Exploring new possible futures through research-creation

In the last year the global pandemic and its resulting political-economic fallout, the continuing ecological crises and the social-cultural explosion of long simmering systemic injustice and inequality have made the entanglement of human, machine and natural orders ever more apparent, with radical consequences for all forms of life on this planet. The future appears uncertain, unstable, unsettling and unknown. How then can Research-Creation (RC) actualize not yet existing presents and enable the emergence of new possible futures? Through its wide network, Hexagram sets out to explore the Emergence/y entangled in today’s troubled socio-technical and cultural fabric. To do so, the network presents an array of artistic and reflective works and talks to address (1) The current climate emergency; (2) The urgency of a critical response to Artificial Intelligence; (3) The emergence of new intersectional theories; (4) Emerging interplay between Human and more-than-human sentience; and (5) Emerging models for political economy involving the arts and science. Hexagram’s 2021/22 program brings together Network members and collaborators whose critical and techno-material approaches are dedicated to addressing these complex challenges through research situated at the intersections of the arts and sciences.

Video

Fossilation: Brice Ammar-Khodja, Alexandra Bachmayer, Samuel Bianchini, Marie-Pier Boucher, Didier Bouchon, Maria Chekhanovich, Matthew Halpenny, Alice Jarry, Raphaëlle Kerbrat, Annie Leuridan, Vanessa Mardirossian, Asa Perlman, Philippe Vandal, Lucile Vareilles. (Photo) Hervé Veronese

EMERGENCE/Y, Hexagram (CA), Université du Québec à Montréal (CA), Concordia University (CA), SenseFactory: Christopher Salter, Sofian Audry, Alexandre Saunier. Credit: Erik Adigard

EMERGENCE/Y, Hexagram (CA), Université du Québec à Montréal (CA), Concordia University (CA), Point d’origine: Nicolas Reeves, David St-Onge, Vincent Cusson. Credit: (Photo 3D Model) David St-Onge

EMERGENCE/Y, Hexagram (CA), Université du Québec à Montréal (CA), Concordia University (CA), Xenolalia: Sofian Audry, Maurizio Martinucci (TeZ), Credit: Federico Murgia

ZurückWeiter

Research-creation 01: CONNECTING MILIEUX + Hexagram Showcase

Gisèle Trudel (CA), Maya Lamothe-Katrapani (CA), Alessia Zarzani (IT), Orit Halpern (CA), Jean-Denis Milette (CA), Gabriel Payant (CA), Marius Senneville (CA), Alessandra Ponte (CA), Kim Laneuville (CA), Adriana Menghi (CA), Delphine Ducharme (CA), Meryem Sekhri (CA), Alexandre Asselin (CA), Anna Paola Bossi (IT/CA), Baptiste Kauffmann (FR/CA), Millie-Ann Grenon (CA), Rachel Ducharme (CA), Charles Antoine Poulin (CA), Fannie Hébert (CA), Ikram Haffaf (CA), Liliane Hamelin (CA), Marie-Ève Fortier (CA), Jill Didur (CA), Tony Higuchi (ES), AELab (CA), Fossilation (CA), Andrée Martin (CA), Estelle Schorpp (FR/CA), Marc-André Cossette (CA), Sandra Volny (CA), Ahreum Lee (KR/CA), Émilie Morin (CA), Erin Gee (CA), Guillaume Pascal (CA), Juliette Lusven (FR/CA), Maxime Boutin (FR/CA), Olivia Mc Gilchrist (JM/FR), Rilla Khaled (CA), Enric Llagostera (BR), Jess Rowan Marcotte (CA), Steven Sych (CA), Jean Dubois (CA), Ghyslain Gagnon (CA), Ké Medley (CA), Louis-Philippe Rondeau (CA), Yan Breuleux (CA), Nicolas Bernier (CA), Nicolas Reeves (CA), David St-Onge (CA), Chris Salter (US/CA), Dietmar Lupfer (DE), Sofian Audry (CA), TeZ (IT)

Documentation of the first art installation of the Canada Research Chair MÉDIANE, presented outdoors in July 2021 at Jardin botanique Montréal. The installation experiments artistically with the ecophysiological data of three species of trees collected by the research programme SmartForests.

Material Workshops

Brice Ammar-Khodja (FR), Vanessa Mardirossian (CA), Matthew Halpenny (CA)

Sensitive membranes, Textile Dyes Workshop, Workshop on Open-Source Microbial Fuel Cells

Workshop – Indigenous Protocols and Artificial Intelligence working group

Michelle Lee Brown (US), Suzanne Kite (US/CA), Ceyda Yolgormez (TR/CA), Jason Edward Lewis (CA)

Our relationship to artificially intelligent technologies is largely framed by popular media, news reporting, or major scientists’ claims. These frames restrict such systems to notions of control and utility, all the while keeping the black-box of these technologies intact, and thus furthering an elite-expert hegemonia that had been defining how to think of AI since the last half of the previous century.

Outer Space and the City: Provocations for the Urbanization of Space Technology

Marie-Pier Boucher (CA), Alice Jarry (CA), Emiliano Gandolfi (IT), Bernard Foing (FR), Guillaume Pascale (CA), Lee Wilkins (CA), Philippe Vandal (CA), Isabelle Boucher (CA)

The interactions between urban environments, technology, and communities are increasingly dependent upon space telecommunication infrastructures. However, these infrastructures are both out of sight and out of reach. What techniques can be deployed to assess, and subvert, their materiality and socio-environmental impact?

BALANCE-UNBALANCE: THE FUTURE STARTED NOW

Andrés Felipe Gaviria (CO), Gabrielle Couillard (CA), Kasey Pocius (CA), Mario H Valencia (CO), Oscar Ceballos (CO), Leah Barclay (AU), Ricardo Dal Farra (AR/CA), Rob La Frenais (UK/FR), Felipe Londoño (CO), Roger Malina (US), Pablo Suarez (AR/US)

“Balance-Unbalance: The Future started Now” is the second encounter in a series of roundtables gathering scientists, artists, architects and curators to help us think about what we should do today to change course and to have a possible future, considering the serious risks we face given the growing environmental crisis.

Keynote Discussion Panel: MACHINE + BODY

Christopher Salter (US/CA), David Rokeby (CA), Angélique Wilkie (BE/CA)

In this Hexagram special Keynote panel, three artists researchers (Chris Salter, Angélique Wilkie and David Rokeby) engage in an open discussion on the emerging phenomena in machine-body interaction.

Research-creation 02: MACHINE RELATIONS + REC Discussion

Joe Zeph Thibodeau (CA), Marc-André Cossette (CA), Alexandre Saunier (FR/CA), Ceyda Yolgormez (TR/CA), Evan Hile (CA), David Jhave Johnston (CA), Sofian Audry (CA), Ionat Zurr (AU), Cynthia Noury (CA), Paloma Leyton (AR/CA), Gaelle Scali (FR/CA)

Chronogenica, Poetics of Otherness, Harvesting Signs in Post-Semiocapitalism, REⓒ Discussion

Research-creation 03: IMMERSION & INTERACTION + SCALABILITÉ

Puneet Jain (IN), Rilla Khaled (CA), Gina Hara (HU/CA), Allison Moore (CA), Ludovic Amaru (CA), Gabrielle Couillard (CA), Gaëlle Scali (FR/CA), Atypical (FR)

Umwelten, GAMERella 2021, CLOUD BODIES, SCALABILITÉ

Beyond human art: creation and the posthuman

Sofian Audry (CA), Edwige Armand (FR), Gisèle Trudel (CA), Navid Navab (CA), Danny Perreault (CA)

Can nonhuman machines and processes have any pretension to “originate anything”? Can art exist outside of its human framework, decoupled from the socio-techno-cultural context in which it is produced? How can we (re)imagine artistic creation in this new posthuman paradigm? In this round table, the participants approach these questions through the themes of metacreation, nonhuman creation in plants, ecosystems, environments, and excitable matter(ials), as well as human-nonhuman collaboration and co-creation.

Journey – EMERGENCE/Y

Hexagram (CA/QC), Université du Québec à Montréal (CA/QC), Concordia University (CA/QC)

Credits

Directors: Christopher Salter (Concordia University Hexagram), Sofian Audry (UQAM Hexagram); Staff: Manuelle Freire (Hexagram), Isabelle Boucher (UQAM Hexagram), Marine Theunissen (UQAM Hexagram), Stephanie Creaghan (Concordia University Milieux Institute), Marc-André Cossette (Concordia University Hexagram)
Supported by the Government of Québec