Digital arts festival Electric Medway returns for its third year with its biggest and most interactive line-up to date

Lockdown felt like a milestone for digital-based art. With everyone stuck indoors, social media was a hive of new works as it became the only way for the public to interact with artists and their creations.

In 2020, the Electric Medway festival was created to celebrate that very genre. The 10-day event in Medway celebrates digital artforms including virtual reality, augmented reality, sound and projection. Now in its third year, the festival returns with the theme Augmented River.

“It’s about getting people to see the spaces around the river very differently and to build a kind of Metaverse and a set of stories that sit upon the landscape and the high streets,” says Kevin Grist, co-director of SparkedEcho and Electric Medway’s festival producer.

Aimed at engaging people both out and about in its selected Medway locations and those dialling in from home, this year’s event will boast some amazing works.

“Last year I really enjoyed the stuff we did at Fort Amherst, where we were creative with the tunnel spaces with projection and live performance, live-streaming performances there,” says Kevin. “This year, we’re going to do a lot more stuff outdoors. But we’ve also got a virtual gallery, where lots of local artists have submitted digital short films and we’re commissioning a small playable video game with some students.”

For those looking for a wander, there will be an amazing Artificial Intelligence trail to follow.

“People will be able to text directly some objects across Medway, including the big blue cranes at the river, and they’ll be able to have a conversation with those objects,” says Kevin.

“We will also be working with Lucid Creates again. We’ve got one of their pieces that is an interactive cube, which has this depth and dimensions to it, and that’s going in the Pentagon shopping centre,” says Kevin. “So, really disruptive and hopefully a lot of footfall will come through there to see that.”

There will be numerous locations across the towns, including electronic music and laser projection at St John’s Church, the various libraries, the heritage high street and even the Thames barge Edith May.

“We will have an audio story that tells them about some sort of heritage aspects of the river and it will take people back in time,” explains Kevin. “And then they’ll be on board with a performer who will guide them through these kind of fixed portals on the boat… telling the story through augmented reality animations.”

With the festival growing each year, with the number of artists contributing and users interacting with the artwork, it is becoming increasingly clear the digital art genre is going from strength to strength.

“One of the things that SparkedEcho has done as a company is we’ve always looked at working-class stories, and really teasing those from the area, presenting them in a really unusual way,” says Kevin. “And then when the pandemic struck, we were really well placed to do a lot more digital interactive work.

“The tech is cheaper now and smaller companies or individual creatives can kind of do stuff from their bedroom, which is amazing. [As a festival] we are up for full-scale productions but also Lo-fi stuff as well.”

Electric Medway runs from 19th-28th August and the full programme of artists and locations is available online.

INFO: https://electricmedway.co.uk

INSTA: @electricmedway