Ignite Dundee 2016: Creative Sparks

This month sees the release of the full programme for the biggest ever Ignite Dundee: a festival of creativity. Taking place throughout May, the festival is a showcase of the events and exhibition spaces that take place in the city.

Throughout the month, Ignite brings together the annual degree shows, exhibitions, talks, theatre, workshops and film showings. In doing this, it gives due credit to the year-round hard graft and interesting activities of Dundee-based organisations like the McManus Gallery, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee Rep Theatre, and recent addition V & A Dundee.

There’s an important diversity to the events that the festival brings together, with organisers trying to bring together local audiences and visitors, and appeal to all ages across different parts of the programme. 

Among the events that kick off the festival, your attention may be drawn to one particular show at The McManus. Draw the Line: Old Masters to The Beano (3-31 of May) is a major exhibition of drawings, making unusual connections between a variety of historic and contemporary artists through this common medium.

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Duncan Marquiss: Distressed Inventory, 2011

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DCA play host to a new exhibition too: for their Spring show, Duncan Marquiss presents his largest exhibition to date (14 May-3 July). Having last month screened his 2015 Margaret Tait award film, Copy Errors, Marquiss will present a selection of paintings, drawings and video works.

Then, from 6-15 May, there's the Abertay Digital Graduate Show. Snapping at the heels of the traditional fine art degree shows, Abertay is internationally renowned for its art, design and games degrees. There’s new media a-plenty, with an emphasis on interaction.

Abertay ties in well with the techy theme of Ignite Sparks, a new element of the festival for 2016. For its first outing, it’s looking specifically to the artistic and cultural application of innovative techniques and technology. As part of the strand, on 24 May, live coding is combined with electroacoustic music and live dancing for motion capture. It’s experimental, and with a bit of pressure considering the various participants have not met before, with the result being a one-off and on-the-spot performance.

Around the same time, there’s the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Degree Show from 20-29 May, and Dundee and Angus College's end-of-year Art and Design Show from 21-27 May. Both shows will feature the final presentations of students from across all the departments and disciplines.

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Generator Projects, Dundee

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Taking place alongside the DJCAD and the Dundee and Angus Colleges’ shows from 21 May-26 June, there’s They Had Four Years in Generator Projects. For this, the gallery committee invite a small selection of the previous year's graduates from across Scotland to exhibit in the space.

Keep an eye out too for the full details (still TBC) of Hyperborea, described as 'a contemporary music performance with Augmented Drum-Kit - a bespoke electro-acoustic instrument.' Details will also be soon released about Inflatable Architecture: presented by the North East of North (NEoN) Digital Arts Festival, they promise 'a playful look at architecture in the context of Dundee’s changing landscape.'

Coming to the end of the month, there’s Remembering Witch’s Blood on 27 May in West Ward. As the title suggests, the event looks back to 1987's citywide production based on William Blain's book Witch’s Blood. Adding a slight twist, it will be a soundscape made from singing voices, spoken words and narrative fragments. In turn, these will be combined with a live performance by the daughter of singer/songwriter Michael Marra, who performed in the ‘87 production.

The next day, rounding off a busy and varied schedule, there's a public art project in Slessor Gardens, where hundreds of people will recreate Dundee's Royal Arch from cardboard boxes. 

Non-Dundonians, this is plenty of notice, so take a look at the full programme and book your train early!