Performances, festivals, theatre play, live heavy metal concerts and techno parties all have one interesting thing in common; it is said that you have to be ‘there’, that you have to fully immerse in the physical event to fully understand and appreciate the event. According to Phelan ‘performance honors the idea that a limited number of people in a specific time/space frame can have an experience of value which leaves no visible trace afterward’ (1993: 149). Thus ‘live-performances’ seem to be the exact opposite of that what is essential to mass media that are designed for duplication rather then uniqueness (see Benjamin, 1936). But how do new; digital and interactive media fit this dichotomy?

Where would one find her (or him) self to be chasing a white rabbit holding a (broken) watch, fall down an endless hole, be attending a wicked tea party, meet a mad hatter and see a lobster and a mock turtle perform a pervasive song?  Besides the obvious answer, the famous Alice in wonderland novel by Lewis Carroll, a visit to a music festival could offer just these elements as a part of their program. Whereas there still are festivals that concentrate on the main stage, headline acts and plenty of alcohol, the audience also can choose from a wide variety of immersive experiences. In our research program on festivals we explore how these experiences are designed, promoted and how the audience participates.

Last Friday I was present at the gathering of Dutch media labs and new media festivals at the Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF). It was exciting to meet not just one of our fellow media labs but instead to see the whole wide spectrum of labs gathering. Besides the book presentation Nederland labland by Virtueel Platform in which an overview of all currently active labs is presented, it was above all an opportunity to share ideas. Four mayor themes, innovation, business models, events and internationalization, were discussed in round table sessions; and two speakers gave an insight in how public funds will operate in the nearby future.

As my colleague Kees Winkel already pointed out we’ve recently started a fascinating course on new media theory at the University of Utrecht. While many interesting concepts, ideas and discussions have past in the first few weeks there is one specific topic that triggered me: technological determinism versus social constructionism. While it is a really academic discussion that stretches far beyond the domain of just these new media studies it somehow got me to think of my grandma’s washing machine?

I’m very excited about the upcoming Freemote festival, a gathering of electronic artists from all over Europe.  Freemote is providing a stage for contemporary creative communities to share ideas and to collaborate. We will be participating in this creative event and our students will take part in the Freemote academy program. And as it’s all about audiovisual and electronic art here’s the festival trailer just to get you into the flow.

Now that the dust in the music industry seems to slowly settle and some interesting new business models take their first steps toward maturity it seems to be a good moment to have a closer look on recent developments in the exciting world of music. We’ve seen the success of services like last.FM and Spotify, mayor acts experimenting with free downloads and some exciting grassroots initiatives, but over all we see an industry that still hasn’t found its way. Can a cross-media approach provide some answers to this confused industry?

The city of Utrecht has, as many Dutch cities and regions, a rich and well-documented history. There is a huge mountain of data of all sorts of events taking place in or around the city. And by mountain of data you can take that quite literal. If you would make a stack of all the documents it would form a pile higher then the Mont Blanc, with its 4811 meters the highest mountain of Europe. The preservation of these huge collections is a complex task, and making it easily accessible is even harder. Making it all something that a non-professional audience can experience in a fun way seems like an almost impossible task.

With the continues improvements on mobile devices and the growing acceptance of information technology there’s a lot of exiting things to expect in our nearby future. Last weekend I attended the AR Dev Camp hosted by Mediamatic in Amsterdam and i got quite excited about some new applications currently in development. But it’s not all hallelujah, there are also some major concerns that should not be swept away to lightly. Does this picture represent a bright new future or a techno-nightmare?