VECTOR, one of the most compelling, original, and daring Game Art festivals on this planet, returns with a vengeance with a killer program. Now in its fourth iteration, the Canadian event has a special focus on algorithmic culture and post-human subjects. Subtitled Autonomous Agents, the festival is "a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. This year’s festival is co-curated by Skot Deeming and Martin Zeilinger and explores themes of autonomous algorithms and machines through emergent media art practices, live performance, screenings, workshops, and lectures. The Festival takes place across multiple venues in Toronto from July 14-17, 2016."
We are delighted to be part of this terrific event! Our project The Fregoli Delusions will be screened and presented in two different locations during the show. Because unlike the United States of Inequality where culture is just for the 1%, Canada is a civilized, democratic, and inclusive country, ticket passes are affordable for most and several events are open/free to the public. In fact, Festival passes are available for just $25 and include FREE access to screening and performance events. Plus, Festival Pass holders get a free drip coffee from Sam James Coffee Bar (Queen St. W. location) throughout the duration of the festival. You can't beat that, frankly.
Below is the full program
JULY 14
VIP Preview
Join co-curators Skot Deeming and Martin Zeilinger for a private tour of the exhibition, The Algorithmic Imagination, and preview the festival's upcoming events. Tickets to this event include free access to Vector screening and performance events. (5:30-6:30pm, $100)
Launch Party and Opening Reception
We kick off Vector Festival 2016 with an energized evening at InterAccess. Festival curators, artists and performers will be in attendance. The works in The Algorithmic Imagination explore the artistic potentials of algorithmic processes. These processes, expressed in the exhibition in kinetic sculptures and screen-based works, are perched between the appropriated and the pre-determined, the autonomous and the random. (7-10pm, FREE)
JULY 15
SCREENING
Basement Revolutionaries, Curated by Amber Christensen and Clint Enns at CineCycle in a time and place awash in the detritus of early 21st Century capitalism, we look to our basement revolutionaries to lead us not upwards but downwards into a bunker of safety to wait it out. Duck and cover, and grab a snack...it may be your only way to survive. (8-11pm, $15)
JULY 16
WORKSHOP
Sonic Pi Live Coding Introductory Workshop, facilitated by Martin Zeilinger
at InterAccess Live coding is an exciting form of experimental digital sound-making that uses on-the-fly programming techniques to mix traditional improvisation with algorithmic composition. This workshop will introduce you to create live electronic music through simple programming techniques using a mix of sound synthesis and digital sampling. In the practice of live coding, the computer code you enter yields an instant sonic feedback. No prior programming skills required. (11am-3pm, $45 regular/$35 member)
PERFORMANCE
Join us for an evening of performances that bridge the spaces between the composed and the improvised, the generative and the algorithmic, the analog and the digital. Featuring live coding, modular synthesis and generative visuals, performers explore the boundaries of control within sonic and visual apparatuses. Featuring Karl Fousek with Dan Browne, and Spectral Sound System (Michael Trommer and Eric Filion). (Doors at 8pm, $15)
JULY 17
PANEL
Algorithms, Generative Art, Machine Agency at InterAccess
In conversation and open discussion with participating festival artists and performers, Vector Co-Curator Martin Zeilinger explores some of the underlying concerns and questions that inform this year’s events: What makes generative art? Can algorithms ever be creative agents? What is the future of the digital as an expressive medium? Featuring
Dan Browne, Eric Filion, Karl Fousek, Justine Lugli, and Michael Trommer. (1-3pm, FREE)
WRAP PARTY at Reposado
Celebrate another year of Vector with a live performance by Castle If. (8-11pm, FREE)
VECTOR FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS
Art on the BIG Screens Vector Festival Preview
July 11, 8-10pm at Celebration Square, Mississauga (300 City Centre Drive)
Works by COLL.EO and Brent Watanabe
The Algorithmic Imagination
July 15 – August 13 at InterAccess (9 Ossington Avenue)
Works by COLL.EO, Adam Donovan, Justine Lugli, Brent Watanabe
Davis Heslep July 1-31 (109 Niagara Street) at Loop Hole
A. Bill Miller
July 14-17 at Common Sort (1414 Queen Street West)
DAY ZERO: PRE-FESTIVAL PARTY
July 13, 8-11pm at Electric Perfume (805 Danforth Avenue)
with a screening curated by Clint Enns
For a complete schedule and to purchase your festival pass, visit vectorfestival.org.