We asked a few questions to Elwira Wojtunik and Popesz Csaba Láng, respectively director and program manager of the audiovisual event based in Krakow.

The organizers pulled off an interesting hybrid edition, fully leveraging the latest generation digital tools. And here goes our interview to Patchlab Festival!

1. PATCHLAB FESTIVAL HAS BEEN FOUNDED BACK IN 2012. IT IS NOW A REFERENCE IN THE INTERNATIONAL GENERATIVE ARTS PANORAMA. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CONCEPTS AND GOALS THAT DROVE YOU TO THE INCEPTION OF THE FESTIVAL?

E.W.: Indeed, Patchlab Festival has happened annually since 2012, after 2 years of organising Share:Krakow – a local unit of a global organisation dedicated to supporting collaboration and knowledge exchange in new media communities.

Those were crazy times full of passion! Organising space for experimenting with digital tools, gathering with people experimenting with digital instruments, plugging in and playing.

Then we organised the 1st and 2nd edition of the festival that happened under the name of Patch: audio_visual_lab with a great support of our partners from the AVnode network.

Back then, new technologies and digital art were quite underground issues in Poland, compared to now, so it wasn’t easy to convince institutions and partners to support such a unique, niche event.

But we made it happen! During these 9 years we managed to build an internationally recognised platform. We showcase and research on one of the most rapidly developing areas of contemporary art: digital art based on the latest technologies and creative coding.

Patchlab festival is a space for meetings and discussions with the creators, experts and public. We have focused on the roles and impact that digital technology has on our everyday lives.

We explored its future developments, its multi-dimensionality, its interrelations with the artistic processes. They change rapidly and bring new possibilities and challenges, as the technology evolves.

2. THIS YEAR YOU DECIDED TO PROPOSE A HYBRID EDITION AS A RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT PANDEMIC CRISIS. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE CHALLENGES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF UTILIZING DIGITAL TOOLS TO ALLOW THE AUDIENCE TO VIRTUALLY PARTICIPATE?

E.W.: Due to the pandemic we had to find an alternative format compared to the past festival years. Most of the cultural events moved to the internet. But after some time people got tired of the meetings and events provided online. Mostly via Zoom.

Moreover this form of social connection became so overwhelming in every aspect of our life. Therefore attracting the attention of the public online became quite a challenge.

We have decided to experiment and diversify the program to provide the festival content in hybrid form. The digital world of the internet is a natural environment for digital art. Hence it was obvious for us that it was an opportunity to use alternative ways to reach the public internationally.

We had the chance to bring art to the users at the time they chose. We incorporated the program in a different digital format. Anyone was able to participate live online simply by entering the webpage, but also in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Via mobile phones or VR goggles at any chosen time and space.

The festival webpage was specially designed for this purpose – the exhibition of over 28 artworks was (and still is until the end of 2020!) presented online in 5 virtual rooms.

Among them, the Salon AR hosted audiovisual artworks created by e.g. Ryoichi Kurokawa or Monocolor that could be experienced in Augmented Reality.

In the Salon Virtual Ambient you could experience interactive online installations, 360° animations and immerse in surreal VR video collages.

arc/sec Lab exhibition room, built in Mozilla Hub, allows you to choose your own avatar to explore four kinetic light installations in 1:1 scale created at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

We allocated two studios for the multimedia artworks created by students from the Multimedia Studio of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw and the Intermedia Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

This edition aimed at connecting with artists in different places around the globe. That is why we presented a 2 hours live set from Berlin by German duo INSTANT, and a round-table discussion about the roles of the new technologies during the pandemic, and its impact on our everyday lives.

The audience participated also in a virtual narrative performance: Operation Jane Walk, a dystopian video game space, carried out live straight from Vienna.

Performers from the Total Refusal collective hijacked the digital wargame environment, exploring the possibilities (and impossibilities) of new media technologies, while walking around a digital representation of New York.

We also developed something out of the box to create art projects as mobile applications: the app SOL.AR.IS, inspired by the great sci-fi novel written by Stanislaw Lem and Krakow ARtour.

SOL.AR.IS is an extraordinary project that offers an interaction in real time through AR technology with ephemeral animated 3D objects. Those are inspired by the fantastic phenomena described in the book: creations of the cytoplasmic, intelligent ocean that covers the planet Solaris – mimoids, symmetries or asymmetries.

The project was created in cooperation with CGI artists from Japan, Hungary, New Zealand, Germany and Iran. It’s still accessible for everyone, despite the place and time – downloadable for free from the App Store and Google Play.

During the pandemic, walking has become the most popular physical activity. Thus we designed the mobile application Krakow ARtour for people in Krakow, using Augmented Reality technology.

The application turns a regular walk into a multi-layered journey following the trail of the 20th century architecture of the Krakow Old Town. It allows you to discover unknown stories set in the context of a sustainable future.

P.C.L. For these two applications we used the SDK – newest set of tools offered by Google and Apple – AR Core and AR Kit accordingly, which are compatible with the latest smartphones.

There are still more than 300 types of phones available, but hopefully sooner or later these technological gaps will disappear and these new solutions will be achievable for all spectators without limits.

AR is still a relatively new technology. Surprisingly, most of the artists we invited have never had any experience with it. Therefore they were all very satisfied to get acquainted with a new possibility of presenting their artworks.

In order to showcase AR artworks at the Salon AR we designed the third application – PatchlabAR, available for all phones and tablets. We wanted to create it as simple as possible, so everybody could present their artworks at the Salon AR and augment their reality.

E.W.: The pandemic showed the great potential of digital tools. The internet and technology pushed the digital revolution further.

The new situation also showed that Patchlab program might be available for a much wider audience around the world. And not only during the time of the festival, but for much longer.

That’s why we decided to give access to the online content until the end of 2020. This is one of the aspects that wouldn’t be possible to accomplish while organising it in a regular form, physically in Krakow.

3. NOWADAYS DATA HAS OVERWHELMINGLY PERMEATED EVERY ASPECTS OF OUR DAILY LIFE. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CREATIVE CODING AND GENERATIVE AUDIOVISUAL ARTS IN THIS HYPER-DIGITALIZED SOCIETY WE LIVE IN?

E.W.: Creative coding translates the world of computers and code into everyday experience. It is one of the most comprehensive and dynamically developing disciplines of contemporary art.

Thus it results in a wide spectrum of artistic activities. The community of artists using code as their medium is constantly growing, expanding our sense of what is possible with digital tools.

That’s why creative coding has an amazing role in creativity that cannot be underestimate. It opens extraordinary possibilities of artistic expression.

Open source philosophy plays a very important role. The open source platforms encourage growth and experimentation. They support a rich community of creators that share their strategies and work with unprecedented openness.

That demonstrates how artists use technology in new ways, originating innovations and new experiences that actually influence the future, changing many aspects of our world. That fosters a greater awareness of the fast changing world that we live in, also regarding the means and directions of these changes.

P.C.L.: Nowadays big corporations continuously push their products to the global market. These hardware quite often have pre-installed software and firmware but usually producers do not have time to create something ad-hoc for them.

And here come the digital artists. They hack and crack these tools using their own codes to achieve something meaningful and eye glowing, out of the mass production.

Comparing the early 2000s, today these products are accessible almost to everyone. The only limit is often just our imagination. Two perfect examples are Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

Hardware are getting stronger and faster, while the price is getting lower. Both use open source systems as codes are shared online. I dare to say that’s the best way to start your experience with expressing yourself by code.

4. THE 9TH EDITION FEATURES THE THEME “CONNECTED”. CONNECTED BY THE INTERNET AND BY THE PANDEMIC. CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INSIGHTS ON THE DECISIONAL PROCESS YOU UNDERTOOK TO SELECT THIS PARTICULAR THEME?

E.W.: The theme CONNECTED refers mainly to two global aspects. The replacement of social contacts through the internet and the impulse to think about the common public spaces, cultural events and everyday life with and after the virus.

Due to the pandemic the world is undergoing an accelerated digital revolution. it is happening in front of our eyes. The Internet has become our primary channels of communication as never before.

Imagine the pandemic hit us 20 years ago. There wouldn’t have been such global access to the Internet or even no Internet at all! That situation would have been much more difficult for everybody. The pandemic appeared as a an external impulse. It made us develop pre-existing solutions and raise the digital competences, within the contemporary society.

There is also another aspect of this topic. The reliable connection we have with our partners, who we share common values with.

We joined forces with Athens Digital Art Festival, arc/sec Lab of the Auckland University in New Zealand or Digital Cultures among others, to create an intensive program, supporting each other in these difficult times for art and culture.

P.C.L.: A nice and positive example of how pandemic connected people is the Folding movement, which resulted in the creation of the most powerful supercomputer on the planet.

After installing the software you can share the free capacity of your computer’s processors to speed up the mapping process of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 DNA, causing COVID-19 illness.

Hundreds of thousands people around the world gave access to their computer processors. They connected and raised computing capacity, letting the researchers work faster towards the common goal, through this super globally connected power.

5. IN 2018 THE THEME WAS “ARTBOTS”, WHERE YOU REFLECTED ABOUT CREATIVITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. IN 2019 YOU CHOSE “REALITIES” AND YOU REFLECTED UPON THE DIGITAL WORLDS PARALLELY GROWING TO OUR ENDANGERED PLANET.


WHAT IS THE CONCEPTUAL LINK THAT CONNECTS THE LAST THREE YEARS EDITIONS? HOW DID THE SOCIETY AND ARTS SCENE EVOLVED ACCORDINGLY?

E.W.: Each edition focused on a certain topic of the wide spectrum of the artistic activities that explore the creative potential of machines, algorithms, programming. Therefore each edition of Patchlab festival incorporated key phenomena in contemporary culture and art, including VR, AR, AI, hacking and digital identities.

Artificial intelligence algorithms, reality and simulations, AR, VR, interaction and collaboration between human and machine, the technologies that have a strong impact on our lives and the world we live in now and in the near future. These have always been urging topics for us, since the beginning of the festival.

The world is changing very fast in front of our eyes. Every year there are new improvements, new fascinating technologies that are instantly taken over by creatives and artists.

New technologies play also important roles in enhancing productivity and raising sustainability, such as the efforts to use AI and carbon removal technologies to fight climate change.

Raising awareness of urgent climate issues and acting for significant prompt change should be highly important to every human being. Hence it’s natural for us to implement these topics into the program. We show that digital art as well can make us think about the complexity of the ecology and how to act in alternative ways.

6. THE AUDIOVISUAL EVENT REACHED ITS 9TH EDITION THIS YEAR. TO WRAP UP OUR INTERVIEW TO PATCHLAB FESTIVAL WE WOULD LIKE TO ASK:

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE 10TH EDITION NEXT YEAR? AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEAREST TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE?

P.C.L. So many aspects can change the future, that we can easily fantasize about the future of digital technologies. The forthcoming 5G and Elan Musk’s StarLink will change the internet in the next few years. In the same ways as it has evolved from the 70s until today.

The Internet of Things will create a better global network, expanding the playground for the digital artists. Big Data, Bioart, AI will become more common. Art as well will become more accessible to the audience.

We are going to leave our beloved friends, the smart phones, forever. We will be using HoloLens or similar Mixed Reality devices, where all the calculations will be made in cloud systems, on a supercomputer. The rest will be just displays and terminals to access the network.

E.W. The pandemic year showed enormous growth in the video games industry among others. In the previous editions we already considered some aspects of the valuable creations developed in this significant discipline of digital culture.

Next year we prepare for the 10th edition and we plan to dedicate part of the festival program to creative video games and the interventions in the virtual space. In 2021 Poland will celebrate the 100th birthday of the great sci-fi writer, Stanislaw Lem.

We would like to grace this year by continuing the development of the SOL.AR.IS art mobile app with new content inspired by the creatures of the intelligent ocean described in the Solaris novel. Additionally for this great occasion, we are preparing an interactive AR city game that will be designed together with invited artists.

In the hope that next year the restrictions will be lifted, we are also planning an on-line strategy. It worked great this year as it allowed us to reach a wide audience and to give access to the program for a much longer time.

I would like to emphasize that the Patchlab Festival remains CONNECTED until the end of the year. There is still time to dive into digital art programs online for those who missed it!

We hoped you enjoyed our interview to Patchlab Festival. We are definitely looking forward to the next year edition. As always, Stay Tuned!

Stay connected with Digital Arts Festival

Learn more about the 9th edition of the Patchlab Digital Art Festival

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It has been a while since our last in-person attendance. We had great expectations from the organizers of the LPM, pioneer audiovisual event with global outreach.

Well, we had a brilliant time! We couldn’t wait to write a report of the Live Cinema Festival 2020. This edition has showcased a painstaking array of amazing audiovisual artists.

The festival took place in the beautiful Acquario Romano – Casa dell’ Architettura in Rome. A minimalistic but very effective set-up featuring a 5x20m curved screen and a powerful sound system.

The necessary gear to truly enjoy an immersive audiovisual festival in this fascinating architectonic surrounding.

Each performance night has been preceded by a symposium about the main topic of the festival. A topic that is very dear to us: “What is synesthesia?”

During the symposia different keynote speakers and the performing artists have explored the theme of synesthesia from a scientific, anthropological and of course artistic perspective.

I am very thankful to the organizers for inviting me as Audiovisual City director to moderate the 15th and 16th October nights talks.

It’s now time to go through the amazing audiovisual artists we had the chance to see at the Live Cinema Festival. Here our highlights of the three great AV nights we attended in the eternal city!

AID KID & PAVEL KARAFIAT

The first show was a great pleasant surprise. You know we love to discover new artists. When we discovered them live is even better!

The electronic music producer Aid Kid and the developer and visual artist Pavel Karafiát have struck up a constantly evolving collaboration.

Their audiovisual performance features a thumping intelligent techno style and an otherworldly shape-shifting visual landscape. They delivered a punchy, colourful and hyped-up show for our indulgence.

The AV duo constantly plays with the synchronization and asynchronization of the techno sounds and video patterns, slowly building up a powerful real-time synesthesia.

It felt like being on a spaceship. We were travelling through an unknown AV galaxy populated by wild geometries in a spiral of entropic disintegration.

AMELIE DUCHOW

Amelie Duchow has showcased her performance TONSTICH, a tribute to her background as a fashion designer. We already had the pleasure to see her live at Splice Festival back in 2018.

She confirmed once again her elegant artistic maturity and outstanding technical quality. A digital tailor fabricating an AV dress utilizing the sounds of the textile machines and visual body patterns.

The visual structure is precise and analytical, uplifted by a powerful soundtrack full of reminiscences from the early German Techno scene.

We are transported inside the very essence of the textile making process. The AV pace is breathlessly intense and each elements of composition connects to each other through lines, dots and numbers: a dress made of data then turned into sounds and visuals.

Amelie works relentlessly on her dress offering out a seamless digital conversation where each word is fine tuned to perfection.

She takes us on an abstract journey through primary shapes and stripped-down sounds, to finally show the sewing machines in an unexpected figurative reveal.

DYLAN COTE & PIERRE LAFANECHERE

The French AV duo has presented this uniquely ominous project based on the aesthetic “hack” of Google Earth.

The audiovisual artists have scanned the totalitarian project by Google looking for system glitches and extracting images from the platform.

The result is an inhuman, cold immersive environment empowered by a disruptive soundscape.

Images from urban and natural contexts are digitally intervened to create a dystopian landscape, populated by lifeless carcasses from a compressed digital world.

The cities melt in front of our eyes while the soundtrack is in constant crescendo generating an informal aesthetic melting pot.

Finally the glitch takes over the entire composition while the music picks up on a 4×4 rhythm. And the figurative world is destroyed by the total abstraction.

ZAGAR AV EXPERIENCE

Zagar AV experience is made by Balázs Zságer and Kati Katona. The AV duo leverages the artistic possibilities of spontaneous creations, using a real-time integration of live images combined with animations. 

Their performance MIRROR OF MIND features minimal ambient techno music interacting with atmospheric monochrome geometric floating objects.

The audiovisual artists explore different shapes and textures during the real-time process through an experimental approach to the AV dramaturgy.

PATRIK LECHNER

Another great surprise was ORBITOCLAST by Patrick Lechner, cutting-edge Austrian audiovisual artist, who has been creating experimental audio & video content since the mid-2000s.

Patrick Lechner and his team developed an ad-hoc AI algorithm. It allows him to generate and manipulate noisy-glitchy audiovisual objects.

ORBITOCLAST represents the audiovisual excess, the extravaganza. The syncopated pace communicates how the artist is taming this AV force generated by the algorithm.

His creations feel alive as they conquer the space and the audience’ senses. This amorphous digital blob animated live by the performer-puppeteer is terribly magnetic.

We felt as the screen was going to collapse any moment under the live manipulation. On the sides of the screen Lechner shows the data he is artistically intervening, sharing with us his own working space.

Distorted sounds overlap while the images flow at staggering speed, generating an alluring combination of different audiovisual textures.

MAOTIK

Last but not least the French audiovisual artist Maotik, internationally renowned for his generative artwork and creative use of data inputs.

Maotik performed AERYON LIVE, an audiovisual journey from the perspective of a drone flying over a vast digital landscape interpreting data inputs from Google Earth.

The drone scans the data environment by endlessly hovering around. All points of view are fragmented while the shapes are dissolving and reassembling.

We are exploring this fragile, unstable scenario where nothing human is left. Only the terribly mesmerizing representation of data.

The world as interpreted audio-visually by a machine, an effect obtained by the clever use of the generative bespoke algorithm.

Throughout the live act, natural looking audiovisual textures resurface from the amorphous magma, giving some peace while the music mellows down. But nothing can stop the overwhelming ocean of data absorbing everything on its path.

Maotik’s style is mature and refined. He perfectly knows how to keep the audience with their eyes and ears glued on, throughout this indulging AV journey.

We hope you enjoyed our report of the Live Cinema Festival. We thank the organizers for having us and the audiovisual artists for the amazing performances they have showcased. #WeLoveAV

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Maotik has produced a wide variety of audiovisual projects during his long lasting career. He is highly interested in the relationship among science, art and technology.

His aesthetic is refined, well paced and alluring. Pixel by pixel, beat by beat, Maotik builds up immersive environments where the audience gradually and seamlessly slips in.

By developing his own algorithms he is able to design unique artistic experiences where the sounds and images are intrinsically connected. Nevertheless he doesn’t seek full control over the audiovisual outcome.

Across his very different projects there is one interesting component that links them all: the inclusion of outside inputs, such as data feeds or audience interaction which are not totally under his control.

By incorporating these external inputs Maotik enriches the audiovisual experience. His polished aesthetic structure is shaken by the random elements from the outside world, making each show different from the previous one.

A mesmerizing contrast between his precise geometry-based audiovisual aesthetic and the chaos born from the random elements, that are manipulated live by the performer or by the audience.

Maotik has presented his work in various festivals around the world, such as Mutek Festival, Live Cinema in Rio, Signal Festival in Prague, the British Film Institute in London and ARS Electronica in Linz.

Maotik recently moved to Berlin where he continues his artistic research by taking part in the art residency organized between Sonar+D and Factory Berlin.

He also joined the CODE university where he works as a professor giving lectures about interactive design, generative design and AR/VR environments.

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VJ sets, projection mapping, art installations, video art… Kalma embodies the true spirit of the new media artist: restless and constantly striving for innovation and reinvention.

Sometimes we see the practice of VJing being dismissed similarly as it happens to the Djs: “It’s not really a form art as you are only mixing content.”

Well, Kalma couldn’t disagree more. By using using real-time generative visuals she developed a remarkable style that intrinsically connects audio and video.

Across a variety of formats her signature is undoubtedly the profound synaesthesia between the soundscape and her visual structure.

She dives deep into the ocean of sounds bringing up beats and synths to explicit them visually.

Kalma thoroughly investigates each sound elements she comes across with. She goes beyond the simple harmonic structure to investigate the emotional fields and subtexts expressed by the music.

A/V REFORMOTION

In this intriguing Audiovisual work, Kalma connects each sounds to a particular visual object creating a multi-symphonic orchestra formed by dress making machines.

The video is an excerpt of the projection mapping performance for the opening of Mmmrr, a clothes shop in Berlin.

MIMICOF + KALMA: Audiovisual Performance

Following the eclectic musical work by Mimicof, Kalma designs a mystical visual experience featuring a fine-drawn, slender aesthetic crescendo.

Midori hirano aka Mimicof is a Japanese sound artist based in Berlin. Her work is a mixture of modern digital sounds with subtle electronic processing and field recordings.

Kalma combines her work as audiovisual artist with her passion for teaching. Since 2010 she has been hosting and organising workshops around the topics of mapping and video in real time.

Her creative pedagogic and practical approach provides the best ground for people willing to immerse themselves in this field with endless creative possibilities.

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The audiovisual duo makes use of the limitless creative possibilities offered by the generative art and creative coding.

Their live performances are astonishingly complex and aesthetically aggressive, bombarding the audience with an intense sensorial stimulation.

Synspecies creates immersive abstract architectures populated by computer-generated objects evolving and disintegrating under our eyes.

The audiovisual embryos are constantly battling for co-existence, never quite settling within a defined shape.

The sum of these AV objects generates an entropic abstract world, constantly fluctuating in between geometrical shapes and organic forms.

We are lost in that infinitely dangerous and mesmerizing audiovisual space. There are no spatial references. The abstract creatures as they appear conquering their world, they vanish leaving us wondering again, in the dark.

Technically speaking, what really strikes me about Synspecies performances is the absolute precision in the audio-video relationship.

The synaesthetic effect is superbly achieved by a combination of computer-generated feeds and analogue inputs. Sound and image are always intertwined, coming to life and collapsing together within an endless AV cycle.

Elías Merino and Tadej Droljc make use of algorithmic computer-generated sound, Stockholm’s EMS Buchla and Serge modular systems, and 3D geometry synthesis. 

Synspecies is inspired by virtual ecologies – unstable morphological spaces that emerge from a devastating interaction of co-existing unrelated entities with the void.

The project emerged after several long discussions and conceptual drifts regarding virtual audiovisual objects, digital art paradigms, and narrative exploration.

Based on these dichotomies, dialogues, and conflicts, the duo gave birth to the bases of an unique audiovisual language which framed Synspecies. They have showcased their world premiere at LEV Festival in 2019.

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The spectrum of audiovisual artists is as broad as the tools and different languages available.

Each artist explores a particular area of the audiovisual. The sum of all their artwork is what defines audiovisual culture.

Of course the definition is fluid and ever-changing due to the technological evolution and the constant offspring of new artistic languages.

Tatsuru Arai investigation embraces one of the most important aspect of the audiovisual culture: synesthesia.

The synesthesia is the condition under which two or more senses are perceived simultaneously. In his specific case by visualizing the geometric structure that rigs the musical composition.

One of the first artists to investigate the relations between music and imagery was Kandinski. He explored how different shapes and colours relate to each other by communicating different movements to the viewer.

In the same way different notes, rhythm and music patterns relate to our inner soul, triggering different emotional movements.

The Japanese artist (currently living in Berlin) features an interesting background of music composition, computer programming and multimedia art.

Arai’s generative art is highly complex and goes beyond the audiovisual genre. It takes on a profound reflection around the universe and its structure based on vibrations, as advocated by the theoretical framework of the string theory.

His series “Principle of Hyper Serial Music” starts a direct dialogue with the Serialism movement developed by René Leibowitz and Pierre Boulez.

The series adds “innovation” to the three main points of the serial music: “structural”, “complex” and “noisy”. Arai achieves this by incorporating AI within the musical composition and the visualization of its structure.

The result is an audiovisual duet between human and machine with the two elements constantly learning from each other in his ever-evolving investigation.

Ultimately, Tatsuru Arai uses the sound and its visualization as a key to make experience of the nature of the universe, even if just a small part of it.

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The theme of the 2020 edition is CONNECTED. It explores the implications of the digital revolution we are undergoing in our lives due to the pandemic.

The head-spinning rise of the internet based communication during the last months is still quite hard to grasp. The internet was created originally as an effective and immediate form of communication.

With the evolution of social media platforms, the world wide web is now a primary channel to express our emotions.

Audiovisual artists can help us understand the fast-changing environment we live in by visualizing the Nietzsche’s unsaid. Anything that is too complex for a total comprehension can be grasped by living the artistic experience.

Immersive installations, interactive artwork and live performance communicate complex statements through sensorial experience, giving us the chance to digest information slowly, at our own pace.

Generative art as an antidote to the overwhelming data dump we experience everyday.

Due to the uncertainty of in-person attendance, the organizers are planning the audiovisual event through virtual platforms. It will be therefore accessible to a wider audience through the experimental use of new technologies.

Patchlab Festival will present art projects online and via AR (augmented reality).

There will be experimental computer animations presented in the virtual cinema, remotely accessible workshops and also a dystopian multi-person computer game allowing the exploration of a post-apocalyptic New York.

The 360° Gallery will also hold the premiere of audiovisual projects from the Artist in Residence #homeedition program.

Inspired by space and nature, the artists-residents from France, Canada and Spain will design artworks for a system of 10 projectors, which cannot only be seen on site, but also online in the 360° digital format.

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Nevertheless, we can only appreciate his true artistic self through his mesmerizing audiovisual projects, both conceptually profound and technically advanced.

Many audiovisual artists have to balance their design gigs with their artistic work. When companies hire an artist (rather than a mere designer) they gain an unique creative input empowering the whole marketing campaign. But the actual artistic expression is restricted by the brand identity.

When artists are free to work on the concept as they are on the technical implementation, they deliver a much more powerful and meaningful experience to the viewer.

Steve Gerges began to take an interest in Digital Art in 2000 when he created Visual-Delight, the first collective of VJ’s (visual-jockeys) in Luxembourg. This project allowed him to take his first steps in this innovative art form for that time.

Following a trip to Montreal to the Elektra Festival in 2012, he created his first interactive digital artwork entitled LAN 1.0 at the Carré Rotondes in 2014. Here a few projects we felt best showcased his main features as an audiovisual artist.

ONE

ONE is a generative art sculpture that develops in real time. The audiovisual totem grows and evolves while progressively revealing its organic essence to the viewer.

One tells us the story of the creation of the universe, from the big bang, to energy flows, creation of planets and humankind.

Steve Gerges

RISE OF THE MACHINES

We love this amazing kinetic sculpture that exploits the use of machine programming. Light is the main course of this audiovisual feast. An ethereal force that contours the surrounding space in a beautiful ephemeral moment.

CRONOS

This is an immersive and impressive projection mapping representing the creation of the universe, a recurring theme in Steve Gerges’s work. The audiovisual storytelling features abstract patterns slowly turning into figurative elements.

The viewers is invited to reflect upon the strive of mankind to understand and explore the unattainable complexity of the universe.

There is so much more to explore about Steve Gerges. We strongly invite you to dive deeper into his audiovisual world.

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The festival and its audiovisual artists embrace new technology as a tool for artistic expression rather than the main factor of spectacularization.

This critical approach unlock the infinite creative possibilities within new technologies rather than fetishize them, as we have seen happening a lot with projection mapping and more recently with virtual reality.

The festival was founded in 1979 by cyberneticist/physicist Herbert W. Franke, electronic musician Hubert Bognermayr, music producer Ulli A. Rützel and Hannes Leopoldseder. It has come a very long way since then but it has always kept its main focus on the intersection of art, technology and society.

One of the most appealing elements of the festival is The Prix Ars Electronica: the most prestigious prize in new media arts, with hefty prizes up to 10.000€. Every year the Golden Nica is awarded to the ground-breaking fruits of artistic experimentation from audiovisual artists worldwide.

Ars Electronica features a wide variety of activities every year: Symposia, exhibitions, performances, concerts and interventions spanning a broad arc from speculative futuristic scenarios to analytical considerations, from provocative actionism to philosophical debate.

Combining amazing artworks with fruitful conversations is the perfect recipe to create a meaningful experience that constantly scans the new media landscape to find the most inspiring projects. The projects are not simply chosen based on their technical realization but most importantly because the social and artistic innovation they incorporate.

The result of this consistent endeavour is the creation of a loyal community of audiovisual artists, researchers and visitors from all over the world that every year reunites in Linz to inspire and get inspired.

Since its inception, the festival has been dedicated to develop new themes for each edition and the organizers are also constantly on the lookout for interesting new venues.

Indeed, the ongoing effort to break out of the narrow confines of conventional conference rooms and artistic spaces, and to stage cultural and scientific encounters in the public sphere has become something of an Ars Electronica trademark.

Stay tuned: Ars Electronica 2020 theme will be released soon!

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Sometimes even artists that we should already know, but that we discover late, like Memo Akten.

I stumbled upon Memo’s work in my investigations and learnings of the well-known VJ software, VDMX (which is to put it quite lightly – VDMX is a very powerful visual creation tool).

Memo Akten describes himself as:

“an artist and researcher from Istanbul, Turkey. He works with emerging technologies as both a medium and subject matter, investigating their impact on society and culture – with a specific interest in the collisions between nature, science, technology, ethics, ritual and religion.”

http://www.memo.tv/

Artificial Intelligence

His work goes much further your average visual artist, as he specialises in Artificial Intelligence, works with algorithms and large-scale responsive installations with image, sound and light.

In AV culture’s layman terms he’s an audiovisual jack-of-all-trades and a true techy, oh and he’s studying for a PhD in AI as if that wasn’t enough. Here you can see a selection of his work in the very accurately named video, ‘Selection of work in 3 minutes’ (2017).

Audiovisual awards and prizes

Akten received the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica – the most prestigious award in Media Art – for his work ‘Forms’ in 2013.

He has exhibited and performed internationally at exhibitions including The Grand Palais’s “Artistes & Robots” in 2018 (Paris FR), The Barbican’s “More than human” in 2017 (London UK) and the Victoria & Albert Museum’s landmark “Decode” exhibition in 2009 (London UK).

He has shown work at venues such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Moscow RU), Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai CN), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo JP), Royal Opera House (London UK), Lisbon Architecture Triennale (Lisbon PT), Itaú Cultural (Sao Paulo BR) and many others.

Creative Collaborations

He has collaborated with celebrities such as Lenny Kravitz, U2, Depeche Mode and Professor Richard Dawkins, and brands including Google, Twitter, Deutsche Bank, Coca Cola and Sony PlayStation. A

kten’s work is in numerous public and private collections around the world.

Alongside his practice, Akten is currently working towards a PhD at Goldsmiths University of London in artificial intelligence and expressive human-machine interaction.

He is deepening collaborative creativity between humans and machines and augment human creative expression.

Fascinated by trying to understand the world and human nature, he draws inspiration from fields such as physics, molecular & evolutionary biology, ecology, abiogenesis, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology and philosophy.

Marshmallow Laser Feast

Memo hasn’t just emerged on the scene by any means. In 2007 Akten founded The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company (MSA Visuals), an art and tech creative studio.

For some of those who have been following audiovisual culture since before even Audiovisual City was born, then they’ll recognise the name Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) – the evolution of MSA Visuals in 2011.

In more recent years and a lot of success, Akten is now focusing on his own work and research, though his contribution to audiovisual culture and performance, must not go unmentioned.

I strongly recommend that you explore his exceptionally wide and varied body of artwork and scientific investigations, as it takes you on a socia cultural journey that goes beyond audiovisual art.

Contact

Website

Instagram | Vimeo

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