THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC ART (ISEA) OPENS IN SINGAPORE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Singapore, 22 July 2008 - This July, Singapore welcomes the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) – the world’s premier media arts event showcasing technologies in interactive and digital media. ISEA2008 will run from 25 July to 3 August 2008 and is open to all publics.

Singapore will be hosting ISEA for the first time. This biannual event has been held in various cities all over the world, but is being held in Asia for the second time in its history.

ISEA has been instrumental to the development of creative media industries and government-driven initiatives for the creative exploitation of new media technologies. These include mobile technologies, virtual reality applications and interactive net applications.

In the light of this kind of economic and industry impact, ISEA2008 will position Singapore as a key venue not only for showcasing new technologies for interactive and digital media but also for their creative development and repurposing.

“Singapore was chosen because of its increasing importance for world-class research and development in interactive and digital media arts and design as well as for its capacity to provide a platform for the showcase of exciting developments in media arts in the Asian region”, explained Professor Gunalan Nadarajan, Artistic Director of ISEA2008.

ISEA2008 comprises of three parts including peer-reviewed conferences, an internationally juried exhibition and various in-conjunction and partner events.

ISEA2008 will involve more than 800 artists, academics, and conference attendees. The main conference programme consists of peer-reviewed individual papers and panel presentations from around the world to jointly explore the most urgent and exciting questions in the field.

Three keynote sessions will be presented by some of the most prominent speakers in this field. One such speaker is Lawrence Lessig, founder of the Creative Commons project. Alongside the conference will be a diverse programme of workshops, exhibitions, performances and other in-conjunction events.

The themes of ISEA2008 are especially focused on eliciting a wide range of international scholars and artists. The five symposium themes are: Locating Media, Wiki Wiki, Ludic Interfaces, Reality Jam and Border Transmissions.

These five themes respond to today’s challenges in creatively engaging the critical problems and possibilities of new and old technologies.

The main juried exhibition will be held at the National Museum of Singapore. 22 international artists have developed 16 artworks specifically for ISEA2008. The new media artists will work intensely for three months as Artists In Residence (AIR) in a number of new media and technology labs based at the National University of Singapore.

ISEA2008 will also feature Partner exhibitions showcasing a variety of art works by Experimenta Play ++, Relocations, Cloudland, Lucid Fields and SPEKTR!.

Admission to both the main juried exhibition and partner exhibitions will be free of charge.

ISEA2008 is co-presented by the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and the National Museum of Singapore and with support from the Media Development Authority, Infocomm Development Authority and Singapore Tourism Board.

For more information about the peer-reviewed conferences, main juried exhibition and various in-conjunction partner events, please visit the website www.isea2008.org

For more information and press enquiries contact

Teo Swee Leng [Executive Producer]
ISEA2008
+65 91710355
teosweeleng@pacific.net.sg

Michelle Woo
ISEA2008
+65 97642162
Michelle.Isea2008@gmail.com

ISEA, the International Symposium on Electronic Art initiated in 1988, is the world's premier media arts event for the critical discussion and showcase of creative productions applying new technologies in interactive and digital media. Held biannually in various cities throughout the world, this migratory event is being held in Asia for the second time in its history, after Singapore successfully secured this bid.

This symposium consists of three aspects of peer reviewed conference, internationally juried exhibition and various in-conjunction and partner events. ISEA2008 is proud to announce an Artists-In-Residence Program supported by the National University of Singapore that will run for the year leading up to the 2008 Symposium.

This release was published on openPR.