“Unless a work inspires people, it doesn’t stick; people never start thinking differently, and they will forget. To inspire people, there must be some profound message, beauty or aesthetics which people find very moving.”

Hiroshi Ishii, director of the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group, explains his vision of Radical Atoms on our blog.

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

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

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

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

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.