Cimatics festival 2009
(EN) This 7th edition of the Cimatics festival again goes at full throttle with todays image culture. As an audiovisual festival it puts the focus both on art, media, design and music in a mix of concerts, film-screenings, exhibitions, workshops, conferences, public interventions and parties. Cimatics is spread out all over the city of Brussels. For 10 days and nights it will be hosted by numerous venues, both underground and above. It intends to be a true citywide international festival for advanced creativity, a node where grass-roots, underground and pop or art become mixed in a cultural mash-up. The festival is an ongoing experiment with 'format'. What was initially a festival for VJing and soon after for live audiovisual art has now become an exercise and celebration focusing on 'advanced creativity', encompassing todays urban and digital culture in all its diversity. (NL) Voor deze 7de editie duikt het Cimatics festival weer helemaal in de hedendaagse beeldcultuur. Als audiovisueel festival zet Cimatics zowel kunst, media, design en muziek in de schijnwerpers met een veelzijdig programma van concerten, filmvertoningen, tentoonstellingen, workshops, conferenties, publieke interventies en party’s. Cimatics spreidt zich 10 dagen en nachten uit over Brussel, en wordt gehost door tal van partners, zowel onder- als bovengronds. Het is een stadsbreed internationaal festival voor geavanceerde creativiteit waar underground, pop en kunst worden gemixt in een opwindende culturele mash-up. Cimaticsgaat door met diverse vormexperimenten. Wat oorspronkelijk onstaan is als een festival voor VJing, en snel daarna een festival voor live audiovisuele kunst werd, is nu uitgegroeid tot een festival voor 'advanced creativity': waar hedendaagse grootstedelijke en digitale cultuur zich vermengt in al haar verscheidenheid. (FR) Pour sa 7e édition, le festival nous transporte au cœur de la culture digitale contemporaine. Cimatics, c’est un festival multidisciplinaire qui met à l’honneur les arts visuels, les médias, le design et la musique, qui vous convie à un programme des plus riches: concerts, performances, projections de films, conférences, ateliers et soirées. Cimatics c‘est 10 jours et 10 nuits de festivités au sein de la capitale européenne pendant lesquels seront investis de nombreux lieux emblématiques et insolites de la vie culturelle et urbaine bruxelloise pour vous y présenter les créations les plus innovantes de la scène actuelle. Ce qui, à l'origine était un festival dédié au VJ-art est devenu à ce jour un évènement international unique en Belgique célébrant toute la diversité de la culture contemporaine urbaine et digitale. VISIT WWW.CIMATICSFESTIVAL.COM for more info & tickets FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93934497682&ref=ts
city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009
LES BRIGITTINES 27-28 November 2009 DAY PROGRAM PROFESSIONAL LES BRIGITTINES
M.I.A.N / I.M.D.A International Marketplace for Digital Arts – Europe Marché International de lʼart numérique - Europe (EN) Cimatics is hosting the first edition of the International Marketplace for Digital Arts - Europe (IMDA). IMDA was initially launched in 2007 within the Elektra festival in Montreal, Canada. The International Marketplace for Digital Arts is a meeting for professional networking among those active in the field of production, creation and diffusion of digital arts. Dedicated to the presentations of festivals, art galleries, labs, artists, cultural entrepreneurs and a range of organizations and cultural institutions that operate on an international level, the IMDA offers to its participants the occasion to attend presentations of various high profile socio-cultural projects, opening a window over the huge contemporary panorama that rotates around the art and digital culture's world. The value of the IMDA resides in the ability of gathering the creative minds in an informal atmosphere, which not only allows the exchange of ideas and projects, but also creates the basis for the emergence of new collaborations and cultural exchange, also made possible by the international nature of the event. Placed in the contemporary artistic scenario in which market rules often and sadly prevail to the detriment of socio-cultural aspects, the IMDA represents a unique occasion not only to stay updated on the latest news, thanks to the presentations and the promotional material offered to participants, but also the way to contribute to the development and diffusion of a collaborative and open culture, which can give birth to the emergence of a real community that may enhance the progress of digital culture that today is getting lost in the maze of a context more and more ruled by the market. IMDA Europe is organized by Cimatics in collaboration with Elektra (Montreal, Canada). With the support of Délégation du Québec, Institut de la Francophonie numérique (IFN), Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Communauté française de Belgique – Art Numérique.
(FR) Cimatics accueille la première édition du Marché International de l’Art Numérique (MIAN) en Europe, activité qui a été initiée en 2007 par le festival Elektra, à Montréal, Canada. Le Marché International de l’Art Numérique consiste en un rendez-vous de professionnels, visant le développement d’un réseau qui regroupe divers acteurs du domaine des arts numériques, qu’ils soient producteurs, créateurs ou diffuseurs. Dédié aux présentations de festivals, galeries, laboratoires, artistes, entrepreneurs culturels ainsi que toute une sélection d’institutions et organismes culturels actifs à l’échelle internationale, le MIAN offre à ses participants l’occasion d’assister aux présentations de divers projets socioculturels de haut niveau, ouvrant ainsi une fenêtre sur l’immense panorama contemporain dans lequel s’insèrent l’art et la culture numériques. La pertinence du MIAN réside dans sa capacité à rassembler les esprits créatifs dans un environnement informel, favorisant ainsi les discussions et le partage d’idées, tout en créant city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009
également la base nécessaire aux nouvelles collaborations et aux échanges culturels, que favorise la nature internationale de l’événement. Organisé dans un contexte similaire à celui de la scène artistique contemporaine, où souvent – et malheureusement – prévalent les lois du marché au détriment des considérations socio-culturelles, le MIAN représente une occasion unique de se tenir informé des dernières nouveautés grâce aux présentations et au matériel promotionnel distribué aux participants. L’activité contribue également au développement et à la diffusion d’une culture libre et collaborative, laquelle peut donner naissance à une réelle communauté pouvant contribuer à la progression de la culture numérique qui semble aujourd’hui se perdre dans le dédale d’un contexte de plus en plus établi par les marchés. Le MIAN Europe est organisé par Cimatics, en collaboration avec Elektra (Montréal, Canada). Avec le soutien de la Délégation du Québec, l’Institut de la Francophonie numérique (IFN), l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), la Communauté française de Belgique – Art Numérique.
Day 1: 09:00-12:00 Lab visit by Bus 13:00-17:00 SESSION 1 - ARTISTS/ Studio 19:00 Reception / Studio 20:00 Night program Day 2: 10:30-12:30 SESSION 2 - NETWORK/ Studio 14:45-15:15 BREAK 13:30-16:30 SESSION 3 - NETWORK/ Studio 17:30-19:30 Ateliers & exhibition visits 20:00 Night program
city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009
NIGHT PROGRAM Friday Nov 27 CONCERTS & PERFORMANCES LES BRIGITTINES
Sound ON/OFF I live audiovisual performance night Both on Friday 27th with Sound ON/OFF I and on Saturday 28th with the ON/OFF II program, Cimatics goes back to its roots. With audiovisual performances mainly revolving around the image/sound relation, but also live cinema and more experimental acts, we engage with the contemporary art center Les Brigittines focusing on performance art. Sound ON/OFF I is highlighted with the extremely immersive and very loud 'Mortals Electric' sound-image performance by the Dutch collective Telcosystems. On the other end of the spectrum there is the complete silent 'Grey-Moire' video performance of the French Anne-Sarah Le Meur. In between there is the Brussels based Lucille Calmel with her writing jockey performance 'When I'm bad'. A creative violation of a Mac's operating system. Feedbacksociety (NL) bring “a performance for tv-screens”.
PERFORMANCE
When Iʼm Bad by Lucille Calmel (BE) 20h30-21h15 / Chapel The 'When I'm Bad' performance by Lucille Calmel can best be described as a brutal, playful, childish and poetic violation of a computer's operating system and various applications. With close connections to both literature, e-poetry and contemporary performance Calmel acts as a writing jockey. As in a real-time stream of (un)consciousness she is generating visual text compositions from internet archives, social networks, browsings and hijacks them through screenshots, shortcut key combinations "and other kinds of low tools". 'When I'm Bad' is an expanded audiovisual performance (increased by the sensors and soundinteraction from Thierry Coduys). As an act going far beyond the screen, the physical presence of the artist - stubbornly typing and manipulating the interfaces - is crucial. PERFORMANCE
Mortals Electric by Telcosystems (NL) 22h00-22h40 / Chapel With Mortals Electric Telcosystems presents a new audiovisual journey. Over the years they have managed to achieve a far-reaching integration of human expression and programmed machine behaviour. In their interaction with machines they create a form of live cinema which fuses the auditive and visual domains into one spatial experience, exploring the limits of the human sensory apparatus. Mortals Electric shows slow-moving cloud clusters, layers of strobing organic structures, deep machinic drones and waves of digital noise. Mortals Electric is a very demanding performance for the human hearing system. Cimatics will provide ear-plugs.
city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009 PERFORMANCE
Grey-Moire by Anne-Sarah Le Meur (FR) 20h00-20h30 / Mezzo In Grey-Moire Anne-Sarah Le Meur challenges the traditional synthetic computer image: Can the computer image go beyond the well known usual clichés : perfect geometrical volumes, often complex, even 'fractalising' forms, too often metallic textures? Grey-Moire - which is a completely silent performance - is an excrescence of Eye-ocean. Eye-ocean is her research project at ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe) that explores non-realistic virtual light phenomena (one light is black). Breaking computer 3D-image clichés, refusing geometrical perfection and complexity, the form is flat, silky, undulating as a breathing body rocking the viewer. Grey-Moire focuses in particular on greys and visibility thresholds and uses a third light. Grey-Moire is a blind spot. PERFORMANCE
Quadra TV Feedbacksociety (NL) 22h45-23h30 / Mezzo “Quadra TV” is a spatial quadraphonic audiovisual performance and installation. In the performance Feedbacksociety treats four TV’s as musical instruments. The basic concept is that the TV’s are being fed analogue audio signals to the video input. The TV’s treat this signals as if it were video signals and thus change the sound into light. The light being emitted from the tube is than picked up by light sensors and, after losing some information and gaining some noise, is converted back into sound, and so the circle is closed. Feedback. SCREENING
rüts meakusma 21h15-22h00 / Mezzo Cimatics presents a screening of the first meakusma DVD. Compiled together with the Ampoule collective from Scotland, meakusma has chosen quality over shock effect. Steering away from hypes, the pieces included here often aim more for something artistic rather than for something functional. Some pieces even hint at social commitment, a stance rare in the realm of electronic music. The visual contributions range in style from more straightforward digital visual design to cut-up pieces to short movies, whilst still having a distinctly understated feel. Tracks by Move D & Benjamin Brunn, Pub, Chris Parks, Terrence Dixon, Roger 23, Kate Simko, Herrmutt Lobby, Subjex, Roebin de Freitas, Peter Van Hoesen, Trifonic, Rony & Suzy,... get a visual interpretation by, amongst others, man vs magnet, Chris Parks, Defasten, Visual Kitchen, Les agents Myop, Scott Pagano, Humanstudio, ego, miH, Ewo, Dirk Ignoul...
city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009
Saturday Nov 28 CONCERTS & PERFORMANCES LES BRIGITTINES
Sound ON/OFF II live audiovisual performance night Les Brigittines, Brussels 28 November 2009 Sound ON/OFF II dives into cinematographic and narrative principles with the Canadian Herman Kolgen who performs his INJECT project, a compelling live but abstract narration. The Berlin based collective Ogino Knauss is invited for an artist-in-residence with their project The Plot. They create an audiovisual dialogue with Brussels as mediated city resulting in a performance. Oh Yes is a YouTube based performance from Basement Jaxx visualist Max Hattler and Noriko Okaku. And Demolecularisation aka projetsinge bring "the story of a piece of data", a noisy and abstract. Both on Friday 27th with Sound ON/OFF I and on Saturday 28th with the ON/OFF II program, Cimatics goes back to its roots. With audiovisual performances mainly revolving around the image/sound relation, but also live cinema and more experimental acts, we engage with the contemporary art center Les Brigittines focusing on performance art.
PERFORMANCE
INJECT by Herman Kolgen (CA) 20h30-21h15 / Chapel A human body is injected in a cistern. Over the course of 45 minutes, the pressure of the liquid exerts upon him multiple neurosensorial transformations. From his epidermal fiber to his nervous system, he reacts to influxes of viscosity in this liquid chamber. His cortex, lacking oxygen, gradually loses all notions of the real. Like a human guinea pig: a matter-body whose psychological states are the object of kinetik tableaux, of singular temporal spaces. It was in 2008 that Herman Kolgen initiated the INJECT project. The genesis of the principal visual material for this project was a shoot, in an immense cistern filled with water, which lasted six consecutive days. Yso had to be immersed for over eight hours a day in the glass tank, oscillating between weightlessness and lack of oxygen. With the aid of various digital video recording and photographic systems Kolgen assembled many series of temporal sequences, images that he then assembled into a flexible and modular body. It’s a matter of a narrative progression, in perpetual circles of influence and movement, where the real is in dislocation. PERFORMANCE
Oh Yes by Max Hattler & Noriko Okaku (GB) Soundtrack: dubmarronics (JP)
22h00-22h45 / Chapel OH YES is a new audiovisual live performance by moving image experimentalists Max Hattler and Noriko Okaku, featuring a custom soundtrack by Kyoto-based dubmarronics. ‘Oh Yes’ takes as its starting point material sourced on YouTube. ‘Oh Yes’ is an ironic take on bodies, movement and pop culture, and an affirmative exclamation in celebration of the human condition. ‘Oh Yes’ is also simply an acronym for Okaku Hattler Youtube Entertainment System. The performance was city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009
commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices Festival in April 2009, and has been shown at film festivals including Moves09 in Manchester (UK), Curtas Vila do Conde (Portugal), Muuuvi Festival (Romania) and Square Eyes (Holland). Max and Noriko first met when studying together at the Royal College of Art. There are several parallels in their animation-based experimental, semi-narrative, non-dialogue approach to working with film and video. They have collaborated on several projects ranging from stop-motion film ‘Aanaatt’ to tour visuals for The Egg and Basement Jaxx, as well as live visuals performances at Animated Dreams Festival in Tallinn and Solfa club, Tokyo. RESIDENCY / PERFORMANCE
The Plot by Ogino Knauss 21h15-22h00 / Mezzo The collective Ogino Knauss (IT/DE) is invited for a residency during the Cimatics festival. During 5 days they will develop a new extension to their experimental live-media narrative project The Plot. The project a substantial part of The Geographer, a serial multiplatform fiction. The G. is ultimately aimed at a film production, opening up the creative storytelling process to public feedback. The screenplay in progress is developed through a series live performed acts. The script is exhibited, as an evident, uttered visual structure subject to interpretation and transformation, producing a dynamical storyboard publicly exposed and processed. The main narrative line is developed through a blog collecting the protagonist’s memories. ThePlot is a live cinema experiment, exploring the edge-point where the written word transforms itself in analogical image. The main narrative thread is developed through a blog collecting the protagonist's memories, reporting his nomadic wandering through a interconnected urban world, capturing resonances and clues of an invisible plot in the disorientating and overloaded contemporary global landscape. PERFORMANCE
RAW Geometry by Demolecularisation 22h45-23h30 / Mezzo RAW Geometry is the story of a piece of data (audio-signal) that collapses in upon itself through different audio and video forms over and over again. Then it inevitably evolves and transforms itself, as is its necessary fate in a universe of collisions. Jérôme & Jean-François Blanquet (part of projetsinge) have developed a live audiovisual device which allows a direct experiment of video/sound relations through « bridges » between mixingdesks using cables, hertzian waves and electric power lines. Thus sounds create pictures and pictures create sounds. RAW Geometry is a visual-audio project taking shape in improvisation. It’s a play on the instability of machines and humans, on a « loss of control », which explores unexpected areas of alien sensations and meanings - from outerspace. An experiment on forms that can generate audio and visual tools of our time and gives rise to a narrative.
city wide international festival for advanced creativity
Cimatics festival 2009 SCREENING
Altered States when dreams turned into data 19h30-20h30 / Mezzo Those who missed the first screening of this selection for the Video Vortex program, get a second chance here. A screening program compiled by Stoffel Debuysere and Maria Palacios Cruz. With the digital invading every creative enterprise and form of expression, pencils have become pixels, dreams have turned into data. While cinema’s obsession with the “holy grail” of photorealism has generated a blizzard of visual extravaganzas aimed at a suspension of the distinction between representation and simulation, a generation of DIY bricoleurs use ubiquitous “tools of vizuality” (Kevin Kelly) to explore alternative viewings and readings of the familiar. Through processes of transference, translation and combination, they encode, reveal or impose layers of information and deceive expectations about visibility and availability. Poking the surfaces of various images, sounds and symbols, their renderings create poetic, playful and often melancholic environments that are both alien and familiar, questioning our relation to images and our imagination.
SCREENING / INSTALLATION
Singular_c_ity by Yves Marquille continuous / Studio
city wide international festival for advanced creativity