PLAN - Pervasive and Location Arts Network

From the locative [http://locative.x-i.net]list

PERVASIVE AND LOCATIVE ARTS NETWORK (PLAN)
A new international and interdisciplinary research network in pervasive media and locative media has been funded as part of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Culture & Creativity programme. The network will bring together practicing artists, technology developers and ethnographers with the aim of advancing interdisciplinary understanding and building consortia for future collaborative projects.

Focus
A new generation of pervasive technologies is enabling people to break away from traditional desktop PCs and games consoles and experience interactive media that are directly embedded into the world around them. And locative media, the combination of mobile devices with locative technologies, supports experiences and social interaction that respond to a participant's physical location and context. Together these convergent fields raise possibilities for new cultural experiences in areas as diverse as performance, installations, games, tourism, heritage, marketing and education.

Objectives
To support the formation of a new interdisciplinary research community to investigate how the convergent fields of pervasive media and locative media need to evolve in order to support future cultural and creative activities. To catalogue interdisciplinary collaborations, and to review the research agenda, methods, and community.
To identify the key research issues that need to be addressed.
To seed future projects by bringing artists, scientists and industry
together in a creative environment so that they can generate and
practically explore new ideas, and also to provide a forum for publicly demonstrating some of these.
To produce online and offline resources to support researchers, artists, industry and to promote public understanding of this emerging field, including a public website, an online document repository for members and a newsletter and DVD.
To lobby for additional funding for this area.
To link international networks.

Activity
The network will stage three major gatherings. Each gathering will have a distinct form and focus: an initial workshop to launch the network and assess the state of the art; a technology summer camp for artists and technologists, including hands-on prototyping sessions using the facilities at Nottingham's Mixed reality Laboratory; and a major public conference and participatory exhibition as a central component of the Futuresonic 2006 festival in Manchester; as well as a supporting web site and other resources.

JOINING THE NETWORK

The network is open to individuals, art companies and industry research
labs as well as institutions.

To join the Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN) please write to
stating the nature of your interest and why the network is of relevance to
the kind of area you are working in. An email is adequate. (Please contact
us for further details or a template letter.)

Please send to:
ben at open-plan dot org