Celebrating its tenth year, NEoN Digital Arts Festival’s theme in 2018 is “Lifespans” – addressing both our socio-digital lives online and real-world lives offline. The festival will be happening between 6-11 November and you can now check out this year’s programme here!
In Scotland’s Year of Young People, NEoN will envision the paths of ‘digital natives’, those born into a digitally-enabled world. The festival will investigate how we perceive the lifespan of both humans and technologies through group exhibitions, screenings, a mini-symposium, performance nights, and workshops from artists and organisations. It will include new commissions – never before seen art and design projects – from artists including AL and AL, Heather Dewey-Hagborg & Phillip Andrew Lewis and Had Mehrpouya & Robert Powell.
Director Donna Holford-Lovell said: “In today’s world of technology our young people have a dual identity that’s both physical and virtual. These ‘digital natives’ are the first generation to grow up online, while the rest of us are still struggling to wrap our heads around this technologically-enhanced future. Our artists are exploring these ideas. I’m particularly excited about AL and AL’s piece. It’s just going to blow everyone’s mind, I’m sure.”
In the Wellgate Shopping Centre you can find both AL and AL’s installation and ‘Lifespans: Forever And Ever’, an exhibition curated for NEoN by Weave by Abertay, bringing together works of gaming and design, alongside other hybrid creations that reflect on the endlessness and expansive nature of our digital lives. This will include work by Cassie McQuater, Hadi Mehrpouya & Robert Powell, Tale of Tales, and Marius Watz.
American artists Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Phillip Andrew Lewis will also be exhibiting new work for NEoN at LifeSpace Gallery. They have been developing a conceptual project they call ‘Spirit Molecule’, where they’re exploring the possibility of genetically modifying psychoactive plants with human DNA to create what they describe as “genetic memorials”, that later could be consumed to create intimate experiences with the deceased.
Every year NEoN Festival brings new work to Dundee from international artists and screens it alongside favourite works from the last 25 years of digital creativity. As part of the screening programme, workshop and mini-symposium line up, expect to catch inspirational art by the infamous Internet-star Mouchette, South Africa’s Francois Knoetze, and digital wunderkinds including Jeremy Bailey and Floris Kaayk.
But of course, to kick the festival off, be sure to join us at a Creative Dundee/NEoN Pecha Kucha happening on the 6 November. Get your tickets before they sell out!
There’s a lot more happening at this year’s NEoN and you can check it all on their website and social media.