[spectre] Test_Lab: Multimodal, February 21st, 2008, 20:00h, V2_

[Michel van Dartel]

*Test_Lab: Multimodal*

February 21st, 2008, 20:00h
V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012XL, 
Rotterdam.

/Featuring: Arjen Mulder (NL), Sissel Tolaas (N), Tom Froese (UK), 
Graham Smith (CDN), Ulf Langheinrich (A), and Sietske Klooster (NL)./

Although technological innovation in art and media has greatly enhanced 
the ways in which artworks can stimulate our senses, this innovation 
predominantly concerns the same few sensory modalities, and only rarely 
aims at supporting the integration between them. Recent artistic 
Research and Development (aRt&D) has, however, made great progress in 
developing methods for multimodal art; enhancing the sensorial richness 
of art and media experiences in integrated ways.

/Test_Lab: Multimodal/ will demonstrate and discuss new methods and 
technologies to stimulate senses that are not commonly incorporated in 
artistic concepts, and will introduce innovative ways to integrate 
sensory experiences in art and media. In doing so, /Test_Lab: 
Multimodal/ reveals the obstacles faced, and achievements made, in 
contemporary aRt&D that aims to enhance the sensorial richness of art 
and media experiences in (technologically) integrated ways.

/Test_Lab: Multimodal/ will feature the latest achievements in 
stimulating the senses; such as smelly art, live sensory-substitution, 
the sound of touching one another, sensory-enhanced film, and very loud 
visuals.

This event will be streamed live a http://live.v2.nl/multimod*a*l.ram 
<http://live.v2.nl/multimodel.ram>**

*Arjen Mulder* (NL) is a widely published essayist, and will open 
/Test_Lab: Multimodal/ with a talk on multimodality from a media 
theoretical perspective.

*Sissel Tolaas* (N), founder of International /Flavors and Fragrances 
re_searchLab /Berlin, will present and demonstrate the smell of FEAR, 
bringing samples of body odors of men in fear, which she distilled for 
her project the /FEAR of smell – the smell of FEAR/ exhibited at /MIT// 
List Visual Arts Center/.

*Tom Froese* (UK), researcher at the /Center for Computational 
Neuroscience and Robotics/ at the /University// of Sussex/, will 
demonstrate the /Enactive Torch/, a perceptual supplementation device 
that transforms visual into haptic information, and which has recently 
received funding for the development of a next generation of enactive 
torches.

*Graham Smith* (CDN), artist and inventor of robotic, virtual reality, 
photographic, and tele-presence installations and devices, will premiere 
one of his latest collaborate projects: */Alternative Sensory 
Information Display/**, a.k.a. the* /Emotional Chair/, which enhances 
film with vibration, light, wind, and smell for the hearing-impaired.

*Ulf Langheinrich* (D) of artist duo /Granular Synthesis /will introduce 
and demonstrate /Granular Synthesis’/ masterpiece /Modell 5/; a 10m by 
3,5m (!) projection showing the face of Japanese performance artist 
Akemi Takeya being twisted and manipulated like a Francis Bacon painting 
supported by a wall of sublow sound.

*Sietske Klooster* (NL) and her students from the /Industrial Design/ 
department of the /Technical University Eindhoven/ will present an 
innovative social interaction project called /TouchMeDare/ that 
motivates people to touch each other by creating sounds as a reward for 
physical interaction.