Patchlab Festival 2026: AVnight 1

Patchlab Festival 2026: AVnight 1. AV Performances Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology Marii Konopnickiej 26, 30-302 Kraków 16 October 2026 | 18:00 Two audiovisual projects, two perspectives on a reality increasingly shaped by technology — presented during the first AVnight on Friday evening at the Manggha Museum. From the Polish premiere of the latest project by Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, immersing the audience in a realm between image, sound and perception, to a performance exploring the mechanisms of prediction, control and the loss of agency. In the spirit of 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙎𝙞𝙢, the evening moves from an intense sensory experience towards a question: how many of our decisions remain truly our own when a system is capable of anticipating our next move? 𝙣𝘿 | 𝙍𝙮𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙞 𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙖𝙬𝙖 𝙅𝙋/𝘿𝙀 𝙣𝘿 [ 𝙘𝙢:𝙖𝙫𝙘 3 ] is Ryoichi Kurokawa’s latest project — an audiovisual diptych and the third iteration of his long-running cm series. The work explores relationships between sound and image, abstraction and the concrete, meaning and its absence. Rather than forming a simple opposition, its two parts create a space in which perception continuously oscillates between separation and unity. Kurokawa approaches sound and image as equal, abstract materials, bringing them together in an intense experience that engages sight and hearing simultaneously. By reducing narrative and semantic cues, the work frees the audience from the need to interpret, directing attention instead towards immediate sensory perception. 𝙣𝘿 resonates closely with questions of how technology can construct experience beyond narrative and representation. Rather than simulating a particular world, it creates the conditions for perception itself to become fluid, unstable and ambiguous. It is an experience in which we do not simply observe an image, but become immersed in the continuous process of its emergence and dissolution. The cm project has been developed since 2005. Earlier iterations have been presented at venues and festivals including Tate Modern, Ars Electronica and MUTEK, as well as in more than 20 countries. The presentation of 𝙣𝘿 [ 𝙘𝙢:𝙖𝙫𝙘 3 ] will mark the Polish premiere of this latest iteration. 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙖 | [𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙩 𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙋𝘼] 𝘾𝘼 In a world of constant connectivity, time becomes a resource to be filled with information, while human life is increasingly treated as raw material for the digital economy. Every gesture, choice and movement can be recorded, translated into data, and subsequently used to predict and shape future behaviour. The work engages with the logic of surveillance capitalism, in which technologies not only observe their users but influence their decisions through suggestions, stimuli and rewards. The individual becomes part of a system in which responses can be analysed, anticipated and programmed. The performance translates this logic into a simple set of three rules: every input produces a direct consequence; movement is the only way forward; and the past shapes the future. What emerges is a simulation of a world governed by the continuous flow of data, in which the boundary between an autonomous decision and behaviour prompted by the system becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish. The work asks how much agency remains to us within a reality that is constantly learning to anticipate our next move. PLEASE NOTE: This programme contains flashing lights and is not recommended for people with photosensitive epilepsy or heightened sensitivity to intense light stimuli.