have been engaged at some level.

I was excited and thrilled to find out that the moderator for the session was Andy Miah (you can find him here or here) as I know he’s been interested in nanotechnology (he had a nano project for a PhD student a few years back).  He’s currently a professor at the University of the West of Scotland and much in demand at various conferences and symposia.  His interests are broad ranging from literature, sciences, philosophy, and more. I found out from him on the last day of the conference that 40% of the submissions for my track were accepted.

I also got to meet Julie Freeman, an artist who worked with Jeremy Ramsden (scientist) to produce: in Particular; Nano Novels – Art & Science from the Tiniverse. She very kindly gave me a copy of their work and I have to say it was a thrill to meet her. If you’re interested in the “novels”, go here. (I think the word novel is being used in a form of word play as is “particular” i.e. playing off nano particle.) If you’re interested in Julie Freeman’s work, go here.

Unfortunately my notes are nowhere near as coherent as I imagined them to be but I will be blogging more about the conference in the next day or so. Also, I will be posting an interview with Preston Manning later this week.

Unexpected time off; now back for nano

My system melted down last Monday (Mar.2.09) and, as often happens with these things, it turned out to be more complicated (and expensive) than we hoped. On the good side, I’ve gotten things cleaned up, more memory, and updated a few programs on my system. On the not so good side, I still have a lot of catching up to do. Plus, I’ve decided to update this site … soon.

There was a nano song making the rounds recently and i finally got a chance to watch it.  It’s charming and it tells the nano story complete with puppets.

I also found an art/science project focusing on nanotechnology at Cranfield University, UK. Julie Freeman, artist-in-residence, worked with Professor Jeremy Ramsden to produce a series of 16 nano ‘novels’. I’m not sure why they’ve called them novels since they’re described this way:

Nano Novels consists of 16 graphic artworks, inspired by nanotechnology. Each artwork is accompanied by some ‘stereo literature’ – factual scientific text and metaphorical text.

Warning! Disgruntled writer ahead! It sounds like it’s artwork accompanied by a few pieces of text. Since when does that qualify as a novel? (sigh) I know it’s all changing but shouldn’t there be some sort of story. After all, graphic novels tell stories with words as well as pictures. That said, if you want to take a look at the project, go here.