offprint mcd#74 - summer 2014
Art / Industry DESIGN/TECHNOLOGIES/AGENCIES BUSINESS/R & D/INNOVATION/URBAN PLANNING ARCHITECTURE/CREATIVITY/OPEN DATA NEW MEDIA/MEDIALAB
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Art/Industry EDITO
The disruption of art
At a time when brands like Facebook, Google, Twitter... gather more people than entire continents, it can be interesting to question the relationship between digital artists and new creative industries. Creative people who use technology and work with engineers, developers and scientists produce works, devices and inventions whose users are no longer confined to the institutional sphere and museums nor places dedicated to the contemporary art scene.
Their research & creation intersects the R&D departments of companies and laboratories. The collaborative methods of such groups made of developers, designers and artists, promote innovation without necessarily claiming its ownership. Some of them, like the Graffiti Research Lab or the Free Art Technology Lab (FAT Lab), even assert the open-source as a constitutive feature of their works. Occasionally, companies and brands are inspired by these creations and might even choose to involve artists in their development.
Art-Industry interactions are numerous and crossbreed at different stages of collaboration. The content of this issue demonstrates the variety and richness of achievements and the research undertaken. The connected artist might indeed be the one who best enables us to disconnect.
I am particularly grateful to Marco Mancuso from Digicult Italy, who was given carte blanche for this issue, all the authors as well as organisations, artists and brands who kindly answered our questions. I also wish to thank, once again, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, our partners and advertisers for their support towards this publication.
ANNE-CÉCILE WORMS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
With the support of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication
mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 03
Art/Industry
CONTENT
03_ ÉDITO 05_ CONTENT
CARTE BLANCHE / DIGICULT 08_ ART INDUSTRIES: A NEW PRODUCTION PARADIGM 12_ TECHNOLOGY AND ART: THE COMPANY AS A SOURCE OF NEW FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE Couverture: Forms, installation 16_ FURTHERFIELD AND CONTEMPORARY ART CULTURE audio-visuelle. Memo Akten 20_ VALUE AND INNOVATION en collaboration IN CONTEMPORARY ART AND CULTURE avec Quayola. Photo © R.R. 24_ NEW INDUSTRIES: AGENCIES, ARTISTS & DESIGNERS 28_ ARS ELECTRONICA: GERFRIED STOCKER. 32_ SCIENCE GALLERY: DR MICHAEL JOHN GORMAN 36_ SINLAB: JEFFREY HUANG & ALEX BARCHIESI 40_ MIT SENSEABLE CITY LAB: CARLO RATTI 44_ AALTO MEDIA FACTORY: PR. PHILIP DEAN 48_ ART+COM: PR. JOACHIM SAUTER
52_ SUBSCRIPTION 54_ WHO'S/DISTRIBUTOR
mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 05 06 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 CARTE BLANCHE / DIGICULT > www.digicult.it
Since 2005, Digicult has been one of the main online platforms that examines the impact of digital technologies and science on art, design, culture and contemporary society. Based on an international network of critics, curators, artists, designers, professors, researchers, journalists, media centers, galleries and festivals, Digicult is an editorial project that daily publishes news, informations, articles, interviews, reports and even essays, artists’ books and the Digimag Journal through its online publishing service Digicult Editions. Digicult furthermore develops tools for communication, marketing and Internet cultural promotion strategies, as well as curatorial, management, consultancy and artists supporting projects through the Digicult Agency. Digicult was founded and is directed by Marco Mancuso. Twitter: @digicult
mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 07 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >INTRODUCTION
ART INDUSTRIES a new production paradigm
We’ve got to start living with it, the future is here; those who do not take it in are lost. The twentieth-century sustenance models of artistic and cultural production are disappearing and our generation has not had the time to test them all the way. In Western countries, state subsidies for culture, as well as funds provided by enlightened (and interested) sponsors, are ever more scarce and concentrated in the hands of a few representatives of a social and economic elite that is busy occupying and consolidating its roles and positions.
In the last three decades, the necessary al and creative subjects and industries el scale that is more connected to the networks finances to activate production processes in involved in the standardization of sustain- and the production of bottom-up culture. the field of Media Art have come first and able development models aimed at activat- They are able to act as a link between the foremost from institutions, but also from ing functional productive processes to real- industries and an the ecosystem of research banks, patrons or sponsorships from mar- ize a "cultural object" is increasing: artists, centres, laboratories, and academies, exhibi- kets that seemed apparently untouched, designers, programmers, authors, hackers, tion spaces and institutions of excellence, so though ready to commercially contaminate makers, musicians, film-makers, graphic as to create interesting sharing, exchanging others and thus guarantee their own sur- designers; but also companies in the ICT and production mechanisms. The ultimate vival. The common feeling is that this great sector of course (such as hardware and soft- goal is to activate dissemination and circula- welfare mechanism that — let’s admit it — ware producers) or active in fields includ- tion processes for the "cultural object" — a was thought to be everlasting is no longer ing scientific research, mechatronics, artifi- product that a company would not have sustainable and should allow space to more cial intelligence, biomedicine or materials access to — for the growing interest of a whole virtuous art production and dissemination investigation. productive sector ever more ready to invest processes. in arts and culture, more attentively and mas- The new "creative classes" come from diverse sively than in the past. In fact, in a period of growing economic backgrounds; they have not necessarily been recession and widespread cuts to cultural institutionalized even though they contribute The ability of what we refer to here as “Art funding, the number of examples of cultur- to creating "value" on a socio-economic mod- Industries” is that of acting as catalysers and
08 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTOS © ART+COM
ART+COM, River Is…, Yeongsan, South Korea, 2012.
incubators of an increasingly popular form trace the history of contemporary arts, from of grassroots artistic, economic and cultur- the avant-gardes to the pioneers of the ‘60s al production, linked to the usage of (new) and ‘70s — as described in Claudia D’Alon- technologies; and it is interesting to note the zo’s essay — investigating the thickening of long the list of similar experiences, both in the relationship between art and industry, recent times and with reference to the past firstly due to the artists’ fascination for the century avant-gardes. mechanized world and, subsequently, thanks to the increasingly systematic inter- If, on the one hand, it is useful to recall such est that hi-tech companies and TV broad- programs as the Boston Cyberarts “Artist in casting companies have had in integrating Residence at Technology Companies of Mas- artists within their R&D departments. oriented publications. Lastly, we must under- sachusetts" (A.R.T.C.O.M.) that puts New stand how the paradigms of artistic and cul- Media artists in contact with high-tech com- The new “Art Industries” highlight the need tural object creation are changing, how they panies for a mutually beneficial exchange to operate by activating networks of acquain- are being affected by the relationship with of technical and creative resources, or the tances and contacts, integrating artists in the the companies and the market and how the PAIR, The PARC Artist in Residence Pro- most appropriate productive circuits; design- mechanisms of expression and freedom of gram (US), an ongoing research project at ers and creative people belonging to increas- research on the medium are changing. Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), ingly liquid local/global networks that mir- at the ARTLAB, developed by Canon Inc., ror a hybrid territory, interpenetrated by Thus, the interviews and testimonies here- that serves as a laboratory aimed at pio- (in)experience and know-how. We need to in have the ambition to narrate a common neering new artistic realms through the inte- be acquainted with the most prominent inter- experience. From Linz’s Ars Electronica Lab gration of science and art by applying dig- national case studies and draw from specif- to Dublin’s Science Gallery, from Helsinki’s ital technologies to artistic investigations, ic literature, between topics related to “cre- Aalto Media Lab to Lausanne’s Sinlab to on the other hand it is also important to ative industries” and the more “Media Art” Berlin’s ART+COM studio and MIT’s Seans- >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 09 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >INTRODUCTION PHOTO © SCIENCEGALLERY.COM
Visitors with Magicicada by David Rothenberg as part of OSCILLATOR, at Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin.
able City Lab, what emerges is a common the one hand, and the development of net- new and interesting balances for a class of > trait characterized by interpenetrated paths works, peer-to-peer structures and social producers of creativity and culture: reduc- amongst arts, design, science and research networking dynamics on the other hand, tion of costs, lean structures, offer of serv- on new forms of artistic and cultural pro- have produced radical transformations in ices, capillary dissemination and commu- duction, entailing a tight form of collabora- the relationships amongst arts, science, nication, platform sharing, sharing of tion between the world of industrial pro- design and society. In fact, if the progressive expertise, direct professional relationships duction and scientific research. The questions de-institutionilisation of forms of produc- are forms and practices that provide the mar- were posed in a spirit of inquiry, to analyse tion, management and usage of material and ket with culture, art, design and communi- the mechanisms and dynamics behind the immaterial goods, brought in by new tech- cation in an innovative and competitive way workability and economics of productive nologies, is reshaping the way we think for companies in the sector. structures referred to globally. The attempt about the production of culture, economics was to extrapolate experiences, highlight and information — blurring the boundaries This is the sense of Marc Garrett and Car- strategies, search for often-concealed forms between fields and disciplines, combining oline Heron’s texts: to recount — with com- of collaboration; in other words, share a pos- methodologies, languages, know-how and petence, vision and knowledge — the var- sible alternative economic model, as part of influencing the distinction between "high" ious experiences carried out at the head of a cutting-edge production circuit still over- academic approach, and "low" self-taught the cultural project Furtherfield and the ly neglected by institutions, governments approach — the birth of a series of platforms series of social events, training sessions and markets. and online projects facilitates new ways of and meetings on digital strategy in culture relating between producer and market. called Art of Digital London (AoDL) / The ultimate aim of this publication is to Metamute. I proposed Marc Garrett to tell highlight how the introduction and dis- The Do It Yourself philosophy has become us about models, potentialities, risks and semination of new open technologies, on the subject of reflection and research into strategies as regards the difficult relation-
10 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 ship between the worlds of art and of industries and private research. How do the conception and production of an art piece change in relation to new industrial and economic paradigms? How can cul- tural institutions work in such a system and how can curators and producers do their job, i.e. supervise? PHOTO © SCIENCEGALLERY.COM
Whereas, I suggested Caroline Heron to focus her attention on what roles Media Art and contemporary cultural production are playing and how these are changing (through misusage, adaptation or depend- ence) within the increasing economy of rep- utation in the contemporary cultural indus- try, whilst being affected by Internet and social technologies in a new system of values, social recognition and visibility. How are professional networks (from the world of ICT, computation technologies, sci- ence, art, design, manufacturing, hacking, architecture) opening new opportunities to those artists and creative people who are able to relate to different cultural and pro- duction playgrounds?
Although both essays are focused on what is going on in the UK, the situation is inform- and markets look at the world of art and Faber Futures by Natsai Chieza ative and can refer, more broadly, to digital computational design; how research on spe- as part of GROW YOUR OWN, at Science Gallery, cultural production in general. The sur- cific materials and technologies can affect Trinity College, Dublin. prising (or maybe not so much so) conclu- production and sales of artistic works and sion is how thin the divide between art, objects and what the evolution of the so- research and commercial representation of called “creative classes” can be in a world aesthetics, codes and expressive languages radically dominated by technology and net- has become. Google reigns and prospers over works. whatever is Internet-related, with a series of Bibliographie platforms and projects aimed at linking com- > Boston Cyberarts, Artist in Residence at Technology As a conclusion, Nikolaus Hafermaas is the panies, professionals, web marketing strate- Companies of Massachusetts (A.R.T.C.O.M.). one to tells us that if and how innovation in gists and programmers, software artists, http://bostoncyberarts.org/air/ industry can be driven by creative people video artists and broadly intended audio- (namely artists and designers) and which > ARTLAB, Canon Inc. visually creative people. are the creative processes of conception, www.canon.co.jp/cast/artlab/index.html experimentation, rapid visualizing / proto- > PAIR, The PARC Artist in Residence Program (US), From Think With Google to the Creativity typing / testing / fabrication, crowd sourc- Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Online platform, up to Google Creative Lab ing, radical collaboration that can be devel- www.pair.xerox.com (who declined participating in this study), oped on a larger scale and can be potential the Mountain View giant clearly looks at > Mobile Monday Amsterdam. www.mobilemonday.nl and interesting for industries to invest in. contemporary Media Art with great inter- > Seed Design Series. est. Meanwhile, the number of cultural With this in mind, I would then talk about http://seedmagazine.com/designseries events is expanding exponentially, in the Open Innovation, i.e. when the processes > Ted Talks. www.ted.com/talks form of talks or presentations, branded by described herein really affect not only the eco- ICT or computer science firms, in which > Offf Festival. www.offf.ws nomical dynamics, but also the production more or less well-known artists and design- > of art and culture in contemporary society. Future Everything. http://futureeverything.org ers personally represent the industry’s grow- Here, innovation is not only “open” because > Resonate. http://resonate.io/2013/ ing interest for their creativity, technical it implies shared knowledge and techniques, expertise and knowledge of the latest codes > Google Creativity Online. http://creativity-online.com but mainly because it activates cross-cultur- and expressive languages. > Think With Google / Creative Sandbox. al processes, thus developing artistic objects www.thinkwithgoogle.com whose real “value” is not only what deter- From the Ted Talks, now covering a broad mines their impact as "goods". spectrum of topics, to the MoMo Amster- dam Conferences, up to the Seed Design Series and to other important gatherings in Marco Mancuso is a critic and curator in the With the Digicult Agency he curated a series of the contemporary Media Art circuit such as field of digital technologies and their impact exhibitions, screenings, lectures, meetings and Barcelona’s Offf, Manchester’s Future Every- onarts, design and contemporary culture. was partner with the most important media art thing and, above all, Belgrade’s Resonate, the Founder and Director at Digicult and Digimag festival internationally. Marco Mancuso recently contemporary artist is clearly and mostly a professional who not only is able to respond Journal (part of The Leonardo Affiliate Program), developed the Digicult Editions open-publishing to the demands of the society he is active in, he teaches at Naba Academy in Milan, Carrara service and is now studying new economical but also to the markets who reside there. Academy In Bergamo and SUPSI in Lugano. Internet models for art and culture. What we may still ignore is how industries Marco Mancuso
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 11 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >TECHNOLOGY AND ART BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND ART For a history of the company as a source of new forms of knowledge
The relationship between art and industry, which emerged with more clarity in recent decades thanks to widespread digital technologies, has indeed been present since the dawn of contemporary arts. This proximity was initially supported by a common interest for technique and, later, for technologies. Looking at some important moments in the history of this binomial allows us to identify features, constant aspects and mutations, perhaps useful to decode the current scenario. A history explored in the light of two questions that have both an epistemological and a pragmatic character: what do historical episodes of insertion of artists in the frames of industrial production have produced in terms of knowledge? What are the advantages generated for the industrial world and what are those for the arts?
The very first interest for a contamination transformations that affected the field of the Tennis Racquets between both areas came from artists and arts. One of the most evident was the Equipped with Electronic intellectuals rather than from the industry, assumption of greater and greater impor- Components / designed as a result of the industrial revolution and tance of applied arts, which determined what by Bill Kaminsky and with the assertion of mechanical production would then be defined as industrial design Jim McGee, 1966. methods. Things, as we shall see, had or design and their statuses within the indus- Photo: Éric Legendre. changed so much by the 1950s with the trial world. The Daniel Langlois growing complexity of the technology land- Foundation for Art, scape, the advent of pioneering forms of elec- But there were also many indirect conse- Science, and Technology, tronic and digital media and the birth of ICT. quences on the areas which, at the time, 9 Evenings: Theatre From the second half of the Nineteenth Cen- were defined as "fine arts". In particular, in & Engineering fonds. tury the industrialization caused radical the first two decades of the Twentieth Cen-
12 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTOS © R.R. / COURTESY OF JULIE MARTIN (EXPERIMENTS IN ART AND TECHNOLOGY) AND THE DANIEL LANGLOIS FOUNDATION (MONTREAL). AND TECHNOLOGY) THE DANIEL LANGLOIS FOUNDATION (EXPERIMENTS IN ART OF JULIE MARTIN PHOTOS © R.R. / COURTESY
The Pepsi Pavilion, World Fair, Osaka, 1970
tury, Futurism in Italy, Cubism in France, designing with direct consequences also who joined the company, a person with an and Constructivism in Russia faced in the ways of “doing” and designing art. educational background in economics, law the issue of mechanization not only in The first movement that made this influ- or humanities was also hired. industry but of life in the broader sense. ence readable was without a doubt Arte Pro- They overturned the (often negative) sense grammata e Cinetica, which proposed to In the USA, since the 1960s, many techno- attributed to the concept of technique, sub- create their own methods and technologi- logical industries have created residency pro- ordinate to aesthetics, occurring in mod- cal tools of industrial production into artis- grammes for artists and writers.(1) The com- ern aesthetic, and often exhibited a true tic practice. Simultaneously, the industry panies see in the artists a great resource for enthusiasm for mechanisation. The tech- started to take an interest in artists. If in empirical experimentation of the potential- nical medium therefore was the first vec- the USA, this interest was manifested in the ities of technologies developed in their lab- tor in the rapprochement between the paths form of residencies, which welcomed artists oratories. The first company to have had this of the art and those of the industry. A fas- in dedicated areas, one should also remem- intuition was the Bell Telephone Laborato- cination that continued in the decades that ber an experience of the second half of the ries, Incorporated, which initiated a resi- followed, always driven by an interest for 1950s in Europe, more precisely in Ivrea, dency programme (1962-1968) linked to the medium, not necessarily as a techno- a small Italian town. graphic design using the BELFLIX anima- logical apparatus, but also as a material. tion system, created by Dr. Kenneth C. In the 1950s, in fact, numerous artists open- The example is that of the management by Knowlton in 1963 and used by him to ly looked to the factory and included in Adriano Olivetti of the homonymous fami- create a computer-animated film in 1964.(2) their work industrially produced materials ly company, an avant-garde and utopian The program hosted artists such as Stan Van- — such as plastics, synthetic varnishes, and experience not only because it was one of DerBeek, who later worked (starting around metals. These entered the canvas, often the first examples (on the international 1965) with Knowlton in creating computer replacing it — As in the works of the Amer- scene) of the inclusion of artists and human- animated film series Poemfield(3) and Lilian ican Abstract Expressionism and later in ists in a company, but also because (perhaps Schwartz, who initially visited Bell Labs at Pop Art or, in Europe, in the work of Ital- this case is unique) in the course of the the very end of 1968 and later worked with ian artists such as Alberto Burri, Lucio 1950s, artists, writers and humanists were Dr. Knowlton (from 1970 to about 1975) in Fontana and Pino Pascali, Enrico Castel- fully included in the factory’s organisation the creation of a number of experimental lani or Fabio Mauri. of production. An inclusion deemed neces- artistic films involving computer animation. sary to adapt the industrial production to Jerry Spivack, was also an employee of Bell The advent of electronics marked a shift of changes occurring in society and modernise Labs and he did an interactive art piece focus from material to medium understood the territory, carried out through a recruit- toward the end of 1968. Aaron Marcus was as an apparatus and a system of functions, ment policy defined by the “principle of tri- an artist who visited and worked at Bell Labs cornerstone of processes and ways of ads”: for each new technician or engineer doing computer art in 1967. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 13 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >TECHNOLOGY AND ART
COMPUTERS/Movies - BEFLIX One scene of Bell Laboratories 17 minute animated file produced by a computer programmed in the new BEFLIX
PHOTO © R.R. language. This self explanatory film is entitled, A Computer Technique for the Production of Animated Movies. The notation above the frame does not appear in the final movie. It also was produced by the computer. It gives the time and date of the computer run and indicated that 75 frames of the final movie, frames 2425 through 2499, are to be printed optically from this original master frame. The programmed computer generates a magnetic tape, which is fed to a General Dynamics Microfilm Recorder that produces a drawing on the face of a cathode ray tube. A camera photographs these drawings. FOUNDATION (MONTREAL). FOUNDATION
Employee Dr. Manfred R. Schroeder also Evenings: Theatre and Engineering (1966) AND TECHNOLOGY) THE DANIEL LANGLOIS IN ART
> did computer art at Bell Labs. Visiting artist and the Pepsi Pavilion at the Expo in Osa- (EXPERIMENTS OF JULIE MARTIN PHOTO © R.R. / COURTESY Laurie Spiegel programmed herself com- ka (1970). Billy Kluver, engineer at Bell, puter art — in the early 1970s — at Bell founded the E.A.T. in 1966, carried by the Labs. In the course of the years, the pro- enthusiasm for his residency experience at gramme has helped developing not only Bell. The IBM artist residency programme, researches of technical type but has launched in 1966 with John Whitney, rep- also encouraged a process of innovation of resents another virtuous example. As a result the repertoires and visual aesthetics. of the productions with IBM, the artist decid- As described in the excellent documentary ed to abandon analog synthesis and to entire- "Incredible Machine" from 1968,(4) the free- ly devote himself to digital works, creating dom left to the creators and the close rela- films such as Arabesque (1975), a classic tionship between engineers and artists piece of computer animation. Catalogue published for 9 Evenings: allowed experimenting with new methods Theatre & Engineering. Edited by Pontus of work, generating previously missing Another section of the emergent media art Hultén and Frank Königsberg. New York: knowledge and skills. As well described by that finds the lifeblood for its development Experiments in Art and Technology, A. Michael Noll in his essay(5), the program in residencies in large American companies The Foundation for Contemporary was given tacit approval by department head is video art. Between the second half of the Performance Arts, 1966. The Daniel Langlois John Robinson Pierce, yet was not a formal 1960s and the beginning of the next decade, Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology, arrangement within the Labs. many creators were welcome in the prem- 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering fonds. ises of public broadcasting companies, most- But the greater legacy left by Bell to the con- ly WNET (NY), KQED (San Francisco) and temporary scene is represented by the con- WGBH (Boston). A mechanism governed The need to feed it implied, for the artists, the tribution to the establishment of the elec- by a particular synergy, unfortunately only possibility to use very expensive profession- tronic work in the realm of the arts. And not maintained for a few years, thanks to sub- al tools, for the television companies, the only because many works have been exhib- stantial grants from the Rockefeller Foun- awareness of the resource of expertise on the ited since 1965 in major museums, but main- dation, the interest of some "enlightened" "new technologies" represented by the artists, ly because it inspired the birth of the E.A.T. producers — such as Howard Klein and Nor- which occasionally influenced the design and (Experiments in Art and Technology), a not- man Lloyd — and from Nam June Paik, who development of some fundamental devices for-profit organisation of services for artists has acted as a mediator and animator for the evolution of the technique and the and engineers that gave life to important between financiers, television companies language of television. In some cases, the aim phases in the history of media art, such as and the art world. of the companies was also the creation, togeth-
14 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 FOUNDATION (MONTREAL). FOUNDATION IN ART AND TECHNOLOGY) THE DANIEL LANGLOIS IN ART PHOTO © R.R. / COURTESY OF JULIE MARTIN (EXPERIMENTS OF JULIE MARTIN PHOTO © R.R. / COURTESY
Some More Beginnings: Cybernetic Serendipity: Catalogue published for the Maurice Tuchman, A Report on an Exhibition of Submitted the Computer and the Arts, exhibition Software, Information the Art and Technology Program Works Involving Technical edited by Jasia Reichardt, Technology: Its New Meaning of the Los Angeles County Museum Materials and Processes, New York: Praeger, 1968. for Art, New York: Jewish Museum, of Art 1967-1971, New York: Viking, New York: E.A.T., 1968. The Daniel Langlois Foundation 1970. The Daniel Langlois 1971. The Daniel Langlois Foundation The Daniel Langlois for Art, Science, and Technology. Foundation for Art, Science, for Art, Science, and Technology. Foundation for Art, Science, The Daniel Langlois Foundation and Technology. The Daniel Langlois The Daniel Langlois Foundation and Technology. Collection collection. Foundation collection. collection. of Documents Published by E.A.T.
er with artists, of new palimpsest models, generate for the art world on the one hand (1) Cf. George Fifield, "Artist In Residence Programs. thus to extensively reform communication and the industry on the other? One partic- A mutual attraction: creativity and innovation", protocols of the TV medium. If there were ularly needs to examine what has happened http://bostoncyberarts.org/air/fifield_air_essay.html, last access 6 March 2014. many successes and innovations in the tech- since the second half of the 1950s, the vir- (2) Marita Sturken, "Private Money and Personal nological field, this second aspect remained tuous consequences are mainly related to Influence, Howard Klein and the Rockefeller Foun- largely unfulfilled and the programming of the developments of new devices and the dation's funding of the media arts", in Afterimage, the artists remained relegated to the margins affirmation of media aesthetics, which has Vol.14, No. 6, January 1997. of broadcast programming. This perhaps was led to the growing awareness that new tech- (3) Sherry Miller Hocking & Richard Brewster the determining factor in the rapid depletion nologies could have enabled the birth of new (curated by), Eigenwelt der apparatewelt, Pioneers of of these experiences, in the United States but art disciplines. Therefore, it was a big boost Electronic Art: Image Processing, catalogue, Ars Elec- also in similar examples present to a lesser to the innovation in terms of aesthetics and tronica, Linz, 1992. (4) Among the first initiatives there was the Bellagio extent in Europe, with the disappearance of new knowledge. These results were, with- Conference, at the Rockefeller Foundation, also public and private funding. out a doubt, of extreme relevance. The con- attended by the omnipresent Nam June Paik, accom- sequences of which, however, fall almost panied by a young artist in residence at a small centre In 1975, in fact, the Rockefeller Foundation exclusively in the domain of art and culture. in Italy, Bill Viola, at the time hosted at ArtTapes 22. put an end to the grant for the residencies See note 2. at the broadcasting networks. After this, hav- Unwilling to slow the flow in any way, it is ing neither the artists nor the identification nevertheless natural to raise a doubt. of other forms of sustainability by television The unresolved challenge remains that of companies, the collaboration and all of its the sustainability and the visible advantages potential for the future of video art and for in the medium term for companies, without the birth of a different television ran out in compromising the freedom and the integri- a definitive way. A TV reformed thanks to ty of artistic research. On the contrary, exam- artists remains a utopia, not even followed ples of similarities between the purposes of Researcher, writer, and curator, by initiatives like the one from the most art and those of profit still exist and they are, Claudia D’Alonzo holds a PhD in avant-gardist of producers, Howard Klein indeed, too numerous. But this is not what Audio-Visual Studies. She works who in 1977, foreseeing it was necessary to we are interested in. The issue of sustain- with digital art, visual arts, cine- expand the boundaries of the American ability and the challenge represented by the ma, and video art. She has collabo- experience, started the international con- identification of the mechanisms that allow rated with museums, galleries, ference INPUT, aiming at creating collabo- art and industry to feed each other without arts centres and festivals for cul- rations between producers of the major losing their own specificities, suddenly tural projects and exhibitions. American and European television compa- brings us back to the present. Now the issue She is an advisory board member nies and some representatives of video art. arises with great urgency, because develop- of the project Digicult. As a writer, ing models for this synergy, which could take she publishes for magazines, cata- At the end of this historical route, without into account this untreated aspect through- logues and papers. She has con- a doubt partial, it is worth returning to the out the history of media art, could represent tributed to seminars and lectures initial questions: What have historical the survival of much art of research. at international conferences and episodes produced in terms of knowledge? festivals. What advantages do these hybridisations Claudia D'Alonzo
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 15 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >THEORY WHERE WE ARE NOW?
Neoliberalism’s panoptic encroachment on everyday life has informed Furtherfield’s own Furtherfield motives and strategies. In contrast to most galleries and institutions that engage with art, we have stayed alert to its influence as part of a shared dialogue. Neoliberalism per- and Contemporary petuates patriarchal systems of dominance through, de-regulated markets, corporate corruption and bad government; each of which implements the circumstances where Art Culture us everyday people are only valued as mate- rials for a colonial exploitation. This turns us all into indigenous peoples struggling under the might of the wealthy few. For over 17 years Furtherfield has been working in practices Hacking around and through this impasse is essential if we are to maintain a sense of that bridge arts, technology, and social change. Over these human integrity and control over our own social contexts and ultimately to survive as years we have been involved in many great projects, and have a species. collaborated with and supported a variety of talented We assert that any practice that calls itself people. Our artistic endeavours include net art, media art, critical, innovative, experimental, avant- garde, visionary, evolutionary, or imagina- hacking, art activism, hacktivism and co-curating. We have tive must take account of this context. If we as an arts organization, shy away from what always believed it is essential that the individuals at the other people are experiencing in their dai- heart of Furtherfield practice in arts and technology and are ly lives and do not examine, represent and respect their stories, we quite rightly should engaged in critical enquiry and the role and direction of our be considered as part of an irrelevant elite, and seen as saying nothing to most people. arts collective is shaped by the affinities we identify among Thankfully, there are many artists and thinkers who acknowledge and take on diverse independent thinkers, individuals and groups. these themes in their work in various ways, The mix of art, culture and technology keeps us contemporary on the Internet and in physical spaces. So much so, that this has introduced a while remaining critical and examining the human condition. dilemma for the mainstream art world
16 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © RANDALL PACKER.
Up close and personal with Furtherfield, Randall Packer, Open Source Studio, Performance is Reality, 2012.
regarding its own relevance in contempo- "Most Art Says Nothing To Most People" as are ignored; yet these marginalized artists rary culture, constrained by its compliance a personal mantra ever since. Furtherfield remain essential to the mainstream cultural to the demands of a corporate elite, whom is inspired by ideas to underpin a grass roots economy serving as its missing creative mass. only appreciate art in terms of economics, form of enlightenment, and so nurture pro- At the same time, a rising sense of opposition- markets and brands. gressive ideas and practices of social and cul- al agency is developing within these invisible tural emancipation. The Oxford English Dic- folds of cultural productivity. Selectively sur- Most Art Says Nothing To Most People. tionary describes emancipation as the fact veying structures of visibility and invisibility, or process of being set free from legal, social, resentment and resistance […] when, the “ The more our physical and online or political restrictions. excluded are made visible, when they demand experiences and spaces are occupied visibility, it is always ultimately a matter of by the state and corporations rather “ Kant thought that Enlightenment only politics and rethinking history(4). than people’s own rooted needs, the more becomes possible when we are able to we become tied up in situations that reason and to communicate outside of Drawing upon Sholette's inspirational, reflect officially prescribed contexts, the confines of private institutions, unambiguous and comprehensive critique and not our own.(1) including the state.(2) of mainstream art culture, I would like to ” ” offer as an illustration, Furtherfield’s recent To start things off, I want to refer to an art- Art critic Julian Stallabrass proposes that experience of this process in action, with work made by Heath Bunting (co-founder there needs to be an analysis of the opera- the emergence and usage of the term "Post- of irational.org) and I in 1991. It was a large tion of the art world and its relationship with Media". This concept is only just begin- paste-up displayed on billboards around Bris- neoliberalism(3). Gregory Sholette argues ning to be defined by theorists in media tol in the UK. At the time, as well as initiat- that, “imagination and creativity in the art art culture and is said to unleash new forms ing and participating in other street art proj- world thrives in the non-commercial sector, of collective expression and experience(5). ects, pirate radio and BBS boards, Heath, I shut off from prestigious galleries and cham- However Furtherfield - an entity whose and others were members of the art activist pagne receptions. This broader creative culture practice is entirely native to, and arguably collective called Advertising Art. We made feeds the mainstream with new forms, and a key player (with many art other collec- street art as an argument against the pre- styles that can be commodified and utilized to tives and individuals) in the generation of, sumed ownership of our art culture and voic- sustain the few elite artists admitted into the "Post-Media" art context since 1997 – is es of expression, by the dominating hierar- elite. […] Art is big business: a few artists com- not referenced in any of the proliferating chies in society. I have taken the slogan mand huge sums of money, the vast majority materials on the subject. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 17 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >THEORY PHOTO © FURTHERFIELD
Shu Lea Cheang, Seeds Underground Party, 2013.
The extra irony here is that many of these not included. This insular and hermeti- mation, collaborate, build new frameworks, > supposedly insightful art historians and the- cally sealed approach is restrictive and power systems, artworks & alternative envi- orists advocate a decentralized, relational shows an over reliance on central hubs for ronments — technological, ecological and context and networked culture in their writ- official reference, and it also distances the- social independent structures for peer ings. However, many of them are not actu- orists from the actual culture they propose knowledge, respect and representation, with ally either engaged in supporting or creat- to be experts in. Because of this, whole grounded contexts and socially aware value ing these alternative structures with others areas of innovative practice are lost and systems. themselves or in practice. this is a big mistake. It only serves to per- petuate the conditions of an institutional- Furtherfield’s roots in cultural hacking The real problem is how they acquire their ized, privileged art elite, blocking or lay- assert the value of hacking not only with knowledge. Most academic writing takes ing low avenues for genuine, artistic and technology but also in every day life. In place within certain networks and proto- social emancipation. fact, Furtherfield is one big social hack. cols, and relies on dominant theoretical Hack Value advocates an art practice that canons to validate regurgitated concepts Furtherfield and Hack Value. develops the cultural agency of the artist rather than connecting with what is actu- by: taking the mechanics of society as ally happening on the ground. The art used “ We must allow all human creativity part of the medium of art along with the to illustrate and inspire their themes are to be as free as free software.(6) aesthetic resonances of social contexts; selected from established arts venues or ” working critically with existing (art) sys- from within associated, academic institu- Furtherfield is a network across different tems. It disrupts and discovers fresh ways tions and conferences. This inevitably rein- time zones, platforms & places — online & of looking and thinking about art, life and forces the validity of the work selected by physical, existing as various decentralized being; reclaiming artistic and human con- established power networks and degrades entities. Its culture supports interaction: to texts beyond the conditions controlled and devalues other works and artist groups create, discuss, critique, review, share infor- by elites.
18 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 Hack Value can be a playful disruption. It is Being accessible has nothing to do with also maintenance for the imagination, a call dumbing down. It concerns making the effort for a sense of wonder beyond the tedium of to examine deeper connections between peo- living in a consumption-dominated culture. ple and the social themes affecting theirs and It examines crossovers between different our lives. We don't avoid big issues and con- fields and practices, in terms of what their troversies and are constantly engaged in a combined approaches. It can be political or parallel dialogue between these online com- PHOTO © MARC GARRETT. participatory, or both. Hack Value can be munities and those meeting us in the park. carried by artworks that use digital networks and physical environments as well as print- On the 23rd of November we opened our sec- ed matter. What binds brings them togeth- ond space in the park the Furtherfield Com- er is not only the adventures they initiate mons. This new lab sets out to explore ways when experimenting with other ways of see- to establish a commons for the 21st Centu- ing, being and thinking; they also share com- ry. It draws upon influences from 1700s mon intentions to loosen the restrictions, when everyday people in England such as distractions and interactions dominating the Gerrard Winstanley and his peers forged a cultural interfaces, facades and structures in movement known as the Diggers also known our everyday surroundings. This relates to as the True Levellers to reclaim and claim our relationship with food, tourism, muse- common land back from the gentry for com- ums, galleries, our dealings with technolo- munity interests. Through various work- gy, belief systems and community ethics. shops, residencies, events & talks we will explore what this may mean to people local- Donna Haraway proposes a kind of critical ly, alongside our connection with online subjectivity in the form of Situated Knowl- communities and international networks. edges. We seek not the knowledges ruled by This not only includes skills exchange and phallogocentrism (nostalgia for the presence learning about coding, free software and of the one true world) and disembodied vision. hardware, but also critical approaches to gar- We seek those ruled by partial sight and lim- dening, gaming, drawing, making and oth- ited voice – not partiality for its own sake but, er hands-on practices where people can rather, for the sake of the connections and the claim direct influence in the physical world, unexpected openings situated knowledges make so to initiate new skills and social change Zombie Triptych possible. Situated knowledges are about com- on their own and shared terms. Remix munities, not isolated individuals(7). Marc Garrett (found footage), www.furtherfield.org/programmes/exhibitions Marc Garrett, In 2012 Furtherfield relocated it’s gallery to 2012. the heart of a North London park. The park setting informs our approach when coordi- (1) Marc Garrett. "DIWO (Do-It-With-Others): Artis- tic co-creation as a decentralized method of Peer-2- nating and setting up exhibitions, projects peer empowerment in today’s multitude". From and events. The place has a strong local iden- chapter - DIWO, Emancipation and Mainstream Cul- tity in a public green space set aside from ture. Page 2. (2013) spective. Feminism and Science. Editors, Evelyn Fox the larger busy, urban environment with its (2) Dan Hind. The Return of the Public: Democracy, Kellor and Helen E. Longino. Oxford University highly multicultural population. Our grow- Power, and the Case for Media Reform. Press, 1996. P.259. ing connection to the local community rein- Verso, 2010. pp 155. (8) Marc Garrett, Ruth Catlow, DIWO: Do It With forces for us the necessary connection (3) Julian Stallabrass, Art Incorporated: The Story of Others - No Ecology without Social Ecology. 2013. First between art and an unruly and unpredictable Contemporary Art. OUP Oxford, 2004. published in Remediating the Social 2012. Editor: (4) Gregory Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in Simon Biggs University of Edinburgh. Pages 69-74. public. We relish this. We are not distant the Age of Enterprise Culture. Pluto Press, 2011. www.furtherfield.org/features/articles/diwo-do-it-oth- from our gallery visitors like most traditional, (5) About the Post-Media Lab By Post-Media Lab, ers-–-no-ecology-without-social-ecology academic or mainstream arts environments. 20 January 2012. Metamute. (9) Ruth Catlow. "We Won't Fly For Art Culture We are not interested in creating yet more www.metamute.org/editorial/lab/about-post-media-lab Magazine", special themed issue Paying Attention: elite artists, elite groups and elite products. (6) Hans-Christoph Steiner. Floss + Art. Compiled Towards a Critique of the Attention Economy by We want to change our culture through our and Edited by Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Patrick Crogan and Samuel Kinsley. Special Issue of practice. Valk. GOTO10 in Association with OpenMute, 2008. Culture Machine Vol. 13, 2012. P.151. (7) Donna Haraway. Situated Knowledges: The science It is our contention that by engaging with these Question in Feminism and the Privilege of partial Per- kinds of projects, the artists, viewers and par- ticipants involved become less efficient users and consumers of given informational and material domains as they turn their efforts to Marc Garrett is a Net artist, curator, writer, Furtherfield.org is a London-based, non-profit new playful forms of exchange. These projects street artist, activist, educationalist and musi- organisation for the creation, promotion, and make real decentralized, growth-resistant infra- cian, emerging in the late 80's from the streets criticism of adventurous digital/Net art works structures in which alternative worlds start to and exploring creativity via agit-art tactics. for public viewing, experience, and interac- be articulated and produced as participants He has made use of unofficial and experimen- tion. Furtherfield events and projects incorpo- share and exchange new knowledge and sub- tal platforms such as the streets, pirate radio, rate a strong participatory element and break jective experiences provoked by the work(8). net broadcasts, BBS systems, performance, away from conventional approaches to con- intervention, events, pamphlets, warehouses, temporary art. The projects are often live, We are simultaneously connected to a and gallery spaces. Co-director and co- real-time, collaborative artworks, facilitating network of international critical artists, founder, with artist Ruth Catlow of the Net and documenting unrestrained interaction technologists, thinkers and activists through arts collectives and communities - further- and communication between artists and our online platforms and communities, field.org, furthernoise.org, netbehaviour.org. online audiences. as well as a wider networked art culture.
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 19 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >INNOVATION
VALUE AND INNOVATION in contemporary art and culture
There are wealth of cases to support the statement that digital innovation in the cultural sector is of great importance. In this article I will explore the factors that affect innovation in particular, digital innovation in the UK’s cultural sector at the present time, and see how a consideration of sector specific conditions can better devise modes of production that aid the rate of change. Within this frame, I will also consider the types of values that cultural activities create and the systems of exchange that affect levels of digital innovation. Although the article is focused on occurrences within the UK, the situation is indicative of a broad pattern in digital culture production worldwide.
Mute Magazine, founded in 1994 by this editorial vehicle, Mute also developed (Art of Digital London, Hybrid Publish- Pauline van Mourik Broekman and Simon a sister project called OpenMute. This is ing Lab(1)), adopting innovative services Worthington, was set up to discuss the the area where the organisation experi- in the production of the print products relationships between culture, politics and ments in modes of cultural production; (Print on Demand, ePub) and site devel- networked digital technologies. Alongside researching and re-distributing knowledge opment, and where there is a gap, even
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Art of Digital London, Meetup Crowdfunding event, held on 17 August 2012 at The Photographers’ Gallery, London.
building new tools (Progressive Publish- solutions, seeing them as creating spaces in nance of a London network investigating ing System(2)). Having grown up with the which productive artistic, social and politi- the relationship that public arts organisa- free culture movements associated with cal reconfigurations occur. tions and independent producers have to the nascent, critical net culture of the digital technology. This was a unique effort 1990s and 2000s, OpenMute's initiatives 2009 saw an important moment in the recent at the time, that gathered workers from both advocate for open standards, non-propri- history of digital innovation in the UK when cultural and tech communities to bring etary systems and working in collabora- David Cameron released the Digital Britain attention to the sector specific adoption of tive communities. report(3) — a strategic vision to put the coun- digital technologies in the creation, pro- try at the forefront of the global digital econ- duction, distribution and marketing of artis- Sites of (cultural) production are the grounds omy. As a result, public funders set new agen- tic programmes. for constant negotiation. The majority of das to encourage the widespread adoption producers function on low budgets and in of digital technologies across all the artforms. At the time it was felt that the digital work small, diversely-skilled teams. In order to OpenMute was commissioned in the same taking place in the cultural sector needed ensure the long-term financial viability of year by Arts Council England to launch Art greater exposure as visible examples were their projects they must battle to maintain of Digital London (AoDL). This was a drawn predominantly from the commercial, a level of critical activity whilst finding ways research and live events programme around tech start-up and media sectors. The impor- to maintain low overheads, draw audiences ‘digital strategy in culture’ that ran in vari- tant work carried out in Media Arts remained and generate revenue. OpenMute looks ous formats until 2013. The objective was contained within those communities and towards digital technologies to provide such to facilitate the establishment and mainte- any examples of work that did come from >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 21 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >INNOVATION
the cultural sector came from larger insti- AoDL recognised this and took to investi- Experimentation by an individual organisa- > tutional organisations. What Art of Digital gate how digital technologies were affecting tion, even if done at a low level on an itera- London sought to do was to create a com- cultural production from the ground up. tive basis, is risky. In addition to this, the munity platform where cultural workers As we mapped the areas (publishing, video, large cash outlay at the beginning and con- could highlight key works, share ideas, artic- audio) and the issues (tools, copyright, cul- tinuing maintenance costs of any technical ulate their position, raise awareness of the tural policy) the dialogue initiated revealed project cannot be recouped at a quick enough issues and advocate for support for digital the complexity of cultural production by rate; markets are small, products are niche experimentation in the sector. Importantly, exploring the support structures that affect and the resulting rate of return is slow and it sought to do this from the perspective of real innovation and change; technical knowl- low. In many instances, organisations do not small organisations and independent pro- edge, skills development, acknowledgement see the value of their efforts return in full as ducers and using open techniques. of the types of value creation, business mod- Sarah Thelwall has described through her els and, above all, the individual attitudes theory of Deferred Value Creation. During the 5 years that AoDL was in oper- of cultural directors and funders who play ation, the programme highlighted hundreds vital roles as advocators. Digital innovation is an unattractive activi- of digital projects, all of high calibre, that ty for most individual organisations due to were produced within the cultural sector In addition to the discussions of AoDL, an the lack of knowledge and understanding during that time. They evidenced a level of important reference for the following state- of the flexibility of new technologies, the expertise and critical engagement that is ments is the research conducted by the Com- need to outsource to commercial companies, unique to the field and through which some mon Practice advocacy group in London and the unpredictability of development times of the most interesting applications of digi- their two position papers, Size Matters: Notes and therefore costs, the disjoint in rates of tal technologies have been brought about. towards a Better Understanding of the Value, pay and the lack of alternative exchange sys- Much of the research is available online, Operation and Potential of Small Visual Arts tems between cultural and tech workers. however, for the purposes of this article, Organisations and Value, Measure, Sustain- This was evidenced through the demo- I would like to pick out a few personal high- ability: Ideas Towards the Future of the Small- graphic that attended AoDL when it began lights mostly centred on video: Scale Visual Arts Sector. in 2009, as a large proportion of attendees • Digital Archives: LUXOnline, Pad.ma, Siob- held roles in marketing. In the main organ- han Davies Archive, UbuWeb Cultural producers, I mean small publicly isations choose to focus on the scope of dig- • APIs: BBC APIs List(4), BBC Digital Public funded organisations, operate on modest ital technology in relation to organisational Space(5), Culture Grid (Europeana), Muse- annual incomes made up from a mixture of development with emphasis on income gen- ums APIs List(6), Tate GitHub(7) public grants supported by a level of saleable eration. The web is viewed more as a space • Digital Copyright: CREATe, Cornelia Soll- wares and services. In the majority of cases, for promotion and commerce than as a space frank’s Artistic Research into Copyright-Crit- budgets are predominantly dedicated to core to be curated. This is due to the pressure on ical Practice interview series(8) programme costs (artists fees, exhibition organisations to become self-sustaining, ie: • Online exhibition spaces: Tank.tv, Vdrome, fees), staffing and overheads. They run lean, monetise assets, but also because develop- KALEIDOSCOPE Videoclub finely balanced organisations and there is ing these types of projects can be more eas- • Live Streaming events: Auto Italia LIVE, little or no room for accumulating reserves, ily contained and there are many more func- ICA Online Talks(9), NT Live training staff or research and development(11). tioning examples to draw from in the (small • Documenting the arts: Art21, Artplayer.tv, The playing field for innovation is therefore scale) commercial environment. The under- Arty ok, Frieze, MOCAtv, Tate, Video in greatly reduced. lying aim of digital strategy is in the wider Common, the Miro Player tool(10) spread of cultural knowledge and exchange • On-Demand: BFI Player, Digital Theatre, At the time of writing the tech sector in Lon- through an increased visibility of core activ- TheSpace, MUBI, don is booming, the many startups based ities, remote access to events occurring with- • Curating the web: Network Awesome around Silicon Roundabout attract a steady in the physical space and the opening up of stream of funding and investment, the labour archival material. Digital technologies have had a fundamen- force is highly skilled and in demand, mean- tal and profound affect on how we operate ing that wages are competitive. Any negoti- To encourage the work in digital innovation in the world. The pace of invention and use ations on wage are generally made with in the cultural sector the challenge is on one in the commercial markets is something startups in exchange for company shares. side to increase the level of technical knowl- much quicker than could be absorbed or The tech development skills level is low edge and confidence in approaching digital acted upon in any meaningful or sustain- across the board in the cultural sector as projects across the cultural sector and to all able way by the cultural sector, for reasons many employed have naturally gone through staff roles, and on the other to establish new I will elaborate on below. When AoDL began some sort of formal arts and humanities edu- relationships with those in the tech sector there was a general panic within the sector cation. Any skills are picked up out of neces- that see development happen through alter- fed by persistent calls from funders for ‘inno- sity and so, when working on technical proj- native economies. AoDL certainly sought to vation’, ‘employing creative approaches’ and ects or site upgrades, organisations tend to build links between the two communities ‘spiriting entrepreneurial attitudes’, all while hire outside commercial-rate companies. but other notable events have been a series funds were being cut in wake of the 2008 However, in producing their core pro- of hackdays presented by Culture Hack(12), financial crisis. Good ideas are one thing but gramme, the cultural sector relies heavily on National Archives or Rewired State, resi- the means to bring them about is another, alternative economies of exchange and in- dency programmes Sync Geeks in Residence, that is, innovation is defined by and pro- kind. Therefore the cash outlay in experi- Wikimedians in Residence and in research duced through the operations of the sector’s mental tech development (labour and partnerships as The Arts Catalyst have infrastructure. services) is beyond the means available. done(13). Such events have proved success-
22 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTOS © R.R.
Sarah Thelwall, Size Matters, Art of Digital London, Notes towards a Better TheKnowledge, Peer Learning Understanding of the Value, for Digital Strategy in Culture, Operation and Potential OpenMute, 2012. of Small Visual Arts Organisations, Common Practice, 2011. Practice, 2011.
ful due to their interdisciplinary nature, the physical gallery space. Digital technolo- (7) www.tate.org.uk/about/our-work/digital/collection- bringing tech developers into organisations gies are being employed in the cultural sec- data otherwise working without them; enabling tor to great effect, to create deeper levels of (8) www.postmedialab.org/GWYDH (9) ICA have been using the Google Hangouts tool to them to build relationships with staff and audience engagement, generate income conduct online talks with a group of remote speak- sharing knowledge in a focused, boundaried streams and distribute knowledge. As I have ers, steaming live and then archiving the content for environment. outlined innovation in this area is complex future use and occurs only through a long process of http://www.ica.org.uk/video/online-talk-lutz-bacher A way to spread the risk involved in digital enabling the correct infrastructural condi- (10) In 2009 Openmute used the Miro Player tool to production would be to work in collabora- tions. To enhance the likelihood of more inter- gather the available video RSS feeds of cultural organ- tion with other organisations, educational esting work in this area there must be a con- isations in London. The test of which can be viewed institutions and tech partners, as the Digi- sideration of the modes of production and a here: http://aodl.mirocommunity.org (11) "The financial dynamics of small visual arts tal R&D Fund for the Arts launched in 2012 recognition of alternative means of exchange organisations", in Size Matters: Notes Towards a Better was set up to do. In identifying a common within the small scale arts sector. Understanding of the Value, Operation and Potential of problem or line of enquiry, groups can work Small Visual Arts Organisations, p14-23, Sarah Thel- together, sharing knowledge, skills and Caroline Heron wall, Common Practice, 2011. resources. The outcome of which can then (12) The National Archives ran a special event, ‘Hak be captured and widely spread. A particular (1) http://hybridpublishing.org on the Record’ in 2012 project to highlight, that is similar to this (2) www.metamute.org/services/r-d/pps-private-beta- http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/hackon12- but conducted independently of the Digital online-.docx-and-google-docs-conversion-to-ebook we-came-we-saw-we-didnt-sleep-much/ (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Britain (13) Lisa Haskel is currently undertaking a 4-year R&D, is Video in Common. This is a digi- full-time placement with The Arts Catalyst as a tal video production and training network (4) www.bbc.co.uk/developer/technology/apis.html (5) www.collectionslink.org.uk/discover/sustaining- Research Engineer, this which is conducted in a tech- consisting of seven small visual arts organ- digital/1095-bbc-digital-public-space-diagram nology partnership with the University of isations in London. It exploits economies of (6) http://museum-api.pbworks.com/w/page/ Bournemouth Centre for Digital Entertainment. scale to increase the digital capacity of the 21933420/Museum%C2%A0APIs entire group to better describe, promote and contextualise their art and public pro- grammes using the medium of online video. Caroline Heron lives and works in London. She is currently Project Director of Video in Common, The issues were identified and the project that she established with Pauline van Mourik Broekman. She is also part of the Mute Magazine Editori- plan was developed from discussions held al Group, after stepping down from her role there as General Manager in 2014. From 2009 to 2012 by Common Practice. It was led by Mute together with Simon Worthington, she has been the Project Co-ordinator of Art of Digital London. and the research gathered was disseminat- During this time they have ran the AoDL Digital Salon & Surgeries and published TheKnowledge ed to the wider public through the Art of online and print resource. In 2012-2013, together with with Jo Healy, she has been the Organiser of Digital London events programme. the Art of Digital London Meetup series. http://video.commonpractice.org.uk To conclude, small arts organisations and indi- http://metamute.org vidual artists create many forms of value; artis- http://theknowledge.aodl.org.uk/index.php/Digital_Salon_and_Surgeries tic, social, societal and fiscal. Networked dig- http://theknowledge.aodl.org.uk/index.php/Frontpage ital technologies enable the enacting of these www.meetup.com/Art-of-Digital-London/ values on a broader stage beyond the reach of
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 23 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >THEORY NEW INDUSTRIES How agencies look at digital artists and designers?
We are living in an age of exploding complexity, rising ambiguity The philosophy of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, as a school of teaching and overall uncertainty, framed by an unprecedented speed professionals rather than of professional teach- ers, encourages entrepreneurship among facul- of scientific discoveries and technological advances. In this highly ty and staff. With its informal network of design- volatile environment, digital creatives and artists have a window ers, artists and fabricators who can share know-how and creative resources, the school of opportunity to put their skills and strategies to work, not only serves as a hub for the local, national and inter- in what they can do, but also in how they identify opportunities national creative community. and approach challenges. John Maeda, author, designer, scientist As the Chair of the Graphic Design department at Art Center, I was given the opportunity to and current President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), redesign how graphic design is taught in times of uncertainty, ambiguity, and great potential — writes in his book Redesigning Leadership: Art and design primarily because of the convergence of differ- are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century like ent visual media formats, and radical shifts in media literacy and use across the population. (1) science and technology did in the last century . The creative industry is demanding designers who can athletically stretch their skills across a wide range of analog and digital media formats to create communication design solutions suc- cessfully cutting through the white noise of our convoluted visual environment. Given an aver- age of four years for an undergraduate design education, there is no way of fully predicting what the world of media will look like once a Innovation strategies inspired by artists Be a learning environment student, who is starting his or her education and designers today, graduates. This text seeks to explore if and how innovation “ I hate doing new stuff, but I know if I don’t, in industry can be driven by creatives, namely I’m going to be just another boring old fart. Creating an effective, relevant and stimulating artists and designers, and which of the creative Erik Spiekermann,” learning environment in such a shifting world processes spanning from ideation, experimen- Principal, Edenspiekermann, Berlin(2). calls for a very delicate balance of educational tation and rapid visualizing, prototyping, test- offerings: excellent foundational craft skills, deep ing and fabrication, often facilitated by radical The conventional notion that learning environ- conceptual abilities and — at the same time — collaboration and crowd sourcing, could be ments are mainly made up of academic institu- a very broad understanding and facility in the developed on a larger scale for the industry to tions is a thing of the past. Dynamic learning ever-expanding spectrum of existing and emerg- adopt and to invest in. environments combine the best attributes of ing media formats, as well as a very broad under- Some of the following examples are derived from school, laboratory, agency and nomadic network. standing of their underlying business principles. my own professional experience as a design edu- They can help to effectively expand the creative cator and as an artist, designer and entrepreneur, potential of individuals and corporations to Transmedia Design and Mediatecture are the terms contextualized with a series of interviews, which become more resilient in times of great techno- we use to describe our approach to teaching I conducted with top creative leaders from a logical and societal shifts. Teaching design today Communication Design as an essential, multi- wide range of disciplines for my MBA thesis The is like training performance athletes for the faceted and interactive tool for communicating Un-Agency: A Quest for the Creative Self-Rejuve- Olympics — yet without telling them in which the four-dimensional experience of a place, prod- nation Gene. category they will be competing. uct, service or personality in every imaginable
24 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © P. RUAULT / O. BRUNET R. HALBE. RUAULT PHOTO © P.
Artist/Creative Director: Nik Hafermaas. Artist/Executive Producer: Jamie Barlow. Artist: Dan Goods, Visual Strategist at NASA’s JPL, dMIRROR. BMW Flagship Store, Avenue George V, Paris. > http://uebersee.us/projects/dmirror/
context. Transmedia means working across all which turn to the school for inspiration and talented students: Millennials who not only want media, Mediatecture activates the built environ- future-forward thinking. Over the past years an to make a living in the creative industries but ment from a human scale to the urban scale. entire suite of different corporate engagement who also want to make a difference in the world. models were developed, from 2-day Designstorms Successful learning environments challenge the with various ideation and rapid visualization Evolution strategy: creating a nomadic boundaries between learning and teaching; they components, to semester-long transdisciplinary learning environment are becoming more and more fluid. Petrula Vron- projects that yield fully developed user scenar- In a traditional international student exchange, tikis, an Art Center colleague, states that “To teach ios and prototypes. The creative teamwork across or in a collaboration with a partner school, stu- or work in this way is very different. It must be the school’s different art and design disciplines dents usually just move from one sheltered class- okay to not know and to not be the expert. It must is further enhanced by closely collaborating with room setting to another one - this is what I call include a high degree of receptivity and emotional a tight network of engineers and scientists hail- box to box. A studio abroad project is designed IQ. It must include the physical and mental ing from leading institutions like Caltech and to deliberately remove the students from any strength to withstand the chaos of outcomes in Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA. school setting and move them into the atmos- flux and everything up for grabs”. phere of a pop-up design office, organized and Parallel to creative collaborations with the indus- operated like a professional creative agency, Collaborate with industry, across try, the school is conducting Social Innovation running for a limited time of one semester disciplines and be nomadic work through its Designmatters program(4) — (14 weeks), and organized by faculty and stu- combining the desire of young artists and design- dents. A network of high-caliber members of “ Make it a call to action: an invitation — and ers to create beautiful artifacts, with a mission the local creative industries (communication make sure the end result reflects that there’s a to make these designs work for the greater good, and design agencies, architects, artists) supports designer/problem-solver in all of us. it built a bridge between aesthetics and rele- the studio as dedicated mentors. ” vance. Roshi Givechi, The most important player in this creative col- Design Director and Associate Partner, IDEO(3). In 2003, Art Center became an official Non Gov- laboration, however, is the urban environment ernmental Organization (NGO) with the Unit- — Berlin, in this case. The German capital, with Art Center’s learning environment is profound- ed Nations(5). Art Center is the first design school its thriving cultural and subcultural life, pro- ly enriched by collaborations with industry and to carry such a title, which created instant atten- vides inspiration and raw research material for across disciplines. The school has pioneered and tion for Designmatters and for the entire school. new creative solutions. At the same time, the developed robust sponsored project opportuni- This program has become a distinguishing fea- city is a unique urban testing ground for sce- ties in collaboration with leading global brands, ture and asset in the competition for the most narios and prototypes. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 25 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >THEORY PHOTO © DAN GOODS / NIK HAFERMAAS
Nik Hafermaas, Jamie Barlow, Dan Goods, airFIELD. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta GA / MHJIT Art Program, 2012. SEGD Global Design Award, 2013. > http://airfieldsculpture.com
In the testlab Berlin studio model, insights are The state of design thinking in the industry, Meanwhile, other prominent voices already > generated through participatory research and pro- the rise and fall of the CCO. refer to Design Thinking as a "failed experi- totyping, and the making informs strategy, which ment". Bruce Nussbaum talks in his article pub- can lead to genuinely unexpected creative solu- “ The making of real things has been bleached lished in Fast Company in April 2011(9) about tions. In the past years, testlab Berlin has gener- out of our kids’ minds. what he calls the end of the Design Thinking ated fundamentally new insights for corporate ” Jim Patell, co-founder decade: Design Thinking originally offered the partners like Johnson&Johnson (The Future of of the d.school at Stanford University(7). world of big business — which is defined by a cul- Health & Wellness), Sennheiser (The Future of ture of process efficiency — a whole new process the Retail Experience) and Berlin Partners (The Tim Brown, CEO of the design firm IDEO, that promised to deliver creativity. By packaging Future of Mobility), to name just a few. describes in his 2008 TED Talk(8) Design Think- creativity within a process format, designers were ing as an integrative creative methodology to able to expand their engagement, impact, and Transformative learning experiences like testlab solve problems and to create new opportunities sales inside the corporate world. Companies were Berlin help students to advance through cultur- across the full spectrum of human endeavors. comfortable and welcoming to Design Thinking al immersion, exploration, experimentation and Success stories range from re-imagining hospi- because it was packaged as a process. He con- prototyping: veterans from this program are still tal environments to retail experiences and bank- tinues: There were many successes, but far too collaborating with each other on projects beyond ing products. At the d.school and other reputable many more failures in this endeavor. Why? Com- the school. Through their shared experience they academic institutions — such as Harvard and panies absorbed the process of Design Thinking have become like the friendly version of a SWAT ESADE — business executives pay hefty tuition all too well, turning it into a linear, gated, by-the- team(6) which could be parachuted into virtually to learn in executive workshops the creative book methodology that delivered, at best, incre- any environment: they would land on their feet, methods of Design Thinking — mainly: how to mental change and innovation. set up camp and get to (design) work. Lately, see, imagine, and visualize the world again, just incubator labs and entrepreneurial start-up ini- as they did when they were kids. Jim Patell, Over the past decade, some major corporations tiatives have been developed to further extend d.school professor and co-founder, relates the have embraced the concept of creating value the Art Center learning experience and to open decline of the US global thought leadership through design and creativity by implementing up new avenues for students and graduates to directly to the necessity of re-learning hands-on the position of Chief Creative Officer (CCO) enter gainful careers in the professional world. creative processes, the skill of making things. among their executive ranks.
26 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 The CCO often reports directly to the CEO or Be an instigator to another high-ranking member of the execu- PHOTO © SPENCER LOWELL tive suite. Together they form a creative leader- “ Your brain is making new patterns only if it’s ship team, complementing each other’s different pushed. I think the brain is pretty lazy. backgrounds in design and business, law or engi- Brian Collins, neering. Creatives in leading positions, and their Principal, COLLINS, New York City(14). empowering superiors, are often joined at the hip, so if the boss resigns, the CCO often fol- Traditionally, most design offices and creative” lows suit. agencies are in the service consulting business to their commercial clients. This paradigm, how- Therefore, the role of creativity in the corporate ever, is shifting: former creative service providers world is a fickle one - big brands like Procter & are beginning to develop products for sale (either Gamble, which only a few years ago prided directly selling these goods or licensing them) themselves as pioneers to embrace Design Think- and/or are creating client engagements that are ing, have recently fallen surprisingly quiet on compensated by profit sharing or for the social the topic. What was celebrated as an irreversible good. I call these proactive creative agencies move towards practices that are better for prof- instigators: instead of waiting for the phone to it, for people and for the planet (the triple bot- ring or for a pitch to be won, these design entre- tom line, as coined by John Elkington in 1994(10), preneurs initiate their own projects from scratch. seems to have vanished together with the depar- ture of Claudia Kotchka, the former Vice Pres- The creative business of the future cannot rely ident of innovation, design and strategy and her on traditional pitching for sustainability, because visionary boss, CEO A.G. Lafley(11). clients are not willing to make the long-term com- mitments that were common in the past. Instead, Prototype in public, co-create and fabricate it will be more creative and ultimately more prof- itable to channel that effort to produce apps, cam- “ Few companies understand the principle that paigns, technological tools, and events that pro- you should reward failure, because if you voke and instigate meaningful dialogue in the reward failure, then you reward risk taking. public realm. Self-initiated projects I call Pitch- Yves Béhar, Founder, Fuseproject(12). ing2.0: These projects often require risk-taking ” and entrepreneurial chutzpah. However, they can To be a true learning environment, a creative present a viable alternative to the wasteful prac- organization must encourage risk taking and tice of creative pitches and spec work(15). experimentation. Experiments, however, are prone to fail—it is the very nature of any itera- Nikolaus Hafermaas tive process to produce scores of failures until a WWW.TRIAD.DE/EN suitable solution is found. Corporations usual- HTTP://UEBERSEE.US ly try to protect themselves from product and WWW.ARTCENTER.EDU/DOT/TRANSMEDIA.PHP marketing disasters through conducting focus HTTP://TESTLABBERLIN.COM groups: a form of qualitative research in which groups of people are asked about their percep- (1) John Maeda, Redesigning Leadership (Simplicity: tions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes toward a Design, Technology, Business, Life), MIT Press, 2011 product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, (2) http://edenspiekermann.com or packaging. However, this process often leads (3) www.ideo.com to nondescript products that appeal to the low- (4) www.designmattersatartcenter.org est common denominator of taste and imagi- (5) www.ngo.org/ngoinfo/define.html nation. The Focus Group2.0 is actually the audi- (6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT ence out in the world: an audience of passionate (7) http://dschool.stanford.edu supporters that lends its expertise to co-devel- (8) www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_ op and refine the product. Focus Group2.0 means and_play.html testing products and services in the market and (9) www.fastcodesign.com/1663558/design-thinking- having consumer feedback help to refine the is-a-failed-experiment-so-whats-next creation. (10) www.economist.com/node/14301663 (11) www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOn- The next level of consumer co-creation is actu- Design/archives/2008/05/claudia_kotchka_1.html Nik Hafermaas, Dan Goods & Aaron Koblin, eCLOUD. (13) (12) www.fuseproject.com/yves_behar.php ally the open source model — a term that was San José International Airport, North Concourse / City of San Jose originally referring to any software program (13) www.opensource.org/osd.html (14) www.collins1.com Public Art Program, 2010. IDEA Award IDSA, 2011. AIGA 365 Design whose source code is made available for use or Effectiveness Award, 2011. > http://ecloudproject.com modification as users or other developers see fit, (15) www.aiga.org but is now also referring to a widening range of products that are developed based on shared intellectual property (IP). Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams made the concept of mass collaboration, open-source technology and Professor Nikolaus Hafermaas is an award-winning College of Design, leading a faculty of over 40 profes- shared IP widely popular in 2006 with their book artist, designer and educational leader. With two sional designers and 300 students, he has created a Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes partners he founded one of Germany’s leading design new curriculum, fusing print and packaging, motion Everything. I expect that Focus Group2.0 collab- firms, Triad Berlin as former principal and chief cre- and interaction design into Transmedia Design. oration and open source models will dramatically ative officer of Triad Berlin. His Los Angeles based This innovative program is razing traditional barriers gain relevance in the coming five to ten years, artist platform UEBERSEE conceives and produces separating designer, artist and curator. As the Execu- propelled both by sophisticated production tools data-driven art installations converging digital media tive Director of Art Center’s Berlin Satellite Program, becoming more widely accessible to the gener- and spatial experiences. As the Graphic Design he prototypes new learning models in Europe’s most al population, and by greater user feedback and Department Chair at world-renowned Art Center creative metropolis. co-creation involvement.
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 27 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA CENTER ARS ELECTRONICA Interview with Director Gerfried Stocker
In 1991, Gerfried Stocker, a media artist and telecommunications engineer founded x-space, a team formed to carry out interdisciplinary projects and produce installations and performances featuring elements of interaction, robotics and telecommunications. Since 1995, Stocker has been the artistic director of Ars Electronica, the organization founded in 1979 in Linz, Austria, which is behind the festival for art, technology and society of the same name. From 1995/96, he headed the crew of artists and technicians that developed the Ars Electronica Center’s innovative exhibition strategies and set up the facility’s in-house R&D department, the Ars Electronica Futurelab. He has been responsible for conceiving and implementing the series of international exhibitions that Ars Electronica has staged since 2004 and, beginning in 2005, for the planning and thematic repositioning of the new, expanded Ars Electronica Center.
Marco Mancuso: Ars Electronica Festi- with few other examples around the industry after WWII, Linz had a lack of cul- val — the Prix of competitions honour- world to share and compare with at tural infrastructure and was only known as ing excellence — was born in 1979, to that time, following paths that had a polluted industrial city. At that time it showcase and observe the growing im- rarely been previously explored in became clear that melting iron to steel was pact of technologies on contemporary media art and culture. How did this not giving the city a bright future. art and society. The Centre as a mu- process work and what difficulties did It was at this point that the director of the PHOTO © RUBRA. seum and the FutureLab as an R&D you face? local television station, together with an artist department, with a set of private Gerfried Stocker: In 1979, the Festival for and a scientist, developed the idea for the technological partners investing on it, Art, Technology and Society was founded festival with the belief that the computer came soon after. From a historical together with the Linzer Klangwolke (Sound would soon become much more than just a point of view, why, did it happen and of Cloud). The Prix Ars Electronica came in technical instrument – it would not only be how did it develop? It seems like Ars 1987. In the late seventies Linz had a big a driving force for new technologies and new Gerfried Stocker Electronica led a process of change in need to reinvent itself. As a city that was economies, but would also have a big impact terms of art and culture production, dominated by the fast growth of heavy steel on culture and society. This was remarkable
28 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © NICOLAS FERRANDO, LOIS LAMMERHUBER.
State-of-the-art lighting technology illuminates the approximately 5,100-m2 glass shell that enwraps the Ars Electronica Center. The LED strips mounted behind the 1,100 glass panes that comprise the façade are individually programmable. Brightness and color mixture can be fine-tuned. There are a total of 40,000 diodes—a quarter each emitting red, green, blue and white. In normal nighttime operation, 3-5 kilowatts of electrical power are all it takes to produce innovative special effects.
considering the very early time Ars Elec- also have a division that is developing exhi- literature and experiences chronicled tronica was founded. Even more remarkable bitions for places all over the world and we about Creative Industries it is clear was that they understood that it would have have Ars Electronica Solutions where we today how industries of the twenty- not been enough to make a sophisticated are transforming all of these creative ideas first century will depend increasingly festival and conference but that it also need- into products for the markets. on the generation of knowledge ed something that was able to reach out to So you can see that the integration of Art, through creativity and innovation all the people. Technology and Society has become much (Landry, Charles; Bianchini, Franco, Since then, this has always been our main more than just a nice wording but really the 1995, The Creative City, Demos). principle: looking at the topics and devel- leading principle of all our work that has What is not totally clear — probably opments that are defining our future, try- become more and more suited to coping with because it is less direct — is why pri- ing to understand them with the help of the challenges and changes of our technolo- vate industries invest in a centre like artists and scientists from all over the world, gy-driven time.The one thing that is under- Ars Electronica, what exactly they look and communicating it to the people. lying in all these activities is the artistic point for and what is the potential "come- Throughout the years we have created a of view, the artistic way of approaching things. back" (use "feedback" or "throwback" very strong chain of activities — with the This makes sure that we are always very close depending on what you are trying to festival, and in particular the Prix, as a to the needs of people, that we never lose say). In other words, which economical source for inspiration and ideas; the cen- sight of the importance of developing tech- – cultural – production model could tre as a platform for education where peo- nology according to the users and that we are eventually be applied on a smaller ple can encounter the themes and tech- much better prepared to tackle the negative scale? nologies of the future in a strongly sides of the recent developments. GS: Please don't consider me impolite or participatory and creative way; and the arrogant, I just want to be clear and honest, FutureLab as a think tank and melting pot MM: Ars Electronica is a project funded but I have to say that it is ridiculous to expect for creative professionals, artists, techies, both from public (Upper Austria, an answer to THIS QUESTION in a few lines. developers etc. — that allow people to use Ministries of Austria) and private part- I just could write some more of these mean- all this input and experience to create new ners, as can be seen on the related ingless statements that have already ruined ideas and prototypes. At the same time, we page on the website. From the vast a lot of the credibility of creative industries. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 29 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA CENTER PHOTO © TOM MESIC.
Project Genesis – one of the exhibitions at the Ars Electronica Center – extends through two levels of the building. The works are grouped into four thematic clusters: Biomedia, Synthetic Hybrids, Genetic Ethos and Citizen Science.
It took us many years to develop a practice cific territories for media art produc- from the industry because we would lose > and it would take hours to talk about it in tion that will be close to industrial in- out strength and credibility and therefore sufficient depth. It is a highly complex and vestments? And again, how are the Ars our access to creative people and their multi-layered ecosystem that has to be main- Electronica Centre exhibition activities ideas… understand it as an ecosystem and tained to establish a working and sustain- related to the strategies and invest- not as business model!!!!! able partnership and collaboration between ments of your industrial investors? these areas and the people working in them. GS: So far we have never chosen topics MM: With regards to the Ars Electron- At the end, the reason why companies are for a festival or for exhibitions because of ica Futurelab, the Lab works on re- working with us (not sponsoring but work- the investment of companies. One of the search topics like Functional ing and co-developing) is that based on our success factors (or maybe survival-factors Aesthetics, Interaction Ecology, In- 35 years of experience we have found a few of AE) is that we have always been a cul- formation Aesthetics, Persuasive methods to facilitate or to moderate this tural institution run by the city of Linz. Technology, Robotinity and the won- exchange. This means that we always have our basic derful Creative Catalyst. Can you ex- funding for our core tasks and responsi- plain why you consider these specific MM: At Ars Electonica Centre you work bilities. Of course we could strongly topics to have potential both from an on exhibiting liminal and expressive extend our range of activities and impact artistic point of view and for business art-forms: from biotechnology to ge- due to our collaborations with the private focused on research and technolo- netic engineering, robotics to pros- sector but we would always survive and gies? Do you think these matters will thetics, interactivity to neurology and still be able to do our core-business with- become part of our daily life, some- environment technologies to synthetic out them. However, we never could sur- thing to which media artists will refer biology. Do you think there will be spe- vive very long if we just went for money and something that will bring about a
30 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © GREGOR HARTL FOTOGRAFIE. PHOTO © GREGOR HARTL
The Ars Electronica Futurelab’s quadcopter swarm was the main attraction at the 2012 voestalpine Klangwolke. An audience of over 90,000 was on location to witness a world record: the first outdoor formation flight of 49 quadcopters. In the meantime, the quadcopters already made appearances in London, Bergen, Ljubljana, Brisbane and Umea. And they are also capable of light-painting.
productive culture and artistic value searcher-in-residence programme, GS: Again I have to refer to the ecosys- until it is honoured with an Ars Elec- each one of which concentrates on a tem! To benefit from creativity without tronica Prize? specific thematic area in which the exploiting it you have to work like a GS: Yes of course these things are already respective partner has unique expert- farmer, if you don't nurture your soil you becoming defining parts of our life, culture ise. Could you give me a real example won’t be able to harvest. The artist-in- and society. It is only by approaching them of how a specific project was born, residence network is a strategy to feed back through strategies like catalytic creativity from where the initial input came into the pool of creativity. It is a wonder- that we have a chance to do it properly. (from schools, cultural organizations ful way to connect people and institutions Think about the difference between Robot- or private initiative), how the process that have similar ideas, to bring techies ics and Robotinity, this is not just a word- worked, how together with artists, etc, etc. On how to play, it's a completely different approach to students/schools/artists/companies prevent the sell out maybe I can use again understanding the challenges and changes. were put in contact? Do you think the the comparison with farmers. It is not a creation of an artwork, the value of sin to sell the products of your farm but MM: The Ars Electronica Residency is a the research on a specific technology if you sell your land instead of the prod- Network of excellence with partner or- and the expressive language could re- ucts you can grow on it with all your spe- ganizations including institutions of main totally free and independent cial experience you become a real estate higher education, museums, cultural from any pressure from corporate and agent and all your skills experience and organizations, R&D facilities in the private investments? How could Ars culture will vanish. public sector as well as private initia- Electronica prevent any possible tives and companies. You say there is process of massification / marketifica- interview by Marco Mancuso the desire to conduct an artist or re- tion of media art? WWW.AEC.AT/NEWS/
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 31 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA CENTER SCIENCE GALLERY Interview with Dr Michael John Gorman, CEO, Science Gallery International
ect bridging art, science, and experimental ple from different disciplines, a sociable space Michael John Gorman is CEO design. He has been Lecturer in Science, for creative and critical conversations across of Science Gallery International, Technology and Society at Stanford Uni- boundaries. We find that broad themes such versity, and has held postdoctoral fellow- as INFECTIOUS or STRANGE WEATHER an initiative created to develop ships at Harvard University, Stanford Uni- naturally draw together artists, scientists, versity and MIT. engineers, medics, entrepreneurs and stu- a global network to inspire young dents into new kinds of conversations. Let me give you an example – in our INFEC- adults to engage with science, Marco Mancuso: Help me give a defini- TIOUS project we involved immunologists technology and the arts, founded tion of what Science Gallery is today, and epidemiologists, but also economists outside the usual grammar of official working on bank runs and viral media peo- with support from Google. communication. Science Gallery is ba- ple like Jonah Peretti and Ze Frank of Buz- sically an exhibition center, not prop- zfeed. We did research experiments on the erly an art gallery or a media center, it public, including a digital epidemic simula- could seem like a place for exhibiting tion run with the Fondazione ISI in Turin, science but it’s much more than this. It leading to published research outputs, Since 2007 he has been Founding Director is also an educational center, but it’s and also had artists exploring contagion. of Science Gallery an innovative cultural not an official school or a media lab for When we develop a theme, it works like a space bridging art and science at Trinity workshops or seminars. It’s also the giant funnel for ideas, attracting new proj- College Dublin (TCD). Currently, he is also hub of a worldwide network. How does ects, commissions, student projects, research Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineer- this liquid structure help Science experiments and proposals for workshops ing and Computer Science at Trinity Col- Gallery to be unique working with and events. A theme will also suggest poten- lege Dublin, and Director of the TCD Idea artists and students on the one hand tial industry collaborators. The flexibility of Translation Lab, a collaboration between and attracting industrial investments Science Gallery means that everything is Trinity College and Harvard University, fos- on the other hand? constantly changing and we are able to tap tering cross-disciplinary innovation in Michael John Gorman: We think about Sci- into current concerns and engage with undergraduates. He is Coordinator of the ence Gallery as a meeting place for ideas, a unfolding events in science and technology StudioLab project, a major European proj- sort of particle accelerator for colliding peo- in real time.
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Typographic Organism by Adrien M / Claire B as part of ILLUSION, at Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin.
MM: Science Gallery is one of the first for companies to become involved stems in Science Gallery locations developed in and few art venues which is supported part from a self-interested goal to develop partnership with leading universities by a network of partners that are not their own long term "talent pipelines", seek- in urban centres worldwide by 2020. institutions or funding, but industries ing more flexible, creative employees, and in In addition to Dublin and London, and PI. Science Gallery develops exhi- part from the point of view of corporate social other locations include New York, bitions and generates a wide range of responsibility in terms of their contribution Bangalore, Singapore, and Melbourne. outreach initiatives involving other back to the community. Could you tell me more about the venues, centres, labs, universities, de- Companies benefit in various ways from Global Science Gallery Network? pending on the investments of players being close to the creative community and What could be the mutual cultural and like Google, Deloitte, Icon, NTR Foun- research community that flow together at economical advantage on the chain dation, and Pfizer. What is their busi- Science Gallery. Importantly Science Gallery "students / artists / industries"? ness model? Why do they invest money is not a free-standing entity but a "porous Give me an example if you can, or a in such liminal territories of culture membrane" connecting a research universi- possible scenario that might happen… and art? What is the main comeback in ty with the city, allowing for less formal types MJG: The vision for the Global Science being in contact with the cultural- of connections between companies and uni- Gallery Network emerged from interest we artistic network created by Science versity research and students. These aspects were receiving in the model of Science Gallery? are often far more important than the more Gallery, as a new approach by universities MJG: Private industry has had a long-stand- "transactional" benefits such as branding to cross-disciplinary public engagement and ing connection with the territory at the inter- and space use. In the long term, the role of innovation. The idea is that each gallery will section between art, science and technolo- Science Gallery as a public platform for be generating different programmes, work- gy. For Bell Labs in the 1960s, artists could engagement and innovation is evolving, and shops, events and exhibitions drawing from provoke questions about emerging technol- I am sure that the value companies get from its local artistic and scientific context, and ogy that would push boundaries of the tech- early access to the new ideas and people par- that some of these can be shared through nically possible, leading to the experiments ticipating in the gallery will probably emerge the network. We are excited about the idea of E.A.T. which Arthur Miller describes in as the most important long-term benefit to of diversity of emphasis in the different gal- his new book Colliding Worlds. Right now, the companies involved. leries, for example the gallery planned at digital artists like Scott Draves and Aaron King’s College London will have more of a Koblin work within Google, which also hosts MM: In 2011, you received a gift from health and healthcare focus. In several prac- SciFOO and other events bringing artists, Google to launch the Global Science tical ways a network of university-linked scientists and techies together. Motivation Gallery Network – a network of eight galleries makes sense. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 33 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA CENTER PHOTO © SCIENCEGALLERY.COM
Helen Pynor reanimates a heart for The Body is a Big Place at the launch of OSCILLATOR, at Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin.
For example, rather than the Dublin gallery of these exhibitions are chosen accord- MM: Science Gallery is part of several > having to develop four exhibitions from ing to a new idea of culture that seems European Community networks, such scratch every year, the Dublin gallery will sometimes far from the standards of as StudioLab, Places City Partnerships be able to develop two major themes in contemporary art market and/or sci- (CPs) and KiiCS. Incubation seems to depth every year which can then tour glob- entific research? be the keyword for you: a process ally and bring in two or three shows from MJG: The contemporary art market and whereby industrial and private in- other network members. There are also current scientific research are often very vestors are networked with artists, exciting opportunities for collaboration and impenetrable to the uninitiated, for slight- scientists, researchers, designers, aca- co-production — for example if both Lon- ly different reasons. In coming up with a demics, students or amateurs to work don and Bangalore are really interested in a theme for a Science Gallery project, we seek together with mentors, overcoming theme such as BLOOD, and decide to devel- to identify themes that bring together all conventional and institutional obsta- op a project together, linking researchers, sorts of different types of practitioners — cles. What are the advantages and the artists and designers in both cities. scientists, artists, designers, architects, engi- risks of such a production model of an neers, etc. to explore areas of common con- art/culture object? Could you tell me MM: Talking about the exhibitions. cern, so the language tends not to belong something about the creative and the All your shows and exhibitions work on exclusively to any one area. Themes like production processes through a tangi- the subtle border between art, design INFECTIOUS, STRANGE WEATHER or ble example? and scientific research. How important FAIL BETTER are powerful — allowing MJG: I think incubation usually involves is this idea of inter-disciplinary in contributions from very diverse areas and provision of certain types of supports to ear- terms of relationship between public opening up the conversation to those out- ly stage projects. In the tech world, these funding and private investors on the side the worlds of research or contempo- supports often include modest financial sup- one hand and audience coming to the rary art. As well as bringing together cre- port, access to mentors and provision of co- exhibitions, artists and scientists ative practitioners themes of exhibitions working space, and access to potential working together on the other hand? also need to connect with our core target investors. It is well known in the tech start- And again, how do the subjects/titles audience of young adults. up world that start-ups require multidisci-
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The Invisible Eye by Alistair Burleigh and Steph Tyszka as part of ILLUSION, at Science Gallery, Trinity College, plinary teams — engineers and designers. ing campaign and were able to implement strong advocates of an open source approach, Dublin. In the past decade or so, a number of what the system in three villages in Kenya. whereas others are very focussed on the cre- you might call "cultural incubators" have The type of incubation that is appropriate for ation of patentable IP. emerged, bringing together interdisciplinary artistic projects is often different from for new I think for any workshop or meeting where teams in new collaborations, which can lead products or research experiments. Sometimes new projects and ideas are being discussed, to the creation of new artistic projects, but access to labs, and researchers, funding, and the important thing is to be very clear about also to new social projects and commercial exposure are important. the rules of engagement up front (I like Tim products and to new scientific research. O’Reilly’s concept of the “FrieNDA”, to treat These range from residency programmes MM: Let’s finally talk about the exam- everyone as you would your friend, and not such as SymbioticA in Australia to Ars Elec- ple of the Cool Jobs. It is a networking to disclose any ideas that may be sensitive tronica FutureLab in Linz, Le Laboratoire event to engage with students, artists, without seeking their permission) and I also in Paris and MediaLab Prado in Madrid, and investors and other enterprises, forg- feel that educating students about IP is also Science Gallery, and all have slightly differ- ing links between education and indus- an important part of our mission. In terms ent approaches to incubation — special try with a focus on creative of online collaboration, to be honest we have workshop formats, residency structures, approaches on both areas. How impor- found that a key strength of Science Gallery selection processes, opportunities for invest- tant are these moments in which dif- is the opportunity for face to face interac- ment and so on. In Science Gallery we real- ferent players can meet, share ideas tion, and so far we have had limited success ized that one thing we have that tech incu- and projects and understand how to with purely online collaborative projects, bators don’t generally have is 350,000 visitors work together? How Internet plat- though the opportunity for combining offline per year coming through the space and forms can help this process and how and online feedback on early stage projects engaging with new ideas, whether they are young students, artists and designer is an area of focus for us now. artworks, research experiments, prototype will manage possible copyright risks Science Gallery is not a VC or a tech incu- products or speculative designs. This offers on their works, ideas, and creations? bator – however we form part of an ecosys- an incredible opportunity to harness public MJG: Facilitated sessions and workshops tem which includes, in addition to the uni- feedback on early stage ideas, and I think where ideas can be developed and proto- versity and the arts community, the tech we are only beginning to tap into this feed- typed in a supportive environment are huge- start-up community in Dublin, the multi- back potential, and learning from each oth- ly important. Science Gallery does not claim nationals, the incubators and investors. er as we try out different models. any intellectual property stake in ideas devel- For us it is important that we are involved The incubation process is often less formal oped by artists or scientists in the gallery — as a platform and connector for projects that and not linear — for example a prototype for the originators retain all IP in their projects, have potential for further development, mak- solar disinfection of water developed by Trin- we just have the right to show the works. ing introductions to mentors and potential ity College engineering students was shown We find it important to educate students investors. We like existing in this space of in our exhibition SURFACE TENSION: The developing collaborative projects about IP. emergence. Future of Water. A QR code beside the proj- It is interesting to see different “cultural incu- ect allowed it to be crowdfunded by visitors. bators” adopting different philosophies interview by Marco Mancuso They raised over 25,000 in their crowdfund- around IP. Some of our collaborators are very HTTPS://DUBLIN.SCIENCEGALLERY.COM
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 35 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >LAB SINLAB
and the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and he has received several inter- Experimental national awards. Marco Mancuso: The SINLAB was founded as an experimental stage labo- ratory combining disciplines such as performing arts, architecture, science, engineering and technology. The labora- tory is funded with a grant by Sinergia, Stage a platform for inter- multi- and uni-dis- ciplinary projects run by the Swiss Na- tional Science Foundation). I would like to know more about the origins of the project: What vision and what urgencies gave life to the original idea? What are Laboratory its developmental strategies? Jeffrey Huang & Alex Barchiesi: The idea of setting up a hybrid-culture Lab meant something different to everyone in the core Interview with Jeffrey Huang & Alex Barchiesi team. It can be read as the natural prosecu- tion of the idea of building a third culture back in the 1960s by lord CP Snow who sug- gested that a new "Third Culture" would The SINLAB is a unique experimental laboratory in emerge and close the gap (Snow, 1963). It consists of those scientists and other thinkers Switzerland, situated at the intersection of Performing Arts, in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of Architecture, Science, Engineering and Philosophy. the traditional intellectual in rendering who and what we are (Brockman, 1995). Its director, Jeffrey Huang, is a Full Professor at the Faculties The SINLAB project aims to develop a long of Architecture, Communication, and Computer Sciences term strategy for building a Creative Arts, Technologies, and Culture Network at the at the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) heart of Europe, catalysed by EPFL togeth- er with the other partners. We can identify where he heads the Media and Design Laboratory. a number of key points that oriented the design of the framework: The University as a catalyst for change and creativity, practices, and exchange of ideas and expertise. Jeffrey Huang and Alex Barchiesi, SINLAB opening. His research examines digital architecture The Practitioner – extending the traditional and the convergence of physical and virtu- academic mission to include those who cre- al spaces. In 2011 he was named Berkman ate and will be the practitioners in existing Fellow and Faculty Associate at the Berk- and new artistic forms, and creative and cul- man Center for Internet and Society. tural enterprises. The project head, Alex Barchiesi, is a cre- New "offspring" of Students with a broader ative physicist with a PhD in Particle skillset to produce interdisciplinary com- Physics, researcher at the European Organ- petencies coming from a programme con- ization for Nuclear Research (CERN ATLAS necting the Arts and the Sciences. experiment), and Associate professor of New Connectivity – encouraging a major new media art and informatics at the Art change in the approach to the Arts, the Sci- Academy in Rome. His artistic work has ences, new media, and technologies creat- been presented around Europe, including ing a platform that will be a catalyst for
PHOTO © ALEX BARCHIESI, WANG SHIH-YUAN PHOTO © ALEX BARCHIESI, WANG the IRCAM, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, new ideas, new forms of connectivity with-
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Performative colour environment (reacting to body tracking).
in the disciplines and between the univer- technologies to biomedical interfaces, ogy or science are only instrumental to sity and the territory. interactive architectures or computa- humanities and performing arts. We intend to: promote a dynamic collabo- tional acoustics. For this purpose, you The motor driving our choices towards a rative and extended network of learning and have a long list of partners coming from partnership is the possibility of exploring a practitioner-ship between EPFL and other the industrial world. How do you decide field so as to push the limit of our under- cultural institutions. to work with a specific partner? standing and to share a vision. We aim at (re)connect relevant disciplines and digital Why are partners interested in working maximising the porous interface which rep- technologies in the Sciences with the cre- with SINLAB? resents the creator/practitioner domain ative Arts and Culture that will produce JH&AB: Let us not forget that the target is between the university core disciplines and (graduates and PhDs) engineers/scientists not a single artistic project, but the process cultural institutions and the creative indus- skilled in the Arts, or artists and humanists of creation itself which is the focus of the tries. It is the area of greatest opportunity skilled in Technology. paradigm change that we are exploring. for development in terms of creator/practi- Develop the holistic paradigm of education SINLAB is both conceived as a bridge and tioner programmes in education and and research into a LAB which would be one as a source, thanks to established academ- research. Interconnectivity is the most impor- node of a network encompassing all activi- ic strengths in the university. A number of tant ingredient of this concept. The practi- ties across Europe and operating potential- Labs and partners were singled out for the tioner's activities form an evolving web of ly under a global umbrella to really make first phase of the initiative because of their interlinked creativity and collaboration, con- Snow’s "Third Culture" a reality. potential connections with creative prac- tributing to a kaleidoscope of new ideas. tice and their interest in extending the field MM: At SINLAB in particular you are of their research towards "an alliance MM: Could you tell us the story of a using technologies originally developed between performing arts and science". project you have developed (or you’re for other fields, mainly industrial ones: A well understood cultural dimension is still working on) at SINLAB? How does from robotics, telematics and light often neglected in projects where technol- SINLAB facilitate a process of encoun- >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 37 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >LAB PHOTO © ALEX BARCHIESI, WANG SHIH-YUAN - SINLAB PHOTO © ALEX BARCHIESI, WANG
Digital clouds, detail of the machine.
ters between artists and scientists en- grated and reflected into students' (includ- machine (used on stage) which was the gen- > couraging artistic, scientific, and tech- ing PhDs) projects, and influenced Mark eralization of the initial interest catalysed by nological research? Coniglio’s formalization of his swarm-like the director. The prototype was able to dig- JH&AB: Mostly everything happens in the piece later on. italize and control an immaterial fog struc- most diverse and natural way: we have The last collaboration with the French the- ture and involved a wonderful cross-disci- designed a framework that can host multi- atre director Gildas Millin drove him to a plinary research between fluid dynamics, ple paradigms of collaborations. It partially theatre script and some interesting devel- chemistry, optics, engineering and electronics is the scientific lab framework where all opments. We met with him about one year and required a long work of aesthetic inte- members first talk together and then, in ago to talk about the script he wanted to gration and customization at the moment working groups, refining the subject of brain- write. The result was CYBORGAME where of deployment for the stage environment. storming sessions into prototypes and inves- there is an interesting approach to the con- The overall process lasted for some months tigations that usually launch a chain of cept of super-human and the conflicts of a and gave an extraordinary results in terms research projects and often refine the direc- hybrid individual, influenced by an aspect of mutual inspiration. tion of current works also catalysed by exter- of neuroscience coming probably from our nal inputs and investigations. For example initial debates. Formally the "mise en scène" MM: How do scientific and technological Pablo Ventura came with his dance compa- matched our interest in immaterial archi- skills coming from the industrial part- ny and pushed the experimentation by using tecture and Gildas' need of an immaterial ner are transferred to the artist? gesture tracking devices, which was inte- cage for his show drove to the creation of a How does the collaboration between an
38 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 artist and SINLAB influence the devel- forming arts and stage. It is a delicate mis- We think of these environments as labora- opment of market use of that technol- sion to be in between disciplines that are tories and we have developed the SINLAB ogy? How is even possible to create themselves in a delicate relationship. keeping this in mind. novel possibilities of expression in close The greatest danger is for artists to seek inter- connection with scientific and techno- pretations of scientific data in theoretical cir- MM: On the SINLAB website is written logical research and development? cles and then further reinterpret their ver- that theater has been one of the promi- JH&AB: History has proved time and again sions without checking back with scientists. nent cultural sites reflecting the im- that technological innovation leads to new This is to suggest that any working rela- pact of cultural changes. As a cultural practices and new ways of perceiv- tionship needs to be based on mutual respect microcosm of reality, theater has al- ing and conceptualising the world. and dialogue. The other danger facing those ways broached the issue of technologi- Performing art has always broached the issue working "in between", on creating 'some- cal development in a double sense: of technological development in a double thing else' is the general assumption (both technology has been used as an instru- sense as a creative instrument and a reflec- present in humanities and science) that the- ment for expression as well as a topic tion topic. It is difficult for the performing ory is above practice. At this stage the free- to be investigated aesthetically. arts to create novel possibilities of expres- dom to make assertions beyond rationality How do you think the inner structure of sion in close connection with scientific and is intrinsic to the practice of art. Our recipe the SINLAB reflects the contemporary technological research and development, entails a practice informed by theory, utilis- society in which we live in? while scientific and technological research ing a methodology which makes it accessi- JH&AB: We do not support the specialisa- remains mostly deprived from opportuni- ble to both worlds. tion of knowledge and particular attention ties to engage in a cooperative, artistic driv- Our work largely depends on an active dia- to this idea of "art and science" could be en research. logue with scientists and humanists while nonsensical. But it is not. In recent years, We read the lab as a bridge to initiate a performing the important function of bridg- environments where artists and scientists process that facilitates systematic encoun- ing and synthesising many worlds to com- collaborate to produce unusual works of art ters between artists and scientists, encour- pose something else. The challenge is to learn and design have appeared in many cities and aging scientific and technological research the language of various disciplines without contexts. What we want is to overcome the in tune with the needs and constraints of losing the intuitive, wild aspect. What we division of the fields of knowledge, to make both sides. Of course if you want to seri- have learned is that if scientists want to culture evolve towards a new Renaissance ously push research towards this intersec- bridge both cultures, they have to get used where research could be one and where there tion you need to embody the tools, which to a lot of noise and more than a fair share is no need to make a "creative vs science" translates into a technology able to extend of nonsense. More seriously, bridging the distinction. Interdisciplinarity is spreading the capabilities of the human body or the gap cannot mean extending the results of in every field nowadays, nevertheless what brain towards more complex or completely science everywhere but discovering a cre- we are doing here is intrinsically different different domains. This is the edge where ative side of science. Without a market this from what is happening in our society, which interesting research (also from a cultural is most naturally discovered within envi- is akcnlowledging the usefulness of single point of view) takes place. This is the motor ronments that encourage experimentation. expertises working together. The Creative driving our choices and generating the cul- Science approach is the simultaneously imag- tural impact and the possibility of opening Interactive light and fog wall in the form inative and analytical process that underlies up towards new fields. of a Bezier curve. all creative thought. Creativity is hard to transmit in the classical way of teaching. The MM: In the structure of SINLAB re- division of knowledge is still a pillar of our searchers from different fields work to- education and society. gether with local theatre performers We embrace a creative process that mixes and students, in close collaboration two ways of thinking that we encourage in with various EPFL Labs and partner in- different settings. The first one is an aesthetic stitutions (ZHdK, LMU, Tsinghua) as well process – we embrace uncertainty and com- as external artists in the performing plexity, indulge in ambiguity, induce and arts. This collaboration creates a net- pursue the non-linguistic logic of images. work of professionals, students, local This especially thrives in artistic environ- institutions, and industries that seem to ments. The second one is an analytical be the future of economical investments process — we simplify a complex world, in the arts and culture, particularly in reduce its challenges to resolvable problems, these times of crisis and cuts. According deduce, pursue the logic of equations. to your experience, which are the strong This prospers in scientific environments. points, the difficulties and possible fur- We fuse both within the SINLAB intellectu- ther developments of this strategy? al who dreams and embraces complexity and JH&AB: Research at SINLAB means explo- simplifies our intricate world into a prob- ration with the goal to produce knowledge, lem we can solve. This hybrid intellectual from a theoretical, practical or aesthetic point of a new renaissance belongs to the future, of view. We explore these research dimen- where we see an increasing turnover of sions through a strategy that combines iter- investments in culture. ative prototype development and theoreti- cal investigation on mediatisation and interview by Marco Mancuso
digitalisation within the context of per- SHIH-YUAN - SINLAB PHOTO © ALEX BARCHIESI, WANG WWW.SINLAB.CH
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MIT SENSEable CITY LAB Interview with Architect Carlo Ratti
Carlo F. Ratti is an Italian architect, engineer, inventor, educator and activist who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Founder of CARLO RATTI ASSOCIATI, a rapidly growing architectural practice based in Torino, Italy, with branches in Boston and London. Drawing on Carlo Ratti’s research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology SENSEable City Lab, the office is currently involved in design projects at different scales and in different continents.
The MIT SENSEable City Laboratory aims Marco Mancuso: What is the MIT cultural background. Most of them come at investigating and anticipating how digi- SENSEable City Lab workflow? from architecture and design, but we have tal technologies are changing the ways peo- Where do projects come from? Which also mathematicians, economists, sociolo- ple live and their implications at the urban are the topics studied and which are the gists, and physicists. I think that "diversity" scale. Director Carlo Ratti founded the emergencies? Which are the skills cov- is a really important aspect in any team activ- SENSEable City Lab in 2004 within the City ered by the inside team and when/why ity. I’m noticing more and more, also in oth- Design and Development group at the do you decide to work with external er fields. For example, different authors with Department of Urban Studies and Planning, creative people? different origins write the most quoted arti- as well as in collaboration with the MIT Carlo Ratti: In the SENSEable City Lab a lot cles of an important magazine such as Media Lab. The Lab's mission states that it of different ideas circulate. Over 40 people, Nature. seeks to creatively intervene and investigate coming from all over the world, compose Regarding the projects, I try to build on the the interface between people, technologies, the team. Each researcher has a different per- researchers' suggestions; it is very important and the city. sonal history, different skills and a different to be open to everyone's ideas. Together we
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Ciudad Creativa Digital. A project for Guadalajara Ciudad Creativa Digital A.C. on behalf of the Secretaría de Economía, ProMéxico, SHF, Gobierno de Jalisco, Canieti and the City of Guadalajara. Developed by Carlo Ratti Associati, together with Prof. Dennis Frenchman, Accenture, Arup, Engram Studio, Fundación Metrópoli, Mobility in Chain, MIT Senseable City Lab and Studio FM Milano. > www.ccd-guadalajara.com > http://youtu.be/SGv1jcNMG34
decide what are the main problems facing what’s the best way to develop the research. autonomy of the built environment – as citizens, we focus on how we can address It doesn’t matter how the synergy with the posited, among others, by John Habraken – this and we develop a project aiming to be industry begins, if the input comes from us and in the autonomy of the 'artificial world' a solution. During these last years we have or from them; what it’s truly important for in general (as Herbert Simon would have concentrated on topics like energy use, traf- the team, it’s to do exciting research. put it). As such, we believe that the issues fic congestion, health care and education. Our aim is always to focus on civic empow- of adoption and critical reflection should be But we also develop technologies that could erment, so we need to be free to investigate left to society. The idea that it should be be useful to generally solve different prob- problems and to start giving answers. designers, engineers or artists to decide what lems and we integrate them within the urban is good and what is bad is utterly arrogant. environment, collecting data and informa- MM: In some projects like CopenCycle, tion. The Wireless City, but also The Con- MM: The theme of Open Data is today a nected States of America, United Cities very hot topic and it will surely affects MM: How important are the supporting of America, Trains of Data, you worked our lives in tomorrow’s hi-tech and net- role and the collaborative actions of with real-time technologies to visualize worked cities. So, why do private indus- private investors and industries to work and study human behaviours in public tries, investors or even Municipalities on and develop a new project? Do you places, cities, and transportations. should be interested in investing in a usually search for specific industries Artists and hacktivists faced the same project like Wiki City? How could artists according to the project or, on the subjects in recent years (Traves Smal- and designers work on web platform for contrary, does the project input come ley, Constant Dullart, Heatch Bunting, storing and exchanging data that are lo- from an industry subject/proposal? Etan Roth and others). Don’t you think it cation and time-sensitive? The recent How do the MIT professional networks could be interesting to work also with experience of Salvatore Iaconesi, or influence and help the creation of a them in the idea to have a more critical even Christian Nold’s emotive maps are positive synergy? reflection about the topics studied? quite interesting and potential… CR: It’s very important to work with indus- CR: Surely, we actually often collaborate CR: Based on our experience, I believe that tries and private investors, because they usu- with artists and we are really really interest- civic institutions all over the world are inter- ally give us all the instruments we need for ed in synergies between different fields. ested in collecting and sharing real-time data. our project, so that we only have to think However, I must say that we believe in the We strongly believe in a bottom-up approach >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 41 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >URBANISM PHOTO © CLAUDIO BONICCO
Digital Water Pavilion, Zaragoza 2008, a project by Carlo Ratti Associati, with Claudio Bonicco, Matteo Lai, MIT Media Lab / Smart Cities Group - William J. Mitchell, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning - Dennis Frenchman, MIT SENSEable City Lab, ARUP, Agence Ter, Studio FM Milano, Typsa, Lumiartecnia International and Siemens. > www.carloratti.com/project/digital-water-pavilion/
and urban data can provide citizens with industries and agencies are interested. tainability. You worked on projects like > information that empowers them to take Have you ever imagined a further devel- Future Enel, CO2GO, Local Warming, better informed decisions or even have a role opment on this topic? And, what do you TrashTrack in which real-time sensing in changing the city around them, which think about 3D visualizations and the technologies, pervasive mobile tech- result in a more liveable urban condition for so-called "urban internet of things"? nologies are used to create a direct con- all. For instance, the Boston municipality is CR: Again, I prefer to focus on citizen empow- nection between citizens and promoting the "New Urban Mechanics" erment. Visualizations are important, as they environment. I imagine a society in project, which gives citizens rapid access to allow us — and citizens in general — to "put which institutions, scientists, local city government information and services, their hands into the data". We have just business and artists work together on as well as the ability to report about every- installed at the National Museum of Singa- cross-disciplines commissioned projects day issues. These systems tend to evolve into pore our "Data Drive", an installation by that could visualize, share and expose wiki-like information repositories that allow SENSEable City Lab Live Singapore’s team: data and behaviours for a better under- citizens to team up and take urban action. an intuitive, accessible software tool for visu- standing of the energy and the waste alizing and also manipulating "urban big problem. What do you think about? MM: Network & Society, Current City, data". Like a big iPad the installation reveals CR: Our research aim, among others, is to NYTE, Kinect Kinetics are all projects data and the hidden dynamics of the city, and collect and to diffuse data, to discover and focusing on large-scale digital data sets also becomes an interactive instrument. to explain what happens in our world, in and urban life, digital networks, com- order to make the citizen more conscious of munications and people behaviours. MM: Talking about energy and environ- the process that goes on in the places in It could sound obvious to think about ment. I can trust that industries, agen- which they live. This is really important software artists and graphic designers cies, investors, start-ups, and media are when we speak about problems linked to able to draw beautiful 2D big data visu- placing big budgets and investments on energy and waste as it can promote "behav- alizations/animations in which private energy and waste management and sus- ioural change"…
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Future Food District, curated by Carlo Ratti, Director - MIT Senseable City Lab and Partner - Carlo Ratti Associati, in collaboration with Favero & Milan Ingegneria, Capatti Staubach Landschaftsarchitekte, Systematica, ecoLogic Studio, Cesare Griffa Studio, ENEA and Ceres srl. > www.carloratti.com/project/future-food-district/
MM: In the "expanded cities", public sionals (companies, cities) because we need interactive services, community infor- them to make an impact at the urban scale. mation and entertainment systems, And they need our lab, as a catalyst of ideas geotagging and drones technologies, and urban actions. robotics applications and embedded The Copenhagen Wheel, available to systems are applied to everyday life interview by Marco Mancuso order from Superpedestrian, a project and problems. EyeStop, Smart Urban WWW.CARLORATTI.COM developed by MIT Senseable City Lab. Furniture but even SkyCal, Geoblog HTTP://SENSEABLE.MIT.EDU > www.superpedestrian.com or Flyfire, Makr Shakr are all exam- > http://youtu.be/S10GMfG2NMY ples of these practices. How impor- tant is a growing merging of skills and approaches to the subject, both from the world of architecture, design, art and innovation? How do Hi-tech and ICT industries could be able to talk and work with such complex profes- sional networks? CR: First, I was not chosen to lead the lab, but actually I was given the task to start it up. So it is well possible that my biases are reflected in the ones of the lab. More gen- erally, our field is at the intersection of bits, space and people. Hence the disciplines you need to bring together are architecture and design, science and technology and — last but not least — the social sciences. Such diversity is a key characteristic of our lab. Technology should never be in the driving seat: we think that technologies must always start from addressing everyday life and problems. So, while researching, we always work towards concrete applications. If we are not able to do this, technical skills are total- ly useless. Another important thing is to be convinced that we can truly "invent our future", as Alan Key would say. Finally, we develop projects with networks of profes-
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 43 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA LAB AALTO MEDIA FACTORY Aalto Media Lab at the Department of Media interview with Professor Philip Dean
Philip Dean is currently Head society. The work is characterised by the col- part of the new Department of Media. In Jan- laboration of people from a wide variety of uary 2012 our school was joined by the of the Department of Media, disciplines and cultures, with students and Architecture department (originally in anoth- staff coming from all over the world. er School of Aalto) and was renamed as the Director of Aalto Media Factory, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. and Professor of New Media Marco Mancuso: You estabilished the The Media Factory is a relatively new Aalto Management within the Media Lab back in 1993 with the mission initiative, a cross-school platform of Aalto to explore and study digital technolo- university which gives resources for multi- Department of Media at Aalto gies and their impact on art, design and disciplinary academic and artistic activity in society. At the same time, you are the the broad area of Media. The Aalto ‘facto- University, School of Arts, Design head of Aalto Media Factory with the ries’ are not production platforms, they are aim of being on the productive side of merely units which attempt to create better & Architecture. the Network itself. Could you explain collaboration between the schools of Aalto how the whole system works, if you had and the surrounding society and industries. the whole vision since the very begin- When Media Lab was launched in 1994 we ning and how everything is related with did not really have any models to work to. Philip Dean worked as a freelance photog- the world of industrial and scientific We were at the forefront of a new field of rapher, journalist and editor until 1993 when research? study within an academic art & design con- he was appointed to lead the development Philip Dean: The Media Lab was established text and were pioneers in Finland in the of the new Media Lab department at TaiK, originally as a separate unit of the Univer- development of our own education and a relatively new school at the University of sity of Art & Design Helsinki in 1994 (ear- research. At that time it was difficult to pre- Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland. Today lier known as University of Industrial Arts dict what would become of our efforts, and the Media Lab is a renowned unit in the Helsinki) and in 1998 was given full depart- maybe it still is! In the days before the inter- Department of Media, within the School of mental status. When the Aalto University net, the industry was uncertain as to which Arts, Design and Architecture as part of the School of Arts Design was created in Janu- of the new digital technologies would have new Aalto University (www.aalto.fi/en/). ary 2010 — from the merger of the Univer- had the most profound effect on our lives. The lab provides education and research sity of Art & Design, The Helsinki School At that time we realised that our role was frameworks for studying digital media prod- of Economics and the Helsinki University more than dealing with the ‘digitilation’ of ucts, contents and technologies, their design, of Technology — there was a reorganisation professional practices in any media field; development and the effect they have on of departments and the Media Lab became we knew that the new digital possibilities
44 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © ANNA BERG
Media Factory AV production team producing web videos to promote university research groups and their projects.
would actually result in new forms of MM: As part of the Aalto Media Lab and faculty that are working with us and any of media, new creative practices and alliances, Media Factory ventures, you give impor- these service units. So, for example, if a and new forms of business. From the point tance to the idea of creating a virtual group of students comes up with a brilliant of view of professionals in the visual arts, platform in which the educational world idea which could lead to a new product or many of the initial realisations of our new (students, professors, researchers) can business, then we can advise them to speak media were unconvincing. Film makers be in contact with private investors on to the experts at Aalto who have the best would laugh at the first QuickTime movies, one side and professionals (artists, de- knowledge and experience to help them moving images only a little bigger than a signers, hackers, fabbers/ curators, fes- move forward. postage stamp! Where is the future in that?, tival and cultural events organisers) on However, we are also able to work inde- they were asking. the other. How important is the concept pendently, like in the case of our collabora- We developed our initial research opera- of an open platform whereby projects, tions with the various organisations and tions alongside the new MA in New Media research and ideas can be shared, in movements related to open knowledge, open programme that we had launched in Sep- which investments are made in specific design, open source etc. As an Aalto-level tember 1994. Our initial exploration was technologies as a tool to give life to unit we were able to bring together all the made as part of applied research involving artistic and cultural projects and all local expertise needed for us to successful- Finnish companies and, because of the participants and industrial/scientific ly host the Open Knowledge Festival 2012, influence of Nokia, we quickly gained valu- networks can be involved in the creation for example. So, Media Factory can be under- able insight into the coming world of broad- of "value"? stood as an open platform not only here band and mobile media. Our students were PD: In the case of Media Factory we do not within Aalto but also nationally and Inter- also very active in the development of the really have any direct action in which nationally. It’s all about enabling people to Finnish New Media industry in those ear- investors are looking to be part of our do valuable, worthwhile things, according ly years. This closeness between our edu- efforts. Aalto University is a big institution to the Aalto mission: combining art & design cation, research and the new media-relat- and has separate service units dealing with with business and technology. ed industries in Finland enabled us to many specific functions, including indus- ensure we were a future-oriented commu- trial relations, fundraising, entrepreneur- MM: How does Aalto Media Lab and Fac- nity with a valuable role in our country as ship, research support, alumni relations etc. tory work with industries and private the voice of design within an otherwise In the factory we also try to make links investors on specific projects? Accord- engineering-dominated effort. whenever needed between students and ing to your experience, how has the >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 45 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >MEDIA LAB PHOTO © ANNA BERG
Local school children from Helsinki on a week long robot design workshop in the Aalto Fab Lab at the Aalto Media Factory.
manner in which cultural works are cre- plinary research groups who apply for demand on universities to cover part of > ated within the Universities changed? funding either in the name of our Univer- their own contributions but, due to the high Are the curriculum and classes oriented sity or as individuals, depending on the level of overhead costs at universities, com- according to specific commissions or funding agency in question. We have a very panies are not very interested in providing needs of industrial partners? active role in doctoral education in our direct research funding to universities out- PD: This is quite a complex question and School. Our Doctor of Arts degree is equiv- side of these national programs for obvi- there is no easy, black and white answer. alent to a PhD in other fields and typical- ous reasons. In Finland the funding of cultural activities ly involves both the writing of a scientific In our educational activities we do attempt is handled at many levels, by public and pri- thesis as well as the production of an exper- to work directly with companies and exter- vate institutions and agencies. Universities imental and creative production or art- nal organisations. The scale of funding in cannot apply for all such funding as, for work. So, research groups apply for major these is much lower than in R&D and we example, charities. The Finnish Arts Coun- project funding from relevant national or have several producers on our staff who help cil typically provide funding for individual EU R&D programs and any doctoral stu- to build projects, often according to the brief artists and artistic groups, not to universi- dents working within the groups may also of an outside partner. We have strict rules ties or their departments. In technology, apply for funding from the more cultural- as to the legal conditions for this work, IPR research and development funding is typi- ly oriented agencies in support of their per- and other issues of ownership and exploita- cally aimed at industry, universities and sonal productions etc. tion. Our students are protected and the aim research institutions, not to individuals. Direct funding from industry is rather rare is for these projects to be mutually benefi- National and EU funding differ in how they in our research-oriented context as the cial and for the potential future employment provide it for work like ours which typical- national technology funding agency, of our students after graduation.During these ly involves both artistic and technological TEKES, provides very good support for educational projects it is important that the efforts. industrial research into which the indus- industrial partners play a strong supporting Our approach in the Media Lab has been trial partners contribute approx. 20% and role throughout, taking part in workshops to organise our research into multi-disci- TEKES 80%. There is also an increasing and feedback sessions etc.
46 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 MM: I would like to know more about MM: Finally, how is the role of art pro- for example those stemming from the recent the Funding and Projects section. fessionals (artists, curators or critics) Snowdon revelations, require that techno- You say that all faculty members and changing in terms of management of logical and scientific development is also students from Aalto University are wel- artistic and cultural projects according understood as a central theme of the politics come to propose media related projects to growing industries relationship, so- of democratic countries around the world. for our consideration at any time. cial communication systems, technolog- There are clearly some massive dilemmas The idea behind our seed funding is to ical and scientific development? which need to be tackled for the sake of "the help the kind of novel multidisciplinary And, how could the educational pro- 99%". Artists, designers and related researchers activities which may not currently be grams, from schools and academies, need to have a role in the critical debates sur- covered financially by existing budget- drive the social change of paradigm? rounding technological development and glob- ary frameworks of Aalto University. PD: These questions might require a book alisation. The existence or requirements for Where do the budgets come from for to answer them properly! The concept of the efforts of creative professionals and relat- these projects? "creative industries" is one starting point for ed scholars within strategic research efforts, PD: In general a reasonable amount of these considerations. We could, and should, nationally and in EU, is one of the pre-requi- study projects in our school’s BA and MA make distinctions between artistic practice, sites for avoiding overtly technocratic devel- programmes are funded internally by the design, the applied arts, and even artistic or opment policies and implementations. annual departmental budgets and do not practice-based research. There are a myriad I believe that, for example, the leading art need additional funding. The Media Fac- of contexts and conditions that need to be & design schools around the world are active tory is geared towards helping those with considered and the mapping of these fields in standing up to the current challenges and multi-disciplinary projects involving might need to be done from many points of in ensuring that their education is developed departments of two or more schools, exper- view: local, regional, national, EU, interna- so that their graduates are capable of deal- imental projects or projects that might have tional etc. As our world becomes increas- ing with real-world challenges. The Cumu- more risk involved. In the other Schools ingly dependent on new technologies lus International Association of Schools of Aalto Media of Aalto it had previously not been so com- I believe it is incredibly important that peo- Art & Design, of which we are founding Factory is designed mon to work on real-life practical projects ple, i.e. the citizens, have a role in develop- members, has been a global forum for much to provide an open during studies at Bachelor and Masters- ment - in deciding what sort of future world of this debate during the last years. and cosy place levels. As the Aalto strategy stresses the they see as desirable. where students need for more inter-disciplinary collabo- There are a huge amount of challenges to be interview by Marco Mancuso of all departments ration it’s also a challenge to know how to tackled and we know that technology alone HTTP://MLAB.TAIK.FI can meet and create the context for multi-disciplinary, is not the answer. The worst case scenarios, HTTP://MEDIAFACTORY.AALTO.FI work together. project-based studies in many departments. The Aalto Media Factory and Design Fac- tory both clearly support efforts to increase project-based studies. Media Factory reserves part of its annual budget derived from Aalto-level strategic funding, towards the seed funding of educational and research projects.
MM: Would you describe two or three projects in which the relationship be- tween industries, investors, research and artworks can be clearly demon- strated - which you believe could have the most potential for cross-border technological research between educa- tion, art, design, science and industrial investments, that you have yet to de- velop or that you feel could find more potential in the future of media art? PD: I’d prefer to just offer a few links in answer to this question. In reality we have over 20 years experience of working with industry in research and creative contexts. Many of our students and alumni have been involved with major local industies (Nokia, Finnish Game companies etc.) and we also work with public organisations, agencies and city administrations. Media Lab Helsin- ki projects via: http://medialab.aalto.fi - look under "works" and also links from research groups’ pages. Media Factory project exam- ples here: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/fund-
ing-and-projects/ PHOTO © ANNA BERG
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 47 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >NEW MEDIAS ART+COM Interview with Professor Joachim Sauter
Joachim Sauter is a German media artist and designer. From the beginning of his career he has been focused on digital technologies and has experimented how they can be used to express content, form, and narration. Fuelled by this interest, in 1988 he founded ART+COM together with other artists, designers, scientists and technologists of the Berlin University of the Arts and hackers from the Chaos Computer Club.
ART+COM was founded as a non-profit tude is pretty much clear and coherent organization to explore new media-applied in all your projects: the aesthetic factor potentials in the fields of art, design, science is not merely a tool for visual satisfac- and technology. Ranging from artistic instal- tion but it’s a principle for an integrated lations and design-focused projects to tech- artwork that is a piece of design and, at PHOTO © ART+COM nological innovations and inventions, the same time, a territory of technologi- ART+COM’s work includes different kinds cal research. So, how a new commission of formats (autoactive, reactive and inter- born at ART+COM, such a liquid struc- active objects and installations, and media- ture, such an hybrid attitude to cre- based environments and architectures). ation, is attractive (and represents a In 1991 Joachim Sauter has been appoint- potential) for industries researching ed Professor for New Media Art and Design and investing in technologies, comput- at the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK ing and sciences? (Berlin University of the Arts) and, since Joachim Sauter: It’s true that ART+COM is 2001, he has been Adjunct Professor at "hybrid" and interdisciplinary in that all our UCLA, Los Angeles. projects are developed in small teams which include designers, engineers and program- mers. In this close collaboration, creative Marco Mancuso: ART+COM is a cross- thinking can expand across the borders of disciplinary group of professionals com- the single discipline. It’s this kind of free- ing from media arts, design, science and thinking creativity that our research part- hacking backgrounds, with the aim to ners in industry and academia are looking explore digital technologies possibilities for, and not classic technological research in contemporary creativity, expression, ART+COM, River Is…, or design work. In fact, it’s quite simple: com- communication and research. This atti- Yeongsan, Corée du Sud, 2012. panies and research institutions that come
48 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 PHOTO © ART+COM
ART+COM, Mobility, World Expo Shangai, 2010. Mobility is part of the permanent exhibition at the Ars Electronic Center in Linz, Austria.
to us for joint research, can’t do it by them- JS: In this case, Selux contacted us directly. tant for them in terms of R&D (re- selves: They are in need of somebody who The company had just begun to employ search and development) on that spe- pushes their own boundaries and extends OLEDs and was looking for a new kind of cific technology? How did the creation their imagination. The light fixture Manta light fixture that could feature the qualities of Manta Rhei result from a coherent Rhei is a good example. of this innovative light producing technolo- collaboration between you and their gy. Selux objective was to develop an extraor- tech-department? MM: Manta Rhei is a project from 2012 dinary light fixture – a prototype that would JS: We worked in close collaboration with born as a result of a collaboration be- demonstrate the potential of the OLED tech- Selux, but on separate "work packages": tween the ART+COM studio and Selux, nology for interior design and that would ART+COM designed the fixture including a light fixture manufacturer operating generate attention in the media. The kinet- its behaviour and mechatronics, while Selux with OLED technologies. I’m curious ic luminaire Manta Rhei achieved that aim dealt with the light control. We then inte- about how a joint project between a when it was presented at the Light+Building grated everything in the software. There is studio and a technological partner fair in Frankfurt in April 2012. a lot of technological competence at could be born without any mediation. ART+COM, so we can speak the same lan- Did they contact you or vice-versa? MM: Technically, how did you work guage as the Selux engineers, and the process And how were the brief and the project with their technologies and why, ac- was smooth and beneficial for both partners developed ? cording to you, your work was impor- in terms of knowledge transfer. >
CARTE BLANCHE/DIGICULT - ART/INDUSTRY - mcd offprint / summer 2014 - 49 Carte Blanche / DigiCult >NEW MEDIAS PHOTO NILS KRÜGER / © ART+COM
ART+COM and Selux, Manta Rhei, 2012.
MM: In the last 25 years you have been bears our signature and spirit. The con- on animal bevahiour patterns, or more gen- > involved in many different projects, versations, though, have changed within erally movement patterns in nature. from independent ones to more institu- the past 25 years because technology has The existing one obviously took its cues tional (and corporate?) commissions, become an integral part of the design work. from a manta ray. Others that we sketched from private to public, from art to com- This development not only simplified the remind of a swarm of birds’ orchestrated munication. How does the research and communication within the ART+COM movements or combine the shape of a creative process change due to a rela- team, but also with our research partners snake with the glow of fireflies. To answer tionship with a private investor? How is in technology. the second part of your question: With our the artist/designer free to express his research partners we collaborate on a tech- work and creativity and message? MM: You and Selux are planning to de- nological level, whereas with our clients How can the research stay coherent velop an entire family of kinetic lumi- we collaborate on non-technological with the original idea without any inter- naires based on this design concept. aspects. Take for instance the work we do ference by the investor itself? Could you give me more details about for museums: Usually we work closely JS: Maybe the word "interference" it? And, again, what’s the difference be- with the museum’s scientists who provide already points in the wrong direction. tween receiving a commission from an us with the content of the installations. At ART+COM we believe in debate and the industrial investor and working to- They are experts in their discipline as much culture of constructive controversy. In all gether with it, i.e. developing projects as we are in ours, which makes it possible our areas, research, art and communica- and researches together? What does for both parties to work on a par with each tion, we want a dialogue with the people ART+COM give to Selux and what does other. we work for and with. The projects that Selux give to you? emerge from these conversations are results JS: Indeed there is the idea to develop more MM: Which technologies and/or re- of an inspirational process which clearly kinetic luminaires whose design are based searches could be functional to a new
50 - mcd offprint / summer 2014 kind of creative expression in media art, design and science? JS: I’d say that the two areas that currently interest us most are com- putational robotics and optics. We have some valuable knowledge of mechatronics, since all our kinetic installations involve the precise and choreographed movement of physical objects in space. Robotics takes this one step further and means more complexity both in hardware and software. Due to this complexity, robotics has not yet been much explored as a mean of expression and communication. Our interest in optics also stems from our first explorations of this science through works like River is… which is based on caustics, the way light refracts on water, or Mobility which quotes an almost forgotten method of long- distance communication using mirrors and sunlight. Through the com- bination of computational design and optical phenomena, surfaces and objects can be turned into narrators which tell stories or convey mes- sages.
MM: As a professor and educator, do you think the new cultural production chains (investor - agency - academy - professional - artist) are changing the way in which technological and scientific art pieces are produced, comparing to the classic ones (institu- tion - funding - academy - artist)? How can institutions work within this new cultural system? How can curators and produc- ers supervise the production and exhibition of art projects, also taking into account the opportunity to use new public spaces like new airports, commercial buildings, public squares, etc? JS: The fact that companies nowadays act as commissioners of art pieces certainly expands the spectrum of contemporary art. Art museums and collectors follow very much the canon of fine arts as theory and the traditional art market define it. Our art installations however grow in the interspace between art and design and cannot be ascribed easily to one of the practices only, and our clients don’t seem to have a problem with that. So while there is a lot of openness for technology-based art in the private sector, the fine art institutions are still hesitant to embrace this kind of work. In this situation, strong curators play an important role. It’s their credibility as art experts and their voice that is heard in public commissions, and that will help to overcome the old categories in the long-run.
MM: In conclusion, I’m also interested in your feedback on the way the international scene of media art events is changing. From the classic format of big happenings like Ars Electronica or transmediale, a new typology of media art meetings is emerging, in which digital media are also considered as tools for profes- sionals to work commercially (on the border) between art, de- sign, communication and creativity. I’m talking about events such as Offf or Future Everything or Resonate more recently, not so far from pure marketing events like the Ted Conferences, Momo Amsterdam, Seed Design series and so on… JS: Ars Electronica and transmediale have been there for a long time now, and they were truly important for the development of the artis- tic practice with new media. But with technological progress and pro- liferation naturally comes differentiation. These new festivals and con- ferences target special audiences such as the computational design scene, and cover particular aspects of the new media. They are so suc- cessful because there is obviously still a strong desire for a personal exchange that is not mediated by a keyboard or a screen, and because they give practitioners the rewarding feeling of belonging to a special community.
interview by Marco Mancuso WWW.ARTCOM.DE/EN/HOME/
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