To find where the conference venues are, just check the list of information we've collected under the FAQ and Melbourne categories (they're listed down the left side of the conference site). These have links to maps of Melbourne and RMIT. The conference itself is being held at Storey Hall, RMIT. This is on Swanston Street, just north of the corner of Latrobe Street, and will have signage out the front. It is the big green and purple and grey cave with a little glass door entrance. trés postmodern and difficult to miss (except for the size of the door...)
Oh, and we've included maps in the conference pack, and volunteers will also be able to show you around the place on maps.
The entire proceedings of the conference will be available on CDROM. All full delegates (those who have signed up for the full catastrophe of 5 days) get this as part of their all inclusive purchase price (we tried to get a set of steak knives too but, you know). For anyone else, AUD$27.50 (including GST) should see you get a copy. Send a cheque, payable to RMIT to:
MelbourneDAC
School of Applied Communication
GPO Box 2476V
Melbourne 3001
Australia
And we'll send it right on out to you. Supplies are limited (well, we could burn more but you'd miss the cover artwork).
Can I read/send email from the conference? We'll have 5 or so iMacs running OS X available in the conference foyer or nearby. They will have a web browser running for webmail, or you can use telnet (if that works for you). We won't be running any specific email clients (raises too many privacy issues for you).
Can I connect my laptop to the network to do networky stuff? The conference rooms are very, um, architectural, which means cable poor. We will set up a desk with a hub so you can get your ethernet fix. This will be self serve which means we'll provide all the IP/gateway/proxy TCP/IP details and it is up to you to connect.
At the moment this is what we are planning on having available for delegates and presenters at the conference. But this will no doubt change. . .
Am investigating providing wireless but this is not looking promising at this point.
Quite a few people have been in touch about registrating for DAC after April 11, usually because they need to wait on the outcome of funding applications. This is fine, and is being managed on a case by case basis. If you would still like to register then please get in touch, so we can preserve a space for you - anna.farago@rmit.edu.au
You may be informed about health warnings or screenings for SARS if you are intending to travel to Australia. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It is an influenza like disease that has been recently identified and there are currently cases in parts of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, and Australia. In Australia all cases so far (I'm not sure what the current number is, I think 6) have involved people who have arrived here from another country.
This is the formal information that has been distributed to university staff here at RMIT. I need to stress no one actually has it, but it is recognised as a potential international health crisis, so here's the official line:
The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA) has stated that the risk of contracting SARS while travelling overseas is low. SARS has almost exclusively been transmitted from close contacts such as family, friends or carers during periods of illness. The incubation period is usually 2 to 7 days, although in some cases it has been up to 10 days.If you do have to travel to countries where SARS is present, DHA has provided advice on how to reduce the risk of contracting SARS. These preventative measures include:
Melbourne DAC is a non-for profit cultural event, i.e. programmed and budgeted on a break-even model. This means we are unable to give away press passes that are the equivalent of a full registration fee.Reviewers, journalists, media, etc. who are interested in particular, one off sessions, can have access to these sessions. In these cases please email (anna.farago@rmit.edu.au) or fax (+61 (3) 9639 1685) us the details of the journalist, their institutional affiliation, and any sessions they wish to attend.Alternatively we are able to offer concession registration rates to appropriately accredited members of the media.
Full registration simply means those delegates who have paid for the entire conference. No distinction is made between those who pay the full cost and those who have paid a concession rate. If you are a full delegate then you get access to all the goodies. Those who are only attending for a day or two only get access to the day time conference activities for the days they have registered for.
On Wednesday May 21 the entire conference is being packed into busses to travel into the nearby Yarra Valley. Lunch will be provided at a local winery. Why are we doing this? For several reasons.
First of all I have attended too many conferences in beautiful cities where all I have seen is an airport, taxi, hotel, and auditorium. People are not going to fly around the world to get to MelbourneDAC to not see some real Australian bush - period.
It will be a social day, of course, and that's because the development of viable professional networks is a social activity. The conference papers are things that provide the contexts for dialogue and the Day Out is an event that is to foster these discussions and networks. Professional practice is personal and social and it ought to include friendships and families.
Finally, MelbourneDAC is an intensive conference experience because as an event it is designed to provide a forum that develops ideas and is not a 'talk and walk' event. A Day Out is an opportunity to continue working, but in a new environment, and so is also an opportunity to recharge for the final two days.
Those who have registered for the entire conference get access to all conference events (excluding the conference dinner). This includes: every day's sessions; morning, afternoon tea and lunch for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; lunch and travel on Wednesday, access to the artists day at Experimedia on Friday; a copy of the full paper proceedings on paper; a copy of all papers on CDROM; an invitation to the opening night reception at ACMI; an invitation and free entry to the performance evening on Tuesday; an invitation to participate in the DAC Day Out on Wednesday.
The conference dinner is a separate event and is $45 per head.
The first DAC conference was held at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1998 of the Norwegian Research Council. It has since been hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology (1999), The University of Bergen (2000), and Brown University (2001). MelbourneDAC:streaming worlds is the first time that DAC will be held in the southern hemisphere and will provide a regional focus within the international DAC community.
RMIT University is an Australian leader in real world research and development and recognised internationally for its creative arts and media programs. The RMIT School of Applied Communication is committed to the provision of international best practice applied humanities and design education, and has a research focus on new media humanities. And it goes without saying that the School of Applied Communication is proud to have been chosen as the host for MelbourneDAC:streaming worlds from 19 May to 23 May, 2003.
Well, that depends on who you are and what you do. If you're an academic then you would come to DAC because it is a conference that is serious about being a collaborative and interdisciplinary event where the papers are intended to be precursors to serious conversation. DAC specifically brings together a diverse range of theoretical views and practices, addressing a range of new media, because we believe that interdisciplinary and collaborative work is the basis for moving forward on key theoretical and practitioner based problems in digital arts and culture.
Too many conferences are simply 'talk and walk' events where you present work that you treat as finished, closed, and more or less outside of criticism. You answer a few questions, say hello to people you already know and possibly meet a few new people. You'll attend sessions that pretty much reinforce what you think you're already interested in, hear more papers that think they've got the answer, and perhaps ask a question. This is not going to happen at DAC.
At DAC all papers are available to all participants prior to the conference, and co-session speakers are expected to have read each others papers, and to have prepared open questions about each others work. These questions are not of the "good paper but you're wrong and if you have done x, y, and z (ie. written like I would have) then you'd be right." The questions will be specifically framed to draw out what is useful, productive, problematic, innovative in each others papers.
It is a conference about engaging with ideas, establishing peer networks, collaboration, and creative critical thinking.
DAC is digital arts and culture and it is a conference series that was initiated by Espen Aarseth in 1998. first one without external funding, so this is the one that probably makes or breaks the conference as an ongoing series.
The conference is serious about being a collaborative and interdisciplinary event where the papers are intended to be precursors to serious conversation. DAC specifically seeks to bring together a diverse range of theoretical views and practices, addressing a range of new media, because I believe that interdisciplinary and collaborative work is the basis for moving forward on key theoretical and practitioner based problems in digital arts and culture.
Too many conferences are simply 'talk and walk' events where you present work that you treat as finished, closed, and more or less outside of criticism. You answer a few questions, say hello to people you already know and possibly meet a few new people. You attend sessions that pretty much reinforce what you think you're already interested in, here more papers that think they've got the answer, and perhaps ask a question. This is not going to happen at DAC. A parody? OK, but if you're into computer games and there's a session on games on one on interactive fiction which one will you go to?
At DAC all papers are available to all participants prior to the conference, and co-session speakers are expected to have read each others papers, and to have prepared open questions about each others work. These questions are not of the "good paper but you're wrong and if you have done x, y, and z (ie. written like I would have) then you'd be right." The questions will be specifically framed to draw out what is useful, productive, problematic, and innovative in each others papers. This is because the most valuable work of the conference will be in the dialogue that the papers begin, and if it doesn't do that, then it would be just easier to send everyone the proceedings and to stay at home!
There is a list of speakers and paper titles available, though this doesn't go very far towards showing the range of material that will be presented. DAC is a conference that is serious about bringing theorists, educators, and artists working in digital culture together, and trying to find what we have in common. Just as importantly it is also to begin to find what we misunderstand in each others work, and to find how these misunderstandings might sometimes be productive, while at other times disruptive.
In keeping with previous DAC conferences MelbourneDAC provides a combination of established and emerging researchers, ensuring that much of the most exciting new work that is being undertaken in digital art and culture will be presented and discussed.
This means there are papers by practitioners and theorists on a range of key new media themes, including specific art projects, computer gaming, interactive narrative, digital poetics, hypertext, and digital aesthetics. It is about new researchers in new fields, the sort of work that represents the vanguard of new thinking in these fields (and yes, I actually do believe that).
The conference is being held on the city campus of RMIT which is in Melbourne's Central Business District. This is an easy walk from any of the accommodation venues we have suggested, and any other accommodation that is within the CBD.
RMIT is on Swanston and Latrobe Streets in Melbourne, and Swanston Street is one of the major tram routes in the city and is easily accessible by public transport.
The conference also has an event at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which is more or less located at the other end of Swanston Street. This is a 10 minute walk from RMIT, or a 5 minute tram ride.
Experimedia at the State Library of Victoria is hosting the +PlayEngines+ exhibition which is a part of DAC, and the artists day we are hosting on Friday, May 23. The State Library is next door (well, over the road) from RMIT.
The DAC DayOut being held on the Wednesday involves the entire conference moving to the Yarra Valley for an informal day of networking, recovery, and reinvigoration. This is included in the registration cost for all delegates who register for the full conference and we provide the buses (and food, and wine tasting). You just have to be able to get to RMIT to get the bus on the Wednesday morning.
The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has a city and a Bundoora campus. The conference is being held on the city campus (luckily for you, Bundoora is 30 kilometres north!). The main city campus is located in Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD), which is what North American's would recognise as 'downtown'. It is probably 7 minutes walk from the conference hotels, and is serviced by literally dozens of trams and a major city rail station.
In a few minutes walk are major city restaurants, the Queen Victoria Market, city cinemas, galleries, bars, and so on.
A map of Melbourne's CBD is available. As is a map of RMIT's city campus. The conference will be held in RMIT's Storey Hall, which is building 16 on the RMIT map.
BTW, if you go to http://www.whereis.com.au/ and put in 124 Latrobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, as your address you'll also get a pretty useful map.
