“Techno-Ecologies" is the theme of this year's Art+Communication festival that explores how we inhabit the deep technological spheres of our everyday life.
Everyday life has become so intimately interwoven with complex technological ecologies that we can no longer consider technology as the alienating other. A careful consideration of the relationships between the natural and the artificial is required. Techno-Ecologies concept for this festival is built by Eric Kluitenberg upon the concerns of Felix Guattari (the French philosopher and co-conspirator of Gilles Deleuze) about the lack of an integrated perspective on the dramatic techno-scientific transformations the Earth has undergone in recent times. Guattari urges to take three crucially important 'ecological registers' into account: the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.
The Techno-Ecologies festival will facilitate a discussion between artists, theorists, designers, environmental scientists, technologists, responsible entrepreneurs and activists to develop this perspective. Diversity, social and ecological sustainability, and a much deeper understanding of technology as an extension of our desires are the building blocks that we want to bring together to build a perspective that can help us chart less hazardous routes into the future than the ones currently travelled.
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“Phonofolium” by Gregory Lasserre and
Anais met den Ancxt / Scenocosme (FR)
Artists in the Techno-Ecologies exhibition will introduce with their diverse and creative approaches in building technological ecologies perspective and dealing with environmental and social sustainability issues. The exhibition is curated by Raitis Smits and Rasa Smite in collaboration with Eric Kluitenberg. It will take place from November 4 to December 11 in the Contemporary Art Center kim? at Spikeri Quartier in Riga, featuring 14 media artworks and innovative design objects by various artists.
Belgian artist Bartaku, who explores the transformation of light into electrical and nutritional energy, in his PhoEfarium artwork introduces how to make solar cells by your own – from glass-based to edible ones; whereas The Toaster Project by British artist Thomas Thwaites is a story on artist's attempt to build a simple electric appliance – the toaster – from scratch. French artist duo Scenocosme explore relationships between nature and digital technology – their Phonofolium artwork is interactive installation that displays a living tree reacting to the human touch by sound and voice. Aptium by Franco-german artist Lynn Pook invites visitors to lay-down in a hammock and in an unexpected way to hear and feel sound, which is specially composed for this installation in collaboration with Julien Clauss. Another exhibition piece – Andrea, is designed to improve houseplant capability of purifying the air with an increased efficiency, it is the joint invention by Paris-based designer Mathieu Lehanneur and Harvard professor of bioengineering David Edwards. RIXC artists collective: Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits, Jaanis Garancs, Martins Ratniks / RIXC (Latvia) have developed Renewable Network Interface – an online research tool that maps artists, projects and fields that emerge on the boundaries of art, energy and open information systems (http://renewable.rixc.lv/network/).
The Techno-ecologies exhibition also displays many other unique and interesting artworks by inernationally recognised artists from different countries of the world, including Worldprocessor by Ingo Günther (Germany); Plantas Parlantes by Popkalab artists: R icardo O'Nascimento (Brasil), Gilberto Esparza (Mexico), Javier Busturia (Spain), Jingni Wang (China) and Jelle Decker (The Netherlands); O.T. by Ulrich Vogl (Germany); Psworld by Julian Oliver (New Zealand / Germany), Deaddrop by Aram Bartholl (Germany), m/e/m/e 2.0 by Danja Vasiliev (Russia / Germany).
Opening of the exhibition: November 3 at 18.00 – press conference and curators' guided tour through the exhibition, at 19.00 – official festival and exhibition opening, welcome to all interested.
Workshop “Talking to the Plants” by Popkalab.
In addition to the exhibition, in kim? venue at Spikeri, 3 workshops will take place in November 4 and 5 (12.00 – 18.00): SonicDrift workshop will be conducted by memelab artists (Canada), Symptoms Riga workshop – by Martin Howse, and Talking to the Plants by artists from Popkalab, in which they will demonstrate how to build an interactive sound generation system by using simple electronics.
During two days only – on November 4 and 5 at RIXC Media Space, festival guests will be invited to create a souvenir figurines of... themselves! Spanish artists Raul Nieves, Gerard Rubio, Jordi Bari from BlablabLAB in their artwork Be Your Own Souvenir! use custom-made 3D printer with a 3D scanner – come by and … be your own souvenir!
Another special event – the video programme curated by the film curator Erwin van 't Hart (NL) will be shown on Friday, November 4, 20.00 at RIXC Media Space. The video programme features works by Pilvi Takala (Finland), eteam (US/DE), Sebastian Diaz-Morales (AR/NL), Neïl Beloufa (FR), Yin-Ju Chen and James T. Hong (NL).
Stills from the videos: Pilvi Takala “Players” (from the left), Yin-Ju Chen & James T. Hong (NL)“End Transmission” (middle), eteam “Prim Limit” (on the right).
Meanwhile, the professional audience and students can take interest in the international art and science conference “Techno-ecologies. Inhabiting the deep technological spheres of everyday life”. The conference is organized by RIXC in collaboration with MPLab, Art Research Laboratory of University of Liepaja and it will be taking place on November 4 and 5 at RIXC Media Space. The conference will gather both artists and academic researchers as well as theorists, environmental scientists, activists and other lateral thinkers who are engaged with technological, social, and ecological sustainability issues. The 2-day conference will consist of 6 sections, moderated by Eric Kluitenberg (NL).
DAY1 – Section 1. TECHNOLOGY AND NATURE: Ronald van Tienhoven / Next Nature (NL), Grégory Lasserre / Scenocosme (FR), Anne Sophie Witzke / Media Art and Ecology at Aarhus University (DK), Julian Oliver (NZ / DE), Ricardo O'Nascimento (BR), Javier Busturia (ES). // Section 2. TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY: Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski (online talk), Daniel Irrgang / Chair for media theory/archaeology and variantology of the media at Berlin University of the Arts (DE), Anita Jóri / The _Vilém _Flusser_Archive / Berlin University of the Arts (HU / DE), Martin Howse (UK), Normunds Kozlovs / Faculty of Communications at Riga Stradins University (LV), Matze Schmidt (DE). // Section 3. TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT: Erich Berger / Ars Bioarctica / Finnish Bioart Society (FI), Dr. phys. Liga Grinberga / The Institute of Solid State Physics / University of Latvia (LV), Arne Hendriks (Netherlands), Dr. phys. Ojars Balcers / Environmental Protection Club (LV)
DAY2 – Section 4. TECHNOLOGY AND PEOPLE: Rob van Kranenburg (NL), Tatiana Goryucheva (RU / NL), Andrew Gryf Paterson / Pixelache / Pixelversity 2012 (FI), Kyd Campbell (CA / DE), Gerard Rubio (ES), Jordi Bari / BlablabLAB (ES), Lynn Pook (FR). // Section 5. TECHNOLOGY, ART AND ECOLOGY: Tapio Makela / M.A.R.I.N. (FI), Niki Passath / The University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT), Mirae Rosner and Jesse Scot / memelab (CA / DE), Raitis Smits / RIXC / Visual Communication dept. of Latvian Arts Academy (LV), Dr.sc.soc. Rasa Smite / RIXC / Art Research Lab of Liepaja University (LV). // Section 6. TECHNOLOGY AND OPEN SYSTEMS: Thomas Thwaites (UK), Heath Bunting / irational.org (UK), Danja Vasiljev (RU / DE), Dr.philol. Ilva Skulte / Faculty of Communications at Riga Stradins University (LV), Zsofia Ruttkay / The Creative Technology Lab / Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (HU), Matthew Gardiner / Ars Electronica Futurelab (AU / AT).
The closing event of the main festival programme in Riga will take place on the evening of November 5, at 20.00 in RIXC Media Space, featuring an audio-visual performance-lecture “Imaginary Media” by Eric Kluitenberg, which will be dedicated to the newly published Latvian edition of “The Book of Imaginary Media”, ed. Kluitenberg (translation into Latvian provided by Daina Siliņa, published by RIXC, 2011).
The festival will continue in Liepaja, where iWeek 2011, the International New Media Art Week programme will take place from November 7 to 13 in MPLab (Art Research Lab) of Liepaja University including workshops, “show and tell” sessions, lectures, performances and exhibitions.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday, November 3
18.00 Press conference and curator's guided tour through the exhibition (kim? in Spikeri, Riga)
19.00 Opening of the “Art+Communication 2011” festival and “Techno-ecologies” exhibition (kim? in Spikeri)
Friday, November 4
10.00 – 17.00 Conference “Techno-ecologies”, Day 1. Panels: 1. Technology and Nature, 2. Technology and Society, 3. Technology and the Environment (RIXC Media Space, Riga)
12.00 – 18.00 Workshop “SonicDrift” by memelab / CA (kim? in Spikeri)
20.00 Video programme: eteam (US/DE) “Prim Limit”, Pilvi Takala (FI/NL) “Players”, Sebastian Diaz-Morales “Oracle” (AR/NL), Neïl Beloufa (FR) “Kempinski”, Yin-Ju Chen & James T. Hong (NL) “End Transmission” (RIXC Media Space)
Saturday, November 5
10.00 – 17.00 Conference “Techno-ecologies”, Day 2. Panels: 4. Technology and People, 5. Technology, Art and Ecology, 6. Technologies and Open Systems (RIXC Media Space)
12.00 – 18.00 Workshops: “Talking to the Plants” by Popkalab and “Symptoms Riga” by Martin Howse / UK (kim? in Spikeri)
20.00 Closing of the festival: “Imaginary Media”, audio-visual lecture-performance by Eric Kluitenberg and presentation of the Latvian edition of “The Book of Imaginary Media” (RIXC Media Space)
November 4 and 5, 10.00 – 17.00 (in parallel to conference ) blablabLAB (ES) will hold the 3D printing project “Be Your Own Souvenir!” (RIXC Media Space)
November 7 – 13 – iWeek 2011 programme – international new media art week: workshops, “show and talk” sessions, lectures, performances, exhibitions in Liepaja (MPLab, Liepaja).
November 4 – December 11 – exhibition “Techno-ecologies” open to visitors (kim? in Spikeri, Riga).
Entrance free. Opening hours: Mon.: closed, Tue., Wed.: 14.00 – 19.00, Thu.: 14.00 – 20.00, Fri.: 14.00 – 19.00, Sat., Sun.:12.00 – 18.00. Free entrance.
Venues and addresses:
RIXC Media Space, 11. novembra krastmala 35, entrance from Minsterejas street, Riga. (http://rixc.lv)
kim? Contemporary Art Center in Spikeri Quartier for Creative Industries, Maskavas street 12/1, Riga. (http://kim.lv)
MPLab, Art Research Laboratory of Liepaja University, Kurmajas prospect 13, Liepaja. (http://mplab.lv)
Organisers:
The festival is organised by RIXC, The Centre for New Media Culture in Riga.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Contemporary Art Center kim?; the conference – in collaboration with MPLab, Art Research Lab of Liepaja University. iWeek is organized by LiepU MPLab (Art Research Lab) in collaboration with RIXC.
Festival team:
The Techno-Ecologies idea and concept developed by Eric Kluitenberg (NL).
Exhibition curators: Raitis Smits and Rasa Smite in collaboration with Eric Kluitenberg.
Video programme is curated by Erwin van 't Hart (NL).
Festival producers: Daina Silina, Agnese Baranova, Linda Vebere / RIXC, Anna Trapenciere / MPLab.
Design: Martins Ratniks.
Website: Raitis Smits, Davis Bojars.
Exhibition scenography: Rudolf Bekic, Raitis Smits.
Support: State Culture Capital Foundation, Mondriaan Foundation, EU Culture programme 2007 – 2013 (Survival Kit project), Riga City Council, Latvian Ministry of Culture, EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7) (Studiolab project), Cultural dept. of Liepaja City Municipality, Hotel Elizabete, B&B Riga.
Media Support: Studija, IR, Easyget.lv, Delfi.lv, euroAWK, Artterritory.com, Anothertravelguide.com, Kultūra.lv, Satori, Veto Magazine, Ilustreta Zinatne.
Contacts:
RIXC Center for New Media Culture, 11. Novembra krastmala 35-201, Riga, LV-1050
Ph.: +371-67228478 (office), +371-26546776 (Rasa Šmite, mob.)
e-mail: rixc ( at ) rixc.lv
Festival website: http://rixc.lv/11
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