encountering emerging naturecultures
What? When?
Open Fields conference: POSTSENSORIUM
September 23-25, 2021. Riga / Online
Where?
Renewable Futures conference: The Futures of Living Technologies
November 4-6, 2021. Oslo / Online
24/11/2021 at 18:00 EET Online / UPDATE festival
FINAL MEETING
The “Green Revisited: Encountering Emerging Naturecultures” (GREEN) project's main objective is to develop a European platform to shape and popularize an emerging “naturecultures” paradigm via the arts, as well as to strengthen an international network committed to enhancing criticality by investigating the pervasive greenness trope.
To foster new discourses on “naturecultures” capable of overcoming the dualism between the human and nature by ‘ungreening’ the pervasively used notion ‘green’ and reconsidering the current understanding of ‘green’ as synonymous of the ‘natural’.
We are building a new European media art and culture platform for critical discussions, artistic interventions and transcultural dialogue addressing the complexity of our relations with the environment.
By developing GREEN think tank on European level we will create a shared knowledge platform that facilitates the development and testing of new hybrid business models for emerging artists and cultural workers.
Larger scale events will be professional gatherings such as conferences which will be organized with a main purpose to reach new audiences and to explore the new “natureculture” paradigm that suggests to bridge the historically developed gap between “nature” and “culture”.
By an active involvement of all the participants in organizational and exchange activities we want to support creation of new artworks and to maintain the circulation of artworks transnationally that would reach wider public.
A series of dynamic, thematically related yet diverse events like workshops, residencies and public programs will be organized throughout Europe to develop the conceptual framework, to maintain artist mobility, and to support artistic creation, co-productions and workshops.
GREEN Revisited: Encountering Emerging Naturecultures
Series of exhibitions, conferences and worklabs
“GREEN Revisited: Encountering Emerging Naturecultures” (GREEN) project reconsiders pervasively used notion “green” that is symbolically associated with “natural”, claiming that such superficial notions are used to symbolically mask the increasing technical manipulations of nature and environment. The GREEN project aims to build new European media art and culture platform for critical discussions, artistic interventions and transcultural dialogue addressing the complexity of our relations with the environment and fostering new discourses on “naturecultures” capable of overcoming the dualism between the human and nature.
Location: Bourges, France
EXHIBITION & PUBLIC EDUCATION PROGRAM, CONFERENCE & PUBLIC WORKSHOPS
Dates (Period): 18/10/19 – 18/01/2020
Location: Bourges, France
Organizer: Antre-Peaux
The first implementation activity in the project – OU\ / ERT exhibition featuring 21 artwork took place in Bourges, organized by Antre-Peaux. The exhibition was complemented by the public education and workshop program, featuring creative performances and workshops. The activity also included the OU\ /ERT conference (colloquium), gathering botanists, biologists, philosophers and artists to question the plant as both a figure of thought and a collaborating agent.
Location: Bourges, France
Location: Liepaja, Latvia
“Update 1.0: Green Technologies”
Dates (Period): 04/11/2019 – 08/11/2019
Location: Liepaja / Latvia
Organiser: MPLab – Art Research Lab of Liepaja
New Media Art Week Update took place in Liepaja, at the Art Research Laboratory, MPLab, from November 4 to 8. The theme of 2019 is Update: Human. Nature. As part of the theme, the guests and participants of the week explored the philosophical, technological, ecological and artistic aspects of contemporary human-nature relationships. Update is an annual new media art event that, since 2008, looks at the latest trends in art and science. The weekly program includes workshops, a seminar, two exhibitions featuring a variety of international and local new media and contemporary artists.
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
WORKSHOPS & PRODUCTION RESIDENCIES
Dates (Period): 01/01/2020 – 30/04/2020
Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Organizer: Baltan Laboratories
The Worklab program organized by Baltan organization in Eindhoven, will include residency and symposium that will explore the roles and values of our economic system in the challenge to reconnect with our natural environment. … Our world is at a tipping point. The extraction of our natural resources for profit and goods no longer sustains in the age of the Anthropocene. Economics, as a social technology in its present form, provides no solution to issues of climate change and social inequality. The added value of efficiency and productivity are outweighed by the numerous disadvantages of reducing all values to market value. We need to reshape our economic systems and see how it can be informed with creativity, ethics, environmental issues and other social challenges… Through artistic and practice-based research this Worklab aims to reconsider our thinking about the economy and reconnect it with our natural surroundings. With the title “Homo Economicus”, this WorkLab will face the challenges of creating the visions and models of the economic system which is not based on permanent growth but on abundance.
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
WORKLAB – WORKSHOPS & PRODUCTION RESIDENCIES
Dates (Period): 01/06/2020 – 31/10/2021
Location: Ljubljana / Slovenia
Organiser: Zavod Projekt Atol
Projekt Atol organised a mobile residency for a tight artist-maker-scientist team. Their task was to enable, deploy and use a bio/chemical/media lab on wheels with a focus on monitoring acute or chronic events in the biosphere. As a result of residencies, the Spectral Landscape exhibition and worklab by Erich Berger and Particles workshop by Martin Howse were organised.
More information at: https://www.projekt-atol.si/
Location: Latvia, Iceland
WORKSHOPS & PRODUCTION RESIDENCIES
Dates (Period): 01/09/2020 – 31/12/2020
Location: Riga, and RIXC Fields residencies, Latvia, Switzerland, and Iceland
Organizer: RIXC
The GREEN School: Sensible Oceans featured residencies and workshops, mainly organized in the RIXC Fields residency, as well as in Switzerland, featuring a field trip to Iceland, hosting the artists Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits. The residency results were presented in Waves – Lights – Shadows worklab by Paula Vitola at the RIXC Gallery, as well as at the Forest Garden Greenhouse Concert 2020 from the RIXC Fields residence, presenting the results of residencies and workshops, and concluding the activity.
Location: Riga, Latvia
In climate change research, the Swiss National Science Institute (WSL) scientists have obtained a unique experience by monitoring and observing several areas in Swiss Alps for almost three decades already. “Ecodata” project is the initiative by the curator Yvonne Volkart and Institute of Aesthetic Practices (Basel), and it involves international team of artists who are working closely together with the forest scientists, creating audiovisual artworks and sonifications.
In addition to Ecodata exhibition which will show the result of long term art-science research, the larger conference on “Naturally Artificial Intelligence” will be organized by RIXC in Riga. “The original vision of artificial intelligence was about automation of cognition, conjuring images of robots and superhuman computers. But today AI plays a crucial role in culture—for instance, in recommending music, videos, and potential “friends” on social media—influencing our behavior and imagination. The integration of AI into the everyday lives of billions raises important questions about the future of culture, aesthetics, and taste.” The conference will be discussing the impact of AI on culture, featuring the Keynote speaker Lev Manovich, professor of computer science at The Graduate Center, New York. The conference topics will cover large spectrum of the topics relevant for this project, and will collect the papers from the speakers for the GREEN publication.
Location: Liepaja, Latvia / Online
“Update 2.0: Green Immersion”
Dates (Period): 23/11/2020 – 27/11/2020
Location: Liepaja, Latvia / Online
Organiser: MPLab – Art Research Lab of Liepaja
New media art week “Update BACKUP” from November 23 to 27 featured online lectures on 3D prototyping, 3D modeling, speeches by practicing artists and, at the end of the week, the opening of the exhibition and an online experimental concert. Everyone has the opportunity to apply for participation in a workshop to learn the basics of laser cutting within 3 days under the guidance of mentors.
Location: Latvia, Switzerland
WORKSHOPS & PRODUCTION RESIDENCIES
Dates (Period):01/01/2021 – 31/12/2021
Location: Riga, and RIXC Fields residencies, Latvia
Organizer: RIXC
The activity featured the artistic production residency and workshops at the RIXC Fields residence, hosting the sound artists Krista Dintere and Ivo Taurins. The results of the residency were presented in the Hearing Notes worklab at the RIXC Gallery and the activity was concluded by the Forest Garden Greenhouse Concert 2021: Hearing Notes from the RIXC Fields residence, presenting the results of residencies and workshops.
Location: Helsinki, Finland
WORKSHOPS & PRODUCTION RESIDENCIES
Dates (Period): 01/05/21 – 31/08/2021
Location: Helsinki / Espoo / Finland
Organiser: Biofilia / Aalto University
The activity consisted of a residency for a scientist and two artists (Janka Mojzer, Tommi Ollikainen, Noora Sandgren). The intent was to critically reflect upon technical manipulation and exploitation of living systems, biological beings, other species, and the biosphere at large, thereby creating an artwork(s) in relation to the explored themes. The residency results were presented in Discussing composts discussion and concluded by a presentation of a project plan for youngsters for the Aalto University Junior’s STEAM education unit by Janka Mojzer, Tommi Ollikainen, Noora Sandgren.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Dates (Period): 01/09/21 – 31/12/21
Location: Riga, Latvia
Organizer: RIXC in collaboration with Greenness
Studies Initiative – Jens Hauser.
This activity is also an important evaluation and dissemination activity. Emerging “Naturecultures” perspective have become now one of the key directions in contemporary discourses. This volume in the Acoustic Space series (published by RIXC) will based on Greenness studies by Jens Hauser and it will continue to build a ‘techno-ecological’ perspective in which new artistic practices are discussed that combine ecological, social, scientific and artistic inquiries. The topics covered in this volume will include * green/ungreen – ‘symbolic green, ontological greenness and performative greening’ * post-anthropocentric visions – ‘nature culture’ and eco-critique * biopolitics – beyond the anthropocene, towards multispecies relations and open space research * sensible ‘green’ – beyond the visual: acoustic, olfactive, chemical etc. * ‘green’ intelligence – environment and naturally AI within algorithmic societies * ‘prismatic’ – color theories, light and perception…
Location: Riga, Latvia / Online
Dates (Period): 23/09/21 – 12/11/2021
Location: Riga, Latvia / Online
Organizer: RIXC Center for New Media Culture
RIXC organized the PostSensorium exhibition featuring 11 artworks, as well as the virtual program that consisted of the Open Fields Conference 2021, online WebVR exhibition and Screening Program by young and emerging artists, Live Concert and Performances from RIXC Greenhouse, Artist Talks and outstanding Keynote Lectures discussing the contemporary mediums, artistic practices and novel tools for exploring human and “more-than-human” sensoriums, AI and aesthetics of the 21st century, and creating new immersive experiences. The exhibition was complemented by a public education program featuring the Art and AI: Golem Labor Dance workshop, conducted in cooperation with Goethe Institut in Riga.
Location: Oslo, Norway / Online
Renewable Futures 2021 Conference: Futures of Living Technologies
Dates (Period): 04/11/2021 – 06/11/2021
Location: Oslo, Norway / Online
Organizer: FeLT (Futures of Living Technologies)
Renewable Futures is a conference series that originated in the Baltics and the North European region with an aim to invent new trajectories for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. This edition will be online, hosted by FeLT in collaboration with Creative Europe project GREEN. We welcomed paper proposals from researchers and artists of interdisciplinary practices from fields such as contemporary art, artistic research, art theory, media art, design and architecture, applied artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, life sciences, art education and other relevant practices. The conference will feature presentations of artistic and transdisciplinary research projects, as well as examples and discussions of applied projects, and a curated screening program.
The 4th Renewable Futures Conference questions how we experience and express life and the sense of aliveness today. Actualized by our current global pandemic, we invite artistic, academic or applied research perspectives on relations and intersections between human beings, living environments and machines. This might evoke a sense of the uncanny and a fear of domination and surveillance. It might also reveal a world of possibilities of becoming, creation of new forms and behaviors. Could we co-create a more balanced existence? Can we enhance our senses and communication to become beings that are more adapted to co-existence with our environments and other species?
The conference was complemented by the Futures of Living Technologies exhibition, which, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, was organized virtually and its artworks were presented during the conference. The activity was complemented by a virtual workshop and public education program.
More information at: https://feltproject.no/
Location: Oslo, Norway
Location: Liepaja, Latvia / Online
The final GREEN Project activity took place as part of the UPDATE lecture, master class and discussion series – GREEN discussion and presentation panel included public overview of the GREEN Revisited project and activities and the final discussion on project evaluation and feedback, GREEN publication and follow up.
Location: Liepaja, Latvia / Online
“Update 3.0: Green Augmentation”
Dates (Period): 07/12/2021 – 14/12/2021
Location: Liepaja, Latvia / Online
Organiser: MPLab – Art Research Lab of Liepaja
Update Extended is a new media art masterclass and discussion programme that took place from December 7th until December 14th online (ZOOM platform). Update is intended for students, young artists, professionals and other interested people who want to acquire new knowledge and competencies in working with digital technologies. The Update program is also intended for those without prior knowledge, and all events are available free of charge.
RIXC Center for New Media Culture (Latvia)
Lenču iela 2, Rīga, LV-1010, Latvia
Baltan Laboratories (The Netherlands)
info@baltanlaboratories.org
baltanlaboratories.org
Postbus 4042, 5604 EA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Antre-Peaux (ex Emmetrop) (France)
communication@antrepeaux.net
antrepeaux.net
26 route de la Chapelle, 18000 Bourges
Oslo MET(Norway)
Email
sites.google.com/view/feltproject/home
Clara Holsts hus, Pilestredet 46, 0167 Oslo
Media Lab of Aalto University (Finland)
mlab-arts@aalto.fi
medialab.aalto.fi
P.O.Box 16500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland