Synch, a festival of new sights and sounds now in Gazi

Three days of digital movies, new media, music

The relationship between technology and contemporary art continues to be explored at the Synch Festival, which now, in its fourth year, is presented within the context of the Athens Festival.

A celebration of new sounds and images, Synch has been moved from Lavrion to the center of Athens and is taking place from Sunday to July 24 at the Technopolis arts complex in Gazi.

The new technologies in the art section of Synch, one of the festival’s most popular parts, involve the moving image and new means of technology, focusing on digital movies, animation use and/or special digital effects.

According to organizers, the aim of the “Digital Cinema” tribute is to provide a platform for Greek productions that use special effects and animation, as well as presenting the most important international trends in this field.

The program “Moving Image: Digital Cinema” is broken up into two basic categories: The first category comprises short-length movies, animation and experimental films, while the second will showcase commercial productions, such as advertisements, VFX artists’ show reels and music videos. Finally, an important part of the program covers presentations by Australian VFX supervisor Tim Baier (who has worked with major productions, such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Batman Returns” and “Fantastic Four”) and 3D computer animator Dimitris Liatsos.

Screenings and presentations take place in the 9.84 Amphitheater at Technopolis.

In rooms D10 and D12, there will be a presentation of works from the “New Media” chapter of the event, as well as an exhibition on “Invisible Systems.”

The exhibition presents artists and initiatives that exemplify new media strategies on different cultural levels, and reflect the strategies in their concepts, content and form.

According to the exhibit’s curators Alexandra Landre and Antonis Pittas, “‘Invisible Systems’ is not about making a definite academic distinction or presenting new media as a genre but sees that the language of new media is infiltrating all kinds of cultural production and creating new dialects.”

A similar point of view also imbues the musical part of the festival.

Some 60 bands and DJs will perform at the three-day festival, from 7 p.m. till way past midnight, at four different venues.

Acts that stand out are Fischerspooner, which conquered the dance scene with their album “No 1,” and took a more emotional tone with their next album, “Odyssey.”

Another band performing live is !!!. Usually pronounced “chk, chk, chk,” the act’s name can be pronounced by uttering any kind of repetitive sound with three intervals.

In fact, its record label is currently accepting fans’ proposals for alternate interpretations of the three exclamation marks.

The band’s most recent, third, album, “Myth Takes,” is a collage of sounds with heavy bass lines, guitars and electro-house sounds, fusing 70s Jamaican dub with 21st century club music.

At the same time, however, !!! doesn’t shy away from the sweet pop sound.

For more information, log on to www.synch.gr.