We’re excited. We are now calling for Proposals for our festival in 2015. We even made a little video (which may go some way in explaining our header image here…)!
This year Critical Animals festival will be presented in Newcastle, NSW from 2nd-4th October 2015.
Critical Animals is about exploring curious and uncharted niches in contemporary art and critical thought – we are very open to various experimental and creative avenues. Unsure if your idea fits? Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.
[Image via Yahoo News: Credit – (EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA)]
[Via Yahoo News] “Nepalese are marking the five-day long festival of Tihar, and celebrations today are dedicated to the worship of dogs.
Also known as the festival of lights, devotees also worship the goddess of wealth Laxmi by illuminating and decorating their homes using garlands, oil lamps, candles and colorful light bulbs…”
[From an article at Artshub] “Four more artists have withdrawn from the Sydney Biennale in response to its refusal to sever ties with Transfield. This brings to nine the number of artists who have pulled out of the Biennale because of its partnership with Transfield, which manages the offshore detention of asylum seekers.
Agnieszka Polska, Sara van der Heide, Nicoline van Harskamp and Nathan Gray announced today they would not participate in the prestigious exhibition. They have asked the Biennale to leave their spaces blank so their protest will be obvious.
Last week Libia Castro, Ólafur Ólafsson, Charlie Sofo, Gabrielle de Vietri and Ahmet Öğüt announced they would boycott the Sydney Biennale because they object to sponsorship by Transfield.
‘We withdraw to send a message to the Biennale urging them, again, to act ethically and transparently. To send a message to Transfield that we will not add value to their brand and its inhumane enterprise. Finally, and most importantly, we withdraw to send a message to the Australian Government that we do not accept their unethical policy against asylum seekers,’ the first group of artists said in a statement, which has been endorsed by the additional withdrawing artists.
The boycotts came after a letter, now signed by 37 artists, asked the Biennale to cancel its partnership arrangement with Transfield.”
“Let’s be frank – enough is enough. femalepressure believes there is no justification for more male-dominated music events. We need – and paying audiences deserve – invigorating and entertaining diversity!
Festival curators, sponsors, label owners, journalists: Give more opportunities to women!
Female festival curators, sponsors, label owners, journalists: Don’t try to be the better men by only taking ‘risks’ on established, male artists! Give more women a chance!
We look forward to your response and positive developments in this cultural sector in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding this issue.
Like any major hybrid cultural event that jumps the shark and decides to evolve into what’s essentially a hipsterised parody of itself, #SXSW has been inverting from its original incarnation for years and sequentially de-evolving into a muddled coolhunting mess. So when AllThingsD reported on this glorious play containing yams and oily-networking-sycophants, it just had to be applauded:
In the weeks leading up to SXSW, a series of mysterious packages started being sent out to companies of import and some journalists. The contents included a set of instructions and one single, neatly wrapped object: A yam.
Those who received the yams in the mail — from “Yamtrader.com” were pitched on a new startup that, basically, sold itself as “an online marketplace for yam enthusiasts and traders.” It was absurd.
Yet attendees were encouraged to bring their yams to South By, where they could be traded in for a $50 AmEx gift card.
What they found when they reached South By on Sunday morning wasn’t a booth full of potato lovers. It was Tri-Net.
What is Tri-Net? It’s a 25-year-old cloud services company that deals with HR, payroll and IT backend issues for smaller startups, who may have a good idea for a company, but have little backend business acumen. It’s pretty big, too; it’s home to more than 1,500 employees, and works with upwards of 7,000 clients.I get it… IT and payroll services are about as exciting as attending an enterprise conference after taking a Xanax. So you have to resort to guerilla, somewhat unconventional marketing tactics to get noticed on occasion.
But Tri-Net did them one better. Theirs is a sort of meta-commentary on startup marketing on the whole, a tongue-in-cheek gesture on the stupidity of some single-serving companies that are appearing out of Silicon Valley these days — much less with millions of dollars in venture capital funding. By contrast, something difficult to market may prove more useful; it’s why the hottest topic in the Valley these days is indeed the enterprise (even if it is boring as hell).
A number of folks were taken in by it, with mixed reactions. “We have gotten feedback in both directions,” Breitweiser said. “Some thought it was really funny, while some were upset that we were fooling them.”
