WHERE: – online on http://water-wheel.net/taps/dock/110
- on site in Brisbane at the Judith Wright Centre – shopfront (residency)

WHEN: – Thursday 20 & Friday 21 October at 5pm (Brisbane, Australia) – find your time here
- Saturday 22 Oct at 4pm (Brisbane, Australia) - find your time here

we suggest you come at least 15 minutes before, you open your browser, and click or copy & paste this link: http://water-wheel.net/taps/dock/110 – In the right upper corner, there will be a white rectangle – click on ENTER

Brisbane crew: Suzon Fuks (project initiator), Anna Yen (performer), Rozina Suliman (set designer), Nathen Street (interactive system designer), James Cunningham (external eye & go between), Felicity Organ-Moore (light & production), Laura Steiner (AV assistant/documenter), Doug Leonard (dramaturg), and Will Davies (IT)
Online crew: Maartje Belmer (NL) (choreography, project assistant), Kaz L Gibbs (AUS), Hedva Eltanani (UK), Katarina DJ Uroševi? (Serbia), Amin Hammami (Tunisia) (soundscape)

There will be feedback session after each showing. Looking forward to meeting you on the TAP!

DESCRIPTION
Networked/telematic/telepresence performance/presentation & real time media mixing laboratory exploring & testing the online venue TAP,
- as well as the tools: webcams (which can move, rotate, resize, flip in real time), but also mix & use media palettes, realtime drawing tool & type chat, we will use our own bodies
- explorations: scores/parameters/mini-scripts on the theme of water, interaction between webcams & body movements/voice & media, mixing & layering media (also with webcams), interaction text/voice/sound/chat, interaction online/onsite spaces with or without projections Documentation of previous laboratories on the blog

AIMS
- exploring & testing TAP – as a new platform in development: what works, what doesn’t, what can be improved, wish list
- make your own performances/presentations on the TAP
- meeting future possible collaborators
- possible participation in various events (launch on 22 August, installation performance Oct & Dec, water science symposium, etc…to be discussed at the lab)

PARTICIPANTS PROFILE: Open-minded, interested in collaboration across disciplines (in arts, sciences, activism, environmentalism, education), curious to experiment and share skills

PRE-REQUISITE: There is no particular computer skill necessary for the workshop, however it could be useful to have some knowledge of these applications: photoshop, flash, video & sound editing.

PRACTICALLY : Bring your computer, in-built or/and external webcam, headset, media related to water (stills, videos, flash animations, sound & music files, text, spreadsheets). Be ready to move in comfortable clothes. NO FEE AS IT IS BASED ON EXPLORATIVE PERSONAL INTEREST OF EACH PARTICIPANT.

SCHEDULE & REGISTRATION – please select your sessions on doodle
- 12-15July online 1 session a day, onsite in residence at iMAL from 13-21h
- 18-22July only online 2 sessions a day to chose from – you need to take part in 3 sessions min (2hours per session). Please send an email to suzon

ABOUT SUZON: Suzon Fuks is a media artist, choreographer and director exploring the integration and interaction of dance & moving image through performance, screen, installation & online work. She is currently an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship recipient.

Since the announcement of the project, responses show a real interest for the topic, the metaphor & the platform.  Exciting!  Propositions from curators, research, involvement of university students, info forwarded to scientists,etc.   We had a bit of delay in the platform development, as I came back end of the year with swine flu, and Inkahoots studio was out of service for 2 weeks because of the floods. So we will work with a very basic version of the platform, which is maybe more open at this stage for your feedback & advice on its functionalities.

We started a conversation between lab & online participants (below full list of participants), as well as interested people, on a:  Facebook group and a Blog.

The FOUNTAIN first public events (with audience online & on site in Brisbane, at the Bell Tower, level 3, Judith Wright Centre) will happen on:
- March 3 & 4 @6-8pm (Qld time – find your time)
- March 5 @11.30am-1.30pm (Qld time – find your time) & 5-7pm (Qld time -  find your time) ! we will post links & more info closer to the dates !

CORE TEAM: Suzon Fuks artistic director, project coordinator | Sofia Woods performer/choreographer | James Cunningham external eye & IGNEOUS representative | Felicity Organ-Moore stage/production manager | Will Davy IT & sound technician | INKAHOOTS: Mat Johnson developer, Jason Grant designer, INKAHOOTS artistic director, Bretton – designer | Brisbane LAB PARTICIPANTS: Rozina Suliman | Emma Che Martin | Nathen Street | Kimberley Bianca Warren | Kaz Gibbs | Richelle Spence | Silke Tanzt | Emmy Steiner | ONLINE PARTICIPANTS: Shannon Parsons (Toowoomba, QLD, Australia) | Elizabeth Bryce (NZ) | Vicki Smith (NZ) | Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann (NZ) | Vincent Probo (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) | Nagasamy Ramachandra (Chennai, India) | Sajani Ganapathy Murugan (Chennai, India) | Beatrice de Fays (Paris, France) | Marloeke van der Vlugt (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) | Katarina Djordevic Urosevic (Belgrade, Serbia) | Cherry Truluk (London, UK) | Hedva Eltanani (London, UK) | Ben Unterman (Vancouver, Canada) | ONLINE DOCUMENTER & CONTRIBUTOR: Francesco Buonaiuto (Naples, Italy)

This project is initiated by Suzon Fuks, an Australia Council for the Arts Fellow, in collaboration with IGNEOUS & INKAHOOTS, and assisted by Arts Queensland, Ausdance Queensland, Youth Arts Queensland, & the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts (Brisbane).

A unique workshop opportunity to participate in the first phase of the WATERWHEEL project.
The workshop will develop a networked/telematic installation performance on the theme of WATER, initiated by Suzon Fuks, Australia Council Fellow.  She will facilitate emerging and interested intermedia artists, composers, video makers, visual artists, dancers, performers, or choreographers (maximum 5 participants in Brisbane) to engage, collaborate and forge creative partnerships, developing and testing a brand new internet platform specifically made for performance and mixed media, and creating a new installation performance with participatory audience. At least 2 showings onsite & online will conclude the workshop.

WHEN: Feb 21 to March 6 (for Brisbane participants Mo-Fri 4-7pm &/or Sat 10.30am-5pm)
WHERE: Ausdance Bell Tower, YAQ & on internet
WHAT: creative process will include brainstorming, improvs, gathering of media, inter-skill sharing sessions, at least 2 onsite & online events & feedback with leaders in the fields.
HOW: #1- write an email by 1st February with full contact details & expressing your interest in the WATERWHEEL project -#2- in a phone or skype conversation, you will be asked: what is your clear commitment to the creative process, your availability, which other relevant experience you have -#3- you will be advised by email by February 4.

MORE INFO: email or call Suzon Fuks on 0404 292 119

ABOUT THE WATERWHEEL PROJECT

Following a year of preparation, 2011: The Waterwheel starts turning! Welcome!  Be a part of this new online collaborative space without borders: from teachers to students, performers to scientists, producers, programmers, curators, visual artists, composers, activists and everyone in between. All ages welcome!

The upcoming Waterwheel project revolves around WATER as a topic and a metaphor – what people want to share, say, or debate about this fundamental element.  It includes:
The Waterwheel – an interactive website
The Tap – an online performance & collaborative venue
Fountains – outcomes that well up from the project

The Waterwheel interactive website will give you the power to collaborate, explore ideas, research and gather feedback by uploading and sharing media about water: images, video, music, text or sound.

The Tap online performance & collaborative venue will be accessible by audience and performers with just a click, no download needed, and will be free. ‘Live’ performers from various locations will interact with audiences in real time using webcams, media from The Waterwheel and drawing tools. Audience can participate online through a chat facility or directly with the ‘live’ performers on site. From February, basic versions of The Waterwheel and The Tap will be available, you can be involved and follow the developments by uploading your media, exploring the online venue, and giving your feedback.

Fountains will be outcomes that anyone is free to initiate and will be triggered by interactions on The Waterwheel.  A Fountain could be a book, a performance, an exhibition, a community project, a multi-generational exchange, a concert or an installation festival – let your imagination steer the way. These Fountains will be mapped out on the website, so you can see what The Waterwheel is powering. Throughout 2011, workshop residencies will develop one Fountain which is an installation performance, testing the website and the online venue. The first residency, which runs 14 Feb – 6 March, is based in Brisbane and open for your participation online or on site.  Please let us know if you are interested.

Turn the wheel your way and pass on this message to your pool of people! Welcome to translate it into your language.  For more information about any part of the project and how to contribute/participate, please email.

Since March, am doing some trials on Selfworld with ActiveLayers (with Cherry in London and Liz in Kawerau (NZ) and James and I in Brisbane).  Ivan Chabanaud comes sometimes to our meetings to tweak the server and our room, and in some pix, played Gulliver demonstrating how to use the encoder as a moving backdrop….
We are working on theme of water…made few movies, gather some images and songs, and try to find scores that we can do online.
The use of multi-video streams is powerful,  opening up a lot of possibilities but it needs a lot of tweaking and patience, above all for the sound.  But somehow being able to see each other is a big reward which gives us all the patience needed!
It gives definitely another space to ‘perform’, a space of intimacy, closeness, macro details, computer’s immediate surrounding, but also outdoors, public spaces, landscapes…
In Yogyakarta (Indonesia), we bought a 3G stick, and continued our trials  from here, just beside a paddy field.
James went to internet cafes/parlours to have a separate connection.  He could not put his own laptop on the network, and had to use the local computer/webcam….which once was pretty fuzzy (because of fungi growing with humidity)… but other time, were quite interesting cause not in-built in the computer, giving freedom to film around and have various angles.
Because we didn’t have access to printers, we start using other devices with mini-screens to show images (iphone & digital camera), sketches, little objects, using also paper that we were tearing on the spot to shapes… great immediacy, interesting aesthetic, fine movements of hands… to be continued!

Backyard Dances was made for the Electrosmog Festival performance/events program.
ElectroSmog is a new festival that revolves around the concept Sustainable Immobility. The festival introduced and explored this concept in theory and practice. With Sustainable Immobility they refer to a critique of current systems of hyper mobility of people and products in travel and transport, and their ecological unsustainability.