This year we held mscapefest in Belfast and it was exciting and inspiring to see how the community has grown and to hear about the range of projects and ideas that are being developed. Delegates from Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, USA, Holland, Denmark and Spain gave the conference a truly international feel and the strong attendance and support from the Belfast mscape community gave the event a good buzz and vibrancy.
We were also very pleased to see so many mscape veterans fly over for the conference and sample the delights of Belfast. And there were indeed many delights! First of all the venue for the conference, W5, was a great location with stunning views of the river, docks, city and the surrounding mountains.
Despite the freezing temperatures a few brave souls found time over the course of the conference to try out some of the local mediascapes such as “Letters to America”, “Snakes and Ladders”, “The Lighthouse keepers lunch” and “Peacelines” all of which we hope will be uploaded soon to the website.
And then there was the Irish hospitality, Kevin Coyle and Brian Lamb of Ulster mediascapes have worked tirelessly to involve government bodies, schools and local community groups in the mscapers story and so the conference was opened by Finance Minister, Nigel Dodds who highlighted the importance of mobile technologies. We also heard from Bill McCluggage from the Department of Finance who saw the potential of mediascapes four years ago and has been instrumental in sponsoring the Ulster mediascapes program and the mscapefest conference. You can hear Bill and others talking about mscapes on the mscapes Digital Circle podcast.
After a day of workshops, on Tuesday evening we were treated to talks and demonstrations at the Sonic Arts Research Centre. This culminated in a screening of Brian Cullens’ animated video “Thrice Removed” which featured a 48 channel soundtrack especially designed for the Sonic Lab.
Day two of the conference was a series of talks covering a wide range of mscape projects covering perspectives from art, heritage and education. It was brilliant to hear of so many different applications, approaches and lessons learned. We will put the presentations on the web site as soon as possible. Ben has already added his workshop materials – well done Ben!
As ever Vanessa did a great job planning and organising the conference and we are all very grateful to Vanessa and Deb for making it a fun, informative and successful two days. As we look forward to next year we hope to add more streams for advanced topics in addition to workshops and tutorials for beginners. We would also like to give more space for people to show how they have made their mediascapes, share best practice and network. In the meantime the forums are the best way for us all to keep the conversations going and we urge everyone to sign up, share and help one another.