The following pages will include information about "Multidisciplinary Icon" – the theoretical and academic part of the festival, constructed of five programs:
- "Future City – City Future", an academic convention for fantasy and speculative creation taking place for the second year in icon with the participation of Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan Universities.
- "Designing Tomorrow", a convention about design and architecture with the participation of Holon's Museum of Design and Shenkar College.
- "The international Year of Astronomy" day, with the collaboration of the Israeli Astronomical Association.
- Icon's Literary Program
- Icon's Comics Program
Future City – City Future
An academic convention for fantasy and speculative creation
In 2008 Icon festival established an academic convention about fantasy and speculative creation with collaboration of the Department of English and American Studies at the Humanities Faculty of Tel Aviv University. The convention continues this, its second year, and this year it was joined by the Department of General BA at the Humanities Faculty of Bar-Ilan University.
The convention will take the duration of two days, October 5th-6th, Mon-Tue, from 12:00-20:00 at the Eshkol-Pais buildings adjacent to Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
According to the theme of the festival, the convention is about "Future City – City Future", for the future is indeed the city, and the city is the future: the cities promise for tomorrow is an inseparable part of the cultural baggage we all share, and in no place is this way of thinking more prominent than in science fiction: starting from utopian visions of giant towers and shining roads of glass, through dystopian nightmares of urban wars ending with post-apocalyptic visions of radiation-ridden ruins. Icon festival is happy to celebrate Tel-Aviv's first century with the Israeli researchers, and invites the general public to participate in this convention praising exploring and criticizing "The City".
The main session of the convention will provide observations of the fantastic futuristic city – a look from the ground and from space:
The panel opening the convention, the space-cities panel, will deal with different points on space settlement, residence and tourism, with the participation of Mr. Tal Inbar (head of Space-Exploration at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies), Mr. David Zusiman (Aerospace engineer, manager of project "Amos 3" at Spacecom) , Mr. Yoav Landsman (Engineer in the Israeli space industry) and Mr. Tomer Krauthammer (industrial designer graduate of Holon's Technological Institute, his final project dealt with space tourism and the design of the futuristic hotel in space).
The Cities of Israel Panel will introduce the cities we all know in ways we may not be used to see them: a bit fantastical, a bit different, and quite unreal. Dr. Oded Shai (Bei-Berl Academic College) will lay out Boris Schatz's doctrine documented in his book "Yerusha'laim Ha'Bnuya" (1924), in which he describes 2018's Israel and Jerusalem; Mr. Ehud Maymon (Editor of "The Tenth Dimension", a journal of sci-fi and fantasy literature) will deal with Haifa, a city starring in a great deal of the most successful Israeli sci-fi author of lately, Lavie Tidhar, and Mr. Ofer Bernstein (a graduate student for communication at Bar-Ilan University and one of the founders of the Israeli Comics Collectors' association) will deal with the ways in which the city of Tel Aviv is visually displayed in Israeli and international Comics.
Another panel about the aspects of the futuristic city in Israel, four of Israel's leading architects – Eitan Gavish, Haim Dotan, Ruth Lahav and Prof. Michael Burt – will explore various ways in which today's architecture deals with the challenges of tomorrow. Through observing innovative lines in urban design such as climate-adjusted construction to observing the practicality of creating artificial islands by the coasts of the Mediterranean, the lecturers will deal with questions relevant to us all: how will we live in the city of the future? How and where will we work? In what ways will we have fun? And when we die, will we be buried, and where?
Further lectures will tackle the design of urban space in film and literature ("An alternative history and urban space in the fatherland and the Yiddish cop union" by Hadas Fisher-Rosenberg; "An architecture of horror: the design of urban space in new sci-fi movies – "Dark City"" by Dr. Yael Munk), in cultural and social processes derived from urbanization ("Crime in the urban space" by Guy Beker) and a lecture about the "Wall" imagery in western culture – from Dr. Daniela Gurevich, head of the Department of multidisciplinary studies for a BA degree in Humanities at Bar-Ilan University, and member of the convention's organizing committee, who will show that like demons, ghosts and vampires, the "Wall" also takes a central place on the list of human anxieties throughout history.
Designing Tomorrow Convention
This year Icon is holding a convention dealing futuristic design, a collaborated initiative with the Holon Museum of Design and with the participation of Shenkar College of Engineering and Design.
The convention will take place during one day, October 6th, Tuesday between the hours of 12:00 – 20:00, at the Eshkol-Pais buildings adjacent to Tel-Aviv Cinematheque.
The convention is hosting Patrick Gyger, the manager and curator of the Switzerland Science Fiction, Utopia and Otherworldly Travel Museum, who curated the exhibition "Swiss Design in Hollywood", which will be presented at the Tel-Aviv cinematheque plaza during the festival. Another festival guest and presenter at the exhibition is Christian Lorenz Scheurer, an artist and concept designer, who designed films such as "The Matrix", "The Fifth Element", "The Day After Tomorrow", "Dark City" and many other films.
Of the way we imagine the future…
More so than governments, or Weizmann Institute and NASA space agency employees, the one determining how we imagine the future is science fiction – literature, comics and most of all cinema. In every generation a different vision sets the public perception of the future – nuclear holocaust, soulless giant cities, ecological disasters or the opposite – a positive future of reaching the stars.
The movies are what gave the future a look and esthetic that took hold of the public imagery: Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner", Luke Besson's "The Fifth Element", The Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix" and Pixar's animation artists' "Wall-E", each gives a unique visual vision of the future of humanity. Icon festival, along with the leaders of the Israeli design world, is happy to invite the audience to examine how the future was pictured in the past and how the disappointment of the future that never was affects the present, and the way in which we perceive the future today.
In the two sessions of the convention leading Israeli designers will provide a look into the future, and the future's past…
The first session (City of the Future – Plan or Fantasy) will deal with urban architecture and urban planning with the participation of Dr. Yossi Kori (Architect, Shenkar), Dr. Rebecca Vital (Architect, Shenkar) and Galit Gaon (Curator of the Comics Museum and Design Museum in Holon).
The second session (More and Even More – Proper Design – people of the past, objects of tomorrow) will deal with urban environment – with futuristic cars and personal items, involving Alex Padwa (Head of the Department of Industrial Design, Shenkar), Ofer Zick (Head of the Department of Industrial Design, HIT) and Efrat Friedland, (Materials Library Manager, Design Museum, Holon).
"Swiss Design in Hollywood" Exhibition
The Switzerland Foundation for Culture presents this exhibition, curated and produced by Switzerland's Science Fiction, Utopias and Otherworldly Travel Museum. The exhibit displays the works and influence of Swiss designers and artists of cinema and computer games' concept and design. Amongst the prominent artists whose creations are on display are H.R. Giger ("Alien", "Species"), John Howe ("Lord of the Rings", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", "Beowulf"), Deak Ferrand ("X-Men", "Hellboy", "Constantine", "Golden Compass") and Christian Lorenz Scheurer ("The Matrix", "The Fifth Element", "Dark City", "Superman returns", "The Day After Tomorrow", "Wolfman").
"Designer of the Future" – a visit from Christian Lorenz Scheurer – designer of "The Matrix" and "The Fifth Element"
Scheurer was born in Bern, Switzerland. A concept artist, designer and comic artist.
Following a success in his field in Europe, he moved to Hollywood and worked as a designer in a series of movies including "The Fifth Element", "Titanic", "Dark City", "The Matrix", "Final Fantasy" and others. Wild working on "Final Fantasy" he also turned to computer game design and worked on "Final Fantasy 9", after which he returned to work on the animated versions of "The Matrix", "The Animatrix".
Scheurer worked as an art-director for the computer game "Lord of the Rings – Return of the King", "Spore" and is the production designer of the next battle game from EA - Japan. Apart from his work he also functions as a design consultant for leaders in the industry such as Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of "Final Fantasy"), David Perry (creator of "The Matrix" games, Shiny, Inc.) Will Wright (creator of "The Sims" and "Spore").
He recently published his first book ("ENTROPIA: A Collection of Unusually Rare Stamps"). Christian lives with his wife Lora in Hollywood, California.
Patrick Gyger, Manager of Switzerland's Science Fiction Museum
Gyger was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He is professionally a Swiss historian and author.
Gyger has been the manager and senior curator at Switzerland's Science Fiction, Utopias and Otherworldly Travel Museum ("Maison d'Ailleurs", or "House of Elsewhere", in English) since 1999, containing one of the largest collections in the world of fantasy and speculative creation, and presenting changing theme exhibitions. In 2008 Gyger opened the "Jull Vern Space" at the museum, a department dedicated to Jull Vern's works and incredible journeys in general.
Gyger also works as a consultant for the European space program, is a co-manager of EST's ITSF research (Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications), a research and education project intended for the finding of innovative and applicable ideas from the world of science fiction for space engineers.
Gyger was also the art director for the Utopiales Festival of Science Fiction, in Nantes, France from 2001-2005.
Gyger's current research is about the history of the flying car.
The International Year of Astronomy Program
In the year 1609 Galileo Galilee pointed a telescope towards the starry heavens for the first time and observed. His discoveries – mountains on the moon, Jupiter's moons, spots on the sun and an enormous number of stars unseen to the naked eye – utterly changed the way humanity perceives and understands its place in the universe. Galilee is recognized as the father of modern astronomy and even more so – in his comprehensive work exist the elements of the private and general theory of relativity, and he is most definitely one of the fathers of modern science.
"The International Year of Astronomy" was declared by the International Astronomy Association and adopted by UNESCO. Icon Festival, with collaboration with the Israeli Astronomical Association, is joining many organizations across the globe noting together 400 years to Galilee's first observance.
Observations for the general public will be held during the days (and nights) of the festival, courtesy of the Israeli Astronomical Association, during which the participants will receive a guided tour though space, and embark upon a journey through time following the history of astronomy.
During "Young Icon" – the festival's kids' activity program, a planetarium including space and astronomy workshops will be operated.
The activities' main event will be a seminar day about "The International Year of Astronomy", as part of the academic program at Icon.
October 7th, Wednesday, between the hours of 12:00-20:00, at the Eshkol-Pais buildings adjacent to Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
The main speakers of the program will be Prof. Avshalom Elitzur, who will deal with the origins of modern physics hidden in Galileo's work, granting him the title "the father of modern science", and Prof. Elia Leibowitz, who will deal with the world's oldest form of science fiction – intelligent design – and this form as a threat to the continuing development of science in 21st century's human society.
Prof. Avshalom Elitzur – Professor of physics in the field of quantum physics, special and general relativity and thermodynamics; one of the founders of the Israeli Institute for Advanced Research.
Prof. Elia Leibowitz - A Professor of astronomy at Tel-Aviv University and director of the Sackler Institute for Astronomy there.
Other lecturers at the convention are Dr. Tsafrir Kolat, about technological and scientific developments stemming from astronomy; Prof. Yoram Kirsh, about the blurred distinction between the scientific and the non-scientific in the age of new-age and post-modernism; Prof. Haggai Netzer about other universes and intelligent life forms; and Ilan Manulis and Dr. Yigal Patel (of the organizers of the seminar day and chairman of the Israeli Astronomical Society) about mass extinctions.
Literary Program
Icon's literary program is held throughout its duration – seven days of various events, theoretical content – lectures, panels and discussions – alongside launchings, artist interactions, professional workshops and a lot of conversations about books.
A special meeting with Uri Orlev
Icon hosts the beloved teen-author in honor of 25 years to the release of his fantasy novel, "The Dragon's Crown"
Orlev is an author and translator, born 1931, in Warsaw. He mostly writes teen and children's literature, and works in translating from Polish to Hebrew (translated the acclaimed science fiction author Stanislav Lem into Hebrew, amongst others). Orlev won the international Andersen award for teen and children's literature (1996, the only Israeli to win it so far), the Ze'ev award for Children and Youth literature (1978), and the Bialik Prize for literature in the Children's Literature category.
Orlev has written over 30 books. His novel "The Dragon's Crown", published in 1984, was a breath of fresh air in Israeli literature for many fantasy readers, and for many children it was their first glimpse into fantasy literature, for it was uncommonly (for that time) written in Hebrew. "The Dragon's Crown", considered a unique phenomenon in Israel of the 1980s, became precedent to the outflow of teen fantasy literature we are experiencing nowadays.
The Academic Literary Program
Alongside dealing with "Future City", this year's festival theme, the program will attend to the hot trends and leading developments in the fantasy and speculative literature industry and in its creation, in our country and around the world – for example, there will be panels debating feminine Israeli fantasy literature; the hottest trend in the world of fantasy literature – children and teen literature, and of course a panel dealing with the interaction between the sci-fi literature market and the internet.
"The Library" area, with the cooperation of Tzomet Sfarim bookstore chain
Tzomet Sfarim will assemble a distinctive area on the festival site, part bookstore, part sitting/reading zone, instead of sale stalls, the books will be arranged on shelves, giving the convention goers the wonderful feeling of looking and wandering through a bookstore. The joined area will operate throughout the days of the festival, and will include meetings with Israeli authors, taking part in workshops and literary launchings.
A fantastic Sale at Tzomet Sfarim
During festival month there will be a sale on sci-fi and fantasy literature in chain stores across Israel.
Israeli authors, journalists and critics, and representatives from the literature industry visiting icon this year:
Yoav Avni – author, "Those Crazy Americans" (Tamuz, 1995, short stories), the bestseller "Three Things for a Lonely Island" (Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan, 2006, a novel), and "Chong Levi's Fifth" (Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan, 2009, a novel), set in Israel in the summer of 2017.
Sahara Blau – writer and press personality, published her first novel in 2007, "Earth's Intent", a modern rendition of the legend of the Golem of Prague.
Mirit Ben-Israel – writer and interdisciplinary artist, author of "No Sitting on Braids" (1996) and "The Daughters of the Dragon" (2007); writes about literature, poetry, theatre and legends.
Gili Bar-Hillel Semo – editor of the teen series from "Graff" publishing, former editor of teen books from "Ketter" publishing; translated all "Harry Potter" books, as well as "The Wizard of Oz", "Howl's Moving Castle" and others.
Assaf Gavron – writer, translator, editor and musician, member of the musical group "The Mouth and Foot"; author of the bestselling "Moving" and "Hydromania".
Rani Graff – opened "Graff Publishing" in 2004, which also publishes sci-fi and fantasy books.
Ido Hartogson – journalist, writer and blogger; his first novel "Technomysitcism" was published in 2009, and deals with the relations between technology and consciousness design; PhD in the "Science, Technology and Society" program at Bar-Ilan Univesity.
Nurit Zarchi – Bialik prize winning writer and poet, Amichai award for poetry and the Andersen award; wrote over one hundred research books, prose and poetry for both children and adults. Her novel, "The Sad Ambitious Girls of the Province", was published in 2007.
Didi Chanoch - editor and translator, former editor of "Opus" and "Modan" Publishing's' sci-fi and Fantasy series; translated dozens of books; currently editor in the fields of technology and computers for "Walla".
Guy Hasson – writer, playwright and film director; author of "Reality: The Game" and "The Dark Side, published by Zmora-Bitan publishing.
Ehud Maymon – editor of "The 10th Dimension", a sci-fi and fantasy literature journal; translator and editor.
Meir Uziel – writer, journalist, screenwriter and playwright; published a personal humor column named "Shipudim", for 30 years.
Yechiam Padan – writer, editor and long-time translator, specializing in teen literature; edited the classic "Marganit" series, from "Zmora-Bitan" publishing, for over 25 years; currently editor at "Ketter" publishing; published "Odysseus" in 2007, an adaptation of the classic myth.
Literary awards given at Icon
The voting for the Geffen Awards takes place at Icon, the literary awards for the science fiction and fantasy genres in Israel, named after the late Amos Geffen. In accordance with the American Hugo Award, the prizes are popular prizes, reflecting the fans' tendencies as they vote during Icon for one of the four categories: translated sci-fi novel, translated fantasy novel, original novel and original story.
The award is presented by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the winners will be declared during the festival's closing ceremony.
During Icon's closing ceremony winners will also be announced for The Late Einat Peleg Writing Competition, a sci-fi and fantasy short story contest. This is the most prestigious writing competition in the sci-fi / fantasy genres in Israel, and the three winners will be awarded monetary prizes, gifts from the Peleg family.
Comics Program
Since its inception Icon has included comics, a world of content and a medium which has been developing over years, hand-in-hand with science fiction and fantasy. The festival is accompanying the blossoming of the field in Israel in the past few years and is granting it its rightful place. In 2006 one of the greatest creators in the field was a guest at the festival – Neil Gaiman, and this year Icon welcomes the comic writer and creator Bill Willingham, winner of 7 Eisner awards (so far), creator of "Fables", an adult comic series from DC's Vertigo, and one of today's most successful and valued comic series.
The arrival of Bill Willingham is made possible due to the US Embassy's support of Israel and sponsorship from Comikaza comic store.
Two days of comics at Icon – 4-5.10.09
Comics-related content will be presented throughout the days of the festival, but on Sunday and Monday, 4-5.10.09, the topic will be emphasized. The main Bill Willingham events will take place during these days; there will be an academic program with varied lectures, including the relation between current comics, the founding of the city of Tel Aviv and secret organizations (Yuval Kaspi); of comics as a subversive medium (Amitai Sandy) and as a high form of literature (Itai Rosenbaum); there will be professional workshops for comic artists and those interested in the field from Uri Fink, Eran Aviani and Aviv Or, Giri and Ofer Bernstein, and others…
A visit from comic creator and writer Bill Willingham – creator of "Fables"
Willingham was born in Virginia, USA, in 1956. He id a celebrated comic artist and writer; won many professional awards, including 7 Eisner awards ("the Oscars of comics"), all for his series of graphic novels, "Fables", including the award for best writer of 2009.
Willingham began his career in the late 70s illustrating "Dungeons and Dragons" book covers. He then transferred to the world of comics and gained praise for the comic series he wrote and illustrated, "Elementals". He wrote for different comic series (including DC's "Green Lantern" series and a mini-series set in Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" world). In 2002 his most famous and valued series, "Fables", was published under DC's adult publication, Vertigo. The series is still ongoing, it has a spin-off called "Jack of Fables", also written by Willingham, a book set in the series' world is on the verge of being published and American network, ABC, purchased its rights and is now producing a TV show based on the series' storyline, to air during the 2009 fall season.
Willingham is currently residing in Las-Vegas, Nevada, USA.
