VIDEO POSITIVE 97: ESCAPING GRAVITY

[abroeck@v2.nl (Andreas Broeckmann)]

VIDEO POSITIVE 97:   ESCAPING GRAVITY
Liverpool & Manchester
April 11 - May 18 1997.

The UK's major international festival of art and creative technology is
evolving. After four highly successful festivals the VIDEO POSITIVE
biennale now sets out to explore the changing landscape of electronic media
within which much of the most interesting contemporary art is being made.
The festival will take a critical position in relation to many of the
claims made about technologies, using the theme of escaping gravity  as a
starting point for a journey from the material to the virtual.

The moving image is the natural environment for many artists. Recent major
exhibitions in Europe and the US have celebrated the collaboration between
art and film. Video, too, is part of the mainstream - from popular culture
to gallery.

The possibilities of new media, computer interactivity and Internet
exchange are being explored with increasing success. The anticipated
'virtual community' is almost with us and its culture is very different
from our own. From 'cyberspace' mythologies to digital identities, we are
at a moment when 'new' is becoming more than just an advertising slogan. At
the same time, much remains the same with many people regularly denied
access to information and scepticism coloring predictions about the future.

ESCAPING GRAVITY looks at these ideas through the lens of desire and
reality. An accelerating shift from the material to the virtual has become
a defining feature of culture and society as we exit the twentieth century.
Certainty is difficult to grasp and the fleeting images from film,
television and other visual media become clues to comprehend this
fast-changing world.

Utilising a large number of venues in both Liverpool and Manchester, its
near though entirely different neighbour. A large number of conventional
[and unconventional] exhibition and performance spaces will be utilised in
both cities. Alongside the exhibition programme, Video positive 97;
Escaping Gravity will feature continuous and special screenings, symposia,
on-line and networked projects, performances, collaboration programme,
projects and a major student conference.

Please contact Rebecca Owen on +44 (0)151 709 2663 or e-mail <fact@fact.co.uk>