The Bal Masqué organized by IMPAKT which represents the conclusion of the four-year grant-production cycle of the European Media Art Platform is a virtual club night: a corona-proof merger of an online dance battle, a digital masked ball and a multitude of individual VJ-set. You are all invited to wear your most crazy digital or real masks and party with us.

Workshops on September 9 and 10, organised by IMPAKT will invite to prepare your appearance for the EMAP Bal Masqué for the Bal Masqué and give insights into using face and body filters and VJ-ing in Zoom. Everyone can participate, registration in advance is necessary via IMPAKT.

Because of the pandemic, we now live, meet, work, celebrate and breathe online, and the ZOOM virtual background and Snap Camera mask options have become the new way to give flavour to our digital existence. The Bal Masqué explores these new virtual environments as places for creativity, shared experiences, identity building, collectivity and fun. We all know that Zoom allows you to blur your background or import a new stationary image. 

But you can also make your own virtual backgrounds, import your own video compilations and even perform live coding and VJ sets with it. If you combine it with Snap Camera and Lens Studio, you can add your own masks or adapt and play with existing masks.

If you prefer, you can join the party completely anonymously behind your mask but you can also choose to put yourself centre stage and join one of the battles. The battles are the highlights of the ball, in which three participants at a time compete for the prize for the most exceptional background and mask performance. The Bal Masqué breaks the divide between audience members and participants.

Are you interested in participating  in a battle? We would like to throw down the gauntlet to you. Let us know via battle@impakt.nl if you would like to show  what you can do with your masks and backgrounds and we will try to put you in one of the battles. However, as an audience member you can also win prizes. There is an award for the best self-made Snap Camera Mask, a Best Guest Performance Award and you can request a Spotlight Moment if you wish to be centre stage for an instant.  If you want to know more about how to make masks and virtual backgrounds, go to https://impakt.nl/masks-and-backgrounds.

But don’t take it all too seriously. The main purpose of the Bal Masqué and the battles is to have some online fun in these dark times.

If you’re not sure how to design your own virtual masks or create an amazing VJ performance to dazzle the other participants and visitors at the Bal, you can learn how to create masks and give virtual VJ performances the workshops we give at 8 September and 9 September.

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