[spectre] OPEN FIELDS Conference - This Week in Riga!

[Rasa Smite]

Dear All,

We are very happy that this week the Open Fields conference on Artistic 
Research in Post/Digital Age, takes place in Riga, from September 29 to 
October 1, 2016, with great speakers, 3 pallell sessions - for 2 days 
long, and Open Fields exhibition opening!

Please see below full programme,

More info here too: http://openfields.rixc.org

best regards,

Rasa

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OPEN FIELDS
The International Conference on Artistic Research, Digital Art and Science
In the framework of the RIXC Art Science Festival
September 29 – October 1, 2016
The National Library of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

http://openfields.rixc.org

Contemporary and networked responses to geophysical, socio-political and 
cultural shifts in European landscapes....

Open Fields is the title of this year’s international conference and 
exhibition taking place in the framework of the annual RIXC Art Science 
Festival in Riga, from September 29 until October 1, 2016. Our festival 
this year is focusing on new aesthetics, contemporary conditions, 
digital practices and the post-media situation. Since the first festival 
took place twenty years ago, it has grown and developed into one of 
largest annual North European gatherings for international scholars and 
artists working at the intersection of arts, humanities and science. The 
Open Fields conference and exhibition aims to present the most 
innovative approaches in artistic research, and to discuss the changing 
role of the arts, their transformative potential, and relation to the 
sciences.

The Open Fields Conference will take place from September 29 until 
October 1, 2016, in the National Library of Latvia. The Conference 
challenges the artistic research that is located in the contested 
territory between academic knowledge production and independent creative 
practices.
The Conference features the outstanding public keynote lectures by:

Christiane PAUL / New School / Whitney Museum / USA;
Jussi PARIKKA / Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / 
UK and
Monica BELLO / Arts AT CERN / Switzerland.

Conference Research Questions: How can art and other creative practices 
meaningfully contribute to the environmental, technological and 
scientific challenges of our time? What kind of new knowledge can be 
created through artistic practices that collaborate with science, 
technology and other disciplines? And how to deal with contemporary 
aesthetics, which have undergone dramatic changes during the past 
decades and keep changing again, influenced by the current post-media 
situation, data visualization and other contemporary conditions?

The Open Fields conference aims to become the leading interdisciplinary 
platform for artistic research in North Europe. Each year we will be 
inviting several universities from the Baltic-Nordic region to host the 
Open Fields featured sessions. This year we are presenting – Aarhus 
University's Contemporaneity Research Group (DK), and Liepaja 
University's Art Research Lab (Liepaja, LV). One of the featured 
sessions also includes the presentation by European collaboration 
project – Changing Weathers, in the framework of which this year's Open 
Fields event is organized. Another special session – the Open Fields 
Book Review – takes place at the close of each conference day of the 
conference, featuring book conversation by Armin MEDOSCH and Christiane 
PAUL, and dynamic book presentations (20x20 / Pecha Kucha format) by 
other authors and conference participants.

The Conference is closely linked to the Open Fields Exhibition, taking 
place from September 30 to November 2, 2016 in the new Exhibition Hall 
of the National Library. Partly curated, partly peer-reviewed, the 
exhibition will present 26 works by international artists. They are 
moving across, bringing together and converging different knowledge, 
various media and diverse fields, as well as using scientific, cultural 
and social data as new artistic mediums, and interpreting them in a new 
and meaningful ways.

Overall, this year more then 100 participants from 30 countries 
participate in the Open Fields conference, exhibition and other festival 
events, representing more then 60 universities, art centres, museums, 
institutions and companies, as well as independent artists, scientists 
and scholars from different fields, who are engaged in artistic 
research, art and science collaboration.

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FESTIVAL PROGRAMME (Short Summary):


WEDNESDAY, September 28, 2016
12.00 – Press Conference
14.00 – Changing Weathers Partner Meeting
The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3
18.00 – 
Opening of the Exhibition: Turnton, Small City on the Sea by Time's Up 
(AU/AT). 
RIXC Gallery, Address: 11. Novembra Krastmala 35, entrance 
from Minsterejas iela

THURSDAY, September 29, 2016
OPENING PROGRAMME
The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3
14.00 – Conference Registration
15.00 – Plenary Session: THE CONTEMPORARY CONDITION – SOME KEY CONCEPTS
Geoff COX / Verina GFADER / Jacob LUND / Anne KØLBÆK IVERSEN / Aarhus 
University / DK
PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURES:
16.30 – Jussi PARIKKA. Situated Data: On Art Methods, Cultural 
Institutions and Infrastructure
17.30 – Christiane PAUL. Digital Art 
Now: Challenges of the Post-Digital Age
19.00 – The Opening of Open Fields Exhibition and RIXC Festival 
Reception, featuring performance “E.E.G KISS” by Karen Lancel and Hermen 
Maat (NL).

FRIDAY, September 30, 2016
DAY 1: CONTEMPORANEITY / ART AS RESEARCH
The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3
09.30 – Plenary Session: Presentations by Artists-Researchers & Artists 
of Open Fields Exhibition
11.45 – Parallel Sessions A / B / C 
17.00 – Open Fields Book Review I 
(Featured session): book-conversation by Armin MEDOSCH and Christiane PAUL.
SATELLITE EVENT: Young Artist Exhibition and Performances 
21.00 – New 
Sound Days Performances and guided tour through the IMPULSES Exhibition 
by new media artists from Liepaja University's Art Research Lab 
(MPLab).
RISEBA Center for Architecture and Media “H2O 6”, Address: 
Durbes iela 4

SATURDAY, October 1, 2016
DAY 2: ECO-AESTHETICS / ART AND SCIENCE
The National Library of Latvia, Mukusalas iela 3
10.00 – Plenary 
Session: Presentations by Changing Weathers project partners
11.45 – Parallel Sessions A / B / C
PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURE:
16.00 – Monica BELLO. Expanding Curiosity Through Fundamental Research 
in Arts 
17.00 – Festival Closing / Open Fields Book Review II (20x20 / 
Pecha Kucha) presentations: by authors – Open Fields participants.


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CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (Detailed):

THURSDAY, September 29, 2016
OPENING PROGRAMME
Venue: The National Library of Latvia, Address: 
Mukusalas iela 3

14.00 – Conference Registration and Coffee

15.00 – Plenary Session: THE CONTEMPORARY CONDITION – SOME KEY CONCEPTS 

(contemporary contemporary; chronophobia; random access memory; 
real-time; presentism; arrested movement; migration; algo-rhythm; 
pre-acceleration; iconomy; time stamp; loop).
Geoff COX / Verina GFADER / Jacob LUND / Anne KØLBÆK IVERSEN / Aarhus 
University's Contemporaneity Research Group / DK

PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURES:
16.30 – Jussi PARIKKA. Situated Data: On Art Methods, Cultural 
Institutions and Infrastructure
17.30 – Christiane PAUL. Digital Art Now: Challenges of the Post-Digital Age

19.00 – The Opening of the Open Fields Exhibition and RIXC Festival 
Reception:
Welcome words by festival curators Rasa SMITE and Raitis SMITS, RIXC / 
Dace VILSONE, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia / Mrs. 
Dominique PETTER, Embassy of Switzerland in Riga / Santa SĪLE, Embassy 
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands / Dace MARKUS, rector of Liepaja 
University / Andris TEIKMANIS, vice-rector of the Art Academy of Latvia
Featured Open Fields performance: E.E.G KISS by Karen Lancel and Hermen 
Maat (NL)

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FRIDAY, September 30, 2016
DAY 1: CONTEMPORANEITY / ART AS RESEARCH
Venue: The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3

09.00 – 09.30 Registration
09.30 – 11.30 Plenary Session: OPEN FIELDS – Artistic Research and 
Contemporary Aesthetics
Featured session with presentations by Open Fields exhibition artists
Moderated by Raitis SMITS, curator of Open Fields exhibition

Martin RUMORI. Narrative Immersion – Artistic Approaches to Binaural 
Auditory Display Research
Raphael KIM. Microbial Money: Alternative Narratives for Economic 
Sustainability
Mauro MARTINO. Beautiful Science
Laura BELOFF. Art & Science projects flirting with the concept of the 
‘Real’
Ellie IRONS. Vegetative Resistance: Weeds and Wildness in 
Human-Dominated Landscapes
Jan TORPUS, Andreas SIMON. Atmospheric Experience in An 
Affective-Responsive Environment

11.45 – 13.00 Parallel Session A: Contemporaneity, Complexity and 
Community
Lucy IRVINE. Made of Holes: Embodied Complexity and Emergent Form
Maryam BOLOURI. App-Art Aesthetics: Post Media Art as an Extension of 
Man’s Imagination
Ágnes Karolina BAKK. Is There an Online Theatre with its Online 
Community? - Online Theatre Strategies for Creating New Communities
Pauline O'CONNELL. The Ecology of Community

11.45 – 13.00 Parallel Session B: Data Visualization
Marita BATNA. 
Beyond Representation: Data Visualization in Networked and Spatially 
Distributed Art Practices
Marinos KOUTSOMICHALIS. On Catalogue Aesthetics
Solvita ZARINA. Data Visualization Between Design and Artwork
Sandra ALVARO. Artistic Production and Embodied Information. Tracking 
Spaces of Transformation.
Martin SCHNEIDER. Towards Bottom-Up Interactive Dataviz

11.45 – 13.00 Parallel Session C: Art as Research
Saskia KORSTEN, Marieke DE JONG. Enframing Korsten&DeJong 
Aneta PANEK. 
Alchemy and Punk 
Lena SÉRAPHIN. Another Alphabet
Ance GRICMANE. Seeing the Sound – Synesthesia – the Phenomenon as Source 
of Inspiration
Sarah BURGER. (un)earhted

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 15.15 Parallel Session A: Contemporary Symbiosis
Amy YOUNGS. Practicing Symbiosis: Experiments in Collaborative Teaching 
and Art Making between Science and Art
Adam HYDE. What Scientific Publishing has Learned from Art
Vincenzo 
SANSONE. Theatre among Liveness, Divergence and Software Culture
Minka STOYANOVA. Performing Hypo-Linguistics
Christian FAUBEL. Songs 
from my Analogue Utopia

14.00 – 15.15 Parallel Session B: Artistic Research in Baltics (Part I)
Jurij DOBRIAKOV. An Expired Future: The Curious Case of Lithuanian Media 
Art 
Raivo KELOMEES. Interactive Art as a Method of Preserving and 
Exhibiting Physical Artworks
Vytautas MICHELKEVIČIUS. I am a scientist and I am a researcher; I am an 
artist, I am a curator, what am I?
Thematic Keynote: Andris TEIKMANIS. Art, Research and Politics

14.00 – 15.15 Parallel Session C: Data Sonification and Ecological 
Awareness
Matt PARKER. Vibrating the web: media infrastructures and the 
economy of noise
Eva SJUVE. Dark and Dirty: Metopia
Rihards VITOLS. Woodpecker
Ryan JORDAN. And the Earth sang like a mad Beast

15.15 – 15.30 Break

15.30 – 16.45 Parallel Session A: Post-Human, Post-Digital, Post-Organic
Deborah LAWLER-DORMER. Altercations: An autonomous avatar creation 
account
Anna Maria MONTEVERDI. Will there be Theatre in a Software Culture?
Raune FRANKJÆR, Patricia FLANAGAN. The cybercrafted posthuman: 
Introducing cyborganics
Bart VANDEPUT (Bartaku). Aronia m.BaBe: the Morphing of the Human With 
the Chokeberry
Owen KELLY. Digital Toolkits for Experimental Arts Organizations – tbc.

15.30 – 16.45 Parallel Session B: Artistic Research in Baltics (Part II) 

Moderator: Ilva SKULTE
Dirk HOYER. Futura as a conceptual framework for Artistic Research
Raivo KELOMEES. Practice-based artistic doctoral research in Estonia: 
history, experience and results – tbc.
Chris HALES. Developing a 
Practice-led Arts Doctorate at Liepaja University
Aigars CEPLITIS. 
Rhizomatic Narratology In Spherical Cinema
Jānis GARANCS. Artistic 
Reflection on the Turbulent Virtual Landscape of Crypto-Currency Online 
Trading (2010-2016)

15.30 – 16.45 Parallel Session C: Art As Research
Performative Presentation:
15.30 Mara-Johanna KOLMEL / Alice COLQUHOUN / Helena HUNTER / Mirko 
NIKOLIĆ. Situating Hybrid Knowledges: A Material-Discursive Archive
16.30 Video Presentations:
Tracey M BENSON. Way of the Turtle (video)
Meghan Moe BEITIKS. Systems 
of Pain/Networks of Resilience (Live Archive 1) (video)

16.45 - 17.00 Break

PLENARY SESSION
17.00-18.30 – Open Fields Book Review Part I: book conversation by Armin 
MEDOSCH and Christiane PAUL, based on their recently published books: “A 
Companion to Digital Art”, ed. by Christiane Paul, and “New Tendencies 
Art at the Threshold of the Information Revolution (1961 – 1978)” by 
Armin Medosch.

SATELLITE EVENT
21.00 – Audiovisual Performances by Uldis HASNERS, 
FIGURAS, Jukka HAUTAMÄKI (FI), Roberto PUGLIESE, Christian FAUBEL // 
Guided tour through the IMPULSES Exhibition by new media artists from 
Liepaja University's Art Research Lab (MPLab.lv) 
RISEBA Center for 
Architecture and Media “H2O 6”, Address: Durbes iela 4


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SATURDAY, October 1, 2016
DAY II: ECO-AESTHETICS / BIO-ETHICS / ART AND SCIENCE

09.30–10.00
10.00-11.30 Plenary Session: CHANGING WEATHERS – Networked Responses 
...
Moderated by Netta NORRO
Netta NORRO. Introduction into Changing Weathers 
Lucas VAN DER VELDEN. 
Living Earth – Dark Ecology
Erich BERGER. Hybrid Matters
Andrew Gryf PATERSON. Reflections on Soil 
Present(s), Past(s), Future(s)
Time's Up. Turnton, a Short History
Marko PELJHAN (video)

11.30-11.45 Coffee Break

11.45-13.15 Parallel Session A: Eco-Aesthetics / Techno-Ecologies in the 
Anthropocene
Yvonne VOLKART. Technologies of the Ecological in the Anthropocene
Cathy FITZGERALD. The Ecological Turn: Transversal Practice to Exit the 
Anthropocene
BUREAU D'ETUDES, Ewen CHARDRONNET, Spela PETRIC. Aliens in Green
Karolina ŻYNIEWICZ. Bioart as a Laboratory Experiment
Grit RUHLAND. Randomness as a reSource

11.45-13.15 Parallel Session B: Bio-Ethics / Scientific Experiments in Art
Moderator: Lucas EVERS
Lucas EVERS. Trust Me I’m an Artist.
Mari KETO, Erich BERGER. Inheritance: Open Care
Alexandru RAEVSCHI (RAEVSKI). The project "Universe 69" / The influence 
of anthropogenic transformation and their reflection on human 
subconsciousness
Alana JELINEK. Ethics of Multi and Inter-Disciplinary Working with Artists
Ursula DAMM, Birgit BRUEGGEMEIER. Combat, Courtship and Advertising – 
How to Understand Scientific Experiments in Art

11.45-13.15 Session C: Bio-Hacking, Mapping and Eco-Poetics
Francisco Javier Fernandez GALLARDO, Audrey SAMSON. Peel that! 
Free-labour art at the Mouth of the Thames
Krista PĒTERSONE. Surveyor's Turn 
Danielle WILDE. BioHacking our Danish 
Town to Diversify Civic Imaginaries
Irina DANILOVA. Where Topology meets with Typology
Lisa ERB. To Combine Those – Pluriphony. Meta

14.15-15.45 Parallel Session A: Art and Science / Institutions and Platforms
Moderated by Ainars KAMOLINS
Natalia FUCHS. Polytech. Science. Art: Institutionalization of Art & 
Science Research in Russia
Ela SPALDING, Emily ZHUKOV. A Laboratory for Art and Science 
collaboration in Panama
Benjamin CADON, Julien BELLANGER. ArtLabo, an 
anti-disciplinary platform for a prospective and critical approach of 
art & science
Matteo LANFRANCHI. Stormo: Collective Intelligence between Art & Science
Joanna SZLAUDERBACH. Research Station on Planet B – Curatorial Practice 
Between (Citizen) Science & Art Exhibition

14.15-15.45 Parallel Session B: Art and Science / Energy Innovation and 
Critical Design
Thomas ORTIZ, Cédric CARLES. Paleo-energetic : a Collaborative 
Counter-History of Energy Innovation.
Christina DELLA GIUSTINA. You are variations
Artis VOLKOVS. Solar Transport for Solar Civilization
Talis MUZIKANTS. Eco-Aesthetical Solar Tree in Urban Environment
Liene JAKOBSONE. The Purpose Of Uselessness. Critical and Speculative 
Approaches in Design

14.15-15.45 Parallel Session C: SHIFT REGISTER / Workshop and Walk
Jamie ALLEN. Launch of Shift Register Research Project (Workshop)

PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURE 
16.00-17.00 Monica BELLO. Expanding curiosity 
through fundamental research in arts

CLOSING EVENT
17.00 – 18.30 Festival Closing / Open Fields Book Review Part II: book 
presentations by authors – Open Fields participants (6 min presentation 
session: 20 slides x 20 seconds / Pecha Kucha format): 
Rasa SMITE. Open 
Fields (Acoustic Space Vol. 15) / Lucas VAN DER VELDEN / Alana JELINEK. 
Knowing / Ela SPALDING, Emily ZHUKOV “LAB de Arte y Ciencia / Art and 
Science LAB - Chiriquí, Panama, 2015” / Katherine BEHAR. Object-Oriented 
Feminism (University of Minnesota Press) / and other – tbc.

Dear Participants! This is an open session: you can apply for it by 
sending your book/presentation title to rasa at rixc.org

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* The Open Fields Conference Chairs:

Dr. sc.soc. Rasa Smite / Assoc. Prof., Liepaja University / Managing 
Director of RIXC Center for New Media Culture in Riga, Latvia
Dr.art Raitis Smits / Assoc. Prof., Art Academy of Latvia / Artistic 
Director of RIXC Center for New Media Culture in Riga

* The International Open Fields Conference Scientific and Organizational 
Board:



Prof. Lev MANOVICH / Software Studies Initiative / The Graduate Center, 
the City University of New York,

Ph.D. Armin MEDOSCH / Initiator of the Technopolitics working group in 
Vienna, Austria

Ph.D. Jussi PARIKKA / Assoc. Prof., Winchester School of Art / the 
University of Southampton / UK

Ph.D. Geoff COX / School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus 
University, Denmark
Prof.
Kristin BERGAUST / Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied 
Sciences, Norway

Assoc. Prof. Laura BELOFF / IT University in Copenhagen, Denmark / 
Finnish Bioart Society, FI

Prof. Lily DIAZ-KOMMONEN / Head of Research Department of Media, Aalto 
University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland

Prof. Ursula DAMM / Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany 

Prof. Andris TEIKMANIS / Vice-rector, the Arts Academy of Latvia, Riga

Dr. Vytautas MICHELKEVICIUS / Assoc. Prof., Vilnius Academy of Arts, 
Lithuania / Artistic Director, Nida Art Colony.Nida Art Colony

Ph.D. Margrét Elísabet ÓLAFSDÓTTIR / Art Education at the University of 
Akureyri, Iceland

Andrew Gryf PATERSON / Pixelache Helsinki / SERDE / Aalto University 
ARTS Media department, Helsinki

Dr. art Piibe PIIRMA / Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

Dr. phys. Janis KLEPERIS / Head of Hydrogen Laboratory, Solid State 
Physics Institute, the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Ph.D. Raivo KELOMEES / the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia

Regine DEBATTY / we-make-money-not-art.com / UK / Italy



The Conference and Festival is organised by RIXC, The Center for New 
Media Culture, and our academic partners – Liepaja University's Art 
Research Lab, Arts Academy of Latvia, RISEBA University of Business, 
Arts and Technology


http://rixc.org | http://mplab.lv | http://liepu.lv | http://lma.lv | 
http://riseba.lv


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Contacts: rixc at rixc.org, +371-26546776, RIXC, Maskavas iela 4, Riga, LV 
1050, Latvia

More info: http://openfields.rixc.org

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Support:
State Cultural Capital Foundation of Latvia, Ministry of Culture of 
Republic of Latvia, EU Programme - Creative Europe, Changing Weathers 
Project, Pro Helvetia, Mondriaan Foundation, Goethe Institut - Riga

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-- 
Dr Rasa Smite
Artist and Founding Director of RIXC, The Center for New Media Culture in Riga,
Assoc. Prof. in New Media Art at Liepaja University,
Chief Editor of Acoustic Space, peer-reviewed book & journal series
Contact: rasa at rixc.org
Phone: +371-26546776
http://smitesmits.com
http://rixc.org
http://renewablefutures.net
http://acousticspacejournal.com