Impact – Radical Atoms https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en Ars Electronica Festival 2016 Tue, 28 Jun 2022 13:26:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.6 Campus Exhibition: Speculative materialities https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/campus-exhibition-interface-cultures/ Wed, 03 Aug 2016 07:12:35 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=1631

This year the Interface Culture department intends to celebrate the emergence of new sensibilities in respect to speculative investigations of new materialities. The presented projects and prototypes are designed to free us from having to spend a large part of our lives hunched over desks. They aim to liberate us from seeing our lives pass by on monitors, illuminated by cold LED light. The projects provide us with powerful, smart, physical objects. They show us some possible future potentials of materials.

From questions of our relation with time, to the identitarian principles behind national symbols; from sculptural forms which remind us of the centrality of materials in art to improbable calculating machines and improbable sports for consumers; from critiques of a society which binds us to our habits and demonstrations of more literal constraints, to the needs for the exercise of power and control; from speculations on and materializations of processes and technological empowerment to retrospective reflections on our natural state, combined with environmental concerns; from interfaces that involve challenge and choice to the progressive sensing of the social interaction on the net.

All of these themes are explored in this year’s Interface Cultures student exhibition. It emerges from practices involving the evolution of our contemporaneity. You will find neither screens which display representations, nor pure virtual worlds with supposed abstractions, but rather agglomerations of materials: objects, that give rise to material speculations.

Christa Sommerer, Alessio Chierico

Instructors:
Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Michaela Ortner, Marlene Brandstätter, Fabrizio Lamoncha

Production Team:
Gertrude Hörlesberger, Julia Nüßlein, Onur Olgac, Irene Ródenas, Mario Romera Gomez, Johannes Wernicke

Design Team:
Oliver Lehner, Florian Reiche

Credit:Patricia Cadavid

# 12OCT

Patricia Cadavid H.

#12OCT reflects about certain aspects of the past and present of Ibero-American colonial panorama.

The paradigmatic date of October 12 reminds us that in 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived to America for the first time.
The Spanish state officially celebrates the beginning of the colonization of America as the day of national holiday or Hispanicity Day, by holding a sumptuous military parade. In the colonized countries of Latin America this date is known among other names, as Day of the Race or Day of Indigenous Resistance.

This interactive installation makes a critical approach of the controversy of these different connotations, with the use of simple and open devices to the public, using social networks like a collective thinking sensor on both sides of the Atlantic.
It utilizes data visualization as a physical form with a representation of a world map provided in a container with water and three ships of proportional size symbolizing the caravels led by Christopher Columbus.

Two engines direct the flow of the water from a continent to the other, depending on the reading of the real-time data that are generated with the search of specific hashtags on twitter.

Credit: Nathan Guo

Alibi

Nathan Yao Guo, Muchen Zhang

Alibi is a speculative and interactive installation that creates an astronaut suit for a fish, giving it the ability to move around by taking advantage of robotic arm. Inspired by “Becoming Animal” by Deleuze and the approach of critical design, this project proposes an ecosystem and biosphere for animals. It provides a high-tech scenario and the right to explore the “outer-space” for animals, meanwhile giving people a vigilant and reflective contemplation.

Credit:Gabriela Gordillo

Arrhythmia

Gabriela Gordillo

Arrhythmia is a sound installation of an ongoing composition made out of rhythms of everyday life. Visitors are able to set different loops, according to the duration of daily activities in a time-frame of 24 hours. The data is transformed into an audible sequence, that makes possible to observe these patterns, mix them, and relate them to others. Arrhythmia, questions the subjectivity behind routine and repetition, through regarding the multiplicity of the uses of time, and the appropriations of personal rhythms that coexist with the ones imposed.

Credit: Nadal Escudero

BitterCoin

Martín Nadal, Cesar Escudero Andaluz

Bittercoin is an old calculating machine hacked to be used as a miner validating the pending bitcoins transactions in the blockchain (online distributed database). BitterCoin combines the Internet of Things, media archaeology and economy. The operations are displayed on the calculator screen and printed afterwards.

The bitcoin was originally conceived as an electronic decentralized system for capital transactions. Each node (user) had the same opportunities to get a reward when validating a transaction.

In the last years this system has triggered a competitive struggle in which computing power is the most important variable for earning bitcoins. This involves the use of large equipment, computer farms requiring physical and environmental resources. A struggle that benefits only the owner of the most powerful and efficient technology. BitterCoin takes up this discourse in a rhetorical way. It works as the most basic computer, increasing the time needed to produce bitcoins to almost an eternity.

Credit: Chiara Esposito

Domes

Chiara Esposito

The Domes are sound sculptures made out of ceramic. Their metallic glaze, a traditional decoration technique, works as a sensing element. The sculpture senses the touch of the visitor and reacts by resonating.

Ceramic artists: Rita Lonardo, Renato Brancaccio

Thanks to Svenja Keune, Massimo Scamarcio, Marialuisa Capurso

Credit: Julia Nüßlein, Irene Ródenas

Green Filter

Julia Nüßlein, Irene Ródenas Sáinz de Baranda

With the speculative design project Green Filter, the artists Irene Ródenas and Julia Nüßlein propose a symbiosis between humans and nature.
The visitor is invited to imagine we’d be using nature’s elaborate ways to filter the air that we breathe, instead of causing polluted air and ecological imbalance by exploiting the earth for plastic and oil. Imagine plants being part of our every move, and every human having a pet plant.

Green Filter consists of wearable objects made from plants and natural materials that filter the air we breath. The objects challenge habits and assumptions, and encourage critical thinking about our position on planet Earth.

Credit: Jens Vetter

Homo Restis

Jens Vetter, Sarah Leimcke

Homo Restis, a performance-live-sonic-installation, could be seen as another fruit in a long term collaborative exchange between the musician Jens Vetter and visual artist Sarah Leimcke. The potent medieval-futurism of the images invoked in this happening enter the mind of the viewer and stay there, imprinted. Themes of weight, detail, passivity, activity, and the macabre swirl and augment each other to produce a quality of “theatre” which is both accessible and occult. Homo Restis engages with the evident environment and abstract space through the presence of both Vetter and Leimcke. Both appear as “men on strings“,  marionettes, as the Latin term ”restis”. They attach themselves to the environment and to each other. This moments of “getting attached” is transformed as sound. We can ask ourselves: how can material of this fantasy be a catalyst for solid exploration?

Credit: Amaia Vincente Garcia

Is Europe a Utopia?

Amaia Vicente García

This interactive installation shows a European flag which is hanging from the ceiling.

The spectator can move around the artwork. By doing so he/she provokes constant changes on the installation. The fabric moves, sound appears, also depending upon how many people are around. The air of fans move the flag. It opens, closes and shakes in order to create an air sculpture. It is possible to have a look inside the empty sculptural space.
The sounds are voices from different women who are reading facsimiles of European constitution extracts focused on diversity, equal and gender opportunity.
The voices sometimes overlap and therefore cannot be understood very clear all the time. This and the air fans produce a sound mess which is a metaphor of this European utopia.

Credit: Or Wollf

MusiCalendar

Or Wollf

This installation deals with the combination of the digital and the analog world from the output of personal data.

The project includes a digital interface that takes personal characteristics and creates an individual calendar. These data are used as points on a paper strip of a music box that will be translated to a melody and visuals.

The combination of digital and analog brings a new way for perceiving and understanding everyday interfaces such as a calendar. Personal data of anyone receives a new interpretation for lifestyle, schedule, events and the outcome based on different data will change from one person to another.

Credit: Oliver Lehner

Shopping Mill

Oliver Lehner

Shopping Mill is an interactive, multi-sensory installation: a treadmill augmented with display and headphones. Walking on the mill simulates a shopping experience with Muzak playback and an endlessly unfolding, 3D-generated shopping aisle. Shopping Mill is a meditation on the relationship between de-realized labor and senseless consumption. A trip into the military entertainment complex. Muzak – the company – was founded by a highly decorated war veteran. Its product was not only developed to make people feel comfortable in uncomfortable architectures, but also to heighten attentiveness and productivity in the work place.
Is it the music that keeps you going or is it the other way around?

Credit: Johannes Wernicke

Sonolith

Johannes Wernicke

The installation consists of a seemingly solid monolith/cuboid hanging from the ceiling. It looks like it floats. When the visitors inspect it from a nearer distance odd wave-like movements can be seen emerging on its surface. The material seems to change its gaseous state, starting to seem rather soft or even appearing liquid.

Credit: Qian Xu

Suan

Qian Xu

Suan (chinese: to calculate) is an installation projecting fractal patterns and animations based on parameter input from an abacus.

The visitors participate by playing with the abacus. A hidden camera captures the numbers, which the participants enter on the abacus. These numbers will be used as different parameters to generate different fractal Images.
The work shows the charm of mathematics from a different approach. Filled with cultural and artistic inspirations, it is also accessible to people from different age ranges, education levels and nationalities. One does not need to know exactly what’s going on with the complex calculation to enjoy the beauty of mathematics.

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SYMPOSIUM I.I. – RADICAL ATOMS – FROM VISION TO PRACTICE https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/symposium1-1/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:30:21 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=1482

RADICAL ATOMS – FROM VISION TO PRACTICE

The first Panel of the theme symposium is the theoretical accompaniment and exploration of the Radical Atoms exhibition. Developed in close cooperation with Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP), the RADICAL ATOMS – FROM VISION TO PRACTICE symposium follows the path of artistically inspired technological development, from idea to creation. Examples from the early years of the Tangible Media Group demonstrate how ideas derived from art led to the development of trailblazing and fundamentally new technological concepts.

Schedule

10:00AM-10:10AM Gerfried Stocker (AT) Welcome Address
10:10AM-10:40AM VISION RADICAL ATOMS
Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP):Radical Atoms: Beyond the Pixel Empire
10:40AM-11:20AM DANCE – Shape Changes
10:40AM-11:00AM Daniel Leithinger (AT) + Sean Follmer (US): inFORM and Beyond
11:00AM-11:20AM Ken Nakagaki (JP) + Luke Vink (NZ/NL): LineFORM and Meta-Materiality
11:20AM-11:30AM Q & A
11:30AM-11:45AM Break
11:45AM-12:25PM GROW – Bio & Skin/Fashion
11:45AM-12:05PM Amanda Parkes (US): Kinetic
12:05PM-12:25PM Lining Yao (CN/US): bioLogic
12:25PM-1:15PM ENABLE – Sensors & Fabrication
12:25PM-12:45PM Joe Paradiso (US): Enabling Technologies
12:45PM-1PM Jifei Ou (CN): Programmable materials and digital fabrication
1PM-1:15PM Dávid Lakatos (HU): Form Giving
1:15PM-1:25PM Q & A
1:25PM-1:30PM Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP): Teaser for Symposium I.II

Moderation: Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP) and Gerfried Stocker (AT)

This event is realised in the framework of the European Digital Art and Science Network and co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

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SYMPOSIUM I.II.: RADICAL ATOMS – IMPACT AND EXPECTATIONS https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/symposium1-2/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:29:28 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=1498

RADICAL ATOMS – IMPACT AND EXPECTATIONS

Taking work done by MIT’s Tangible Media Group and the Ars Electronica Futurelab as the point of departure, this part of the symposium will deal with how the evolution of Radical Atoms will be felt in various occupations, economic sectors and, by no means least of all, our everyday life. What impact will these new dynamic materials have on creative disciplines like art and architecture? What are the future prospects in robotic design? Will we someday encounter drones as airborne Radical Atoms? What happens when new materials are amalgamated with human DNA? And how will we, the users, be able to find our way in the dynamic techno-world of tomorrow? International pioneers and the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s expert staff gaze into a future of and with Radical Atoms.

Schedule

12:00PM-12:10PM Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP) / Christopher Lindinger (AT): Recap of Symposium I.I and Welcome
12:10PM-1:10PM INSPIRE – Art & Design
12:10PM-12:30PM Carlo Ratti (IT): Lift-Bit
12:30PM-12:50PM Joachim Sauter (DE): Infinite Cube
12:50PM-1:10PM Tomotaka Takahashi (JP): RoBoHoN
1:10PM-1:20PM Q & A
1:20PM-2:20PM LEVITATE – Future & Mind
1:20PM-1:40PM Horst Hörtner (AT): Spaxels
1:40PM-2PM Martina Mara (AT): Psychology of Radical Atoms
2PM-2:20PM Yoichi Ochiai (JP): Magic
2:20PM-2:30PM Q & A
2:30PM-3:30PM VIRAL – Fab & Society
2:30PM-2:50PM Chiaki Hayashi (JP): FabCafe
2:50PM-3:10PM Shiho Fukuhara (JP): Biopresence
3:10PM-3:30PM David Benjamin (US): The Living
3:30PM-4PM Q & A

Moderation: Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP) and Christopher Lindinger (AT)

This event is realised in the framework of the European Digital Art and Science Network and co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

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SYMPOSIUM II: THE ALCHEMISTS OF OUR TIME https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/symposium2/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:25:22 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=1503

THE ALCHEMISTS OF OUR TIME

In the second panel of this year’s festival, there will be talks spanning the historical development of alchemists techniques to current trends. With their lectures, experts seek to answer questions about who the alchemists of our time are, on which projects they are focused on and what conditions they need to do so. The speakers present and explore concepts, technical challenges and developments of new materials uncovering intersecting points in biotechnology, design, engineering, architecture, art etc. They introduce their own cultural-social perspective and critical analysis and show speculative scenarios to give possible insight of our future.

Joe Davis (US)
focuses on the future possibilities of Astrobiological Horticulture. Siegfried Zielinski (DE) interprets Alchemical Theory & Praxis as a Specific Form of Matériology in an attempt to discover alchemist principles as archaic energies in the process of changing the world. Verena Kuni (DE) will take a closer look at contemporary artistic perspectives on the quest for the gold of our time and on the impact of its “elementary hallucination(s)”. Fumio Nanjo (JP) deliberates on, how today, art relates to the landscape, nature, bio-tech, at the same time to audience and life. art is no more just painting and sculpture. art exists everywhere and art becomes norm of life. James Gimzewski (US) discusses Atoms: A collective order, entropy and self organisation.

Schedule

2:30PM-2:40PM Jurij Krpan (SI): Welcome
2:40PM-3:10PM Joe Davis (US): Astrobiological Horticulture
3:10PM-3:40PM Siegfried Zielinski (DE): Expanded Materiology
3:40PM-4:10PM Verena Kuni (DE): The Alchemy of Our Time
4:10PM-4:20PM Q & A
4:20PM-4:40PM Break
4:40PM-5:10PM Fumio Nanjo (JP): Art. Audience. Life
5:10PM-5:40PM James Gimzewski (US): Atoms: A Collective Order
5:40PM-5:50PM Q & A

Moderation: Jurij Krpan (SI)

This event is realised in the framework of the European Digital Art and Science Network and co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

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SYMPOSIUM III: ART AND SCIENCE AT WORK https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/symposium3/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:20:35 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=1509

ART AND SCIENCE AT WORK

The European Digital Art and Science Network aims to link up scientific aspects and ideas with approaches used in digital art. Fostering interdisciplinary work and intercultural exchange as well as gaining access to new target audiences are among its declared goals. There is also strong emphasis on art’s role as a catalyst in processes of social renewal. By creating images and narratives dealing with the potential risks and rewards inherent in technological and scientific development, artists exert an important influence on how our society comes to terms with these innovations.

10AM-11AM   SESSION 1:  EUROPEAN DIGITAL ART AND SCIENCE NETWORK

Together with seven well-known artistic and cultural institutions, Ars Electronica launched the European Digital Art and Science Network, a Europe-wide initiative offering artists the chance to spend several weeks at ESA, ESO or CERN followed by a stay at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. The results of the residencies as well as a series exhibitions and conferences are now being presented at the Ars Electronica Festival and subsequently at the facilities of all networks members. At this network conclave, attendees will discuss various cultural and artistic positions in Europe.

Schedule

10:00AM-10:05AM Jurij Krpan (SI): Welcome
10:05AM-10:15AM Quadrature (DE), ESO Residency Winner 2016
10:15AM-10:25AM Fernando Comerón (ES), ESO
10:25AM-10:35AM Aoife van Linden Tol (IR), ESA Residency Winner 2016
10:35AM-10:45AM Robert Meisner (DE), ESA
10:45AM-11:00AM Q & A

Moderation: Jurij Krpan (SI)

11:20AM – 12:30PM SESSION 2: ESTABLISHING BEST PRACTICE

The huge current interest in forms of interdisciplinary collaboration shines on, what for many people is a long-overdue spotlight on the multifarious possibilities that can emerge from exchange and cooperation: on one hand art and creativity and on the other, science and technology. Moreover, an increasing number of observers are applauding the fact that, above all, there is finally widespread realization of a paradigm shift having occurred in a world that is now globalized not only geographically and economically but intellectually as well.

The private sector too is progressively seeking new ways and means and has come to regard artistic creativity as an important resource that can lead to competitive innovations. Of course, such efforts to maximize art’s practical benefits have to be approached very cautiously to avoid being one-sided, and the expectations associated with them need practiced moderation.

Schedule

11:20AM-11:40AM Ivan Poupyrev (RU/US), Google ATAP: Making the Entire World Interactive: Innovation and Creativity on a Very Large Scale
11:40AM-12:00AM Susan Street (AU), QUT Precincts: Transforming the Laboratory to achieve Deep Learning and Engagement
12:00AM-12:20PM Jiwon Yun (SK), HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP VH AWARD: Art as context maker: Why technology matters in 21st century.
12:20PM-12:30PM Q & A

Moderation: Yamina Aouina (DZ/DE)

1:30PM – 3:10PM  SESSION 3: EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS 

When we consider the history of new media technology and art, the concept of the lab has played a significant role as a symbol expressing the experimental nature of media art and as a provider of infrastructure and expertise for these cutting-edge developments. Ever since the MIT Media Lab was founded in 1985 or in the early years of Art+Com in Berlin (1988), the expression “lab” has also become synonymous with the encounters and exchanges between art and creativity on one hand and engineering and science on the other. The 1990s saw the propagation of this idea beyond universities and corporate R&D departments; artist-run labs like x-space in Graz (1990) and the Ars Electronica Futurelab (1995) were among these early adopters.

Nowadays, “lab” is a fashionable yet also inflationary term being used for almost anything that aims to be cool and experimental—for instance, fashion labs, food labs, beauty labs and inspiration labs. And, of course, in the age of ubiquitous technology, there are pop-up labs in kitchens, living rooms and garages of all sorts. The Speakers in the third part of the Symposium discuss the future of the “Laboratory” in Art, Science and its intersections.

Ghalia Elsrakbi (NL/SY) & Haytham Nawar (EG) speak on the bridging of audiences and professionals through art at Cairotronica, while Mohamed Hossam (EG) & Omar El-Safty (EG) share their experience on establishing Fablab Egypt and the Maker community in the region. Christian Rauch (DE) Berlin State Festival reflects on festival curation; creating an open meeting ground for science and the public, in a similar vein Ali Panahi (IR) & Ehsan Rasoulof (IR) TADAEX highlight the emergence of collaborations between artistic & scientific streams in Tehran, before Oscar Ekponimo (NG) Chowberry & Elizabeth Kasujja (UG) InstaHealth, discuss ‘Digital Communities’: translating body sound to language and the transformative power of mobile phones on the health sector, respectively. Valentino Catricalà (IT) BNL Media Art Festival artistic director, will provide insight on innovating Media Art through education, Michela Magas (UK/SE/HR) will be discussing the transdisciplinary laboratory and Mariano Sardón (AR) Laboratory – Museum Space: an effective interaction place for Artists and Scientists at the Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero.

Schedule

1:30PM-1:40PM Ghalia Elsrakbi (NL/SY) & Haytham Nawar (EG), Cairotronica: Bridging of Audiences and Professionals through Art
1:40PM-1:50PM Mohamed Hossam (EG) & Omar El-Safty (EG), Fablab Egypt: The Rise of the Maker Community in Egypt
1:50PM-2PM Christian Rauch (DE), Berlin State Festival: Festival curation; creating an open meeting ground for science and the public
2PM-2:10PM Ali Panahi (IR) & Ehsan Rasoulof (IR), TADAEX: Collaborations between artistic & scientific streams in Tehran
2:10PM-2:20PM Q & A
2:20PM-2:30PM Oscar Ekponimo (NG), Chowberry & Elizabeth Kasujja (UG), InstaHealth: Digital Communities: translating body sound to language and the transformative power of mobile phones on the health sector
2:30PM-2:40PM Valentino Catricalà (IT) BNL Media Art Festival: Innovating Media Art through education
2:40PM-2:50PM Michela Magas (UK/SE/HR), Stromatolite / Music Tech Fest: The Transdisciplinary Laboratory
2:50PM-3PM Mariano Sardón (AR), Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero: Laboratory – Museum Space: an effective interaction place for Artists and Scientists
3PM-3:10PM Q & A

Moderation: Washio Kazuhiko (JP)

3:30PM-4:30PM    SESSION 4: DISCUSSING THE FUTURE OF THE LABS

The laboratory: as an academic research facility, as an independent proving ground, as a driving force of innovation; the laboratory as a bridge between research and business, between art and science; the laboratory as a hacker space, as a festival. The extraordinary diversity of the settings at which creative R&D is now taking place has been made patently clear by the presentations that have preceded this session. On the basis of these facts & circumstances, a panel of international experts now asks what the lab of the future just might look like, where it could well be located, and what framework conditions are necessary to do future-oriented R&D.

Schedule

3:30 PM-4 PM Panellists: Hiroshi Ishii (US/JP), Horst Hörtner (AT), Ivan Poupyrev (RU/US), Susan Street (AU) & Kathleen McCarthy (US)
4PM-4:30 PM Q&A

Moderation: Yamina Aouina (DZ/DE)

This event is realised in the framework of the European Digital Art and Science Network and co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

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Impact Hub Vienna https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/en/impact-hub-vienna/ Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:48:41 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/radicalatoms/?p=2621 Impact Hub is a unique global ecosystem of resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities that creates a sustainable and inclusive future. The Impact Hub Vienna community is made up of entrepreneurs, social investors, freelancers, advocates, campaigners, creatives, artists, consultants, professionals—addressing local and global challenges. These are the people who see and do things differently and have the entrepreneurial passion to make a sustainable Impact. Members are connected to 13,000-plus like-minded entrepreneurs in over 40 countries, get access to resources, meeting and work spaces, inspiring events, relationships and incubation programs.

With 82-plus Impact Hubs worldwide, this global community celebrated ten years of impact in 2015, and is now the fastest growing trans-local network of social innovators in the world. Through cross-sector, cross-organizational and global exchange, learning and collaboration, societal issues are tackled through entrepreneurial Action.

 

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