We live in a time when technology and creativity work in amazing synergy, making the fantastic a reality. Yet these same technologies make it possible to generate false texts and images, blurring the lines between art, news, imagination, and lies. The Print Screen Festival of Digital Art, now in its 8th edition, examines and analyzes contemporary digital culture. Like the “print screen” function on a computer, the festival aims to present a screenshot of our changing lives in the digital era. Taking place from October 31 – November 3, 2018, this year’s theme is Fake It/Make It, with over 100 participating artists, exploring, as Print Screen’s Artistic Director Dr. Lior Zalmanson stated, “the thin line between creation and falsehood, creativity and fraud, between fake and make.”
The Holon Mediatheque hosts Print Screen annually, this year in an expanded edition, the festival will feature four days of performance art, interactive films, music and sound installations, interactive exhibits, computer games, workshops, lectures and conferences, as well as outdoor events open to the public. Events will take place throughout the entire campus, including the Design Museum Holon, Holon Cinematheque, the Israeli Center for Digital Art, and the Mediatheque library.
Print Screen presents a mind-boggling abundance of unique experiences that intrigue and enlighten, as well as entertain.
Into the Deep is an exhibition that looks at the work of artists and scientists who create algorithms that have the capacity to learn, create, and do amazing things. Curated by Lior Zalmanson, Udi Idelman, and Shimrit Gil, there are several intriguing works on exhibit, Wednesday through Saturday. Exhibits include:
Moshe Zer-Aviv and Dan Stavy’s The Normalizing Machine. Participants will be shown a video recording of previous participants and asked to determine who is more normal. This information is then added to the computer’s algorithmically constructed image of normalcy.
Ben Benhorin’s gifcinema constructs a new cinematic work with an algorithm that creates gifs based on words and sentences from the subtitles of a particular movie, then combines those gifs to create something new.
And for those who miss POTUS past, there is Fake Obama by Supasorn Suwajanakorn, Steven Seitz, and Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman. The full list of exhibits and display times may be found on this link.
Robot Chef, from Foxdog Studios (Lloyd Henning and Peter Sutton) is a comedy show that employs augmented reality, robotics and interactive technology. Audience members can connect to the Foxdog wifi to create an avatar, and then influence the action onstage. All this to the accompaniment of live music – Henning on bass, and Sutton on drums. Performances will take place on Thursday and Saturday, two shows each night. Foxdog will also give a talk about their work on Friday, November 2nd. Link to Robot Chef here; line to the Foxdog talk here.
Closing the gap between computer games and film, Late Shift is an interactive feature film directed by Tobias Weber. The protagonist Matt (Joe Sowerbutts), is a mathematics student who works in a car park. When someone tried to steal a car, Matt gets caught up in a series of events, and the audience gets to make choices at various decision points in the movie. These choices drive the plot, leading Matt on different paths. There are seven possible endings to the film, only one of them is a traditional Hollywood-style happy end. Let’s see what happens at the festival. Late Shift will be shown on Friday, November 2nd and Saturday, November 3rd. Link to ticket information for Late Shift here. The full program of films is listed on this link.
Among the many festival events will be a symposium on Art and Museums in the Post-Digital Age. Speakers include international guests Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at The Whitney Museum; Loic Tallon, Chief Digital Officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; as well as Maya Dvash, Chief Curator at the Design Museum Holon; art critic and curator Vardit Gross; and Print Screen Artistic Director Dr. Lior Zalmanson. The symposium will take place on Saturday, November 3rd from 17:00 – 20:00, link here.
The full festival program and additional information may be found on the Print Screen website (in English).
