Get your energy drinks ready. Anvil Hack II invites students from around the UK to congregate in Hatcham St James (aka The Church) for our FREE annual 32-hour creative hackathon.
Organised by Hacksmiths, Goldsmiths’ student-run computing society, Anvil Hack II focuses on the creative applications of technology (this is not a prototyping session for your new startup). Use your skills to make something wonderful, arty, musical, or just plain old awesome.
We’ll provide you with space, food, drink, electricity and WiFi (thanks to support from Goldsmiths and Degeneration IT, plus sponsorship from Improbable and Chirp) so that you can get on with the real work – making cool things!
When: 9.30am Saturday 7 May – 6.00pm Sunday 8 May 2016 Where: St James Hatcham, St James, New Cross, London SE14 6AH Who: Any enrolled UK undergraduate or postgraduate student, or graduate less than a year out of university. Students will be required to show their student ID on arrival. Tickets and info: anvil.hacksmiths.club // Register now
Three MA/MFA Computational Arts graduates have been shortlisted for the prestigious Aspen Online Arts Award 2016.
Angie Fang, Lior Ben Gai and Matilda Skelton Mace all graduated from Goldsmiths in 2015, following their degree show exhibition EXCEPT/0N.
Angie Fang is a UK-based Chinese digital artist who works in digital media, audio visual performance and interactive installations. Her online video work is created entirely in C++, making use of complex 3D OpenGL and digital signal processing techniques entirely of her own devising.
Her work focuses on the tension between sound, space and visual elements, and also the subtle experience between the technology synthesized and the reality. Her works, Nito , L-Pattern, Bud and Organic Flow were exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and the immersive installation Under the Water installed in Hotel Elephant gallery. Outside of her academic research, she also gained experience working for Studio XO and United Visual Artists. bongbongsquare.com
Lior Ben Gai is an Israeli digital artist, working in various digital mediums since 2008. His work explores potential intersections between artificial life and synthetic biology, examining notions of ‘lab aesthetics’ whilst creating experiences that rely on his strong visual sense.
As an independent artist, Lior explores generative strategies and computational creativity to produce expressive software, animation and sound. He is emotionally drawn to computer generated graphics, strongly believes in project based learning and enjoys thinking about things he never thought about before. His commercial works include museum installations and exhibits, mobile games, web applications and custom interactive software. soogbet.net
Matilda Skelton Mace is a London-based artist and designer, working with the building blocks of reality, space, light, and geometric form. She creates her own interactive systems in C, C++, Processing, Java and HTML5.
Her work features strong use of projection and materials to transform physical space, creating sculptural interactive digital artworks. She is interested in the ‘in between’, exploring ideas of implied, imagined and virtual space, the dissonance that can arise between real and virtual and the way we perceive it. This year she was shortlisted for the HIX Award 2015 and has exhibited at galleries, nightclubs and festivals. belikeotherpeople.co.uk
Please join us for the opening night party for Goldsmiths’ BSc Digital Arts Computing exhibition 2016.
Featuring work by 22 artists, the exhibition explores the symbiotic (and sometimes dysfunctional) relationship between technology and art.
The artworks – interactive installations, photography, painting and sculpture – investigate surveillance, antisocial networks, tattoos, cyber feminism, big data and the intimacy of human eye contact.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
Opening night party: 5.30pm – 9.30pm Thursday 28 April 2016 Where:Hatcham St James (The Church), St James, London SE14 6AD Exhibition continues: 10am – 7pm Friday 29 April 2016
A downloadable plugin that mines your browser for data – then builds a profile of your personality and lifestyle – has been created by Goldsmiths Digital Arts Computing student Joe McAlister.
Joe’s project, entitled You Probably Live in Horsham, asks: If the government’s ‘Snooper’s Charter’ legitimises mass surveillance, can we use the same technology to study ourselves?
An art piece with a strong political theme, Joe has combined a visual spy-like aesthetic with the programme’s ability to generate eye-opening reports on the user’s mind-set, creating a feeling of shock, awe, and a slight sense of unease.
Designed to promote discussion around the paper trail we leave on the internet, and how safe that data is online, You Probably Live in Horsham also asks the user to compare their online identity with how they see themselves in real life.
“In our materialistic society many people’s lives have become intertwined with the internet to such a degree it’s become hard to imagine the boundaries between virtual and real,” says Joe – a first-year Digital Arts Computing undergraduate who’s set to graduate in 2018.
“I want to prompt people to look at their lives from a new perspective. When important elements of your identity appear in a list in front of you, it becomes de-humanising. You become just another person on a piece of paper, or in this case, a computer screen.
“I want people to see it, step back a second, and consider a completely different side to their identity which they might not have previously seen.”
“The Home Secretary’s Investigatory Powers Bill demands web and phone companies log the IP addresses, URLS and connection times for every citizen for a year. Theresa May has emphasised how ‘terrorists’ are using the internet to evade detection and by using blanket surveillance they can help prevent this. But at what point does this ‘harmless’ state surveillance become the precursor to something resembling a totalitarian state?”
Behind the scenes of You Probably Live in Horsham it’s a complex system: after the user installs a plugin, it injects a Javascript file into every website that’s visited. This script will then use JQuery, Javascript and Ajax to collect the IP address, URL and timestamp of every web address.
The data is then formatted into a storable format, and individual parts of it analysed. Given the project’s purpose in raising awareness of data security, all data is stored locally in the user’s browser, with only small elements sent temporarily via encrypted ‘https’ to remote servers run and secured by reputable companies.
Install the plugin Click here to download the plugin. Once loaded simply press ‘add to chrome’. The extension should now be installed and the eye icon should be visible in the top right hand side. The eye will move when it analyses a page. You don’t need to do anything to prompt the analysing of a page just browse like normal. To view your paragraph as it generates click the eye icon. The longer you use the plugin the more accurate the data will be. I suggest using it for a few days before taking what it says seriously.
After running the program for a short time on his own computer, Joe’s report proved remarkably accurate, guessing among other facts that he went to Goldsmiths, travelled from Horsham in around 72 minutes, worked a lot late at night and was probably thinking mostly about “Southern Rail or big data”.
Joe McAlister caught on camera
The gathering of data then allows further assumptions to be made manually, even by people who don’t know you. For example, the programme shows that Joe owns a Mac and travels a lot so it’s likely a lightweight version like a MacBook; he likes the artist Yayoi Kusama so it’s likely he also likes other installation art; he’s a computer programmer, appreciates art and goes to Goldsmiths, so he’s likely to be studying Digital Arts Computing.
“The personas we display to people across our idealistic online lives and our more realistic lives can be very different,” adds Joe. “This programme might generate a report for you that reflects your online escapism, or you’ll find more of your real personality comes out.
“From just a few dozen URLS, You Probably Live in Horsham can generate huge amounts of data, and the longer you use the plug-in, the more accurate that data will be,” adds Joe. “And unlike your inclusion in the government’s data retention scheme, it’s entirely optional and easy to stop.”
EAVI Nights celebrates its 17th edition with performances from electroacoustic visionary Simon Emmerson and glitch pop pioneer AGF – plus French art pop, post-USSR loops and live AV performance.
Where: Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, London SE14 6TY When: 8pm – late, Thursday 21 April 2016 Tickets: £5. Buy advance tickets at eavixvii.eventbrite.com
On Wednesday 6 April, our staff and students will be representing Goldsmiths Computing at the university’s Postgraduate Open Day.
Where: Great Hall, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths SE14 6NW When: 4pm – 7pm Wednesday 6 April 2016
Please join us if you’re curious about any of our postgraduate and research degrees. We’ll be in the Great Hall throughout the evening – and invite you to degree programme talks where you’ll meet current students and hear from course tutors.
We will also run regular tours of our physical computing, motion capture, audiovisual, exhibition and games programming facilities. Just meet us in the Great Hall to find out when the next tour is leaving.
To celebrate the beginning of spring, we present six games recently made by our first and second year BSc Games Programming students.
Led by Jeremy Gow, our BSc Games Programming degree prepares students for a career programming in the games industry, in sectors including mobile games, casual games, social media games, and AAA console game development.
Sandrunner
Harlon Staple-Campbell, Yuvesh Tulsiani, Jack Wang and Karen Yeung (Introduction to Digital Media)
Sandrunner is an addictive 8-bit side-scroller for Android in the style of Flappy Bird. Press to jump and collect the coins, but avoid the fuzzy pink balls! The team focused on a simple concept and playtested it until they got the right balance of fun and frustration. Made in Processing. Download Sandrunner from the Android Play store.
Scribble Defence
Carlos De Oliveira do Amaral Leitão, Michael King, Rodrigo Endo, William Meaton and Yuvesh Tulsiani (Introduction to Game Development)
Scribble Defence is a tower defence game for Android. Protect the cookie jar from wave after wave of monsters by positioning your turrets carefully around the maze. A fantastic art style and the game itself is really well balanced. Made in Unity. Download Scribble Defence from the Android Play store.
Speedy Cat
Damian Hon and Liam Robinson (Introduction to Game Development)
In Speedy Cat you control our eponymous hero as he flies through the sky picking up snacks and avoiding meteors and bad apples. All with a soundtrack of pumping dance music. An insane concept, but fun! Made in Unity.
20 Years Later
Andrew Tao, Christian Tanap, Daniel Stokoe, James Mackessy and Jeffrey Gillespie (Software Projects)
20 years ago you were a student at Goldsmiths… but you return to find the campus has been overrun with mindless zombies! 20 Years Later is survival horror game where you find yourself trapped in the depths of the Richard Hoggart Building. Can you escape? Made with Unity.
Monster Rush
Andrea Fiorucci, Calvin Fuss, Brian Rocha Confessor and Yuvesh Tulsiani (Game Development Group Project)
Monster Rush is a fast-paced shooter where you take on hordes of colourful monsters. Still under development. Made in Unity.
The Midnight Man
Damian Hon, Dmitrij Potapcik, Fabio Peres Filho and Liam Robinson (Software Projects)
The Midnight Man a survival horror game where the player is defenceless against a malevolent entity, but safe as long as their candle is lit! They must solve puzzles and gather clues while the candle burns down. Made in Unity, using Maya, Blender and Audacity.
Angie Fang is a UK-based Chinese digital artist who works in digital media, audio visual performance and interactive installations. Her online video work is created entirely in C++, making use of complex 3D OpenGL and digital signal processing techniques entirely of her own devising.
Lior Ben Gai is an Israeli digital artist, working in various digital mediums since 2008. His work explores potential intersections between artificial life and synthetic biology, examining notions of ‘lab aesthetics’ whilst creating experiences that rely on his strong visual sense.
Matilda Skelton Mace is a London-based artist and designer, working with the building blocks of reality, space, light, and geometric form. She creates her own interactive systems in C, C++, Processing, Java and HTML5.
