Digital Redux

Background

In a unique international collaboration between Watermans and WRO arts centre in Wroclaw, Poland we will be presenting the most interesting trends in new media art and experimenting on new forms of presentation of co-created events broadcasted live and cross-streamed live between the two venues. The first event on September 16, Digital Redux, explores how audience relationships can be explored in a world where contact is minimal and digitalisation of communications is ever-increasing.  The pandemic has forced us to embrace technology to connect us without physical presence and the challenges on the environment further urge us to explore ways to share, build relationships and collaborate with less impact on the environment.  How might artists embrace this and develop their art presentation across international boundaries?

Digital redux will be a synchronised cross-stream of performances between Watermans in London and WRO in Poland.

DIGITAL REDUX is an experimental approach to the presentation and promotion of the work of artists working in the field of media art in an international context, a way of addressing current emerging issues in art, communication and culture. Exploring the possibilities of remote collaboration, searching for ways of more climate-conscious dissemination of media art, experimenting, learning and drawing conclusions in the perspective of the necessary change are all part of the Digital Redux mission. We will attempt to create a new context for the meeting of co-creators and co-participants of performance events, limiting at the same time the carbon footprint and the need for artists to travel while preserving the phenomenon of participation.

Through DIGITAL REDUX we hope to transcend the current limitations on the availability of art, to enable artists to reach their audiences, to ensure proper communication, and to restore artistic activity to culture in a context of social constraints and the disappearance of complex, multidimensional works from the shared cultural space. Can we keep audiences engaged remotely, not just a consumer of content but a viewer that is still overwhelmingly stimulated even without the community experience?

DIGITAL REDUX is the form of presentation of media art in international context alternative to online formats, AR or VR. REDUX is, on the one hand, a return to or restoration (from Latin redux, reducere) of a former state, and on the other, an attempt to broaden or transcend the traditional mode of reception. With this program, we want to involve and encourage viewers to experience directly, test and jointly develop alternative ways of creating, presenting and perceiving art.