Urban Screens Melbourne 08 is hosted by Fed Square Pty Ltd, and is the third international conference and multimedia exhibition in a series of worldwide Urban Screens events. It will also mark the official launch of the International Urban Screens Association, taking place 3-8 October at Federation Square, Melbourne.

Conference: Mobile Publics 3-5 October 2008
Click here to view full conference program

Outdoor Multimedia Program: 3-8 October 2008
Click here to view full public program

The event will promote a lateral trans-disciplinary approach to exploring the growing appearance of moving images in urban space and the global transformation of public culture in the context of large new multi media precincts such as Federation Square and various networked forms of urban screens. It will build on the successful events held in Amsterdam in 2005 and Manchester in 2007 and will be the first Urban Screens held in the Asia-Pacific region.

*Collage of Fed Square's large Urban Screen and the unique design of the plaza 

Through an integrated program of keynote lectures, panel sessions,workshops, curated screenings and multimedia projects, it will bringtogether leading Australian and international artists and curators,architects and urban planners, screen operators and content providers,technology manufacturers, software designers and public intellectuals. 

CONFERENCE: MOBILE PUBLICS

USM08: Mobile Publics will be exploring the changing relations between urban screens, culture and cities. By engaging a wide range of stakeholders with distinctive interests in media and public space, USM08: Mobile Publics will promote new multi-disciplinary frameworks for understanding innovative public uses of technology, media and art in contemporary cities. Key themes include:

• the growing role of urban screens in shaping the ambiance of contemporary public space, and the new forms of agency created by media-dense environments
• future directions in mobile and screen media, and the potential of novel interfaces to support new modes of social interaction and community building
• the function of public art in positioning strategies for creative cities, and the capacity of large screen precincts to serve as focal points in urban regeneration projects
• the emergence of new forms of cross-cultural exchange and the construction of transnational public spheres

This conference concept "Mobile Publics" has been developed by Dr. Scott McQuire and Professor Nikos Papastergiadis from the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.
 

MULTIMEDIA PROGRAM: CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

Federation Square will showcase an exciting program of demonstrations and creative experiments on urban screens around the topics of today's communities or water. Federation Square is a unique, international meeting place where various media tools have been incorporated into the architectural design. These tools, which intersect with the carefully created, modern public space,  are fused with artistic interventions and become a message in their own right.

The program primarily focuses on the role that this new urban media infrastructure of screens, digital surfaces and media facades have as tools for creative community-building, sustainable education and new participatory art forms. Fed Square will present an example of how a relationship can be built with the citizens of a vibrant, modern and environmental conscious city in a global context. When Urban Screens are connected to mobile phones and the internet, utilized as production and interactive tool, a ubiquitous media environment emerges asking for new content strategies. As a forum for user-generated content, they redefine our notions of urban communities, mobilizing citizens to take part in actively shaping their public space and its urban interactions, while expanded regional and international Urban Screen networks have the potential to establish new models of cultural exchange.
 
The Multimedia Program has been developed by Mirjam Struppek, expert in the emerging interdisciplinary practice of ‘Urban Media’. She has been instrumental in building the Urban Screens community. She has developed the concept for the first Urban Screens conference and initiated and guided it's further touring around the globe.