AV festival 08 Overview

AV Festival 08: Broadcast - the largest and most ambitious AV Festival to date - has come to a close, and:

It took place across the three urban areas of NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland & Middlesbrough, 28 February - 8 March 2008 and nearly 40 different venues.

The programme included over 75 projects, which manifested as over 100 events, featuring artists such as Marko Peljhan, Staalplaat Sound System, Marcus Coates, Resonance FM, Chris Watson, Harun Farocki, Tetsuo Kogawa, Autechre, Joyce Hinterding, Yuko Mohri, Van Gogh TV, Active Ingredient, Jean-Jacques Perrey, People Like Us and dozens of others.

It attracted audiences of over 100,000 including visitors to events, online and through its on air radio stations. As well as that it involved the work of around 150 artists and delivered:

  • 16 new commissions & premieres
  • 19 performances
  • 13 exhibitions
  • 3 conferences
  • 13 talks & seminars
  • 21 screenings
  • 11 courses and workshops
  • 3 radio stations

500 people saw :zoviet*france:, Matt Wand & Atau Tanaka recreate John Cage's Variations VII at BALTIC on Friday 29 February using household and electrical appliances and 10 phone and skype connections from 10 remote locations

More than 380 people saw War of the Worlds recreated as a radio play set in contemporary Teesside, at Middlesbrough Old Town Hall on Wednesday 5 March, and more than 1000 people tuned in to hear it broadcast on air via AV Festival Radio Station Resonance FM and online.

Almost 700 people attended the Late & Live exhibition receptions and events in galleries across Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.

AV Festival 08 hosted 3 Festival radio studios (with studios in Newcastle's Discovery Museum, Sunderland University's Media Centre and mima, Middlesbrough) running 3 regional radio stations on air and online.

Over 170 people were transported to a South American rainforest with the sounds of native birdsong and wildlife BBC sound recordist Chris Watson had recorded on location, as he performed Whispering in The Leaves at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens on Thursday 6 March.

27 people walked through central Newcastle on a busy Saturday lunchtime on Saturday 1 March with radios tuned to a special recording as part of an intervention created by Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec.

Over 500 people attended talks & workshops as part of AV Festival 08.

Over 75 Amateur radio enthusiasts from 11 local Amateur Radio Societies attended a Radio Rally in Newcastle's Grainger Market on Friday 29 February and Saturday 1 March sharing their skills with over 140 people and running special events station GB8AV talking to people worldwide. 8 members of Waygood's Radio Club gained their Amateur Radio licences.