RENEWABLE FUTURES 2015: Transformative Potential of Art in the Age of Post-Media

The 1st edition of new academic art and science conference series, complemented by the exhibition and festival programme

October 8-10, 2015, Riga

The Renewable Futures is a new conference series in the Baltic Sea region that aims to invent new avenues for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. It will shape new contact zones between traditionally separated domains – art and science, academic research and independent creative practices, sustainable businesses and social engagement in the 21st century.

The 1st conference edition will take place in Riga, from October 8-10, 2015, and it will primarily focus on exploring the transformative potential of art in the post-media conditions. Today, according to several voices – Rosalind Krauss, Lev Manovich, Peter Weibel and Domenico Quaranta – we have entered the post-media age; there is no any single medium anymore that dominates in contemporary media art practices that are rather engaged with contemporaneity and critical thinking. The huge diversity of “post-media art” was profoundly explored also in the Fields exhibition  (Riga 2014, fields.rixc.org), curated by Raitis Smits, Armin Medosch and Rasa Smite. The Fields showed that art in post-media conditions contains highly transformative and visionary potential. However, symbolic and aesthetic qualities, as well as critical, investigative and confrontational aspects also proved to be just as important for “post-media art” to maintain a line between physical and mental, realities and utopias.

CALL FOR CONFERENCE PROPOSALS:

We welcome proposals by artists, curators, theorists, academic researchers and other lateral thinkers to share their ideas and research with regards to the following themes:
• post-media art, avantgarde practices and theories
• ‘slow’ media art – preservation challenges for the museums
• art and science – for building techno-ecological perspective
• technopolitical investigations into the informational paradigm
• Big Data and media visualizations
• post-media architecture, sustainable design and open businesses
• culture for sustainable development in the Baltic Sea and North European region

DEADLINE: March 20, 2015

Please submit your conference proposal (abstract 250 words, biography 200 words) via http://openconf.rixc.lv 

In a case of any problems with the openconf system, please don’t hesitate to contact us: rixc@rixc.lv

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE FESTIVAL & EXHIBITION:

The conference will be complemented by a broad programme of the RIXC’s annual Art+Communication 2015 festival, which in its 17th edition will manifest the post-media situation by changing its title and a shift – it now takes a turn from the festival’s initial focus on information & communication technologies paradigm to the broader and more contemporary discourse on art and science, culture and sustainability, with particular interest on exploring and building techno-ecological perspective.

This year’s festival exhibition will also contribute in building post-media perspective. We invite artists to propose their works that by blurring the boundaries between different disciplines are developing visions for more sustainable and imaginative ways of life.

* Keynote speakers:

John THACKARA
Lev MANOVICH

* Plenary session keynotes:

Dieter DANIELS
Katja KWASTEK
Armin MEDOSCH
tbc.

* Conference International Advisory board:

Dieter DANIELS, Douglas KAHN, Katja KWASTEK, Armin MEDOSCH, Regine DEBATTY, Gediminas URBONAS, Misko SUVAKOVIC,
Rob VAN KRANENBURG, and others – tbc.

* Conference chair: Rasa SMITE
* Exhibition curator: Raitis SMITS

* Conference Regional (BSR/North Europe) Organizational Board: Chris HALES, Hege TAPIO, Vytautas MICHELKEVICIUS, Kristin BERGAUST, and other partners of Renewable Network – tbc.

Contact: rixc@rixc.lv

You can also follow the RF conference news by subscribing Renewable list:
http://db.x-i.net/mailman/listinfo/renewable

More information: http://rixc.org

Organized by RIXC in collaboration with Art Research Lab of Liepaja University

Partners: Renewable Network, NORTH Creative Network Project, Culturability BSR
Support: State Cultural Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, Latvian 
Ministry of Culture, Creative Europa, EEA/Norway grants