melbourneDAC

Ostraylean animuls

If you happen to be coming to MelbourneDAC from foreign climes (as many of you seem to be) and you'd like to see some Australian fauna, then there are two ready to hand options. The first is the Melbourne Zoo where you can be sure to see emus, wombats, koalas, kangaroos, fairy penguins, fur seals, as well as giraffes, elephants, red pandas, and all that exotic stuff. The zoo is pretty much a 20 minute tram ride out of the centre of the city, and this page should show you how to get there.

The other main place is the Healsville Sanctuary. This is out of town, up around where the DAC Big Day Out is happening (which might, just might, include a quick visit to the Sanctuary), and is nestled in some mountain forest. Here it is all native stuff, plenty of walking, and if you're lucky you might get to pat a dingo, watch the eagles, or cuddle a snake.

On the other hand, you might want something more authentic. Bit hard to show you how to get there, but some bush next to Melbourne's major airport (Tullarmarine) is actually a reserve and last time I was out there there were more kangaroos than you could point a stick at. (I always find this ironic, a lot of international flights would land or take off over this bit of bush, and no one knows about all the cute critters just below the wings...) But if you're want to see a koala up close, the zoo.

street press

For up to date information on what is happening around town go to the local street press. RRR, PBS, SYN and 3CR are all community radio stations. There are two main street rags, Beat and Inpress, they are available from Wednesdays at most city cafes and record stores.

st kilda

The bayside suburb of St Kilda (as featured in The Secret Lives of Us) offers a vibrant underground arts and music scene through its established galleries, pubs, cafes, live music venues and the diverse characters that wander the streets. From the Metropol Station, stroll/crawl/rollerblade along Fitzroy St past legendary pubs The George and the Prince of Wales towards St Kilda pier where you can view the magnificent sunsets or catch a ferry to historic Williamstown. Walk along the esplanade past The Espy, Palace and Luna Park to Acland Street, which is lined with fancy cake shops. Galleries like Patrizia Autor, Jackman, and Linden feature work form local artists. St Kilda is home to some of Melbourne’s best cafes and restaurants. From the budget priced Lentil as Anything, City Café, Leroy, Balas, Veg Out, Galleon, Café Scherazade and the legendary Greasy Joe’s (great hangover breakfasts) to the middle range Chicolina, Veludo, Barcelona, Claypots, Chinta Ria, Ill Forneo, Banff and the Vineyard through to some Melbourne’s higher priced trendy restaurants like Lux, One Fitzroy and Circa. Visit St Kilda on a sunny day or Sunday to catch the Arts & Crafts market or head in after dark for some late night entertainment. Take a tram from the city to St Kilda Beach (15, 96, 112). For more specific information and maps please visit the City of Port Philip site.

Abstracts available

All the abstracts for the papers and panels being presented at MelbourneDAC are now available. Fantastic range and quality.

http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/abstracts.html

Program in HTML

The conference program now has its very own Web screen. Minor corrections still need to be made, but it's there, and has links to the abstracts.

Conference Media Release

The very busy MelbourneDAC administration team has written a media release about the conference. Some press have indicated a desire to attend, which is rather darn good, so if you're wanting more information about the conference, or a simple blurb, here it is. Oh, and if you're still trying to get funding to come, then the release should give you some good lines about why your employer's ought to send you here!

ConferenceMedia.pdf 120KB

Exhibition Media Release

The media release for the +playengines+ exhibition (hosted by experimedia at the State Library of Victoria) is now available. So if you can't make it to the show (which runs for one month in Melbourne) then at least you can read about it.

ExhbitionMedia.pdf (92KB)

Rod Quantock Big Night Out

This is from Deena Larsen:

This will be my last note on the subject, really. I would like to make this tour work, and I do need people to reserve so that I can go ahead with arrangements.

This will NOT interfere with any DAC function--it is on Friday night after the festivities die down. This will be a unique opportunity--a famous local comic comes out of hhiding to do a wonderful tour. You will never see Melbourne--or any other city for that matter--in the same light again!

Please tell me if you can make this, and send this message off to anyone you know in Melbourne. Thanks

Deena

Deena's email is deenalarsen@yahoo.com

DeskTop Spread

Desktop:, an Australian design journal (who is a sponsor of MelbourneDAC, hence the free plug), has just published a four page spread on the +playengines+ show that is a part of the conference. If you're in Australia get yourself a copy (and I can't for the life of me find a web page for the mag...).

Footy

If you wanted a bit of authentic cultural tourism (or perhaps that would be ethnographic tourism?) and you're looking for something to do on the Friday night after MelbourneDAC, or the Saturday afternoon then try having a look at a match of Australian Rules Football (Aussie Rules, or if you live anywhere in Australia south of Sydney, simply "footy"). The fixture is here, and there are three matches being played in Melbourne. We take our footy seriously in Melbourne (it's our bookish culture - we think nothing of turning our backs to the world in a stadium of 60,000 people and watching a game that we do treat as our morality play). If you've never seen it before you have to have someone explain the rules to you. (Any game, with no knowledge of the rules, only ever appears as chaos, except Irish curling, which really is anarchy.) This is very Melbourne, and footy crosses most class and cultural distinctions.

Program

The version of the program (gold master v.1.0) that is off to the printers has been made available. I'll try and get it into HTML shortly so it can be viewed online. Of course, since the conference is still four weeks away, it will no doubt vary... It is a 212kb download.

MelbourneDAC program (pdf).

oh, Inner City

FITZROY and FITZROY Nth:
How to get there:
The West Preston tram no.112 from Collins St will take you along Brunswick St, Fitzroy and St Georges Rd, Fitzroy Nth.

RESTAURANTS:
BLUE CHILLIES: 182 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. tel. 9417 0071
Most delicious Malaysian restuarant. Exceedingly polite staff.
Alight at King William St.
Website here

MOROCCAN SOUP BAR: 183 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North.
Verbal menu delivered by slightly crazy woman - no alchohol allowed- mostly vegan.
Alight at Scotchmer St.

PUBS:
THE PINNACLE: 251 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North.
Slurp famous Pinnacle oysters, sip cold beer at the warm fireplace.
Alight at Scotchmer St.

THE EMPRESS OF INDIA HOTEL: Corner Scotchmer St and Nicholson St (which lies parralel to, and west of, St Georges Rd), Fitzroy North.
Extraordinary exponent of Melbourne's diverse independent music scene: live music almost every night.

THE ROBROY HOTEL: 51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.
Dark corners to lounge in, swirly metallic sky blue wallpaper: another place to drink and catch more live melbourne music.

GALLERIES:
Centre for Contemporary Photography
205 Johnston St
www.ccp.org.au

more things to do in melbourne to follow soon...

Galleries

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE OF CONTEMPORARY ART: 111 Sturt Street, Southbank.
this big rusty monolith has a new show called "the Labyrinthine Effect' opening on the 23rd of May. If you have a car, ACCA is a great place to do burnouts.
Open tues-sun 11-6. To get there, take tram no.1 from Swanston St - alight stop 18.
www.accaonline.org.au

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR THE MOVING IMAGE
at Federation Square: Screen gallery downstairs full of new media art.
www.acmi.net.au

life is so much more interesting with

SYNAETHESIA: Upstairs, 28 Block Place (above the optometrist), Melbourne.
Excellent experimental music store. Sit on the corner couch, listen to cds, browse books, magazines and comics. The Synaethesia 'Strewth' CD compilation of abstract electronic music from australia and new zealand is brilliant.
Open: mon-sat 11-6.
www.synrecords.com

compulsory

QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET: 513 Elizabeth St, Melbourne.
a most undigital environment -very therapeutic-: hard to frown when surrounded by wonderous aromas, free tastings (wine, cheese, preserves) and bustling peoples from all over the place.
in the deli, purchase: quality teas and coffees from McIvers, big fat spicy bratwursts 'worth crossing town for' from the Bratwurst Shoppe, and only the best honey roasted cashews and macadamias from Nut Trek.
Open: tues & thurs 6-2, fri 6-6, sat 6-2, sun 9-4.
www.qvm.com.au

two cafe/bars very close to RMIT

RUE BEBELONS: 267 Little Lonsdale St (just off Swanston St), Melbourne.
Enjoy: musica latino; smoking inside; cheap tasty coffee and wine-
Open: mon-fri 8am-3am, sat 11am-3am, sun 2pm-8pm

SAHARA: Upstairs, 301 Swanston St, Melbourne.
Enjoy: fresh produce from the Queen Victoria Markets turned into tasty sandwiches and bagels; bread and dips; tim tams with your coffee; imported beers; eclectic record collection from jackson 5 to yo yo ma-
Open: lunch til late

Conference hardware

At the moment this is what we are planning on having available for delegates and presenters at the conference. But this will no doubt change. . .

• Some ethernet connections so people can hook up their laptops to check email and do whatever networked activities they need to do.
• G4 Powerbook to use for presentations (powerpoint, flash, quicktime, browsers and so on)
• Set up room with lampshade iMacs for presenters to test their content, burn it to CDROM (if needed), and so forth.
• Support for bringing and presenting from your own laptop
• ethernet to each presentation venue for presenters

Am investigating providing wireless but this is not looking promising at this point.

Can I Still Register?

Quite a few people have been in touch about registrating for DAC after April 11, usually because they need to wait on the outcome of funding applications. This is fine, and is being managed on a case by case basis. If you would still like to register then please get in touch, so we can preserve a space for you - anna.farago@rmit.edu.au

SARS

You may be informed about health warnings or screenings for SARS if you are intending to travel to Australia. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It is an influenza like disease that has been recently identified and there are currently cases in parts of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, and Australia. In Australia all cases so far (I'm not sure what the current number is, I think 6) have involved people who have arrived here from another country.

This is the formal information that has been distributed to university staff here at RMIT. I need to stress no one actually has it, but it is recognised as a potential international health crisis, so here's the official line:

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA) has stated that the risk of contracting SARS while travelling overseas is low. SARS has almost exclusively been transmitted from close contacts such as family, friends or carers during periods of illness. The incubation period is usually 2 to 7 days, although in some cases it has been up to 10 days.If you do have to travel to countries where SARS is present, DHA has provided advice on how to reduce the risk of contracting SARS. These preventative measures include:

• Avoiding crowds;
• Covering your nose and mouth with a handkerchief if near someone who is coughing;
• Using alcohol-based hand wipes and
• Regularly washing your hands.

• High fever (over 38 degrees celsius)
• Feeling short of breath
• Dry cough
• Headache, aches and pains associated with fever

• World Health Organisation
• Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
• Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs

Media Access

Melbourne DAC is a non-for profit cultural event, i.e. programmed and budgeted on a break-even model. This means we are unable to give away press passes that are the equivalent of a full registration fee.Reviewers, journalists, media, etc. who are interested in particular, one off sessions, can have access to these sessions. In these cases please email (anna.farago@rmit.edu.au) or fax (+61 (3) 9639 1685) us the details of the journalist, their institutional affiliation, and any sessions they wish to attend.Alternatively we are able to offer concession registration rates to appropriately accredited members of the media.

Amended Schedule

Well, yesterday's schedule lasted 12 hours. New updated version (0.2) now available for download (44kb).

Draft Schedule

A preliminary schedule for the conference is now available as a pdf. It's a 44kb download, it will be available via html pages shortly.

Language - "dag"

Dag is a word that gets a lot of use. Technically it refers to the grotty bit of gunk that collects around a sheep's tail and is why in this country sheep have their tails docked. But colloquially it refers to someone who is, well, a bit of a nerd (in that 1970s sense of nurd). It has a wide range of values, so to say to someone "You're a dag" can actually be a form of sweet talking, but in other contexts it has all the negative connotations of being unfashionably out of date, socially clumsy, and just, well, daggy. Generally you don't want to be a dag.

What is full registration?

Full registration simply means those delegates who have paid for the entire conference. No distinction is made between those who pay the full cost and those who have paid a concession rate. If you are a full delegate then you get access to all the goodies. Those who are only attending for a day or two only get access to the day time conference activities for the days they have registered for.

What is the DAC Day Out?

On Wednesday May 21 the entire conference is being packed into busses to travel into the nearby Yarra Valley. Lunch will be provided at a local winery. Why are we doing this? For several reasons.

First of all I have attended too many conferences in beautiful cities where all I have seen is an airport, taxi, hotel, and auditorium. People are not going to fly around the world to get to MelbourneDAC to not see some real Australian bush - period.

It will be a social day, of course, and that's because the development of viable professional networks is a social activity. The conference papers are things that provide the contexts for dialogue and the Day Out is an event that is to foster these discussions and networks. Professional practice is personal and social and it ought to include friendships and families.

Finally, MelbourneDAC is an intensive conference experience because as an event it is designed to provide a forum that develops ideas and is not a 'talk and walk' event. A Day Out is an opportunity to continue working, but in a new environment, and so is also an opportunity to recharge for the final two days.

What do I get for full registration?

Those who have registered for the entire conference get access to all conference events (excluding the conference dinner). This includes: every day's sessions; morning, afternoon tea and lunch for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; lunch and travel on Wednesday, access to the artists day at Experimedia on Friday; a copy of the full paper proceedings on paper; a copy of all papers on CDROM; an invitation to the opening night reception at ACMI; an invitation and free entry to the performance evening on Tuesday; an invitation to participate in the DAC Day Out on Wednesday.

The conference dinner is a separate event and is $45 per head.

Language - "g'day"

Yep, it's a cliche. The first bit of local argot to help you get by is "g'day". An abbreviated version of "good day". Do Australian's actually say this? Yes, but not always. When would you use it? When you meet someone. Can it ever be offensive? Not this one. (Unlike say, dag, which is very context sensitive.) Would would we think highly of anyone else using it? Not likely.

Where is Melbourne?

In this map of Australia you'll notice that Melbourne is down in the south east of the main continent. Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria (Australia is a federal system), has over 3 million people, and has seriously good food courtesy of our multicultural community - once upon a time, perhaps still, Melbourne was the world's third largest Greek city. The Lonely Planet site has some good info (a Melbourne company by the way). If you're from the northern hemisphere, then Melbourne is more or less at the same latitude (nearly) as Philadelphia or the lower part of Italy or the middle of Portugal. Not as cold as the former, not as warm as the latter pair.

Melbourne Weather

This is a difficult topic, since everyone else in Australia likes to complain about Melbourne's weather. We have hot summers and, by Australian standards, cold winters, and the weather can be extremely variable (even in one day). In May the average maximum wanders between 11°C and 20°C. For my money 11°C would be an exceptionally cold May day, and I'd expect somewhere around 15°C or 16°C to be the norm.

The mornings can be cold (10°C) and it can take most of the day to get to the maximum - Melbourne isn't one of those cities where you only get a few degrees variation during a day (unlike Singapore, or Bergen for that matter - in both cities a temperature variation of 4 degrees in a day is almost odd). Expect some rain (we're in the middle of a serious drought, so if we get 5 days of rain don't expect the locals to begrudge the weather.

That time of year there's about 10 hours of direct sunlight, sunrise is around 7am and sunset will be pretty early, something like 5.30pm.

The Bureau of Meteorology are our weather soothsayers and if you follow the "Melbourne Forecast" link on their Victorian page you'll get a current forecast. Oh, and we use Celsius to measure temperature, I've forgotten how to convert it to Farenheit, but 0° is frozen water and 100° it boils.

Currency

In Australia the unit of currency is the Australian dollar ($) (aka "ostreylean dolla") and it is a decimal system and the little bitty bits are called cents. 100 cents to a dollar. We got rid of 1 and 2 cent pieces quite some years ago, so the 5 cent piece is our littlest bit of currency. The Australian dollar is worth around 60 US cents and 56 Euro at the moment. The coins are 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents, and 1 and 2 dollars. The denomination of notes are $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

You'll find a currency calculator at cnn, and at x-rates.

What is the History of DAC?

The first DAC conference was held at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1998 of the Norwegian Research Council. It has since been hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology (1999), The University of Bergen (2000), and Brown University (2001). MelbourneDAC:streaming worlds is the first time that DAC will be held in the southern hemisphere and will provide a regional focus within the international DAC community.

RMIT University is an Australian leader in real world research and development and recognised internationally for its creative arts and media programs. The RMIT School of Applied Communication is committed to the provision of international best practice applied humanities and design education, and has a research focus on new media humanities. And it goes without saying that the School of Applied Communication is proud to have been chosen as the host for MelbourneDAC:streaming worlds from 19 May to 23 May, 2003.

Why Would I Come to DAC?

Well, that depends on who you are and what you do. If you're an academic then you would come to DAC because it is a conference that is serious about being a collaborative and interdisciplinary event where the papers are intended to be precursors to serious conversation. DAC specifically brings together a diverse range of theoretical views and practices, addressing a range of new media, because we believe that interdisciplinary and collaborative work is the basis for moving forward on key theoretical and practitioner based problems in digital arts and culture.

Too many conferences are simply 'talk and walk' events where you present work that you treat as finished, closed, and more or less outside of criticism. You answer a few questions, say hello to people you already know and possibly meet a few new people. You'll attend sessions that pretty much reinforce what you think you're already interested in, hear more papers that think they've got the answer, and perhaps ask a question. This is not going to happen at DAC.

At DAC all papers are available to all participants prior to the conference, and co-session speakers are expected to have read each others papers, and to have prepared open questions about each others work. These questions are not of the "good paper but you're wrong and if you have done x, y, and z (ie. written like I would have) then you'd be right." The questions will be specifically framed to draw out what is useful, productive, problematic, innovative in each others papers.

It is a conference about engaging with ideas, establishing peer networks, collaboration, and creative critical thinking.

What is DAC?

DAC is digital arts and culture and it is a conference series that was initiated by Espen Aarseth in 1998. first one without external funding, so this is the one that probably makes or breaks the conference as an ongoing series.

The conference is serious about being a collaborative and interdisciplinary event where the papers are intended to be precursors to serious conversation. DAC specifically seeks to bring together a diverse range of theoretical views and practices, addressing a range of new media, because I believe that interdisciplinary and collaborative work is the basis for moving forward on key theoretical and practitioner based problems in digital arts and culture.

Too many conferences are simply 'talk and walk' events where you present work that you treat as finished, closed, and more or less outside of criticism. You answer a few questions, say hello to people you already know and possibly meet a few new people. You attend sessions that pretty much reinforce what you think you're already interested in, here more papers that think they've got the answer, and perhaps ask a question. This is not going to happen at DAC. A parody? OK, but if you're into computer games and there's a session on games on one on interactive fiction which one will you go to?

At DAC all papers are available to all participants prior to the conference, and co-session speakers are expected to have read each others papers, and to have prepared open questions about each others work. These questions are not of the "good paper but you're wrong and if you have done x, y, and z (ie. written like I would have) then you'd be right." The questions will be specifically framed to draw out what is useful, productive, problematic, and innovative in each others papers. This is because the most valuable work of the conference will be in the dialogue that the papers begin, and if it doesn't do that, then it would be just easier to send everyone the proceedings and to stay at home!

What Sorts of Papers Can I Expect to Hear?

There is a list of speakers and paper titles available, though this doesn't go very far towards showing the range of material that will be presented. DAC is a conference that is serious about bringing theorists, educators, and artists working in digital culture together, and trying to find what we have in common. Just as importantly it is also to begin to find what we misunderstand in each others work, and to find how these misunderstandings might sometimes be productive, while at other times disruptive.

In keeping with previous DAC conferences MelbourneDAC provides a combination of established and emerging researchers, ensuring that much of the most exciting new work that is being undertaken in digital art and culture will be presented and discussed.

This means there are papers by practitioners and theorists on a range of key new media themes, including specific art projects, computer gaming, interactive narrative, digital poetics, hypertext, and digital aesthetics. It is about new researchers in new fields, the sort of work that represents the vanguard of new thinking in these fields (and yes, I actually do believe that).

I've seen mention of trams a lot. What the ...?

Trams are the major form of public transport us locals use in the inner city. And they rock. The tram fare system (that's a silly web site with frames so I can't easily show you where to find the zone information) is divided into a series of zones, but all you need to know is that zone one will cover all the travel you will be doing on a tram. (Here's a better site.)

You can purchase tickets on the trams from machines (we used to have conductors, we are still angry that they're gone) or from newsagents, convenience stores, and the like. If you want to purchase your tickets on the tram, note that the silly machine only accepts coins, not notes, and that ticket inspectors don't think the fact that the machine might be broken is a very good reason to travel without a ticket. (The good populace are in the midst of a four year informal civil disobedience campaign about all this.) Generally you either get an all day or a 2 hour ticket.

Now, the more complicated bit. You have to 'validate' your ticket each time you travel. This means feeding the ticket the right way round into one of several little pod things on each tram. If you bought your ticket from the machine on the tram, it is already validated (but you're supposed to validate it for each additional bit of travel). If you got your ticket from a shop, it isn't validated and so you have to validate it the first time you use it. Once validated it is time stamped and you can use it up to the time stamped.

If you're traveling by tram over more than 2 hours then the all day ticket really is the one to get, much much better value. At the moment an all day ticket costs $5.20, and a 2 hour ticket I think is $2.60.

How far away are all the conference events?

The conference is being held on the city campus of RMIT which is in Melbourne's Central Business District. This is an easy walk from any of the accommodation venues we have suggested, and any other accommodation that is within the CBD.

RMIT is on Swanston and Latrobe Streets in Melbourne, and Swanston Street is one of the major tram routes in the city and is easily accessible by public transport.

The conference also has an event at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which is more or less located at the other end of Swanston Street. This is a 10 minute walk from RMIT, or a 5 minute tram ride.

Experimedia at the State Library of Victoria is hosting the +PlayEngines+ exhibition which is a part of DAC, and the artists day we are hosting on Friday, May 23. The State Library is next door (well, over the road) from RMIT.

The DAC DayOut being held on the Wednesday involves the entire conference moving to the Yarra Valley for an informal day of networking, recovery, and reinvigoration. This is included in the registration cost for all delegates who register for the full conference and we provide the buses (and food, and wine tasting). You just have to be able to get to RMIT to get the bus on the Wednesday morning.

Where is RMIT in Melbourne?

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has a city and a Bundoora campus. The conference is being held on the city campus (luckily for you, Bundoora is 30 kilometres north!). The main city campus is located in Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD), which is what North American's would recognise as 'downtown'. It is probably 7 minutes walk from the conference hotels, and is serviced by literally dozens of trams and a major city rail station.

In a few minutes walk are major city restaurants, the Queen Victoria Market, city cinemas, galleries, bars, and so on.

A map of Melbourne's CBD is available. As is a map of RMIT's city campus. The conference will be held in RMIT's Storey Hall, which is building 16 on the RMIT map.

BTW, if you go to http://www.whereis.com.au/ and put in 124 Latrobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, as your address you'll also get a pretty useful map.