SHORT-NOTICE CALL FOR PARTICIPATION in Cafe Europa – RIXC Innovation Lab workshops

From August 15th till September 28th, 2014, Café Europa Riga holds event series at the container module which has come to Riga 2014 – the European Capital of Culture all the way of more than 2000 km from Belgium city Mons, which next year will be the Capital. Café Europa is a multi-functional, architecturally flexible, mobile space, that can be adapted to the needs of the local context while maintaining connection to other places in Europa with similar nature at the same time.

RIXC Centre for New Media Culture has turned Café Europa containers into Riga Innovation Lab by offering 6 weeks long extensive and manifold programme of exhibitions and workshops focused on art and science, and 3D printing. The RIXC Innovation Lab programme together with artists and scientists from Latvia, Belgium and Baltic-Nordic countries particularly will host workshops exploring the themes such as urban ecosystems, fog and the future of water, 3D printing of sound (and other intangible and intuitive properties), food as energy in overpopulated future world, as well as visual perception and sensor/responsive technologies.

* We announce SHORT-NOTICE CALL FOR PARTICIPATION in two of the most exciting RIXC Innovation Lab events:

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Lab No 1: September 2-7
Urban Ecosystems by Annemie MAES and Fog workshop by Edwin van der Heide

September 2-5 (Part 1)
URBAN ECOSYSTEMS AND CITY HONEYBEES
Exhibition and workshop by Annemie MAES (BE).

The 4-day will continue to explore the complex world of honeybees, which artist and workshop leader Annemie Maes has extensively investigated for some years. The 4-days workshop will be started with an introduction on Urban OpenGreens project and the role of the honeybees within this ecosystem. Following, the participants will study the bees’ behaviour and architecture based upon insights from biology, art, design and materials science. The participants will explore specific structural patterns present in physical and biological environments (city/nature walk), from macrostructures to biological microsystems. Starting from the collection of gathered organic materials, the participants will develop novel, bio-inspired designs for bee houses. Participants are expected to collaborate in the discussions, with drawings and by creating objects.

BIO: ANNEMIE MAES has studied a masters in fine arts, a masters of cultural studies and a specialisation in anthropological documentary film. By founding the organizations Looking Glass and OKNO she has played a major role in organising the multi-media art scene in Brussels, bringing together artists and art spaces from different European countries to engage in workshops and open research labs. The current line of her artistic work focuses on ecological issues, as in the ongoing Open-Greens project: http://opengreens.net/

Saturday, September 6 (Part 2)
WHITE NIGHT 2014: Fog – art and science workshops and performance
1-day art and science workshop (that will follow Urban Ecosystems lab) will be conducted by artist Edwin van der Heide and scientists from the Institute of Solid State Physics of Latvian University (the partners of RIXC), who will experiment and show different ways how the fog is generated (in natural and artificial environments).

The workshop will be followed by the FOG – environmental sound and light performance by Edwin van der Heide that will take place in Spikeri quartier, in the framework of WHITE NIGHT – annual forum for contemporary culture.

BIO: EDWIN VAN DER HEIDE is an artist and researcher in the field of sound, space and interaction. He extends the terms composition and musical language into spatial, interactive and interdisciplinary directions. His work comprises installations, performances and environments. The audience is placed in the middle of the work and challenged to actively explore, interact and relate themselves to the artwork.

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Lab No 2: September 23-28

September 23-28
HABITUS: SEEING AND BELIEVING, LIFE AS AN IMAGE.
Exhibition and workshop on visual perception psychology, real-time mapping and “shadow” projections by Hanna HAASLAHTI (FI).

The workshop will start with a presentation of Hanna’s research and her art work – Habitus , with notes about the body painting tradition of the Hain people and introduction of the Gestalt laws of perception. She will continue with a lecture and workshop on “Seeing and Believing, Life as an Image”. Cameras connected to computers yield many applications, which has become necessary feature of contemporary life. In this lecture the participants will be looking at how the computer vision techniques have transformed from the malevolent all-seeing eyes of big brother to ubiquituos vision systems that feed our pleasure of being constantly watched. The participats will also take a look at the Gestalt laws of perception and how it can map the invisible space of connections between individual things. In the practical part, the participants will explore the kinect 3D sensor and will go through the principles of realtime mapping.

BIO: HANNA HAASLAHTI is a media and installation artist working and living in Helsinki. She explores structures and methods which connect individuals to communities. In her work, the balance between individual freedom and communal rules takes shape as interactive installations or photographic experiments. The basic elements of her minimalistic installations are light, shadow and interaction. She researches computer vision technology, generative and volumetric graphics in the development process of interactive spaces. She has graduated from Medialab, University of Art and Design Helsinki.
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DEADLINES:

Please apply for workshops by sending short motivation letter and your short biography to email: rixc@rixc.lv
The Deadline for the Lab No 1 – August 28 (Urban Ecosystems + Fog),
and the deadline for the Lab No 2 – (on Visual Perception) – September 9, 2014.
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PARTICIPATION AND TRAVEL

Participation is free
Plus: We can cover travel costs and accomodation for 2-3 participants from Baltic and Nordic countries, and 2-3 participants from other European countries

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The Exhibitions at Cafe Europa Riga Innovation Lab are open: Tue-Sun 12.00-18.00, Mon – closed.

Café Europa Riga is the project organized by RIXC Center for New Media Culture in collaboration with Riga 2014 and Mons 2015 – European Cultural Capitals.

Follow information about the Cafe Europa Riga prject and RIXC Innnovation Lab events on Riga 2014 portal: http://riga2014.org/riga_mons
and RIXC Facebook page: http://facebook.com/rixcriga

Support: Foundation Riga 2014, Riga City Council, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, EU programme Culture, the State Culture Capital Foundation, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium in Riga, Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Warsaw, Wallonia-Brussels International, ABLV Charitable Foundation, Nordic Culture Point, Soft Control, Renewable Network, Laboratory of Hydrogen Energy Materials of the Institute of Solid State Physics of University of Latvia, Art Research Lab of Liepaja University.