"Mobile Connections" in Manchester

The futuresonic04 International Festival of Electronic Music and Media Arts shall explore the theme of mobile connections, bringing together media artists, musicians, game developers and technical innovators working in wireless and locative media, to present a range of artistic projects, workshops and debates.

Just as recording enabled sound to be heard apart from the place and time of its creation and radio made possible remote listening, so a new generation of communication media is now reconfiguring perceptions of space and time, and transforming the nature of the art object and the musical event.

The emergence of locative media art, predictions of the imminent bursting of the 802.11 bubble, and the introduction of location based services for mobile phones have brought into focus a set of interests concerned with wireless and locative media, and have created a space that increasing numbers of artists are starting to explore.

mobile connections will explore how wireless technologies enable place and location to be experienced in different ways, and look at the diverse ways in which artists have pushed the limits, and solicited unexpected or unforeseen results, from communication media past and present, from the radio and turntable, to mobile telephony, streaming and wireless LAN.