Saturday, February 27, at Backspace in London, some 60 people gathered for
"Shifts", an event in conjunction with the International Dance and
Technology 1999 conference in Arizona, U.S.A., supported by the Arts Council
of England and IDAT99. Joukje initiated the organisation of this happening,
but couldn't be there as she was in Arizona waving at the camera via our
video-conference link, but Michael, who hosted the event (and was left with
most of the organizational work in London), reports:
Let me tell you it was great - lots of fun and everybody I talked to had a
good time. I'm exhausted though. Throughout the day there were approximately
40 people, all together approx. 60. Shifts has been a full success. The
talks were really good - we had an amazing diversity. Richard Bleasedale
talked about the latest video of George Michael he has been working for.
Richard Lord and Debbie Landers (from Shinkansen) gave talks as well.
Benedict Payne talked about funding. We had some videos shown, projected
some of the IDAT performances (web cast), and waved through the camera -
worked well! The second half the video-conference link disconnected, but it
didn't really matter as the mood at Backspace was great (thanks to the beer
and bagels).
Michael himself and Volkmar Klien also presented their work.
Many of you were probably there yourself or made beautiful hand dances in
front of the video-link camera. Thank you all for joining in! Also many
thanks to Benedict Payne with his enthousiasm and support for the idea, all
the presenters who filled the meeting with content and discussion, everybody
at Backspace who have been brill, and Kieran at LoKi multimedia for working
until deep in the night on the web site. See it at www.backspace.org/shifts
All best wishes,
Michael Klien and Joukje Kolff