Talk: Impakt

Arjon Dunnewind / Netherlands

Connecting to themes like Bio-Hacking and Bio-Creation the Impakt Festival will highlight a selection of themes, projects and artists it has recently presented. The presentation focusses on artists that discuss changing definitions of what is natural and human. The projects in the presentation present visions on post-natural environments where technology and the human body have become inseparable.

Devoid of technophobia and technofetishism, the artist in this presentation address ethical and philosophical questions raised by contemporary technological developments. By showing the likely and the possible they encourage us to think about the desirable. The presentation will discuss the works of artists like Floris Kaayk (NL), Kurt van Mensvoort (NL), Jeroen van Loon (NL), Agi Haines (GB) and the Critical Art Ensemble (USA). A presentation by Arjon Dunnewind, general director of Impakt.

General information on Impakt

Impakt presents critical and creative views on contemporary media culture and on innovative audiovisual arts in an interdisciplinary context. In its program it examines issues around society, digital culture, and media from various angles and within a range of disciplines in the arts, academia, and technology. The organisations main project is the annual Impakt Festival, a five-day multimedia event that includes exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, panels, performances, presentations, and artist talks at locations in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Impakt organises activities throughout the year, including Impakt Events, a regular series of presentations and screenings centering on a given theme, movement, or artist and Impakt Works, a residency programme. As a member of EMARE, the European Media Art Residency Exchange Impakt has organized residency exchanges with Mexico, Canada, Australia and many other countries.

The Impakt Channel is a platform where art projects made for the internet are presented, along with curated programmes featuring film and video art. Last but not least, the Impakt Archive works on digitising Impakt’s screening history back to 1988, when the first Impakt Festival was organised. The 2017 festival will take place from 25-29 October and its theme will be Haunted Machines & Wicked Problems. Curators Natalie Kane and Tobias Revell will map the relationship between technology, mythology, and magic.