netEX – networked experience

call: amber’09 Istanbul

Call for entries
Deadline: 1 August 2009

amber’09
art and technology festival
amber’09 Art and Technology Festival will take place in between 6-15 November 2009 in Istanbul in a variety of venues.

amberFestival is annually organized by BIS (Body-Process Arts Association) based in Istanbul. amberFestival aims to promote an intellectual and artistic platform in the field of Art and Technology in Turkey.
please visit previous festivals’ web sites:

amber’09 will host a variety of stage performances, an exhibition of interactive installations, a conference and workshops by international and local group of artists and thinkers.

amber’09 will offer an opportunity for artistic exchange and cooperation as well as will constitute an opportunity for Istanbul art audiences and young artists to view and experience an avant-garde art form as executed by artists from different cultural backgrounds. The exhibited artworks will employ computers, electronic devices, sensors, motion capture devices and special softwares.
ACTIVITIES

Conference The first international amberConference will be held in conjunction with the amber’09 art and Technology Festival in November 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. The aims and scope of this conference are to create a platform of discussion and dissemination for the various themes and topics in which Science, Art and Technology converge.

Stage performances involve performance groups that focus on the inter-relations between body and technology through the use of various interactive forms and devices on the stage. amber’09 invites artists and art groups who create multimedia stage shows to İstanbul.

Interactive Installations seek to produce an interactive and participatory environment by inviting and including the viewer into the artwork. Some of the artworks are invited, the others will be selected works from among the dance, performance, design, social sciences and engineering. The founders of amber came together in order to create a local discussion and production platform on art and technology in a globalized World itself transformed by new technologies.

BIS defines its area of interest through the wording of its subtitle. The concept of body-process refers to the inevitable relation between the modern human body and technological processes and tools. Starting from the observation that new technologies increasingly manage practical and critical aspects of our lives such as communication, health and security, this concept orients itself to think about the fluid boundaries between body and technology and the consequences of their interaction. The concept of body-process arts envisages artistic forms that explore, think, embody and question this complex and multifaceted relationship.

>>the theme
(un)Cyborgable?
Living in a technologically-mediated environment causes changes and shifts in human habits, postures and behaviors. Technologies have an impact on our perceptions; each new technology demands new practices of body and speech as well as a new comprehension of time and space.

The notion of the cyborg (cybernetic organism) explores the literal and figurative integrations of the human body and technology. A hybrid concept, cyborg links the organic and non-organic and raises questions concerning human corporeality and subjectivity. In the same vein, the field of Art and Technology also elaborates on the transforming and emerging human and addresses the questions of who or what we may become as a result of our increasing engagements with technology.

Based on the recent technological developments and their incorporation in the social, cultural, and political domains, amber’09 explores the consequences of exposing and augmenting our bodies with digital technologies. It aims to elaborate on the body and its relationships in the social and cultural domains, the asymmetrical structures and practices inherent to contemporary societies and the possibilities to break these asymmetries in order to achieve a free and equal society.

Re-visiting and re-thinking the notion of the cyborg, amber’09 asks: Are you (un)Cyborgable?

Submission form on
http://submissions.a-m-b-e-r.org/

http://www.a-m-b-e-r.net/index_en_09.html

AMBER
Beden-İşlemsel Sanatlar Derneği
susam sokak 31/5
cihangir 34433
beyoğlu – istanbul
Turkey

amber festival is a project of BIS.

BIS (Beden-İşlemsel Sanatlar Derneği / Body Process Arts Association) is an Istanbul based initiative that aims to explore artistic forms of expression at the conjunction of the body and the digital process. It was founded in 2007 as an association by a team of researchers and artists from disciplines such as dance, performance, design, social sciences and engineering. The founders of amber came together in order to create a local discussion and production platform on art and technology in a globalized World itself transformed by new technologies.

BIS defines its area of interest through the wording of its subtitle. The concept of body-process refers to the inevitable relation between the modern human body and technological processes and tools. Starting from the observation that new technologies increasingly manage practical and critical aspects of our lives such as communication, health and security, this concept orients itself to think about the fluid boundaries between body and technology and the consequences of their interaction. The concept of body-process arts envisages artistic forms that explore, think, embody and question this complex and multifaceted relationship.