Are you virtual emotional?

FreqOUT! recommends SCIRIA, who are an interdisciplinary collaborative group of arts and science researchers.
The ‘Virtual eMotions’ project at SCIRIA investigates human facial expressions in order to create a visual platform to scale the expressions from happiness to sadness. The development of the project is connected with evolutionary aspects of human emotions. The practical work includes video and installation, print technology, visualisation of digital 3D work, animation, computer-mediated art, sound works and drawings.

If you are interested in how our emotions can be digitalised, you can find more information about the project here.

NESTA Case Study

FreqOUT! has recently been included as case study in a recent pulication, funded by NESTA. Social by Social explores how new technologies are changing the way we engage communities, run companies, deliver public services, participate in government and campaign for change.
You can read the case study here

FreqOUT! Recommends…Social Innovation Camp

Social Innovation Camp is an experiment in creating social innovations for the digital age.
The web and related technologies hold huge potential to change some pretty fundamental stuff. Discovering what people really need, meeting people who’ve had personal experience of something they’d like to change and building the technology that can help - that's what Social Innovation Camp (SIC) is all about.
SIC are looking for the best ideas that use the web to change something that matters.
Through unusual, creative events SIC bring together talented software developers and designers with social innovators to build effective web-based solutions to real social problems. By bringing together these two groups – technology and need – SIC are creating a community of practice where people can experiment, discover, prototype and become advocates for using social technology as a driver of positive social change.
Visit http://www.sicamp.org/ for more information about the project.

Explore Planet Science

This week the FreqOUT! team have come across this site....
http://www.planet-science.com/
The site is run by the Future Innovators Team at NESTA and offers a variety of resources, ranging from games and feature articles to career information. The keywords here: enjoy the science, the technology and the innovation.
You can build your own indestructible planet, take part in a battle for planet science or investigate music-science by mixing and sampling.
You can be surprised by opening the magic box - there are top tricks that look like magic, but are in fact science; or try some science experiments at home.

A careers profile search is also a useful tool - the Planet Science database of scientists offers many opportunities such as the science library, full with science sites, news in science and technology; scientific organisations and museums.

We recommend you check this out for yourselves!

Summer Uni 09 Launched!

FreqOUT! has launched its Summer Uni programme this week. 11 young people are working alongside new media artist Jonathan Hall on the 'StreetView' project. The group is working to make short films, record interviews and take pictures of the local area in attempt to challenge Google's 'StreetView' application. We are sure theirs will be much better!

FreqOUT! is Twittering!

FreqOUT! has started to Twitter! keep up to date with the most recent updates on the project by becoming a follower!

Amy Robins in Conversation

Former FreqOUT! Project Manager Amy Robins has written an article for Co-Pilot.net a shared online resource for peopel working at the intersection of art, technology and social change. You can read the full article here. The article titled 'Working with funders from the commercial sector' gives an insight into securing corporate partners for charity projects.

NESTA Award

FreqOUT! is being supported by NESTA to consolidate research into the benefits of using social technologies to engage socially excluded young people. FreqOUT! will be comissioning the research across the next 2 months. The investment by NESTA will build the capacity of the FreqOUT! project to extend its services to more young people.

FreqOUT! hits local news

This week young people's achievements were recognised by the Paddington, Marylebone and Pimlico Mercury. They have been working on the 'Video Sniffin' project with artists from MediaShed to make a film using wireless cameras. The project is supported by the Lottery through the UK Film Council's First Light Movies initiative. The film will be screened at Vital Regeneration's Awards Ceremony on the 27th of November at the Cockpit Theatre.

Reaching Excluded Communities Successfully

The final showcase of 'Being Connected' at the Science Museum was truly inspirational! 13 young women from the London Tigers gave a musical presentation using their 'singing sculptures' made with artists from the 'Scrap yard challenge'. 50 members of the Bangladeshi community supported the young people on the night, many having never been to the Science Museum previously. One participant commented, "At first I thought hmm.. Science.. that is not for me, I don’t want to do it, it sounds boring! But then Jenny and Ruth showed us films and took us to the Museum to see the Listening Post and I thought it was amazing! I had never seen anything like it before and wanted to join in the project!"

FreqOUT! covered by NESTA

This week the FreqOUT! project was covered in a press release issued by NESTA. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - a unique body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. NESTA invests in early-stage companies, inform and shape policy, and deliver practical programmes that inspire others to solve the big challenges of the future. You can view the press release here.

Innovation Exchange - Share Your Idea

The Innovation Exchange is dedicated to fostering innovation within the third sector and as part of this, finding ways of improving relationships between third sector social innovators, public service commissioners and investors. The Exchange works through events, research, facilitation and online exchange. The Next Practice programme, provides the best innovations with support and access to a £200k fund from NESTA. This programme will enable evaluation, knowledge-sharing and seek to draw in further resources, helping cutting edge projects to develop and grow. FreqOUT! have launched a blog on the Innovation Exchange website where you can see an overview of our project and comment on future developments: FreqOUT! Innovation Exchange

FreqOUT! Visits BETT 2008

FreqOUT! Project Manager Jenny Irish took a trip to BETT this month at Kensington Olympia. BETT is the world’s largest educational technology event which spans both the National and the Grand Halls at Olympia, featuring 600 stands and close to 30,000 visitors. FreqOUT! visited the Futurelab stand which featured Reactable – an electronic musical instrument designed for use by several people at the same time. Developed by a team at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, the Reactable has a round surface like a tabletop, and users play it by moving or rotating different objects on the surface. We guarantee you will never have experienced anything like it!

FreqOUT! is showcased on the Futurelab website, you can find out more here

Future Lab Website

FreqOUT! presents at SCIRIA

FreqOUT! Project Manager Amy Robins spoke at Camberwell College of Arts Research Department's SCIRIA meeting yesterday. SCIRIA, or the 'Sensory Computer Interface Research & Innovation for the Arts' is headed up by Director Dr. Angela Geary and the talk was programmed by Research Fellow James Fuare Walker.

SCIRIA aims to challenge and develop the nature and role of the computer interface in the arts. The Unit explores and develops the potential applications of emerging tangible interface technologies, including haptics and biometrics. It aims to foster an interdisciplinary arts and science collaborative network to achieve outcomes of core relevance and usefulness in the fields of art, design, craft and cultural heritage interpretation.

Amy spoke about the aims of FreqOUT! and the challenges associated with introducing innovative technology to young people in a educational and creative context. The discussion that insued covered the future direction of public art and the potential of young people to teach artists and their teachers about technology.

To find out more about SCIRIA go to:
SCIRIA
Camberwell College of Arts
University Of The Arts, London