Organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, HacTe, Barcelona’s Art, Science and Technology Hub, and the digital magazine Artnodes, this conference aims to delve into how the arts, media, activism and science address the global challenges in which the planet is immersed in a period of social, climate and economic uncertainty in a transdisciplinary way.
The session will put artists, academics and scientists in dialogue through, on the one hand, the presentation of issue 33 of the journal Artnodes, which traces a genealogy of artivism in the media; on the other, the presentation of Mark Farid’s Invisible Voice project, a digital tool that allows the revelation of power structures of corporations and brands in order to promote social action; Finally, an open conversation that invites debate on the power of liminal spaces between transdisciplinary practices and narratives and activism when facing climate challenges.
This conference is organized within the framework of the S+T+ARTS in the City project, a partnership between six regional S+T+ARTS centers throughout Europe of which HacTe is a part. The S+T+ARTS programme is an initiative funded by the European Commission that aims to stimulate cross-innovation in the arts, sciences and technologies. The S+T+ARTS in the City project has the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Program
4:00 p.m. Welcome
Manel Jiménez, Vice-Rector for Culture at the UOC
Pau Alsina, Artnodes
Tere Badia, Director of HacTe
Moderate: Àlex Hinojo (Open Science UOC)
4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Presentation of ARTNODES 33, a journal of Art, Science and Technology
Archaeology of Media Artivism: Challenges and Challenges of Digital Culture for Social Change
The emergence of media artivism in recent decades constitutes a new and relevant field of study for researchers of digital culture and social change, digital art historians and media archaeologists. Since the beginning of the new millennium and the spread of electronic culture, media artivism has become a field of its own with various organizations, artists, curators and critics dedicated to committed practices, close to political antagonism and far from the concerns of the elitist art world. Taking into account the worsening environmental and political crisis across the planet, the dissemination and conscious use of new technologies is essential to update the concept of artivism, conceived as a type of art-action dedicated to social issues.
The guest editors of this special issue of Artnodes are two of the founding members of the Center for Digital and Public Humanities of Venice (Ca’Foscari University): Carolina Fernández-Castrillo (UC3M) and Diego Mantoan (University of Palermo).
5:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Project presentation
Digital Transparency: Revealing Power Structures through Mark Farid’s Invisible Voice Project
Presentation of Invisible Voice, a digital platform that allows users to obtain economic, political, social or environmental information on the practices and people behind the websites of the organizations they visit. A tool that reveals the structures of power and seeks to promote collective action to bring about significant social change.
A project by Mark Farid, artist in residence at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) as part of the interdisciplinary residency promoted by HacTe, Barcelona’s Art, Science and Technology Hub within the European project S+T+ARTS in the City, funded by the European Commission.
5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Conversation
Stirring up knowledge, transforming understanding. Art, science, digital media and activism to tackle the climate crisis in urban environments
The current challenges facing cities, such as globalisation, demographic change, climate change, sustainable and competitive energy and social polarisation, require a medium and long-term perspective in order to apply effective solutions.
This conversation recovers the perspective of art and activism to discuss the climate crisis and its associated challenges. Beyond environmental narrative strategies or superficial visual approaches, the liminal spaces between art, science, media and climate activism unfold as contexts of possibility for artists, researchers, institutions and activists, with their diverse knowledge and resources, to work together around the common goal of raising awareness and promoting action on the climate crisis.
Based on an open and collective conversation, it is proposed to examine the intersection of digital art practices and narratives with science and activism can contribute to addressing the challenges posed by the climate crisis, exploring the means of collaboration between different organizations to respond to them.
In this context, how do digital artistic practices and narratives, at their intersection with science, contribute to addressing these challenges? Can artistic and academic institutions help cities like Barcelona to propose radical changes that can curb the effects of the climate crisis and be effective in this ambition? By adopting a narrative approach and shifting attention from data and scientific facts to emotional engagement, is it possible to mobilize citizens?
Participants:
Carolina Fernández-Castrillo. Associate Professor of Cyberculture and Transmediality at the Department of Communication at the Carlos III University of Madrid and associate researcher at the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Diego Mantoan. Historian of digital, public and contemporary art at the University of Palermo. Founding member of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities and member of The Ecological Imperative at the University of Bern. He is currently PI of an EU-funded project on artivism in the Mediterranean.
Neus Crous. Professor and doctoral researcher at the University of Girona, she is part of the Multidisciplinary Tourism Research Laboratory. Her current research focuses on the role of travel and tourism as part of human development processes. He is an active member of Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, Culture Declares Emergency, and StayGrounded.
Mark Farid. Artist, researcher and lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s University in London. Specialized in the intersection between the virtual and physical worlds and the effect that technologies have on people. His work is based on hacker ethics to address issues related to privacy policies and surveillance technologies, becoming a social, legal and political critique.
Conversation open to all attendees with a zero row made up of agents from the world of contemporary art, climate activism, public institutions, research and academia.
19:00-20:00 h
Networking & Aperitif
