Conflux 2009

You’re looking at the 2009 Conflux site. We’re keeping it up for archival purposes, but if you’re looking for the current Conflux site, please visit www.confluxfestival.org. Thanks!

After a successful Conflux 2009, the Conflux team is hard at work preparing for this year’s festival! We have a lot of new ideas and some exciting changes planned—we’ll have more about those soon, but for now here’s what we know about Conflux Festival 2010: it will take place sometime in October 2010 and, just like last year, will be headquartered at NYU.

Dates and other details are on the way, so stay tuned!

Welcome to ConfluxCity 2009 – our user-generated city-wide event with over 70 public-space events all over NYC! more…

You can start by checking out our ConfluxCity Directory of projects or by viewing our Shared Google Map below.

View ConfluxCity 2009 in a larger map

And feel free to visit the Conflux HQ in NYU Steinhardt’s Barney Building (34 Stuyvesant Street) from 10am-6pm for additional information, project fliers, directions, and more!

Lastly, don’t forget to follow our ConfluxCity Feed and send your own tweets using the #confluxcity hash tag.

Join us at the Conflux Headquarters in NYU Steinhardt’s Barney Building (34 Stuyvesant Street) beginning Friday (9.18) at 12:00pm for two full days of workshops!

© Photo by Tod Seelie

In keeping with the DIY spirit of urban artistic experimentation and shared knowledge generation, all Conflux sessions on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th have been labeled as “workshops.” Sessions will be presented every two hours at the headquarters with multiple workshops running concurrently.

Highlights will include a sermon and discussion about democracy and public space by performance artists Reverend Billy (2009 Green Party Mayoral Candidate for NYC) and Savitri D of the Church of Life After Shopping. Natalie Jeremijenko and her xClinic, the Environmental Health Clinic and Lab, will present Fish n’ Microchips, a project where participants can communicate with fish via text messaging, and Marc Horowitz and Peter Baldes will lead participants on a live virtual trip of NYC using Google Maps. The College of Tactical Culture will present their think tank on creative activism led by Steve Lambert and Stephen Duncombe.

Other highlights will include Transportation Alternatives’ prefabricated parks in a box, a Demolition Drugstore that exposes and destroys toxic chemicals lurking in everyday products, a human scale chess game on the streets of Greenwich Village, a presentation by Jeff Stark, the creator of Subway Theater (a Tragedy in Three Stations), an urban golf game played using iPhones, and a workshop for turning your windows into productive farms. Additional featured presenters include Elizabeth Streb, and Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga.

NEW LOCATION! Due to inclement weather, our Public Space Potluck scheduled for Thursday, September 17 in Battery Park has been moved indoors to Conflux Festival headquarters: the East Village’s historic Barney Building located at 34 Stuyvesant Street on the NYU campus.

Join us starting at 6:30pm as we celebrate the start of the Conflux Festival. This is a joint event hosted by the Design Trust for Public Space and Conflux – two eco-minded groups committed to improving, exploring and sustaining New York City’s public spaces.

In the spirit of creative collaboration, we invite you to bring food and drinks to share with your fellow public space explorers for this communal meal in one of New York City’s most beautiful parks. The Design Trust will provide the essentials (plates, napkins, utensils, etc).

Pick up a guide to the festival and meet the presenters, fellow attendees and the Conflux team. All are welcome and the Public Space Potluck is free!

What: Design Trust Public Space Potluck: Conflux Kick-Off
When: Thursday, September 17th, 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Where: Conflux HQ in NYU Steinhardt’s Barney building (34 Stuyvesant St.)
Who: Everyone is welcome!

Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

Have you ever wanted to exchange text messages with fish or share a cross-species lunch? Attend Natalie Jeremijenko’s workshop on Saturday 9.19 at 2:00pm and you’ll be able to do that and more!

Participants in this session will enjoy a lunch of cross-species foods at the site of the Amphibious Architecture project – a collaborative project between xClinic, The Living, and other intelligent creatures. They will also discuss the xClinic water project ladder, including: amphibious architecture, fish restaurant, and fishfood, and have the opportunity to text message with fish in the East River.

Amphibious Architecture is a visual interface floating on the water’s surface, a veritable looking glass into the aquatic ecosystem. This manufactured point of connection submerges ubiquitous computing into the one element that covers 90% of the Earth’s inhabitable volume and which envelops New York City but remains under-explored and under-engaged.>> Full Story

Can satire can serve as a Trojan Horse for dangerous ideas? Can art transgress the symbolic via the guise of political campaign? Or reversely can the absurdity of politics be made transparent through artistic intervention?

L.M. Bogad, Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, and Andrew Boyd think so. And they’ve got proof.

Come to their workshop on Saturday 9.19 at 2:00pm where they will present a series of works that creatively intervene upon politics through diverse forms of tactical engagement that surpass the representative tradition of political art by direct action in public spheres. >> Full Story

© Photo by Not An Alternative

Reverend Billy and Savitri D claim the struggle for public space is the struggle for democracy itself. They argue the fastest way to reclaim public space is to go and get in it.

Come to their workshop on Saturday September 19th at 4pm to learn how they break in to public space. As the good reverend will explain, “the only real authority in public space is public action. Bodies in space, talking and listening. The freedom starts there, it doesn’t end there. Freedom is not a resting state, it is an active state.”

Join Reverend Billy and Savitri D for a lively discussion of strategies, some inspiring words from the Reverend and video clips of recent actions and media production.
>> Full Story

Sal Randolph leaves money in public spaces for strangers to find. A dollar here, a five there, a ten someplace else – each bill with an anonymous note (a brief statement of fact), tucked into the cash dispenser of an ATM or slipped into a newspaper, or wedged in a doorway, or between packages of cookies in a deli, or through a mail slot.

Be sure to attend her workshop where she’ll tell the story of Free Money and talk about what it’s like to leave money and other things in public space. She’ll also hand out some free money and invite participants to join her in infiltrating the urban environment.>> Full Story

In response to the high level of interest in the initial call as well as requests for more time, the Conflux Team has extended the “ConfluxCity” submissions deadline through Saturday, August 15, 2009. We hope this extra time will allow all interested artists an opportunity to participate. Please help us spread the word.

To submit a proposal to participate in the festival, please see the submission guidelines here.