Through a summer of anticipated opening and emergence, Abandon Normal Devices resurfaces for seven weeks from 27 May - 11 July along the Manchester Ship Canal, River Mersey (UK) and online. Artistic Director Luke Moody talks through his hopes and thoughts for the 2021 edition of AND Festival.

Explore the AND21 programme: andfestival.org.uk/whats-on

An introduction to AND Festival 2021 by Luke Moody

AND Festival audio programme trailer

Headwaters: Chapter 2 - Branches

By the Sound of Things Audio Description

Artist Liam Young introduces his project Where the City Can't See at AND Festival 2015 in Grizedale Forest.

Where the City Can’t See is the first fiction film made entirely from data. It focuses on an underground community who work on one of the production lines in Detroit Economic Zone (DEZ).

At night they enact escapist fantasies in the hidden spaces of the city journeying through a network of stealth buildings, ruinous and ghost architectures and are adorned with machine vision camouflage and anti-facial recognition. Interested in the sub-cultures and communities which emerge around new technologies Liam Young and Tim Maughan provide a critical commentary on the smart city. The final film will premiere later in 2016.



Liam Young - Where The City Can't See

Episode 1: On Kyriaki Goni’s Networks of Trusts
With guests
Christy Constantakopoulou is an ancient historian. Her published work focuses on the history of the Aegean sea and its islands in the period between the 8th and the 3rd century BC. She is currently a Reader in Classics and Ancient History in Birkbeck College, University of London. 
Dr Emmanouil Tranos is an economic geographer and his research focuses on the spatiality of the digital economy. He has published on the geography of the internet infrastructure, the economic impacts that this digital infrastructure can generate on cities and regions and the position of cities within spatial, complex networks.

The NNN explores art, technology and citizenship in the age of the Internet, a partnership project by Abandon Normal Devices (UK), CCCB and The Influencers in Barcelona, (ES), Transmediale (DE) and STRP Festival in Holland (NL). This project has been co-funded with support from the Creative Europe programme.

Distributed Critique - On Kyriaki Gonis Networks Of Trusts

Episode 2: On Geocinema’s Framing Territories
With guests
Mitra Azar is a young artist with an eclectic formation. As a philosopher, his research spans across cultural studies, critical theory and media philosophy, within a strong political commitment. His research focuses on the idea of borders as fluid, flexible, amorphous entities between media, languages and identities.
Jennifer Gabrys is chair in media, culture, and environment in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. She is author of Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet and Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics.

The NNN explores art, technology and citizenship in the age of the Internet, a partnership project by Abandon Normal Devices (UK), CCCB and The Influencers in Barcelona, (ES), Transmediale (DE) and STRP Festival in Holland (NL). This project has been co-funded with support from the Creative Europe programme.

Distributed Critique - On Geocinemas Framing Territories

Abandon Normal Devices were proud to announce WATERLICHT  for AND 2017, an ambitious and large-scale digital installation by Dutch Designer, Daan Roosegaarde with International Design and Innovation Studio Roosegaarde.

Set in the dramatic v-shaped valley of Winnats Pass that acts as a gateway into Castleton and the Hope Valley, WATERLICHT virtually flooded Winnats Pass with light and smoke to reveal the geological formations of the site and its history as a valley once submerged under a tropical sea. Stretching back into the times of the Ice Age, when glacial rivers carved the landscape, WATERLICHT visualised how high the water level could reach without human intervention. Created using the latest LED technology, software and lenses, audiences were be able to see historical water levels.

Waterlicht Soundscape \\ AND Festival 2017

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a catalyst for new approaches to art-making and digital invention, commissioning ground breaking projects which challenge the definitions of art and moving image.

Inviting artists to hijack the imagination, by developing projects which abandon traditional settings and partnerships. AND brings together an eclectic mix of academics, filmmakers, scientists and anarchists to actively push the boundaries of audience experience and arts production.

The AND portfolio consists of film happenings, exhibitions, performances, online projects, residencies, public realm interventions and a roaming biennial festival. For regular updates about our current and upcoming projects sign up to our e-newsletter.

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