<div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">THEME THE PROGRESS TRAP</font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Main Location: Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">The DEAF2014 biennale theme is The Progress Trap. Progress has become a means to an end in itself and has been decoupled from the cultural, ecological and social advances that it was supposed to help achieve. However seductive quick gains from technological solutions are, their temporary victories in the short term may cause much worse and bigger problems in the long run, luring us into The Progress Trap.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">PROGRAMME</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">For this 10th edition DEAF2014 has an exciting programme lined up that addresses the notion of The Progress Trap in many different ways. Exhibitions, keynotes, seminars, working sessions, evenings of …, films, performances and a satellite programme invite you to come and explore the theme The Progress Trap. </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">MAIN EXHIBITION </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">DEAF2014s thematic exhibition in Het Nieuwe Instituut addresses the unsustainable character of our current notion of progress by contrasting the lure of technology with artistic responses to our techno-centric notion of progress and attempts to escape the trap it results in. Dark Matter by Julie Mecoli for instance reminds us of the impermanence of all human endeavors and Lucas Foglia photographed people living off the grid for his Natural Order series, have they found a way out?</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">MORE PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">KEYNOTE RONALD WRIGHT - 22 May 17:00 - 18:00</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Drawing on his bestselling book and Massey Lectures A Short History of Progress, in which he coined the term progress trap, Ronald Wright will discuss how our modern social and environmental crises stem from patterns of progress and disaster that are old as civilization itself. </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">KEYNOTE ALEXA CLAY - 24 May 17:00 - 18:00</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">In her talk, economic historian Alexa Clay brings attention to misfits in the black market, underground and fringe economies that actively pose threats to some of our ideas of progress. </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Built on research from her forthcoming book, The Misfit Economy, Alexa will bring attention to some of the strategies and philosophies operating on the fringe and ask what we can learn from these outliers to challenge our current system and thinking. </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">THE EVENING OF FULLER / MCLUHAN, 23 May 20:00 - 22:00</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">The ideas of Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan have had an enormous influence on how we think about the future and our place in a technological world. Through a theatrical reproduction of historical lectures some of their key concepts are projected in the now. </font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">DEAF2014 & DE BRAKKE GROND PRESENT THE EVENING OF ANGELO VERMEULEN, 24 May 20:00 - 22:00</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">What would it take to build, operate and live for decades on a starship, sailing past plantes near and far? DEAF and De Brakke Grond present The Evening of Angelo Vermeulen. During this evening Vermeulen and his special guests will examine this ambitious dream from the perspective of participatory systems, biological factors, design and engineering.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"> </font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Check out the entire programme and timetable with more workshops, seminars and performances at <a href="http://deaf.nl/" target="_blank">deaf.nl</a>.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div><div dir="ltr">Emma O'Hare<div>Researcher / Editor<br><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">DEAF | Dutch Electronic Art Festival</div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">T +31 (0)6 - 50513457 I Office: +31 (0)10 206 7272</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Eendrachtsstraat 10</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">3012 XL Rotterdam</div>
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