Brighton Digital Festival announces programme of digital culture events

Brighton Digital Festival will return this year, with more 100 events already confirmed.

Brighton Digital Festival 2014: September 1-28

Brighton Digital Festival, the country's biggest celebration of digital culture, will return this year - with more 100 events already confirmed and many more in development.

The festival runs from September 1 to 28, bringing together the city's arts and digital communities through a range of exhibitions, performances, conferences, meet-ups, workshops, and outdoor events, all taking place across Brighton and Hove.

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The first series of events is announced today in Brighton and Hove Independent - which is proud to be the festival's media partner - before the launch of the full programme on the Brighton Digital Festival website. For more information, visit: www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk.

 Confirmed events include the popular and well-established conferences including dConstruct, Reasons to be Creative, Improving Reality, and Brighton SEO - along with a range of new arts, entertainment and family friendly events.

dConstruct, is a one-day conference on September 5, this year focused on "living with the network". One of the most-highly-anticipated speakers is Cory Doctorow, science fiction author, activist, journalist, blogger and co-editor of Boing Boing.

Dots is a new conference celebrating the innovations that emerge when existing ideas are connected in new ways. It takes place on September 3 and is organsied by Brilliant Noise, the Brighton digital strategy and innovation agency.

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A free outdoor interactive music and laser event called Laser Light Synths concludes the festival's first week, taking place in New Road on Saturday, September 6 from 8pm. Created by Seb Lee-Delisle, the free installation enables members of the public to become musicians, using bespoke touch-activated musical instruments filled with hundreds of high-power LED lights. As you play, the sounds will trigger a laser light spectacle, running up the columns of the Unitarian Church.

People can visit the free Laser Light Synths immediately after attending the Brighton Mini Maker Faire, which returns to Brighton for its fourth year at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. This creative and inventive faire celebrates the Maker movement and takes place all day on September 6.

Lighthouse will bring Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev to Brighton Digital Festival 2014 to exhibit Critical Engineering from September 2. The free exhibition shows a collection of sculptures and installations exploring the problems created by our increasingly-technologised environment.

Furthermore, following its premiere at the Royal Opera House in May, The Measures Taken will be coming to The Old Market on September 26. Alexander Whitley Dance Company has teamed up with Marshmallow Laser Feast to explore our inter-dependent relationship with technology. Also at The Old Market are CIRCA69 and Simon Wilkinson, who will be re-telling the most mysterious disappearance story in Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere on September 4.

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Among the family-friendly and educational events at the festival, young gamers, aspiring architects, and town planners will want to attend BlockBuilders. It helps under-16s build their own vision of the London Road redevelopment using Minecraft, a popular creative gaming platform. Those who want to get to know their existing town better can also explore the streets for Little Bo Beep, a QR-code-enabled treasure hunt from the Brighton Animators Network Group (Bang!) in collaboration with RamJam.

This year, the festival expands its digital education programme, which aims to get a diverse range of younger learners switched on to digital education themes that complement the new GCSE modules for ICT and Computer Sciences. The festival has also selected six arts and technology commissions, ambitious artworks that embody the multi-faceted nature of Brighton Digital Festival, and explore a fusion between arts and technology. News about these commissions and the education programme will be announced soon.

Jesse Black Mooney, the Brighton Digital Festival manager, said: "We are thrilled that so many creative and inspiring events have been submitted to this year's festival programme, with more coming in every day. Being able to offer awards through our various commissions this year has allowed us to expand our programme, but it is the local community's enthusiasm and involvement in shaping the festival that makes Brighton Digital Festival so fantastic. This is a celebration of Brighton and Hove as well as a celebration of digital culture."

Arts Council England, Brighton and Hove City Council, American Express, Pure360 and Brighton and Hove Independent are all supporters of Brighton Digital Festival 2014. The festival is guided and supported by a consortium group including Clearleft, Brandwatch, Wired Sussex, Lighthouse, Fabrica, South East Dance, Fugu PR, Phoenix Brighton, Brilliant Noise, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and Brighton Dome.

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Events are still being added to the festival listings until September. So visit the website for the latest information and details on how to submit an event of your own. A printed programme will be distributed from late August and the full listings - including venues, timings and prices - are available online at: www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/events/.

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