IF you've been admiring Dalton Square's gleaming new shard of architecture from afar, then now's your chance to take a peek inside.
Folly, the city's media arts organisation, is giving art and architecture lovers alike the opportunity to judge for themselves the merits of the multi-million pound project.
The glass fronted CityLab, normally used for office space, is providing the dramatic backdrop to a three week festival of events, which will be showcasing the cream of the technology-driven arts world.
Space
"The timing is perfect in terms of the festival and we're really fortunate in being able to use the space in CityLab," said Folly programme manager Mark Daniels. "From an aesthetic point of view it's been quite a challenge showing work in such an unusual setting which is principally an office development."
The whole ground floor of the new building is being handed over to the festival which will include performances, talks, screenings and podcasts.
Entitled Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders, the exhibition – staged in partnership with Fast-UK – involves more than 30 artists and collectives from countries as diverse as Japan, New Zealand, Germany and Canada.
One of the stated aims of the f.city festival is to 'blur the conventional boundaries of art and design practice through the use of technology'.
Mark admits that media and digital arts haven't always managed to capture the public imagination, but he believes that a new generation of technology-users are challenging those assumptions.
"You only have to look at the fact that people have mobile phones on which they can make their own films. In terms of technology we've never had access to so much so easily. This means that people are more accustomed to living their lives digitally."
Although the events at CityLab will provide the main 'anchor' to the three week festival a number of satellite venues will also be playing host to one-off events.
Combining the old with the new, the Ashton Memorial will be reinventing itself as a 'virtual' lighthouse during the three-week run, silently transmitting mobile phone text messages via morse code.
Meanwhile, New Zealand artist Brit Bunkley will be adopting an more skewered view of modern life with his visually startling computer-generated 'map' of a jet plane flying across a sheep's head amid a rural landscape.
Not to be outdone, Lancaster's own book festival, Litfest, has signed up to the initiative and will downloading weekly podcasts of short fiction extracts from local writers.
For details of how to tune in, log on at www.folly.co.uk. The festival begins today, Friday September 29, and continues until October 21.
The full festival programme spans the genres of media arts, music, video, performance and participation, and links with the community, education and commercial sectors, and includes the launch of new online art, music and podcast events and workshops.
Dance
To mark the close of the festival, the city's Ludus Dance will be working with Folly to create an interactive movement piece.
Instead of a personal instructor, users can learn simple dance steps and receive digital tuition for a grand 'performance finale' which will take place outside CityLab at 4pm on Saturday, October 21.
"We can't give too much away as there will be surprises for members of both the audience and those taking part," added Mark. "It'll be a high kicking treasure hunt for all!"
Organisers concede that a major role of the festival is to maintain the profile of Folly since it moved out of its premises on Castle Hill while the Storey Gallery complex is being developed.
Mark said: "We won't be moving into our new premises until 2008 so this is a way of making sure people know we are still here and about the work we do. This is an important way of keeping ourselves in the frame."

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