[spectre] DEAF04 [9-21 November 2004] on new location in Rotterdam

[richard de boer]

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DEAF04 – Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems
Seventh edition of the Dutch Electronic Art Festival

Tuesday 9 – Sunday 21 November 2004
Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
http://www.deaf04.nl
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New DEAF04 location: Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek

>From Tuesday 9 to Sunday 21 November 2004, V2_, Institute for the Unstable
Media, presents the seventh edition of the Dutch Electronic Art Festival.
Despite earlier announcements, DEAF04 will take place in (and around) the
Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek in Rotterdam. As the DEAF04 program evolved, the
location Las Palmas turned out to be too small for both the exhibition as
well as other programs such as concerts and performances.

DEAF04 exhibition highlights

Dozens of artists from all over the world present their work in the DEAF04
exhibition on the festival location Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek and in the
public space throughout Rotterdam.

"People's Portrait", conceived by the Chinese-American artist Zhang Ga, is
an ambitious public art project on two interrelated levels: video wall
display and web portal exhibition. It is presented as a public project on
a central square in Rotterdam during DEAF04 and as a large projection on
the facade of the Museum of the Future of Ars Electronica Center, Linz
(Austria). It also uses the Reuters Headquarters' massive video and data
display screen on Times Square in New York. "Peoples' Portrait" uses the
Internet as the underlying mechanism to create a global portrait of
people. Passers-by can make a photograph of themselves in photo booths
located in cities such as Rotterdam, New York, Brisbane, Barcelona and
Singapore. These pictures will be rendered in real time and displayed
instantly and simultaneously on various museum websites and grand video
walls in these and other cosmopolitan urban centers.

Luke Jerram's poetic installation "Tide" is a quite exquisitely subtle
aural / installative investigation of the gravitational relationship
between earth and the moon. With a contemporary reference to Keplers
theories of the Music of the Spheres as a result.

The interaction between the visitor and the installation "Run Motherfucker
Run" of the Rotterdam-based media artist Marnix de Nijs is exceptionally
immediate. While running on a conveyor belt, the visitor has to find his
way through a city which is projected on a large projection screen in
front of him. By diving into unexpected side lanes and streets, the
visitor can partly determine the course of this thriller-like film, but
not altogether...

Other artists who will present their work at the DEAF04 exhibition are
Zhang Ga, David Rokeby, Seiko Mikami and Sota Ichikawa, Marnix de Nijs,
Tobias Grewenig, Chris Cunningham, Joachim Montessuis and Eléonore Hellio,
Workspace Unlimited and many others.

DEAF04’s theme – Affective Turbulence

The interactivity of the artworks directly refers to the theme of DEAF04 –
Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems, a theme that concerns
feeling as a vital factor for interaction. Feeling is the driving force
behind our actions. Recently it has become known that we never do anything
purely rational. That applies to almost every human operation. Without
your feeling or intuition to rely on, you can take no decision whatsoever.
Open systems are continuously in interaction with their surroundings and
are therefore partly shaped by human activities. Each interactive artwork
is an open system, which tries to seduce the visitor to participate in
certain operations, hoping that the work itself will reorganise itself
into an unforeseen consistency. The artists participating in the
exhibition have been selected on the basis of their congruence with the
theme.

The American avant-garde architect Lebbeus Woods will compile a full
evening's program that showcases his personal outlook on DEAF04's theme.
Japanese curator Yukiko Shikata and Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan were
commissioned by DEAF04 as well to compile a full evening. The academic
symposium ‘Feelings are Always Local’ (12–13 November) brings together a
high profile and interdisciplinary group of scientists, theorists, artists
and architects around the theme of DEAF04. Among the eight speakers are
Arjun Appadurai, Mike Davis, Loretta Napoleoni, and Alex Galloway.

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DEAF04 - Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems
Tuesday 9 November - Sunday 21 November 2004
Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
http://www.deaf04.nl

Contact:
DEAF04 – Dutch Electronic Art Festival
P.O. Box 19049, 3001 BA Rotterdam
Tel. + 31 (0)10 – 206 72 72
Fax + 31 (0)10 – 206 72 71
E-mail: deaf at v2.nl
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