AND + W2 is a programme of debates and artworks, constituting the only Games time cultural collaboration between the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. It is co-produced with W2 and is thematically structured around the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) festival of new cinema and digital culture. AND is a Legacy Trust funded programme in England’s Northwest. Produced in association with FACT, Tenantspin and Dada for Vancouver 2010 and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme in England’s Northwest. What does it mean to be human in the 21st century? How are definitions of disability and ability being transgressed in art and sport? What is the role of science, technology and new media in establishing new norms? What are the characteristics of our new biotechnological economy? Speakers from the UK, Canada, Netherlands, and USA present daily debates, film screenings and parties on these three themes.

Admission is by donation.

Feb 18 CONTRACT 7pm-9pm

(Updated to add full live stream from 18th of February, via W2 TV)

An Olympic Games raises a number of exciting and challenging questions for a city. It proposes new spheres of investment, the redistribution of funds, inclusion and areas of exclusion, new laws that affect civil life and a vast, global media profile. How do these structures affect the obligations of citizens and institutions who become bound by collaborative contracts? And how does the scrutinization of this work by traditional and new media affect local identity and global perceptions? What can be learned from Vancouver 2010? How can this inform London 2012? How is work by artists contributing to urban city and citizenship development?

Feb 20 COMPETE: Faster, Higher, Stronger 4:30pm-8:30pm

(Updated to add full live stream from 20th of February, via W2 TV)

The Olympic Games are measures of human excellence but what happens when those measures are disrupted by self-augmentation and body modification? Our biological apparatus is in flux, vulnerable, yet re-imagined by technology. What will ability and disability mean in an era of genetically modified athletes and surgically sculpted children? How are artists contributing to this research and debate? For example, genetically screening for ‘perfect pitch’ may produce ideal singers, but whose ideal? Alternatively, what will the integration of future technology within biology mean for how humans communicate with each other via performances (dance, music or sport)?