Venue: assembly hall of the MUSEO DE BELLAS ARTES DE VALENCIA

Seminar director: Karin Ohlenschläger

 

 

Ecology, as a science that studies the relationships between living systems and their environment, is much more than a political, scientific, technical or financial challenge. In fact, ecological issues are a crucial cultural problem that concerns the way we think and act in a more and more interconnected and interdependent world with limited resources.

 

The series of lectures will focus on some of the most critical and constructive artistic proposals regarding sensitisation and our relationship with our environment. The aim of this event is to analyse the role that may be played by art in the construction of a more sustainable future, and to see what new relationships can be established between the different fields of experience and knowledge. Ecomedia is essentially an open dialogue to generate new proposals and ways of conceiving/constructing/connecting realities of a different scale and magnitude in public, critical and creative places.

 

11.02.09     17:00    Karin Ohlenschläger 
                                  Sabine Himmelsbach 
                                  Yvonne Volkart 
                    18:00    Sabrina Raaf 
                    19:00    Franz John 
                    20:00    Critical Art Ensemble

04.03.09     17:00   Andrea Polli 
                    18:00   José-Carlos Mariátegui 
                    19:00   Ramón Guardans 
                    20:00   Roger F.Malina

05.03.09     17:00  Transnational Temps 
                    18:00   Laboratorio de Luz 
                    19:00   Piratas de la Ciencia 
                    20:00   Pau Alsina

An artist who works on the borderline between art, science, technology and society. In her installations, videos and actions she explores themes connected with human perception, cognition and behaviour. As a member of the New York 2050 committee, which is planning the future of the city, she is researching the effects of climate change with city planners, scientists, historians and other experts. At the present time she is the director of the programme of  Masters degrees in Fine Arts of Integrated Media and a professor of cinema and the media at the Hunter College in New York.

 

Since it was founded in 1987, the American group Critical Art Ensemble has been exploring the connection between art, critical theory, technology and political activism. Since the nineties they have focused on the areas of bioengineering and “tactical media” by means of their actions, videos, photographs, net.art and publications like The Electronic Disturbance, Electronic Civil Disobedience, Digital Resistance, Molecular Invasion and Marching Plague.

 

An artist who works in the field of sculpture, photography and interactive installations. His works comprise data and archives related with environmental issues and other “studies of the archaeology of reality”. His work has been exhibited at the University of Michigan (2007), Exploratorium, in San Francisco (2006), MediaLabMadrid and the Sao Paulo Biennial (2005). He has been a guest artist and lecturer at different universal universities like the University of Michigan (2007) or Ohio State University (2003).
www.f-john.de

 

He studied Biology and Applied Mathematics at the Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru. He has a Master’s degree in Information Systems from the London School of Economics, where he is currently preparing his doctorate and is an assistant professor. He is a founding member of Alta Tecnología Andina (ATA), dedicated to the development of projects in art, science and technology in Latin America, and the international festival Vídeo/Arte/Electrónica in Lima.

 

Co-curator of the exhibition Ecomedia (2008/09). A critic and exhibition curator specialised in contemporary art and new technologies since 1985. Co-founder of MediaLabMadrid. Among her more recent projects it is worth mentioning the trilogy of art, science, technology and society banquete_nodos y redes (2008/09), _comunicación en evolución (2005) and _metabolismo y comunicación (2003) and also Digital Transit (2006). She has directed many exhibitions and festivals related with art and digital culture both in Spain and abroad.

 

An interdisciplinary platform for study and research of aesthetic and expressive principles linked to image-light at the Fine Arts Faculty in Valencia since 1990. The members of the Laboratory belong to different departments and their participation varies according to the specific proposals taking place at a given moment. Laboratorio de Luz divides its work between the individual and the collective, between scientific research and artistic activity, between the production of projects and the diffusion of theoretical discourses.

 

A professor of Humanities and Philology at the Universitat Obert de Catalunya (UOC, Barcelona), where he coordinates the area of Aesthetics and Theory of the Arts and Culture. He is director of Artnodes a space of art, science and technology at the UOC; a researcher within the group KEC into culture, technology and society; and a researcher of the R & D project of the MEC “Art, Aesthetics and New Media” in the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3).

Piratas de la Ciencia is an independent Valencian cultural association for scientific divulgation and communication. It is made up of students, professionals and specialists both in the field of humanities and experimental or social sciences. Since 2006 they have participated as moderators and correspondents of the Yasmin network for art-science diffusion and also for this network they have directed a forum dedicated to nanoart. They have collaborated in several Science Weeks organised by the University of Valencia and they have directed Nanoconnections Week (2008).

 

He has a B.A. in Biological Sciences and worked from 1978 to 1983 in the Chemistry-Physics laboratory of the Université Livre de Bruxelles in collaboration with R. Margalef, I. Prigonine, S. Pahaut, K. Chemía and F. Bray, among others. He is currently working with the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Media of Spain (MARM) in the application of the United Nations Agreement about persistent contaminating organisms. Since 2003 he has directed the visual and sound project Ecolocación Algorítmica initiated between the ZKM of Karlsruhe (Germany), MediaLabMadrid and Soundplots.

 

An astrophysicist and member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He has been the director of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (France) and the NASA EUVE Center for Astrophysics Observatory at California University, Berkeley (USA). He is currently a member of the National Astronomy Committee of France (CNRS) and of the International Academy of Aeronautics. Since 1982 he has been the president of Leonardo, the international company for arts, sciences and technology in San Francisco, of the Leonardo Association in Paris and the editor of Leonardo publications for MIT Press.

 

Co-curator of the exhibition Ecomedia (2008/09). Director of the Edith Russ Site for Media Art (Oldenburg, Germany) since 2005. She was the director of ZKM exhibitions between 1999 and 2005. Among her exhibition projects, it is worth mentioning SOUND/BYTES; Electronic and Digital Soundscapes (2007), From Minimal to Video and banquete_metabolismo y comunicación (2003).She has written many essays for publications like Future Cinema, Making Things Public or Digital Transformations, among others

 

An artist who works in the field of experimental sculpture, robotics and photography. She was granted a Masters Degree in Art and Technology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999). She is at present an associate professor in Electronic Visualisation at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her work has participated in solo and group exhibitions in TKS (Trondheim, Norway), Mejan Labs (Stockholm), Ars Electronica (Linz) the Tinguely Museum (Basle), ISEA (Helsinki) and The Lab (San Francisco), among others.

 

Since it was founded in 2000, the artists Fred Adam (France), Andy Deck (USA) and Verónica Perales (Spain) have formed the group Transnational Temps. Together they have carried out many participative projects of net.art installations, workshops and educational programmes, striving to take advantage of technological advances in order to enhance environmental sensitisation. They also develop communication tools and platforms to promote the participation of citizens in sustainable development.

 

Co-curator of the exhibition Ecomedia (2008/09). An art critic, exhibition curator, writer and professor of Media Art, Culture & Theory at the Superior School Nordwestschweiz (HGK FHNM) in Aarau (Switzerland). Among her exhibition projects, we can point out Body as Byte, Der Körper als Informationsstrom (The Body as a Flow of Information, 2001), Tenacity and Cultural Practices in the Age of Information and biotechnology (2000). Between 2001 and 2005 she has directed the research project Cyborg Bodies at ICS/HGKZ in Zurich. She is the author of Fluide Subjekte. Anpassung und Widerspenstigkeit in der Medienkunst (Fluid Subjects. Adaptation and Stubbornness in Media Art, 2006)