SAN JOSE, CA.- ZER01, organizers of 01SJ, a Global Festival of Art on the Edge, announced plans for its second biennial festival here, June 4-8. 01SJ will feature transformative and provocative new works from world-renowned artists and performers at the cross-section of contemporary art, technology, and culture. The five-day Festival will incorporate exhibitions, films, concerts, performances, happenings, and nightlife occurring throughout downtown San Jose’s parks, public streets, museums, theaters, and clubs.
01SJ is North America’s newest and largest festival of digital arts, and a great deal more. From a hip-hop, multi-media meditation on Antarctica to robot art, from conversations with artificial intelligence to operatic performances of Google headlines about the environment, from avant-garde cinema to new musical forms – more than 100 projects will be featured at 01SJ. Festival organizers expect it to be a perspective-altering experience that entertains, enlightens, educates, and involves attendees in a new understanding of our changing world.
Among the many events at this year’s Festival will be a Youth Participation Program sponsored by Adobe Systems. The program includes an exhibition of selected works - funded through a special micro-grant program – developed by young people from around the world. Of the artists participating in 01SJ this year, several have recently been featured in the New Frontier program at the Sundance Film Festival, while others have garnered major national and international achievement awards.
Artists whose works will be showcased include: Cory Arcangel, Jim Campbell, Bruce Charlesworth, Daryl Cloran, Paul DeMarinis, DJ Spooky AKA Paul D. Miller, Anita Doron, Toni Dove, R. Luke DuBois, Kota Ezawa, Daniel Faust, Free Soil (Amy Franceschini, Corrine Matesich, Nis Romer, Stijn Schiffeleers, Adam Wight), Jason Freeman, Genevieve Grieves, Mateo Guez, David Haines, Joyce Hinterding, Shih Chieh Huang, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Jane Marsching, Jennifer + Kevin McCoy, Mongrel (Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, Matsuko Yokokoji), Adam Nash, Ed Osborn, Qiu Zhijie, Red 76 (Sam Gould), Favianna Rodriguez, Rova, Eddo Stern, Lían Amaris Sifuentes, Piotr Szyhalski, Terreform (Mitchell Joachim), Rubén Ortiz Torres, Craig Walsh, Marina Zurkow.
“This year’s Festival will be as provocative and participatory, and even more focused and multi-disciplinary than the original,” said Steve Dietz, Artistic Director of ZER01. “We’ll present new commissions from some of the world’s most inventive artists as they explore the frontiers of creativity made possible through new and old technology. What these artists share in common, is that they’re crafting compelling experiences and expanding our understanding of how technology impacts every aspect of the way we live today.”
Signature Event for San Jose and Silicon Valley - In its second biennial manifestation, the 01SJ Festival is becoming a signature event for San Jose and all of Silicon Valley as an international gathering for the arts and culture that embraces cutting edge innovation, technology and expression. Indeed, ZER01 and its partners and sponsors see Silicon Valley’s largest city as the natural venue for A Global Festival of Art on the Edge.
“As the creators of 01SJ, ZER01 is pleased the Festival continues to evolve as an international event,” said Andy Cunningham, founder of ZER01. “It affirms the values and culture of San Jose and Silicon Valley and is the perfect expression of the region’s peerless innovation and risk-taking spirit.”
01SJ is made possible in large part through major sponsorships from two visionary companies: Adobe Systems and Cisco Systems, as well as the forward-thinking City of San Jose. Other leading sponsors include 1st ACT Silicon Valley, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, GlobalFluency, Hotel Montgomery, the James Irvine Foundation and Liquid Agency, as well as SAP Labs U.S., the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Morgan Family Foundation, Nancy Mueller and Robert Fox, Australian Visual Board, Salas O’Brien Engineers, DMNA, DLA Piper, Delgadillo & Associates Inc., Metro News, McKenzie Event Management, Fry’s Electronics, and Theater Publications.
The Festival is produced by ZER01and is affiliated with the City of San Jose, Montalvo Art Center - Artist Residency, San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose State University - CADRE Laboratory for New Media, the Tech Museum of Innovation, and Camera 12. Many of the works featured at the festival will be exhibited at museums and art galleries throughout the city’s downtown area during the summer months of 2008.
