Noorderlicht Festival 2021

The Makeable Mind

Curator: Paulien Dresscher | Junior curator: George Knegtel
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Departing from photography, the 28th edition focuses on the entire spectrum of the image, both analogue and digital: from traditional photography to digital and interactive images, internet glitches, machine learning, virtual reality, street guerrilla actions, performances, sound installations and deep fakes.

From the open call, but also by invitation, festival curator Paulien Dresscher – in collaboration with junior curator George Knegtel and Noorderlicht curator Wim Melis – came to a selection of some seventy participating artists from the Netherlands and abroad, who will be presented at no fewer than 15 locations in Groningen and Friesland.

Paulien Dresscher: “There are more flavours than fake or not fake, with a wealth of images and stories hidden between them. Sometimes dystopian, sometimes utopian or simply fantastic. But nevertheless, exciting and fascinating. With algorithms as our personal advisors, we all think we recognise objective reality within our own bubble, but if there is one thing we can know about that truth, it is that it is not singular.”

The festival’s pièce de resistance is the multimedia installation ‘LAWKI-NOW, Life As We Know It’. Commissioned by Noorderlicht and in cooperation with MU Hybrid Art Space, the work was developed by ARK especially for the Der Aa-Kerk choir. ‘LAWKI-NOW’ is an immersive cinematic experience that combines machine learning with human craftsmanship and visitor interaction. The result is a gigantic audiovisual instrument that confronts the audience with the reality of our lives.