This year, Impakt festival, an annual media art festival in Utrecht (NL) had a Web 2.0 theme: YourSpace.
“(…) what exactly are the quality properties of these new structures and how do they relate to existing social contexts? Are Hyves and MySpace about social networking or are they merely platforms for vain self-exposure? Is a blog a public diary or a valuable contribution to the social debate? And what is the meaning of a festival now that makers can reach their audience through YouTube in an increasingly simple manner?”
– fragment from the general festival introduction, by festival director Arjon Dunnewind
With a combination of events, screenings, programs around invited artists and by guest curators, and presence on various social networking sites, Impakt chose a slightly different approach than their usual set-up of screenings, exhibitions and talk shows. The whole idea of what a festival can be in times of what Impakt referred to as ‘Society 2.0’, was addressed at the opening debate: The Future of Festivals. Various curators and festival organizers debated if the Internet challenges the function of the festival, bringing people together and share interests, recommend creative products (with expert curators and festival programmers), etc.
The panel discussion, which took place on one of the hottest days in Utrecht ever, was moderated by Chris Keulemans, and included curators from the New York Underground Film Festival, which recently presented its final edition and will find a follow up in Migrating Forms, Submarine Channel, Tank.tv and Version Festival. The conclusion was that where the Internet is very important in community building and contextualizing your program (or even the heart of a program like tank.tv), the actual get-together is very important for people to start collaborating, exchanging ideas, and giving the network a boost. The advise to festivals was to also make sure that the festival is visible throughout town, instead of choosing an exclusive attitude of either obscurity or elitism. Use all the space you can get your hands on, and make sure you distribute your work for free or really cheap. In the end everybody will benefit from the exposure, according to Ed Marszewski from Version Festival.
Chris Keulemans, moderator of the afternoon, complimented the New York Underground Film Festival with actually ending their activities when they felt they had lost touch with the format of the festival. That’s a brave decision indeed. The future of festivals seems bright, as long as everybody knows what a festival is about: hanging out with interesting people and seeing new things. The panel was inspiring in the sense that all these (young!) people were very open to changes in the field, and even though everybody of course struggled with funding they just organize stuff anyway.
The opening night featured short presentations by all the curators of the festival programme, including a short statement and a screening of a film or fragment. Small selection: Former INC researcher Marije Janssen, who worked with us on The Art and Politics of Netporn and curated the C’LICK ME festival, was invited to make a program on online identity and sexuality titled Multiplicity of Desire. Migrating forms, the former New York Underground Film Festival curators, showed the bizarre film Tommy-Chat Just E-mailed Me, by Ryan Trecartin (USA 2006, 7:00), from their YourSpace screenings program You Are What You Eat that touched topics such as branding and recommendation systems. Klaas Kuitenbrouwer introduced the festival edition of the Sunday School (‘Zondagsschool), titled PetSpace (which i worked on a one of the curators), about representations of animals in new media, and the relations between man and animal (as seen from the animal’s perspective).
Worth mentioning was the graphic design by Lava, as well as the on-site rating system Gifted, created by NetNiet which was fun. Every visitor was given a badge with an icon (that looked a bit like a space invader) and a number. After installing an application on your mobile phone, or going to the website, it was possible to rate visitors according to the question of the day. The rating had mild real-life consequences. A low-rating could for instance mean that you would not get a piece of rye bread with your coffee, instead of a cookie.
Check the Impakt leaders by Lava on YouTube: http://nl.youtube.com/user/ImpaktFestival