[spectre] Exhibition Cultures of Change. Social Atoms and Electronic Lives (Barcelona. Arts Santa Monica)

[Pau Alsina]

Cultures of Change: Social Atoms and Electronic Lives
Exhibtion from 11 December 2009 to 28 February 2010
ARTS SANTA MONICA- Laboratori
Departament de Cultura i Mitjans de Comunicació- Generalitat de Catalunya
http://www.artssantamonica.cat/

Opening: 10 December. 20:00 H - Free entrance. 19:15 Opening Lecture
by Luc Steels. "Can robots create their own language?"

Artists: Usman Haque / Bestiario, Santiago Ortiz / Michele Catanzaro,
Ramon Balagué, ¨Álvaro Robles / Laurent Mignonneau, Christa Sommerer/
José Manuel Berenguer / Sony Lab: Luc Steels, Michael Spranger, Martin
Loetzsch / Raquel Paricio, Juan Manuel Moreno Aróstegui / Interaction
Research Studio-Goldsmiths-University of London / Prospect and
Innovation Studio-Goldsmiths-University of London: Mike Waller, Terry
Rosenberg, Pete Rogers, Andrew Weatherhead, Duncan Fairfax / Digital
Methods Initiative: Richard Rogers, Esther Weltevrede, Erik Borra,
Marieke van Dijk / Govcom.org Foundation: Alexander Galloway, Erik
Borra, Michael Stevenson, Marieke van Dijk

Curated by: Josep Perello and Pau Alsina, with the assistance of Irma Vila.

Cultures of change. Social Atoms and Electronic Lives examines the
social and cultural dynamics from a highly multidisciplinary
perspective, from the hand of the complexity sciences and digital
technologies.

Information and communication technologies have made possible to
quantify and monitor, process and display aspects of our society and
our culture unthinkable until recently. The so-called complex systems
theory seeks to explain this phenomenology based on the hardest
sciences through models that assume nonlinear properties,
self-organization, emergence, feedback, heterogeneity and uncertainty.
These theoretical abstractions contributions describe the social and
cultural interactions maintaining the unique and the co-evolution with
the environment as an essential element.

Both the whole and the singularities are particularly important, and
robotics, artificial intelligence, electronic circuitry and new
technological devices are getting closer to our human peculiarities.
The exhibition seeks to experience in person all these ideas and
artistic practices through experimental projects, and providing access
to scholarly information on the subject in a friendly environment.

The exhibition project will be inaugurated during the celebration of
the International Conference "Cultures of Change | Changing Cultures
in Barcelona, inside the NEST PathFinder initiative A Topological
Approach to Cultural Dynamics, as part of the European Commission’s
6th Framework Programme (http://www.atacd.net) where sociologists,
philosophers, mathematicians, biologists, physicists , technologists
and artists contribute with their views on cultural dynamics in the
contemporary world.

The project involves also a database, a book, a series of workshops
and a range of activities related to the exhibition.


Participants in the exhibition:

1. Usman Haque - Sky Ear & Open Burble
2. Bestiario - Canvi and Temps
3. Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau - Life Writer
4. Josep Manel Berenguer - Luci
5. Sony Lab: Luc Steels, Michael Spranger & Martin Loetzsch- Embodied
Language Games
6. Raquel Paricio & Juan Manuel Moreno Aróstegui- POEtic-Cubes
7. Pi Studio Goldsmiths: Mike Waller, Terry Rosenberg, Pete Rogers,
Andrew Weatherhead & Duncan Fairfax- News Telescope
8. Interaction Research Studio- The Drift Table
9. Digital Methods Initiative: Richard Rogers, Esther Weltevrede, Erik
Borra & Marieke van Dijk- #iranelection RT “
10. Govcom.org Foundation: Alexander Galloway, Erik Borra, Michael
Stevenson & Marieke van Dijk- IP Browser


International Conference.

Changing Cultures: Cultures of Change. 10-12 December 2009. Facultat
de Filosofia, Universitat de Barcelona. Among 160 participants.
Plenary speakers include: Rosi Braidotti, University of Utrecht, The
Netherlands / Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK /
Alex Galloway, New York University, USA / Penny Harvey, University of
Manchester, UK / Dirk Helbing, ETH Zurich, Switzerland / Scott Lash,
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK / Richard Rogers, University of
Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Brian Rotman, Ohio University / Luc
Steels, SONY-France, France / Sergi Valverde, University Pompeu Fabra,
Spain / Eyal Weizmann, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK For more
information: http://www.atacd.net


Related Activities

• December 10. Sala d’actes. 19:15h “Can robots create their own
language?” Luc Steels SONY Lab Paris, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (AI
Lab).
• December 12. Sala d’actes. 17:00h - 20:00h Conference: “Topologia,
Innovació i Política Cultural” with the participation of Monika
Fleischmann, Ronaldo Lemos, Ramón Sangüesa, José Luís de Vicente,
designed and moderated by YProduc¬tions, in colllaboration with
Goldsmiths and Universitat de Barcelona
• December 13. Sala d’actes. 18:00h. “Complejidad/Interacción”,
Santiago Ortiz (Bestiario) and presenting the online project Canvi i
Temps
• January 29 / February 11. Sala d’actes i Espai Laboratori.
• 18:00h Workshop: “Més enllà de la pell: robots sensitius?
Experiència sensible i bioinspi¬ració” Raquel Paricio Garcia i
J.Manuel Moreno Aróstegui
• February 25. Sala d’actes. 19:00h “Interfacing Reality”, Christa
Sommerer, Interface Lab, Kunst Universität Linz


Exhibition Book

Edited and published by ACTAR, 128 pages. Short Texts by the
exhibitors and by 20 international experts:. Alex Adriaansens, Usman
Haque, Sergi Valverde, Santiago Ortiz, Albert Díaz-Guilera and Alex
Arenas, Esteban Moro, Fabian Muniesa and Daniel Beunza, Jaume
Masoliver, Laurent Mignonneau and Christa Sommerer, Eugene Stanley,
José Maria Berenguer, Maxi Sanmiguel, Luc Steels, Michael Spranger and
Laurent Mignonneu, Dirk Helbing, Raquel Paricio and Manuel Moreno
Aróstegui, Philip Ball, Celia Lury, Pi Studio, Maximilian Schich and
Albert-László Barabási, Interaction Research Studio, Mike Michael,
Alexander Galloway, Erik Borra, Michael Stevenson, Marieke van Dijk,
James Crutchfield, Richard Rogers, Tiziana Terranova, Matthew Fuller.


Produced by:
Arts Santa Monica - Departament de cultura i mitjans de comunicació.
Generalitat de Catalunya

In collaboration with:
A Topological Approach to Cultural Dynamics (NEST PathFinder. VI
programm UE), Goldsmiths - University of London, Media Studies -
Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universitat de Barcelona, Advanced
Hardware Architectures - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,
Neàpolis, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, BEEP.

More information available at:
http://www.artssantamonica.cat/


Feel free to re-distribute.

Best regards,
Pau




*******************************************************
Pau Alsina
palsinag at uoc.edu

Professor dels Estudis d'Arts i Humanitats
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
www.uoc.edu

Artnodes: art, ciència i tecnologia
artnodes.uoc.edu