From: PvKemenade Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: ANNOUNCE: DEAF96 17-29 sept Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 21:29:08 +0200 Organization: v2 Message-ID: <31AF4884.71CF@v2.nl> ANNOUNCE : Dutch Electronic Art Festival 1996 17 - 29 September DEAF@v2.nl, http://www.v2.nl/DEAF _________=================================================____________ _D _E _A _F _9 _6 DEAF (Dutch Electronic Arts Festival) is an annual festival held in Rotterdam and dedicated to current developments in the electronic arts. It consists of exhibitions, presentations, concerts, performances, a symposium and various special events. DEAF is organized by V2_Organisatie Rotterdam, a centre for art and media technology, in cooperation with several local and international institutes. This year DEAF96 will take place from 17 - 29 September 1996 (main activities in the first week) and will have as its central theme: 'Digital Territories'. The festival will investigate the role of art in the transformation of social and cultural structures due to the expanding electronic networks. The artworks presented during the festival respond to the formation of new, 'virtual' communities and spaces. DEAF96 is directed at a general audience as well as at artists, researchers, and the national and international art public, all of whom are invited to participate, meet, and exchange ideas about the impact of digital technologies on contemporary culture. DEAF96 is an interdisciplinary festival that will link art (interactive installations, architecture, design, Internet projects, music, art in public spaces) and science. It presents current views on technological developments and relations to art, science and society. DEAF96 closely collaborates with ISEA96, the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts' annual congress which will take place in Rotterdam at the same time, and with R96, this year's Festival of the Foundation Rotterdam Festivals (see the back of this folder for further information on these two events). _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _D i g i t a l _T e r r i t o r i e s The central theme of DEAF96 is the city and the urban community in relation to the computer networks and their virtual communities. the urban community in relation to the computer networks and their virtual communities. The rapid emergence of the electronic networks, and especially of the Internet, brings with it the emergence of a new social, political and cultural space. The new, digital spaces are increasingly interwoven with our living and working environments. More and more we communicate and receive information and produce and distribute goods and ideas through the networks, which means that this infrastructure also increasingly determines our conception of reality. The computer networks can be seen as a continuation of the transport revolution that we witnessed in the last 150 years. The emergence of trains, cars, airplanes and rockets has set off the development of a gigantic infrastructure of railways, roads and air fields for the fast transport of goods and people. The fracturing of cities and landscapes by this infrastructure is almost symbolic of the general fragmentation which has manifested itself this century. Now that there are more and more digital goods and communication tools, we can see the development of a telematic infrastructure in which transportation happens at the speed of light. Our own presence in these environments is problematic because the digital domain is only 'accessible' to bits and bytes. We try to solve this problem by devising virtual environments in which both our material and our spiritual world are represented. The absence or non-fixity of space and time in the digital domain implies that, for instance, several people who are physically in different locations and time zones can join up in a single VR-Environment. The impact on social, cultural and political relations of this reconfiguration of space in the digital domain is enormous. DEAF96 wants to tackle the questions related to these developments of computer networks; there will be only limited room for more general ideas about Net culture. Some of the themes which will be dealt with in a series of programs are: community building, collective creativity, the use of metaphors (city, territory, network, organism) privacy, and identity. _________=================================================____________ _P _R _O _G _R _A _M _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _E x h i b i t i o n DEAF96 brings together an international exhibition of electronic art works and projects that deal with aspects of the festival theme, like community building, network and urban metaphors, non-locality and identity. In this year's exhibition V2_Organisatie collaborates with Paradox and the Nederlands Foto Instituut. The relationship between physical and digital spaces, and between the different media, is becoming a crucial feature of our social environment. Designing the relationship between the two - physical and digital - domains and their corresponding social structures is the primary task for artists and designers in this field. The selected projects show some suggestions for interface designs and will thus raise important questions about the possibilities and impossibilities of 'living in the digital world'. DEAF96 will also include a curated exhibition of World Wide Web sites that are selected in relation to the theme of the festival. The WWW is currently a highly dynamic 'digital territory' which artists are exploring for their own ends, understanding it not as a modern commercial space, but as a complex and heterogeneous terrain which is ruled by structures different from those determining traditional artistic media. 'Community', 'social interaction', 'translocality', 'interface' and 'structuring information' are important keywords in these explorations. A selection of CD-ROMs will be presented in order to demonstrate the most recent developments in this new artistic medium. Like the WWW-sites, the CDs will be shown in specially designed viewing units that were developed for this purpose by students from the Art Academy in Den Haag. The creators of the selected sites will be present during DEAF96 from 17 - 21 September in order to explain and discuss their projects with the festival audience. _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _S p e c i a l _P r o j e c t s DEAF96 will present a series of special projects at different locations in the public space, which will also be accessible worldwide on the Internet. Knowbotic Research (D) and NOX (NL) will realize Internet projects with audio-visual interfaces, and Krzysztof Wodiczko (US/PL) will be working with migrants on his Alien Staff project, while Stacey Spiegel (CDN) is preparing an Internet project for the Harbor Simulator, a 360 degree VR-Environment. _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _S y m p o s i u m (Thursday, 19 September) Every year, DEAF includes a symposium which deals with the festival theme (Body In Ruin (1993); Generated Nature (1994); Interfacing Realities (1995)). This year, the symposium will be presented as part of the ISEA96 conference in Rotterdam. Researchers, critics and artists will discuss aspects of the theme of DEAF96, 'Digital Territories'. An international panel of speakers will focus on the role of art in the emerging network culture and will tackle the question whether particular network aesthetics should be developed. The decisive impact of digital media on contemporary culture and on the reshaping of public spaces requires a thorough re-evaluation of the role that art plays in such processes; as a force of affirmation, as a strategy of resistance and critical intervention, and as a design tool. The speakers will also be invited to contribute to an evening program where they can introduce their work in a variety of media. _________----------------------------------------------------________ _M u s i c _a n d _I n t e r n e t Nodes and Notes (Wednesday 18 and Friday 20 September) The gradual broadening of the bandwidth on the Internet makes it increasingly interesting as a medium for musical projects. In a series of interdisciplinary programs, DEAF96 will present a selection of such projects in concerts, performances and presentations. This program about Internet and pop music will be organized in cooperation with Nighttown, a centre for music and youth culture. On Wednesday the focus will be mainly on recent developments resulting from technological research carried out at the conservatories and centers like IRCAM and STEIM. The Friday evening/night program will be staged in the three spaces of Nighttown/Tejatro Popular. In this program a link will be made to recent musical styles, like techno and jungle, while the cross-over to the more 'formal' musical area - the tradition of the electronic music - will also be made. _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _O t h e r _P r o g r a m s Other presentations will take place at Lantaren/Venster theatre and focus on the interrelations between new media, architecture, photography and the performing arts. _________----------------------------------------------------_________ _D i g i t a l _D i v e The Digital Dive at Lantaren/Venster Theatre will be the central meeting place of DEAF96 where visitors can hang out, meet artists and festival participants, surf the Net, show each other interesting websites and take part in festival projects using the Internet. Here it will also be possible to read/send one's e-mail. Lantaren/Venster will also be the venue of many of the DEAF96 afternoon and evening programs. _________---------------------------------------------------_________ _L o c a t i o n s DEAF96 takes place at different locations in Rotterdam. The international exhibition of installations, World Wide Web sites and CD ROM is located in the V2_Building and the Nederlands Foto Instituut (both in the same building); the Digital Dive, the symposium, the meetings with artists and the special (evening) programs will take place in Lantaren/Venster Theatre; music programs are presented in cooperation with the club Nighttown; special projects are realized in the Harbor Simulator (a 360 degree VR-Environment), in the public space and on the Internet. _________===================================================_________ _I _N _F _O _R _M _A _T _I _O _N http://www.v2.nl/DEAF/ V2_Organisatie DEAF@v2.nl organizing committee: general : V2_Organisatie (Alex Adriaansens, Andreas Broeckmann, Joke Brouwer, Marc Thelosen) exhibition: V2_Organisatie, Nederlands Foto Instituut and Paradox (Bas Vroege) music and performances: V2_Organisatie, Theatre Lantaren/Venster and Nighttown Coordinating persons: Marc Thelosen (math@v2.nl) - general coordination; Bero Beyer - technical coordination; Andreas Broeckmann (abroeck@v2.nl) - symposium, V2_East; Mart van Bree (martvb@v2.nl) - publicity, hotels, reservations; Carla Hoekendijk (choek@v2.nl) - catalog, publications; Joke Brouwer (jc@v2.nl) - overall design; Pieter van Kemenade (pike@v2.nl) - webmaster; Neil de Hoogh (neil@v2.nl) - system operator; Other employees: Janet Buyteweg (janet@v2.nl) - pr; Marc Heyne (heyne@v2.nl) - pr; Masja van Deursen - design; Koot (koot@v2.nl) - technical support; Sponsors and collaborators Mondrian Foundation; Rotterdam Festival Foundation; Rotterdam Art Council; Prins Bernhardfonds; Silicon Graphics b.v.; Marine Safety (harbor simulator); Microplus; Goethe Instituut; SUN; LunaTech Research (internet provider); SKVR (Foundation for Art Education Rotterdam); STEIM; Inntel Hotel; University of Toronto; VPRO digital; Dutch Photographic Institute; Ir. C. de Wit foundation; ministry of Foreign Affairs Netherlands V2_ORGANISATIE EENDRACHTSSTRAAT 10 ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS URL:http://www.v2.nl/ _________=================================================_________