Pretty Shitty City

I first posted about the Women in Games conference wayback in December 2006, and it’s time has finally come around.

The event takes place at the University of Wales, Newport from the 19th April until 21st. There will be a range of speakers exploring this years theme of ‘Aesthetics in play: new platforms, new perspectives, new players‘ including Raina Lee who publishes a cool video game zine called 1-UP. ( I own 3 issues! )

The tickets are a little pricey at £175 for waged or £90 for students/unwaged, but surely worth it if your passionate about gaming and/or gender studies.

http://www.womeningames.com/

Undercurrents have started a video blog, allowing you to easily download & share their films.

The project, named Offline TV, is still in early stages but you can already watch a short introductory film that includes Hamish’s solar-powered video production suite (on a beach in the Canary Isles)!

The site is powered by Broadcast Machine: a free, open-source tool that lets you easily create video blogs on your website. Plus the downloads are compatible with RSS, bittorrent, iTunes etc.

You can download the videos directly from the Offline TV website, or alternatively you can subscribe using Democracy, another free program which gives you access to loads more Internet TV channels (like Adult Swim and ZeFrank).

Undercurrents, Swansea’s very own counter-culture production company, are calling for people wishing to take part in their film workshop.

“a one-day introduction with basic camera and editing skills for those who need them and lots of info about how to make video for social change - i.e. video activism”

The events takes place between 10am & 4pm on 26th February at The Environment Centre and costs between £50 and £80 according to means. For more info see the Undercurrents Training page.

With tongue firmly in cheek, David Chisnell writes about DRM (Digital Rights Managment) for Ping Wales. By imagining what disastrous impacts this type of technology might have on the world of book publication, he deftly shows how DRM is bad news, both for the artist and the audience.

DRM is meant to reduce piracy, so when you buy a DVD you can only watch it on certain players, or if you download a track from iTunes you can only play it on your iPod. The problem is, its easy to get around, so it doesn’t stop the pirates (ARGH!) it just causes an inconvenience to the general public, and drives up costs.

“Nobody woke up in the morning and hoped they could do less with their music.” - Cory Doctorow

Ok, sorry, Ill get down from my soap box now.

Swansea School of Digital Media, along with 5 other Welsh academic institutes have formed the Digital Media Consortia.

The Consortia plan to develop Digital Media practices in Wales by hosting events & lectures and distributing resources via the web and DVD.

Alan Summers is set to give a short introductory talk about the project on Wednesday 7th February at Swansea’s Waterfront Museum, taking place before John Hardy’s presentation: “The Role of Music in Animation and Film”. To register for this event you’ll need to visit the amperSAND website.

(Ok, sorry to stretch the “Swansea” theme a bit far here, but we don’t have much of a video game scene here that I know of).

Newport School of Art, Media & Design is set to host the 4th Annual Women in Games conference in April next year. The 3 day event, as the name suggests, is primarily concerned with analysing the role of females who play & make video games. However, it isn’t a girl-only event and all are welcome.

The lack of female influence in the video games industry is an issue, and probably one of the largest factors holding back the social acceptance of playing games.

Over the past 3 years, The Women in Games conference has become the European forum for women working in and around the computer games industry. The event is characterised by its mix of women from industry, the academy and other sectors of society united in their passion for games. WIG 2007 is interested in continuing this tradition and broadening the dialogue on games to a wider context by seeking contributions from more traditional media disciplines, gender studies and the ICT sector.

For anyone interested, the organisers are currently calling for papers.

Ping Wales reports that a series of Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed in Swansea city centre providing pay-as-you-go internet access.

The network comprises a series of almost continuous Wi-Fi hotspots from Wind Street to Castle Gardens and from Oxford Street to the Grand Theatre in Singleton Street.

The service is compatible with popular services such as BT Openzone, T-Mobile & The Cloud, which also means anyone with a Nintendo DS should might be able to get free access.