3o encuentro avlab córdoba 2011 from medul.la on Vimeo.

//the 3rd AVLAB córdoba meeting in 2011, which took place in centro cultural españa, was dedicated to the children: a space occupied with installations that proposed interaction and new media as platforms for creativity. oriented by the artists, the kids were able to play and experiment with different sorts of digital and electronic dispositives. this set contains a few images of a prototype proposed to this meeting, based on the opensource project tagtool (tagtool.org). more info at medul.la/​blog. thanks to lina lopes for the video (senhoritalina.wordpress.com).

Here is a short video about the event.

After the presence at the premiere edition of the Biennial of the Americas, in Denver throughout July 2010, as well as the two month long ViceVerse tour across the USA, the third Belgrade edition took place on September 18th and 19th 2010 at the Cultural Center Rex – featuring a Tagtool workshop hosted by iink and myself.

We built up three Tagtool stations for the seven participating kids. On Saturday we showed them how to draw and animate with the Tagtool. We were superbly assisted by Kris, an illustrator and tatoo artist from Belgrade. The kids quickly figured out their instruments and settled on their favorite themes (pirates and Super-Grandparents).

We were especially pleased with their animation skills – they were definitely no strangers to gamepads. Finally, on Sunday, the kids presented their Tagtool expertise to a very appreciative public during the grand KidsPatch parade.

We are happy to have been part of this  superbly organized event – shout-outs to Nana, Relja, Tamara and the rest of the crew.

]]> http://www.tagtool.org/wp/2010/09/27/kidspatch-belgrade/feed/ 0 http://www.tagtool.org/wp/2010/09/14/more-bienenkino/ http://www.tagtool.org/wp/2010/09/14/more-bienenkino/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:07:32 +0000 Oma http://www.tagtool.org/wp/?p=5930 Tetete universe. Improvised live animation, music and narration for kids.]]> A bee called Seppi is looking for actors for her new movie and comes across a cactus with some remarkable tricks up his sleeve…

“Bienenkino” is improvised live animation, music and narration for kids. The ensemble is part of Tetete, a group of artists aiming to provide quality off-mainstream children’s entertainment. Here’s a recording from “Bienenkino” on September 1st 2010 at Bollwerk in Moers, featuring old and new characters from the Tetete universe.

Christian Reiner – Stimme
Philip Zoubek – Klavier
Mathias Koch – Schlagzeug
Maki Dorninger – Zeichnung
Mathias Fritz – Animation

Here’s another video from the same performance, with interviews and reactions from the kids (also in German only – sorry!)

Kid’s-patch is an innovative lab, a mini-festival for young people, which is realized by workshops and presentations within the fields of music, graphical art, performance art and modern/new media. By the direct and playful work with children artists get the opportunity to gain new perspectives on the process of creating and presenting creative content. The programs are designed so that it is an innovative and entertaining approach close to children and youth fields of contemporary art and culture.

Ange Taggart’s artist in residence programme in Dundee ended a couple of weeks ago. The Final Gathering event gave the opportunity to get a glimpse of her work involving the Tagtool.

“I’m happy there is now an active group of people keen to utilise the tool in the city. The grand plan is to establish a core Tagtool interest group to support and encourage the use of the tool in the city. Laura Simpson from Nine Trades project will initially communicate with key players to get the ball rolling.”

A photo taken during the double Tagtool session at the Final Gathering.

“I’m delighted to say that a few things are already underway, we have several arts and community organisations with ideas in the pipeline, and at least ten people/organisations who want to build their own Tagtool.”

Amelie at the age of 3 is playing with the Tagtool. She is definitely one of the youngest Tagtool users and obiously enjoying herself, while Ange is taking care of the parents.

“At the moment it would help engage with young people. Especially with those who are not confident with their literacy and not confident with themselves that they are any good at anything. The fact is they can pick up that little pen and do a scribble and we get art at the end of it. It will help the fun element of learning, helping them to mix with other people, team building, there are loads of things it can address.”

Ange also posted some responses she has recieved during the recidency – here is a handwritten letter from enthusiatic parents.

Finally there is a video from the Tagtool session at the Hannah Maclure Centre. It’s a timelapse of Tagtool art at the Guerrilla Gallery launch party. The Tagtool was used by members of the public throughout the night in response to live music from Esperi and Edward Shallow, and a DJ set from Captain Congo.

Also check out the rest of the Nine Trades of Dundee Blog!

Kid’s-Patch is an event series dedicated to new children’s creativity, presented since 2008 at numerous events in Europe and the USA. Each program consists of a series of workshops for kids (ages 5 – 12), related to the fields of contemporary music, graphic art, performance and new media. It is a 100% participatory program that utilizes an intuitive, inventive and forward-thinking approach to children’s creative education within the context of arts and culture.

Curators Nana Radenkovic and Relja Bobic from Belgrade built two Tagtool Minis with valuable support from Masta Cha & Scott Wisdom and used them during their doodlerz.inc workshops traveling around the United States.

Kid’s-Patch: Children’s Creativity Lab at the Biennial of the Americas, a specially commissioned program and the largest KidsPatch production so far, will involve a number of artists from both American continents into creative exchanges with the youngest population. Beside setting up a special kids zone within the McNichols Building which will be open daily, the focus of KidsPatch is customized workshops running each weekend, to be rounded up by a final parade event on July 31st, taking the young participants and their creations outdoors, to the immediate surrounding of the main Biennial location, through a special performance.

See all photos here.

Christian Reiner – voice
Philip Zoubek – piano
Mathias Koch – drums
Maki Dorninger – drawing
Mathias Fritz – animation

Die Sache mit dem Maulwurf – Teil 1
(The Story with the Mole – Part 1)

A bee by the name of Seppi encounters a talking tree in the garden. Their conversation is interrupted by a grumpy nameless mole – it drops a bone and disappears. Puzzled, Seppi goes underground to investigate, and finds the remains of Horst, the skeleton clown. Horst has long given up circus life in favour of making movies. He was lured below earth by the mole, who claimed to be a famous director but then abandoned the movie. In the underground caverns, watched by the stones, Seppi further discovers that the mole has trapped Jean-Paul, the rocket. He manages to free him, and together they wonder – why is the mole causing all this trouble?

Die Sache mit dem Maulwurf – Teil 2
(The Story with the Mole – Part 2)

Seppi finds Barbara, who is usually inseparable from Jean-Paul, but got away when he was trapped, hiding under a cup. Meanwhile the mole decides to cut the talking tree’s roots, which are disturbing him. One of the roots confronts him, and together with Seppi it can convince the troublemaker to stop his senseless hooliganism. They realise loneliness is the reason of the moles behaviour – their friendship is the cure. Finally he agrees to go ahead with shooting the movie – featuring Horst, Seppi, Jean-Paul, Barbara and the root.

Tanz das Krokodil
(Do the Crocodile Dance)

A kid in the audience asks for “Kasperl”… the German equivalent of Punch & Judy. In fact, he wants “a beautiful Kasperl”… an that’s what he gets. Kasperl’s traditional sidekick, the Crocodile, is less esthetically pleasing. But it dresses up all lovely, and together they dance till late at night.

This was achieved with the help of musicians who developed a variety of improvisational performances with school groups all over Styria. Interaction with other art forms was promoted by including dancers and visual artists to integrate movements, pictures, sculptures or videos. The performances were presented at the beautiful venue “Dom in Berg” in the center of Graz on 9th of March 2010.

Wolfgang Hattinger and Daniel Riegler (both composers and musicians) were in charge of one of these groups and invited me to support them with Tagtool visuals. Their project is based on Virtual Conductor II, a software that orchestrates musicians to perform an improvisational show. For every artist there is a monitor that provides the basic guidelines according to a predefined but loose structure.

So my job was to coach two Tagtool teams, and help them develop a visualization concept to the music. We knew about the basic structure of the performance, so we worked out a repertoire of suitable drawing and animation styles, and learned how to deal with mistakes.

After two days of workshops and a final rehearsal we were ready for the show. The group did well and the audience was delighted. I was really impressed with their confident performance in front of around 150 people.

So, a big thank you and congratulations to my group, I enjoyed working with you!!

To the photo gallery!