Mapping Mediafestivals

The publication features four festival directors who talk about the field itself, the unique experience a mediafestival can offer, and the role a festival has in creating awareness of technology in society for its visitors.

Mapping Mediafestivals is the first in a series of overviews that will feature specific parts of e-culture in The Netherlands.

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Foreword by Floor van Spaendonck

Radical change is taking place among media festivals in the Netherlands. Many medium-sized towns now have their own media festivals. The striking thing is that these festivals are found across the countr y and not just in the urban Randstand conglomeration of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.

Some of the festivals have been going for more than ten years (Impakt in Utrecht, DEAF in Rotterdam) others have developed in the last few years (STRP in Eindhoven, Gogbot in Enschede) and there are new additions (Fiber in Amsterdam, Oddstream in Nijmegen). Besides being a national phenomenon, these media festivals are now assuming roles previously played by museums and galleries, namely, that of curator, agent, and commissioner.

STRP 2011

Virtueel Platform has compiled this publication to map this growing phenomenon better. What lies behind this growth? What opportunities do these festivals offer artists, government authorities, and visitors? What significance do the festivals have for the digital sector and for the cultural climate as a whole?

This book examines all these questions and the phenomenon ‘media festival’ in the Netherlands. By media festival we mean a regularly occurring public event that lasts for more than one day (often at a range of locations in a city), in which art, culture, and new media occupy a key position in the programming. The emphasis in this publication is on a group of twenty fes- tivals that meet these criteria.

To illustrate how the sector has developed we have also compiled a summary of all the cultural festivals in which new media account for all the cultural festivals in which new media account for an increasingly large segment of what is on offer, albeit not always as the main focus (Lowlands music festival, for example).

Media festivals are both a catalyst and an accelerator. The festivals ensure a revitalisation of the cultural offering and have the potential (which they frequently also achieve) to bring a broader public into contact with media art and new media, as well as the professionals. Festivals serve as both commissioners of artists and makers of new works. And festivals bring many economic advantages for municipalities. For many media artists it is more logical for them to present work at a festival than in a galler y or museum. The festival as exhibitor, developer and production house have all entered the ring.

foto: GOGBOT Festival / Arno Koenen

This publication presents as complete a picture as possible of Dutch media festivals, but also analyses the current state of play in festival land: four festival makers talk about what is on offer and why they think it's important to help the audience understand the unique experience of a mediafestival. They also explain why they think it is important to raise awareness of the role of technology in our society.

With this book Virtueel Platform aims to stimulate the image of these festivals as a source of inspiration and encourages ever yone to visit, to study, and to discover the festivals. For the curious there lies an inexhaustible source of possibilities in store.