Urban Wonderland

Are you tired of looking at the city? Is it all “same jam, different road” to you? Then you’ll want to witness Re-Imagining The City when it hits Kuala Lumpur. As part of an 11-city tour across the East Asian region, Re-Imagining is a two-day audio-visual extravanganza, from 5 to 6 April, which will focus on how a city can be developed and shaped by architects, filmmakers, designers and more. Helping British Council with this ambitious project are onedotzero and D-Fuse, two exciting media outfits from the UK.

onedotzero was founded 11 years ago at the start of the desktop revolution. It now calls itself a hybrid organization and dabbles in just about everything from events, education, digital art, publishing and more. Recently named one of the UK’s top ten film visionaries, onedotzero has worked with clients like Live8, Oasis, Absolut Vodka and the Rolling Stones’s Bigger Bang tour.

D-Fuse on the other hand, recently collaborated with Beck on his Guero DVD audio. It had them interpreting Beck’s album with moving images to breathtaking effect. Needless to say, Re-Imagining will be great with those two around. Here’s what’s going on under the Re-Imagining banner.

Surface
5 April, 8.30pm. Admission is free before 10pm. Zouk.
A definite festival highlight, Surface is a project spearheaded by D-Fuse in a collaboration with local creatives like Altered Image, Ahmad Fariz, Nazim Esa and Blastique. Surface is a labour of love as it involves so much time and effort. Prior to the event, D-Fuse have filmed and recorded footages of our city and investigated what makes KL tick. Together with music by our DJs and graphics, you’ll be able to see the results of their experiment and hopefully, see KL a lot differently. This is going to be intense!

Graphic Cities
5 April & 6 April, 3pm (5 April), 11am (6 April). Admission is free. The Annexe @ Central Market.
Curated by onedotzero, this screening shows artists’ interpretations of urbanscapes through innovative, moving image work. Artists involved in this include Neutral, Ed Holdsworth, Richard Fenwick, Light Surgeons, MK12, Steve Glashier and Metaphorm. Also, KLue will be curating a selection of local films to be screened as well.

How Artists Shape Our City
6 April, 2pm. Admission is free. The Annexe @ Central Market.
This panel discussion includes speakers from both East and West. Hear thoughts from Shane Walter (founder of onedotzero), Matthias Kispert of D-Fuse and from local artists on the role of creatives’s in the shaping of our cities.

HD Filming & Editing Workshop
6 April, 5pm. Admission is by registration. The Annexe @ Central Market. To register, e-mail arts@britishcouncil.org.my
This is your chance to improve on your skills under the tutelage of Barney Steel from D-Fuse. Spaces are really limited so best e-mail them early for a seat!

Text Sarah Chan