British Film Institute to host Onedotzero

This year’s Onedotzero festival, Adventures in Motion, will be underlined by a Citystates theme. Held at the British Film Institute on the South Bank in London for the first time, the annual festival celebrates the latest developments across moving image, digital and interactive arts platforms.

This year, the main event is preceded by two weeks of installation, cinematic, educational and performance projects, hosted at P3 Space in Westminster University from 27 October to 13 November.

Jason Bruges Studio has been commissioned by P3 to develop a work-in-progress installation. Ephemeral City will challenge the boundaries between interactive design, art and architecture. There is a rumour that influential producer, songwriter, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Nitin Sawhney might even be involved.

A spokesman for the BFI says, ‘These are the first forays into a new relationship. Eddie Berg [creative director for the BFI] was approached a few months ago and that’s how it came about. It will involve the Imax, for a big screen experience.’ The Imax will be used as a live cinematic performance space.

Since the first Onedotzero festival in 1997 at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, the event has evolved in both its content and reach.

‘There have been a few shifts,’ says Shane Walter, creative director of Onedotzero. ‘There’s a desire now to have an intervention in the public realm. There’ll be big installations and a new sophistication in audiovisual areas. We’ve been heading that way for the past dozen years and now we want to try it out for real,’ he adds.

The location itself will dictate this. ‘The University of the Arts London will be involved in one of a number of educational projects this year – some will involve interactive installations, to catch the footfall from the South Bank,’ says Walter.

Starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the festival will travel the globe before reaching London. Audio-visual electro duo Hexstatic will open the show in Argentina; there will be a competition for Swiss work in Zurich; screenings will be held in Amsterdam; and summer-long screenings in the museums quarter of Vienna.

Stuart Warren Hill, one half of Hexstatic, says, ‘I’m putting a retrospective audiovisual show together specifically for Buenos Aires. There’s talk of doing something for London but nothing has been confirmed yet. I use technology to create music and visuals, so Onedotzero is the perfect platform to use.’

This year’s show has been informed by broader trends in digital and moving image. ‘Coding and processing we’ve always recognised – for example, code- and process-driven visuals, like the Radiohead promo that recently came out. There’s also a return to animation, which we’re also looking at this year,’ says Walter.

Lowdown on onedotzero

• This is the first time Onedotzero has been hosted by theBritish Film Institute

• This year’s theme is Citystates

• It will run from 14-16 November

• The festival will be preceded by an event at P3 Space, in Westminster University, London NW1, running from 27 October to 13 November

• The full line-up is due to be announced imminently