Music, Dance, Interactive Art are Major Themes of the Fifth Boston Cyberarts Festival
A complete listing and description of Festival events is on the website at www.bostoncyberarts.org
For more information, call 617.524.8495 or email info [at] bostoncyberarts.org
The creative connection between two of Bostons most vital forces the arts community and the high-tech industry is once again in the spotlight at the fifth Boston Cyberarts Festival, with more than 60 exhibitions and events in and around Boston and Cambridge from April 20 through May 6.
The biennial Boston Cyberarts Festival has become an eagerly-anticipated part of the Boston-area arts and technology scene since the first event took place in 1999. It is the largest collaboration of arts organizations in New England and the only Festival in the world that encompasses all art forms, including both visual and performing arts, film, video, electronic literature, and public art. Among this years highlights are:
Ideas in Motion: The Bodys Limit An international roster of dance professionals and engineers are featured at this conference and performance series that explore the use of new technologies in dance.
Music Performances This years Festival includes fourteen concerts, including the world premiere of the multimedia operatic work The Puzzle Master, an all-day Visual Music Marathon, and Freex to Geex II at Berklee College of Music.
Interactive Exhibitions Interactivity is a focus of a number of exhibitions this year, including those at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Mass College of Art, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the Art Interactive gallery in Cambridge.
Cyberarts for Youth Activities for young people, families, and teachers take place at Cloud Place, the Museum of Science, and the Cambridge Science Festival.
A complete listing and description of Festival events is on the website at www.bostoncyberarts.org .
George Fifield, Founder and Director of Boston Cyberarts, noted: The Festival celebrates the rich history of art and technology in New England, while providing a forum for the international cyberart community to come together and glimpse the future. He added, We are also gratified that the Festival has proven to be such a significant force in the creative economy of our region. Independent studies conducted after both the 2003 and 2005 events demonstrated that the Festival, with a budget of less than $200,000, had a total economic impact of over $2 million on the regional economy.
Cyberart encompasses any artistic endeavor in which computer technology is used to expand artistic possibilities that is, where the computers unique capabilities are integral elements of the creative process in the same way that paint, photographic film, musical instru-ments, and other materials have always been used to express an artists vision. The Greater Boston area has long had an international reputation as a center of cyberart, dating back to pioneering work done by such world-class institutions as WGBH and MIT.
Festival-goers can obtain information, chat with Festival staffers, obtain a CyberPass discount card, and purchase Festival merchandise at CyberArtCentral, located at Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge, open daily from noon to 6:00 pm. Festival-goers can also obtain a listing of all the exhibi-tions and events in the April 20 issue of The Phoenix and at participating venues.
The Hotel @ MIT, a major sponsor of Boston Cyberarts and official hotel of the Festival, is the site of the 2007 Cyberarts Gala and Awards Presentation, taking place on Friday, May 4 at 6:30 pm. The party gives artists, spon-sors, and patrons of the arts an opportunity to meet, mingle, and view the works of some of the Festival artists. Also at the Gala, the IBM Innovation Awards will be presented to the top events and exhibitions of the 2007 Festival.
The Festivals website at www.bostoncyberarts.org contains a complete database of Festival events, which can be searched by date, venue, location, and art form. The website also contains an Artist Blog, featuring commentary by many Festival artists, plus an online gallery and a database and registry for artists proposals.
For more information, call 617.524.8495 or email info@bostoncyberarts.org.
