Moderated by Derrick de Kerckhove (CA)

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Day 2 of the ORIGIN Symposium gets underway with Humberto Maturana (CL), the man who developed the theory of autopoeisis and a key collaborator on the concepts of radical constructivism. In his capacity as neurobiologist and philosopher, he will treat the question of the preconditions for innovation to occur. How to create and manage the framework circumstances necessary to do good science and nurture innovation will be the subject of a conversation between CERN Director General Rolf Heuer (DE/CH) and Joi Ito (JP/US), the new director of the MIT Media Lab. Roger Malina, Ursula Damm (DE) and Ariane Koek (UK/CH) will talk about the connections between art and science as well as what sets them apart. Roger Malina (FR) is one of the pioneers of art-science collaboration. Ursula Damm is an artist who has made considerable inroads into the scientific domain and consistently taken an artistic approach to doing so. Ariane Koek has launched a major new artist-in-residence program at CERN.

On Saturday as well, symposium participants will be able to remain together for lunch and continue their discussions.

Humberto Maturana (CL) is a biologist and philosopher. He is considered a member of the second wave of cybernetics, known for developing a theory of autopoiesis about the nature of reflexive feedback control in living systems.
Joichi Ito (JP/US) is the newly appointed Director of the MIT Media Lab. Among many other functions, he is General Manager of Neoteny Labs, the Chair of Creative Commons, co-founder and board member of Digital Garage.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer (DE/CH) studied physics at the University of Stuttgart, then obtained his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. From 1978 to 1983 he was a research physicist at the University of Heidelberg, working on the PETRA electron-positron storage ring as a member of the JADE collaboration. From 1984 to 1998 he was a staff member at CERN, working for the OPAL collaboration at the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP). From 1994 he was the collaboration’s spokesman. Much of his career has been involved with the construction and operation of large particle detector systems for studying electron-positron collisions. On leaving CERN in 1998, he took up a professorship at the University of Hamburg, where he established a group working on preparations for experiments at a possible future electron-positron linear collider. On taking up his appointment as Research Director for particle and astroparticle physics at DESY in 2004, Professor Heuer was responsible for research at the HERA accelerator, DESY’s participation in the LHC and R&D for a future electron-positron collider. He replaced Robert Aymar as DG of CERN in 2009.
Roger Malina (US/FR) is an astrophysicist at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille CNRS in France were he is a member of the Observational Cosmology Research Group involved in the study of dark matter and dark energy in the Universe. He is a former Executive Director of the Center for EUV Astrophysics at UC Berkeley, and Executive Editor of the Leonardo publications at by MIT Press.
Ariane Koek (UK/CH) worked as an award-winning cultural producer and leader in public broadcasting for the BBC in both television and radio as well as CEO of the Arvon Foundation for Creative Writing over 20 years. Since 2010 she is working on International Arts Development at CERN.
Ursula Damm (DE) works as an artist at the interface of art and technology. She has developed numerous installations that deal with the relationship between nature and civilisation. Since 2008, Ursula Damm has been Lecturer for the Design of Media Environments at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

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The series’ thematic spectrum has undergone steady expansion from its initial focus on computer gaming, architecture and virtual/augmented reality to its present orientation on the R&D work currently in progress at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. *Pixelspaces* has thus established itself as the dynamic hub of a community of artists and scientists that enables conference participants to present their work and to discuss socially relevant issues associated with it.

Pixelspaces 2011: Re-Scripting

Inspired by the term “script” that sociologist of technology Madeleine Akrich uses to refer to those elements of an electronic device that a priori prescribe users’ options for action and thereby structure them, the term “re-scripting” is meant to refer to changing social circumstances and to bring up the question of new patterns and interrelationships.

Panel 1: [the next idea] in research

Kibilight Project, credit: Kibilight Project

Haberlandt / blablabLAB, credit: blablabLAB

10:00 Horst Hörtner (Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Pixelspaces Welcome Address
10:30 Bernhard Böhm (Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
10:40 Gerard Rubio (Artist, blablabLAB / ES), Raul Nieves (Artist, Haberlandt / ES)
11:00 Elizabeth Otieno (Project Manager, Kibilight Project / KE)
11:20 James Burke (Information Architect, Experience Designer, P2P Foundation / NL/UK)
11:40 Roundup and Discussion

The objective of this panel is to shed some light on the new interrelationship
among science, technology and society from practitioners’ perspectives and
to go through a process of reflection about the present and future opportunities
and risks associated with this development. In the first panel, we’ll
showcase outstanding projects that were singled out for recognition in [the
next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant competition at this year’s
Prix Ars Electronica. They have to do with energy, mobility and access, issues
of enormous importance to humankind’s future.

Panel 2: Open Research!

Oribotics / Matthew Gardiner (AU), credit: Matthew Gardiner

13:30 Bernhard Böhm (AT), Roland Reiter (Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
13:40 Matthew Gardiner (Artist and Researcher, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AU)
14:00 Boris Debackere (NL/Manager, V2_Lab)
14:20 Joao Pequenao (POR/Research Specialist, CERN)
14:40 Ulrike Felt (Professor of Science Studies, University of Vienna / AT)
15:00 Roundup and Discussion

Panelists will consider the research paradigm shift going on right now from the point of view of artists and researchers working in an institutional context. The focus will be on the new link-up of scientific systems and previously excluded segments of society.

The time has come to set up new shared spaces that enable science and art to come out and “play.” Spaces in which each can observe the way the other works, in which each can learn from the other, and can do some collaborative tinkering on innovations for the society of the future. In addition to this paradigm of interdisciplinarity, Day 2 of the Pixelspaces Symposium will deal with another current trend: the expansion of the concept of research in the direction of gaining artistic insights.

Artists are increasingly emancipating themselves and assuming the role of independent researcher. The increasing attention this is garnering will be illustrated during the panel with reference to new subsidy programs and artistic research projects. Which all goes to show that: Art Makes Science.

Panel 3: Creative Collisions

10:00 Christopher Lindinger (Director of Research and Innovations, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
10:20 Ariane Koek (International Arts Development, Collide@CERN/ CERN / UK)
10:40 Lynn Scarff (Education and Outreach Manager, Science Gallery Dublin / IR)
11:00 Marcos Garcia (Head of Program, Media Lab Prado / ES)
11:20 David Edwards (Director Le Laboratoir Paris/ Professor, Harvard University / US)
11:40 Roundup and Discussion

What happens when media artists and scientists get together to inspire one another or even to collaborate? Panel 3 scrutinizes the potential of interdisciplinary link-ups. At the center of attention will be innovative art & science collaborations including the European platform StudioLab as well as the planned artist-in-residence program at the CERN research center in Switzerland that’s currently being planned in cooperation with the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Panel 4: Re-Scripting the Stage

13:30 Roland Haring (Senior Research Lead – Interaction Ecologies, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
13:40 Martina Mara (Researcher, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT)
14:00 Klaus Obermaier (Media artist and “(St)Age of Participation” project leader / AT)
14:20 Louis-Philippe Demers (CA/SG) (Artist, Designer and Researcher, Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University)
14:40 Johannes Birringer (US/UK) (Artist, Choreographer and Author, Professor at Brunel University London)
15:00 Roundup and Discussion

“St(Age) of Participation” is an artistic research project that the Ars Electronica Futurelab has launched in 2011 together with media artist and choreographer Klaus Obermaier (AT) to test new participative, multimedia forms of stage-based performance. In addition to presenting the project and its objectives, the panelist will be discussing the concepts of the theatrical stage and the dramatic performance, and what the future might bring in this context.

Panel 5: OHMI – The One-Handed Musical Instrument Project

OHMI, One Handed Music Instrument, credit: OHMI

16:00 Horst Hörtner (Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
16:10 Stephen Hetherington (Founder of the OHMI Project / UK)
16:30 Joe Paradiso (Director of the Responsive Environments, MIT MediaLab / US)
16:50 Peter Purgathofer (Associate Professor Vienna University of Technology / AT)
17:10 Nick Wilsdon (UK/Assistive Music Technology specialist at Drake Music; Sound Designer; Media Artist & Musician)
17:30 Roundup and Discussion – Moderation: Horst Hörtner (Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT)

There is presently no orchestral musical instrument that can be played with one hand. As a result millions of people across the world with impairment in one hand or arm are excluded from music making. We want to invent new instruments to open full and undifferentiated participation in musical life; whether at school, in the home, or in a professional ensemble. The technical difficulties of this challenge are considerable. It is now fairly straightforward to synthesize the sounds of orchestral instruments electronically, but this is a far cry from the subtlety and complexity of performance on a realorchestral wind or string instrument. The OHMI Project is trying to create musical equivalence, compatibility and the possibility of participation. Our success will have a profound impact not just on individuals, but also on society‘s relationship with disability, opening new realms of achievement and possibility.

The Ars Electronica OHMI Competition

The OHMI-Trust was formed by Stephen Hetherington and Martin Dyke in 2011 in response to Stephen’s attempts to find a musical instrument his hemiplegic daughter could play at school. Panel 5 on the One-Handed Musical Instrument Project in conjunction with Pixelspaces 2011 will officially launch the Ars Electronica OHMI Competition. The competition will then commence and the entry rules will be formally published. It is expected that each round of the competition will last two years. At the end of the first year the best concepts and prototypes will be awarded funds to assist further development.

Actual performances will then be given on the new instruments at the end of the second year. It is planned that the winning instrument will get a special Prix Ars Electronica award and will perform as part of the Ars Electronica Festival before playing again with the City of Birmingham Orchestra in the UK.

10:00 Christopher Lindinger (Director of Research and Innovations, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
10:20 Ariane Koek (International Arts Development, Collide@CERN/ CERN / UK)
10:40 Lynn Scarff (Education and Outreach Manager, Science Gallery Dublin / IR)
11:00 Marcos Garcia (Head of Program, Media Lab Prado / ES)
11:20 David Edwards (Director Le Laboratoir Paris/ Professor, Harvard University / US)
11:40 Roundup and Discussion

What happens when media artists and scientists get together to inspire one another or even to collaborate? Panel 3 scrutinizes the potential of interdisciplinary link-ups. At the center of attention will be innovative art & science collaborations including the European platform StudioLab as well as the planned artist-in-residence program at the CERN research center in Switzerland that’s currently being planned in cooperation with the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Pixelspaces Day 2: Art Meets Science / Art Makes Science

The time has come to set up new shared spaces that enable science and art to come out and “play.” Spaces in which each can observe the way the other works, in which each can learn from the other, and can do some collaborative tinkering on innovations for the society of the future. In addition to this paradigm of interdisciplinarity, Day 2 of the Pixelspaces Symposium will deal with another current trend: the expansion of the concept of research in the direction of gaining artistic insights. Artists are increasingly emancipating themselves and assuming the role of independent researcher. The increasing attention this is garnering will be illustrated during the panel with reference to new subsidy programs and artistic research projects. Which all goes to show that: Art Makes Science.

Panel 3: Creative Collisions

What happens when media artists and scientists get together to inspire one another or even to collaborate? Panel 3 scrutinizes the potential of interdisciplinary link-ups.