"This is without doubt the best
of the online advent calendars.
Pick a day, open a box and
prepare for a surprise."
the Press Association about
Electric December 1999

Electric December 2000 features:
Aardman Animations
Archimedia Online
Art Media and Design at UWE
BBC Bristol
BITA
bolexbrothers
Bristol City Council
BRIC Bristol Interactive Cluster
Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company
Burrell Durrant Hifle
City of Bristol College
DA2
Fictitious Egg/eggtoons.com
..here nor there..
Hub Network Services Ltd
Insanely Great
The Internet Movie Database
Living Europe Interactive TV
Nameless-uk
Picture This/Watershed
Simon Poulter/Afterworld
Wildscreen-at-Bristol
Words Allowed Ltd
Year of the Artist/South West Arts
 What's it all about

Welcome to Electric December 2000 - a selection box of virtual presents and cards to celebrate creativity in Bristol.

It works like a traditional advent calendar, open it day-by-day to reveal 24 virtual presents from some of Bristol's finest creative talents - there's games, animation, video, short films, poetry, prose and visual art.

Right from day one there are also 24 emailable greetings cards, of which you can send as many as you like with your own personal message - let your friends know where they can find the presents too. Open the calendar, click on a day and follow the instructions.

Each card acts as a preview of a present. Click the box on the card to open the present. But don't forget your presents can only be opened on or after the numbered day of December.

From the card you can also open a 'Meet the Makers' page which tells you about that day's contributors and has links to related sites.

Electric December is also on show at Watershed on Bristol's Harbourside, as a part of the useIT exhibition, 11am to 7pm from 21 November through to 4 February 2001 - free admission. useIT profiles new creative content for the web, digital media research projects and an interactive TV prototype. There are linked events, seminars and showreels, see useIT on www.bctn.net for details.

What you will need

To open and send the Cards: no special requirements.

To open the Presents: The Latest Plug-ins. To make things as exciting as possible, many of the people who've created virtual presents have used dynamic extra features that you may not be able to see without downloading some small, additional bits of 'plug-in' software for your browser. The latest versions of these 'plug-ins': Flash, Shockwave and QuickTime can make the Internet a much more exciting place, so they're well worth getting hold of. You may even already have them without knowing it.

It's a fairly quick and easy process to check and add these plug-ins. Click here and follow the instructions to take make sure of an enhanced web experience...

Present Download Times: Electric December 2000 is an advent calendar that looks to 2001 and imminent broadband networks, it looks forward creatively to the future and maybe offers a taste of what is to come. Many of the presents have been designed with reasonably fast internet connections in mind.

If you are accessing Electric December on a slow connection ie a 56k modem or less, you may have to wait a little while to download the bigger presents. Look at the card each day for an indication of the present's estimated download time. If you have ever downloaded a film trailer, music or games then this will give an indication of the download time for some of the larger presents.

Electric MessageBoard:

A big part of Electric December is your involvement. There's a message board where you can leave your messages for other visitors or even put questions and comments to the creators of that day's present. What happens in this part of Electric December is up to you!

Electric December Events

Details below of events that took place during Electric December 2.

Andy Sheppard and 3 Macs
with live webcast to www.electricdecember.org
Fri 8 Dec 2030hrs Watershed Gallery Two
Bristol saxophonist Andy Sheppard explores new territories with a live webcast, solo performance improvising to computer-generated images. Day 8 of Electric December.
Tickets available from Watershed Box Office [0117] 925 3845
Fee: £7.00 full / £5.00 concessions

The Internet Movie Database
Wed 13 Dec 1230hrs - 1600hrs Watershed Digital Café
The Internet Movie Database - www.imdb.com once again gives you the opportunity to meet the people behind the scenes of the award-winning website. IMDB will be running workshops throughout the day focusing on: compiling and managing the wealth of information; designing the site and understanding who the users are.
No need to book - just drop in.

www.herenorthere.org.uk
Tue 12 Dec Watershed Digital Café
Audio / Visual Collaborations
Natalie Deseke (Germany) Mac Dunlop (Canada / UK) Neil Jenkins, Annie Lovejoy (UK), Roger Mills (Australia / UK) Medea Tsulaia, Koka Ramishvili (Republic of Georgia)
Video Screening: 1800hrs
12 Days - A video diary from footage taken during Dec 1999 /Jan 2000. A sombre and moving glimpse of winter in Tbilisi. 'Dec 31st: eve of the new Millennium ...a city in darkness, lit only by car headlights'. Between One Place And Another - A split screen video soundscape produced from the '...here nor there...' archive.
Radio Broadcast: 1900hrs
Natalie Deseke live on air: Radio Flora, Hanover on line at www.herenorthere.org.uk

Electric December - Meet the Makers
Tue 16 Jan from 1800hrs Watershed Digital Café
An informal drop-in session open to all who are interested in finding out more about Electric December, with contributors on hand to provide feedback on their involvement in this unique, creative, collaborative project. There will be a short introduction to the project at 1900hrs, followed by a Q&A session.

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