Microwave International New Media Arts Festival

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[edit] Microwave International New Media Arts Festival

Microwave International New Media Arts Festival (微波國際新媒體藝術節）is a new media art festival based in Hong Kong. Mainly government-funded, it began in 1996 and is in its 12th anniversary this year. The Festival 2007 ran from 10 - 18 November, under the title Luminous Echo （形光譜）.

In 2006, it went through a complete rebranding to become an independent organisation, with its Hong Kong award-winning design partner Milkxhake giving it a whole new look in sharp, fluorescent colours: fluorescent orange for the brand colour and another fluorescent color as each year's festival colour. In 2006 the festival colour was fluorescent green, 2007 is shocking pink. In 2007 it officially became fully independent as the government's previous "presenter" role was handed over to Microwave. The government remains the main sponsor of the Festival, although many more sponsors were sought for the Festival.

The annual festival has generally included an exhibition at the Hong Kong City Hall, a keynote conference, performances, screening programmes and other special events organised each year. In 2007, the Festival will include a few new events, such as an alternative exhibition at the Hong Kong Film Archive (Project Room), an outdoor one-minute screening programme that makes use of the outdoor LED megascreens owned by collaborator JM Network around Hong Kong (Microwave x Project Canvas), a forum and have invited renowned US group Graffiti Research Lab to "hack the city" with their L.A.S.E.R.T.A.G along the two sides of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour as a special programme.

In its first extended event outside of the annual November Festival, Microwave also held the "A-Glow-Glow" Macro Interactive Media Art Exhibition in April 2008, which was funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and aimed for relatively more mass appeal. Two large-scale interactive LED artworks were placed by the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, right across the harbour from the Hong Kong City Hall, where the annual festival main exhibition is held.

[edit] Extended Exhibition - April 2008

"A-Glow-Glow" Macro Interactive Media Art Exhibition

"A-Glow-Glow" was held by the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon Peninsula), with two interactive LED installations by two artist groups:

Teddy Lo (HK) - Phaeodaria (placed by the Museum of Art)
United Visual Artists (UK) - Volume (placed on Avenue of Stars)

A-Glow-Glow Website: microwavefest.net/aglowglow

[edit] Festival 2007

Luminous Echo

The Luminous Echo main exhibition includes:

Jens Brand (Germany) - Satelliten-Tuner
Henry Chu (Hong Kong) - The Sound of Market
Wolfgang Muench (Germany), Masaki Fujihata (Japan), Kiyoshi Furukawa (Japan) - Small Fish
Interactive Sonic Systems (Spain) - Reactable
Kingsley Ng (Hong Kong) - Musical Loom
Daan Roosegaarde (Netherlands) - Dune 4.1
Yao Bin (Beijing) - Luminescent Rain

MINMAF 2007 official website: microwavefest.net