The Theme Of This Year's Unsound Festival In Krakow Is "Presence"

Poland’s best experimental music festival wants you to think about mediated existence. 

Unsound Festival in Kraków has announced the new guiding theme for the 2018 edition of the festival: “Presence”. After tackling the contradictions of “Flower Power”—which we covered in a review this past year—and the speculative possibilities of “Future Shock”, Unsound has now elected for a more reflective concept. In a statement announcing the theme, Unsound explains that “PRESENCE doesn’t urge an impossible and nostalgic retreat to time before mediated existence, but poses the question of how to forge something progressive with our current situation…What does it mean to be present in a world of media saturation, where reality can be virtual or augmented, intelligence made artificial? How should we exist in an age of self display, anxiety, cryptocurrencies, robotic technologies, data harvesting, algorithms, disinformation, social media bots and conspiracy theories?”

Unsound has long been considered a bastion for forward-thinking curation. Alongside championing the talents of local musicians and wedging artists into dialogue thanks to their unexpected bookings, the festival boasts an extensive panel and installation program. An open call for musicians, visual and sound artists, writers and academics to submit proposals related to theme of “Presence” is running until June 11. You can find more information on how to submit at the Unsound website here. Find out more about Kraków’s booming techno underground with our feature on the scene here.

Photo by Paul Kulon

Read more: Here’s what you missed at Poland’s avant-underground Unsound Festival