Cimatics is a Brussels – based international platform for digital culture.
Cimatics v.z.w. is a non-profit art organization with structural funding from the Flemish government and the French community, Brussels Capital Region and the City of Brussels as well as by European cultural institutions like Austrian Kultur Forum, Finnish Cultural Institute, Institut de la Francophonie Numérique and many others.
Cimatics Platform was born out of the annual Cimatics festival (2003-2009), bringing rapidly expanding goals and activities.
On one hand there has been a broadening of vision:
To look at a wider field of experimental audiovisual performances, to tighten the links between audiovisual art, media art and the broader, more popular digital culture.
On the other hand, on the basis of this activity it is building a platform focusing on the production of new audiovisual performances and installations, holding educational workshops and creating publications as well as initiating a great number of multidisciplinary events.
Agency for audiovisual production and distribution.
Cimatics Agency recognized around the world for the direction, production, commissioning and distribution of pioneering audiovisual artworks, performances and installations by world-acclaimed artists such as Ryoichi Kurokawa, Quayola, Telcosystems, Max Hattler, Boris & Brecht Debackere, Arne Deforce, Yutaka Oya and Visual Kitchen.
We focus on audio-visual performances, with the emphasis on those that have grown out of VJ culture and digital culture.
Most of the projects revolve around the interaction (live or otherwise) between sound and image: live cinema, visual music, expanded cinema or DJ/VJ.
Next to that there is also a continuous attention for audio-visual installations, experimental cinema, music video and motion graphics.
Agency activities are tour management and bookings for audiovisual, educational workshops, film screenings, conferences, exhibitions and professional meetings.
Most of the artworks produced were also presented at the Cimatics Festival (2003-2009).
Active member of international and local networks
At European level, Cimatics is one of the 8 co-organizers of ECAS (European Cities of Advanced Sound) – a European festival network supported by the European Union within the CULTURE PROGRAMME (2007-2013), which strives to create collaborative partnership between the European festivals.
Cimatics is also a member of I.C.A.S. the international network of contemporary urban festivals such as Mutek (Montréal), Mutek Mexico, Club Transmediale (Berlin), Todays Art (The Hague) or FutureEverything (Manchester).
To encourage trans-national collaboration, Cimatics initiated in 2009 the European Marketplace for Digital Arts & Culture (EMDAC) – formerly IMDA (International Marketplace for Digital Arts – Europe) – in collaboration with Elektra (Montreal, Quebec). EMDAC is a meeting for professional networking in the field of the production, creation and diffusion of digital arts and culture.
At regional level, Cimatics is part of BKO/RAB (Brussels Kunstenoverleg / Réseau des arts de Bruxelles) and has established numerous partnerships with organizations from both the Flemish and the French-speaking communities in Brussels and beyond.
MyCityLab initiative
In spring 2011 Cimatics will launch a long-term project called MyCityLab.
It is a user-driven open innovation network which will bring together artists, technologists, philosophers and citizens to investigate on how particularly social, locative and mobile network infrastructure and mobile devices can contribute to new ways of traveling through the city, dealing with locations and people.
Each MyCityLab project explores an original theme lasting between 9 to 36 months. The lab projects are run through the Cimatics festival, which acts as a living laboratory, an experimental playground where new cultural forms, technologies and new ways of public participation can be presented and evaluated by a live audience.
MyCityLab is part of the festival theme of involving local communities.
It has also the ambition of encouraging dialogue and cooperation between the different Belgian and international communities and stakeholders in the field of digital arts & culture while contributing to make the city environment more vivid, enjoyable and an equally shared place to live.