ISEA City/Territory: fifty activities to bring art, science and technology closer to citizens

With the aim of bringing the intersections between Art, Science and Technology closer to citizens, ISEA2022 Barcelona and HacTe, the new Art, Science and Technology Hub in Barcelona, have created the ISEA City/Territory programme, which proposes more than 50 activities throughout Catalonia with the support of Barcelona City Council and the Ministry of Culture.

ISEA is one of the most important and consolidated annual events in the international arena, constituted as a meeting point to generate the direct intersection between art, design, science, technology and society. After more than 10 years without landing in Europe, Barcelona will host a new edition of ISEA this summer thanks to the involvement of an enthusiastic local and international community . In this way, Barcelona’s leadership in scientific research and production, intellectuality and cultural creativity ISEA2022 strengthened both nationally and internationally.

Specifically, the ISEA City/Territory programme consists of exhibitions, workshops, open-air projects, round tables, artist talks and school initiatives involving prominent visual arts facilities, design schools, museums and art centres, creation factories, festivals and secondary schools.

Design schools, live arts facilities or emerging creation spaces

Among the first confirmations of activities framed in ISEA2022 the collaboration with leading entities in the field of design stands out.Until 10 April, the IED Barcelona Design Centre is organising several sessions of ‘Designing for the Many‘, an interdisciplinary laboratory made up of master’s students to investigate the capacity and impact of design on the construction of our society. From 2 June to 28 August, the FAD , an association of professionals and companies linked to design, presents ‘The best design of the year’, an exhibition to find out what has happened in design and architecture in 2021, and on 17 June it organises the FAD Forum, a day of talks on artificial intelligence, arts and design. On 7 June, the network of higher education centres for design for social innovation and sustainability ( EDIVI) proposes a meeting on design focused on people and the planet as the key to a sustainable future.

There will also be live arts facilities such as the Sala Beckett , which presents, together with the UOC, the cycle of shows and talks ‘Máquina Persona‘ on Artificial Intelligence and creation, or the Mercat de les Flors with the dance and technology shows Intel·ligències multiples In_Exo Corpòries, by the company KONIC thtr (10 and 11 June) and Embodied Machine, by the company Instituto Stocos (11 and 12 June).

The city’s emerging creative spaces will have a prominent weight, such as La Capella , which will host an exhibition as part of the symposium where it will establish a dialogue between works by artists from Barcelona Producció and pieces by local creators such as Anna Carreras, Mónica Rikic and Roc Parés, from the Jewish quarter of ISEA2022.

In addition to cultural facilities, the programme includes spaces in the city such as the Canòdrom , which on 16 June will host three essential talks on cryptocurrencies and digital arts, collaborative museums and the STEAM approach to higher education, along with round tables. Also during the dates of the symposium, from 10 to 16 June, Cosmocaixa will offer a compilation of three projections at the planetarium, presented within the framework of the NEO programme, which brings together scientific and technological disciplines to bring the great current challenges closer through the most innovative artistic practices. Specifically, these screenings will be carried out by the visual artist Alba G. Corral, the Oniolab studio and Daniel Cervenka , Signal Production and Planetum (Prague Planetarium).

ISEA2022 extends to the Catalan territory

But the ISEA2022 does not end in Barcelona. With the direct promotion or through its support, the General Directorate of Innovation and Digital Culture of the Ministry of Culture intends to extend the event throughout the territory with the aim of enabling access to digital art and culture proposals throughout the country.

Specifically, one of the main extensions to Catalan territory will be Reus. From 26 May to mid-July and in collaboration with the NewArt Foundation, Cal Massó will host an outstanding exhibition, curated by Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana, which will bring together the latest digital works of art incorporated into the . BEEP {collection;} and will show the result of one of the production grants awarded by the ISEA2022, Rain beats by Josecarlos Florez. At the same time, the center will host workshops, guided tours —both for the local population and for international attendees— and conferences by artists participating in the symposium. To this program, we must add the mapping that will be projected on May 26 on the façade of one of the great modernist jewels of Reus, Casa Navàs , by Alba G. Corral.

Other initiatives to bring the programme closer to the public will be organised in various Catalan towns. This is the case of Girona, where the deep fakes workshop by Estampa at the Centre d’Art Contemporani Bòlit on 18 June stands out, which will be based on photographs of each participant to create avatars with the ability to speak and expressively. Over the next few weeks, new proposals will also be made based in facilities of the Public Network of Visual Arts Centres and Spaces such as Lo Pati (Amposta), La Panera (Lleida), El Mèdol (Tarragona) or MAC (Mataró), and in other centres in the territory such as Konvent (Berga) or PLANTA (Balaguer).

The program with the details of the first confirmations of the ISEA2022 is now available on https://isea2022.isea-international.org/ .