NEoN Digital Arts have announced the theme of this year’s festival, The Spaces We’re In, which looks at how physical urban space and virtual information space are inseparably intertwined. The festival takes place from 9th-13th November across the city of Dundee and for this year’s edition of our annual festival, NEoN Digital Arts are asking artists to get to know better the spaces we are in, and consider alternatives uses and futures for them, both virtually and materially. Dundee has always been a city in transition, and the digital media sector continues to be an important part of that reinvention. NEoN will interrogate the materials that make up our built environment – from air and glass, to cardboard and concrete to circuits and steel – and the designed devices we use to navigate it.
NEoN will also be popping up during Dundee’s Ignite Festival this weekend with 2 events.
The Space You’re In
Dates: 26th–28th May 2016
Times: 12pm–4pm each day. (Talks start at 12pm, Drop-in film and screening programme from 1pm)
Where: Wellgate Shopping Centre
Thursday 26th 2016 | 12pm Talks | 1pm – 4pm drop in screening programme
Friday 17th May | 12pm Talks | 1pm – 4pm drop in screening programme
Saturday 27th May| 12pm – 4pm | Talk & screening with Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich
NEoN will be presenting a playful look at the visible and invisible layers of our architectural space in the context of Dundee’s changing landscape. Housed in an inflatable structure in a vacant shop unit in the Wellgate Shopping Centre, NEoN’s curated programme of talks and films explores the physical and virtual space that increasingly influences our perception of the city and the spatial environment. Inspired by the work of architect/designer Jordan Geiger, who will be joining the team from New York, an inflatable ‘data cloud’ will be the site of artist’s impressions of the built environment, reports on claiming back urban space, and views on the materials which make up our surroundings. Drop in and hear talks about inflatables, smart cities, rebuilding monuments and saving architectural legacies.
Featuring: Jordan Geiger, Drew Hemment, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, Jon Rogers, Jelena Stankovic, Aristofanis Soulikias, Jeff Desom, Elizabeth Lo, Alistair Oldham, Matt McCormick and others.
You can view the full programme supported by Creative Scotland and Ignite Sparks here.
A Charge for Privacy by design collective Branger_Briz’s project
Dates: 26th–28th May 2016
Times: 10am–4pm each day
Where: Avery & Co, 34 South Tay Street, Dundee
NEoN will present USA-based art and design collective Branger_Briz’s project, A Charge for Privacy. The station welcomes visitors to recharge their mobile phones if they agree with the Terms of Use, written on the outside of the transparent cube housing the power supply. These terms state that when a phone is plugged in and charging, all the images stored on it are downloaded. As property of the artists, the images are then are projected – distorted – on an adjacent wall. Branger_Briz was formed in 1988 by Nick Briz, Paul Briz, Ramon Branger and others.
Branger_Briz’s project ‘A Charge for Privacy’ draws attention not only to the design of our mobile devices (commonly complained about for their short battery life, or for the ability of apps like Facebook to drain the battery), but also the design of the service agreements and contracts we enter into for our use of these devices. While we all aspire to truly untethered and wireless networking and communication, in fact everywhere we are tied down.