The symposium is held as a part of a public educational program of the exhibition "New Elements" and aims to bring to the forefront the current issues of new artistic practices that redefines the relationship between digital and analogue computational processes and systems.
The symposium has two main objectives. The first concerns institutional practices. Together with colleagues from leading institutions in the field, we will try to define the boundaries of what science-art is today, to discuss recent trends and principles and to see where it could head in the future. The second aim is to discuss the exhibition "New Elements", which is currently taking place in the West Wing of the New Tretyakov Gallery, and reflect on the artworks presented.
"New Elements" collects artistic approaches that deal with the physical aspects of information: in the natural environment, in technological systems, or in the inaccessible structures of neural networks.
At the symposium, artists, scientists and philosophers will look at the nature of material traces and how they can help us make sense of global changes in a digitally-dominated world.
The symposium program ends with a spectacular performance by the German artist Ralf Becker: "The Natural History of Networks / SoftMachine". It is an electrochemical algorithmic performance of the artist and the machine – a custom-built electrochemical experimental apparatus SoftMachine. The central element of the performance is galinstan, a liquid metal alloy, which is manipulated by the artist through a set of electrodes and creates constantly evolving shapes and sounds in the real time. The performance aims to provoke new imaginaries of the machinic, the artificial and matter.
Symposium program
| 12.00-14.00 |
Session 1. Science-art today: transformation of interdisciplinary communities Participants: Martin Honzik, director of Ars Electronica (Austria); Irina Aktuganova, curator, (Russia); Daria Mille, curator at ZKM (Germany); Orkan Telhan, interdisciplinary artist, researcher, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (USA); Konstantin Fursov, deputy general director for science and education, Polytechnic Museum (Russia), Jury Krpan, curator, art director, Kapelica Gallery (Slovenia); Honor Harger, curator, executive director of the ArtScience Museum (Singapore); Aslak Aamot Helm, DIAKRON (Denmark), Anna Titovets[Intektra], new media artist, chief curator and creative director of Cryptography Museum (Russia) Moderators and keynote speakers: Daria Parkhomenko, curator, founder of Laboratoria Art&Science Foundation, Russia, Vladlena Gromova, artist, researcher, Russia. Researchers, curators, museum and festival directors in the field of science-art will discuss the boundaries of the concept of scienceart, the role of institutions in the development of interdisciplinary connections, and the current state of cooperation between science, art and society as well as progressive methods and tactics of community interaction.
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| 14.40-15.00 | About the New Elements exhibition: Daria Parkhomenko, curator, founder of Laboratoria Art&Science Foundation, Russia Dietmar Offenhuber, curator, Associate Professor at the Northeastern University, Boston, USA |
| 15.00-16.30 |
Session 2. The autographic world Participants: Tuula Närhinen, artist (Finland); Samaneh Moafi, Forensic Architecture, architect, researcher (UK); Andrey Glazovsky, glaciologist, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia); Alexander Vetushinskiy, philosopher, Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University (Russia), Erich Berger, artist (Finland). Moderators and keynote speakers: Dietmar Offenhuber, curator, Associate Professor at the Northeastern University, Boston (USA), Natalia Fedorova, artist, curator, lecturer at Art&Science program at ITMO, Russia. Artists, scientists, and philosophers who work with environmental traces and material information will examine the nature of autographic processes.
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| 17.00-18.30 |
Session 3. Computation with Nature Participants: Ralf Becker, artist (Germany); Thomas Feuerstein, artist (Austria); Theresa Schubert, artist (Germany); Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov, artist (Russia). Moderators and keynote speakers: Alexander Gostev, technological expert of “Kaspersky” (Russia), Mikhail Kurtov, philosopher, new media theorist (Russia). This session of the symposium examines unconventional perspectives on computation beyond the digital. Artists and technologists look at the strange world of emergent computation, cybernetic experiments with chemical and biological phenomena and the counterintuitive behavior of neural networks.
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| 19:00-20:00 | Performance by Ralf Becker "The Natural History of Networks / SoftMachine" |
The event is part of the UK – Russia Creative Bridge programme 2021-2022 supported by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow.