Community members interested in sampling these projects and more are invited to join a tour from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 17, called the CHAT Festival Art Walk. To participate, attendees must be registered for the festival.
During the art walk, five venues will feature festival projects for observation, and many of the faculty, students and community artists who created the projects will be on hand to meet and greet.
During the art walk, Wilson Library will display faculty projects as well as collections from the Carolina Digital Library and Archives; the UNC RENCI site will feature several inter-institutional faculty projects; student projects will headline an exhibition in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence; Sitterson Hall, home to the UNC computer science department, will showcase "Avatar" and other demonstrations; and the John and June Alcott Gallery in the Hanes Art Center will feature community art on the theme of video gaming, including conceptual art and drawings from local gaming artists.
HOW TO REGISTER
CHAT is open to the public. Visit http://www.chatfestival2010.com/register.html for registration and fee information. Upon registering, participants will receive advance information by e-mail, all-access passes and times and places for events.
On the Web: http://www.chatfestival2010.com
UNC News Service
CHAPEL HILL -- Participants in CHAT (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts & Technology), a digital arts and humanities festival Feb. 16-20, will take part in interactive projects that explore the impact of technology on our lives.
Performances featuring technology also will be part of CHAT, hosted by UNC and coordinated by its Institute for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Participants can connect with faculty from area universities and technologists who created the projects and performances. The four-day, five-night festival also will feature discussions and workshops involving faculty, participants and representatives of Research Triangle Park companies.
"The institute has cast a wide net in bringing artists, scholars and practitioners to Chapel Hill for this festival," said John McGowan, Ruel W. Tyson Jr. Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and institute director. "The festival is a showcase for all the exciting work being done right here in North Carolina, with some national and international figures brought in to spice up the mix."
Projects will feature work by faculty, technologists and students from UNC, Duke and N.C. State universities, the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and academic and corporate partners throughout the region. RENCI, a multi-campus, multidisciplinary research center based in Chapel Hill, brings together experts and advanced technologies to seek solutions to complex problems affecting life in North Carolina.
"Artists and humanists have been both fascinated and a bit threatened by the new ways information is now presented," McGowan said. "We are in a period of flux, with all kinds of experiments. Especially exciting are the collaborative projects that recognize that digital information is dynamic; that the distinction between producer and audience is breaking down, because the users of information are now able to comment on and revise and add to the materials they are given."
