AV Festival 08 Broadcast – theme, dates and programme highlights announced as the analogue switch-off begins today in Cumbria, UK.
AV Festival, the UK’s largest international festival of electronic arts, featuring visual art, music and moving image, announces its theme of ‘Broadcast’ for AV Festival 08 on the day that the BBC starts switching off analogue television signals in Whitehaven, Cumbria, UK, today, Wednesday 17th October.
AV Festival 08 which will run from 28 February – 8 March in venues across Newcastle, Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, will address the theme of broadcast through the work of sound artists, musicians, internationally renowned artists and filmmakers from across the globe.
Festival highlights for 2008 confirmed so far include:
Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan who works with telecommunications technology, contemporary architecture and sustainable energy. An artist of unparalleled ambition, Peljhan has worked with the Russian Space Programme, and plans to launch his own telecommunications satellite. After building the art-science laboratory, Makrolab, which has been installed in inhospitable and remote locations around the world, Peljhan is currently working on laboratories for the most challenging environments on earth - Antarctica and the Arctic circle. Peljhan was the featured artist at the world’s most prestigious electronic art festival, Ars Electronica, in 2007.
Radiophonia at The Sage Gateshead will feature some of the pioneers of modern electronic music. This special event will include performances, talks and workshops, which delve into radiophonic music techniques. Radiophonia celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the renowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which composed the theme tune to Dr Who and was a key player in the evolution of electronic music. It will include an illustrated talk with original Workshop member, Dick Mills and interventions by UK sound artist Brian Duffy. One of the highlights will be a rare UK appearance by French electronic music luminary, Jean-Jacques Perrey, performing with American musician, Dana Countryman. The event will culminate in an exceptional radiophonic DJ set by UK band, Broadcast (Warp Records).
Yokomono by German / Dutch sound artists Staalplat Sound System is an installation of radios and toy cars called ’vinyl-killers’, which takes place at alt.gallery. alt.gallery is the only gallery in the UK dedicated to visual art, music culture and sound art, and is based within alt.vinyl record shop.
Aeriology, an exhibition by Australian artist Joyce Hinterding at the Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland. She will wrap the gallery in at least twenty kilometres of copper wire, transforming it into a beautiful, yet operational, giant radio antenna, listening to the earth.
The Atlas of Electromagnetic Space visualises the radio spectrum in a spectacular interactive screen-based installation. Initiated by Spanish curator, Jose Luis Vicente, it will be unveiled at the new Institute for Digital Innovation at the University of Teesside and then will tour to the CCCB in Barcelona.
AV Festival Director Honor Harger said:
“The BBC begins to switch off analogue television signals today, paving the way for television to become entirely digital. At the same time the internet and mobile networks have created opportunities for us to ‘broadcast ourselves’ in entirely new ways. As the landscape of broadcasting changes irrevocably, AV Festival 08 will be a catalyst for debate about the future of broadcasting, and an event to celebrate a century of on-air and online transmission.”
The full programme for AV Festival 08 will be announced in January 2008, but you can sign up for regular updates here.
AV Festival 08 is organised by Audio Visual Arts North East, an independent charitable company. AV Festival 08 forms part of NewcastleGateshead’s world-class festivals and events programme managed by culture10, based at NewcastleGateshead Initiative.
AV Festival 08 is supported by Arts Council England, North East, Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, ONE NorthEast, Middlesbrough Council, Sunderland City Council, Tyneside Cinema, Northern Film & Media, UK Film Council.