Dear New Media Art Curators & Friends,
Please find below the first announcement for AV.06, the second audiovisual
festival in the North East of England.
The AV Festival is a new bi-annual international festival of digital art,
moving image, music and new media convergence. AV.06 will take place across
three cities during the first two weeks of March 2006, and will examine one
of the key issues within creative and scientific practice - Life.
One of the collaborators of the festival is the University of Sunderland,
the base of CRUMB operations.
At this time, we are calling for expressions of interest for the festival
programme. We are commissioning a small number of new projects, and will
also be presenting existing projects related to the festival themes. I
hope this is of interest to some of you and that you'll consider responding
to the call.
Sincere apologies for cross-posting!
Very best wishes
Honor Harger
Consultant Director
AV Festival
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.avfest.co.uk/contact.html
AV.06: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
AV.06: the second audiovisual festival
March 2006
NewcastleGateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, UK
http://www.avfest.co.uk/
Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 27 May 2005
http://www.avfest.co.uk/interest.html
The AV Festival is a new bi-annual international festival of digital art,
moving image, music and new media convergence which takes place in the
North East of England. The second AV festival - AV.06 - will take place
across three cities in the North East of England during the first two weeks
of March 2006. It will examine one of the key issues within creative and
scientific practice - life.
AV.06 will include internationally renowned artists, filmmakers,
researchers, technicians and musicians as well as emerging practitioners.
Concerts, performances and exhibitions will be complemented by a conference
and an education programme.
AV.06 will feature:
- new commissions of film, digital arts, music and games
- outdoor projects which will transform landmark public buildings or
spaces
- live performance events at the Sage Gateshead and other concert venues
- a major strand of activity focussing on computer games
- a screening programme
- exhibitions and installations
- an international conference
- an education programme of workshops, seminars and lectures
- a programme of club events and parties
- a radio station broadcasting on-air and online
- digital projects for the region's public transport system
AV.06 is providing creative practitioners with an opportunity to contribute
ideas to the programme. If you have an existing project which could fit the
thematic context of the programme, or an idea for a new work, we would like
to hear about it.
___AV.06 : thematics
The theme of AV.06 is Life. The festival will explore the interplay
between digital and biological life as explored by audiovisual
practitioners from all disciplines.
In an increasingly technologised society, we find ourselves surrounded by,
and immersed in, virtual and artificial worlds. Evolutionary computational
techniques and genetic algorithms correlate the processes of the computer
with the processes we observe in biology. Digital technology has allowed
for entire environments to be modelled within the computer. The internet
has created a culture, where societies of users can inhabit these synthetic
environments. Games, online communities and immersive interactive
environments have become worlds within worlds.
At the same time, genetic engineering is allowing for the creation of
synthetic biological worlds, which are constructed in the laboratory.
Biotechnology raises passions, hopes, fears and fascinations. On the
cutting edge of science and ethics, it offers many promises, but prompts
anxiety also. Fields such as stem cell research, genetic modification and
reproductive cloning intrigue and perturb us, provoking questions about the
status of life itself.
The North East of England has become a bioresearch centre of international
repute, with scientists at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology and
Developmental Genetics at the University of Newcastle engaged in human
embryonic stem cell research, and medical researchers at the James Cook
Hospital in Middlesbrough working on reproductive treatments for patients.
The often troubling ethical and political implications of this work are
considered and communicated by organisations such as the Policy, Ethics and
Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALs) and the Centre for Life.
Artists also have a role to play in considering the changing nature of
life. Artificial life and emergent systems have long been subjects for new
media artists, exemplified by the work of Kenneth Rinaldo (USA), William
Latham (UK/USA) and Jon McCormack (Australia). Now, practitioners such as
the Critical Art Ensemble (USA) and Oron Catts & Ionat Zuur (Australia),
are beginning to work directly with living biological systems. With
artists and scientists alike fabricating new life-forms and ecologies, our
understanding of what life is and where it can happen is shifting, evolving
and mutating.
AV.06 will explore and present new ways of thinking about Life. The
festival will interrogate the boundaries of what is 'natural' and what is
'synthetic' in this context, aiming to extend and rework these notions. It
will probe digital and biological 'lifeforms' and 'living systems', and ask
such questions as: what do these 'creations' look, sound and feel like?
What is it like to 'inhabit' these systems? Who are the demiurges of the
artificial age?
Areas which may inform the exploration of Life within AV.06 include (but
are not restricted to):
- bioscience and biotechnology
- artificial life
- evolutionary computation and genetic algorithms
- technologically mediated ecosystems, ecologies and environments
- virtual or networked spaces as social 'living' environments
- life processes as tools for discovery and learning
- evolutionary approaches to narrative within film
- algorithmic techniques within music composition and audio environments
- philosophical and ethical explorations of the boundaries of nature
AV.06 will also include a major strand on gaming, which will explore, as
part of its focus, the way that multi-player games, are increasingly
evolving into highly complex social "living" environments
___AV.06: submissions
AV will be commissioning new works especially for the festival, as well as
presenting creative work which has already been produced. AV is now
calling for expressions of interest from artists, filmmakers, musicians,
DJs, VJs, designers, games developers, theorists, technologists,
scientists, philosophers and others interested in this field.
You are invited to submit a short proposal for:
- a new work which you would like to make specifically for the festival
- an existing project which you would like to present at the festival
The Application Form and Guidelines document are available on the AV website:
http://www.avfest.co.uk/interest.html
Expressions of Interest must be sent via email.
Please include: "expression of interest: AV.06" in the subject line.
Examples of work can be sent via post, if necessary, as per the Guidelines
on the website.
DEADLINE: 27 MAY 2005
Email proposals to:
[log in to unmask]
___AV: the story so far
The first AV Festival was held in Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland,
8 - 22 November 2003, organised by the Tyneside Cinema, Middlesbrough
Council, the University of Teesside and Sunderland City Council.
The festival delivered over one hundred events across three towns in two
weeks, and included performances by the Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Food, Tina
Frank and General Magic, screenings of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle, a
Mike Figgis film retrospective, onedotzero screenings and a lively
programme of workshops and lectures. Over 35 new works were commissioned,
including new pieces by filmmaker, Richard Fenwick and The Light Surgeons.
AV.03 proved to be one of the biggest new media, digital arts and digital
music festival in the UK, and is the only festival event to occur in each
major population centre in the North East region. The AV.03 website is
archived at: http://www.avfest.co.uk/new/index4.html
___AV: collaborators
AV brings together some of the most creative people and organisations in
the region. The North-East's top universities have joined forces with
three City Councils and an independent cinema with an eye firmly on the
future. AV is in partnership with:
- Middlesbrough Council <http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk> and their
Arts Development team
- Sunderland City Council <http://www.sunderland.gov.uk> and their Arts
Development team
- Tyneside Cinema <http://www.tynecine.org/>, the key independent
cinema in the North East region.
- University of Teesside <http://www.tees.ac.uk/>, an important centre
for teaching, learning and research, based in Middlesbrough.
AV is also working with the Sage Gateshead
<http://www.thesagegateshead.com/>, a new home for music that is bringing
about a widespread and lasting enrichment of music in the North of England,
as well CultureLab at the University of Newcastle
<http://www.ncl.ac.uk/niassh/culturelab/> and the University of Sunderland.
___AV: supporters
The development of the AV festival is supported by:
- The Arts Council of England
- Codeworks
- Newcastle City Council
- Northern Film and Media
- Northern Rock Foundation
- UK Film Council
http://www.avfest.co.uk/support.html
___AV.06: contacts
Honor Harger
Consultant Director
AV Festival
c/-Tyneside Cinema
10 Pilgrim Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 6QG
UK
Tel: +44 (0)191 2328289, ext 112
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.avfest.co.uk/contact.html
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