The uneven social development has become obvious; among other things, the richest inhabitants of this planet have amounted obscene amounts of capital from the development and sales of computer hardware and software, mobile technology applications etc. The tendencies friendlier to the general public have been trying to assert non-commercial, open source computer programs, which are not sold, but offered to be used freely and can be updated. KIBLIX has been a meeting point for this narrower, more specific aspect of the open code between 2002 and 2008, when it transformed into an open code for artistic use and thus expanded the scope of open code treatment. The Zeitgeist dictated a systematic analysis and evaluation of new technologies also in relation to the established economy and law, copyrights and the search for alternative ways out of this grip. In connection to present-day social networks, science, sociology, technologies, culture and arts, an open access to information and knowledge is created for everyone, which enables the cooperation between artists, creators and scientists, while offering to the general public a number of different educational entities and an incentive to the visitors to (co)produce creative products.

For the first time this year, the IFCA-KIBLIX 2013 is taking place at Maribor’s Kibla Portal, an old textile factory hall spreading on over 2000m2, thus joining the dispersed festival units on a single location. We will thus feature a get-together of people working in the field of arts and culture, researchers and everyone else who is willing to receive additional knowledge about the theoretical and research work, as well as anyone willing to share and experience the creative forms of artistic experimentation and interpretation; willing to discover, work, discuss, listen and share their ideas and findings. The IFCA-KIBLIX 2013 includes interaction with various target audiences and encourages an active collaboration by everyone, especially young people, students and people with long-time professional experience. Culture and science intertwine as disciplines, constructively exchanging cultural models of critical thinking, activism and experimentation with scientific methods, research and knowledge.

With the IFCA-KIBLIX2013 edition, entitled When Worlds Collide, coding and contemporary interdisciplinary forms of artistic conceptions are intertwined inside complex junctions of different worlds and approaches, in the tension between the natural and the bio-technological, the virtual and the hybrid, the fake and the genuine principle, which – in an abundance of dialogs, contradictions and junctions – becomes visible in the form of artistic installations, digital records of process works, performances, lectures, presentations, workshops and audio-visual events.

An important consideration about the post-anthropocentric aspect that establishes a surpassing of the nature – society dualism, and about the intra-disciplinary possibilities for the (co-)existence of bios and techna, was contributed by the visiting team of artists-selectors: Maja Smrekar, Robertina Šebjanič, Saša Spačal and Ida Hiršendelder, mostly by means of a selection of artists in the performative, workshop and audio-visual part of the festival platform, which is fitted into the complex program scheme.

This creative, multi-layered form of collaborations within the festival as such, has been named in the words of Dragan Klajić as “the art of partnership”.

This year, the festivals are taking place in the common area of a deserted textile factory at Valvasorjeva 40 Street, Maribor, at the KIBLA Portal.

The integrative denomination of the festival MFRU-KIBLIX2013: “When Worlds Collide” derives from the 1951′s classic science fiction movie of the same title. The symbolism of the movie emphasizes division, the paradox of a gap between the developed and underdeveloped Third World. Respectively, MFRU-KIBLIX2013 symbolizes the living nature, reality in which we live in and is closely tied to and dependant on the swift development of science, technology and consequently art, making it impossible for us to keep up with it promptly.

MFRU-KIBLIX2013 “When Worlds Collide” represents a bridge between the theoretical and practical content of intermedia arts, associating them with digital media, scientific achievements and technological novelties. It stimulates interactive cooperation of different approaches to digital arts, as well as their integration into practical, namely productive and pedagogical environment. Computer art is the founding stone of new media, signifying that a computer is becoming a tool, whereas an artist still remains a creative producer.

But is it really so? Or is it just the other way around? Intermedia and computer artists in Slovenia and across Europe showcase various intriguing approaches to the subject. The festival enables the annual promotion of contemporary artistic-programming orientation, with its global impact being fortified by modern technology; therefore, the festival’s implication as an incubator of upcoming, mostly Slovenian young artists, is of a particular importance, as it contributes to fulfilling a loophole in Maribor’s events and strengthens its reputation of a European festival city.

Lack of time and more so opportunity prevent us from autonomously keeping pace with technological progress of institutes and research organizations. That is why this festival is a unique opportunity to become familiar with at least one part of this progress, which demonstrates itself through artistic approaches towards new technologies and through creative use of computers. Artists are visionaries, striving to be one step ahead in the future, while still reflecting and commenting on current society. Consequently, they are developing interactive installations and robots, executing experiments with modern technology, printing 3D objects from highly diverse materials, both natural and unnatural. Interdisciplinarity of science, technology and art therefore goes hand-in-hand with the development of transdisciplinarity – integrating modern concepts which call for joint collaboration of the previously mentioned operators in order to be understood.

This year’s festival events are aiming to address two fundamental viewpoints – the artistic and educational modules; by doing so, they are following the basic scope of interdisciplinary networking, which is essentially connected with research, education and perceptivity of artists participating from different locations; the latter, due to their own artistic creativity, are continuously and ceaselessly improving, upgrading and perfectioning their knowledge, while progressively extending the framework of their formally attained educational level.

The educational and pedagogical approach of the festival targets at pupil and student population, aiming to include elementary and high-school pupils as well as students. The formal educational system’s orientation still remains prevalently unilateral and insufficiently interdisciplinary, thus confined to the narrow domain of its own scientism which, in this global era, is melting away its paraffin-coated wings. Educational system is stubbornly holding onto the notion that excessive use of computers and modern appliances is dangerous; in this regard, we wish to underline the simple fact that the same rule can be applied to each and every field of human activities.

When worlds collide, new worlds are born: Festival activities section will take place between 6^th and 9^th of November; it will consist of workshops held by mentors, professors of robotics, electronics, electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as students, pupils and artists themselves. Workshops’ final panels, discussions, presentations, artists’ talks and lectures will also be conducted, in addition to presentations of an Israeli student campus and of students from Faculty of Education Maribor, department of Fine Arts, in cooperation with students of Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Maribor.

MFRU-KIBLIX2013 will also be accompanied by an exhibition of artistic worlds of Maša jazbec, Eva Petrič, Zoran Srdić Janežič, Tiago Martins, and by works of  Saša Spačal, Maja Smrekar, Kathy High, Dragana Sapanjoš, Robertina Šebjanič, Ricardo O’Nascimento, Theresa Schubert and Oscar Martin, which will all be on display until 25^th of November 2013 at the KIBLA Portal.

Vojko Pogačar’s exhibition From 2D to 3D features an overview of computer science development, starting from graphics and moving towards 3D printing; an upgrade of the latter is a joint performance by Jože Slaček, the conceptual father of the MFRU festival, and Primož Oberžan, musician and artist. In collaboration with Ortotip enterprise, they will carry out a 3D printing concert.

Finally, a Gaming Lounge and daily DJ and VJ performances will enrich the festival as well, bringing a more relaxed ambience to the vibrant venue.

Georges-Louis Buffon

The contents of this year’s festival KIBLIX 2013 – WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE concern some representative levels, which we tried to encompass in a concept entitled un_NATURAL. Our stand towards the selected contents transcends the nature-culture dualism, because we wish to use it to widen the view that deconstructs  some of the norms related to the participatory understanding of various life forms, which is why we want to evoke – inside numerous constructed social imperatives – a reflection on the interdisciplinary possibilities for the (co)existence of bios and techne.

Because we perceive nature as an interdisciplinary field of biological, cultural and social phenomena, we wish to provide the concept of “unnatural” with a broader mental frame, inside which it receives a new understanding and different emphases. Here, art and humanism are present in the choice of viewpoint; in an interdisciplinary perspective on the interaction between concepts of natural and unnatural.

The so-called “biophobic” paradigms trigger a number of interpretations that can in turn lead to the formation of different ideologies. The artistic goal in this case is not merely related to the scientific research of biological phenomena, but mainly to a requestioning of the concept and paradigms concerning the attitude towards nature through a broader (social) perspective. On the other hand these issues, from a post-anthropocentric perspective, inspire a consideration about the context of temporal dimensions, inside which, among other things, we can ask ourselves about the (non)existence of our own species in the broadest sense. The thinking frame outside the area where natural and unnatural imperatives are accompanied by a fear of the unknown is therefore leaning towards examining ways of co-existence with different phenomena of the living.