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| foam_at_ict_art_connect [2014-05-12 10:01] – maja | foam_at_ict_art_connect [2016-08-10 18:34] (current) – maja |
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| ==== Foam at ICT&Art Connect ==== | ==== Foam at ICT&Art Connect ==== |
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| Talk by Maja Kuzmanovic at the [[ict_art_connect|ICT&Art Connect]] final event, 2014-05-12 EC Charlemagne Building, Brussels, Belgium. | [[Lecture notes]] by Maja Kuzmanovic at the [[ict_art_connect_2014|ICT&Art Connect]] final event, 2014-05-12 EC Charlemagne Building, Brussels, Belgium. |
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| My name is Maja Kuzmanovic and I'm here as the founder of FoAM, a network of laboratories for prototyping possible futures at the edges of art, technology, nature and everyday life. It is a pleasure to be here with you all. | I'm here as the founder of FoAM, a network of laboratories for prototyping possible futures at the edges of art, technology, nature and everyday life. It is a pleasure to be here with you all. |
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| I have been asked to briefly set the scene for today's presentations, and give you a short overview of FoAM's approach to art and technology. | I have been asked to briefly set the scene for today's presentations, and give you a short overview of FoAM's approach to art and technology. |
| So my short talk today isn't so much about any of our works, but about the people and their engagement with transdisciplinarity – be it art & technology, gardening & gaming, cooking & biology. | So my short talk today isn't so much about any of our works, but about the people and their engagement with transdisciplinarity – be it art & technology, gardening & gaming, cooking & biology. |
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| As an example I'll mention 'Luminous Green', a series of gatherings for people involved in creating an illuminated, electrified and imaginative future. We found that bringing activists, politicians and business leaders together works very well in what is seen as the 'neutral' territory of the arts. | As an example I'll mention 'Luminous Green', a series of gatherings for people involved in creating an illuminated, electrified and imaginative future. We found that bringing activists, politicians and business leaders together works very well in what is seen as the 'neutral' territory of the arts. When they are first introduced to each other as people, rather than by profession or political allegiance, conversations flow differently. In the arts we have ways to open up conceptual spaces to see beyond what is probable and into what is 'preferable' – even if it might seem impossible at the time. |
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| When they are first introduced to each other as people, rather than by profession or political allegiance, conversations flow differently. In the arts we have ways to open up conceptual spaces to see beyond what is probable and into what is 'preferable' – even if it might seem impossible at the time. | |
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| A second example highlights some of the things that we find crucial for the development of the elusive 'third culture' – openness, curiosity, respect, humility and anti-fragility – or being able to thrive in uncertain and unpredictable conditions. 'Splinterfields' is a series of masterclasses which combine a traditional craft, a specific science and an emergent technosocial development. We teach them all at the same time, in terms of each other. For example in one workshop we connected textile crafts, mathematics and live coding; in another fermentation, biochemistry and DIY biology. Each of the invited participants is an expert in one field, and a novice in one or two of the others. We developed facilitation methods to guide people to learn from each other and work towards outcomes that they might not have thought of on their own. How to develop a yoghurt to introduce vitamin C-producing-gut-flora to our intestines, or how to construct a self-powered biomimetic kettle inspired by the growth and form of sea-shells. | A second example highlights some of the things that we find crucial for the development of the elusive 'third culture' – openness, curiosity, respect, humility and anti-fragility – or being able to thrive in uncertain and unpredictable conditions. 'Splinterfields' is a series of masterclasses which combine a traditional craft, a specific science and an emergent technosocial development. We teach them all at the same time, in terms of each other. For example in one workshop we connected textile crafts, mathematics and live coding; in another fermentation, biochemistry and DIY biology. Each of the invited participants is an expert in one field, and a novice in one or two of the others. We developed facilitation methods to guide people to learn from each other and work towards outcomes that they might not have thought of on their own. How to develop a yoghurt to introduce vitamin C-producing-gut-flora to our intestines, or how to construct a self-powered biomimetic kettle inspired by the growth and form of sea-shells. |
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| When we talk about artists and scientists, there are A few commonalities that we can take as a starting point: sharing a curiosity about the world and a certain rigour of practice and experimentation. The primary professional differences, however, are modes of expression and continuity – building an artistic 'ouvre' is not bibliometrics, creating a unique artwork is not like building a nanotube or designing a repeatable experiment to test a theory. The ways that 'success' and 'impact' are measured in these communities can be barriers for fruitful collaborations between them. | When we talk about artists and scientists, there are a few commonalities that we can take as a starting point: sharing a curiosity about the world and a certain rigour of practice and experimentation. The primary professional differences, however, are modes of expression and continuity – building an artistic 'ouvre' is not bibliometrics, creating a unique artwork is not like building a nanotube or designing a repeatable experiment to test a theory. The ways that 'success' and 'impact' are measured in these communities can be barriers for fruitful collaborations between them. |
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| So while many of the technological challenges of the early electronic arts have been resolved, the connection between art and technology is still often fraught. Multidisciplinary collaboration tends to focus on one discipline being in the service of another, rather than becoming 'transdisciplinary': going beyond individual disciplines and becoming something new. We could say that multidisciplinary collaboration is like Frankenstein's monster, while a transdisciplinary collaboration strives to be more like a Griffin or a Sphinx. The formation of a Griffin-like third culture is far from realised yet, and to achieve it, we need to move beyond collaborations that are ad-hoc and contingent, beyond work based on individual initiatives. The experiments must continue on a systemic scale, until they evolve into something that isn't art nor science, but something that we at FoAM would call 'speculative culture'. As science fiction writer Bruce Sterling says: | So while many of the technological challenges of the early electronic arts have been resolved, the connection between art and technology is still often fraught. Multidisciplinary collaboration tends to focus on one discipline being in the service of another, rather than becoming 'transdisciplinary': going beyond individual disciplines and becoming something new. We could say that multidisciplinary collaboration is like Frankenstein's monster, while a transdisciplinary collaboration strives to be more like a Griffin or a Sphinx. The formation of a Griffin-like third culture is far from realised yet, and to achieve it, we need to move beyond collaborations that are ad-hoc and contingent, beyond work based on individual initiatives. The experiments must continue on a systemic scale, until they evolve into something that isn't art nor science, but something that we at FoAM would call 'speculative culture'. As science fiction writer Bruce Sterling says: |
maja