The second staging of the Jamaica Digital Arts Festival will be held on September 19 and 20 at the Knutsford Court Hotel.

The festival is organised by the Media Technology Institute (MTI) at the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) and features the influences that digital technology has made on the arts.

"This year's festival will feature The Best Gamer in Town competition where youths will compete with each other in popular video games for attractive prizes. This is a major new feature which will be sponsored by Watts New," said Angela Patterson, CEO of CPTC and chairperson of the planning committee. "This will be in addition to the competition where we invite the public to submit their own work they've created using various digital technology for judging."

Learning opportunities

This year, there are more opportunities for learning compared to the first festival in 2007. Seminars will be delivered by experts from Jamaica and the Caribbean in cutting edge-areas such as:

Jamaica and the animation industry - what prospects

A close look at the RED camera

Technology and fine art

The future of digital sound reproduction

Your digital camera and you

Principal of the MTI, Lorna Napier, said: "All of this will be free to the public so we are looking forward to sharing the benefits to be derived from this experience."

Napier added that more information could be found at www.digitalarts.org.jm/2009.