Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival 2012

Following its launch weekend in June, AND Festival makes a triumphant return to Manchester from Wed 29 Aug – Sun 2 Sep 2012.

Abandon Normal Devices strives to recognise experimentation across cinema, art and technology as a core concern of art-making and this expanding of possibilities forms the foundation for the 2012 festival.

Whether artists and filmmakers are chasing perfection, or caught up in the process of a radical experiment, they cannot help but challenge the very meaning of success. The artists featured in AND 2012 will take on society’s endless quest to progress and in doing so will find new ways to welcome both success and failure on their own terms.

Among it’s guests this year are Mammalian Diving Reflex who together with a team of teenagers will provide advice on everything from relationships to finances. Plus artistic duo HeHe will ambitiously lay down a new transport system in Manchester, the very antithesis of hi-speed travel.

While failure in life can still feel like a taboo, in art it has a different currency that can reveal the unexpected. From glitchy technologies, travelling caravans, to self-help platforms and philosophical peep shows, this year’s festival line-up includes artists who embrace doubt, outsiders, error and humour to create a programme where paradox can rule!

Full programme details can be found on the AND Festival website

Accomodation partners:

Palace hotel logo    

Previously in this Festival

Stanya Kahn: It’s Cool, I’m Good

The first UK solo show of LA-based artist Stanya Kahn features recent video work, drawings and a brand new commission. Absurd, poignant and darkly comic,…

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Filmmaker discussion/ Follow

We are pleased to welcome star of Follow Scottee plus Paulo Cirio, Tim Brunsden, Chris Shepherd and Mark Amerika for an informal post-screening discussion on…

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AND 2012 Shorts: Programme 1

This years AND shorts include dramas, animations and unconventional approaches to filmmaking. Chosen from responses to the festival’s annual open call for submissions, we present…

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AND 2012 Shorts: Programme 2

This years AND shorts include dramas, animations and unconventional approaches to filmmaking. Chosen from responses to the festival’s annual open call for submissions, we present…

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Panel Discussion/ Ask A Teenager

Join us for a panel discussion with Darren O’ Donnell, founder and director of Mammalian Diving Reflex, Neil Winterburn who facilitated the Ask A Teenager…

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Filmmakers’ Q&A/ Piercing I

We are pleased to welcome director Liu Jian and producer Lynne Wang for a Q&A after the Sun 2 September screening of Piercing I. Supported…

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Double Bill: Jouer Ponette and Nana

A double bill of two French films which explore childhood, Jouer Ponette and Nana.

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All Divided Selves

Nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, artist Luke Fowler’s debut feature explores the seminal Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing. This documentary film is both a gallery…

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Indignados

Tony Gatlif’s (Latcho Drom and Exils) latest film is an activist docudrama inspired by Stéphane Hessel’s bestselling essay Time for Outrage! The semi-fictional story is…

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Artist’s Talk/ Wafaa Bilal

Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal joins us to talk about his previous works and practice which include 3rdi, when he had a camera surgically implanted on…

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What is This Film Called Love?

Filmed in Mexico over three days, for £10, What is This Film Called Love begins as a film about the soviet director Sergei Eisenstein. A…

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Follow

Follow is a live and evolving documentary that follows performance artist Scottee’s obsession with a Twitter persona. Told over four different episodes (each one responding…

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Tilva Roš

Nikola Ležaić’s first time feature is a portrait of misguided youth on the brink of maturity trying to find a sense and purpose in life…

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Bye Bye Blondie

A tender-hearted tale of punked out lesbian love, starring Emmanuelle Béart and Béatrice Dalle from director and author Virginie Despentes.

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Performance Events/ Ask A Teenager

Submit your problems to our panel of teens as part of this project by Mammalian Diving Reflex.

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Al & Al: The Creator

The Creator explores the legendary myth of the father of the computer age and maker of AI (Artificial Intelligence) machines, Alan Turing. Combining Lynchian nightmare…

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Come as You Are

Three young men in their early twenties go on a road trip to lose their virginity. A funny and cringe-inducing film that falls somewhere between…

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Stepping Into The Light/ Jeremy Finch

Jeremy Finch has long been a musical star, touring the country in lead roles and doing a full year in the West End in The…

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