Karen Frostig FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEkfrostig@lesley.edusam smileyssmiley@lesley.eduLesley University

NIGHT VISIONS ANNOUNCES PROGRAM FOR 2009 BOSTON CYBERARTS FESTIVAL

Cambridge, MA, April 14, 2009- The 2009 Night Visions program for the Boston CyberArts Festival will include international video artists and media experts, as well as work from local established artists, CRLS teens, and emerging young adults artists.

Night Visions is a free and open festival of the moving image and digital arts taking place April 30 through May 1 at Lesley University as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival. This year’s program includes two nights of panel discussions on youth media culture, the intersection of art and technology, and issues surrounding copyright in video remixing. The reception and video instillation featuring the work of seven local and internal artists will be held on May 1 at 6 pm in the Atrium at Lesley’s University Hall. A screening of FemLink, a video project uniting 14 women from all over the world, will follow.

The biennial Night Visions program is developed in partnership with Cambridge Community Television and Boston CyberArts. It is sponsored by Creative Arts in Learning, Lesley University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Whole Foods, Newton. Karen Frostig, Sam Smiley and Elisa Kreisinger produced this year’s program.

NIGHT VISION PROGRAM OVERVIEW ____________________________________________________Thursday April 30, 2009, 6-8PM Digital Expressions: Youth Media CulturePanel and Screening of Work by Local YouthModerated by Cambridge Community Television (CCTV)

Cambridge Community Television will host a panel discussing the trends in youth media production. Has the digital revolution changed the way that we should be teaching youth about the media? Are these ‘Digital Natives’ too savvy for our traditional curricula? How do media production teachers adjust their teaching styles to better engage their students? This panel will discuss these questions, and screen youth produced media from local arts organizations.

Panelists: Matt Landry, Chris Gaines, Erin Mishkin, and Shaun Clarke

Friday May 1, 2009 4-6PMWHERE ART AND TECHNOLOGY COLLIDE: EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELDPanel on New Media Art, Robotics, Engineering, And EducationModerated by Danielle George

This panel seeks to engage discussion on the intersection of art, science, community, technology and education. It does so through presenting creative projects that blur the boundaries of these disciplines. What happens when various communities engage with science, technology and art? How can education take place through the arts? Can art, science, and technology be used together to create new teaching and learning experiences? This panel will give examples of how the arts can open up new ways of exploring and learning in an interdisciplinary context.

Respondent: Brenda Matthis Panelists: Gina Kamentsky, Matthew Mazzotto, Lisa Kunskaya Gordon and Jennifer Hall

6:00-6:30PMRECEPTION and MEDIA REMIIX INSTALLATION, plus HAVANA POSTCARDS

The media remix instillation features work of local and national video remixers who use copyrighted material to critique power structures, deconstruct social myths and challenge notions of gender and identity through the re-cutting and re-framing of popular culture, often to the chagrin of YouTube and copyright holders.

Artists: Aaron Valdez, AreFadedAway, Charmax, Elisa Kreisinger, Jonathan McIntosh, and Stacia Yeapanis.

Cathryn Griffith’s “Havana Postcards” video is based on the project Havana Revisited: An Architectural Heritage. The project involves making videos and photographs of the locations shown in hundreds of picture postcards of Havana dated between 1900 and 1930.

NIGHT VISION PROGRAM Continued____________________________________________________

6:30-7:30PMTHE POLITICS OF VIDEO SAMPLING: SLASH AND REMIX CULTURE Panel investigating the politics, aesthetics and fair use issues involved in video, documentary and culture creationModerated by Elisa Kreisinger

In concert with the video remix instillations and outlawed YouTube posts, the panel explores why is it important (and safe!) to recycle pop-culture, mash-up the media landscape, and blur the line between passive audience and active creator.

Panelists: Carmin Karasic, Boston CyberArts, Kevin Driscoll, MIT’s Free Culture, Renee Lloyd, Harvard’Berkman Center

7:45-8:45PMFEMLINK: PREOCCUPATION International video-collageProduced and Curated by Véronique Sapin (France) and C.M. Judge (USA)

This video collage project links women video artists throughout the world, beyond nationalities and cultures. Preoccupation concerns the actual preoccupations of each FemLink artist, whether it be positive or negative, personal, political or metaphysical.

Artists: Fatima Mazmouz (Morocco)Maria Rosa Jijon (Ecuador) Alena Kupcikova (Czech Republic) Siti Almainnah Binte Ab Majid (Singapore) Grimanesa Amoros (Peru) Nicoletta Stalder (Switzerland) Evgenjia Demnievska (Serbia) Dalia Al Kury (Jordan) Véronique Sapin (France) Martes Ares (Argentina) Maria Pa[acharalambous (Cyprus) Ali Savolainen (Finland) Yun Aiyoung (Korea) Teresa Puppo (Uruguay) Jessica Langunas (Nicaragua) Myritza Castillo (Puerto Rico) Giuilana Cunéaz (Italy)Anna Malagida (Spain) Sabrina Montiel Soto (Venezuela) Kirsten Justesan (Denmark) Inas Hakki (Syria) Natasha Dimitrievska (Macedonia) Bridget Walker (Australia) Cagdas Kahriman (Turkey) Chantal duPont (Canada) Larissa Sansour (Palestine) Alicja Karska/Aleksandra Went (Poland)

Cyberarts: Night Vision Festival (2007)

Co-Produced by sam smiley and Karen Frostig Night Visions is a biennial event, taking place at Lesley University’s Memorial Hall, that delivers a week of diverse and dynamic video programs and media art to a wide spectrum of local audiences. The work represents an intersection of local and international artists producing politically charged, interactive formats, as well as a diverse collection of new images that run as night projections. Programs, installations, performance art, and panels feature new readings on the fusion of art and technology.

Night Visions runs as part of Boston’s CyberArts Festival which is identified as:

…the first and largest collaboration of artists working in new technologies in North America, encompassing visual arts, dance, music, electronic literature, web art, and public art. The 2007 Festival took place at more than 50 museums, galleries, theatres, universities, and public spaces in and around the Boston area.

2007 Partners include:• Creative Arts and Learning at Lesley University http://web.lesley.edu/• Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University http://web.lesley.edu/aib/• Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA)

http://www.wcaboston.org/ • FemLink International Videos http://www.femlink.org/

• Cambridge Education Access Cable TV (CEA) http://www.cpsd.us/ceatv/• Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School

http://www.cpsd.us/crls/• Lumen Eclipse http://www.lumeneclipse.com/• Reel Vision http://www.newburyfilmseries.org/• AstroDime Transit Authority http://www.virtualberet.net/ata/

PROGRAMAn overview of the four-day “Night Visions” Festival program, which includes video shorts, exterior and interior projections, performances and panels, is as follows:

Wednesday, May 3rd 8:00 pmArt Institute of Boston at Lesley

For more information, contact Jenn Moller

Boston ChapterThursday, May 4th All day screening of FemLink International Video Collage and evening program starting at 8:00 pmWomen’s Caucus for Art (WCA)

Karen Frostig and Kathy Halamka are the executive coordinators for a daytime and evening Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) program. The WCA was originally part of the women’s committee within the College of Art Association. Currently located in 29 states, the caucus has 1500 members and is comprised of artists, art historians, curators, journalists and critics. The mission of the caucus is to “expand opportunities and recognition for women in the arts.” The WCA/CyberArts program will feature the following:• CM Judge, International intermedia artist and member of FemLink: The

International Video Collage will bring this international video network to Cambridge. This year’s concept is “Resistance” and represents feminist voices from upwards of 40 countries around the globe:

FemLink gathers “the power of culture and art to serve human values, create dialogue and promote peace and acknowledgement of others…hoping to contribute positively in a just way to our diverse world.”

The collage will run as a continuous loop throughout the day. The evening program will include highlights of the FemLink collage on multiple monitors followed by a panel program.

• Panel program, Cynthia Fowler, Art historian and Bebe Beard, Video artist from Wentworth Institute will co-chair the panel “Women and Speed”

• Selected Performances: Local independent artists• Wall Projections (juried competition), curated by Carole Anne Meehan, Vita Brevis

Project Director, at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA)For more information, contact Karen Frostig at kfrostig@lesley.edu

Friday, May 5th 6:00 pm Installation, Interactive Space and ReceptionCambridge Education Access Cable TV (CEATV) 6:0 0pm

“Past/Present/Future Incarnations of Prospect Hall”: A Series of Digital Stories Co-produced by Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School (CRLS) - Media Production Program teens and Lesley University graduate students

Digital Storytelling combines the use of modern digital media with old-fashioned storytelling. CRLS teens and Lesley University students will produce short multimedia stories focusing on the historical development of Prospect Hall. Using the narrative concepts and technology of digital storytelling the result will be a modern-day time capsule that will capture the essence of a piece of Cambridge history. For more information, contact Ginny Berkowitz, program manager at Cambridge Cable Channel 98 (CEATV), at gberkowitz@cpsd.us

9:00 pmReel Vision Shantel Hansen, Director of Community Relations, will present Reel Vision videos. Reel Vision is an out-of-school-time filmmaking project in which urban youth earn college credit and are empowered with technical and media literacy skills necessary to advocate for social change. In 2006-2007 Reel Vision partnered with The Art Institute of Boston and Lesley University. This partnership offers participants college credit and exposure to higher education. Scholarships are available for those that demonstrate financial need. For more information, please contact Shantel Hansen at shansen@lesley.edu Saturday, May 6th All day Media Arts programming and evening program starting at 8:00 pmLumen Eclipse: Motion Art in Harvard Square Lumen Eclipse, Harvard Square’s public media arts project, is proud to exhibit selection

from their archive of world-class motion art.  The program will feature works that celebrate creative motion through animation, video, film, & motion graphics -- all exemplifying the natural cohesion of art and technology in the motion arts sphere.   For more information on Lumen Eclipse and the artists involved, please contact Heather Gain at gain@lumeneclipse.com

9:00 pmIndependent Videos: Future and Imagined Transportation

Sam Smiley brings on AstroDime Transit Authority, presenting “Will Pandabears Ride Free on the Handlebars of Bicycles in 2092?” A collection of commentary by artists and technologists on future and imagined transportation systems. For more information, contactssmiley@lesley.edu

10:30-midnnightNight Visions Festival concludes with

Late night electronic music and performance based on a Phillip K. Dick text, called “Perky Pat Layout”