October 17–20, 2024
A new festival focusing on digital art and creative technology will celebrate its premiere in Basel in autumn 2024. Mesh Festival will take place from October 17 to 20, 2024 at various locations around Freilager-Platz in Basel and Münchenstein. Focusing on the collaboration between artists, designers and technologists, Mesh invites visitors to experience current technological developments through spectacular and edgy productions. Over four days, it offers a range of events, including immersive media art exhibitions, audiovisual performances, a conference and an extensive educational programme.
Exhibitions: October 17–20
Conference: October 17–18
Performances: October 17–20
Club Nights: October 17–19
The first edition titled Tooling the Future will delve into the realm of new and different tools for a friendly future. The focus is on the following goals:
Reimagining tools: The art projects presented challenge the prevailing narrative of technology as an end in itself. You are invited to question the meaning behind the tools we use every day and how they shape our society.
Immersive Experience: Mesh lets you explore the boundaries between humans and technology and encourages you to think about the balance between control and agency in our digital lives.
Radical Exploration: Learning about relevant computational practices increases awareness of pressing ethical issues, encourages critical thinking, but also generates care and trust in new technologies.
Joyful Experimentation: Mesh is a place for experimentation with environmental justice practices and interdisciplinary approaches to technologies.
From imaginaries of AI cities to the breaching of planetary boundaries: our world is becoming more interconnected and meshed every day. Powerful tools like AI can generate texts, images, or whole environments with the mere click of a mouse. The advance of quantum computing promises to solve previously unsolvable computing challenges. Yet what kinds of solutions and spaces do we really want? From critical access tools to proposals for embodied coalitions, what are the tools of the future that we really need?
Mesh is a joint initiative of HEK (House of Electronic Arts), the Basel Academy of Art and Design (HGK Basel FHNW) and iart (studio for media architectures) and is supported by Christoph Merian Stiftung, Swisslos-Fonds Basel-Landschaft and Swisslos-Fonds Basel-Stadt.
For general inquiries please contact us via: hello [at] meshfestival.ch
For press, images and interview requests please contact Bettina Lotz and Ugo Pecoraio: media [at] meshfestival.ch
About HEK (House of Electronic Arts)
HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel is Switzerland‘s national centre of excellence and museum for all art forms that express and reflect new technologies and media. With its interdisciplinary orientation, HEK provides a broad public with insights into art productions of different genres in the dialogue between art, media and technology. In a diverse programme of exhibitions, smaller festival formats, performances and concerts, HEK is dedicated to current social themes and issues as well as technological and aesthetic developments.
About iart
iart is a studio for media architectures based in Basel, Switzerland. Founded in 2001 by Valentin Spiess, iart enhances physical spaces with digital technology, thus enabling novel experiences. By taking on complex engineering and scenographic challenges, and applying emergent technologies, the studio has built a reputation for seamlessly integrating the digital into the built environment. To date, it has collaborated with internationally renowned architects, artists, and museums, garnering numerous design awards around the globe.
About HGK Basel FHNW
The Basel Academy of Art and Design (HGK Basel FHNW) at Dreispitz in Basel offers a creative environment for education and research in the fields of art, design, and their mediation. The central aim is to open up individual learning and research paths for students and staff, while at the same time create an awareness of social contexts and ways of living together.
