And thanks to a mention in Dan Brown’s new novel, mystery of secretsThe festival has gained even greater global recognition. Just a few weeks after the release of Brown’s new bestseller set in contemporary Prague, audiences were able to see for themselves what attracted the popular author to the festival, the largest Czech and Central European showcase of digital art. In one excerpt, the Signal Festival makes a cameo appearance when the novel’s protagonist recalls attending an event in the 2024 version.
“We’re happy with it,” festival director Martin Poppy says of the mention. “It’s a kind of validation.” Not that this event needed any publicity, even in one of the most anticipated novels of recent years. Organizers have not yet shared the number of visitors to the festival this year, but the four-day event typically attracts half a million visitors.
On the last day, there was a long queue in front of the monumental installation tristan’s ascent by American video art pioneer Bill Viola before opening the evening, even though it was a ticketed event. At the Church of St. Salvator in the Convent of St. Agnes, visitors could see a Christ-like figure rising upward, with streams of water defying gravity behind him, all displayed on a giant screen.
The festival premiered on the Vltava River near the Dvořák Embankment. Peppercorns Interactive Media Art from Taiwan presented a projection on a cloud of mist called Tzolk’in LightWhile creators of other light installations have to deal with the challenges of buildings – their irregular surfaces, decorative details and awkward cornices – projecting onto water droplets is a different kind of challenge, requiring the artists to relinquish control over the resulting image, The size and depth of Peppercorn’s work depended on the wind at any given moment, which determined how much of the scene was revealed to the audience and how much was blown away, However, the reward was an extraordinary 3D spectacle reminiscent of a hologram – something that cannot be achieved with video projection onto static and flat buildings,
Another premiere event was a projection on the tower of the Old Town Hall, built for the festival by the Italian studio Mamasonica. This transformed the 230-foot structure into a kaleidoscope of blue, green, red and white surfaces. A short distance away, on Republic Square, there was another Peppercorn establishment. On a circular LED installation, he presented a work titled between mountains and seasIn which the history of Taiwan was told.
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