23/10/2014 2:29 pm The Fibreculture Journal : 07 » FCJ-047 Intimate Transactions: The Evolution of an Ecosophical Networked Practice » Print Page 1 of 18 http://seven.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-047-intimate-transactions-the-evolution-of-an-ecosophical-networked-practice/print/ - The Fibreculture Journal : 07 - http://seven.fibreculturejournal.org - FCJ-047 Intimate Transactions: The Evolution of an Ecosophical Networked Practice Posted By FCJManager On December 29, 2005 @ 12:00 am In article,issue07 | 33 Comments Keith Armstrong Australia Council New Media Arts Fellow These artworks invent a gift-exchange community involved in a more intimate sense of transactions that we usually consider impersonal. (Saper, 2001:x) In 2005, The Australian Centre For the Moving Image promoted Intimate Transactions as follows: An immersive, interactive installation unlike any other, members of the public can experience Intimate Transactions for one week at ACMI commencing April 25. The two participants, one at the ACMI Screen Pit in Melbourne, and the other 1700 km away at the Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Precinct in Brisbane, will enter a space at each location that is equipped with a touch sensitive physical interface called a Bodyshelf, embedded with sensors that detect body movement and shifting of body weight. Before getting on to the Bodyshelf, each participant puts on a wearable device that passes gentle vibrations into their stomachs, enabling them to sense vibrations of different frequencies and intensities. Each body movement influences an evolving world created from digital imagery and multi-channel sound, allowing the participants’ bodies to become aware of the other’s movements, despite the fact that they are geographically separated and cannot actually see or hear each other (ACMI 2005). Intimate Transactions at ACMI, (2005). Img. David McLeod The Transmute Collective conceived and developed Intimate Transactions over a four-year period in phases from a single site, non-networked artwork to a multi-site, server-driven experience for two networked participants. In 2003, we showed a single site version to an invited peer group at the Brisbane Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts in order to garner feedback. This led us to better understand what type of computational architecture would be required for the work to function successfully within a networked, multi-site environment. We went on to design and build a dual site version that we previewed at the Performance Space, Sydney in 2004. After further development, it was made tour ready and publicly premiered in February 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland at the National Review of Live Art/New Moves Festival. In 2005, it received a prestigious Honorary Mention and major showing at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria It has also been shown simultaneously at the Australian Centre For the Moving Image, Melbourne and the QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane and later at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London [http://www.ica.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=14460 [1] ] and BIOS (New Synthesis of Urban Culture), [http://www.bios.gr [2] ], Athens, Greece. In May 2006 it will be shown in Sydney,