From 27 April to 3 May 2015, Dresden will become a hotspot for advanced music and related arts as the ICAS – International Cities of Advanced Sound network reunites over 20 music and media art festivals into a Festival of Festivals. Assembling a mix of club concerts, outdoor interventions, a multi-day conference programme, a film series, lab formats, as well as an exhibition, the festival adopts the theme of “Tools for an Unknown Future” in an attempt to examine how to cope with increasing uncertainty in the field of culture using the tools that have been developed in our society thus far. In times with no illusions of utopia, the urge to find methods of self-empowerment – a safety net in the face of the unknown – is more urgently needed than ever before.

CTM has joined other ICAS network members in producing the festival, and will be present in Dresden to participate in educational and conference activities. Within the intimate setting of Dresden, the ICAS festival provides an exceptional opportunity for artists, professionals, and the public to meet ICAS members from all over the world and to explore the strengths and challenges of multilateral collaboration on an international scale.

Participating Artists

Evian Christ live [UK] / Félicie d'Estienne d'Orves & Etienne Jaumet - "Satori" [FR] / Grey Branches (Yves de Mey) [BE] / Low Jack [FR] / Lorenzo Senni [IT] / Lotic [US] / Martin Bricelj Baraga & Olaf Bender - "NEUNUNDNEUNZIG" [SI/DE] / DJ Nigga Fox [PT] / Bocca al Lupo (Kathy Alberici with Federico Nitti) [INT] / Gabor Lazar [HU] / Jesse Ostobne-Lanthier [CA/DE] / Lumisokea [BE/IT] / Borusiade [RO] / RSS B0YS [PL] / Lief Hall [CA/DE] / N1L (Martins Rokis) [LV] / Shaddah Tuum [INT] / Charlotte Bendiks [NO] / Stanislav Abraham - "Shapescapes and Spectral Scenery" [CZ] / Sonic Robots - Mad Science, Bass & Robots! [DE] / QRG [BR] / Pasajera Oscura [AT] / Bruma [FR] / Assimilation Process [DE] / Matthijs Munnik & Joris Strojbox [NL] / Cooptrol [UY] / Mork [NO] / Michal Seba [CZ] / Heimo Lattner & Judith Laub [AT] / Random Logic [SI] / HUMATIC - "MNM Stage Version" ft. Mieko Suzuki [DE/JP] / Alien Productions [AT] / Alexander Dorn - "Phantasialand" [DE] / Cuthead [DE] / Mr. Incognito [DE]

Organisations present at the festival

Biennale Némo/ARCADI (Paris, FR) / Cimatics (Brussels, BE) / CTM Festival (Berlin, DE) / Cultures Electroni[K] (Rennes, FR) / CynetArt (Dresden, DE) / FutureEverything (Manchester, UK) / Insomnia (Tromsø, NO) / Les siestes électroniques (Toulouse, FR) / MeetFactory (Prague, CZ) / MoTA – Museum of Transitory Art (Ljubliana, SI) / ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst (Graz, AT) / RIAM (Marseilles, FR) / Rokolectiv (Bucharest, RO) / Schiev Festival (Brussels, BE) / Skaņu Mežs (Riga, LV) / SOCO (Montevideo, UY) / TodaysArt (The Hague, NL) / UH Festival (Budapest, HU) / Unsound (Kraków, PL) / with more to come

ECAS and SHAPE Initiatives

As part of its exploration of the “Tools for an Unknown Future” theme, the festival will in part present two projects created within the ICAS network. The closure of the ECAS project, which united 9 European ICAS members in an intense 5-year trajectory of artistic collaboration and knowledge exchange will be examined via the presentation of several ECAS-commissioned works and supported artists as well as topics within the conference programme.

As the ECAS project comes to a close, a brand-new multi-year initiative within the ICAS network will in turn suggest a different realm of possibilities for multilateral collaboration. SHAPE (Sound, Heterogeneous Art, and Performance in Europe) unites 16 organisations over 3 years in support of 144 artists through performance and educational opportunities as well as a large number of discussions and workshops within the daytime conference programme.

Taking these two major ICAS network projects as starting points, the ICAS Festival will thus explore ways in which artists and cultural workers can cope with an increasingly uncertain future.

→ ICAS Festival website.
→ Facebook event.