York Mediale’s here – with ten days of installations, performance, film and music‏

York Mediale has launched, beginning ten days of futuristic art and music.

Aiming to push the boundaries of media and digital technology, the arts festival will include experimental music, immersive performance and thought-provoking film.

International artists and York’s creative talent have worked on the festival, which builds on the city’s status as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.

“Hosting this event has been an ambition for a number of years, and we’re delighted that all of the pieces have now come together, and we can share our vision with the world,” said festival director Tom Higham.

“We’re showcasing installations, performances and immersive experiences that wouldn’t be out of place at Ars Electronica in Linz, South By Southwest in Austin, or any other established high quality media art festival.”

Art Gallery’s ambitious exhibition

At York Art Gallery you can see Strata – Rock – Dust – Stars, described as “the largest and most ambitious media art exhibition the city has ever hosted”.

It showcases ground-breaking moving image, new media and interactive artwork, inspired by William Smith’s geological map of 1815.

This was key in the development of geology as a science and transformed the way in which we understand the world.

Among the artworks is Stones Against Diamonds by Isaac Julien, a breathtaking ten screen installation set in glistening Icelandic ice caves.

There is also Phil Coy’s virtual reality exploration of hollowed out landscapes, part of Substance.

Other Mediale highlights

Can You Die If You Don’t Exist?
A large scale digital projection will be installed on the façade of York Art Gallery in Exhibition Square. The piece uses ‘The List’ of 34,361 refugee deaths published by the Guardian, visualising their anonymity and drawing out the cultural disregard of the non-white immigrant body.

By Deep Lab, a global cyber-feminist collective, this is their first work outside of the USA.

 
What Is Love?
What is Love? premieres a new breed of storytelling, algorithmically tailored to each viewer. Developed by Davy Smith, from Digital Creativity Labs, based at the University of York, it is the first public airing of this new technology, already in development with the BBC.
Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate

Strange Stranger
A world premiere performance created by internationally acclaimed choreographer Alexander Whitley.

It investigates the idea of presence and the right to be forgotten in the digital age. It will then become an interactive installation that uses motion capture technology to collect kinetic data, generating a unique and constantly evolving atmosphere of light and sound.
York Guildhall

 
Token Homes
This ground-breaking 3D-printed sculpture is the culmination of a 6-month residency between British-Colombian artist Matthew Plummer Fernandez and Fluxaxis, a 3D printing start-up borne out of local Tockwith-based creative manufacturer Stage One.

A playful statement about the housing crisis, it turns social housing data produced from local surveys into a hypnotic large-scale sculpture, consisting of hundreds of miniaturised property units.
Kings Square