Location

MIT Media Lab, Building E14, 6th Floor Lecture Hall

Description

The Edinburgh International Festival has been connecting artists and audiences for over sixty years. Founded in 1947, the Festival grew out of the rubble of the Second World War with the aim of providing 'a platform for the flowering of the human spirit.' Every August, the Edinburgh International Festival transforms one of the world's most beautiful cities, presenting three exhilarating weeks of the finest creators and performers from the worlds of the arts - for everyone. Edinburgh's six major theaters and concert halls, a few smaller venues and often some unconventional ones too, come alive with the best classical music, theatre, opera, dance and visual art from around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.eif.co.uk/. Art and technology will be a major theme of the 2013 Edinburgh Festival.
Jonathan Mills was appointed Festival Director and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival in 2006. Prior to this he was the Vice-Chancellor’s (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Director of the Alfred Deakin Lectures and an Artistic Advisor to the new Melbourne Recital Centre & Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. His previous posts include Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Melbourne Federation Festival, the Melbourne Millennium Eve celebrations and the Brisbane Biennial International Music Festival. As a composer he is regularly commissioned in Australia and increasingly in Europe and the UK. He won the Prix Italia in 2005. He is a visiting Professor at both Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier Universities, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chair of the British Councils’ Advisory Board. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2011. This fall, Jonathan Mills has been advising Prof. Tod Machover's "Future of the Festival" course at the Media Lab.

Host/Chair: Tod Machover