Stuck for something to do over the next few days? Get yourself over to Norwich where the city's animation festival, now re-named Aurora, is taking place from tomorrow til Saturday.
Along with tons of cutting edge traditional and CGI animation, the event features a series of panel discussions based around the theme of 'Possible Worlds', defined in the press release as, "environments shaped by experience and emotion rather than physical phenomena alone." One discussion that should interest Gamesblog readers is Interactive Worlds, which looks into videogame environments, specifically how they represent heightened versions of the real world, and asks whether or not they are essentially utopian of apocalyptic.
One of the panelists is Tanya Krzywinska, a lecturer in Film at Brunel University who also studies and writes about games - I interviewed her for Edge a few years ago and she's certainly worth listening to. Also at the event are 'software artist-collective', Igloo (more info here), who've devised an installation named SwanQuake (pictured), fusing computer gaming imagery with, yes, ballet. It's all about mash-ups on the blog today.
You should also check out the ZX Spectrum Orchestra, two blokes named Clive (naturally) who used salvaged Speccies to make 'sublime music'. They're playing at the Norwich Arts Centre tomorrow night (more here).
A full festival pass is £35 while single events cost from £4. You can download the festival diary here.
