Submissions invited for AltPitch festival in March

The AltPitch Arts and Technology Festival is inviting submissions for its inaugural event online in March. Commissions are on offer for the best entries, and there will also be a live-streamed debate on the future of technology in arts. Nick Terdre reports, images from Pexels.

This year’s inaugural AltPitch Arts and Technology Festival, due to be held last March, had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now the organisers are preparing to hold the event in March.

It will be online – not such a change as it was always planned to make the festival partly digital, says executive producer Anastasia Witts.

Submissions are invited for work from art organisations and individual artists with a deadline of 15 January. Any genre, style or subject which explores the interaction between technology and humanity either by topic or by form, will be considered, including, but not limited to, film, animation, theatre, music, opera/musical theatre and art installation.

The festival team, including Hastings’ very own artist and curator Esther Fox, will shortlist no more than nine works for the main programme, which will compete for three commissions of £1,500 each to support their next production.

“I’m delighted to be the programme curator for the Alt Pitch Festival,” Fox told HOT. ” This really is a wonderful opportunity for artists and performers to be part of a showcase of cutting-edge artistic practice that embraces the digital.

“There are three commissions of £1,500 available and other prizes, so it really is something not to be missed! I hope that many of the fantastic creative practitioners in Hastings and St Leonards will apply, alongside others from across the country.”

The commission winners will be determined by the audience rating, says Witts – “So you will have a chance to bring your own audience to the project to vote for your work.”

Live debate

And watch out for the AltPitch Platform, she says – this will be a live debate on the future of technology in arts by prominent industry professionals  which will be streamed from Hastings during the festival.

To watch and rate entries for the main programme viewers will have to purchase a £3 ticket.

There is also a fringe programme, which can be watched free, and some prizes to win from the festival’s prize partners. The curators will make their choice of the best entry to be given a £500 prize towards the cost of their next production.

The fringe programme will be launched on 1 February and the main programme on 1 March. Watch and rate will be available during the whole of March, and winners will be announced on 1 April.

More details on the festival and making submissions here.

For more information visit @AltPitch and the digital communications agency @ArtistDigitalUK.

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