Part of the Timișoara 2023 European Capital of Culture program, the Only Tomorrow Speculative Lab explores states where hope for the future flourishes. This exhibition delves into speculative approaches to current issues, blending creativity and technology. Works are created by young artists from West University of Timisoara, UNATC Bucharest, Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj and Aurel Vlaicu University Arad.
The Only Tomorrow Speculative Lab project was part of the Timișoara 2023 European Capital of Culture, a cultural program.
Only Tomorrow refers to the object of the reverie-like states of mind in which one feels inspired and hopeful while thinking about the near future with the sense that it is within reach.
The exhibition is a foray into the speculative approach to current issues, exploring developments, solutions, or diversions of situations through the eyes of young artists.
Speculative thinking is a way of embodying the “as if”, envisaging a scenario about the future or something imagined that does not yet exist and answers real questions and problems with solutions that combine creativity and imagination with technology and science.
The works were created following four guiding ideas: speculative thinking (as artistic methodology), relevance to the present (world-based ideas), interactivity (the works should be interactive, usually involving technology), reference to research and laboratory of ideas (the works should be open and transparent regarding the artistic research on which they are based).
The young artists are students from four Romanian universities: West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Arts and Design; UNATC Bucharest – Interactive Technologies for Performing Arts and Media, New Media Design; Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj -Faculty of Theatre and Film, Digital Interactive Arts; Aurel Vlaicu University Arad, Faculty of Design.
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Banat în Banat
Andrada Băleanu (RO), Lorena Cocora (RO), Radu Condrache (RO)
In the year 3000, several musical styles are banned. The audience has turned into space explorers discovering a portal to recompose the first lost genre: manea (an ethno-music style popular in Romania). This work references a recent event in Timisoara’s collective memory: the “banning” of manea by a former mayor.
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Fragrancy-Forged Memoryscapes
Simona-Diana Chiru (RO), Caty Alexandra Șamata (RO)
Step into the world of advanced mental health research with our installation, which explores the transformative progress of mental health methods, propelled by technological innovations that amplify therapeutic outcomes in the year 2055.
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Is somebody there?
Ana Farîma (RO/MD)
The mother of the Forest / Muma Pădurii is a character from Romanian folk stories. She is an ugly witch, dressed in plants, who lives deep in the forest and scares people away. The AR work presents this character as a positive one that smiles in the beginning, but will turn sad with a distrusting…
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O2 Touch
Flavius Coman (RO)
The work proposes a sensory interaction mediated by technology between the two great kingdoms of life: the animal and the plant kingdom. The tactile exchange is transformed by the Arduino controller into visual stimuli and sounds.
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Robots on Mars
Sânziana Gheorghe (RO)
In the video game, the user controls a robot on the planet Mars that can interact with boulders and express its thoughts in sentences. After three minutes of playing, the robot breaks down and the game restarts.
Asociația Doar Mâine (RO)
The Doar Mâine Association (Only Tomorrow Association) was founded in 2022 in Arad, Romania. It implements transdisciplinary projects in art, education, technology and ecology. In 2023, its exhibitions included Post-education. Pedagogies of Crisis and Only Tomorrow Speculative Laboratory, part of the Timisoara European Capital of Culture 2023. Activities include workshops, cultural mediation, a hacklab digital creation camp, an international conference on post-digital education, and collaborating with local and international institutions.
Credits
Concept: Nita Mocanu, Marius Stoica / Curator: Marius Stoica / Artists: Sânziana Gheorghe (Faculty of Arts and Design, West University Timișoara); Andrada Băleanu, Simona-Diana Chiru, Lorena Cocora, Radu Condrache, Caty Șamata (ITPMA, UNATC Bucharest); Flavius Coman. (Digital Interactive Arts, Faculty of Theater and Film, UBB Cluj); Ana Farîma (Faculty of Design, Aurel Vlaicu University Arad)
For Is somebody there by Ana Farîma
AR app: DARV Collective, Florian Weinrich
Co-producer: FURNA art & culture, Mihaela Kavdanska
Curator Assistant: Cosmin Moldovan
The project is part of the National Cultural Program “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023” and is financed by the Legacy Timișoara 2023 program, carried out by the Center for Projects of the Municipality of Timișoara, with amounts allocated from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Culture.
