<nettime-ann> [ann] AV Festival - 2 - 12 March - programme released

["honor" <honor@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
 goes beyond a mere technological exploration of life. We are interested
not
 just in the way that silicon circuits manifest simulations of life, or
 imitations of intelligence, but in the way that biological life itself
has
 been manufactured and mutated inside laboratories.  Our festival
explores
 the way that biotechnology, genetic engineering and cloning have
swiftly
 and radically altered the way we imagine life.  In the biotechnical
age,
 artists are making laboratories their new studios, fashioning artworks
from
 the very fabric of life.

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

-     a newly commissioned concert work by Ryoji Ikeda
-     a new concert by Michael Nyman
-     outdoor projection works by Gina Czarnecki, Claire Davies & Marius
Wat
z
-     newly commissioned exhibitions including The Autotelematic Spider
Bots
 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
 enginneering 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
 Bromwich & 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 emergen
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