That’s a wrap on BDF17
Some highlights from the month-long exploration of digital culture
As the dust settles on BDF17, we take a step back to recover from the month of events and begin the process of reflection and evaluation. We’re gathering feedback from audiences and speaking to independent event organisers about their events in order to compile the facts and figures of the festival, to tell the story of BDF and develop new strategies for the future.
From our first ever in-house conference to brand new internationally acclaimed artwork, the development of important community partnerships and the tackling of pertinent questions around the politics and ehtics of digital technology, we can already sense that the aims set out in our new manifesto have been hit head on.
While we’re off having a post-festival nap and reflecting on how it all went, take a look and a listen through a few of our photo highlights from Brighton Digital Festival 2017…
Mephitic Air, a new data visualisation and sonification installation from Wesley Goatley & Tobias Revell, explored the spaces between human and machine interpretations of air pollution.
An air pollution sensor outside ONCA gallery sent live data into the installation, which was then visualised as multi-layer projected visualisations and surround-sound data sonifications. These expansive new forms of interpreting data explored the complexities of air pollution, and how data reflects or contradicts our experience of the air around us. You can find more information about this work here.
This installation was augmented by a series of talks by the artists and local environmental specialists, change-makers and business owners. See here for more information about these talks.
Back in May 2017 Dominic Hawgood was selected for commission by Brighton Digital Festival and the British Science Festival. He produced a site-specific installation and animation that digitally reconstructs a major solo exhibition of his that was recently, and unexpectedly, cancelled. The animation serves as a hallucinogenic window into another world, questioning the role of the gallery, and exploring how light installation can be experienced in the virtual.
This work marks a significant development of his Casting Out the Self project, a body of work originally produced over a two-year period, combining photography, 3d scanning, animation and design. The meticulously constructed CG animation, with hyper digital audio commissioned specifically by Hawgood and produced in collaboration with Lanark Artefax, was all housed in a sound proofed ceremonial structure.
This Side of Reality is a new live podcast about digital culture, art and the human by Brighton Digital Festival and Totally Radio, hosted by CJ Thorpe and produced by Vasil Dzhagalov.
Our lifestyle is increasingly digital, but are we asking the big questions? This podcast unpicks our bitter-sweet relationship with digital technology, looking at the unique new challenges it creates, and the ones it solves. This Side of Reality features creators, innovators, and thinkers bringing important topics from the fringe to the forefront. Listen below and subscribe on iTunes.
This year we partnered with the Lumen Prize for the first time to stage an exhibition of the winners and shortlisted artists of the 2017 prize on the first stop of a year-long world tour.
The Lumen Prize celebrates the very best art created digitally. As a not-for-profit social enterprise their goal is to focus the world’s attention on this exciting genre through an annual competition, a global tour and associated activities including workshops, seminars and special events.
We were lucky enough to be able to show the following works at BDF17: The Nemesis Machine by Stanza; Abstract Playground AP1 by Will Hurt; Slide to Expose by Nicole Ruggiero, Molly Soda & Refrakt; Desire to Stay in the Sun by Fabio Dartizio; Wiki Leaks a Love Story by Anna Ridler; Heroic Makers vs Heroic Land by Isabelle Arver; FRANK ARTifical intelligence by Cecile Waagner Falkenström; Block Bills by Matthias Dorfelt; CAPILLARIES CAPILLARIES by Tadej Droljc.
Throughout September the brilliant young people of MakerClub worked on a special BDF17 project to try to solve the problem of inner city pollution.
Check out their innovative #PollutionSolutions for Brighton & Hove here:
The Messy Edge was our first in-house conference. Featuring a mix of speakers, discussion and artists’ work, the day aimed to challenge dominant perspectives and provide a space to think about how we run the risk, despite the opportunities that digital gives us, of building a future on the deeply flawed foundations of the present. You can read more about the day here.
Week 1 of BDF17 was kicked off by ACCA Digital, a week of music and visuals curated by Laura Jesse Ducceschi. The series of shows encompassed contemporary music, digital art and installation. Contemporary classical, electronica, audio-visuals, DJ sets and more collided as part of their curated programme. Listen below to hear from the performing artists:
