In times of catastrophe, is optimism even an option? Or is this simply a question of the right point of view?

ZeitRäume is a long-term R&D project staffed by an open network of artists, designers, architects, technologists, scientists, business people and government officials. Recent findings and current issues in the study of climate change are serving as the basis for the development of scenarios and lifestyles with great future promise. These are being visualized in artistic and design-oriented works and projects. ZeitRäume is being launched at the Ars Electronica Festival with a symposium entitled “Desire for Future, Change and How to Admit Failure“ (Münchner Kreis, Ludwig Maximilian University and the Technical University Munich).

More information at http://www.overtures.de/zeitraeume

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

If it’s “too late to be a pessimist” (Yann Arthus-Bertrand), then how can we remain optimistic and sustain the urge to bring forth a future worth living? We’re currently experiencing numerous major miscarriages—environmental catastrophes, financial crises, seeming endless border disputes. At this symposium, experts in a wide array of fields will elaborate on and illustrate how to acknowledge errors and to use them as a source of motivation to implement change. The ambitious goal here is to mobilize oneself and others in order to courageously assume responsibility for a better future.

Updates can be found at: http://www.artcircolo.de/zeitraeume_/linz2010

Program:

4.9. 18:00-21:00
Location: Sky Loft, 3^rd floor, Ars Electronica Center, Ars-Electronica-Straße-1, A-4040 Linz

• 18:00  Symposium/Workshop Opening
• Welcome
  • Prof. Arnold Picot (Münchner Kreis)
  • Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann (overtures-ZeitRäume)
  • Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica)
• Lectures
  • Evolutionary Heritage: Decision processes, self repair of systems in uncertain environments, aspects of brain research
    Prof. Ernst Pöppel, psychologist and neuroscientist, LMU Munich
  • The Ignorance Society
    Prof. Daniel Innerarity, Professor of political and social philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian
• 21:00  Conversation Dinner
  Each table will receive a subject concerning sustainability, admitting failure and change in our society and is asked to propose an implementation scenario. The results will be summarized and discussed next day.

5.9. 10:00-13:00
Location: Bau 2 EG

• 10:00  Opening
  • Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica)
  • Introduction of overtures-ZeitRäume and the art projects
    Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann
  • How to Finance our Future
    Opening Prof. Arnold Picot
• 10:15 Central Banks as Pushers of the Financial Crisis.
  Prof. Dr. Gunnar Heinsohn, sociologist and economist, University of Bremen
• 11:00 Towards a Language for the economics of Economy.
  Dr. Viktor Winschel, Universität Mannheim, VWL Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen
• 11:30 Evolutionary Heritage: Decision processes, self repair of systems in uncertain environments, aspects of brain research
  Prof. Ernst Pöppel, psychologist and neuroscientist, LMU Munich
• 12:00 Software Engineering: How to deal with failure.
  Prof. Dr. Bernd Brügge, computer scientist, TUM
• 12:30 Guided acoustic Tour
  by sound artist Kalle Laar
  Engagement to our Future
  Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann, curators, Germany.
  Combine transdisciplinary experiences and art processes to gain knowledge. – Courage for active change and future through artists

5.9. 14:30-17:30
Location: Bau 1 OG 3

• 14:30 Meeting point at „Never Ever“, project by Benjamin Bergmann
• 15:00 Metro Crowd Financing for SMEs in underdeveloped metropolitan areas
  Stefan Doeblin, Network Economy AG
• 15.20 Applications: How to Admit Failure!
  Prof. Dr. Han Brezet, Technical University Delft, Sustainable Design Program
• 15:50 Manufactured Demand: What it means to grow a multi-billion Dollar industry around bottled water.
  Dr. Martin Richartz, computer scientist, Vodafone R&D Germany, Dr. Serafine Lindemann, curator, artcircolo
• 16.10 Panel: Desire for Future, Change and how to admit Failure
  Benjamin Bergmann, Kalle Laar, Prof. Dr. Arnold Picot, Dr. Christian Schoen, Gerfried Stocker,Dr. Bernd Wiemann
  Video Including presentation of the results of the conversation dinner
• 16:50 Science without error bars
  Dr. Wolf von Reden, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft HHI

The tuition for attending the entire symposium is 100€ (50€ for students, artists and seniors). This fee to cover production costs entitles you to admission to the workshop on Saturday (including dinner) as well as admission and participation on Sunday. Free admission for Festival Pass holders applies only to the panels on Sunday.

A project of Münchner Kreis, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München and the Technischen Universität München in cooperation with the Ars Electronica in line with the overtures-ZeitRäume series, a artcircolo pilotraum 01 project.

Kalle Laar (DE)
4. 9. 16:00 – 17:00

Defective, sick, obsolete, irreparable, remarkable, lost, off-the-charts and misplaced sounds; on vinyl, of course; saved by the dj. Kalle Laars performance with the Temporary Soundmuseum’s collection invites visitors to engage in conscious hearing with open ears.

www.klangmuseum.de

djkl & The Temporary Soundmuseum

2.9. – 7.9.

Access to healthy drinking water is a basic right, but also a technical and social challenge. Accordingly, experts in technology, biology, medicine, art and design collaborated on the development of the Quelle 01 (Spring 01) drinking water purification system. It takes local tap water, physically and chemically purifies it, and delivers water as if from a natural spring. The assignment was to achieve consummate drinking water quality, and to use local sources of water worldwide in order to avoid unnecessary transportation, cleaning and recycling of bottles. The outcome is to bring technology, nature and life into harmony in a way that has great future promise. Three of these devices will be exhibited at Ars Electronica.

http://www.quellsysteme.de

2.9. – 7.9. Bau 1 OG 5 Abteilungsleiterraum

In his second installation, Kalle Laar deals with the festival theme, REPAIR, since, the way he sees it, kaput technology has the right to live on in dignity. Instead of disposing of his loudspeakers—that can no longer meet the standards demanded by a sound artist—they become members of his ensemble, contributing their own inimitable qualities to the interpretation of “defective” classic and electronic sounds.

http://www.klangmuseum.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

2.9. – 7.9.

Sound artist Kalle Laar investigates the ambient noises that surround us and that we consciously or unconsciously perceive. His “research work” focuses on the individual emotional connections evoked by sounds—and unaffected by visual elements.

In this installation, a seemingly empty room is occupied by sounds, tone by tone. These sounds are often on the very threshold of audibility, so that the visitor doesn’t always know whether he/she actually heard something and, if so, what and where. Nature intrudes. The sounds of everyday life. In relation to the installation space’s dimensions, they remain in miniature format, little tonal objects to be discovered, audible phenomena that, in their own way, surreptitiously take possession of this place.

http://www.klangmuseum.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

The works of Benjamin Bergmann make bold assertions, conduct thought experiments and sensitively play with ideas in which the absurd often takes center stage. Their basic nature is sculptural, and they display an essentially performative character. “For me, the beautiful thing about absurdity is the sustainability of the confusion. At some point, you find yourself toying with the idea that a totally absurd world would perhaps be more beautiful.”

Accordingly, when Bergmann installs a basketball hoop at dizzying heights, what he’s setting up thereby is a metaphorical and de facto experiment that sets its goal so high that there’s a higher likelihood of failure than success.

http://www.benjaminbergmann.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

2.9. – 7.9.

In a water-filled basin, Icelandic artist Pétursson creates interference at 7.8 hertz. The sound, which can be heard and felt, becomes visible in the form of waves on the surface of the water. This 7.8 hertz frequency corresponds to a physical phenomenon named the Schumann Resonance that describes the resonation of the Earth’s electromagnetic field. For Pétursson, this is the frequency of our home planet’s pulse.

http://www.finnbogi.com

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)