Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press contact: Dara Orlando
Email: info ::at:: glowlab.com . Telephone: 718.388.5911 . Website: confluxfestival.org

CONFLUX FESTIVAL 2007

Dates: Thursday, September 13 - Sunday, September 16, 2007

Locations and Hours:

The Change You Want to See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn NY 11211
Open daily, 10am - 6pm. Telephone: 347.410.5081
Website: thechangeyouwanttosee.org

Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211
Open daily, 11am - 4pm and 8pm - close [see site for schedule]
Website: lunalounge.com

July 01, 2007, Brooklyn, New York — Conflux is the annual New York City festival where visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and the public gather for four days to explore their urban environment. With tools ranging from traditional paper maps to high-tech mobile devices, artists present walking tours, public installations, street art and performance, as well as bike and subway expeditions, workshops, a lecture series, a film program and live music performances at night. Over the course of the festival the sidewalks are literally transformed into a mobile laboratory for creative action as people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures collectively re-imagine the city as a playground, a space for positive change and an opportunity for civic engagement.

Conflux is both produced and attended by city residents who share a common desire to understand, explore, sustain and ultimately improve the urban experience. From architects to skateboarders, Conflux participants have an enthusiasm for the city that’s contagious. Conflux visitors are introduced to the ways cutting-edge artists with diverse points of view address topics ranging from environmental damage, real estate development, and the privatization of public space to emerging techno-social behavior in cities, the development of creative DIY initiatives and playful efforts to humanize cities by encouraging dialogue amongst communities.

Now in its fourth run, the Conflux festival has grown to include over 100 artists from across the US, as well as Australia, Canada, Japan and many European countries who have been selected by a team of nine professionally-recognized curators as representative of the most innovative work being produced in the fields of public-space arts and contemporary psychogeography, the exploration of the physical and psychological landscape of cities.

Conflux 2007 will feature a full program of events from Thursday through Sunday, with a special block party on Sunday afternoon. All daytime events will be free and open to the public. Events will take place primarily in Williamsburg, with some off-site events in other parts of the city. Festival headquarters, located at The Change You Want to See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer Street, will serve as a meeting point for walks and tours, and a visitors’ lounge with maps and a daily schedule of ongoing projects in the neighborhood and other locations.For the first time this year we will also offer multimedia presentationslive music performances by local and international bands each night, every day and directly across the street from festival headquarters at Luna Lounge. Lo-cated at 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Luna Lounge is NYC’s renowned music venue, which has recently relocated to Williamsburg after 10 years on the Lower East Side. Night events will be restricted to ages 21 and over.

Conflux 2007 highlights include:

• Pause Platform, artist Caroline Woolard’s return to Conflux for a new version of her acclaimed urban interven-ion creating public street furniture.
• Second Life Walkie Talkie Walks, a simultaneous walking tour for Second Life avatars and real people, connected to each other using a pair of walkie talkies.
• The Relay, a musical relay race with thirteen improvising musicians separated into three trios, each trio in a different venue.
• Cripplebush Ghost Tour, an interactive tour utilizing mobile audio and video storytelling elements to re-discover the forgotten history of Williamsburg.
• The launch of Eyebeam’s Ecovisualization Challenge, a competition to heighten environmental awareness through creative data visualization, moderated by Amanda McDonald Crowley, with Tiffany Holmes, Michael Mandiberg, Timon McPhearson, Brooke Singer and Eve Mosher.
• Artists’ panel discussion on Sousveillance, a Situationist critique of surveillance, moderated by Marisa Olson, Rhizome’s Editor & Curator with panelists Amy Alexander, Jill Magid and Hasan Elahi.
• Not An Alternative Tactical Media Presentation: Picture New York, a workshop examining culturally-focused organizing strategies to create social change.
• The Next American City magazine-hosted event where visitors will collectively create a visual story exploring the future of America’s cities; held at McCaig-Welles Gallery and in conjunction with the Williamsburg Gallery Association’s Fall Preview event on Friday, September 14th.
• CitySeen: Conflux 2007 Film Program, a day-long film series hosted at UnionDocs non-profit documentary arts collaborative.
• Four nights of live music at Luna Lounge, featuring The Noisettes, The Brought Low, Naked Highway, My Best Fiend, Fresh Kills, Revival, Wildbirds, The Young Lungs and Animandible with additional bands to be announced.
• Glowlab @ Gitana Rosa Gallery, a group exhibition of new work by Glowlab artists Jason Cantoro, Alice Jarry, David Kesting and Mark Price. Also at Gitana Rosa Gallery: Callejeros, an exhibition of Eco-Socio-Political Street Artists. Opening night on Friday, September 14 will incorporate live art, music and performance in the alley behind the gallery.

Additional installations, performances and events in collaboration with Conflux will take place in galleries throughout Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Long Island City, including Capla Kesting Fine Art, Flux Factory, Front Room, New General Catalog, and the Riviera Gallery.

Special appearances by the UK-based Cut-Up Group, Brooklyn-based artists MTAA, Régine Debatty [author of two-time Webby Award-winning blog we-make-money-not-art.com], students and faculty from local universities including Hunter College and NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program promise to round out the 2007 program with projects both mentally and physically challenging.

A complete schedule with event details and additional information will also be available online beginning in mid-August at confluxfestival.org.

Conflux is a fiscally-sponsored project of The Brooklyn Arts Council and Fractured Atlas; made possible with the support of the Puffin Foundation and the Independence Community Foundation. The Conflux 2007 Curatorial Team includes Beth Coleman, David Mandl, Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga, Marisa Olson, David Pinder, Sal Randolph, Christina Ray, Brooke Singer and Lee Walton. Conflux Festival Director is Christina Ray and Producers for 2007 are Sarah Pace and Not An Alternative. Conflux is produced by Glowlab, the curatorial project of Brooklyn-based artist and independent curator Christina Ray. Glowlab functions as a creative production studio with a gallery in Williamsburg and a web-based magazine at glowlab.com.

For additional information, please visit confluxfestival.org or contact Dara Orlando at info::at::glowlab.com or by phone: 718.388.5911.

###