Programme

Full details of the conference programme will appear here once the programme is finalised. However, key features of this year will include:

Keynotes

As with previous years, one of the attractions of COSIGN is the quality of its keynote speakers. (See www.kinonet.com/conferences for keynotes in 2001 & 2)

This year we are pleased to announce the following, in alphabetical order:

• Marc Cavazza

  Marc is best known for his research on Interactive Storytelling and Conversational Characters. The Interactive Storytelling research he supervises at Teesside is developing a character-based approach in which the user influences the story mainly from a spectator's position. In the field of human-computer dialogue, he has been co-ordinator of the Virtual Interactive Presenter's project, developing a conversational interface for Interactive Television and is a member of SIGDIAL, the special interest group on human-computer dialogue of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

• Char Davies

  As the creator of Osmose (1995) and Ephémère (1998), Char Davies is firmly at the forefront of digital art. Combining cutting-edge virtual reality technology with a distinctive personal aesthetic, these groundbreaking immersive environments have left a lasting impression on all who have experienced them. Char has explored themes of nature, psyche, and perception through her work for more than two decades, using a variety of media including painting, film and animation. In addition, she is the founder of SoftImage and Immersence, her own art and technology research company.

• Lev Manovich

  Lev Manovich is an Associate Professor in the Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego where he teaches courses in new media art and theory. Manovich has been working with computer media as am artist, computer animator, designer, and programmer since 1984. His art projects include little movies, the first digital film project designed for the Web (1994), Freud-Lissitzky Navigator, a conceptual software for navigating twentieth century history, Anna and Andy, a Web adaptation of Anna Karenina, and a digital film project Soft Cinema commissioned for ZKM exhibition Future Cinema (2002-2003). He is the author of The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001), Tekstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture (Chicago University Press, 1993) as well as 50+ articles which have been published in 28 countries. Currently he is working on a new book Info-aesthetics.

Tutorial Day

Apart from the usual 3 days of papers, discussions, artworks and performances, this year year will see an additional day - before the conference proper - devoted to a tutorial on the 'Semiotics of New Media'. The aim of the tutorial is to make the diversity that is COSIGN accesssible to an even wider audience.

VR Centre

As part of their overall sponsorship of the conference the Digital City Project will be offering delegates visits to the acclaimed VR Centre at the University of Teesside.