Separate than Artscape?

[Mykel Nahorniak]

Reading over the proposal for Baltimore Interactive, I'm wondering why
it can't be an extra day tacked on to Artscape.

On one hand, having a completely separate festival is great for the
city, as it highlights the richness of the community's ability to
sustain another major event.

On the other, wouldn't it be redundant? We're talking about music, art
and "interactive." Artscape is music and art. Presumably the same
bands and the same artists will show up for the non-interactive piece
of Baltimore Interactive unless some clear parameters are defined for
attendees, no?

Having an Artscape "interactive day" similiar to SXSW's implementation
sounds more common sensical to me for both the viewers and organizers.

I'm interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on the matter.

Sorry if this has already been mulled over elsewhere!

Mykel

[mjovel]

I tend to agree with Mykel on the redundancy issue. I think that the
scheduling conversation has to go hand in hand with the format
discussion. If we want to go strictly interactive then tacking on a
day to Artscape may be a good choice. The one drawback is that
Artscape is Friday-Sunday meaning that the added day would be a Monday
or Thursday depending on if we did it before or after. Unless we
decided to have it the following weekend?

If we went with a multi-disciplined format similar to SXSW it might
make sense to create a little more distance from Artscape to avoid
redundancy.

Michael J

[djazzie]

Rather than Artscape, I think it'd be more fruitful to approach the
High-Zero (http://www.highzero.org) and/or Transmodern folks
(although, it doesn't look like any dates have been announced for the
next transmodern festival). I think there's going to be more cross-
over there, more of a natural fit for the audiences. I think ArtScape
attracts a wider variety of people that might be too broad for this
type of event.

That said, I think Artscape would be a great place to promote our
event...maybe through some guerrilla tactics.

Daniel (dwplanit)

[Jaimes Mayhew]

Hi all,
I just joined the discussion and am really interested in this project. I just wanted to point out that the next Transmodern Festival is scheduled for April 3-5th this year, so it's probably too late to get involved there.
Adding events onto Artscape could either really help or really hurt- most artists that I know in Baltimore (including myself) are doing projects that will keep us busy for the weekend, so going to panel discussions, etc might be a little difficult.
I was thinking about format, and just wanted to drop some ideas in here:
One format for something like this that I really liked was the Conflux Festival in nyc. The last two years, they put together a 2-3 day festival that included panel discussions, etc that were dispersed mostly throughout the neighborhood with one gallery space as the HeadQuarters where people could pick up maps and schedules.
Another similar but more gallery oriented format is the Boston Cyberarts Festival, which includes several exhibitions throughout Boston, artist talks, panel discussions, etc...

If everyone decides to do some promotion at Artscape, my collaborative group, Services United, will be curating/cordinating most of the Station North portion of Artscape. We may be able to work something out (for free) if you need table space or something like that.

Just a few things on my mind. I can think of a few other people who might be interested in helping to coordinate for this, does anyone mind if I give them a heads up about this?
Best,
Jaimes