[spectre] Lighthouse at Brighton Digital Festival 2012

[Honor Harger]

Dear friends,

I'd like to let you know about some of the projects Lighthouse is 
producing for Brighton Digital Festival  this September.  They 
include a major new exhibition by David Blandy, and a conference - 
Improving Reality 2012 - that features Anab Jain, Warren Ellis, 
Regine Debatty, Luke Jerram and more.
I really hope you can make it along.

If you'd like to come along to any of these exhibitions or events and 
need any more information, please don't hesitate to let me know.

best wishes,

Honor Harger
Director, Lighthouse



BRIGHTON DIGITAL FESTIVAL 2012
1 - 30 September 2012
http://2012.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/brighton-digital-festival-2012

Lighthouse are delighted to be at the heart of Brighton Digital 
Festival 2012.  The festival is a celebration of digital culture 
featuring a whole month of exhibitions, performances, meet-ups, 
workshops and outdoor events that run alongside Brighton's iconic 
digital design conferences.  It is run by members of Brighton's arts 
and digital communities, and administered by Wired Sussex in 
association with Lighthouse.

Marking out Brighton as a major destination for digital culture, the 
festival this year includes digital visionaries like Matt Webb 
(Berg), Ben Hammersley, Hannah Donovan (This Is My Jam), and Alice 
Taylor (Makielab), digital artists such as David Blandy, Luke Jerram, 
and Seb Lee Delisle, science pioneers such as Kevin Warwick and James 
Burke, science fiction legends Brian Aldiss, Warren Ellis and Jeff 
Noon, and cutting edge digital thinkers and makers such as Leila 
Johnston, Anab Jain (Superflux), and Tom Armitage (Hide & Seek).

They're among over 50 well-known names giving talks in the first week 
alone.  Team that up with over 100 exhibitions, performances, 
meet-ups, workshops, and the UK's fastest growing Maker Faire, and 
you've got one of the most intriguing digital festivals in Europe.

Lighthouse's own 24 projects for the festival explore where art meets 
technology. Highlights include:

ODYSSEYS BY DAVID BLANDY
1 - 23 September, Phoenix Brighton
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/david-blandy-odysseys
David Blandy is a contemporary artist based in Brighton and London 
who uses video, performance, digital technology, animation and comics 
to investigate the form and content of the popular culture that 
surrounds us.  Odysseys is a major exhibition of his work and his 
largest monographic show to date. It features recent works including, 
Anjin 1600 (2012) and Child of the Atom (2010), which draw on the 
visual language of Japanese anime to tell deeply personal 
cross-cultural stories, plus collection of works which have arisen 
out of Blandy's deep interest in game culture, including Duels and 
Dualities (2011) Soul of the Lakes (2005) and Samurai Story Part 2 
(2008).

IMPROVING REALITY 2012
6 September, Pavilion Theatre
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/improving-reality-2012
A half-day conference which playfully and critically looks at how 
designers, artists, and makers are using various technologies to 
shift our perceptions of reality. It features features graphic 
novelist, Warren Ellis, art and science luminary, Luke Jerram, 
digital innovators Usman Haque, Anab Jain and Leila Johnston, We Make 
Money Not Art's, Regine Debatty, Rhizome's Joanne McNeil, Rebekka 
Kill and more.
Expect presentations of artworks inspired by science, speculative 
stories, radical designs, unlikely inventions, and a few surprises.
The conference is followed by an evening panel session featuring some 
of the most prominent names in speculative fiction, including 
science-fiction legend, Brian Aldiss and Jeff Noon.

ARTIST TALK BY DAVID BLANDY
1 September, Phoenix Brighton
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/artist-talk-david-blandy
To contextualise his exhibition Odysseys David Blandy will be giving 
a talk about his practice.   Blandy creates work that can be 
simultaneously humorous and philosophical, ironic and deeply 
heartfelt. Both playful and poignant, Blandy's works ask us to 
analyse the images and stories that surround us, the games we play, 
and the films we watch. He has exhibited widely, including shows at 
The Baltic, Gateshead; the Liverpool Biennial; Turner Contemporary, 
Margate; Spike Island, Bristol; and Platform China Project Space, 
Beijing. His work is distributed by LUX, and he is represented by 
Seventeen Gallery in London.

PIXEL PYROS BY SEB LEE DELISLE
2 September, Jubilee Square
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/pixelpyros-by-seb-lee-delisle
A stunning outdoor interactive performance by artist and creative 
coder, Seb Lee Delisle.

WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS
18 - 25 September
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/schools-workshop-with-natalia-buckley
Creative technologist Natalia Buckley will be inspiring the digital 
artists and designers of the future in a series of coding and hacking 
workshops at Varndean High School and Brighton Aldridge Community 
Academy.

Plus there's much more from Brighton's Mini Maker Faire, screenings 
of much-loved anime classics at the Duke of Yorks cinema, a hackday 
for young people, a gaming tournament, hands-on workshops in creative 
coding, and a primer on how streaming media is changing culture.  Our 
full programme is online here: 
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/brighton-digital-festival-2012

Brighton Digital Festival is a celebration of digital culture. It is 
run by members of Brighton's arts and digital communities, 
administered by Wired Sussex in association with Lighthouse and 
supported by Arts Council England.

CONTACT

For more information:
Lighthouse
Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
Tel: +44 1273 647197
Email: info at lighthouse.org.uk
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk