onedotzero Adventures In Motion

Date
7 September 2009

onedotzero is a name synonymous with contemporary digital arts and their annual festival, Adventures in Motion has grown to be one of the most noteworthy of the year. Their 13th installment proves to be no different and we caught up with creative director Shane Walter to find out more.

Pictured is this year’s identity, a collaboration with Wieden + Kennedy and Karsten Schmidt. An incredible piece of work that is again something to behold, a familiar tradition that seems to be growing since Troika produced the 2008 identity.

The programme for onedotzero – Adventures in Motion is fantastic and includes far more than we can sum up here, what are the things you’re most looking forward to and want people to know about?

Firstly thank you for the positive support! This is a question obviously I get asked a lot and its always a tough one as we truly look forward to everything at the festival otherwise it would not be in it!

Innervisions, our talks, presentation and workshop strand is always a must – a unique chance to get closer to the creative process, hear from and experience how, why people work they way they do and this year more than ever get hands on across toy hacking, open source, digital distribution, city interventionism and sharing as a creative business model. We have thoughts on topics such as how we are creatively educated with our cascade project and, how you make friends and influence people! It retains an energetic programme delivering a compelling mix of arts, culture and entertainment, bringing together ground-breaking cinematic work, sensory installations, explosive live audiovisual and music performances [that are all free this year], stellar screening programmes, in-depth discussions, presentations + social events!

The identity for this year’s festival is an exciting collaboration with yourselves,  Wieden + Kennedy and Karsten Schmidt, can you tell us a bit more about it.

onedotzero’s festival theme is ‘convergence and collaboration’ and the brief to connect our audiences online and in the real world globally was the inspiration for W+K’s idea to take advantage of onedotzero’s vast fan base and constant, global, online conversations to create the identity, which includes poster, trailers and interactive installations. This constantly updating brand identity is made up of harnessed and live conversations from a diverse range of online conversational sources (twitter, blogs etc.). These aggregated words and opinions are being channelled via specially produced software (devised by computational designer/genius Karsten Schmidt) through colourful strands that move organically as if alive – they gravitate towards invisible paths that will ultimately generate onedotzero’s font and logo.

For the outdoor interactive manifestation you can both SMS in and also play with the installation changing the camera angles, tilt and twisting the image, shaking it up and zooming in all with your own message displayed. This has been possible by linking up and coding a new phone from Nokia the N900 that is open platform so it’s a perfect compliment to the ethos of sharing we have at the event this year. There are workshops on the Nokia Maemo platform as well as an in-depth anatomy of the identity – all free sessions for those that want to find out even more and get hands on!

The festival celebrates onedotzero’s 13th year, what have been the highlights along the way? 

Way too many to mention, there really have been a serious number of highlights from new cities visited, new talent showcased, great work discovered and amazing creative friends met all over the world. The whole thing has been an adventure, many, many highs thankfully not so many lows [well not public ones]. I have some favourite moments but to be honest each event and project is special as it is a rewarding thing to connect great work and talent to an engaged, interested audience.

Some highlights have been a live cinema performance by The Light Surgeons in an old East German state bank in Berlin in 2000. Taking over the BFI IMAX last year to present two nights of extraordinary audio-visual performance featuring Nitin Sahwney in collaboration with Designer Es Devlin and produced by onedotzero industries and a triple bill of Hexstatic, The Light Surgeons and D-Fuse. And onedotzero in Buenos Aires, attracting over 50,000 people is a wonder – fantastic city, great local work and tremendous response.

You must get a phenomenal amount of submissions, what’s the process of wading through them? Good home cinema?

Yes we do get a large amount of submissions and I think this is for a number of reasons. One is we believe to keep this submission process free; to make sure the door is open to everyone, where-ever they are to have the potential to have their work shown. We also spend a lot of time seeking out and researching too to add to the mix. The festival has a global reach and onedotzero has always had an international perspective and so we have submissions from over 50 different nations this year.

We then have the task of wading through all the works, the great, good, challenging and standout are all treated equally and every single submission is watched by one of the small programming team. Due to the sheer numbers, I tend to watch the submissions anywhere I may be, on planes, hotel rooms, in the studio, at home – although I love the idea of setting up a home cinema and relaxing for a few weeks with my feet up, a few beers for some serious viewing sessions!

Adventures In Motion at the BFI Southbank runs 9 — 13 September 2009
For more details check the Full Programme

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About the Author

Will Hudson

Will founded It’s Nice That in 2007 and is now director of the company. Once one of the main contributors to the site, he has stepped back from writing as the business has expanded to become The HudsonBec Group.

will@thehudsonbecgroup.com

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