Mesh Festival Basel

Filmexplorer’s live-podcast station at the Mesh festival functioned as a sensor for the vibe of the festival piazza, and as meeting the occasion for a discursive resonance. Listen to the curator Nina Liechti, and the artists Dirk Koy, Sissel Marie Tonn, Linda Zhang and Meng Li (Pararaum Studio).

Podcast

Mesh Festival Basel | Nina Liechti

Interview with the co-curator of the Mesh Festival Basel 2024 Nina Liechti, realised by Giuseppe Di Salvatore | Editing: Olivier Legras

The podcast production has benefited from to the financial support of the Division of Cultural Affairs Basel-Stadt

Mesh Festival Basel | Dirk Koy

Interview with the aritst Dirk Koy at the Mesh Festival Basel 2024, realised by Ruth Baettig | Editing: Olivier Legras

The podcast production has benefited from to the financial support of the Division of Cultural Affairs Basel-Stadt

Mesh Festival Basel | Sissel Marie Tonn

Interview with the artist Sissel Marie Tonn at Mesh Festival Basel 2024, realised by Giuseppe Di Salvatore | Editing: Olivier Legras

The podcast production has benefited from to the financial support of the Division of Cultural Affairs Basel-Stadt

Mesh Festival Basel | Linda Zhang & Meng Li

Interview with Linda Zhang and Meng Li (Pararaum Studio) at Mesh Festival Basel 2024, realised by Giuseppe Di Salvatore | Editing: Olivier Legras

The podcast production has benefited from to the financial support of the Division of Cultural Affairs Basel-Stadt

Find a list of all our Podcasts here.

When digital means…

Mesh is «a new festival of digital art and technology», organised by HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste/ House of Electronic Arts), the HGK (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW/ University of Art) and iart ag (Studio for Media Architecture) – three institutions that physically share the same “piazza”, Freilager-Platz (Basel-Münchenstein).

…physical

This welcoming piazza was certainly part of the great success of the event: a place for exchange, between concentration and informality. This is why Filmexplorer installed a live-podcast station at the CIVIC, the «new physical and digital discourse and exhibition space at HGK Basel», a station which intended to gauge of the vibe of the festival, and to propose a discursive resonance of it.

…meandering

Getting an overview of the festival wasn’t easy, but this probably had something to do with the multiplicity of formats: augmented worlds, virtual realities – sometimes the booking for them – diffuse works and traditional exhibitions, performances, cinema screenings, participative events, and a dense programme of panel discussions. The festival timeline rather resembled a pluriverse, with both expected and unexpected AI-drifts. One had to surrender the controlling attitude, and let the experiences pop up as surprises in a sandbox.

…performative

Non-linearity was a (non-)thread of the festival. Together with the relative fragility of the hi-tech devices used, one had the impression of participating in a sort of permanent happening. Contrary to the habitual prejudice of the digital world as something fully programmed thus deterministic, the experience at the Mesh festival was more like bathing in a performative basin. Therefore, the “official” performances could be perceived as organic moments of intensification of a general performative mood.

…indeterminacy

Another counter-intuitive gain of experiencing the Mesh piazza was the role of non-definition in the artworks proposed. Technology seems to be destined to promise precision, and yet one of the most interesting aspects of the exploration of new media is the fact of showing their limits, their borders. Digital clumsiness becomes a creative tool. The virtuality was shown as such, beyond any delusional intention.

…art for technology?

Reflection on the medium – and self-reflection of the medium itself – are typical features of theoretical and artistic approaches when appropriating and exploring new technologies. Art is both inspired and nourished by its media. What would technology get from artistic approaches? The challenging of its own boundaries? Enhancing its potentialities? The conferences of the festival largely focused on the mutual exchange between art and technology.

…a tool? Yes and no

In this respect, I hope – strongly – that art won’t necessarily have to ally itself with scope-oriented technology in order to be legitimised – and financed – and that will defend its right of not being even indirectly useful. “Tool” was one recurring keyword of the festival, even “tooling”. On one side, this could be the symptom of the instrumentalization of art. On the other side, it can also be considered as good news, insofar as art can thus auto-emancipate from an exclusive focus on the medium conceived as an ultimate horizon. In this way, art can do more than simply speaking about its own medium, can be more than a reflection on its structural conditions.

…biological

A different reflection, or a general sensibility that the festival witnessed, was the attention paid to the friction and interaction between digital devices or processes and the biology of human beings. Cyborg is not dead, even if the old enthusiasm for it is often replaced by some concern. However, a positive attention to this connection can stress the perceptual and immersive dimensions – such as in Sissel Marie Tonn’s work – or an improved understanding of biopolitics – seen in Juan Cortes’ work.

…commonality

Technology can either render us more powerful or more alienated. Its appropriation raises a new consciousness – or at least it should. It definitely did at the Mesh festival. The interest in the analogic interface of digital art, for hybridization, for the perceptual possibilities and the biological consequences, for participative action, for distributed intelligence and shared resources, lead to one more counter-intuitive keyword of the festival: commonality. Together with the prejudices of precision, determinism, artificiality, the solitude of techno-freaks or -nerds is the last prejudice to be dismantled.

Info

Mesh Festival Basel | Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW, iart ag | Basel-Münchenstein | 16-20/10/2024

More Info on Mesh Festival
More Info on Sissel Marie Tonn - Film: Becoming a Sentiel Species; Installation: The Sentiel Self
More Info on Dirk Koy - Films: Island and Intersect
More Info on Pararaum Studio - Film: Don't Forget the Mountain

The podcast production has benefited from to the financial support of the Division of Cultural Affairs Basel-Stadt

First published: October 24, 2024