A three day event focusing on the relationship between art and science
15 - 17 November 1996
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England

Presented as part of Visual Arts Year in the North of England, Across
Two Cultures: Digital Dreams 4 is a major international three day
festival of electronic art. With a focus on the changing relationship
between art and science, this event is set to be a landmark in the
presentation and discussion of technology in the arts in the UK.

The festival centres on a conference with speakers drawn from an
international field of practitioners, thinkers, writers and polemicists
from art, science, philosophy, cultural studies and architecture. The
conference will provide a critical framework through which to explore
questions around the re-positioning of both art and science within wider
culture. The theme will be reflected in the exhibitions and
site-specific commissions on show at a number of venues in Central
Tyneside.

Across Two Cultures: Digital Dreams 4 incorporates the opening of
Serious Games at the Laing Art Gallery, a major exhibition of
interactive artworks and Ex Machina, a series of electronic
installations by Japanese and British artists at Zone Gallery. These
exhibitions include first UK showings of work by Diller and Scofidio,
Ritsuko Taho, Paul Sermon and Teiji Furuhashi. Site-specific work has
been commissioned especially for the festival from Knowbotic Research
Labs, Jane Prophet, Cornford and Cross and Simon Robertshaw. US artist
Gregory Green will be working on a collaborative commission from Locus+
using radio communications.

The conference will comprise of plenary panels for all delegates and a
number of smaller, practice-based sessions including artists' talks,
gallery tours, workshops and screenings. Confirmed speakers include:
Sara Diamond , Dean Hawkes, Mark Dery, Nicholas Campion, Regina
Cornwell, Richard Coyne, Nell Tenhoff and Natalie Jeremijenko.

The event takes place across a number of venues clustered in the centre
of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, offering a unique insight into the city and
providing a backdrop to the debates reflecting the shift from mechanical
to electronic culture. Across Two Cultures: Digital Dreams 4 seeks to
locate recent developments in electronic art and the current enthusiasm
for science and technology in wider culture within the shifts in the
traditional opposition of "objective" science and "subjective" art. The
event seeks to provide a meeting place between disciplines and will be
of interest to practitioners and theorists from across the fields of
art, pure and applied science, history of art, theory of science,
cultural studies, electronic music, design and architecture.

Further info and booking details:
PO Box 344 Newcastle upon Tyne NE 99 1FZ
t&f : +44 (0) 191 226 0093
e : 2cultures@dd-4.demon.co.uk