Tag Archives: launch

#Deletion launch today with two speakers on SF and Robotics

Deletion – the open access online forum in science fiction studies is now live and we are launching this week with two speakers on robotics, the remarkable Angela Ndalianis with ‘Tomorrowland’, and robotics thinker, Matthew Joordens on ‘The Science and Fiction of Robotics.’ today at the  Phoenix Gallery, Deakin Burwood 4-6pm.  Join us!

http://www.deletionscifi.org/

Science Fiction: Future fact? 

Dr. Matthew Joordens – School of Engineering, Deakin University

Is science fiction the harbinger of doom, an idle story or future fact? Science fiction has enthralled its audience since Mary Shelly animated a monster, Jules Verne put a man on the moon and H. G. Well invaded the earth with Martians. This presentation will look at the link between science fiction and science fact, particularly in robotics. Will robots be able to replace mankind? Will they be smarter than us? Will robots be independent or have a hive mentality?  Find out about robots today and the possibilities of tomorrow.

Tomorrowland

Angela Ndalianis – Associate Professor in Screen and Cultural Studies, Melbourne University

Tomorrowland at Disneyland embodied for Walt Disney a demonstration of the world of tomorrow that could be experienced today. In constructing Tomorrowland and Disneyland, Disney drew upon a range of influences: science fiction and utopianist writings; urban theory and visions of futuristic city living & world expositions from the past and present which had also envisioned the world of tomorrow through technological advancement. These resulted in a complex evocation of a retro-futurist vision.This paper focuses on what Brooks Landon calls “science fiction thinking”. Like a science fiction time traveller Disney drew upon the past and present to construct a present that would envision the future.

it’s alive, alive I tell you! ALIVE!

So I didn’t quite make it to the lush Deakin city centre offices today for the launch of the Pozible and Deakin crowdfunding research collaboration.

Instead I got to nurse Miss6 through a My Litte Pony marathon while she coughed up a lung or two (at least I found this...)

The PlayCache project is now live, and for two tax deductible dollars you get to help decide if a new research project on the value and products of games and play goes ahead.

Check out all the hardwork at http://www.pozible.com/playcache

I’m still unsure about the potential ramifications of privatising research through public interest, but I sincerely value the experience and insight into the crowdfunding continuum. Is the current success of crowdfunding a temporary bubble or a sustainable model? Or worse, is it opening up publicly funded research institutions to private influence in a much more direct fashion?