Program

A multi-platform program of significant scope, Black Box is an international art, film and technology festival that presents contemporary artists who expand the language of cinema. Core programming is focused on experimental film, video, new media art and moving-image-based work. 

Black Box presents screenings, exhibitions, artist talks, discussion panels, educational events and special projects. The festival is curated thematically across multiple platforms in diverse locations throughout the community, from movie theaters, living rooms, galleries, museums and public spaces to shipping containers. An online channel premieres and distributes festival content to audiences in Seattle and beyond.

Black Box is organized independently by Aktionsart - a art and technology nonprofit based in the Pacific Northwest. The festival was created and founded in 2014 by Julia Fryett.

www.blackboxfestival.org

Institutional Partners Seattle Art Museum, Cornish College of the Arts, SIFF, IET+I, DXARTS - University of Washington

Supporting Partners Seattle Center, French Embassy in the United States, Power2Give/Artsfunds, Seattle Department of neighborhoods, FACS, MacFarlane Partners

Works by

Sarah Abu Abdallah, Sophia Al-Maria, Knut Asdam, Ed Atkins, Will Benedict, Sue de Beer, Dara Birnbaum, Zach Blas, Body by Body, Jacob Ciocci, Phil Collins, Brody Condon, Eli Coplan, Isabelle Cornaro, Petra Cortright, Brice Dellsperger, James Duesing, Wojtek Doroszuk, Stan Douglas, Tom Duggan, Carlo Ferraris, Ellie Ga, Lola Gonzalez, Richard Healy, Holly Herndon, Fabienne Hess, Patrick Hough, Pierre Huyghe, Josh Kline, Liz Magic Laser, David Leonard, Kalup Linzy, Sara Ludy, Jonas Lund, Basim Magdy, Jonathan Monaghan, Shana Moulton, Michael McCrea, Grace Ndiritu, Dylan Neuwirth, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Peristeri On, Joel Ong, Simon Payne, Daniel Peterson, Heather Phillipson, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Nelmarie du Preez, Julien Prévieux, Laure Prouvost, Sabrina Ratté, Robin Rhode, Tivon Rice, Ben Rivers, Hannah Sanghee Park, Erica Scourti, Roman Signer, Rick Silva, Lisa Tan, Katie Torn, Robert Twomey, Alexey Vanushkin, Jessica Warboys, Gillian Wearing 

About BLACK BOX 2.0

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” — Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Emerging technologies and digital culture are reformatting our consciousness and our cognitive capacities, our entire being. Our experiences of simultaneity, dispersion and juxtaposition have intensified. The artists of Black Box 2.0 embrace available tools to question the unknowns of our epoch. Many invoke pop as a carrier symbol, bringing art into our daily life through the platforms that surround us. The social and psychological consequences of technology are often either implied or revealed. In some works, the line between fiction and nonfiction vanishes, leading to new forms of narration. In others, the blending of the virtual and the physical is (re)presented and questioned. The changes in the genealogy of the sensitive, desire, the organization of dreams, and the invention of new forms of autonomy are themes and ideas fueling the works presented throughout the festival. 

An international spectrum of artists are exhibited in industrial shipping containers, white cube galleries, black box movie theaters, your living room, and a building on the verge of destruction. Landscapes and stories are revisited, spaces are inhabited, and experiments are carried out. There is no map for this place. 

Excerpts of Black Box 2.0 curatorial statement written by Anne Couillaud and Julia Fryett.