The 9th CYBERFEST became part of Convergence 2016 in London starting from March 10, 2016. Artworks by CYLAND MediaArtLab artists Anna Frants, Alexandra Dementieva, Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov opened at Village Underground and had been on display until March 20, 2016.

Photo by Heiko Prigge
London, March 2016
“Mirror’s Memory” by Alexandra Dementieva invites the viewer to contemplate how he or she is remembered. As the viewer steps forward into this installation, a reflection of his / her own image may be replaced or joined by a residual recording of a prior visitor. A computer algorithm determines the nature of the portrait that is projected back to the viewer, challenging the very essence of human memory through the blurring of lines between digital and organic forms of recognition.

Photo by Heiko Prigge
London, March 2016
Anna Frants’ “Live Cam Renaissance” pairs found video footage with live streaming technology. Together, video streams past and present come to together to fuel 5 individual audio channels. When experienced as one, united soundscape, “Live Cam Renaissance” positions viewers between past and present, disrupting traditional technologies of representation and constructing a unique symphonic soundscape.

Photo by Heiko Prigge
London, March 2016
In the installation, “Danae”, artists Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov use an algorithmically programmed light scanning an artwork as a catalyst for physical movement. Danae consists of a complex composition of mirrored planes based on the configuration of the Hermitage’s infamous Rembrandt painting Diana, reflecting the changes of perspective that occur within the eye of the beholder and the transformations that have occurred in the way that art as a cultural construct is perceived by society at large.
A pioneering collaboration… The 2016 CONVERGENCE Art program includes four works by CYLAND MediaArtLab – the force behind Russia’s largest multimedia festival (CYBERFEST) held every year at The Hermitage Museum. Drawing on average 10,000+ people to their Art::Tech events in around the world (St. Petersburg, Berlin, Bogota, Tokyo, NYC and beyond) – an exhibit at Village Underground marks CYLAND’s first appearance in London and the beginning of an especially simpatico partnership with Convergence. The CYLAND exhibit will feature installations from some of Russia’s most recognized new media artists and selected records made by international pioneer of Sound Art just for CYLAND. Free to the public, the exhibit will be in Village Underground’s gallery for the duration of Convergence.
The era of a real :: virtual global series… CYLAND comes to London (March 2016) for a pioneering collaboration with Convergence to connect those engaged in the borderless, multidisciplinary, progressive movement redefining the intersection between Art :: Tech.
PATTERNS OF THE MIND
Digital networks provide the traditional means of communicating within a new borderless set of parameters,creating a whole new structure of collective consciousness where dynamic, self-assembling tribes can unify instantaneously. Enabled by digital catalysts, society has gone from local to national and from national to transnational tribal behavior and congregation.
In this post-post-modern epoch, what defines one’s place in the virtual and the physical world is the ability to communicate convincingly reality or fantasy. Medium matters, but only up to a point, as a conduit for the message.
Patterns of the Mind / Convergence enquires into the primacy and power of a creator’s message, in which any medium is only the tool used to carry it across.
About Artists
Anna Frants’ interactive art installations have been exhibited at top venues across the world including the Venice Biennale, the St Petersburg Biennial, Moscow Biennial and Polish Biennial, KuoseinoSato Museum of Contemporary Art (Fukuoka, Japan), The Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), The State Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), VAP / Gogolfest (Kiev, Ukraine) and Transmediale (Berlin, Germany), and an exclusive 17 day expedition to The Arctic Circle with The Farm Foundation. Frants is represented by Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery (Brooklyn, USA & Berlin, Germany) and Barbarian Gallery (Zurich, Switzerland). annafrants.net
Performance and master class Subjectivisation of Sound by Alexey Grachev and Sergey Komarov took place on March 11th and was hosted by the CCW Digital Makers Group at Chelsea College of Art Parade Ground. Events were organized by Nicola Rae and Chris Follows.
About CYLAND
Founded in 2007, CYLAND is a nonprofit project dedicated to expanding the intersection of Art :: Tech through an annual international festival, visual exhibitions, sound art, video art, and educational programming.
About Convergence
Convergence is a celebration of musical pioneers, visual artists and technologists. Returning for its third year in 2016, Convergence will take over venues including Barbican, Roundhouse, Scala, St John on Bethnal Green, Village Underground, Troxy and KOKO from 10 – 20 March, 2016.
Contact
Press (English): Leah Stuhltrager / lstuhltrager@thewye.de
Press (Russian): Lizaveta Matveeva / lizavetamatveeva@gmail.com