Lovebytes: A Festival of Digital Creativity and Culture

LOVEBYTES returns in January 2010 with a cultural festival for the digital age; a season of extraordinary events taking place at some of Sheffield's landmark venues and public spaces. With the theme of 'digital craft' the programme includes a new exhibition at the Millennium Gallery, an evening of spectacular sound and light installations in the Winter Garden and an extensive programme of creative activities and workshops for people of all ages.

Lovebytes will run from 25 January - 16 June 2010 at various venues across Sheffield.

The focal point of the festival is CODE: CRAFT, a new exhibition at Sheffield's Millennium Gallery (27 January - 16 June) which looks at the creative impact of computer programming and how artists are utilising 'open source software' to produce everything from interactive installations to sculpture. With work by world leaders in this field including Golan Levin, C E B Reas and Mehmet Akten, this show represents a growing international community of artists who are exploring the fundamental systems of nature, the limitations of computers and, perhaps, the future of art and design.

A weekend of special events, starting on Friday 12 February, will explore the importance of open source software in the arts and how the current revival of interest in traditional crafts and the natural environment is being proliferated through digital culture. During the day, the highly respected conference event We Love Technology comes to Electric Works at Sheffield Digital Campus, offering informal presentations by 10 pioneering artists, designers and technologists, with opportunities to network with participants and speakers from around the world. That evening, Lovebytes moves to the Winter Garden and neighbouring Millennium Gallery for a special late opening of the Code:Craft exhibition and Sonic Materialities with live performances by world-renowned experimental sound artists Francisco López, Russell Haswell and Mark Fell, who will transform the tropical gardens and gallery spaces with light and sound.

Sheffield's influential community media lab Access Space will be running linked events throughout the Lovebytes season, starting with Tools and Techniques on Saturday 13 Feb. Later that day, at the Millennium Galleries, Code:Craft artist Mehmet Akten gives a talk about his interactive artwork. During the following half-term week Lovebytes will be running Digital Craft workshops for young people to get hands-on with their own interactive art projects.

More Lovebytes events are planned through the spring, with partners and venues across the city including Sheffield Children's Festival, Museums Sheffield, Showroom / Workstation and Persistence Works. If you would like to get involved or to find out more visit the festival website at www.lovebytes.org.uk or follow the festival on twitter at www.twitter.com/lovebytes.