AV Festival 06 commissions now seen around the world
Many of the electronic art commissions which premiered at AV Festival 06, 2 – 12 March 2006 in Newcastle Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, have now been seen by audiences around the world.
Ryoji Ikeda’s datamatics which premiered at AV’s Opening Gala at The Sage Gateshead, has now been seen at sold out performances in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in May 2006, Europe largest electronic music festival, Sonar in Barcelona in June and at one of the world’s leading electronic arts festivals, ISEA2006 in San Jose, California in August. It has also been enjoyed by audiences in Tokyo and Amsterdam. These performances of datamatics were organized and produced by forma, the Newcastle based arts production agency who represent Ikeda and who worked with AV to co-produce several art commissions for AV Festival 06 earlier this year.
The Autotelematic Spiderbots, by Ken Rinaldo and Matt Howard, which enthralled visitors at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens have also been interacting with audiences in Sao Paulo, Brazil this summer and are soon to open at the Hopkins Museum in Ohio, USA and also will tour in Norway at the end of this year and Finland in 2007.
Gina Czarnecki’s moving image work Spine, also produced by forma, which was dramatically projected onto the Civic Centre Newcastle as part of AV Festival 06 was also projected onto buildings in the heart of Melbourne’s shopping district in July and August.
Richard Fenwick’s two films What I Know About Stem Cells and Artificial Worlds v3.0 which both had their inaugural screenings at AV Festival 06 have been picked up by many film festivals internationally, including resfest and onedotzero.
Artificial Worlds v3.0 was also part of Sarajevo Film Festival in August, the Seoul Film Festival and can be seen online at the BBC Film Network at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A11873667.
AV Festival 06 - LifeLike took place in over 25 venues in NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough from 2–12 March 2006. Over 10 days, AV delivered over 90 events in 3 urban centres. It included an impressive range of energetic and challenging new work never seen in the UK before, including several ambitious new commissions from renowned artists, filmmakers and musicians from countries as far afield as Japan, Australia, New Zealand USA, Spain, France, Norway and Germany. The theme of the 2006 festival was LIFE. AV Festival 06 formed part of NewcastleGateshead Initiative's world-class festivals and events programme.
AV Festival is the UK's largest festival of electronic art, music and moving image. A bi-annial event, the Festival takes place in Newcastle Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the North East of England. It consists of concerts, performances, exhibitions, film screenings, seminars, symposia, workshops and other special events at many venues across the three urban centres of the North East. The next AV Festival will be in March 2008.
Media Contact: Cait Read
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Notes for the Editor:
AV Festival 06 was organised by Middlesbrough Council, Sunderland City Council, Tyneside Cinema, & the University of Teesside. AV Festival 06 was supported by Newcastle City Council, Arts Council England, Middlesbrough Council, Sunderland City Council, Tyneside Cinema, Northern Film & Media, UK Film Council, TyneWear Partnership, Tees Valley Investment Fund and The PRS Foundation for New Music. AV Festival 06 forms part of NewcastleGateshead's world-class festivals and events programme. AV Festival 06 was sponsored by Codeworks.
The first AV Festival was held in NewcastleGateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, on 8th – 22nd November 2003.
The festival sold over 6,000 tickets to over one hundred events across three towns in two weeks, and featured new commissions. It was the biggest ever festivals of new media culture in the UK and included performances by the Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Food, Tina Frank and General Magic, screenings of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, a Mike Figgis film retrospective, a worl premiere by Peter Greenaway, onedotzero screenings and a lively programme of workshops and lectures. New works by Richard Fenwick and The Light Surgeons also featured.
NewcastleGateshead’s programme of festivals and events is managed by destination marketing agency NewcastleGateshead Initiative and supported by Arts Council England, North East, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, Northern Rock Foundation, One NorthEast and TyneWear Partnership.