The perennially weird, consistently fascinating Darklight Festival kicks off on Thursday in and about Dublin's Smithfield district. The three-day, digitally focused event, which seeks to explore "creative synergies", will see Three Potential Endings, a video installation by Turner-nominated artist Willie Doherty, receive its Irish premiere. And Brown Bag, the animation house behind Give Up Yer Aul Sins, is set to receive a much deserved retrospective.

Anna Troberg, the vice- chairwoman of Sweden’s Pirate Party, a movement dedicated to reforming copyright law, will certainly have something to say about the Pirate Bay controversy in her public discussion.

Another high-profile guest will be pop video and film director Mark Romanek. The man behind One Hour Photowill be on hand to discuss his work on videos for artists such as Jay-Z, Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash.

The Darklight festival emerged in 1999 as a way of enabling artists and film- makers to integrate new technologies into their work, and share the resulting innovations with audiences and fellow practitioners. This

year the Light House Cinema will host many events including, as mentioned here last week, Taming Light, an exhibition inspired by the films of Stanley Kubrick.

Darklight’s suave trailer can be found at www.you tube.com/user/Darklight Festival. Further details are available at www.darklight. ie. Darklight runs from October 8th to October 11th.