First Life, an interactive installation by Mark Cera, features a mash-up of different video-game backgrounds. The work, part of Providence’s annual FirstWorksProv arts festival, is on display in the Sol Koffler Gallery in downtown Providence.

PROVIDENCE — An electronic “rooster” that crows at the push of a button. A group of robots who dream of going outside and watching the stars. A multimedia installation that allows users to access more than 5 million years of global climate data. A citywide “treasure hunt” guided by hidden radio transmitters.

Welcome to the wired and wonderful world of “Pixilerations [v.4],” the digital-arts and new media wing of this year’s FirstWorks arts festival. Featuring everything from gallery exhibits to film and video screenings to live electronic music performances, the two-week festival-within-a-festival kicks off tomorrow night with simultaneous receptions at two downtown galleries: the Space at Alice at 70 Eddy St. and the Sol Koffler Gallery at 169 Weybosset St.

Both receptions run from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Compared to where we were even a few years ago, this is a big step forward,” says Joseph Rovan, an associate professor of music at Brown University and one of the organizers of “Pixilerations [v.4].” “Not only do we have more artists and performers that ever, but we’re starting to get more people from outside the United States.”

As an example, Rovan points to Skif++, a Dutch electronic-music group known for performing its own compositions using a combination of playful do-it-yourself instruments and computer-game joysticks.

“In electronic-music circles, they’re kind of like rock stars,” Rovan says of the group, which will give a 10 p.m. concert at the Space at Alice gallery on Friday, Oct. 5. “The guys are all associated with the STEIM Institute, which is one of the biggest institutes in the world dedicated to developing new musical instruments.”

Another Pixilerations newcomer is Myriam Thyes, a German artist who’s known for her politically-charged videos and computer animations. In Flag Metamorphoses, a work that will be shown at the Space at Alice, Thyes asked artists from different countries to submit short animations based on the national flags of their respective countries. She then mixed the different animations together, creating a visual montage in which the flag of one country slowly morphs into the flag of another. (On her Web site, Thyes describes Flag Metamorphoses as an exercise in “reassessing, fluidizing and re-mixing diverse national iconography.”)

In all, “Pixilerations [v.4]” will showcase the work of more than 60 artists working in a wide variety of electronic-based art forms. Some, like Thyes and Skif++, testify to the festival’s growing international stature. Others, meanwhile, hark back to Pixilerations’s roots as a showcase for Providence’s own electronic arts scene — a scene based mainly on the campuses of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

“Actually, it goes back a pretty long way,” says Rovan. “Brown has one of the oldest electronic-music programs in the country — I think it started in the 1950s. More recently, we’ve been reaching out to artists in other disciplines, such as film, video and installation. We’ve also formed an ongoing partnership with FirstWorks.”

This year marks the fourth time that FirstWorks and Pixilerations have joined forces — hence the “v.4” or “version four” in the festival’s title. There’s also a separate Pixilerations Web site ( www.pixilerations.org), an impressive-sounding theme (“stories and ornament,” focusing on works with strong narrative and storytelling elements) and a full slate of Pixilerations-related events and venues.

The bulk of the festival’s film and video screenings, for example, will take place on Wednesday night at the Cable Car Cinema at 204 South Main St. The event, which starts at 9:30 p.m. and is organized in conjunction with Brown’s Magic Lantern Experimental Film Collaborative, will feature more than two dozen works, ranging in length from a few seconds to 15 minutes.

Films and videos lasting more than 15 minutes, meanwhile, will be shown at the festival’s two gallery venues: the Space at Alice and the Sol Koffler Gallery.

Clara Schumacher, who helped organize the film-video presentations, says the decision to separate longer and shorter works was made with visitors’ attention spans in mind. “Basically, we figured that people would be willing to sit still for a series of shorter pieces,” she says. “The longer works, on the other hand, seemed to lend themselves to a gallery context, where people were free to watch or browse depending on their level of interest.”

Sol Koffler and the Space at Alice will also host many of the festival’s installation-style artworks.

At Sol Koffler, look for pieces such as First Life, a virtual “mash-up” of different video games by Mark Cera, and Morning Annunciator, an electronic “rooster” created by Rhode Island artist Robert Kieronski. Other highlights include Haggadah, an experimental Holocaust documentary by New York filmmaker Brian Delevie, and Port Huron Project 2, Mark Tribe’s video reenactment of a 1971 speech protesting the Vietnam War.

The Sol Koffler gallery is also the starting point for Audio Walk, an unusual walking tour devised by James Moses and Lyn Goeringer. Rather than following a map, tour-takers receive directions from a series of radio transmitters stationed at various locations around the city. Locations range from White Coffee on the West Side to Tazza Caffe in downtown to India Point Park overlooking the Providence River.

Goeringer, a Brown University graduate student, says the radio transmissions include sounds and music that relate to the different locations. “The idea is that the sounds complement the experience of being at a certain place,” she explains.

At the Space at Alice, visitors will find everything from an interactive exhibit tracing 5 million years of climate change (Arvid Tomayko-Peters’ Climate Controlled) to a group of star-gazing robots (Chuan Khoo’s All we wish is to see the stars…) to another group of robots with more destructive urges (Paul Badger’s Killer Robots).

“Pixilierations [v.4]” also includes several live concerts and performances. The first two sets of performances will take place tomorrow and Saturday night at URI’s downtown campus at 250 Westminster St. More performances will follow on Saturday Oct.5 at the Space at Alice. The starting time for all three concert events is 10 p.m.

For more information about “Pixilerations [v.4]” call (401) 421-4278 or visit www.pixilerations.org.

bvansicl@projo.com