Santa Fe’s creative community is most known for the folk arts: pottery, jewelry, textiles. The city has an annual film festival, but generally speaking, cutting-edge media is not what most people think when they think about Santa Fe. So you may be surprised to learn that Santa Fe has hosted the Currents New Media Festival since 2010. This year’s festival will showcase some really cool stuff.
What’s the Currents New Media Festival All About?
The Currents New Media Festival is a city-wide celebration of Santa Fe’s techie side. It features multimedia performances, virtual reality, robotics, 3D printing, video and animation projects, and anything and everything cutting-edge.
You can find tech events in any major city in the U.S. What sets Santa Fe’s tech scene apart is the strong creative current running through this town. The event is orchestrated by Parallel Studios and aims not just to show off fancy new gadgets and apps, but to celebrate the work that inventive artists can bring to these new mediums.
In short: Yes, it’s a tech show. But it’s an art-first tech-show with a roster of partners and sponsors that includes major arts organizations and foundations in Santa Fe and the state.
Taking places across multiple venues for most of June, the festival offers a perfect way to explore Santa Fe while you find your perfect home here. Let us know what you’re looking for and we’d be glad to help.
Who’s Taking Part?
Meow Wolf is helping out, with an indoor arts showcase bringing high-tech to the fantastic interactive environments they’re known for creating.
Other participants to get excited about include Violet Crown Cinema, screening experimental video projects and documentaries, and the Railyard Plaza, where shows combining new media and performance art will take place.
Free showcases and exhibitions can be seen at form & concept and Art House. Axle Contemporary is bringing a mobile art gallery in its custom retrofitted 1970 aluminum van. El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe will host multimedia presentations and virtual reality performances from its Railyard Plaza facility.
Check out the complete schedule here.
When Does the Event Begin?
The 2018 event takes place from June 8 to June 24. This gives you a pretty wide window if you’re not able to explore the exhibitions right away.
Our advice: Don’t try to do the whole festival all at once. Many of the participants will be cycling different exhibitions in and out with new developers and teams showing up weeks into the event while others pack up and go. Just like modern technology, the festival is never quite the same thing from one day to the next.
