Artfinity: From Panoctagon to Festival Henge

Explore community and gathering at "From Panoctagon to Festival Henge." Artist screaMachine's two site-specific installations set the stage–Panoctagon, a temporary public forum centered on a Video Soapbox, offers a stage for public voice and Festival Henge, a site for celebration.

The event starts with a preview of both installations alongside exhibitions and music performances by additional artists. Then screaMachine inaugurates the space with a performance on the soapbox with a megaphone in hand, followed by an invitation for participants to join them at the Festival Henge nearby. Upon the arrival of the artist and group at Festival Henge from the Panoctagon, the space transforms into a dance celebration, with dance music and the henge's interior becoming a dance floor—creating a space for community convergence beyond political discourse.

Event Schedule:

5:00-8:30pm – Golden Cargo art exhibiton opening and audio and video artist live performances including a one hour set from VJ Supreetha K and Ian Condry (MIT Spatial Sound Lab).

8:30pm – screaMachine performance in Panoctagon (space is limited)

9:00pm – Dance celebration in Festival Henge

The event will take place in the ground floor atrium, ACT Gallery, and ACT Cube of MIT Building E15. Capacity is limited during the 8:30pm performance in the ACT Cube.

Gearóid Dolan(they/them) is an activist artist from Dublin, Ireland, working in the US under the branded name screaMachine. Their ouevre spans the worlds of performance art, film-making, audio, animation and interactive works, which often all combine in large scale street intervention projects with arrays of video projectors.

Host or Publisher Arts at MIT