Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Dan Deacon confirmed as artist in residence for Convergence 2016

By | Published on Wednesday 20 January 2016

Dan Deacon

Organisers of the Convergence festival have announced that this year’s edition will introduce an artist-in-residency programme, with experimental composer Dan Deacon the first artist to take on that role. In addition to a gig at Village Underground, Deacon will lead a masterclass with the Guildhall Young Arts Academy, will be found in conversation with Mary Ann Hobbs, and will take part in another collaborative event to be announced soon.

Deacon’s involvement has been confirmed alongside a bunch more additions to the bill for this year’s event, which takes place in venues across London from 10-20 Mar. Among the new additions are Junun featuring Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express, Nurse With Wound, Factory Floor, Anna Von Hausswolff, Colin Stetson, Shit Robot, Karen Gwyer, Kara-Lis Coverdale and Simbiosi.

The festival will also present ‘Pieces Of A Man: The Gil Scott-Heron Project’, a day of talks, screenings and performances described as “a celebration of the life and legacy of the legendary American soul and jazz poet, musician and author”. Kwabs, Jamie Woon, Nadine Shah, Loyle Carner and Gwilym Gold are amongst those taking part in that.

The Convergence Sessions also return, a daytime programme of talks, debates and workshops, this time taking place at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. Mixcloud, onedotzero, Hellicar & Lewis, Seeper and Makerversity are all involved, as are the team from CMU Insights who will put the spotlight on the shifts and challenges occurring in media and journalism. More on that very soon too.

Commenting on all this, Festival Director Glenn Max says: “While there is no single theme to this year’s array of installations, talks, and concerts, a recurring idea is the re-materialisation of culture beyond its digital vaporisation. Technology provides all of the instruments for innovation but – for it to mean something to our human culture – we need the disruptive ingenuity and emotional investment of artists”.

He goes on: “Technology wants us to be clean, carefully quantised and perfectly composed, but it is when artists break the rules that we are compelled and delighted. We want our relationship with music and art to be messy, tangled and sprawling. Convergence is a many-headed beast led by heroic innovators, fiery personalities and evocative voices that are masters, rather than slaves, to the algorithm”.

Check it all out at www.convergence-london.com



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