Institutional presentation / DïaloG. MindSpaces – STARTS . The Art of DïaloG: Are we immigrants in a machine World?
Abstract: Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme in the framework of S+T+Arts initiative (Science, Technology & the Arts). S+T+Arts supports collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers and researchers to develop more creative, inclusive, and sustainable technologies. The main objective of MindSpaces is to develop novel art-driven design processes and technologies, which build upon artificial intelligence, multimodal data analysis and fusion algorithms and are augmented by data insights gathered through the collective social behaviour and responses of occupants experiencing dynamic and adaptive environments. https://mindspaces.eu/
S+T+ARTS is driven by the conviction that science and technology combined with an artistic viewpoint also open valuable perspectives for research and business, through a holistic and human-centered approach. https://starts.eu/
DïaloG a is a public art, generative, interactive, and evolutionist project. He shows how the new status of the artworks that experiences mutations made possible by the technology moved the object it used to be (sculpture in marble, painting on canvas) to a real subject. The art-subject, able to perceive its environment, dotted with memory, and afferent cognitive functions: artificial intelligence, artificial intentionality, autonomous behaviour, may also experience a new form of affectivity. Lost in a human controlled world, the artwork is a strange stranger. It doesn’t look like us, it may express a complex behaviour triggered by specific emotions – from fear to curiosity, from excitement to compassion – it may also activate a semi-organic process of assimilation based on absorption of perceived information altering its own DNA. They want to learn and to understand. What they perceive becomes part of their persona in constant mutation. With more time, they’ll grab bits of language from the public, interact with them, and even more: they will interact with one another. The Alien is the Other, and like highly elaborate robots, these affective machineries are striving to decrypt the world as if it would be a necessity for art survival. In troubled times, when war, climate, or poverty induce large-scale migrations, these aliens offer the possibility to discover and experience the strangely familiar quest of interspecies and intercultural mutual understanding.”
Biography: Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is a media artist, director and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. His body of work locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. In taking the data that flows around us as the primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, Anadol paints with a thinking brush, offering us radical visualizations of our digitized memories and expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative, and the body in motion. Anadol’s site-specific AI data sculptures, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take many forms, while encouraging us to rethink our engagement with the physical world, its temporal and spatial dimensions, and the creative potential of machines.
Maurice Benayoun (aka MoBen or 莫奔) (born 29 March 1957 in Mascara, Algeria) is a French pioneer, contemporary new-media artist, curator and theorist based in Paris and Hong Kong. His work employs various media, including (and often combining) video, computer graphics, immersive virtual reality, the Internet, performance, EEG, 3D Printing, large-scale urban media art installations and interactive exhibitions. Often conceptual, Maurice Benayoun’s work constitutes a critical investigation of the mutations in the contemporary society induced by the emerging or recently adopted technologies.
Alejandro Martín (Art Director and Curator) strongly believes that creativity and art are key in our globalised world. He has a holistic vision stems from his background chemistry and engineering, a vast experience in Business Development, and he has indulged in long research of Fine Arts and Art Production. Founder and director of a contemporary Art Gallery and he has now launched Naranjo Projects, a platform directed to support artists to develop their international career Based in Barcelona, he has a global approach to Art, using the international cooperation as the best formula to promote contemporary art and to facilitate the cultural dialogue.
IED – Hemeroteca Digital
HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES collects the news that happened in supposed futures with the aim of exploring situations and speculating on events, observing through them the capacity of design and the repercussion that it has on the construction of our continuous future / present.
This initiative stems from the collaboration between ISEA 2022 Barcelona (1) and the D4TM (Designing For The Many) subject of the IED Barcelona School (2) during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The news collected in the HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES, as future situations that occurred, served as the basis for the design of postcards that, coming from the future to the present, announced in the first person and in an affective way the experience of what happened.
The HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES opens to the public at the Ignasi Iglésias-Can Fabra Library as an open provocation for citizens to speculate on possible futures and the role of design in relation to it.
HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES recull les notícies succeïdes en suposats futurs amb l’objectiu d’explorar situacions i especular successos, observant a través d’ells la capacitat del disseny i la repercussió que aquest té en la construcció del nostre futur / present continu.
Aquesta iniciativa neix de la col·laboració entre l’ISEA 2022 Barcelona (1) i l’assignatura D4TM (Designing For The Many) de l’Escola IED Barcelona (2) durant l’any acadèmic 2021-2022.
Les notícies recollides a l’HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES, com a situacions futures succeïdes, van servir com a base per al disseny de postals que venint del futur al present anunciaven en primera persona i de forma afectiva la vivència del que ha passat.
L’HEMEROTECA DIGITAL – POSSIBLES s’obre al públic a la Biblioteca Ignasi Iglésias-Can Fabra com una provocació oberta als ciutadans per especular sobre els possibles futurs i el paper del disseny en relació amb això.
“Pensar i dissenyar els possibles amb estudiants” is a meeting that responds to two goals. On the one hand, to make visible the research and creative work linked to imagining other possible worlds that are being developed in the different centers of higher education in the city of Barcelona and the province. On the other hand, to promote the sharing of different methodological approaches, strategies, tactics, tools and pedagogical resources to facilitate the process of imagining and designing other possible and future emerging worlds with students.
Speakers:
Oscar Tomico (Elisava) Elena Bartomeu (EINA) Maja Cecuk and Mikki Schindler (ESDI) Irma Arribas (IED)
“Pensar i dissenyar els possibles amb estudiants” és una trobada que respon a dos objectius. D’una banda, visibilitzar la recerca i el treball creatiu vinculat a imaginar altres mons possibles que s’està desenvolupant en els diferents centres d’educació superior de la ciutat de Barcelona i província. Per l’altre, promoure la posada en comú de diferents enfocaments metodològics, estratègies, tàctiques, eines i recursos pedagògics per a facilitar el procés d’imaginar i dissenyar altres mons possibles i futurs emergents amb estudiants.
Ponents:
Oscar Tomico (Elisava) Elena Bartomeu (EINA) Maja Cecuk y Mikki Schindler (ESDI) Irma Arribas (IED)
CREAF – Taula Rodona: El valor de les residències d’artistes en centres de recerca: on està el win-win?
CERC – PlatóRoom
Round table on the benefits of artistic residencies in research centers for the two groups involved, science and art. This table was born from a previous initiative of the ECOTONS collective within the CREAF research center. It has people who have worked in artistic residencies within research centers such as the IRB or CREAF, as well as people who combine their artistic side and their scientific side.
Speaking: • Carola Moujan | Artist and designer, PhD in design from the Sorbonne (France). Artist in residence ECOTONS – CREAF in 2021. • Clara Borràs | IRB Barcelona researcher and scientific illustrator. • Jo Milne | Professor at EINA, School of Art and Design, attached to the UAB. Artist residing at Pompeu Fabra University and Fundació Vila Casas 2022, and at IRB Barcelona in the 2020-21 academic year. • Paula Bruna | PhD in fine arts from the UB and master’s degree in ecology from CREAF / UAB. • Jordi Martínez-Vilalta | UAB Professor of Ecology, CREAF researcher and member of the ECOTONS CREAF collective.
Carola Moujan will present a methodological reflection on the process at ISEA2022. The publication is entitled “Artistic Residencies as Critical Research: Entangled Methodologies for Future Science”.
CERC- Sala Plató
Taula rodona sobre els avantatges de les residències artístiques als centres de recerca per als dos col·lectius implicats, la ciència i l’art. Aquesta taula neix a partir d’una iniciativa anterior del col·lectiu ECOTONS dins del centre de recerca del CREAF. Compta amb persones que han intervingut en residències artístiques dins de centres de recerca com ara l’IRB o el CREAF, així com amb persones que combinen el seu vessant artístic i el seu vessant científic.
Parlaran:
• Carola Moujan | Artista i dissenyadora, doctora en disseny de la Sorbona (França). Artista en residència ECOTONS – CREAF en 2021. • Clara Borràs | Investigadora de l’IRB Barcelona i il·lustradora científica. • Jo Milne | Professora a EINA, Escola d’Art i Disseny, adscrita a la UAB. Artista resident a la Universitat Pompeu Fabra i Fundació Vila Casas 2022, i a l’IRB Barcelona el curs 2020-21. • Paula Bruna | Doctora en belles arts per la UB i màster en ecologia al CREAF/UAB. •Jordi Martínez-Vilalta | Catedràtic d’ecologia de la UAB, investigador del CREAF i membre del col·lectiu ECOTONS CREAF.
Carola Moujan presentarà una reflexió metodològica sobre el procés a ISEA2022. La publicació es titula “Artistic Residencies as Critical Research: Entangled Methodologies for Future Science”.
TNC – Xerrades a la fresca
Les Xerrades a la fresca are summer dialogues that will take place in the bar-peristyle of the TNC, and bring together the performing artists present at the ZIP Festival with professionals in scientific research and dissemination.
With the collaboration of ISEA2022 Barcelona (International Symposium on Electronic Art).
Les Xerrades a la fresca són diàlegs d’estiu que es realitzaran al bar-peristil del TNC, i posen en contacte els artistes escènics presents al Festival ZIPamb professionals de la recerca i la divulgació científica.
Amb la col·laboració d’ISEA2022 Barcelona (International Symposium on Electronic Art).
Dimecres 15 de juny:
21.30 h. Hammamturgia. Diàleg entorn de la figura de Lynn Margulis entre els autors de Sociedad Doctor Alonso i Anna Omedes, Cristina Ribas i Jordi Serrallonga (MCNB).
Divendres 17 de juny:
21.30 h. Y pareceremos árboles. Ficciones botánicas. Diàleg entorn l’ús dels microscopis entre la creadira Elena Córdoba i Toño García coordinador de Micrarium de CosmoCaixa (FLC).
Dissabte 18 de juny:
14 h.Game of Kin.Diàleg entre Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico (LPL) i Elisabetta Broglio (CRG)
21.30 h. En un dia claro puedes ver para siempre.Diàleg sobre cosmologia entre els artistes Rosa Casado i Mike Brookes, i els investigadors Guillem Anglada (ICE-CSIC, IEEC).
Diumenge 19 de juny:
14 h. Un pensament salvatge.Diàleg entorn de la placa de petri entre els artistes Xesca Salvà i Marc Villanueva, i la investigadora Cristina Fillat (IDIBAPS).
21.30 h. Després de tot.Diàleg entre els artistes del col·lectiu PSiRC i l’investigador Marc Furió (UAB-ICP) sobre extincions.
Institutional presentation / Beyond Matter. Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality – an international collaboration
Abstract: Beyond Matter is an international, collaborative, practice-based research project that takes cultural heritage and contemporary art to the verge of virtual reality. The project is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. The project runs from 2019 to 2023.
Despite being a project per se, the endeavour, specifically its online platform, can be understood as being a decentralized hybrid institution. Beyond Matter takes cultural heritage and contemporary art to the verge of virtual reality. It reflects on a condition of art production and mediation that is increasingly virtual with a specific emphasis on spatial aspects in art production, curating, and mediation. A plurality of possible solutions and options that are emerging alongside the development of computation is explored through numerous activities and formats, such as the digital revival of selected past landmark exhibitions, the curation of art and archival exhibitions, conferences, artist residency programs, an online platform, and publications.
Initiated led by ZKM | Karlsruhe, the collaborative endeavor relies on partnerships with the Aalto University in Espoo, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Tallinna Kunstihoone, and Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art. It understands practice-based research as a process within the museum context that encompasses the development and creation of museum experiences, their evaluation with the inclusion of the audiences in order to develop best practices for museum professionals who are increasingly required to apply digital tools.
In attempting to depict the virtual condition, the project probes the ways in which physical and digital space are interdependent and seeks to inhabit computer-generated space as an assembly—as a platform for exchange, for the contemplation and mediation of art—without approaching it as a virtual copy, a depiction or digital twin of actual physical spaces.
Biography: Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás is a curator and art historian. She has curated exhibitions at institutions of contemporary and media art worldwide since 2006, including at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe), Chronus Art Center (Shanghai), Tallinna Kunstihoone, Műcsarnok Budapest, focusing on the constantly changing media of contemporary art and intersections with various disciplines. She has initiated and developed thematic exhibitions raising questions such as the genealogy and social impact of planetary computation and computer code, electronic surveillance and democracy, and synesthetic perception.
As of 2019 she has started research in curatorial studies on the “virtual condition” and its implications on the exhibition space at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, and as acting head and initiator of the international collaboration project entitled Beyond Matter at ZKM | Karlsruhe, which enjoys the partnership with institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Aalto University, and others.
Artist talk / INTER/her: INTER/her: An immersive journey inside the female body
Abstract: An immersive installation and Virtual Reality artwork focussed on post-reproductive diseases and pain over 40’s women experience: endometriosis, fibroids, polyps, Ovarian and other cysts, cervical, ovarian, uterine and endometrial cancers. The sensory and emotional experience moving from the outside in within a real dome space into VR space, with a 3D audio soundscape of the voices and stories of real women recounting their experiences, making it an intimate, emotional and possibly haunting experience, with accompanying wearable haptic garment providing a visceral vibration responsive experience on the lower abdomen, where the various diseases occur.
Artist talk / Autolume: Automating Live Music Visualization
Abstract: Deep Learning is becoming increasingly more accessible for artists, leading to generative and discriminative models being used for artistic expression. We distilled approaches found in research and installations relating to GANs into a live VJing program. We propose an interactive tool for visualizing music using live audio feature extraction and a MIDI controller to allow artists to accompany live performances. Following previous approaches for offline audio-reactive visuals using GANs, we map the amplitude, onset strength and notes in the music to influence the images generated. Furthermore, we use findings in interpretable GANs and techniques in Network Bending to incorporate a MIDI controller that is common for VJs. This allows the artist to adjust the visuals with a known interface.
Biography: Philippe Pasquier is a professor at Simon Fraser University’s School for Interactive Arts and Technology, where he directs the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI. Philippe leads a research-creation program around generative systems for creative tasks. As such, he is a scientist specialized in artificial intelligence, a multidisciplinary media artist, an educator, and a community builder. His contributions range from theoretical research in and creative AI, multi-agent systems, computational creativity, machine learning, affective computing, evaluation methodologies, to applied artistic research and practice in digital art, computer music, as well as interactive and generative art.
Jonas Kraasch is a graduate student at Simon Fraser University’s School for Interactive Arts and Technology, where he is part of the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI. With his prior studies in Cognitive Science with a focus on Deep Learning his goal is to combine both his passions for AI and creative expression by creating both creative systems and tools to assist artists in their work. In his research he focuses on deep learning, machine learning, creative AI, data ethics and generative models
Panel / Implementing STEAM approaches in Higher Education
Abstract: STEAM INC is the first focused attempt to collect and codify European approaches to STEAM in Higher Education. While the work is exploratory and should not be considered comprehensive, the collected approaches can however offer a preliminary framework for further mapping of STEAM in Higher Education, stimulate dialogue about the perceived nature, principles and parameters of STEAM and provide inspiration for those looking to develop and introduce STEAM approaches of their own.
Artist talk / Umbra
Abstract: Jess Holz creates ‘microsculptures’ incorporating insect and plant material, imaged by scanning electron microscopy. By collaging materials into small sculptures she creates imagined interactions between entities present. In her work she experiments with bizarre distortions due to charge buildup (an imaging artifact) as a way to challenge the assumed objectivity of scientific images.
Biography: Jess Holz (b. 1985) creates artworks which give the viewer a peek into invisible worlds, as well as a chance to reflect on the influence of scientific visual culture on our collective imagination. She has recently received an MFA in Art+Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; previously she has worked in several labs and imaging facilities, gaining valuable technical experience with a number of microscopic imaging techniques. She currently works as a microscopy research associate at a Boston University lab which investigates the neural circuitry underlying thought and emotion. A true artist/scientist at heart, she has been using the scanning electron microscope for artistic purposes for the past 16 years. The discrepancy between what can be perceived by eye and what is imaged by the microscope has fostered her fascination with perceptual systems along with the optical properties of materials. Jess actively exploits this in photography and installation.
Full paper / One + one = three: the added value of dual degrees in higher education
Abstract: Can Arts & Science/Technology fruitfully co-exist in the minds and on institutional diplomas of contemporary scholarship? This paper considers how in the globall terrain of higher education, the historic tradition of largely mono-disciplinary degrees is being challenged by programmatic complexities that co-join seemingly disparate realms of knowledge and investigation through the introduction of dual degrees. Aided by the benefits of expanding communications technologies, such degrees seek to bridge academic divisions while still contending with very separate intellectual cultures. The discussion takes both an historical and exploratory perspective; ranging from the examination of instutional formations to experiential eamples provided by the authors, ultimately positing the central question of whether the expansion of dual degrees represents mere currucular innovation or some thing much more in line with a distinctly new approach to the structuring of intellectual foundation.
Biography: André P. Czeglédy is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wilfrid Laurier University and former Head of its Department of Anthropology. In the course of his academic career, he has lectured variously at the University of Cambridge, the Budapest University of Economics, the University of the Witwatersrand and now Wilfrid Laurier University. His chief research interests lie in Business Anthropology, Urban Anthropology and more recently Museum Studies. Such research has involved long-term, ethnographic fieldwork in both post-socialist Hungary and postapartheid South Africa, chiefly looking at the dynamics of rapid change societies. His two decade-long writing partnership with Nina Czegledy focusing on the intersection of Science/Technology, Art & the Body, pays special attention to analyzing the social and cultural dynamics of visualization and power.
Nina Czegledy independent curator, media artist, researcher, educator is based in Toronto, Canada. She collaborates internationally on art& science& technology projects. Upcoming 2022: A Light Footprint in the Cosmos, Substantial Motion Research Network, Vancouver, Sensoria, the art and science of our senses Laznia, Contemporary Art Centre, Gdanks, Dobble Debate on-line game, Balance Unbalance, New Zealand (cocurator). Previous: Agents for Change/ Facing the Anthropocene (2020) The Museum, Canada; On behalf of Leonardo/ISAST initiated, co-presented 27 Leonardo 50th Celebrations in 24 countries (2017/2018). Czegledy published widely, most recent: Eco Art: Ubiquity: The Journal of Pervasive Media, 2020. She contributes regularly to the Journal of Virtual Creativity.Academic affiliations: Adjunct Professor, OCAD University, Toronto; Senior Fellow, KMDI, University of Toronto; Research Collaborator, Hexagram International, Montreal; Board member Leonardo/ISAST; Researcher, NOEMA Italy, Chair, Intercreate org New Zealand, Member: Leonardo LASER chairs, Post Pandemic Provocateurs, 2020 Former affiliations: Chair, ISEA International 2000-2008, AICA Canada (2014-2018)
(Canceled) BSC – Todos los museos son novelas de ciencia ficción
When writer Jorge Carrión receives a message that appears to be from the future, a series of events is triggered that lead him to question his sanity. The story is told in his novel Todos los museos son novelas de ciencia ficción, but also in the exhibition at the José Guerrero center in Granada – or it is the exhibition that is also told in the novel, because the story, together with the works, mix and merge as a product of a close collaboration between artists and scientists.
Fernando Cucchietti (BSC researcher) and Fernando Rapa Carballo (designer) will recount their experience in Todos los museos son novelas de ciencia ficción, and will present the work specifically commissioned for the book/exhibition. After the presentation there will be a visit to the Marenostrum supercomputer.
Quan l’escriptor Jorge Carrión rep un missatge que sembla ser del futur, es desencadena una sèrie d’esdeveniments que el porten a qüestionar-se el seny. La història es relata a la seva novel·la Todos los museos son novelas de ciencia ficción, però també a l’exposició al centre José Guerrero de Granada -o és l’exposició que també s’explica a la novel·la, perquè la història, juntament amb les obres, es barregen i fonen com a producte d’una estreta col·laboració entre artistes i científics.
Fernando Cucchietti (investigador BSC) i Fernando Rapa Carballo (dissenyador) relataran la seva experiència a Todos los museos son novelas de ciencia ficción i presentaran l’obra comissionada específicament per al llibre/exposició. Després de la presentació es farà una visita al superordinador Marenostrum.
Graner, centre de creació de dansa i arts vives – Obertura de procés de HUERTO, de Paula Quintana
HUERTO is an artwork in which astrophysical sciences, biochemical sciences and the so-called ‘occult sciences’, traversed by physical and organic experience. HUERTO places the body not as a tool but as a source of knowledge in itself, made up of systems and knowledge that dialogue and intertwine. A process developed by a team of artistic, scientific and technical professionals who work together in each and every phase of research and creation. A process that addresses this relationship between areas of knowledge without hierarchies, making all components at the service of their common interaction. It focuses not only on the consequences but on the reciprocal action itself, investigating the subtle time-space boundary in which each discipline would cease to be itself to be diluted into something else. An approach that opens up new possibilities and cognitive, imaginative and sensory experiences. The body as the fractal reflection of the movement of the cosmos, the microscopic realm and the social gesture, crossed by the ubiquity of a pulsation. Own observation from each of the disciplines involved: astrophysics, biomolecular, linguistic, sound and scene.
HUERTO és un treball artístic en què conviuen ciències astrofísiques, ciències bioquímiques i les anomenades ‘ciències ocultes’, travessades des de l’experiència física i orgànica. HUERTO situa el cos no com a eina sinó com a font de saber en si mateix, conformat per sistemes i coneixements que dialoguen i s’entrellacen. Un procés desenvolupat per un equip de professionals artístics, científics i tècnics que treballen de manera conjunta en totes i cadascuna de les fases de la investigació i la creació. Un procés que aborda aquesta relació entre àrees de coneixement sense jerarquies, fent que tots els components estiguin al servei de la seva comuna interacció. Es posa el focus no sols en les conseqüències sinó en la pròpia acció recíproca, investigant en el subtil temps-espai frontera en què cada disciplina deixaria de ser ella mateixa per diluir-se en una altra cosa. Un acostament que obre noves possibilitats i experiències cognitives, imaginatives i sensorials. El cos com el reflex fractal del moviment del cosmos, del regne microscòpic i del gest social, travessats per la ubiqüitat d’una pulsació. Una observació pròpia des de cadascuna de les disciplines implicades: astrofísica, biomolecular, lingüística, so i escena.
Abstract: DALL·E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. It can create original, realistic images and art from a text description and can combine concepts, attributes, and styles. DALL·E 2 can also make realistic edits to existing images from a natural language caption. It can add and remove elements while taking shadows, reflections, and textures into account. Our hope is that DALL·E 2 will empower people to express themselves creatively. DALL·E 2 also helps us understand how advanced AI systems see and understand our world, which is critical to our mission of creating AI that benefits humanity. Early users have created over 3 million images to date and helped us improve our safety processes. We’re excited to begin adding up to 1,000 new users from our waitlist each week.
Sessions: From 10am to 11:30 am From 12 pm to 1:30 pm
Biography: Joanne Jang is the product manager for DALL·E at OpenAI. Before joining OpenAI, Joanne worked on natural language understanding at Google Assistant.
Natalie Summers runs the Artist Access Program at OpenAI. Before joining OpenAI, Natalie worked in social media at Apple and in journalism at WIRED Magazine and USA TODAY.
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
Curated talk / DALL·E 2, a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language
Abstract: Joanne Jang, the product manager for DALL·E at OpenAI, will give a presentation about DALL·E 2, a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. It can create original, realistic images and art from a text description and can combine concepts, attributes, and styles. DALL·E 2 can also make realistic edits to existing images from a natural language caption. It can add and remove elements while taking shadows, reflections, and textures into account. Our hope is that DALL·E 2 will empower people to express themselves creatively. DALL·E 2 also helps us understand how advanced AI systems see and understand our world, which is critical to our mission of creating AI that benefits humanity.
Biography: Joanne Jang is the product manager for DALL·E at OpenAI. Before joining OpenAI, Joanne worked on natural language understanding at Google Assistant.
Natalie Summers runs the Artist Access Program at OpenAI. Before joining OpenAI, Natalie worked in social media at Apple and in journalism at WIRED Magazine and USA TODAY.
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
Centre d’Art Tecla Sala – La curiositat del primat humà…a la recerca de la llum
A meeting with Rubèn Verdú, artist, and Jordi Serrallonga, archaeologist, naturalist and explorer, around the project “Els migdies d’Afeli”.
The conquest of light by hominids is a very important achievement for this evolutionary lineage. The constant interest shown by its members in domesticating it is essential to launching a whole host of practices aimed at fostering the speculative talent of the human species, what we might understand as its imaginative vocation. What elements stimulate this curiosity? Where are they taking us? We must remember that ours is an evolutionary journey in which this curiosity persists.
In the exhibition “Els migdies d’Afeli” (Centre d’Art Tecla Sala)
Una trobada amb Rubèn Verdú, artista, i Jordi Serrallonga, arqueòleg, naturalista i explorador, al voltant del projecte “Els migdies d’Afeli”.
La conquesta de la llum per part dels homínids és un assoliment molt rellevant per a aquest llinatge evolutiu. El constant interès que demostren els seus membres per domesticar-la és essencial per posar en marxa tot un munt de pràctiques encaminades a fomentar el talent especulatiu de l’espècie humana, allò que podríem entendre com la seva vocació imaginativa. Quins elements esperonen aquesta curiositat? Cap on ens porten? Cal recordar que la nostra és una marxa evolutiva en què aquesta curiositat perdura.
A l’exposició “Els migdies d’Afeli” (Centre d’Art Tecla Sala)
Artworks presented by Niio.art
Niio joins the exhibitions of the ISEA2022 Barcelona 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art with a selection of artworks addressing the main themes of the symposium. The screen-based works address the notion of possibles in different ways, from the dynamics of microscopic particulate matter to the global effects of climate change, from new worlds we could inhabit to those that are fading away, and from our individual perception of the world to the realization that even machines can forget. Through generative algorithms, artificial neural networks, virtual reality environments and video editing, Frederik de Wilde, Diane Drubay, Jeppe Lange, Sabrina Ratté, Antoine Schmitt, and Snow Yunxue Fu have created fascinating narratives that speak of the possible humans and non-humans, natures and worlds, and futures and heritages, integrating the culture and the processes of artistic, scientific, and technological disciplines.
The Generative Quantum Ballets (GQB) are infinite generative visual artworks, each one staging a choreography of a crowd of pixels displaying apparently arbitrary and independent movements, but all actually programmed by the same quantum-type equation. This global underlying organization manifests itself from time to time through unexpected and fugacious alignments or groupings, which the eye barely has the time grasp, with awe and delectation. This series of artworks deals with the invisible forces at stake behind complex systems, like particles, peoples or societies.
A landscape formed by hundreds of impressionist paintings dissolve into pure color and brush strokes, constantly mutating while the voices of a man and a woman narrate the musings of a person who regained sight after fifty years and learned how to look at the world anew. The video invites a meditative contemplation in which many shapes of nature are evoked, but no single element can be identified. This experience leads to what the narrator describes as seeing “through the codes,” and observing the world in itself. The realization that our perception is just an interpretation of our environment opens up possible readings and alternative forms of construing our reality.
Seconds become years. 14 seconds to experience the metamorphosis of utopia into dystopia. 14 years to reach carbon neutrality or the point of no return. This piece plays with colour-psychology to create an immersion that draws two possible futures, both fascinating and shattering.
A short video of a deer in a forest is fed to a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). By applying custom degradation techniques, the image gradually dissolves into a monochromatic plane. A single pixel that provides a graphical representation of forgetfulness. Through an experimentation with Machine Learning, the artist creates a telling depiction of the act of forgetting, in a way that connects the biological brain and the synthetic computational brain, while evoking the fragility of memory.
FLORALIA, 2021 Sabrina Ratté Images and soundtrack composition: Sabrina Ratté Sound design and mix by: Andrea-Jane Cornell
Inspired by the writings of Donna J. Haraway, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Greg Egan, the work plunges us into a speculative future, where samples of then extinct plant species are preserved and displayed in a virtual archive room. Through editing and visual strategies, this archive room is sporadically transformed under the effect of interference caused by the memory emanating from the listed plants, revealing traces of a past that continues to haunt the place. Floralia is a simulation of ecosystems born from the fusion of technology and organic matter, where past and future coexist in a perpetual tension of the present.
Karst is multi-level virtual reality visual and sound experience/artwork that creates liminal spaces in between the representational and the theatrical, the limited and the multi-dimensional, and the abstract and the real. The multiple scenes in Karst reference a variety of places in our reality that are usually beyond people’s reach. It pushes the boundaries of landscape art by putting natural ecologies and human environmental interventions in dialogue through immersive VR. It also attempts to embody the concept of Plato’s cave in the medium of a virtually constructed realm, providing a contemplative environment for the visitor to wonder.
Panel / Bending the possible (one pixel at a time). Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene
Abstract: Driven by the concern that ICT (information and communication technologies) currently contributes 3.3% to 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Belkhir and Elmeligi 2018, Bordage 2020), surpassing the carbon footprint of the airline industry at 1.9% of global greenhouse emissions (Ritchie 2020), this dialogical and performative panel seeks to interrogate the question of “The Possible,” Natures and Worlds from the point of view of green computing and sustainable experimental media production. The panel responds to the problem of the pandemic rise in streaming media and its underlying capitalist articulation of the Possible by assessing the viability of the concept and practice of experimental small-file media as an sustainable alternative for the era of the Anthropocene. Small-file ecomedia are low-bandwidth experimental movies of no more than five megabytes in size and no more than five minutes in duration, which allows them to be streamed with no damage to the planet. Our proposal makes an intervention into the very concept of ecomedia and “nature.” Ecomedia is not simply a representation or visualisation of environmental problems but an immanent practice of responsible world-making indexical to the earth and the cosmos, as well an activist pedagogy and act of community-building. Our discussants will tackle small file media from a variety of perspectives: appropriate technologies in the global South; media philosophy, technical solutions for media sustainability, and a maker’s perspective on microcosmic media.
Biography: Radek Przedpełski is an artist and media philosophy scholar lecturing in interactive digital media at Trinity College Dublin. Radek co-edited a volume on Deleuze, Guattari and the Art of Multiplicity published Edinburgh University Press in 2020. Radek is a member of Substantial Motion Research Network founded by Laura U. Marks and Azadeh Emadi for cross-cultural investigation of media art, as well as a curator, together with Laura U. Marks, of the annual Small File Media Festival hosted by SFU’s School for the Creative Arts. Radek is interested in entanglements between the earth, the cosmos and artistic techniques.
Jardins Fundació Muñoz Ramonet – Cicle ‘Ecosistemes híbrids en un paisatge urbà’
The gardens of the Julio Muñoz Ramonet Foundation will host a cycle Hybrid ecosystems in an urban landscape, which from June 7 to 15 programs a series of activities that share scientific knowledge, citizen science, art and journalism. Take a look to the full program of activities below.
Curated by La Mandarina de Newton With the collaboration of Ajuntament de Barcelona
Els jardins de la Fundació Julio Muñoz Ramonet acolliran el cicle Ecosistemes híbrids en un paisatge urbà, que del 7 al 15 de juny programa una sèrie dactivitats que posen en comú el coneixement científic, la ciència ciutadana, l’art i el periodisme. Consulta el programa complet d’activitats a continuació.
Comissariat per La Mandarina de Newton Amb la col·laboració de Ajuntament de Barcelona
Dimarts 07/06 11:00h Quantum, Art and Uncertainty Diàleg entre l’artista Paul Thomas i el professor ICREA de l’ICFO Maciej Lewenstein
Diumenge 12/06 12:00h La Física de la dansa Taller-xerrada a càrrec de la Irene Lapuente de la Mandarina de Newton dins del programa C13NCI4RT
Dilluns 13/06 17:00h Mapa Sonor A càrrec de Víctor Jiménez i Marc Aguilar de Bit Lab Cultural SCCL
17:30 h Escoltant els ocells A càrrec d’Eloïsa Matheu de Natura Sonora
Dimarts 14/06 17:00h Mosquito Alert A càrrec d’Isis Sanpera, John Palmer, Roger Eritja i Alex Richter-Boix de la UPF i el CREAF
17:30 h Mirant la vida Diàleg amb Rubén Duro de Science into Images
18:00 h Presentació del llibre La ciencia de la microbiota, de Cristina Sáez i Fundació Alícia Diàleg amb Cristina Sáez
Dimecres 15/06 17:00h Memòries de l’art i la ciència de l’olor A càrrec de Rosa Arias, Mar Escarrabill i Isidora Fernández de Science for Change
Institutional presentation / POM – Politics of Machines Series
Abstract: The overall thematic of the POM-conference series is the question of how the machine and technology impact and contextualize artistic and cultural production and our perception of the world. Moreover, it is aiming at investigating the histories, theories and practices of machines and technologies in-between and beyond disciplines. It seeks to question the governing ideas in the sciences and the humanities through critical engagement with and empowerment of activities of creative production.
Biography: Laura Beloff (PhD) is an internationally acclaimed artist and a researcher in the cross section of art, technology and science. She is Associate Professor and Head of ViCCA-program at Aalto University, Finland.
Morten Søndergaard (PhD) is an internationally acclaimed curator and researcher of the histories, theories and cultures of transdisciplinary practices merging technology, media, art and societal trajectories. He is Associate Professor and Academic Director of the Erasmus Media Art Cultures Master Program at Aalborg University, Denmark
Institutional presentation / Hac Te – Hub of Arts, Science and Technology. Exploring the intersections between art, science and technology to strengthen the digital transformation of society
Abstract: The new hub explores and develop intersections between art, science and technology to boost the digital transformation of society: this is the aim of Hac Te (Art, Science and Technology Hub), promoted by catalan institutions such as universities, scientific centers and cultural centers and festivals all of them of great relevance to make Barcelona a global center for research, training, dissemination, transfer and production in this field. Facilitate and promote the digital, ecological and fair cultural transition, thanks to the joint contribution of the arts, sciences and technology. Contributing to the reindustrialization of the productive sectors thanks to the contributions of arts (design), science and technology A public-private partnership that brings together and interrelates Arts, Science, Technology and Society stakeholders. An initiative that designs common responses that re-imagine our coexistence in the information society.
Art Barcelona. Associació de Galeries.
The art galleries from Barcelona join ISEA2022’s Extended Program with eight proposals:
Ana Mas Projects – De hormigueros y algoritmos by Anna Carreras Carrer Isaac Peral 7, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona From June 9 to June 16 The generative works of Anna Carreras are built in the same way that the ants of the same community are organised. All of us have observed at some point the determined work of these little insects, building tunnels, organising themselves in endless lines, moving small seeds, leaves… Everything is a result of small individual decisions guided by a shared intuition, subtle movements, but choreographically systematised. In the same way, the creation process of Anna Carreras is based on the sum of precise instructions and on the sequence of mathematic calculations dumped into the computer code designed by herself. The result is vivid digital images, sometimes static or sometimes dynamic, sometimes more geometric or more organic, but always unpredictable and unrepeatable, even by the artist herself. Text by Loida de Vargas
Galeria H2o – SPAMT25YFDNFT by Martí Guixé Carrer Verdi 152, Barcelona June 17 In 1997 Martí Guixé presented “Spamt” at H2O Gallery in Barcelona. The project proposed the redesign of the traditional Catalan bread with tomato (“Spamt” is phonetic for “eS Pa aMb Tomàquet”), driven by the fact that at that time a new behaviour was emerging, eating in front of a computer screen, which was mainly due to the popularization of PCs. “Spamt”, therefore, was born out of the changes that technology brings to our daily lives. Now, 25 years later, the blockchain and NFTs provide a new environment to continue investigating in a project that tries to bring food and its context to the digital world from the perspective of Art, Design and Food Design.
Galeria Senda – Cloud Seed by James Clar Carrer Trafalgar 32, Barcelona From June 10 to June 16 Cloud Seed is an interactive video artwork that immerses the viewer in a simulation of rain, fog, and rain. The installation uses a high resolution video screen acting like a window to an outside virtual space. The visual effects of this natural phenomena appearing before the viewer through calculated warping of the live image on the screen. The viewer sees themselves in the screen with raindrops collecting on the surface. The raindrops eventually run down the surface, leaving streaks on the video. All of this is done in realtime using custom programmed software. Visitors can see themselves within the raindrops with the image getting blurry as it gets foggier. Cloud Seed uses technology to bring attention to our influence and control of the environment in a visual way that is both poetic and cinematic. It brings the viewer to a space that is both real and generated, contemplative and sublime.
àngels barcelona – Remote Hands by Mario Santamaria Carrer Pintor Fortuny, 27, Barcelona From June 10 to June 25 The data does not go up to the Internet, it goes down to the hardware, to the wires; send and bury, bury and send. The exhibition proposes the dialogue of several pieces in relation to the materiality, visibility and representation of the internet. Remote Hands is the name of a service offered by data storage centers to carry out remote maintenance on their client machines. These remote hands are related to drawings taken from patents where the Internet is represented in the metaphorical form of the cloud.
Marlborough – Reflections of the Man (2021) by Martine Stig Carrer d’Enric Granados, 68, Barcelona From June 10 to June 16 In the film essay ‘The Reflection of the Man’ Martine Stig grapples with the meaning of the human in a hybrid world. Employing ubiquitous technologies like face recognition software, while also reflecting on them, Stig examines the act of seeing beyond the explorative and the embodied. Stig uses Rorschach techniques and algorithms in order to draw closer to nonhuman companions, and speculatively broadens the concept of being present. The Reflection of the Man results from the artist ongoing dialogue with writer and researcher Ilse van Rijn about technology and memory in a more-than-human world.
LAB36 – Tecnologies alternatives by Mónica Rikić Carrer Trafalgar 36, Barcelona From June 7 to June 17 «La computadora que quería ser incomputable» is a futuristic fiction art project that opens the debate on whether artificial intelligence can be creative or not. It represents a small intelligent machine frustrated by the impossibility of not being creative, therefore human enough. The entire installation takes place inside a transparent square showcase placed on a pedestal. Inside is a soft robot, exposed as pieces of art are displayed, displaying its frustration and anguish at not being able to be creative, a work of art itself, as the AI is intended to be. Through different audiovisual actions, shape changes in the robot and a voiceover, it becomes a physical audiovisual device of emotional expression.
Suburbia Contemporary – Quasi tutto by Francesca Sandroni Carrer de Valencia 345, Barcelona June 11 at 7 pm The sound performance that Francesca Sandroni offers us adds different elements, cultures, styles and languages. A layering of sound elements recorded in the city of Barcelona. Conversations, different languages, reflections: the sum is the necessary approach to the knowledge and fusion of realities in a single urban agglomerate. An electroacoustic track that connects and interacts with each other; an active participation that changes the narrative, the ordinary flow of life. An authentic popular song in which we are all involved, responsible, in absolute harmonic dissonance.
Dilalica –Border Crossers / The Robotic Church / Totemobileby Chico MacMurtrie Carrer Trafalgar, 53, Barcelona From June 9 to June 11 The Robotic Church is a site-specific installation and performance series comprising 50 computer-controlled pneumatic sculptures. Created between 1987 and 2006 and installed in ARW’s studio, a former Norwegian Seamen’s Church in, Brooklyn, New York, these machines mesmerize with their percussive sounds and gestures. They express themselves through rhythm and body language, ranging from introspective solos to powerful ensembles erupting from different corners of the space. Rather than merely amplifying sound, the percussive machines are programmed to beat, strum, vibrate, spin, and otherwise play their own bodies to communicate in their own unique voice. Their syncopated outbursts of call-and-response evoke the origin of communication.
Screening / Green before “Green”
Abstract: I have several memorable images from early childhood. On the day of my 8th birthday, I received a polaroid camera as a gift. I was overjoyed to be able to capture a permanent collection of memories and visual images. However, by the time I turned eight, I had already developed a clear sense of communication and language. The prospect of recording a pre-language form of vision had already dissolved.
In Metaphors on Vision, filmmaker Stan Brakhage states, “How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of “Green”? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye?”. Looking back on my childhood, it seems impossible to access a comprehensive realization of “the untutored eye”.
In contrast, my son, Atticus, was born in 2018. At the age of one, he developed a recognizable curiosity for the mobile phone. His linguistic skills had not yet developed, yet he had a noticeable capacity for capturing photos and videos. Over the course of several months, he composed a large collection of still and motion images. Upon reviewing the visuals, the notion of an “untutored eye” began to emerge. Within these photographs, it became evident that Atticus had not yet conformed to the accepted laws of perspective or logic. In short, he was immersed in an adventure of perception.
Green before “Green” considers the relationship between technology and memory. It is an inquiry into the existence of childhood vision. Namely, to what extent does technology allow for the reconstruction of childhood memory? Furthermore, does photography provide insight into the evolution of pre-language vision?
Biography: Paul Echeverria is a filmmaker, digital artist and educator. His research and creative practice examine the formative dynamics between childhood, parenthood and the family structure. In addition, he produces work that contemplates the inevitable collision between humans and technology. Echeverria works with multiple forms of media, including film, video, augmented/virtual reality, performance, social media, data manipulation, podcasting and e-literature.
Echeverria is an Assistant Professor of Digital and Emerging Media Production at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His films and digital works have been exhibited at multiple venues, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Media City Film Festival, Other Cinema, the FRACTO Experimental Film Encounter, VASTLAB Experimental Festival, the Dallas Medianale, Festival Ecrã, the Festival Internacional de Videoarte de Camagüey, Experiments in Cinema, the NY Media Center by IFP, The Wrong Biennale, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Anthology Film Archives and the Angelika Film Center.
Institutional presentation / There is no better ending than a good start
Abstract: The NewArtFoundation is the consequence of the activities developed by the Beep Collection, an international reference in the field.
The Beep Collection started its activity linked to the ARCO-BEEP Electronic Art Award in 2006. Since then, more than 70 works by artists from around the world testify to a set of good practices. With a philosophy rooted in the collaborative origins of the Internet, it has developed grant, production, and patronage programs, aware that being an active agent in the community implies supporting it.
In 2015, the Collection, with the participation of prominent Catalan agents such as professional associations, universities, companies, and individuals, founded the NewArtFoundation. The ultimate objective of the Foundation is to transfer the collaborative programs of the Collection to the community and society, contributing its efforts to the development of a more productive and sustainable society, based on research and development. More info: https://www.beepcollection.art, https://www.newartfoundation.art
Biography: Vicente Matallana is the director of the NewArtFoundation and the BEEP Collection, as well as the founder and director of LaAgencia, an independent new media art company created in 1998 in Madrid. LaAgencia is engaged in programs and projects focused on new media art as an alternative paradigm of research and knowledge. Matallana is also a teacher and lecturer and regularly publishes articles and sits on international juries, seminars, and committees for new media art. With Joasia Krysa, he has been the co-director of the Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus. He is member of the steering committee of the HacTe as representant of the NewArtFoundation.
Abstract: Most European cities, large and small, face the challenge of transforming industrial heritage sites. Industrial areas, once hotspots of infrastructure, workers, knowledge, and innovation, have often been abandoned, reduced or relocated due to urban changes, and a shift towards a global extractive economic model. As a consequence, not only historical buildings are being demolished, but neighborhoods are losing elements of their cultural identity and traditions.
The importance of preserving aspects of the local identity combined with the necessity of developing a more resilient and sustainable productive model requires innovative strategies for sustainable urban regeneration.
Within the CENTRINNO Horizon 2020 European Project, Fab Lab Barcelona explores an alternative urban regeneration of Poblenou’s neighborhood in Barcelona as a creative, locally productive, and inclusive hub. The strategies tested by the local team, connected with the Fab City approach for globally connected and locally productive cities and regions, propose a new urban, economic, social and industrial model that fosters local sustainable production and cross-collaboration with stakeholders and existing initiatives in Poblenou. Maker skills, industrial heritage, manufacturing practices and circular principles are being combined to test a collaborative and inclusive local economy model.
Biography: Milena Juarez (female) is a Brazilian environmental engineer with a master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability and specialization in Urban and Industrial Ecology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. With a large experience in research, Milena has been actively involved in various interdisciplinary research projects in the field of circular economy, resilient cities, co-creation, and sustainable food. She currently coordinates the Barcelona pilot for CENTRINNO EU project at IAAC and works as an action researcher for the REFLOW and FOODSHIFT EU projects. As one of the responsible for community engagement at Fab Lab Barcelona, Milena supports the local activities at the Fab City Hub, a co-creation distributed space to design the future for urban self-sufficiency.
Pablo Muñoz Unceta (male) works as a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona. He works in EU funded projects on productive cities and circular economy. His background is in architecture, planning and urban design and he holds a MSc in the European post-master of urbanism at TU Delft. He has professional experience in Latin American and Europe in different projects and institutions, having worked on topics such as participatory planning, circular economy, social housing and urban regeneration. He has worked for the Municipality of Lima, the World Bank or the Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona. As researcher, he has been involved in projects with PUCP university in Lima, TU Delft, or Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. Pablo collaborates with offices in Rotterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, and Brussels in projects at the intersection of sustainability, spatial analysis, and urban and housing policies.
Keynotes – Open to the public
CCCB TEATRE
Open to the public with previous registration. Attendees registered in ISEA2022 Barcelona do not need to register to this specific event and will be able to access by showing accreditation.Once the capacity of the CCCB’S Theater is full, public will be able to follow the keynote speeches live from the Raval Room of CCCB.
Expanding the program open to the public, the CCCB, the epicenter of the Symposium, will host four keynote speeches at its Theater by leading figures in their respective fields: Olga Goriunova, academic and curator in the fields of digital arts and cultures; Joan Fontcuberta, internationally renowned photographer and conceptual artist; Christl Baur, head of the prestigious Ars Electronica Festival; and Ricard Solé, expert in complex systems analysis and synthetic biology.
Joan Foncuberta – June 13th at 10 am The age of monsters
Abstract: “Il vecchio mondo sta morendo. Quello nuovo tarda a comparire. E in questo chiaroscuro nascono i mostri”. [“The old world is dying. The new one is slow to appear. And in this chiaroscuro monsters are born”] Antonio Gramsci Almost without realizing it, we have become addicted to images. The old world (photography as a commitment to truth and remembrance) is dying and the new one (images created by artificial intelligence) is striving to emerge. From document to speculation, from natural to synthetic images, we now need to trawl through the chiaroscuro, pointing out their emerging monstrosities: monstrosities of language, of technology, of politics. From the ruins of photography – archive pictures and family albums that decay and become amnesic – to predictions of potential futures and algorithms, with which we don’t know if we are dealing with nightmares or guarantees of progress. What is clear is that algorithms and artificial intelligence are taking the place of the eye and the camera at the core of visual culture.
Biography: For more than four decades, Joan Fontcuberta (Barcelona, 1955) has developed an artistic work focused on the field of photography, also carrying out a plural activity as a teacher, essayist, exhibition curator and historian. Both his creative and reflective production is situated in a critical perspective of language and focuses on the conflicts between nature, technology, photography, memory and truth regimes. His projects, usually of a multidisciplinary nature, explore the narrative and documentary condition of the image, parodying its authoritarian aspects.
Moderated by Jorge Luis Marzo, art historian, doctor of Cultural Studies, curator of exhibitions, audiovisual director and professor at BAU Centre Universitari de Disseny de Barcelona. He has developed several national and international collaborative research projects, in exhibition, audiovisual or editorial format, often in relation to image policies.
Christl Baur – June 13th at 6:30 pm GiriGiri – On the Edge of Possibilities
Abstract: Neither naive escapism into virtual worlds, nor the technological ultra-topia of space colonization will save us from facing the big, uncomfortable questions. How will our life on this planet have to look to prevent ecological super disaster? What actions must we take and what consequences must we accept? How much persuasion, how much effort, how much pressure, how much coercion will be necessary, and what “collateral damage” will be involved? We have been teetering on the edge for decades, knowing what is going to come, but choosing to largely ignore it. The Japanese term “GiriGiri” describes this dangerous but thrilling feeling of living on the edge. We don’t have a planet B, and science nor art can solve our problem. Science can point at it while art and artists, through their work, have the ability to open a space of “art” thinking. This might be our chance for change as change is required when there is no way out. Through artists we can explore the possibilities of our futures.
Biography: Christl Baur (DE) is the head of the Ars Electronica Festival, researcher with an interdisciplinary background in art history, cultural management, and natural science. She is particularly interested in the conjunction of aesthetic and social practices that center on collaboration and experimentation and challenge dominant social, political, and economic protocols. Her research field encompasses topics such as video art, new media technologies, computer art, biotechnology, and interactive art, and she works at the nexus of art & science. Over recent years, she has curated, produced and delivered large-scale exhibitions and performances, research, residency & publication projects—most recently in cooperation with universities and scientific associations such as Google Arts & Culture, Frauenhofer, ESO, ESA, Hyundai as well as the Chinese University of Art Beijing. She has published several articles and works closely together with artists whose practice is situated at the interface of art, science, and technology.
Moderated by José Luis De Vicente, cultural researcher and exhibitions curator specialized in culture, innovation and design. He is the curator of Sónar + D, Sónar Festival Barcelona. He has curated multiple exhibitions for CCCB Barcelona, Fundación Telefónica Madrid, among many others. His latest project is Mirador Torre Glòries, a permanent installation in Barcelona that reinvents the concept of a viewpoint.
Olga Goriunova – June 14th at 10 am Abstract people and model characters
Abstract: When data analytics abstracts people today, it follows some of the routines of statistics. However, understanding statistics paired with machine learning technologies is not enough to grasp what these newly abstracted people are like and what they do to us. This talk engages with these processes to show how model frameworks and idealising setups are used to delineate data-crunching in cultural, political and aesthetic terms. Ideal people and model characters are results of the work of collective imaginaries and the exercise of power beyond computing. Their embodiment of a return of the ideal calls for a re-think of our time in history.
Biography: Olga Goriunova is Professor at Royal Holloway University of London and author of Art Platformsand Cultural Production on the Internet (2012) and Bleak Joys. Aesthetics of Ecology and Impossibility (with M.Fuller, 2019). The editor of Funand Software. Pleasure, Pain and Paradox in Computing (2014) and author of noted articles on new media idiocy, memes and lurkers, she was a co-curator of software art platform Runme.org (2003) before the age of social platforms.
Moderated by Pau Alsina, general Chair at ISEA2022 Barcelona and professor and researcher in Arts and Humanities Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where he coordinates and teaches courses on art and contemporary philosophical and scientific thought. He is also editor in Chief at Artnodes Journal. He is the author of books such as Arte, ciencia y tecnología, co-author of Monstruos y quimeras: arte, biología y tecnología, of teaching textbooks such as Estética y teoría del arte o Pensamiento contemporáneo.
Ricard Solé – June 15th at 10 am Science, Art and evolution: the Game of the Possible
Abstract: What are the limits of natural forms? Could there be an alternative life based on alternative rules? Why don’t mermaids exist? Will alien minds be different from ours? Does human creativity have limits? Could an artificial system achieve the creativity of van Gogh? Could music be different from the way we know it? Science explores the organizing principles of (living and non-living) systems and the formulation of laws that can define the boundaries of the possible. Using very diverse examples from life, artificial life and art as a reference for what we assume to be limitless, we will explore these and other questions. Physics, mathematics, computation, biology and chemistry intersect with science fiction, painting and literature and allow us to raise new questions and look at reality with the vision of complexity.
Biography: ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where he leads the Complex Systems Laboratory (IBE-UPF), and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute (USA). His academic background combines biology and physics, the discipline in which he earned his PhD, allowing him to focus his research career on complex systems. His research covers very diverse fields, from the study of the evolutionary dynamics of viruses to synthetic biology and its application in the bioengineering of ecosystems, as well as the study of “liquid” cognitive systems and the origins of major evolutionary innovations. He has collaborated with the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) as a popularizer and scientific advisor for the exhibition +Humans and is one of the promoters of the Science at Christmas program. In addition, he has written the books Redes complejas (Empúries, 2009; published by Tusquets in Spanish), Vidas sintéticas (Tusquets, 2012), La lógica de los monstruos (Tusquets, 2016) and Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems (Princeton University Press, 2018).
Moderated by Pastora Martínez Samper, Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She is responsible for the UOC’s strategic planning dealing with the contribution of the University to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the implementation of the Open Knowledge Action Plan. She is also contributing to the involvement of both Catalan and Spanish Universities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Institutional presentation / Centre of expertise Arts & Education
Abstract: The CoE Arts&Education aims to bring about social innovation from innovative art education along two thematic lines: Education at the intersection of Arts, Technology and Science (OKWT) and Social and ecological engagement. The first theme deals with Education at the intersection of Arts, Science and Technology with artists in the role as catalyst for educational innovation. The second theme deals social and ecological engagement with art in the leading role. Both themes are in line with current curriculum developments in higher education, secondary education and (preparatory) vocational education and are directly linked to so-called ‘wicked problems’, complex issues that require an interdisciplinary (educational) approach. This revolves around inclusive arts education, arts education as citizenship education and socio-ecological issues.
Partners: Amsterdam University of the Arts, iPabo University of Applied Sciences, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht University of the Arts, Codarts University of the Arts, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, RoC Amsterdam – Flevoland, Presentation by Anne Nigten, director of the Centre of Expertise Arts&Education
Convent de Sant Agustí – Art as Cyber-Interoceptive Interfaces, Mark-David Hosale
This workshop incorporates bioinformatic measurement technology to explore new modes of artistic expression that directly incorporate the senses as part of the medium of the work. The focus of this endeavour involves the tracking of a participant’s emotive inclination for use as an interactive modality in performance and computational art.
Emotional state data is gathered from a biosensing acquisition system and analyzed using custom software and hardware tools built on poplar platforms such as, Arduino, Max/MSP, SuperCollider, Ableton Live, TouchDesigner, and Processing. Physiological measures, such as Electrocardiography (ECG, heart rate), Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Electromyography (EMG, muscle), Electroencephalography (EEG, brain waves), Electrooculography (EOG, eye movement), and Respiratory effort (RSP, breathing) can be read. The tools explored provide the ability to control the presentation of audio-visual and haptic stimuli and monitor the physical reaction as nuanced by emotional state, blurring the line between auditory and visual virtual content and physical experience.
The workshop provides participants with a hands-on experience with our tools and methodologies that allow participants to explore several layers of activity within this work including:
1)The connection between the individual and physiological data, to see if it is possible to discover awareness with the systems of the body that are normally consciously ignored. 2)The connection made between two people, to see if there is a way that one can influence the embodiment of the other, and if the experience of embodiment can be shared. 3)The psychosocial potential of the combining of embodiment and physiological data by looking at how this technology could be used to explore group experiences, and the ability of a performer to affect the audience. 4)The role of affect and the environment, and how the participant or performer can have a biofeedback relationship with the audience and environment of an installation or performance.
Aquest taller incorpora tecnologia de mesura bioinformàtica per explorar nous modes d’expressió artística que incorporen directament els sentits com a part del mitjà de l’obra. L’objectiu d’aquest esforç consisteix en el seguiment de la inclinació emocional d’un participant per utilitzar-lo com a modalitat interactiva en l’art computacional i de performance.
Les dades de l’estat emocional es recullen a partir d’un sistema d’adquisició de biodetecció i s’analitzen mitjançant eines de programari i maquinari personalitzades construïdes en plataformes d’àlber com ara Arduino, Max/MSP, SuperCollider, Ableton Live, TouchDesigner i Processing. Mesures fisiològiques, com ara electrocardiografia (ECG, freqüència cardíaca), activitat electrodèrmica (EDA), electromiografia (EMG, múscul), electroencefalografia (EEG, ones cerebrals), electrooculografia (EOG, moviment ocular) i esforç respiratori (RSP, respiració) es pot llegir. Les eines explorades proporcionen la capacitat de controlar la presentació d’estímuls audiovisuals i hàptics i controlar la reacció física tal com la matisa l’estat emocional, difuminant la línia entre el contingut virtual auditiu i visual i l’experiència física.
El taller ofereix als participants una experiència pràctica amb les nostres eines i metodologies que permeten als participants explorar diverses capes d’activitat dins d’aquest treball, com ara:
1)La connexió entre l’individu i les dades fisiològiques, per veure si és possible descobrir la consciència amb els sistemes del cos que normalment s’ignoren conscientment. 2) La connexió feta entre dues persones, per veure si hi ha una manera que una pugui influir en l’encarnació de l’altra i si es pot compartir l’experiència de l’encarnació. 3) El potencial psicosocial de la combinació de dades d’encarnació i fisiològiques mirant com es podria utilitzar aquesta tecnologia per explorar experiències de grup i la capacitat d’un intèrpret per afectar el públic. 4) El paper de l’afecte i l’entorn, i com el participant o intèrpret pot tenir una relació de biofeedback amb el públic i l’entorn d’una instal·lació o actuació.
LaserTalk Leonardo- Valencia: Futuros Pasados. ACTS en Valencia.
The interest in strengthening the relationship between art and science has its own history. The city of Valencia has witnessed this evolution, which already began in the 1960s. María José Martínez de Pisón, founder of the “Laboratorio de Luz” research group at the UPV, and Anna Mateu, editor-in-chief of the magazine Mètode and professor at the UV, will introduce us to the recent history of the relationship between art and science from these projects, imagining the futures we have built driven by the interaction of Art, Science, Technology and Society (ACTS) in Valencia. After the talk, there will be a live A/V sample of the UPV’s Master’s Degree in Visual and Multimedia Arts in collaboration with the Volumens Electronic Audiovisual Culture Festival.
L’interès per estrènyer les relacions entre l’art i la ciència té una història pròpia. La ciutat de València ha estat testimoni d’aquesta evolució, que ja començava als anys 60 del segle passat. María José Martínez de Pisón, fundadora del grup de recerca “Laboratori de Llum” de la UPV, i Anna Mateu, redactora en cap de la revista Mètode i professora de la UV ens introduiran la recent història de les relacions art i ciència des d’aquests projectes, imaginant els futurs que hem construït conduïts per la interacció Art, Ciència, Tecnologia i Societat (ACTS) a València. Després de la xerrada es farà una mostra de live A/V del Màster d’Arts Visuals i Multimèdia de la UPV en col·laboració amb el Festival de cultura electrònica audiovisual Volumens.
Short paper / The art of urgency: cultural mediation as a vehicle for socio-ecological transition
Abstract: The climate emergency has led to a growing recognition of the need for a socio-ecological transition. This recognition has strong cultural dimensions, shaped by representations and narratives as potential vehicles of change. Cultural mediation is a way of connecting these realms. It can stimulate ex-changes between actors (citizens, organizations, policymak-ers), and ultimately help produce dynamics of change and new solidarities. ARTENSO, a research centre in art and social engagement, explored the possibilities of these intersections by conducting documentary research on the relationship between artistic and ecological interventions. It illuminated the relationships be-tween art, culture and social-ecological change, both in their conceptual dimensions and through practical considerations. It developed a tripartite typology to map initiatives that bring about transformations in the current social and environmental context. This study suggests that artists and cultural organizations can become agents of social change by exploring new methods and processes. Often conceived and presented separately, en-gaged art and ecologically responsible practices are neverthe-less dimensions that, when articulated together, can challenge society on environmental issues, question the relationship be-tween populations and the environment, and advance the fight against climate change
ACVIC – Art Generatiu i Interactiu, xerrada d’Anna Carreras
Interactive installations and generative art invite the programming of algorithms, the construction of mechanical inventions or electronic circuits. All this to create audiovisual experiences and artistic pieces in which the public participates or which evolve and are never the same. How do we work with digital artists who use the medium as a raw material?
On May 31, digital artist Anna Carreras will give a talk at ACVIC entitled Art Generatiu i Interactiu: Artistes Geeks que fem Art Amb Codi where she will address all of these issues.
Les instal·lacions interactives i l’art generatiu conviden a programar algoritmes, construir invents mecànics o circuits electrònics. Tot plegat per crear experiències audiovisuals i peces artístiques en que el públic participa o que evolucionen i no son mai iguals. Com treballem els artistes digitals que emprem el mitjà com a matèria primera?
El 31 de maig, l’artista digital Anna Carreras oferirà una xerrada a l’ACVIC sota el títol Art Generatiu i Interactiu: Artistes Geeks que fem Art Amb Codi on abordarà totes aquestes qüestions.
Artwork – The particle
Abstract: “The Particle” is a kinetic sculpture that experiments with color, sound, and movement. Continuous rotation, speed, and light create visual points of view, effects that define the spatial structure of the object. Given that the regulatory mechanism of the entire design is based on random decision-making, the new models naturally emerge from the previous ones. The vibration of sound, color, and visual patterns evolve into chaos or order according to the evolutionary algorithms that govern it. The structures generated in this process cannot be anticipated and evolve through continuous iterations that involve alterations to the programs and explore the changes through the interaction with the visitor and the software. The object, at the same time, is a space of sensory and kinesthetic experience, a body with its own internal resonance. The result is the creation of shapes and patterns of light in three dimensions. These shapes can stop, rotate and move faster or slower creating beautiful kinesthetic effects. The technique used is the perception of apparent movement, that is, the one obtained from the observation of sequences of still images projected successively on a movie screen or on television, or on a computer monitor. This visual effect, also called persistence of vision (POV), is the theoretical ability of the eye (or retina) to retain the last image that reaches it, causing an object to be perceived even when it is no longer there. Around the space occupied by the sculpture, a surround-sound space is perceived, which reacts and merges with movement and light, creating an immersive audiovisual experience of great beauty. The piece uses RGB LED technology controlled wirelessly from a computer. Custom software manages all information and movement in real-time by continuously sending data to the sculpture to change its state.
Biography: Alex Posada is digital creator, lecturer, and researcher in the field of interactivity and new media. He is a multidisciplinary artist working in the intersection of art, science, and technology through research and the constant development of his own tools and systems. He is also a lecturer on several MA and postgraduate courses and has led many workshops focused on art and interaction technologies in different countries. He currently directs and coordinates the activities of MID Studio in Barcelona. His works have been exhibited at Brazil Olympic Games, Phaeno Science Center, Ars Electronica, Kinetica Art Fair, Kernel Festival, Mapping Festival, LEV Festival, Sonar, and Art Rock Festival among others. The studio also develops projects for museums and cultural organizations. Also, he is a very active entrepreneur and co-founder of several startups. At the same time, he develops projects as an independent multimedia producer and collaborates with many artists and collectives.
This project has been awarded with the ISEA2022 Barcelona Grant by .Beep Collection and NewArtFoundation
Artwork – RAIN BEATS
Abstract: We live in a time when large amounts of data are being produced by sensors, portable devices and mobile phones. This data is collected, analyzed and used by companies and governments in an attempt to manage and control the city of a decentralized and centralized way. While such management and control are supposed to contribute to the well-being and security of citizens, in most cases the citizens are out of this circuit. In fact, they often do not participate in the generation, the analysis or use of the data, either because they do not have access to it or because they do not have the knowledge to perform such tasks. In an attempt to design new data visualization interfaces, and to bring them closer together viewers to the massive data in a creative way, born RAIN BEATS, a project that seeks to transform data into sensory experiences. This is an installation connected to the Internet, which obtains and processes atmospheric data (BIG DATA) and the it transforms into digital musical scores which are then transformed into sound. It’s a intelligent machine that processes data obtained from satellites that monitor the earth constantly deconstructing the environment into numbers, and using them as raw material to create soundscapes. We could say then that RAIN BEATS is a machine that creates and performs “music made by the forces of nature.
Biography: Josecarlos Flórez, es un artista peruano de nuevos medios e investigador independiente, que vive y trabaja en Barcelona. Su área de investigación se centra en la fusión de arte y tecnologías de código abierto. Trabaja en proyectos que involucran programación creativa, sonido, robótica, iluminación expresiva, visuales generativos, visualización de datos, fabricación digital, IoT (internet de las cosas), VR (realidad virtual) y AR (realidad aumentada) y AI(Inteligencia artificial). Su trabajo ha sido expuesto en Perú, España y Estados Unidos, en ferias de arte como ARCO(Madrid) y Swab Art Fair(Barcelona) y festivales como Sonar + D(Barcelona) y ARS ELECTRONICA(Linz).
Full paper / Rituals of art and science to decompart-mentalize knowledge
Abstract: We here explore the potential of rituals in order to more fully comprehend the subjective mechanisms of listening, leading to a broader understanding of phenomenal consciousness (why and how do I know that I am experiencing something?). The originality of the project resides in the blending of phenomenology, cognitive science, the sonic arts, and rituals studies. Rituals are explored in the context of a practice-led methodology between an artist and a cognitive scientist in order to decompartmentalize and possibly decolonize knowledge, namely shifting away from a purely Western techno-scientific perspective in order to embrace a plural vision involving indigenous epistemology. In this project, the sonic arts include music and sound in the arts, and focus specifically on the very act of listening. Rituals constitute structures for the lives of communities and societies, which we address more deeply from the perspective of sonic and cognitive research, so as to understand their roles and the epistemology emerging from them.
Biography: Luca Forcucci, artist, scholar and guest professor, observes perceptive properties of the first person experience through large scale installations, compositions, video, photographyand writing. The research investigates mental imagery of sonic architectures. The works were held at Ars Electronica Linz, Biennale del Mediterraneo Palermo, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, Centro Hélio Oiticica Rio de Janeiro, The Lab San Francisco, Rockbund Museum Shanghai, MAXXI Rome, or Akademie der Künste Berlin. His plateform UBQTLAB.ORG develops art and science encounters. https://linktr.ee/Lucaforcucci
Bruno Herbelin is senior researcher in virtual reality and cognitive neuroscience in the laboratory of Prof. O. Blanke at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He was deputy director of the EPFL Center for Neuroprosthetics (2012-2019), and Assistant Professor at the Medialogy Department of Aalborg University, Denmark (2005-2009). He obtained his PhD at EPFL School of Computer and Communications in 2005 for his research work on virtual reality exposure therapy. https://brunoherbelin.github.io/vimix/
Full paper / Connecting new media art archives worldwide
Abstract: Online new media art archives exist throughout the world as repositories documenting theory and practice of electronic art. For a researcher, instructor, or student using these resources for scholarly work or inspiration, the process often involves visiting multiple websites with different interfaces and information. Without knowledge of the wide variety of archives that catalog new media art, the sought-after material may be missed. In 2018, the seeds of an initiative were sown at a roundtable discussion at ISEA2018 (South Africa) and during ISEA2019 (South Korea), the real work began to investigate and initiate the process of connecting new media art archives from around the world. Beginning with a core group including representatives from the ISEA, SIGGRAPH, FILE, Ars Electronica, and the Archive of Digital Art (ADA) archives, group discussions, implementation meetings, summits (Summit on New Media Archiving @ ISEA2020, mini-conferences (FILEALIVE 2020) and presentations at various conferences occurred. This paper outlines the details of the project along with the implementation procedures and challenges.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell (Ohio, USA) is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor of Digital Arts at Bowling Green State University. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Wim van der Plas (Netherlands) studied Social & Cultural Sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was director of the Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA, Rotterdam), R&D staff of the Utrecht School of Arts, managing director of the Institute for Computer Animation (SCAN, Groningen), and worked for 3 different departments of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. He is co-founder of ISEA, organised the first, second and seventh ISEA symposium and served as ISEA HQ and on the ISEA board since its founding. Currently he is co-director of the ISEA symposium archives and member as well as honorary chair of the ISEA International Advisory Committee. In 2018 he received a Leonardo Pioneer Award.
Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Full paper / The expanded world of invisible images – BLIND REVIEW’s and BLIND REVIEW’s artworks
Abstract: Image apprehension is a dynamic biological process where our brain receives data and converts it according to previous memories. To experience and understand images, we take simultaneously the role of observers and subjects in action. Our perception is embodied and situated in a world that can be both real and virtual. We receive images all around us and we anticipate movements and project our actions in the world. The role of interaction and plasticity in live-wired and embodied experiences, together with augmented technologies, are shaping and expanding human perception. Anna Unterholzner’s and Diana Carvalho’s artworks explore invisible and expanded imagery to reflect about arts-based research as knowledge creation, production, and dissemination.
Biography: Anna Unterholzner attends the PhD in Fine Arts (Multimedia Art Department) at the Fine Arts Faculty at Lisbon University, Portugal. She completed her Master’s degree in Modern and Contemporary European Philosophy in 2019 at the Luxembourg University and received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Sciences in 2016 at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. She is currently a research collaborator at Interactive Technologies Institute ITI/LARsyS, Laboratory for Robotics and Engineering Systems, IST. Anna Unterholzner’s research focuses on transdisciplinary art and design territories that merge arts and emotions, neuroaesthetics, gaming, interactive media, and gender equity.
Diana Carvalho (Lisbon, 1986), lives and works in Lisbon. She holds a degree in Painting (2009) and a Master in Contemporary Artistic Practices (2012) from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, Portugal, and she is currently a PhD student in Fine Arts (Multimedia Art Department) at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, whith a studenship funded by FCT – Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology. Currently she is a researcher collaborator at ITI/LARsyS research center. Her work has been shown since 2009 in solo and group exhibitions. In 2012 she was awarded the prize BES Revelation (8th edition). In 2020 she held the art residency Paralaxe in Porto and has been participated in other art residencies in Clermont-Ferrand, Budapest, Porto and Lisbon from 2017 onwards.
Luciana Lima has a PhD in Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto. Luciana Lima is currently doing post-doctoral studies at the Multimedia Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon with a scholarship from ARDITI, ITI – Interactive Technologies Institute / LARSyS, Laboratory for Robotics and Engineering Systems, IST. She is an effective member of the Portuguese Psychologists Association and her current research interests focus on the intersection between gender, digital games, and gaming culture. Luciana Lima research focus the hegemony of games as interactive and artistic media and their social impacts, with an emphasis on gender equality. Author’s institutional e-mail: [email protected] * Author’s personal email: [email protected]
Patrícia Gouveia is Associate Professor at Lisbon University Fine Arts Faculty [Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa]. Integrated member of ITI – Interactive Technologies Institute / LARSyS, Laboratory for Robotics and Engineering Systems, IST. Co-curator of the Playmode exhibition (Brazil: CCBB Belo Horizonte, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, CCBB São Paulo and CCBB Brasilia 2019_2023) and Portugal: (MAAT Lisbon 2016-2019). Works in Transmedia Arts and Design since the nineties. Her research focus on playable media, gaming, interactive fiction and digital arts as a place of convergence between cinema, music, games, arts and design. More information here: https://fbaul.academia.edu/PatriciaGouveia/CurriculumVitae.
Short paper / Setting limits in preservation strategies from the stage of acquisition: a feasibility approach for Media Art
Abstract: Over the past decades, the development of technological equipment and the arrival of the Digital Era have generated numerous artistic products that integrate technological devices, and that have lesser durability than other traditional cultural objects, such as Media Art Installations. The field of Art Preservation, responsible for safeguarding the collective knowledge heritage artefacts contain, is facing new challenges, and the solution lies in applying innovative strategies all the way through the life of the artwork, starting in the acquisition stages. What should we as art conservators consider when performing feasibility analyses in the acquisition of technological artwork? This paper analyses the fragility of this art-science intersection with the aim of establishing preservation strategies that ensure the viability of this type of artworks in an institutional environment.
Biography: Paula Fernández Valdés. Degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the Complutense University of Madrid and Master in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage (2017-2019) from the Universitat Politècnica de València. She is pursuing a PhD in Art: Production and Research with a Predoctoral Grant (FPI) at the same University and is part of the MICIU I+D+i EShID Project at Castilla la Mancha University and the Education Innovation Project Between Artists and Restorers. New ways of interaction and knowledge exchange II at Complutense University of Madrid. Her research focuses on preserving technological art and copyright issues, as she is also pursuing her second Degree in Law. She is currently an intern at LIMA Platform for Media Art in Amsterdam, working on video art and digital art preservation.
Short paper / Algaphon: Transducing Human Input to Photosynthetic Radiation Parameters in Algae Timescale
Abstract: Urban environments and manicured nature, with no sight unseen of native organism diversity, have led to forgotten evolutionary histories and a reduced understanding of ecosystem relations. The aquatic plant biosphere especially bears a collective amnesia from the humans of its evolutionary roles. It wouldn’t be erroneous to use ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in the context of the biosphere of aquatic plants. While the contributions of these early species have been tremendous to shaping higher plants, they haven’t received a lot of focus in their role from non-scientific communities.
Our work refocuses the attention on algae species and reflects on the role of these species in climate change in specific coastal regions, through very specific micro-capabilities. We were first inspired by algae sounds recorded underwater in the bay and river waters at the East Coast (East River / Hudson River) and West Coast (San Francisco Piers, Sausalito, Point Reyes) areas in the US. These microalgae traditionally form and release oxygen near their macroalgal filaments. When this oxygen is released, the relaxation of the bubble to a spherical shape creates a sound source that ‘rings’ at the Minnaert frequency.
Biography: Harpreet Sareen (US/IN/JP) is a scientist-designer who creates bionic materials and hybrid substrates that lend themselves for future ecological machinery, sensing systems and interaction design. http://harpreetsareen.com/
Franziska Mack (DE/US) is a multidisciplinary designer and researcher based in New York, where she is currently pursuing an MFA at Parsons School of Design. https://franziskamack.com
Yasuaki Kakehi (JP) is a media artist, HCI researcher and a Professor at The University of Tokyo. By combining digital technology and physical materials, he has created installation works that show new (alternative) ways of experiencing objects and environments. http://xlab.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Full paper / Artistic residencies in digital companies
Abstract: This paper aims to enrich the knowledge of artists’ residencies in digital companies, both to understand their particularities and to help develop methods to evaluate the processes and effects of these initiatives. The popularity of artists’ residencies has increased since the 1990s. This can be seen in the funding organizations that develop support programs but also in the diversity of the host institutions, community organizations and private companies that want to welcome artists and develop links with the art worlds. What explains this growth? What are the different parties involved looking for? What are the effects of these residencies on artistic careers? This research brings a particular attention to artists’ residencies in digital companies. Acting as a precursor in Quebec, the Conseil québécois des arts médiatiques (CQAM) set up its first residency in 2016 at the interactive media company Turbulent, followed the next year by another at the audiovisual entertainment company VYV and in 2018 by Milieux, an Institute of Arts and Technologies. Our research explores the ten residencies that have taken place to date, based on interviews with artists and company employees. A literature search was also conducted to better understand this growing phenomenon. Our work allows us to better understand what artists’ residencies in companies are, do and allow. The host companies seem to seek, in the presence of the artist, a force of reflection and change for the practices and rhythms of work. For artists, the main interest of residencies is the possibility to devote time and resources to a project. However, the link between these two worlds is not automatic and requires a strong commitment, which in turn requires the involvement of intermediary organizations.
Biography: Sylvain Martet holds a PhD in sociology from the Université du Québec à Montréal. As a researcher, he has been involved for the past ten years in numerous research projects on cultural mediation practices, the impact of digital technology on cultural occupations and cultural participation. His work focuses on the circulation of music, particularly in a digital context. He is a member of the Observatory of Cultural Mediations (OMEC), of the Partnership Study for the Mediation of Music (EPMM), of the Interdisciplinary Observatory of Creation and Research in Music (OICRM), and of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).
Short paper / Umwelten: Shifting agencies among the human, the non-human, and a machine learning algorithm
Abstract: This work is a research-creation project that invites a human, a non-human (a touch-me-not plant), and a machine-learning (ML) algorithm to question and re-formulate the relationship among themselves using the concept of ‘umwelt’ given by the German biologist Jacob Johann Von Uexküll. Through this project, the human and the non-human are brought in the same physical space (with different umwelts) to interact with one another and an ML algorithm, each having an agency to change others’ environment and hence, their umwelts. While the human changes the typography on the screen (using a text writing platform developed as a part of this project) through the typing speed and their choice of letters, both the plant and the (computer vision) machine learning algorithm alter this typography dynamically depending on the images clicked by a camera pointing to the plant. Such interactions manifested on the screen encapsulate a space where a non-linear and confusing typography symbolizes the overlapping, collision, and entanglement of the umwelts of these organisms – depicting the shifting of agencies among the human, the non-human and the machine learning algorithm over time.
Biography: Puneet’s work investigates new forms of communication and interventions between humans and the non-humans in a digital space. He follows both research based and an artistic approach for the creation of interfaces to open a dialogue between the human bodies and the non-humans (a machine, a plant, or sometimes even a slime mould) in the digital – questioning how sensory perceptions are morphed, enhanced, and augmented in such an entangled digital space. Puneet is currently pursuing his PhD at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada where his research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, STS, and disability studies. Prior to this, he worked as a research-fellow at I3D Lab, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore where he built assistive technologies for people with sensori-motor (dis)abilities. Puneet has a masters (by research) in Computation and Data Sciences from IISc and has also worked as a Data Scientist at SAP Labs, India from 2016-2018.
Short paper / The vanishing of remix concept in machine-driven text
Abstract: In this paper, the process of remixing is analysed through the evolution of machine- driven text transformation approaches. Starting from semi-random early techniques for the composition of poetic or experimental literature, the process of associating and composing preestablished pieces of text, sourced from analogue and then digital repositories, will be investigated. A continuity emerges from the combinatorial experiments realised by the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (OuLiPo) group in the 1960s to the later software that has advanced remix possibilities up to the contemporary attempts to establish an almost autonomous “automatic publisher.” The increased sophistication of the algorithms and the growth of available sources have affected the plausibility of the produced texts, including a technical analysis of style, laying the foundation for its simulation. More recent tests, using unusual or different technologies to produce texts, will be included. In the essay, I will analyse the remixes of text’s evolving structure since the early experiments in the 1960s, the role of machines in effectively emulating a writer’s style and their essential support to generate credible fakes, particularly deepfakes.
Biography: Alessandro Ludovico is a researcher, artist and chief editor of Neural magazine since 1993. He received his Ph.D. degree in English and Media from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (UK). He is Associate Professor at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. He has published and edited several books, and has lectured worldwide. He also served as an advisor for the Documenta 12’s Magazine Project. He is one of the authors of the award-winning Hacking Monopolism trilogy of artworks (Google Will Eat Itself, Amazon Noir, Face to Facebook). http://neural.it
Short paper / Corresponding Wood Tools: Speculative Fabulations of Material Correspondence in Woodworking
Abstract: The rise of materialism questions the position of humans in relation to their surroundings. We engage craft practices as rooted in material encounters that directly affect crafters on various cognitive and physical levels. In these encounters, the crafter’s body is also material which interacts on its own terms. The body’s condition, and the material-at-hand act and correspond with each other. We argue that this contact is an in-the-moment material one, a shared moment of production and becoming. Based on this theory of material encountering, this paper presents the Corresponding Wood Tools project as “speculative fabulations” exploring the ways in which this correspondence can be made visible. It argues for re-shaping the encounter in woodworking to allow new reflections on shared themes, such as care and collaboration.
Biography: Jihan Sherman is an architect, designer and is currently a PhD candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research seeks approaches to design that confront historical transgressions, engage present bias and harm, and imagine progressive futures. She is currently exploring counter-narratives of design and craft-based methods that center on materiality and care.
Michael Nitsche works as Associate Professor in Digital Media at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he directs the Digital World and Image Group. His research combines elements of craft and performance to develop novel media and interaction designs. Nitsche’s publications include the books Video Game Spaces (2009),The Machinima Reader (2011) (co-edited with Henry Lowood), and the forthcoming Vital Media (2022, all with MIT Press). He is co-editor of the Taylor&Francis journal Digital Creativity.
Hangar – Introducing Arc-hive
Free admission until full capacity
“Introducing Arc-hive” is a presentation by Antonio Gagliano and Luciana Della Villa, part of the Hangar team, in the areas of Research and Knowledge Transfer and Communication respectively, in order to to introduce the European Arc-hive project, its fundamental objectives and challenges, and to open up the collective research process carried out. Arc-hive has aimed to create an open source digital platform to add, preserve, publish, distribute and contextualize a variety of information, knowledge and documentation on biomedical practices, ensuring open access to a variety of users, and a wide range of digital materials in all cultural sectors and territories. From January 2021 to June 2022, the challenges of creating and distributing cohesive digitization and dissemination protocols through a centralized digital space where the knowledge and best practices of Bioart are collected.
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“Introducing d’Arc-hive” és una presentació a càrrec d’Antonio Gagliano i Luciana Della Villa, formant part de l’equip de l’Hangar, en les àrees de Recerca i Transferència de Coneixement i Comunicació respectivament, per tal d’introduir el projecte europeu Arc-hive, els seus objectius i desafiaments fonamentals, i obrir el procés de recerca col·lectiva dut a terme. Arc-hive ha tingut com finalitat la creació d’una plataforma digital de codi obert per afegir, preservar, publicar, distribuir i contextualitzar una varietat d’informació, coneixement i documentació sobre les pràctiques focalitzades en biomedia, garantint l’accés obert a una varietat d’usuaris, i un ampli abast dels materials digitals en tots els sectors culturals i territoris. Des de gener 2021 fins a juny de 2022, s’han abordat de manera col·lectiva els reptes de crear i distribuir protocols cohesius de digitalització i difusió a través d’un espai digital centralitzat on es recullen els coneixements i les millors pràctiques del Bioart.
Abstract: Within the framework of ISEA 2022, the artist Samira Benini Allauoat will present “GEO-LLUM”, an artistic research project part of S+T+ARTS Residences Repairing the Present / CCCB.
The purpose of this residence is the development of a public installation/sculpture that will generate energy through collaboration with bacteria that live in the soil (Geobarcters), being in turn a device that lights up the city and a soil decontaminant.
As part of the presentation, we will develop an open talk with the artist and a group of specialists linked to the investigation. This talk will be moderated by the curator María Ptqk – Doctor in Artistic Research specializing in the intersections between art and science – who is the S+T+ARTS-CCCB advisor for the “Cities of Microorganisms” call. They will participate in the talk: Carmen Tanaka – representative of Akasha Hub – collaborating institution of the project and venue of execution of the artistic residency; Lorenzo Patuzzo, engineer specialized in industrial design; and José Carvajal Arroyo, microbiologist from the BIOE research group, a laboratory focused on studying the scientific bases and applications derived from the interactions of electroactive microorganisms.
Then we will carry out an educational workshop guided by the artist and the microbiologist José Carvajal from the Bioe Laboratory (Alcalá). This activity will explain how we can use electroactive bacteria (Geobacters) to generate electricity, through the construction and explanation of the operation of an MFC – Microbial Fuel Cell (microbial battery). This presentation will be accompanied by a graphic explanation with the fundamentals of the workshop. The public will be invited to interact, learn and see the many simple components that are part of this process.
Biography: Samira Benini Allaouat is an interdisciplinary artist fascinated by ancient technologies and knowledge presenting new contemporary applications. She is also interested in the DIY and maker philosophy, in questioning stereotypes, behaviors and assumed social systems, in exploring new ways of deforming and combining elements, in researching and testing simple low-tech solutions to build a more resilient.
With 25 years of experience in radical street art and moving image design, his favorite medium is the city. The spectrum of her artistic practice is very broad and at an international level she has worked on performances, exhibitions, editorial projects and events under different pseudonyms and also anonymously.
Samira Benini delves into the paradigm shift, conveying broader aspects of the sustainability of human life and bringing a new ethical approach to art and design. Electricity in nature and automation are fundamental and recurring ideas in her artistic research. As in the work “No Plug Sound Machine”, where she wondered how to make electronic music without conventional electricity. The piece was exhibited at the Tate Modern together with his London Hack Space collective Hackoustic, at the London Urban Street Hackaton held in 2015. It was also presented at the Aberystwyth Art Center and performed in Ausland, a benchmark for underground culture and experimental music in Berlin.
Full paper / Click::REVU. An Optophonic Sound Installation
Abstract: If traces of past media remain in contemporary forms of media, how can these traces be appropriated and applied in the creation of a sound-based installation? This paper presents Click::REVU a sound installation developed by the first author. The work blends physical characteristics of an early sonification device, the Optophone – a device that translated optical data to sound – to create an illusory presence through a scanner mechanism from a multifunction printer. The work’s compositional structure reduces the scanner’s image capture ability to an indexical relationship that is expressed as a minimal soundscape of drones and clicks. As a media archaeological sound-based artwork, the ideation of Click::REVU has depicted a form of optophonics through the interpretation of early 20th century Optophones. These forms, as archival sources of knowledge for reinterpretation, have informed the development and realization of this work, one that is expressed through a genealogically related contemporary form of media, the contact image sensor scanner.
Biography: Paul Dunham is a New Zealand based sound artist. His recent work has seen a focus of the relationship between past and contemporary media and connecting their socio-cultural and technical conditions of existence. As media archaeology these relationships are represented and expressed through sound as recorded works, installations or performances. In addition, he has composed a range of acousmatic and electroacoustic works utilising a range of materials ranging from broken media to environmental sounds. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally including the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference (Birmingham and Shanghai), ISEA (Durban and Montreal) and Ars electronica Garden Aotearoa (New Zealand). He has recently completed his PhD in Sonic Arts at Victoria, University of Wellington.
Full paper / Nonhuman Creativity in Generative Art: Beyond the Anthropocentric Paradigm
Abstract: This paper explores fresh insights into the ways we negotiate our ideas about nonhuman creativity, emphasizing the need to recast traditional notions of what it means to be an artist today. In the prospect of the existence of entirely autonomous nonhuman agents of art production in the following decades, an attempt is being made to question the exegesis of the artificial creativity of generative art from an anthropocentric point of view. Through the observation of four art projects, the first part sheds light on the interaction of artists with generative art-making systems in order to demonstrate that the concept of assemblage between living and non-living agents is currently emerging. The second part attempts a new ontological exploration of algorithmic systems as a possible path for essentializing their creative agency. The discussion extends to whether these aspects can operate as a foundation of the ontological definition of nonhuman creativity.
Biography: Stella Sofokleous is a PhD candidate of the Department of History & Philosophy of Science of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research interests are related to the philosophical and historical relationship between art and technology with particular interest in the case of ‘new media art’. She is a graduate of the Department of History & Archaeology of the University of Cyprus and holds a postgraduate diploma in Art History from the University of Edinburgh. After completing her MA thesis with distinction, she worked as a curator at the National Gallery of Scotland. She received a scholarship from A.G Leventis Foundation Educational Grants Scheme from the completion of both her MA and PhD.
Full paper / Nam June Paik’s Bibimbap Aesthetics as a Korean Reinterpretation of the Gesamtkunstwerk
Abstract: Nam June Paik often describes his mixed media based on bibimbap aesthetics. Bibimbap is a Korean traditional rice dish, which incorporates diverse side dishes as toppings. The discrete beautiful topping pattern on bibimbap becomes a whole new entity by mixing them together. Like bibimbap, Nam June Paik’s art shows creative combinations among a variety of media. Paik’s bibimbap aesthetics is a Korean reinterpretation of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art. This paper explores Paik’s artistic transition from non-mixed media to bibimbap aesthetics as a Korean version of the Gesamtkunstwerk.
Biography: Byeongwon Ha is an assistant professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina, Columbia in the United States. He is an art historian and an artist in the field of new media art.
Full paper / The Medium is the Environment: Digital Materialism, Digital Art, and the Climate Crisis
Abstract: Contrary to the notion of immateriality and commonplace imageries such as the cloud, information and communication technologies (ICT), from individual devices to the general infrastructure, are grounded in the natural world, ranging from the materials needed for production to the e-waste that is produced through planned obsolescence and aggressive consumerism. Despite such entanglement with the material substrate, the environmental implications of ICT usage is overlooked by the ICT industry, as it continues to exploit natural resources and cultivate a culture of consumption. Such socio-political landscape warrants an exploration of potential counter tactics in the field of digital art. This paper examines the environmental implications of ubiquitous ICT manufacturing, deployment, and usage, using the theories of new materialism and digital materialism. Following these theoretical lenses, the paper proposes that a focus on the material is necessary in digital art, which functions as an antithesis to the abstracting act of information/data and its purported immateriality.
Biography: Kevin T. Day is a Taiwanese-Canadian media artist, art educator, and media theorist. His practice and research, encompassing sound, video, graph, web, and interactive installations, examine contemporary art’s critical capacity in response to the current socio-political issues of digital culture. Day received his PhD with a focus on media art and art education from the University of British Columbia. He has presented at numerous conferences such as SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and UAAC (Universities Arts Association of Canada). He has published in the top international journals for art and technology such as PACMCGIT and Leonardo. His work had been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and SSHRC. Currently, he teaches digital art in the UBC Bachelor of Media Studies program and the politics of media and information at the UBC School of Information.
Full paper / Towards the Sonic Laboratory: Laboratories’ creative potential
Abstract: This research aims to define and establish the sonic laboratory, a hypothetical concept that has not been widely explored, although there are already some examples named as such. This research also investigates the sonic laboratory’s creative potential. Analysing different typologies (science lab, media lab, hacklab, and others), this research presents an open and inclusive description of the laboratory that opposes a technoscientific perspective, following Lori Emerson’s laboratory studies which state, “Labs have never been static, unchangeable, unitary entities with clear-cut histories.
Biography: Curator, artist, and researcher. Currently, she is an MPhil student at CRiSAP – UAL, where studies the new tendencies in curatorial practices in sonic arts. In 2006, she graduated in Art History (University of Barcelona). Consequently, studies at Master in Cultural Practices and New Media Art (University Ramon Llull). In 2009, establishes in London where attends the Curating course (Central Saint Martins, UAL). One year after, she was granted to study at MAH Media Art Histories (Donau University, Krems, Austria). In 2011, attends the professional course about New Media Curating, led by Beryl Graham (University of Sunderland). Interested in sound art, science, technology and digital media, she is an active participant in hacking culture.
Full paper / Arts, Science and Technology in the ISSM Project and Exhibition
Abstract: In 2019 a team of multi-disciplinary researchers undertook a research project entitled Identifying Successful STARTS Methodologies (ISSM) (2019-2021) in order to analyze the innovative and collaborative strategies utilized by the global Science, Technology and Arts (=STARTS) Prize Winners and nominees. The aim was to identify and articulate successful STARTS Methodologies through a series of interviews and in-depth case studies of the recognized projects. The project culminated in a series of case studies and an exhibition at the Made in Wolves Gallery at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and further presented at UK Garden of Earthly Delights at Ars Electronica in 2020. The project identified three emerging themes: the significance of building a new language of art and science through a third space, the process of anti-disciplinarity as an emergent form of practice, and the importance of different ways of knowing through art and science. A number of the case studies and themes are presented here alongside images from the exhibition.
Biography: Denise Doyle is a Reader in Digital Media at the University of Wolverhampton, Adjunct Professor Digital Futures at OCADU, Toronto, and Principal Editor of Journal of Virtual Creativity, Intellect. She is Principal Investigator on the Identifying Successful STARTS Methodologies (2019-2021).
Richard Glover is a composer and writer who explores the integration of game design approaches into gradual process music and performance environments. He co-authored Being Time: Case Studies in Musical Temporalities with Bloomsbury in 2018.
Martin Khechara is an Associate Professor for engagement in science technology engineering and maths (STEM) at the University of Wolverhampton. A former research scientist he now has an international profile for his pedagogical research, as a public engagement practitioner and science communicator.
Sebastian Groes is Professor of English Literature and he is Principal Investigator of The Memory Network, an AHRC and Wellcome Trust-funded Research Network bringing together scientists, arts and humanities scholars, writers and artists.
Full paper / Transforming Practices: a practice-based research approach to teaching emerging media at undergraduate level
Abstract: This paper suggests how a ‘research-oriented’ and ‘research-based’ approach can help undergraduate students engage creatively with new and emerging media technologies, as well as creating a critical and less disciplinary focused approach. It also proposes a way in which arts practice, and specifically practice-led research, can inform pedagogy, improving satisfaction for tutors and students alike. The authors reflect on their experience of modifying the module ‘Media Frontiers’ on a media arts undergraduate degree programme, presented as a case study. It sets out how the changes made transformed students’ means of engaging with emerging media technologies and developing new artistic insights.
Biography: Christopher Fry is a researcher at the Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster, UK, where he also teaches practice and theory on the BA Contemporary Media Practice. He completed a practice-led PhD in 2008 entitled ‘Perceiving Experience: accounting for the role of the audience in the construction of pervasive and locative artworks’ at the Wimbledon School of Art. His current research continues to examine relationships with digital and interactive media, employing drawing as a means of bridging between the digital and the analog.
Julie Marsh is a senior lecturer and researcher at CREAM in Westminster School of Arts. Julie is a specialist in interdisciplinary practice, exploring the intersections between film, installation, performance and site-specificity. Her research is engaged with collaborative and knowledge-led approaches to field research, from moving image to emergent technologies. Through the exploration of real and representational space she investigates how technical machines can perform site, creating critical experiences for audiences that open debate and question social spaces. She has exhibited internationally, most recently as part of the Three British Mosques at Venice Architecture Biennale (2021).
Full paper / Supra-dimensional Cinema: VR Case Study ‘TesserIce’
Abstract: The combined three-dimensional, stereoscopic space and embodied navigability of virtual reality foster a supra-dimensional perceptive space. They provide an opportunity to experience a four-dimensional, shifting landscape and acoustic, cinematic environment from within the fourth dimension. VR is uniquely positioned to visualize hyper-space as a mathematical construct in which the participant can experience four dimensions.
TesserIce is a four-dimensional, VR mediascape that utilizes these features, allowing one to enter the 4D space-time of glacial ice. The mediascape constructs a tesseract as an embodied cine-poem – a hyperspace of spatialized meaning and navigable time, examining the effects of climate change on polar ice. Within a crystalline, cinematic tesseract, a four-dimensional architecture composed of different scales, forms, sounds, and speeds of ice enacts the meta-dimensions of our contemporary data-world in manifold perspectives. Participants propel themselves through the hyper dimensions of this tesseract, unfolding unchartered vistas, juxtapositions, and timeframes – the space-time of Earth’s polar ice. The stark iconography of ice serves as a distinct access point into the overwhelming complexity of climate change and its ramifications, creating an embodied experience of the time, scale, causes, and effects of climate change.
Biography: Clea T. Waite, Ph.D. is an intermedia artist, scholar, engineer, and experimental filmmaker whose artworks investigate the material poetics that emerge at the intersection of art, science, and technology. She creates immersive, cinematic works engaging embodied perception, dynamic composition, and sensual interfaces – as well as one inter-species collaboration with several hundred tropical spiders. Her themes examine climate change, astronomy, particle physics, history, feminism, and popular culture. Waite received her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in interdisciplinary Media Arts + Practice, combining a background in physics and computer graphics from the MIT Media Lab with her current research in cinema, media art, and critical theory. She brings a unique blend of expertise to her projects from which cross-disciplinary synergies emerge.
Full paper / Spatial Photograms: Experimental Cyanotype Photography using 3D Scanning and Printing Technologies
Abstract: This paper discusses contemporary forms of photographic representation of space and, at the same time, new possibilities of making an objective spatial. Structured in two parts, it articulates an alternative model of photographic space in the form of a Spatial Photogram. We propose a novel photographic practice, based on traditional pre-photographic image-making and today’s digital image methods. In the first part, we analyze the cultural-artistic context of the historic developments in photography to articulate an objective image of space through comparing the movements of Functional Aesthetics and Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivism) with the pre-photographic practices of camera-less photography – the photogram. In the second part, we discuss the technical setup in the making of a Spatial Photogram focusing on comparing 3D printing and scanning methods, as well as the making of transfer tools between the digital methods and the chemical-based analogue cyanotype printing. The result is a material-based image that introduces space as a density – a completely new method to articulate a representation of space in the context of photographic objectivism.
Biography: FONG Hin Nam is a Hong Kong-based media artist interested in exploring different forms of space with photography and other emerging imaging technologies. Obtaining a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Fong exhibits his works of art in various local and international exhibitions including the Chiang Mai Photo Festival 2020 and WMA Open Photo Contest Exhibition – Opportunity!
Tobias Klein (簡鳴謙, is a German Artist, Architect and Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His works and writings articulates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references, establishing the notion of Digital Craftsmanship as an operational synthesis between digital and physical materials and tools as poetic (Poïesis) and technical (Technê) expressions. In 2020, The University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, opened a retrospective exhibition of his works, accompanied by a publication with the same title, Metamorphosis or Confrontation.
Full paper / QATIPANA: Individuation processes on the relationship between art, machines and natural systems
Abstract: This essay revolves around the concepts and processes of Becoming and Individuation where a functional model based on the articulation of an information processing system based on the approaches of the philosopher Gilbert Simondon is evidenced; This research aims to observe a sensorimotor cycle performed by the cognitive system of an Artificial Intelligence agent. To establish this model of biological inspiration, we used the concepts of information and modulation in Gilbert Simondon and information in cybernetics of Norbert Wiener and Stafford Beer. These resources force us to ask ourselves the following question: How does mono-technology and computerization of cultural techniques influence the nature of knowing the affection of being with others (people, things, animals)? To answer this question, an interdisciplinary study (arts, sciences, information technologies) is offered on the effect of this symbiosis and how it can be seen in the full use of knowledge about the fundamentals of living and non-living matter. The architecture is called Qatipana (a Quechua word that denotes the flow of information processing systems), although it cannot be considered as a systems theory, it has the utility of being able to explain some empirical observations that are presented here. In conclusion, the implications and limitations of this model and the research that is being carried out to present its utility and probability as a technodiversified model of the algorithmic cognitive system are part of the issues of communication and affect in the decisions that this cybernetic system provides.
Biography: Renzo Filinich Orozco, 1978. Artista Medial e Investigador, Candidato a doctor en Estudios Interdisciplinarios sobre Pensamiento, Cultura y Sociedad, Universidad de Valparaíso. Magíster en Artes Mediales, Universidad de Chile. Investigador en Cultura Tecnológica y Estética, actualmente labora en el Centro de Estudios de la Interfaz como investigador de la Universidad de Valparaíso y como investigador asociado en el Research Network for Philosophy and Technology que dirige Yuk Hui.
Full paper / Merging Art, Media, and Ecology: Diego Rivera and Ariel Guzik at the Cárcamo de Dolores
Abstract: This paper examines two public art projects at Cárcamo de Dolores, in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City: Diego Rivera’s El Agua, Origen de la Vida en la Tierra [Water, Origin of Life on Earth] (1951) and Ariel Guzik’s Cámara Lambdona [Lambdona Chamber] (2010). Because these projects are new additions to existing literature on environmental themes in art history and media arts histories, the incipient focus is on addressing both their artistic and conceptual significance. Both conceived as creative engagements with water, Rivera’s El Agua, Origen de la Vida en la Tierra is highlighted as the first underwater mural in modern art, with Guzik’s Cámara Lambdona as a sonic installation created to restore the former’s work. To additionally shed light on the artists’ respective aims in merging ecology, art, science, and technology, this discussion then considers these projects’ divergent articulations of human and nonhuman relations, and as well their kindred aspirations, to function as catalysts of a possible, more sustainable world. In including these projects, this examination shares current concerns with broadening the geographical scope of existing environmentally-themed art historical and media arts histories. Expanding upon this focus, this paper not only emphasizes the ecological arts in the Global South, but as well their interdisciplinary basis and media forms. Hence, it combines a global perspective with an inter-disciplinary approach, which, echoing the projects considered, is moreover relevant for further developing the existing histories of the environmental arts.
Biography: Claudia Costa Pederson is Associate Professor of Art History, Wichita State University; author of Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media (Indiana, 2021); and co-curator of FLEFF’s new media exhibitions at Ithaca College, NY, since 2017.
Full paper / Pulcher Aureus Filum. Biological Substrate Computers and the Ecological Paradigm Shift
Abstract: With the imminent decay of Moore’s law and the difficulties in solving NP problems in computing, researchers around the world have been given the task of finding new ways to manage, process and store information. These new paradigms are known as unconventional computing and among them, biological substrate computers have been developed. These coupled logic gates do not work by directing an electrical current through circuits made of conductive materials, but with collectivities of living organisms and the interaction of their emergent patterns with specific geometries. In this article we will address the implementation of a genetic chip (bacterial computer) in the creation of an artistic work, as well as the paradigm shift from the individualistic artist to the ecology of affections.
Biography: Multimedia artist, composer, curator and independent researcher. He made his studies at the Faculty of Music in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has had three solo exhibitions, at the Sound Experimentation Space in the University Museum of Contemporary Art, at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, and his retrospective at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Xalapa, México. His work is part of public and private collections. As a multimedia artist he has participated in several collective exhibitions in Mexico, Berlin, New York, Madrid, Montevideo, Hamilton, Saõ Paulo, Bergen, Tallinn, etc. He is founder of SEMIMUTICAS Research Seminar in Music, Mathematics and Computer Studies and Independencia BioLab a biohacker space based in Mexico City. He has several international publications in conference proceedings, journals and books, in editorials such as Cambridge Scholars, Springer-Verlag, Taylor & Francis, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Siglo XXI and the Mexican Mathematical Society.
Full paper / A Mixed Reality Installation to Elicit Reflexivity on Adverse Childhood Experiences
Abstract: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are an underestimated public health threat. It impairs children’s brain development, immune system, and hormonal systems. These impairments predispose children to various chronic mental and physical dis- eases. However, its negative impacts are not widely known by the general public. Chang Liu created a mixed reality (MR) installation based on her personal experience with ACEs and ACEs related Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which aims to provoke the audience’s reflection on ACEs and the influence of their upbringings on their mental and physical de- velopment. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 audiences, and their response to this MR installation was ana- lyzed using the thematic analysis method. The analysis proved that this MR installation is capable of eliciting the audience’s reflection on ACEs and their upbringing. In addition, The VR experience enabled participants to emotionally and somatically experience several symptoms of PTSD, and 75% of the partic- ipants demonstrated a high level of emotional self-awareness during the VR experience. Lastly, the analysis revealed that participants who had never encountered ACEs are more likely to sympathize with both the victim and abuser in a fictional narrative about ACEs than those who had undergone ACEs.
Biography: Chang Liu is a new media artist who is active in the field of Extended Reality (VR/AR) narrative, installation art, and experimental film. Her interactive film “Bystander” won the global culture prize at the Stuttgart film winter festival and was included in IFVA 2019 as the finalist. “Bystander” was also exhibited at the Microwave festival connecting the dots, Phantom Horizons project, Relentless melt project, and System dream at Art machine2.
Christian Sandor is a Professor at Paris-Saclay University. Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-christian-sandor-b7240890/?originalSubdomain=hk
Alvaro Cassinelli is an Associate Professor and founder of the Augmented Materiality Lab at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Awards include the Grand Prize [Art Division] (9th Japan Media Art Festival), Excellence Prize [Entertainment Division] (13th Japan Media Art Festival), Honorary Mention (Ars Electronica), NISSAN Innovative Award (2010), Jury Grand Prize at Laval Virtual (2011).
Full paper / The Process of Word Automation: From the Spoken Word to the Algorithm
Abstract: In this paper, I will trace a path in which the starting point will be the spoken word, made immortal through writing, and which will lead to the consideration of the word as the fundamental constituent part of today’s algorithms. This analysis will be carried out without losing sight of the fact that we are within an artistic research, in which it is necessary to deal with concepts that belong to other disciplines such as linguistics or computer science. The process of transcription will be the thread that connects the spoken word with the written word, allowing me to analyze how this transcription and its intrinsic characteristics have been used in areas as disparate as the world of art and the development of programming languages.
Subsequently, I will analyze the creation and evolution of the idea of algorithm –from its beginnings centuries before the creation of the first computers– and the link between them and the world of art, through the presentation of works that propose the use of pseudo-algorithms. It will be the algorithms that will allow me to talk about digital computers and how the technology behind them has served as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists.
Biography: Marta Pérez-Campos (Zaragoza, Spain) is PhD candidate at the UPV/EHU University of Basque Country and Master Interface Culture at the Kunstuniversität Linz. Her great interest in language and communication has led her to focus her current research on our relationship with and through technological devices and to approach some technological processes from an artistic perspective.
Screening / The Erection of Phygital Graveyard
Abstract:The Erection of Phygital Graveyard is an auto-generated real-time animation which speculates the heritage of the phygital environment where the online world and the physical world are intertwined. Updated every hour, the system searches for the most popular keywords online, algorithmically downloads and removes part of the downloaded image which conveys the narrative, leaving only the color information and the rectangular frame. The system automatically arranges the residue of the images creating the digiscape of our collective thoughts of the past and the present.
The space created in The Erection of Phygital Graveyard has no similar world to compare as it prevails for one hour and what seems like an accidental creation is only edited by an algorithm. Created by data which was once edited through removal, the phygital world turns into a cosmic dust.
Instead of it being a mimicry of the physical world, The Erection of Phygital Graveyard reveals the workings of the machines dealing with data and in the process displays how the digital culture is created through the means of re-arranging the visual information. Within this digital ecosystem and culture, where the machine generalizes, classifies and makes decisions, and as we all take part in training a dataset to train the machine, The Erection of Phygital Graveyard speculates the possible heritage and the culture of the digital.
Biography: Inmi Lee and Yunmi Her are a collective duo of digital media artists. They have been working together as a collective since July 2021.
Inmi Lee investigates the potency of art and technology to explore cultural and social conflicts and create a framework for research and analysis for socio-political realities. Her work takes the form of kinetic sculpture, digital performance, interactive installation, and video. She has exhibited at London FutureFest, Digital Art Biennale, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, Anren Biennale, Boston Cyberarts Festival, and the International Performance Art Festival.
Yunmi Her is a multimedia artist working with VR/AR, video installation, and sculpture. Her interest lies in the paradoxical relationship between individuals and society, which is portrayed as spatial installations in her work. Yunmi’s works have been exhibited in Korea and the United States, including at the SOMA Drawing Center, Seoul Art Center, and San Diego Art Institute.
Institutional presentation / Technoetic Arts: A Journey of Speculative Research
Abstract: First published in 2003 by founding editor Roy Ascott, Technoetic Arts is a peer-reviewed journal that explores the juncture of art practice, technology and the mind. Drawing from academic research and often unorthodox approaches it opens up a forum for trans-disciplinary speculative frameworks. In 2020, with the support of the publisher Intellect, Ascott entrusted the editorship to what he defined the editorial organism, an international assemblage. [composed by: Claudia Jacques, Claudia Westermann, Dalila Honorato, Iannis Bardakos, Tom Ascott and Yong Hu. ] The Editorial Organism of the Technoetic Arts Journal is considered an extitution. The term extitution relates to a radically dynamic form of organisation, differentiating itself from the dominant form of organisations, typically conceptualised as static institutions. Extitutional theory is an emerging area of research that provides a set of conceptual tools for describing and analyzing the underlying social dynamics of a variety of social arrangements, such as communities, businesses, organizations, or any other structure. An extitution is an open, flexible, dynamic and diachronic multiplicity and, in this sense Technoetic Arts, combining academic research and artistic expression throughout the years, has established a unique journey. Within this presentation, we explore the reinvention of the editorial process through an organism that is composed of interdependent conscious units that coexist and apply decision-making in a decentralised way.
Biography: Created in 2020, the Editorial Organism is an assemblage of six independent minds and bodies, serving the journal Technoetic Arts in its daily operations as principle editors. The Editorial Organism, aiming to expand the boundaries of academic publishing, is dedicated to critical creative enquiry on topics of art, technology and consciousness.
John Bardakos is an artist and researcher born in Athens, Greece. He studied mathematics, digital, and traditional media in applied and fine arts in Athens, Paris and Madrid. Bardakos lectured in-between theory and practice in Athens and Paris and joined the Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio in 2017 as a course coordinator and senior lecturer at the DeTao Masters Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts continuing his research between fine arts, technologies, mathematics, cybernetics and diagrams. He is currently continuing his art and research activities at the Athens School of Fine Arts and the University Paris 8, focusing on interaction, spatial/digital poetics, aesthetics, and mathematical structures following a technoetic paradigm.
Dalila Honorato, Ph.D., is tenured faculty in aesthetics and visual semiotics at the Ionian University, Greece and a collaborator at the Center of Philosophy of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. One of the founding members of the Interactive Arts Lab, she is the head of the organizing committee of the conference Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science and a co-founder of the network ‘FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology’. In 2020 she was invited to join the Editorial Organism of Technoetic Arts.
Yong Hu, Ph.D., is associate professor in the School of New Media Art and Design at Beihang University, China, and a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in computer science and virtual reality from Beihang University and then continued to engage in interdisciplinary teaching and research on computer science and art design, such as virtual reality art design and interactive art design. He has published widely on topics in CG, VR and art design. In 2020 he was invited to join the Editorial Organism of Technoetic Arts.
Claudia Jacques, Ph.D. (Univ. Plymouth, UK), MFA (SVA, US), is a Brazilian-American interdisciplinary technoetic artist, designer, educator and researcher. Human-computer interactions, cybersemiotics, semiotics, cybernetics, consciousness and design are some of her publication topics. She collaborates with many artists exhibiting and presenting both in the US and abroad. Parallel to serving in the Technoetic Arts Editorial Organism (2020), she has been serving as art & web editor for Cybernetics and Human Knowing since 2013. She has been collaborating with UCLA’s ArtSci Center since 2011 as an Information and Instructional Designer and is the founder and creative director of Knowledge Art Studios Inc. Her studio is in Ossining, NY.
Claudia Westermann (Ph.D.) is an artist and architect, licensed with the German Chamber of Architects, and a senior associate professor in architecture at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. She holds postgraduate degrees in architecture and media art and obtained a Ph.D. from CAiiA, Planetary Collegium, for her research on a poetics of architecture, titled ‘An experimental research into inhabitable theories’. Her works have been widely exhibited and presented, including at the Venice Biennale (Architecture), the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and most recently at the 2019 Yanping Art Harvest in Fujian, China.
Full papers / Internet vernacular creativity. Vaporwave, counterculture and copyright
Abstract: This article stems from ethnographic fieldwork I carried out in 2019 on the virtual platforms where vaporwave is developed. Vaporwave is a countercultural phenomenon between a musical genre and a meme developed entirely on the Internet since 2010. In this text I show how copyright laws and technologies operating in the context of vaporwave’s creation traverse and affect its creative forms and processes. Based on this case study of Internet vernacular creativity, I encourage an approach to digital countercultural or folkloric movements by putting into dialogue their symbolic dimension and the sociological, technological and legal bases on which they develop.
Biography: Ezequiel Soriano Gómez works about the internet, folklore and appropriation through ethnography, artistic experimentation and post-digital publishing. He is currently resident at La Escocesa and Santa Mónica art centre and researcher at Mediaccions (Open University of Catalonia). He manages the publishing lab ‘Artefactos Nativos’, whose aim is to print the internet through zines, weird books and unauthorised editions. As a researcher, he is working on his phd about internet vernacular creativity, free culture and experimental collaborations in ethnography.
Full papers / Artificial Life within a frame of metacreation on stage
Abstract: In order to investigate the possibilities of co-creation between performer and interactive virtual system, we have developed a scenic installation composed of two parts: the virtual environment and the interaction interface. We offer an analysis of our creative experience from the point of view of the artist researchers in the field of real-time generative synthetic image. Our results show that the creation depends on how the performer perceives the virtual system as well as how he perceives its influence on this system. The creative potential of the system depends on the mechanisms generated and implemented by the artist in a metacreation context and his interpretation of the interaction data. Our perspectives point towards the conception of a scenography-character.
Biography: Isadora Teles is a Brazilian artist based in Paris. She is currently a PhD candidate within the INREV research team, at the University of Paris 8. Her artistic practice is in the fields of digital generative art, artistic modeling of self-organizing systems and the design of interactive interfaces for live performance. Her artworks have been presented within academic and experimental frames of international exhibitions and institutions such as the Grand Palais, the Bains Numériques festival, the Ars Electronica festival, the Gaîté Lyrique and the Nuit Blanche in Paris. As part of her practice-based research, she is currently experimenting on the design of sensitive and connected electronic costumes as well as on the development of interactive evolving visuals for improvisational theatrical scenography.
Chu-Yin Chen is an Artist and Professor in Digital Art at Paris 8 University and member of the INREV research team. Since 2019, Chair Professor at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan). Her creations, based on Artificial Life and complex systems develop interaction modes between audience and virtual creatures showing autonomous and evolving behaviors. Her digital artworks have been shown in numerous international exhibitions. Her researches articulate two overlapping areas: 1] Digital Creation using algorithms of complexity and emergence, and 2] Metacognition and Elicitation of the processes of creation, enaction and aesthetic reception, via psycho-phenomenology and mindfulness.
Sorina-Silvia Cı̂rcu holds a BSc in Systems engineering from The Polytechnic University of Timisoara, a MSc in Philosophy from Vest University of Timisoara and a MA in Theatre Directing from Nanterre University in Paris. Transdisciplinary artist and researcher, she is currently preparing a Ph.D between dance and robotics (AIAC laboratory of Paris 8 University and LIRMM laboratory of Montpellier University). Her work focuses on dramaturgy of the body, new media and notions like reality, perception and metamorphosis. She worked among others with Henier Goebbels for his anthology of ”Sound and Spaces”, Silvia Costa, Michel Cerda, Theatre du Soleil, Odin Teatret. Currently she is an artist in residence at DOC! in Paris.
Full papers / Made you look: crossing visual attention with computational design to create motion-based visual distractions
Abstract: Urban spaces are rich in environmental stimuli. This high represents a challenge when creating visual communication objects that address the public’s attention. However, the presence of digital screens turns this into an opportunity to explore new resources for the creation of visual strategies and address the contemporary context of urban spaces. Since attention is a limited resource, each person has to be selective when deciding where to focus on. This selection envolves attend to determined stimuli while rejecting others. To address this issue, we identified the need to understand how the brain processes visual stimuli and chooses where to focus its attention as much as how to create visual stimuli that activates these brain functions. We cross findings in Cognition and Computational Design to support our research and the development of prototypes that explore the dynamic triggering of a selected set of visual stimuli in a visual composition. The findings regarding Visual Stimuli guided the collection of promising visual stimuli to use, either individually or in combination, in the situation we are addressing — contexts where the audience is goal-oriented to other tasks. Also, the knowledge of Computational Design allows the development of dynamic and adaptive systems, which application can be particularly interesting in less predictive and evolving environments such as urban public spaces. In the present research we demonstrate the potential of this approach in addressing the issue raised. Through preliminary results we assign levels of efficiency to a collection of visual stimuli. Additionally, we propose a set of solutions for address the less efficient approaches while identifying new needs that shall be further tested. In sum, we aim to establish a research basis for the development of dynamic systems and consequent generation of graphic stimuli in visually competitive environments.
Biography: Bruna Sousa is a creative technologist fuelled by curiosity. Aiming the creation of effective and affective visual communication, her work combines fields such as psychology and neurosciences with graphic and interactive design. She has a Bachelor and Master degree in Design and Multimedia from the University of Coimbra. Currently is a computational designer and researcher at the Computational Design and Visualization Lab, is enrolled in the PhD in Contemporary Arts of the University of Coimbra, and is also a teaching assistant on the Undergraduate and Master degree courses in Design and Multimedia at the University of Coimbra. Her research interests are related to computational art and design. She also explores different approaches in typography, graphic and motion design, being them interactive, participatory or adaptive.
Ana Rodrigues is a Computational Designer. Aside from being currently enrolled in the PhD Program of Information Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra she does research at the Computational Design and Visualization Lab., CISUC. Additionally, she teaches as an Invited Assistant at the same institution. She is particularly interested in exploring computational bridges that may emerge from crossing the domains of Visual Communication, Music, Cognitive Sciences, and Media Design. Other interests of hers include Computational Creativity and Artificial Intelligence.
Nuno Coelho (Univ Coimbra, CEIS20, DEI) is an Oporto based communication designer; a professor of Department of Informatics Engineering (DEI) of the University of Coimbra, where he teaches on the undergraduate and master degree courses in Design and Multimedia; and an Integrated Researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CEIS20) of the University of Coimbra. He holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary Art from the University of Coimbra, a master in Design and Graphic Production from the University of Barcelona, and a degree in Communication Design and Graphic Art from the University of Oporto. As a design researcher, he is interested in history, material culture, digital humanities, and visual semiotics and representation. He has developed self-initiated projects in the intersection between design and art, raising questions, in its vast majority, about social and political issues. He has curated and coordinated design exhibitions and talks. He has two books published. www.nunocoelho.net
Penousal Machado is the coordinator of the Cognitive and Media Systems group and the scientific director of the Computational Design and Visualization Lab. of the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra. His research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Evolutionary Computation, Computational Creativity, Computational Art and Design. He is also the recipient of scientific awards, including the prestigious EvoStar Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe and the award for Excellence and Merit in Artificial Intelligence granted by the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence. His work was featured in the Leonardo journal, Wired, and included in the “Talk to me” exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art, NY (MoMA).
Full paper / Buildings as Audio Visual Synthesisers: Experiments Performing Live Music on Wirelessly Networked Multi-Speaker Media Architectures (Online)
Abstract: This paper presents an approach to expanding live music per- formance practices to encompass sonic media architectures. We demonstrate a method for creating a playable audio-visual synthesiser that incorporates the notion that the space itself is a medium for performance. We discuss the design concepts that inform this process, as well as detailing specific simulation tools and a creative workflow that facilitates development of performance experiments within architectural spaces.
Biography: Oliver Bown is an Associate Professor at the School of Art & Design, UNSW Sydney, and co-director of their Interactive Media Lab. He researches creative technology practice and is an electronic music maker. He is the author of “Beyond the Creative Species: Making machines that make art and music” (MIT Press, 2021).
Kurt Mikolajczyk is a musician, composer, and creative coder currently undertaking a Ph.D. in interaction design at the University of Technology Sydney. In 2019 he completed a Masters of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, developing software tools for composing polytemporal music and a portfolio of works for jazz ensemble and laptop.
Sam Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Computer Science and co-director of the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology Sydney. He has a background in music performance, cognitive science, and psycho-acoustics and acoustics. He focuses on sound and music and their relationship with creativity and human experience, in contexts such as installation art, creative coding, and machine learning, as well as focusing on cognitive science. He has more than 80 publications in areas as diverse as spatial hearing and loudness research, data sonification, emotion, and tabletop computing.
Benedict Carey’s work branches aspects of computer science, musicology and cognitive science, focusing on analysis and creation of unique forms of music notation. Currently he teaches interactive media, rapid prototyping, music and sound production at the University of Technology Sydney and University of Sydney, is a research assistant in the Interactive Media Lab at the University of New South Wales, and is completing a doctorate in musicology at the University of Music and Drama Hamburg.
Full papers / Queer Communication: Human-Nonhuman Encounters
Abstract: In the times of Anthropocene, with global pandemic and climate change, it is necessary to investigate narratives that show respect and accountability for all forms of life. In this scenario, the research for interspecies communication reveals other ways to promote human-nonhuman encounters that overcome a past of human mastery over nonhumans. This research analyzes how interspecies communication can be conceived beyond language. Moreover, it also analyzes how those communications can be understood as queer. The source of investigation is the series of artworks Wombs (2018-2019), by Margherita Pevere. The artist researched for bonds between her body on hormones, from taking birth control pills, and two different species, bacteria (asexual) and slug (hermaphrodite). The queer communication in Wombs talks about disrupting the opposition nature/culture and man/woman in interspecies encounters and articulates more equalitarian narratives that are accountable for human actions.
Biography: Natacha Lamounier is an artist and researcher in Media Arts with a multidisciplinary background. She holds a MA in Arts from an Erasmus mobility program at the Universities of Krems (Austria), Aalborg (Denmark), and Lodz (Poland). She has BA degrees in Materials Engineering from the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and in Fashion Design at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Natacha’s main research areas are feminist-queer theories, interspecies communication, and interactions human-machine in wearable technology. In her art practices, she uses diverse skills, such as painting, collage, uncanny materials, and electronics. She lives currently in Denmark.
Full papers / Cultivating the possible: using design methodologies for artistic research
Abstract: the possible, to capture a contemporary moment and to look towards the future. This seems to be their prerogative and a requirement for reflecting critically on ‘the now’. The digital medium demands this. In order for a new possible way of working to be imagined – artists and researchers need to look outside of their own contexts, towards other ways of working to ensure sustainability, longevity and relevance. The covid-19 pandemic demands that artists, curators and researchers re-imagine their practice for a technology orientated future. As digital product design or interaction design has progressed, so have the research methods which aid in the realisation of digital products and systems. This field of human computer interaction (HCI), leverages design thinking as an iterative, agile approach. This paper will present //2Weeks special edition, theTMRW residency programme and the Floating Reverie website as case studies indirectly and directly been inspired by this way of working applied to an artistic research practice, curatorial projects and collaborative working within the digital medium. Through the use of different methodologies and approaches to artistic research and art residencies, within the context of the digital medium, a reinforced connection between arts and technology has the potential to occur.
Biography: Carly Whitaker is an independent curator, researcher, artist, and lecturer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Reading in the UK focusing on curatorial networked methodologies in South Africa. Whitaker has participated in numerous exhibitions at art spaces in Johannesburg, Freiburg, Casablanca, Miami and Sao Paulo. Through her practice she engages in a constant exploration of how we communicate through media and the ways we use technology to create dialogues, form connections between ourselves and the digital space. Noteworthy curatorial projects include Floating Reverie, an online digital residency programme, which has been running for over six years and Blue Ocean an online digital project space that started in 2022. Whitaker is currently the Curatorial Director of the TMRW Gallery a mixed realities workshop based in Johannesburg.
Full papers / A comparative study of practice-based research and research-creation in media art: Comparing two doctoral studies in Australia and Canada
Abstract: This paper examines the differences and similarities between practice-based research (PBR) and research-creation (RC) in media art. As case studies, two PhD research projects — one from Australia (Sojung Bahng, PBR) and the other from Canada (Stéphanie McKnight, RC) — are compared. The comparative analysis demonstrates that critical reflection and phenomenological awareness through creative practice are crucial in generating knowledge in both PBR and RC. Simultaneously, this study shows that research methods and approaches between PBR and RC differ due to different academic and socio-cultural factors. PBR’s main aim is to generate knowledge through practice in a broader sense, whereas RC, with its conceptual roots in fine arts, emphasizes social and community-based engagement.
Biography: Sojung Bahng is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and researcher, and currently works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design at Carleton University in Canada. She will be appointed as an Assistant Professor in Media and Performance Production at Queen’s University, beginning in July 2022. Sojung holds a PhD from SensiLab at Monash University in Australia. She explores cinematic media via digital technologies to reflect aesthetic and narrative experiences in cultural and philosophical contexts.
Stéphanie McKnight (Stéfy) is an Assistant Professor in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design at Carleton University. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University. Her creative practice and research focus are policy, activism, governance, and surveillance trends in Canada and North America. Within her research, Stéfy explores research-creation as a methodology, and the ways that events and objects produce knowledge and activate their audience.
Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing. His research interests include generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, visualisation, virtual reality, interaction design, physical computing, machine learning, developmental models and physical computing. Jon is the founder and Director of SensiLab and oversees all operations, research programs and partnerships. He is also full Professor of Computer Science at Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology and currently an ARC Future Fellow.
CITM UPC – VastWaste
VastWaste – VR based art installation
VastWaste is a data-driven, projection art installation that illuminates the parallels and interplay between marine pollution and space debris. It can also be experienced in Virtual Reality.
From June 13 to June 16: 4 pm to 8 pm
VastWaste – Conversation with Ozge Samanci and Jack Burkhardt
Conversation with VastWaste creator Ozge Samanci, who will be connected online, and programmer Jack Burkhardt in person about the creation and programming of VastWaste.
VastWaste és una instal·lació artística de projecció basada en dades que il·lumina els paral·lelismes i la interacció entre la contaminació marina i les deixalles espacials. També es pot experimentar en realitat virtual.
Del 13 al 16 de juny: 16h fins a 20h
VastWaste – Conversa amb Ozge Samanci i Jack Burkhardt
Conversa amb la creadora de VastWaste, Ozge Samanci, qui es connectarà telemàticament, i el programador Jack Burkhardt, presencialment, sobre la creació i programació de l’obra VastWaste.
Live coding uses algorithmic writing as a creative performance and is sometimes described as “thinking in public,” as the programmer’s writing process is presented to the audience. During the performance, sound and visuals are projected while being encoded in algorithmic processes. {on-the-fly} is a documentary that offers a glimpse into the practice of live coding and its community, a look at algorithmic performance where, with a single typo, everything can go wrong! On-the-Fly is also a project co-financed by the Creative Europe program, directed by Hangar in collaboration with ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Ljudmila and Creative Coding Utrecht which aims to promote the practice of Live Coding in Europe, supporting the exchange of knowledge between communities and promoting free and open source tools. onthefly.space
Entrada lliure fins completar aforament
El live coding utilitza l’escriptura algorítmica com una actuació creativa i es descriu a vegades com “pensar en públic”, ja que el procés d’escriptura del programador es presenta davant l’audiència. Durant l’actuació, el so i els visuals es projecten mentre són codificats en els processos algorítmics. {on-the-fly} és un documental que ofereix una visió de la pràctica del live coding i de la seva comunitat, una mirada a una performance algorítmica on, amb un sol error tipogràfic, tot pot sortir malament! On-the-Fly també és un projecte cofinançat pel programa Europa Creativa, dirigit per Hangar en col·laboració amb ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Ljudmila i Creative Coding Utrecht que té com a objectiu promoure la pràctica del Live Coding a Europa, donant suport a l’intercanvi de coneixements entre comunitats i promovent eines lliures i de codi obert. onthefly.space
Full papers / Museum Practices and Posthumanist Assemblages: Activating the Possibilities of Technology Collections
Abstract: This paper discusses the potential of computational media and museum collections to enable encounters with the technological present that complicate narratives of progress, modernity and individual (male) genius that often frame the conceptualization of technology in the museum space. It provides an account ofan exhibition and associated time-based objects to help anchor a wider discussion of the potential of posthumanist modes of thinking in the museum space.
Biography:
Deborah Lawler-Dormer is a research manager at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Her work is transdisciplinary and often engages art, science and technology in collaboration with industry, tertiary and community partners. She is the lead curator for the exhibition Invisible Revealed (2022) developed in partnership with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. She is also a visiting Research Fellow with the Expanded Perception and Interaction Centre at University of New South Wales and Adjunct Research Fellow at Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Recent publications include ‘Critical posthumanist practices from within the Museum’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism (2022).
Christopher John Müller is a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies & Media at Macquarie University, Sydney. His work focuses on the intersection of technology and the deceptive “immediacy” of feeling. He is the author of Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and his articles, translations and reviews have appeared in Parallax, Thesis Eleven, CounterText, TrippleC, Textual Praxis. Chris co-edited ThePalgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism (2022) and he co-edits the Genealogy of the Posthuman on www.criticalposthumanism.net.
Full papers / Spectrograms of the environment: entangled human and nonhuman histories
Abstract: The article discusses the use of the proprietary spectrocartography research method to study the interdependencies between history, forms of landscape design, colonization mechanisms, green areas management, processes of ecological degradation, and urban policies. This method involves carrying out research using various data from the fields of sound ecology, biocommunication, botany, ecology, and environmental psychology, as well as methodology from the field of art-based research and art & science. The genesis and hidden ideology contained in the design of the artificial lake Elsensee-Rusałka, which was dug in Poznań by Jewish prisoners of war during World War II, as well as post-war and modern forms of the revitalization of the lake area and adjacent green areas, are analyzed in detail. The ultimate goal of the research project is to create an open experimental digital archive relating to the concept of hybrid space, digiplace, and augmented reality, in which all the data obtained during the research will be collected. These data will be used to create a new form of storytelling, taking into account historical asynchrony, nonhuman actors, and the space itself as a causative entity.
Biography: Agnieszka Jelewska, Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, Deputy Dean of Department of Anthology and Cultural Studies and director of Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center AMU. She has served as a visiting fellow at Kent University, Cantenbury, UK. She held lectures and workshops at Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University, Emerson College Boston, Folkwang Universität der Kunst, Essen. Jelewska has authored and co-edited books Sensorium. Essays on Art and Technology (2012 in Polish), Ecotopias. The Expansion of Technoculture (2013 in Polish), Art and Technology in Poland. From Cybercommunism to the Culture of Makers (2014, as editor); and number of articles. She examines the transdisciplinary relations between science, art, culture, and technology in the 20th and 21st century, their social and political dimension. She is also a curator and co-creator of art and science projects: Transnature is Here (2013); Post-Apocalypsis (2015) – awarded golden medal from PQ 2016; Anaesthesia (2016); PostHuman Data (2019).
Michał Krawczak, assistant professor at Anthropology and Cultural Studies Department (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan), co-founder and program director of Humanities /Art /Technology Research Center. Author of texts about media arts, editor of book Post-technological experiences. Art-Science-Culture (2019). Researcher, designer, and curator of art and science projects, such as Transnature is Here (2013), Post-Apocalypsis (2015), Anaesthesia (2016), Artropocene (2017). His main research fields are postdigital studies and media ecologies.
Full paper / STEAM research in Higher Education, an exploratory project
Abstract: Hybrid Lab Network (HYBRID) is an exploratory project to promote innovation and good practices for Higher Education, bridging areas of Art, Science, Technology/Engineering and Humanities, and fostering knowledge sharing and training. HYBRID aims to upgrade the work carried out by the individual partners – two excellent Higher Education Institutions (Slovenia e Finland), a world-class Research Institute (Portugal), and an outstanding Foundation (Netherlands) -, giving it a strong EU dimension, promoting reflection processes and real action over what should be Higher Education for the future: innovation, autonomy, curricular flexibility, and collaborative and sustainable approaches. HYBRID is implementing a multidisciplinary approach to improve STEAM training, particularly in bio-sciences, including the development of didactic tools and resources to promote critical and creative thinking and innovation. Through an intertwined structure of Workshops and Intellectual Products this Erasmus+ experimental project has been achieving some knowledge on how to educate transnationally and cooperatively. Due to this relatively small sample size implications of this study might not be generalizable to a larger context, however, they can provide further insight about the practice of developing and using these intertwined models and the support needed to achieve critical thinking and meaningful experiences by participants.
Biography: Maria Manuela Lopes is a visual artist whose practice is transdisciplinary, investigating relations of memory and iden-tity informed by the biological sciences and medical research; her work appears in a varied format within the visual arts re-sulting in multimedia installations, drawings and performanc-es. She studied sculpture at FBA-UP and MA at Goldsmiths Col-lege in London. She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts and New Media at the University of Brighton and UCA-Farnham in the UK. She did a Postdoc Art Research Project at the University of Aveiro and Porto – i3S Institute of Research and Innovation in Health. Lopes is Visual Arts Adjunct Professor at ESE – Institute Politech of Porto IPP and a researcher at i3S as co-responsible for the Cultural Outreach Art/Science interface. Maria Manuela Lopes has curated several international exhibitions and her work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is also co-founder and Deputy Director of Portu-guese artistic residency programs: Ectopia – Laboratory of Artistic Experimentation and Cultivamos Cultura.
Júlio Borlido Santos Biologist and science communicator; Head of i3S’s Communication Unit (since 2015). He led IBMC.INEB Office for Science Communication, worked as life sciences researcher, schoolteacher and demonstrator at UPorto. He organizes, promotes and teaches advanced training for scientists and other audiences on “Science, Ethics and Society”; was member of several Science with Society projects, namely e EU projects NERRI and PARRISE and third party in the national hub of the EU funded RRI TOOLS project. Presently he is member of EU funded projects MIRACLE and INTEGRITY (among others) and coordinates the Erasmus+ HYBRID Lab Network. He is member of General Council of a Portuguese School cluster; vice-president of i3S Council Ethics and Responsible Research; member of the Communication Council of UPorto; former vice-President of Scicom.pt network, and is member of other advisory boards.
Maria Rui Vilar-Correia Biologist, PhD in Didactics. Professor in Didactics of Biology Teaching – Fac. of Sciences of the UPorto (1981-2003). Experience in teachers training; producing learning materials and activities for university and secondary students; qualitative methodologies and studies. Projects: a) the Hybrid Lab Network Project, ERASMUS+; Blue Design Alliance (PRR). Co-responsible for the Cultural Outreach Art/Science interface of i3s. Accreditation Commission member at the “Art and Design Courses of ESAD – Matosinhos”.
Anabela Nunes has a bachelor in Journalism and Communication Sciences – specialisation in Multimedia Communication, from the University of Porto. She works in science communication since 2007 and participated in several national and international projects. Anabela worked at IBMC.INEB Office for Science Communication from 2010 to 2015 and at i3S Communication Unit from 2015 onwards
Full paper / Emergent. A post-pandemic mobile gallery
Abstract: This project emerges form a series of reflections about the state and the potentials of the arts and their exhibition spaces in post-pandemic times. The pandemic of 2020-21 forced many galleries and museums to shut their doors for several months or forever. These closures have created a void in social gatherings and cultural events, urging artists and cultural workers to rethink ways of making, exhibiting and bringing their work to the general public. Now that the world slowly re-opens to social gatherings, we wonder whether we should re-invent the role of the gallery as an enclosed space alltogether, by freeing it from the constraints posed by its traditional spatial and cultural configuration (real and virtual),and redesigning it as a multipurpose mobile object in dialogue with the city and its human and non-human dwellers. This choice is in part inspired by the first artworks and specimens this gallery will carry: a project at the intersection of art and science exploring “new life forms,” that is, living and imagined organisms emerging from digital, laboratory, and environmental contexts. The mobile gallery then acquires a new meaning: it is not just a new safe exhibition space, but also a space where emergent life is both debated and created, as well as an emergent “life” on its own.
Biography: Working in the artist-curator role, we are proposing a post-pandemic mobile gallery, which will contain a variety of artworks by invited artists. Roberta Buiani, Ilze Briede [Kavi] and Lorella Di Cintio are the Emergent collective. The members’ educational and creative backgrounds are wide-ranging in scope. They are melding together the artist as researcher, the artist as academic and the artist as curator.
Roberta Buiani, Ph.D. Buiani has received degrees in Modern Literature (Italy), Art History (Canada), and Communication and Culture (Canada) and teaches at York University and the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the co-founder of the ArtSci Salon at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto) and is co-organizer of LASER Toronto. Her creative practice and teaching navigate the intersection of art and science.
Ilze Briede [Kavi], Ph.D. student. Briede has received degrees in Chinese language and culture studies (Latvia), Digital Media Production (UK), Interactive Media (UK) and Visual Arts (Canada). Her creative practice and teaching navigate the realm of bio-physiological sensing and human-computer co-creative practices.
Lorella Di Cintio, Ph.D. Di Cintio has received degrees in Environmental Design (Canada), Architecture (US) and Media and Communications (Europe) and teaches at X (Ryerson) University, The Creative School, School of Interior Design, Canada. Her creative practice and teaching navigate the realm of design activism and interiority.
Full paper / The multicultural and transdisciplinary construction of anti-consumerist critical thoughts – the multisensory diversity of the artistic installation series “The wishing Tree” (2012 – 2019)
Abstract: “The Wishing Tree” is a sort of multimedia sensorial installations made in artistic workshops that have proposed anti-consumerism thought and practice by a mix of recycling assemblage, handcraft, visual art, interactive music and technological artistic experiences. They are initially aimed at art educators and elementary and high school students and promote, from the integration of different means of expression, the integration between the visual arts, the audiovisual and digital/sensorial systems. This article evidences some aspects of these procedural art series, such as critical protagonism, agency, pro-activism and other ethical and cognitive additions in the courses of these international workshops-installations held between 2012 and 2019.
Biography: Paulo Cesar Teles is media-artist,graduated in Radio and Television (Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Communication at Paulista State University – UNESP, 1992); Master in Multimedia (Institute of Arts at UNICAMP, 2001); PhD in Communication and Semiotics (Catholic Pontifical University / PUC – SP, 2009), with Postdoctoral Degree from the School of Communications and Arts at University of Sao Paulo / USP, (2015). Professor Doctor of the Arts Institute at the State University of Campinas – UNICAMP since 2011 in the Post-Graduate Programs in Visual Arts; in Scientific Publicity (Labjor); and in the undergraduate programs in Visual Arts and Social Communication – Midialogy (Head of Program). He is also coordinator of the ARTME Research Group (Art, Technology and Emerging Media: Development, Literacies and Trans-culture).His current artworks and academic research are focused on technological art, multiculturalism and multiplatform educommunication processes through Art.
Short paper / E-Waste: The Unnatural, Natural Resource | A Case Study on Creative Uses of Obsolete Technology
Abstract: With many issues surrounding our high-tech products including: 1) planned obsolescence, 2) a linear “cradle-to-grave” life cycle, 3) the accumulation of electronic waste (e-waste), and 4) consumer culture, there is potential in finding practical/creative solutions to reusing/repurposing our obsolete technology. These solutions not only benefit the consumer, but also the communities that are affected by the growing e-waste problem. These issues analyzed through a case study where an artist converts a typewriter into a USB printer using the design principles laid out in this paper, including the use of open-source hardware and software as well as incorporating adaptive design for future updates. While it is unfortunate that our massive accumulation of e-waste has turned this material into an unnatural, natural resource that can be foraged, there is potential for projects (both practical and creative).
Biography: Erik Contreras is an interdisciplinary designer and engineer with a background in mechanical engineering and rapid prototyping. His work involves prolonging the lifespan of consumer electronics and finding alternative uses for post-consumer products. His design philosophy seeks to promote user repair, modification, and reuse for consumer products. As an advocate for the right to repair, he wishes to develop products and prototypes that “welcomes the end-user, inside and out”.
Erik typically uses a hands-on approach towards his work/research and can be found hacking obsolete tech or 3D printing custom parts in his home machine shop. With technology being part of every aspect of life in the Bay Area, there also a vast accumulation of e-waste in the community. With e-waste being readily available, Erik feels the material is an “unnatural, natural resource” when it comes to finding parts and inspiration for his prototypes.
Short paper / Telewindow: a flexible system for exploring 3d immersive telepresence using commodity depth cameras
Abstract: Video conferencing has become an essential part of everyday life for many people. However, traditional 2D video calls leave much to be desired. Eye-contact, multiple viewpoints, and 3D spatial awareness all make video conferencing much more immersive. We present TeleWindow: a frame with mountable volumetric cameras that attaches to a display for immersive 3D video conferencing. The full system consists of a 3D display and a frame with up to four volumetric cameras. Our system was flexible conceptually as well as physically. We intended our research to be “unfettered” rather than focus and directed, e.g., for anything directly entrepreneurial and commercial: “art as unsupervised research”. In contrast to similar work, our focus was on making an accessible system for exploring immersive teleconferencing so cost of materials and required technical knowledge is kept to a minimum. We present a technical baseline for immersive, easily replicable 3D teleconferencing.
Biography:David Santiano is a researcher and technologist that likes to perform scrappy and artsy research to explore possible and impossible avenues in new media and technology.
Cameron Ballard is currently completing his PhD in computer science at NYU Tandon’s Center for Cybersecurity. His current work focuses on the sociotechnical implications of social media, especially applying data science methods to understand the financial ecosystem behind online disinformation. Before joining the Center for Cybersecurity, Cameron completed his undergraduate degree at NYU Shanghai, and stayed on as a researcher for the Telewindow project. In addition to his academic pursuits, Cameron co-founded Raditube, a research tool to study disinformation and radicalization on YouTube.
Michael Naimark is an artist, inventor, and scholar in the fields of virtual reality and new media art. He is best known for his work in projection mapping, virtual travel, live global video, and cultural preservation, and often refers to this body of work as “place representation”. Naimark has been awarded 16 patents relating to cameras, display, haptics, and live, and his work has been seen nearly 400 art exhibitions, film festivals, and presentations around the world. He was the 2002 recipient of the World Technology Award for the Arts. Since 2009, Naimark has served as faculty at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and the MIT Media Lab. In 2015, Naimark was appointed Google’s first-ever “VR resident artist” in their new VR division. Since 2017, Naimark has served as visiting faculty at NYU Shanghai, where he taught VR/AR Fundamentals and directed research on online telepresence.
Short paper / eCO2system: exploring the environmental and social impact of the internet’s materiality through a data-driven media art installation
Abstract: The internet’s materiality often lacks attention in recent controversies surrounding the environmental footprint of physical versus online activity. The operation of the internet presupposes a physical infrastructure that consumes natural resources and generates pollution. The obfuscation of the materiality of the internet conceals power asymmetries produced by the uneven access to the control of the internet’s material infrastructure.
This paper investigates the social and environmental impact of the internet’s materiality through the data-driven, media art installation eCO2system. The installation consists of an aquarium which is connected to the Internet of Things and contains a small-scale ecosystem of fish. The technologically augmented aquarium retrieves data from a social media platform and detects digital activity promoting climate change awareness. The living conditions of the ecosystem deteriorate according to the number of awareness-promoting posts, highlighting the divergence between digital actions and physical consequences.
A complex network of more-than-human agents is articulated around the aquarium, including things, animals, humans, technologies, cultural structures, and other material and immaterial entities. The dynamics of this network impel us to rethink technology as part of a symbiotic whole of heterogeneous agents and to adopt less technocratic and more ethic criteria to redesign, reprogram, (re)use and recycle technologies.
Biography: Caterina Antonopoulou is a media artist, engineer and researcher. She is currently an adjunct lecturer of interactive art at the department of Digital Arts and Cinema of the University of Athens. Caterina holds a PhD in media art form the University of the Aegean (Greece), a Master’s in Digital Arts from of the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and a diploma in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. Her artistic work explores everyday practices and social interactions through a creative, critical and ludic appropriation of technology, while her research investigates the materiality of digital art focusing on critical, socially engaged and tactical media artworks.
Full paper / A Case for Play: Immersive Storytelling of Rohingya Refugee Experience
Abstract: The displacement of refugees from their natural homes have caused violence and estrangement all over the world, to the detriment of victims who live in unbearable conditions outside their homelands. There’s misunderstanding amongst hosts and Western media that see refugees as destructive hoarders of resource. Educating two sides of a refugee-host divide have applied immersive filmmaking following the cinematic 2D approach, portraying static scenes with narratively voiced works that try to put us inside refugee camps to elicit empathy. Instead of this approach, we embarked on a refugee-centered journey-based approach to show the daily lives of Rohingya refugees in Balukhali, Bangladesh using dynamic movements in VR space, spatial audio that surprise, and collaborative filmmaking that involves the participants empowering themselves using 360 camera and phone as tools for exploration. Instead of investigating the hardships of refugees from a Western perspective, we enabled a boy and his family in the refugee camp to create a visual experience that represent their lives. The interactive VR film is an empowerment tool to enable self-expression in a corner of the world that have become used to being the observed as opposed to the observer, taking advantage of VR as a medium for immersion and capability to surprise.
Biography: RAY LC’s practice creates interaction environments for building bonds between human communities, and between humans and machines. He takes perspectives from his own research in neuroscience (pubs in Nature Comm, J. Neurosci, J. Neurophys) and in HCI (pubs in CHI, DIS, HRI, TEI, Frontiers, etc) in his artistic practice, with notable exhibitions at BankArt, 1_Wall, Process Space LMCC, New York Hall of Science Residency, Saari Residency, Kyoto Design Lab Residency, Kiyoshi Saito Museum, ICRA Elektra Montreal, ArtLab Lahore, Ars Electronica Linz, NeON Digital Arts Festival, New Museum, CICA Museum, NYC Short Documentary Film Festival, Burning Man, NeurIPS, Deconstrukt, Angewandte Festival, University of Graz, Elektron Tallinn, Floating Projects, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Goethe Institute, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre. RAY comes from Cal Berkeley EECS-Math (BS), UCLA Neuroscience (PHD), Parsons School of Design (MFA). His current work uses artistic interventions to probe our spatial relationship with machines.
Full paper / Knowing VR through practice
Abstract: How might we come to know the particular qualities and affordances – as well as the constraints and biases – of the medium of Virtual Reality (VR)? Responding to this situation from the perspective of Educations and Societies, we submit that more nuanced understandings of the qualities (aesthetic, narrative, experiential) and affordances (conceptual as much as technical) of the medium can be gained if VR is approached as a form of cultural and research practice. In this paper we will present a curated selection of innovative creative research projects developed at SensiLab, a trans-disciplinary research centre based at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia; and do so in the interest of exposing some of the investigative ways that practitioner-researchers (media artists, creative technologists, content producers) are extending understandings of both studio practice and the medium itself by engaging deeply, experimentally and reflexively with immersive imaging technologies. Illustratively, these dynamic, discovery-led PhD projects – undertaken by Sojung Bahng (visual artist and filmmaker), Oscar Raby (VR director) and Lucija Ivsic (performing artist) – reveal how we might come to know the medium through practice in an iterative way by investing in creating, making and exhibiting throughout the research process.
Biography: Vince Dziekan is a Senior Academic and Practitioner-Researcher at Monash Art Design and Architecture (MADA), Monash University, Australia whose work engages with the transformation of contemporary curatorial practices at the intersection of emerging design practices, creative technology and museum culture.
Sojung Bahng is an artist, filmmaker, postdoctoral researcher and instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Lucija Ivšić is a Croatian-born emerging new media artist, composer and experienced performer, currently undertaking her practice-based PhD research at SensiLab, Monash University.
Oscar Raby is a visual artist, creative director at VRTOV and PhD researcher focusing on the software metaphors underpinning the development of narrative XR work.
Jon McCormack is a research Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and director of SensiLab.
Full paper / The Bartleby Machine
Abstract: The idea of disobedient machines is developed from the perspective of artificial intelligence, rather than fiction. Misbehavior in humans and machines is presented as a one of the skills which are indispensable for natural intelligence. Different approaches to AI are presented, from symbolism to emergism. The limits of computational formalism are presented, together with Hofsdtader’s theory of consciousness. It is argued that a machine cannot reach human intelligence unless it is also able to disobey. Hence, an exploration of algorithmic misbehavior is urgent for further development of AI for the arts and society in general.
Biography: Bruno Caldas Vianna lives in Barcelona. He is pursuing a doctorate from the Uniarts in Helsinki, Finland, in visual arts and artificial intelligence. He has a degree in Film from Universidade Federal Flumiense in Rio de Janeiro, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He creates visual narratives in innovative and traditional supports, having done short and feature films, live cinema, augmented reality, mobile apps and installations. He was a resident in Hangar, Barcelona, in 2008; in Laboral, Gijón, with the Vida production award winner project Ionic Satellite Fountain; In Quebec’s La Chambre Blanche and London’s Battlesea Arts Centre, among others. Between 2011 and 2016, he ran Nuvem, a rural space dedicated to art and technology in Brazil. From 2012 and 2018 he taught at Oi Kabum, a school for art in technology in Rio de Janeiro. He is part of the autonomous communications collective Coolab.
Full paper / The Fun Palace: Designing Human Experiences at Mixed Reality Events to Increase Engagement
Abstract: This article is the culmination of an intervention designed to improve active engagement with emerging technologies at a public mixed reality event. An opportunity arose to experiment with the design of interactive audience experiences at the The Fun Palace: Carnival of Mixed Realities—an event that took place in 2019 and featured 10 installations with close to 400 attendees. A number of strategies emerged to increase attendee engagement that may be useful for xR developers, museum curators, and event producers that present interactive technologies and installations publicly.
Biography: Dr. Patrick Parra Pennefather is an award-winning composer, designer of asynchronous, synchronous, blended and hybrid instruction, teacher, researcher and disruptor. He has mentored multi-disciplinary teams co-constructing scalable digital prototypes with over 50 companies and organizations in games, mobile dev, Mixed Reality, VR, AR, education and the arts. Patrick has facilitated human-centred workshops in-person and as a virtual cat for EA, Riot, Microsoft Games, and many others in the xR space. He’s published multisyllabic words in the fields of 3D, Sound Design, xR, VR, MR, Bio-Medical Visualization and Agile application development. He’s an Assistant Prof at UBC Theatre and Film, and a founding member of the Master of Digital Media (MDM) Program.
John Desnoyers-Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher who creates immersive installations and performance to encourage new perspectives on immersive technology and to better understand its true potential. Through his artwork and research, he hopes to encourage social connection and collaborative creativity, exploring positive social applications of abstract embodiment in virtual reality.
Full paper / Artistic residencies in digital companies
Abstract: This paper aims to enrich the knowledge of artists’ residencies in digital companies, both to understand their particularities and to help develop methods to evaluate the processes and effects of these initiatives. The popularity of artists’ residencies has increased since the 1990s. This can be seen in the funding organizations that develop support programs but also in the diversity of the host institutions, community organizations and private companies that want to welcome artists and develop links with the art worlds. What explains this growth? What are the different parties involved looking for? What are the effects of these residencies on artistic careers? This research brings a particular attention to artists’ residencies in digital companies. Acting as a precursor in Quebec, the Conseil québécois des arts médiatiques (CQAM) set up its first residency in 2016 at the interactive media company Turbulent, followed the next year by another at the audiovisual entertainment company VYV and in 2018 by Milieux, an Institute of Arts and Technologies. Our research explores the ten residencies that have taken place to date, based on interviews with artists and company employees. A literature search was also conducted to better understand this growing phenomenon. Our work allows us to better understand what artists’ residencies in companies are, do and allow. The host companies seem to seek, in the presence of the artist, a force of reflection and change for the practices and rhythms of work. For artists, the main interest of residencies is the possibility to devote time and resources to a project. However, the link between these two worlds is not automatic and requires a strong commitment, which in turn requires the involvement of intermediary organizations.
Biography: Sylvain Martet holds a PhD in sociology from the Université du Québec à Montréal. As a researcher, he has been involved for the past ten years in numerous research projects on cultural mediation practices, the impact of digital technology on cultural occupations and cultural participation. His work focuses on the circulation of music, particularly in a digital context. He is a member of the Observatory of Cultural Mediations (OMEC), of the Partnership Study for the Mediation of Music (EPMM), of the Interdisciplinary Observatory of Creation and Research in Music (OICRM), and of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).
Full paper / Click::REVU. An Optophonic Sound Installation
Abstract: If traces of past media remain in contemporary forms of media, how can these traces be appropriated and applied in the creation of a sound-based installation? This paper presents Click::REVU a sound installation developed by the first author. The work blends physical characteristics of an early sonification device, the Optophone – a device that translated optical data to sound – to create an illusory presence through a scanner mechanism from a multifunction printer. The work’s compositional structure reduces the scanner’s image capture ability to an indexical relationship that is expressed as a minimal soundscape of drones and clicks. As a media archaeological sound-based artwork, the ideation of Click::REVU has depicted a form of optophonics through the interpretation of early 20th century Optophones. These forms, as archival sources of knowledge for reinterpretation, have informed the development and realization of this work, one that is expressed through a genealogically related contemporary form of media, the contact image sensor scanner.
Biography: Paul Dunham is a New Zealand based sound artist. His recent work has seen a focus of the relationship between past and contemporary media and connecting their socio-cultural and technical conditions of existence. As media archaeology these relationships are represented and expressed through sound as recorded works, installations or performances. In addition, he has composed a range of acousmatic and electroacoustic works utilising a range of materials ranging from broken media to environmental sounds. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally including the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference (Birmingham and Shanghai), ISEA (Durban and Montreal) and Ars electronica Garden Aotearoa (New Zealand). He has recently completed his PhD in Sonic Arts at Victoria, University of Wellington.
Full paper / Sparking Emotion in Mexican Electronic Art
Abstract: This paper deals with the methodological and cognitive processes involved in how innovative ideas evolve in the human mind. It also addresses the principles and foundations of creating new ideas and the different phases of creative processes: participation, tendency, incubation, intuition, evaluation, actualization, communication, and participation. Also significant are the reactive, interactive, and emotional facets of the participation phase of the creation process. Hence, these aspects are analyzed in order to produce an in-depth reflection on the elicitation of emotions during the production processes of electronic artworks. Finally, the paper examines a number of techniques and resources used to elicit emotions in electronic artworks.
Biography: Cynthia Villagomez is a professor and researcher at Guanajuato University, Mexico since August 2002, she is the author of seven books, several book chapters, and articles about Electronic Art, Creativity, and Design. From 2003 to 2021 she was the editor of the University of Guanajuato magazine Interiorgrafico de la Division de Arquitectura, Arte y Diseño. In addition, she has made several trips Spain in connection with the research she has been developing. She is a Graphic Designer, with a master’s degree in Creativity for Design from the School of The National Institute of Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Visual Arts and Intermedia from Polytechnic University of Valencia (UVP), Spain. Her Ph.D. thesis on Processes of Production in Mexican Digital Art received UVP’s “Extraordinary Award for Doctoral Theses” in 2016. She is a former Member of The Mexican National Research System, Level II of Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology, CONACYT.June 14th
Full paper / Knowledge cultures in new media art
Abstract: New Media Art reflects the dramatic creative and cultural shifts in science and technology of the past century. With these shifts the multitude of forms of art-making have expanded to include a wide range of ideas and techniques. Following several decades of new contributions this plurality of expression has resisted monolithic or curatorial approaches to organization along the lines of media. This paper defines knowledge cultures as flexible, over-lapping, non-exclusive, ideological sub-groups and seeks to identify such groups within the practice and theory of New Media Art. While practicing groups may be associated with specific media such as games, 3D printing, or artificial intelligence, we seek to identify knowledge groups by their explicit, hidden or shared ideological principles.
Biography: Rama Carl Hoetzlein is a media artist and theorist working in knowledge systems and simulations. He was co-founder of the Game Design Initiative at Cornell University, Lead architect for voxel-based simulation research at NVIDIA, and co-director with Alan Liu of the experimental social network, RoSE, in the digital humanities. Dr. Hoetzlein is currently assistant professor of animation in Digital Media Design at Florida Gulf Coast University
Full paper / Making a Manual: The Manual for the Curation and Display of Interactive New Media Art
Abstract: The Manual for the Curation and Display of Interactive New Media Art is a creative commons living document aimed at assisting curators and exhibition designers, particularly non specialist curators seeking to engage with interactive new media art. This paper will explain the design philosophy of the manual as well as the methodologies employed.
Biography: René G. Cepeda is a Mexican multidisciplinary designer/artist/art historian specializing in new media art. He is currently a lecturer at UNARTE (MX) and curator of the New Media Caucus’ Header/Footer gallery. His studies include Information Design and software development, museum studies and art history master’s degrees in the UK. and a Ph.D. that combines design and curatorial practice to help curators engage with interactive new media art and create exhibitions that retain the meaning and interaction of such works. As a curator, he combines his artistic background including 5 years as an artist’s apprentice to create immersive and interactive exhibitions that combine formal curatorial practice with creativity in the design and implementation of spaces and objects to create exhibitions that can both entertain and educate audiences.
Full paper / The Tapestry: Past and Possibility in the History of Magic
Abstract: This paper presents The Tapestry, a mapping of the history of magic. It describes a system that lets users create lifelines and map them using GoogleEarth. Each lifeline, or thread, is laid over the globe, showing the trace of the person’s historical travels, locations, and activities. By successively laying these threads over one another, users can see points of intersection, suggesting historic interactions and influence. It is hoped that such graphic presentation and users’ pattern recognition will lead to discovery of previously unsuspected influences in magic’s historical development.
Biography: Peter Anders is an architect, educator, and information design theorist. He has published widely on the architecture of cyberspace and is the author of “Envisioning Cyberspace”, published by McGraw Hill, which presents design principles for on-line spatial environments.
Anders received his degrees from the University of Michigan (B.S.1976) and Columbia University (M.A.1982) and the University of Plymouth Planetary Collegium (Ph.D. 2004). He was a principal in an architectural firm in New York City which designed facilities for the production of photovoltaic panels. He has received numerous design awards for his work and has taught graduate level design studios and computer-aided design at universities including the New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Detroit-Mercy, and the University of Michigan. He is a former board member and chair of ISEA International foundation. He is also principal of Kayvala PLC, a design practice specializing in architecture and media/information environments.
Full paper / Museum Practices and Posthumanist Assemblages: Activating the Possibilities of Technology Collections
Abstract: This paper discusses the potential of computational media and museum collections to enable encounters with the technological present that complicate narratives of progress, modernity and individual (male) genius that often frame the conceptualization of technology in the museum space. It provides an account ofan exhibition and associated time-based objects to help anchor a wider discussion of the potential of posthumanist modes of thinking in the museum space.
Biography: Deborah Lawler-Dormer is a research manager at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Her work is transdisciplinary and often engages art, science and technology in collaboration with industry, tertiary and community partners. She is the lead curator for the exhibition Invisible Revealed (2022) developed in partnership with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. She is also a visiting Research Fellow with the Expanded Perception and Interaction Centre at University of New South Wales and Adjunct Research Fellow at Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Recent publications include ‘Critical posthumanist practices from within the Museum’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism (2022). https://www.maas.museum/research/
Christopher John Müller is a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies & Media at Macquarie University, Sydney. His work focuses on the intersection of technology and the deceptive “immediacy” of feeling. He is the author of Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and his articles, translations and reviews have appeared in Parallax, Thesis Eleven, CounterText, TrippleC, Textual Praxis. Chris co-edited ThePalgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism (2022) and he co-edits the Genealogy of the Posthuman on www.criticalposthumanism.net.
Full paper / Spectrograms of the environment: entangled human and nonhuman histories
Abstract: The article discusses the use of the proprietary spectrocartography research method to study the interdependencies between history, forms of landscape design, colonization mechanisms, green areas management, processes of ecological degradation, and urban policies. This method involves carrying out research using various data from the fields of sound ecology, biocommunication, botany, ecology, and environmental psychology, as well as methodology from the field of art-based research and art & science. The genesis and hidden ideology contained in the design of the artificial lake Elsensee-Rusałka, which was dug in Poznań by Jewish prisoners of war during World War II, as well as post-war and modern forms of the revitalization of the lake area and adjacent green areas, are analyzed in detail. The ultimate goal of the research project is to create an open experimental digital archive relating to the concept of hybrid space, digiplace, and augmented reality, in which all the data obtained during the research will be collected. These data will be used to create a new form of storytelling, taking into account historical asynchrony, nonhuman actors, and the space itself as a causative entity.
Biography: Agnieszka Jelewska, Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, Deputy Dean of Department of Anthology and Cultural Studies and director of Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center AMU. She has served as a visiting fellow at Kent University, Cantenbury, UK. She held lectures and workshops at Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University, Emerson College Boston, Folkwang Universität der Kunst, Essen. Jelewska has authored and co-edited books Sensorium. Essays on Art and Technology (2012 in Polish), Ecotopias. The Expansion of Technoculture (2013 in Polish), Art and Technology in Poland. From Cybercommunism to the Culture of Makers (2014, as editor); and number of articles. She examines the transdisciplinary relations between science, art, culture, and technology in the 20th and 21st century, their social and political dimension. She is also a curator and co-creator of art and science projects: Transnature is Here (2013); Post-Apocalypsis (2015) – awarded golden medal from PQ 2016; Anaesthesia (2016); PostHuman Data (2019).
Michał Krawczak, assistant professor at Anthropology and Cultural Studies Department (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan), co-founder and program director of Humanities /Art /Technology Research Center. Author of texts about media arts, editor of book Post-technological experiences. Art-Science-Culture (2019). Researcher, designer, and curator of art and science projects, such as Transnature is Here (2013), Post-Apocalypsis (2015), Anaesthesia (2016), Artropocene (2017). His main research fields are postdigital studies and media ecologies.
Full papers / Possible City: legacies of trauma in media space
Abstract: Electronic art occupies a transmedial space with other media including film, television, streaming video and, as the paper asserts, architecture. These forms of media are charged with the politics and cultural value of space, and these are often mediated through the image of the city: a media-space. This paper takes as its lens the mediated image of a mid-size, mid-western city: Winnipeg, Canada. It sets up a discussion of the image of this city by considering key examples of (industry-based) narrative media shot here, before moving on to works of independent film and media art. Industry film frequently repurposes Winnipeg’s urban spaces to depict other cities – Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit – to tell stories of crime, and worse. The paper makes the case that what visiting filmmakers are in fact “buying” is a heritage of historical pain: the legacy of colonialism embodied in urban space, indeed hidden there in plain sight. This legacy has only begun to be visible to most Canadians, but it has been there for all to see as harvested and displayed on the screen, a sign or symptom of a deep malaise. A more complex relationship between city and image is revealed by what is done with the same urban spaces by independent film artists – and architects. Their crop, which is explored last, exposes more completely the potential for new relationships between city and image, buyer and seller, authenticity and fiction, colonial legacy and possible city.
Biography: Lawrence Bird practices in architecture, urban design and media art. His artistic practise focuses on relationships of image to space, materiality and the body, often exploiting broken digital systems. His work has been installed at RAW:Gallery (Winnipeg), Inter/Access Gallery (Toronto), Furtherfield Gallery (London, UK), Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital (UK), Espace Architecture La Cambre Horta (Brussels), and the International Symposium on Electronic Arts 2017 (Manizales, Colombia). His design practise has spanned from work at Pentagram Design on the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (1988, 1989-1990) to his current contributions at Sputnik Architecture on cultural and heritage sites in Western Canada (2019-present). Lawrence has a PhD in History & Theory of Architecture and a professional degree in architecture from McGill University, as well as an MSc (City Design & Social Science) from London School of Economics. His research has been funded by SSHRC, FQRSC, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Full papers / Protest and Aesthetics in The Metainterface Spectacle
Abstract: The article asks how political agency play out in contemporary uses of the interface. It, firstly, stipulates that the interface is a ‘spectacle’, belonging to a longer history of media spectacles, mass organization, politics and aesthetics. Secondly, that contemporary interfaces are metainterfaces, depending on a new organization of the masses characterized by mass profiling. Finally, it analyses how this play out in examples from art and cultural practices, and speculates on what political protest and revolution is in light of the interface.
Biography: Christian Ulrik Andersen is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University. He is Director of Digital Aesthetics Research Center (DARC), co-editor of A Peer-Reviewed Journal About, and previous Research Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies.
Søren Bro Pold is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University. He publishes on media aesthetics – from the 19th century panorama to the interface in its different forms, e.g., on electronic literature, net art, software art, creative software, urban and mobile interfaces, activism, surveillance culture and digital culture.
Full papers / The Bartleby Machine
Abstract: The idea of disobedient machines is developed from the perspective of artificial intelligence, rather than fiction. Misbehavior in humans and machines is presented as a one of the skills which are indispensable for natural intelligence. Different approaches to AI are presented, from symbolism to emergism. The limits of computational formalism are presented, together with Hofsdtader’s theory of consciousness. It is argued that a machine cannot reach human intelligence unless it is also able to disobey. Hence, an exploration of algorithmic misbehavior is urgent for further development of AI for the arts and society in general.
Biography: Bruno Caldas Vianna lives in Barcelona. He is pursuing a doctorate from the Uniarts in Helsinki, Finland, in visual arts and artificial intelligence. He has a degree in Film from Universidade Federal Flumiense in Rio de Janeiro, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He creates visual narratives in innovative and traditional supports, having done short and feature films, live cinema, augmented reality, mobile apps and installations. He was a resident in Hangar, Barcelona, in 2008; in Laboral, Gijón, with the Vida production award winner project Ionic Satellite Fountain; In Quebec’s La Chambre Blanche and London’s Battlesea Arts Centre, among others. Between 2011 and 2016, he ran Nuvem, a rural space dedicated to art and technology in Brazil. From 2012 and 2018 he taught at Oi Kabum, a school for art in technology in Rio de Janeiro. He is part of the autonomous communications collective Coolab.
Full papers / Forging emotions. A deep learning experiment on emotions and art
Abstract: Affective computing is an interdisciplinary field that studies computational methods that relate to or influence emotion. These methods have been applied to interactive media artworks, but they have been focused on affect detection rather than affect generation. For affect generation, computationally creative methods need to be explored that lately have been driven with the use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a deep learning method. The experiment presented in this paper, Forging Emotions, explores the use of visual emotion datasets and the working processes of GANs for visual affect generation, i.e., to generate images that can convey or trigger specified emotions. This experiment concludes that the methodology used so far by computer science researchers to build image datasets for describing high-level concepts such as emotions is insufficient and proposes utilizing emotional networks of associations according to psychology research. Forging Emotions also concludes that to generate affect visually, merely corresponding to basic psychology findings, e.g., bright or dark colors, does not seem adequate. Therefore, research efforts should be targeted towards understanding the structure of trained GANs and compositional GANs in order to produce genuinely novel compositions that can convey or trigger emotions through the subject matter of generated images.
Biography: Amalia Foka (b. Greece) is a creative Artificial Intelligence researcher and educator who explores the intersection of computer science and art. Her work makes use of different artificial intelligence technologies and social media data to generate and study art. Her work has been presented and published internationally including the Leonardo Journal (MIT Press); WRO Media Art Biennale; EVA London and many more. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Computer Science: Multimedia Applications for the Arts at the School of Fine Arts, University of Ioannina, Greece, where she teaches courses on creative coding, creative interactive systems, and generative AI art. She holds a BEng in Computer Systems Engineering (1998) and an MSc in Advanced Control (1999) from the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) in the United Kingdom. She also holds a Ph.D. in Robotics (2005) from the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete.
Full papers / Weaving Augmented Reality into the Fabric of Everyday Life
Abstract: In 1997 Ronald T. Azuma introduced the now generally accepted and followed definition in Augmented Reality (AR) research. In short, it tells us that in AR we introduce virtual content into the real world, this virtual content needs to be aligned with real content, and a user of an AR environment can interact with the (dynamic) virtual and real content in real-time. This definition leaves open how virtual content is generated, which display technology is desired and which senses are addressed. This has advantages, but it is now becoming clear that these missing aspects lead to confusion, also because with the current smart technology in general and ubiquitous computing in particular, AR technology can no longer be considered in isolation. We present the arguments that lead to this conclusion. We will explain the arguments with examples in which the vision, auditory and olfactory senses play a role. Starting point and conclusion obtained is that AR eventually will become an everyday technology that will merge into reality.
Biography: In 1989 Anton Nijholt was appointed full professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. For some years he was a scientific advisor of Philips Research Europe. At Twente, he initiated the Human Media Interaction group where now he is an emeritus professor. His main research interests are human-computer interaction with a focus on entertainment computing, playable cities, augmented reality, and brain-computer interfacing. He edited various books on playful interfaces, playable cities, and brain-computer interaction. Nijholt, together with many of the Ph.D. students he has supervised, wrote hundreds of journal and conference papers and acted as program chair and general chair of large international conferences on affective computing, multimodal interaction, intelligent agents, and entertainment computing. Nijholt is Chief Editor of the section Human-Media Interaction in the journals Frontiers in Psychology Frontiers in Computer Science, and series editor of the Springer Book series “Gaming Media and Social Effects”.
Full papers / kin_ – An AR Dance Performance With Believable Avatars
Abstract: Reflecting on the challenges and potentials that Mixed Reality (MR) media present for the production of digital performance art, we present the concept of the Augmented Reality (AR) artwork kin_. The piece is opening the question on how to transfer a real live performative experience into AR, as well as the question of owning and maintaining agency within an artistic fabric. This is explored with a focus on the interaction of different types of agents, using artistic research at the intersection of art, dance and technology.
Biography: Performance artist and choreographer Charlotte Triebus researches with her ensemble New Human Body Society and MIREVI (Mixed Reality & Visualization, www.mirevi.de), University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf at the interface between dance, art and technology. She combines artistic practice and theoretical research, specifically asking about the acting body, agency and queer identity relations. www.triebus.com
Christian Geiger leads MIREVI Lab, which researches in the field of VR/AR/MR and Human-Technology Interaction, Robotics, Digital Health and Intelligent Systems. One focus of the work is on motion-based interfaces and the use of digital technologies in art and cultural contexts. In particular, non-technical aspects of user experience and social and ethical implications are considered.
Ivana Družetić-Vogel is part of the MIREVI team at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf since 2018 where she manages several projects at the intersection of art, culture and Mixed Reality technologies. She graduated in Cultural Studies (BA) and holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology and Museum Studies.
Full papers / Can machines predict our future?
Abstract: Based on the notion of the Datacene, understood as the time when data directly affects the social, cultural, economic, political, and even affective structures of the present. In this article we propose how Big Data and Artificial Intelligence give rise to the Internet of Behavior; a new technological paradigm that has incredible potential to induce human behavior. Since ancient times, human beings have always wanted to predict and alter the future, but in the last ten years, this wish is beginning to become a reality thanks to great recent advances in the field of social engineering, raising serious doubts about social control and the loss of freedom. In this context of analysis, we present two projects developed within the framework of ACTS. Data Biography shows the enormous amount of digital traces that we generate daily and composes, from them, the biography of a person. On the other hand, Machine Biography investigates how current artificial intelligence techniques can predict and induce future human behavior. Both projects invite us to consider from a critical perspective the present and future of the social transformations produced by Big Data and AI.
Biography: Diego Díaz, PhD, isAssociated Professor at Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana.
Clara Boj, PhD, is Associated Professor at Universitat Politècnica de València. As an artist team, they have been working together since 2000. Their work critically engages new media technologies and the notion of public space within the hybrid city. Recently they are working with Machine Learning techniques to analyze how computers can understand and predict our future. Their projects and works have been shown in Museums, Art Centers and Festivals worldwide.
Full papers / Possibilising performance through interactive telematic technology: Mental Dance
Abstract: Mental Dance engages audiences in modes of performance that call attention to multiplicitous dimensions of the present. As an interactive improvised dance-sound-tech event, we invite perceiving attention to the mutable present as always already shaped by perception, prior experience, cognition and corporeal change. Neuroscientific research underscores our approach to a digital interface that proposes new relations between audience and performer as a result of repeated COVID-19 lockdowns. Using MediaPipe pose estimation technology to track dancers’ movements from webcam feeds, we directed telematic rehearsals and performance of the work on Zoom where dancers in their home environments sculpt and respond to sound in real- time. Constraints such as forced isolation, lack of access to technology and space to move, were embraced to create a new type of collaborative performance where the screen becomes the stage and the interface between movement and sound. This workflow can be used to enable interactive telematic performance where collaborators are unable to be in the same physical space with no specialist hardware requirements.
Biography: Carol Brown is a dancer, choreographer and artist-scholar from Aotearoa whose work has been presented globally. Her choreographic imagination straddles academic and professional contexts and is renowned for its transdisciplinary reach. Touring internationally with her company, Carol Brown Dances, Carol has developed innovative choreographic methodologies in dance-architecture, digital dance and site dance and has written extensively about questions of space, ecological change, gender and hidden histories. She has been awarded the Jerwood Prize for Choreography and the Ludwig Forum International Prize for Innovation. Carol is Head of Dance and Professor of Choreography at the University of Melbourne.
Monica Lim a composer and PhD researcher in Interactive Composition at the University of Melbourne. She is interested in the collision between new media and classical traditions, and the use of technology in an interactive, participatory context. Monica’s research delves into collaborative musical expression through novel interfaces using web technologies and embodied sound.
Full papers / From hallucinatory Art to hallucination in the Virtuality. Devices for Alternative Realities.
Abstract: Throughout this text we will analyze some human concerns that are the subject of analysis in different fields of knowledge such as philosophy, art, science and technology. These concerns revolve around what is reality? what is fiction? what are the effects of hallucination? and what is virtuality? through different cultural products such as art, literature, cinema, psychoactive or entheogenic experiences, up to the most recent proposals of Virtual Reality and their forms of interaction. We will try to envision and propose new ways of perceiving reality, seeking a balance between the real and the virtual world. We will take a tour from the way we process reality and create fictions around it, to the illusionism that has constituted an important part of our search for consciousness, mediating between rationality and experimentation in the construction of new realities to finally make a proposal on Virtual Reality based on the therapeutic use of hallucinogens
Biography: Sandra CUEVAS, Master in Visual Studies and Bachelor in Graphic Design, both titles from UAEMéx. She has various diplomas in animation, screenwriting, art direction and computer and electronic programming. Professionally, she has collaborated in animation studios as Nikel Studios, Onirik Studio, Inzomnia Animación, Delotroladodelcero Films, working on projects that have been awarded the Ariel award by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences and the Silver Goddess, among others. In teaching, she has been a professor in the degrees of Engineering in Technology and Digital Animation of the UVM, in Digital Art of the Faculty of Arts of the UAEMéx, in Design, Art and Interactive Technologies in the University Center of Art, Architecture and Design of the University of Guadalajara. She has been interested in issues related to imaginary production, creative processes, complex thinking, the use of new technologies, among other topics.
Reynaldo THOMPSON studied architecture at the University of Guanajuato and postgraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona and the University of Texas at Dallas, the latter being where he obtained a doctorate in aesthetics estudies focused on Contemporary Art. He has participated in collective and solo exhibitions and curated shows in Mexico and abroad. He served as Head of the Department of Art and Business at the University of Guanajuato and is currently focused on research on art, science and technology in Latin America. His research results have been published in domestic and foreign journals. He is a member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico and a member of the Ibero-American Observatory of Digital and Electronic Arts.
Tirtha MUKHOPADHYAY, PhD is Professor of Art and Aesthetics at Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico. He is multi-disciplinary scholar who taught at Presidency University of India (1996-2000), University of Calcutta (2000 -2016) and at University of Texas at Dallas from 2002 to 2005, before migrating to Mexico. He was Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA from 2013-2014. His publications include books like ‘Affective States in Art’ (Proquest-UMI) ‘Cezanne to Picasso’ (Calcutta University Press, India) and more than 50 articles on creativity, cognition and aesthetics, digital art, visual anthropology and literature, that were published from reputed publishers like OUP, IOS Press, MIT and Atelier-Etno. Mukhopadhyay is also a poet in the Bengali language. He is the Chief Editor of an indexed interdisciplinary journal called ‘Rupkatha’ since 2009.
Full papers / Rebalancing media in environments: analysing flows of action
Abstract: An exploration into how portable projections can serve to counterbalance the bias towards screen-based media experiences and how these projection devices can contribute to a more texture-based understanding of the relationships between environments and their constitutive actants. The constantly changing relationships between media and things enable the construction of a sense of place which moves and flows. To undertake this exploration, I use a three-fold method to analyse site-specific video walks (The Surface Inside, I-Walk, and (wh)ere land), draw on nascent thoughts derived from a series of workshops about flows, environments materials, and resonance, and engage with critical discussions about space, assemblages and materiality.
Biography: Rocio von Jungenfeld is a German / Spanish creative practitioner and media researcher based at University of Kent (UK), working in embodied perception and how media art and technology alter human-non-human interactions in environments. Her creative practice involves collaborative, interdisciplinary, and participatory media production; hybrid / immersive installations; outdoor-mobile projections; interaction design; and art in public space. In collaboration with Dave Murray-Rust, she won the British Computer Society A.I. Award (Lumen Prize 2019). She is part of two large research projects: Playing A/Part & SOCORRO. She obtained her PhD and MSc at University of Edinburgh (UK), and her BFA at University of Barcelona (Spain). She has presented her artistic, collaborative and research work in venues such as ZKM, IBM, Scottish National Gallery, EISF, NTAA, MAN-Singapore, EIF, National Museum of Scotland, Talbot Rice Gallery, Margate Festival, I-Park (US), ACM CHI and C&C, EvoMusArt, Leonardo, ISEA, AMPS, and NECS.
Full papers / Postlocative Art for a Non-Anthropocentric World
Abstract: The existence of a new hybrid spatial ontology (mate-rial/virtual, offline/online) has triggered some unique territorialization processes closely linked to the technopolitical and technoeconomic domain. These processes involve a new symbolic-cultural output that questions the validity of locative art’s theoretical framework, initially associated with situationist psychogeography and with the informational context associated with GPS metadata. By contrast, postlocative art deploys strategies that critically accept the important role that non-humans play in public representation as well as in delegating the production of meaning to AI, thus moving beyond the locative framework and closely associating itself with the postphenomenology of complex systems.
Biography: Santiago Morilla is a multidisciplinary artist, PhD in Contemporary Art (UCM, Complutense University of Madrid) and specialised in New Media Art (Erasmus Scholarship at The Media Lab Media Lab, University of Art and Design UIAH Helsinki, Finland), researcher and lecturer at UCM Faculty of Fine Arts. He is currently part of the research groups “Artistic practices and new forms of knowledge” (UCM id: 588) and “Energy humanities. Energy and sociocultural imaginaries between the industrial revolutions and the ecosocial crisis” (CSIC, PID2020-113272RA-I00, ENERGEHUM).
Short papers / Humans and Machines: A Study of the Impacts of the Technological Advances in the Light of Generative Art Theory
Abstract: This paper is dedicated to the analysis of two works produced by two contemporary artists, more specifically “Rachael is not real” by Matthias Winckelmann and “Machine Hallucination”, by Refik Anadol, having as convergence point the generative method of production employed in both. The article describes both works using, as theoretical foundation, the most widely accepted definition of Generative Art and reveals nuances of both works that might not be fully comprehended by the current theory. Finally, the article looks at some of the most recent technological advances and their impact on the art world, such as Artificial Intelligence, which have been used to create art, and proposes a reflection on the importance of revisiting theoretical definitions in order for them to be able to be able to keep up with the technical evolution of art.
Biography: Dr. Huoston Rodrigues is a Multidisciplinary Digital Designer and Researcher with interdisciplinary skills and extensive experience in Interaction Design, Motion Design, 3D Animation, and Digital Games. In over 20 years of career, he has worked for companies of different industries in Brazil and several countries, developing concepts, interfaces, digital prototypes, 3D images, animations, and brand identities. His academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in Technology in Design and Advertising Production, a graduate degree in Art History with an emphasis on Theory and Criticism, and a master’s and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Knowledge Management. He has a keen interest in Interactive Media and Animation, especially Games and Virtual Reality, topics in which he teaches and conducts research, and is mesmerized by everything on the frontier between Art and Technology.
Dr. Juergen Hagler is an academic researcher and curator working at the interface of animation, game, and media art. He studied art education, experimental visual design and cultural studies at the University for Art and Design Linz, Austria. Currently, he is a Professor for Computer Animation and Media Studies and the head of studies of the degree programme Digital Arts at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus. Since 2014 he is the co-head of the research group Playful Interactive Environments with a focus on the investigation of new and natural forms of interaction and the use of playful mechanisms to encourage specific behavioral patterns. He has been involved in the activities of Ars Electronica since 1997 in a series of different functions. Since 2017 he is the director of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival and initiator and organizer of the Expanded Animation Symposium.
Full papers / 3D Printing backwards
Abstract: The ethical development of these technological parameters is paramount, as our entire made environment is created through interactions with computers. The stakes are environmental, geological, and political. As computers connect with making machines it is important to address issues within the automated future we are facing and have begun to live with (Bennett 2010, Vallgårda, A. 2009, Ingold, etal).
Examples include robotics and advanced manufacturing tools that rely on top-down desk-based instructions generated by a select few. This clay-first perspective on making seeks to realise a deeper understanding of the materials and processes involved in our daily lives and to describe the hybrid materiality we are part of. This approach is made possible by working with computer programmers to create disruptive innovations that affect the framework of how our fabricated environment is designed. In so doing, it is possible to ‘3D print in reverse’, allowing the digital to be touched.
In this article I describe how 3DP clay has served as a learning tool and conduit for a new digital expansion in my practice. I describe a way of making digital sculpture that directly originates from an experienced physical place through the blended interaction with clay and new technologies. The projects that I will describe are based at Grymsdyke Farm, the European Ceramics Work Centre (EKWC) and my home studio, expressing this hybridity in the form of hand-printed clay, digital models, robotically printed and 3DP clay and ceramics
Biography: Theo Harper is an artist and researcher based in Northumberland, UK. His practice spans site-specific installation, sculpture, video, and photography. Clay always at the centre; Theo interrogates material and processes, intuitively inventing ways to release expressive making narratives. It is a constant inquiry: Born out of repetitive, time consuming and layered techniques. Theo believes that; by mastering different making systems, it is possible to break apart pre-existing realities.
Theo studied Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. He has shown work nationally and internationally and taken part in various residencies. Alongside gallery-based exhibitions he has organized various projects that include a permanent installation in a terraced house, London (2013-16), a cliff polishing in Cornwall (2014) and more recently taken part in a three-month residency at EKWC in the Netherlands. Theo has been working on a AHRC funded PhD that he has completed in April 2022 titled A Hybrid Material; re-thinking computer aided design through hand-printing-clay
Full papers/ Splitting Defense: A Methodological Journey into the Material Basis of Practice-Based Research
Abstract: This text details a practice-based research project which was partially materialised within the art-installation Splitting Defense. Splitting defense is a mixed media artwork, comprising an audio narrative embedded within a physical installation. It places the recipient into the realm of a future society, remembering the horrors of the present. While evoking a languorous sense of belonging to the future, it casts an eerie light on current practices of feeling, empathising, caring, ignoring, and dividing. The artwork thus playfully engages topics such as gendered patterns of valuing and devaluing phenomena of emotional labour.
Biography: Michael Heidt likes to situate his practice at the intersection of poietic code creation and critical-reflective theory production. He has conducted practice-based research endeavours informed by fields such as philosophy, media art, and electronic writing. Project foci range from software-based inquiry into microbiological populations to speculative inquiry into the potentials of distributed ledger technologies to foster post-scarcity economies. An ongoing focus of Michael’s research is complexity, which he has applied as intellectual lens motivating research engagements with biological systems, interaction systems, and distributed systems. Michael was a visiting scholar at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology, is an alumnus of German Academic Scholarship Foundation, of DFG’s research training group crossWorlds, and of Andrea von Braun Foundation. Currently, he is conducting the project CoGS at Anhalt University while being an affiliated researcher at University of Kassel’s Gender/Diversity in Informatics Systems group
Full paper / autonomX—Real Time Creation/Composition with Complex Systems
Abstract: autonomX is an “open source desktop application [that] allows multimedia artists and students to easily and quickly experiment with lifelike processes via a graphical interface in order to generate dynamic, emergent and self-organizing patterns and output these patterns via OSC to control light, sound, video, or even robots in real time” [1].
The article begins by presenting the background that motivated the production of autonomX. In particular, we describe some histories of artistic and lighting practice involving stochastic systems and the role of vitality in the time-based arts. We follow with the presentation of the three core design paradigms of autonomX: generator, signal, and drawing. The generators are the algorithmic encapsulation of complex dynamical systems (systems that model the temporal evolution of a deterministic set of parameters) in a format that gives rapid and intuitive access to their parameters, without resorting to coding, and visualizes the inner workings of these algorithms on a 2-dimensional lattice. The generators send and receive time varying signals from the implemented algorithms in real time, making the system appropriate for temporal expression and interaction with any computer-driven media. The manipulation of signals is made intuitive to the user by drawing directly on the visualization lattice so that they can easily specify which parts of the system serve as signal inputs and outputs. The article then gives an overview presentation of the current version of the software by discussing the main elements of its interface.
Finally, we offer a discussion on concrete artistic creations with complex systems that led to the development of autonomX and on the results of an online workshop held during ISEA 2020 in which participants discovered the first prototype of the software.
Biography: Alexandre Saunier is a multimedia artist and PhD Candidate at Concordia University. His research addresses the intersection between artistic creation with light, autonomous systems, and sensory perception. His artistic work is regularly presented in international festival such as Mutek, Bcn_Llum, Impakt, and Festival de la Imagen.
Chris Salter is an artist, full professor of computation arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Co-Director of the Hexagram network for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technology, also in Montreal. His work has been seen all over the world at such venues as the Venice Architecture Biennale and Barbican Centre among many others. He is the author of Entangled (MIT Press, 2010) and Alien Agency (MITP, 2015). His new book Sensing Machines will appear from MIT Press in March 2022.
Full papers / The Last Play: A transmedia installation
Abstract: This paper focuses on the methodology undertaken and the lessons learned, to create the location-based Virtual Reality (VR) story-telling experience. The last play was initially staged in Limassol as a student exhibition show in May 2021 and then again in September 2021 at the Animatikkon festival in Pafos. The installation is for two people and takes place in two different sections, one physical and one virtual, and it can be experienced in either order. The experience aims to immerse and engage the users by utilizing mechanisms borrowed by immersive theatre and game-design such as spatial storytelling, agency, engaging multiple senses and telling the story through multiple mediums. The integration of these various practices seems to be an important element that complements the immersive qualities of the VR experience. Furthermore, the spatial storytelling methodology, the transmedia approach, and the integration of the various physical objects into the experience seem to positively con-tribute to the storytelling aspect of location-based VR installations.
Biography: Dr Doros Polydorou is an Assistant Professor at Cyprus University of Technology. He is a creative coder and digital artist with a keen interest in immersive technologies. Doros has a background in multimedia design and computer animation and he is currently teaching the 3d animation modules at the department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts. Doros has worked internationally in universities in Singapore and the UK in both artistic and commercial projects. He is the co-founder of the Media Arts and Design (MAD) lab, and his current research interests explores experimental narratives through immersive technologies and techniques in site specific performances, installations and exhibitions.
Full papers / Evoking Empathy Through Immersive Experiences in A Walk Alone
Abstract: Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman who went missing and got tragically murdered during her walk home, sparked an international conversation about women’s safety in early 2021. It is one thing to discuss such a tragic and unfortunately common occurrence, yet it is even more harrowing to experience it for yourself. A Walk Alone is a virtual reality experience that simulates what it feels like for women to walk alone at night. The experience is centered around a linear story involving the user in first person point-of-view navigating a night-city environment with eerie sound design, immersive visuals, and dim street lighting.
Biography: Eman Al-Zubeidi is an educator/artist exploring the concept of identity as a fabricated construct. Through videography, graphic and interaction design, Eman merges Arab and Western cultures; two worlds that have entirely opposing sets of beliefs, traditions, and dialects, which are yet one and the same.
Julia DeLaney is a 3D artist/researcher focusing on creating 3D visuals for interactive and narrative projects. With a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Visualization from Texas A&M, Julia is interested in combining live rendering techniques used in interactive media with narrative work that reflects the current state of the world.
Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo is an interactive artist/researcher focusing on aesthetics of interactive experience. With interdisciplinary, interactive art practice, Seo investigates the intersection between body, nature and technology. She is fascinated by the aesthetic qualities of human experience, the relationships that emerge through interactions within artworks, the underlying beauty and pattern inherent in the nature.
Full papers / Reflexive-vr.com: Reconfiguring a physical VR exhibition into an online virtual exhibition due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract: This paper reviews a virtual exhibition titled reflexive-vr.com. Initially planned as a public exhibition featuring cinematic VR works by media artist/filmmaker Sojung Bahng, however, due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a different curatorial approach was needed in order to reconfigure the original installation plan into an interactive online viewing experience. This reflective analysis explores the design strategies involved in this case and how the viewing experiences associated with the artistic intent of three VR artworks (Floating Walk, Anonymous and Sleeping Eyes) was supported by the exhibition’s translation from a gallery-based installation into an online virtual environment. We will address technical specifications, consider curatorial strategy and implications to narrative flow and phenomenological experience, and – while acknowledging present limitations – raise the potential for online exhibition formats to serve as a distinctive presentational mode in their own right for engaging viewers with VR works.
Biography: Sojung Bahng is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and researcher, and currently works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design at Carleton University in Canada. She will be appointed as an Assistant Professor in Media and Performance Production at Queen’s University, beginning in July 2022. Sojung holds a PhD from SensiLab at Monash University in Australia. She explores cinematic media via digital technologies to reflect aesthetic and narrative experiences in cultural and philosophical contexts.
Vince Dziekan is a Senior Academic and Practitioner-Researcher at Monash Art Design & Architecture (MADA), Monash University, Australia, whose work engages with the transformation of contemporary curatorial practices at the intersection of design, creative technology and museum culture. Vince is Program Director of Communication Design Honours and International Studies Programs in the Faculty of Art Design & Architecture at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing. His research interests include generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, visualisation, virtual reality, interaction design, physical computing, machine learning, developmental models and physical computing. Jon is the founder and Director of SensiLab and oversees all operations, research programs and partnerships. He is also full Professor of Computer Science at Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology and currently an ARC Future Fellow.
Full papers/ A Sonic Exploration of Spanish Flamenco and the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey with Wearable Technology
Abstract: Humans have gone to great lengths in recent years to augment their bodies with wearable technology using commercial devices such as smart phones, watches, and jewelry. Wearable technology has also been incrementally shaping the future of the performing and fine arts. This research explores creating a device that can be worn on clothing or costumes that performers can interact with as a digital musical instrument. This device can be used as an extension to the body with built-in sensor systems and haptic vibrations for producing sounds. The work draws from multidisciplinary practices including, sound and music, digital technology, costume design, body movement combined with traditional forms of cultural practices. Creating and expressing sounds using gestures and body movements can allow the performer/wearer to engage in a more interactive movement experience. The practices of Spanish Andalusian Flamenco and the Mevlevi Dervishes of Turkey are inspirations for creating a performance with these devices that will morph these styles by creating historical links through music and sound, body movements and gestures. These devices will track specific movements while emitting sound compositions that are related to music performed in these traditions. The experience will be an embodied one; a new way of performing with sound that can entrance both the wearer and the audience.
Biography: Hedy (Hédi) Hurban is a designer of costumes, wearable technology, and a composer of electronic music. She is working towards her PhD at University of Plymouth (U.K.) where she is designing wearable technology body instruments to be used in new performance practices. Hedy has taught in several institutions across the globe including the Art Institute of Toronto, Canada, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Hyderabad, India, Sehir University, Istanbul, Turkey and as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth. She has designed the costumes for the operas Lampedusa (2019 Plymouth, UK) and The Mother of Fishes (2020 Pittsburgh, USA). She has a BFA in Visual Arts from York University in Toronto and a ResM in Computer Music from the University of Plymouth (UK). She isthe music composer on several short films such as, Grand Theatre and Picture Palace, Bees Mecanique,and feature films Salaat and Deccani Souls.
Full papers / Tuning in: Reflections in the Wake of Blackness through a Knitted Textile Antenna
Abstract: The paper presents the context and inspirations for the Flower Antenna, a large-scale, hovering, sculptural sound installation that combines sound and transmission art, computational textiles, and architectural design. Computational textiles include microcontrollers and other electronic components as well as use the natural property of the fabric to communicate information to people The Flower Antenna was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America during the spring of 2021. The authors discuss the use of electromagnetic waves via an electronically active textile construction as a form of non-visual media used to represent the paradox of Blackness and the presence of Black people in architecture in the wake of the history of slavery in the United States. Electromagnetic waves are neither seen nor recognized by most people, yet they shape the spaces people inhabit and support almost every part of society today with the use of invisible networks cast by the internet and its structures. This artistic project contributes to a discussion and reconstructing an understanding of Black culture in transmission arts, textile design, and in architecture.
Biography: Erin Lewis is a Ph.D. candidate in Textile Interaction Design at The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås. Her research explores the interactive space between structural textile design and electromagnetic fields. She employs artistic methods and designs custom electronic tools to explore the aesthetic and expressional possibilities of the phenomena in relation to textile designs. She has recently published her licentiate thesis entitled ‘Radiant Textiles: A Framework for Designing with Electromagnetic Phenomena’. Prior to her studies in Sweden, Erin was a researcher and instructor of wearable technologies in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. She previously held the position of Education Manager at Canada’s leading new media art gallery, Inter/Access, in Toronto.
Felecia Davis’ work in computational textiles questions how we live and she re-imagines how we might use textiles in our daily lives and in architecture. Davis is interested in developing computational methods and design in relation to specific bodies in specific places engaging specific social, cultural and political constructions. Davis is an Associate Professor at the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing in the School of Architecture at Pennsylvania State University and is the director of SOFTLAB@PSU. She completed her PhD in Design Computation at MIT. Davis’ work in architecture connects art, science, engineering and design and was featured by PBS in the Women in Science Profiles series. Davis’ work was part of the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Reconstruction: Blackness and Architecture in America. She is a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective a not-for-profit group of Black architects, scholars and artists supporting design work about the Black diaspora.
Farzaneh Oghazian started her Ph.D. in 2018 as part of the Design Computing cluster at Penn State University. Her research focuses on developing computational methods to enhance the implementation of knits as a material for architectural design. Behavior, form-finding process and predicting the shape of knitted textiles are central to her research. She uses machine learning methods for the reverse form-finding process in architectural knitted textile structures. Farzaneh is currently a research assistant in the SOFTLAB@PSU at the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing in the School of Architecture, doing research on large-scale application of the knitted textiles under supervision of Dr. Felecia Davis.
Berfin Evrim is a current Ph.D. in Environmental Design student at the University of Calgary. She graduated with Integrated Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture (Design Computing) from Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on digital fabrication, computational design, and lightweight smart materials. Currently, she studies the combination of 3D printing and knitting fabrication methods to design adaptive building skins. She utilizes simulation techniques to understand the structural behavior and environmental performance of the knitted vertical element.
Full papers / Decolonizing the imaginary through the tactical use of machinimas
Abstract: This essay starts from a reading of Decolonizing the virtual: Fu-ture Knowledges and the Extrahuman in Africa, a collection of essays published in the Journal of African Studies in March 2021, responses, and commentaries to the Abiola lecture delivered by Achille Mbembe in 2016 in the context of #Rhodesmustfall and the new light given by this movement to the question of decolo-nizing knowledge.[1] During this lecture, Mbembe states that Africans are better able to leap into the digital because there is a similarity between the plasticity of pre-colonial knowledge and the plasticity of digital virtuality. I therefore sought to know if this hypothesis could be verified: is the digital, through immer-sive works, video games and machinimas, a good way to docu1-ment, archive, represent and promote oral tradition and ancestral knowledge? And it is then that I discovered the text of Lia Beatriz Teixeira Torraca published in April 2021 on the Aesthetic look of affect which analyses the machinima as being a medium allowing to change the point of view, to proceed to a displacement, to a reterritorialization while simultaneously presenting multiple worlds and spaces, often invisibilized.[2]
Biography: Isabelle Arvers, PHD Candidate, LARSyS, Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Universidade de Lisboa (FBAUL), Portugal, is a French artist and curator whose research focuses on the interaction between art and video games. For the past twenty years, she has been investigating the artistic, ethical, and critical implications of digital gaming. Her work explores the creative potential of hacking video games through machinima. As a curator, she focuses on video games as a new language for artists. She curated several shows and festivals around the world, including Jibambe na Tec (Nairobi, AF, 2020), Tecnofeminismo (Bogota, AF, 2019), Art Games World Tour exhibit (Buenos Aires, 2019), Interspecies Imaginaries (Overkill, 2019), Machinima in Mash Up (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016), UCLA Gamelab Festival (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2015, 2017), Evolution of Gaming (Vancouver, 2014), Game Heroes (Alcazar, Marseille, 2011), Playing Real (Gamerz, 2007), Mind Control (Banana RAM Ancona, Italy, 2004), Node Runner (Paris, 2004) Playtime (Villette Numérique, 2002).
Full papers / Towards a Theory of Machine Learning and the Cinematic Image
Abstract: This paper addresses state-of-the art and prehistory of machine learning technologies as they pertain to the moving image. It discusses the challenges and potential hazards of these technologies, before showing how artists and image-makers are using these techniques to create a new relationship to the space of the cinematic in the age of big data. This paper strives to interrogate and overcome technologically deterministic accounts of this new technology. Accordingly, it situates examples within the discursive fields from which they emerge and favors diachrony over synchrony in outlining four clusters of media-archaeological inquiry that intersect in the application of machine learning techniques to the moving image. I believe that this approach is a necessary intervention into the hegemonic discourse on machine learning that has emerged from the technology sector which obscured deep ideological problems within the algorithms themselves, and also overlooks the potential of these technologies.
Biography: Owen Lyons is an Assistant Professor at Ryerson (X) University, Toronto. His work addresses media archaeology, documentary, digital media, and critical theory and he holds a PhD from the Institute of Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture at Carleton University as well as an MA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam. His forthcoming book with Amsterdam University Press examines representations of finance during the Weimar Republic and the emergence of the idea of the world economy. His current research projects include Liquid Screens: The Media Landscape of Financial Markets, which addresses the visual culture of 21st-century financial markets and their reflection in digital media, as well as an examination of the application of artificial intelligence to cinema entitled Machine Learning and the Moving Image.
Other Exhibition Venues
Artworks from ISEA2022 Barcelona’s call:
RNR Project Patrick Tresset Venue: Hall basement 1 CCCB (ISEA2022 Barcelona: from June 13 to 16) CCCB – Exhibition room (Exhibition BRAIN(S): from July 26 to December 11)
Full papers / Digital Anarchival Poetics: Algorithms looking into Audiovisual Heritage
Abstract: Throughout the 20th century and up to the present day, many artists have addressed the archive by questioning its function, classification systems, legitimacy, registration technologies or inclusion/exclusion protocols. Considering that within digital culture, AI has become a key factor for information management, this article explores how the use of these technologies in art is offering new perspectives to think about the archive, heritage and memory.
Within the meshwork of existing practices and approaches that operate creatively challenging traditional hierarchies and protocols of the archive, we will pull from two strings: 1) on the one hand, the group of appropriationist-type tactics that operate by activating new interpretations of already constituted archives; 2) on the other, those that propose the creation of new archives, generally dealing with scattered elements that were previously ignored or discarded.
We will delve into these two anarchival strategies by focusing on two case studies that address critically the filmic and audiovisual heritage: Jan Bot: bringing film heritage to the algorithmic age and the Oráculo de Capturas de Pantalla (OCP). In both cases we will study the strategies by which other possibilities are opened up for history, and the place given to algorithms in their construction.
Biography: Vanina Hofman, PhD (Buenos Aires, 1978) works and lives in Barcelona. Lecturer at the History and Art History Department of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). She develops her work in a hybrid territory between academic research and cultural production. Her field of research lies in the intersections among Art, Science, Technology & Society. She is particularly interested in the processes involved in the construction of memory in contemporary culture, the archiving of media arts, the unconventional arts histories and the digital heritage. She has recently published the book “Divergent Practices of Media Arts Preservation. Remembering and Forgetting in the Digital Culture” (Prometeo Libros, 2019) based on previous fieldwork conducted in Argentina. She is part of the interdisciplinary Research Group SETOPANT (URV, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica).
Valentina Montero (Santiago de Chile, 1973). PhD in Advanced Artistic Production (University of Barcelona, 2015). Lives in Valparaiso and works in Santiago. Curator, educator and researcher. Her research, texts and exhibitions address the uses and appropriations of technologies and science in creative practices from a critical perspective. Currently is Associated Professor in Finis Terrae University; director of the Master’s in Image Research-Creation at the same university, and professor in the Master’s of Media Arts at the University of Chile. She also is director of PAM / Plataforma Arte y Medios and ANID / Fondecyt postdoctoral researcher.
Full paper / Robophilia and device art in Japan
Abstract: The current Japanese revolution in industrial, social and service robotics; the different mechanical anthropomorphic developments: assistance dolls, hostesses, dancers and concert performers, etc., are well known due to their constant appearances in all the media. But the situation in which we find ourselves today is a reflection of the natural evolution produced in the world of automata since the middle of the 16th century. Japanese artisan technicians begin to develop their own technology, initially influenced by the Western one. They will have to refine the mechanisms to suit their culture: clocks (wadokei) have to conform to the traditional japanese division of time. This knowledge began to be used in the creation of different wooden automatons: Karakuri ‘mechanical devices to produce surprise in a person’. Its objective is the reproduction of daily actions within Japanese social life: religious or private rituals, theatricalization of historical events, indigenous dances, etc.
The development of Manga comics strengthens a close vision of cooperation between the human being and the technological being. The successive techno-organic evolutions of the mecha, robots led by a human pilot (Mazinger Z, Tetsujin 28-go), lead us to the total integration of the robotic body with the human soul (Neon Genesis Evangelion).
The permeability between art and design, so complexly raised in the West, does not suffer from this categorical distinction in Japan, where the concept of Device Art opens up the possibilities of aesthetic experimentation with new technologies towards productions that are more or less industrial and, therefore, its approach to a wider audience. Authors such as Nobumichi Tosa, Kenji Yanobe, Momoyo Torimitsu, Shunji Yamanaka or Takeshi Ishiguro show different and complex robotic constructions, always from a close, friendly point of view, but at the same time critical of the possibilities that technology offers in the contemporary world.
Biography: Bachelor of Philosophy and Letters (UAM), PhD Cum Laude in Fine Arts (UB). European rank and Extraordinary Doctorate Award 2011-2012. He is currently a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts. UCM. In 2015, III MADATAC New Media Art Essay Award and publication: Art and robotics: technology as aesthetic experimentation. Work concepts: interaction, communication and control.
Exhibitions (selection): (Al)most life, after all (Barcelona 2019) Expanded Aesthetics (Colombia 2019), The Origin of Magic (Madrid 2019) Electronic November (Buenos Aires 2017) HarddiskMuseum (Barcelona, 2017), Electronic Timing. BEEP Collection of Electronic Art (Valencia 2017) ArtPlay 1840s (TATE, United Kingdom, 2014) Metaphors of Survival (Buenos Aires 2013) Video Guerrilla Festival (Sao Paulo 2012).
Residency_grants: International researcher UB-Univ. Maimonides-UNTREF (Buenos Aires 2017) Artistes residents. Center Hangar (Barcelona 2014) LICAP. Residence (Buenos Aires 2013) NCCA. Residence (Saint Petersburg 2013) VEGAP Proposals (2012) OSIC Scholarships (2012), Ramon Llull Institute Subsidy (2011/2006) CONCA. Arts Visuals (2011).
Full paper / Probing Food and Power with Robotized Spoonfuls of Edible Paste
Abstract: Food, technology, and humans are entangled in a set of complex relationships that both produce and resist systems of power. The specifics of these dynamics often remain hidden, whether in agroscience, cuisine, mobile apps, or other mediated contexts. In this paper, we present a reflexive analysis of Orchestrer la perte / Perpetual Demotion, a food-and-robotic art installation that demonstrates how putting food matter ‘where it doesn’t belong’ can reveal what often remains obscured in our bodies, digital realms, and other relational spaces. Conceived around the themes of domination and nurturing, OLP/PD features a feeding robot that delivers spoonfuls of edible paste to humans’ mouths, using facial-tracking technology. The work probes issues of mutual enslavement, deskilling, the loss of privacy, and the fear-risk-trust within eating. At a broader scale, OLP/PD also troubles food and safety policies, probes culinary authenticity and heritage, and heightens tensions relative to eating and bodily penetration. Drawing on our experiences, we show how digital-material art can illuminate a variety of ways in which dominance and power arise. We propose that this can help surface different and more equitable forms of interaction, whether among food, technology, and humans, or in the more abstract realms of power, culture, and ‘mattering.’
Biography: David Szanto is a teacher, researcher, and writer who takes an experimental approach to gastronomy through design, ecology, and performance. Past projects include performative meals focusing on urban foodscapes, collaborations with sensory and music artists, and performance-installations about memory, death, and the microbiome. He has taught about food, performance, and communications at several universities in Canada and Europe, and has published widely in both scholarly and consumer outlets.
Simon Laroche is a media artist and teacher who creates installations, audio and video performances, and robotic and body artworks. Co-founder of the art collective, Projet EVA, he takes a critical perspective on socio-technical hybridization, focusing on problematics related to relationships between individuals, computer systems, and their physical extensions. Laroche teaches Electronic Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. His work has been presented in Asia, Europe, South and North America, and the Middle East.
Artwork / Slow Violence
Abstract: This piece proposes a space to rethink some of the long-lasting effects, and formulates a visual exercise on the geological transformation and destruction of living ecosystems. We want to create a visual that reflects on the great acceleration of these changes (Anthropocene) and their repercussions on climate and biodiversity. A visual and living fresco that encapsulates the unstoppable disaster before our eyes, that devours and consumes nature in an exercise of terrible beauty and where we contemplate, in a very sensory and almost tactile way, the effects and changes produced on the earth’s surface.
Using techniques to photograph frequencies outside our visible light spectrum (ultraviolet and infrared) and time lapse explores ways of seeing complexities, forces, and natural phenomena that are not obvious to the human eye. We want to work on the technique to take an exploratory, deep and conscious look and make visible the invisible forces of nature (erosion, thawing, floods …), observing it through a different perspective.
Biography: Hamill is a studio formed by Anna Díaz and Pablo Barquín, a creative duo specializing in the development of innovation projects based on experimentation and the mixing of emerging and traditional techniques, to create new visual communication formats. They carry out artistic and technological research in the field of visual arts, live shows and the exploration of light and sound. For each project they develop their own tools and inventions, combining digital and analog effects in totally unexpected ways. They mix physical engineering, lighting design, moving image and visual programming to expand your imagination far beyond the screen and open it up to more tangible experiences.
Artwork / FORMS (it’s a)Live
Abstract: Santi Vilanova, artist of the Playmodes collective, presents a new performance mutation of FORMS. This new iteration of the project -whose “Screen Ensemble” version is part of the Beep collection of Electronic Art and of the exhibition that can be seen at the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau- explores the compositional possibilities of visual music through generative graphic algorithms and image sonification.
On this occasion, the artist has developed a live controllable audiovisual system, which generates infinite variations of sonicated spectrograms, and which operates halfway between the sound machine and the live musical instrument.
A series of generative graphic algorithms produce spectrally coherent images, based on a set of randomness and probabilistic parameters controlled in real time by the artist. These sonograms are sonificated to generate soundscapes that may or may not incorporate elements of “classical” harmony and rhythmic periodicity.
The real-time sonification process analyzes a column of the image -the header- and links the brightness of each pixel to the amplitude of a sine wave bank. This is the reverse process of sound spectrums representation: instead of visualizing existing sound recordings, a visual representation is created first and then transformed into sound by additive synthesis.
In short, the engine becomes a digital instrument for sound and visual creation that can refer both to the more conservative schemes of music inherited from Romanticism and to the atonality / microtonality of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as opening a new audiovisual creation field that unifies sound and image in a single common code.
Biography: Playmodes is an audiovisual research studio. A hybrid team of engineers, musicians and designers who work with home-made digital technologies, breathing life into generative light and sound instruments.
Their deep interest in the relationships between visual and auditory phenomena, as well as their skills in music composition, leads Playmodes to create projects where sound and image are treated as a single matter. In most of their projects -from immersive installations to instrumental performances- the same streams of data generate both audio and visuals through custom tools, driving the audience into strong synaesthetic perceptions.
Passionate about art, design, maths, physics, code, cymatics and nature, they share all these passions in lectures and workshops at universities, schools or institutions. Being part of a global network of creative coders and artists, they collaborate with people from around the world to deliver high quality and innovative projects in the cultural spectrum.
In recent years Playmodes has developed projects for international art festivals (Barcelona, Houston, Prague, Lyon, Las Vegas, Orlando, Karlsruhe), for cultural and commercial projects (light design for the Copenhagen Opera, Installation for Facebook at Rio Olympics) or as guest speakers at international design conferences (FITC Amsterdam, IALD Albuquerque, OFFF Barcelona)
Manifestations & Materfad – Exhibition Manifestations: Natures and Worlds
Manifestations: Natures and Worlds showcases works from four artists and designers which, through their unique projects, let us experience the materiality of Bio Art, Biotechnologies, Space Art, Quantum Art or Nano Arts and Speculative Design.
The exhibition, born from a festival with the same name, hopes, like the latter, to start a movement to make people more aware of the role of technology in our society and in our future.
Fulfilling its missions of technological surveillance and dissemination of knowledge in the field of materials and associated technologies, Materfad, Barcelona Materials Center, brings the exhibition Manifestations to its headquarters, the Disseny Hub Barcelona.
Tim Dekkers – The Parasitic Humanity Maartje Dijkstra – Braindrain, TranSwarm Entities, Surface Distortion, Optic Traces Daniëlle Ooms – Bioluminescent Algae Jacket Jip van Leeuwenstein – A Diverse Monoculture
Organizing entities: Manifestations and Materfad Curated by: Viola van Alphen Supported by: Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie (in English: Creative Industries Fund NL) With the collaboration of: Barcelona Design Week, Generalitat de Catalunya, Disseny Hub Barcelona, Jori Armengol
Schedule: 9.00-21.00 h (except Mondays 16.00-21.00 h)
Manifestations: Natures and Worlds mostra obres de quatre artistes i dissenyadors que, a través dels seus projectes únics, ens permeten experimentar la materialitat del Bio Art, Biotecnologies, Space Art, Quantum Art o Nano Arts i Disseny Especulatiu.
L’exposició, nascuda d’un festival amb el mateix nom, espera, com aquest últim, iniciar un moviment per conscienciar la gent del paper de la tecnologia en la nostra societat i en el nostre futur.
Complint amb les seves missions de vigilància tecnològica i difusió del coneixement en l’àmbit dels materials i tecnologies associades, Materfad,, Barcelona Materials Center, porta l’exposició Manifestations a la seva seu, el Disseny Hub Barcelona.
Tim Dekkers – The Parasitic Humanity Maartje Dijkstra – Braindrain, TranSwarm Entities, Surface Distortion, Optic Traces Daniëlle Ooms – Bioluminescent Algae Jacket Jip van Leeuwenstein – A Diverse Monoculture
Entitats organitzadores: Manifestacions i Materfad Comissariadaper: Viola van Alphen Amb el suport de: Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie (en anglès: Creative Industries Fund NL) Amb la col·laboració de: Barcelona Design Week, Generalitat de Catalunya, Disseny Hub Barcelona, Jori Armengol
Full paper / View from Above: Drone art and hacktivism for landscape transformation awareness
Abstract: Aerial images have become commonplace on the media landscape around us, in places like TV news, films, and digital maps. However, do we consider what these images represent, both in the artistic field and in society?
The aim of this project is to raise these and other questions in order to reflect on how drones are getting inserted into the normality of everyday life and to question their vigilant scope. We ask how we as artists can act as hackers, disruptors and creators of new possibilities.
Our use of aerial images is not intended as surveillance, but rather as research on what is happening in certain areas where nature and worlds inhabited by humans coexist, most of them unknown to the majority of the local population.
Biography: Joana Resende, is a master student in Multimedia Art, in the Faculdade de Belas-Artes of the University of Lisbon. She participated in the ARS Electronica with Frontiers || Territories, an artistic transmedia project, which entailed aerial photography, digital mapping and augmented reality. Nowadays she maintains the research in aerial photography as well as DIY technology and privacy ethics. At the same time she is currently working in theatre, as a producer, having worked in theater and cinema festivals in Oporto and Lisbon. She has previously dedicated herself to dance and movement training and research, having participated in performances.
Mónica Mendes is a digital media artist, designer and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, where she is the director of the Multimedia Art Department. She is also a researcher at ITI / LARSYS – Interactive Technologies Institute, founding member of AZ Labs hackerspace altLab and part of F3 – Food, Farming and Forestry coordination council of. Interested in designing for a more sustainable world, Mónica created the ARTiVIS project, exploring real-time interactive systems at the intersection of Art, Science and Technology. As an artist and researcher, she participated in diverse conferences, exhibitions and public demonstrations, such as Artech, Future Places, Popup, ACM Multimedia, TEI, SXSW, CHI, UCLA Art|Sci, Artropocode, ISEA, DIS, Balance-Unbalance, STTF Sustainable Futures, Civic Veillance, PDC, and Ars Electronica.
Pedro Ângelo is an independent research consultant for creative projects, technical director of the ARTiVIS project and an invited lecturer at the Design Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. He is currently finishing his PhD in Digital Media in the context of the UTAustin|Portugal program, developing better tools for the collaborative design of distributed interactive systems. He has a background in Computer Science with post-graduate specializations in Computer Graphics, Virtual Environments and Digital Art. Combining agile development, creative coding, interaction design, hardware prototyping and digital fabrication, his goal is to translate creative visions into reality. His current research interests combine Open-Source technology, DIY/DIT collaboration dynamics and the development of more sustainable and resilient communities.
Full paper / Summoning the nereid nerds: invisibility and visions within network architectures
Abstract: This paper explores the impact of invisible and incomprehensible computational processes on human-technology relations via a series of multi-channel video installation art investigations. Historically, gaps in knowledge and understanding have been filled with mystic and superstitious systems of belief. The spheres of computation, from network technologies to machine-learning, are equally susceptible to mystic lenses. I explore how the use of metaphor both anthropomorphises and governs programming and systems design in ways that involve irrational thought systems, such as those associated with mysticism and superstition. The interplay between metaphor and the physical actualities of computational structures has informed my research in making the iterative networked video installations Summoning the Nereid Nerdz (2017) Access Remote Fervour (2018) and Dense Bodies and Unknown Systems (2021). How is the invisible and the unknown shaped by cultural attitudes? In contrast to conceptions of cloud technologies as being formless, quantised, wireless or ephemeral, I discuss how twenty-first century data architectures are housed and maintained by centuries old infrastructures, replete with excessive power draws and pollution. In jarring contrast to common conceptions of computing as an emblem of rationalist innovation, many core processes carry out functions that are unknown, invisible, impractical and confusing.
This paradox of the visible and the invisible in network architectures, of form and formlessness, and of rationality and wilful blindness in understanding computation was the premise for my development of Summoning the Nereid Nerdz (2017), Access Remote Fervour (2018) and Dense Bodies and Unknown Systems (2021). In a 21st century context where art schools are being cannabalised and dissolved into larger amorphic institutional hybrids whilst, simultaneously, computer engineering faculties are staking claim as the rightful centres for creativity and imagination, this paper posits that historically informed creative research remains a formidable toolkit in understanding this current moment of the connected condition.
Biography: Ella Barclay is a contemporary artist, writer and lecturer at Australian National University. Working across installation, sculpture, performance, electronics and moving image, she maps the terrestrial aesthetics of network architectures and the politics of computation. Recent exhibitions include The Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia (2021) Experimenta Make Sense: International Triennial of Media Art (2017-2020), Soft Centre, Casula Powerhouse (2018), Light Geist, Fremantle Art Centre (2017), Bodies Go Wrong, Orgy Park, NY (2016), That Which Cannot Not Be, Vox Populi, Philadelphia (2016), Almost, Instant 42, Taipei (2016), I Had to Do It, UTS Art, Sydney (2016). Her work resides in numerous government, institutional, corporate and private collections.
Full paper / Star-Stuff: A Shared Immersive Experience in Space
Abstract: Inspired by Carl Sagan and emerging from the ashes of a rejected design, Star-Stuff: a way for the universe to know itself is a unique immersive experience that transforms immersants into galaxies and constellations. The two-player hybrid experience can be used telepresently or in a physical installation, connecting anonymous strangers through abstract virtual bodies. In this paper, I describe my inspiration and the open, intuitive process by which Star-Stuff was developed. I outline design decisions made along the way and present observations made during the artwork’s first public exhibition.
Biography: John Desnoyers-Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher who creates immersive installations and performance to encourage new perspectives on immersive technology and to better understand its true potential. Through his artwork and research, he hopes to encourage social connection and collaborative creativity by exploring positive social applications of abstract embodiment in virtual reality.
Full paper / A Networked Multi-channel Audio and Video Authoring and Display System for Immersive Recombinatory Media Installations
Abstract: Waterways Past, Present and Future is an informative interactive media exhibition aimed at increasing awareness of the fragile relationship between people and water in the Okanagan Valley and catalyzing sustainable water practices among residents. The exhibition draws on the power of multi-channel sound and video media immerse, provoke, destabilize, transform and move participants to act responsibly and sustainability. We describe the system design toward a networked multi-channel audio visual system capable of generating sequences of environmental recordings and interview footage over an arbitrary number of modules in an installation.
Biography: Miles Thorogood is an assistant professor of digital art in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and heads the Sonic Production Intelligence Research and Applications Lab at The University of British Columbia. His current research aims to identify the facets of human perception used in creative processes to develop computational-assisted tools for art and design making.
Maria Correia is a PhD candidate and Killam Scholar in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Program at the University of British Columbia. Her current research focuses on cross-cultural adaptive governance of complex social-ecological systems in the Okanagan valley of British Columbia, Canada.
Aleksandra Dulic is an artist-scholar with expertise in interactive art, climate change communication, and media for social change. She is the Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCT) at The University of British Columbia. She leads an interdisciplinary research team that engages multiple forms of art, media and information technologies as vehicles for the expression of community, culture, and identity.
Full paper / Unrecording Nature
Abstract: The colonial import of early media technologies, e.g. sound recording in Global South faced a stiff resistance from the local practitioners. In this paper, I am interested to investigate why leading South Asian musicians and sound practitioners were not enthusiastic about recording their voices on the shellac discs; and for a long time resisted recording their improvisational sounds as they were: offerings to nature and the situated environment. What were the reasons of their contention and resistance? I argue, the pre-colonial sound practitioners feared that recording technology would contaminate their performances by mutating the natural and embedded connections they uphold in their practice. By discussing this unknown history, the paper aims to shed light on the discourse on how do we inhabit and relate with nature, and transform our environments on the media.
Biography: Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is an artist, media practitioner, researcher, and writer, and a professor at Critical Media Lab, Basel, Switzerland. Incorporating diverse media, creative technologies and research, Chattopadhyay produces works for large-scale installation and live performance addressing contemporary issues of environment and ecology, migration, race and decoloniality. Chattopadhyay has received numerous residencies, fellowships, and international awards. His works have been widely exhibited, performed or presented across the globe, and released by Gruenrekorder (DE) and Touch (UK). Chattopadhyay has an expansive body of scholarly publications in the areas of media art history, theory and aesthetics, cinema and sound studies in leading peer-reviewed journals. He is the author of three books, The Nomadic Listener (2020), The Auditory Setting (2021), and Between the Headphones (2021). Chattopadhyay holds a PhD in Artistic Research and Sound Studies from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and an MA in New Media from the Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University.
Full paper / Écosystème(s) : a self-interactive sound installation
Abstract: This article presents the creation process of Écosystème(s) : a self-interactive installation. This work is based on an ecosystemic approach to sound creation. Such an approach aims at creating aesthetic, technical and conceptual links between ecology and sound art practices. In the context of Écosystème(s), it is expressed through the sharing of a sound and sensitive experience of fragile living systems. This perspective considers and practices listening as a means of understanding and confronting the ecological crisis, while attempting to convey it through an interactive work. This approach proceeds through the use of algorithmic processes for the fabrication of artificial sound environments that integrate, cohabit and underline existing natural sound relationships, in a dialogue between artificial technologies and natural ecosystems, while setting up a context for attentive listening. A great deal of room is left to intuition and imagination in this creative process, through the desire to seek a balance between concept and expression of interconnected subjectivity.
Biography: Estelle Schorpp holds a masters degrees from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She also graduated from Université de Montréal with a masters degrees in Sound Creation and Composition during which she wrote a thesis entitled Sonic interactive environments : an ecosystemic approach.
She uses sound installation, music composition, writing, performance and new technologies to put together projects that both embrace and criticizes our daily relationship with our natural-cultural sonic environment. She is interested in sound ecology, hybridity between nature and technology, and the attention to the unremarkable. Her projects often consist in form of hybrid environments giving space to non-human narratives and to many imaginaries about soundscapes.
Recently, she has been inspired by natural ecosystems and explores the potential of algorithmic systems through interactive sound installation.
Her work has been presented in festivals such as Prix Ars Electronica (AT), MUTEK (MX, CA, AR, JP), FIMAV (CA), Exhibitronic (FR, GER), MuTeFest (FIN) and in group exhibitions at the Centre d’Exposition de l’Université de Montréal (CA), Palais des Beaux-Arts de Paris (FR) and Exhibition Laboratory (FIN). She has participated in study days and symposiums at CIRMMT (CA) and EHESS (FR). In 2016 she received the first Exhibitronic award for her electroacoustic composition Bagdad 9ème siècle. She is the recipient of several research-creation grants.
Full paper / In pursuit of the Schizomachine: for a(n) (in)possible listening
Abstract: The Schizomachine is an ongoing work-research that consists in the development of a wearable neuro-biofeedback system for aesthetic-affective experiences. As all research is also a creative process, this work, thought to be introduced in an artistic context, crosses other fields beyond Art and Product Design, such as Computing, Biology and Engineering. In search of the realization of the ideas that emerged throughout the process, listening and sound (Schaeffer, 1966; Schafer, 1969; Cage, 1973; Pelling & Gimzewski, 2002) came out as important concepts, which have guided the research so far. This article addresses the intuitive path that has been traced from the very first idea to the very first prototype, with the aim of reaching other possible listenings.
Biography: Maria Lucília Borges is Associate Professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto – UFOP, Campus Mariana, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, PhD and Master in Communication and Semiotics by Pontificial Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP) and Graduated in Graphic Design at State University of São Paulo (UNESP/Bauru). From her current position as permanent Professor at UFOP, since 2012, she has been teaching Aesthetics, Sound Art and Graphic Design to Journalism students, with whom she has been creating art installations, performances and exhibitions. Currently, her research is focused on Art (music and art installation), Affective Technologies (biosensors, neuro-biofeedback systems and smart textiles) and Sensitive Processes of Communication (silence, listening and human body’s affections).
Full paper / Sonus Maris
Abstract: Sonus Maris is a collaborative creative-research project at the Water Research Laboratory, Sydney Australia (University of New South Wales) which is developing a series of artworks that attempt to manifest the underlying dynamics and complex interaction of natural climate and oceanic systems. Employing visual and telemetric data from satellites as well as on the ground observations and ariel surveying the research team aim to generate sophisticated sonification and visualisation that offer a palpable and visceral experience of the long-term flows and patterns as well as of the singularities that make up the world around us. The work is currently being developed as a large-format audio/visual presentation and as a touring exhibition and associated project website.
Biography: Dr Nigel Helyer is a sculptor and sound artist whose interdisciplinary practice combines art and science to embrace our social, cultural and physical environments. He brings these concerns together in creative projects that prompt the community to engage with their cultural histories, identity and sense of place; inviting us to examine the abstract conditions of our world and our complex relationships to it. Nigel is a board member of the Paris based Association Internationale de Critiques d’Art and is a prolific contributor to journals, conferences and broadcasts. Principal web archive – http://www.sonicobjects.com
Full paper / Living Biotechnical Lives: Noise, Parasites, and Relational Practices
Abstract: Life in the era of biotechnology opens up opportunities but also brings challenges related to our values and questions on how we want to see coexistence on our planet inhabited by many species.
The parasite is our case study and an interesting concept that we inherit from biology, but which is also addressed in humanism and philosophy. As humans, we commonly understand a parasite as a negative concept that suggests that someone or something benefits at our expense. However, French philosopher Michel Serres has thought differently about the parasite. According to him, the parasite is based on relations between different entities and that there is often noise in these relationships. Michel Serres refers to biologist Henri Atlan, who has argued that noise forces the system to reorganize in a way that incorporates noise as a part of the complex system. The idea of noise included as a part of the system is quite far from today’s thought-processes with the development of bio/technology that typically aims at noiseless, error-free and aesthetically attractive results.
Therefore, although parasites are often associated with terms such as inhospitable, undesirable and disgusting, and they are seen to be located outside of art and technology, in this paper we argue that the concept of parasitical is tightly intertwined into our contemporary biotechnical lives. The article relates the parasitic thinking by Michel Serres to an artistic mediation of the biological parasite, a tick.
Biography: Laura Beloff (PhD) is an internationally acclaimed artist and a researcher in the cross section of art, technology and science. The research is in a form of installations, wearable artifacts, and experiments with scientific methods that deal with the merger of the technological and biological matter. The research engages with human enhancement, biosemiotics, AI, AL, robotics affiliated with art, humans, natural environment and society. She is Associate Professor and Head of Doctoral Education in the Department of Art & Media at Aalto University, Finland.
Morten Søndergaard (PhD) is an internationally acclaimed curator and researcher in the histories, theories and cultures of transdisciplinary practices merging technology, media, art and societal trajectories. From the master thesis on the method of Michel Serres in-between poetry, art and science (1995) to the Phd on unheard avant-gardes in Denmark (Show-bix and the Danish media poet Per Højholt) (2007) the line of inquiry draws the analysis of transdisciplinary practices into epistemological questionings regarding the complexities of human and non-human relations, as well as a general study of the overarching question regarding experiencing and evidencing posthumanity. He is Associate Professor and Academic Director of the Erasmus Media Art Cultures Master Program at Aalborg University, Denmark.
Full paper / Ecopornography in Digital Arts
Abstract: This paper investigates the presence and use of ecopornography in digital arts. Here, “ecopornography” or “ecoporn” is defined as the representation of nature intended to stimulate the viewer into a heightened state of arousal and excitement similar to that when exposed to pornography. There has been an exponential growth in ecopornographic content in contemporary society and culture due to the massive use of digital media and technologies. Ecoporn is now more common, accessible, and persuasive on both personal and societal levels than conventional porn.
This paper calls for an in-depth analysis of nature-related content across digital media and media arts. How can digital arts be more critical in exploring and exposing the effect of ecoporn on society? When does ecoporn’s hyperaestheticization of nature lead to an anaesthetic loss of sensation? A new taxonomy of ecoporn can help us reflect on these questions. Five major subcategories are proposed: a) Nature Pure, b) Nature Rough, c) Nature Hurt, d) Nature Saved, and e) Nature Fake. Finally, the paper introduces the “Ecoporn Personality Test” – a digital tool that allows users to explore their ecopornographic preferences and tendencies.
Biography:Stahl Stenslie (NO) artist, curator and researcher, specializing in experimental art, embodied experiences and disruptive technologies. His research and practice focus on the art of the recently possible – such as panhaptic communication, somatic sound and holophonic soundspaces; disruptive design for emerging technologies. He has been exhibiting and lecturing at major international events (ISEA, DEAF, Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH) and moderated symposiums like Ars Electronica (Next Sex), ArcArt and Oslo Lux. As a publisher he is the editor of EE – Experimental Emerging Art magazine (eejournal.no), he has written numerous scientific articles and co-founded The Journal of Somaesthetics (somaesthetics.aau.dk). His PhD on Touch and Technologies (virtualtouch.wordpress.com) Former professor in new media at The Academy of Media Arts, Cologne; The Oslo National Academy of The Arts; Aalborg University (DK). Currently head of R&D at Arts for Young Audiences Norway (kulturtanken.no)
Zane Cerpina [LV/NO] is an interdisciplinary female author, curator, artist, and designer. Cerpina lives in Oslo and currently works as project manager/curator at TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre) and editor at EE: Experimental Emerging Art Journal. From 2015 – 2019 she worked as creative manager at PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway). Cerpina is the author of the The Anthropocene Cookbook: Recipes and Opportunities for Future Catastrophes, co-written with Stahl Stenslie and forthcoming at MIT Press, October 2022. Her extensive body of works also include curating and producing Meta.Morf 2022: Ecophilia; FAEN (Female Artistic Experiments Norway); The Dangerous Futures Conference 2018; Oslo Flaneur Festival 2016, and The Anthropocene Kitchen event series (2016-). Cerpina has initiated and been part of several important archival and research projects such as The Norwegian Media Art Library and is one of the editors for the Book of Electronic Arts Norway.
Full paper / Inhaling Quantum Consciousness: Ecological Vibrational Possibles
Abstract: Navigating the contemporary debate on the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction (VTO) as a quantum mechanism, there is a rising hope it can lead us to an understanding of the biological world more as ‘energy interchanging in charged playgrounds’ and less as related to molecules’ shape-dependent trades. This can teleport our understanding of the biological as ‘moist’ to the biological as ‘molist’ – crossing scales in complementary moves from the molecules-atoms-bits’ realm of moistmedia to the charged ‘scale free’ panpsychist realm of molmedia. As the third move in a series of works that starts as invitations to explore humans’ body molecular informational exchanges with the microbial, the paper presents and discusses the genesis of the installation ’Inhaling Quantum-Consciousness’ in a direct dialogue with Hélio Oitica’s appropriation of Russian Suprematism aesthetics and structural principia, expanding the use of the pure pigment to an experiment in biochemical art.
Biography: Clarissa Ribeiro is a multimedia artist and researcher with interest in cross-scale information and communication dynamics that impacts human-nonhuman behavior and other macro-scale emergent phenomena, exploring in her more recent projects the metaphysics of information-visualization in subversive morphogenetic strategies that welcome the animic to navigate ecologies as cosmologies.
Full paper / Posthuman Rituals
Abstract: As we become increasingly entangled with digital technologies, the boundary between the human and the machine is progressively blurring. A posthumanist perspective embraces this ambiguity, giving primacy not to the individual agents that comprise a system, but to the relationships between them. In this hyperconnected age, our relationships with technology mediate and mould our perceptions of reality, and now they are beginning to define us. This research project explores new possibilities for human-machine relationships, moving away from relationships marked by habitual, unconscious behaviours towards those imbued with intention and meaning. Three works: Mirror Ritual, Message Ritual, and Worn Ritual take inspiration from the mutual entailment of matter and meaning in the dynamic configuring and re-configuring of self-identity. The proposed relationships are not intended to replace or imitate existing ritual practices among humans, but to inspire new forms of shared meaning in the human and non-human assemblages of contemporary culture.
Biography: Nina Rajcic is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and developer exploring new possibilities of human-machine relationships. Her recent works draw inspiration from the link between language and the self, exploring the role of narrative in the synthesising of meaning and the constructing of identity. Her broader research investigates the nature of human-machine relationships in an increasingly post-human world, ultimately seeking to offer new rituals that produce shared meaning in the human and non-human assemblages of today. Nina is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at SensiLab, Monash University. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science, and a Masters of Physics (Theoretical Particle Physics) from The University of Melbourne.
Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing. His research interests include generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, visualisation, virtual reality, interaction design, physical computing, machine learning, developmental models and physical computing. Jon is the founder and Director of SensiLab and oversees all operations, research programs and partnerships. He is also full Professor of Computer Science at Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology and currently an ARC Future Fellow. Jon holds an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Art (Film and Television) from Swinburne University and a PhD in Computer Science from Monash University.
Full paper / Speakers, More Speakers!!! – Developing Interactive, Distributed, Smartphone-Based Immersive Experiences for Music and Art
Abstract: We describe a multi-speaker, smartphone-based environment for developing interactive, distributed music and art applications, installations, and experiences. This system facilitates audience engagement through participation via personal smartphones, potentially connecting with traditional computing devices via the Internet without additional software or special configurations. The proposed approach has been inspired and motivated in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and builds on earlier works and technology. It demonstrates a design approach that is more efficient and provides a new avenue for music composers and artists to design highly distributed, participatory, immersive music and art experiences, utilizing various input sensors and actuators available in today’s smartphones. These include individual smartphone accelerometers, video cameras, and – of course – speakers. The use of smartphones also provides for relatively precise geolocation through GPS or simple social engineering approaches, such as using dedicated QR codes for different locations (e.g., seats in an auditorium). This allows for composing experiences to be rendered in the same room / auditorium, highly distributed across the Internet, or a combination of both. The paper presents the technological background and describes three case studies of such experiences, in an attempt to demonstrate the approach and inspire new avenues for artistic creativity and expression towards highly immersive, participatory installations / performances of music and art works for the 21st century.
Biography: Bill Manaris is a computing in the arts researcher, educator, and musician. He is Director of the Computing in the Arts program, and Professor of Computer Science, at the College of Charleston, USA. His interests include computer music and art, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. He explores interaction design and modeling of aesthetics and creativity using statistical, connectionist, and evolutionary techniques. He designs systems for computer-aided analysis, composition, and performance in music and art. He studied computer science and music at the University of New Orleans and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the Center for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Louisiana. Manaris has published a textbook in Computer Music and Creative Computing and is co-developer of the JythonMusic environment (http://jythonmusic.org).
Anna Forgette is a graphic artist and visual designer who is currently studying Computer Science and Computing in the Arts with a concentration in Digital Media at the College of Charleston, USA. She is especially interested in the intersection of visual art, graphic design, digital media, computer programming, and technology. She has been focusing on creating compelling new media art installations and performances, employing a user-centered experience design approach.
Meghan Gillikin is a multi-media artist studying Computing in the Arts, and Studio Art at the College of Charleston, USA. She aims to create works that combine the logical methods of the medium of algorithm with the organic nature of traditional studio art techniques. She explores techniques on how to allow these elements to combine naturally to create interactive, ever-evolving, immersive artworks.
Samantha Ramsden is a musician studying Computing in the Arts, and Computer Information Systems at the College of Charleston, USA. She explores the relationship between music composition and computer programming and has developed various techniques for creating generative music through the sonification of textures and colors found in aesthetic images. She aims to create restorative, interactive experiences which bring users together in shared, community soundscapes.
Full paper / NUAGE: A Digital Live Audiovisual Arts Tangible Interface
Abstract: This paper presents a literature review rooted in Human-Computer Interaction research as the methodological basis for the proposal of a tangible interface called NUAGE. It is aimed at artists, performers and designers in the research field of Digital Live Audiovisual Arts.
Audiovisual performance combines musical and video arts together in a live artistic context. Tools to create such performances are often only software and do not provide the artists a wide range of interaction possibilities. A show where the performer’s actions are hidden behind his/her computer screen can be visually less interesting. To provide guidance to designers and help them branch out from the traditional graphical user interfaces, we propose a different and structured design approach, Digital Live Audiovisual Arts, that builds upon Tangible Interaction concepts. We map Digital Live Audiovisual Arts by investigating its distinctive design intentions (expressiveness, performativity, participation, aesthetics and engagement) and proposing interface types taxonomy. To implement and validate this novel methodology, we developed NUAGE, an original performative interface. We thus bring together different perspectives on understanding Human-Computer Interaction and set a platform for future research on artistic tangible systems.
Biography:Marie-Eve Bilodeau recently completed her master’s degree in electrical engineering at École de Technologie Supérieure in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research focuses on human-computer interaction and the design of tangible interfaces for the field of audiovisual arts. She holds a technical degree in audiovisual electronics and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Marie-Eve has worked in the field of media, audiovisual and interactive arts. She previously worked as an FPGA Designer at Grass Valley and as a Systems Designer at Thinkwell Studio Montreal. Marie-Eve is a Manager on the board of the SMPTE Montréal/Québec Section.
Ghyslain Gagnon (Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, in 2008. He is currently a Full Professor and the Dean of Research with the École de Technologie Supérieure, Université du Québec, Montréal, Canada. His research interests include CMOS IC design, digital signal processing, and machine learning with various applications. Dr. Gagnon was also the Director of the LACIME Research Laboratory (2013–2020), a group of 15 professors and 150 highly dedicated students and researchers in microelectronics, digital signal processing, and wireless communications. He is highly inclined toward collaborative research with industry and was awarded the 2020 partnership and innovation award from ADRIQ.
Yan Breuleux is a professor at the NAD (École des arts numériques, de l’animation et du design in Montréal). He graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Master of Industrial Design (M.Sc.A) and a doctorate in composition in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal. He’s also a researcher and practitioner in the field of visual music for immersive display. His most recent achievements are exploring immersive storytelling with the projects Illumination Frankenstein (2018) Enigma (2017-21), Les Planètes (2018), Re-Génération (2015), Nuée | Swarm (2015), Engima (2015), VjGraph (2014). For twenty years he has collaborated with musicians and composers to create multi-screen, panoramic, and fulldome pieces. His works with the composeur Alain Thibault have been broadcast at recognized intertational digital art festivals like ISEA, Ars Electronica, Transmediale, Scopitone and Nemo.
Artwork / VastWaste
Abstract: Humans once perceived oceans as boundless, and thus impossible to pollute—until we created the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The same pattern is now repeating in outer space. VastWaste is a data-driven, projection art installation that illuminates the parallels and interplay between marine pollution and space debris. It can also be experienced in Virtual Reality. Human activities have scattered millions of objects into Earth’s orbit. Since there is no friction, debris travel at 18,000mph. Even tiny paint flecks can create explosive crashes. Approximately 4,000 operational satellites are currently in Earth’s orbit and the amount of space debris is already at a critical point. US and European Space Agencies track space debris and maneuver spacecraft to avoid collisions. SpaceX’s Starlink plans to add 40,000 satellites in the next decade. There is no known solution for mitigating the space debris. If the amount of space debris passes a critical mass, each collision will lead to more collisions in a chain reaction, known as the Kessler Effect. Ultimately, future spacecraft launches from Earth may become impossible. VastWaste generates an everchanging Kessler Effect in conjunction with a data-driven soundtrack. In this installation, satellites spin based on the speed of marine debris. This is calculated by using ocean currents and ocean winds. The number of fragments falling into the ocean is tied to human use of satellites, symbolized by number of tweets per second. Generative music varies in each play based on collisions, number of fragments, their contact with the surface of the ocean and their descent into the ocean. Humans observe marine pollution with satellites, and we bury dead satellites into our oceans. The future of two vast spaces is entangled.
Biography: Özge Samanci, media artist and graphic novelist, is an associate professor in Northwestern University’s School of Communication. Her interactive installations have been exhibited internationally, including Siggraph Art Gallery, FILE festival, Currents New Media, The Tech Museum of Innovation, WRO Media Art Biennial, Athens International Festival of Digital Arts and New Media, Piksel Electronic Arts Festival, ISEA among others. Her autobiographical graphic novel Dare to Disappoint (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2015) received international press attention and was positively reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate along with many other media outlets. Dare to Disappoint has been translated into five languages. Her drawings appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Slate Magazine, The Huffington Post, Airmail, Guernica, The Rumpus. In 2017, she received the Berlin Prize and she was the Holtzbrinck Visual Arts Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.
Artwork / RNR Project
Venue: Hall basement 1 CCCB (ISEA2022 Barcelona: from June 13 to 16, from 11 am to 8 pm) Also, CCCB – Exhibition room (Exhibition BRAIN(S): from July 26 to December 11)
Abstract: In the award-winning Human Study #1 series of performative installations, a human is drawn live by several robots during a 20-minute session, Both audiences and participants often mention the robot’s attention as a striking element. It is conceived as such, a camera mounted on the pan and tilt system enables the robot to observe the sitter with tiny saccades, occasionally comparing with the drawing, and most of the time following the pen’s movements. Although these movements are theatrical, they effectively convey a character and give the impression of the system paying attention to the human in an animal mammal-like way. Furthermore, the robot’s eye following the pen’s movement gives the impression that it is looking at what it is doing.
I have been researching a forthcoming series of installations for the past three years, including developing a new robot (RNR). Instead of being strongly influenced by human behaviour that is perceived as familiar like the human study #1 robots, I am exploring ways to make it [RNR] perceived as alien, unfamiliar, and foreign.
The RNR is an intermediary work, where I will specifically explore how having a robot looking at us with a different unfamiliar perceptual system affects our perception of it. As an animal, if attention is directed toward us, it needs to be evaluated instantly: can we eat it? Is it going to eat us? As humans, the way we are observed triggers a wealth of emotions. What if we can’t decode the intention of the observer? And what will the robot draw if it sees differently?
The aim for the final installation would be for the emotions in the human being drawn during ten-minute performances to progressively move from unsettled to intrigued, reassured, captivated, and charmed.
Biography: Patrick Tresset is a Brussels-based artist who, in his work, explores human traits and the aspects of human experience. He is best known for his performative installations using robotic agents as stylized actors that make marks and for his exploration of the drawing practice using computational systems and robots.
After working as a painter for 15 years, he attended Goldsmiths College, London, for a master’s degree and then an MPhil in arts and computational technologies. Aside from his artistic practice, in 2013, he was a senior visiting research fellow at Konstanz University and is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Canberra.
Since 2011, his work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, including in association with major museums such as; The Pompidou Center (Paris), Prada Foundation (Milan), Tate Modern (London), V&A, MMCA (Seoul), The Grand Palais (Paris), BOZAR (Brussels), TAM (Beijing), Mcam (Shanghai), Mori Museum (Tokyo).
This project has been awarded with the ISEA2022 Barcelona Grant by.Beep Collection and NewArtFoundation
Drone’s Show – Espectacle de Drons (Flock Drone Art Barcelona)
Closing ISEA2022 Barcelona, the night ofJune 15, from 10:30 pm, Flock Drone Art Barcelona will offer a drone show open to the public at Platja del Somorrostro. Combining technology, lights and electronic music, a set of synchronized drones, this will be the first drone’s show offered fin the city of Barcelona, an aerial show of unique shapes and figures.
Com a clausura a l’ISEA2022 Barcelona, la nit del 15 de juny, a partir de les 22:30h, Flock Drone Art Barcelona oferirà un espectacle de drons obert a tot el públic a la Platja del Somorrostro. Combinant tecnologia, llums i música electrònica, un conjunt de drons sincronitzats oferirà per primera vegada a la ciutat de Barcelona un espectacle aeri de formes i figures singulars.
Full paper / Click::REVU. An Optophonic Sound Installation
Abstract: If traces of past media remain in contemporary forms of media, how can these traces be appropriated and applied in the creation of a sound-based installation? This paper presents Click::REVU a sound installation developed by the first author. The work blends physical characteristics of an early sonification device, the Optophone – a device that translated optical data to sound – to create an illusory presence through a scanner mechanism from a multifunction printer. The work’s compositional structure reduces the scanner’s image capture ability to an indexical relationship that is expressed as a minimal soundscape of drones and clicks. As a media archaeological sound-based artwork, the ideation of Click::REVU has depicted a form of optophonics through the interpretation of early 20th century Optophones. These forms, as archival sources of knowledge for reinterpretation, have informed the development and realization of this work, one that is expressed through a genealogically related contemporary form of media, the contact image sensor scanner.
Biography: Paul Dunham is a New Zealand based sound artist. His recent work has seen a focus of the relationship between past and contemporary media and connecting their socio-cultural and technical conditions of existence. As media archaeology these relationships are represented and expressed through sound as recorded works, installations or performances.
In addition, he has composed a range of acousmatic and electroacoustic works utilising a range of materials ranging from broken media to environmental sounds.
His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally including the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference (Birmingham and Shanghai), ISEA (Durban and Montreal) and Ars electronica Garden Aotearoa (New Zealand).
He has recently completed his PhD in Sonic Arts at Victoria, University of Wellington.
Full paper / Machine Learning-based Approaches in Biometric Data Art
Abstract: This paper explores issues of bias on biometric data and anxieties about identifications through audiovisual interpretations of the biometric data artworks. As seen in previous historical approaches, many people have been concerned about the reading of race, character, and narratives into genetic traces. Recent history and current trends in biometrics show that biometric data relates to statistical prediction, and bias is an inevitable part of biometrics. The bias has been observed in my previous exhibitions from spectators who experienced their biometric-driven audiovisual outcome. The artist created an experimental version of the two biometric data artworks using machine learning (ML) methods of artificial intelligence (AI) to investigate the bias on biometrics. The AI-driven interface analyzes the input data, improves predictions, and extracts visual features based on sample data. Two biometric data (iris and finger-print) are used in the artworks, and an informal user study is dis-cussed. This project investigates the possible artistic approaches in using biometric data and attempts to find unbiased solutions for biometric data interpretations.
Biography: Yoon Chung Han is an interaction designer, multimedia artist, and researcher. Her researches include data visualization, biometric data visualization and sonification, a new interface for musical expression, and multimodal sensory user experience design. Her recent research focus was on multimodal interactions using body data, in particular on creating a personalized experience in media arts using biometric data visualization and sonification. Her works have been presented in many international exhibitions, conferences, and academic journals such as ACM SIGGRAPH, Japan media arts festival, ZKM, NIME, ISEA, IEEE VIS, ACM CHI, and Leonardo Art Journal. She holds a Ph.D. at the Media Arts and Technology, UC Santa Barbara, and currently is an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at the Department of Design in the San Jose State University.
Full paper / AI Creativity: AI.R Taletorium, New Storytelling Realm
Abstract: While stories provide an effective and concise way to share experiences, visual content acts as a more comprehensive and universal communication tool that transcends barriers between user groups with different cultural backgrounds and physical preferences. However, the meaningful learning process for coherent story visualization is a challenging task in AI studies. This paper proposes AI.R Taletorium, an intelligent artistic fairytale visualizer that interacts with users in real-time. Furthermore, language and mental development are key aspects of early childhood education.
Our system is collaborative and enables common creative experiences between groups of children at remote locations. We aimed at offering an entertaining and imaginative platform for children to communicate with each other, improving their psychological health, especially under extreme circumstances such as the COVID- 19 pandemic. The system comprises two novel modules, a character-centric storyline generator and a visualizer in the form of doodlers. We connect the modules with characters and build a bidirectional link to allow kids to participate in the fairy tale creation process by simple adding their drawings.
Our key contribution is as follows:
– A novel multimodal fairytale co-creation interface based on interactive text-to-image transfer and vice-visa.
– The system presents a novel fusion method between a learning-based language model and rule-based graph update, allowing for more flexibility in story generation and visualization with limited data.
– Proposing a CLIP transformed story graph as an intermediate representation to transcend the barrier between digital storytelling content and insufficient illustration data (automatic AI fairy tales storytelling case).
We fuse the rule-based language model with a learning-based generation model into a unified visualization system to allow for more flexibility during generation. AI.R Taletorium can visualize complex fairy tale scenes with stylized characters and rare relationships with our fused framework.
Biography: Dr Predrag K. Nikolić is an Associate Professor at the University of The Bahamas, Faculty of Liberal and Fine Arts in Nassau. He is an interactive media designer, media artist and researcher who holds a PhD in Digital Media and an MBA. He focuses on singularity, posthumanism, AI juxtaposition, and emancipation in his creative practice. His project Syntropic Counterpoints (www.syntropic-counterpoints.com) had numerous exposures worldwide together with other artworks such as Botorikko, Robosophy Philosophy, MindCatcher, InnerBody, Ciklosol, Before & Beyond, Vrroom, Digital Lolipop, In_Visible Island. Dr Predrag K Nikolic exhibited and presented his work at Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, ACM SIGGRAPH Sparks, Technarte USA, Technarte Spain, Singapore Science Center, Hong Kong – Shenzhen Design Biennial, Maison Shanghai, National Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, National Museum of Education in Belgrade. Professor Nikolić is Editor-In-Chief for EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies Journal and European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) Fellow and founder of AI.R Lab.
Ruiyang Liu is a PhD student at ShanghaiTech University working on computer vision, She worked with Professor Predrag K. Nikolić on artificial intelligence for digital art and design topics. In the five years of PhD study, she has published on several CV top conferences including CVPR, ECCV etc. Besides research, she also worked for top internet companies including Microsoft and Google as software engineering.
Giacomo Bertin is a Physic of Data student at the University of Padova who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics with a thesis in computational methods for drug discovery. He is a machine learning engineer and artificial intelligence developer who is part of the Professor Nikolic’s Syntropic Counterpoints project and co-founder of AI.R Lab, focused on computer vision and natural language processing.
Full paper / The Cabinet of Wolfgang von Kempelen: AI Art and Creative Agency
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to expand the existing critical discourse of AI art with new perspectives which can be used to examine the creative attributes of emerging practices and to assess their cultural significance and sociopolitical impact. It discusses AI art projects that explore creative agency and associated topics such as authorship, authenticity, intellectual property, and labor. The focus is on works that exemplify poetic complexity and manifest the epistemic or political ambiguities indicative of AI science, technology, and business. By comparing, acknowledging, and contextualizing their accomplishments and shortcomings, the paper outlines the possible directions to advance the field.
Biography: Dejan Grba is an artist, researcher, and scholar who explores the cognitive, technical, poetic, and relational aspects of emerging media arts. He holds a doctoral degree and a master’s in fine arts from the University of the Arts Belgrade. He has exhibited in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and published papers in journals, conference proceedings, and books worldwide. In 2019/2020, Dejan was a Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Art Design and Media at NTU in Singapore. He has served as a Co-founding Associate Professor with Digital Art Program of Interdisciplinary Graduate Center at University of the Arts in Belgrade since 2005, and as a Founding Chair and Associate Professor with New Media Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1998 to 2020. He was a Guest Assistant Professor at Computer Art Program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University in 2007.
Invited talk – Interconnecting Archives: Paving a Path Forward
Abstract: The concept of connecting information from various repositories of information has been around for quite a while, yet most online new media art archives exist independently without direct connections to each other. Programmers working on the ISEA, SIGGRAPH and FILE online archives have been collaboratively developing a system to link information about the people and art events documented in their respective archives to each other. This initiative will extend to include the Archive of Digital Art and Ars Electronica archives, as well as other archives, once the prototype is completed. This panel will discuss the challenging process of developing interfaces, building APIs, and working with wikidata as well as the process of analyzing, sanitizing, authenticating and modifying databases containing information about people and new media art events.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, and archivist, as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also is a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History, and the Digital Arts Committees. In 2023, Mitchell is in charge of the celebration of the 50th SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles.
Alexa Mahajan is a senior at Bowling Green State University, majoring in digital arts and minoring in computer science and math. She is interning at Pixar Animation Studios in the Pixar Undergraduate Program for technical direction, summer of 2022. Mahajan also works as a programmer for the SIGGRAPH History Archives, focusing on user interface development and content organization. She aspires to work as a technical director and get to combine her passion for animation and programming to develop tools that help others create with excellence.
Luis Wilson obtained a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico in 2021. Currently he is a software engineer at Microsoft working in web development, his main area of interest. Since 2020, he has been a volunteer programmer for the SIGGRAPH History Archive, helping the site grow and reach its potential. He is also involved in the archive’s mission of creating interconnected data between new media art archives by creating tools that aid in establishing the relationship of data coming from different sources.
Oliver Grau (DE) is first Chair Professor for Image Science in the German-speaking countries at the Danube University since 2005 and has held more than 350 lectures and keynotes. Grau’s “Virtual Art,” (2003) is the most quoted art history monograph since 2000. He conceived scientific tools for digital humanities like the Archive for Digital Art (ADA, since 1999) and developed international MA programs like Image Science and the joint master in MediaArtsCultures. Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conferences. He has received several awards for books including Mediale Emotionen (2005), Imagery in the 21st Century (2011), recently: Digital Art through the Looking Glass (2020). 2014 he received a doctor h.c., 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea.
Short papers/ Environmental Critical Zones: Reading the Wrack Lines
Abstract: Reading the Wrack Lines is an interdisciplinary environmental literacy and educational outreach project designed to engage the local community with innovative learning approaches focused on the reality and possibilities for change in our coastal environment. The project is framed by cross-cutting themes of diversity and inclusion, and includes partnerships with local institutions, environmental specialists, and underrepresented communities. Through a series of creative writing workshops and site visits, participants reflect on the changing environment and create poetic works for inclusion within two art works: a generative audio-video installation projected on a nearby lighthouse, and a laser-cut felt word-based floor sculpture that includes spoken word audio. The creative process and final artistic products of this project empower participants and articulates a vision for environmental change to the larger public.
Biography: Andrea Wollensak is an artist, designer and educator. Her work spans multi-media from traditional and digital fabrication, to generative-interactive systems and includes collaborations with community partners, computer programmers, musicians, poets, and scientists. Themes in her work explore place-based narratives on environment and community.Specializations include social design and collaborative community ventures, mapping and visualizing data, digital poetics, locative media, interactive and site-specific installation works.Wollensak has created projects and exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at the Göteborg International Biennial, Nova Scotia Art Gallery, Brno Design Biennial Moravian Gallery, Brown University’s Granoff Center Gallery, and the Burchfield Penney Arts Center in Buffalo. Selected awarded grants and residencies include the Anchorage Museum, Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy, the International Artist Studio Program in Sweden, the National Science Foundation, and Banff Centre for the Arts. She has presented her work at numerous conferences including ISEA, SIGGRAPH, Generative Art Conference, CAiiA, CAA, among others.
Short papers / Perlin noise and sovereign land: Minecraft’s world generation algorithm and colonialism
Abstract: This paper explores the connection between procedural generation technologies, specifically those used in world generation in 2011’s Minecraft, and colonialism. Specifically, it examines the ways that the Perlin noise generation algorithm generates a world that exists specifically for the player’s extraction of resources, and provides control mechanisms so that the world is never too wild or untameable. The paper concludes with reflection on some methods by which these colonial ideas might be subverted in games that use procedural generation technology.
Biography: Chris Kerich is an artist and academic based in Calgary, Alberta. His work focuses on the politics and ideology embedded in game systems. His artwork has shown at venues such as Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria and the Milan Machinima Festival in Milan, Italy. He is currently completing his PhD dissertation titled “Game Infrastructures” at the University of Calfornia, Santa Cruz.
Short papers / Artistic Research in European Extended Reality Laboratories
Abstract: How cThis paper analyses the use of Immersive Experiences (IX) within artistic research, as an interdisciplinary environment between artistic, practice based research, visual pedagogies, social and cognitive sciences. This paper discusses IX in the context of social shared spaces. It presents the Immersion Lab University of Malta (ILUM) interdisciplinary research project. ILUM has a dedicated, specific room, located at the Department of Digital Arts, Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, at University of Malta, appropriately set-up with life size surround projection and surround sound so as to provide a number of viewers (located within the set-up) with an IX virtual reality environment. The set-up is scalable, portable and provide easy to use navigation and allow the user to move around within the virtual environment. The paper discusses how ILUM combines and integrates three research strands that are part of a major, sustained artistic or scientific focus of the partnering academic institutions, namely the Visual Narratives Laboratory (VNLAB at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Filmschool Lodz), the Instytut Kultury at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, and the Spatial Media Research Group (SMRG) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. In those labs researchers, artists, film-makers investigate and create different kinds of IX. ILUM provides the opportunity to situate artistic research in the context of scientific. The thematic backgrounds of these research strands and the infrastructure of ILUM serve as starting points from which the partners collaboratively create new communication content, exhibition settings and research as well as teaching materials.
Biography: Dr. Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident researcher at the University of Malta. Adnan has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV/Deckspace.TV. It is through Free and Open Source Software and technologies this research has a social impact. Currently Adnan is a participant researcher in the MAZI/CreekNet research collaboration with the boattr project.
Adnan is co-editing and producing the after.video video book, exploring video as theory, reflecting upon networked video, as it profoundly re-shapes medial patterns (Youtube, citizen journalism, video surveillance etc.). Adnan’s documentary film work tracks artist pranksters The Yes Men and net provocatours Bitnik Collective. Bitnik’s practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms, formulating fundamental questions concerning contemporary issues.
Short papers / Cultivating Human Potential in Virtual Art Studios
Abstract: How can art educators fulfill human potential in the process of teaching and learning in online art studios? How can they transmit their passion and enthusiasm for art making in virtual environments teaching and learning to cultivate human potential in the virtual classroom? This paper investigates the ability of remote art learning to unlock human capabilities. Based on the definitions of human potential, we specifically examine three aspects of learning behaviors and environments within this study. First, we focus on students’ self-discovery, self-directed learning, and self-efficacy. Second, we investigate the concepts of connection and communication, which are integrated into the virtual classroom. Lastly, we explore the unique characteristics of the educational environment for virtual teaching and learning. Inspired by Neurath, Chambers and Sandford (2019) illustrated educators in the digital age as “sailors who must rebuild their ship on the open sea” (p. 926). Based on these findings, we encourage other art educators to embed fluidity and flexibility into their online art educations practices, to facilitate the virtual art classroom that may cultivate human potential.
Biography:Borim Song is an Associate Professor at the School of Art and Design of East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. She holds her Ed.D. and Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, USA. Her scholarly interests include new technologies for art education, online education practice, contemporary art in K-12 curriculum, cross-cultural and intercultural movements, and community-based art education for underserved population. Song’s writings on art, art education, and cultural studies appear in publications in both the U.S. and Korea. She is the recipient of the 2022 Art Education Technology Group Outstanding Teaching Award (National Art Education Association) and 2021 Kathy Connors Teaching Award (NAEA Women’s Caucus).
Kyungeun Lim is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art of Northern Arizona University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Indiana University Bloomington, double majoring in 1) Art Education in Curriculum & Instruction and 2) Comparative Education in Education Policy Studies. She holds an M.A in Art Education and a B.F.A in Fine Art, focusing on Painting and Art Education from Seoul National University. She has been teaching arts and education from elementary school students to adults at schools, museums, and higher education institutions in traditional classroom settings and online classrooms-both synchronous and asynchronous. Lim’s research interests are online art education, arts integration, STEAM, and digital technologies in K-16 art education.
Short papers / Algorithmic Vision and the Dialectic of Visibility
Abstract: This article proposes to analyze the definition of the human being through the ‘eyes’ of machine learning models dedicated to the recognition and classification of people. For this, the image of a dialectic of surveillance and social control is offered based on the constant visibility of those affected and the invisibility of those who benefit from this system. The algorithmic vision emerges here as a privileged place to exercise this power, but at the same time as the place of vulnerability, from where it is possible to transform this dialectic and the power relations that it determines. The article then proposes a reflection on the different counter-surveillance strategies that take advantage of creativity and aesthetic experience to think about other power relations, that is, about other possibilities to think about what a human being is today.
Biography: Hugo F. Idárraga Franco: Filósofo e investigador en el área de la comunicación y las humanidades digitales, se ha interesado desde la teoría y la práctica en problemas relacionados con la cultura visual, la epistemología de la visión por computador, la transformación estética provocada del aprendizaje de máquinas, así como por las estrategias de resistencia ante los actuales sistemas de vigilancia y control social basados en modelos de inteligencia artificial. •
Paloma Gonzáles Días: Docente e investigadora, ha desarrollado e implementado nuevas metodologías de desarrollo en proyectos interactivos creativos y docentes, tanto para empresas privadas como para organismos públicos, integrando su formación y experiencia en tecnología, diseño, artes y comunicación. Imparte Cultura Audiovisual en BAU (Centro Universitario de Diseño), Lenguajes experimentales en el Grado de Artes de la Escola Massana, y asignaturas de Diseño e Interacción en la UOC. Es componente del grupo de investigación GREDITS (Grupo de Investigación en Diseño y transformación social). Especializada en la evolución de la creación digital, la interacción y las relaciones de poder que se establecen a través de la tecnología. Desde 2007 publica el blog especializado en media art, vigilancia y privacidad “Uncovering Ctrl”, que forma parte del Archivo Español de Media Art AEMA/SAOMA.
Short papers / The Gap: Science Always Goes Before The Law
Abstract: I WANT TO PROCLAIM SOS AGAINST ILLEGAL EXPERIMENTATION ON HUMANS BY USING BIO/NEUROTECHNOLOGIES.
– The crime category: medical experiments (clinical trials without consent) – crimes committed with innovative scientific tools. (Combined multidisciplinary sciences – medicine, psychiatry, physics). – The recidive: victims home and bed becomes the place of a cruel regular crime – clinical trial. – The body: human – is like an animal, abused by criminals for medical experiment needs. – Implantable neuro-electronics started to be used for human functioning-operating control.
Research object. Globally, many people are suffering from newly invented technologies, approximately 2000 to 10,000 people worldwide, could even be more. Some of them call themselves TI (Targeted Individuals), some of them TI cyborgs, TI neurorobots. Some of them have implants with remote influences 24 hours per day. Therefore, they have no privacy, they are 24 hours per day tracked, 24 hours per day tortured (with UV laser, micro waves, and so on), discredited, forced to have no authenticity, no future, no social lives. This is like the “Second Life”, except this “virtual reality game” is controlled by criminals. The victims can’t get help – scientific and competent medical, adequate police and media response. Human Rights, in their case, do not apply.
Biography: Interdisciplinary artist-researcher Aistė Laisvė Viršulytė was born in 80’s and has spent most of her life in Vilnius, Lithuania. She finished a BA in photo-media art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and MA in sculpture there. Since 2016, she is a member of Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artist’s Association. The focus of her current creative effort is shifted more towards time-based media where she explores the areas of art and science, experimentation, process, sensory perception, sound art, mythology, locative media, and more.
Short papers / Media Art and face recognition: critical lines of work
Abstract: In recent years, Media Art practices related to facial recognition reflect present concerns about AI in general and facial biometrics in particular. The ambiguities, biases and lack of ethics present in the development and implementation of facial recognition techniques is apparent in pieces and essays by creators determined to reveal the lack of ethics and transparency of these mechanisms of classification and control. Artistic spaces and festivals are beginning to support and make these kinds of issues more widely visible. At present, we distinguish three lines of critical work: those that attempt to “annul” the effects of technology, those that show how detection algorithms work, and a small group, more experimental and less fruitful so far, made up of works that propose to reinterpret the uses of technology more in line with social needs.
Biography: Lecturer and researcher at UOC and BAU. Member of the GREDITS research group. Expert in new media art, design and communication. Her research focuses on relating technological control and its impact on society from a critical point of view. She focuses, above all, on the vision of digital creators.
Short papers / Hybrid Art: technology and nature in arts practice and mediation
Abstract: Hybrid Art: technology and nature in arts practice and mediation, reflects on a series of installations produced in 2021 and 2022 for the “Hybrid Culture” exhibitions (3 different ones in distinct locations as part of “Viver ao Vivo” project) and for the “Contingency” exhibition (ARTECH 2021). The text highlights the complex entanglement of producing and mediating art with technology and nature elements.
These installations arise from the focus on images produced in scientific laboratories and my ethnographic exploration of the relation between what I considered to be different virtual archival spaces (i.e. the natural environment, the studio, the art gallery, the laboratory, my body). Its main aim was to establish a critical link between the scientific imaging process and practices and visual arts, in a highly technical society where the experience of nature is somehow mediated, as well as memories, and there is a sense of technically constructed nature.
Biography: Maria Manuela Lopes is a visual artist whose practice is transdisciplinary, investigating relations of memory and iden-tity informed by the biological sciences and medical research; her work appears in a varied format within the visual arts re-sulting in multimedia installations, drawings and performances.
She studied sculpture at FBA-UP and MA at Goldsmiths Col-lege in London. She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts and New Media at the University of Brighton and UCA-Farnham in the UK. She did a Postdoc Art Research Project at the University of Aveiro and Porto – i3S Institute of Research and Innovation in Health. Lopes is Visual Arts Adjunct Professor at ESE – Institute Politech of Porto IPP and a researcher at i3S as co-responsible for the Cultural Outreach Art/Science interface.
Maria Manuela Lopes has curated several international exhibitions and her work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is also co-founder and Deputy Director of Portu-guese artistic residency programs: Ectopia – Laboratory of Artistic Experimentation and Cultivamos Cultura.
Short papers / eCO2system: exploring the environmental and social impact of the internet’s materiality through a data-driven media art installation
Abstract:
The internet’s materiality often lacks attention in recent controversies surrounding the environmental footprint of physical versus online activity. The operation of the internet presupposes a physical infrastructure that consumes natural resources and generates pollution. The obfuscation of the materiality of the internet conceals power asymmetries produced by the uneven access to the control of the internet’s material infrastructure.
Biography: Caterina Antonopoulou is a media artist, engineer and researcher. She is currently an adjunct lecturer of interactive art at the department of Digital Arts and Cinema of the University of Athens. Caterina holds a PhD in media art form the University of the Aegean (Greece), a Master’s in Digital Arts from of the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and a diploma in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. Her artistic work explores everyday practices and social interactions through a creative, critical and ludic appropriation of technology, while her research investigates the materiality of digital art focusing on critical, socially engaged and tactical media artworks.
Short papers / In Sight of Allo-states: Tracing the Path from Environmental Personhood to Agentials, Performances of Personhood and Other Artworks on the Agency-Personhood Continuum (APC)
Abstract: In the spirit of combinatory play, this paper examines how the concept of environmental personhood may impact art, design, and culture in novel ways. It introduces the landmark legal decision in 2017 that granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River in New Zealand. Legal decisions such as this have the potential to provide productive conceptual fodder for artists, designers, and architects whose work imagines new relations between humans and the environment at a time when ecological degradation is ubiquitous. This paper then presents a heuristic framework called the Agency-Personhood Continuum (APC) that traces broad esthetic strategies used in artworks that engage with concepts of nonhuman material agency and environmental personhood. Finally, it seeks to open new imaginatory space by positing a new class of supra-governmental entities called allo-states. Allo-states are organizations that represent massive ecological entities such as the Amazon River which that transcend a single nation-state. Theoretically, allo-states could exist alongside, but independent from nation-states in supra-governmental parliamentary proceedings such as the UN General Assembly. Ultimately, Allo-states provide a hypothetical means for environmental persons to receive representation that focuses on their intrinsic worth instead of their resource value. Through speculation about emerging notions of environmental personhood, the aim is to activate new areas of social, cultural, and creative inquiry.
Biography: Devon Ward is an artist, designer, and educator who creates digital and living systems to explore notions of time, place, and identity. His works often rely on speculative allegories that examine current social conditions affected by emerging technologies. These works often focus on the changing relationships between humans, non-humans, and the environment at a time when the environmental degradation is ubiquitous.
Ward holds a Master of Biological Art from SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Florida. He is currently Assistant Teaching Professor of Graphic Design and Visual Communication at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, USA. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, US; Chronus Art Center, CN; 798 Art District, CN; Science Gallery Dublin, IE; and Melbourne Design Week, AU.
Short papers / Data, performances and urban environments
Abstract: Effective activism is predicated on its ability to summon strong emotions and desires, yet its affective palette appears depleted. Next to a fear for destruction of the planet, other emotional and affective programs seem to fade rapidly. Is it possible to develop an eros for a future dominated by hyperobjects like climate change, characterised by unravelling of traditional political structure, and populated by new technological monsters in the form of AIs and lifelike robotics? What kind of desires can provide cohesion to activist collectives? Digital art presents unique opportunities for practicing negotiations and desires within collectives to come. Within this paper we are proposing the notion of Xenoactivism as a conceptual ally to activists and digital artists alike. To this end the notion of xenoactivism seeks to productively hijack new materialist discourse around machines. Art practices are discussed as germinal agents for these unborn, nascent, and as of yet unproduced desires. These are desires for novel formalisms and abstractions that span anthropic, vegetal, faunal, and machinic phyla.
Biography: Michael Heidt likes to situate his practice at the intersection of poietic code creation and critical-reflective theory production. He has conducted practice-based research endeavours informed by fields such as philosophy, media art, and electronic writing. Project foci range from software-based inquiry into microbiological populations to speculative inquiry into the potentials of distributed ledger technologies to foster post-scarcity economies. An ongoing focus of Michael’s research is complexity, which he has applied as intellectual lens motivating research engagements with biological systems, interaction systems, and distributed systems. Michael was a visiting scholar at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology, is an alumnus of German Academic Scholarship Foundation, of DFG’s research training group crossWorlds, and of Andrea von Braun Foundation. Currently, he is conducting the project CoGS at Anhalt University while being an affiliated researcher at University of Kassel’s Gender/Diversity in Informatics Systems group.
Victoria Moulder is an artist, researcher, and imaginative advocate for a better world. She is a pioneer in the field of social art practice and has co-produced events with not-for-profit organizations since 1988 in Europe, Canada, the United States and Asia. Moulder’s research explores narrative design in the context of everyday activism (i.e., the habit of working socially conscious choices into our everyday lives). She draws on human-computer interaction design theory, as well as fine art practice to investigate how (or if) mobile and social computing can support the exploration of real-world places, histories and collaborative problem solving platforms. Moulder holds a PhD, School of Interactive Art + Technology, Simon Fraser University, as well as a BFA, Emily Carr University in British Columbia, Canada.
Short papers / ‘Taman Tugu: Interference/Resistance’ – addressing urban rewilding with a musical augmented reality experience
Abstract: ‘Taman Tugu: Interference/Resistance’ is an immersive, interactive musical work that has been mapped onto the pathways of the Taman Tugu jungle park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Taman Tugu is an unusual place – a large rewilded space teeming with wildlife in the centre of a modern metropolis. ‘Taman Tugu: Interference/Resistance’ uses Audio Augmented Reality and placed sound to raise questions about the importance of urban green spaces in general and rewilded urban spaces in particular. This paper explains how the work asks these questions of its audience through the mapping of electronic sound over the unique geography of Taman Tugu.
Biography: Yoni Collier is currently working towards a practice-based PhD; an examination of how location-based recording, musical performance and production can be used as tools for examining artistic practice, landscape and history. Alongside a written thesis, Yoni is composing and producing immersive, interactive musical pieces that are laid over specific landscapes and ‘performed’ through location-aware Smartphone apps. Yoni holds a BA in Popular and World Musics from Leeds University and an MSc in Sound Design from Leeds Beckett University. Alongside his research, he continues to work as a freelance producer, composer and performer. His experience in composition for visual media includes work for dramatic film, corporate clients and video games. His music has featured on TV shows on ABC Family, ITV and Sky Sports, and he has scored films that have been exhibited at numerous international film festivals including the BFI London Film Festival and The ECU European Independent Film Festival.
Short papers / Live data in live performance
Abstract: This short paper discusses the value and potential of live data feeds in live performance. Live data feeds offer a new kind of liveness – a characteristic that is prized in the performing arts. Dance and theatre experiments using movement and biometric data processed in real time have already taken place, using data from performers and spectators. Artworks by data artists such as Andrea Polli and David Bowen demonstrate the creative potential of data drawn from natural systems, such as meteorological data. Proponents of Gaia suggest that we adopt an understanding of the world as a multi-species network of living beings and systems, in which humans are integrated, not separate or superior. Using data from natural systems on stage could enable these phenomena to participate as dynamic, unpredictable forces, and thus contribute to a less anthropocentric portrayal of the world.
Biography: G. Isla Borrell is a doctoral student in theatre and performing arts at the École Doctorale Esthétique, Sciences et Technologies des Arts at Paris 8 University. Isla worked for several years in production design, props and set decoration for film and theatre before beginning postgraduate studies. Her thesis project, Data Theatre, la mise en scène des données à l’ère numérique, explores the creative potential of data on stage, particularly the use of live data feeds to generate image and sound.
Short papers / KŌDOS: multiple investigations through art, science, and technology
Abstract:The artistic poetics produced related to science and nature increased prominence as they incorporated political, technological, and social changes into their discourse aware of the environmental crises and their connection with the capitalist economic program. Hitherto, the union between artists and scientists has inspired works that, in general, incorporate new forms of organization between organic systems, technologies, and symbolic processes. Many contemporary artists conduct their projects through multispecies collaborations and work with a high potential for questioning and formulating non- hegemonic knowledges. This paper focuses on the recent KŌDOS experiments, a Brazilian art collective, which aims to investigate the visual poetics in relations with non-human organisms (living and non-living) and technologies to provide alternative and speculative models to inhabit the Earth. KŌDOS is composed by Claudio Filho and Fernanda Oliveira both members of ACTlab – laboratory for arts, science, and deviant technologies hosted at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Biography: Claudio M. Filho (Campinas, SP) artist-researcher focusing on the fields of Art, Technology, and Nature. He is a doctoral student in Visual Arts at UNICAMP where he researches practical-theoretical collaborations between non-living and digital (systems. Master in Arts, Culture, and Languages at UFJF (2019) and Bachelor of Arts and Design / UFJF (2016). Member of ACTlab – Laboratory of Art, Science, and Deviant Technologies and founder-member of KŌDOS collective.
Short papers / Form and Time / decentering sites of art studio pedagogy
Abstract: From the art school’s studio-based format, the authors situate Form and Time as a Studio Presentation course. Scheduled to launch on campus in Fall 2020, the course pivoted to fully remote. Thematic units of Space, Form and Time were explored in synchronous meetings and asynchronous video lectures and micro-workshops.
Studio Presentation courses can engage art students in dispersed, interdisciplinary research-creation networks, through strategies including a diversity of fabrication options, DIY and place-based knowledge and accessibility as approaches to meaning through making.
The authors ask: how can hands-on fabrication skills and health and safety instruction be incorporated into large format studio courses? When is face-to-face, hands-on learning crucial and for whom? How can virtual studios be used for community collaboration and exhibition opportunities, online and in-person?
Form and Time and its collaborators in WebXR foreshadow new modes of art school studio delivery that decenter and critically intersect with studio precedents suddenly disrupted by remote learning during COVID-19.
Biography: Judith Doyle is an artist practicing in cinema and expanded reality. An Associate Professor at OCADU, they are Chair First- Year Art and co-direct the OCADU SMACLab.
Simone Jones is an artist whose works are shown internationally. They are a Professor at OCADU.
Elizabeth Lopez is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose works are shown in Canada and the US.
Short paper / Artistic Residencies as Critical Research: Entangled Methodologies for Future Science
Abstract: This paper is an account of Future Forest Diorama, an artistic research project and residency taking place at the experimental station of Can Balasc. Written from the artists’ point of view, it reflects on the challenges and opportunities that arise from inhabiting scientific environments, and the specific type of situated knowledge such environments afford. It advocates for more systematic accounts of the methods and tools invented on-the-fly by artists during art-science residencies to respond to the growing demand for methods of trans-disciplinary collaboration.
Biography: Carola Moujan (Montevideo, 1969), lives and works in Paris, France. After initial training in Architecture and Fine Arts in Uruguay and the United States, she specialized in Arts and Image Technology and Design in France. Ph.D in design from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2014), her research-based work explores the entwinement of complex interactive processes between spaces, temporalities, sensitive bodies, affects, materials and code in more than human contexts. Her work has been exhibited in Madrid, Mexico, Lyon, Montevideo, Lisbon, Berlin and La Paz. Main recognitions include the Brouillon d’un Rêve Numérique grant (SCAM, 2009), two special mentions at the fifth Ibero-American Design Biennial (BID_diMAD, 2016), 2nd international call for Lyon City Design (Lyon Design, 2014), 7th international call for EAC Montevideo (Ministry of Culture, Uruguay, 2016), 1stEcotons grant for artistic research (La Escocesa and CREAF, Barcelona, 2021) and the joint Hangar/Casa de Velázquez residency (Hangar Barcelona, 2020).
Agustín Ortiz Herrera (Barcelona, 1970) studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona (1998), and filmmaking at The New School University, New York (2003). After a period working as a screenwriter, he returned to artistic practice by completing the Master of Fine Arts at Konstfack College of Arts, Stockholm (2016). His recent projects and exhibitions include La tradició que ens travessa. Gnosis iluminada Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica, 2022, Future Forest Diorama, La Escocesa-CREAF, 2022, Ciencia Fricció, El cercle Simbiont, CCCB, 2021, Altres Temps, The Green Parrot, 2021, Vanitas, Centre d’Art Maristany, 2021, Comité Queer, Barcelona Loop Festival, 2021, Anomenar. Posseir. Crítica de la pràctica taxonómica, Artistic research project selected by La Capella / Barcelona Producció, 19/20, Artificialia: WunderChapel, Barcelona Loop Festival, 2020. In 2021 his work Fungi Fantasy and their friends Crazy Bacteria was acquired by the MACBA collection
Short papers / Crossing Art, Science and Technology for Innovations through Maker Culture and Education
Abstract: The maker culture, flourishing around the world across the last decade in the form of public, corporate and underground maker-spaces or diverse DIY/DIWO workshop programs presents one of the most important trends in experience-based learning, which often takes place not only informally, but also unconsciously, for example through embodied cognition. Upon this background and along several cases of projects, artworks, institutional alliances and initiatives, the article presents an emerging model for experiencing and learning through interdisciplinary collaborations between art and entrepreneurship. These practices are demonstrating new possibilities for disciplinary crossovers permeated by artistic thinking, such that are particularly fruitful for social, but also for technological innovation, which is confirmed by the current DIVA project as treated in the article. Art Thinking proves to be a key novel approach in the innovation cycle that may be integrated into formal education curricula, business practices and community learning alike, which was proven by the recently finished MAST project as discussed in this contribution. A concrete convergence of the above principles and concepts is finally presented through the concept and process of the current project xMobil as an example of blending maker methodologies with the art-thinking based crossover innovation approach.
Biography: Peter Purg, PhD is Associate Professor at both Arts and Humanities, University of Nova Gorica, whose new-media art (thinking) practice ranges from performance to education and interdisciplinary research. He is Dean of the School of Humanities and New Media module lead as well as coordinator of international projects such as MAST, konS or DIVA.
Kristina Pranjić, PhD is Assistant Professor at both Humanities and Arts, working across fields of avantgarde art, semiotics and contemporary aesthetics. She teaches Theory and History of Art and Media and is module leader of Discourses in Practice at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica.
Jernej Čuček Gerbec, MA is and editor, writer and artist that works as an expert at University of Nova Gorica and an editor at Koridor – križišča umetnosti, a platform for art criticism that covers film/tv, literature, music, theater and non/contemporary art practices, he is editor of the latter.
Short papers / E-Waste: The Unnatural, Natural Resource | A Case Study on Creative Uses of Obsolete Technology
Abstract: With many issues surrounding our high-tech products including: 1) planned obsolescence, 2) a linear “cradle-to-grave” life cycle, 3) the accumulation of electronic waste (e-waste), and 4) consumer culture, there is potential in finding practical/creative solutions to reusing/repurposing our obsolete technology. These solutions not only benefit the consumer, but also the communities that are affected by the growing e-waste problem. These issues analyzed through a case study where an artist converts a typewriter into a USB printer using the design principles laid out in this paper, including the use of open-source hardware and software as well as incorporating adaptive design for future updates. While it is unfortunate that our massive accumulation of e-waste has turned this material into an unnatural, natural resource that can be foraged, there is potential for projects (both practical and creative).
Biography:
Erik Contreras is an interdisciplinary designer and engineer with a background in mechanical engineering and rapid prototyping. His work involves prolonging the lifespan of consumer electronics and finding alternative uses for post-consumer products. His design philosophy seeks to promote user repair, modification, and reuse for consumer products. As an advocate for the right to repair, he wishes to develop products and prototypes that “welcomes the end-user, inside and out”.
Erik typically uses a hands-on approach towards his work/research and can be found hacking obsolete tech or 3D printing custom parts in his home machine shop. With technology being part of every aspect of life in the Bay Area, there also a vast accumulation of e-waste in the community. With e-waste being readily available, Erik feels the material is an “unnatural, natural resource” when it comes to finding parts and inspiration for his prototypes.
Short papers / The Voice of the Machine Audience
Abstract: Smart devices in the home, like Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri, form a non-human but increasingly present audience in our daily life and activities. This hidden audience expresses a certain voice, in the agential sense, by cultivating and shaping how we address it. This is an acousmatic voice in Michel Chion’s sense of it, and is worth thinking about as a rhetorical form, with such media devices shaping and coaxing our behavior, blurring the line between speaker and audience, human and non-human, agent and machine.
Biography: Anthony Stagliano is a scholar of rhetoric and a filmmaker/media artist, whose research concerns creative interventions into technologies of surveillance, biometrics, and control. His monograph on that research is under contract with the University of Alabama Press. His films and media art works have been shown in festivals and galleries around the world. His feature narrative film, Fade, was released theatrically, on DVD, and to streaming platforms.
Short papers / When the others are the machines: the challenge of relating to the new craftsman
Abstract: This article proposes to reflect on artistic creativity in the artificial dimension, experienced under the dynamics of co-creation, in which a new interactor emerges from cyberspace – we call it the new craftsman. The article will discuss characteristics of a scenario in which the development of artificial works seems to suggest the repositioning of the authorial discourse, articulating changes that allow us to assimilate the metamorphosis that symbolizes both a new generation of techno-images and a new moment for art-science, through a new poetics that manifests itself in a context of expanded hybridization between bodies of different natures: both organic and inorganic. Starting from the time frame that is established in the 1960s, we propose a discourse oriented to reshape the relations between human and non-human beings and suggest ways to think Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an attitude that values the differences between biological and synthetic thinking. We conclude the article by suggesting the reasons why we believe that creation with AI seems to be the greatest revolution since the advent of photography.
Biography: PhD student in Visual Arts at the Institute of Arts, University of Campinas (Unicamp). Current research interests are focused on the investigation of new technologies and artificial intelligence in image generation, articulating the role of the artist and the role of the machine: human beings and inorganic intelligent entities are here considered bodies of different natures, somewhat equivalent systems. Issues such as machine coauthory, subversion of technology by the artist, and the problems associated with the standardization of technologies, controlled by oligopolies, are part of the discussion surrounding the paradigm of the “new craftsman”.
Short papers / AI Art and the “Transparent Author”
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies seem novel in an artistic context yet, by exploring certain proposed new terms, I aim to demonstrate that the practice of ‘relinquishment’ of creative activity has its roots in art history. The following questions will be addressed in the paper: can such a ‘relinquishment-technique’ be considered a universal mechanism for artistic inspiration? Can we find something similar in surrealistic techniques? Is the author disappearing or becoming ‘transparent’ when abandonment of creative activity occurs? Does AI-based art assume the transparency of the author and is it possible that artworks can be created by other artworks? The terms ‘linear’, ‘circular’ and ‘closed-loop’ concept transfer will be analysed with regard to interactive artworks.
Biography: Raivo Kelomees,PhD (art history), is an artist, critic and new media researcher. He studied psychology, art history and design in Tartu University and the Academy of Arts in Tallinn. He is senior researcher at the Fine Arts Faculty at the Estonian Academy of Arts and professor at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences. Kelomees is author of Surrealism (Kunst Publishers, 1993) and article collections Screen as a Membrane (Tartu Art College proceedings, 2007) and Social Games in Art Space (EAA, 2013). His doctoral thesis is Postmateriality in Art. Indeterministic Art Practices and Non-Material Art (Dissertationes Academiae Artium Estoniae 3, 2009). Together with Chris Hales he edited the collection of articles Constructing Narrative in Interactive Documentaries (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014).
Short papers / Extensions of Reality: Plants and the Technological Virtual
Abstract: This paper explores a selection of mixed, virtual and extended reality artworks (MR/VR/XR), through the theoretical lens of posthumanism applied to media art, as well as practice-led conjunctions of media and devices. Exploring recent works by the authors’ and others, we speculate on plant blindness and homo sapiens immersion in the ‘technological virtual’, arguing this is not necessarily a retreat from the organic. The context of this paper is the ongoing pandemic, where artists have been forced to re-form their practices online, in the sphere of the technological virtual. For artist’s working with plants as co-composers, this challenge involves avoiding the evolutionary trap of ‘plant blindness’, while utilising algorithmic processes that are programmed to be blind to the organic.
Short papers / Polyphonic Materiality in Extended Reality
Abstract: Much human-computer interaction design (HCI) research on materiality investigates the ways in which computational qualities become embedded within physical materials, often under the banner of ‘the material turn’. With the development of extended reality (XR) and the emerging metaverse, how might we understand and articulate the qualities and agencies of digital materials as they overlay, embed and replace the physical world? This paper advocates for an ontology of digital materials to understand how they actualise in the world without being tangible, providing a way for XR designers and artists to critically work with them as part of an assemblage. It will introduce an idea of polyphonic materiality, drawing on Anna Lowenhaupt-Tsing’s concept of polyphonic assemblage. It will locate digital materiality within Giles Deleuze’s idea of the virtual and actual, and Karen Barad’s concept of agential realism. This provides a conceptual underpinning to the proposition of polyphonic materiality as a typology for doing XR design, where material properties emerge as various physical and digital processes coalesce or intersect.
Biography: I am an artist living on unceded Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung land in Narrm/Melbourne Australia. I am interested in network culture, working with code, installation and textiles to create interactive surfaces exploring thresholds between the physical and the digital, often extended with augmented reality. My practice tends to the connections between humans and technology, seeking to create sites of respite and resistance that think through alternative agendas for networked technologies. I have exhibited in Australia and abroad, with funding and commissions from a range of organisations, including in 2020 and 2021 from the University of Queensland Art Museum. I am a PhD candidate in Design at RMIT and a lecturer in Interior Design.
Short papers / Laboratorio de luz. More than 30 years of research in art, science and technology in the Spanish panorama
Abstract: In 2022, the Laboratorio de Luz (UPV) will be 32 years old, and it is a good time to reflect, and to share that reflection, on the contributions and positions of the work carried out by this group of researchers and artistic collective that is considered one of the first university, Art and Science nodes on the Spanish scene. Rethinking our work in this presentation framed within the “artist talk” format also implies reviewing the conditions of possibility that existed in the Spanish context 30 years ago and those that exist today for art research-science-technology.
Biography: Laboratorio de Luz is a spanish Medialab focused in Art and technology hosted in the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia founded in 1990.
Short papers / Telewindow: a flexible system for exploring 3d immersive telepresence using commodity depth cameras
Abstract: Video conferencing has become an essential part of everyday life for many people. However, traditional 2D video calls leave much to be desired. Eye-contact, multiple viewpoints, and 3D spatial awareness all make video conferencing much more immersive. We present TeleWindow: a frame with mountable volumetric cameras that attaches to a display for immersive 3D video conferencing. The full system consists of a 3D display and a frame with up to four volumetric cameras. Our system was flexible conceptually as well as physically. We intended our research to be “unfettered” rather than focus and directed, e.g., for anything directly entrepreneurial and commercial: “art as unsupervised research”. In contrast to similar work, our focus was on making an accessible system for exploring immersive teleconferencing so cost of materials and required technical knowledge is kept to a minimum. We present a technical baseline for immersive, easily replicable 3D teleconferencing.
Biography:
David Santiano:
David Santiano is a researcher and technologist that likes to perform scrappy and artsy research to explore possible and impossible avenues in new media and technology.
Cameron Ballard:
Cameron Ballard is currently completing his PhD in computer science at NYU Tandon’s Center for Cybersecurity. His current work focuses on the sociotechnical implications of social media, especially applying data science methods to understand the financial ecosystem behind online disinformation.
Before joining the Center for Cybersecurity, Cameron completed his undergraduate degree at NYU Shanghai, and stayed on as a researcher for the Telewindow project. In addition to his academic pursuits, Cameron co-founded Raditube, a research tool to study disinformation and radicalization on YouTube.
Michael Naimark:
Michael Naimark is an artist, inventor, and scholar in the fields of virtual reality and new media art. He is best known for his work in projection mapping, virtual travel, live global video, and cultural preservation, and often refers to this body of work as “place representation”. Naimark has been awarded 16 patents relating to cameras, display, haptics, and live, and his work has been seen nearly 400 art exhibitions, film festivals, and presentations around the world. He was the 2002 recipient of the World Technology Award for the Arts.
Since 2009, Naimark has served as faculty at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and the MIT Media Lab. In 2015, Naimark was appointed Google’s first-ever “VR resident artist” in their new VR division. Since 2017, Naimark has served as visiting faculty at NYU Shanghai, where he taught VR/AR Fundamentals and directed research on online telepresence.
Short papers / CHIME Design Lab: Community-centred, Collaborative Health Innovation partnered with Medical Education
Abstract: In Canada, healthcare and health professions education, in particular medical education, are grounded in structures of coloniality, oppression, heteropatriarchy and a variety of “-isms” (racism, sexism, ableism, classism). Like in other parts of the world, deep-rooted and enduring health disparities exist for many different groups. Change is needed urgently.
Multi-faceted approaches are required to achieve the required changes at both the upstream level– training new generations of physicians, as well as at mid- and downstream levels– providing equitable access to care and services needed to alleviate current health burdens faced by marginalized populations. To help address this challenge, we have conceived an approach that combines community collaboration, medical education, arts, humanities, and design. CHIME Design Lab aims to be a physical and social space where a wide range of stakeholders–members of marginalized groups, professionals from a variety of domains in and outside healthcare, as well as students and trainees, and other interested members of the general public– can together creatively and safely explore healthcare problems, test potential solutions and propose equitable, just alternatives to the status quo.
Biography: Savita Rani is a physician by training and artist by spirit. She is a Desi woman and a first-generation immigrant settler in Canada. She is a resident physician in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at University of Saskatchewan, and has a Master of Public Health from Queen’s University. Savita is the current Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Health Humanities. She has a special interest in bringing arts and humanities into medical education and public health as tools for practice, teaching, learning and reflection. Her poetry, writing and artwork have been published in international health humanities journals including Ars Medica, Pulse, and Intima: a Journal of Narrative Medicine. Website: https://savitarani.wixsite.com/creative
Pamela Brett-MacLean is an associate professor in Psychiatry at the University of Alberta. She is director of the Arts & Humanities in Health & Medicine (AHHM) program in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.
Patrick von Hauff is a professional designer in health professions education at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. He is committed to design as a crucial and universal means of participation in society.
Lori Hanson is an associate professor in Community Health & Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research and teaching focus on issues related to the political economy of health that arises through community organizing, locally and globally.
Short papers / Online Possibles: Internet Spaces in a Postdigital World
Abstract: When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, artists and institutions moved online while trying to recreate the experience of art and the gallery experience onscreens. For the most part, this shift of attention to the internet as an exhibition space lacked the experimental quality of net art forerunners and their unique explorations of space where gravity is irrelevant and references such as vertical/horizontal, bidimensional and three-dimensional are outdated. This paper explores the notion of Possibles in relation to screen-based art and asks what kind of spaces can be imagined as we move towards a post-pandemic future.
Biography: Erandy Vergara-Vargas (MX) is a Montreal-based curator and scholar. Her main research interests include global art histories, climate responsibility, curatorial studies, equity, internet cultures and widespread bias in algorithms. She earned a MA at Concordia University and a PhD in Art History at McGill University. Recent shows include ISEA2020: Why Sentience? (Printemps numérique, Montreal); Eva and Franco Mattes: What Has Been Seen (Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain, 2019); Speculative Cultures: A Virtual Reality Art Exhibition, curated with Tina Sauerländer (Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York, 2019). Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Sociability of Sleep Project, Université de Montréal, and artistic director of Printemps numérique.
Short papers / Complex acquisitions: understanding the infrastructural properties of born-digital objects in museum collections
Abstract: Whilst born-digital collections continue to be developed in several museums internationally, this paper contributes to debates as to how we conceptualise born-digital objects. Many complex artifacts of digital culture, in fact, elude the behavior of traditional collected objects. Here, we concentrate on three examples to illustrate different degrees to which born-digital museum acquisitions can be understood as infrastructures. By examining an immersive reality piece, a procedurally generated film, and a digital platform, this paper addresses hybridity, fluid relationships across the main and auxiliary parts of an acquisition, and the lack of clear boundaries to define what the collected object is. It concludes that developing deeper understandings of the infrastructural properties of born-digital museum acquisitions could support changes in institutional practice and thinking to better accommodate this emergent area of collecting.
Biography: Dr Gabi Arrigoni is a researcher in the field of Digital Cultural Heritage.Her research interests include the process of preserving and remembering the recent past and the heritage of digital culture. She has co-edited the volume European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practice for Routledge and a number of articles and book chapters and in the field of digital cultural heritage.
Short papers / Virtual museums: heritage and future of mediated UX?
Abstract: This article intends to carry out an analysis of the factors that have inherited the experiences of face-to-face visits to museums with those that are developed through virtual platforms. This analysis has been developed using a hermeneutical analysis of categories applied by the authors through multimodality with the intention to expand the reflection on this subject, as well as to provide a broader point of view. In addition to this, we have identified how in recent publications other authors have been expressing similar points of view, which allows us to generate a comparative framework. The interest in these study categories is oriented on the potential that museums have in promoting virtual settings, outside of physical spaces that can promote the construction of deep meaning in learning at different levels of training. Furthermore, we carried out a review of the connotations that different virtualized experiences in museums have, and how these can promote different levels of construction of meaning based on what the subject is explained, what they feel or experience during their virtual visit. A classification is then proposed in which the multimodal typologies of virtualization relate to the possibilities of construction of meaning through museums.
Biography: D.A. Restrepo-Quevedo. Professor and researcher at the University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano for the Academic Area of Visual and Interactive Design. Director of TadeoLab, Laboratory of Creativity, Innovation and Collaborative Work of UTadeo. Holds studies in Graphic Design, in Multimedia Creation Specialization, Master’s Degree in Interaction Design and User Experience Design, PhD in Design and Creation and PostPhD in Education, Social Sciences and Interculturality. UTadeo’s leading consultant on issues of Cultural Industries, Creative Districts, and Innovation for Productivity for state entities and local governments. His research has several fronts, ranging from the operation of the mind in the learning process to the production of meaning and experience through interaction with cognitive artefacts. He is the author of various articles and papers reflecting, through cognitive science, on the influence of modal forms, creativity, and motivation profiles for the management and transmission of knowledge within communities.
Raquel Caerols Mateo. Holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a PhD in Applied Creativity from the Faculty of Fine Arts, both from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, in new media. As a researcher, she has been responsible for the project Cyberculture & New Media Art, publicly funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, in the call for the Promotion of Contemporary Art. She has also been a researcher on numerous competitive research projects such as: Creation and studies of the CAAC (Collections and Archives of Contemporary art) of Cuenca as a methodological model for research excellence in Fine Arts; or Title: The electrographic and digital art collections of the MIDE. Management, conservation, restoration and dissemination of its collections; o Spanish Media Archive. He is currently coordinating the creation of the MediaLab Madrid Archive (2002-2006).
Felipe César Londoño López. Dean Faculty Arts and Design. University Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Colombia. Former President Universidad de Caldas. Colombia (2014-2018). Founder and Director of International Image Festival, an event held since 1997, in Manizales, Colombia, integrating art, science and technology (http://festivaldelaimagen.com/en/) and curator of Monographic Show of Media Art and exhibitions of the ImageFest. Felipe was co-founder of the Department of Visual Design, director of Master and PhD in Design & Creation, director of PhD in Design & Creation, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, professor participant of PhD in Multimedia Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, Spain, director of the research group DICOVI – Design and visual cognition in virtual environments (A1). He has published several books, including: “Landscapes and new territories. Mapping and interactions in visual and virtual environments”, his doctoral thesis: “Interfaces of Virtual Communities”, the research: “Patterns of Color”, “DIGITAL DESIGN. Methodology for creating interactive projects”, among others.
Short papers / Possi(A)bilities: Augmented Reality experiences of possible motor abilities enabled by a video-projected virtual hand
Abstract: We introduce “Possi(A)bilities,” an Augmented Reality concept and system that presents users sitting at a table with animated visualizations of a virtual hand projected on the tabletop next to the user’s own hand. As a combination of possibilities and abilities, possi(a)bilities focus on the motor abilities of the human hand in the synchrony between the physical and the virtual, and constitute into a medium for examining and reflecting on the nature of diverse abilities that become possible when transcending the physical world and the individual’s agency. Ultimately, possi(a)bilities question assumptions, norms, and accepted definitions of motor ability and skill in the context of hybrid, physical-virtual worlds.
Biography: Radu-Daniel Vatavu is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Suceava, where he directs the MintViz Lab. His research interests include human-computer interaction, ambient intelligence, AR/MR, and accessible computing. Contact him at [email protected].
Short papers / The Weird, the Cute and the Dark: How to Account for Aesthetics When Working on Awareness about Design Patterns
Abstract: This paper presents the design and set up of the robotic media arts installation ‘Accept All’. We discuss how this art piece bears legacy of previous work in both media arts as the academic field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI), and touches upon contemporary topics of political awareness, trust and data representation. Accept All covers five different aesthetic design choices for robot design, each contributing to the topic in its own way. The last part of the paper proposes to explore the paradoxical stance that media artists have to adopt when dealing with issues such as dark patterns.
Biography: Guillaume Slizewicz is a designer living in Brussels, Belgium. He is a member of Tropozone, Algolit and Urban Species. He focuses on the surprise created by misused hardware systems, the poetry of algorithms and the contact points between technology and the environment. His practice is about translating and making visible social issues via installations and artworks. His prototyping and creation process involves machine learning, electronics and digital fabrication. While each project is different, they convey interrogations and explorations through aesthetically pleasing and exciting forms, most of the time interactive. In his projects, Guillaume Slizewicz usually collaborates with other artists, researchers and designers to make sure multiple points of view and types of information on the subject at hand are taken into account. In the previous years, he worked on several topics including surveillance technologies, air quality, automatic language processing and the relationship between humans and plants.
Sandy Claes currently holds a faculty position at LUCA School of Arts. In her research work, she focuses on the overlap between media, technology and public space. Previously, she has worked as a lead user researcher at the innovation department of public broadcaster VRT. Sandy received her PhD in Engineering Science (2017) from the KU Leuven university in Belgium with her work on public visualization. Her research work has been published at international, peer reviewed conferences concerning the human factor of interactive technologies and design, such as CHI, NordiCHI and DIS. She served as an Associate Chair for CHI Late Breaking Work (2019) and the full paper track of NordiCHI (2020) and INTERACT (2021). Sandy has a background as a master in audiovisual arts (2005). Her audiovisual work has been awarded on several international film festivals; such as I Castelli Animati in Rome and The international short film festival of Leuven, and has been exhibited at several international venues; such as LABoral, Madrid and Museum M, Leuven. With this mixed background of science, design and arts, Sandy approaches research projects from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint.
ESDi School of Design – I ARA QUÈ?: TRASH_TALK EN VR
“I ARA QUÈ?” it is located at the intersection of an exhausted ecosystem and a pandemic that makes us question all our ways of life. “I ARA QUÈ?” is a set of works developed at ESDi that seek sustainable alternatives and sensitive responses to a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate. In this context, “TRASH_TALK” is a multimedia research exposed in virtual reality. It is a test of questions at the crossroads of the development of turbocapitalism 4.0, a planet filled with garbage, artificial intelligence and killer whales. Do computer files rot? What are the consequences of the loneliness of an image? Can I recycle.jpeg? Are there any orphan sounds? Can we sing a lullaby to the machines? Can I fall in love with software? What if the flood was virtual? Can I build circles in the cloud? Of all the files, why did you choose that? And of all the people, why did you choose me? In the exhibition, visitors will be immersed in a virtual stage in which they will have the opportunity to see 3 sculptures made with recycled digital material in addition to some interactive pieces such as music, videos, etc.
“I ARA QUÈ?” se situa a la intersecció entre un ecosistema exhaust i una pandèmia que ens fa qüestionar totes les nostres maneres de viure. “I ARA QUÈ?” és un conjunt d’obres desenvolupades a l’ESDi que busquen alternatives sostenibles i respostes sensibles a un món que canvia a una velocitat sense precedents. En aquest context, “TRASH_TALK” és una investigació multimedial exposada en realitat virtual. És un assaig de preguntes a la cruïlla del desenvolupament del turbocapitalisme 4.0, un planeta que s’omple d’escombraries, intel·ligència artificial i balenes assassines. Es podreixen els arxius informàtics? Quines són les conseqüències de la solitud duna imatge? Puc reciclar.jpeg? Hi ha sons orfes? Podem cantar una nana a les màquines? Em puc enamorar d’un software? I si el diluvi fos virtual? Puc construir cercles al núvol? De tots els arxius, per què vas triar aquest? I de tota la gent, per què em vas triar a mi? A la mostra els visitants se submergiran en un escenari virtual en el qual tindran l’oportunitat de veure 3 escultures fetes amb material digital reciclat a més d’algunes peces interactives com música, vídeos etc.
Abstract: In recent decades, new media art archives have multiplied and diversified across digital networks and online platforms, contributing to the creation of instant and unruly archives that often emerge in unforeseen and involuntarily ways. Concomitantly, our relationships with archival documents, new media, art institutions, and the historical, social, and political realities they pertain to have changed. Based on case studies discussed in previous panels, this roundtable addresses participants, first and foremost, as viewers themselves to think about how visual and archival literacy can be disseminated in order to respond to this unprecedented proliferation of new media art archives in more critical and engaged ways. Beyond questions of authorship, ownership, copyright, and consent, we will address issues around responsibility, authority, dignity, colonialism, and care to draw out the differences between performing and practicing ethics in and of new media art archives. Encouraging self-critical and self-reflexive perspectives, this roundtable invites users, artists, curators, and scholars to confront the complex and often ambiguous ethics vis-à-vis the subjects of new media art archives and to recognise our agency as well as complicity in ethical transgressions as equally responsible viewers and listeners.
Biography: Lisa Deml is a Midlands4Cities funded doctoral researcher at Birmingham City University. She holds degrees in Art History and Philosophy from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Initially trained as a journalist, she subsequently worked for public cultural institutions and non-profit organisations internationally, including Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Her research interests focus on visual articulations of citizenship, particularly in the framework of documentary and new media practices in the Middle East and North Africa.
Nathalia Lavigne is an art writer and curator, a Ph.D. Candidate at Architecture and Urbanism College, University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), and a former visiting scholar at The New School. She is a contributor to Artforum International, Contemporary And (C&), Folha de São Paulo, among others; and has an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. Among the exhibitions she curated are Against, Again: Art Under Attack in Brazil (2020) at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, New York; and Disappearance Tactics (2021) at Paço das Artes, São Paulo. She is currently a visiting researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and has been awarded a DAAD scholarship in 2021.
Round table / Towards a Global Distributed Network of New Media Art Archives
Abstract: Online new media art archives exist throughout the world and contain a rich history of the research, events, artifacts, and people that helped to define the field of new media art. The purpose of this round table discussion is to brainstorm the idea of developing a world-wide network of online new media art archives. This distributed connection among archives would enable easy access to related information and benefits both users and archive administrators. This effort raises many questions and presents unique challenges but through the input of the new media art archiving community, solutions and a path forward will be forged.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Oliver Grau (DE) is first Chair Professor for Image Science in the German-speaking countries at the Danube University since 2005 and has held more than 350 lectures and keynotes. Grau’s “Virtual Art,” (2003) is the most quoted art history monograph since 2000. He conceived scientific tools for digital humanities like the Archive for Digital Art (ADA, since 1999) and developed international MA programs like Image Science and the joint master in MediaArtsCultures. Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conferences. He has received several awards for books including Mediale Emotionen (2005), Imagery in the 21st Century (2011), recently: Digital Art through the Looking Glass (2020). 2014 he received a doctor h.c., 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea.
Short papers / The sonic body: creating embodied sonic performances within an extended reality context
Abstract: This paper presents “The Sonic Body”, a research-creation project conducted between May-September 2021 that studied methods of creating embodied sonic performances and installations within an extended reality (XR) context. I explain two prototypes created for the project, outline the strategies I used and rationale behind the design choices, and summarize the results of my research. The prototypes explore contrasting methods of engaging with sound in an embodied way: one employing the use of head-mounted augmented reality (AR) and the other muscle sensors and material interaction. As my methodology relied on a self-reflexive approach, I focus on my personal experience as an artist designing these prototypes. Two research questions guided this project and inform this paper: How can new types of interactive audio affected and enhanced by bodily movement and gesture affect the experience of listening and connection to the environment? How can such interactive listening systems be designed to better encourage this sense of connectedness? Ultimately, this paper showcases “The Sonic Body” project, conveys the findings of the research questions from the research results and offers insight into how AR and muscle sensing technology might be used to create a real-time, embodied sound art installation and performance.
Biography: Maxime Gordon is a Canadian sound and new media artist. In her work Gordon is interested in exploring the boundaries of sound, architectural space and the human body. Through sound art, performance, and installations or a combination of these media she creates immersive art works that offer a looking glass into various intersections of humanity and technology. Gordon’s work has been shown at Monom in Berlin (Germany), the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest (Hungary), and the OutsideInsideOut residency in Stadt Wehlen (Germany).
DïaloG, Refik Anadol and Maurice Benayoun
DïaloG is an interactive urban media art installation exploring the themes of alterity, strangeness, and immigration, in a performative way. The work presents two pieces that are at the same time artworks and aliens. They are confronted with a new environment where they don’t belong to… yet. They will have to adapt their language, build common knowledge, integrating all new artifacts and natural phenomena that constitute now their environment.
This includes the other living beings moving around them, and, eventually, they will have to understand each other. While we use the concept of language very broadly to include speech, performance, gesture, utterance, and even data, we focus on strangeness from an ontological perspective, trying to mark a terrain of possibilities for the intersection of interpersonal and digital experiences in the urban sphere. MoBen and Refik Anadol take the notion of “dia-logos” (through-word, through speech) embedded in the etymological roots of the word “dialogue”, more understood as an informational thread processed through an iterative feedback loop between perception, and expression, and push it to a level of transactional complexity activating the potential difference between virtuality and visuality.
In this way, we aim to create a unique, site-specific language between each of both works we are presenting as living entities and their unknown public, and also, between our works that are initially alien to each other – a language of unexpected and indefinable machine expressions that adapt themselves to the constant flow of data representing real-time environmental, societal, and human actions.
DïaloG is made of two “living” visual dynamic entities facing each other in the public space. They don’t look like the living beings we know. They don’t speak any language we know. They are aliens, strangers, immigrants. They are clearly – and desperately – trying to understand each other, to understand their new environment and their strange public. DïaloG reflects on the difficulty of building a mutual understanding beyond social and cultural differences.
All that makes living beings what they are: their morphology, their behavior, their ethology, and, beyond language, their cognitive functions make the laborious process of learning from strangeness and alterity a reality. Dotted with ever-growing perceptive and cognitive capacities, aware of its environment, the artwork is now able to adapt itself, to evolve and to communicate as would a more advanced living entity do. DïaloG tries to epitomize the emergence of the artwork as a subject, not only able to learn from its environment but also to dialogue with its public, and even, it may be a bigger challenge, trying to understand other artworks.
Supported by MindSpaces, funded by the European HORIZON 2020-S+T+ARTS program
Opening: Saturday June 11th 7pm-10pm.
DïaloG és una instal·lació interactiva d’art mediàtic urbà que explora els temes de l’alteritat, l’estranyesa i la immigració, d’una manera performativa. L’obra presenta dues peces que són alhora obres d’art i extraterrestres. S’enfronten a un nou entorn al qual no pertanyen… encara. Hauran d’adaptar el seu llenguatge, construir coneixements comú, integrant tots els nous artefactes i fenòmens naturals que constitueixen ara el seu entorn.
Això inclou els altres éssers vius que es mouen al seu voltant i, finalment, s’hauran d’entendre. Tot i que utilitzem el concepte de llenguatge de manera molt àmplia per incloure la parla, l’actuació, el gest, l’enunciat i fins i tot les dades, ens centrem en l’estranyesa des d’una perspectiva ontològica, intentant marcar un terreny de possibilitats per a la intersecció d’experiències interpersonals i digitals en l’àmbit urbà. esfera. MoBen i Refik Anadol prenen la noció de “dia-logos” (a través de la paraula, a través de la parla) incrustada a les arrels etimològiques de la paraula “diàleg”, més entesa com un fil informatiu processat mitjançant un bucle de retroalimentació iteratiu entre la percepció i l’expressió i portar-lo a un nivell de complexitat transaccional activant la diferència de potencial entre virtualitat i visualitat.
D’aquesta manera, pretenem crear un llenguatge únic i específic del lloc entre cadascuna de les dues obres que presentem com a entitats vives i el seu públic desconegut, i també, entre les nostres obres que inicialment són alienes les unes a les altres: un llenguatge d’inesperat i inesperat. expressions màquines indefinibles que s’adapten al flux constant de dades que representen accions ambientals, socials i humanes en temps real.
DïaloG està format per dues entitats dinàmiques visuals “vives” enfrontades a l’espai públic. No s’assemblen als éssers vius que coneixem. No parlen cap idioma que coneixem. Són extraterrestres, desconeguts, immigrants. Estan clarament -i desesperadament- intentant entendre’s, entendre el seu nou entorn i el seu públic estrany. DïaloG reflexiona sobre la dificultat de construir una comprensió mútua més enllà de les diferències socials i culturals.
Tot això fa que els éssers vius siguin el que són: la seva morfologia, el seu comportament, la seva etologia i, més enllà del llenguatge, les seves funcions cognitives fan realitat el laboriós procés d’aprenentatge de l’estranyesa i l’alteritat. Esquitxada de capacitats perceptives i cognitives cada cop més grans, conscient del seu entorn, l’obra d’art és ara capaç d’adaptar-se, d’evolucionar i de comunicar-se com ho faria un ésser viu més avançat. DïaloG intenta plasmar l’emergència de l’obra d’art com a subjecte, no només capaç d’aprendre del seu entorn sinó també de dialogar amb el seu públic, i fins i tot, pot ser un repte més gran, intentar entendre altres obres d’art.
Amb el suport de MindSpaces, finançat pel programa europeu HORIZON 2020-S+T+ARTS
Inauguració: dissabte 11 de juny de 19 a 22 h.
Sónar – SónarÀgora & Screenings
ISEA2022 Barcelona and Sónar, with the coordination of the new Art, Science and Technology Hub from Barcelona, Hac Te, present an alliance with the aim of promoting the rellations between the academic and research community, the artists and the public.
Within this collaboration, Sónar co-presents three sessions of screenings from ISEA Conference Programon the topic of future possibilities regarding gender, environment, human rights and machines.
At the same time, ISEA2022 Barcelona collaborates in the new SonarÀgoradebate area, which will host a series of masterclasses, workshops and other activities. These are aimed at professionals in the creative industries, designed to help them get to grips with the themes of Sónar+D 2022 (Web3, AI, Ecology).
ISEA2022 Barcelona i Sónar, sota la coordinació del nou Hub d’Art, Ciència i Tencologia de Barcelona, Hac Te, s’alien amb l’objectiu de promoure les sinergies entre la comunitat acadèmica i centrada en la recerca, els artistes i el públic.
En el marc d’aquesta col·laboració, Sónar co-presenta tres sessions de screenings de l’ISEA Conference Programque abordaran els futurs possibles en relació a temàtiques con el gènere, el mediambient, els drets humans o les relacions entre persones i màquines.
Alhora, ISEA2022 Barcelona col·labora en el nou SonarÀgora, un espai de debat que acollirà una sèrie de masterclasses, workshops i altres activitats. Estan dirigides a professionals de les indústries creatives amb la finalitat d’ajudar-los a aprofundir en els temes de Sónar+D 2022 (Web3, IA, Ecologia).
Mapping Cité Mémoire in Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau
H2Emotion invites the public to see on June 14, 15 and 16 to a new version of the mapping from the renowned Cité Mémoire Montreal projection circuit, open to all the public. The whole project and production are a gift commissioned, produced and funded by the Bureau du Québec.
The Grand Tableau from Cité Mémoire will be projected onto the façade of the Sant Pau Hospital during three nights. It is a journey through the key periods in Montreal’s history and a look at more than 375 years of history.
Created by multidisciplinary artists Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon in collaboration with playwright Michel Marc Bouchard, the majestic digital work takes a poetic and playful look on the city of Montreal through images, words and music.
For this event, projections are at the following schedule:
H2Emotion convida el públic a veure el 14, 15 i 16 de juny una nova versió del mapping de Cité Mémoire Montreal obert a tot el públic. El projecte i la producció són un obsequi encarregat, produït i finançat pel Bureau du Québec.
El Grand Tableau de Cité Mémoire es projectarà a la façana de l’Hospital de Sant Pau durant tres nits. Es tracta d’un viatge pels períodes clau de la història de Montreal amb un repàs per més de 375 anys d’història.
Creat pels artistes multidisciplinaris Michel Lemieux i Victor Pilon en col·laboració amb el dramaturg Michel Marc Bouchard, la majestuosa obra digital dóna una mirada poètica i lúdica a la ciutat de Montreal a través d’imatges, paraules i música.
Abstract: The archive of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) aims to conserve the museum’s documentary heritage and promote research into contemporary art. The archive preserves documentation of special historical value generated by MACBA and other individuals and organizations related to contemporary art practices. This document collection, built around the discursive lines of MACBA, is shown to the public through exhibitions and activities. The museum has developed the MACBA Digital Repository, an online archive, to preserve and disseminate the digital art and documentary collections.
Biography: Marta M. Vega is head of the MACBA archive and library. She holds degrees in Art history and Documentation from the University of Barcelona. Her previous experience in libraries includes the Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. She co-authored the e-pub on museum archives Folding the exhibition, MeLa Project, 2014.
Invited talk – Evanescent records
Photo by Tristán Pérez-Martín
Abstract: “Evanescent records” is a 10 minute talk about an artistic research project on obsolete sound recording devices through the personal archive of musician Victor Nubla. It reflects on artistic research methodologies and embodied approaches to the idea of archive.
Biography: Constanza Brnčić is a dancer, choreographer, graduated in Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona, Master degree in Contemporary Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona, and she is finishing her PHD in Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona. She is the director of Choreography Degree at Conservatory Superior of Dance / Institut del Teatre. Photo by Roman Rubert.
This research is also developed by Blanca Tolsà, dancer, Alfredo Costa-Monteiro, musician. Tristán Pérez-Martín, Photographer.
Short papers / Mapping the atmospheric in school buildings: Digital art-based participatory inquiry with youth
Abstract: Creative experiments with wearable technologies and speculative engagements with digital sensory data foreground the need of reinventing learning environments to reclaim sensory and somesthetic relationality, while interrogating the passive collection of sensory data by sensors ubiquitously embedded in everyday spaces and learning processes. This paper discusses an arts-based project of mapping the sensory-affective dimensions of school environments in collaboration with a group of participating-students (16-18 year-olds). The mixed media maps offer dynamic digital representations of staff and students’ experiences of the school buildings, shedding light on problematic spaces in the built environment. The paper discusses processes in which digital-sensory devices allowed young people to further their attunement towards previously unconsidered aspects of school atmospheres, while exploring the pliability of their sensory capacity in reconfiguring and reimagining those environments.
Biography: Laura Trafí-Prats is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Laura’s research engages with and responds to children and young people’s sensory, material and atmospheric experiences in a variety of contexts including urban spaces, the natural environment and school buildings. Laura is co-editor of the book Visual Participatory Arts Based Research in the City: Ontology, Aesthetics and Ethics (Routledge, 2022). She is the PI of the ESRC funded project Mapping Spatial Practices and Social Distancing in Smart Schools: Sensory and Digital Ethnographic Methods.
Elizabeth de Freitas is a professor at Adelphi University. Her research explores innovative data methodologies in the social sciences, anthropological and philosophical investigations of digital life, and cultural-material studies of mathematical practices in complex learning environments. Her work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the US National Science Foundation, and the UK Economic and Social Research Council. She is co-Pi (and former PI) of the ESRC funded project Mapping Spatial Practices and Social Distancing in Smart Schools: Sensory and Digital Ethnographic Methods.
Acknowledgements The authors recognize the contributions of RA Isabel McCauley, along with the youth in our partner school, in supporting the ethnographic research process in which this paper is based. They also acknowledge UK’s Education and Social Research Council as main funder of the project.
Short papers / Animated cadavre exquis: a locked-down experience of collaborative filmmaking in education
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic poses challenges for students and faculty in educational contexts that focus on collaborative and creative practice. Courses that involve working in large teams and interacting in the field require new approaches to cope with limitations on in-person instruction. Building on the concept of chained animation, the case study The Invention of Numbers (2021) will be used to discuss how the concept can be adapted for hybrid teaching. In chained animation, students develop a common concept, realize individual parts in small groups, and assemble them into a short film, rather like an omnibus film. The core element is on-location exchange, especially in the animation studio. Covid-19 regulations have placed limits on these kinds of meetings and exchanges. To deal with those limitations, the creative method of cadavre exquis has been applied to the concept of chained animation. Animated cadaver exquis features a systematic form of collaborative filmmaking that requires little or no coordination between teams, making it particularly well-suited to the new classroom situation. This analysis demonstrates how to set up creative processes for large collaborative groups in distance and hybrid teaching and how the concept of chained animation can be adapted using the cadavre exquis method.
Biography: Dr. Juergen Hagler is an academic researcher and curator working at the interface of animation, game, and media art. He studied art education, experimental visual design and cultural studies at the University for Art and Design Linz, Austria. Currently, he is a Professor for Computer Animation and Media Studies and the head of studies of the degree programme Digital Arts at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus. Since 2014 he is the co-head of the research group Playful Interactive Environments with a focus on the investigation of new and natural forms of interaction and the use of playful mechanisms to encourage specific behavioral patterns. He has been involved in the activities of Ars Electronica since 1997 in a series of different functions. Since 2017 he is the director of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival and initiator and organizer of the Expanded Animation Symposium.
Remo RAUSCHER, audiovisual projects in theatre and animated film. Both developing and teaching at various institutions, groups and venues mostly in Austria. As a founder and creator of the group Theater der Mitte he is currently working on contemporary and participatory performance projects in Salzburg, Austria besides a yearly course of ‘Analogue Animation’ at University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus.
Short papers / Learning Non-human. Can participatory practices change an Institution?
Abstract: This paper shares learning from an artwork ‘Learning Nonhuman’ produced by a learning team working at FACT an art institution/production centre in Liverpool. [1] Artist Jack Tan worked with an intergenerational group of participants to develop a game that allows people to roleplay as nonhumans and propose policy changes on their behalf. The game was then played by FACT staff members, to inform the writing of a new environmental policy. In this paper, we are presenting our reflections on institutional learning coming from applying arts based learning experiences to the art organisation’s culture.
Biography: Lucía Arias is the Learning Manager at FACT. She oversees a programme of activities, long-term projects and learning resources, created in collaboration with artists. We invite artists to work with participants and produce artworks that present different living experiences and create knowledge. We are particularly interested in designing spaces where young people can be heard. Previously, she led the Education Programme at LABoral Art Centre in Gijón. For 8 years, we worked with young people from schools and non formal education spaces, giving them access to creative technology. They designed solutions, objects and devices to respond to the needs of their communities in a digital technology lab. Her work has been presented at different FabLearn Conferences (2013, 2014 and 2015), Transmediale 2016. She is interested in the exchange between Critical Pedagogy models and Participatory Arts.
Neil Winterburn is the Learning Technologist at FACT. He supports artists to use technology as a space for artistic dialogue and learning. We invite artists to work with participants and produce artworks that present different living experiences and create knowledge. We are particularly interested in designing spaces where young people can be heard. Previously, 2001-2008 he worked as a youthworker at Interchill, a digital youthclub in Liverpool. In 2008 he helped set up artist collective Re-Dock who focused on making art with technology and people in non gallery spaces, cinemas in derelict buildings, public art by canals, digital art in libraries, books and games on art kits. In 2013 he published Child Computer Interaction research on methods for involving teenagers in the participatory design of interactive emotion displays. He is interested in the exchange between artists and young people and between art practices and educational formats.
Short papers / Online collaborative design with students for autobiographical VR stories about Covid-19
Abstract: This research examines opportunities for using virtual reality (VR) as an autobiographical storytelling tool for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaborating remotely with eight university undergraduate students in Canada, we created eight individual 3D nonfiction VR pieces that express the students’ own pandemic experiences. Through a collaborative design process, our findings highlight how VR was used as a meaningful device for telling students’ autobiographical stories about the COVID-19 pandemic: delivering the storyteller’s own feelings, creating a sense of confinement and disconnection, showing environmental details, and expressing inner worlds.
Biography: Sojung Bahng is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and researcher, and currently works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design at Carleton University in Canada. She will be appointed as an Assistant Professor in Media and Performance Production at Queen’s University, beginning in July 2022. Sojung holds a PhD from SensiLab at Monash University in Australia. She explores cinematic media via digital technologies to reflect aesthetic and narrative experiences in cultural and philosophical contexts.
Victoria McArthur is an Associate Professor in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design program at Carleton University. She received her honours BA in Music from Brock University in 2007, MA in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2010 and PhD in Communication and Culture in 2015 from York University. Victoria minored in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in both of these degrees. From July 2014 – 2018 she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology, where she taught courses on games and HCI.
Short papers / Memory’s death… or the desire of immortality
Abstract: Who tells history? We can find multiple versions about the electronic art history, most of them with subtle differences, but it has been unusual -until a few years ago- to find references pointing to countries out of a small group from Europe and North America. Several projects have been developed to change that situation. The Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection, hosted by The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology, represents an example of the relevant role and the impact that the archival of electronic artworks and its public access can play in having another perspective on history.
The archive includes compositions for fixed media (tape, DAT, CD, HD, or similar) as well as mixed works for acoustic instruments or voices and fixed media or live electronics/interactive systems. The Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection, with over 1,700 digital recordings of compositions by almost 400 composers, and accompanied by photographs, scores, interviews, a trilingual historical essay and over 200,000 words in its database, is today a key resource in the field, being consulted extensively and helping to transform the usual perception of “ownership” that exists related to some countries with respect to the electronic art history.
The Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection has recovered and made visible (and listenable) the creative work of many electronic artists otherwise almost forgotten. It has defied the wish of immortality and the hegemony of the electronic art history narrative, breaking one of the memory’s death roads and slowly shifting and widening the way the history of electroacoustic music is being understood. Archiving and disseminating electronic and computer art history findings is crucial to comprehending the present and building our future.
Biography: Dr. Dal Farra is professor of electronic arts and music at Concordia University, Canada, and director of the electronic arts center CEIARTE-UNTREF, Argentina. He is Founder of the international symposia Balance-Unbalance (BunB) and Understanding Visual Music (UVM). Dal Farra has been director of Hexagram in Canada, coordinator of the Multimedia Communication national program of the Federal Ministry of Education in Argentina, senior consultant of the Amauta New Media Art Centre of Cusco in Peru, and researcher of UNESCO, France, for its project Digi-Arts. He designed university and high school programs in art-science. Ricardo created the Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection hosted by the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Canada. He is a board member of ISEA International, and of Leonardo (MIT Press), Organised Sound (Cambridge Press), and Artnodes (UOC) editorial boards. With a Ph.D. in Arts, Dal Farra is a composer and artist specialized in transdisciplinary actions with science and emergent technologies.
Short papers / Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos
Abstract: The project “Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos” pioneers the development of new methods and digital tools for re-signifying and transforming controversial physical memory sites.
The Francoist monument for the Fallen of the Spanish Civil War near Madrid, built between 1940-1959 partly by forced labour of political prisoners, includes more than 33.000 remains from both conflict sides, removed from mass-graves around the country without the relatives’ knowledge. The official onsite information does not communicate this difficult history; the traces of the prisoner of war-barracks and mass-graves are in no way visible to the visitors.
The project addresses the re-signification of this most controversial Francoist monument. As part of the long-term investigation “Deep Space”, dealing with politics of memory, controversial monuments and heritage in the Digital Age, it focuses on creative processes and digital tools.
Biography: Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar founded Hybrid Space Lab, a Think Tank and Design Lab for Architecture, Urbanism and Digital Culture; a cultural breeding ground, incubating breakthrough concepts, fostering innovation, contributing to positive societal and environmental change.
Professor Elizabeth Sikiaridi has lectured since 1997 on design in the urban landscape at the University Duisburg-Essen and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts OWL. Born in London, grew up in Athens, studied at Ecole d’Architecture de Belleville/Paris and TU Darmstadt (honours diploma), worked at the architectural office Behnisch&Partner and TU Berlin.
Professor Frans Vogelaar founded 1998 the first Department of Hybrid Space worldwide at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Born in Holland, grew up in Zimbabwe and Holland, studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven (honours diploma) and at the Architectural Association School of Architecture London, worked at Studio Alchymia (Mendini, Milan) and at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Koolhaas, Rotterdam).
Short papers / Below victory: revealing a buried past and present
Abstract: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a creative and technical team used an emerging geological sensor technology to scan the subterranean landscape under a historic plaza in central France, originally the site of a Roman temple buried since Antiquity. This paper will present the resulting trans-disciplinary project that included artists, programmers, designers, archaeologists, geologists, academics, historians, cultural leaders and government agencies all working together to create a series of media works based on what has been hidden in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand for 2,000 years. Ground Penetrating Radar reveals through echo and its haunting visualizations were core to the foundational data used in the artworks but also its theme and metaphor. With the collected data, the team created a site-specific collage of trompe l’oeil anti-sculpture, virtual experiences, films, prints and performances. Place de la Victoire, a cultural heritage landmark, became the source and site of an inverted public experience for inverted times.
Biography: Scott Hessels (b. 1958) is an American filmmaker, sculptor and media artist based in Hong Kong. His artworks span different media including film, video, online, music, broadcast, print, kinetic sculpture, and performance. His films have shown internationally, and his new media installations have been presented in museum exhibitions focusing on technology as well as those presenting fine arts. His recognitions include patents for developed technologies, references in books and periodicals on new media art, and coverage in cultural media like Wired and Discover. He is currently an associate professor at The School of Creative Media and executive producer of the Extreme Environments Program which organizes art/science expeditions to environmentally significant sites.
Short papers / Reinventing the Colonial Gaze Employing AI: a Case Study
Abstract: This short paper accounts for a case study of artistic research revolving around Cyprus’ colonial past and inspired by present day decolonial affairs. The endeavour pivots on a hybrid AI system, trained on text from colonial handbooks of Cyprus (originally published when Cyprus was still part of the British Empire) and employing a custom image dataset meant to reflect this colonial view of the island. AI then generates new colonial ‘gazes’ of Cyprus upon demand. Output text and imagery is used in a number of physical and digital artefacts and events that are presented herein.
Biography: Marinos Koutsomichalis is an artist, scholar, and creative technologist. He is broadly interested in the materiality of self-generative systems, (post-)digital objecthood, sound, image, data, electronic circuitry, perception, selfhood, landscapes/environments, and the media/ technologies we rely upon to mediate, probe, interact, or otherwise engage with the former. He has exhibited or performed his work extensively and internationally and has held research or teaching positions in Greece, Italy, Norway, and the U.K. He is a Lecturer in Creative Multimedia at the Cyprus University of Technology (Limassol, CY) where he co-directs the Media Arts and Design Research Lab.
Short papers / Evolutionary Strategies in Architecture and Art
Abstract: The project proposes a new strategy for creating evolving architectural structures based on the idea of adaptation to a dynamically changing environment and with the use of advanced machine learning and AI methods. The evolving architecture uses physical and virtual processes that are transformed and assembled into structures based on environmental properties and capabilities. The project investigates a living dynamic system as a complex set of natural and cultural sub-processes in which each of the interacting entities and systems creates complex aggregates. It deals with natural processes, communication flows, information networks, resource distribution, dense noise masses, a large group of agents and their spatial interactions in the environment. By significantly expanding existing research, the project creates a meta-learning model useful for testing various aspects of adaptation to a complex dynamic environment. This refers to the difficulty of designing artificial agents that can intelligently respond to evolving complex processes.
Biography: Robert B. Lisek PhD is an artist, mathematician and composer who focuses on systems, networks and processes (computational, biological, social). He is involved in a number of projects focused on media art, creative storytelling and interactive art. Drawing upon post-conceptual art, software art and meta-media, his work intentionally defies categorization. Lisek is a pioneer of art based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Lisek is also a composer of contemporary music, author of many projects and scores on the intersection of spectral, stochastic, concret music, musica futurista and noise.
Short papers / Debunking the quantified self through artistic data portraits
Abstract: Today the “quantified self” is a technical reality that structures datasets of all kinds of interfaces. These interfaces are created with the goal to establish, develop and transform the relationship with the self, the data and the society. In a “datified” world, data visualization challenges traditional representation systems by opening up a wide world of analytical and graphical opportunities. As user interfaces, data visualizations are artificial devices that carry cultural messages in a wide variety of forms and media. Additionally, data visualizations are never neutral mechanisms of data transmission since they affect the messages, providing a model of the world itself, a logical and ideological scheme. The fascination related with big data and the creation of increasingly sophisticated user interfaces pave the way for the proliferation of diverse mutations in the perception of the world and of ourselves. The false neutrality and transparency of quantitative representation of one’s own self is built on the assumption of a closed and measurable self that perceives itself as an entity that can be calibrated, compared and evaluated using numerical parameters. In this context, our research is focused around the implications and mechanisms of the quantified self and its visualization and also about the role that artworks based on data can play.
Biography: Director of the Arts Degree at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and professor of the Multimedia Degree and the Digital Design and Creation Degree at the same university. She is doing his PhD in the UOC’s Doctoral Program in Network and Information Technologies.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Degree in Graphic Design, Postgraduate in Visual Culture Studies from the University of Barcelona (UB) and Master in Multimedia Applications from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). She is lecturer at UOC but she has also taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and in various vocational schools in the field of art and graphic design. She also has extensive professional experience as a graphic designer, illustrator and prepress specialist.
Short papers / Decoupling design from the industrial paradigm
Abstract: We suggest that a critical examination of computer-human design, as a field developed under industrial requirements, could be helpful at addressing the problems derived by the industrial development of digital technologies. Since it would seem difficult to conduct current problem-solving logic under the unprecedented yet probable conditions derived from industrialization problems -as energetic and material scarcity-, this examination could also aid in tackling their derived emergent (social and environmental) effects by exploring new situated approaches.
Biography: Raul Nieves (PhD candidate) is a designer/artist researching modes of unveiling, confrontation and dismantlement at the ever-moving technoscientific frontier of capitalism. His work has been featured internationally as talks, exhibits, installations, and performances.
Dr. Enric Mor (PhD) is associate professor at UOC (Open University of Catalonia) where he teaches human-computer interaction, human-centered design and creative coding. He is the director of the master’s degree in Interaction Design and User Experience. His research is focused on technology-enhanced learning, human-computer interaction and design. Currently, he is researching across the fields of media art and interaction design.
Joan Soler-Adillon (PhD) is a Catalan artist and associate professor at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in Barcelona. He has held previous academic positions at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and Royal Holloway, University of London (UK). His research and practice revolve around digital interactive media and its manifestation in digital art –particularly interactive installation, an experimental approach to interactive storytelling and documentary, and Virtual Reality.
Short Papers / Bridging traditional and digital crafts: Digital Dynamic Ornaments
Abstract: This study draws parallels between the work of traditional craftsmen and the workflows of digital artists, and acknowledges both of them as cultural actuators and generators of ornamentation. Moreover, the elements of play and visual complexity are considered in the exploration of ornamental forms, as integral practices in both the analogue and digital realm. Play is a natural function, connecting intuition to actions, and specifically in the digital arts, it helps shape different notational systems bound to individual imagination. Visual complexity is explored as an ornamental quality that was forsaken in favor of minimalism and functional design, but nowadays is returning as an integral and desired quality in both traditional and digital ornamentation. It is, as well, a common feature of generative art, a field of digital art, which is interpreted as the augmented continuator of the intellectual and procedural heritage of traditional hand crafting.
Biography: I am a self-employed designer and artist, who has worked as a 2&3D Creative in a variety of design fields: industrial design, architecture, event & UX/UI design. My studies include Architectural Engineering (March) in DUTh, Greece and Computational Methods in Architecture (MSc), in Cardiff University, Wales. The last two years I am a UI Designer for Visual Prototyping and through my artistic project Ludik, I am focused on creative coding and generative art using various motion capture techniques. The idea of play has been a guiding axis in my design practice and academic Theses, as a medium of re-placing communal expression at the center of the design process. Through my multidisciplinary experience I aim to dissolve borders between physical and digital, traditional and modern, technology and art.
Short papers / Resilient terra
Abstract: RESILIENT TERRA is a proposal for a collective curatorial research project looking for alliances. It aims at politicizing the notion of geoengineering by bringing together a variety of artistic practices and interdisciplinary approaches that explore geoengineering within and beyond the neoliberal context. Through a relational methodology, RESILIENT TERRA’s objective is that of engaging the wider audience with concepts of geoengineering and climate justice, in order to create a space for socio-political debate that encourages transformation and speculative thinking on multiple ‘larger’ futures.
Biography: Patrizia Costantin (PhD) is a lecturer and researcher in curating whose work investigates the curatorial as a site for knowledge production and political worldbuilding. She is particularly interested in exploring the role of curating as a relational practice for negotiating with reality, contemporaneity and the technological realm. Costantin holds a PhD in Curatorial Practice (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2019). Her thesis, machines will watch us die: a curatorial study on the contemporaneity of digital decay explored digital decay after the material turn in media studies through a postmedium approach. The project emphasized the multiple materialities and temporalities of digital technology and experimented with curatorial strategies with the aim of making visible digital decay and its contemporaneity within the context of a research exhibition.
She is currently Head of Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art – ViCCA major – and Lecturer in Curating at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University.
Short papers / Cymatics as a tool to create visual cartographies with the ecoacoustics from Delta del Llobregat Natural Park
Abstract: Barcelona, like other large metropolis in the world, has grown by developing unsustainable economic models that have extended its borders to the natural spaces that surround it. In this artistic research project, the acoustical science of Cymatics is used to understand the environmental changes caused by the human action inside of delta of Llobregat, a natural park located only 15 kilometers from the city center on the south side of the city. In the last 30 years, the transformation of the final stretch of the Llobregat river, the enlargement of the cargo port of Barcelona and the expansion of the airport and the industrial zone, have modified the environment of many no-human species specially from birds. All ecosystems have been altered and it is especially evident through noise pollution caused by industrial environments and the sonification caused by the incessant passing of airplanes on their final descent.
Biography: Ferran Lega has a PhD Cum Laude and received the extraordinary doctorate award from the University of Fine Arts of Barcelona, specializing in sound art and the use of acoustic science of cymatics as a tool for artistic expression. Since 2009, he has combining his artistic practice with teaching. In 2019 he started his full-time career as a professor of digital design and creative technologies at the University of Lleida. His artistic works have been exhibited at Botín Foundation, Santander (2009), ATM contemporary, Gijón (2009, 2013), Art Eka, Madrid (2012), Colorida gallery, Lisbon (2013), Tàpies foundation, Barcelona (2013), Tortosa Museum (2016), Lo Pati art centre, Amposta (2016), Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona (2017), CMMAS Mexico (2017), IEI, Lleida (2017, 2019, 2021), Roca Umbert, Granollers (2017), MEM, Bilbao (2019), Bideodromo Bilbaoarte (2020), Sant Andreu Contemporani, Barcelona (2020), CCCB (2021), La capella Arts center, Barcelona (2022), Leucade Gallery, Murcia (2022), among others.
Short papers / Visualizing the Unpredictable Behavior of Wildfire Using an Artificially Intelligent Aesthetic
Abstract: The 21st century sees the rise of wildfires, which radically destabilize the anthropocentric paradigm that place the human at its centre, by manifesting what theorists like Bruno Latour term ‘terrestrial agency’. As a manifold process that encompasses Earth’s ecological systems, we have been co-evolving within these processes, harnessing them for our civilizational progress. Yet, our concomitant refusal to acknowledge nature as an independent agent in which we exist has exacerbated climate change, leading us into what scholar Rick McRae terms the ‘age of violent pyroconvection’ – an age in which life on Earth will be shaped by wildfires and their complex dynamics. It amplifies the autonomous nature of terrestrial agency whose behavior defies human assumptions. These evolving dynamics between the human and the planetary require new aesthetic contexts in which two autonomous yet interrelated agencies mutually transform and disrupt each other.
Existing creative visualization paradigms have struggled to aesthetically engage this relationship, falling short of providing compelling sensorial points of engagement. The paper briefly analyzes exemplary artistic works and proposes a novel aesthetic framework premised on integrating immersive visualization systems and Artificial Intelligence programming. It experimentally explores this architecture in relation to the iFire research project currently in development at The University of New South Wales.
Biography: Prof. Dennis Del Favero is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Chair Professor of Digital Innovation, Executive Director of UNSW’s iCinema Research Centre (iCinema) and a research artist. He has directed numerous large-scale interdisciplinary art projects that explore the practical application of artificially intelligent aesthetics to interactive visualization – exhibited at numerous international galleries, festivals and museums.
Dr Susanne Thurow is an ARC Laureate Postdoctoral Research Fellow, a Deputy Director of iCinema and Leader of its Experimental Aesthetics Research Program. Her interdisciplinary research encompasses Performance Studies and Digital Media, rethinking contemporary arts practice in the light of digital aesthetics.
Dr Grant Stevens is UNSW’s Deputy Head of School for Art and Design and Co-Leader of iCinema’s Interactive Scenarios Research Program. He is an artist and academic whose practice focuses on the relationships between photography, moving images and emerging digital cultures.
Prof. Jason Sharples is an iCinema Deputy Director, Leader of its Fire Simulation Research Program, a mathematician and internationally recognized expert in dynamic and extreme bushfire behavior. He has led several large-scale research initiatives and regularly cooperates on international wildfire projects.
Jane Davidson is a Professor of Creative and Performing Arts at The University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts, and Chair of the Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Initiative, which investigates what it means for people to achieve wellbeing and how creativity can be harnessed to achieve this aim.
Short papers / Codex Endogenous: Designing Interactive Self Data Visualization Tool for Trauma Impacted Individuals
Abstract: The Quantified Self is best described by Gary Wolf as “self- knowledge through numbers.” William James’ theory of the consciousness of the self and the study of coping inspires drawings that retell personal narratives. Codex Endogenousis a project that reveals and visualizes the beauty and morphology of a “self” and its environment. Here, “codex” refers to a collection of pages stitched together, and “endogenous” is a term in cognitive neuroscience used to describe phenomena that is spontaneously generated from an individual’s internal state. Every day, quantifiable information about the self is produced and collected like pages in a book. Daily data drawing is a method of journaling with naturally emitted data from the self, creating an oracle into an individual’s brain body connection. This paper evaluates the characteristics of what daily data drawings are, methods of collecting data, and the possibilities of using data collection and visualization as a mindful- ness practice for people who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Short papers / Boundaries in networked digital societies: Membranes as a new model of boundaries focusing on nonconscious cognition
Abstract: Boundaries have provided humans a frame of understanding and foundation for social structures – like hierarchies, classes, and races. Acknowledging the development of technology has brought significant changes in human life, this paper explores a new model of boundaries that fits into a networked digital society and reexamines the idea of boundaries/borders as a solid wall that separates, segregates, isolates, and disconnects. Instead of a concrete wall, this paper suggests considering membranes as a model for boundaries in the technological era because of their semi-permeable and fluid nature, as well as their active engagements in relations/interactions between heterogeneous bodies. This idea of membranes in a technological society is exemplified in political borders, control mechanisms, and human-nonhuman cognition. Katherine Hayles’s discussions of cognisphere and nonconsciousness illustrate the semi-permeability of the boundaries between human and technological cognition, highlighting their interdependency and continuous inflows/outflows of information on the nonconscious level. The author introduces the process of creating an interactive art project Surrogate Being to demonstrate how the author experienced such a membrane-like boundary between heterogeneous yet interconnected modes of (digital and biological) memories about the same place.
Biography: Su Hyun Nam is based in New York and Seoul as an interdisciplinary media artist and researcher working at the intersection of art, technology, science, and philosophy to investigate relationships with diverse nonhumans. Her work, including experimental video, interactive media, 3D game art, and media performance, has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues from Spain, UAE, Greece, and Singapore to South Korea. She was recently a selected artist by Korean Cultural Center in DC and is currently an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks Media Art Center. Su Hyun Nam earned an M.F.A in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Media Study from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is an Assistant Professor of Mixed Media in the Department of Contemporary Art at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea.
Screening / The Unreal
Abstract: The Unreal is a machinima film (videogame recorded in real-time) set in a utopian landscape. The viewer is led in a first-person point of view across the shiny surface of this unexploited mine. Ambient music, accompanied by a soft voice-over, creates a soothing atmosphere and entices the viewer to meditate while also being exposed to the mineral origins of technology and its dynamics of extractivism.
The project, as a non-located, atemporal, ahistorical landscape, addresses the emerging questions of the contradictions of media materiality and its disengagement with the landscape. In a grounded practice-based approach, The Unreal presents an artificial world constructed by video game software, built to play with the appropriation of the visual and narrative codes of techno-colonialism.
The Unreal is a virtual promised land surrounded by an infinite coastline and a transcendental pink sunset. We can draw lines to settler colonialism in what looks like an expedition into the sublime. In this sense, The Unreal has been created as a hyperbolic representation of the techno-romantic discourses that permeate everything related to technological development and solutionism.
The dematerialization and deterritorialization of the digital have been defined by natural metaphors (the cloud, space and the sea) and are part of the rhetoric of digital emancipation and the cultural hegemony of Silicon Valley. Under the illusory slogans of freedom, innovation, progress and infinity, we have willfully forgotten and rejected the physical, material and residual condition of technology.
Biography: Gloria López Cleries (València, 1988) is a visual artist, educator and independent researcher. She holds a Master in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (UCM, Spain) and a Master in Fine Arts, HDK-Valand, (Gothenburg University, Sweden). Her artistic research focuses on questions about neoliberal rhetoric concerning emotional capitalism and new online models of productivity, affection and collectivity.
Sive Hamilton Helle (b. 1989 Oslo) is a filmmaker and visual artist based between Gothenburg and Oslo. She holds an MFA in Film from HDK-Valand and a BA in Film from London College of Communication. Hamilton Helle’s work deals with landscapes that are marked by colonialism and (hidden) industrial activity. She has screened and exhibited her work internationally and at online platforms.
Poster / Ephemeral value mappings – staging feedback loops between algorithms and emotion in online trading as an immersive multimedia experience
Abstract: The presented work series is situated in the intersection of immersive formats of the audio-visual art and the emerging research area of immersive analytics. This series is critically motivated by the re-emergent and growing prominence of gambling factors in global economic activities – such as institutional promotion of increasingly complex investment products for masses, crypto-asset trading, online casinos, etc. Political philosopher Michael J. Sandel describes several last decades as a “drift from ‘market economy’ to becoming a ‘market society’”. Algorithmically manipulated financial trading is a prominent arena where algorithms merge with human emotions and value-seeking drives into a global hybrid sensorium. As sociologist Georg Simmel had observed it in already in 1900: “Reality and value as mutually independent categories through which our conceptions become images of the world”. Mapping of the behaviour patterns in trader psychology has been an important aspect of the training in the trading process, besides the implementation and development of various mathematical models. It now appears, that value storage and trading infrastructure increasingly merge with methods of manipulation of human attention and emotions, and are mediated by computer networks, and increasingly – Machine Learning and AI. As an practical effort in artistic research in phenomenology and neuroaesthetics, this work proposes a set of parameters for simulated anisotropy, useful for designing the structure, notation, and physical, mathematical dimensions in the VR interface and environment.
Biography: Jānis Garančs is an artist and immersive media researcher. He has initial training in classical fine arts in Riga, further studies of video and computer art at the KKH, Stockholm, and digital audio-visual media at the KHM (Academy of Media Arts), Cologne. Since 2000 he works primarily with interactive multi-media installations and performances, focusing on stereoscopic imagery and 3D sound, exploring perceptual phenomenology of immersive audiovisual expression. He has contributed to various international media art community events as an artist, presenter in events like Ars Electronica, Transmediale, DEAF, ISEA, Expo 2000 and venues such as BNMI/Banff, V2/Rotterdam, SAT/Montreal, ICA/London, RIXC/Riga. Additionally, he has been involved in several international research projects focusing on interactive TV platforms. He is a co-founder and project consultant at RIXC Centre for New Media Culture.
Poster / Identification, socialization and professionalization of art and design students through a techno-pedagogical model
Abstract: We are working on the construction of a tool and network of e-portfolios [1] based on WordPress that invites students to create their own identity.. That provoke the generation of a network and a community promoting peer learning. With it we promote the creation of a professional portfolio throughout life. With this project we want to find out what impact the integration of open content managers such as WordPress, which are rich in interactive media, has on learning management systems, specifically on Art and Design students. Our objective is to reinforce the idea that an online learning model benefits from being centered and based on the process of identification, socialization and the potential professionalization of the student.
Biography: Quelic Berga-Carreras is a researcher in new media arts, data visualization and interface politics. He works as an artist, as a teacher and as graphic designer.
Laia Blasco-Soplon is the director of the Arts Degree at UOC (Open University of Catalonia) and professor of the Multimedia Degree and the Digital Design and Creation Degree at the same university. Her artistic and academic research focuses on the design, study and criticism of interactive visual tools for experimentation and learning.
Dr. Javier Melenchón holds a BS and an MS in Multimedia Engineerins as well as a BS and MS in Computer Science. He also holds a PhD in “ICT and its management” from the Ramon Llull University in Catalonia. Dr. Javier Melenchón is an associate professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and has been the Academic Director of several programs. He currently directs the BA in Digital Design and Creation. His research interests are mainly, but not limited to, digital signal processing, audio, image and video processing, multimodal processing, machine learning, data mining, virtual talking heads and human computer interaction. He has made different publications about these topics in several conference proceedings, book chapters and indexed journals.
Performance / Fractal Listening
Abstract: There is in nature, a mysterious and complex mathematical system that repeats itself over and over again, an underlying geometric pattern in forms as disparate as clouds, mountains, trees or our own circulatory system. Its distinctive feature is self-similarity, the same configuration that is repeated at different scales, branching out infinitely. There are those who believe that it is “God’s fingerprint”, “the absolute truth of the universe”.
In Fractal Listening, any attempt at stylistic corseting is diluted in the hybridization of artistic languages. Thus, the fractal images dialogue with acoustic and electronic sounds in an interweaving of infinite kinesthetic notes. In this way, abstract figures in strident colors outline mandalas and enigmatic portals, piercing the virtual canvas with three-dimensional shapes that evoke sacred geometry. This incessant algorithmic repetition generated by pre-established codes, sometimes follows a visual choreography and other times -altered by the frequencies of live sound- it improvises an organic dance, introducing variations to the original pattern. Simultaneously, the sound dimension is embodied in layers and loops, intertwining the electronic bases of IDM, ambient and experimental with the live chords of a guitar. Intervening the work, a trumpet interprets vibrant and moving jazz melodies with harmonics that generate sensations of body and spirit, closing the virtuous circle with a sensory, immersive and enveloping atmosphere.
In 2019, Microfeel & Santiago Bartolomé began their collaborative work with the aim of furthering their respective creative pursuits. This path of experimentation materialized in different artistic proposals. In 2021 they created the live show AV Fractal Listening, the work combines digital art, electronic music and the guitar of the multimedia artist Microfeel (Sebastián Seifert) with the trumpet and processes of the musician and composer Santiago Bartolomé.
Biography:Sebastián Seifert is a multimedia artist, designer and music producer. He has lived and worked in Barcelona since 2002. His career has developed at interdisciplinary points of convergence, maintaining digital electronic poetics as the support, concept and format of his productions. He has an International Master’s Degree in Media and Interactive Systems at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and ESDI (2002) and the Design, Image and Sound Career at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). In the field of media art, he has developed net-art projects, interactive installations and multimedia performances, serving as curator of these languages at the «la Caixa» Foundation (Barcelona) from 2003 to 2011. With the audiovisual project “Microfeel ”, the artist highlights his transdisciplinary vocation, creating worlds that combine visuals and sound. He has taken his audiovisual concert to festivals like MUTEK (ES/AR/MX), SONAR, SZIGET, CTM, FILE and AMURAL, among others.
Santiago Bartolomé is a producer, curator, composer and trumpeter musician from Córdoba, Argentina. From this scaffolding he approaches his artistic explorations to build, in his own language, a sound cartography in which acoustic vibration and electronics coexist. His trumpet is the instrument to experience different atmospheres by erasing border lines, a tool that he considers essential as an agent of transformation of reality. His work, irreverent and enigmatic, is affirmed in “the search for sound” as a constant, versatile and possible future. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Córdoba Symphony Orchestra and Band (Argentina). Likewise, he is collaborating with different projects, favoring his interest in the intersection between artistic languages: Leonardo Prakash (Mexico, World Music), Eduardo Castillo (Mexico, electronic music) and with the audiovisual collective “Reality Soup” (Mexico, Augmented Reality and VR). Since 2021 he has been co-director and artistic director of the “Córdoba Music Biennial”.
Screening / Lavoro macchinine
Abstract:Lavoro Macchinine is a collaboration between Alexis Grey Hildreth (moving image) and Ora Cogan (sound) that deconstructs the opening credits and reimagines the musical overture in the title sequence from the Italian period drama Il Gattopardo (1963).
Lavoro Macchinine occults the film’s original static text with a mercurial, kinetic typography, built from the very glyphs it is at pains to obfuscate. Through gestation, approximation, replication, and assimilation; Lavoro Macchinine discovers its own alien properties of form and behaviour, while simultaneously exploring the boundaries of its cinematic environment.
The living word produced by Lavoro Macchinine is propelled and propagated by a hunger for and the digestion of, Il Gatopardo‘s diegetic space. It longs to hide within it; to become part of it. The building blocks of language are hijacked: letterforms bifurcate in an imitation of manor gates, logographs elongate into fragile towers, conveyor belts composed of graphemes disseminate across the laneway, ligatures roll out of ideograms to scrutinize Roman busts, alien marginalia breach the balustrade, cedilla scrupulously scale the villa walls, extraterrestrial dingbats lodge themselves into the ruins of a world that no longer exists, ogonek laden emissaries probe the cinemascape in order to become it; to become us.
Biography: Alexis Grey Hildreth is a multi-disciplinary artist based on the West Coast of Canada. In 2014 he received a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and in 2017 completed an MFA at the University of Waterloo. Alexis’ work revolves around boundaries, barriers, and thresholds. He is invested in the relationship between internal and external geography, the balance of terror and awe, and in tracking the movement of consciousness through cultural artifacts. Alexis has held a plethora of jobs; from innkeeper to nightwatchmen, from shepherd to security guard, from grocer to gardener, from plowman to picture framer. He is curious about the ways in which the creative imagination is both enlightened and impoverished by popular culture.
Ora Cogan is a multi-disciplinary artist and singer-songwriter based on the West Coast of Canada. She is known for her singular voice and cinematic compositions. Cogan has released seven albums to date while collaborating with a multitude of artists and touring extensively throughout Europe and North America. She has performed at Le Guess Who Festival in the Netherlands, Pickathon Festival in Portland, Oregon and has shared the stage with the likes of Grouper, Mazzy Star and Lido Pimienta. Her new album Bells in the Ruins was released July 13, 2020 on Prism Tongue Records.
Screening / Cybersyn 1973 / 2023
Abstract: Project Cybersyn was an experiment in instituting a socialist networked economy embraced by the short-lived Salvador Allende government of Chile (1970 – 1973) and developed together with the British cybernetician Stafford Beer. For the past decade, Project Cybersyn has been a recurrent reference – a best practice from the past – in discussions around the repurposing of hegemonic technological infrastructures and their redirection towards more equitable economic and social practices. The iconic image of Project Cybersyn’s control room – with its sci-fi appearance – represents a technical and aesthetic object that alludes to negotiation, democratic decision making, and social welfare. The allure of this image is the starting point for the video which proposes that desires for post-scarcity and postcapitalist economics must grapple with the shifts in the political, economic, and technological conditions of possibility that have transpired since Project Cybersyn. To this end the control room image itself becomes a platform for alien mutations, philosophical speculations, and social commitments. What would it take to reimagine the artefactual Cybersyn for our hyper-financialized day and age? For this work, curator and researcher Bassam El Baroni and transdisciplinary architect Constantinos Miltiadis collaborated with multidisciplinary artist and animator Georgios Cherouvim, and composer and sound artist Gerriet K. Sharma to bring this question to life.
Biography: Grupo Synco is a collaboration between curator and researcher Bassam El Baroni (Aalto University, Finland) transdisciplinary architect Constantinos Miltiadis (Aalto University, Finland), multidisciplinary artist and animator Georgios Cherouvim (New York), and composer and sound artist Gerriet K. Sharma (Berlin). The group’s first co-creation is the CGI video work Cybersyn 1973/2023.
Institutional presentation / New Department of Digital Arts and Cinema at the University of Athens
Abstract: The Department of Digital Arts and Cinema of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece is a new department that focusses on the common ground between the hybrid field of film practices and cinema studies, on the one hand and electronic, digital, immersive and interactive arts, on the other. It was founded in 2019. The creation of this new department addresses the need for the provision of quality education, artistic innovation and practice-based research in the multidisciplinary field of interactive arts, working at the intersection between film and cinema studies and digital art in Greece.
The primary aim of the department is to fill a need for audiovisual and film production in Greek higher education by being one of the first departments to bridge the gap between established film-making practices, combined with the use of digital tools for high-quality artistic production. Its innovation lies at the fact that it transcends the boundaries of a traditional film school as it brings forward the interconnection with a wide range of contemporary digital forms of expression and multimedia. In order to appropriately support the above, the department’s infrastructure includes five educational laboratories focusing on supporting the following creative activities: Multimedia technologies lab, Film-direction and audiovisual production, Film and video editing, Sound recording and editing, Digital Art and installations, Virtual and extended reality laboratory, Ubiquitous, physical computing and 3D printing.
The curriculum provides students with both a theoretical grounding and a practical skill set pertaining to the above-mentioned fields. The two main corollaries of the curriculum are cinema studies and digital arts; a key identifying characteristic of the department is the interplay between these two basic pillars in an attempt to provide a holistic coverage of this emerging area.
Biography: Dimitris Charitos (1965) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Media Studies and the Head of the Department of Digital Arts and Cinema, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens where he teaches human-machine communication, interactive design, digital art, virtual environment design and visual communication. He studied Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens, and C.A.A.D. at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). He holds a PhD in interactive and virtual environment design. As a researcher or coordinator, he has participated in more than 15 research projects (funded by Greek and European programs) on the subjects of virtual reality, interactive design, locative media, mediated/hybrid cities and digital art. He has more than 100 publications in books, journals and conference proceedings. Since 1983, his artistic practice includes electronic music (1983-1993), audiovisual and interactive installations and virtual environments (1997- to the present). He has participated in 15 exhibitions in Greece, the UK and Cyprus. More info at: The Spatial Media Research Group URL: http://spatialmedia.ntlab.gr
Screening / Erasures
Abstract: “Erasures” was developed during an artistic residency in the village of Calce (France), known for its production of natural wines. Nicolela met local residents who chose their loved landscapes to share with the artist. The resulting video merges the images of the participants with the chosen places, erasing parts of their bodies and parts of the elements of the landscapes, in a play of transparencies and opacities. Their voices and their bodies become an integral part of these landscapes. The work plunges us into a reflection on the relationship and connection between human beings and nature, between landscape and time, between place and memory.
Biography: Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist, filmmaker and independent curator based in Brussels since 2014. Graduated in Film Studies by the University of Sao Paulo, Nicolela has also completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK). She was the recipient of several prominent international grants and awards and she has participated of numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Her videos have been screened and awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries.
Kika Nicolela is interested in the space between what we understand by reality, and fiction. Having video and new technologies as tools, she proposes experiences that question the stories we make about the world and about ourselves.
Screening / Models for Environmental Literacy
Abstract: The experimental video “Models for Environmental Literacy” invites us to rethink the nature and application of artificial intelligence in the context of the environment. As three A.I. voices guide us through a series of landscapes at the intersections of nature and human intervention, we follow a dialogue somewhere within the spectrum of human and non-human language. How does our reading of this computer-generated language point back to our own personal subjectivities and our own environmental literacy? And equally so, how can encounters with non-human language act as a kind of dress rehearsal for future relationships with the Other?
In the face of climate change, large-scale computer-controlled systems are being deployed to understand terrestrial systems. Artificial intelligence is used on a planetary scale to detect, analyze, and manage landscapes. In the West, there is a great belief in ‘intelligent’ technology as a lifesaver. However, practice shows that the dominant AI systems lack the fundamental insights to act in an inclusive manner towards the complexity of ecological, social, and environmental issues. This, while the imaginative and artistic possibilities for the creation of non-human perspectives are often overlooked.
With the long-term research project and experimental films Models for Environmental Literacy, the artist Tivon Rice explores in a speculative manner how A.I.s could have alternative perceptions of an environment. Three distinct A.I.s were trained for the screenplay: the Scientist, the Philosopher, and the Author. The A.I.s each have their own personalities and are trained in literary work – from science fiction and eco-philosophy, to current intergovernmental reports on climate change. Rice brings them together for a series of conversations while they inhabit scenes from scanned natural environments. These virtual landscapes have been captured on several field trips that Rice undertook over the past two years with FIBER (Amsterdam) and BioArt Society (Helsinki).
Biography: Tivon Rice is an artist and educator working across visual culture and technology. Based in Seattle (US), his work critically explores representation and communication in the context of digital culture and asks: how do we see, inhabit, feel, and talk about these new forms of exchange? How do we approach creativity within the digital? What are the poetics, narratives, and visual languages inherent in new information technologies? And what are the social and environmental impacts of these systems?
Rice holds a PhD in Digital Art and Experimental Media from the University of Washington, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Data-Driven Arts Practice. He was a Fulbright scholar (Korea 2012), one of the first individuals to collaborate with Google Artists + Machine Intelligence, and served as an Artistic Researcher at the Delft University of Technology.
Screening / The Blue Dot
Abstract: The altar of a temple built by the Church of Christ Scientist in San Francisco, incessantly buzzes with the sound of data flow. As you enter the building and go up the staircase, the humming becomes hypnotic. The trance leads you to the altar, where you find yourself surrounded by huge windows that stain the entire room with an intense yellow light. The temple houses six towers of digital servers arranged at the two sides of the main altar. The sea of data flowing through these hard drives—and others not visible to the public—comprises the Internet Archive (IA), the largest digital library in the world.
In most genesis stories life originates in water. Just like our origin stories, our digital cosmology is bound up in the language of fluidity. Our world, the Blue Marble, is a vast ocean of data, where each droplet of water is a bit of potential information. As data flows from cloud to cloud, back into electrical currents in vast oceans of data, water is revealed to us as the initial stage of being, each particle containing the possibility of knowing ourselves—of sensing our individual and collective consciousness.
The evaporation of information from the ocean, with its swirling cables, is forming unprecedented clouds. All climate predictions today suggest that the poles are rapidly melting, sea levels are quickly rising, and large dark clouds are forming over our global networks. Some even think that the depth of these dark digital clouds is larger than the depth of our cosmos. We live in the eye of this hurricane, every time we swipe our phone or turn our screens on. The storm of data pushed by the winds of capital and surveillance seems almost unstoppable. If all predictions are correct, what will this storm of data look like when the clouds finally break?
Biography: Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Bogotá, 1991) is a visual artist and writer whose research investigates the historical and material intersections between technology and the biosphere. Through texts, videos, and web projects, his research explores the territorial dimensions of the technosphere and the material and poetic relationships between water and the internet. He has also produced transdisciplinary and collaborative laboratories, which seek to foster the critical appropriation of diverse technologies. He is a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and has been a programming coordinador at Plataforma Bogotá, laboratory for art, science and technology, and at Espacio Odeón, a contemporary art space. His texts and works have been disseminated and developed in Colombia, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, China, Senegal, Mexico and Uruguay.
Screening / Ener-geyser
Abstract: Ener-geyser is an algorithmic wellspring that visualises energy usage in real-time for a local energy commons. The site-specific installation is a research tool to learn more about how members of resource communities share, view and interpret their data – and in turn make choices that affect the community as a whole.
The installation was created as a design probe for the research project Design Thinking for the Circular Economy, and explores how Situated Design methods can contribute to articulating value transparency in the design of local platforms for the circular economy.
The Ener-geyser was originally realised in the neighbourhood Schoonschip (Amsterdam), the most sustainable floating community in Europe; and the only one utilising a blockchain driven local smart-grid to distribute self-produced energy.
The geyser is designed to assist community members in making decisions about when it is optimal to turn on/off appliances, in order to achieve their agreed shared sustainability goals. By looking out the window, residents can observe the current (energy) situation.
When the fountain sprays high, there is an abundance of energy, so it is optimal to turn on appliances. A medium to low spray indicates caution, as demand is headed toward a peak. When the fountain is less than a meter high, there is a peak – thus it is not optimal to use energy.
The fountain examines how members of the resource-community make choices about when to tap from the shared system, and reveals aligned tensions like the individual vs collective good, and privacy vs transparency.
Ener-geyser experiments with new ways of interpreting complex data – that extend beyond traditional dashboard interfaces. The fountain’s main purpose is to catalyse discussion. These kinds of discussions form the basis for making complex decisions, that can define how emerging energy-resource communities define and execute their common goals.
Biography: Tara Karpinski is a designer and researcher. Her projects are characterised by site-specific research and site-specific making, and realised in cooperation with diverse communities.
Tara is one of the founders of design-collective Pink Pony Express – pioneers in research through making. The collective works at the intersection of research, design and society. Their projects are realised on locations where there is palpable friction between citizens and government; where their work uses public space to sets-out other perspectives on complex social questions.
Parallel on her design practice, Tara regularly lectures at universities and art academies, and has worked as an embedded researcher-designer for institutions including the Universiteit van Amsterdam and Leuphana University. She is currently a researcher at the Centre of Expertise for Art, Design and Technology (Breda) for the group Situated Art & Design. She teaches research through design at the University of Applied Sciences in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, NL.
Screening / Microplot
Abstract: The project is a call to recalibrate the approach to design by recognizing the microbiome as an additional parameter and overlooked agent of terraforming. The technological mediation of the continuous, interchangeable and entangled relationships between microbiomes, environments and ourselves allows for higher resolutions of perception in the way we compose synthetic landscapes. When germ theory originally framed microbes as pathogens, design was driven by “sterilization” and aimed at the “extermination” of microbial life and the production of highly tempered and sealed environments, propelling a culture of cleanliness. With the potential advancement and accessibility of metagenomic sequencing, we may be at the cusp of refining our understanding of these microbial systems, and reframing our design practices from the reactory to the nuanced, adaptive, and proactive. Manifesting alternative, more precise compositions across various sites and scales of intervention, the project narrates how sequencing could become a potential design tool to inform deliberate terraforming.
Biography: Alla Semenovskaya is a researcher and strategist based in UAE. Her recent work has specialised in research projects and site specific collaborative practices, exploring emerging technologies, environmental policies, climate interventions, and implications of how human/non-human interconnections inform our perception of assembled ecosystems.
Eva Lindsay is an architect and set designer. Since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art she has worked in various design studios in Rotterdam, Paris, Brussels and Berlin. Her work has specialised in projects ranging from problematising planning systems to futureproofing infrastructure space. The work has been displayed in various formats including exhibitions, films and publications.
Dhruv Shah is an Architect and Architectural Historian residing in Vadodara, India. He was also a fellow of the «The Terraforming» program at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. He is involved in academia, research, and curatorial architectural practice, working with the medium of Text and Image in the intersection space of projected power, politics, and placemaking.
Panel / Tools for a Warming Planet
Abstract: We live on a planet in flux–with warming waters and land, chaotic weather, and unknown futures. Our adaptability and ingenuity are crucial to our survival, and our planet’s. In response to this condition, we are exploring new tools for understanding, engaging, and responding to our current and future environment. Bringing together artists, designers, scientists, and activists, this crowd-sourced piece focuses on ‘tools’, as a call for action, access, and collective engagement. New tools are needed to build more adaptable, resilient communities, as well as to imagine new ways of living on a fragile planet.
Tools for a Warming Planetis focused on the idea of tools–tools of collection, translation, engagement, connection, and care–which directly speaks to a time of climatic flux. Through display of physical and digital objects, as well as narratives on the use of these tools from the participating artists, the installation is a living archived of methods for working and living together. The project will develop over the course of the exhibit, allowing attendees and the larger global community to contribute tools to grow the collection.
The term ‘tool’ is used to focus on action: from hand craft, to care and repair, to data mapping, to digital filters, to community engagement. New tools posited across the works represent new possibilities of working and open up a conversation about our role as cultural and social activators. Tools for a Warming Planet brings together global voices into a visual dialog across languages and cultures that all must adapt to a changing climate on planet Earth. These global perspectives will allow for both localized perspectives and universal experiences, advancing a collective conversation with endless possibilities.
Biography: This piece is the collective work of Sara Dean, Beth Ferguson, and Marina Monsonís. They are all artists and designers working on community and climate knowledge sharing, through local food networks, energy and transportation sources, and urban tools for climate change. Sara and Beth are both based in California. Marina is a local artist in Barcelona. They come together for this piece through their conviction that both social engagement and adaptive technologies are equally needed to create livable, sustainable, and adaptable ways of living and mutual care.
Sara Dean is an architect and designer in California. Her work investigates opportunities of digital technologies to engage cities towards greater equity and adaptability, under the dual threat of the Anthropocene and capitalism. This includes works responding to climate disaster, digital activism, mapping, and the future of our cities. She is an advocate for open-source systems of knowledge.
Beth Ferguson is an ecological designer and educator in California who blends industrial design with sustainable transportation, solar engineering, climate resiliency, and public engagement. She is the director of Adapting City Lab at UC Davis, which investigates new potentials of solar charging, urban transportation planning, and forms of micro-mobility in global cities.
Marina Monsonís is a visual artist who works with hybrid processes of micro-social transformation rooted in territories, collectives, and communities with a focus on marine science, place-based design, gastronomy, graffiti, radical geography, critical ethnography, and oral histories. She is the director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art Kitchen Lab and based in Barcelona, España.
Panel / Crypto Land: Blockchain as a challenge for art and digital art collections of the future
Abstract: Based on the meeting of new archives of the ISEA 2020, of which studies and theoretical models have been presented regarding the use of peer-to-peer distribution of collections and archives in the search to understand new possibilities for the preservation and conservation of the digital in the field of Art, the following panel proposal leads an essential discussion of Blockchain technology for memory spaces, museums, and festivals, in front of the challenge of the digitalization and digital transformation from existing and upgraded collections. In this sense, the Panel will seek different perspectives on encryption, legitimacy, and practical and theoretical challenges besides a contextualization to- wards post-digital societies.
Biography:Tadeus Mucelli. Doctoral researcher in information science (UFMG) with a focus on art, technology, and digital humanities. Master of Arts, e. For over 20 years, working as a curator and specialist in digital culture projects. Memory, Information, Post-Digital, Blockchain, and decentralized networks as research. Creator of the Digital Art Biennial of Brazil
Soliman Lopez. Contemporary artists specialized in art, science, sociology, and technology. Founder of Harddiskmuseum, OLEA crytocurrency and Innovation director at ESAT (Escuela Superior de Arte y Tecnología).
José R. Alcalá (Valencia, Spain, 1960). Multimedia artist, curator and author. Head Professor for Art and New Media at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Faculty of Fine Arts of Cuenca. Director of the indexed international journal ASRI (Art and Society; Research Magazine). Co-Director of the Ibero-American Observatory of Digital and Electronic Arts (UDELAR, Montevideo / MIDECIANT, UCLM). Director of the MIDECIANT International Museum of Electrography in Cuenca (1989-2018). Coordinator of Collections and Archives of Contemporary Art CAAC Faculty of BBAA de Cuenca (2013-2018). IP research group Cultural Interfaces; Art and New Media. UCLM (2005-2018). National Calcography Award (to the MIDE) “for the innovations contributed to graphic art” (1999).
Screening / A New Dawn
Abstract:A New Dawn is a memoryscape, which takes a critical approach and uses the Aurora Borealis as an audio-visual representation of life out of balance. Imagine the magnetic fields have shifted through climate change and the collision of electronically charged particles would happen in our proximity. The Aurora’s symbolise a geomagnetic storm caused by nature’s exclamation of the ecological crises.
The last shift was worked on the 4 April 1985 and the former ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ turned into an industrial wasteland. The ironworks are not only a symbol of ‘Wertewandel’, the change of values, but also symbolises our addiction to artificial energy and its transformation into wealth. As a side product of the last century’s heavy industry, we are now faced with a climate crisis.
Simultaneously the interpretation of Aurora’s in dreams signifies a positive outlook. A dream with an Aurora means important things will happen and ‘magnetic’ outcomes are about to appear on the horizon. While climate change appears to be a nightmare of the industrial past, this experience hopes to recalibrate our outlook. In Greek mythology Aurora refers to dawn, combining paste and present this memory-scape takes a position to make an argument about an innovative planet and that we must act now in a holistic manner on the climate crises.
The affordances and aesthetic of this experimental screen production are utilised through the viewers presence in a hybrid space; partly dream object and partly architectural requiem. The visuals are interacting with an original soundscape. The moving-image artwork conceptualised spatialised storytelling based on a combination of soundscape and abstract filmmaking. This original method is supported by experimentation with motionscapes. On location an accelerometer microphone was utilized to record the sound of the fabric. Using intellectual montage, the factory was personified and ‘reactivated’ through the placement of visual and audio effects in the filmic space to demonstrate how nature reclaims this architectural requiem.
Field recording: Simon Longo. Soundtrack: Paulo Hartmann, Andre Namur and Daniel Sasso.
Biography: Max Schleser is an award-winning filmmaker with expertise in Immersive Media and Creative Arts 4.0. He is Associate Professor in Film and Television and Researcher in the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies (CTMT) at Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia). His experimental films, moving-image arts and cinematic VR projects are screened at film festivals, in galleries and museums including FLEFF Film Festival (USA), Festival de La Imagen (Columbia), Museu da Imagem e do Som – Museum of Moving Image (Brazil), London Gallery West, South London Gallery (both UK), Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision – New Zealand Film Archive, Te Papa Tongarewa – Museum of New Zealand (both Aotearoa/New Zealand), Pocket Film Festival and Videoscope (both France). His mobile feature film Max with a Keitai (2007) is included in the public film archive in the Forum des Images in Paris (France) and the smartphone documentary feature Frankenstorm (2014) broadcasted on CTV, Canterbury Television (Aotearoa/New Zealand).
Screening / Untitled (A New Landscape)
Abstract: “Untitled (A New Landscape)” explores a possible speculative future of the quick-stop convenience of Capitalism. The work is inspired by an actual neoclassical building in Washington, DC which outlived its former purpose and was transformed into a gas station snack shop. In some ways, the transformation of this grand building into something so mundane is a metaphor for the post-capitalist society in which we are living. Set to “the most famous hold music in the world” (Cisco’s “Opus #1” by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel), the piece provides a pause for contemplation.
Biography: Michelle L. Herman is a multidisciplinary artist who creates sculpture, video, and installations to initiate conversations about agency within invisible systems of power. Drawing from theoretical and philosophical research, feminist and disability politics, comedy, and conceptualism, Herman explores themes such as the performativity of everyday life in technologically mediated society, value production, and how agency navigates larger systems of power.
Herman has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Gallerie La Box (Bourges, France, 2022); HFK University of the Arts (Bremen, Germany, 2022); The Corcoran Museum of Art (Washington, DC, 2010); The Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC, 2019, 2017, 2010, 2009); The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC, 2008), The Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, DC, 2015); Arlington Art Center (Arlington, VA, 2017); Hillyer Art Space (Washington, DC, 2016); and Visarts (Rockville, MD, 2021, 2018).
Herman’s work has been written about and featured in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, The Washington Post, NPR, and East City Arts. Herman holds both an MFA and BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art (MFA 2020; BFA 2008).
Screening / Future Memories of Deep Water
Abstract: What are the changing conditions for Archaeology in underwater ecosystems? Can challenges be predicted and solutions imagined using Machine Learning?
With the passage of time, underwater artifacts are encrusted with coral, algae or other marine organisms. How do human activities and pollutions undermine these natural environments? What will our underwater heritage be like in the future?
The project: “Future Memories of Deep Water” explores how algorithms can be used for predicting new entanglements between underwater artifacts and the changing environment where they are discovered. We reflect on current problems and dangers for marine environments, such as “plasticrust” and plastic pollution.
Built upon experimental speculation, Future Memories of Deep Water calls for the protection of threatened marine ecosystems and aims to create awareness and encourage preservation of cultural heritage.
Biography: Indiara Di Benedetto (*1994, IT) is an experimental media artist with a background in video art, digital photography and visual design.
Through entanglements between art, organic matter and observations of archaeology, her recent artistic research investigates the storytelling possibilities of technology about contemporary narratives and future imaginaries focused on human – object – social and environmental context connections.
Her artworks have been exhibited in several venues: Ars Electronica Festival (AT), Ars Electronica Center and Deep Space 8K AEC (AT), Castello d’Albertis Museo delle Culture del Mondo (IT), CYENS Centre of Excellence Nicosia (CY), Speculum Artium (SI) and more.
Screening / 13 Eyes
Abstract: 13 Eyes is an interactive installation that dynamically assembles monumental portraits of visitors by fusing together fragments of their respective faces. The resulting triptych conjures up imaginary beings at the intersection of familiarity and alterity. By sharing the microsocial space of the installation, (v)users’ self-representations blur with others in an uncanny fashion. Thus, the installation is an invitation to discuss the mediation of our self-image by technology and society and by our own vanity and fear.
The installation itself is a sculptural assembly of 13 obsolete, but fully working, iPhones. The devices are controlled by a hidden master charged with surreptitiously taking pictures, remotely manipulating them, and displaying the results. By invoking the ubiquity and cultural significance of the iPhone, the installation questions our relation to status and obsolescence, but also to surveillance and self-representation.
This artwork creates dynamic composite visuals that are neither fully generative nor entirely representative. Instead, the dynamic hybrid portraits inhabit a liminal space between familiarity and alterity. Visitors can recognize portions of their own corporality forcibly being merged with that of others. This creates a malaise that invites them to consider the human beings around them and the ways by which they are being collectively (mis)represented.
Who is it that I am sharing a face with? This performative quality of the installation extends the actual artwork beyond the interactive device to include the whole physical space and, more to the point, the visitors inside it. This creates a forum for the interactors to consider the ways through which technology mediates both the representation of self and of others. By using a cultural icon such as the iPhone, I hope to kickstart a necessary discussion about technology, about how it surreptitiously permeates and overtakes our human interactions and about how we hastily dispose of it when fashionably obsolete. In other words, this artwork’s strength not only lies in its aesthetic qualities but perhaps even more in its ability to bring about a shared discursive space.
Biography: Jean-Philippe Côté creates interactive art from technological trash. His installations have been built from obsolete ATM screens, antiquated pen plotters, discarded laptops, archaic security cameras and outmoded iPhones. By de-scripting technical artifacts, his work imagines alternate futures for the e-waste our societies leave behind. Despite this dramatic undertone, his installations are interacted with in a playful and poetic way.
A recurring theme in his work is the mirroring of the visitor’s body. By exhibiting distorted, hybrid, blended and liminal representations of the self, his artworks are underlining the dislocation between who we are and the ways in which we present ourselves in a world heavily mediated by technology.
While he is a hardware tinkerer, it is through software that he transmutes old devices into art. He is a respected contributor of the open source community, especially in the fields of creative coding, networked music and physical computing. In short, his artistic approach allows him to reshape reality through a combination of technical appropriation, software remediation and algorithmic serendipity.
Screening / Walking on Sol
Abstract: In the central core of the ancient city of Kerman is a fortress belonging to the Persian empire that, over time, has worn out and turned into a giant dune. In Walking on Sol, I use digital tools to create an aesthetic form to investigate and interweave the possible impact of the fortress’s history and myth on the region and the world.
The current view of the fortress does not relate much to the glorious Persian empire. Now it is a pile of dust. By looking at the fortress’s current condition, the product of erosion and human disregard, this project asks: To what extent does the fortress’s history, and the myths and legends surrounding it, foreshadow contemporary human impact—development and devastation— on the future of the world?
In contrast to the belief of many young residents of the region, who consider the fortress a giant dune, the elders and great grandparents believe that it is the grave of a worm-like monster whose hatred has caused the city’s current situation of drought and scarcity. Through a digitalized speculative aesthetic—as an alternative narrative—Walking on Sol asks: what happens when disregarded beliefs and repressed regions are recalled and thought of in different ways? Can these forgotten remnants of the past be whisperings of the future? And by simulating an abstract 3D environment through digital software, the work asks: what aspects of the future can be imagined and constructed by technology? By juxtaposing the digital and physical structure of the region, Walking on Sol intertwines an aesthetic form for the future of the Past with the imagined Future.
Biography: Nima Bahrehmand is an artist who creates video installations, performances, and technological outcomes. His art practice deals with the humanized world’s aftermath. Nima investigates the capital desertifying operation that generates the repressions that will erupt in the future and impact the creation of the new. His artworks have been included in exhibitions and venues including Digital Native as part of Tbilisi Oxygen Biennial, Tbilisi; xCoAx, Graz; Aaran Gallery, Tehran; Kunstraum Potsdam, Berlin; Marres, Maastricht; Kiosk, Ghent; VAC, Austin and AG Gallery, Tehran; among others. Nima received his BFA from the University of Kerman, Iran; MA from School of Art, Ghent, Belgium; and MFA in studio art, transmedia from the University of Texas at Austin. Nima is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Critical Media Practices at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Screening / DanceCubesII
Abstract: In September 2018 Katerina Cizek invited me to a MIT conference in Cambridge about Co-creation: This was the first time I noticed that there is a theoretic discourse about co-creation. The usage of non-human creation is not new. Analog random-based processes, such as Gerhard Richter’s colour-coat-scratching (“Rakeltechnik”) or Jackson Pollock’s “drip technique” created iconic landmarks. Harold Cohen used fix algorithms to create art, Vera Molnar used fix algorithms as a tool to explore art.
In 2022 I made DanceCubesII. The visual part of DanceCubesII consists of algorithm-based images of 80’s filmstar Ornella Muti, created by an uncontrolled process without human influence. For this process I used the selfcoded software Code9 as non-human co-creation tool. But the artworks rhythm is dominated by a half visible superimposed dance performance of the young Italian actress: an artifact of a Spanish B movie, published in 1974, two years before the end of fascism in Spain. The result of both image streams consists of an unseen visual language.
While the main idea was a human creation and the mix of the visual elements was done by me, the radical colors and the unusual aesthetics came from the uncontrolled non-human co-creation process.
All this is very technical: As an artist, my feeling was that I had to create something which is less representational art than my past works. My feeling was that the blur between abstract and representational art will conduct into something more intense. My ship to navigate there was non-human co-creation.
Biography: Joseph Ayerle is an artist of Europe’s digital generation and explores art in the fields of photography, artificial intelligence, videoart, NFTs. A study conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology called Joseph a “new generation artist and photographer”, the Royal Photographic Society (UK) described Joseph as an “experimental contemporary artist”.
Joseph’s thematic cycles and moving image projects seem to reject any kind of classification and defy often conventional colour schema. Using digital artifacts of advertising and films in addition to his own photography, Joseph distorts in his oevre the coordinates of time, space and conventions.
Joseph is regularly invited by universities and Art-Meets-Tech festivals to events such as “ROMBAK” of the Multimedia University of Malaysia, “Audiovisual Frontiers” of the University of California, Riverside or the “Reboot Fest” of the Universities of Porto and Lisbon (NOVA). Joseph was finalist of the exhibition Concorso Nazionale di Arte Attuale e Biennale per le Accademie di Belle Arti di Firenze e Carrara” in Florence, 2017.
Artist talk / Mycorrhizal Insurrection: Rerouting Anthropocentric Socio-Technical Systems (Online)
Abstract: The art collective Cesar & Lois discusses the collaborative, non-disciplinary-specific development of a mycelial AI, with the intent of orienting human socio-technical systems to non-hierarchical models persistent in the living world. In growing a system that integrates living and digital mycelia, the experiment-as-art unfolds through the duo’s accounting of past workshops that include mushroom foraging, spore printing and thinking like a mushroom. Ahead of the art collective’s premiere of Mycorrhizal Insurrection at the 2022 Mercosul Biennial in Brazil, the artists discuss the process of developing the training database for a non-anthropocentric AI, the challenges in connecting artificial and mycelial intelligences, and their conversations with mycologists and philosophers. Merging prehuman (fungal) and posthuman (digital) systems, the artists speculate on the possibility of post-anthropocentric futures. With documentation of iterative nodes in the project’s development, such as the June 2021 exhibition, “Eat the Anthropocene with Cesar & Lois, Mycelia and Friend Entities” at Yes We Cannibal in Baton Rouge, the artists project a machine logic that operates contrary to capitalist ideals, and the resultant values and concerns of a narrow group of humans. In response to Jason W. Moore’s use of the term, planetary proletariat, the artists imagine a socio-technological insurrection by incalcitrant bhiobrid (bio-digital) systems. Listening in to the pulses to hyphae, an AI thinks less and less like a human.
Biography: Cesar & Lois probes the evolution of humanity’s relationship to nature by advancing intersections between technological and biological systems. The collective, comprised of Lucy HG Solomon and Cesar Baio, strives to build bhiobrid intelligent artworks by crossing different organisms, such as bacteria, fungi and protists with technological elements, including Artificial Intelligence, data mining and social networks. Through interactive artworks with embedded research and sometimes specimens, the duo ponders the logic based in the growth of microbiological organisms and studies how this can inform human logic, with the goal of positing a post-anthropocentric future. Their work, “Degenerative Cultures,” was featured in the 2021 Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition in the UK. Cesar & Lois received the Lumen Prize in Artificial Intelligence (2018), were selected for the Global Digital Art Prize Biennale in Singapore (2019) and as artists in residence at Coalesce Center for Biological Arts (2020) and UC Davis Hess Laboratory.
Panel / Decolonizing the machine: race, gender, disability, robots, computation and art
Abstract: Black feminist scholar Sylvia Wynter identified how the notion of what it means to be “human” is marked by race and other axes of difference, and points to how different ‘genres’ of humanity (full-humans, not-quite humans, and nonhumans) are encoded through racial, gendered, and colonial hierarchies. Disability studies scholar Margrit Shildrick proposes that embodiment is never self-complete or protected against otherness, noting how the neoliberal notion of embodiment is grounded on an imaginary of corporeal wholeness and integrity. Recent scholarship has looked at how these hierarchies and imaginaries are encoded through biased digital technologies that systematically harm persons of color and elide people with disabilities. However, critical race studies, decolonial theories and disability studies are rarely considered in discourses surrounding machines and art.
What are the impacts of algorithmic bias and encoded discrimination in the context of machine vision algorithms, natural language processing and robotic embodiments as they relate to gender, race and disability? How might artistic practice and rogue research methods challenge/refute/disrupt/blow up the dehumanizing practices that are encoded into machines? Our thinking/framing is informed by Sylvia Wynter, Margrit Shildrick, Alexandre Weheliye’s Habeus Viscus, Louis Chude-Sokei’s The Sound of Culture, Ruha Benjamin’s Race After Technology, Safiya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression, Jennifer Rhee’s The Robotic Imaginary, and Joy Buolamwini’s work on inclusive coding and The Coded Gaze. We critically inquire into issues of race, gender and disability as they relate to performing machines/technological bodies in robot and cyborg art.
Biography: We are a group of artists, researchers, and scholars from diverse fields, including performing arts, media art, robotics, artificial intelligence, curation and social sciences. We are united in seeking to understand and overturn the inequities and discriminatory processes built into machine-mediated art and sciences. We came together at a conference stream entitled “Decolonizing the Machine” at Politics of the Machine 2021, and continue to work together to imagine a more equitable future.
ISEA2022 Main Ceremony
Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau will host the Main Ceremony of ISEA2022 Barcelona, on June 14, where the testimony will be passed to the next city that will host the Symposium, Paris.
19:00 p.m. Reception and registration of attendees- Visit to the exhibition of digital art with five works from the ISEA2022 Barcelona call and twenty pieces from the .Beep Collection.
20:00 p.m. Welcome drink
20.15 p.m. Speeches
20.30 p.m. Performance “Ventriloquist ontology”, by Afroditi Psarra
20.45 p.m. Standing Cocktail dinner
21.50 p.m Fractal Listening (audiovisual performance), by Sebastian Seifert
22.30 p.m. Mapping Cité Mémoire, by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon in collaboration with Michel Marc Bouchard,
There is in nature, a mysterious and complex mathematical system that repeats itself over and over again, an underlying geometric pattern in forms as disparate as clouds, mountains, trees or our own circulatory system. Its distinctive feature is self-similarity, the same configuration that is repeated at different scales, branching out infinitely. There are those who believe that it is “God’s fingerprint”, “the absolute truth of the universe”.
In Fractal Listening, any attempt at stylistic corseting is diluted in the hybridization of artistic languages. Thus, the fractal images dialogue with acoustic and electronic sounds in an interweaving of infinite kinesthetic notes. In this way, abstract figures in strident colors outline mandalas and enigmatic portals, piercing the virtual canvas with three-dimensional shapes that evoke sacred geometry. This incessant algorithmic repetition generated by pre-established codes, sometimes follows a visual choreography and other times -altered by the frequencies of live sound- it improvises an organic dance, introducing variations to the original pattern. Simultaneously, the sound dimension is embodied in layers and loops, intertwining the electronic bases of IDM, ambient and experimental with the live chords of a guitar. Intervening the work, a trumpet interprets vibrant and moving jazz melodies with harmonics that generate sensations of body and spirit, closing the virtuous circle with a sensory, immersive and enveloping atmosphere.
In 2019, Microfeel & Santiago Bartolomé began their collaborative work with the aim of furthering their respective creative pursuits. This path of experimentation materialized in different artistic proposals. In 2021 they created the live show AV Fractal Listening, the work combines digital art, electronic music and the guitar of the multimedia artist Microfeel (Sebastián Seifert) with the trumpet and processes of the musician and composer Santiago Bartolomé.
Ventriloquist Ontology is a media performance that explores the limits of control and points of hybridization between the human and the machine Ventriloquist Ontology is a media performance that conceptually stems out of philosophical ideas that are rooted in the realms of Posthumanism, Actor Network Theory and Object-Oriented Ontology. Inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s dystopian theatrical play The School of Ventriloquists, it encompasses the creation of a modular wearable, trained using Natural Language Processing to create its own language that manifests in the form of speech and movement actuation. It explores the idea of soft control and points of hybridization between human and machine through the relationship of a performer and a wearable entity. This soft modular entity speaks through text generated using the GPT-2 language model, trained on a dataset of texts around biopolitics, algo-governance, the surveillanced body, and queer theory. The softness aspect of its control refers to the plasticity of the interface, the malleability of its hardware connections, the suggestive nature that the GPT-2 generated text pertains to, and the indicative nature of the movement of the actuators.
Sequentially, it brings forth the soft data of the body inextricably linked to ideas of care and intimacy, as well as to the pliability of the different levels of interpretation between the human and the machine. The aspect of control is tied to the cybernetic idea of steering the body to its optimal movement through a feedback loop between machinic language, and human assimilation. It also deals with the hardness of the linear actuators and the microcontroller that manipulates them, to the domination of these mechanical components over the softness and vulnerability of the human flesh. Ultimately, the idea of ventriloquism is used to give agency to an ontological entity comprised of subtle suggestive wearable modules, human flesh and cognitive motor abilities, born-digital, able to produce novel language, but also conditioned to reproduce the biases of its algorithmic parts.
Stillfrom the Ventriloquist Ontology performance presented at the iii Workspace, The Hague.
H2Emotion invites you on June 14 to the tableau from the renowned Cité Mémoire Montréal projection circuit.
The Grand Tableau from Cité Mémoire will be projected onto the façade of the Sant Pau Hospital. It is a journey through the key periods in Montreal’s history: the Indigenous presence, French Regime, British conquest and contemporary Montreal —a look at more than 375 years of history.
Created by multidisciplinary artists Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon in collaboration with playwright Michel Marc Bouchard, the majestic digital work takes a poetic and playful look on the city of Montreal through images, words and music.
Please, notice that the Opening Ceremony will take place in a new space: Museu Frederic Marès (Plaça Sant Iu, 5, Barcelona)
On June 10, Museu Frederic Marès will host the ISEA2022 Barcelona Opening Ceremony to welcome both local and international participants to ISEA2022 Barcelona.
Before, you can visit the Maria Aurèlia Capmany viewpoint. Located on the terrace of the Novíssim building (Plaça de Sant Miquel, 2), it offers the best panoramic views of the city.
7:00 p.m. – Open access to Maria Aurèlia Capmany viewpoint (with previous registration)
8:00 p.m. – Reception in Museu Frederic Marès (Pati Verger) FORMS – (it is a) Live de Playmodes
20:30 p.m. – Speeches. Visual ‘Slow Violence’ de Hamill Industries
21:00 p.m. Standing cocktail dinner FORMS – (it is a) Live de Playmodes
22:00 p.m. – Closing
In order to attend to the Opening Ceremony, ISEA2022 Barcelona’s participants need to register in advance.
Santi Vilanova, artist of the Playmodes collective, presents a new performance format of his work FORMS. This work – which in its “Screen Ensemble” version is part of the Beep collection of Electronic Art and of the exhibition that can be seen at the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau – explores the compositional possibilities of visual music through ‘generative graphics and image sonication algorithms.
On this occasion, the artist has developed a live controllable audiovisual system, which generates infinite variations of sonicated spectrograms, and which operates halfway between the sound machine and the live musical instrument.
This piece proposes a space to rethink some of the long-lasting effects, and formulates a visual exercise on the geological transformation and destruction of living ecosystems. We want to create a visual that reflects on the great acceleration of these changes (Anthropocene) and their repercussions on climate and biodiversity. A visual and living fresco that encapsulates the unstoppable disaster before our eyes, that devours and consumes nature in an exercise of terrible beauty and where we contemplate, in a very sensory and almost tactile way, the effects and changes produced on the earth’s surface.
Using techniques to photograph frequencies outside our visible light spectrum (ultraviolet and infrared) and time lapse explores ways of seeing complexities, forces, and natural phenomena that are not obvious to the human eye. We want to work on the technique to take an exploratory, deep and conscious look and make visible the invisible forces of nature (erosion, thawing, floods …), observing it through a different perspective.
Slow Violence – Hamill Industries
Screening / Code_red
Abstract: The ritual of a woman wearing lipstick is at once a highly personal act of identity, yet common across cultures. What does it mean for a robot to replace the human hand in such an act? We apply a feminist approach to investigating how robots can collaborate with humans in personal grooming and bodily care towards a future where robots are ubiquitous in daily life. Our work addresses ethical issues of identity, agency, vulnerability and trust in human-robot relations. We explore these issues through cinematic film-making as provocations and speculative narratives.
Code_red is a video artwork that portrays a solitary female figure awaiting the painting of her lips in red by a robot. In what seems like a simple, perfunctory action sequence by the robot, through a series of images that are deliberately intense and ambiguous, we aim to unsettle the viewer and call into question the integration of a robot in cultural rituals of feminine grooming and presentation.
Introducing a robot into this highly personal ritual invites a critique of how biological and machine bodies could be reconfigured in the intimate zone of close contact. Deploying an industrial robotic arm is a defamiliarising tactic, intended to disrupt and open up thinking on how we weave robots into our daily lives and private, intimate acts. It is also part of our arsenal of creative practice of the disruptive feminine, a questioning of the construction of the universal female, with its culturally entrenched feminine modes of presentation.
Biography:reinhardtloke are Lian Loke and Dagmar Reinhardt: we develop projects at the intersection of art, design, architecture, choreography and human-machine interaction since 2012. Loke is an artist, dancer and interaction design researcher. Her practice questions the role of the body in contemporary society, and how our notions of self are open to transformation through inter-cultural, inter-species and inter-media relations and rituals. Reinhardt is an architect, designer and researcher and extends design research for architectural performance at the intersection of architecture, acoustics, structure, robotics, fabrication, material and construction constraints into multi-disciplinary collaborations. Our work is a critical speculation on the future of human versus machine agency, combined with a creative experimental approach to materiality through digital fabrication, software programming and robotics. We explore new modes of non/human performativity and human experience through prototypes, installation, exhibition and performance.
Screening / American made machines // (canción g.)
Abstract: We live in the age of the algorithm. It’s organized around an ancient impulse alive and well in both the contemporary collective and individual — the desire to bring order to chaos, to control the unknown, to domesticate the wild. In this contemporary moment, we experience this impulse through an obsession with information, convenience, order, and efficiency. A great deal of our lives are shaped by the dynamic of these socio-technical realities, with a logical terminus on this quest for illusory control being a technocracy: a digitalization where every interaction can be monitored, analyzed, optimized, commodified, exploited and ultimately controlled. The price of this quest for constructed control is a world without genuine wildness, without chaos, without chance.
The american made machines series reveals a hidden potentiality inside of this dynamic while simultaneously encouraging a reflection of the personal, ethical, and social dimensions at play. The work is as much a (re)presentation of the form + function of our always-on digital infrastructure as it is a chance to revisit individual intentionality and possible futures within this relationship. While the imagery itself is literally composed of HTML/CSS objects, through their algorithmically generative transformation these visualizations function as Rothkoesque color fields or Rorschach tests. This seductive (re)presentation of the www asks you to look inward as much as it does into the digital world. What is your relationship to the internet, screens, and technology at large? You can surely survive without modern technology, but can you thrive? On a larger scale, are we ready to do the difficult work of training ourselves out of problematic internet behaviours and into a deeper appreciation of one’s own role within these systems? Do you confront and factor in your role within these systems? What do you want it – and yourself – to be?
Biography: Christopher is an artist, educator, and technologist. At its core, his work is an investigation into society and technology’s mutual influence. The complexities which emerge from our material and technologized landscapes are research subjects, while the methods of interaction, exploration, and engagement collapse into a research-based practice that itself formally resolves as time-based media, creative coding, poetics, performance, and new media. His primary interest is intervening into our relationship with modern socio-technical systems, pushing back against their boundaries to allow for speculative design, ethical considerations, and future imaginaries to arise, ultimately seeking to find contemplative, transformative, constructivist silence amidst the noise of an increasingly mediated society.
Screening / Experimental Microscopic Media Art: Inner Essence
Abstract: My body of work presents the essence of nature from various microscopic structures, illustrating the substance of the world. A digital microscope was used to capture these complex forms of various plants and objects revealing the natural state of an organic system and visual movements that could not be seen with the naked eye. The Inner Essence is an experimental video that depicts the essence of nature through various microscopic structures, ultimately illustrating the totality of nature’s beauty beyond the surface. This exploration highlights the juxtaposition between the outsider’s perspective upon nature and the essence of nature itself through the lens of a microscope. I was fascinated by the manipulation of optic focuses and the ability to travel through what appears to be the underlying true worlds. This experimentation allows me to observe in contemplation and speculation of nature’s mysteriousness.
Biography: Emily Kim is a Professor of Graphic Design in the Department of Art at Sam Houston State University in Texas. She is a digital media artist and experimental designer, explores art, science, and technology. During the past years, Kim has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Her works were exhibited in the Art Gallery at SIGGRAPH, Graphic Design USA, SMart Multimedia Art Festival, Florida International, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, 108 contemporary, West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival, Farmington Museum, and Alexandria Museum of Art in USA. Also, Kim’s works were included intentionally in the 10th Seoul International New Media Festival in Seoul and GwangJu International Exhibition at Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea, LED Media Façade in Selangor, Malaysia, 9th International Conference Computer Graphics in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and 3rd International Festival of Nano Art in Iasi, Romania.
Screening / Life Line, single channel video
Abstract: “Life in us is like the water in a river.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Streams of water lead to creeks… which lead to lakes… which lead to rivers… which lead to the sea… and then to the ocean. This video is an abstract visualization of the flow of water – our planet’s lifeline. In this piece, each line of video is a digital sample extracted from footage of various bodies of water collected across the country. Similar, in a way, to a doctor drawing blood or a scientist collecting a water specimen to test the health of a lake. In the resulting work, the layered audio of a heartbeat monitor draws parallels to the human body as lines move across the composition like veins or air passages. The 5-minute. video starts slow, changes, builds to a crescendo, then slows down to either end or repeat.
Audio and musical score by Sherman Finch.
Biography: Krista Leigh Steinke is a lens-based artist working in moving-image, experimental photography, and installation. Her work, situated between the photographic and the abstract, presents poetic reflections on time, place, perception, and the interconnection between human experience and the natural world. She regularly exhibits and screens her work in museums, galleries, and film festivals across the country, as well as internationally. Her work has received support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Glasscock Center for Humanities, and a Fellowship from the Howard Foundation. She has been a guest artist at numerous colleges and universities and has participated in several festivals and conferences as an exhibiting artist, speaker, or curator, including the 2019 ISEA Conference in Gwangju, Republic of Korea. She currently teaches at Texas A&M, Department of Visualizations and divides her time between Houston, TX and New York.
Screening / Glacier’s Lament
Abstract: Glaciers are sentinels of climate change. They are the most visible evidence of global warming today. This series of works embodies the stunning beauty, rapid change, fragility, destructive power, and magnificence of glaciers. At the same time, they challenge the audience with the dramatic, irreversible ecological damages from climate change.
In Glacier’s Lament, we used data from glacier melting in the past 60 years to compose music and dance with local musicians who have witnessed the recession of the Mendenhall glacier over their lifetimes in Juneau, Alaska. Each note is one season in a year. In the winter, the glacier is frozen, so the pitch is low. In the summer, the melting rate rises, so the pitch is high. Towards the end, the melting overflows into spring and autumn, and the melting in the summer becomes faster. We filmed the artists performing the piece on the glacier, collaborating with the glacier’s own sounds.
There are four color cards in PANTONE for glacier blue. However, in real glaciers, this blue color is variable and dynamic. As glaciers are disappearing, this unique blue is also disappearing. We sampled and blended the blue color from glaciers in Alaska and hung them in recycled glass vials. When one glacier calving happened, one color vial fell down. At the end of the exhibition, all 60 vials fell down, forming a painting on the canvas beneath.
Biography: Jiabao Li creates works addressing climate change, interspecies world sharing, humane technology, and a just, sustainable future. In Jiabao’s TED Talk, she uncovered how technology mediates the way we perceive reality. At Apple, she invents and explores new technologies for future products. Jiabao holds multiple patents and awards including Falling Walls, iF, AACYF 30 Under 30, FastCo, Core77, A’ Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally, at Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, Milan and Dubai Design Week, McaM, ISEA, Anchorage Museum, OCAT, CHI, Donghu Shan Art Museum, MOOD Museum of Design, Alaska State Museum. Her work has been featured on Yahoo, TechCrunch, Domus, Yanko Design, Fast Company, Harvard Political Review, The National, Business Insider, Bloomberg, and Leonardo. Currently, Jiabao is an Assistant Professor at UT Austin and a member of NEW INC at the New Museum. She holds a Master of Design Technology with Distinction at Harvard GSD.
Screening / Unforgotten
Abstract: The animation Unforgotten tells a traumatic historical event that happened to the most vulnerable group of women during a wartime and had been forgotten for a half-century. The animation shines a light on the victims’ voices and their willingness to give testimonies that deliver the historical truth rejected and denied by mainstream history. The women who give the testimonies in the animation spent the last moments of their lives fighting for women’s human rights so that women will never be sexually sacrificed again during wartime.
Unforgotten tells the atrocious wartime sexual violence through fairy-like visuals that are metaphorical and poetic so as not to perpetuate violent imagery and retraumatize the victims. This approach is for changing how we conceive victims of wartime sexual violence, who were commonly considered filthy women by their community and retraumatized in media by repeatedly reproducing sexual sensations. The animation ultimately intends to change the way we conceive our past and historical trauma and, most importantly, pursue our future to embrace the history of marginalized people.
Biography: Sujin Kim is an animation artist, filmmaker, and assistant professor of 3D Animation in the School of Art at Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. She studied Fine Arts at Ewha Womans University in South Korea and received her MFA in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts in the US with a concentration in CGI. Kim implements a broad range of visual language ranging from 2D traditional to CG techniques for animated filmmaking. Her films have been selected and screened at many film festivals worldwide including the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Kim’s MFA thesis received the Gold Medal at the 48th Student Academy Awards in the Animation category. She is a recipient of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educator’s Forum Scholarship for 2019-2020, Experimental Animation Named Award: Jules Engel Scholarship, Lillian Disney Scholarship, Vision Ewha Artist Award, and Adobe Prize at the 2019 Ewha Media Art Presentation. She is a member of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators Forum and served as a nomination judge on the Student Film for the 49th Annual ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards. Her commercial CG projects include collaborations with Roc Nation, Epitaph Records, and Warner Music UK.
Screening / Swarm Raid
Abstract: “Swarm Raid” acts as an interspecies meditation on social life. In this music and dance film, two of the most social creatures on earth—ants and humans—converge in a surreal trip to the grocery store inspired by the highly coordinated food gathering missions of the army ant species Eciton burchellii. The central character in the film experiences a kind of fever dream borne of social anxiety in which she witnesses crowds of humans becoming ant-like workers bringing offerings of food to their “ant queen,” performed by a virtuosic soprano. The ant queen invokes the refined choreography of the army ants as she sings “Pheromones, show the way! Coordinate the corps, of our Eciton ballet.” Meanwhile, humans dance in and around shopping carts and circle islands of produce in Busby Berkeley-inspired formations. Ultimately, distortions in the speed of the film reveal a manic, ant-like quality to the humans’ search for food. In all, the film draws connections between the ways that humans and ants communicate and find food, and, more importantly, reflects on collective behavior and social hierarchy in ants and humans.
“Swarm Raid” was inspired by the Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer Army Ant Guest Collection housed at the University of Connecticut, a world-class natural history collection of more than 2 million specimens. The music for “Swarm Raid” is scored for soprano and custom digital instruments and combines traditional through-composed music with musical textures developed using a generative approach to music composition modeled on biological processes. The film is directed by Anna Lindemann and Ryan Glista. Music by Lindemann; lyrics by Emma Komlos-Hrobsky; performance by soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Lindemann, and fifty swarming members of the community.
Biography: Anna Lindemann (co-director, composer, performer) calls herself an Evo Devo artist. Her work combines animation, music, video, and performance to explore the emerging field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo Devo). Her Evo Devo Art, including the animated short Beetle Bluffs and the art-science performances Theory of Flight and The Colony, has been featured internationally at black box theaters, planetariums, galleries, concert halls, biology conferences, film festivals, digital art conferences, and natural history museums. Anna graduated from Yale with a BS in Biology before receiving an MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an Assistant Professor in the Digital Media & Design department at the University of Connecticut where she has pioneered courses integrating art and science.
Ryan Glista (co-director, editor) is a filmmaker and digital producer with a Film BA and Digital Media and Design MFA from the University of Connecticut. His award-winning short films have screened nationally and internationally. He is a skilled director, photographer, music producer and multi-disciplinary digital artist, working at the intersection of performing arts and new media. Ryan currently works at The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts, directing immersive video installations.
Emma Komlos-Hrobsky (librettist) is a writer, illustrator, and editor who tells stories at the intersection of the human and the fantastic. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, Hunger Mountain, Conjunctions, Bookforum, Tin House, Hobart, and the Story Collider. Emma received her BA from Wesleyan and her MFA in fiction writing from The New School, where she later taught as a professor in the Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy. Previously Emma served as an editor at Tin House magazine and Tin House Books; she is currently senior editor at Poets & Writers Magazine. She also volunteers as a mentor for Creature Conserve, a nonprofit organization which fosters arts-science collaborations to tell urgent stories about conservation. With the support of a fellowship from the Elizabeth George Foundation, she is at work on a novel about particle physics, family, and the Alps.
Screening / Deep Reckonings
Abstract: Deep Reckonings is a series of explicitly-marked deepfake videos that imagine morally courageous versions of our public figures. We see Mark Zuckerberg confront the disastrous consequences of his techno-utopianism. We watch Alex Jones grapple with his spread of deceitful conspiracies. An imaginary Brett Kavanaugh wrestles with the divisive way he responded to the sexual allegations against him, and a fake Donald Trump concedes his lies about the 2020 election. The project is an exercise in steel-manning where we often straw-man.
Deep Reckonings explores the ethical and epistemological implications of synethic media. It also interrogates how we might use synthetic media in ethical and even benevolent ways. The project seeks not to deceive nor demean, but to imagine and inspire. In this spirit, Deep Reckonings explores the question: how might we use our synthetic selves to elicit our better angels? Or more simply: how might we deepfake it ‘til we make it?
Deep Reckonings won two Webby Awards in 2021. The project seeks to become an ongoing series, in dialogue with the news cycle as it evolves. To be in touch, follow producer Stephanie Lepp on Twitter: @stephlepp
Biography: Stephanie Lepp is a producer whose work strives to hold up a mirror — inviting us to grow from what we see.
Stephanie is the Executive Producer at the Center for Humane Technology — the organization at the heart of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. She leads the production of the podcast Your Undivided Attention, a member of the TED Audio Collective which has garnered almost 12 million downloads.
Stephanie is also an independent producer and futurist. He latest work is Deep Reckonings, a series of explicitly-marked deepfake videos that imagine morally courageous versions of our public figures. Deep Reckonings won two Webby Awards in 2021.
Stephanie is a member of the Guild of Future Architects. Her work has been covered by outlets such as NPR and the MIT Technology Review, and supported by institutions including the Mozilla Foundation and the Sundance Institute.
Session 1 of the screening’s program includes video experimental artworks that deal sharply with a variety of topics relevant to the main topic of ISEA2022 Barcelona in terms of future possibilities regarding gender, environment, human rights and machines.
Morning session: from 11 am to 12:10 pm Afternoon session: from 2:10 pm to 3:20 pm
Session 2 includes pieces that use a documentary approach either to explore concepts related to humans, technologies and environment or to show relevant initiatives that deal with these topics, including demonstrations of applied projects in this field.
Morning session: from 12:10 am to 1:20 pm Afternoon session: from 3:20 pm to 4:30 pm
What does it mean to be a creative practitioner in the age of algorithms and surface-less media? New media plays a crucial role in relation to the fragmentation of information so that they provide us with only some versions of the world. For instance, the way information is formatted and styled has an effect on how information is received and interpreted.
We believe in this age it is necessary to re-evaluate the capabilities of human imagination, and that this can by done by exploring the relationship between executing control and being controlled by a machine. However, creative practitioners are sense makers imagining the possible rather than being satisfied with the probable. Often they distil intentions which are not perceivable to others.
In this workshop participants are invited to use a text-editor as a tool to create visual textures from typographic symbols. We will start with an initial input to then produce possible outcomes, to then collaboratively will explore its aesthetical, historical, and social values to re-work them from alternative perspectives, and produce a final outcome.
As a theoretical framework, our focus will be on creative methodologies that attempt to sabotage the functioning of tools and media or, on the contrary, collaborate with it. Here artists and designers capture, or rather provoke, improbable and unexpected results, exploring how to expand the field of the possible in contrast to that of the probable, putting in value the remains and the margin of error of the devices, as opposed to the regular and anticipated operation of those.
We will look at the thinking of the Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser, and other philosophers who have focused their research on questioning the role that tools and media play in the configuration of our perception and experience of the world.
The workshop will take place at EINA Bosc, a new space form EINA University School of Design and Art of Barcelona that allows the centre’s educational programme to be expanded from a perspective of permanent innovation and creative dynamics. EINA Bosc houses workshops and versatile creative spaces open to non-disciplinary experimentation, digital and traditional graphic arts, sets for audiovisual practices and spaces to carry out exhibition and performance programmes, and has all the spatial, human and logistical support necessary to develop the school’s offer at all levels of training.
Biography:
Giorgia Scavo and Angelo Stitz met as Visual Communication students at the Royal College of Art in London in 2016 and share an interest in the transitions between human and machines. They are former co-founders of the student-led program forum ‘F[r]iction’ started in 2017.
Giorgia is focused on developing ongoing research about accidents and irregularities seen as openings to the unexpected. After she graduated at the Royal College of Art (London) in 2018, she graduated in Digital Art Direction at ESDi/URL (Barcelona) in 2020. Meanwhile she has been working as a graphic designer, art director and professor.
Angelo explores the visual, technical and social aspects of language and its obstacles in translating originality. His scope of work includes graphic design, visual identities and editorial design focussing on typography and type design. Recently, he taught as a sessional lecturer for the MA Design, Communication and Technology course at Ravensbourne University, London.
D’11h a 14h i de 15h a 17h
Què significa ser un professional creatiu a l’era dels algorismes i els mitjans sense superfície? Els nous mitjans tenen un paper crucial en relació a la fragmentació de la informació perquè només ens proporcionen algunes versions del món. Per exemple, la forma en què la informació es formata i s’estila té un efecte sobre com es rep i s’interpreta la informació.
Creiem que en aquesta època és necessari re-avaluar les capacitats de la imaginació humana, i que això es pot fer explorant la relació entre executar el control i ser controlat per una màquina. Tanmateix, els professionals creatius són creadors de sentit que imaginen el possible en lloc d’estar satisfets amb el probable. Sovint destil·len intencions que no són perceptibles per als altres.
En aquest taller es convida als participants a utilitzar un editor de text com a eina per crear textures visuals a partir de símbols tipogràfics. Començarem amb una entrada inicial per produir possibles resultats, per després explorar-ne de manera col·laborativa els valors estètics, històrics i socials per tornar-los a treballar des de perspectives alternatives i produir un resultat final.
Com a marc teòric, ens centrarem en les metodologies creatives que intenten sabotejar el funcionament d’eines i mitjans o, per contra, col·laborar-hi. Aquí artistes i dissenyadors capten, o més aviat provoquen, resultats improbables i inesperats, explorant com ampliar el camp del possible en contraposició al del probable, posant en valor les restes i el marge d’error dels aparells, en contraposició al funcionament regular i previst d’aquests.
Ens fixarem en el pensament del filòsof txec Vilém Flusser, i d’altres filòsofs que han centrat la seva recerca en qüestionar el paper que juguen les eines i els mitjans en la configuració de la nostra percepció i experiència del món.
El taller tindrà lloc a EINA Bosc, el nou espai d’EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona, que permet ampliar el programa pedagògic del centre des d’una òptica d’innovació permanent i dinàmiques creatives. EINA Bosc alberga tallers i espais de creació versàtils i oberts a l’experimentació no disciplinària, arts gràfiques digitals i tradicionals, platós per a pràctiques audiovisuals i espais per portar a terme programes expositius i performatius, i compta amb tot el suport espacial, humà i logístic necessari per desenvolupar l’oferta de l’escola en tots els nivells formatius.
Biografia:
Giorgia Scavo i Angelo Stitz es van conèixer com a estudiants de Comunicació Visual al Royal College of Art de Londres el 2016 i comparteixen interès per les transicions entre humans i màquines. Són antics cofundadors del fòrum del programa dirigit per estudiants “F[r]iction” iniciat el 2017.
Giorgia se centra a desenvolupar una investigació contínua sobre accidents i irregularitats vistes com a obertures a l’inesperat. Després de graduar-se al Royal College of Art (Londres) l’any 2018, es va graduar en Direcció d’Art Digital a l’ESDi/URL (Barcelona) l’any 2020. Mentrestant, ha estat treballant com a dissenyadora gràfica, directora d’art i professora.
Angelo explora els aspectes visuals, tècnics i socials del llenguatge i els seus obstacles per traduir l’originalitat. El seu àmbit de treball inclou el disseny gràfic, identitats visuals i disseny editorial centrat en la tipografia i el disseny de tipus. Recentment, va ensenyar com a professor de sessions al curs de màster en Disseny, Comunicació i Tecnologia a la Universitat de Ravensbourne, Londres.
Institutional presentation / Producing, Presenting and publishing with V2_
Abstract: In this institutional presentation by V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media we will present our Lab’s interdisciplinary practice with a focus on art and media technology. It will cover our three core activities – the production, presentation and publication of research at the interface of art, technology and society, as well as highlight five pillars to our success: 1.) an emphasis on experiment as opposed to end result; 2.) the support of practices instead of mere single projects; 3.) the integration of theory with practice; 4.) our care for archiving activities; 5.) and our vast international network.
Furthermore, the presentation will highlight our thematic approach based on the recent example To Mind is to Care, a long term research project into the notion of “Caring for”. This interdisciplinary study of care covered care of people, other life forms, and technology and resulted in the book To Mind Is To Care, which included contributions by Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Sjoerd van Tuinen, Michael Marder, Arjo Klamer, Driessens & Verstappen, Frank Pasquale, Ellen Dissanayake, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Pieter Lemmens, Jeannette Pols, Bernard Stiegler, and Frederiek Bennema, a group exhibition carrying the same title featuring four new productions by artists Ana María Gómez López, Driessens & Verstappen, Nathalie Gebert and WE MAKE CARPETS and the curatorial research Art and Care: Reflections on the To Mind Is To Care Exhibition.
Biography: Florian Weiglis curator at V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media. As curator and researcher he is interested in art and contemporary technology reflecting on society, in collaboration with artists in the development of critical dialogue, artistic reflection and practice-oriented research. Curatorial projects at V2_ he did include the live experiment series 3×3 he initiated, and amongst others the group exhibitions Latent Spectators (2019, UNArt Center, Shanghai, co-curated with Iris Long), To Mind Is To Care (2020) and Reasonable Doubt (2021, co-curated with Vincent van Velsen); solo projects and exhibitions Jonas Lund’s Operation Earnest Voice (2018), Philip Vermeulen’s The Physical Rythm Machine (2017 at Ars Electronica, 2018 at V2_) and Johannes Langkamp’s solo exhibition Sun Tracing (2019). He is also author of the publications 3×3 Live experimenteren(2020, V2_Publishing with Jochem Kootstra) and Art and Care (2021, V2_ written with Dora Vrhoci).
Arie Altena is archive editor at V2_ and the author of Wat is community art? (2016) and 40 Years of V2_ (2022).
Abstract: Over the last 20 years, Hexagram has played a seminal role in the recognition of practice-based art and design research in Canada and abroad, as well as in promoting knowledge-sharing between artistic and scientific disciplines. Founded in 2001, Hexagram supports research-creation projects and foster collaborations amongst its members from eight Québec research institutions, as well as with local and international partners from academic, cultural and creative sectors. To celebrate this milestone, in September 2021 Hexagram initiated an ambitious season programming on the theme EMERGENCE/Y, which launched in the framework of Ars Electronica 2021. This research-creation (RC) programme of activities will run until June 2022. Hexagram presents the highlights and the sequel to EMERGENCE/Y, to which Network members as well as international partners are invited to contribute.
Biography: Manuelle Freire is Professeure associée – UQAM and general coordinator of Hexagram – International network of research-creation in arts, cultures and technologies. She holds a PhD in Arts Education from Concordia University and currently works on research-creation and curriculum development in arts and technologies, examines interdisciplinary and intersectorial collaborative creative practices, and practice-based learning in art and design.
Sofian Audry is an artist, scholar, Professor of Interactive Media within the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and Co-Director of the Hexagram Network for Research-Creation in Art, Culture and Technology. Their work explores the behavior of hybrid agents at the frontier of art, artificial intelligence, and artificial life, through artworks and writings. Audry’s book Art in the Age of Machine Learning examines machine learning art and its practice in art and music (MIT Press, 2021). Their artistic practice branches through multiple forms including robotics, installations, bio-art, and electronic literature.
Chris Salter is an artist, Professor of Immersive Arts and Director of the Immersive Arts Space at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) as well as Co-Director of the Hexagram Network (until August 2022). He is also Professor Emeritus, Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University. He studied philosophy, economics, theatre and computer music at Emory and Stanford Universities. His artistic work has been seen all over the world at such venues as the Venice Architecture Biennale, Barbican Centre, Berliner Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, ZKM, Musée d’art Contemporain, EXIT Festival and Place des Arts-Montreal, among many others. He is the author of Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance (2010) Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making (2015). and the just released Sensing Machines (2002) all published by MIT Press.
Artist talk / Xenological Entanglements Surrounding Transgender Life in Space
Abstract: Space travel for transgender people will require some way of producing hormones for long-duration space missions. One potential way of doing this is through the genetic engineering of testicular cells so that they produce estrogen rather than testosterone. The Xenological Entanglements. 001: Eromatase project explores some of the elements of this desire. Consisting of open-source hardware, speculative photoperformance, and laboratory research, the project additionally highlights the need for novel methods of hormone production in a world where there still exists extensive gatekeeping regarding access to transgender healthcare.
Biography: Adriana Knouf, PhD (NL/US) works as an artist, writer, and xenologist. She engages with topics such as wet media, space art, satellites, radio transmission, non-human encounters, drone flight, queer and trans futurities, machine learning, the voice, and papermaking. She is the Founding Facilitator of the tranxxenolab, a nomadic artistic research laboratory that promotes entanglements among entities trans and xeno. Adriana regularly presents her artistic research around the world and beyond, including a work that has flown aboard the International Space Station. Her work has been recognized by a number of awards, including an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (2021), an Honorary Mention from the Science Fiction Research Association’s Innovative Research Award, and as a prize winner in The Lake’s Works for Radio #4 (2020).
Panel / Light Shows, Live Coding & Transcoding (Online)
Abstract: By design the audio/visual effects of light shows, live coding and transcoding events have captured the attention of researchers, artists and scientists for decades. This panel summarizes Robin Oppenheimer’s media arts research on the histories of early Light Shows, specifically the psychedelic audio visual productions created in North America. Alex McLean will discuss the origins of algoraves, as they emerged from an international live coding scene as well as its cultural prehistory. Vicki Moulder & Michael Heidt will present works by artists who are transcoding larger technology infrastructures and networked system(s); with an emphasis on data extraction and orchestrating events in public spaces. The complex connections between these art movements and artists exemplify how the roots of electronic arts histories from diverse regions of North America and Europe are interconnected and interrelated in unexpected ways.
Biography: Dr. Robin Oppenheimer is a media arts historian, curator and scholar who has worked in the field since 1980. She was Executive Director of two media arts centers in Atlanta and Seattle and, until June 2015, was a Lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell, with a PhD in Interactive Arts and Technology. Her areas of research include media arts histories, participatory media, and media activism.
Alex McLean is a musician and researcher currently working at thentrythis.org. He is notable for his key role in developing live coding as a musical practice, including for creating TidalCycles, a live-coding environment that allows programmer musicians to code simply and quickly, and for coining the term Algorave with Nick Collins. He is an active and influential member of the live coding community; and is the co-founder of TOPLAP and joint leader of the Live Coding Research Network.
Dr. Victoria Moulder is an artist, researcher, and imaginative advocate for a better world. She is a pioneer in the field of social art practice and has co-produced events with not-for-profit organizations since 1988 in Europe, Canada, the United States and Asia. Moulder’s research explores narrative design in the context of everyday activism (i.e., the habit of working socially conscious choices into our everyday lives). Moulder holds a PhD, School of Interactive Art + Technology, Simon Fraser University, as well as a BFA, Emily Carr University in British Columbia, Canada.
Michael Heidt is an affiliated researcher at GeDIS. He graduated in computer-science from Philipps University of Marburg with a thesis on self-organising cloud systems. Michael’s current research focus is interactive systems: He has built interactice artefacts for deployment in cultural environments such as museums, at public events, in gallery spaces, and other sites of cultural communication. Michael is especially interested in how to embed practices of computing and code-making into interdisciplinary networks of cooperation within the field of culture.
EINA – Birding the Future, by Krista Caballero & Frank Ekeberg
Birds provide a unique window into the cultural and ecological entanglements of our time. Unrestricted by human-imposed borders, approximately five billion birds migrate yearly, linking cultures, countries, and ecologies, and revealing issues collectively shared. Declining bird populations in practically all habitat types signal profound changes over our entire planet. Birding the Future poses three questions in response to this crisis: What does it mean that we can only see and hear extinct species through technology? What might happen as the messages of birds are increasingly being silenced? How might we bridge knowledge systems using traditional and emerging technologies to develop a cross-cultural praxis for ecological futures rooted in kinship with the world?
Birding the Future is an ongoing artwork that explores current extinction rates by focusing on the warning abilities of birds as bioindicators of environmental change. The installation invites visitors to listen to endangered and extinct bird calls and view visionary avian landscapes through stereographs and video.
Calls of endangered birds are extracted to create Morse code messages based upon tales, stories, and poetry in which birds speak to humans. These are combined with calls of extinct birds, which act as a memory of the past and underscore technological reproduction as the only means to hear certain species. A real-time algorithm scales the extinction rate to the duration of the exhibition — the longer you stay the fewer birds you hear. The soundscape is paired with a series of stereographs, which explore the landscape of human-bird encounters via imagery, poetry, data and research. Video footage from the Goller Lab explores the ethics and technological impact of research conducted in a more-than-human world.
This installation will be shown at EINA Bosc, a new space form EINA University School of Design and Art of Barcelona that allows the centre’s educational programme to be expanded from a perspective of permanent innovation and creative dynamics. EINA Bosc houses workshops and versatile creative spaces open to non-disciplinary experimentation, digital and traditional graphic arts, sets for audiovisual practices and spaces to carry out exhibition and performance programmes, and has all the spatial, human and logistical support necessary to develop the school’s offer at all levels of training.
Els ocells ofereixen una finestra única a les entranyes culturals i ecològiques del nostre temps. Sense restriccions per les fronteres imposades pels humans, aproximadament cinc mil milions d’ocells migren anualment, enllaçant cultures, països i ecologies, i revelant qüestions compartides col·lectivament. La disminució de les poblacions d’ocells en pràcticament tots els tipus d’hàbitat indica canvis profunds a tot el nostre planeta. Birding the Future planteja tres preguntes en resposta a aquesta crisi: Què vol dir que només podem veure i escoltar espècies extingides mitjançant la tecnologia? Què pot passar quan els missatges dels ocells es silencien cada cop més? Com podríem unir sistemes de coneixement utilitzant tecnologies tradicionals i emergents per desenvolupar una praxi intercultural per a futurs ecològics arrelats en el parentiu amb el món?
Birding the Future és una obra d’art en curs que explora les taxes d’extinció actuals centrant-se en les capacitats d’advertència dels ocells com a bioindicadors del canvi ambiental. La instal·lació convida els visitants a escoltar els crits d’ocells en perill d’extinció i extingits i a veure paisatges aviaris visionaris a través d’estereografies i vídeos.
S’extreuen crides d’ocells en perill d’extinció per crear missatges en codi Morse basats en contes, històries i poesies en què els ocells parlen als humans. Aquests es combinen amb crits d’ocells extingits, que actuen com a record del passat i subratllen la reproducció tecnològica com a únic mitjà per escoltar determinades espècies. Un algorisme en temps real escala la taxa d’extinció a la durada de l’exposició: com més temps us quedeu, menys ocells escolteu. El paisatge sonor es combina amb una sèrie d’estereografies, que exploren el paisatge de les trobades humans-ocells mitjançant imatges, poesia, dades i investigació. Les imatges de vídeo del Goller Lab exploren l’ètica i l’impacte tecnològic de la investigació realitzada en un món més que humà.
Aquesta instal·lació es podrà veure a EINA Bosc, el nou espai d’EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona, que permet ampliar el programa pedagògic del centre des d’una òptica d’innovació permanent i dinàmiques creatives. EINA Bosc alberga tallers i espais de creació versàtils i oberts a l’experimentació no disciplinària, arts gràfiques digitals i tradicionals, platós per a pràctiques audiovisuals i espais per portar a terme programes expositius i performatius, i compta amb tot el suport espacial, humà i logístic necessari per desenvolupar l’oferta de l’escola en tots els nivells formatius.
Mercat de les Flors – Re-embodiment & Dis/abilities: Performing River, by Johannes Birringer, Michèle Danjoux, Zhi Xu & Doros Polydorou
Re-embodiment & Dis/abilities: Performing River is a workshop that explores immersive, ritualized, intimate movement experiences for mixed-ability participants willing to wear Oculus Quest2 VR headset as well as wearable sensors or fabrics. The participants are invited to examine their responses to sounds and tactile images (imagined relations) of water, river, flow, movement, liquidity – extending body (in whatever restricted, limited or possible way) to an interface between the real there, and the virtual nature drawings we shall instigate through our VR software and physical movement ideas.
We also plan to create experiments in inter-action – extending the notion of illustrating/drawing into the relationship between Oculus Quest headset wearer (performer) and illustrator/guide who hold the Oculus controllers and draws, in real time & in real flow. We understand such architectures as “kinetic atmospheres” which open up participatory scenarios, composed with fabrics, paper, drawing materials (graphite) as well as wearables, “design-in-motion” accoutrements or costumes created by Michèle Danjoux. Choreographic proposals (Xu, Birringer) emphasize sensorial and affective ritual engagements between performers and participant observers.
Performing River is ritual: The ethical questions raised by river/water – its availability, pollution, infrastructural dimension for local and wider trade – highlight that water is not just a metaphor of thinking practices, it is a site of deep contention and political crisis, as currents, floods, currencies, ecologies and economies flow together or collide. By exploring river (and flooding) as elemental, and water as vital infrastructure and inspiration for design as well as climate activism and consideration of habitats and ecospheres, this workshop reflects creatively on the function and circulation of this special medium in various cultures, examining its potential in fostering collective imaginaries.
Re-embodiment & Dis/abilities: Performing River és un taller que explora experiències de moviment immersives, ritualitzades i íntimes per a participants amb capacitats mixtes disposats a portar auriculars Oculus Quest2 VR, així com sensors o teixits que es puguin portar. Els participants estan convidats a examinar les seves respostes a sons i imatges tàctils (relacions imaginades) d’aigua, riu, cabal, moviment, liquiditat; estenent el cos (de qualsevol manera restringida, limitada o possible) a una interfície entre el real i els dibuixos de la natura virtual que instigarem a través del nostre programari de realitat virtual i idees de moviment físic. També tenim previst crear experiments en interacció, ampliant la noció d’il·lustració/dibuix a la relació entre el portador (intèrpret) dels auriculars Oculus Quest i l’il·lustrador/guia que sosté els controladors i dibuixos Oculus, en temps real i en flux real.
Entenem aquestes arquitectures com a “atmosferes cinètiques” que obren escenaris participatius, composts amb teixits, paper, materials de dibuix (grafit), així com peces de vestir, equipaments “disseny en moviment” o vestits creats per Michèle Danjoux. Les propostes coreogràfiques (Xu, Birringer) emfatitzen els compromisos rituals sensorials i afectius entre els intèrprets i els observadors participants.
Performing River és un ritual: les qüestions ètiques plantejades pel riu/l’aigua (la seva disponibilitat, contaminació, dimensió d’infraestructura per al comerç local i més ampli) posen de manifest que l’aigua no és només una metàfora de les pràctiques de pensament, sinó que és un lloc de conflictes profunds i crisi política, a mesura que els corrents, les inundacions, les monedes, les ecologies i les economies flueixen o xoquen. En explorar el riu (i les inundacions) com a element elemental, i l’aigua com a infraestructura vital i inspiració per al disseny, així com l’activisme climàtic i la consideració dels hàbitats i les ecosferes, aquest taller reflexiona de manera creativa sobre la funció i la circulació d’aquest mitjà especial en diverses cultures, examinant el seu potencial per fomentar els imaginaris col·lectius.
Artwork / ZENZ(A)I
Artwork from Barcelona Producció
Abstract: The sayings of the time represent the cultural heritage of a changing landscape and time, and also exemplify the search for models, for generations, to understand natural phenomena and thus predict the future. Predictions that are based on probability theories, but also on imaginative ability.
ZENZ(A)I is a neural network that processes information from the outside world and learns from it. Artificial intelligence creates meteorological sayings from existing meteorological data and sayings, and thus confronts principles such as failure, vagrancy, and open, untargeted discovery. The project addresses issues related to the configuration and functioning of common sense and the senses of artificial intelligence involved in the perception and understanding of reality.
Biography: Anna Pascó (Barcelona, 1990) has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, in the class of Olaf Nicolai. She has exhibited at the Kunsthalle Kempten, the Britta von Rettberg Gallery, the Kunstarkaden München Museum, the Kunstverein München and the Eingen + Art Lab Berlin, among others. In 2020 she publishes Stickers with the publishing house Bomdia Berlin. She has received the Hans-Rudolf-Stiftung scholarship, has been a beneficiary of the Ambartgent project and has been awarded the Windmann Kunstpreis, 15HOCH2 or the Landeshauptstadt München visual arts prize, as well as being awarded at the XXI Biennial of Catalan Contemporary Art. The piece is part of the Staff Stiftung collection and the Stadtmuseum München.
Artwork / Epiphany
Artwork from Barcelona Producció
Abstract: Epiphany is a project that spreads like wildfire. The app of the same name to deeply touch what we are always touching. The sculptural pieces are made of materials related to the screens of mobile devices, mirrors and costumes that were the plastic research for Instagram filters. Plasma as a mutable and transitional state. Ghost like an ectoplasmic sheet, between mucus and appearance, and cell phone screens are often greasy.
Biography: Ariadna Parreu (Reus, 1982) She has been selected in different calls such as Barcelona Producció (projecte deslocalitzat, 2016), INJUVE (visual arts, 2011, 2010 and 2008) or the Amposta Art Biennial (2020, 2016 and 2012 ). She has been a resident of Hangar (2012-2014).
She has exhibited individually at Bha-Phanein (Sala Muncunill, Terrassa, 2018) and collectively at Mercury Splash (Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2015) or Factotum (Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2014). She has co-authored the inaugural Massana School exhibition, Amorf etern (2017).
She has been a juror in various competitions: La Escocesa (2017), Sala d’Art Jove (2019), the Ciutat de Barcelona Prize (2019) and the ADI Cultura Awards (2020).
Short paper / “Extended Listening: Towards non-humans interpretation of the sound environment through AI systems”
Abstract: Technology has allowed extended human capabilities, amplifying the sense of hearing toward the sonic perception of different physical layers of our environment, such as electromagnetic fields, ultrasonic/subsonic sounds, underwater sounds, long-distance sounds, animal spectrum, etc., generating as a consequence new symbols, new languages and new cultures. In this sense, the main question in this paper is related to how can we transcend the current use of AI as a methodology to recreate or even create sounds, images, music, texts and move toward the development of models that could spawn a language created by machines. Questions like that, provide the philosophical context to move forward to generate models that could lead the processing of sound towards complex and unpredictable results, allowing the development of methodologies to create non-human language involved in a technological ecosystem.
Biography: He is a sound artist and electronic media artist. He has a degree in music from the University of Valparaíso, Chile and a Master in Electronic Arts from the National University of Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at DXARTS, University of Washington, Seattle, United States (Digital Arts and Experimental media). His research has been orientated on the relationship between the human and machine, and how technologies and devices act as an interface that extends our human abilities, allowing the amplification of human perception, transforming, changing, or degrading the information that comes from the environment, providing new interpretations or meaning of the world. The last two years his work has been focused on machine learning, NLP, and machine listening applied to robotic and sound installations.
Lo Pati – Òrbita #3, Núria Nia & Citlali Hernández
Looking like a satellite and measuring distances, personifying fragments of data and disorganizing them: the physical body engages in a dialogue between its own materiality and its digital image. Structures, living matter, and inert materials are transferred to a digital environment produced by everyday devices.
Conceived as a performance, Órbita # 3 derives from a set of actions resulting from the mixture of languages from live arts, live cinema and livestream tools to propose a joint action with an artificial entity that participates with Núria Nia and Citlali Hernández as an entity that makes visible another type of corporality, exposing their material, cognitive and relational conditions, initially dependent on the two artists but which may evolve according to their own learning and relationship with other entities.
Project developed at the Baladre artists’ residence managed by Lo Pati Art Center.
Semblar un satèl·lit i mesurar distàncies, personificar fragments de dades i desorganitzar-los: el cos físic emprén un diàleg entre la pròpia materialitat i la seva imatge digital. Les estructures, la matèria viva i els materials inerts es transfereixen envers un entorn digital produït per dispositius quotidians.
Concebuda com a performance, Órbita #3 deriva d’un conjunt d’accions fruit de la barreja de llenguatges de les arts en viu, el live cinema i les eines de livestream per a proposar una acció conjunta amb un ens artificial que participa amb Núria Nia i Citlali Hernández com a entitat que fa visible un altre tipus de corporalitat, exposant les seves condicions materials, cognitives i relacionals, inicialment dependents de les dues artistes però que podrà evolucionar segons el seu propi aprenentatge i relació amb altres entitats.
Projecte desenvolupat a la residència d’artistes Baladre que gestiona el Centre d’Art Lo Pati.
Artwork / Quantum Chaos set
Abstract: What we do understand is that it is fundamental to existence. Thomas’s current research questions quantum and nanotechnologies that are utilised as part of his concepts of capturing reality in the act of happening. New emergent technologies and traditional materials are explored in his work in relationship to how he visually expresses an alternative comprehension of the invisible, inaudible and intangible phenomena studied in physics.
An electron is seen as being analogous to the movement of a spinning top. When a spinning top goes out of its spin cycle, it falls into chaos in the same way an electron in a quantum position is governed by its spin. The set draws from the analogy of the axis of a spinning top that creates a cloud of points that disappear and reappear based on the probability data from Professor Andrea Morello’s lab at University of New South Wales, developed by PhD students Serwan Asaad and Vincent Mourik. In Thomas’s digital artwork, a sorting algorithm developed in collaboration with artist Jan Andruszkiewicz in 2019, utilises speculative quantum data to transform a photographic image. In the artwork, data affects the materiality of photographic images of felt fibres, referencing Gilles Deleuze’s and Felix Guattari’s concept of smooth and striated space. The smooth space of felt is not woven, knitted, knotted, intertwined or laced. It is not a striated space where the woven fabric measures the boundary of the body’s movement in space. It has its own integrity; its tensile strength is born of chaos. The material becomes a second skin between the body and the world.
This fibrous character becomes reconfigured by the speculative quantum chaos data using a sorting algorithm to reposition every pixel in the photograph of felt fibres. The program when executed randomly selects one of ten images and Husimi quasi-probability distribution data a text file from 223,966 samples—transforming by rearranging in real-time the digital photographic images’ fibrous character of felt. An accretion of animated motion evolves over time as the fibrous image is sorted from its classical chaos to one born out of quantum chaos. Each sort of the data weaves a series of linear transformations of the felt fibres to reveal new patterns that correspond to a probability of meaning: chaos begetting chaos as an ongoing, entangled real-time process visualising a liminal space between worlds.
Biography: Paul Thomas is Honorary Professor at UNSW Art and Design and currently the Director of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the founder and series-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2022. As an artist he is a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. His practice led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there. His current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty (October 2018) is based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty. Thomas’s internationally exhibited research projects have been based on working with scientist’s inquiring in specific areas of physics. The current creative practice ‘Quantum Chaos’ artworks are based on experiments done in collaboration with the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW. Publications, Quantum Art and Uncertainty (2018), Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art (2013).
Artwork / Last Breaths
Abstract: In 2021 Dement and Brown were awarded an ANAT Synapse Residency and CreateNSW grant to collaborate with Dr. Carmine Gentile and his Cardiovascular Regeneration Group, School of Bioengineering, University of Technology Sydney.
Cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction and heart failure, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Dr Gentile’s multidisciplinary team has created a novel way to 3D bioprint heart tissues using patients’ own cells to repair heart damage and regain cardiac muscle function. Cells isolated from skin or blood are used to generate stem cells and then transformed into heart cells. Using state-of-the-art facilities, Dr Gentile has developed a new way to form ‘cardiac spheroids’–clusters of cardiac cells–which contract or beat synchronously to produce patches for damaged hearts.
May 2021 artist George Schwarz died from cardiac failure and Linda recorded his last breaths. Audio values were retrieved to generate sequential images of 2D geometry. We imported these images into 3D Slicer (software normally used to create 3D models from MRI or CT scans) as if we had run an MRI scan on sound rather than a body.
We printed models first in hydrogel to discover shape, consistency, size, and then with live cardiac spheroids, on a LumenX bioprinter which uses crossbeams of light to harden light sensitive gel, printing upwards in 100 micron layers, substance emerging from liquid under violet light.
Through this project, human cardiac failure, expelled as breath and recorded as sound, is transfigured to 3D form as terra-firma for growth of human yet inhuman life.
This artwork responds to the research of the Cardiovascular Regeneration Group. Their work traverses terrains of life and death, bodies and technologies, human and inhuman, the strained edges of wounded hearts and the stretching extremities of bio-technical possibility.
Biography: Linda Dement has worked in arts computing since the late 1980s, at the intersections of bodies and technologies, code and flesh, dramas of the corporeal and programmed non-human activity. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and locally, including at the ICA London, Ars Electronica, ISEA.
Dr Paul Brown is a scientist, writer, artist, and creative producer. For over thirty years he has integrated multi-arts practice, filmmaking and community engagement with university research and teaching – across humanities, environment, science and community development fields, specialising in projects that link arts, science, and environment.
Dr Carmine Gentile is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Biomedical Engineering UTS and leads the Cardiovascular Regeneration Group both at UTS and at the Kolling Institute/University of Sydney. He is a Senior Lecturer (Honorary) at the University of Sydney, a Sydney Medical School Foundation Fellow and Visiting Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School.
The artists would like to thank Clara Liu Chung Ming for assistance with cell cultivation and microscopy.
This project is supported by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) via its Synapse program, and the NSW Government through Create NSW; and by the Cardiovascular Regeneration Group, University of Technology Sydney.
Artwork / Liquid Views
Abstract: Narcissus’ digital mirror – Ovid’s metamorphosis as a real-time wave AI algorithm. Liquid Views simulates a pool of water that reflects the image of viewers whose physical interaction ultimately disturbs the integrity of the reflection. Liquid Views anticipates the selfie moment of Greek mythology, in which the image and the self are becoming increasingly difficult to parse. In this interactive installation, audiences participate in a digitally activated “mirror of Narcissus” experience as a monitor equipped with a touchscreen and mini camera simulates a water surface that appears to reflect the image of the viewer. By touching the screen’s surface, participants activate algorithms that generate waves and the sound of water, that distort and dissolve the viewer’s reflection.
Additional intervention increases the disturbance, and the image can only regain its calm form by the absence of contact between participant and screen. In the background, the participant’s mirrored face is displayed on a large projection, turning the “introverted” gaze into a public spectacle. Looking up, the interacting person perceives themselves from a different perspective – as if from the outside.
Wherever interactive environments and audience “talk” to each other, participants develop performative presence, and their participation contributes to a new embodied knowledge. The visitor is simply asked to take part and explore this Mixed Reality World as a “thinking space”. “Liquid views” is a pioneering work that takes up one of the central themes of media art by exploring the interface between the real and virtual world.
Photo by Stefanie Seidl
Biography: Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss are pioneers of media art and virtual reality. In 1987, they were co-founders of ART + COM in Berlin (The Billion Dollar Code). In 1996 they founded the MARS – Exploratory Media Lab (Media Arts Research Studies), and in 2005 the eCulture Factory at the Fraunhofer Research Association. Their awards include patents, the Ars Electronica Golden Nica (1992) and the SIGGRAPH Lifetime Achievement Award in Digital Art (2018).
Early work includes “Berlin-Cyber City” (1989), in which Fleischmann and Strauss memorialize aspects of Berlin’s history while imagining the city’s possible futures, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. A subsequent cartographically informed project “Semantic Map” (2001-04) traces neural networks, foretelling a method of data analysis now standard in artificial intelligence. In “Home of the Brain” (1989-1991), participants are introduced to virtual reality, while the iconic “Liquid Views” (1992) anticipates the selfie moment.
With support of the Center for Art and Media | ZKM
Artwork / Sightseeing
Abstract: A CCTV camera is filming a beach and we hear its voice, as if it were alive and thinking out loud. But the perfection of her intelligence has led it to doubt and burnout, and to not know what to do anymore: What is this? What should she look at? What is a suspicious behaviour? But above all, what is the point of all this? It compares itself to the click workers who feed artificial intelligences, questioning the meaning of its work with an anthropomorphism that raises its political stakes.
Sightseeing (Penser voir) was initially created by Thierry Fournier in 2018 at the invitation of Pierre Beloüin and the Acoustic Cameras project, which invites artists and composers to annex the real time streams of webcams located in different places around the world.
“With Sightseeing / Penser voir by Thierry Fournier, we quickly understand that we are not confronted with a real AI, but with an artifice, yet we fully adhere to the fiction of this awareness of an entity. Far from breaking our suspension of disbelief, the sound loop that reveals the deception, accentuates on the contrary our empathetic relationship to the AI that “goes off the rails”. It is literally in a loop on its machine condition, and thus on its condition of being (or rather of not being) in the world. While the landscape changes, it doesn’t come out of it, it can’t cope with it. Thus the sound loop is diegetized, appearing as a consequence of this state of burnout described by the artist.
Paradoxically, it is because it is highly efficient that this AI starts to doubt and to malfunction. The machine’s dysfunction thus becomes a metaphor for the dysfunction of a whole world that should be questioned. For how can one continue in such a world? “Fuck. I can’t make it,” the AI repeats tirelessly, while echoing the invisible click workers, the majority of whom are underpaid, who have contributed to shaping it by feeding it. By worrying about its usefulness, it also challenges the injunction to perform, characteristic of our society, which seems to consider man only in terms of becoming a machine. Thus, the fictional narrative deployed by Sightseeing around these issues of knowledge and doubt, performance and failure, meaning and non-sense, appears to be not only philosophical but also eminently political.”
Claire Châtelet, lecturer and researcher, University of Montpellier 3 (France), Les fictions de la machine sensible : l’œil, le faillible et la pensée [The fictions of the sensitive machine: the eye, the fallible and the thought], May 2021
Biography: Thierry Fournier is a French visual artist, researcher, author and curator, living and working in Paris area. He is an architect and composer by training (a graduate of the École nationale supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon). His practice mainly deals with the relations between human, living and technologies: installations, objects, works on internet, videos, drawings, performances… His curatorial approach transposes these issues into the collective field, exploring in particular the modes of coexistence of works.
Recent solo shows include: University of Montpellier III 2020, L’Art dans les Chapelles 2020, CAPA Aubervilliers 2018, Villa Henry Nice 2018, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Saint-Denis 2017, Lux Scène nationale de Valence 2015.
Curating: Château de Goutelas 2022, Mécènes du sud Montpellier 2020, Tokyo French Institute 2019, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris 2018, La Terrasse Nanterre, 2016, La Panacée Montpellier 2015 and 2014, Château Royal de Collioure 2014, Zinc / Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille 2013, Fort Lagarde 2012, Centre Pompidou 2011.
Recent group shows : Supplementary Elements University of Strasbourg 2022, Turbulence Marseille 2022, Feral File 2021, Mondes Possibles Merignac 2021, Chroniques Aix-en-Provence 2020, Depo Gallery Istanbul 2019, Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Arts, Tourgoing 2018, Valérie Delaunay gallery Paris 2018, Variation Art Fair Paris 2017 and 2018, Thessaloniki Biennale 2017, ZKM Karlsruhe, 2013 and 2017 to 2019, Saarlandisches Künstlerhaus Saarbrück, Germany 2016, Ars Santa Monica Barcelona 2016, New Cinema Festival Montréal 2015 and 2013, Renaissance and Fantastic Lille, 2015 and 2013, Tokyo and Kyoto French Institutes, 2014, etc.
Thierry Fournier is also head of the contemporary art workshop The Exercice of the Gaze at Sciences Po Paris. He was head of two research units from 2010 to 2020 : Displays at Ensad / EnsadLab (Paris) and Collection Artem at Ensa Nancy, both dedicated to the contemporary stakes and forms of contemporary art exhibitions. He was a guest artist-professor at Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains in 2017-2018.
He is also co-head and artistic director of antiAtlas Journal, a free online art-science journal dedicated to the contemporary stakes and forms of borders.
Artwork / Common Thread
Abstract:Common Thread’ presents slow, mysterious passages through thickly forested landscapes, comprised solely of silver-grey dots and lines; whilst effected sounds of those forests commingle with the distant voices of a myriad species. Set within those uncanny landscapes, indistinct 3D forms enigmatically appear and disappear, collectively evoking richly mysterious, unknowable and extraordinary complexities.
The work arose from my ongoing residency at Samford Ecological Research Facility in Queensland, Australia – a place protecting a remnant block of forest isolated within a patchwork quilt of surrounding farmed land, typifying the perilously fragmented, disconnected state of Australia’s habitats. It is a place active with scientific research of all kinds, much of which aims for better ecological futures – by seeking to predict more ‘efficient’ forms of conservation and production.
Common Thread, is based upon 3D-laser scanned ‘Point Cloud’ imagery of walks through that forest, using a technology that at first glance might appear to capture its complexity. But ‘Nature_Cultures’ cannot be reduced to dots. Almost everything becomes lost in such digital translations – ‘ultra-accurate’ representations in reality devoid of the spirit and meaning of place.
Australia: unceded lands of the oldest continuous culture on earth – a culture in which everyone has personal responsibility to everything – where everyone knows their relationship to trees, rocks, sky, people, animals, plants, water.. How little of this its recent settlers understand – about how to live well within such complexity. And so, Australia’s (stolen) lands have been routinely devastated.
My on-site research examined the cultural meanings of such conservation reserves within rapidly urbanising landscapes, asking – how might we imagine and seek to represent the very different futures we now need to develop together. How might we rebuild our conceptions of Australia’s places to be consultative, infinitely better informed, and with the capacity to profoundly connect settler culture to Country.
Biography: Keith Armstrong is an experimental artist profoundly motivated by issues of social and ecological justice. His engaged, participative practices provoke audiences to comprehend, envisage and imagine collective pathways towards sustainable futures. He has specialised for over twenty-three years in collaborative, experimental practices with emphasis upon innovative performance forms, site-specific electronic arts, networked interactive installations, alternative interfaces, art-science collaborations and socially and ecologically engaged practices.
Keith’s research asks how insights drawn from scientific and philosophical ecologies can help us to better invent and direct experimental art forms, in the understanding that art practitioners are powerful change agents, provocateurs and social catalysts. Through inventing radical research methodologies and processes he has led and created over sixty major art works and process-based projects, which have been shown extensively in Australia and globally, supported by numerous grants from the public and private sectors. He is also a part time Senior Lecturer at QUT, Brisbane, Australia.
Dataset contributed by Dr. Dmitry Bratanov, Senior Research Engineer (RPAS and Automation), Research Engineering Facility, QUT
KONVENT – We Move Together or Not At All, Sasha Kleinplatz and Navid Navab
Approximate time, to be confirmed
We Move Together or Not At All is a choreographic installation that places consent, multi-sensory performance archive, and species inter-dependency in conversation. This performance by Sasha Kleinplatz and Navid Navab takes the form of an excitable plant-filled greenhouse with a dancer moving in its centre and it will be presented on June 11 at Konvent, a former convent of nuns located in Berga that has been converted into an experimental laboratory. Choreographer, dancer, and interdisciplinary artists work collaboratively to build performance scores meant to raise the temperature, moisture, scent, and bacteria in the greenhouse and co-orchestrate states of sensory access to the participants gestures, human or none.
Through this practice the sweat of the dancer becomes a source of heat and humidity that supports the plant life. We frame this sweat and heat, and the plant life that they support as the barely visible, archival trace of performance, as emergent formations traversing condensation, movement, sound, and affect. The performers are augmented with sensors that respond to torque, horizontality, verticality, and percussivity. A responsive scenography transcodes qualitative variables of the performance into sound, vibration and condensation, as multimodal gestures towards a non-linear understanding of how the plants may experience the events within space.
Hora aproximada, pendent de confirmació
We Move Together or Not At All és una instal·lació coreogràfica que posa el consentiment, l’arxiu d’actuació multisensorial i la interdependència d’espècies a dialogar. La performance, a càrrec de Sasha Kleinplatz i Navid Navab, agafa forma d’hivernacle ple de plantes amb una ballarina movent-se al centre i es podrà veure l’11 de juny al Konvent, antic convent de monges a Berga convertit en un laboratori experimental. Coreògrafs, ballarins i artistes interdisciplinaris treballen en col·laboració per crear partitures d’actuació destinades a augmentar la temperatura, la humitat, l’olor i els bacteris a l’hivernacle i coorquestrar els estats d’accés sensorial als gestos dels participants, humans o cap.
Mitjançant aquesta pràctica la suor del ballarí es converteix en una font de calor i humitat que sustenta la vida vegetal. Emmarquem aquesta suor i calor, i la vida vegetal que suporten com la traça d’arxiu gairebé visible de l’actuació, com a formacions emergents que travessen la condensació, el moviment, el so i l’afecte. Els intèrprets s’amplien amb sensors que responen al parell, l’horitzontalitat, la verticalitat i la percussivitat. Una escenografia sensible transcodifica variables qualitatives de l’actuació en so, vibració i condensació, com a gestos multimodals cap a una comprensió no lineal de com les plantes poden experimentar els esdeveniments a l’espai.
Artwork / Tools for a Warming Planet
Abstract: We live on a planet in flux–with warming waters and land, chaotic weather, and unknown futures. Our adaptability and ingenuity are crucial to our survival, and our planet’s. In response to this condition, we are exploring new tools for understanding, engaging, and responding to our current and future environment. Bringing together artists, designers, scientists, and activists, this crowd-sourced piece focuses on ‘tools’, as a call for action, access, and collective engagement. New tools are needed to build more adaptable, resilient communities, as well as to imagine new ways of living on a fragile planet.
Tools for a Warming Planetis focused on the idea of tools–tools of collection, translation, engagement, connection, and care–which directly speaks to a time of climatic flux. Through display of physical and digital objects, as well as narratives on the use of these tools from the participating artists, the installation is a living archived of methods for working and living together. The project will develop over the course of the exhibit, allowing attendees and the larger global community to contribute tools to grow the collection.
The term ‘tool’ is used to focus on action: from hand craft, to care and repair, to data mapping, to digital filters, to community engagement. New tools posited across the works represent new possibilities of working and open up a conversation about our role as cultural and social activators. Tools for a Warming Planet brings together global voices into a visual dialog across languages and cultures that all must adapt to a changing climate on planet Earth. These global perspectives will allow for both localized perspectives and universal experiences, advancing a collective conversation with endless possibilities.
Biography: Sara Dean is an architect and designer in California. Her work investigates opportunities of digital technologies to engage cities towards greater equity and adaptability, under the dual threat of the Anthropocene and capitalism. This includes works responding to climate disaster, digital activism, mapping, and the future of our cities. She is an advocate for open-source systems of knowledge.
Beth Ferguson is an ecological designer and educator in California who blends industrial design with sustainable transportation, solar engineering, climate resiliency, and public engagement. She is the director of Adapting City Lab at UC Davis, which investigates new potentials of solar charging, urban transportation planning, and forms of micro-mobility in global cities.
Marina Monsonís is a visual artist who works with hybrid processes of micro-social transformation rooted in territories, collectives, and communities with a focus on marine science, place-based design, gastronomy, graffiti, radical geography, critical ethnography, and oral histories. She is the director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art Kitchen Lab and based in Barcelona, España.
Artist talk / Art, Science, Nature and Culture: Expressive Science in the Digital Age
Abstract: For over a decade my work has made visible the normally invisible microscopic life. Plankton, in their endless variety, stir my imagination and impulse to observe, draw, and create. Influenced and by scientists in the Menden-Deuer lab, as well as current events, my commitment to depicting plankton grew in the face of climate change. In addition to producing 50% oxygen we breathe they are at the bottom of the food chain.
As the explorations evolved, lessons of painterly abstraction crept into this work. I imagined the natural ocean environment of plankton filmed in the lab, which led to thinking about gesture drawing. If I could be loose and expressive in drawing humans, why not with plankton? The bits of the Biblical Manuscripts present in this series are intended as signifiers, not as religious Text, but as reference to human history and general spirituality. In parallel with my investigations of plankton, I was creating imagery incorporating visual structures of Hebrew Manuscripts. The tradition of the manuscripts includes micrography (little writing) turned into decorative patterns and sometimes fanciful beasts. I sensed a convergence, and the moment I put the plankton and patterns of the Hebrew Manuscripts together the convergence instantly emerged. This series uses motifs from the Leningrad Codex, created in Old Cairo in 1008, likely by artists from the Asher scriptorium.
New technology facilitated this work. Scientific researchers working today use digital imaging, recording microscopic life for later study in format accessible to artists. Much of the Leningrad Codex is digitized and online. Inexpensive printing allowed for interim outputs of evolving digital imagery, subject to gestural drawing and redigitizing. Thus I am able to bring Nature and Culture together with the goal of stirring inner thoughts, recalling the continuum of human history while highlighting essential microscopic life.
Biography: Cynthia Beth Rubin began the transition from painting to digital imaging in the early 1980’s. Her prints, videos, and interactive works have been shown in the Techspressionism exhibition, NY Creative Tech Week, Jewish Museum in Prague, Siberia State Museum in Novosibirsk, the Kyrgyzstan State Museum, on the ICC tower in Hong Kong, the Cotton Club screen in Harlem, and numerous editions of ISEA and SIGGRAPH. Rubin’s awards include multiple Connecticut Artist Fellowships, the New England Foundation on the Arts, among others, and artist residencies in France, Israel, Canada, and Scotland. She is artist-in-residence in the Menden-Deuer lab at the University of Rhode Island, School of Oceanography, thus her practice includes collaborations with scientists studying plankton and their predators. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, her studio practice extends to New York City, Narragansett RI and beyond
Institutional presentation / What is Research-based Design Practice? A Collective Inquiry through A Graduate Seminar
Abstract:What is Research-based Design Practice? This graduate seminar provides a framework for research-based design, defines a structure to carry out Design practice, and offers ways of understanding giving and receiving critical feedback on practice-based projects. As a class, we come together to make collective contributions to answer this question through Case Study presentations. Students conduct careful research on an artist or designer’s creative work that helps address this question. Presented at the conference is a collection of this inquiry to exchange with other universities and institutions who are endeavored with a similar question.
Biography: Biographies for students Niloufar Abdolmaleki, Hafsa Akter, Diana Araiza Soto, Cristina Gomez, Valentyna Hrushkevych, Justin Marsh, Fatema Mostafa, Alejandra Ruiz, Pachia Vang, Ofelia Pulido, Marcy Wacker, Edward Whelan, Iris Xie, Rova Yilmaz can be found on the UC Davis website: https://arts.ucdavis.edu/design-graduate-students
Jiayi Young is an Associate Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis.
Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau – Possibles
Modernism is a transversal movement with an international resonance kwnown for integrating all kinds of creators and trades in order to make the possibilites of working together a reality. Taking this interdisciplinary legacy and transporting it to the codes of the 21st century, digital art reflects this same spirit of transversality by uniting artists, scientists and technologists.
Combining these two concepts, from June 9 to 30, the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau will host an exhibition of digital art with five works from the ISEA2022 Barcelona call and twenty pieces from the .Beep Collection.
This exhibition is included in the visit tour of the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau. Tickets are required to access it. Alternatively, there will be free tours for people registered at ISEA2022 Barcelona exclusively for this exhibition.
El Modernisme és un moviment transversal de ressò internacional que s’ha distingit per integrar tot tipus de creadors i oficis per tal de fer realitat les seves propostes. Agafant aquest llegat interdisciplinar i transportant-lo als codis del segle XXI, l’art digital reflecteix aquest mateix esperit de transversalitat tot unint artistes, científics i tecnòlegs.
Aquesta exposició està inclosa en el circuit de visita del Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau. Cal disposar d’entrada per poder accedir-hi. Alternativament, es faran visites a les persones registrades a ISEA2022 Barcelona exclussivament a aquesta exposició sense cost.
Unint aquests dos conceptes, del 9 al 30 de juny, el Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau acollirà una exposició d’art digital amb cinc obres provinents de la convocatòria d’ISEA2022 Barcelona i una vinetena de peces de la .Beep Collection.
Artworks from ISEA2022 Barcelona’s open call / Obres provinents de la convocatòria oberta d’ISEA2022 Barcelona:
The Grand Tableau from Cité Mémoire will be projected onto the façade of the Sant Pau Hospital. It is a journey through the key periods in Montreal’s history: the Indigenous presence, French Regime, British conquest and contemporary Montreal —a look at more than 375 years of history.
June 14 · 10:30 pm – 11:15pm · 11:15 pm – midnight June 15 and 16 · 10 pm – 10:45 pm · 10:45 pm – 11:30 pm · 11:30 pm – 12:15 am
El Grand Tableau de Cité Mémoire es projectarà a la façana de l’Hospital de Sant Pau. És un viatge pels períodes clau de la història de Montreal: la presència indígena, el règim francès, la conquesta britànica i la Montreal contemporània, una mirada a més de 375 anys d’història.
14 de juny · 22:30h – 23:15h · 23:15h – 00h 15 i 16 de juny · 22h – 22:45h · 22:45h – 23:30h · 23:30h – 00:15h
Main Ceremony
Along with the exhibition, the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau will also host the Main Ceremony of ISEA022 Barcelona, on June 14, where the testimony will be passed to the next city that will host the Symposium, Paris.
Cerimònia principal
Juntament amb l’exposició, el Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau acollirà també la cerimònica central d’ISEA022 Barcelona, el 14 de juny, on es passarà el testimoni a la pròxima ciutat que acollirà el Simposi, París.
Short paper – “The Right to the Image”: Ethics of Representation and Appropriation in New Media Art Archives since the 2011 Arab Uprisings
Abstract: In 2017, the Syrian video art collective Abounaddara, that earned international acclaim for its documentation of Syrian life amidst conflict, has removed the vast majority of its videos from their Vimeo archive in response to what it regarded as their improper use by the Triennale Milano. Curator Massimiliano Gioni countered that the exhibition only made available material that was already in the public domain and that underscored the Triennale’s commitment to Syrian migration struggles. This case illustrates ethical concerns regarding authorship, authority, consent, and copyright that permeate the representation of digital and openly accessible media archives as part of international art exhibitions—which are exacerbated when they pertain to representations of conflict and violence. Now more than ever are we in relationships of moral, affective, and material intimacy with violence, and this calls for a reconsideration of how our senses are solicited by and implicated in the conduct of conflict. Taking Abounaddara’s video art archive as a point of departure, this paper invites participants to discuss practices of engagement that can respond to the growing demands and responsibilities inherent in new media art archives of conflict and violence.
Biography: Lisa Deml is a Midlands4Cities funded doctoral researcher at Birmingham City University. She holds degrees in Art History and Philosophy from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Initially trained as a journalist, she subsequently worked for public cultural institutions and non-profit organisations internationally, including Gropius- Bau, Berlin, Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Prior to her doctoral research, she coordinated the multi-year project Afro-Sonic Mapping as well as assisted in the preparation and implementation of the exhibitions and accompanying publications Love and Ethnology and The Most Dangerous Game at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin. Her research interests focus on visual articulations of citizenship and artistic strategies to foster transnational solidarity and resistance, particularly in the framework of documentary and new media practices in the Middle East and North Africa.
Short paper – Newsslider, smart mining of archives
Abstract: Currently, the potential of (media) archives in journalism is underutilized. Historical data is scarcely used to connect historical developments to current events. With the design research project Newsslider, we explore how emerging technology (artificial intelligence and natural language generation) can empower journalists to connect historical events to contemporary reporting.
Biography: Danielle Arets is heading the Journalism and Responsible Innovation lab at Fontys University for Applied Sciences, school of journalism. She is also a researcher at Design Academy Eindhoven. In her research group, journalism researchers, designers, and ICT specialists work hand in hand, investigating technology trends and prototyping future content delivery concepts
Martina Huynh and Jonas Althaus founded studio Cream on Chrome; a socially-engaged experience design studio based in Rotterdam. By designing multimedia experiences and interactive spaces they explore new perspectives in the fields of economy, journalism, ecology and emerging technologies.
IDfuse is the company of Tijmen Altena and Paul Tuinenburg. IDfuse specializes in the design and support of the process that brings academic knowledge to fruition
Short paper – Restoring the Recent Past: Learnings from producing a retrospective of VR content from the UK
Abstract: The Immersive Arcade was a retrospective of UK-based immersive content, showcased during 2021. The project was not set up to archive the content, but to restore it for new audiences. The production team made several observations about the lifecycle of immersive content and what types of considerations regarding the identity of a piece of content emerge in a restoration process. They are documented in this short paper with the aim to inform work on future retrospectives and similar archiving and restoration projects.
Biography: Aki Järvinen, PhD, is an immersive researcher and designer with 20 years of experience with interactive media. He works at Digital Catapult in London helping UK companies adopt immersive technologies into their business.
Short paper – VR as a function for archiving media arts, one example
Abstract: Many media projects done via the Internet have either been forgotten or scattered by the author’s memories, notes in the print media or have simply disappeared as if they did not even exist. Some works are archived in libraries, on the websites of artists, or art associations. Data on them is scarce, however, and few can still be viewed in their original form. Through reinterpreting and media transformation, some of the works performed this way, through VR technology, can be preserved, archived, and made available to a wider audience. Currently, there is no platform for VR archiving of such performed/reinterpreted works; the existing, mostly gaming, platforms can be used for this purpose. This paper aims to show, in one example, what are the possibilities and which benefits can be obtained from such presentation and archiving of works of media art made through the Internet.
Biography: Predrag S. Šiđanin, Ph.D. – multimedia artist, founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Dean and full professor of VR at the Faculty of Digital Production, EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
Luka Z. Tilinger, MA – illustrator and programmer, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Assistant professor of gaming and Unity at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
Maja S. Budžarov, MA – ceramic and multimedia artist, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Associate professor of interactive art at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
Nina Zvezdin, MArch – architect, multimedia artist and musician, member of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Architectural Intern, ATIproject, Pisa, Italy.
Short paper – Experimental archiving. Artpool’s website as a digital archive of underground art in Hungary
Abstract: The paper intends to present a unique example of digital art archiving, the experimental website of Artpool Art Research Center, an underground art archive founded in 1979 in Budapest, Hungary. The website created by one of the founders, artist György Galántai can be considered both as the extension of the physical space of the archive, and as a web-based multimedia artwork to be archived. Artpool is known as one of the largest art archives of non-official art in the East-Central European region, with a focus on experimental mediums like mail art, artistamp, artist books, visual poetry, sound poetry, installation, or performance. Artpool.hu developed between 1995 and 2020 not only functions as a digital archive of the underground art scene of the region but also serves as an example of the experimental use of the web in the nineties, which was characterized by the positive vibes around the new political conditions in Europe and the prospect of a global network, the Internet. The underground status of Artpool has been challenged by recent years’ institutional transformation, becoming the department of the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest in 2015, also affecting Artpool’s digital archival strategies and online presence.
Biography: Flóra Barkóczi is an art historian working as an archivist and researcher at Artpool Art Research Center Budapest. She is also a PhD student at the Film, Media and Contemporary Culture PhD program at ELTE Budapest. At Artpool she is responsible for the development and research of materials based on new media and digital technologies since the 1980s. She is interested in new interpretations of Artpool’s presence on the Internet since the mid-nineties, as a continuation of its former networker activities of the 1970s. Her research focus includes new media art, contemporary fine art photography, and internet-based art practices from the 90s on. As a PhD candidate, she is focusing on the development of digital culture and media art in Hungary and as a broader context in the East-Central European region in the nineties and its conditions determined by the establishment of liberal democracies right after the change of the regime.
Short paper – Public Library Consoles – Publishing Collections with the Flick of a Hand
Abstract: A series of consoles have been developed to investigate the sharing of digital collections in public libraries. The interfaces reduce in complexity throughout the study to facilitate ease of access whilst maintaining playability and engagement. Interaction in the final interface is sufficiently simplified to enable browsing and publishing of the collection with hand movements, using a low-cost infrared sensor.
Biography: Dr. Dan Norton is an artist researcher and has exhibited in numerous international centers. He is coordinator of the Fine Art degree program at ADEMA University School, UIB.
Dr. Fernando Vilariño is Associate Director at the Computer Vision Center and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science UAB in Barcelona, Spain where he gives lectures about Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Multimedia Systems.
Short paper – Archiving the Symposium Expanded Animation: Challenges, Solutions and International Collaborations
Abstract: The Expanded Animation Symposium, an annual symposium at Ars Electronica, has addressed computer animation in the context of media art since 2013. Based on the early discussions at the media festival and in conjunction with the Prix Ars Electronica’s category Computer Animation, the symposium tackles animation at the intersection of art, technology, and society. The symposium serves as a hybrid between practice and theory and features talks, panel discussions, workshops, and artist presentations at various venues (i.e., museum, university, festival, cinema). 164 international experts presented and discussed current positions and future trends in the last nine editions. Due to the pandemic, the previous two editions took place online. All these activities have been documented and archived in various forms. This paper discusses challenges and concrete proposals for archiving the Expanded Animation Symposium and collaborating with Ars Electronica’s archive and international partners.
Biography: Dr. Juergen Hagler is an academic researcher and curator working at the interface of animation, game, and media art. He studied art education, experimental visual design and cul- tural studies at the University for Art and Design Linz, Austria. Currently, he is a Professor for Computer Animation and Media Studies and the head of studies of the degree programme Digital Arts at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus. Since 2014 he is the co- head of the research group Playful Interactive Environments with a focus on the investigation of new and natural forms of interaction and the use of playful mechanisms to encourage specific behavioral patterns. He has been involved in the activities of Ars Electronica since 1997 in a series of different functions. Since 2017 he is the director of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival and initiator and organizer of the Expanded Animation Symposium.
Short paper – Archiving Strategies in the Computational Age: creating a Media + Data Art digital media library based on a curatorial methodology
Abstract: As an innovative solution to the challenges of documenting, indexing and researching new media art, this proposal proposes the creation of the Video-Policy media library (from now on MeViPol) within the framework of the research group HUM-1062: Policies of the audio-visual image and its technological environment in artistic practice. This project focuses on two lines of research. On the one hand, curatorial strategies for archiving works developed in Media Art and Data Art. On the other hand, we consider that the artistic trends encompassed in these two blocks have characteristics of obsolescence due to the rapid advance of technology, so MeViPol proposes a virtual space in which both the programming code with which these works are developed and the records generated for their development, both technical and conceptual, is collected.
Biography: Alonso-Calero, J.M. Lecturer and Researcher in Fine Arts. Doctoral thesis: “The flow of the scene in physical interaction: participation, virtuality and presence”. He has combined his teaching work with the management and organisation of scientific events related to the hybridisation of artistic and creative languages. Her research activity is carried out in the field of interdisciplinary artistic creation. She is studying for a PhD in Audiovisual Communication. Research grant in a Virtual Reality group in the Department of Computer Architecture to later join the professional world of the audiovisual sector. He carries out different artistic projects framed in the relationship between art and new media, highlighting interaction projects, relational art and territory, etc… IP of projects such as “Map of design transfers”, “Bürohack. Bureaucratic Experience by UX”, “SCENUX Prototype: a tool for the registration through gamification of the user’s experience in creation and reception”, “LIMBO Space Social Sound XD”.
Vertedor-Romero, J.A. Artist and interdisciplinary researcher. Currently on a research stay at the University of Granada with a Margarita Salas grant. PhD in Communication in the audiovisual research line at the University of Málaga. Master’s in Interdisciplinary Artistic Production at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Málaga. Research support grant for postgraduate studies at the University of Malaga. Artist-in-Residence Scholarship at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Malaga. Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Malaga.
Robles-Florido, J.C. Lecturer in Sculpture since 2019, with three six-year periods of research CNEAI, active, since 2019, Director of the Department of Art and Architecture of the UMA. My artistic research is concerned with making visible the conditioning factors of the formation of desire to elaborate strategies for approaching the Other in the current moment of mass media globalisation of culture. Through photography, video, sculpture and intervention in public space, I open a reflection where the contemporary multitude inhabiting is the protagonist.
Short paper – Conservation of Multimedia Art: Case Study on Teoman Madra Archive
Abstract: This paper focuses on the archival process of the multimedia artist Teoman Madra who is an acclaimed artist creating artworks with technological means of multimedia capabilities between the 1960s to early 2000s. Preserving multimedia artworks is a challenging task that requires comprehensive solutions due to the nature of the always-changing technological environment. It is inevitable that there is a paradigm shift from the traditional approach to preserve the artworks as self-contained physical objects to a broader scope of regarding the artwork as an entity with its tangible and intangible dimensions. This manuscript stands as the debut academic dissemination of the intensive archiving process of the Turkish multimedia artist Teoman Madra and it aims to shed light on the missing answers for the following question, “How did the media arts evolve in Turkey between the 1960s and 2000s?” The cataloging process of the linear media (VHS, BETAMAX, miniDV, negatives, diapositive, etc) and the methodologies implemented for descriptive analysis have been discussed in detail.
Biography: Selçuk Artut’s artistic research and production focus on theoretical and practical dimensions of human-technology relations. An author of six books and an editor of one, Artut is an Associate Professor at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program at Sabanci University, Istanbul where he mainly teaches Sound and Interaction Courses.
Begüm Çelik. Multidisciplinary artist Begüm Çelik is pursuing her master’s degree in Visual Arts & Visual Communication Design program under the supervision of Selçuk Artut at Sabancı University where she completed her B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering in 2021. Her artistic production is fed from her interdisciplinary journey by combining technology and performance since she is engaged with many theater practices
Panel – Right-Click to Save: Preservation, NFTs, and Distributed Ledgers
Abstract: Artists have experimented with cryptocurrency incentivized distributed ledgers such as blockchains since the advent of Bitcoin. In parallel, crypto advocates frequently claim that distributed ledger protocols will ensure an accessible and immutable record of anything registered to it, including artwork. This panel examines this idea with nuance, neither buying into the mass deception around NFT marketing tactics nor rejecting the reality that a subset of artists are creating significant, challenging works that inherently utilize these technologies. Preserving the asset may seem to be in the regular wheelhouse of preservation professionals, who have decades of experience developing guidelines for saving software-based art, but ledger-based technologies have their own preservation promises and challenges.
Biography: John Bell is a software developer and artist at Dartmouth College. His work there includes acting as Director of the Data Experiences and Visualizations Studio, Associate Director of the Media Ecology Project, Manager of Dartmouth Research Computing’s Digital Humanities Programx, and teaching as a Lecturer in Film and Media Studies. His research focuses on collaborative creativity and has produced everything from utilitarian semantic web publishing platforms to aggressively useless installation art. In addition to his work at Dartmouth, he is Assistant Professor of Digital Curation at the University of Maine, where he teaches the preservation and presentation of digital media, and Senior Researcher for the Still Water Lab. He holds one of what is believed to be the first three collaborative doctoral degrees ever conferred in the United States, the other two of which are held by the co-authors of their collective dissertation on collaboration in the arts.
Regina Harsanyi is passionate about improving and educating others on best practices for the longevity of variable media, from plastics to distributed ledger technologies. A graduate of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, Harsanyi has primarily focused on the topic of time-based media art from historical and technical perspectives in both private and public sectors. She has led major time-based media preventive conservation projects for multiple institutions, studios, and collectors, including but not limited to Museum of the Moving Image, bitforms gallery, and TRANSFER gallery. From 2017-2020, Harsanyi also facilitated over 200 exhibitions across 26 locations under Wallplay, many of which highlighted the legitimacy of creative technology. She remains dedicated to creating interdisciplinary bridges between academia, museums, collectors, corporations, and artists to better serve the longevity of complex works of art.
Jon Ippolito is a new media artist, curator, and educator whose work aims to expand the art world beyond its traditional confines. As an artist, Ippolito exhibited work at the Walker Art Center and ZKM/Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe; as a curator, he curated Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium and, with John G. Hanhardt, The Worlds of Nam June Paik at the Guggenheim; as a Professor of New Media, he founded the University of Maine’s graduate Digital Curation program. In almost 200 presentations, Ippolito has spoken out on copyright maximalism, academic insularity, and technological obsolescence. Along with his books At the Edge of Art and Re-collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory, he has published chapters in 20 anthologies and articles in periodicals from the Art Journal to the Washington Post.
Panel – Demusealizing the museum: audience’s digital agency and institutional critique 2.0 as possible futures for art institutions
Abstract: This panel aims to discuss some artistic and research projects that explore new methodologies of working with digital museum archives and User Generated Content (USG) to ‘demusealize’ some established institutional practices. In a moment when the role of museums and their very definition are strictly problematized, how Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and collaborative hashtags on social media can be used to dismantle museum discourses? In which way these digital tools are able to be explored as a new kind of institutional critique? Could these systems also be used as a way to expand poetic layers of art beyond its marketing and productivist focus? From these raised questions, the researcher and curator Nathalia Lavigne will moderate a discussion with the artists and researchers Dr. Giselle Beiguelman, Dr. Bruno Moreschi and Rafael Pagatini, whose artistic projects are questioning traditional museological narratives and problematizing the colonialist gaze in museum collections using digital tools..
Biography: Nathalia Lavigne. Art writer and curator, a Ph.D. Candidate at Architecture and Urbanism College, University of São Paulo (FAUUSP) and a former visiting scholar at The New School. She is a contributor to Artforum International Magazine, Contemporary And (C&), Folha de São Paulo, among others; and has an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. Among the exhibitions she curated are “Against, Again: Art Under Attack in Brazil” (2020), at the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, New York; and Disappearance Tactics (2021), at Paço das Artes, São Paulo. She is currently a visiting researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and have been awarded a DAAD scholarship in 2021.
Bruno Moreschi. Researcher and multidisciplinary artist. Postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), PhD in Arts at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with a Capes scholarship, and exchange at the University of Arts of Helsinki (Kuva Art Academy), Finland, via CIMO Fellowship. Projects recognized by scholarships, exhibitions and institutions such as ZKM, Van Abbemuseum, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, Rumos Award, Funarte, Capes and Fapesp. He is currently a researcher on the Histories of AI: Genealogy of Power / Mellon Sawyer Seminar (Cambridge University), senior researcher at the Center for Arts, Design and Social Research (CAD+SR) and one of the coordinators of GAIA /C4AI/Inova USP.
Giselle Beiguelman. Artist and Professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil. She is also a member of the Laboratory for OTHER Urbanisms (FAUUSP) and co-coordinator of GAIA (Grupo de Arte e Inteligência Artifical – INOVA USP. Her interests include the aesthetics of memory and contemporary nomadism. Among her recent works are the Portuguese-language Hateland, covering online reactions to violence against vulnerable groups in Brazil; a co-authored book about the storage and preservation of digital artworks; and an on-going investigation of the colonialist imagination in 20th century artworks using artificial intelligence. Author of many international award-winning projects, her artworks are part of museums collections worldwide, such as ZKM (Germany) and Pinacoteca de S. Paulo (Brazil).
Rafael Pagatini. Artist, researcher and assistant professor at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Pagatini is currently a PhD candidate in Visual Arts at the State University of Campinas, São Paulo. In 2020, he was a guest researcher at the Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany. He has held individual and collective exhibitions in Brazil and abroad: Shiva Gallery, New York (2020), European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Berlin (2019); Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig (2019); Columbia University, New York (2018); 20th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (2017); Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2016); Rumos Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2013).
Panel – Emerging Collaborative Preservation Projects in Asia
Abstract: It has always been the case that artistic and cultural practices transform with new technologies. As technology constantly evolves, contemporary artistic practices have increasingly engaged with non-traditional media. Museums, galleries, and art institutions are adapting their approaches to the presentation, dissemination and preservation of new media art. While media artworks and exhibitions are ubiquitous nowadays, archiving plays an important role in preserving history and generating knowledge of art. What are the needs and challenges of developing a media art archive? How can art archives encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to facilitate contextualization, preservation and presentation of artworks?
As a media art archive based in Hong Kong since 2008, Videotage Media Art Collection(VMAC) has continued its development with the expansion of its collection of artworks from Hong Kong to China, Taiwan and Macau in recent years. Esteemed curators from nearby regions are invited to collaborate for the acquisition. Local researchers are invited to study and write about the VMAC archive, providing reflections and new perspectives in media art archiving. This panel brings together art professionals, researchers and scholars to share their collaboration experiences and look at the issues of archiving media art in Hong Kong and China, and beyond.
Biography: Kyle Chung is a curator and researcher whose recent exhibitions explore the dynamics between technologies, materiality and human agency. Selected exhibitions include 2³ or Not 2³: East Kowloon is on Minecraft in New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong; Ellen Pau: Time After Time Will Tell at 1961, Singapore; #YOU #ME #ourSELFIES at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre; One World Exposition 2.1: #like4like at chi K11 art space, Hong Kong; Carla Chan: To Outland at SMAC, Berlin, Germany; Conjunctions and Disjunctions: International Symposium on Electronic Art 2016, Hong Kong; Bright Shadow at The Morgue, London, UK. With a PhD in Creative Media, Chung is currently an independent curator; Curator at Videotage, Hong Kong; and Lecturer at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
Joel Kwong is an international media art curator, writer, producer and educator based in Hong Kong. She is currently the Programme Director for Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, as well as the founder of SIBYLS – a creative consultation and production agency. Kwong has a strong belief in the power of art and technology, and her curated projects have been shown in many different cities around the globe. Her most recent projects in 2021 includes Future Media Art Festival in Taiwan, Microwave Festival edition 2021, Glow Shenzhen online media art showcase “Fireflies: The Glowing Dots”, Connecting the Dots – a media art archaeology online exhibition & website etc.
Su Wei (born in Beijing) is an art writer, art history researcher and curator based in Beijing. He is currently a Researcher at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. In 2014, he was awarded first place at the first International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). Su Wei’s work in recent years focuses on re-constructing the narrative—and radical imagination—of contemporary Chinese art history, and explores the roots of the legitimacy and rupture of contemporary Chinese art history in a global context. Pivotal to his work is the attempt to take the “post-1949” as the key in understanding artistic production in a contemporary situation, and in so doing he seeks to re-define the stance and possibilities of art in nowadays China. He thus engages in an anti-establishment critical practice by mapping the limits, contextual clues and unconscious energies of the post-1949 art production, which figures the dual presence of decay and emptiness.
Panel – Multi-Generation Digital Stewardship: XR Art & Technology Archives
Abstract: Panelists will discuss their roles in a collaborative inter-institutional project funded by the Knight Foundation to create an XR & blockchain certificate enabled digital database that will archive, index, lend, and exhibit complex digital objects using a web-based platform that expands the current capabilities of the virtual 3D exhibition platform New Art City.
The panel will offer perspectives on collections management, blockchain certificates, artist contracts, and best practices for reauthoring. The team will provide insights from the first 6 months of the beta test of this collaborative project which archives and exhibits Creative New Media Projects produced in San José from 1984-2014 on New Art City. The Art & Technology Archive beta test will allow the technical and digital design upgrades to follow the material, social, and archival process; ensuring that necessary upgrades to New Art City are designed holistically and inclusively with integrated feedback from Museums, Librarians, Archivists, & Curators.
Biography: Rhonda Holberton. Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts, Department of Art & Art History San José State University. Holberton’s interdisciplinary research and art practice illuminates the politics of the corporeal body navigating through virtual space. Recent projects utilize networked VR designed to trigger subtle interactions of electrons between biological and digital systems through biofeedback & reiki, a speculative cosmetic company whose mission is focused on the potential of products to create distributed performative action ritualizing the Anthropocene, and a collaborative choreography with Neural Networks.
Don Hanson. Founder of New Art City. Don is an interdisciplinary/internet artist producing web-based interactive work and digital artmaking tools since 2008. As founder of New Art City he aims to provide an accessible toolkit to all types of artists and create an online home for born-digital artifacts. As an active member of the arts and technology community in the Bay Area, Don has served as technical director for Codame Art+Tech and B4BEL4B Gallery, and now focuses full-time on the operations and development of New Art City.
Amanda Helton. As Manager of Digital Strategy, a position created as part of the San José Museum of Art’s (SJMA) 2018 strategic plan, Helton works closely with the curatorial and public programs teams to develop innovative digital engagement tools that expand access to the Museum’s programs and permanent collection. At SJMA since 2017, she served as project database registrar for 50X50: Stories of Visionary Artists from the Collection, a major grant-funded digital publication designed to share the Museum’s permanent collection with a wide audience. Subsequent ongoing projects support efforts to shape the technological vision for the Museum’s future and to support its strategic ambition to be a borderless museum. Helton is also deeply committed to accessibility issues in both the physical and virtual realms and is a member of the Museum’s Equity Task Force.
Dr. Timothy C. Summers. Board Member of the enterprise think tank Leonardo/ISAST, is a seasoned, high-impact executive with broad strategic perspective and a proven track record in growing businesses, delivering solutions to problems, and developing and executing sound internal processes from the ground up. He is an ethical hacker, professor, frequent media commentator, TED speaker, and consulted expert internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on cyber strategy, blockchain, normal chaos, and how hackers think. He is a trusted adviser and executive consultant to Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, and governments worldwide. Timothy specializes in the scholarship and practice of hacker cognitive psychology (the hacker’s mindset) and normal chaos paradigm enabling him to advise on building and sustaining organizations during times of uncertainty. Dr. Summers is an executive scholar with an in-depth understanding of disruptive technologies and their strategic applications, as well as international business expertise, having conducted business around the world.
Nick Szydlowski. Scholarly Communications & Digital Scholarship Librarian, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San José State University. Nick is a librarian with experience in scholarly communications, repository management, preservation, and web development. His recent projects include the digital exhibit Robert Morris: Civil Rights Lawyer & Antislavery Activist.
Long paper – Stayin’ Alive. Southern Cone Video Art Archives in Context.
Abstract: This presentation addresses some problems affecting physical and digital archives dedicated to video art in the Southern Cone, relating to matters of accessibility, preservation and dissemination of video-based art collections in the present. In an attempt to map such a complex situation, firstly, I look at some of the most relevant Latin American video art festivals. I take as case studies the Encuentros Latinoamericanos de Video, the Festivales Franco-Chilenos and Franco Latinoamericanos de video arte, VideoBrasil and Buenos Aires Video, which promoted the production, circulation and dissemination of audiovisual arts in the last two decades of the 20th century and, alongside, fostered the creation of physical archives or video libraries in the region. Secondly, I identify some institutional and academic projects that, since the mid-2000s, have carried out tasks of valorization and remediation of video-based art collections. Actions through which it has been possible to give visibility, accessibility and survival to some video art works, and documentation related to the above-mentioned festivals. Finally, under the premise of problematizing the initiatives that safeguard this audiovisual culture and its difficulties to endurance, I point out common challenges to audiovisual archives in the present, and the answers articulated by some research projects to face them.
Biography: Alejandra Crescentino is a PhD candidate in the Program Artistic, Literary and Cultural Studies (EALyC), and Teaching and Research Personnel in Training (PDIF) in the Department of Linguistics, Modern Languages, Logic and Philosophy of Science, Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature, and East Asian Studies, of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She obtained a Master’s degree in EALyC from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2016. She graduated with a degree in History of Fine Arts in 2013 and Professor in Art History in 2009 from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina. She is a member of the research group “DeVisiones. Discourses, genealogies and practices in contemporary visual creation”, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Long paper – Accessing and Displaying the Archive
Abstract: The pressure to open archives and cultural collections is increasing. Not only the Open- GLAM movement (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) demands easy access to freely usable sources. Civil society and even in-house interests (e.g., communication during the pandemic) point to a considerable need for action. This paper therefore considers two types of accessibility: individualized access for humans and ways of (automated) access for machines.
For interpersonal communication a curation tool for the exhibition context is presented that can be used quickly and is easily deliverable to different online and offline places. The automation aspect is structured according to the so-called FAIR-Principles. Here, too, a digital service is described that makes it easier for those archives and collections to become FAIR (Finable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and capable of (information) dialogues that would otherwise have to retrofit the existing systems.
Biography: Tabea Lurk hold a PhD in art history & media theory and a master in library & information science. Since August 2015 she has headed the media library of the HGK FHNW. From 2006-2015 she worked as a lecturer for digital preservation at the Academy of the Arts (BUA) BFH Bern. Between 2008 and 2015 she headed the ArtLab (BUA) which functioned as an interface between the humanities and natural sciences. In 2012 she established the Master of Advances Studies (MAS) in Preservation of Digital Art and Cultural Heritage. Main areas of work: Access to digital information; information literacy; data management in the context of art, design and artistic research; digital archiving.
Jürgen Enge is a computer scientist and head of the IT department at Basel University Library. Previously, he worked at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW Basel, the University of Applied Sciences and Art in Hildesheim, Holzminden und Göttingen (HAWK), the Zurich Univery of Art, Bern University of the Arts, University of Deign (HfG) and Center for Art and Media at Karlsruhe. He has always been interested in the interplay between art, technology and society. He has built extensive and specialized data management and archiving systems. In addition, he has developed countless websites and digital tools that enable (automatized) indexing, sustainability and FAIR access and preservation of cultural digital sources and data. The services described above originate from him. Main areas of work: digital archiving; data & system development; digital communication; information infrastructures.
Long paper – The future of art museums in the digital age: VR for archiving purpose
Abstract: Art museums are committed to expanding the digital display of their archives by using digital technology, diversifying the types and forms of their exhibitions, increasing archival formats, and promoting repeated visits anytime, anywhere. Many museums have also begun to use virtual reality (VR) display platforms such as Google Arts & Culture, which is intended primarily for viewing art in high-resolution images and video. More than 2,000 cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Orsay Museum in Paris, use this platform to provide virtual content. It is reasonable to infer from this that the rising popularity of VR technology and of online VR platforms targeting the art sector should also have potential applications in archival work. For example, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul already utilizes VR technology for documenting its physical exhibitions. However, despite the growing application of this technology, few studies have comprehensively studied the forms and content of the artworks archived in traditional museums (i.e., paintings and photographs) and by comparison to electronic art archives that utilize modern VR technology. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of virtual reality technology, this study aims to explore the potential of such applications in the context of digital archiving. In this paper, we take several major modern and/or contemporary art museums as examples for analysis and comparison. We show that virtual reality technology has brought advantages to the archival work of contemporary art museums, such as enhanced immersion and expanded diversity of exhibits. Further, it appears likely that the increasing commodification of VR technology will further possibilities in the future.
Biography: Ze Gao is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and media art researcher. Working in the intersection of art and technology. He studied Multidisciplinary Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art and received his M.F.A from The School of Visual Arts in New York. With a background in both image science and art, his research across different practices and interests, including artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, museum study, and extended reality. He has several publications, mainly in the areas of New Media Art and Chinese Classical, he currently living in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. He has been invited as a visiting scholar to the Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China,2020), Confucius Institute, University of Bonn,(Bonn, Germany, 2019), and School of Art and Design, Yunnan University,(Kunming, China,2019), residence artists at Nanchuan Lixiang Lake Art residence project, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts,(Chongqing, China,2020), Glasgow School of Art,(Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2014).
Dr. Varvara Guljajeva is an artist and researcher holding the position of Assistant Professor in Computational Media and Arts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). Previously, she held positions at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Elisava Design School in Barcelona. Varvara was invited as a visiting researcher to XRL, Hong Kong City University, IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan), LJMU (Liverpool, UK), Interface Cultures in the Linz University of Art, and Design, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Karlshamn, Sweden). Her PhD thesis “From Interaction to Post-Participation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant” was selected as the highest-ranking abstracts by Leonardo Labs in 2020. As an artist, she works together with Mar Canet forming an artist duo Varvara & Mar. Their works were shown at MAD in New York, FACT in Liverpool, Santa Monica in Barcelona, Barbican in London, Ars Electronica in Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, and more. www.var-mar.info
Long paper – Practicing Odin Teatret’s Archives: virtual translations of embodied knowledge through archival practices
Abstract: nformed by contemporary research in performance studies, this writing examines the ongoing challenges and possibilities of using XR technologies to create a virtual archive of embodied theatre techniques. This is part of a research project working with the (analogue) archive of Odin Teatret in Denmark, in which we are facing the challenge of transferring the embodied knowledge of actors’ training into a virtual navigation system which evokes interaction and affect. We begin by outlining a critical epistemological framework which calls for new accounts of knowledge distribution and the place of embodied and affective praxis within this frame. We describe the process of having different training strands from practitioners of Odin and pupils being mapped with the use of motion capture technology. Further on, we approach one of the key aspects of this research, that of the translation of such embodied techniques and movement qualities into data and, consequently, into an immersive experience of archival navigation. With this paper we aim to contribute to the discussion on documentation of embodied knowledge in present times, one which calls for new approaches to practices of transmission, archive interaction and embodied navigation.
Biography: Adriana La Selva is a theatre-maker, a performer and a researcher. She is currently a fellow FWO researcher with the project Practicing Odin Teatret’s Archives at S:PAM (Studies in Performance and Media- Ghent University) – in association with IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music), Utrecht University, Manchester Metropolitan University and Aalborg University. She concluded her Master’s degree in Contemporary Arts, at the University of Lancaster, UK, on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming in relation to physical theatre. She is a member of the international theatre group The Bridge of Winds, led by Odin Teatret actress Iben Nagel Rasmussen. Adriana co-founded Cross Pollination, an international platform for performers and researchers, which focuses on dialogues in-between practices and tactics for embodied knowledge building.
Ioulia Marouda is a multidisciplinary designer whose work expands between interactive art and scenography. She is currently a doctoral fellow in art science and computer science at Ghent University and part of the IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music). Her research interests include interaction in XR, embodiment, computer graphics and perception. She currently focuses on the transmission of embodied knowledge through immersive and interactive technologies as well as the translation of physiological data as a way to explore the possibilities of the virtual body to uncover qualities otherwise invisible. Ever since her diploma studies in Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens, she grew an unusual interest in the way digital technologies affect our perception of space. This led her to study further in the Interactive Architecture Lab at UCL. She has worked with design studios and in theatre in Germany and the UK designing physical and digital temporary spaces. Ultimately, through working across mediums she aims to express stories and atmospheres of the present.
Long paper – The Australian Emulation Network: Accessing Born Digital Cultural Collections
Abstract: This paper outlines a new funded project which aims to conserve and render born digital artefacts widely accessible by establishing an Australian Emulation Network. High value cultural collections from university archives and the GLAM sector requiring legacy computer environments will be targeted. The project expects to generate new knowledge across media arts, design, and architecture. Expected outcomes include stabilising and providing researchers with emulated access to born digital cultural artefacts, sharing legacy computer environments across the network, and establishing an Australian software preservation community of practice, building skills in preserving and emulating digital cultural artefacts with substantial future applications also in scientific preservation.
Biography: Melanie Swalwell is Professor of Digital Media Heritage at Swinburne University of Technology. Her research focuses on the creation, use, preservation, and legacy of complex digital artefacts such as videogames and media artworks. Melanie is currently leading three digital heritage research projects: “Play It Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s”; “Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a best practice method and national collection”; and “The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections Access”, funded by the Australian Research Council. An ARC Future Fellow from 2014-18, Melanie continues to research “Creative Micro-computing in Australia, 1976-92”. Melanie is the author of Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality (MIT Press, 2021), editor of Game History and the Local (Palgrave, 2021), and co-editor of Fans and Videogames: Histories, Fandom, Archives (Routledge, 2017) and The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on cultural history, theory and aesthetics (McFarland, 2008).
Long paper – AR[t]chive – Augmented Reality Experience for a Digital Art Archive
Abstract: This paper introduces an immersive augmented reality (AR) experience of interactively exploring a digital archive. AR[t]chive is being designed for an exhibition context but also to serve as a research tool, around the content of the Archive of Digital Art (ADA). Archive contents are presented as virtual elements arranged in real space. Users are able to walk among these, manipulate them directly using their hands and use virtual tools to create compositions in 3D space. This work is part of a larger collaboration and represents an exploration of future-facing ways to access and utilize ADA, but can also inspire work on other digital archives. The paper outlines the design of the interactive experience, including the different considerations taken. This is followed by a description of the current implementation, which constitutes work in progress. To conclude, we offer a brief outlook and future directions.
Biography: Tiago Martins is a researcher and creative technologist working at the intersection of art, interaction design and game design. Coming from an academic background in Computer Science at the New University of Lisbon (Portugal), Tiago later expanded upon his interest in interactive media at the University of Art and Design in Linz (Austria), where he obtained a PhD from Interface Cultures. Tiago has taken an active part in innovation-oriented projects taking place in different environments and institutions, including the University of Art in Berlin (UDK) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). He is currently researching and teaching mixed-reality applications at his alma mater in Linz.
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation. They are Professors at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria where they head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media. Sommerer and Mignonneau previously held positions as Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan and as Researchers and Artistic Directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto Japan. They also were Visiting Researchers at the MIT CAVS in Cambridge US, the Beckmann Institute in Champaign Urbana, IL, USA and the NTT-InterCommunication Center in Tokyo.
Long paper – “Always Only Once:” The paradox of preserving performative digital works
Abstract: The 20th century saw various approaches to expanded cinema performance, including color organs and mixed media “psychedelic” light shows. These practices were difficult to document technically and were, to various extents, based on performance in the moment. Technically, archival 20th century visual performance documentation and preservation ranges from the non-existent to the surprisingly future proofed. But expanded cinema historian William Moritz summed up the unrepeatability of performance experience in a 1969 review of the mixed media performance ensemble Single Wing Turquoise Bird: “always only once.” Contemporary performative digital practice shares some parallels with these earlier performative practices: the work may be performed live by a performer, or an algorithm may perform the work automatically. In either case, preservation faces the paradox of recreating moments that were intended to happen “always only once.” Examining 20th century attempts to preserve the ephemeral can inform not only how we approach preservation of performative and process-based digital works, but also which works we attempt to preserve.
Biography: Amy Alexander has been making computational art projects since the 1990s. She is a Professor of Computing in the Arts in the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego. Alexander has worked in performance art, installation, software, and online media, generally employing custom software to generate real-time video that reflects on cultural issues. She has written and lectured on topics including software art, historical and contemporary audiovisual performance, algorithmic bias and algorithmic determinism, and media preservation. She has served as a reviewer for festivals and commissions for new media art and computer music. Alexander’s projects have been performed and exhibited at venues ranging from The Whitney Museum, Prix Ars Electronica, Transmediale, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, NIME, and the New Museum to club performances at Sonar (Barcelona), First Avenue (Minneapolis) and Melkweg (Amsterdam). She has also performed on the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Zürich, and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Long paper – A forgotten, almost lost, and partially hidden piece of history: new media arts in Latin America
Abstract: Who tells history? We can find multiple versions of the new media art history, most of them with subtle differences. Still, until a few years ago, it has been unusual to find references pointing to countries out of a small group from Europe and North America. Several projects have been developed to change that situation. UNESCO’s Digi-Arts project, and the Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection, hosted by The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology, are examples of the relevant role and the impact that the preservation and documentation of electronic artworks, together with its public access, can play in having another perspective on our recent history.
Biography: Dr. Dal Farra is professor of music and electronic arts at Concordia University, Canada, and director of the electronic arts center CEIARTE-UNTREF, Argentina. He is the founder of the international symposia Balance-Unbalance (BunB) and Understanding Visual Music (UVM). Dal Farra has been director of Hexagram in Canada, coordinator of the Multimedia Communication national program of the Federal Ministry of Education in Argentina, senior consultant of the Amauta New Media Art Centre of Cusco in Peru, and researcher of UNESCO, France, for its project Digi-Arts. He designed university programs on art-science. Ricardo created the Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection. He is a board member of ISEA International, and a member of several editorial boards: Leonardo/ISAST (MIT Press, USA), Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press, UK), and Artnodes (UOC, Spain), among others. Dal Farra is a composer/artist specialized in transdisciplinary actions with science and emergent technologies.
Lightning Talk – Collecting and Preserving Expanded & Extended Nonfiction
Abstract: The history of the evolving field of new media work is pushing individuals to take a huge effort to preserve important artifacts and analyze projects. Extended Nonfiction is a project that promotes the study, training, production and preservation of audiovisual, interactive, transmedia and immersive nonfiction narratives. Extended Nonfiction is an informative, formative and productive proposal that places emphasis on the field of reality, on real stories; but not just any reality, on expanded and extended reality.
Biography: Arnau Gifreu-Castells. Doctor in Communications and has a Master’s Degree in Digital Arts (UPF). He has been a research affiliate at the Open Documentary Lab (MIT, 2013-2018) and part of the i-Docs group (University of the West of England). He has published various books and articles in his research area, interactive, transmedia and immersive non-fiction, and specifically on interactive documentaries.
Lightning Talk – MEMODUCT posthuman.archive: The Site-specific Media Art History
Abstract: MEMODUCT posthuman.archive is a repository of media art practices in the field of digital humanities, site-specific media art history and cyber-anthropology. The major contributions of the project are: 1) Archiving of media art from the underrepresented regions, i.e., The Global Margin, initiatives that were recent and as such exhibited in the most important exhibitions and festivals, but which have not yet been explored in depth and systematically processed as a cluster, or a scene; 2) Documentation of the new media artworks that became “inaccessible” due to the instability of the Internet media and the rapid obsolescence of computer technology; 3) Modeling of new methodology in relation to the question: How to write European history of tactical media and environment art, the conjuncture of New Europe 1988-2022?
Biography: Violeta Vojvodic Balaz, studied at the University of Belgrade at the Faculty of Fine Art for her PhD (2017), with a doctoral thesis The Case Of Art-Adventurers Operating Into Global Margin: Art, Money, and Value in The Age of Artificial Intelligence. She specialised European Diploma in Cultural Management, Brussels, her research was focused on strategic planning and virtual organisation (2006). Currently, she is PhD candidate at the Transdisciplinary Studies of Modern Arts And Media, Faculty for Media and Communication in Belgrade.
Eduard Balaz, received Mag. of Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade in 2003. He worked as Artistic director in Hammer Creative (Novi Sad) and Blueliner Marketing (NYC), currently he is working as freelance UI/UX designer.
Violeta Vojvodic Balaz and Eduard Balaz had been working as media artists since 1999. They were founders of Urtica, art and media research group (1999-2002) https://urtica.org, and they were one of the co-founders of New Media Center_kuda.org (Novi Sad, Serbia).
Lightning Talk – The Different Histories of Electronic Art in the V2_ Archive
Abstract: V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media is an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It strives to build a ‘living archive’ of electronic art, using its own documentation from over 40 years, made accessible on its website. This presentation outlines some of the strategies to bring out the different histories of electronic art that narrate the art form’s critical role in giving meaning to and (re-)interpreting the real-world effects of technology.
Biography: Arie Altena is archive editor at V2_ and the author of Wat is community art? (2016) and 40 Years of V2_ (2022).
Michel van Dartel is Director of V2_Lab for the Unstable Media and Research Professor at the AVANS Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT).
Lightning Talk – Archiving Twitter Database & Visualization from Artwork
Abstract: In 2020, I created an artwork on the state of truth-telling crisis during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The project is titled Project Echo. It is a multi-modality and multi-disciplinary new media artwork involving Twitter data and took two and a half years of extensive research collaboration with a political scientist and a computer engineer to develop. When the project concluded shortly after the Capitol insurrection, we realized that we had compiled a significant database of Tweets. It has become a valuable historical record of Twitter disinformation activity relating to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. As an artist unfamiliar with how archives are established, I am interested in figuring out how to provide public access to the database and its associated visualizations. I look to cultural institutions to help establish an archive of the database and provide the public with the opportunity to access this piece of American History.
Biography: Jiayi Young is an artist and a designer. She is an Associate Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis. Young creates large-scale installations, permanent and temporary public artworks. Her inquiries lie within the emergent and experimental field of digital media with an emphasis on the cross-disciplinary areas of design that integrate the arts and the sciences with cutting-edge technology. Her current research and creative work are focused on constructing data-driven interfaces, installations, real-time projection graphics, participatory performances, and immersive environments in cultural and public places with the goal of creating generative energy to engage the public in social dialogue.
Lightning Talk – Introducing Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC)
Abstract: Founded in 1986, Videotage is a leading Hong Kong-based non-profit organization specializing in the promotion, presentation, creation and preservation of new media art across all languages, shapes and forms. Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC) strives as the identity and body that documents Hong Kong’s extensive media art history. Through Hong Kong’s character of a cultural, geographical and political peninsula that uniquely merges Chinese and Western influences, the collection depicts how the city has been a sensitive witness to a period of art in history. It also displays the development of society as much as that of technology-exploring issues of identity and life in urban, political and cultural environments through a wide array of techniques that mark the transition from analogue to digital artmaking.
Biography: John Chow Ho Fung is the Senior Archive Coordinator at Videotage and he currently works at Videotage (HK). John is involved in the curation and preservation of over a thousand media art artifacts – magnetic tapes from Hong Kong pioneering video artists preserved in the Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC). John has participated on various archival forums including Archives in the Digital Era, ART TAIPEI (2019) and Rethinking Art Collection and Archive, and FLAME HK (2019). He is also a member of the Floating Projects Collective.
Chung Wing Shan is currently the Project Coordinator at Videotage. Chung’s work focuses on acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of the Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC) as well as organising public programmes related to VMAC. She has worked on programmes including the VMAC Forum and the Hallucinatory Hereafter.
Lightning Talk – UNCOPIED.ART: Making the original truly unique: Introducing a blockchain for GLAM institutions
Abstract: This lightning briefly introduces the conceptual aspects of uncopied.art, an endeavour with the mission to make ORIGINAL truly UNIQUE, with physical and digitally immutable certificates of authenticity, expertise, inventory that will outlive us. In the talk the authors discuss the core values, offering a closer view to the workflow of certification.
The authors focus on the opportunities, UNCOPIED may offer for archiving and aim to jointly discover potential risks and pitfalls going along with implementing this emerging technology for the long run in archives. Furthermore, the audience will be introduced to the recent case study that relies on a collaboration with LCMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As a byproduct of securing art works on a transparent blockchain, UNCOPIED makes available its own dataset to scientists interested to work with open data for research purpose. UNCOPIED aims to provide innovative methods to secure digital collections by making metadata public. A scientific committee is in charge of making the dataset accessible in the respect of stakeholders interests, privacy and ethical concerns.
The authors briefly discuss the current non-hierarchical organizational setting of UINCOPIED and outline its necessity against the background of Open Innovation and its meaning in the progress of innovation.
Biography: Eveline Wandl-Vogt is a thinker and maker, knowledge designer, creative experimentalist and innovator. Against a background of Art Driven Innovation, Humanity Centered Design and Open Innovation, she is facilitating Social Innovation for the purpose of good, contributing to invent inclusive, sustainable. Responsible futures. Eveline is foundress and orchestra of exploration space (at) ÖAW and foundress and Director of Ars Electronica Research Institute “knowledge for humanity”. She is affiliated to metaLab (at) Harvard, and is ambassador for “knowledge for humanity” of the Republic of Uzupis. Eveline is chair of the scientific committee of uncopied.art.
Elian Carsenat is a computer scientist trained at ENSIIE/INRIA, started his career at JP Morgan in Paris in 1997. He later worked as consultant and managed business & IT projects in London, Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. In 2012, Elian created NamSor, a piece of sociolinguistics software to mine the ‘Big Data’ and better understand international flows of money, ideas and people. NamSor helps answer the perennial question all countries ask about their diasporas – who are they, where are they and what are they doing. In 2020, NamSor is building new APIs to estimate risk for gender, racial or ethnic biases in applying machine learning or other artificial intelligence to decision making that affects People’s lives. Elian is founder and CEO of unopied.art.
Dario Rodighiero works at Harvard University. He is affiliated at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a postdoc of the Metalab. His capacity at the intersection of visual studies, data science, and digital humanities makes him comfortable in multiple disciplines. With Metis Press, he published in 2021 Mapping Affinities.
Lightning Talk – Research-based Online Archive and the Canonization of Net Art
Abstract: During the exhibition and research project “Calculating Control: (Net)art and Cybernetics” the Zentrum für Netzkunst had designed and built a small archive on the website of the project. Working from the site-specific history of Haus der Statistik (a building that operated as the Central Administrative Headquarters for Statistics in the German Democratic Republic), Calculating Control explored the impact of cybernetics on artistic and social practices, networks, and technology. The online archive, which is still accessible and updatable, includes different resources and references related to the topics of cybernetics, GDR, as well as artworks and specifically net art. By “misusing” the open-source software for bibliographies “Zotero” the “Calculating Control” archive offers a structure that allows making new links between net art and other historical artifacts and references.
Even though it might seem that such an archive doesn’t fulfill its function as an agency for a long-term preservation of net art, it is not an “empty” archive. Rather than being focused on a singular medium or an art period, this research-based archive introduces one possible narrative, connecting net art to local history and supporting its circulation in the collective online memory. The lightning talk looks at the role of the research-based archive in the context of canonization of net art on the internet.
Biography: Tereza Havlíková (born in Prague) is an art historian and curator living in Berlin. Her research focuses on net art and digital art in a broader context of internet history and culture as well as online curatorial practice. She is a founding member of Zentrum für Netzkunst and a pioneer participant in the urban model project Haus der Statistik in Berlin.
Lightning Talk – Screen Recordings and Reinterpretations from Archiving to Creation Visions.of.Mouchette.org
Abstract: Mouchette is an iconic virtual character from the early net.art time. Fourteen screen recordings of her website have been found online on Youtube channels. These videos are documenting the viewing practices of some visitors, the way they browse the website mouchette.org the way they comment their visit, and how they embed it inside their own narrative, stories of horror, of magic or of seduction.These recordings are an exceptional archival of this website recorded by the viewers in very different ways.
Biography: Martine Neddam is an artist who uses language as raw material. Since she began as an artist her favorite subjects always were speech acts, modes of address, words in the public space. Since 1988 she has exhibited text objects (banners, plaques, shadows on the wall) in museums and galleries. She has also conceived many large-scale public commissions in several European countries : Netherlands, France, Great Britain. Since 1996, she has created virtual characters who lead an autonomous artistic existence where the actual author remains invisible, among others Mouchette (1996) and David Still (2001) and XiaoQian (2005) and Madja Edelstein-Gomez (2018). In 2013 she began to develop her own software MyDesktopLife, supported by the ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe). Her work has been exhibited at La Biennale de Montréal (2011), Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2016) and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2018/2020).
Lightning Talk – Digitized Analog Memories. Methods of Visualizing Found Media
Abstract: With the rise of home computers in the 1980s and the worldwide web being publicly available in the 1990s there has been a boom of media that was created by the public. As these files are getting to be over 30 years old, there is a unique opportunity, as an archivist, regarding curating these files and providing a perspective of this time period for future generations.
“Digitized Analog Memories” is a case study of possible methods for curating personal media found on discarded floppy disks. The method for the study was to create a “desktop vignette”, or digital collage, of the previous owner’s life using legacy hardware and software (Pentium III Windows 98 PC). During the collage process, specific desktop color schemes were chosen based on the content found on the floppy disk as a means of recreating the previous owner’s desktop when they originally created the files.
From this study, three key nodes of discourse around the topic of archiving and presenting historical personal data came up: 1) Is all personal data relevant to archive for historic or anthropological reference? 2) How much subjective flexibility can be given to the curator/artist when it comes to presenting historical digital media? 3) How should the hardware for reading dead formats be maintained for future archival use? From this study, all personal data was relevant, however personal photos and journal entries were the most popular to exhibition viewers. The curation of this material should be minimal and maintain period-correct aesthetics. The media should be raw, but personal information of the original owners should be redacted. While legacy hardware is still cheap and easily available today, institutions need to make the effort to maintain legacy machines for use in the distant future.
Biography: Erik Contreras is an interdisciplinary designer and engineer from the San Francisco Bay Area with a background in rapid prototyping, and hardware hacking + repair. His work involves finding alternative uses for post-consumer products and media through hands-on craft and new media digital art pieces. He feels that obsolescence creates an opportunity to showcase a product’s true character in the real world given the influence from consumer culture and technological hype has faded away due to time.
Lightning Talk – Participatory Preservation: Experiments in Distributed Networks of Care
Abstract: The recent emergence of decentralized economies has foregrounded an urgent need for new modes of long-view care and stewardship in contemporary Time-based Media Art. This lightning talk presents some learnings and insights from 10 years of hands-on applied research in the gallery and museum context. Case studies are structured around design thinking methodologies, and outcomes from experiments ranging from new exhibition formats, to collecting models, decentralized storage experiments and more.
Biography: Kelani Nichole is a technologist, collector and founder of TRANSFER, an experimental gallery focused on simulation in contemporary art since 2013. In addition to founding and running a leading digital art gallery, Kelani has spent 15 years in UX research and product development. In 2018 she invented a new model for distributed cultural infrastructure with The Current, a non-profit museum collection rethinking patronage and access for Time-based Media Art. Her work over the past ten years has focused on expanding an understanding and practical application of conservation and preservation through applied research and experiments with a global community of artists, collectors and institutions.
Lightning Talk – IMAI Play: The video art channel of the Inter Media Art Institute
Abstract: The Düsseldorf Inter Media Art Institute (IMAI) is a non-profit foundation that archives, exhibits, and distributes time-based media art. The archive boasts more than 3,000 works that document the international history of video art from the 1960s until today. More than 1,000 of these videos can be viewed in full in the catalogue on the foundation’s website. Since September 2021, this website also hosts the foundation’s participatory video art channel: IMAI Play. IMAI Play invites users to create video art playlists, publish them on the foundation’s website, and share them on social media. Through social tagging every playlist is accompanied by user-defined metadata to facilitate new readings of the archive. Users can also create their personal watch lists and comment on the playlists of other users. With IMAI Play, the Inter Media art Institute aims to stimulate communication about video art and create a space for new perspectives, discoveries, and unexpected connections.
Biography: Darija Šimunović is a cultural studies scholar (MA) and has been responsible for the video art collection and its distribution at the IMAI since 2010. She was a research associate at the Institute for Visual Media of the ZKM Karlsruhe and worked as a visiting lecturer in video art history at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and the Paderborn University.
Linnea Semmerling is director of the Düsseldorf Inter Media Art Institute (IMAI). She has developed programs and exhibitions for various museums including ZKM Karlsruhe, IKOB Eupen, Marta Herford and TENT Rotterdam. She holds degrees in Cultural Studies, Art Studies and Technology Studies from Maastricht University and the University of Amsterdam.
Artworks – Spiral of Words
Abstract: SPIRAL OF WORDS is a platform for creative writing in VR, based on an idea realized in 1998. Three authors from three locations (London, UK; The Hague, the Netherlands and Novi Sad, Serbia) sent texts at defined time intervals, starting from words to sentences over paragraphs to short stories, all this took place via e-mail/the internet, creating a common narrative in a defined location that built a spiral of words in a fictional space.
The VR project SPIRAL OF WORDS is a kind of ‘artistic recycling’ as well as an archive of the idea of a realized textual narrative performance. The narratives in SPIRAL OF WORDS have been partially modified, they symbolize the original idea in different colors. The project is refreshed, enriched, and different in relation to the original performance, it is actually a reinterpretation of a creative collaborative idea, in a way that VR media allows. And that is the direct interaction of the users, where they freely communicate with the given words, choosing them, moving them, and creating their own meta-text, in any form they desire. Certain words in the spiral, when selected, activate short audio and visual effects that are symbolic to them. All selected words of the newly created narrative can be changed, rearranged, or rejected. SPIRAL OF WORDS is currently an unrepeatable experience, in which user’s meta-text only lasts for the duration of the session.
Biography: Predrag S. Šiđanin, Ph.D. – multimedia artist, founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Dean and full professor at the Faculty of Digital Production, EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica Serbia.
Luka Z. Tilinger, MA – illustrator and programmer, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Assistant professor at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica Serbia.
Maja S Budžarov, MA – ceramic and multimedia artist, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Associate professor at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica Serbia.
Nina B Zvezdin, MEA – architect, multimedia artist and musician, member of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Currently residing in Pisa, Italy on internship.
Artwork – Visually reading the pandemic: Translating an Open Access Archive into an immersive interactive Artwork
Abstract: The presented artwork is a cross-organisational, cross-sectoral, transatlantic collaboration between the art:scientists Dario Rordrighiero and Eveline Wandl-Vogt, the social entrepreneur Elian Carsenat and Ars Electronica Solutions as well as Garmantis. During the first year of the pandemic, the authors developed two pre-conceptioptions of 2D visual artworks based upon open data of a COVID19 related open access archive, namely the “COVID19 cartography” on the one hand, and the “Chinese Sea” on the other. During 2021 and funded by DARIAH.EU, the team scaled up and created an immersive, 3D production for Deep Space at Ars Electronica, launched at Ars Electronica Festival 2021. The artwork is not just a unique piece of art, it invites the participant to experience knowledge created at the moments of exploration in a playful approach. In their presentation the authors will refer as well to the guiding questions related to the innovation and implementation process, workflows, funding, scaling up and how the applied methods and technologies may be meaningful and applicable for other archives.
Biography: Eveline Wandl-Vogt is a thinker and maker, knowledge designer, creative experimentalist and innovator. Against a background of Art Driven Innovation, Humanity Centered Design and Open Innovation, she is facilitating Social Innovation for the purpose of good, contributing to invent inclusive, sustainable. responsible futures. Eveline is foundress and orchestra of exploration space (at) ÖAW and foundress and Director of Ars Electronica Research Institute “knowledge for humanity”. She is affiliated to metaLab (at) Harvard, and is ambassador for “knowledge for humanity” of the Republic of Uzupis. Eveline is part of the scientific committee of uncopied.art.
Elian CARSENAT is a computer scientist trained at ENSIIE/INRIA, started his career at JP Morgan in Paris in 1997. He later worked as consultant and managed business & IT projects in London, Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. In 2012, Elian created NamSor, a piece of sociolinguistics software to mine the ‘Big Data’ and better understand international flows of money, ideas and people. NamSor helps answer the perennial question all countries ask about their diasporas – who are they, where are they and what are they doing. In 2020, NamSor is building new APIs to estimate risk for gender, racial or ethnic biases in applying machine learning or other artificial intelligence to decision making that affects People’s lives. Elian is founder and CEO of unopied.art.
Dario Rodighiero works at Harvard University. He is affiliated at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a postdoc of the Metalab. His capacity at the intersection of visual studies, data science, and digital humanities makes him comfortable in multiple disciplines. With Metis Press, he published in 2021 Mapping Affinities.
Artwork – Archiving New Media Art Archives
Abstract: The average time to stay on a web page is about 15 seconds. In the Tik-Tok generation, how do users utilize new media art online archives? Without any browser menus including the address bar, Archiving New Media Art Archives only allows visitors in a gallery to use the mouse to navigate online archives with hypertexts and hyper-images. Whenever users click the mouse button, the computer takes a picture of a small portion around the mouse cursor and places it on another screen, which is invisible to users. This project visualizes how online users access new media art resources in a collage way. When they click five times to surf the online archive, the computer automatically turns to the next archive website. Users visit Prix-Ars Electronica Archiv first, then ACM SIGGRAPH Art Show Archives and ISEA Symposium Archives in order. In the end, this project generates a collage image based on the users’ search activities on those three archive websites. After each exhibition day, this project posts the final collage image on social media. In non-real time, as a spatial collage image, this project documents how users consume those archive resources and how users can reach different resources. This project is based not on scientific research about users’ online activities, but on an artistic method to visualize users’ history of access to online archive resources and examine users’ surfing consumption patterns on archive websites. As a delayed interactive art project, Archiving New Media Art Archives provides viewers with a certain time to appreciate the original purpose and function of digital art archives. This will contribute to not only showing how online new media art archives work, but also making creative spatial collage images with time-based online activities during the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving at ISEA2022.
Biography: Byeongwon Ha is an assistant professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina. He is an art historian and an artist in the field of new media art. As an artist and a researcher, he took part in diverse international art conferences and festivals such as ISEA, SIGGRAPH Asia, IRCAM Forum, ARTECH, and the Summit on New Media Art Archiving. In 2019, he published two articles: “Nam June Paik’s Unpublished Korean Article and His Interactive Musique Concrète Projects” as an author in Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press) and “Survey and Analysis of Interactive Art Documentation, 1979–2017” as a coauthor in Leonardo (MIT Press).
Artwork – Gendernaut. Queering the future
Abstract: Gendernaut is an English term that we could translate as “navigator of gender”, and that invokes Jason’s argonauts. The term appears for the first time in the documentary Gendernauts: A Journey through shifting identities (1999), directed by Monika Treut, to refer to people who travel through shifting gender identities.
This artistic research project questions, in a first phase entitled “Queering the software”, the forms of construction of the hegemonic archive through the design of a plugin that allows the collective creation of archives through an online interactive multimedia experience and, in a second phase entitled “Queering the archive”, proposes new ways of visualizing narratives based on transfeminist and queer genealogies through transmedia and performative experiences that conceive the archive as a living interactive space, free of heteropatriarchal codes, inhabited by multiple bodies and subjectivities that relate past, present and future to come. The series articulates an extensive historical investigation through a diversity of thematic threads that the feminist, queer and trans movements have been weaving during the last four decades in our political and artistic context. These genealogies link a whole series of historical, artistic, collective events, actions, campaigns, exhibitions, interviews, fanzines, performances, etc. forming a complex amalgam of relationships between art, politics, memory and activism.
Gendernaut is a trans-temporal and trans-spatial traveler that will invite us to travel through time through a genealogy of key events in the memory of the feminist movement and the LGTBI movement in our context. During this journey, he will show us the archive through a transmedia and performative experience to understand how the representation of the future in history has been imagined from a transfeminist and queer perspective. Queering the future…
Biography: Diego Marchante is a transfeminist activist, transmedia artist and lecturer. Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, since 2008 he works as a professor of Audiovisuals and Gender Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona. In 2011 he published “Archive T. A transfeminist and queer archive”, an archive of social movements and artistic practices that have addressed gender issues in the Spanish context from a queer and transfeminist perspective. His work has been exhibited at Can Felipa, Caixaforum, Fabra i Coats, Sala d’Art Jove, Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. In 2020-21 his project, “Gendernaut. Queering the 90’s”, was selected in the call for research stays at the MNCARS, in the context of the project Our Many Europes – Europe’s critical 90s and The Constituent Museum.
Artwork – Visualizing the Illkun (Anger)
Abstract: Visualizing the Illkun(anger) is an interactive screen installation for the interpretative visualisation of anger in the province of Malleco, Chile. The installations seeks to reflect and discuss the concept of screen by relating it to the memories of dissidence. Thus, it takes as a case study the book Las Razones del Illkun/Rabia (The Reasons of the Anger), trying to visualise through images-diagrams the subjectivities arising from the feelings of dispossession in the Mapuche conflict in the Malleco region. In this way, the images-diagrams and the designed device seek to mediate spaces and territories of memory that conflict the notion of history in Chile. A problematic narrative that dates back to the times when Chile was a Spanish colony and later, as a republic, using openly repressive state policies and territorial usurpation. Situation that unleashed the wrath of one of the first indigenous peoples of the aforementioned territory; the Mapuche. The process of study and creative development of this project was divided into four stages: first, a study of the concept of the screen, which was analysed to understand the technical and conceptual characteristics that relate it to a memory apparatus. Secondly, a defined the theme of representation and the type of data to systematise, in this case, a historical book. Third, a way of representing anger by the abuses described in the aforementioned book; that is, through a subjectivist paradigm through the interpretation of the written archive. This decision is based on an interpretative view of a complex subject and totally opposed to a scientific naturalist paradigm; non-objective information goes from being delivered to uncertainties that are captured and interpreted; first by myself as the creator of a system of visual codes and then, by the individual facing the interface.
Biography: Marcela Antipan Olate is an artist and designer living in Germany. She is currently studying a master’s degree in Digital Media at the University of the Arts Bremen. She is a graphic designer and originally from Chile. Her creative practice moves within the blurred mix between art and science. Within that framework, one of her main interests is the critical reflection on technological objects of daily use and their symbolic and technical connections in relation to politics, economies, ecologies, and cultures. Through associations, she seeks to create physical or digital objects that concretise these interests. In the past, her work as a designer involved the development of ideas and concepts linked to scientific communication for research institutes, as well as teaching in the area of design. Currently, her work takes different forms such as installations, physical objects, software, research, visual pieces and poetry.
Artwork – ‘Data Whiskers’ and ‘Ecophagy’
Abstract: Will our data still be around tomorrow? Digital data cannot be preserved forever because of bit rot and data decay. I am fascinated by what data degradation will look like, what if you translate and visualize the unintelligible? ‘Data Whiskers’ and ‘Ecophagy’ show my artistic interpretation of the transience of data. To avoid the data storage doom scenario, I opted also for high resolution art prints.
Biography: Martijn Hage is a digital artist based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He studied Graphic Design and Computer Graphics at the Academy of Arts Minerva in Groningen. His early digital artwork was exhibited at SISEA, Second International Symposium on Electronic Art in 1990. Driven by the quest to find the origin of life, he creates his own semantic building blocks to express himself in a self-named morphographic language. You could use the term ‘organic abstraction’, compositions of organic and geometrical elements. His artwork evolves like artificial selection, using self-made generative algorithms. He uses a digital exploration process, iteration by iteration, always in control of randomness and order in shape, color and composition. Each artwork is created in 3-dimensions and rendered in high resolution. He finds inspiration in nature, technology, archeology and fossils. It all comes together in the real world via digital techniques like 3D Printing, CNC-milling, AR and VR.
Artwork – i:M:mobile
Abstract: Digital archiving strives to compensate for the rapid decay or obsolescence of digital platforms, material substrates, and displays on which these works depend. Digital materials seem to have a shorter half-life than even the unstable materials used in the early eras of film-making. This condition raises key ontological and epistemological questions: What is the essence of a work? What is permanence? What is solid? How must we rethink these notions when our works are inherently fluid — when they even melt into air?
This project engages with these problems by replaying an early work of cinema on a broken contemporary device. The project consists of eight sequences from Fritz Lang’s 1931 film “M”. The series begins with “Index”, a sequence shot in Berlin’s police archives, where a fingerprint provides the first clue in the hunt for a killer. Through subsequent sequences “The Hand”, “The Hunt”, “The Cell”, “Protokoll”, “The Stairs”, “Before the Judge”, and “Cower”, the film offers a meditation on the tension between our attempts to capture, protect, preserve and place before the law on the one hand – and on the other, to escape, to elude logos.
These sequences were filmed from a malfunctioning computer monitor; the malfunction superimposed successive frames of the footage, blurring or dissolving anything which moves. The malfunctioning screen thus renders two distinct architectures: that of the moving body, fluid; and that of its spatial and material frame, super-solid.
“M”, like most of Lang’s films, is known for its use of architecture. The project translates Lang’s use of architecture, which intentionally located that medium in relation to the medium of film, into a new dissolving or reworking of architectures provoked by contemporary conditions of media, existing somewhere between digital and analogue materialities.
Biography: Lawrence Bird practices in media art and architecture. His artwork focuses on imaging technologies and their intersection with space, in particular its political and social dimensions. His work includes video exploration of urban sites, projection mapping and installation, and short films; he led Winnipeg’s contribution to the cityoneminutes project. Since 2012 he has been developing a body of videos and projections focused on anomalies in popular imaging and mapping programs; the work intends to expose the failures of western mapping projects. Lawrence’s artwork has been installed in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, London, Greenwich, Brussels, and Manizales (Colombia) with funding from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. He also writes, having contributed to Critical Planning, Mechademia, Chora, Leonardo, furtherfield.org, and elsewhere. He works with Sputnik Architecture, Winnipeg, a practise focusing on cultural and social projects, including the international public art competition Warming Huts.
Artwork – Anatomy of a Fatberg
Abstract: Taking the Fatberg as a metaphor of a new artificially created intelligence, the work represents an instant game of chance, where the only winner is the Fatberg itself. By clicking the “flush” button, the Fatberg is fed by our digital database: combining wastewater quality data and a vast number of analytical data taken over from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. It is a collection of our own heterogeneous by-products collected for over 20 years, from data on microbes to astrophysical measurements, toxins in the Danube, but also data on employment, bank accounts, calls within the telecommunications network, data on newborns, divorces and drug addicts in our country, amount of food consumption, on the value of dinar, on housing, on migration and tourists, on city traffic etc. Everything that makes life around us and everything that leaves garbage and floats further, refining new data and making possible for the Fatberg to (re)form.
Biography: Andrea Palašti is a visual artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. She works across artistic, curatorial and pedagogical boundaries by investigating (picture) archives and its potential to unveil a nuanced understanding of the world, focusing on issues of cultural geography, the responsibilities of history and its impact on the present. She’s a lecturer at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, blending her artistic research with educational strategies.
Sanja Anđelković is an audio-visual and textual research artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. Her research is focused within the field of docu-fiction practice where she is questioning its position inside the system of gender, political, social roles or traumatic moments of personal biography/history and how the idea of Home changes within the historical, geographical, social, but also environmental context.
Stefana Janićijević, Doctor of Applied Mathematics, is currently employed at Singidunum University in Belgrade as a professor, and at Comtrade System Integration as a data scientist. Her research work is in the field of metaheuristics, optimization, machine learning and data science, while she’s also artistically exploring a range of approaches such as data visualisation, neurosciences and the philosophy of data.
Jovana Pešić is a Junior Researcher at the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection – Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Her research is focused on new materials based on graphene oxide for the removal of heavy metals from the aquatic environment. She is actively involved in promoting science through various programs combining science and art and interdisciplinary research. She is a member of the Serbian Chemical Society and a holder of the Certificate of Chemical Advisor.
Casa Amèrica Catalunya – Tortuous Drift, Karla Brunet
Moving images and sounds recorded in selected locations of the Mediterranean as Ceuta, Gibraltar, Valencia, Ebro’s Delta, Formentera, Ibiza, Malta, Sardinia, Sicilia, and Cyprus create Tortuous Drift. Each place has a particularity, whether geographical, subjective, social, or environmental. For example, Ceuta and Gibraltar are the entrance gate to the Sea as they are a very regulated frontier between Europe and Africa. Islands on the central Mediterranean are the entrance gate to the majority of the attempts to arrive in Europe and it states the greater number of deaths by drowning. Western Mediterranean has the saltiest sea and Ebro’s Delta is one of the areas at great risk of being flooded with global warming.
Data visualizations of salinity, conductivity, temperature, and pH of the water collected during the field trips are mixed in the performance as animated graphs, molecules and numbers. These visualizations raise questions of acidification of the sea and global warming. Another date used in the performance is the statistics of drowned persons trying to cross the sea in search of a better life. These data – social and environmental – are played together with images and sounds collected in the field trips.
In this performance layers of materials entangle together to construct a narrative with visuals and sounds. The live cinema performance is ephemeral; a time-based event that recreates the experience of sensing the Mediterranean Sea. Tortuous Drift creates a statement of this journey. It’s not a drift in a straightforward way, it’s complex, sinuous, and tangled like the feelings and stories lived in the sea.
The performance will be presented on June 10 in Casa Amèrica Catalunya, entity that works on the links between Latin America and Catalonia, which understands culture as a tool to understand and approach the realities of the different peoples at both sides of the Atlantic.
A project by:
Direction/Live Performance by Karla Brunet
Videos and audio by Karla Brunet
Sound design by Rodrigo Ramos
Animations by Flora Benedito, Thaiane Cerqueira, Brisa Brasileiro
Data visualization by Flora Benedito, Thaiane Cerqueira, Karla Brunet
Molecules by Dr. Sabrina T. Martinez
Les imatges en moviment i els sons gravats en llocs seleccionats de la Mediterrània com Ceuta, Gibraltar, València, el Delta de l’Ebre, Formentera, Eivissa, Malta, Sardenya, Sicília i Xipre creen Tortuous Drift. Cada lloc té una particularitat, ja sigui geogràfica, subjectiva, social o ambiental. Per exemple, Ceuta i Gibraltar són la porta d’entrada al mar ja que són una frontera molt regulada entre Europa i l’Àfrica. Les illes de la Mediterrània central són la porta d’entrada a la majoria dels intents d’arribada a Europa i suposen el major nombre de morts per ofegament. El Mediterrani occidental té el mar més salat i el Delta de l’Ebre és una de les zones amb major risc d’inundació per l’escalfament global.
Les visualitzacions de dades de salinitat, conductivitat, temperatura i pH de l’aigua recollida durant les sortides de camp es barregen en l’actuació com a gràfics animats, molècules i números. Aquestes visualitzacions plantegen preguntes sobre l’acidificació del mar i l’escalfament global. Una altra dada utilitzada en l’actuació són les estadístiques de persones ofegades que intenten creuar el mar a la recerca d’una vida millor. Aquestes dades, socials i ambientals, es reprodueixen juntament amb imatges i sons recollits en les sortides de camp.
En aquesta performance capes de materials s’entrellacen per construir una narració amb visuals i sons. L’actuació de cinema en directe és efímera; un esdeveniment basat en el temps que recrea l’experiència de sentir el mar Mediterrani. Tortuous Drift crea una declaració d’aquest viatge. No és una deriva d’una manera senzilla, és complexa, sinuosa i enredada com els sentiments i les històries viscudes al mar.
L’actuació es presentarà el pròxim 10 de juny a Casa Amèrica Catalunya, entitat que treballa per refermar els vincles que uneixen Llatinoamèrica i Catalunya, entenent la cultura com a lligam i com a eina per conèixer i apropar les realitats dels diferents pobles de banda i banda de l’Atlàntic.
Un projecte de:
Direcció/Actuació en directe de Karla Brunet
Vídeos i àudio de Karla Brunet
Disseny de so de Rodrigo Ramos
Animacions de Flora Benedito, Thaiane Cerqueira, Brisa Brasileiro
Visualització de dades a càrrec de Flora Benedito, Thaiane Cerqueira, Karla Brunet
Molècules de la Dra. Sabrina T. Martinez
La Llotja – Possibles i impossibles: una mirada des de l’art i el disseny especulatiu. Conferència a càrrec de Pau Alsina (Online)
May 18 at 12pm
The aim of this talk is to share some reflections on the role of design as a builder of worlds, possibles or impossibles, probables or unlikely, in connection with the event that will take place this year 2022, in Barcelona and 11 other cities, ISEA2022 Barcelona, the 27th International Symposium of Electronic Arts. An international event of reference in the intersections between art, design, science, technology and society, in which institutions, creators and communities related to this fertile transversal field will take part, called to explore together the concept of the “Possibles”.
The Possible shapes our reality, and that is precisely why it is a political problem in itself. From “everything is possible” to “being realistic and asking for the impossible”, from “infinity of possible worlds” to “this is not possible and cannot be done”. How to draw the new possibilities that will come, and not just confirm the ones that are waiting to be confirmed, experienced and thought, as possibilities that can be realized from our worldview? How to go from the impossible, the fable or the utopia to bite directly into our reality?
L’objectiu d’aquesta xerrada és compartir algunes reflexions clau al voltant del paper del disseny com a constructor de mons, possibles o impossibles, probables o improbables, en connexió amb l’esdeveniment que tindrà lloc aquest any 2022, a Barcelona i 11 ciutats més, l’ISEA2022 Barcelona, la 27a edició de l’International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Un esdeveniment internacional de referència en les interseccions entre art, disseny, ciència, tecnologia i societat, en el que hi participaran institucions, creadors i comunitats relacionades amb aquest fertil àmbit transversal, convocades a explorar plegades el concepte dels “Possibles”.
El Possible configura la nostra realitat, i precisament per això és un problema polític en si mateix. De “tot és possible” a “ser realistes i demanar l’impossible”, d’un “infinit de mons possibles” a “això no és possible i no es pot fer”. Com dibuixar els nous possibles que vindran, i no només confirmar els que hi ha a l’espera de ser confirmats, experimentats i pensats, com a possibles que es poden fer realitat des de la nostra visió del món? Com passar de l’impossible, la faula o la utopia per mossegar directament a la nostra realitat?
PLANTA (Fundació Sorigué) – ‘CALL OUT’, Abel Korinsky & Orhan Kavrakogl
PLANTA is a place for talent and creativity in a business environment. It combines contemporary art, architecture, knowledge and landscape and it is the intersection between the Sorigué group and Fundació Sorigué.
On June 11 and 12, PLANTA will host the installation ‘CALL OUT’, by Abel Korinsky & Orhan Kavrakogl, recently awarded with one of the ISEA2022 Barcelona’s grants from Fundació Sorigué.
The installation is about satellites which spread around the world and build a huge network/ swarm in our orbit to connect the world virtually. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, wants to place more than 12,000 satellites in our orbit by 2027. Since 1967, a decade after the first satellite “Sputnik” was launched, the Outer Space Treaty has provided the basic framework for international space law. However, countries have increasingly been allowing commercial endeavors under their own regulations and a “war” on claiming space as private property has already begun. Space around Earth is not under any nation’s flag and it’s basically on a first-come-first-served basis that an individual with an astronomical source of income can obtain control over.
Satellites govern a large part of our daily lives but we are not well aware of this fact, even though literal thousands of them are floating right above our heads. Satellites enable us to achieve a lot in our time of highly-advanced technology but there are still many unanswered questions about them. Responsibility, debris, ownership, data collection and control of communication are only a few of the major topics which need to be discussed.
This site-specific, data-driven, immersive installation creates a field of light using LED tubes and surrounds the audience with a real-time, yet ever-changing 3D presence of light. The light reminds the audience of the existence of satellites above their heads that are invisible to the naked eye but are slowly and surely taking up space and littering our global common. The installation sheds light on the subject and brings up the questions that need to be answered—for our generation and for the generations to come.
While showing the real-time movements and the appearance/disappearance of satellites, the work generates abstract light patterns derived from the satellites themselves. The intense sound spatialization is synced with the visuals to enhance the audience’s experience. The transient nature and the physical beauty of the light patterns works with the three-dimensional sound to transport the audience to outer space, and the boundaries between reality and illusion are blurred.
The visit will include a complete tour of PLANTA (with audio-guided tour) and the temporary installation “Call Out”.
PLANTA és un lloc per al talent i la creativitat en un entorn empresarial. Combina art contemporani, arquitectura, coneixement i paisatge i és la intersecció entre el grup Sorigué i la Fundació Sorigué.
L’11 i 12 de juny PLANTA acollirà la instal·lació ‘CALL OUT’, d’Abel Korinsky & Orhan Kavrakogl, recentment guardonada amb la beca ISEA2022 Barcelona concedida per la Fundació Sorigué.
La instal·lació tracta sobre satèl·lits que s’estenen per tot el món i construeixen una gran xarxa/eixam a la nostra òrbita per connectar el món virtualment. SpaceX, fundada per Elon Musk, vol col·locar més de 12.000 satèl·lits a la nostra òrbita l’any 2027. Des de 1967, una dècada després del llançament del primer satèl·lit “Sputnik”, el Tractat de l’Espai Exterior ha proporcionat el marc bàsic per al dret espacial internacional. Tanmateix, els països han anat permetent cada cop més esforços comercials sota les seves pròpies regulacions i ja ha començat una “guerra” per reclamar l’espai com a propietat privada. L’espai al voltant de la Terra no està sota la bandera de cap nació i, bàsicament, un individu amb una font d’ingressos astronòmica pot obtenir el control per ordre d’arribada.
Els satèl·lits governen una gran part de la nostra vida diària, però no som ben conscients d’aquest fet, tot i que milers d’ells estan surant just per sobre dels nostres caps. Els satèl·lits ens permeten aconseguir molt en el nostre temps de tecnologia altament avançada, però encara hi ha moltes preguntes sense resposta sobre ells. La responsabilitat, les deixalles, la propietat, la recollida de dades i el control de la comunicació són només alguns dels principals temes que cal tractar.
Aquesta instal·lació immersiva específica del lloc, basada en dades crea un camp de llum mitjançant tubs LED i envolta l’audiència amb una presència de llum 3D en temps real, però sempre canviant. La llum recorda a l’audiència l’existència de satèl·lits per sobre dels seus caps que són invisibles a simple vista però que, a poc a poc i amb seguretat, estan ocupant espai i embrutant el nostre comú global. La instal·lació il·lumina el tema i planteja les preguntes que cal respondre, per a la nostra generació i per a les generacions futures.
Mentre mostra els moviments en temps real i l’aparició/desaparició dels satèl·lits, l’obra genera patrons de llum abstractes derivats dels mateixos satèl·lits. La intensa espacialització del so es sincronitza amb les imatges per millorar l’experiència de l’audiència. La naturalesa transitòria i la bellesa física dels patrons de llum treballa amb el so tridimensional per transportar l’audiència a l’espai exterior, i els límits entre la realitat i la il·lusió es desdibuixen.
“Call Out” és una activitat que requereix reserva prèvia, entrades disponibles aquí La visita inclourà el recorregut complert al PLANTA (amb visita audioguiada) i a la instal·lació temporal “Call Out”.
This project has been awarded with the ISEA2022 Barcelona Grant byFundació Sorigué
Performance / “Zone #1, installation/performance for a percussion player, electronics and video” – Collaboration as Creation
Abstract: Collaboration is a common practice in different artistic fields during the creative process of the work, and a several artistic formats could emerge from a collaboration. There are several examples that we can find and mention in the history of art, and the existing reports of the collaborative processes have in common the exposure of the mutual contributions, not only for the creation of the proposed work, but for the advancement of the art itself, and the each one involved in the process. The composer’s creativity can be amplified by a dialogue and interaction with the performer, which had impact in the creative process, the interpretation of the work, and even in the sound result represented in the perception of the work by the audience. A process of close collaboration between performer and composer in creation allows constantly triggering different paths of knowledge and discovery, transcending limits in the way of playing and composing, mutually enriching the two positions involved.
The starting point of the compositional process ofZone#1 was the idea that this piece/installation should enable the performer to have absolute real-time control of whole musical and visual discourse, musical timing and elements, thus creating a composed-improvisation environment in which the audiovisual content is defined by the composer (both on score, sound design and Max programming), but the timing and narrative choices are taken by the performer. To achieve this level of controlled freedom, a detailed electronic setup was created to serve an ideal improvisation situation, where the audiovisual material is pre-organized and programmed into a hybrid acoustic/digital setup, that provides a user-friendly system to react and interact to the artistic choices of the performer, within a set of rules defined by the score.
This work was driven through a close process of collaborative work by composer and performer.
Biography: João Dias. Percussionist, graduated by ESMAE (BA & MA) with Miquel Bernat, Manuel Campos and Nuno Aroso as tutors. Currently, he is attending a Phd Program in Musical Arts at FCSH/UN of Lisbon. He is a researcher at the Research Group on Contemporary Music at CESEM, where he is particularly interested in mediation between composer and performer in the creation of new music for percussion. He won a PhD grant from Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). He has been developing is work as a performer mainly in the field of contemporary repertoire, from ensemble to solo works. Artistic Director and Member of Supernova Ensemble, member of Drumming Percussion Group and Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, and collaborates regularly with Sonoscopia Associação, Remix Ensemble, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto and Coro / Casa da Música, Gulbenkian Orchestra, among others. He is a professor at the University of Aveiro.
Igor C. Silva. Born in Porto and currently living in Amsterdam, Igor C Silva is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects where performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience. Silva works regularly with ensembles, performers and orchestras, receiving several commissions from ensembles and festivals, and publishing recordings of his music. Igor C Silva also collaborates regularly with soloists, ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools. On upcoming projects stands out a 33 hours installation multimedia-installation for Lucillin United Instruments and many other concerts and premieres in Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, USA, Portugal, Germany, Luxembourg, France, Japan, UK, Finland, Argentina, etc.. Igor C Silva is currently a PhD candidate at VUB (Brussels) and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he also teaches at the Live Electronics Course.
Performance / “Marzelline’s Confessions” by Jocelyn Ho, performed by Margaret Schedel on Embedded Iron
Abstract: Winner of the 2021 International Alliance of Women in Music Ruth Anderson Prize, Women’s Labor is a feminist-activist project that repurposes domestic tools to become new musical instruments. Using embedded technologies, these household-devices-turned instruments are explored in interactive installations, commissioned compositions, and performances. Traditionally relegated to the private sphere, we interrogate domesticity through public engagement and performative spectacle.
The new instruments are based on laundering tools that highlight gender performativity through clothing. Thefirst instrument featured in installation/performance is Embedded Iron, based on an early-20th century wooden ironing board and antique iron. Both the public and musicians can “iron” fabrics, including their own pieces of clothing, to make music. Using spectroscopy, the Embedded Iron has a color-sensing ability—‘seeing’ the color of the fabric to play different timbres. Using machine learning Wekinator, the Iron can interpolate unique sounds for any given fabric. The iron’s placement on the XY-axis of the ironing board determines pitch using LIDAR and ultrasonic technology. The Iron plays sounds of resistance, combining two sound modules in Pure Data: physical modeling of a violin—an instrument on which women were discouraged to be played in the nineteenth-century—and electric guitar-pedal like audio FX. Both of these modules evoke sounds that are historically associated with male musicians—put on an iron to subvert these very associations.
Two texts chosen from an oppressive 19th-century marriage manual are mapped to a special “white apron” for ironing on the left and right side of the board, using granular synthesis. While the text may seem ludicrously outdated, the intentions behind the text are, ironically, still eeriely prevalent today.
Biography: Jocelyn Ho, creative director of Women’s Labor, directs, composes, and performs in inter-disciplinary performance projects involving collaborators from vastly different fields. She is a Steinway artist and an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at UCLA.
Margaret Schedel has a diverse creative output with works spanning interactive multimedia operas, virtual-reality experiences, sound art, video games, and composition. She is a Professor of Music and Chair of Art at Stony Brook University.
Robert Cosgrove is a percussionist, composer, and technologist, currently Artist-In-Residence at Practice Gallery and Technical Director for Yarn/Wire and Ensemble Decipher. He has a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.
Omkar Bhatt is a computer scientist focusing on machine learning, data science, visualization and HCI. Bhatt holds a Master degree in Computer Science at Stony Brook University.
Matthew Blessing is music technologist and composer with a PhD in Experimental Music and Digital Media from Louisiana State University.
ESPRONCEDA – DIGITAL AWARENESS. From education to social impact and human identity
Today’s society moves between the physical and the digital, both territories are part of the same reality, so it is necessary to become aware of that flow through education, the social awareness of all our actions with respect to humans and our terrestrial ecosystem. The exploration of new worlds, metaverses, digital, is a great challenge to the conscious use of advanced technologies and at the same time it is important to maintain cultural heritage, material and immaterial, linked to artistic creation and communities
From June 10 to 18, 2022, within the extended program proposed by ISEA2022 Barcelona and New European Bauhaus Festival (side events): ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture – organizes a major exhibition and workshops in collaboration with national and international artists/entities, curated by Alejandro Martín and available also online in Espronceda virtual: https://hubs.mozilla.com/LF3tHg9/espronceda-virtual-neb-festival-2022-isea
Projects:
The Introns project, installation by the artist Solimán López, consists of the creation of three-dimensional digital entities that represent the genome of humans and plants, as well as their research environment in the metaverse. These digital entities respond to the genetic code of the specific species, from whose code identifies features and patterns represented by dynamic 3d models and sculptures that respond to their composition in the real world.
Aalto University, the prestigious Finnish university, presents a selection of aspects in the process of engaging with heritage as a source of knowledge in art and design education. The exhibition showcases processes and outcomes of co-design methodologies employed during the MA Fellowship Programme in collaboration with Centre Pompidou. The MA Fellowship Programme took place from autumn 2020 to summer 2021 as part of the research project Beyond Matter – Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality led by ZKM Karlsruhe and funded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union (607558-CREA-1-2019-DE-CULT-COOP2). The Fellowship run alongside the conceptual phase of the digital reconstructions of two momentous historical exhibitions, Les Immatériaux (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and Iconoclash (ZKM, 2002). In addition to the exhibition, there will be a co-creative workshop offered to the local community. The workshop is part of novel framework based on the Performance-Oriented Research Methods for Audience Studies and Exhibition Evaluation (PORe), developed and implemented at Aalto University by Lily Díaz-Kommonen and Cvijeta Miljak in the scope of the Beyond Matter project.
“Digital Awareness for Sustainable Futures with Leonardo” explores the Possibles of global futures that Reimagine Everything to invite a vibrant, just, regenerative world with VR, AR, video, web and immersive experience selected from the Leosphere. Organized by Diana Ayton-Shenker.
AI4FUTURE, Creative Europe project – the international network of artists and activists redefining the concept of post-covid mobility through Art and Artificial Intelligence – will present interactive installations, a press preview, an open event and guided visits hosted by ESPRONCEDA.
Schedule:
June 10th: 5 pm – Press preview / 7 pm – Opening of the exhibition and guided tour. From 7 pm to 9 pm with the presence of artists and partners. June 11th: From 12 pm to 3 pm – Workshop by Aalto University on: Cultural heritage as a source of knowledge in art and design education. June 13th: From 4 pm to 6 pm – Games workshop for sustainable goals by Leonardo ISAST / From 7 pm to 9 pm – Guided tour for ISEA2022 Barcelona experts and visitors.
La societat actual es mou entre allò físic i allò digital, ambdós territoris formen part d’una mateixa realitat, per això cal prendre consciència d’aquest flux a través de l’educació, la consciència social de totes les nostres accions respecte als humans i al nostre ecosistema terrestre. L’exploració de nous mons, metaversos, digitals, és un gran repte per a l’ús conscient de les tecnologies avançades i alhora és important mantenir el patrimoni cultural, material i immaterial, vinculat a la creació artística i a les comunitats.
Del 10 al 18 de juny de 2022, dins del programa ampliat proposat per ISEA2022 Barcelona i New European Bauhaus Festival (actes paralels): ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture – organitza una gran exposició i tallers en col·laboració amb artistes/entitats nacionals i internacionals, comissariada per Alejandro Martín i disponible també en línia a Espronceda virtual: https://hubs.mozilla.com/LF3tHg9/espronceda-virtual-neb- festival-2022-isea
Projectes que s’hi podran veure:
Introns, instal·lació de l’artista Solimán López, que consisteix en la creació d’entitats digitals tridimensionals que representen el genoma dels humans i les plantes, així com el seu entorn de recerca en el metavers. Aquestes entitats digitals responen al codi genètic de l’espècie concreta, a partir del codi del qual s’identifiquen trets i patrons representats per models i escultures 3D dinàmiques que responen a la seva composició en el món real.
Aalto University, la prestigiosa universitat finlandesa, presenta una selecció d’aspectes en el procés de compromís amb el patrimoni com a font de coneixement en l’educació artística i del disseny. L’exposició mostra els processos i els resultats de les metodologies de co-disseny treballat durant el programa de beques de màster en col·laboració amb el Centre Pompidou. El programa de beques de màster es va dur a terme des de la tardor de 2020 fins a l’estiu de 2021 com a part del projecte de recerca Beyond Matter – Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality liderat per ZKM Karlsruhe i finançat pel Programa Europa Creativa de la Unió Europea (607558-CREA-1-2019-DE-CULT-COOP2). La beca va al costat del conceptual fase de les reconstruccions digitals de dues exposicions històriques transcendentals, Les Immatériaux (Centre Pompidou, 1985) i Iconoclash (ZKM, 2002). A més de l’exposició, s’oferirà un taller de co-creativitat a la comunitat local. El El taller forma part d’un marc nou basat en la Recerca Orientada al Rendiment Mètodes per a l’estudi de l’audiència i l’avaluació d’exposicions (PORe), desenvolupats i implementats a la Universitat d’Aalto per Lily Díaz-Kommonen i Cvijeta Miljak en l’àmbit del Beyond Matter Project.
“Digital Awareness for Sustainable Futures with Leonardo“ explora els possibles futurs globals que Reimaginen Tot per convidar a un món vibrant, just i regeneratiu amb VR, AR, vídeo, web i experiència immersiva seleccionada de la Leosfera. Organitzat per Diana Ayton-Shenker.
AI4FUTURE, el projecte Europa Creativa, la xarxa internacional d’artistes i activistes que redefinien el concepte de mobilitat post-covid a través de l’Art i la Intel·ligència Artificial, presentarà instal·lacions interactives, una preestrena de premsa, un esdeveniment obert i visites guiades organitzades per ESPRONCEDA.
Horaris:
10 de juny: 17h – Previsualització de premsa/ 19h – Inauguració de l’exposició i visita guiada. A partir de les 19h a les21h, amb la presència d’artistes i socis. 11 de juny: De 12h a 15h – Taller de la Universitat Aalto sobre: El patrimoni cultural com a font de coneixement en l’educació artística i del disseny. 13 de juny: De 16h a 18h – Taller de jocs per a objectius sostenibles a càrrec de Leonardo ISAST. De 19h a 21h – Visita guiada per a experts i visitants d’ISEA2022 Barcelona.
Xarxa de Biblioteques Municipals – Altres Veus
Altres Veus is a series of lectures in libraries and live interviews, via the @bibliotequesXBM Instagram channel, to discuss current issues with experts. This year the cycle will be divided into three thematic areas: “Ukraine Special” coordinated by Manel Alías, “Artificial Intelligence and 5G” coordinated by Albert Cuesta and “Persecuted Culture” coordinated by Laura Huerga.
This cycle aims to promote debate, to encourage a critical spirit around current issues. If you want to stay up to date on these topics, check out our proposal and choose the one that works best for you: face-to-face lectures at the library or live interviews on our Instagram.
Altres Veus és un cicle de conferències a les biblioteques i entrevistes en directe, pel canal Instagram de @bibliotequesXBM, per tractar temes d’actualitat amb experts. Aquest any el cicle es dividirà en tres àmbits temàtics: “Especial Ucraïna” coordinat per Manel Alías, “Intel·ligència artificial i 5G” coordinat per Albert Cuesta i “Cultura perseguida” coordinat per Laura Huerga.
Aquest cicle vol promoure el debat, fomentar l’esperit crític a l’entorn de temes d’actualitat. Si vols estar al dia sobre aquests temes consulta la nostra proposta i escull la que més s’adapti a tu: conferències presencials a la biblioteca o les entrevistes en directe al nostre Instagram.
Institutional presentation / Oneirocracy, Pandemic and Cyborg Dreams
Abstract: With the sewing of theoretical fragments as a starting point, we have structured a small framework for a “network of unconsciouses”. A conceptual provocation that articulates human, nature and technology, promoting the idea of the unconscious as a complex environment, in constant change. An intuitive, transversal, multitemporal and multispecific communication that goes beyond objectiveness. An unconscious which does not exist exclusively within the human, but also in the invisible fabric between things. With the “Pandemic Dreams Archive”, multiple series and different oneiric models were analyzed through graphs and interactive maps, allowing our investigation of dreams according to certain patterns. The semantic co-incidences allowed us to make associations between different dreams, and observe the relational fields between these oneiric manifestations. We have also created a bot called MacUnA (Machinic Unconscious Algorithm), a robot developed with NLP (Natural Language Processing), a subarea of computer science and artificial intelligence that deals with linguistics and interactions between computer and human language. MacUnA remixes the dreams’ archived narratives and creates derivative dreams. Its language is oneiric, bringing us closer to speculations of what could be the future of machinic unconsciouses and cyborg dreams algorithms.
Biography: Fabiane M. Borges – PhD in Clinical Psychology (PUC/SP). She works in the area of Space Art and Culture at INPE / Brazil. She has been developing transdisciplinary projects between Clinical Psychology and Art and Technology since 2010.
Lívia Diniz – Artist, project designer and networker, she develops collaborative and transdisciplinary initiatives related to childhood, living arts, dreams and technology. In Rio de Janeiro, she co-directed carnival parades and samba schools for children and differently abled people. She has been researching and developing experimental learning methodologies in 15 countries while collaborating with festivals, schools, universities, artististic residencies, museums, and maker spaces.
Rafael Frazão – visual artist and videomaker, Brazilian based in Barcelona, works for more than 10 years with audiovisual language in different projects. With his production company in São Paulo he has done many documentary films and hypermedia projects, mainly around the intersection between art, technology and human rights. His artistic production uses experimental video and new media to deal with themes around extra-human cosmopolitics, multi-species studies and the philosophy of the image. He constantly collaborates with projects in performing arts, workshops and artistic practices sharing. He is currently a resident artist at La Escocesa, creation factory, in Barcelona.
Tiago F. Pimentel – Dilettante anthropologist, programmer, hacker, multimedia artist, researcher of digital networks and activist of causes such as freedom and privacy on the network. He was part of the National Coordination team of the Casa Brasil Project, joined Casa de Cultura Digital and co-created CryptoRave, the largest open meeting on cryptography and security in the world. He is the General Director of Associação Actantes – Direct Action for Freedom, Privacy and Network Diversity.
Institutional presentation / Leonardo activates creativity to push the boundaries of today and unleash the possibilities of tomorrow
Abstract: The global challenges and existential threats of our time require collaboration and cross-fertilization across the domains of art, science and technology. Leonardo fosters collaborative exploration by facilitating interdisciplinary projects and by documenting and disseminating information about hybrid creative practice and scholarship. Through its programs, publications, and partnerships, Leonardo offers the creative strategies most needed to face complex problems that overwhelm conventional problem-solving and transcend siloed disciplines. By applying a creativity lens driven by art, science and technology, we can see and set a new global agenda to humanize digital culture, deepen digital trust, inspire creative enterprise and advance sustainable development. This talk presents an overview of Leonardo, the International Society of Art, Science, and Technology, our legacy of impact, and our vision to ReImagine Everything in pursuit of a more vibrant, just, and regenerative world.
Biography: Diana Ayton-Shenker is CEO, Leonardo/ISAST, ASU Professor & Executive Director of Leonardo-ASU Initiative, author of 4 books (including A New Global Agenda), and co-creator with William T. Ayton of large-scale A.R. public art installations (including New Babel, their NYC 10-story-tall sculpture, and New World City which received 2112 Foundation’s 2020 Visionary Award, and was the 1st A.R. art published by MITPress, and Leonardo). As Fast Forward Fund founder, Diana was honored by President Clinton, named #1 of “25 Leading Women Changing the World” (Good Business NY), and featured in “31 Inspiring Women in Nonprofit Management” (UNC). She was inaugural Nazarian Social Innovator in Residence (Wharton), Global Catalyst Senior Fellow (The New School), and Senior Fellow Venture Philanthropy (Bard College), and worked with Human Rights Watch, P.E.N, Mercy Corps, and the United Nations. Diana holds an LLM (University of Essex Law School) and BA (University of Pennsylvania).
Institutional presentation / Montreal Digital Spring, Our Future
Abstract: Montreal Digital Spring is a non-profit organisation whose primary mission is to boost digital intelligence through various activities including a yearly conference, an exhibition, networking events, and a series of workshops targeting the general public, digital creativity companies and organizations and the youth.
Biography: Erandy Vergara-Vargas (MX) is a Montreal-based curator and scholar. Her main research interests include global art histories, climate responsibility, curatorial studies, equity, internet cultures and widespread bias in algorithms. She earned a MA at Concordia University and a PhD in Art History at McGill University. Recent shows include ISEA2020: Why Sentience? (Printemps numérique, Montreal); Eva and Franco Mattes: What Has Been Seen (Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain, 2019); Speculative Cultures: A Virtual Reality Art Exhibition, curated with Tina Sauerländer (Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York, 2019). Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Sociability of Sleep Project, Université de Montréal, and artistic director of Printemps numérique.
Abstract: This institutional presentation focuses on the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive and how it evolved from the ACM SIGGRAPH Art Show Archive. This massive project involved a rethinking of the information architecture as well as programming the interface and adding new functionality. Thousands of new entries were added, along with images, abstracts, and additional information. After a year of hard work by a group of volunteers and student workers, we have made tremendous progress but much more still needs to be done. When completed, this new archive will encapsulate the evolution of a fringe research endeavor to a visually rich technology integral to our daily lives.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Institutional presentation / ISEA Symposium Archives: Progress and Teamwork
Abstract: This institutional presentation focuses on how the ISEA Archive team was able to develop a comprehensive, robust archive of thousands of ISEA items, despite minimal funding and support. The archives were created and are still being developed by a large number of volunteers, students, interns and grant-funded assistants. Over the past few years, a huge amount of information has been added to the archives along with images and PDFs of the papers, publications and other artefacts. There have also been significant improvements in the functionality through the efforts of our volunteer programmers. This massive endeavor has been spearheaded by the four co-directors who are also volunteers. These invaluable archives are used by researchers, artists, educators, students, and the general public. It would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of all the volunteers and contributors involved.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell (Ohio, USA) is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor of Digital Arts at Bowling Green State University. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Wim van der Plas (Netherlands) studied Social & Cultural Sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was director of the Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA, Rotterdam), R&D staff of the Utrecht School of Arts, managing director of the Institute for Computer Animation (SCAN, Groningen), and worked for 3 different departments of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. He is co-founder of ISEA, organised the first, second and seventh ISEA symposium and served as ISEA HQ and on the ISEA board since its founding. Currently he is co-director of the ISEA symposium archives and member as well as honorary chair of the ISEA International Advisory Committee. In 2018 he received a Leonardo Pioneer Award.
Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Panel / Possibilities of the Virtual in Digital Space; Rethinking Bodies, Cognition, and Values in Metaverse
Abstract: Digital technology has duplicated, extended, and/or juxtaposed our existences and interactions, transposing a large portion of our life from material to immaterial. These panels investigate diverse possibilities in the entanglement of physical and digital worlds and interrogate meanings of bodies, cognition/perception, autonomy, and social relations in the era of coevolution with technology. Through their art and research practices, the panels acknowledge the virtual – not actualized reality, which is often evoked by various forms of technologies – ranging from computer graphics, digital information, wireless communication to artificial intelligence to virtual reality. By exploring emerging concepts and alternative visual experiences in the digital era, this panel discussion demonstrates critical and diverse perspectives on possible beings we cultivate together with nonhumans – technology.
Biography:Su Hyun Nam is based in New York and Seoul as an interdisciplinary media artist and researcher working at the intersection of art, technology, science, and philosophy to investigate relationships with diverse nonhumans. Her work, including experimental video, interactive media, 3D game art, and media performance, has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues from Spain, UAE, Greece, and Singapore to South Korea. She was recently a selected artist by Korean Cultural Center in DC and is currently an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks Media Art Center. Su Hyun Nam earned an M.F.A in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Media Study from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is an Assistant Professor of Mixed Media in the Department of Contemporary Art at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea.
Sanglim Han explores disembodied, fragmented, and interstitial spaces and moments in virtual 3D creation with autonomous computational systems. Her works have been presented internationally at various venues and festivals from Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Latvia, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine to the USA. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from the University of California Los Angeles, where she worked as a researcher at the Art Sci Center.
Jason Eppink creates experiences and interventions that emphasize participation, mischief, surprise, wonder, and generosity that are staged in both public and online spaces and that take the form of games, pranks, street art, and playful online services and hoaxes for non-consenting audiences. His work has found international acclaim and been presented by such esteemed institutions as the Venice Architecture Biennale and New York City’s New Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s also all available online for free. In his previous role as Curator of Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, he founded and administered multiple art commissioning programs and organized events and exhibitions about play, participation, and vernacular culture.
Alex M. Lee is an artist who utilizes 3D animation, video game engines, XR, machine learning and the potential of simulation technologies in order to investigate contemporary modes of representation, artifice and technical images – culling from concepts within science, science fiction, physics, philosophy, and modernity. He received his BFA (2005) and MFA (2009) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee was raised in the USA and is Assistant Professor of Animation and XR at Arizona State University Herberger Institute of Art & Design and Mesa City MIX Center. Lee has exhibited internationally in North America, Europe and Asia. Selected exhibitions include: Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON; Mio Photo, Osaka, Japan; Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, Korea; Eyebeam: Center for Art & Technology, New York, NY; LEV Festival, Madrid, Spain; New Images XR Fair, Paris, France; Elektra Festival, Montreal, Canada.
Yvette Granata is Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of Film, Television,and Media and the Digital Studies Institute. She creates immersive installations, interactive environments, video art, VR films, and hypothetical technological systems. She writes about media theory, digital visual culture, critical computation, and philosophy and art. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA from University of Amsterdam, and a Phd from SUNY Buffalo. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at Sixty Eight Art Institute in Copenhagen, the Ann Arbor FIlm Festival, Viz Lab for Visual Culture Athens, Huford Center for the Arts, Toronto New Wave Festival, Harvard Carpenter Center for the Arts, and The Eye Film Institute in Amsterdam, among others. She currently lives in Detroit.
Panel / Art and technology at school. Resources for a critical integration of new media art practices in the school context
Abstract: The integration of artistic practices that connect art and technology in the context of compulsory education is a complex issue that highlights the need to activate school practices in connection with the changing and technologised reality of contemporary society from a critical and generative approach. This panel introduces a selection of projects promoted by the Red PLANEA Arte y Escuela developed in schools in Spain’s regions of Andalucia, Madrid and Valencia. Introducing different methodologies and specific techniques, these projects address the critical analysis of information and communication technologies, both from their creative and facilitating dimension of new spaces of thought and interdisciplinary intervention as well as in terms of the analysis of their effects on the forms of relationship and experiences in contemporary society. Through different contributions this panel explores the potential of these projects as replicable strategies for other educational contexts and also introduces ANIDA, a Journal specialised in educational resources which, in its volume n2, focuses on these issues by compiling artistic and educational resources related to today’s technologies.
Biography: PLANEA Red de arte y escuela. A network of educational centres, cultural agents and institutions that are committed to using artistic practices in public schools in a transversal way, located in the territories and with a vocation for generalisation and permanence. The network has a period of five years to prototype, evaluate and compile learning on the ways and means of producing significant changes in schools, in education departments and in their closest ecosystem, through artistic practices. PLANEA Red de arte y escuela is promoted by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation and develops its work at a territorial level through the mediation of Pedagogias Invisibles in the Region of Madrid, Máster PERMEA in the Valencian territory and ZEMOS98 in Andalucia.
Panel / The Creation of the Medialab Madrid Archive: Preserving the Memory of Transdiciplinary Media Art Practices
Abstract: The creation of the MediaLab Madrid Archive arises from the need to contribute to the preservation of transdisciplinary media art practices and the shaping of the new narratives related to an extended media archeology, in the context of the project Medialab Madrid as a model of transversal laboratory: art, science, technology, society + sustainability for the digital agenda (H2019/HUM-5740 (MediaLab-CM) within the call for Social Sciences and Humanities (2019) of the Community of Madrid co-financed with the European Social Fund. The proposal is conceived as a panel discussion with the participation of four researchers who are involved in and experts on the subject, structured along different axes of discussion focused on the challenges of cultural innovation as of twenty years ago and its preservation and dissemination in an open, dynamic and relational archive structure, able to convey the relationships among biological, social, technological and cultural systems, and proposing an extension and enrichment to the consensus terminologies of media art.
Biography: Karin Ohlenschläger. Artistic director of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijon, (2016-2021), historian and curator who has focused on media art, science and digital culture. She has chaired the Banquet Foundation of Art, Science, Technology and Society (1998-2006) and has co-founded and co-directed MediaLab Madrid (2002/2006). Her exhibition projects and publications include When the butterflies of the soul flutter their wings…, Art, Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and D3US EX M4CH1NA. Art and Artificial Intelligence (cat. Etopia/ LABoral Art Center, 2022); Eco visionaries (cat. Hatje Cantz, 2018); Art and Artificial Life. VIDA 1999/2012 (cat. Espacio Telefonica, Madrid, 2012); Ecomedia: Ecological Strategies in Today’s Art, (Hatje Cantz Verlag) or the trilogy banquet_nodos and networks (cat. SEACEX y Edición Turner, Madrid, 2009); Art and educational innovation in the digital age (cat. Laboral Centro de Arte, 2018) among many others.
Raquel Caerols Mateo holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a PhD in Applied Creativity from the Faculty of Fine Arts, both from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, in the area of new media. As a researcher, she has been responsible for the project Cyberculture & New Media Art, publicly funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, in the call for the Promotion of Contemporary Art. She has also been a researcher on numerous competitive research projects such as: Creation and studies of the CAAC (Collections and Archives of Contemporary art) of Cuenca as a methodological model for research excellence in Fine Arts; or Title: The electrographic and digital art collections of the MIDE. Management, conservation, restoration and dissemination of its collections; o Spanish Media Archive. He is currently coordinating the creation of the MediaLab Madrid Archive (2002-2006).
Beatriz Escribano Belmar. Lecturer at the Fine Arts Degree and the Master’s Degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education at the University of Salamanca, she researches mainly on Historical Media Art, Media Archeology and Art Education and Innovation. Bachelor of Fine Arts (2011) by the UCLM, she has a Research Master’s Degree in Multimedia and Visual Arts by the UPV (2012) and obtained her PhD in 2017 with a Doctoral Thesis focused on historical Media Art, electrography and Copy Art. After being beneficiary of a FPI Spanish research contract by JCCM (2014-2017), she was a postdoctoral researcher analyzing the Spanish contributions to Media Art. She has curated some exhibitions, collaborated in various R+D+i projects and done different research stays in the Department for Image Science (Danube University, Austria), in the Digital Media Lab (University of Bremen, Germany), in the CITU-Paragraphe (Université Paris 8, France) and the Winchester School of Art (UK), among others, and is author of different publications.
Panel / Art Intelligence
Abstract: While the advances in artificial intelligence in recent years have been astonishing, we are still quite far from the inception of an mechanical intellect that could perform like the human mind. The human qualities which are most challenging to replicate are exactly the ones related to art production and reception: metaphors, analogies, misbehavior, embodiment, contemplation. Will the route to an artificial general intelligence necessarily call at the realm of art? Can we think of a particular type of intelligencerelated to art that has not yet been obtained by machines?
Biography: Bruno Caldas Vianna lives in Barcelona. He is pursuing a doctorate from the Uniarts in Helsinki, Finland, in visual arts and artificial intelligence. He has a degree in Film from Universidade Federal Flumiense in Rio de Janeiro, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He creates visual narratives in innovative and traditional supports, having done short and feature films, live cinema, augmented reality, mobile apps and installations. He was a resident in Hangar, Barcelona, in 2008; in Laboral, Gijón, with the Vida production award winner project Ionic Satellite Fountain; In Quebec’s La Chambre Blanche and London’s Battlesea Arts Centre, among others. Between 2011 and 2016, he ran Nuvem, a rural space dedicated to art and technology in Brazil. From 2012 and 2018 he taught at Oi Kabum, a school for art in technology in Rio de Janeiro. He is part of the autonomous communications collective Coolab.
Panel / Art and possible relations in nature
Abstract: This panel brings three different projects to discuss possible relations of art and nature. We plan to present, think over, and bring about questions on how artists are dealing with climate change issues and how we can create new possibilities of living in balance with nature. Art projects of sensing the sea, of creating narratives of a salty lagoon and of rethinking ecologies of hops are introduced as a starting point of the discussion.
Biography: Karla Brunet is an artist, researcher, and a professor at IHAC-UFBA, in Salvador, Brazil.
Clara Boj is an artist, researcher, and a professor at Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Spain
Diego Díaz is an artist, researcher, and a professor at Universitat Jaume I, Castellò de la Plana, Spain
Susana Cámara Leret is an artist and independent researcher.
Panel / Flows of Connection (Online)
Abstract: “Flows of connection” is a panel discussion which will explore the connective element of water across cultures, technologies and story. In this discussion water is given sentience as a life giving force and its role in supporting life on the planet will frame a discussion and presentation of digital and locative media art works which engage with water and climate issues.
The panel highlights the importance of giving rightful recognition to knowledge keepers and provides some guidance for readers interested in developing productive and respectful partnerships with First Nations collaborators. Here knowledge can be safely shared and celebrated as ways to understand the world around us that are restorative and regenerative. The discussion builds on discussions and presentations by speakers and participants at LMO.
Biography: Geert Vermeire is a curator, poet and artist, moving constantly between Greece, Portugal and Brazil, with a focus on spatial writing, locative sound & performance and social practices. He develops collaborative processes, departing from the ethical involvement of cultural action, together with other creatives and activists comprising ecologists, anthropologists, musicologists, engineers-software developers and multimedia artists. He manages walk listen create, a web portal and online community for walking artists, coordinating Sound Walk September. He is also co-founder of Supercluster, a platform for learning and creating with site specific and locative media, leaning on deep knowledge and agency for a more than human planet, nex to next being the European curator of the Into the Artmosphere/Oika project, that he coordinates together with environmental scientist Rich Blundell. He coordinates, together with Yannis Ziogas, WAC, a bi-annual International Walking Encounters/Conference in Prespa, Greece. Specific interest in his practice goes to walking as a creative instrument, unfolding around human connections, text and space, resulting in works of arts, site-specific interventions, locative media and in creative walks engaging both with the landscape and with those walking through the landscape. Interview with Geert Vermeire.
Dr Tracey M Benson is an Australian based interdisciplinary artist, UX designer, researcher and founder of Treecreate. She is passionate about more-than-human design and bridging the links between western ways of thinking with experiential and interconnected knowledge. Tracey works at the nexus of media arts, digital transformation, ecological systems and citizen empowerment. Her work focuses on issues related to belonging, place, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour change. Walking is central to her creative practice exploring locative and augmented media tools to engage audiences to see their places with fresh eyes. Her work has been extensively presented internationally in media arts festivals and exhibitions. With a passion for understanding different knowledge systems and engaging audiences, she often collaborates with Indigenous communities and Elders, historians, technologists and scientists. She lectures internationally and holds adjunct positions at University of Canberra, the More than Human Lab at Victoria University, Wellington, NZ, the eXtended Reality Collective at Charles Sturt University and is an Advisor for the TransArt Institute. She is listed as an expert with the Australian Academy of Science for her work on citizen engagement and behaviour change around energy and household sustainability.
Artist talk / Intelligent Habitat
Abstract: The main aim of the artistic project described hereby is to create an intelligent audiovisual installation exploring the combination of technologies such as biomedical signals and machine learning techniques used in affective computing (also known as Emotion Artificial Intelligence), in order to create an intelligent environment capable of recognising the emotional state of visitors and react empathetically. Furthermore, such environment is hereby conceived as a prototype of possible future homes, where the space itself is able to recognise the emotional current condition of its inhabitants and produce an empathetic reaction. In a first stage, visitors are not only audio-and visually confronted with their own current emotional state, but also are invited to raise awareness about the possibility of future home technologies and their implications. Consequently, this fact does not limit participation of common visitors, but also and specially invites scientists, artists, philosophers and producers and consumers of global digital technologies to a fundamental discussion about how our future homes may be and how new technologies inside them may or may not be beneficial to everyone’s well-being.
Biography: New media and audiovisual artist. Her work and research cover different aspects of visual and sound art, which extend from audiovisual fixed-media compositions to performances and installations interacting with biomedical signals. She has been artist-in-residence in several outstanding institutions, for example at ZKM (Karlsruhe) and at the ICST-ZHdK in Zur-ich. Her work is constantly featured in not only media and sound-based festivals/conferences but also in group and solo exhibitions around the globe, for example, the ZKM Karlsruhe; KIBLA Centre Maribor, Bauhaus Museum Berlin; Festival de la Imagen Manizales, DRHA2010 Sensual Technologies London; SIGGRAPH Asia Yokohama; Re-New Festival Copenhagen; New Interfaces for Musical Expression NIME Os-lo; ISEA Istanbul, Manizales and Durban, CAMP audiovisual concert – Salon Suisse, Official collateral event of the 55th Venice Biennale, Audio Art Festival Cracow, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center NYC, Museum of Contemporary Art MAC Bogotá, MADATAC Madrid, ADAF Athens, Hero-ines of Sound Berlin.
Invited talk – “Global Archiving Network: A Case Study at the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving at ISEA2022”
Abstract: One of the primary functions of an archive is to act as a repository to store essential documents and records throughout history; consequently, these stored archival materials can help us re-imagine a collective memory of the past. With rapid changes in the dissemination of information in recent years, the conventional ways of archiving may not be able to capture all the essential records of our time. This is especially concerning in regard to new media art archiving. Many recently created important new media artworks have been disappearing without being archived. If this issue is not addressed, we may lose a significant part of our digital cultural heritage. To respond to the issue, archives worldwide have attempted to approach the problem collectively. This lightning talk discusses a case study that will be conducted in response to the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving.
Biography: Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Invited talk – ACM SIGGRAPH History Archives: Expanding the Vision through Teamwork
Abstract: The ACM SIGGRAPH History Archives is a team effort involving students, interns, volunteers, and computer graphic pioneers. In 2022, it expanded from an online archive to include a physical archive of SIGGRAPH publications and artifacts. These archives include information about presentations, exhibitions, screenings and events at the annual conference as well as information about SIGGRAPH communities and committees. With such a vast array of information, developing a robust infrastructure was essential. Team members researched, digitized and entered tens of thousands of entries and programmed innovative features that enable users easy access to this valuable resource. The SIGGRAPH History archive team is also preparing the archive to be part of the world-wide distributed network of new media art archives.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Invited talk – FILE Archive
Abstract: The presentation is about the digital archive of FILE – Elec-tronic Language International Festival. FILE ARCHIVE is an initiative carried out by the independent cultural non-profit or-ganization FILE – International Electronic Language Festival – and aims to make available and share its collection, which brings together 22 years of achievements, in an accessible and free online environment. This expanding collection makes available the last 5 years of FILE FESTIVAL events and exhi-bitions (2017 -2022), through the free software TAINACAN.
Biography: Paula Perissinotto is specialized in new media, contemporary art and digital culture. Master’s degree in visual poetics from ECA (School of Communications and Arts at USP University of São Paulo). Since 2000 I have been working as Co- organizer and Co- curator of FILE, Electronic Language International Festival, a non-profit cultural organization that promotes and encourages aesthetic and cultural productions related to the new poetics of contempo-rary culture. At the festival, is responsible for the selection of works, international relations and also calls for project manage-ment carried out in Brazil. Have produced and realized 50 art and technology exhibitions. Current is a PHD student at the University of São Paulo, School of Communications and Arts | ECA, in Visual Poetics. Member of the Realidates Research Group licensed by CNPq, led by Profa. Dr. Silvia Laurentiz who in turn, is formally affiliated with the School of Communications and Arts and the De-partment of Visual Arts, ECA / USP.
Fabiana Krepel is a Food Engineer graduated from Unicamp University, and post-graduated in marketing from ESPM. She holds a Graphic Design Certificate from Parsons The New School of Design and an ADVANCED DIPLOMA in Online Education & Training from the Institute of Education, University of London. Fabiana has experience in strategic planning, direct marketing, acquired in multinational and national companies such as WUNDERMAN. She has also 15 years of experience in special-ized consultancy for cultural projects in incentive laws; both in the development and approval of customized projects, as well as in the management of sponsorship resources and accountability. Since 2001, she has been a Partner – Director of KCE Consulto-ria Empresarial | b.k design; and is responsible for coordinating the FILE FESTIVAL platforms; FILE ALIVE and FILE ARCHIVE (online educational platform and archive Platform); as well as responsible for FILE cultural projects in incentive laws.
Invited talk – Ars Electronica Archive
Abstract: The Ars Electronica Archive contains documentation of content since the start of Ars Electronica in 1979. A huge number of artists and researchers from the field of art, technology and society were part of Ars Electronica activities during more than 40 years. They have left their traces in the archive. The presentation provides a glimpse into what the Ars Electronica Archive is and stands for, and what the current achievements and challenges are. Part of the archive is accessible online (Online Archive), part of it only internally (physical Archive & Internal Database).
Biography: Christina Radner (AT) currently is the responsible project manager for the Ars Electronica Archive in Linz, Austria. In 2009 she got her Master´s degree in art history at the University of Vienna. At an internship at the Art Brut Museum Gugging in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, she got a first insight into the archive work of a museum. She was hired project-based, to help work on an artist´s estate and to prepare a retrospective and a comprehensive catalogue of works. In 2013 she moved back to Upper Austria and started her work in the Ars Electronica Archive Team. Since 2015 she is the responsible project manager for the Archive and part of the Festival/Prix/Archive Core Team of Ars Electronica.
Invited talk – ISEA Symposium Archives: Progressing from the Past to the Future
Abstract: The ISEA Symposium Archives have undergone significant changes in the past 8 years but in 2021, the project reached a milestone. All the information had been moved from the Classic archive to the New archive, therefore the focus transitioned from data input and basic development to finding missing information, fixing errors, developing structural consistency, cleansing the data, adding videos and developing features that would enable us to connect to other archives. Although the ISEA archives are far from complete, this shift of focus has broadened our vision and enabled us to enhance the usefulness of this valuable resource.
Biography: Bonnie Mitchell (Ohio, USA) is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor of Digital Arts at Bowling Green State University. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Wim van der Plas (Netherlands) studied Social & Cultural Sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was director of the Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA, Rotterdam), R&D staff of the Utrecht School of Arts, managing director of the Institute for Computer Animation (SCAN, Groningen), and worked for 3 different departments of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. He is co-founder of ISEA, organised the first, second and seventh ISEA symposium and served as ISEA HQ and on the ISEA board since its founding. Currently he is co-director of the ISEA symposium archives and member as well as honorary chair of the ISEA International Advisory Committee. In 2018 he received a Leonardo Pioneer Award.
Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Invited talk – Revealing Higher Impact of Media Art Archiving
Abstract: Media art poses a multitude of specific challenges for archiving, e.g., the weak interconnection of thematically similar archives. Furthermore, digital tools developed for image analysis as well as art research usually fall short when confronted with media art. LeFo and ImDaLi, the projects presented here, intend to address these issues in their research.
Biography: Oliver Grau (DE) is first Chair Professor for Image Science in the German-speaking countries at the Danube University since 2005 and has held more than 350 lectures and keynotes. Grau’s “Virtual Art,” (2003) is the most quoted art history monograph since 2000. He conceived scientific tools for digital humanities like the Archive for Digital Art (ADA, since 1999) and developed international MA programs like Image Science and the joint master in MediaArtsCultures. Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conferences. He has received several awards for books including Mediale Emotionen (2005), Imagery in the 21st Century (2011), recently: Digital Art through the Looking Glass (2020). 2014 he received a doctor h.c., 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea.
Invited talk – Establishing the Computer Arts Society Archive
Abstract: The Computer Arts Archive is a not-for-profit company that collects, exhibits and promotes computer arts for the benefit of artists, audiences, curators, educators and researchers. We collaborate with other collections, museums and galleries to explore the impact of digital culture and ensure that computer art is recognised as a significant contemporary art form with a rich and diverse history. In particular, we work closely with the Computer Arts Society, a member-based organization founded in 1968.
Biography: Sean Clark is an independent artist, curator, and researcher based in Leicestershire, UK. His artwork explores interaction and connectedness through the construction of audiovisual systems presented on screen, as installations, and as prints. He is the director of Interact Digital Arts and the curator of the Computer Arts Archive. He has a PhD in Computational Art from De Montfort University and in 2016 was co-winner of the Lumen Prize for 3D/Sculpture and the Art.CHI Digital Art Prize. He is a member of the EVA London conference organising committee, on the editorial board of the Springer Series on Cultural Computing, on the panel of the ACM Lifetime Achievement in Digital Arts Award, a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Visiting Research Fellow at De Montfort University and an International Professor at Guangdong University of Technology in China.
Sean Carroll is a PHD candidate at De Montfort University UK. His study is investigating the potential use of Machine Learning to support the development of the newly founded Computer Arts Archive. Sean has a background in cultural events management, curating exhibitions, festivals and education programmes that focus largely on emerging technologies. His work has attracted significant public funding from Arts Council England, US Space Agency and the AHRC.
Artwork / AquA(l)formings – Interweaving the Subaqueous
Abstract: The AquA(l)formings project addresses the possibility of an empathic human relationship to more-than-human entities, drawing on Donna Haraway’s notion of “tentacular thinking” as the ability to perceive the world through empathizing with more-than-human entities. The project explores changes in the marine environment caused by human presence and tries to imagine how the new conditions (rising sea levels and water temperatures, new chemical composition, etc.) affect its inhabitants. Seas and oceans record such environmental changes as memories, either in individual organisms or as distinct shifts in ecosystem structures.
AquA(l)formings is a multilayered installation exploring “aquatic sensing.” The physical (biomaterial sculpture) and digital (audio, video AI models that interact with sensory data) form a tangible experience of changing conditions in the coastal environments.
The artists trace “threads” of the noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), a marine inhabitant that has always aroused the curiosity of scientists and others involved with the sea, and use it as a visual synonym for the more-than-human entities. Today, however, the noble pen shell has succumbed to disease caused by environmental changes in the Mediterranean. The use of AI technologies helps visualize the past and the future of the noble pen shell, and the vast underwater meadows of the Posidonia oceanica seagrass in the northern Adriatic Sea.
By presenting its story, the artists help to initiate research to explore the use and improvement of new biological materials that would not threaten the existence or habitat of certain organisms.
Biography:Robertina Šebjanič is an artist whose work explores the cultural, geopolitical and ecological realities of aquatic environments and the impact of humanity on other organisms. She tackles the philosophical questions at the intersection of art, technology and science. In her analysis of the Anthropocene and its theoretical framework, the artist uses the terms “aquatocene” and “aquaforming” to refer to the human impact on aquatic environments. Her works received awards and nominations at Prix Ars Electronica, Starts Prize, Falling Walls.
Sofia Crespo (Entangled Others) is an artist with a focus on artificial life, her practice is driven by a huge interest in biologically-inspired technologies, such as neural networks. Her main focus is the way organic life uses artificial mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve. Her work has been exhibited and has won several awards. https://entangledothers.studio
Feileacan McCormick (Entangled Others) is a generative artist, researcher & former architect. His practice focuses on ecology, nature & generative arts, with a focus on giving non-human new forms of presence & life in the digital space.
Artwork / ゴジラ/ɡɒdˈzɪlə/
Abstract: On March 1, 1954, Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon Five), a Japanese fishing boat, was contaminated by nuclear fallout as a result of the United States’ thermonuclear test, Castle Bravo, in Bikini Atoll. The first ゴジラ movie was released in November 1954, as a direct response to this incident as well as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The kaiju (monsters) are a metaphor for nuclear weapons, the American militarization of the Pacific, and environmental disaster. In total, 29 Japanese films were made by Toho Co., Ltd. ゴジラ/ɡɒdˈzɪlə/ (2020) is a 96-minute single-channel video with sound that layers all 29 films simultaneously, but with all scenes involving monsters and humans removed. This erasure mirrors the United States’policies and actions as a settler and colonial nation, leaving a wake of destruction in its path. The transparencies reflecting the half-life of radioactive isotopes as well as the trauma of America’s nuclear legacy. We are the monsters and the monsters are us.
Biography: As an artist and ocean engineer, Jane Chang Mi assesses the post-colonial ocean environment through interdisciplinary research. Mi examines the narratives associated with the underwater landscape considering the past, present, and future. She most often focuses on the occupation and militarization of the Pacific Ocean by the United States. Specifically, her practice is centered around the topics of militourism — the creation and protection of tourist economies by military or paramilitary forces — and scientific colonization. This interest emerges from her background as an ocean engineer, a field that is inextricably linked to the American military complex. June 9 to August 21
Artwork / Vibrant Landscapes
Abstract: We live at a time where there are a set of predictive calculations occurring for any given action. This might be most obviously when we are online and as a result of data mining highly targeted ads appear. But predictive analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence is already being deployed throughout all levels of our social structure, from policing and medicine to models of climate change. The sheer persuasive utility of these AIs underwrite particular the logics of their practice. The amplification of the value of functionality accounts for their ever-increasing deployment even in the face of known problems such as the way in which they can retain or extends cultural bias. In this context using AI in a non-functional way is an act of resistance.
The ai generated videos included in Vibrant Landscapes are based on movement through real ecologically fragile landscapes. The work acknowledges how our expansive technologies have led to crises; yet its aim is restorative. The AI algorithm, trained on original footage I shot of these landscapes, generates new sequences by predicting and adding new frames. The spatial trajectory of the source footage troubles the AI’s process of “understanding” patterns of relation. The resulting videos have an animate sense of desynchronization, an aesthetic strategy that reveals the copresence of multiple durations, temporalities, and tempos. The representational drift evokes upheavals in geological time, an ever-changing reshaping: destruction, renewal: vibrancy. We’ve tried to contain the natural world, to dam its living rivers and stop its fluctuations, but here they’re set adrift in the unresolved contingencies of our times. Comfort and crises.
Biography: Colin Ives is a media artist whose creative practice operates within a nexus of overlapping cultural categories, including art, technology, and ecology. He uses technology never as an end in itself, never an unexamined tool, but a chance to reflect, examine, and reveal aesthetic and cultural substructures. Across a diverse range of work, including media installation, kinetic video sculpture, sculptural objects, and interactive work, he explores how our digital tools are not only changing our capabilities, but also our worldview. His AI Creative Practice Research Group (AICP) created a project with the gammy nominated vocal quartet New York Polyphony called Aleph Earth. It premiered at New Currents Media festival in 2020 and his current project Garden in the Machine will be showcased at this years New Currents festival and an AI based project Vibrant Landscapes will be shown at ISEA 2022 in Barcelona.
Xarxa de Biblioteques Municipals – Exposició 100 anys de ciència-ficció
One hundred years ago, the science fiction genre as we know it today was born, and this exhibition shows, with a lot of graphic support, the history of the genre in literature, cinema and television, from its first precedents until today. day.
Each of the 13 panels that make it up includes a QR code with which attendees can use their mobile phone to access additional information and content, as well as a lot of bibliographic information.
We also include a flash drive with some videos that serve as audio commentary of the exhibition for people with hearing impairments, and at the same time show additional images and information.
Fa cent anys va néixer el gènere de ciència-ficció tal i com el coneixem avui dia, i en aquesta exposició es mostra, amb molt de suport gràfic, la història del gènere en literatura, cinema i televisió, des dels seus primers precedents fins avui dia.
Cadascun 13 dels plafons que la componen inclou un codi QR amb el que els assistents poden fer servir el seu mòbil per accedir a informació i contingut addicional, així com molta informació bibliogràfica
Incloem també un pendrive amb alguns vídeos que serveixen d’audiocomentari de l’exposició per a persones amb discapacitat auditiva, i alhora mostren imatges i informació addicional.
Xarxa de Biblioteques Municipals – Exposició l’ètica de les màquines
Original idea, contents and coordination: Cosicosa Association
Machine Ethics is a traveling and participatory pop-up exhibition aimed at exploring the complexities and ethical and social challenges associated with the impact of the use, design and development of intelligent systems in everyday life.
The exhibition is divided into three main blocks: 1- Smart technologies, 2- Areas where smart technologies are very present (care and body, leisure and home, professional field and education) , 3- The use and design of smart technologies pose ethical and social challenges.
Idea original, continguts i coordinació: Associació Cosicosa
L’ètica de les màquines és una exposició pop-up itinerant i participativa orientada a explorar les complexitats i els desafiaments ètics i socials vinculats a l’impacte de l’ús, disseny i desenvolupament de sistemes intel·ligents en la vida quotidiana.
L’exposició s’articula en tres grans blocs: 1- Tecnologies intel·ligents, 2- Àmbits on les tecnologies intel·ligents estan molt presents (les cures i el cos, oci i llar, l’àmbit professional i l’educació), 3- L’ús i el disseny de tecnologies intel·ligents comporten reptes ètics i socials.
Invited talk – Introducing Arc-hive
Abstract: ‘Introducing Arc-hive’ is a 10 minute presentation by Antonio Gagliano and Luciana Della Villa that proposes to introduce Arc-hive’s framework, its fundamental objectives and challenges, and to open up the collective research process carried out so far.
Biography: Antonio Gagliano is a researcher and artist. His projects intertwine practices around structural imagination to explore the multiple ways in which knowledge emerges, is organized and distributed. He has participated in exhibitions such as La tradició que ens travessa (Arts Santa Mónica, 2022), Acció. Una història provisional dels 90s (MACBA, 2020) or Manufactories of Caring Space-Time (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2017). He has contributed to newspapers such as Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung and La Vanguardia, and books such as Pornotopia. An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics (Paul B. Preciado, MIT Press, 2014). For the last decade, he has contributed as editor and sound producer at Son[i]a de Radio Web MACBA and has been a regular contributor to the museum’s educational programs. Since 2020, he coordinates the Research and transference of knowledge area of Hangar.
Luciana Della Villa has a degree in Art History from the University of Barcelona and a master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Management from the same center. She was part of the Art Department and the Communication Department of the Vila Casas Foundation, both at the Can Framis Museum and the Espacio Volart. At the same time, she develops her personal project Svper linked to music, and works on musical creation for advertising. Since 2017, she coordinates the Communication area of Hangar.
ESDi School of Design – Medusa Alga Laguna (Online)
Postponed to May 12 / Posposat al 12 de maig
Artist Tue Greenfort talks about his participation at the Venice Biennale 2022. Moderated by Christian Alonso (ESDi School of Design-University Ramon Llull).
Tue Greenfort’s interdisciplinary practice deals with issues such as public space, nature and culture. Interweaving these subjects with the language of art and research the artist formulates a critique of current economical and scientific production modes. Fascinated by the dynamics in the natural world, Greenfort’s work often revolves around ecological thinking and its history, including the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.
Tue Greenfort lives and works in Denmark and Berlin. He is represented by König Galerie. Selection of group and solo shows: SculptureCenter (2013), dOCUMENTA(13), Berlinische Galerie (2012), South London Gallery (2011), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2008) and Secession, Vienna (2007). Publications: „Linear Deflection“, published by Walther König in 2009 and „Photosynthesis“, published by Sternberg Press in 2006.
L’artista Tue Greenfort parla de la seva participació a la Biennal de Venècia 2022. Moderat per Christian Alonso (ESDi School of Design-Universitat Ramon Llull).
La pràctica interdisciplinària de Tue Greenfort tracta temes com l’espai públic, la natura i la cultura. Entrellaçant aquests temes amb el llenguatge de l’art i la recerca, l’artista formula una crítica als modes de producció econòmics i científics actuals. Fascinat per la dinàmica del món natural, el treball de Greenfort sovint gira al voltant del pensament ecològic i la seva història, incloent el medi ambient, les relacions socials i la subjectivitat humana.
Tue Greenfort viu i treballa a Dinamarca i Berlín. Està representat per König Galerie. Selecció d’exposicions col·lectives i individuals: SculptureCenter (2013), dOCUMENTA(13), Berlinische Galerie (2012), South London Gallery (2011), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2008) i Secession, Viena (2007). Publicacions: “Linear Deflection”, publicat per Walther König el 2009 i “Photosynthesis”, publicat per Sternberg Press el 2006.
Artwork / Quadra Minerale – Rare Earths
Abstract: QUADRA MINERALE – TIERRAS RARAS 2017-2019 On the basis of the war, deeply linked to mineral colonization, Rare Earth Elements, has sought to expand the geopolitical reading on the subject and the problems derived from it – technology, economy and society – from a publication, an installation of the creative process, a pictorial polyptych and various works.
On the basis of the war, deeply linked to mineral colonization, Rare Earth Elements, has sought to expand the geopolitical reading on the subject and the problems derived from it technology, economy and society – from a publication, an installation of the creative process, a pictorial polyptych and various works in drawing, printmaking, video and photography.
• In 2010, the press began to talk about the so-called “war of the rare earths”. • Rare Earths and lanthanides, have been extracted from the end of the 19th century. • They belong to a large group of the periodic table of elements, which celebrates 150 years of history in 2019. • In the 1960’s, they started being used for high technology China, United States, India and Brazil, are major producers of rare earths. • China is now a key country in the production of the Rare Earths and its tight control has generated profound disagreements and conflicts – affection and disaffection – worldwide.
The development of the proposal concludes in the Vademécum: Quadra Minerale. Rare earths, other minerals and mining concepts. An approach to the elements and their technological uses in contemporaneity.
Delves into the contemporary processes of technological production, regarding affection and disaffection they generate Makes visible the economic, political and military problems of the elements of the table and concepts derived from it.
Historically focuses on past processes as conclusions of the present: colonization, post-colonization, decolonization.
Makes these problems visible from the field of visual arts at a theoretical-practical level;each element is related to objects from my studio, works by other artists and myself.
Builds international relations between Latin America, Europe, USA, Russia, the Asia-Pacific axis and some countries in the Middle East.
ESDi School of Design – Onformative studio: searching for new ways of creative expression of art, design and technology (Online)
Cedric Kiefer will talk about the projects developed at onformative studio. Moderated by Christian Alonso (ESDi School of Design-University Ramon Llull).
Guided by an emotional approach, Berlin based studio onformative constantly searches for new forms of creative expression. Through an experimental practice they create meaningful digital artworks to challenge the boundaries between art, design and technology. Their outcomes and interpretations take on varying forms across media through self-initiated and commissioned works that range from interactive media installations, generative design and dynamic visuals to data-driven narratives.
As the co-founder and creative lead at onformative, Cedric develops and directs projects to define the creative vision of the studio. Cedric’s fascination with science, technology and art fuels the development of new projects at onformative. Parallel to his work at the studio, he regularly teaches and talks about digital art and design at international universities, conferences and festivals.
Cedric Kiefer parlarà dels projectes desenvolupats a onformative studio. Moderat per Christian Alonso (ESDi Escola Superior de Disseny-Universitat Ramon Llull).
Guiat per un enfocament emocional, l’estudi onformative de Berlín busca constantment noves formes d’expressió creativa. Mitjançant una pràctica experimental creen obres d’art digitals significatives per desafiar els límits entre art, disseny i tecnologia. Els seus resultats i interpretacions prenen formes diferents a través dels mitjans de comunicació mitjançant treballs autoiniciats i per encàrrec que van des d’instal·lacions de mitjans interactius, disseny generatiu i visuals dinàmics fins a narracions basades en dades.
Com a cofundador i responsable creatiu d’onformative, Cedric desenvolupa i dirigeix projectes per definir la visió creativa de l’estudi. La fascinació de Cedric per la ciència, la tecnologia i l’art alimenta el desenvolupament de nous projectes a l’onformative. Paral·lelament al seu treball a l’estudi, ensenya i parla regularment sobre art digital i disseny a universitats, congressos i festivals internacionals.
Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona – EN RESIDÈNCIA
Image: Pere Vivas
This activity is part of the process of creating Martí Madaula EN RESIDÈNCIA at the Institut Vapor del Fil, where a group of 1st year ESO students from the Institut Vapor del Fil (Sant Andreu) and their teachers take part. The creation process of Martí Madaula at the Vapor del Fil Institute is one of the 26 creation processes that are being developed in the context of the 13th edition of EN RESIDÀNCIA (September 2021-June 2022).
People, technology and objects related to space expeditions – and to the moon in particular – are one of the mainstays of the explorations and research carried out by Martí Madaula and the young people involved in this creative process. A process still alive, which can be followed on the blog documenting the day-to-day running of this residence.
The Terrat Viu of Museu de Ciències de Barcelona will be the point from which the young participants in this project will be able to make an observation in interaction with Kike Herrero, the researcher of the Institute of Space Studies (IEEC), who will travel expressly in Barcelona from the Parc Astronòmic del Montsec (PAM). Initially scheduled for March, this observation had to be suspended due to adverse weather conditions. Although the creation process of Martí Madaula and the group of young people is already at a much more advanced stage, the nocturnal observation of the moon is expected to provide nutrients to a creation process that will be presented publicly at the end of May. . It will be in La Capella, in the context of “Per Capítols”, the exhibition that from May 24 to July 3 will host the works and the creation processes of six of the creation processes of the current edition of EN RESIDÈNCIA.
EN RESIDÈNCIA at the institutes of Barcelona is a program promoted jointly by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona and the Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona. The association A Bao A Qu took part in conceiving the program, an entity that is also in charge of curating and coordinating the process of creating Martí Madaula at the Vapor del Fil Institute.
EN RESIDÈNCIA offers a shared workspace between artists, students and teachers of public secondary schools. Throughout the course, and within the school hours, creators of very different disciplines and generations develop a process of artistic creation together with a group of young people, from ideation to public presentation.
Aquesta activitat forma part del procés de creació de Martí Madaula EN RESiDÈNCiA a l’Institut Vapor del Fil, on participen un grup d’alumnes de 1r d’ESO de l’Institut Vapor del Fil (Sant Andreu) i les seves docents. El procés de creació de Martí Madaula a l’Institut Vapor del Fil és un dels 26 processos de creació que s’estan desenvolupant en el context de la 13a edició d’EN RESiDÈNCiA (setembre 2021-juny 2022).
Les persones, la tecnologia i els objectes vinculats amb les expedicions a l’espai -i a la lluna en particular- són un dels eixos articuladors de les exploracions i investigacions realitzades per Martí Madaula i els joves que participen en aquest procés de creació. Un procés encara viu, que es pot seguir al blog que documenta el dia a dia d’aquesta residència.
El Terrat Viu del Museu de Ciències de Barcelona serà el punt des del qual els joves participants en aquest projecte podran fer una observació en interacció amb Kike Herrero, l’investigador de l’Institut d’Estudis Espacials (IEEC), que es desplaçarà expressament a Barcelona des del Parc Astronòmic del Montsec (PAM). Inicialment prevista pel mes de març, aquesta observació es va haver de suspendre per causa de la climatologia adversa. Tot i que el procés de creació de Martí Madaula i el grup de joves ja està en una fase molt més avançada, s’espera que l’observació nocturna de la lluna aporti nutrients a un procés de creació que es presentarà públicament a finals de maig. Serà a La Capella, en el context de “Per Capítols”, l’exposició que del 24 de maig al 3 de juliol acollirà les obres i els processos de creació de sis dels processos de creació de l’actual edició d’EN RESiDÈNCiA.
EN RESiDÈNCiA als instituts de Barcelona és un programa promogut conjuntament per l’Institut de Cultura de Barcelona i el Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona. En la ideació del programa hi va participar l’associació A Bao A Qu, entitat que també s’ocupa del comissariat i la coordinació del procés de creació de Martí Madaula a l’Institut Vapor del Fil.
EN RESiDÈNCiA proposa un espai de treball compartit entre artistes, alumnes i docents de centres públics d’educació secundària. Al llarg de tot un curs, i dins de l’horari lectiu, creadors i creadores de disciplines i generacions molt diverses desenvolupen un procés de creació artística juntament amb un grup de joves, des de la ideació fins a la presentació pública.
Abstract: How far into others/ beyond ‘you’ can your body extend in the hybrid worlds we inhabit? What web-based conditions can provide a coalescing of varying practice and languages? What happens when they do? This workshop proposes three interrelated exercises to explore the involvement of the sensing body in machine-breathing-drawing-moving gestural entanglements from a critical and feminist standpoint that will culminate in a collective exhibition:
1)Kinesthesia: participants engage in corporeal explorations of stillness and movement to bring new forms of being in our bodies. Kinesthetic empathy can engage in and with another’s movement or sensorial experience of movement (Sklar). We will practice with performances by the Catalan artist Fina Miralles 2)Surrealists’ exquisite corpse: participants will draw parts of bodies, one by one without seeing the parts of the whole they will become part of. This will enable already collective or in-between fragmented states, playing with the possibility of entangling unconscious processes. 3)Mediated-Internet Body: participants will explore collective embodied compositions created through the collective mediated body. We will attempt this with a variety of gestural elements based on the previous 2 exercises and consider what we do and where we look while researching (note taking, shifting in our seats, managing browser tabs, etc.), using Zoom play: faux green screen, layering screenshot, etc.
This techno-body-experience workshop invokes series of minor gestures (Manning, 2016): gestures of care, of centering, body, self, hand drawing and playful engagement. It follows Sara Ahmed-ian lines such that each practice hones in on digital interaction and subsequently changes the affective response to each other—a re-orienting of our bodies. She points out: “when we follow specific lines, some things become reachable and others remain or even become out of reach” (2006, p.14). We co-compose a Bretch like-performance with multiple entry points of affective resonances and tonalities.
Biography: We are a feminist collective originally formed to support the drafting and defending of research-creation doctoral theses at Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology (Concordia University, Montreal). The collective includes researchers, artists, makers, and educators who gather to write, think and play to help ideas flow between bodies and pages, experiences and analytics.
Dr. Celia Vara is a psychologist, professor and artist. She implements research-creation methodologies drawing from kinesthesia to explore corporeality.
Florencia Marchetti is a multimedia ethnographer and documentarian. Her research investigates the affective resonances of violent pasts in everyday lives through an atmospheric lens.
Katja Philip is a Montreal based artist, designer, researcher and writer. Inspired by mindfulness and consciousness practices, and dada, she creates mixed media works and installations.
Dr. Magdalena Olszanowski is a Polish-born artist, writer, and faculty in Cinema and Media Arts. Her dissertation is a feminist analysis of young women’s 1990s web practices.
Workshop / Radio Play: Live Participatory Worldbuilding with GPT-3
Abstract: With recent advancements in machine learning techniques, researchers have demonstrated remarkable achievements in text synthesis, understanding, and generation. This hands-on workshop introduces a state-of-the-art transformer model (GPT-3) through an interactive event culminating in a live radio show and internet transmission. Participants will gain experience with Open AI’s GPT-3 as members of an AI writers’ room. We will discuss issues of liveness and serendipity; possibilities for human/non-human co-authorship; and relate computational processes to human language, perception, and ultimately how AI can be a tool for creativity and co-creation.
We are not just interested in what it means to co-author or rather collectivize or share authorship beyond the single human author but rather what the ingredients of liveness, audience participation, live sound scoring, working with actors or performers in the context of AI (GPT-3). It is important to note that the language model in this event has been primarily trained on English. What does that mean in a place like Barcelona where Catalan is always adjacent to Castellano? We will relate this to work in Barcelona that has explored GPT-3 such as Barcelona Super Computer Center’s explorations of Catalan question answering (see their recent paper here) and AIMCAT, the Catalan team who recently created an AI song.
The day-long workshop begins with a brief introduction to large language models and generative text; then proceeds through a series of AI writers rooms, gaining experience with prompt authorship and interaction with GPT-3. We will build towards human rehearsals of AI-generated text, culminating in a live radio show performance for both an in-person audience (30-40) and streamed to a large online audience. This final performance will be porous, inviting audience participation and involvement in shaping the development of the human/non-human radio drama.
Biography: Our interests range from speculative design to nomadic radio, collective storytelling, live-action-role-play, sonic environments, machine imagination and streaming public space. Patrick Coleman, Jinku Kim, Ash Eliza Smith, Robert Twomey and Radio EE: Agustina Woodgate, Hernan Woodgate and Stephanie Sherman.
Institutional presentation / European Media Art Plattform Expanded
Abstract: The European Media Art Platform (EMAP) was established in 2018 with the support of Creative Europe. 11 leading European media art organizations and festivals formed the platform to support media artists within a two months intercultural residency production ranging from media installations, virtual reality, robotics, AI and Bio Art, amongst others, to present and promote their works in group shows and as well to the 80 partner organizations which support and collaborate with EMAP to showcase the EMAP productions. Selected via open calls, the art projects deal with the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change, environmental degradation, social inequalities, inclusion or digital surveillance. Artists bring these issues to the public and develop alternative ideas.
Continuing and developing their 2018 successfully established brand which builds upon the legacy of the European Media Artists in Residence Exchange established 1995, werkleitz and its members seek to expand both the platform and its activities to host and produce more artists, and to also create a major international platform to promote the artists’ productions and to foster knowledge transfer between artists and institutions, not only from Europe but across the world. 15 renowned institutions will host 45 media art residencies for new innovative collaborative productions in the field of art, digital media, technology, and science from 2022 until 2024. In addition, 30 mobility grants will be awarded to partner institutions aiming to present an EMAP work and 14 capacity building workshops will be offered by the members online.
Next to the challenge of artistic production with cutting edge technologies EMAP/EMARE is based on intercultural knowledge transfer which involves experts and specialists of diverse disciplines and the access to the facilities, labs and studios of the host organization. There is a special focus on art & science projects which reflect upon the effects of digital technologies on humans and nature. The works tour different members festivals and are promoted to museums, galleries, festivals and other institutions worldwide.
Biography: Peter Zorn works as producer, media researcher and media art curator and expert in Werkleitz and Halle (Saale). In 1993 he founded the Werkleitz Association, the Centre for Media Art Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1995 he initiated and since then manages the European Artists in Residence Exchange (EMARE) which has expanded and is hosted since 2018 by the European Media Art Platform (EMAP), managed several EU funded projects and programs, is co-director of the Werkleitz Biennale / Werkleitz Festival and since 2011 director of Werkleitz award winning Professional Media Master Class.
Institutional presentation / TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre
Abstract: This institutional presentation introduces TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre – a non-profit organization founded in Trondheim, Norway in 2002. TEKS’s main activities include a) Meta.Morf – Trondheim international biennale for art and technology; b) TEKS.studio – a space for exhibitions, concerts, performances, seminars, lectures, and workshops; c) TEKS.press – a platform for publishing books, exhibition catalogs, and other publications; d) Norwegian Media Art Library – a collection of printed publications that cover the Norwegian media art field; e) and FAEN Academy – a pilot project supporting the development of new artworks by young female artists working with experimental art in Norway.
Biography: Zane Cerpina [LV/NO] is an interdisciplinary female author, curator, artist, and designer. Cerpina lives in Oslo and currently works as project manager/curator at TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre) and editor at EE: Experimental Emerging Art Journal. From 2015 – 2019 she worked as creative manager at PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway). Cerpina is the author of the The Anthropocene Cookbook: Recipes and Opportunities for Future Catastrophes, co-written with Stahl Stenslie and forthcoming at MIT Press, October 2022. Her extensive body of works also include curating and producing Meta.Morf 2022: Ecophilia; FAEN (Female Artistic Experiments Norway); The Dangerous Futures Conference 2018; Oslo Flaneur Festival 2016, and The Anthropocene Kitchen event series (2016-). Cerpina has initiated and been part of several important archival and research projects such as The Norwegian Media Art Library and is one of the editors for the Book of Electronic Arts Norway.
Institutional presentation / C-CATS – centre for creative arts and technologies at the university of Surrey
Abstract: The Centre for Creative Arts and Technologies (C-CATS) is an interdisciplinary research and production initiative grounded in the media of moving images and related artistic forms. We embrace film, animation, visual effects, games, interactivity, live performance, immersion, digital theatre and virtual production in all their current and future guises; without forgetting all the artistic and cultural forebears upon which all these modes of expression were built. C-CATS combines creative expression with technological innovation: a ‘no barriers’ approach through which we can both make great work and facilitate the future of making great work.
Biography: on Weinbren is Programme Director for Film, Animation and Digital Arts at the University of Surrey, and Founding Director of the Centre for Creative Arts and Technologies. Jon previously setup and ran the Games Department at the UK’s National Film and Television School, and brings many years of experience as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and director with credits in film, television, animation, VFX, games, commercials, promos and digital arts projects. Jon’s current practice research includes emotion portrayal in autonomous virtual actors, virtual production, machine-learning assisted film production, digital performance, and various other areas where different live, recorded and synthetised media forms collide and coalesce.
Institutional presentation / Manifestations – art, tech & fun festival
Abstract: Manifestations is a yearly Art & Technology festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. During the Dutch Design Week in October (350.000 visitors), we present 50-100 innovative and talented artists that develop accessible installations and artworks for a broad audience. All the artwork is about a more human technology – a lot of the work and projects we present are later in large international museums or festivals. At Manifestations we offer interactive artworks for events or festivals. We work with more than 5.000 international artists that create art using technology. We focus the spotlight on art and technology with a human dimension: sometimes confrontational and other times the perfect match, but always critical, playful, recognizable and awe-inspiring. Think of robot acts, performances with electronic music, exoskeletons, e-fashion art, data & privacy installations, artworks that integrate AI, sustainability, hackers, crypto nails, food printing and more.
The festival also reaches a non-art audience to prevent preaching to its own choir.
Other participants of the festival which will also present at ISEA are: Maartje Dijkstra, Jip van Leeuwenstein, Tim Dekkers, Daniëlle Ooms, more.
Biography: Viola van Alphen is an activist, writer, and former director of multimedia event GOGBOT, which was awarded as the Most Innovative Event of the Netherlands. She is now the creative director of Manifestations, an annual Art & Tech festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with 35000+ visitors. With themes like Will the Future Design Us?, Internet-of-Women-Things, Superpower-to-the-People, Technology-as-Your-Perfect-Boyfriend, Monsters–Free-the-Byte, the festival addresses issues that create controversy and encourage the visitors to be more actively engaged in technology and the role they want technology to have and to not have in the future. Over 500 articles written about me and my work in the last 10 years • Co-developed the Atompunk theme with best-selling sci-fi author Bruce Sterling • Mentioned as trendwatcher and innovator • Delivered over 40 invited presentations at universities, museums, and businesses around the world within the last 10 years. Chosen in 2006 as Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
Abstract: A forgotten transformer station in Jena called TRAFO is workspace, event space, and exhibition space for „Künstlerische Tatsachen“. Here, a new innovation laboratory for contemporary art forms and media of the city of Jena is created. From June to September 2022, up to six international artists will work in pairs with scientists from local institutes on a joint research question. The starting point of the collaboration is the processual nature of the disciplines of art and science, which are often perceived as contrary: artistic practice as well as explorative basic research are characterized by experimentation and freed from the immediate demand to produce results that are close to application. Both require a high degree of abstraction and creativity. Based on this, the residency is designed as basic artistic research. It is aimed at artists who are engaged in the method as well as at Thuringian scientists who are open to an exchange with art and a disclosure of their research processes. Through the joint research process, the participants will explore the synergies of the disciplines, learn from each other, gain new perspectives on their work, and ultimately transform their findings into a work of art. „Künstlerische Tatsachen“ consists of a research phase in the institutes’ laboratories in July, a production phase in the studios starting in August, and an exhibition in October at TRAFO. An accompanying program with podiums with international guests from the Arts & Science scene, concerts and a participation format will open the discourse across generations for interested citizens from Jena and the surrounding area of central germany. Within the framework of the residency, the laboratory becomes the studio and the studio becomes the laboratory, so that the processual nature of both disciplines can be experienced by the participating artists, scientists and the public.
Biography: Born in Jena. Has been part of the re:publica program team since 2018 and was responsible for the rpCampus, among other things. He studied philosophy and cross-disciplinary strategy at the University of Leipzig and at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He is also the founder of Œuvre e.V. and schau e.V. and is involved in numerous artistic projects at the interfaces between art and activism as well as Arts & Science. He ist the project manager of „Künstlerische Tatsachen“.
Institutional presentation / Funding at the intersection of art, science and technology
Abstract: The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has launched a four-year focus on arts, science and technology. The foundation sees great potential in transdisciplinary fields such as electronic art, bioart, tech art or new media art and is devoting special attention and funding to projects at the crossroads of disciplines. For that purpose, different initiatives and collaborations with scientific institutions such as CERN or the Swiss Polar Institute provide opportunities for artists and cultural practitioners to engage with transdisciplinarity or deepen their existing artistic practice. From 2021-2024, Pro Helvetia wishes to contribute to the exploration of social processes and the development of future prototyping.
Biography: Seraina Rohrer is the Head of Innovation & Society Sector since 2020 and member of the Executive Committee of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. She studied communication, film studies and computer science at the University of Zurich. For her PhD she was a visiting scholar at UCLA in California. For several years, she lived in Mexico and the USA, where she worked as a curator and an independent journalist. Her publications include the monograph «La India María: Mexploitation and the films of María Elena Velasco». From 2011 to 2019 she directed the Solothurn Film Festival, one of Switzerland’s largest cultural events, attracting around 70’000 spectators. From 2003 to 2009 she headed the press office of the international Locarno Film Festival.
Institutional presentation / Introducing the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community
Abstract: The ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community organizes juried online exhibitions of digital arts, and collaborates on arts-related events and exhibitions at the annual SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia conferences, as well as year-round. Our diverse, multi-generational community includes members from academic art and media programs, the professional media arts and game worlds, and scientists interested in the intersection of art and computation. We celebrate digital art history and encourage art-science partnerships at all levels. We also partner with the SIGGRAPH History Committee and ISEA on the development of digital art history archives.
Our most recent online exhibitions were entitled “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action” and “
Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, and archivist, as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also is a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History, and the Digital Arts Committees. In 2023, Mitchell is in charge of the celebration of the 50th SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles.
Alexa Mahajan is a senior at Bowling Green State University, majoring in digital arts and minoring in computer science and math. She is interning at Pixar Animation Studios in the Pixar Undergraduate Program for technical direction, summer of 2022. Mahajan also works as a programmer for the SIGGRAPH History Archives, focusing on user interface development and content organization. She aspires to work as a technical director and get to combine her passion for animation and programming to develop tools that help others create with excellence.
Luis Wilson obtained a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico in 2021. Currently he is a software engineer at Microsoft working in web development, his main area of interest. Since 2020, he has been a volunteer programmer for the SIGGRAPH History Archive, helping the site grow and reach its potential. He is also involved in the archive’s mission of creating interconnected data between new media art archives by creating tools that aid in establishing the relationship of data coming from different sources.
Oliver Grau (DE) is first Chair Professor for Image Science in the German-speaking countries at the Danube University since 2005 and has held more than 350 lectures and keynotes. Grau’s “Virtual Art,” (2003) is the most quoted art history monograph since 2000. He conceived scientific tools for digital humanities like the Archive for Digital Art (ADA, since 1999) and developed international MA programs like Image Science and the joint master in MediaArtsCultures. Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conferences. He has received several awards for books including Mediale Emotionen (2005), Imagery in the 21st Century (2011), recently: Digital Art through the Looking Glass (2020). 2014 he received a doctor h.c., 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea.
Lisa Deml is a Midlands4Cities funded doctoral researcher at Birmingham City University. She holds degrees in Art History and Philosophy from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Initially trained as a journalist, she subsequently worked for public cultural institutions and non-profit organisations internationally, including Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Her research interests focus on visual articulations of citizenship, particularly in the framework of documentary and new media practices in the Middle East and North Africa.
Nathalia Lavigne is an art writer and curator, a Ph.D. Candidate at Architecture and Urbanism College, University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), and a former visiting scholar at The New School. She is a contributor to Artforum International, Contemporary And (C&), Folha de São Paulo, among others; and has an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. Among the exhibitions she curated are Against, Again: Art Under Attack in Brazil (2020) at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, New York; and Disappearance Tactics (2021) at Paço das Artes, São Paulo. She is currently a visiting researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and has been awarded a DAAD scholarship in 2021. 
Bonnie Mitchell is a digital artist, animator, archivist as well as a professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, Ohio, USA. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction and physical immersion. Her creative work includes interactive installation art, environmental data visualization art, experimental visual music animation, net-art, and new media art archive development. Mitchell is the co-director of the SIGGRAPH History and ISEA Symposium online Archives and also a member of the organizing team of the Summit on New Media Art Archiving (first held in 2021 online and again in 2022 in Barcelona). She is also a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee, the ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committees and is the SIGGRAPH 2023 History Chair in charge of the 50th conference celebration.
Marta M. Vega is head of the MACBA archive and library. She holds degrees in Art history and Documentation from the University of Barcelona. Her previous experience in libraries includes the Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. She co-authored the e-pub on museum archives Folding the exhibition, MeLa Project, 2014.
Constanza Brnčić is a dancer, choreographer, graduated in Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona, Master degree in Contemporary Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona, and she is finishing her PHD in Philosophy at Universidad de Barcelona. She is the director of Choreography Degree at Conservatory Superior of Dance / Institut del Teatre. 
Danielle Arets is heading the Journalism and Responsible Innovation lab at Fontys University for Applied Sciences, school of journalism. She is also a researcher at Design Academy Eindhoven. In her research group, journalism researchers, designers, and ICT specialists work hand in hand, investigating technology trends and prototyping future content delivery concepts 
Martina Huynh and Jonas Althaus founded studio Cream on Chrome; a socially-engaged experience design studio based in Rotterdam. By designing multimedia experiences and interactive spaces they explore new perspectives in the fields of economy, journalism, ecology and emerging technologies.
IDfuse is the company of Tijmen Altena and Paul Tuinenburg. IDfuse specializes in the design and support of the process that brings academic knowledge to fruition
Predrag S. Šiđanin, Ph.D. – multimedia artist, founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Dean and full professor of VR at the Faculty of Digital Production, EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
Luka Z. Tilinger, MA – illustrator and programmer, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Assistant professor of gaming and Unity at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
Maja S. Budžarov, MA – ceramic and multimedia artist, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Associate professor of interactive art at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia. 
Nina Zvezdin, MArch – architect, multimedia artist and musician, member of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Architectural Intern, ATIproject, Pisa, Italy.
Alonso-Calero, J.M. Lecturer and Researcher in Fine Arts. Doctoral thesis: “The flow of the scene in physical interaction: participation, virtuality and presence”. He has combined his teaching work with the management and organisation of scientific events related to the hybridisation of artistic and creative languages. Her research activity is carried out in the field of interdisciplinary artistic creation. She is studying for a PhD in Audiovisual Communication. Research grant in a Virtual Reality group in the Department of Computer Architecture to later join the professional world of the audiovisual sector. He carries out different artistic projects framed in the relationship between art and new media, highlighting interaction projects, relational art and territory, etc… IP of projects such as “Map of design transfers”, “Bürohack. Bureaucratic Experience by UX”, “SCENUX Prototype: a tool for the registration through gamification of the user’s experience in creation and reception”, “LIMBO Space Social Sound XD”.
Vertedor-Romero, J.A. Artist and interdisciplinary researcher. Currently on a research stay at the University of Granada with a Margarita Salas grant. PhD in Communication in the audiovisual research line at the University of Málaga. Master’s in Interdisciplinary Artistic Production at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Málaga. Research support grant for postgraduate studies at the University of Malaga. Artist-in-Residence Scholarship at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Malaga. Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Malaga.
Robles-Florido, J.C. Lecturer in Sculpture since 2019, with three six-year periods of research CNEAI, active, since 2019, Director of the Department of Art and Architecture of the UMA. My artistic research is concerned with making visible the conditioning factors of the formation of desire to elaborate strategies for approaching the Other in the current moment of mass media globalisation of culture. Through photography, video, sculpture and intervention in public space, I open a reflection where the contemporary multitude inhabiting is the protagonist.
Selçuk Artut’s artistic research and production focus on theoretical and practical dimensions of human-technology relations. An author of six books and an editor of one, Artut is an Associate Professor at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program at Sabanci University, Istanbul where he mainly teaches Sound and Interaction Courses.
Begüm Çelik. Multidisciplinary artist Begüm Çelik is pursuing her master’s degree in Visual Arts & Visual Communication Design program under the supervision of Selçuk Artut at Sabancı University where she completed her B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering in 2021. Her artistic production is fed from her interdisciplinary journey by combining technology and performance since she is engaged with many theater practices
John Bell is a software developer and artist at Dartmouth College. His work there includes acting as Director of the Data Experiences and Visualizations Studio, Associate Director of the Media Ecology Project, Manager of Dartmouth Research Computing’s Digital Humanities Programx, and teaching as a Lecturer in Film and Media Studies. His research focuses on collaborative creativity and has produced everything from utilitarian semantic web publishing platforms to aggressively useless installation art. In addition to his work at Dartmouth, he is Assistant Professor of Digital Curation at the University of Maine, where he teaches the preservation and presentation of digital media, and Senior Researcher for the Still Water Lab. He holds one of what is believed to be the first three collaborative doctoral degrees ever conferred in the United States, the other two of which are held by the co-authors of their collective dissertation on collaboration in the arts.
Regina Harsanyi is passionate about improving and educating others on best practices for the longevity of variable media, from plastics to distributed ledger technologies. A graduate of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, Harsanyi has primarily focused on the topic of time-based media art from historical and technical perspectives in both private and public sectors. She has led major time-based media preventive conservation projects for multiple institutions, studios, and collectors, including but not limited to Museum of the Moving Image, bitforms gallery, and TRANSFER gallery. From 2017-2020, Harsanyi also facilitated over 200 exhibitions across 26 locations under Wallplay, many of which highlighted the legitimacy of creative technology. She remains dedicated to creating interdisciplinary bridges between academia, museums, collectors, corporations, and artists to better serve the longevity of complex works of art.
Jon Ippolito is a new media artist, curator, and educator whose work aims to expand the art world beyond its traditional confines. As an artist, Ippolito exhibited work at the Walker Art Center and ZKM/Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe; as a curator, he curated Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium and, with John G. Hanhardt, The Worlds of Nam June Paik at the Guggenheim; as a Professor of New Media, he founded the University of Maine’s graduate Digital Curation program. In almost 200 presentations, Ippolito has spoken out on copyright maximalism, academic insularity, and technological obsolescence. Along with his books At the Edge of Art and Re-collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory, he has published chapters in 20 anthologies and articles in periodicals from the Art Journal to the Washington Post.
Bruno Moreschi. Researcher and multidisciplinary artist. Postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), PhD in Arts at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with a Capes scholarship, and exchange at the University of Arts of Helsinki (Kuva Art Academy), Finland, via CIMO Fellowship. Projects recognized by scholarships, exhibitions and institutions such as ZKM, Van Abbemuseum, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, Rumos Award, Funarte, Capes and Fapesp. He is currently a researcher on the Histories of AI: Genealogy of Power / Mellon Sawyer Seminar (Cambridge University), senior researcher at the Center for Arts, Design and Social Research (CAD+SR) and one of the coordinators of GAIA /C4AI/Inova USP. 
Giselle Beiguelman. Artist and Professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil. She is also a member of the Laboratory for OTHER Urbanisms (FAUUSP) and co-coordinator of GAIA (Grupo de Arte e Inteligência Artifical – INOVA USP. Her interests include the aesthetics of memory and contemporary nomadism. Among her recent works are the Portuguese-language Hateland, covering online reactions to violence against vulnerable groups in Brazil; a co-authored book about the storage and preservation of digital artworks; and an on-going investigation of the colonialist imagination in 20th century artworks using artificial intelligence. Author of many international award-winning projects, her artworks are part of museums collections worldwide, such as ZKM (Germany) and Pinacoteca de S. Paulo (Brazil). 
Rafael Pagatini. Artist, researcher and assistant professor at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Pagatini is currently a PhD candidate in Visual Arts at the State University of Campinas, São Paulo. In 2020, he was a guest researcher at the Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany. He has held individual and collective exhibitions in Brazil and abroad: Shiva Gallery, New York (2020), European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Berlin (2019); Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig (2019); Columbia University, New York (2018); 20th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (2017); Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2016); Rumos Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2013). 
Kyle Chung is a curator and researcher whose recent exhibitions explore the dynamics between technologies, materiality and human agency. Selected exhibitions include 2³ or Not 2³: East Kowloon is on Minecraft in New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong; Ellen Pau: Time After Time Will Tell at 1961, Singapore; #YOU #ME #ourSELFIES at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre; One World Exposition 2.1: #like4like at chi K11 art space, Hong Kong; Carla Chan: To Outland at SMAC, Berlin, Germany; Conjunctions and Disjunctions: International Symposium on Electronic Art 2016, Hong Kong; Bright Shadow at The Morgue, London, UK. With a PhD in Creative Media, Chung is currently an independent curator; Curator at Videotage, Hong Kong; and Lecturer at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
Joel Kwong is an international media art curator, writer, producer and educator based in Hong Kong. She is currently the Programme Director for Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, as well as the founder of SIBYLS – a creative consultation and production agency. Kwong has a strong belief in the power of art and technology, and her curated projects have been shown in many different cities around the globe. Her most recent projects in 2021 includes Future Media Art Festival in Taiwan, Microwave Festival edition 2021, Glow Shenzhen online media art showcase “Fireflies: The Glowing Dots”, Connecting the Dots – a media art archaeology online exhibition & website etc.
Su Wei (born in Beijing) is an art writer, art history researcher and curator based in Beijing. He is currently a Researcher at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. In 2014, he was awarded first place at the first International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). Su Wei’s work in recent years focuses on re-constructing the narrative—and radical imagination—of contemporary Chinese art history, and explores the roots of the legitimacy and rupture of contemporary Chinese art history in a global context. Pivotal to his work is the attempt to take the “post-1949” as the key in understanding artistic production in a contemporary situation, and in so doing he seeks to re-define the stance and possibilities of art in nowadays China. He thus engages in an anti-establishment critical practice by mapping the limits, contextual clues and unconscious energies of the post-1949 art production, which figures the dual presence of decay and emptiness.
Rhonda Holberton. Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts, Department of Art & Art History San José State University. Holberton’s interdisciplinary research and art practice illuminates the politics of the corporeal body navigating through virtual space. Recent projects utilize networked VR designed to trigger subtle interactions of electrons between biological and digital systems through biofeedback & reiki, a speculative cosmetic company whose mission is focused on the potential of products to create distributed performative action ritualizing the Anthropocene, and a collaborative choreography with Neural Networks.
Don Hanson. Founder of New Art City. Don is an interdisciplinary/internet artist producing web-based interactive work and digital artmaking tools since 2008. As founder of New Art City he aims to provide an accessible toolkit to all types of artists and create an online home for born-digital artifacts. As an active member of the arts and technology community in the Bay Area, Don has served as technical director for Codame Art+Tech and B4BEL4B Gallery, and now focuses full-time on the operations and development of New Art City.
Amanda Helton. As Manager of Digital Strategy, a position created as part of the San José Museum of Art’s (SJMA) 2018 strategic plan, Helton works closely with the curatorial and public programs teams to develop innovative digital engagement tools that expand access to the Museum’s programs and permanent collection. At SJMA since 2017, she served as project database registrar for 50X50: Stories of Visionary Artists from the Collection, a major grant-funded digital publication designed to share the Museum’s permanent collection with a wide audience. Subsequent ongoing projects support efforts to shape the technological vision for the Museum’s future and to support its strategic ambition to be a borderless museum. Helton is also deeply committed to accessibility issues in both the physical and virtual realms and is a member of the Museum’s Equity Task Force.
Dr. Timothy C. Summers. Board Member of the enterprise think tank Leonardo/ISAST, is a seasoned, high-impact executive with broad strategic perspective and a proven track record in growing businesses, delivering solutions to problems, and developing and executing sound internal processes from the ground up. He is an ethical hacker, professor, frequent media commentator, TED speaker, and consulted expert internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on cyber strategy, blockchain, normal chaos, and how hackers think. He is a trusted adviser and executive consultant to Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, and governments worldwide. Timothy specializes in the scholarship and practice of hacker cognitive psychology (the hacker’s mindset) and normal chaos paradigm enabling him to advise on building and sustaining organizations during times of uncertainty. Dr. Summers is an executive scholar with an in-depth understanding of disruptive technologies and their strategic applications, as well as international business expertise, having conducted business around the world.
Nick Szydlowski. Scholarly Communications & Digital Scholarship Librarian, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San José State University. Nick is a librarian with experience in scholarly communications, repository management, preservation, and web development. His recent projects include the digital exhibit Robert Morris: Civil Rights Lawyer & Antislavery Activist.
Ze Gao is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and media art researcher. Working in the intersection of art and technology. He studied Multidisciplinary Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art and received his M.F.A from The School of Visual Arts in New York. With a background in both image science and art, his research across different practices and interests, including artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, museum study, and extended reality. He has several publications, mainly in the areas of New Media Art and Chinese Classical, he currently living in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. He has been invited as a visiting scholar to the Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China,2020), Confucius Institute, University of Bonn,(Bonn, Germany, 2019), and School of Art and Design, Yunnan University,(Kunming, China,2019), residence artists at Nanchuan Lixiang Lake Art residence project, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts,(Chongqing, China,2020), Glasgow School of Art,(Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2014).
Dr. Varvara Guljajeva is an artist and researcher holding the position of Assistant Professor in Computational Media and Arts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). Previously, she held positions at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Elisava Design School in Barcelona. Varvara was invited as a visiting researcher to XRL, Hong Kong City University, IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan), LJMU (Liverpool, UK), Interface Cultures in the Linz University of Art, and Design, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Karlshamn, Sweden). Her PhD thesis “From Interaction to Post-Participation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant” was selected as the highest-ranking abstracts by Leonardo Labs in 2020.
Adriana La Selva is a theatre-maker, a performer and a researcher. She is currently a fellow FWO researcher with the project Practicing Odin Teatret’s Archives at S:PAM (Studies in Performance and Media- Ghent University) – in association with IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music), Utrecht University, Manchester Metropolitan University and Aalborg University. She concluded her Master’s degree in Contemporary Arts, at the University of Lancaster, UK, on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming in relation to physical theatre. She is a member of the international theatre group The Bridge of Winds, led by Odin Teatret actress Iben Nagel Rasmussen. Adriana co-founded Cross Pollination, an international platform for performers and researchers, which focuses on dialogues in-between practices and tactics for embodied knowledge building.
Ioulia Marouda is a multidisciplinary designer whose work expands between interactive art and scenography. She is currently a doctoral fellow in art science and computer science at Ghent University and part of the IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music). Her research interests include interaction in XR, embodiment, computer graphics and perception. She currently focuses on the transmission of embodied knowledge through immersive and interactive technologies as well as the translation of physiological data as a way to explore the possibilities of the virtual body to uncover qualities otherwise invisible. Ever since her diploma studies in Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens, she grew an unusual interest in the way digital technologies affect our perception of space. This led her to study further in the Interactive Architecture Lab at UCL. She has worked with design studios and in theatre in Germany and the UK designing physical and digital temporary spaces. Ultimately, through working across mediums she aims to express stories and atmospheres of the present.
Tiago Martins is a researcher and creative technologist working at the intersection of art, interaction design and game design. Coming from an academic background in Computer Science at the New University of Lisbon (Portugal), Tiago later expanded upon his interest in interactive media at the University of Art and Design in Linz (Austria), where he obtained a PhD from Interface Cultures. Tiago has taken an active part in innovation-oriented projects taking place in different environments and institutions, including the University of Art in Berlin (UDK) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). He is currently researching and teaching mixed-reality applications at his alma mater in Linz.
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation. They are Professors at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria where they head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media. Sommerer and Mignonneau previously held positions as Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan and as Researchers and Artistic Directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto Japan. They also were Visiting Researchers at the MIT CAVS in Cambridge US, the Beckmann Institute in Champaign Urbana, IL, USA and the NTT-InterCommunication Center in Tokyo.
Dr. Dal Farra is professor of music and electronic arts at Concordia University, Canada, and director of the electronic arts center CEIARTE-UNTREF, Argentina. He is the founder of the international symposia Balance-Unbalance (BunB) and Understanding Visual Music (UVM). Dal Farra has been director of Hexagram in Canada, coordinator of the Multimedia Communication national program of the Federal Ministry of Education in Argentina, senior consultant of the Amauta New Media Art Centre of Cusco in Peru, and researcher of UNESCO, France, for its project Digi-Arts. He designed university programs on art-science. Ricardo created the Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection. He is a board member of ISEA International, and a member of several editorial boards: Leonardo/ISAST (MIT Press, USA), Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press, UK), and Artnodes (UOC, Spain), among others. Dal Farra is a composer/artist specialized in transdisciplinary actions with science and emergent technologies.
Violeta Vojvodic Balaz, studied at the University of Belgrade at the Faculty of Fine Art for her PhD (2017), with a doctoral thesis The Case Of Art-Adventurers Operating Into Global Margin: Art, Money, and Value in The Age of Artificial Intelligence. She specialised European Diploma in Cultural Management, Brussels, her research was focused on strategic planning and virtual organisation (2006). Currently, she is PhD candidate at the Transdisciplinary Studies of Modern Arts And Media, Faculty for Media and Communication in Belgrade.
Eduard Balaz, received Mag. of Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade in 2003. He worked as Artistic director in Hammer Creative (Novi Sad) and Blueliner Marketing (NYC), currently he is working as freelance UI/UX designer.
Arie Altena is archive editor at V2_ and the author of Wat is community art? (2016) and 40 Years of V2_ (2022).
Michel van Dartel is Director of V2_Lab for the Unstable Media and Research Professor at the AVANS Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT).
Jiayi Young is an artist and a designer. She is an Associate Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis. Young creates large-scale installations, permanent and temporary public artworks. Her inquiries lie within the emergent and experimental field of digital media with an emphasis on the cross-disciplinary areas of design that integrate the arts and the sciences with cutting-edge technology. Her current research and creative work are focused on constructing data-driven interfaces, installations, real-time projection graphics, participatory performances, and immersive environments in cultural and public places with the goal of creating generative energy to engage the public in social dialogue.
John Chow Ho Fung is the Senior Archive Coordinator at Videotage and he currently works at Videotage (HK). John is involved in the curation and preservation of over a thousand media art artifacts – magnetic tapes from Hong Kong pioneering video artists preserved in the Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC). John has participated on various archival forums including Archives in the Digital Era, ART TAIPEI (2019) and Rethinking Art Collection and Archive, and FLAME HK (2019). He is also a member of the Floating Projects Collective. 
Chung Wing Shan is currently the Project Coordinator at Videotage. Chung’s work focuses on acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of the Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC) as well as organising public programmes related to VMAC. She has worked on programmes including the VMAC Forum and the Hallucinatory Hereafter.
Elian Carsenat is a computer scientist trained at ENSIIE/INRIA, started his career at JP Morgan in Paris in 1997. He later worked as consultant and managed business & IT projects in London, Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. In 2012, Elian created NamSor, a piece of sociolinguistics software to mine the ‘Big Data’ and better understand international flows of money, ideas and people. NamSor helps answer the perennial question all countries ask about their diasporas – who are they, where are they and what are they doing. In 2020, NamSor is building new APIs to estimate risk for gender, racial or ethnic biases in applying machine learning or other artificial intelligence to decision making that affects People’s lives. Elian is founder and CEO of unopied.art.
Dario Rodighiero works at Harvard University. He is affiliated at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a postdoc of the Metalab. His capacity at the intersection of visual studies, data science, and digital humanities makes him comfortable in multiple disciplines. With Metis Press, he published in 2021 Mapping Affinities.
Erik Contreras is an interdisciplinary designer and engineer from the San Francisco Bay Area with a background in rapid prototyping, and hardware hacking + repair. His work involves finding alternative uses for post-consumer products and media through hands-on craft and new media digital art pieces. He feels that obsolescence creates an opportunity to showcase a product’s true character in the real world given the influence from consumer culture and technological hype has faded away due to time.
Darija Šimunović is a cultural studies scholar (MA) and has been responsible for the video art collection and its distribution at the IMAI since 2010. She was a research associate at the Institute for Visual Media of the ZKM Karlsruhe and worked as a visiting lecturer in video art history at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and the Paderborn University.
Byeongwon Ha is an assistant professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina. He is an art historian and an artist in the field of new media art. As an artist and a researcher, he took part in diverse international art conferences and festivals such as ISEA, SIGGRAPH Asia, IRCAM Forum, ARTECH, and the Summit on New Media Art Archiving. In 2019, he published two articles: “Nam June Paik’s Unpublished Korean Article and His Interactive Musique Concrète Projects” as an author in Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press) and “Survey and Analysis of Interactive Art Documentation, 1979–2017” as a coauthor in Leonardo (MIT Press). 
Diego Marchante is a transfeminist activist, transmedia artist and lecturer. Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, since 2008 he works as a professor of Audiovisuals and Gender Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona. In 2011 he published “Archive T. A transfeminist and queer archive”, an archive of social movements and artistic practices that have addressed gender issues in the Spanish context from a queer and transfeminist perspective. His work has been exhibited at Can Felipa, Caixaforum, Fabra i Coats, Sala d’Art Jove, Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. In 2020-21 his project, “Gendernaut. Queering the 90’s”, was selected in the call for research stays at the MNCARS, in the context of the project Our Many Europes – Europe’s critical 90s and The Constituent Museum.
Marcela Antipan Olate is an artist and designer living in Germany. She is currently studying a master’s degree in Digital Media at the University of the Arts Bremen. She is a graphic designer and originally from Chile. Her creative practice moves within the blurred mix between art and science. Within that framework, one of her main interests is the critical reflection on technological objects of daily use and their symbolic and technical connections in relation to politics, economies, ecologies, and cultures. Through associations, she seeks to create physical or digital objects that concretise these interests. In the past, her work as a designer involved the development of ideas and concepts linked to scientific communication for research institutes, as well as teaching in the area of design. Currently, her work takes different forms such as installations, physical objects, software, research, visual pieces and poetry. 
Martijn Hage is a digital artist based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He studied Graphic Design and Computer Graphics at the Academy of Arts Minerva in Groningen. His early digital artwork was exhibited at SISEA, Second International Symposium on Electronic Art in 1990. Driven by the quest to find the origin of life, he creates his own semantic building blocks to express himself in a self-named morphographic language. You could use the term ‘organic abstraction’, compositions of organic and geometrical elements. His artwork evolves like artificial selection, using self-made generative algorithms. He uses a digital exploration process, iteration by iteration, always in control of randomness and order in shape, color and composition. Each artwork is created in 3-dimensions and rendered in high resolution. He finds inspiration in nature, technology, archeology and fossils. It all comes together in the real world via digital techniques like 3D Printing, CNC-milling, AR and VR. 
Lawrence Bird practices in media art and architecture. His artwork focuses on imaging technologies and their intersection with space, in particular its political and social dimensions. His work includes video exploration of urban sites, projection mapping and installation, and short films; he led Winnipeg’s contribution to the cityoneminutes project. Since 2012 he has been developing a body of videos and projections focused on anomalies in popular imaging and mapping programs; the work intends to expose the failures of western mapping projects. Lawrence’s artwork has been installed in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, London, Greenwich, Brussels, and Manizales (Colombia) with funding from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. He also writes, having contributed to Critical Planning, Mechademia, Chora, Leonardo, furtherfield.org, and elsewhere. He works with Sputnik Architecture, Winnipeg, a practise focusing on cultural and social projects, including the international public art competition Warming Huts.
Andrea Palašti is a visual artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. She works across artistic, curatorial and pedagogical boundaries by investigating (picture) archives and its potential to unveil a nuanced understanding of the world, focusing on issues of cultural geography, the responsibilities of history and its impact on the present. She’s a lecturer at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, blending her artistic research with educational strategies.
Sanja Anđelković is an audio-visual and textual research artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. Her research is focused within the field of docu-fiction practice where she is questioning its position inside the system of gender, political, social roles or traumatic moments of personal biography/history and how the idea of Home changes within the historical, geographical, social, but also environmental context.
Stefana Janićijević, Doctor of Applied Mathematics, is currently employed at Singidunum University in Belgrade as a professor, and at Comtrade System Integration as a data scientist. Her research work is in the field of metaheuristics, optimization, machine learning and data science, while she’s also artistically exploring a range of approaches such as data visualisation, neurosciences and the philosophy of data.
Jovana Pešić is a Junior Researcher at the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection – Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Her research is focused on new materials based on graphene oxide for the removal of heavy metals from the aquatic environment. She is actively involved in promoting science through various programs combining science and art and interdisciplinary research. She is a member of the Serbian Chemical Society and a holder of the Certificate of Chemical Advisor. 
Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Jan Searleman (California, USA) taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. A senior member of the ACM, Jan is also on both the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee (DAC) and the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee. Jan and Bonnie Mitchell coordinated the DAC Online Exhibition “The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action”. She co-moderated SPARKS talks (Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit) for DAC on “Robotics, Electronics, and Artificial Intelligence” with Hye Yeon Nam, and “Data: Visual Perception, Interpretation and Truth” with Everardo Reyes. Jan co-directs, along with Bonnie Mitchell, the ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive. She also co-directs the ISEA Symposium Archive with Bonnie Mitchell, Wim van der Plas and Terry C.W. Wong.
Paula Perissinotto is specialized in new media, contemporary art and digital culture. Master’s degree in visual poetics from ECA (School of Communications and Arts at USP University of São Paulo). Since 2000 I have been working as Co- organizer and Co- curator of FILE, Electronic Language International Festival, a non-profit cultural organization that promotes and encourages aesthetic and cultural productions related to the new poetics of contempo-rary culture. At the festival, is responsible for the selection of works, international relations and also calls for project manage-ment carried out in Brazil. Have produced and realized 50 art and technology exhibitions. Current is a PHD student at the University of São Paulo, School of Communications and Arts | ECA, in Visual Poetics. Member of the Realidates Research Group licensed by CNPq, led by Profa. Dr. Silvia Laurentiz who in turn, is formally affiliated with the School of Communications and Arts and the De-partment of Visual Arts, ECA / USP.
Fabiana Krepel is a Food Engineer graduated from Unicamp University, and post-graduated in marketing from ESPM. She holds a Graphic Design Certificate from Parsons The New School of Design and an ADVANCED DIPLOMA in Online Education & Training from the Institute of Education, University of London. Fabiana has experience in strategic planning, direct marketing, acquired in multinational and national companies such as WUNDERMAN. She has also 15 years of experience in special-ized consultancy for cultural projects in incentive laws; both in the development and approval of customized projects, as well as in the management of sponsorship resources and accountability. Since 2001, she has been a Partner – Director of KCE Consulto-ria Empresarial | b.k design; and is responsible for coordinating the FILE FESTIVAL platforms; FILE ALIVE and FILE ARCHIVE (online educational platform and archive Platform); as well as responsible for FILE cultural projects in incentive laws.
Christina Radner (AT) currently is the responsible project manager for the Ars Electronica Archive in Linz, Austria. In 2009 she got her Master´s degree in art history at the University of Vienna. At an internship at the Art Brut Museum Gugging in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, she got a first insight into the archive work of a museum. She was hired project-based, to help work on an artist´s estate and to prepare a retrospective and a comprehensive catalogue of works. In 2013 she moved back to Upper Austria and started her work in the Ars Electronica Archive Team. Since 2015 she is the responsible project manager for the Archive and part of the Festival/Prix/Archive Core Team of Ars Electronica.
Wim van der Plas (Netherlands) studied Social & Cultural Sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was director of the Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA, Rotterdam), R&D staff of the Utrecht School of Arts, managing director of the Institute for Computer Animation (SCAN, Groningen), and worked for 3 different departments of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. He is co-founder of ISEA, organised the first, second and seventh ISEA symposium and served as ISEA HQ and on the ISEA board since its founding. Currently he is co-director of the ISEA symposium archives and member as well as honorary chair of the ISEA International Advisory Committee. In 2018 he received a Leonardo Pioneer Award.
Terry C. W. Wong has a bachelor’s degree from the Applied Science Department of the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is working on his graduate degree in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. He is doing his research study on connecting new media art archiving worldwide. Terry is also an archivist and co-organizer for the ISEA Archives. He was also on the organizing team of ISEA2016 in Hong Kong.
Oliver Grau (DE) is first Chair Professor for Image Science in the German-speaking countries at the Danube University since 2005 and has held more than 350 lectures and keynotes. Grau’s “Virtual Art,” (2003) is the most quoted art history monograph since 2000. He conceived scientific tools for digital humanities like the Archive for Digital Art (ADA, since 1999) and developed international MA programs like Image Science and the joint master in MediaArtsCultures. Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conferences. He has received several awards for books including Mediale Emotionen (2005), Imagery in the 21st Century (2011), recently: Digital Art through the Looking Glass (2020). 2014 he received a doctor h.c., 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea.
Sean Clark is an independent artist, curator, and researcher based in Leicestershire, UK. His artwork explores interaction and connectedness through the construction of audiovisual systems presented on screen, as installations, and as prints. He is the director of Interact Digital Arts and the curator of the Computer Arts Archive. He has a PhD in Computational Art from De Montfort University and in 2016 was co-winner of the Lumen Prize for 3D/Sculpture and the Art.CHI Digital Art Prize.
Sean Carroll is a PHD candidate at De Montfort University UK. His study is investigating the potential use of Machine Learning to support the development of the newly founded Computer Arts Archive. Sean has a background in cultural events management, curating exhibitions, festivals and education programmes that focus largely on emerging technologies. His work has attracted significant public funding from Arts Council England, US Space Agency and the AHRC. 
Antonio Gagliano is a researcher and artist. His projects intertwine practices around structural imagination to explore the multiple ways in which knowledge emerges, is organized and distributed. He has participated in exhibitions such as La tradició que ens travessa (Arts Santa Mónica, 2022), Acció. Una història provisional dels 90s (MACBA, 2020) or Manufactories of Caring Space-Time (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2017). He has contributed to newspapers such as Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung and La Vanguardia, and books such as Pornotopia. An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics (Paul B. Preciado, MIT Press, 2014). For the last decade, he has contributed as editor and sound producer at Son[i]a de Radio Web MACBA and has been a regular contributor to the museum’s educational programs. Since 2020, he coordinates the Research and transference of knowledge area of Hangar.
Luciana Della Villa has a degree in Art History from the University of Barcelona and a master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Management from the same center. She was part of the Art Department and the Communication Department of the Vila Casas Foundation, both at the Can Framis Museum and the Espacio Volart. At the same time, she develops her personal project Svper linked to music, and works on musical creation for advertising. Since 2017, she coordinates the Communication area of Hangar.