Brighton Digital Festival & DRHA Commissions: 2nd – 11th September

Brighton Digital Festival is a celebration of digital culture that takes place across Brighton and Hove every September. 2016 marks the sixth consecutive year for the Festival.

The Festival operates on an open programme model; the majority of events are organised and produced by individuals. Many of the organisers work and live in Brighton and Hove although more and more event organiser’s travel from beyond Sussex to put on events. Anyone can get involved, all you need to start is an idea!

DRHA (Design Research in the Humanities and Arts) provides opportunities to create connections with colleagues from a range of disciplines, providing a forum for networking and information sharing.

DRHA comprises an academic conference and a curated programme. Along with the call for papers proposals for creative work that responds to the theme are particularly welcomed and may also be eligible for inclusion in the co-curated Brighton Digital Festival that will take place at the same time as DRHA2016. The curatorial panel will be comprised of representatives of DRHA and cultural partners in the city of Brighton. There will be opportunities to create/install work throughout the city in partnership with Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica Gallery, ONCA and the University of Brighton Gallery.

Watch Sound Hear Light Play – Jack Wates & Thomas Blackburn

How do we interact with our environment? How do we ‘play’ it?

Watch Sound Hear Light Play is an interactive installation by Jack Wates and Thomas Blackburn. The installation explores the relationship between sound, light and movement in a space composed from a grid of vertical strings. Conceived as a kind of musical instrument, the public are invited to play the strings to create sound and influence lighting in the gallery.

Re-configuring elements of their recent dance theatre performance, Outside Inside Out, they have produced an interactive gallery-based installation to investigate the role of digital technology in our engagement with environments. By creating a dialogue between people interacting on an intimate scale inside the gallery, and those passing by or observing from outside, the duo explore how people can interact with their environment through play and investigate the effect of light and sound on these interactions.

hurl outward at a certain pace – Jane Frances Dunlop

hurl outward at a certain pace is presented in two installations: a multi-channel sound and video installation at ONCA, and online at hurloutward.com. Using livestreaming and video chat feedback loops, hurl outward at a certain pace documents how a physical site (the gallery) can be made to fold back on itself again and again in digital space, mapping how place is performed in a digital ecology. Constructed from documentation of short performances in the gallery, the work captures one body in one physical place as it traverses the various hard and software sites of digital networks.

The two installations are created to be viewed separately however, those that wish to, can view both at once using their own personal devices whilst inside the gallery.

Artists In Conversation / Saturday 10th September, 4 – 6pm: Join us for an informal discussion between the artists about the ideas and technology behind their work as well as an exploration of this year’s Digital Festival theme ‘Place, Ecology & The Digital’. There will be an opportunity for audience Q&A.