Online
Addressing Ethics, Bias and Colonial Legacies in Emerging Media
Courtney D. Cogburn (US), Moderator: Jesse Damiani (US)
In this talk, we will examine the relationship that emerging technologies have with the past, ranging from biased algorithms to the unequal degree of access that has been granted to different communities—and by extension how they have been respectively represented in media and technology. As art created with these technologies increasingly enters the public discourse, how can artists thoughtfully engage these media as tools to subvert the legacies of colonialism rather than unwittingly reinforce them?
Habitat
Heleen Blanken (NL)
The environmental crisis and the destruction of habitats forces us to imagine a future in which nature can be remembered in digital form. Natural history museums seek to preserve nature physically by fixing it in time and space. How might the archiving of nature evolve in a digital context? Could it bring us even closer to nature? Habitat is a data-driven installation that uses 3D scans of organic artefacts such as stones, corals and fossils from Leiden’s Naturalis Biodiversity Center and transforms them into a game-like, meditative environment. You are invited to reconnect with the wonder of nature as you navigate through a series of ever-evolving digital worlds, each accompanied by its own soundscape. Original installation is on display at Nxt Museum.
MEME MANIFESTO
Clusterduck (IT/DE/FR)
Based on the aesthetics of online conspiracy theorists, ancient grimoires, and cutting edge contemporary digital design, MEME MANIFESTO strives to be a manual for memetic production, a highly refined documentation of the contemporary memetic landscape and an art book about the hidden sides of the Internet. The project seeks to describe the personal experience of someone who is approaching meme culture, affirm the importance and power of memes, and give everyone the tools to harness this power.
Zero Footprint
Douglas Rushkoff
In the 2020 festival “Zero Footprint”, subtitled “Living and Connecting on a Damaged Earth”, IMPAKT will focus on the climate crisis through the eyes of artists and radical thinkers. How can we create structural change that can serve the many instead of the few?
Influencer
oneseconds (NL)
A 20 minute online interactive performance where the audience decides the faith of the protagonist. Influencer questions the autonomy of the human being in modern times. How far are we influenced by the majority?
Future Focus – Fragile Worlds I
Invisible Flock, Kasia Molga, Dr. Joanne Tippett, Irini Papadimitriou
This session takes viewers on a virtual studio tour and conversation with artists sharing work, and engaging with and responding to environmental change, and an exploration of how stories of a changing landscape are communicated through nature and other species.
Role of Media Art
Etsuko Ichihara (JP), Nao Tokui (JP), Natsumi Wada (JP), Shiho Fukuhara (JP), Asako Tomura (JP), Minoru Hatanaka (JP)
Japan Media Arts Festival, which was founded in Japan, focuses on the field of art, entertainment, manga and anime, and is becoming more and more centripetal in its inclusion of various fields. What is the role of media arts in this context? This session the panelist will be discussing the future of media art along with the unique setting of this year’s Ars Electronica to be held online.
Radicalization by Design - Panel discussion
Joanna Bryson (UK/DE), Bharath Ganesh (US/NL), Richard Rogers (UK/NL), Sahana Udupa (DE). Moderation: Arjon Dunnewind (NL) and Marc Tuters (CA/NL)
Live panel discussion - Speakers from the “Radicalization by Design” web project and other guests will discuss issues of freedom of speech, of extreme speech and deplatforming. Recently the big corporate social media platforms have come under immense pressure to clean up their act.
Vocalise
Miyu Hosoi (JP)
The vibrations of voices in the air create a recognizable sound that spreads through space. Through the Internet, it transcends location and is delivered to the audience. We hope that people all over the world will enjoy her live performance at Ars, where she experiments with her own voice.
Rewinding the History of Japanese Media Art
Ai Hasegawa (JP), Akinori Goto (JP), Ken Furudate (JP), Michiko Tsuda (JP), Minoru Hatanaka (JP), Seiichi Saito (JP)
The history of Japanese media art is very diverse and profound, and it has found various new frontiers. This talk session explores the history of modern Japanese media art in reverse chronological order.
Lenna – Sound installation for personal computer
Miyu Hosoi (JP)
I've heard it said that sound, namely voice, created by human structures has too different a resolution for artificial sounds created with tens of thousands of lines of programming. In this work, Lenna uses her own voice as a medium, and by designing the equipment and space with precision, it feels like an experiment in which the entire space becomes music.
(In)audible Valparaiso
Paul Hernández (CL), Marcelo Raffo (CL), Fabián Villalobos (CL), Verónica Francés (ES)
Documentary premiere followed by a talk: A brief excursion to Valparaiso streets that is shaped as an essay-documentary. This 30-minute film shows the city from the perspective of sound and silence, aiming to narrate us part of a hidden history, starting from missing or absent sounds that have disappeared by the passing of time and also, recently, due to confinement.
Irons
Gustavo Celedón Bórquez (CL)
A documentary-essay film of an art-action made in Valparaíso, Chile, in December 2019. The country had risen without return against a ruthless neoliberal economy. On a ruin of irons, a metaphor about the ending of modernity, this small art-action makes a conjuration with the installation of a symbol that sentences a destiny of justice and equality.
Observing the Microscopic Gardens
Saša Spačal (SI), Toby Kiers (NL/US), Esmee Geerken (NL), De Onkruidenier (NL), Spela Petric (SI), Nicola Triscott (UK)
The nocturnal roundtable “Observing the Microscopic Gardens” features three events: 1. Artist Saša Spačal and microbiologist professor Toby Kiers discuss microbial trade agreements 2. Artist/chemist Esmee Geerken and De Onkruideniers present their microscopic garden houses 3. Artist Spela Petric and curator Nicola Triscott discuss what opinions plants and animals might have about human activity on their/our planet.
Observing the Macroscopic Gardens
Christiaan Zwanikken (NL), Raoul Frese (NL), Angelo Vermeulen (BE), Remco Daalder (NL)
The nocturnal roundtable “Observing the Macroscopic Gardens” features two talks: 1. Artist Christaan Zwanikken will talk about city-dwelling plant robots with astrophysicist Raoul Frese 2. Artist-biologist Angelo Vermeulen will talk about socializing Mars-gardens with Remco Daalder, municipal ecologist of Amsterdam
The Art of Doubt
Matteo Lonardi, Velasco Vitali, Michel Reilhac, Marco Faini
Doubt has played a critical role in both society and art, since the time of the renaissance, when it first entered the public sphere as a distinct concept. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice researcher Marco Faini will explain the concept of doubt, while Matteo Lonardi, Francesco Lonardi, and Velasco Vitali will speak about the role of doubt in the artistic process from Leonardi Da Vinci to contemporary artists.
Ūmėdė (pre-symposium)
Julijonas Urbonas, artist Ignas Pavliukevičius, artist and composer Gailė Griciūtė, Vytautas Michelkevičius
Ūmėdė is x⬳ disciplinary symposium for emerging art and related matters, and takes its name from the Lithuanian term for the mushroom Russula. x might stand for post-, ex-, extra-, exo-, trans-, poly-, hyper-, trans-, meta-, ultra-, etc.
Standing Waves
Ignas Pavliukevičius (LT)
Every living being on our planet is surrounded by an electrical field – whether generated by the organism itself, exuded by electromagnetic fields of forests, animals, man-made devices, or stemming from extra-terrestrial sources, such as outer space.
The World is Here For You
Eye Gymnastics (LT)
For the AE Garden Vilnius festival duo presents a two live vocals performance, subtle spoken melodies and soar beats in a dialog with Arturas Bumšteinas’ musical material. During the show, the performers connect eye exercises inspired texts with gradually evolving melodic inserts, spoken songs. In a midst of all suddenly accommodating autumn rush, repetitive, hypnotic recitation invites you to exercise your gaze and see through within.
Sound Tectonics #24: Mystic Rhythm
SENYAWA / Wukir Suryadi & Rully Shabara (ID) & Kakushin Nishihara (JP)
Sound Tectonics is a long-run series of live performances and music events that have been held by YCAM since 2004. This program emphasizes listening experience through a different aspect of music production, sound art, and stage production. This time, we want to highlight the possibilities between modern (audio) technology and traditional/ancient sounds by inviting Senyawa (Indonesia) and Kakushin Nishihara (Japan). Both musicians are known to combine those two aspects and bring a new sound.
