Proudy 2012 – A promising new multimedia festival
A new festival called Proudy 2012 (or Currents 2012) organised by students for students (or generally anyone up to the age of 30 or so) kicks off later this month. The highly ambitious project, bringing together numerous schools from ČVUT to Charles University as well as the private sector, centres primarily on multimedia – an amalgam of live music, screen projections, live drawing, dance, and even silent disco, relying on a combination of technology from new apps to robotics. Entry is free and if you are interested in new media, Proudy 2012 is a festival you won’t want to miss.
“We want to put a lot of different things together, it’s designed as a festival for the new generation; we think that a combination of arts, music, multimedia and education is important and is perfect for a festival altogether.”
So your target audience...
“We call it Generation Y and Z, basically anyone between the ages of 17 and 32.”
What are some of the things that attendees will be able to see?
“There will be a lot of art projection on the walls, the main goal is interactivity so visitors will be able, for example, draw on ipads and project images around the festival on 20 to 30 metre screens. There will also be an application that will allow basic elements of the festival, allowing people to report live on site or take part in voting.”
“The main headliners are Skyline and Prago Union, as well as others like Zoči Voči from Slovakia Along with live music there is also the ‘silent’ disco. We will have 500 headsets available for people who will; be able to dance to DJs of their own choosing. So there will be 500 people dancing and partying in silence listening to two kinds of music that only they can hear. Also there will be projections of the dancers on the wall. Basically, attendees can do lots of different things at once: access their phones, music, social networks and so on. It’s something that the new generation is used to. It’s the kind of ‘flow’ we are living in and that’s reflected in the festival.”
In terms of the band, some are electronic, some hip hop: do some of them use technology in a way that is cutting edge?
“Some of them use projections but that is no longer uncommon: in the future, one of our goals at a future inception of the festival we hope to have a hologram DJ performing, someone not even there! That’s kind of a task to be tackled later!”
“In the main group there are 30 of us but we have had a lot of help from private firms who love the idea of the fest, so on the floor we expect that about 300 people will be involved. In all, Proudy will be split up into four separate events, beginning with Proudy on the Water – near the Vltava River. We will have projections on the water there and also unveil the festival log, combining the offline and online worlds. That is something we are also looking forward to. In terms of education, there will be a conference on how multimedia will change our world in 2020. It’s eight years away but I expected there are many changes ahead. We hope Proudy will be big and that it will be well-accepted by the new generation. The main thing is to connect many things together – arts, music technology, education, leisure - and go from there.”
Now, I was lucky after speaking to Tomáš Gavlas and Ondřej Nádvorník to also be able to try an item that will likely prove popular – a kind of futurist mixer in which users play and mix samples only by moving large plastic cubes or ‘stones’ across a screen. Three of us were able to – in the easiest way possible – mix sounds only by turning cubes in different directions. It was more fun than it might sound [which you can hear if you are listening to this report and not reading – Ed. note] Proudy 2012 kicks off later this month, so if you’re into new media and new formats and just an all-around good time, look up the details online.
