Ensuring the health of the internet requires a diversity of approaches and voices. Art and design play key roles in engaging new audiences around these social issues and in shaping critical thinking around an open and healthy web. Now in its eight year, MozFest – the world’s leading festival by Mozilla for the open Internet movement – is returning to London in October, with over 320 events to inspire and spark positive change.
To highlight the artistic perspectives, and following on from MozEx, MozFest, in collaboration with Digital Learning at V&A and Tate, has invited five artists to address each of the five thematic issue areas of the festival (Web Literacy, Privacy and Security, Decentralization, Open Innovation, Digital Inclusion) through an installation and on-site lab. Participants will be able to engage with the artists in an open lab setting where they will be sharing their artistic practices and developing collaborative work with the public to open up new directions of debate about the web.
We are very excited to present the artists we will be working with at MozFest and share their plans for the festival!
Technologist, artist and writer, An Xiao Mina, who is currently working on “From Memes to Movements”, a book about internet memes and global social movements, will bring to MozFest’s Web Literacy area, a lab-installation and workshop exploring meme culture in its online and offline manifestations, as well as links with street art, remix and performance cultures.
Paolo Cirio, a hacktivist and conceptual artist who uses publicly available online information to raise awareness for social justice issues, will join the Privacy and Security space, looking into topics of information, ethics, aesthetics, and big data.
Archana Prasad, Founder-Director of community based urban art, tech and activism project Jaaga, will be active in the Decentralization space with Sean Blagsvedt and Freeman Murray, with an installation-performance presenting a new cryptocurrency and work that fulfills important societal goals.
Artist, curator, and writer, Gretta Louw is exploring how technology shapes who we are as people. During MozFest, you will find her in the Open Innovation space, working with mixed media to review ideas of networks, clouds and connections.
Brooklyn Pakathi, a filmmaker, photographer and digital editor, will be working in the Digital Inclusion space, creating analog and digital artworks around the role of empathy on the web.
The Artist Open Studio is at MozFest on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October, from 10.00 – 18.00, Ravensbourne College, Greenwich, London.
