ArtFutura 2007
The Next Web
October 25 – 28 / Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona
FuturaCircuit: Alicante, Granada, Cádiz, Madrid, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Valladolid, Vigo, Vitoria, Zaragoza
Steven Johnson . Daniel Huebner . Enrique Dans . Juan Freire . Ben Hibon . Media Molecule . Jaume Plensa . Alvaro Casinelli, . Paul Verschure . Isabelle Anvers
The 2.0 revolution completely changes the face of the Web, transforming it into a space for social participation and collective cooperation. In its 2007 edition, ArtFutura presents a speculative discussion about the Web with thinkers, technologists, and entrepreneurs from the digital economy: The Next Web.
The participation of Daniel Linden, founder and head of the community of the virtual world Second Life, stands out, as does that of thinker and web project promoter Steven Johnson, a contributor to Wired and the New York Times. Johnson is one of the key analysts of digital culture who studies the cultural impact of operating systems, the Web, and video games.
ArtFutura 2007 approaches the phenomenon of video games from three perspectives: the new way of playing, innovation, and gameplay. To this end, it features Media Molecule, creators of the revolutionary Little Big Planet, one of the first games clearly labeled as “next generation,” in which it is the user, not the developer, who creates the characters and scenarios.
The festival showcases the audiovisual programs ArtFutura Show, Full Motion Theater, and 3D in Spain, as well as a documentary (8-Bit), a retrospective (Marcel.lí Antúnez), and two special programs (Pod Love and Demos+Intros).
The exhibition aspect is expanded with a new space that includes the exhibitions of NextFun, featuring the installations “Khronos Projector” by Alvaro Cassinelli and “PlayModes” by Eloi Maduell from Telenoika. Meanwhile, the Xperimental Arcade game room presents a space where premieres of new titles are mixed with works from independent studios and projects.
ArtFutura closes its activities in Barcelona with the EstaciónFutura party, featuring LSP by Edwin van der Heide, a show of images produced by lasers controlled by audio generated in real time.
Some technological revolutions arrive as a revelation. You hear a human voice coming from a spinning plastic disc or see a train moving projected on a screen, and you immediately feel that the world has changed.
For many of us, our first encounter with the World Wide Web a decade ago was one of those transformative experiences: You clicked on a word on the screen, and immediately you were transported to any other page hosted on a computer located somewhere else on the planet. And after that first hyperlink, you understood that the universe of information would never be the same again.
Steven Johnson
Are we already in a position to start evaluating whether the promises of the latest digital utopia have been fulfilled?
Perhaps it is time to ask whether participatory media, the social Web, and the dissolution of barriers between producers and consumers are indeed bringing us closer to a more pluralistic, freer, and open society.
Whether their undeniable abilities to facilitate creativity and freedom of expression are not accompanied by other less desirable and more problematic effects.
José Luis de Vicente
