Bacteria Battery / Biotricity is an innovative art and science collaboration project by Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits/ RIXC and Martins Ratniks together with sound artist and composer Voldemars Johansons and young biologists from University of Latvia. The project experiments with new generation “green energy” technologies and sonifies the process of generating electricity from bacteria living in water. The installation consists of a cell network altogether creating a ‘bacteria battery’. The performance of „bacteria battery” not only discovers the great possibilities of the collaboration of science and art, but also increases the awareness of importance of sustainable living.

The Bacteria Battery performance programme and exhibition took place in a special spherical tent, constructed particularly for the event. The geometric planes of the tent were later used as a platform for extraordinary media visualisations. The evening programme included five different audiovisual performances, among them – „bacteria battery” in action interpreted in sounds (by sound artists Voldemārs Johansons and Mārtiņš Roķis) and visualisations (by media artist Rihards Vītols.)

All together the exhibition, performances and workshop Bacteria Battery / Biotricity were attended by 3000 local people of different age groups (starting from families with kids during the day in the framework of workshop programme till students and elderly people in the evening performance programme.

Location: Spikeri Creative Quarter, Riga
Links:
http://www.rixc.org
http://renewable.rixc.lv/?s=bacteria+battery
https://www.facebook.com/rixcriga

SET 2
Composting the city | Composting the net. Performance
By Shu Lea Cheang (FR) & Martin Howse (UK) at the opening programme of Save As exhibition.
Dates: October 8, 2013

Composting the City | Composting the Net examines the parallel degenerative process of fermentation and fragmentation of our daily food scraps and shared digital commons. While Composting the City investigates urban food waste management systems, Composting the Net sources net cultures’ accumulated data. Food scraps dumped onto a compost heap are layered and turned until all traces of labeling are erased. On the net, the abundance of info-data sinks into a deep “reservoir” with tags attached.

Location: Spikeri Creative Quarter, Riga
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/rixcriga
http://festival.rixc.lv/13

LECTURES RIXC, RIGA, LATVIA 2013
Dates: 07/09/2013 – 12/10/2013

SET 1
Bacteria Battery/ Biotricity – public workshop & lecture
Dates: September 7 – September 8, 2013

The public workshops & lectures introduced wider public with the technology of the installation “Bacteria Battery” – a unique technology in creating alternative translated into sounds, both, discovering the great possibilities of the collaboration of art and science and promoting the awareness of importance of sustainable living, giving a special attention to the many possible alternative energy sources and technologies.

Location: Riga, Latvia

SET 2
Techno-ecologies Panel B lead by chair Shu Lea Cheang in the framework of the 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology RENEW
Dates: October 11, 2013

Techo-ecologies panel thematically approached resillient networks and emerging ‘techno-ecological’ art practicies.

Panel speakers:
Helene von OLDENBURG, Claudia REICHE. THE MARS PATENT – a living fossil
Kuai Shen AUSON. 0h!m1gas: biomimetic stridulation environment
Takis ZOURNTOS, Marjan VERSTAPPEN, Caroline LANGILL, Dot TUER. Speculative Realist Media Art Technologies: Probing into the Nature of Things
Conor McGARRIGLE. Locative Histories: exploring the continued influence of early Locative Media art
Claudia ROSELLI. Resilient networks through art practices. Old Delhi – New Media. The 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology – RENEW, was hosted by RIXC Centre for New Media Culture in Riga in partnership with the Art Academy of Latvia, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and Danube University’s Center for Image Science. RENEW hosted three days of keynotes, panels and poster sessions on the histories of networked digital, electronic and technological media arts.

Venue: Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
Link: http://renew.rixc.lv/days/october11.php

SET 3
Techno-ecologies Participatory Session 1 – Playing Fields lead by Armin Medosch in the framework of the 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology RENEW
Dates: October 10, 2013

Techo-ecologies panel thematically approached resillient networks and emerging ‘techno-ecological’ art practicies. Main themes of the Playing Fields session was: Collaborative mapping, curating and tagging as a social game: which expanded fields of artistic practices offer the greatest potential for desirable social change? Playing Fields Session particularly was organised as pre-event of the huge international Fields exhibition held from May 15 to August 3, 2014.

Artistic committee:
Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits, and other invited participants.

Study visit, networking, collaboration, dissemination, presentations, 2013 the public event – installation / performance as well as workshop “Bacteria Battery / Biotricity”

On January 28 – February 3, RIXC representatives Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits as curators went to ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, to do a research and choose art works that could potentially be included in the exposition of the most grandiose initiative of this project for RIXC – the international media art exhibition “FIELDS” which will take place in Riga, 15.05.2014 – 03.08.2014 as one of most noticeable events of the Riga 2014 (Riga – European Capital of Culture 2014) special programme.

In framework of this study visit RIXC representatives Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits and Daina Silina also went to the annual international festival for art & digital culture “transmediale” in Berlin, where they met with co-curator of the extensive exhibition “FIELDS” – media artist, writer and curator from Austria Armin Medosch. Together they elaborated the first call for the potential participants of the exhibition which was sent out to international mailing lists, newsletters, diverse virtual platforms etc.

On September 2013 RIXC representative Raitis Smits, Rasa Smite and sound artists and sound artist Voldemars Johansons went in a Study Visit to the internationals “ARS ELECTRONICA” festival in Linz. It was also artistic visit for set up the installation “Bioticity” in Ars Electronica Center, which will be hosted there until September 2014.

Photo Gallery

the FIELDS Opening Programme will include Art+Communication Festival programme and RENEWABLE FUTURES – International conference on art, science and cultural innovation
Riga May 15-18, 2014

Renewable Futures is new conference series, the launch of which will take place during the FIELDS exhibition opening weekend on May 15-18, 2014 in the framework of Riga – European Cultural Capital programme. In a response to recent quests for a more sustainable future and overcoming the crisis of the present, the conference aims to invent new avenues for future developments by bringing together traditionally separated domains. Inspired by Fields exhibition approach, which does not just look at art in the narrow sense but takes into account all kinds of creative practices that brings together new thinking, scientific knowledge, aesthetics, technologies and social practices, the conference will shape new contact zones between academic research and diversity of contemporary art practices, art and science, sustainable businesses and social engagement in the 21st century.

FIELDS PROGRAMME.pdf

Photo Gallery

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Production:
RIXC, Centre for new media culture, Riga, Latvia
http://fields.rixc.lv

http://renewable.rixc.lv
http://facebook.com/rixcriga
http://vimeo.com/rixcriga
http://twitter.com/rixcriga

NewMedia art exhibition

Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti / Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška
Curator: Andreja Hribernik

Exhibition opening: FRI, 24 January 2014 at 6 pm
Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti, Glavni trg 24, 2380 Slovenj Gradec

The exhibition entitled Temporary Objects and Hybrid Ambients concerns the unveiling of creative space established between art and technology. As an artist, Marko Batista is difficult to situate within a specific artistic direction for his works are created at the intersection of performative intermedia practices, sound and visual installations, and physical-sensorial experiments.
The basic principle of operation followed by the artist is the exploration of intermediate spaces both in the physical sense, where electronic signal – acoustic or visual – are produced via home-made interfaces, as well as in the ideational sense, where human perception is explored in a world suffused with electronic communication, digital devices and technology. Namely, human perception is adapted to a certain kind of use of technology and, therefore, it is limited to a certain type of experience. By creating hybrid technological, electromagnetic or chemical systems, Marko Batista challenges the mystification of technology while he also opens up new ways of thinking about it. With his experimental systems, which bring together various fields, he expands the field of human sensorial perception and the phenomenology of unstable audio-visual systems in space and time.
The exhibition responds to the exhibition space of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška and it works as an integral work of art, which makes it possible for the viewer, depending on his position in space, to get an audio-visual impression of the whole or of the individual modular objects. As regards content, the projects are divided into three exhibition clusters distinguished by the basic principle of “operation”.
The experimental systems of electromagnetic radiation and transfer of information deal with the exploration of visual and sound images, be it sound interventions in space or the fragmentation of media images in the transfer of information.
The cluster entitled Electro-Chemical Systems is based on the interweaving and the mutual impact of electric and chemical processes, in which electric impulses travel through a series of fluid matters, converge in spatial sound stimuli and produce unpredictable effects.
In the final, third cluster entitled High-Voltage Experimental Systems, the author explores the impact of high voltage, which enables the creation of specific architectonics of signals, whose mapping, manipulation and distribution with the system are manifested in the visual and acoustic field of the spectator confronted with real-time projections and a synchronous acoustic backdrop. The repetitive, mutating structures of audio and video elements trigger unpredictable effects at various psycho-sensorial levels of the spectator’s perception.
The artist’s installations reveal his specific relationship to technology, which, on the one hand, he demystifies by using “low-tech” elements and by visualising its processes, while on the other hand, he introduces the element of the unknown and he moves on the cusp between controlled and chaotic modular systems.
The artist’s intermedia practice also introduces the concept of time. By situating the event – the operation – in the museum space, he renders his objects permanent (for the duration of the exhibition) in their existence in the museum space and because they exist only through process – they are temporally limited, while the museum space loses its timelessness.
Nine projects will be presented at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška; they were created over the past six years and they offer and insight into the artist’s creative work.
The projects Error Trash, Hybrid Audio-Mechanical Machines and Bentronix were produced by the K6/4 Institute – Kapelica Gallery. The projects Parallel Digital Structures, H220, Time Diagrams, CHEM:SYS:REACTOR and Optolyth were produced by the Aksioma Institute. The project SIPHON:SYS:APPARATUS was produced by the author.

The exhibition is co-produced by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška.
http://www.aksioma.org/temporary.objects/
Curator: Andreja Hribernik

Technical support: Maja Brezar, Urška Batista, Žiga Palčar, M7 Grafiks, Dejan Kastelic
Partners for technical equipment: Zavod K6/4 – Kapelica gallery, Zavod Projekt Atol

Supported by:

The realisation of the exhibition is funded by the European Commission in the frame of the project Soft Control.
The content of communication is the sole responsibility of the author and in no way reflects the views of the European Commission.

SUTRA / TOMORROW

Belgrade Youth Centre as part of the European project Soft Control initiates a restart of SUTRA (TOMORROW) festival. The Artist Talk Symposium SUTRA will try in two days to present artists, concepts and projects that explore the relationship of art, science and technology through interviews with artists, presentations and interactive workshops. At the same time SUTRA is the initiative and support of the Belgrade Youth Center to re-launch this Arts and Science Festival in Belgrade.

Sutra programme.pdf

More about SUTRA / TOMORROW

Photo Gallery

26.12.2013

27.12.2013

Worskshop for kids: ” My First DiscoKosmačBot ” by Monica Pocrnjić (27. 11. 2013)

Production:
DOB, Dom omladine Beograd, Beograd, Serbia

The name for the joint festival platform MFRU-KIBLIX2013: When Worlds Collide was inspired by the 1951 science fiction classic. The symbolism of the movie highlights the split and the paradox of the gap between the developed and the underdeveloped third world. In this context, the MFRU-KIBLIX2013 festival symbolizes live nature, the reality which we live in, which is intertwined and dependent on the swift development of science, technology and consequently art and new forms of creativity.

Contemporary interdisciplinary forms of creative conceptions are intertwined inside complex junctions of different worlds and approaches, in the tension between the natural and the bio-technological, the virtual and the hybrid, the fake and the genuine principle, which – in an abundance of dialogs, contradictions and junctions – becomes visible in the form of artistic installations, digital records of process works, performances, lectures, presentations, workshops and audio-visual pleasures.

For the first time this year, the MFRU-KIBLIX2013 is taking place at Maribor’s KIBLA Portal, an old textile factory hall spreading on over 2000m2, thus joining the dispersed festival units on a single location in a get-together of artists, people working in the field of arts&culture, researchers, scientists, educators and anyone willing to receive additional knowledge about the theoretical and research work, as well as anyone willing to share and experience the creative forms of artistic experimentation and interpretation; willing to discover, work, discuss, listen and share their ideas and findings.

The MFRU-KIBLIX2013 includes interaction with various target audiences and encourages an active collaboration by everyone, especially young people, students and people with long-time professional experience… Culture and science intertwine as disciplines, constructively exchanging cultural models of critical thinking, activism and experimentation with scientific methods, research and knowledge.

Program curators: Aleksandra Kostič and Nina Jeza.

Selectors: Aleksandra Kostič, Nina Jeza, Jože Slaček, Franc Vrbančič, Maja Smrekar, Saša Spačal, Robertina Šebjanič, Ida Hiršenfelder, Marianne Wagner.

Exhibited artworks:

TANIA CANDIANI (MX), KATHY HIGH (US), MAŠA JAZBEC (SI), KARL HEINZ JERON (DE), MAJA SMREKAR (SI), OSCAR MARTIN (ES), TIAGO MARTINS, R. O’NASCIMENTO, A. ZINGERLE (PT), YURI KLEBANOV, ROI RONN, YONATAN BEN YA’KOV (IL), TIAGO MARTINS, VESELA MIHAYLOVA (PT), RICARDO O’NASCIMENTO (ES), VISUALISING PALESTINE (LB), DORON SEGAL, JENNY BAHAR, ITAY KURGAN, SHAHAR YACOBY (IL), DRAGANA SAPANJOŠ (HR), THERESA SCHUBERT (DE), SAŠA SPAČAL, MIRJAN ŠVAGELJ, ANIL PODGORNIK (SI), ZORAN SRDIĆ JANEŽIČ (SI), ROBERTINA ŠEBJANIČ, ALEŠ HIENG – ZERGON (SI), NITSAN HOORGIN, JULIAN RUIZ, INBAL COHEN (IL), EVA PETRIČ (SI), VOJKO POGAČAR (SI), ORTOTIP (SI)

Supporting program:

MFRU ARHIV, Jože Slaček (SI), HIPER FILM MFRU, Uja Irgolič, Marko Batista, Jože Slaček,

Miroslav Ničić, Marko Ornik, son:DA (SI), FEMINA (SI)

AV performances:

ELECTRIC INDIGO, MALAVENTURA, RICARDO O’NASCIMENTO, JOHNSMITH, ELISABETH SCHIMANA / NOID, ANA PEČAR / LUKA PRINČIČ, ROBERTINA ŠEBJANIČ,

ALEŠ HIENG ZERGON, OSCOFF, C-DRIK, ŽIGA PAVLOVIČ, GROOVY CARTOON SESSIONS, NEAGUSHI™, VJ POSTARTLAB & DJ DAMIR P. f.k.a. D’SUN, JOŽE SLAČEK, PRIMOŽ OBERŽAN, JAN STERNIŠA, ORTOTIP, YOANN DURANT, SAMO PEČAR, BENO SORŠAK, CAMERON BOBRO

Lectures and presentations:

William Myers, Angelo Vermuelen, C-drik, Peter Tomaž Dobrila, Christopher Fiorello, Jessica Anderson, Jerneja Rebernak, Tina Dolinšek, Zoran Poznič, Dejan Pestotnik, Jože Slaček, Djino Šutić, Monika Pocrnjić, Robertina Šebjanič, Luka Frelih, Žiga Kranjec, Stella Venciana, Vojko Pogačar, Tomaž Grušovnik, Arne Korsika, študentje FERI, študentje PF, Dušan Zidar, Natalija Premužič, Suzana Uran, Franc Vrbančič, Gregor Krušič, Ladies of the press

Workshopolgy:

Music composition and improvisation from a single sound source – Open Lab, [rdxs]:__x=e and generative systems – Open Lab, Synto-duino-beeper, Ladies of the press, My secret: Pleasure bpm, Biotweaking work_SHOP, Revaluating Memory, Q:aRt, Game today, job tomorrow, FIRST®LEGO®League, Robotics for girls, Magic Cube, Robocup – dancebot workshop, DIY Theremidi Orchestra, ShapSounds, Smilefection, Design your city, Print GREEN, Gaming Lounge: relaxation and play, MariborScore, Student Campus

More info: http://www.mfru-kiblix.si

CONTACTS

———————————–

visitors:

Nina Jeza

phone: ++386 31 330 275

e-mail: ninajeza(at)gmail(dot)com

————————————

workshops:

Tanja Grosman

phone: ++386 31 682 579

e-mail: tanja(dot)grosman(at)kibla(dot)org

——————————————

press:

Sonja Gregorn

phone: ++ 386 2 300 29 95, ++386 41 849371

e-mail: sonja(dot)gregorn(at)mkc(dot)si

Dejan Pestotnik

phone: ++ 386 59 076 376, ++386 40 895 194

dejanx(at)kibla(dot)org

——————————-

4th to 8th November

This workshop’s aim is to create an experimental and collective publication from the assets of “Cooperativa dos Pedreiros” (Porto 1014–). Several ways of generating editorial contents will be created in order to develop a portfolio, from analyzing documents, materials and other information from Cooperativa.

This portfolio will be built upon formal and technological elements inherent to the production of a whole family of artifacts which now belong to the museum of the “Cooperativa”. And, as well, from elements gathered from its  architectonic heritage, which still today defines the landscape of the city, both suit as a teaser for the creation of this edition.

The goal of the workshop is to edit and reproduce a collective publication from an iconographic and particular universe with technical assistance of Catarina Marques. Publication with 24 to 48 pages, format 17.5 × 25 cm. Each participant will make two double pages (2 × 35 × 25 cm).

Technical Unconscious Mariana

Oscar Martin [Noish] Experimental artist and independent researcher and programmer working in the fields of sound art, installations, interactive and generative systems, performances and net radioart. A firm opensource advocate, Martín is also behind the MetaminaFNR streaming project, a generative on-line radio, and editor of UrsonateFanzine, a publication focused on the Spanish experimental sound and music scene. He implements independents workshops about puredata, arduino and others FLOSS tools.

noconventions.mobi/noish
metaminafnr.hotglue.me
www.minipimer.tv

C-drík aka Kirdec (BE/DE) begun to study declamation, orchestral drums and music theory in 1985, started to compose music in 1989 in the project Crno Klank. Later on he studied electro-acoustic/acousmatic music at the conservatory of Mons, Belgium. He currently produces different music genres ranging from electro-acoustic music to minimal wave, digital punk to industrial, dark ambient to electronica, etc. He is the owner of Syrphe, a label partly dedicated to alternative electronic and experimental music from Africa and Asia.

Cedrik Fermont is an academically educated musician and composer who embarked on the path of experimental sound (noise) right after finishing his studies. His solo and collaborative performances include sound projects in the genres of experimental, industrial, noise and ambient music. He has worked alongside musicians like Mick Harris, Mark Spybey, Yan Jun, Aluviana, Goh Lee Kwang, Contagious Orgasm, Itta, Pei, Le Diktat, Naofumi Ishimaru, Alok, David Thrussell, Error (2), Choi Joonyong, Lau Mun Leng, Hùng Nguyễn Mạnh and many others, mostly from Asia. He is founder of Syrphe Records. During his extensive world tour he has met artists and creators from around the globe. Syrphe has published numerous albums featuring performers from African, Middle East and Asian countries such as Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Singapore, China etc. http://www.minipimer.tv/

“Raablabs” is the first collaborative project resulted from the workshop Synergy organised by Hangar and Grid Spinoza in the framework of the European project Soft Control.

The theme of interdisciplinary synergy will structure the workshop itself, which will have two complementary and concurrent aspects, one practical and one theoretical  –
1. the development of several interdisciplinary project proposals, including formation of working teams, establishment of key resources and an ongoing development plan.
2. the development of a draft “interdisciplinary research protocol” document. This document is intended for international circulation as a guide for policy makers, government agencies and funding bodies.

These aspects will develop in parallel during and after the workshop. The theoretical deliberations will draw on the process of project development for examples etc, and those involved in project development will profit from input of theorists. Workshop participants may elect to concentrate on either or both aspects.

This interaction will be ongoing after the workshop is over. Projects and protocol will be hosted on the Grid Spinoza website. Development and cooperation will continue on this platform. Release of a first protocol document is planned for december 2013.

Presenters
Simon Penny is director of the workshop and of ongoing theoretical development. He is an artist, theorist and professor in media art, interactive installation and robotic art with a long history in interdisciplinary research and teaching internationally. Previously professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon, currently professor of Art at University of California Irvine and visiting professor in the Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media master at UPF.

Roc Parés is an artist and researcher in interactive communication. Currently Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and codirector of the University Master in Digital Arts, Idec/UPF.

Mara Balestrini has a background in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media and is currently pursuing her PhD at the Intel Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities, University College London. Her work lies at the intersection of urban informatics and behavior change, an interdisciplinary approach blending cognitive sciences, technology and arts.

More:
http://hangar.org/en/news/taller-sinergies-teoria-i-practica-interdisciplinaria/

After going through 39 project proposals, the Soft Control – Grid Spinoza – Spring Sessions #1 Jury has selected the project “Mixing-Up the Library” by the artist Dan Norton.

During his residency in Hangar, Dan Norton is going to carry out an investigation that brings together creative practice with Information and Library Science.

The study examines the value of creative methods for interacting in digital collections, and archives.
The research stems from an artistic interest in the relationship of the reader to the writer through technology (viewer to artist). This has been examined recently through Norton’s thesis, where the Disc Jockey’s creativity centers upon the use of the personal digital library.
In Information Science, a number of models have been developed to analyse user-system interaction in information seeking and retrieval. For example; Ellis (1989), Ingwersen (1996), Saracevic (1996), Belkin (1995). These models support development of information systems that are responsive to user needs.

However, a knowledge gap exists in these models; none are developed by observing creative practice. No creative information behaviors exist in the models Makri (2007) is an exception).
Disc Jockeys reappropriate pre-authored media. Content is reused throughout their process, and because of this it is relatively simple to observe individual creative behaviors, which allow innovation and newness to enter the process.
These two behaviours are: Selecting and mixing. I.e., the choice of material, the sequence by which it is shown, and the manner by which it is combined. This is sufficient to produce novel information.

The residency will be used to explore the value and potential application of the DJ’s creative model of information interaction, by discussions within the field of Information and Library Science.

22nd–24th April 2013
coord. Pedro Tudela (FBAUP)
At Cooperativa dos Pedreiros, Porto
Free Registration

In this workshop we will discuss, analyze and implement various ‘techniques of the body’, as Marcel Mauss put it, in specific regard to how we as humans sonify our existence through the very movements and gestures we make. This pertains to the sounds of our most routine everyday (subconscious) actions such as walking or writing to more active responses and interactions with spaces, objects and other people. We will also look at how we possibly embody elements of the past in the existing technologies and architecture that surrounds us. Our primary context is the former manufacturing facility of the ‘Cooperativa Dos Pedreiros’ and the spaces, materials and people we find there. The aim is not only to enhance our awareness of listening and technique but also to develop a more performative means of expression as artists and designers of experiences.

No experience is necessary, only an open mind, open ears.
Please wear comfortable clothing.
Recording devices are welcome. A pool of recorded materials (sounds, photos) can be created and shared afterward.

Some material from this workshop will be used for the final presentation/performance of my residency which will happen on May 3rd at FBAUP. Participants of the workshop will also be encouraged to collaborate.

+ workshop in the context of the Technical Unconscious Project / Softcontrol FBAUP
+ info: softcontrol@fba.up.pt
+ facebook

Participants:
Nicole Tsangaris, Ricardo Nogueira, Anabela Veloso, Pedro Huet, Sara Graça, Fernando Sebastião, Horácio José Cunha Frutuoso, Inês Abrunhosa Santos Ferreira, Igor Matos Almeida Silva, Ricardo Daniel Novais Pereira, Mariana da Silva Carrilho, Marta Rodrigues, Teresa Arede, Diana Teixeira, Ana Alícia Moreira

Media Art Histories: RENEW

The 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology
in collaboration with the 15th International Festival for New Media Culture “Art+Communication”
Riga, October 8–12, 2013

The Media Art Histories: Renew conference will host three days of keynotes, panels and poster sessions on the histories of networked digital, electronic and technological media arts.

The conference will be complemented by the Art+Communication festival programme, featuring media art exhibition, experimental film and video screening programme, live performances and workshops.
The conference will be organized by The Center for New Media Culture RIXC, in collaboration with Art Research Lab of Liepaja University, Stockholm School of Economics, Latvian Acadamy of Arts, Contemporary Art Center kim? and other local partners

http://www.mediaarthistory.org
http://twitter.com/rixcriga/
http://www.facebook.com/rixcriga/

April 4–7, 2013

Exhibitions | Performances | Lectures | Debates | Workshops | Screenings

Organized by CIANT

Enter 6: Biopolis calls for theory and practice based proposals addressing uncertainty of the division between natural and artificial, novel approaches in interaction between body and data.

Let us ask questions about future of life, ethics of scientific intrusion into exclusivity of the nature. Least but not last we will examine entanglement of our bodies and technology.

Keywords: Artificial vs. Natural, Bacteria, BCI, Bio-signals, Bioart, Bioethics, Biotechnology, Body, DNA, EEG, Genetics, Implants, Mutation, Nature, Neolifism, Next nature, Perception, Prosthetics, Science, Synthetic life, Transgenic, Wetware

Among the artists and researchers pre-negotiated to participate there are: Darina Alster (CZ), Tomáš Černý (CZ), Veselina Dashinova (BG/UK), Jalila Essaïdi (NL), Jakub Jansa (CZ), Pavel Karafiát (CZ), Jakub Ludma (SK), Martina Michalíková (SK), Jan Nálepa (CZ), , Marie Polákova (CZ/AT), Michal Pustějovský (CZ), Tomáš Suchan (CZ), Petr Šourek (CZ), , Tomáš Vavříček (CZ), Frederik de Wilde (BE) and others…

http://festival-enter.cz/2013/open-call-announcment/

MutaMorphosis is a conference on mutant futures and a platform for sustained mutalogues.
The first MutaMorphosis conference subtitled Challenging Arts and Sciences took place in Prague in November 2007 within the 40th anniversary celebrations of Leonardo | Journal of Arts, Sciences and Technology. It was a successful event thanks to the participation of a large number, diversity and quality of interdisciplinary experts, the themes discussed, the issues they raised, and last but not least the coherent and efficient organisation by CIANT | International Centre for Art and New Technologies.

Feel free to browse 2007 on-line proceedings (ISBN 978-80-254-0691-5) with over 70 papers and introductory texts with focus on extreme and hostile environments.

Here we are now, in 2012, five years after the first conference, ready to re-visit its intriguing themes and to introduce new ones while reflecting on recent and near future transformations at the intersections of arts, sciences and social change with a new subtitle: Tribute to Uncertainty (explore the theme!) and connect with conference Attractors.

Main partners for 2012 are the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic | Centre for Science, Technology and Society Studies at the Institute of Philosophy (also to publish selected papers in Theory of Science | Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies of Science) and Planetary Collegium, an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub and president Roy Ascott based in the University of Plymouth. Part of the MutaMorphosis II conference will be a composite session of the Planetary Collegium and selected papers will be published in the Technoetic Arts Journal.

As in 2007, there will be conference proceedings with ISBN published on-line.

Main host venues are the New Stage of the National Theatre, home of the first multimedia theatre ever, the legendary Laterna Magika, and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Prague December 6-8, 2012!

http://mutamorphosis.org

Preparatory Committee (alphabetical order):
Roy Ascott | Artist and educator | Planetary Collegium
Louis Bec | Biologist, artist and educator | Associated Researcher at CIANT
Roger Malina | Physicist, astronomer, editor | University of Texas at Dallas
Pavel Sedlak | Producer, curator, editor | Deputy Director of CIANT
Pavel Smetana | Artist and educator | Director of CIANT

Multimedia Centre KIBLA, Maribor and Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti (KGLU), Slovenj Gradec announce the international contemporary art project – entitled “SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious” – to be held from November 14 to December 15, 2012.

SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious
exhibition, conference, workshops, lectures
Dates: November 14 – December 15, 2012

Venues for the project:
KIBLA Multimedia Centre in Maribor, Slovenia
Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti (KGLU), Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia

Opening day at KGLU, Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec:
November 14, 2012
Opening day at the KIBLA Multimedia Centre, Maribor:
November 15, 2012

Participants: 30 artists from more than 11 countries
Curator of the project: Dmitry Bulatov

The international contemporary art exhibition SOFT CONTROL is being held as part of the Maribor – European Capital of Culture 2012 programme. The project will be presented at two sites: at the KIBLA Multimedia Centre (Maribor) and the Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti (Slovenj Gradec). SOFT CONTROL will be curated by DMITRY BULATOV, artist, new media theoretician and curator of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad branch, Russia). The exhibition will feature the work of thirty artists from eleven different countries.

The status of European Capital of Culture provides a powerful impulse towards the realisation of new ideas and projects. This helps to draw in both local experts and internationally renowned professionals to participate in the cultural life of the city. Devoting special attention to contemporary readings of culture and the exchange of innovative ideas, the KIBLA Multimedia Centre (Maribor) and Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti (Slovenj Gradec) have initiated a large-scale international project focused on the latest forms of artistic creation that have emerged at the intersection of art, science and technology. “The KIBLA Multimedia Centre is one of the most important organizations involved with contemporary art in Slovenia and Europe today”, remarked MMC KIBLA president and project director Aleksandra Kostič. “For the past fifteen years we have built up a great deal of experience in conducting various art projects and festivals.” The current project seeks to analyse the impact of the development of advanced technologies on the modern individual, and to elaborate cultural strategies for re-establishing people’s sense of engagement in the technological processes under way.

The capacity of an enterprise to both make a memorable impression on the audience and become a significant cultural event is largely determined by the cooperation of major curators, artists, philosophers and art theoreticians. In order to impart a universal format of artistic expression to the collective efforts, MMC KIBLA and Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec invited Dmitry Bulatov to curate the exhibition. Aleksandra Kostič commented on the choice: “Dmitry Bulatov is a well-known expert in the field of new media. As curator of the National Centre of Contemporary Arts (Russia) he has brought about more than twenty major international exhibitions and publishing projects devoted to various aspects of the interactions between art and high technology.”

INTERNATIONAL EXIBITION – ARTISTS
“SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious” will demonstrate various patterns of the use of new technologies in the current artistic process, and also present works of art that subject the role of technology and the media in contemporary civilisation to critical analysis. “When choosing the theme of the exhibition”, notes Bulatov, “we proceeded from the idea that science and technology are not merely tools that we use to achieve designated goals. On the contrary, technologies are raising new invisible boundaries all around us, penetrating into and transforming all spheres of human activity”. This raises the question of how we ought to understand the nature of control, of the compulsion that forces each and every one of us to participate in the formation of technological systems. In Bulatov’s opinion, “the task of the exhibition can be summed up as follows: to show how artists create new forms and new identities, not, however, as the protagonists of a historically determined technological narrative, but as the creators of that narrative”. Artists including Marina Abramović (Serbia/USA) with Suzanne Dikker and Matthias Oostrik (The Netherlands), Bill Vorn (Canada), Stelarc (Australia), James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau (United Kingdom), Polona Tratnik (Slovenia), Leo Peschta (Austria), Seiko Mikami (Japan), David Bowen (USA), Tuur Van Baalen (Belgium), Stefan Doepner and Lars Vaupel (Slovenia / Germany), The Tissue Culture & Art Project: Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (Australia), Maja Smrekar (Slovenia), Kuda begut sobaki (Russia), Andy Gracie (United Kingdom / Spain), Brandon Ballengee (USA), Louis-Philippe Demers (Singapore), Ursula Damm (Germany), Guy Ben-Ary and Kirsten Hudson (Australia), Boredomresearch: Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (United Kingdom), Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha (NL) and others were invited to participate in the exhibition for this very reason. All in all, the SOFT CONTROL exhibition is projected to show more than twenty technological art installations, some of which are being promoted as both international and European premieres.
Commenting on the project’s format, Bulatov emphasises: “The foundation of our exhibition lies in works of art that were created using the latest 21st century technologies: robotics, information technologies, biomedicine and nanotechnology. Artworks like these are the ideal way to convey a sense of time, which combines signs of life (like a living organism) with those of a technically reproduced artefact. This is of utmost importance when we are dealing with the approach of a new post-biological age – a stage of our human existence when the technological constituent of one or another organism will not only become inseparable from the biological, but in the long run will even overtake it”.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME
Along with the exhibition programme, the SOFT CONTROL project will involve other noteworthy events, all distinguished by this synthesis of artistic disciplines and scientific/technological research. Throughout the month, MMC KIBLA in Maribor and Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti in Slovenj Gradec will host educational lectures and discussions, seminars and master-classes given by well-known experts in the field of contemporary technological art, as well as video screenings from major international media-art festivals such as: PRIX Ars Electronica (Austria), VIDA: Art & Artificial Life International Competition (Spain), MediaArtLab Centre for Art and Culture (Russia), Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) (USA), IMPAKT (The Netherlands), The Prometheus Center (Russia), and others.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
The showpiece event of the educational programme will be an international conference involving theoreticians and artists from Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Singapore, to be held 16–17 November 2012. Conference participants invited include recognised experts in the field of contemporary art and new technologies such as Dr Roy Ascott (Plymouth University, UK) – one of Europe’s pioneers of cybernetic and telematic art; Dr Erkki Huhtamo (University of California Los Angeles, US) – well-known for research in media archaeology; Professor Andy Pickering (University of Exeter, UK) – an internationally-known figure in science and technology studies; Dr Pier Luigi Capucci (NABA International Academy of Arts and Design, Milan, IT) – a leading expert in art, science and technology. The conference will place special emphasis on the presentation of new strategies in contemporary technological art and training and education in the field, as well as practical presentations. Famous artists and practitioners including Stelarc (Australia), Polona Tratnik (Slovenia), Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (Australia), Louise-Philippe Demers (Singapore) will enjoy the opportunity to express themselves in the papers, lectures and discussions.
Technological art today is a site for the testing of various artistic innovations. However, it is clear that this research into the New should not be seen merely as narrowly-specialised technical or aesthetic experiments, but first and foremost as cultural utterance and cultural activity. Only then can the results of the artists’ investigations have a significant influence on thought and social life. This is the sort of goal set by the “SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious” project – it aims to provide visitors with an opportunity to learn to relate to technology not as our slave or as a simple extension of ourselves, but as a mysterious construct with which we enter into creative unions and conclude cautious agreements.

The project will be realized with the support of The European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012, The Slovenian Ministry of education, science, culture and sport, Slovenj Gradec Municipality, Maribor Municipality and The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

Organized and produced by Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec and MMC KIBLA

Production:
ACE KIBLA
http://www.kibla.org

More about the project:
http://kiblix.org/kiblix2012/softcontrol/

SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious was performed within Maribor European Capital of Culture 2012
www.maribor2012.si
http://www.maribor2012.info/