featuring

Ryoji Ikeda Christian Fennesz Biosphere
BJNilsen Rosy Parlane Philip Jeck

plus

The Open Ended Group

and

si-cut.db v3ctor
northern loop

SightSonic 2006, York International Festival of Digital Arts.

Since 2000 SightSonic has presented an annual programme of digital art works by leading international artists. For 2006 SightSonic joins forces with Touch, one of the UK's leading experimental labels, to celebrate the label's 25th anniversary. The Touch 25 programme features Touch artists from around the world including Biosphere, Rosy Parlane and BJNilsen, and a welcome return to the festival by Christian Fennesz. We are also presenting a unique opportunity to hear about Touch, its artistic vision, curation, its technical realisation, its use of web technologies and design in a Touch 25 Conference. The conference will include talks and presentations by label curators Jon Wozencroft and Mike Harding, presentations by artists Christian Fennesz, Phil Jeck, audio mastering engineer Denis Blackham and web designer Philip Marshall.

We are also delighted to feature a unique UK performance by Ryoji Ikeda, presented in multi-channel sound at the National Centre for Early Music. Ryoij Ikeda is Japan's leading electronic composer/artist. He focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself. For SightSonic he will perform an exclusive audio-only performance of pieces from his last four releases on Touch.

Regular festival events such as the SightSonic Club, this year featuring si-cut.db, multimedia installations and our emerging artists' showcase The Artists' Platform complete the line-up of our most ambitious festival to date.

It's extremely exciting for me to see some of the world's most innovative and creative artists presenting their work in York. The SightSonic partners are delighted to have become the UK home to Touch 25 celebrations during 2006/7 and will be presenting more Touch 25 events over the coming months.

Tony Myatt
Chair, SightSonic Art Group