This post is part of a special series dedicated to the Resonate 2016 festival in Belgrade.

As I’m writing we are at the third day of Resonate, halfway to the end, and you get the feeling that we are now at the core and most representative time of what this festival wants to aim to, as well as what it is willing to offer to attendants, which are exponentially growing day by day. Indeed, that’s the time where I’m kind of expecting something major.

Last night I popped in Dom Omladine Beograda, one of the main venues here, where the performances of the night took place. It started with a calming and timeless piano solo by Hans-Jochim Roedelius, followed by a really catching sound art performance by Pierre Bastien. He created rhythms and sounds from a custom built mechanism, playing around with some vintage piano footages on top and simultaneously playing prepared trumpets. It’s probably one the very few sound installations which feels more like a proper gig performance. After that, Alec Empire and Rashad Becker made some proper live electronics excursions.

IMG_9169

During the last evening in the near Zvono gallery, sound and light artist Mariska De Groot presented her installation Nibiru, a noise and light pendulum based system which aims to track the undiscovered ninth planet to cross our solar system every 3k years.

Fast forward to the morning and you can see the Kinoteka full of workshop groups everywhere. For the whole day, there will be round tables here and there, where people are learning and be practicing about codes, algorithms for lights, projection mapping, live interaction with sensors, data visualization, motion capture, and also assembling some dirty cheap synths. While leaving those people doing their things, the today’s lectures and screenings took place in the main hall of the Kolarac, famous venue for classical music here in Belgrade.

IMG_9659

An hour long screening by the collective Onedotzero featured perhaps a bit generic motion graphic and sound design collaborations. Just after that we had the two lectures of the day, which have been more of presentations to me, but I still believe touched the main theme of the festival, which is a discussion about our interactions and meanings of new media and technologies.

Bethany Koby presented some of their Technology Will Save Us project. Their DIY kits for kids (and parents), including the BBC Micro Bit, are contributing to fill the gap between the meaningless use of technologies and the creative learning for the next generations of makers.

Sakchin Bessette, the founder of Moment Factory, presented us some of their most famous projects, a bunch of multimedia entertainment works spanning from airports to live gigs, highlighting how, again, technologies needs to have purposes, creating interaction between people and improve real life experiences, which is what brings forward thinking creators that far.

[Featured photo credits by Viktor Å ekualarc]

Facebook Comments
Carlo Ascrizzi
Latest posts by Carlo Ascrizzi (see all)

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR