Submissions to Participatory City 2014
(Linz, October 3, 2013) Connecting Cities is a network that includes such top-name facilities as the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Medialab-Prado in Madrid, Berlin’s Public Art Lab, and FACT in Liverpool. It’s an endeavor to build up connected worldwide infrastructure of media facades, urban screens and projection sites to circulate artistic and social content, and thus create real-time interaction possibilities among geographically distant cities. Participatory City 2014 is a Connecting Cities initiative to investigate the extent to which urban screens and LED façades can serve as catalysts for encounter and platforms for urban activism, and whether they can help to impart the network’s bold expectations and visions to its European neighbors. Now, artists are invited to submit project proposals to http://submissions.amberplatform.org. Entry deadline is October 20, 2013.
Connecting Cities
The Connecting Cities network was launched by Public Art Lab in cooperation with Ars Electronica, Media Architecture Institute, FACT, Amber Platform, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, m-cult, Medialab-Prado, iMAL, Foundation Riga 2014 and Videospread. The activities of the Connecting Cities network are financed by the European Commission’s Culture Program. The Connecting Cities network interlinks media façades and jumbo-format displays in public spaces in order to open up a window of interaction among cities physically far removed from one another. In opposition to the predominantly commercial use of such displays, Connecting Cities fosters exchange of artistic or socially relevant content, whereby interlinked urban screens and LED façades in 15 cities serve as communications platforms that react to one another or can display content simultaneously. This enables groups of artists, activists and passers-by present at the respective locations to get in touch with each other and thus learn more about their European neighbors.
Participatory City 2014
By carrying out Participatory City 2014, the Connecting Cities network aims to find out the extent to which urban media façades can serve as catalysts for encounter and platforms for urban activism. Can art projects foster a dialog among people within their local communities? And can this initiative help to propagate the network’s own expectations and visions among its European neighbors? Artists are invited to submit proposals for projects that enable local residents to experience new forms of interaction with their urban environments, to react to what they encounter, and to better understand the transformation process these cities are undergoing. Projects can be submitted to http://submissions.amberplatform.org by October 20, 2013. Additional information is available at http://www.connectingcities.net/node/32.
ARS ELECTRONICA Futurelab in Linz, Austria
The Ars Electronica Futurelab has been exploring the future at the nexus of art, technology and society since 1996. The laboratory’s staff includes experts in a wide array of fields. The way they carry out assignments is characterized, above all, by transdisciplinarity and international networking. The essence of this approach is ongoing collaboration with artists and scientists worldwide as well as the regular presence of artists-in-residence in Linz. The spectrum of services the Ars Electronica Futurelab delivers is based on expertise and sills developed over many years in such fields as radical innovation, media art, architecture, design, interactive exhibitions, virtual reality and real-time graphics. The lab is a division of Ars Electronica Linz GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the City of Linz.
Press Release “‘Submissions to Participatory City 2014” / PDF
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United Colours of Dissent / tom mesic / Printversion / Album
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Connecting Monsters – Linz / tom mesic / Printversion / Album
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Connecting Monsters – Istanbul / amberPlatform / Printversion / Album
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Connecting Cities Exhibition / Pascal Maresch / Printversion / Album