Manchester International Festival – MIF On-line

Manchester International Festival is an 18-day multi Arts & Culture event, staged every two years. The 2021 event embraced an on-line element as well as an offer of in-person experiences across the city. Branded as MIF ONLINE, the Festival website presents a wide range of digital experiences to visitors, many free of charge. The digital offer includes on-demand video, Zoom drop-in groups, digital art, games and exhibitions including photography. It also includes a project called the ‘Virtual Factory’, a series of online artworks inspired by the possibilities of The Factory (a physical Arts / cultural venue being built in Manchester at the site of the former Granada television studios). As part of the virtual factory, an online experience called ‘Your Progress Will Be Saved’ was created by acclaimed avatar artist LaTurbo Avedon. The experience is accessed via the internationally popular game, Fortnight. The art installation ‘Big Ben Lying Down’ was a physical piece containing 20,000 books housed in a replica big ben structure, temporality located in the city. The in-person piece was mirrored and complimented by digitally recreated version of the piece available on-line. The digital version of the installation remained after the physical piece was deconstructed.