Patchlab 2024: ERROЯ?
An error, a mistake, a deviation from plans, assumptions or the chosen course. Seemingly pejorative, this phenomenon in fact opens up space for discourse on the unpredictable effects and directions of violent aberrations. In an era in which the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence technologies is constantly pushing the boundaries of human understanding, and the growing climate crisis, geopolitical instability, polarization of societies and new tools for manipulating reality – such as fake news, deep fake or AI hallucinations – have become everyday life, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question: did something go wrong? Or maybe these disruptions can paradoxically become an incentive to discover new ways of thinking and perceiving the world?
From the point of view of art and creation, an error often reveals an unexpected course of action, a new idea or space for interpretation, creating something peculiar, unusual or even innovative. It is through openness to experiment, distortion, abandonment of the chosen course and permission to make mistakes that new, surprising phenomena are discovered. What was an oddity yesterday, today becomes tamed. Results that do not fit into the initially expected framework reveal hidden desires, and by broadening horizons reveal new solutions and potentials.
Digital art is a space for exploring the unknown, it allows for the celebration of mistakes, feeds on them as an inseparable element of the creative process. This is an area where discourse not only analyzes and interprets contemporary changes, but also makes them real, translating them into new forms accessible to the general public.
In the constant dialogue between failure and discovery, search and fulfillment, our understanding of technology and its impact on our reality is transformed, in which art and technology coexist, revealing infinite possibilities for the future.
The titular ERROЯ? – progress or regression? Utopia or dystopia? Beginning or end?
This year’s program includes a variety of forms and events between 17th and 20th October, including interdisciplinary special projects such as IVF-X – exploring the topic of digital procreation in the post-human era, the experience of Dutch artist and philosopher Victorine van Alphen, realized in the Potocki Palace on the Main Market Square, or the Chromosphere series of events, immersive audiovisual shows (also for the youngest audience) and live performances, which we will present in a 360ㅇ dome created especially for this project, which will be erected for the duration of the Patchlab festival in the heart of Wesoła, the new creative district of Krakow. The Patchlab festival calendar will also include musical attractions this year.
More details about this year’s program will be revealed soon!
Elwira Wojtunik
Artistic Director of the Patchlab Festival