Ahhhhhh, the Guinness was a meal unto itself! Although it was August, the wind off the river was cold, so cappuccinos and brews kept us toasty. Thank you Hilary, our friend who came from Scotland, for these photos.
ISEA 2009 was huge; held over a two week period in N. Ireland and the Republic. Lots of academic papers... and lots of electronic art. We met a French couple (she was a former clown) who had spent 6 weeks video taping sheep and their herders in Mongolia. Lisa Erdman created a series of 'ads' for fake drugs: 'Jesurex' made you more religious. and Seema from Regina was working on turning bus shelters into interactive art objects. A Brazilian made a matrix from bar codes that were 'swiped' by your cell phone. There were all kinds of virtual worlds that we could play/input/shape. Our friend and host, Suzanne Bosch, presented the film she had made in Mae Sot about Karen and ex-pats living/working on the border.
The MY STORY photo project images looked gorgeous on those two big LCD monitors and the project was well received. In other words, people asked questions. The Karen are sometimes referred to as the Irish of Burma because of their shared history of long insurgencies against the powers that be. We only wish that our student photographers could have been there to see their images applauded and appreciated.