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On the 10th of December I’ll be playing with Maria Radich (voice) in impro mash-up between my Airstick music and her experimental vocal talent.

10th December, 23:00 R. Rodrigues de Faria - LX Factory , Lisbon - Price: 5€

I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded with the “Personality of the Year 2010” by APMP. APMP is the Portuguese Association of Promotion for Multimedia and Digital Society and the National Multimedia Prize is now in its fifth edition. " The Personality Award, with the goal of highlighting and rewarding an individual and the contribution for the development of the Information Society, has been awarded to Ivan Franco, R&D Director of YDreams, for his innovative and creative work in the field of interactivity and ubiquitous computing, acting in a context of a new generation of engineers/artists.

Alkantara is one of the reference Portuguese festivals in performance arts, happening in both Lisbon and Porto. I’ll be showing a new performance with Lígia on the 24th of May, in Teatro S. Luís (Lisbon), on “Amigos Coloridos”. It’s kind of a surprise show, with intensive blind dates between performers and the audience. “ Amigos Coloridos@Alkantara ” The whole festival will go on until the 9th of June, so be sure to check the rest of the program.

http://www.tedxaveiro.com/ TED is now a reference conference of Technology, Entertainment and Design. The TEDx initiative is a way of empowering other TEDs to happen outside California. There are many TEDx worldwide and Portugal is no exception. The next event is happening in Aveiro, on the 29th of May. I’ll be speaking about New Electronic Music and Performance, instrument building and the relationship between electronic musicians and the DIY culture. I’ll also play the Airstick as a live demo of my own instruments.

Labcom and the Beira Interior University (UBI) are organizing the GEAR event from the 7th to the 12th of April. It’s a series of talks, demos and concerts on interactive media and it’s relation to the academic research. I’ll be doing talks on both my artistic practice and also the work at YDreams. I’ll be perfoming live on the 8th at Companhia Club (you can check the schedule here ).

Last Sunday I was in Oporto, playing on the Olhares de Outono festival. Vitor Joaquim invited 16 laptopers for a super mash up of sound and image. We also had a reflexion session the previous day, thinking and discussing about the laptop as an instrument. Great people, great thoughts. It was good to realize that you can join 16 mature improvisers on the same stage and still get a coherent performance.

It’s my pleasure to announce that “Lively Dreams”, my latest dance piece with Lígia Teixeira, has won the entertainment category of the National Multimedia Award. This prize is awarded by the Association for Promotion of Multimedia and Digital Society (APMP). Our thanks to the team, that helped us give live to our own dreams.

Pecha Kucha is a very interesting approach to sharing ideas and knowledge. from Wikipedia: “Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ), usually pronounced in three syllables like “pe-chak-cha”) is a presentation format in which content can be easily, efficiently and informally shown, usually at a public event designed for that purpose. Under the format, a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds. It was devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo ’s Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa), who sought to give young designers a venue to meet, network, and show their work and to attract people to their experimental event space in Roppongi .

OFFF Festival is back in Lisbon and will take place during three days, from the 7th of May. This year’s moto is a very interesting one: “Fail Gracefully”. It’s an interesting subject, particularly for electronic performance arts, so unstable and willing to fail in the most crucial moment. There’s nothing worst than an onstage computer chime. Also if you develop tangible interfaces you’ll be mapping your natural environment through sensor acquisition, which naturally glitches.

South by Southwest is a media festival in Austin/Texas and its better known as an international showcase of new talents in the music industry. SXSW as grown in the last 20 years and now also includes many other activities, such as discussion panels or screenings, and has come to encompass other disciplines of culture and media like “Film” or “Interactive”. Late last year I proposed to do a panel and the news is I got picked!