[artinfo] International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

[Eric Kluitenberg]

ElectroSmog - International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

Amsterdam / New York / Madrid  / Riga / London / Banff  / New Zealand 
/ Munich / & on-lIne

March 18 - 20, 2010

www.electrosmogfestival.net

The ElectroSmog festival develops a critique of the worldwide 
explosion of mobility, and investigates the oldest promise of the 
information age that new communication technology could lead to a 
radical reduction of hyper mobility, without giving up our 
connections to the rest of the world.

The simple question if communication technology can help us to do 
something about the continuous growth of mobility reveals a world of 
complexity: Do these new technologies not lead to a dramatic increase 
of electro-magnetic pollution ("electrosmog" - think of the 
discussion around umts transmitters)? And isn't the desire for 
physical encounter actually heightened by all these new connections, 
leading to more travel instead of less? When is a remote experience 
rich enough so that a physical encounter is not always necessary? How 
do we design sustainable immobility?

The format of the festival is an exploration of sustainable 
immobility in itself. As a collaborative project it is developed by a 
network of organisations and initiatives spread over more than ten 
countries and 5 continents. No one is allowed to travel and all 
connections are established on-line.

ElectroSmog offers a diverse program with art projects by among 
others  Bureau des Etudes, Karen Lancel en Hermen Maat, Costas 
Bissas, Esther Polak, Jon Cors and Kai-Oi Jay Yung, Sean Kerr, Kevin 
McCourt, live performances, screenings, book and 
project-presentations, and a series of live connected thematic 
discussions with participants from 5 continents, covering a 
time-difference of 20 hours.

De Balie in Amsterdam is the initiator of the ElectroSmog festival 
and a central node in this extensive international network. The aim 
is locally to stage an intimate festival that links, reproduces and 
multiplies itself via the various participating locations. The 
festival can be followed on-line in its entirety, where audiences can 
actively contribute to discussions, follow live webcasts, or 
alternatively can participate via virtual theatres set up in second 
life.

The ElectroSmog festival brings together a broad coalition of 
designers, environmentalists, urban and spatial planners, 
technologists, artists, theorists, and engaged and concerned 
citizens, to explore and 'design' sustainable immobility.