Clicks Or Mortar?
Symposium - Friday 6 March 2009, Tyneside Cinema
TUNE IN LIVE NOW TO TYNESIDE CINEMA
What is Clicks Or Mortar?
Clicks Or Mortar? takes over the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne to explore the potential of digital media in a cultural building. Across three days the Tyneside will present a vast range of work by artists, gamers and filmmakers and on Friday 6 March will host a symposium for cultural creatives, thinkers and planners that will debate the role and challenge the relevance of cultural bricks and mortar buildings in tomorrow’s digitized and networked artistic practice.
Digital technology is already turning some cultural cinemas into spaces that can host an ever widening range of cultural product, from live opera to the National Theatre and an ever expanding diet of participative activity from interactive artists and computer gamers. This digital wave is also crashing over theatres, arts centres, galleries and all other cultural venues, proposing new forms of performance and, most significantly, engaging audiences who may well be turning from passive consumers of culture into active participants in its creation and distribution.
Who’s attending?
Influential voices in film, theatre, games, television, IT, web and the digital arts will gather in NewcastleGateshead to explore what this might mean for the future.
Confirmed contributors so far include:
• Tom Fleming, consultant on the creative economy and cultural planning.
• John Knell, one of the UK’s leading thinkers on the changing face of work and organisations and co-founder of Intelligence Agency.
• Hannah Rudman, who runs Arts Council England’s Amb:IT:ion programme.
• Broadcaster and new media pioneer Bill Thompson.
• Dick Penny, Director of Watershed Media Centre and Executive Chair, Bristol Old Vic.
• Marcus Romer, artistic director of Pilot Theatre.
• Lucy Wurstlin, 4IP.
• Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council.
• With a special guest lecture by legendary artist and film-maker and VJ Peter Greenaway.
• Video contributions from Jonas Woost of LastFM, Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, author of 'Remix: making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy' and professor of law at Harvard University and Steven Johnson, author and internet entrepreneur, founder of the 'outside.in' website.
Clicks or Mortar also features screenings, installations, talks and live performances from artists including:
• Amenity Space.
• Chris O’Shea.
• Flat-e.
• Kinoautomat.
• Martin Zeplichal.
• Memo.
• Mira Calix.
• The Sancho Plan.
• Will Schrimshaw.
• Woody Vasulka.
There’s the film Watchmen on its first run release date and there’ll even be a special live DJ set happening simultaneously in the (real) Tyneside and online at NewcastleGateshead Island in Second Life.
The Timetable
We start at 6pm on Thursday 5 March with the Clicks Or Mortar reception followed by a unique performance of Kinoautomat, the world’s very first interactive movie, performed only a handful of times around the world since its debut in 1968.
The Symposium runs from 9am on Friday 6 March and ends at 6pm.
On Friday evening we have further live events and artist presentations and that Second Life DJ set.
For those that make it through to Saturday 7, there’ll be a chance to take stock of the previous days’ thinking and discussions with informal café sessions with Bill Thompson in the Tyneside Bar.
Tickets
Tickets for this unique event cost just £75 each and include access to Thursday reception, Kino Automat ticket, Symposium sessions, lunch, Greenaway lecture, and Friday night live events.
Booking is easy
Please call Tyneside Cinema on 0845 217 9909 to secure your place.
Getting here
Newcastle upon Tyne is closer than you may think.
• With a tiger in your tank you can drive London to Newcastle in four and a half hours.
• National Express runs fast, comfy and regular trains along the East Coast Main line that take only 3 hours from London and 1 hour 40 minutes from Edinburgh. If you book your trip well in advance on their easy to use website www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com you can get tickets for bargain prices!
• Virgin run services direct to Newcastle across country from Birmingham and the west- country beyond.
• You can also fly to Newcastle airport from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Dublin, Belfast and Southampton.
Sleeping here
You can find a range of hotels by going to www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com or simply call our appointed hotels booking agents Reservations Unique on on 0191 490 0641 and say you are attending Clicks Or Mortar? and Vivien and Helen will take the strain out of finding you a decent room at a cut price.
Stopping here
Why not make a weekend of it as you are here? NewcastleGateshead is one of the most exciting and fast-changing cities in Europe. It’s come a long way from its Coal and Cloth-Cap past and is now established as England’s favourite short-break destination outside London. This reputation is built on stunning architecture, a cultural scene second to no other English City, beautiful countryside, castles and beaches and the legendary Geordie warmth and love of a good night-out!
Clicks Or Mortar? is funded by Arts Council England, Northern Film and Media and One North East.
Supported by ITPS.
Curated by Bill Thompson and Ed Carter and produced and presented by Tyneside Cinema.
