Microwave International New Media Arts Festival

rdf:langString Microwave International New Media Arts Festival

rdf:langString Microwave International New Media Arts Festival (Chinese: 微波國際新媒體藝術節) is a new media art festival based in Hong Kong. It began in 1996 as the annual video art festival for local video art collective Videotage. In 2006, it became independent from Videotage and in 2007 it officially became fully independent as the government's previous "presenter" role was handed over to Microwave. The government remains the main sponsor of the Festival, although many more sponsors are sought for each year's Festival. The annual festival generally includes a main exhibition at the Hong Kong City Hall, a smaller scale and usually more alternative exhibition in a separate venue, a keynote conference, performances, screening programmes and other special events organised each year. In 2007, the performance by US art collective Graffiti Research Lab that "hacked the city" with their along with the participation of local graffiti artist MC Yan, they achieved a record-breaking tag 1,200 metres across Victoria Harbour (James Powderly and MC Yan tagging from Central ferry, with Evan Roth and the local crew controlling the set up in front of the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui). In its first extended event outside of the annual November Festival, Microwave also held the "A-Glow-Glow" Macro Interactive Media Art Exhibition in April 2008, which was funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and aimed for more mass appeal. Two large-scale interactive LED artworks were placed by the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, right across the harbour from the Hong Kong City Hall, where the annual festival main exhibition is held. Microwave's festival design, by local design partner , also consistently wins design awards almost every year since their partnership commenced.