Connecting Cities 2015 - In/visible City

24 September - 24 October 2015

PerformancesWorkshops

Connecting Cities 2015 - In/visible City

Workshops, public events, performances

In/visible City is the final component of a four year programme called Connecting Cities. As a European and worldwide expanding network, Connecting Cities aims to create a connected urban infrastructure of urban media, urban screens, media facades and projection sites to circulate artistic and social content. Urban media present new opportunities for communication in the public space: they engage citizens in artistic processes and enable them to shape their urban environments in a collaborative way.

After Networked City 2013 and Participatory City 2014, this year's curatorial theme of INVISIBLE and VISIBLE Cities 2015 aims to develop an awareness of the underlying data and technologies of modern cities, which are almost invisible to the eye. IN/VISIBLE Cities will visualize the embedded, 'smart' urban infrastructures in three artistic scenarios for the citizens to explore in a public setting. The three topics Digital Citizens, Hybrid City and Translocality will be the curatorial topics for creating creative use of urban data and sensor technologies.

With Wearable Facade by Ricardo O'Nascimento; False Positive by Mark Shepard, Julian Oliver & Moritz Stefaner; Hidden Histories, Public Libraries by xm:lab.

Schedule

24 - 26 September: Wearable Facade (Ricardo O'Nascimento)
3 - 4 October: False Positive (Mark Shepard, Julian Oliver & Moritz Stefaner)
24 October: Hidden Histories, Public Libraries (xm:lab)

Connecting Cities

Connecting Cities was initiated by Public Art Lab Berlin in 2012. The Connecting Cities Network reflects on the increasing worldwide presence of large-format digital media facades in the public space and examines their function as cultural and their unique communicative elements. In contrast to the commercial use of these urban media facades, we establish them as platforms on which citizens can exchange – within the city as much as between cities.

The European Commission selected Connecting Cities for a multi-annual funding 2012-16 supported by Culture Programme 2007-13.

In the framework of Connecting Cities 2013 : Networked City, iMAL organised an event on the metro esplanade Comte de Flandre / Graaf van Vlaanderen and its surroundings. For two days, Brussels was connected to Liverpool (UK), through a series of surprising, participatory and playful artworks accessible to all in the public space. With: Sander Veenhof, Jeremy Bailey, Varvara Guljajeva & Mar Canet Sola.

Last year's theme was Participatory City. How can we open the screens as digital stages for public interventions? What is the impact of participatory projects realised in the European space on audience and community development of the European neighbourhoods?

In June 2014, iMAL organised the Connecting Cities Urban Media Lab, a symposium and intense 6-days masterclass that explored new forms of urban participation. With: Katía Truijen, Niels Wouters, Tobias Revell, Nanna Verhoeff, Martijn de Waal, Mark Shepard, Michael Smyth, Ali Momeni & Sander Veenhof.