VIRTUALITIES AND REALITIES
The 2nd International Open Fields Conference on Artistic Research
in the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival 2017
October 19 – 21, 2017, Riga, Latvia
VIRTUALITIES AND REALITIES aims to establish a space for artistic interventions and conversations about the complex implications of immersive technologies. Immersive technologies coupled with superior virtual environments, artificial intelligence algorithms, faster processors, and biometrics are launching a new era in virtual experiences, entertainment and story-telling. At the same time these technologies have the potential for implementing new systems of invasive monitoring and control. What do these new developments in VR/AR mean and how artistic research in this new field can contribute for education, entertainment, social policy, and systems of codified knowledge?
This year’s RIXC Art Science festival programme will feature the 2nd Open Fields conference on artistic research, as well as workshops, performances and exhibitions, exploring the theme “virtualities and realitites”. The conference and other festival events will take place from October 19–21, 2017, in Riga’s most significant contemporary art venues – kim? Contemporary Art Center and RIXC Gallery, as well as in the Art Academy of Latvia, and the Latvian National Museum of Art.
Keynote Speakers:
Monika FLEISCHMANN (DE)
Wolfgang STRAUSS (DE).
Ellen PEARLMAN / Parsons / New School / Art-A-Hack / ThoughtWorks / New York, USA
David ROTHENBERG / New Jersey Institute of Technology / USA
and others – tbc.
About: Open Fields conference
The Open Fields conference is the annual gathering in Riga, Latvia, for international scholars and artists working at the intersection of arts, humanities and science. The conference was launched in 2016 with the aim to create the Nordic-Baltic region based platform for artistic research. It is taking place in the framework of the RIXC Art Science festival. The 1st conference edition took place in Riga, October 2016, gathering together 120 participants representing 60 universities from 30 countries world-wide. The conference venues this year will be: the Art Academy of Latvia, and the Latvian National Museum of Art, and we expect to host 80-100 participants. We welcome proposals from independent artists as well as university based artists-researchers and scholars from different other fields, if they have a relation and/or interest in art and other creative contemporary practices.
Theme: VIRTUALITIES AND REALITIES
Immersive technologies coupled with superior virtual environments, artificial intelligence algorithms, faster processors, and biometrics are launching a new era in virtual experiences, entertainment and story-telling. At the same time these technologies have the potential for reinforcing stereotypes, contributing to massive economic and social disruptions, and implementing new systems of invasive monitoring and control.
What do these new developments in VR/AR mean for education, entertainment, social policy, and systems of codified knowledge? Like their predecessors the telephone, television, and mobile phone, what are the impending new vistas and reduced horizons?
Biometrics and the uploading and tracking of personal data spans areas from healthcare to advertising, with implications for law, criminal justice, entertainment (gaming), education and sports. Machine learning and algorithms are harvesting and making use of big data in new and startling ways. Some of it allows pinpoint accuracy in determining issues of public health, economics, climate change, story-telling, political leanings and the migration of populations. What does all this data combined with new technologies mean? What are some current and future artistic strategies that deal with this? Combined with the acceleration of VR/AR and technologies of immersion, how will societies react?
Taking place in the framework of RISK CHANGE EU Creative Europe’s project, various festival events will explore relations between “virtualities” and “realities” in our post-media society. The Open Fields conference will discuss the socio-cultural and neurobiological impacts of virtual and augmented reality, and other immersive technologies. The conference participants will also look at the places and movements from a socio-political perspective, the mapping and charting of migrating cultures particularly people and their data traces.
The conference will be complemented by the festival exhibition that will explore the changing role of art in society, its transformative potential, and its relations to the sciences, especially focusing on neomateriality, new aesthetics and other critical qualities of the post-digital.
Proceedings
The papers by conference participants will be published in conference proceeding, which will come out in the Acoustic Space, (double blind) peer-reviewed journal & book series. The call for full paper submissions will be announced after the conference on the Acoustic Space journal website:
http://acousticspacejournal.com
CALL FOR CONFERENCE PROPOSALS:
DEADLINE: CLOSED
We welcome proposals by scholars, artists, artists-scholars, designers, PhD researchers, media theorists, art historians, curators, science philosophers, cultural innovators, critical engineers and data designers, as well as scientists from different Fields – biology, ecology, environment, digital technologies, renewable energy, and others, who have experienced or see the potential of collaboration with arts.
THEMES:
* augmented and virtual reality
* 360-degree video and interactive story-telling
* biometrics, AI and machine learning
* tracing and charting the migrating cultures
* artistic and scientific research practices
* techno-ecological perspective
* neomateriality and post-digital aesthetics
* digital art archives and curating practices
* data visualization and immersive environments
Welcome to submit your conference proposal consisting of:
– keywords 5–6,
– an abstract 250 words,
– biography of the author(s) 200 words each
The Open Fields conference will be complemented by the festival exhibition, presenting the most innovative approaches in artistic research practices. The exhibition will be featuring 25 artworks. It will take place in kim? Contemporary Art Center.
Conference chairs:
Ellen PEARLMAN / Parsons / New School / Art-A-Hack / ThoughtWorks / New York, USA
Rasa SMITE / RIXC / Liepaja University / Latvia
The International Conference Scientific board:
Lev MANOVICH / Cultural Analytics Lab / The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
Jussi PARIKKA / Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / UK
Geoff COX / School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
Kristin BERGAUST / Oslo and Akershus University, Norway
Laura BELOFF / IT University, Copenhagen / Finnish Bioart Society, Helsinki, Finland
Lily DIAZ-KOMMONEN / Head of Research Department of Media, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
Ursula DAMM / Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany
Vytautas MICHELKEVICIUS / Nida Art Colony, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
Margrét Elísabet ÓLAFSDÓTTIR / Art Education at the University of Akureyri, Iceland
Ilva SKULTE / Riga Stradins University, Latvia
Regine DEBATTY / we-make-money-not-art.com / UK/BE
Piibe PIIRMA / Tallinn University / Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Raivo KELOMEES / Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Aleksandra KOSTIC / Kibla / Risk Change project / Maribor, Slovenia
Participation Fee / Travel / Accommodation:
Due to unexpected difficulties with funding this year the participants are asked to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. We will provide you with an official letter of invitation upon request, encouraging to apply for the travel support at your home university. Selected exhibition artists will be asked to cover all the artwork production costs by themselves – we will only cover the costs related to the exhibiting the works in Riga.
Limited amount of grants for covering support travel and accommodation for independent artists and researchers will be available, primarily, for participants from Baltic and Nordic countries, as well as Central and Eastern Europe. Partial support can be offered to participants from other countries.
Please see more information on the festival & conference website: http://festival2017.rixc.org
The Festival is produced by RIXC / Riga, Latvia in collaboration with EU programme’s Creative Europe Risk Change project partners.
The Festival and Exhibition curators: Raitis SMITS and Rasa SMITE / RIXC
The Conference is organized by RIXC / Riga in collaboration with the Renewable Futures Headquarters / Oslo, and Art-A-Hack / New York, and Hybrid Lab Nordplus project academic partners: Liepaja University, Aalto University and HiOA, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.
Contact: rixc (at) rixc.org
Address: Lencu iela 2, Riga, LV-1010, Latvia
Phone: +371 67228478 (office), +371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)
http://rixc.org
Support: EU Programme “Creative Europe”, Risk Change project, Nordplus Hybrid Lab project, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga City Council, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia