LINCOLN.- Frequency 2013 will see virtual realities blur with medieval streets, when Lincoln’s biennial festival of digital culture returns for the second time this autumn. Featuring extraordinary art exhibitions, surprising installations, amazing performances and lively debates, the programme of free events will recalibrate historic and contemporary venues across the city from 18th – 26th October.
With the theme of ‘Revolution’, Frequency 2013 will invite audiences to explore the ways in which digital technology has changed the way that we interact with the world around us; just as the festival will transform the streets and buildings of one of the UK’s oldest cities with nine days of art, technology and culture.
In an underground Roman gate-house, visitors will be treated to a new ‘choreographed time’ installation by Trope Scope. The Juneau Brothers and Dale Fearnley will restock an empty shop with the technological relics of our own, digital age, and a 13th century Friary will host an exhibition of ‘analogue liberation’.
Outside the not-so-traditional gallery walls, interactive media-art pioneers Blast Theory will revisit their critically acclaimed audio-promenade experience ‘Ulrike and Eamon Compliant’ with an entirely new ending. Meanwhile, the world will be brought to Lincoln through Stanza’s ‘Timescapes’, collages of CCTV footage captured in real-time from cameras overlooking recent and historic sites of revolutionary activity.
Frequency 2013 will also host international premiere screenings and performances:
· L.A.-based choreography trio WIFE will perform the UK and EU premier of their projection-mapping dance ‘The Grey Ones’ at Lincoln Drill Hall
· Anglo-Spanish multidisciplinary performance group, Me and The Machine will reveal a new experiential video work, ‘The Mystery of Docility’
· Tony Conrad, New York-based avant-garde video pioneer, sound artist, experimental musician and educator, will be the subject of an immersive installation by documentary filmmaker Tyler Hubby, drawing on more than 50 hours of archive material
· science writer and film-maker Chris Riley will present ‘Apollo Raw and Uncut’, the first complete screening of the entire 13-hour Apollo mission film archive collected by NASA in space and on the surface of the moon between 1966 and 1972
An exhibition at The Collection, ‘Where Are We Now?’, will explore how new smart location technologies have changed the way we see people and places, through artworks including Jon Rafman’s ‘Nine Eyes’ and Brian House’s ‘Quotidian Record’. As part of the same show, curated by Ashley Gallant, Paolo Cirio’s ‘Street Ghosts’ will map portraits from Google Street View onto the age-old pavements of the Lincoln.
Nearby, The National Centre for Craft & Design in Sleaford will host an exhibition of retro computer game design called ‘Revolution in the Bedroom, War in the Playground’.
In a city with a high concentration of artists and interactive designers, local talent will be evident in abundance. Alexis Rago, who draws on his background in biological science to inspire his work, will be presenting two new commissions, whilst past graduates from University of Lincoln’s Interactive Design and Fine Art courses will also showcase new work.
Frequency 2013 celebrates revolution through its programme – from the social to the political, the individual to the abstract. The curatorial process also follows this theme, with the Festival Directors encouraging, in part, the city to curate itself and bring together a non-hierarchical programme with a coherent vision for audiences.
The pioneering exhibition programme is brought to the city through an established partnership between the University of Lincoln, Lincoln BIG, Visit Lincoln, Lincolnshire One Venues (LOV) and Threshold Studios, an artist-led creative media and visual arts organisation specialising in the production of digital, moving image and public realm works.
Barry Hale and Uzma Johal, Directors of Frequency Festival, Threshold Studios said: “The events that shape our world are now both witnessed and organised through digital media, so this year's Frequency festival offers artists and curators the chance to present their responses to the theme of Revolution. We are honoured to be hosted again by Lincoln, a forward thinking city which offers a canvas as rich in its creativity as it is steeped in history. Frequency presents a city in debate, inspiring us to ask how we too can participate in making changes to our world - personal or global, political or creative. "
Professor Mary Stuart, Vice Chancellor of the University of Lincoln, said: “Frequency Festival of Digital Culture delivers an incredible showcase of local, national and international artistic talent. It provides a gateway for the public to experience revolutionary artwork that they might not otherwise have encountered, and here at the University of Lincoln, we are delighted to be collaborating with the festival again this year. Our staff and students are very much looking forward to being part of Frequency 2013.”
For more information visit
frequency.org.uk
