Telfair Museums’ PULSE Art + Technology Festival enters its 12th year with a heady blend of immersive art experiences, lectures, family programs, music, and more. PULSE includes the featured exhibition Radiance, a new immersive installation by artists Max Almy, Teri Yarbrow, and Josephine Leong. The exhibition includes mandala-like video installations and a virtual reality experience that allows visitors to enter an interactive field of light. A showcase of recent virtual and augmented reality projects includes Danish artist Jakob Kudst Steensen’s new VR experience Aquaphobia, in which visitors will explore a futuristic landscape that addresses fear of water and rising ocean levels. Wangshu Sun’s VR installation Dream of Wings allows you to soar over a landscape as a bird, and other new immersive works will rotate into Telfair’s ongoing TechSpace.
PULSE programs include an opening night lecture by the artists of the Radiance exhibition and a new projection performance by festival mainstays the Medeology Collective. The second evening will focus on STEAM education with a free, all-ages screening of the new documentary film Dream Big, highlighting engineers making the world a better place. Avery Bang, a distinguished engineer featured in the film, will participate in a panel and answer audience questions afterward. Elementary- through college-age students can also enjoy two free morning programs of exciting presentations and dialogue with creatives working in tech fields from VR to coding and videogames.
Other events include the museum’s annual PULSE Family Day and STEAM Expo featuring hands-on tech projects for all ages, creative tech demos from local schools and colleges, and live performances. Free workshops for students and teachers will get participants started in app development, videogame design, and coding. The program closes with a new take on the science fiction film classic Metropolis. Artists Alessandro Imperato and David Spencer reprocess a public domain version of the film with live visual effects, accompanied by a live electronic musical score. Get your wonder on and experience the future at PULSE 2018.