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Last weekend I went down to London to see Area10 in Peckham. They were having an event called re booted, as part of the node.London (http://www.nodel.org/) series of events.

Area 10 http://www.area10medialab.co.uk/
Area 10 Project space is pleased to launch the new media lab
platform. The medialab is being introduced to facilitate the
development of research and art practices using open source new
technologies in the media arts. <AREA 10: MEDIALAB /> will focus on
engaging cross-disciplinary collaborations between various arts and
science based practices, encouraging open and critical discussion in
addition to sharing knowledge and skills transfer.

It was two days of talks, with a launch night on saturday full of electronic music using the platforms described during the days. Eg Jackbytes, Fluxus, PD, MaxMSP etc.

Area10 is a huge warehouse which was a great space for some large video artworks. The most fun was the peace mobile cinema from the Netherlands. It had seating for up to nine people, and was a group experience, where the audience became part of the movie.

The next major event Area10 are planning is a summer streaming event. With their linkages to goto10, constant, openlabs, it should be great. They are looking at more than just presentations through it, but doing live art.

Wendy Wheeler talked about "Postscript on Biosemiotics: Reading Beyond Words – and Ecocriticism" and covers biosemiotics, the fibonnaci sequence, epigenetics, symbiosis and abduction. Culture is natural, and depends on nature. Nature and Culture, Culture is a part of Nature.

Following this Julie Bacon deliberately rambled (as in a derive traversing a complex terrain, a thinking on her feet kind of way) through ideas of what happened in her PhD, starting with a word performance about "things are (not)exactly as they seem"
She related the necessity for the (occasionally) locked door in her practice, how it allows things to emerge, providing a safe space and how Wittgenstein was taught to her by a spider.

Additionally. there were three workshops which hoped to go "beyond text".
1) research "for, through, into" practice. Physical theater, and interpretive of the idea of research for arts practice, research through arts practice and research into arts practice. This being the model of how arts practice relates to research.

2) working out what art maps to what one line title.
It showed how the mapping is not one to one, the title and the work and the thesis. A little like the example of Hans Ebbing, his research on the "Extraordinary Economy of the Arts" and his own practice which is life drawing.

3) a thought experiment, beyond the written thesis. Referencing Pitt Rivers and his experiments with categorising vs doing a field trip in the amazon where trees are being categorised more on their taste as the differentiating characteristic. What does a non-text thesis look like? Is it a collection of twigs arranged on a table.

Once they get their website I will post a link.