A strong sense of place is not what you would associate with a festival that, in large part, inhabits the abstract world of pixels. Yet Frequency, Lincoln鈥檚 thriving digital arts festival, is heavily imbued with just that.

Inhabiting all available spaces, from empty shops to fruit carts and churches, the fourth iteration of the biennial festival entwines itself in the city鈥檚 chocolate-box architecture to explore this year鈥檚 theme of displacement 鈥� at a personal, local and global scale.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the work Duet, housed within the shell of what until recently was one of Lincoln鈥檚 oldest family businesses. Outwardly an unassuming blocky conglomeration of screens hosting fleeting, disconnected answers to invisible queries, the real workings of this collaboration between UK artists Invisible Flock and Indian designers Quicksand function beneath the surface.

An app to accompany the work pairs users in India and the UK, who get to know each other gradually by answering a single prescribed question a day, carefully crafted not to elicit a simple yes or no answer. Who knows whether slow social media will catch on, but there is something decidedly fascinating about the prospect of being so connected and yet so distant 鈥� and I confess I am currently waiting to find out whether my partner believes animals have souls.

If not quite a soul, Phonofolium et Lux by artists Scenocosme creates an eerie impression of sentience. This digital/arboreal hybrid encourages audiences to caress the foliage of a small tree, which responds to electrostatic energy by generating a soundtrack that lurches from the organic to the mechanical in a surprisingly hypnotic fashion.

Going virtual

The arrival of virtual reality on the digital arts scene was inevitable, yet in a similar way to theatre鈥檚 recently awakened fervour for binaural audio, it is easy to see how enthusiasm for the technology can overwhelm the storytelling itself.

Take WHIST, a work that merges film and augmented reality in a piece inspired by Sigmund Freud. Unfortunately, a beautiful collection of sculptures is viewed only through a headset camera feed, where they serve as mere physical triggers for a series of 360-degree recorded performances.

Losing the potency of the actors鈥� physical proximity, and failing to capitalise on the headset鈥檚 claustrophobic potential, A桅E鈥檚 journey feels constrained by its VR prison, and more like a nightmare that David Lynch may once have had about live art.

At the other end of the scale, Empire Soldiers by Metro-Boulot-Dodo is a perfectly pitched use of the form. Content to allow audience members a seat throughout, the purpose of this richly designed world is not its own existence, but to focus you on that of its subject 鈥� a Caribbean soldier recruited to fight in the first world war. A deft use of sound builds a short, poetic and moving experience.

Tardigrades and nematodes

Hurtling outwards from our planetary home, the subjects of Andy Gracie鈥檚 Deep Data Prototypes _1, _2 + _3 are unlikely to make any sound at all 鈥� with microscopic tardigrades and nematodes playing starring roles in several active astrobiology experiments. Exploring the parameters for life, Gracie exposes his test subjects to the extreme magnetic fields of our own gas giants and the gravity of exoplanetary super-Earths, while seedlings strive for life in the lighting conditions of both a real and fictional Mars.

Gracie鈥檚 work perfectly embodies the intersection of calibrated experimentation and art, with each prototype representing a staggering number of hours in the lab consulting with planetary scientists.

Ascending the aptly named Steep Hill to Lincoln鈥檚 famous cathedral feels like a journey back in time in more ways than one. Proudly touted as Frequency鈥檚 most analogue offering, Assemble鈥檚 Log Book houses four real-life hewers in the chapter house, slowly shaping freshly felled trees into beams. Rhythmic and hypnotic, it would be easy to pass an entire afternoon immersed in the smell of resin and the sea of scattered woodchips. Frequency may take you to the farthest reaches of space, but it will always reach out to ground you again.

The runs in Lincoln, UK, until 29 October

leads the pack for science at festivals this summer. Following its debut at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire last year, this fusion of music, science and culture tackles the big themes, from the depths of the oceans to how to leave Earth. And you can hunt for new pulsars with the BBC鈥檚 Sky at Night team, get your hands on some graphene in the Star Field, and explore earthquakes in the Planet Field.

Modesty aside, 快猫短视频 is at the festival in strength, so watch out for: , with Catherine Brahic on the unknown talents of the cave artists at Chauvet and Lascaux; Frank Swain becoming as he explores how tech is changing our bio natures; Penny Sarchet wondering 鈥� complete with dancing parrots, bopping seals and cat music; and Sally Adee explaining .

Up in the thrillingly beautiful Brecon Beacons in south Wales, is cranking out a wide-ranging space theme, as Explorer Dome turns the Omni Tent into a mobile planetarium. Or if you just want to dance or trance out, rock down to the algorave, where electronic music and visuals are generated live by algorithms.

Tents, talks and tests

That daddy of all festivals, , has its Green Fields host a science tent that offers festivalgoers the chance to experience a supernova explosion, explore aeronautics and astronautics with real rocket parts, and test how reaction times and decision-making change under pressure 鈥� or just get blown away with the Lego Wind-Tunnel Simulator.

What makes us who we are is up for debate at. There鈥檚 Theatre Re鈥檚 The Nature of Forgetting, which looks at the neurobiological research into dementia and real-life experience of it. Or you can check out the festival鈥檚 ongoing collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, through a host of talks and experiments in the Faraway Forest. For sheer fun, catch Unlimited Theatre鈥檚 How I Hacked My Way into Space, the story of one man鈥檚 adventure told from where it happened 鈥� his garden shed.

is still the newish kid on the block, but alongside music this year from Bonobo, Laura Marling and Michael Kiwanuka, it has old hand Guerilla Science bringing its unique sense of fun, with workshops on lucid dreaming and sensory speed dating.

Guerilla Science will also host a gig on attraction and identity at , featuring sensory speed dating and personality tests. And a special life drawing session will offer the chance to get a different perspective, with the audience trying to draw the world as perceived by people with perceptual disorders.

has some serious chemistry kit at The Apothecary, where you can make your own bath bomb, while the festival鈥檚 Sigma tent explores our obsession with bringing animals back from extinction and the experience of synaesthesia.

Smaller-scale highlights

Highlights among the smaller festivals include sporting a science dome as part of its Out of this World theme, visitors to 听snuggling up for a more traditional picnic-blanket approach to stargazing, and offering the relaxingly titled Tea and Theoretical Physics.

Makerspaces are on the rise, with SHMakerspace and its 3D printers at in Guildford. But if you鈥檇 rather break something than make it, 鈥檚 Wrekshop might be just the thing 鈥� though you may accidentally learn some electrical engineering in the process.

There鈥檚 lots on offer for kids too, with offering woodcraft and stargazing. Or they could learn about bees in the craft area at , attend the Jedi Training Academy at Bluedot or take some classes in the genie labs at Always the Sun.

In the wake of the world鈥檚 hottest year on record in 2016, festivals are taking a more focused approach to climate change, with low-carbon energy topping the bill in the science and tech pavilion at this year鈥檚 in Anglesey. You can try creating kinetic energy on pushbikes, explore how water turbines work, and create and race F1 cars. Or if you鈥檙e feeling more contemplative, you can listen in to the story of local mathematician William Jones, the man who proposed one of the most useful symbols of all time 鈥� 听蟺 (pi).

Planes, trains and automobiles

If you fancy venturing farther afield, we have some top tips from mainland Europe for you. If you鈥檙e a serious Bj枚rk fan, hurry to Barcelona in Spain. She鈥檚 headlining with a 4-hour DJ set at on 14 June, and her .

The festival runs concurrently with the 厂贸苍补谤+D International Congress of Digital Culture and Creative Technologies (at which Bjork will also speak). The congress has an and the (you-have-to-be-there) 鈥減hosphere鈥� installation by Daito Manabe and his Rhizomatiks studio, inspired by the process of mineral crystallisation.

Along with a line-up boasting the likes of The Weeknd and Lorde, Danish has a dedicated makerspace, where you can draw with 3D pens, laser cut and 鈥� perhaps most important for the festivalgoer 鈥� 听make your own solar-powered cellphone charger so you can snap selfies powered by the sun.

The festival has also teamed up with Stop Spild af Mad (鈥淪top Waste of Food鈥�) and Det Runde Bord (鈥淭he Round Table鈥�) to stop food waste, using excess food to provide healthy and nutritious meals for asylum centres and shelters. And it鈥檚 hosting 快猫短视频 favourites The Yes Men in its Art Zone.

In the picturesque Hungarian city of Sopron, boasts a spectacular line-up of international musicians and a host of cultural treats, from fire-juggling to the Always Drinking Marching Band. There is also a healthy dose of science, in the form of logic and action games, mini-lectures and spectacular experiments in the festival鈥檚 science centre 鈥� as well as programmes on innovation and natural sciences from the University of West Hungary.

on 脫buda Island in Budapest, Hungary, promises performances that explore what it means to be human. Perhaps the star of the show is , choreographer Mourad Merzouki鈥檚 mesmerising dance exploration of the boundary between virtual and real life.

Alongside some leading electronic artists such as Ben Frost and William Basinski, in Brussels, Belgium, is showcasing the best tech-art crossovers, displaying the work of this year鈥檚 STARTS prizewinners. These include I鈥檓 Humanity by Etsuko Yakushimaru, which explores the future of music by encoding it in DNA.

Cursed by a witch

OURS is a restless planet. While we walk unawares over the remnants of massive eruptions, it is easier than ever to train a camera on Mount Etna鈥檚 latest effusions. The power of Mount St Helens and Pinatubo lives long in memory, in part because their recent activity is well documented, and in 2010 the whole world watched as Iceland鈥檚 Eyjafjallaj枚kull grounded European air traffic.

It seems odd, then, to imagine a time when volcanoes were the stuff of legend and religious speculation. It is, however, just this evolution of our relationship with Earth鈥檚 most dynamic geology that Volcanoes, a new exhibition at the University of Oxford鈥檚 Bodleian Libraries, sets out to explore.

Confined to just one room in the Weston Library, and taking about an hour to explore, Volcanoes cuts an admirable swathe through the history of our encounters with its namesakes 鈥� from a carbonised papyrus scroll discovered in the Roman town of Herculaneum after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 to videos of recent activity around the Pacific Ring of Fire.

While extensive prior knowledge is not required, the exhibition does rather necessitate jumping feet first into certain terminology. Volcanologist David Pyle offers a gentler crash course in the exhibition鈥檚 accompanying book, Volcanoes. However, the texture and intricacy of original illustrations and diagrams by the likes of Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher and explorer Alexander von Humboldt are worth seeing in person, as they have been considerably scaled down for the book so as not to produce a publication that would dwarf the average coffee table.

Some surprising revelations include the longevity of volcano tourism, which kicked into high gear after news of Vesuvius鈥檚 spectacular 1631 eruption spread rapidly through Europe thanks to the recent proliferation of the printing press. Less than 100 years later, visitors to the Marylebone pleasure gardens in London could witness the 鈥淔orge of Vulcan鈥� 鈥� a vivid firework display built around a representation of Mount Etna.

By the 19th century, naturalists and travel writers like Isabella Bird and Constance Gordon-Cumming were spending months in Hawaii, hiking up Kilauea to witness the 鈥渁wful waves of unquenchable fire [which] surge and writhe without ceasing鈥�.

鈥淭he book gives voice to those living near sites of volcanic activity, through interviews and poetry鈥�

Several stunning eruptions during the 1800s had worldwide effects, particularly Indonesia鈥檚 Tambora in 1815. It led to the 鈥測ear without a summer鈥� of 1816, and caused agricultural devastation across a Europe largely unaware of the eruption. It also yielded the novel Frankenstein, when the inclement weather noted by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (soon to become better known as Mary Shelley) in her diary kept her holiday party indoors during a trip to Lake Geneva.

In perhaps its most arresting aspect, the exhibition gives voice to those living near sites of activity, with the people of the Caribbean island of Montserrat recounting their experience of the Soufri猫re Hills eruption through interviews and poetry. The four-year eruption began in 1995 and devastated the island, eventually burying the abandoned capital Plymouth 鈥� once home to 4000 inhabitants 鈥� in ash.

Pyle, also the exhibition鈥檚 curator, weaves his own experiences and insights into the book, as well as drawing on first-hand accounts from throughout history. He also explores what can be done to prepare for the immediate effects and long-term fallout of eruptions.

Despite skewing heavily towards European accounts, because the exhibition draws largely on the Bodleian鈥檚 own archive, Pyle aims for a global perspective on the human story of the forces that shape our planet. An antidote to the sensationalism of many a supervolcano documentary, Volcanoes is well worth exploring in both its forms.

Volcanoes, Weston Library, Oxford, UK, to 21 May

by David M. Pyle, Bodleian Library Publishing

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚nside the volcano鈥�

Seeking restfulness

Rest 鈥� NOW!

Engaged brain

FIGHTS. Losses. Survivors. The language of cancer is a battleground littered with violent metaphors, but a new production at London鈥檚 National Theatre plans to change that, with an 鈥渁ll singing, all dancing examination of life with a cancer diagnosis鈥�. Oh yes, a musical. About cancer.

In its very title, Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel鈥檚 A Pacifist鈥檚 Guide to the War on Cancer issues an open challenge to public discourse on serious illness. 鈥淸Musicals can] seem like puff pieces of art,鈥� says Kimmings, 鈥渂ut actually if you think about the good ones, they deal with huge issues. Cancer should definitely be a musical.鈥�

Lobel, who was himself treated for cancer at a young age, describes his role in the production as 鈥渘avigating the muck of cancer鈥� there鈥檚 just so much conflicting information and loud political noise鈥�.

But even violent metaphor can be a useful tool, as Elena Semino at Lancaster University, UK, explains. She analysed the language people with cancer use in online forums, and discovered that the idea of being a fighter is sometimes empowering 鈥� with one key caveat. 鈥淭he crucial thing is that nobody should have that particular way of being imposed on them. If the main way you have to conceive of your illness is as a battle that you need to fight and win, then if you鈥檙e losing it鈥檚 kind of your fault鈥� it can have all sorts of negative consequences.鈥�

With a view to subverting this kind of narrative, Kimmings and Lobel developed the show with an 鈥淚CU鈥� of 10 people who鈥檇 had cancer or were currently in treatment. Sure enough, the inclusion of a quote from Audre Lorde, an African-American writer and activist who had felt empowered by the language of fighting cancer, divided opinion within the group.

While Semino鈥檚 study showed that people are likely to use violence and journey metaphors to describe their experience of cancer, it also revealed, perhaps unsurprisingly, that experiences of serious illness can be deeply individual and fluctuating. Expressions varied from person to person, and even from week to week. 鈥淢etaphor is seen by most people studying it as not just a linguistic but also a cognitive phenomenon. If you give people different metaphors for the same topic, they reason about it quite differently,鈥� she notes.

鈥淭o be asked to hate some of me, to fight some of me, is brutal. It doesn鈥檛 matter how kindly meant it is鈥�

Semino feels that charities strongly dominate the conversation, and they use military language to fundraise, portraying cancer as a common enemy that needs to be defeated.

Yet author and playwright Stella Duffy, whose solo play Breaststrokes explored her first breast cancer diagnosis, felt attacked by this kind of message. 鈥淲hat really struck me was that it was asking me to hate some of myself. To be asked to hate some of me, to fight some of me, is really brutal. It doesn鈥檛 matter how kindly meant it is.鈥�

While under no illusion that one musical will bring about a singular cultural shift, Kimmings is optimistic: 鈥淥ne of our cancer patients said, 鈥業 am counting on this show to change the way that we talk about cancer in the public realm鈥�, and that for me is a huge ambition but at the same time totally possible.鈥� Lobel is hopeful that A Pacifist鈥檚 Guide will allow people to open up about what makes them vulnerable. It is easier for us to voice our own fears about illness and death by agreeing with a character who expresses similar concerns.

Can cultural experiences really change our language? 鈥淚 think they can,鈥� Semino says. 鈥淸Scientific papers are] great in their own right, but they don鈥檛 give you a sense of what it feels like to have those experiences. Narrative has the power to make you feel.鈥� Having reclaimed the narrative of her own cancer through writing and performing, Duffy is eager for more people to own the conversation. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be reduced,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e already diminished when we鈥檙e ill. We don鈥檛 need to be diminished by the language around it.鈥�

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This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淥h, what a lovely war鈥�