Report and photos by Juha Huuskonen

The theme of Interferenze 2006 was ‘Naturalis Electronica’, the encounter of nature and electronic art. I was invited to curate the interactive/software art section which eventually featured following artists/projects: Casey Reas (Process 6, 7, 8), LeCielEstBleu, Ralf Schreiber, Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski (Aquatic), An Earful of Italy (Jean-Philippe Renoult, Kate Sieper, Dinah Bird ) and IMPROVe (Zeenath Hasan, Richard Widerberg).

The interactive/software program section was just a small part of the whole festival - the extensive music/live performance program featured an excellent selection of acts from around the world (a rare opportunity to see Biosphere, Vladislav Delay, AGF and Deadbeat in the same event with not-so-usual suspects such as Sinewave orchestra from Japan and Zavoloka from Ukraine) and there was also ‘Big Bang - restarting the natural world’ screening program compiled by Valentina Tanni.

Organisers had made a bold decision to host the festival high up in the mountains. The venue was a farm in the middle of forest owned by the local Duke, with all kinds of farm animals running around. The organisers had to build all the venues from scratch and organise electricity etc but it was definitely worth it - there was no way to escape from the Naturalis Electronica theme. Also the dedication and generous hospitality of the organisers and the taste of local food and wine will not be forgotten soon.

Alessandro Ludovico wrote a report of Interferenze 2006 in Neural and there are plenty of photos on Interferenze site… Below some of my own photos…

Another Pixelache related event which took in place in Italy this summer was the realization of macchinaPerTracciare, which was presented in Pixelache Helsinki as part of the Protolab section, when the project was still in it’s planning phase. Congratulations for Ruben & co for making it happen!

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Photos from the valley, from the city of San Martino Valle Caudina:

Interferenze 2006 venue:

Ralf Screiber, LIA:

Vladislav Delay, AGF, Deadbeat:

Tape:

An earful of Italy + IMPROVe crew:

Bees & honey:

Animal kingdom:

Tape:

Processing 6, 7, 8 by Casey Reas:

LeCielEstBleu:

O.blaat:

Gastroacoustic performance:

Biosphere:

Ralf Schreiber workshop:

Singing robots by Ralf:

An earful of Italy + IMPROVe:

Sine wave orchestra:

Love at first sight: Ralf’s robots meet the Sine wave electronics in the night: