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Sixth Annual Conflux Festival Opens At NYU

The festival focuses on contemporary psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographic environments on emotions and behavior.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 9/17/2009 12:00:00 AM

Conflux

Converging on New York University for its sixth annual run, the Conflux art and technology festival is taking place September 17-20 with a lineup of 70-plus interactive workshops, talks, and performances at the school's historic Barney Building in the East Village.

Co-produced by Glowlab, the art and technology gallery, and David Darts, assistant professor of art and media education at NYU, the festival is rooted in contemporary psychogeography, the study of geographic environments and their impact on emotions and behavior. Art installations, street-art interventions and interactive performances are devised by geographers, designers, planners, performers, environmentalists, activists, students and teachers.

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Highlights of the free festival—a $5 donation is suggested—include Transportation Alternatives' prefabricated parks in a box, a Demolition Drugstore that exposes and destroys toxic chemicals lurking in everyday products, and a human-scale chess game on the streets of Greenwich Village. Visitors can also consider playing a game of urban golf using iPhones, or taking a live virtual trip of New York via Google Maps.

Presentations include Natalie Jeremijenko and her xClinic, the Environmental Health Clinic and Lab, offering Fish n' Microchips, a project where participants can communicate with fish via text messaging. The College of Tactical Culture assembles a think tank on creative activism led by Steve Lambert and Stephen Duncombe. And performance artists Reverend Billy, the 2009 Green Party Mayoral Candidate for NYC, and Savitri D of the Church of Life After Shopping, discuss democracy and public space.

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Images courtesy of Conflux.