Dear Colleagues,

I hope this email finds you all well.

Please find below the programme announcement for LifeLife - AV Festival 06
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.  The next festival takes place 2 - 12
March 2006 and features new work by Ryoji Ikeda (Japan), Ken Rinaldo
(USA), Michael Nyman (UK), Critical Art Ensemble (USA), Andy Gracie (UK),
Anthony McCall (UK), Gina Czarnecki (Australia/UK) and many others.

I have included an announcement about the festival below.=20
The full programme can be downloaded from the AV website: http://www.avfest=
=2Eco.uk/
There you can also sign up for our email bulletin.

I would be delighted if some of you would consider attending the festival. =
=20
I would be honoured to welcome you here in the North East of England, and
would be very happy to design an itinerary for anyone of you who wished to
attend.  Please do not hesitate to let me know if you want more
information about the festival.

Sincere apologies for cross-posting!

Very best wishes

Honor Harger


Director
LifeLife - AV Festival 06
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.avfest.co.uk



LIFE LIKE - AV FESTIVAL 06 - ANNOUNCEMENT

2 - 12 March 2006
NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, UK
http://www.avfest.co.uk/


The AV Festival is a new bi-annual international festival of digital art,
moving image, music and new media which takes place in the North East of
England. The second AV festival will take place across three cities of
NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough from 2 - 12 March 2006.  AV
Festival 06 forms part of NewcastleGateshead Initiative's world-class
festivals and events programme.

Under the rubric Life Like, the festival will explore the interplay between=
 technological and biological life as explored by artists.  The festival go=
es beyond a mere technological exploration of life. We are interested not j=
ust in the way that silicon circuits manifest simulations of life, or imita=
tions of intelligence, but in the way that biological life itself has been =
manufactured and mutated inside laboratories.  Our festival explores the wa=
y that biotechnology, genetic engineering and cloning have swiftly and radi=
cally altered the way we imagine life.  In the biotechnical age, artists ar=
e making laboratories their new studios, fashioning artworks from the very =
fabric of life.

LifeLife - AV Festival 06 presents over 90 new commissions, exhibitions, sc=
reenings, concerts, workshops and events, including:

-     a newly commissioned concert work by Ryoji Ikeda (3 March)
-     a new concert by Michael Nyman
-     outdoor projection works by Gina Czarnecki, Claire Davies & Marius Wa=
tz
-     newly commissioned exhibitions including The Autotelematic Spider Bot=
s by Ken Rinaldo, Swell by Anthony McCall & autoinducer Ph-1 by Andy Gracie=
 & Brian Lee Yung Rowe
-     premiere of Marching Plague - the new work by Critical Art Ensemble
-     an exhibition by the Tissue Culture & Art Project & a tissue enginnee=
ring workshop, lead by Oron Catts
-     performances by Carsten Nicolai, D-Fuse, Cathode & many others
-     a radio station broadcasting from a boat - Celestial Radio by Neil Br=
omwich & Zoe Walker
-     a 2 day international symposium


___AV.06 : thematics

The theme of AV Festival 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, intelligent robotics and emergent systems have long
been subjects for new media artists, exemplified by the work of Ken
Rinaldo (USA), Suguru Goto (Japan) and Marius Watz (Norway). Now,
practitioners such as the Critical Art Ensemble (USA), Andy Gracie (UK)
and Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr (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.

LifeLife - AV Festival 06 will present the work of the above artists and
many more, in over 90 exhibitions, new commissions, film screenings,
concerts, workshops, symposia and other events.

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?


___AV.06 : programme

The programme for LifeLife - AV Festival 06 can be downloaded as a PDF docu=
ment (9MB).=20
The direct link is: http://www.avfest.co.uk/download/AV%20Festival%2006%20G=
uide.pdf

AV Commissions & Premieres include :
-     Andy Gracie & Brian Lee Yung Rowe - Autoinducer PH-1 (exhibition - Co=
mmission)
-     Anthony McCall - Swell (exhibition - co-Commission)
-     Claire Davies - Wonderland (outdoor projection- Commission)
-     Critical Art Ensemble - Marching Plague (film & panel discussion, Wor=
ld Premiere)
-     D-Fuse - Undercurrent (performance, World Premiere)
-     Gina Czarnecki - Spine (outdoor projection, Commission)
-     Helena Swatton - State (exhibition, World Premiere)
-     James Hutchinson - Planesong (exhibition, World Premiere)
-     Marius Watz - System C (outdoor projection,UK Premiere)
-     Michael Nyman - Orchestrating the Genome (performance, Commission)
-     Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr - The Remains of Disembodied Cuisine (exhibit=
ion, UK Premiere)
-     Richard Fenwick - Artificial Worlds & What I Know About Stem Cells (f=
ilms, Commissions)
-     Ryoji Ikeda - data.matrix - working title (performance, co-Commission=
)
-     Suguru Goto - RoboticMusic, (exhibition & performance,UK Premiere)
-     Times Up - Sensory Circus (exhibition,UK Premiere)
-     UMAMi - Who Am I? (film performance, Commission)

Live Concerts include:
-     alva noto aka Carsten Nicolai - in First Friday, AV Opening Gala, 3 M=
arch
-     D-Fuse  - Undercurrent, 7 March
-     Cathode - in AV Closing Gala, 11 March=20
-     Michael Nyman & Northern Sinfonia - Orchestrating the Genome, 5 March
-     Marius Watz - in AV Opening Gala, 3 March
-     Preamptive - in AV Opening Gala & Closing Gala, 3/11 March
-     Ryoji Ikeda - C4I &  new commission in AV Opening Gala, 3 March
-     Suguru Goto - RoboticMusic, 4 - 5 March

Symposium & Seminars & Talks include
-     Adinda van 't Klooster - at Presentations by Sound Artists, 6 March
-     alva noto (Carsten Nicolai) - Artist presentation, 4 March
-     Andy Gracie - Gallery Tour & Artist Presentation, 8 March
-     Anthony McCall - Gallery Tour & Artist Presentation, 8 March
-     Frankenstein Created Bimbo - seminar lead by Gail Nina Anderson, 4 Ma=
rch
-     Game Horizon: Show Some Emotion -  games seminar, 9 March
-     Kaffe Matthews - at Presentations by Sound Artists, 6 March
-     Ken Rinaldo - Gallery Tour & Artist Presentation, 8 March=20
-     Making The Most of Open Source Software - seminar lead by Sneha Solan=
ki & Dominic Smith, 8 March
-     Michael Nyman - interviewed by Dr. Tom Shakespeare, 5 March
-     Richard Fenwick - at What I Know About Stem Cells, 4 March=20
-     Ryoji Ikeda - Artist presentation, 4 March
-     Steve Grand -  Caf=E9 Scientifique, 6 March
-     Steve Kurtz & Steve Barnes, Critical Art Ensemble - at Marching Plagu=
e, 4 March
-     Sustaining Life, Designing Life- the AV Festival symposium, 10 - 11 M=
arch
-     Zo=EB Irvine - at Presentations by Sound Artists, 6 March

Workshops include
-     Build Your Own Computer Game - 5 day workshop lead by Julian Oliver,=
=20
-     Grow Your Own Media Lab - workshops, lead by Polytechnic, Feb & March
-     Shadow Play - workshop for Families, with installation by Dan Fox, 4 =
- 6 March
-     Sound Art Lab - workshop for North East England artists, 6 - 9 March
-     Tissue Engineering Workshop - lead by Oron Catts, 7 - 8 March
=20
Screenings include
-      Short Films
Cinematic representatations of biological and technological convergence, fe=
aturing Simon Tegala - Signal; Jemima Brown's Seven Lonely Nights; Sean Bur=
n - Stealing Brecht; Peter Nancollis - Sciatica; Francesca Steele - Fleurs =
du Mal & Jane Arnfield - Humanity;  Precursor - Quietus; Pleix - E-baby; Do=
minic Hailstone - The Eel and many more.

-     Retrospective feature film season, including:=20
Able Edwards (Graham Robertson, USA, 2004), Abre Los Ojos (Alejandro Amen=
=E1bar, Spain, 1997), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, USA, 1982), Blood (Charly=
 Cantor, UK, 2000), Casshern (Kazuaki Kiriya, Japan, 2004), Code 46 (Michae=
l Winterbottom UK, 2003), eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1999), Franke=
nstein (James Whale, USA, 1931), Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, NZ/USA, 1997), Goj=
ira / Godzilla (Ishir=F4 Honda. Japan, 1954), Incident at Loch Ness (Zak Pe=
nn, USA, 2004), Iron Giant (Brad Bird, USA, 1999), Natural City (Byung-chun=
 Min, South Korea, 2003), S1m0ne (Andrew Niccol, USA/NZ), Seconds (John Fra=
nkenheimer, USA, 1966), Shivers (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1975), Sleeper (=
Woody Allen, USA, 1973), The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, (USA, 1975), The=
 Valley of Gwangi (Jim O'Connolly, USA, 1969).

For the full programme listings, download the AV Fesival Guide Book:=20
 http://www.avfest.co.uk/download/AV%20Festival%2006%20Guide.pdf
Or send us an email with your address & we will post it to you.
=20

___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 Counc=
il, the University of Teesside and Sunderland City Council. The festival de=
livered over one hundred events across three towns in two weeks, and includ=
ed performances by the Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Food, Tina Frank and General=
 Magic, screenings of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle, a world premiere by=
 Peter Greenaway, a Mike Figgis film retrospective, onedotzero screenings a=
nd a lively programme of workshops and lectures. Over 35 new works were com=
missioned, including new pieces by filmmaker, Richard Fenwick and The Light=
 Surgeons.  AV.03 proved to be one of the biggest new media, digital arts a=
nd digital music festival in the UK, and is the only festival event to occu=
r in each major population centre in the North East region.=20


___AV: collaborators

AV is organised by:
-     Middlesbrough Council <http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk>
-     Sunderland City Council <http://www.sunderland.gov.uk>
-     Tyneside Cinema <http://www.tynecine.org/>
-     University of Teesside <http://www.tees.ac.uk/>

AV is also working with:
The Sage Gateshead <http://www.thesagegateshead.org>
&
Forma (who produced the works by Ryoji Ikeda & Gina Czarnecki),
&
The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Ten Feet Tall, The National Glas=
s Centre, University of Sunderland, Middlesbrough Institute for Modern Art,=
 Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, The Arts Catalyst, The Reg Vardy Galle=
ry, CultureLab, CRUMB & ISIS Arts.


___AV: supporters

AV is supported by:
-    NewcastleGateshead Initiative
-    Newcastle City Council
-    Arts Council England
-    Northern Film & Media
-    UK Film Council
-    TyneWear Partnership
-    The Tees Valley Investment Fund
-    The PRS Foundation for New Music.=20

AV is sponsored by CODEWORKS.



___AV: contacts

Honor Harger
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