WORKSHOP AND PANEL DISCUSSION “PUBLIC TECHNOLOGIES”
“Science and technologies in the name of art?”
Venue: Art Academy of Latvia (Kalpaka boulevard 13), room 19
Date: January 19 – 20, 2012
Does there is a connection or link between science, technologies and art?
From 20th century and in the last decade artists frequently chooses not to use traditional materials as their means of expression, but gives a priority to an untraditional media for their own ideas and aims to become a reality, inter alia comes science and technologies.
Does the use of science and technologies achievements in visual arts can create an artistic high-quality Art or the artwork becomes just an illustration of scientific experiment and loses its connection with it? Artists are using the achievements of science and technologies in their interests, but is there any feedback possible, which artists are giving and may give in further future for its evolution encouragement?
The questions related to art frequently are developed and solved in small coteries of art, connoisseurs, theoreticians and artist scopes. However we are willing to contribute a wider dialogue between different experts of different industries, thus amplifying a viewpoint and a vision diversity regarding on relationship between art and accordingly industries.
Thereby artists, scientists, students and other coteries are invited to participate in a two day event programme with a purpose to try to solve previously asked questions with mutual interaction, influence and use of art, science and technologies.
January 19th “BIO ART – personal bio-zone mapping” (2 P.M. / 14:00)
This workshop will be led by an artist and scientist from Finland – Antti Tenetz, who works in a bio-art and in urban art fields. Antti artworks are created within a framework of digital and tradition media.
The participants of this workshop will be introduced with different ways how to research and summarize different bacteria materials from Riga’s public environment.
During the workshop its participants will research Riga’s public environment by using DIY microscopes and other devices, which will serve for an artistic and scientific experiments. Assembled data will be recorded with aim – to merge and geo-localize them on single map of Riga.
(Workshop language: English)
Participants should take with them: computers. For those who want to construct a DIY microscope, should take with them old WEB cam and table lamps. Also: Rubber gloves, dropper (pipette), paper towels, plastic glue, example pick-up instruments, Petri plate, plastic bags, insulating tape and test-tube.
January 20 – Panel discussion “Technology, art and esthetics” (2 P.M. – 5 P.M. / 14:00 – 17:00)
Does art, which is related to technologies, has to fulfill just two functions: educational function and recontextalization of technologies? To what degree the craft is necessary for an artwork? These are just a few of questions to which the leader of panel discussion – philosopher Ainārs Kamoliņš wants to look for answers together with discussion participants: art scientist Iliana Veinberga, microbiologist Jānis Liepiņš, philosopher Andrejs Balodis, artist Gints Gabrāns, art scientist Elita Ansone and other attendance.
Participation in workshop and panel discussion free of charge
European Public Art Centre – EPAC is programme which consists of eight multipurpose outdoor exhibition spaces established in eight participating countries – Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom and Iceland.
The primary aim of programme European Public Art Centre – EPAC is to found the first public art centre in Europe that exists and have permanent physical exhibition spaces in most European countries, to foster interdisciplinary contemporary culture and particularly collaboration between art and science, to create experimental visual art projects in public space that seek innovative solutions for breaking down elitism in artistic and cultural space through openness and accessibility, to involve passive segments of society in cultural processes and the integration of Europe’s cultures.
From August 26, 2011 in eight EPAC project involved countries are installed and exhibited specially for project created art objects, which conceptually forms one exhibition Public Technologies.
In exhibition Public Technologies (in Riga) participated:
- Gints Gabrāns with art work “The Nerves/Nervous” ( September 17th – October 17th, Kaļķu street square, Old Riga)
- Ernests Šteinboks, installation “This Image Is Fictional” (October 19th – November 2nd, Kaļķu street square, Old Riga)
- Mina Arko, Ben Dromey, Jari Suominen, work „City Beat” (November 6 – December 6, Kr. Valdemāra street, near LMA (Art Academy of Latvia)).
Project implementation in Latvia by Center for Management and Information (MMIC)
The website of EPAC project: www.epacpublic.eu