Conflux Festival is this weekend!
Posted By Moe Beitiks On September 19, 2009 @ 1:00 am In Green Design Events,New York City | No Comments
It’s remix-the-city-time: the Conflux Festival [4]is back. This annual NYC-based festival of psychogeography [5] promises some great urban tinkering, featuring the work of several artists we’ve featured here on Inhabitat. From Eve Mosher [6] to Swimming Cities [7] to Reverend Billy [8], the artists of Conflux use technology to explore public space in the city — re-defining the city and its proper use and maintenance.
Friday and Saturday include all-day presentations and workshops in NYU Steinhardt’s Barney Building [9]. A few questions addressed in the workshops over the weekend: How can we use new tools and technologies to organize and connect with audiences? How do you make and ride a beautiful junk from Koper to Venice with many dirty people, put on a show, and then take it all apart again? How do you put on a performance in the subway?
Above all, the festival provides a toolkit for participants taking apart the city and putting it back together again. The artists transform urban space from the concrete blah we walk past every day to a thriving, liquid character in our everyday lives. Like your mom. But don’t do this kind of deconstructing on your mom.
You might recall artist Eve Mosher’s [10] piece Insert_Here (pictured above) from last year’s CitySol: it involves the playful suggestions of sustainable additions to urban space — which Mosher then digitally enhances. This year she’s invited people to “rethink” their neighborhoods in her Friday afternoon workshop. [11]
Other workshops involve text messaging the fish in the East River [12](seriously!), a blindfolded Urban Disorientation Game [13], and an instructional How-To on Breaking into public space [8].
On Sunday, the city will explode with ConfluxCity [14], a “user-generated” event in the spirit of Burning Man [15] or PARK(ing) Day [16], with performances, parades, workshops and projects all day. Fans of The Yes Men [17] can witness their Survivaballs [18] out in full force! There’s a google map [19] of scheduled events provided for more precise wandering.
Whether you love messing with space, hate urban re-development, are a performance junkie or just love important outside playtime, Conflux promises to be an inspiration, yet again, to the perpetual improvement and analysis of our increasingly urban lives.
+ Conflux 2008: Street Spinning [21]
+ Conflux 2008 [22]
+ Conflux 2007 [23]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/conflux-festival-is-this-weekend/
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/conflux-festival-is-this-weekend/
[4] the Conflux Festival : http://confluxfestival.org/2009/
[5] psychogeography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography
[6] Eve Mosher: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/06/28/citysol-music-art-and-solar-fest-this-weekend/
[7] Swimming Cities : http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/workshops/tianna-kennedy/
[8] Reverend Billy: http://confluxfestival.org/2009/2009/08/25/conflux-workshop-breaking-in-to-public-space/
[9] Barney Building: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/art/facilities/
[10] Eve Mosher’s: http://www.mudandsticks.com/gallery2/main.php
[11] Friday afternoon workshop. : http://http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/workshops/eve-mosher/
[12] text messaging the fish in the East River : http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/workshops/natalie-jeremijenko/
[13] Urban Disorientation Game: http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/workshops/kurt-braunohler-anya-khait-micilin-odonaghue/
[14] ConfluxCity: http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/conflux-city/
[15] Burning Man: http://www.burningman.com
[16] PARK(ing) Day: http://www.parkingday.org
[17] The Yes Men: http://www.theyesmen.org/
[18] Survivaballs: http://survivaball.com/
[19] google map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108137396141670559105.00046a49a0d707c65055f&z=13
[20] + Conflux 2009 Schedule: http://confluxfestival.org/2009/wp-content/themes/conflux/gridlock/images/conflux_schedule_2009.pdf
[21] + Conflux 2008: Street Spinning: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/13/conflux-urban-nets-and-street-spinning/
[22] + Conflux 2008: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/13/conflux-2008-festival/
[23] + Conflux 2007: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/09/16/conflux-brooklyns-urban-festival-for-change/
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