2-DAY "OPEN FIELDS" CONFERENCE, 6 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, 80 PRESENTATIONS, 3 EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES, AND JUST 140 AVAILABLE SEATS
Moderator: Kristin Bergaust
Anna NACHER. Between “dance of agency” and distributed agency of techno-ecological artistic practice
The artistic projects in the field of techno-ecological practice call for updated notion of agency – the one that addresses “multiple modes and degrees of effectivity” (Bennett 2010: viii) of both human and non-human agents. Such need is often inspired by all kinds of contingencies and resistances exerted by non-human agents contributing to instability and unpredictability of result in the design process. At the same time it opens the aesthetic practice to the experimentation based on “sensitive encounters with material agency” (Pickering, 1995: 20), which, following Ludwik Fleck, could also be named “tuning” (Pickering . From the material metaphor of Shelley Jackson’s Snow (2014-ongoing) through Joe Davis’ bacterial radio (2011-2012) to Elvin Flamingo’s Symbiosity of Creation (2012-2015) one can see the process which inspires the question: to what extent the projects depend on the active force of non-human agents? How to account for their significant contribution in terms of auctorial instances? My attempt at answering such questions will be inspired by the Andrew Pickering’s notion of “dance of agency” confronted with the idea of distributed agency as theorized in the feminist neomaterialist approach, most notably Jane Bennett and Karen Barad.
Biography: Dr hab. Anna Nacher – since 2006 she has been working at the Institute for Audiovisual Arts, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Her research interests include posthumanism, theory of culture, media art, e-literature and ubiquitous computing. She currently pursues a 3-year long research project on the post-digital imagery (“The aesthetics of post-digital imagery: between new materialism and object-oriented philosophy”, grant from Polish National Science Centre).The author of three books in Polish, the newest one of which published in 2016 focuses on the locative media imagery. A reworked version of one chapter has been published as “Internet of things and automation of imaging: beyond representationalism” in “communication+1”, vol. 5 (2016). Other articles include: Mashup as paratextual practice: beyond digital objects (in the age of networked media), a chapter in N. Desrochers, D. Apollon (eds.), Examining Paratextual Theory and its Application in Digital Culture, Information Science Reference, IGI Global 2014; Stelarc and His Experiential Machinarium [in:] R. W. Kluszczyński (ed.), STELARC: Meat, Metal & Code / Contestable Chimeras , Gdańsk 2014. She has participated in a number of international conferences, including Transimage – The Transdisciplinary Imagining Conference (Plymouth University 2016), Electronic Literature Organization’s Conferences (in 2013 and 2015) and NECS Conference (2015).
Maryna MAKARENKO. Utopian gender narratives: reality of fiction in techno-scientific era? / JELLYFISH, film-performance
We entered the time of great technological possibilities transforming our future into now. No time like today is talking so much about future scenarIf the border between what can be defined as organic human and non-organic technology has already dissolved in 1985 with A Cyborg Manifesto as the proof of its dissolution we are definitely finding ourselves around trans-humanistic terrains. The unstoppable process of metamorphosis has began, and there is no point to question weather or not we are cyborgs or techno-bodies.
My work deals with the processes that take place in the realm of an identity formation specifically focusing on the notion of gender construction. Aiming to investigate the question whether we are living in gender utopia and what are its characteristics by using interview as a method of practice-based research interwoven with post-social anthropological practices. Interviewees are those outside of gender binary and cisnormativity: transgender, intersexual, polygender and everyone who can relate to genderqueer.
My lecture-performance presents methods of practice-based research evolving around notions of speculative fiction, post-humanism, anthropocentrism in times of techno-ecological acceleration aiming to place humanity on a map of post-modern mythologies.
Biography. Maryna Makarenko (b. 1990 in Ukraine) is a multimedia artist currently residing in Berlin. In her works she investigate topics evolving around anthropology, social theory, sociology of deviance, speculative fiction as well as visual qualities of matter and its relation to sound. After graduating with BA at the Institute of Journalism, T. Shevchenko National University of Kyiv I accomplished BA in Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts. She was a guest student for the Integrated Media Program at OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design) in Toronto. Currently enrolled at Master Programm in Art and Media at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Michael DOTOLO. Aesthetics in Yoga
Yoga is perhaps one of the greatest cultural exports of India to date. It has gained popularity across the world as a form of physical well-being, but this is only a small part of an ancient system of philosophy and actions designed to facilitate an individual’s awareness. As a science of experience, yoga consists of a multiplicity of techniques for understanding the dynamics of mind and body. This understanding is a manifestation of awareness, achieved by means of a concentration through practice, and eventually, a disciplined approach to an aesthetic experience.
Through comparative analysis of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali to the four moments of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement, I suggest, not only a correlation between modern and ancient philosophical perspectives of the aesthetic experience, but a simple application of yogic techniques for developing this experience. The type-of concentration that is required for focus on an external object, demands a degree of self-awareness in observing and controlling one’s mental activity. Through observation, and the quieting of chattering mental activity, including one’s sense of ego, objects can be viewed purely in terms of their characteristics–form, structure, etc. This observation resembles Immanuel Kant concept of Purposiveness, in which cognition is balance sensorial awareness. The relationship between self-awareness and the aesthetic experience is inextricably linked and, quite possibly, as intimate a state in which the mind can comprehend. My intent is to introduce methods for developing an awareness of aesthetic and self, for the practicing yogin, devote aesthetician, or artist.
Biography. Michael Dotolo is an educator, musician, artist, and designer, working in the mediums of light and sound. His performance, installation, and technically-inclined freelance work has been created and displayed on three continents. His interest is developing work that re-introduces nature’s process to synthetic environments. After studying music composition and sound technology in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the 90’s, he pursued his interest of technology, art, and music at Brooklyn College and then later at the Frank Mohr Instituut in Holland. Following his MFA studies he began teaching in Mumbai, India. He is currently a program director for the department of Communications Design at Pearl Academy, New Delhi. Since 2002, he has been an active practitioner of yoga. A practice which culminated in an intensive and holistic training at the Yoga Institute in Mumbai. Yoga, as a science of experience with practical applications, resonated with his artistic disposition which was shaped years earlier by his composition mentor, David Dunn, in Santa Fe.
Vygintas ORLOVAS. Anti-ecology of digital sounds: a case analysis of Vaporwave
The attempts to recycle, up-cycle and reuse lead to less production of waste in the material case. However, laws and mechanics far different from this can be seen if we analyze the virtual and digital cases.
The appropriation of sound in the production process of music has been prominent in many genre after the sampler was invented and this phenomenon has gained even greater importance after the world wide web started to function.
A post-digital approach towards music production yields results that might be unexpected and are contrary to what we can analyze in the material cases of environmental movements.
By analyzing the cases of albums such as Floral Shoppe by Macintosh PLUS and flavorWave TURBO by Bigaku Aesthetics we can see that: through the adaptation of John Oswald’s plunderphonics the producers of the genre known as vaporwave push the differences between the material and digital to its’ boundaries and turn the strategies and ideas of a greener and cleaner world inside out in order to create a shift towards an anti-capitalist movement, which produces more than it is possible to consume. Furthermore, this aim becomes manageable only through incorporating the qualities of the virtual in the process of music production.
Biography. Vygintas Orlovas is a lecturer in and doctorate level student in Vilnius Academy of Arts. The main object of analysis in his creative practice is the translation and transformation processes involved in the shift from one media to another primarily focusing on the relations of sound and image. He has been exhibiting his works and performing since 2009 in Lithuania and abroad (Latvia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Japan, U.S.). Similarily as in his creative practice Orlovas focuses his scholarly research on various aspects of the relations of sound and image and the transformation processes involved in the change of media. He has been reading papers in conferences since 2014.
Maija DEMITERE. Data vizualizations – using slow media art to promote deep sustainability
This paper presents aspects of my artistic research which is a work in progress investigating a new concept of deep sustainability. Slow media art,which is the subject of this paper, is presented as a complementary characteristics of deep sustainability, offering a view of lifestyle changes. In my research and in this paper I’m analyzing such authors as Deleuze and Guattari.
Data from two art works offers the possibility to seek patterns, that otherwise would not be visible. My collected food and food production data since year 2014, allows to build a model system that could apply to everyone – calculating how big area is necessary to grow needed food for one individual, what things they should grow to become self-sustainable (able to supply themselves with the necessary food, avoiding waste production). Visualizing the data such as food, it becomes possible to identify what kind of lifestyle changes are possible, for example, to reduce surplus and waste.
Biography. I’m a doctoral student at Liepaja University New Media Art programme. For almost 2 years now I’ve worked in Liepaja University Art Research Laboratory (MPLab) as project manager. My interests are – slow media art, deep sustainability, self-sustainability, food production, ecology.