1-30 September 2013, Brighton & Hove
www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk
Brighton Digital Festival, the city's largest celebration of digital culture, will return from 1 to 30 September with what is expected to be the biggest programme to date. Once again bringing together the city's arts and digital communities, this year's showcase of events includes new digital art exhibitions, performances, conferences, hackathons, meet-ups, comedy nights, workshops and outdoor events taking place across Brighton and Hove.
The festival's first series of confirmed events have been announced this week on the redesigned website – www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk. They include the large, well-established conferences such as dConstruct, Reasons to be Creative (previously Flash on the Beach) and Improving Reality, which all attract an international audience.
Brighton Digital Festival will this year present pioneering digital artist William Latham with his Mutator 1 + 2 exhibition at Phoenix Brighton from 7 September. Internationally renowned artist Simon Wilkinson will also deliver haunting large screen projections with a live soundtrack at The Old Market in The Sound Of The Wind In The Trees.
Leading writers and producers will also be talking in the city this September, including broadcaster, satirist and journalist Charlie Brooker who will talk at Duke of York's Picturehouse following an exclusive Black Mirror screening. Full event details for this and the approaching 100 plus events can be found at http://www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/events/
The festival features performances which combine artistic and digital worlds, such as real life gaming, which allows you to shape the action unfolding around you. Brighton Digital Festival also features a stand up comedy night for the first time, with award nominee David Trent and TV personality Nathan Penlington.
In addition to the conferences, exhibitions and talks, The Brighton Digital Festival also offers a range of family friendly events, including the increasingly popular Mini Maker Faire, which returns for its third year (7 September) to the Corn Exchange. Celebrating the Maker movement, this inventive and creative faire asks those attending to embrace the do-it-yourself mindset with aims to discover new and exciting digital inventions. Having attracted over 7,000 people in 2012 the Mini Maker Faire promises to be a highlight of the festival.
Learn to program with Scratch invites children aged 10 to 12 to learn and make their own computer games and animations. It's free and takes place at St. Bartholomew's School on 14 September at 10am and 2pm. Glimmers (1 to 30 September) is another event not to be missed, which takes groups on a fantasy sci-fi treasure hunt around Brighton's town centre.
Finally, PixelPyro, a free and interactive digital firework display will return to Jubilee Square to celebrate the closure of the festival on 28 September.
At the heart of the festival is an integrated education programme led by Lighthouse, which takes students out of school and puts them directly into the festival programme, empowering the digital artists and critical engineers of tomorrow. An informal teacher-led event, TeachMeet, will also invite teachers to share good ideas, practical innovations and personal insights in teaching with technology.
A grass-root led, community-run celebration of digital culture, the Brighton Digital Festival is organised by a blend of companies, organisations, digital art enthusiasts, developers, artists and community groups from Brighton and beyond. The festival reflects Brighton's unique culture, strong community spirit and thriving digital industry, bringing together companies, professional digital workers and artists.
Tom Bailey, Brighton Digital Festival Manager, said, "This September we will celebrate our third Brighton Digital Festival. Each year has seen a huge expansion in the programme size and this year is no exception. The volume and diversity of events taking place this year is testament to the vibrant and world-class artistic and digital communities working and living in and around Brighton. This is an amazing opportunity for people to get involved, learn, play and generally be inspired."
The Arts Council England, American Express, RAP Interiors and Brighton and Hove Independent are all supporters of Brighton Digital Festival 2013.
Stay up to date with new events at www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk. Highlights of The Brighton Digital Festival below:
Leading conferences:
Reasons to be Creative
2-4 September 9:30am @ The Dome
The conference includes inspiring talks by international designers, coders, creatives, filmmakers, animators, installation builders, illustrators, and artists presenting three tracks over three full days. to you by the same people who created the acclaimed Flash on the Beach conference and New York's Geeky by Nature conference in 2011. FOTB ran for over five years and became one of the biggest and best loved 'Flash-centric' conferences in the world.
Connected TV
4 September, 9:30 – 19:30 @ Komedia
Part of the Wired Sussex ConnectedTV events programme, ConnectedTV is a practical guide to making money and reaching new audiences. The programme is sponsored by Relentless Software.
Improving Reality
5 September, 11:00am @ Dome Studio Theatre
Lighthouse's digital culture conference explores how artists, technologists and writers are disrupting our notion of reality. This collection of inspiring talks features major thinkers such as Keller Easterling, artist and biologist Daisy Ginsberg and gonzo futurist, Justin Pickard.
dConstruct
6 September, 9:00am @ Dome
Curated by Clearleft, dConstruct is the festival's most popular conference. Aimed at web designers and developers, the annual, internationally renowned conference gathers some of the brightest minds in the design community to explore big issues in the digital industry today.
Let's Get Real
16 September, 9:30 @ Dome Studio
Let's Get Real is aimed at professionals looking to improve their digital offer (website, social media etc.) and to understand more about reaching target audiences. Speakers will include Penguin, Time Out and Government Digital Services representatives.
Brighton SEO
12-13 September, 10:00 @ Dome, Corn Exchange
The festival's free one-day conference, Brighton SEO, is expecting over 2,000 of Europe's best digital marketers. Aimed at agency delegates, marketing teams, business owners and freelancers, the line up will feature a range of speakers from the digital marketing industry covering a number of hot trends.
Family events:
Brighton Mini Maker Faire
7-8 September, 10:00 @ Corn Exchange
The interactive Mini Maker Faire was one of the most popular events of 2012. It's a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, with exhibitor highlights including a giant knitting robot, laser printed trains, a 3D body scanner, and a social media powered photo booth.
PixelPyros
28 September, 20:00 @ Jubilee Street
This free and interactive digital firework display last year celebrated the opening of the festival. Audience members can touch the 60-foot wide screen to manipulate the direction and speed of the computer-generated pyrotechnics.
Swimming with Plankton in 3D
6-25 September, 10:00 @ Booth Museum of Natural History
Originally commissioned for Kew Gardens as a permanent exhibition in 2004, Swimming with Plankton is a visually stunning and highly educational event, demonstrating the vital role plankton plays in our survival.
Key exhibitions:
Timo Arnall - Immaterials
5-30 September, 11:00- 18:00 @ Lighthouse
Timo Arnall, one of Europe's leading digital practitioners and creative director of BERG, along with a network of collaborators reveal the invisible infrastructure making up our technological world. The exhibition will combine key works such as Immaterials: Light Painting WiFi (2011), Robot Readable World (2012) and Experiments in Field Drawings (2008) along with the premiere of new works.
The Sound Of The Wind In The Trees
5 September, 19:30 @ The Old Market
Following a world premiere at Melbourne's Federation Square earlier this year, internationally renowned artist Simon Wilkinson will deliver a broodingly atmospheric live AV performance of haunting large screen projections, with a live soundtrack of reverb drenched retro electronic instruments, programming loops and effects with classical strings from musical quartet Collectress. The project has been commissioned by White Night, Brighton and Hove Federation Square's Creative Programme.
Mutator 1 + 2
7,8,11-15,18-22,25-29 September, 11:00-17:00 @ Phoenix Brighton
Throughout the 1980s, William Latham worked as one of the UK's pioneering computer artists. His work blends organic imagery and computer animation in order to create complex 3D futuristic organisms. Latham's first major exhibition in the UK for over 20 years, Mutator 1 + 2 will include early hand-drawn work, large computer generated Cibachrome prints, video art and projected imagery.
Other Highlights:
Charity Chuckle
10 September, 20:00 @ Komedia
Dubbed the entertainment highlight of the festival, Charity Chuckle is comedy with a digital focus, combining professional comedians with new stand-ups such as award nominee David Trent, Choose Your Own Documentary star Nathan Penlington, Austentatious star Joseph Morpurgo and stand-up Phil Lucas. All proceeds will go to Brighton & Hove Community Radio.
Black Mirror with Charlie Brooker
12 September, 18:30 @ Duke of York's Picturehouse
A double-bill screening of Emmy award-winning Black Mirror Series One will be followed by a Q&A with Charlie Brooker. Both episodes have technology at their core but are also wider allegories about social media and exploring the what-ifs and potential side effects of technology.
Open Studios 2013
23-27, 9:00 @ various digital, media and creative studios
Brighton-based digital, media and creative companies such as Crunch Accounting will open their doors to the public, offering a unique behind the scenes glimpse with interactive activities and seminars. These events are ideal for students looking to gain insight, graduates looking for a career and creatives and freelancers looking to develop new contacts.
The Rise and Fall Of Geo Goynes
28-29 September, 13:30, 15:00, 16:30 and 18:00 @ The Old Market
A new outdoor, interactive event created by Roots Experience, The Rise and Fall Of Geo Goynes combines digital technology and theatre. Members of the public are guided on a journey across the city for the ultimate real life gaming experience.
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About the Brighton Digital Festival
www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk
Brighton Digital Festival is a month-long celebration of international digital culture, which takes place from 1 to 30 September 2013 in various venues across Brighton. Events include exhibitions, performances, conferences, meet-ups, hackathons, workshops and outdoor events, which run alongside some of Brighton's iconic digital design conferences.
The festival is guided by a voluntary steering group Wired Sussex and funded by Arts Council England and Brighton and Hove City Council. Sponsorship support has been provided by American Express and RAP Interiors. Brighton & Hove Independent is the local media partner. It is delivered by a diverse range of organisations and individuals, including technology companies and arts organisations, plus individuals passionate about digital culture.
