Totally Dublin

From today until to Sunday some of the most innovative artists, performers and film-makers will converge on Dublin’s Smithfield for the Darklight festival, an annual celebration of art in its various forms. Here Programme Director Derek O’ Connor introduces this year’s diverse schedule of events, explains how the festival has progressed in the decade since its establishment and why it’s more significant now then ever.

In what ways do you think the Darklight festival has evolved in the years following its foundation?

I think that it’s constantly evolving. We’re always looking forward. This year we’ve given the festival the title of ‘New World Order’ which refers to a comment Gordon Brown made earlier this year in one of his speeches about how the political and financial landscape has drastically changed. Similarly the landscape of film, art and performance has taken a huge shift. Every year there are new trends and we’re constantly trying to stay ahead of the crowd and gage what they will be.

Most festivals tend to focus on one particular discipline but Darklight celebrates the convergence of art, film, theatre, performance and technology making it the only festival of its kind in Ireland. Why do you think it’s important for us to have a festival like this?

I think that’s the answer. It’s an important festival because it’s the only one of its kind. People always ask us what exactly Darklight is and that’s a question we ask ourselves all the time. It’s mainly about celebrating art, film, technology and their convergence. We’re very dedicated and passionate about we do and the festival is a way of bringing people together who are driven by a similar enthusiasm. A key focus of ours is to encourage creativity wherever possible. We’re a very artist-friendly event. We’re interested in the successful artists of the modern age but also try to encourage and support the next generation of artists. Darklight is as much about the people who aren’t as well known and providing them with a platform to showcase their work.

Do you think that the festival caters for a very specific community or that it’s accessible for all?

I think in the past there was some concern that it might be seen as something for the cool kids. If anything we cater for geeks of all ages and sizes. We’re actually having a geek lounge on Saturday which is basically a chance for media, technology and design enthusiasts to hang-out and get excited about new applications and technologies. It would be inclusive if we confined ourselves to traditional spaces but we take art and film out onto the streets. We’re trying to reach out to everyone. I think ultimately the festival appeals to anyone who’s into fun, interesting and experimental work. We get the most eclectic crowd imaginable, where film-makers and artists are part of the audience as well as contributors.

Darklight is a festival concerned with cutting-edge technology and its incorporation into various artistic mediums. How do you think that advances in technology have affected the festival?

Ultimately what technology provides is freedom for people to create imaginative work un-tethered by financial constraints. Technology is no longer a means unto itself. People are using it to create new and exciting work. There’s a whole new generation of artists who are constantly coming up with interesting artistic concepts and figuring out new ways to present them. We have created a forum where people can view and appreciate that work but we also try to showcase the new approaches to media and technology behind it, for example we’re showing a lot of shorts and animated film this year which there have been some incredible progressions in.

Darklight is all about innovation, experimentation and pushing at the boundaries. Are these things that you’ve tried to reflect in the programme that you’ve chosen?

I think so. We have two-time Turner prize nominee Willie Doherty doing an installation on one of the empty shop fronts. His piece is a commentary on urban living spaces and our relationship with them. The screenings of course are a core element but we’re also excited about our Straylight programme, which is the visual arts strand of the festival. Amanda Coogan, one of the most exciting visual artists around at the moment, will be working with an artist called Niamh Murphy and together they’re co-ordinating a performance weekender. It will be a really concentrated, intense session for people who are interested in performance art.

We’re also organising a series of forums and seminars this year, one of which is with Pirate Party member Anna Troberg who represents a very valid, forward-thinking ideology about the freedom of copyright, which is a topic that’s generated a lot of discussion of late. Una Mullally is doing a pop culture seminar which we’ve called Has pop eaten itself? It’s about how pop culture has accelerated and morphed to the point that there’s no reality or authenticity in it anymore.

We’re also showing an REM film that was shot live in Dublin’s Olympia theatre by Vincent Moon. He’s famous for organising jam sessions in really strange places. He once got The Arcade Fire to do a show in a lift. It’s a fantastic concert movie.

The centre-piece of the festival is Niall Sweeney’s spectacular show Revolver on Saturday night and it’s performance-based which has never been the case before with a main event.

In the middle of all of this is our main international guest, Mark Romanek. He’s a hugely influential film-maker who has done features such as One Hour Photo, but his music videos like Johnny Cash’s Hurt and Jay Z’s 99 Problems are also stunning. His work is truly as good as that medium gets. We’re doing a film-making session with him, a general Q&A and retrospective of his career so far where we’ll show his greatest work.

Why did you decide to change locations this year?

Normally the festival is more Dublin-wide. We decided to pool our resources and concentrate our efforts on one place this year. What’s interesting is that Smithfield was originally intended as one thing and now has become another. The area was a bright, shining paragon to Celtic Tiger Ireland but we’re in a post-boom phase now and because of the cheap rent and available space there it’s become a haven for artists. There’s this curious dynamic to the district. I think it’s in a fantastic state of flux at the moment and we’re seizing that moment.

Research has shown that people embrace artistic mediums such as the cinema and theatre for escapism in times of economic instability. Do you think that the success of Darklight and other celebrations of the arts is a testament to that fact?

I think that financial success doesn’t necessarily correlate with creativity. The last ten years have been one of the most inspired and creative times in Irish history. The next couple of years will be very interesting because of the current political and financial extremities. I think the reaction to what’s happening will be a swell of creativity in Ireland. There’s very little money to be made in artistic endeavours so the people who pursue them will be involved purely for love of the work. It’s an interesting time, a tough time but we have to try and derive some positives and I think one positive is that people will be inspired and create great work.

For more Darklight coverage, including an interview with savage Savage director, Brendan Muldowney, have a look here.

Words Aoife O’Regan