New media festivals are usually promising, with lots of great performances and exhibitions, and yet, they do a lousy job of promoting themselves on the web. That’s what probably happened to UM, the International Festival for Experimental and Mixed Media, taking place in Lisbon, that has almost no reference in Google. Come on, is it that hard to announce the event on Upcoming.org or Rhizome ?

Of course i’m not happy about as the even occurs while i’m out. AdobeAS3Tour with Colin Moock is taking place next Monday, and no way i’ll miss a weekend break in Milan for a badly announced event. For those interested, here’s a small selection:

2008 Programme

Lisbon, 19 - 22 June 2008

Exhibition

• 
  Conscious Space, Sonia Cillari, NL

• 

  Tape Loop, André Gonçalves, PT

• 

  Crackle Canvas, Tom Verbruggen, NL

• 

  Patchery, Laetitia Morais, PT

• 

  Come and See the View, Kathy Hinde, UK

• 

  Delicate Boundaries, Chris Sugrue, US

Performances

• 

  Andy Moor, NL

• 

  A Cable Plays, Chris Surgue, US and Damian Stewart, NZ/PT

• 

  N.I.P. collective, UK/NL/PT

• 

  BOP, UK

• 

  Goodiepal, FO/UK

• 

  Rudolfo Quintas, PT

• 

  Turntable Reconstructions, DJ Sniff, US/NL

• 

  TokTek, NL

Workshops

• 

  Wearin’ it - DIY wearable workshop, André Gonçalves, PT

• 

  Wii Undressed, Frank Balde/STEIM, NL

• 

  Build your own electronic noise machine, Tom Bugs, UK

• 

  Mort Aux Vaches Ekstra Extra, Goodiepal, (FO/UK)

Enjoy.

P.S.:
Any reader suggestions for this weekend in Milan are welcome.

Olá ! (hello in Portuguese). We’re all set for the last day and it’s been great.
Check this flickr set from Pedro Sousa to get a feeling.

12:00

Entering the afternoon with several directors from Boolab, a motion studio, and an almost oficial partner of Psyop.

13:00

Adobe misses their talk. Missing evangelizing opportunities like this one brings no good karma. Chris, of Crashmedia, Canada, is filling their shoes.

14:00

Oh great, porn ! The Shai project, with compliments by Agence7seven.

16:30

Onesize, Gmunk and Minivegas answer how creativity and technology shape motion graphics. Minivegas showed a impressive software to create generative station ID’s, based on live footage. And also, more penis.

Gmunk debunks motion-fx houses, claiming they don’t know shit about design. The discussion goes into the domain of pushing interactivity (live data, user input) into motion graphics.

18:00

Group 94 is now on stage with a behind-the-scenes of their web design work. They applied a panorama transition of Jeronimos Monastery to their Nokia project.

Awesome.

19:00

Devoid of yesterday premieres the event titles. Lots of fish. I’ll post it as soon as it’s available.

20:30

Fallon talking about the power of ideas.

Ideas are leaps of imagination … with commercial consequences.

Of course they showed Cadbury’s gorilla. Which is just a stunt by a production company (Glass and a half full) whose goal is to deliver joy.
Digital makes ideas more useful and involving.

Ok. we’re done. As the conference organizers just confirmed, see you next year at OFFF 2009 Lisbon !

Hello everyone !

12:00-12:30

50Done & friends is presenting. For those who don’t know yet 50Done & friends is a project of Rui Vieira ( currently Creative Director at Fullsix Portugal) to do out of the box projects in the areas of digital creation and communication they work with real clients but in a diferent way of communication. Rui presents the Body and Soul, a project for Nokia that showcases beautiful models (one component shows the body , the other a more emotional soul) .

Ingrediente X - A motion design showcase.

Carlos Matias - Dialectica shows his creative work applied on t-shirts and shoes, and some of the illustrations shown here at the venue.

Pedro Pinto, a 3d motion designer at Fullsix with some sample work.

13:00

Karlssonwilker with a weird piece: a spoken portfolio, on audio tape.

14:00

Regine is on stage, sharing how We-Make.-oney-Not-Art evolved and reflecting on emerging art and the relation with technology. Right next to her, Andy Cameron, now creative director at Fabrica, talking about his work and what interactive media means. They both hate Second Life, and finish their talk with a discussion on the challenges of nem media art.

16:00

Hellokimori is now on stage.

17:00

A great panel on information visualization. Quite more useful than the usual showcase that we’ve seen today.

18:00

FakePilot rolling his impressive ground of work. Feels a lot like Chris Cunningham.

19:20

Now a Interaction Deigin Panel, starting with the folks from naninka. Beats me why the organization decided to this “panels” when no interaction with the audience kicks in. Surprised to find out that Nanika was involved in the BBC radio (below).

20:00 -21:00

After some astonishing works by Alex Trochut, we’re ending with Hi-Res.

Hello everyone. It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, but back from vacations (and a bit sick) I’m ready for the full 3 days at OFFF Lisbon 2008, live blogging and twittering.

12:00

Loads of people outside (an estimate of around 2000). Collecting their tickets, getting a sun tan and drinking beer. I’ll need to do an errand, but i’ve been told the doors are already opening.

12:30

TheKDU is showcasing their works.

12:40

Just found out that some conferences are being broadcasted at
http://videos.sapo.pt/offf. For those abroad, Sapo is a xtra cool portuguese portal, and i’ve met with some of their team here at the event.

13:10

Dino dos Santos, one of Portugal’s most famous type designers, talking (in English) about the process and themes that inspire him.

18:00

Late lunch and more errands, after watching Eric Natzke (North kingdom cancelled their talk).

Now watching Trafik and their several interactive projects.

19:00 - 22:00

Last but not the least, the all exciting Joshua Davis, with his humorous talk, inviting everyone to get naked. The day wrapped with the work of PsyOp (and a wonderful making-of their latest commercial for Absolut). See ya tomorrow.