L.E.V. Festival closes 2020 with its XRmass Edition in Gijón/Xixón, a series of on-site and online activities from 21 to 24 December

    • L.E.V. ends the year with a four day programme in a hybrid format, including activities to enjoy at home, and on-site activities in the city of Gijón/Xixón, with limited seats and all the hygienic-sanitary measures necessary to ensure the safety of those who attend.
    • The Virtual Reality experiences Planet LEV VR and Symphony of Noise will be shown at Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura, plus a photogrammetry and 3D scanning workshop with Carlos Martorell.
    • Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura and Espigón de Fomento will host Uramado AR TanukisAwake. An Augmented Reality experience for all ages, which can be accessed through a free mobile app.
    • New activities will be included in the online section and the context of the virtual world Planet LEV, available for web browsers, and now also on Steam platform. There will be audiovisual installations and a new exhibition, plus the premiere of Planet LEV:Navegando Pixels, an audiovisual documentary about this digital universe.
    • LEV XRmass will also include online live shows by Asturian bands OKKRE and dot tape dot, plus the world premiere of an exclusive live show by Pedro Pablo Bazán’s project, ALMA.

L.E.V. Festival, Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual has organized a series of activities to close the year. Under the moniker of LEV XRmass, it will include several activities to enjoy online and also on-site in the city of Gijón/Xixón from 21 to 24 December. A hybrid format to close L.E.V.’s programme for 2020, a year dominated by the pandemic, a big challenge but also an opportunity to experiment with new spaces for digital creativity.

The on-site programme at Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura will include virtual reality experiences, a photogrammetry and 3D scanning workshop, and an augmented reality activity for all ages which will also take place at Espigón de Fomento. There will be limited seats for these activities, plus all the hygienic-sanitary measures necessary to ensure the safety of those who attend. Moreover, the online programme will include premieres and audiovisual live shows, plus new initiatives around the interactive and virtual universe Planet LEV.

Virtual reality experiences

From 21 to 24 December, Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura will host two virtual reality experiences: A Symphony of Noise VR and Planet LEV VR. The first one is an immersive, interactive project by Michaela Pnacekova and Jamie Balliu, based on the works by musician Matthew Herbert, where the audience will be able to create their own sound compositions. A history through sound in a surrealistic, tantalizing world, where you will listen to your body and your daily life in ways you have never done before.

From Laboral you will also be able to use virtual reality devices to travel to a new digital world with the Planet LEV VR experience. A universe born during lockdown, created by Children of Cyberspace and coproduced by L.E.V. and Centro de Creación Contemporánea Matadero Madrid, in which the audience will enter in a dreamlike landscape inspired by Asturias, a journey which is an artistic experience by itself, and which hosts animated sculptures and audiovisual installations which can be explored in first person.

New initiatives in the context of Planet LEV

Besides immersing yourself in Planet LEV from Laboral in VR, this virtual universe can also be visited from home through web browsers at planet.levfestival.com. L.E.V. XRmass brings some big news: the planet will also be available on Steam, a digital distribution platform which hosts video games and virtual reality experiences, both from independent developers and big studios, for all users with VR devices.

The circuit of art installations which the planet already contained since its creation in September 2020, with pieces by Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez, Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones, MSHR, Elías Merino & Sergio Millan, Sabrina Ratte, and NAXS Corp. & Meuko Meuko!, welcomes a new addition: Spheral.cluster, a new piece created by Boris Divider. An audiovisual work designed for domos which will occupy Planet LEV’s central dome, a follow-up to his previous work Spheral.dome, with a visual and artistic concept deeply linked to sound improvisation.

In the orbit of this virtual planet we can also find a new exhibition which will open LEV XRmass: Ecosystems @ORBIT by Shoeg (Carlos Martorell). This exhibition contains a series of virtual spaces created with low resolution 3D scans of natural elements. Halfway between simulation and abstraction, this work suggests reconstructions which bring to mind the planets in the video game No Man’s Sky and Rousseau’s jungles. At Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura, on December 22 and 23, Carlos Martorell will also host an on-site workshop of photogrammetry and 3D scanning to learn the techniques used to create the pieces that can be visited in Planet LEV’s new exhibition.

To learn more about the creation of this planet, this edition’s online programme will premiere Planet LEV. Navegando Pixels, an audiovisual piece on Monday 21 at 6 PM, to discover the history, geography and art contents of Planet LEV. A combination of a digital nature documentary, a guided tour of a virtual museum and a travel guide for cyberspace tourists, it will be shown on L.E.V. Festival’s YouTube channel.

On Wednesday 23 at 9 PM, also on the Festival’s YouTube Channel, an audiovisual live show by Okkre, the composer of Planet LEV’s soundscape, will combine selected sounds of the planet with her own sonic universe, with visuals of the planet’s nature specifically designed by its creators, Children of Cyberspace.

Besides, on Thursday 24 at 6 PM, there will be another new live audiovisual show by dot tape dot, from his series LIKE A BUNCH OF FIREFLIES, which may be enjoyed inside Planet LEV and also on the Festival’s YouTube channel and STEAM. Conceived as a unique piece of 45 minutes, this online show is a summary of Daniel Romero’s last works about algorithmic and generative composition. Dreamlike ambient and ethereal melodies, accompanied by a group of sonic fireflies and digital insects which belong to the universe of these compositions.

World premiere by ALMA for L.E.V. Festival

On Tuesday 22 at 9 PM, on the Festival’s YouTube channel, we will have the online world premiere of a new live show by ALMA, the surprising project by Gijón musician Pedro Pablo Bazán, who released his first album Invierno Totalitario in November 2019.

The live show will be recorded exclusively for L.E.V. Festival at Teatro de la Laboral, supported by the Town Council of Gijón/Xixón’ Youth Desk. Raúl T. Andrés will play and remix the album’s tracks in real time, while Pedro Pablo Bazán will be in charge of the feedback controlled mixing desk, adding vocals and playing electric guitar. The show design is inspired by Antonin Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty”, resulting in a “ceremonial experience destined to free the human subconscious and rebel against social conscience”, where lighting and stage design play a role as important as music itself.

Subscribe: youtu.be/3Q8xOCPIXa0

Augmented reality for all the family: URAMADO AR

Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura and Espigón de Fomento will also host LEV XRmass’ URAMADO AR: TanukisAwake, an activity in Augmented Reality for all ages by Julie Stephen Chheng, which may be accessed through smartphones. We will join the search for some fascinating creatures hidden in the city: the Tanukis. The app invites us to interact with space and find these wood spirits, which will help us discover who we really are. After the Festival is over, the activity will remain in both spaces until January 6.

L.E.V. Festival in Gijón/Xixón is an undertaking of DATATRON collective, supported by the Government of the Principality of Asturias and the Town Council of Gijón/Xixón. It keeps on tracking the evolution of new electronic and audiovisual languages on the most cutting edge side of digital creativity.

FULL PROGRAMME:

ON-SITE ACTIVITIES

Symphony of Noise and Planet LEV VR – Virtual Reality Experiences
From 21 to 24 December.

Schedule:
Monday 21, from 15:00h to 21:00h
Tuesday 22 and wednesday 23, from 11:00h to 14:00h and from 15:00h to 21:00h
Thursday 24, from 11:00h to 14:00h and from 15:00h to 18:00h

Pases cada hora / Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura
Invitations available from Tuesday 15 at 2 PM in www.laboralciudaddelacultura.com and Teatro de la Laboral’s box office on the days 21, 22, 23 and 24 December.

Photogrammetry and 3D scanning workshop with Carlos Martorell (Shoeg)
December 22 and 23, from 10 AM to 2 PM. / Laboral Ciudad de la Cultural
Invitations available from Tuesday 15 at 2 PM in www.laboralciudaddelacultura.com and Teatro de la Laboral’s box office on the days 21, 22, 23 and 24 December.

Uramado AR: Tanukis Awake – Augmented Reality Experience
From december 21 to january 6 / Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura y Espigón de Fomento
Free activity downloading the app URAMADO AR, available for iOS and Android.

ONLINE ACTIVITIES

Planet LEV Experience: virtual universe with audiovisual and art installations
Available for web browsers (planet.levfestival.com) and on Steam platform.
From 21 December. Opening of the exhibition: Ecosystems @ORBIT. Shoeg Opening of the installation: Spheral.cluster de Boris Divider

Premiere of Planet LEV. Navegando Pixels
21 December, 6 PM. Broadcast from the Festival’s YouTube channel

World Premiere of ALMA
22 December, 9 PM. Broadcast from the Festival’s YouTube channel

Online Live Show Okkre + Children of Cyberspace
23 December, 8 PM. Broadcast from the Festival’s YouTube channel

Online Live Show dot tape dot: LIKE A BUNCH OF FIREFLIES
24 December, 6 PM. Broadcast from the Festival’s YouTube channel, planet.levfestival.com  and STEAM

More information

www.levfestival.com
#LEVFestival