Free digital arts festival hits city

A FREE five-day digital arts festival hits Londonderry next week bringing together an international line-up of talents and minds from the worlds of art, design, new media and software development.

Organised by the University of Ulster the Imagine Create Festival builds on a hugely successful first event in 2009.

Expect five days of inspirational talks, demonstrations, panels, exhibits and performances delivered by the people and tools transforming digital culture.

Festival Director Greg O’Hanlon says: “we expect an audience of 1200+ making this the creative event of 2011.”

The biennial event will take place at locations around Londonderry and runs from March 29 to April 2, 2011, ending with a one off show featuring Radio 1‘s Mary Anne Hobbs in St Columb’s Hall, Orchard Street.

This year’s event will include a core series of talks and workshops alongside ongoing exhibitions and showcases at venues throughout the city.

Key speakers for 2011 are, Evan Grant – (Seeper), Richard Jobson, Alex Beim – (Tangible Interaction), The Icebook - Davy & Kristin Maguire, Jeff Burke, Mary Anne Hobbs, Phil Kieran, Andrew Ferris (Smalltown America), Anthony Lilley, Paul Moore (Acroplane) and many more.

The event schedule can be found at http://www.imaginecreate.info/schedule

The festival is all about providing present and future professional creatives from across Northern Ireland the chance to hear, see and mix with internationally renowned experts as well as those from the local and regional creative and cultural industries.

In addition, the festival will showcase some of the exciting work being done by local creatives and show how the creative industries can be a viable career option for students and young people.

Specific topics for 2011 include: Augmented Reality, interactive applications, experience design, video and film, music production, physical computing, narrative and visual communication, technology in the built environment and digital futures.

Imagine Create Festival 2011 will entertain, develop and expand your knowledge of the digital arts highlighting what changes are happening in 2011 and beyond.

All panels and events are FREE to attend (except the closing show) and tickets can be collected now at http://imaginecreate.eventbrite.com/

For further information please visit the festival website http://www.imaginecreate.info.