The Interactive Media Art Festival Reinvented (IMAFR) project had the following objective: to reinvent the core aspects of interactive media art festivals in a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is a collaboration between the Electronic Language International Festival – FILE and a group of Dutch artists composed by Frederik Duerinck, Klasien Van De Zandschulp, Mike Rijnierse, Ronald van der Meijs and Teun Vonk, supplemented with health and legal professionals. In order to preserve all parties’ function of organising & providing and producing new media art experiences to the general public in the current condition, two crucial aspects needed to be reinvented: interactivity and physicality. The professionals involved contemplated on and contributed to the challenge posed in this project. Finally, the entertainment specialized lawyer Cris Olivieri and immunology specialist Dr. Pedro Giavina-Bianchi legal provided the guiding regulations to reach a safe production planning in the current circumstances (watch bellow the video documentation of these discussions).
The methodology adopted to reach the project’s general objectives consisted of the following workflows:
– Artists and Experts Online Panels
– Case Study and Prototyping: Algorithmic Perfumery
– Blueprint Applicability and General Solutions
The online panel discussions with artists and experts provided the guiding proficiency necessary to the case study meticulous planning, in order to validate the blueprint. The three workflows indicated above interacted with one another to lead to the two following main outcomes:
– The successful conversion of the interactive art installation used as case study, Algorithmic Perfumery, into a COVID-19 proof prototype, including both, hybrid and completely online versions of interactivity and experience.
– This white paper with a blueprint for beginners and established artists, to use when transforming existing work or creating new work within this new world and circumstances.
Considering the main issues investigated through the methodology, this white paper was conceived in an accessible and practical way, and indicates both general solutions and specific alternatives to the exhibition of aesthetic experiences in festivals of interactive art in the context of COVID-19.
Even though the pandemic has presented an unprecedented phenomenon in a global context, and future projections are hard to predict with certainty, this white paper indicates eight essential aspects to consider, as an exhibitor or artist, in order to reinvent interactive media art festivals in this context. Access the white paper with full information on the project.
Participants and Partnership
Scentronix and Algorithmic Perfumery Team
Anahita Mekanik – Head of scent creation, co-founder at ScenTronix™
Astrid Van Marion – Lead Design at ScenTronix™
Frederik Duerinck – Founder at Scentronix™
Vincent Soffers – Product developer at ScenTronix™
Stan Isbouts – Junior Software engineer at ScenTronix™
FILE Team
Paula Perissinotto – Conception and Organization
Fabiana Krepel – Executive Production and Administrative Management
Clarissa Brito – Content Coordination
Pedro Cunha – Academic Consultant
Francisco Miguez – Video Edition
Invited Artists
Frederik Duerinck (“Algorithmic Perfumery, 2019”)
Klasien Van De Zandschulp (“DISTANCE DISCO”, 2019)
Mike Rijnierse (“Station to Station”, 2008; KLOK, 2015)
Ronald van der meijs (“Odoshi Cloud Sequence”, 2020, “Plastisphere”, 2019)
Teun vonk (“The Physical Mind”, 2017, “A Sense of Gravity”, 2019 )
Invited Professionals
Cris Olivieri – Owner, Olivieri Associados Advogados
Dr. Pedro Giavina-Bianchi – PHD at Allergy Medicine and Immunopathology
Support
Realization
Production