RIXC Art Science Festival 2021
Richard LOWENBERG. “Info/Eco: Interferences & Resonances – The Nature of Information”
Taylor HOKANSON, Kay DARTT, J. Stephen LEE. Fine With This: An Internet Controlled Flaming Sculpture
Danielle DAMICO. The Sky is Coming
Raphael ARAR, Olivia ARAR. Food Carbon Footprint Index (FCF)
Veronika SELLNER. Redesigning Ecosystems: Synthetic Biology, Art and the Non-Human
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Richard LOWENBERG. “Info/Eco: Interferences & Resonances – The Nature of Information”
“Interferences & Resonances” is an eco-sensing arts installation, currently being developed to sense, process and display selected low frequency eco-signals photonically, not electronically, demonstrating laser interferometry, the technique used to create holograms and to detect gravitational waves.
Real-time data from multiple remote and on-site sources (Schumann resonances, plant signals, human brainwaves, tides, financial market fluctuations, and Earth climate/temperature changes) will concurrently be processed, visualized, sonified and presented in an installation focused on differences that make a difference, to enhance our sense of light, of life and of enlightenment.
Light has been an elemental medium since first humans saw the sun. Fast forward. We are now teetering on a precipice that could lead to a long fall. Our near-magical contemporary scientific and technological progress is evolving concurrently with co-evolutionary ecological imbalances, bringing into question the very nature of humanity.
Being is not digital. An emergent photonic era is now upon us, portending new ways of thinking, beyond digital, to a new analogue with a quantum twist. Photonics brings us to new ways of understanding that are not simply on-off, if-than, either-or, 1-0; requiring us to think differently; to take next steps towards an ecology of mind. Light can illuminate the way.
Richard Lowenberg, (Haifa, 1946) is a planner/designer, artist and eco-cultural activist, dedicating his creative life to understandings and creative realization of works setting examples for ‘an ecology of the information environment’, and resulting opportunities for development of a ‘cultural economy’.
Richard is founding director, 1st-Mile Institute and a director of the Telluride Institute, currently stewarding a “Networking for Mountain Sustainability” initiative for the UN.
Richard studied and taught at Pratt Institute, initiating its Electronic Media Arts program in 1971, and was one of the founding team of the Kitchen in NYC that year. He taught TechnoCulture Studies at UC Davis and was Artist-in-Bioregional Residence there, 1997-2006. His interdisciplinary design, media arts, installation, performance and art/science works have been presented internationally.
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Taylor HOKANSON, Kay DARTT, J. Stephen LEE. Fine With This: An Internet Controlled Flaming Sculpture
Inspired in equal measure by meme culture and global calamity, Fine With This is a monumental, cast iron sculpture that is perpetually aflame. Audience members viewing the piece over streaming video can command it to shoot bursts of fire via web chat. Indeed, the work is designed to be experienced both physically and virtually, promoting a conversation about armchair activism and the ways in which internet culture can have a concrete impact on real world events (e.g. pizzagate, the Capitol insurrection, and r/wallstreetbets). A live demonstration of the work will be paired with a question and answer session detailing the hardware and software that enable its function.
Kay Dartt is a sculptor with an interdisciplinary practice that combines craft, design, engineering, and philosophy. The work she makes reflects how consumer behavior in western cultures is forcing an imbalance between the natural, artificial and virtual environments we interact with. Her aesthetics synthesizes biomorphic forms, consumer language and parametric design elements. Through this work she challenges cultural philosophies of living by creating functional sculptures that exaggerate issues of environmental imbalance.
No material or processes is restricted in Kay’s practice, but she is always engaged with metal casting. This passion for craft is fueled by the intrinsic nature of iron and engagement with the iron casting community. Currently she uses her practice to foster socially minded innovators and collaboratively fabricate objects that generate dialogue about current issues.
Taylor Hokanson is an Associate Professor of Art at Columbia College Chicago. Hokanson’s creative practice problematizes the social and technological systems we take for granted, by creating artwork that employs functionality and absurdity to explore an uncertain future. He has exhibited at Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and Techfest Mumbai, and can also be found on new media platforms like Github, LinkedIn Learning, and the Opposable Thumbs podcast, which he co-hosts.
Stephen Lee is a designer and educator with experience in brand, motion, and interactive design. Past clients include AT&T, Gatorade, Google, IBM, and Nike. He has taught at a number of institutions both within the United States and abroad in India, Mexico, Spain, and Peru. He received an MFA in Graphic Design and Integrated Media from CalArts. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University. His research focuses on incorporating XR (extended reality) and other creative technology into a contemporary design practice.
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Danielle DAMICO. The Sky is Coming
THE SKY IS COMING is a multisensory two-channel projection installation that depicts an ecosexual encounter between a developing thunderstorm and its human lover. Two rectangular channels are projected adjacent from and pressed against each other in a dark space. Astroturf is laid out on the floor in front of the projection and the audience is welcomed to sit or stand on the synthetic simulacrum. Atop a pedestal is a perfume bottle filled with a distillation of Bradford Pear tree blossoms and a small stack of sample cards. Visitors are encouraged to spray the perfume onto a sample card or their skin.
My human character is a fulgarophilic – someone who is sexually aroused by thunderstorms. Ecosexuality refers to intersections between sexology and ecology though it is popularly used to describe humans who engage in sexual or sensual relations with elements of the earth. The ecosexual movement utilizes an intersectional approach that breaks down the intimidating guise of mainstream environmentalism and allows for people to come together to celebrate and connect with the earth in a way that emphasizes community building and reciprocity.
The ecosexual movement is included in queer ecological scholarship which examines how humans are included in (not separate from) a natural world and its systems that are ever changing as the result of social and historical influences. The Bradford Pear tree is a hybrid that was created by scientists in Prince George’s County, Maryland in the late 1950s. Envisioned as a decorative, durable tree that could survive various conditions, it was planted all across America starting in the 1960s. Today, the Bradford Pear is considered an invasive species. The root structures of the clones choke out nearby native plants and the supposedly “sterile” trees can reproduce through cross-pollination. The scent of the Bradford Pear tree is popularly associated with the scent of human ejaculate and thus I’ve used them as a metaphor for how we sensually engage our environment.
The two channel film concludes with a ‘facial’ which is a euphemism for the act of ejaculating on someone’s face. I acknowledge how this conclusion could be interpreted as an act of degradation or a power play and use it to explore the relationship between human activity and increasingly erratic weather patterns. Storms have the ability to overwhelm, devastate, and at the very least instill fear in humans, partly because they’re beyond our control. Yet, we know that human-related climate change has manifested in drastic shifts in weather patterns. The intermittent fast-forwarding (and rewinding) of the storm by the human character meditates on our role in that equation while alluding to the ways we watch video content on our mobile devices. The cell phone video as a medium recognizes that the digital tool, the body, and the resulting images are entangled, rather than separate, entities.
Danielle is a Baltimore-based multimedia artist and educator. She received her B.S. in Film, Video & Theatre from Stevenson University in 2014 and her MFA from University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2021. Her immersive projection installation What to Expect When You’re Expecting, was awarded the Johns Hopkins Saul Zaentz Innovation Grant in 2019. Her work has been exhibited locally at 2640 Space, Normal’s, and Light City. Danielle has presented work internationally (virtually) at Taboo, Transgression, Transcendence Conference and through the Ars Electronica .ART Global Gallery.
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Raphael ARAR, Olivia ARAR. Food Carbon Footprint Index (FCF)
Imagine a dystopian future wherein late capitalism requires that individuals are solely responsible for the climate crisis. Imagine a future where government surveillance of individuals becomes the popular standard for curbing carbon emissions and non-compliance results in serious penalties. The Food Carbon Footprint Index (FCFI) imagines just that. FCFI, a design provocation based on this design fiction, requires participants to log their meals via a “government controlled web application” meant to audit individual consumption. The app will calculate the meal’s carbon footprint and index this “score” against other participants. Scores will be broad- casted for public scrutiny and collective shaming.
Raphael Arar works at the nexus of complex systems, transdisciplinary design and arts-based research. For the past decade, he has helped others both untangle messes and uncover opportunities through a balancing act of problem-solving and creative inquiry. He currently leads Systems at One Project, where he is working to design, implement and scale new forms of economics and governance that are equitable, ecological and effective. He also serves as a Board Member at Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. Previously, he led design for learners at Khan Academy, tackled ethical platforms of AI at IBM Research, taught media theory at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and designed over a hundred iOS apps with Apple. His artworks has been shown at museums, conferences, festivals and galleries internationally including the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Gamble House Museum, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, and Athens Video Art Festival.
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Veronika SELLNER. Redesigning Ecosystems: Synthetic Biology, Art and the Non-Human
The current environmental collapse that we as society face on a day-to-day basis leads us to rethinking and redefining the known. In this presentation we will introduce how artistic interventions in synthetic biology are a useful tool not only for thinking about current challenges, but also for the future ones. Hand in hand, the philosophical approaches for such artistic practises will be laid out – namely the impact of speculative turn in philosophy. We perceive synthetic biology as a field of interdisciplinary cooperation, in which exact disciplines necessarily meet with (artistic) imagination and design. Therefore it offers the potential to discuss the future ecosystems beyond the experienced – including emancipation of the non-human actors. By giving voice to the non-human and designing organisms, we can create a new sustainability or perhaps keep the planet habitable.
Veronika Sellner is 2nd year PhD student in Digital Culture and Creative Industries at Masaryk University in Brno. She focuses on non-human perspective, artistic research, synthetic biology in art, speculative artistic methods and is interested in critical approaches to multidisciplinary research. She also publishes critical texts about contemporary art and teaches.