Organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, HacTe, Barcelona’s Hub of Art, Science and Technology, and the digital magazine Artnodes, this conference aims to explore in depth how the arts, the media, activism and science address in a transdisciplinary way the global challenges in which the planet is immersed in a period of social, climatic and economic uncertainty.
The session will bring artists, academics and scientists into dialogue through, on the one hand, the presentation of the issue 33 of the journal Artnodes, which traces a genealogy of media artivism; on the other, the presentation of Mark Farid’s Invisible Voice project, a digital tool that reveals the power structures of corporations and brands in order to promote social action; and finally, an open conversation that invites to debate the power of the liminal spaces between transdisciplinary practices and narratives and activism when it comes to tackling climate challenges.
This conference is organised in the framework of the S+T+ARTS in the City project, a partnership between six European S+T+ARTS Regional Centres of which HacTe is a member. The S+T+ARTS programme is an initiative funded by the European Commission that aims to stimulate cross-innovation between the arts, sciences and technologies. The S+T+ARTS in the City project is supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Programme
16:00 h – Welcome
Manel Jiménez, UOC Vice President for Culture
Pau Alsina, Artnodes
Tere Badia, HacTe’s Director (Barcelona Hub of Art, Science and Technology)
Moderated by: Àlex Hinojo (Open Science UOC)
16:15 – 17:15 h – Presentation of ARTNODES 33, Journal of Arts, Science and Technology
Archaeology of media artivism: challenges of digital culture for social change
The emergence of media artivism over the last 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 inception of the new millennium and the spread of electronic culture, media artivism has grown into a field of its own with distinctive organizations, artists, curators and critics devoted to engaged practices that are close to political antagonism and far from the concerns of the elitist art world. Considering the worsening environmental and political crisis around the globe, the spread and conscious use of new technologies becomes essential to update the concept of artivism, intended as a kind of action-taking art devoted to social issues.
The guest editors of this Artnodes special issue are two founding members of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (Ca’ Foscari University): Carolina Fernández-Castrillo (UC3M) & Diego Mantoan (University of Palermo).
17:15 – 17:45 h – Project presentation
Digital Transparency: Unveiling Power Structures with the Invisible Voice project, by Mark Farid
Presentation of Invisible Voice, a digital platform that allows users to obtain economic, political, social and environmental information about the practices and people behind the websites of the organisations they visit. It is a tool that reveals power structures and seeks to promote collective action to bring about meaningful social change.
A project by Mark Farid, artist in residence at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) as part of the interdisciplinary residency promoted by HacTe, Hub of Art, Science and Technology of Barcelona, within the European project S+T+ARTS in the City, funded by the European Commission.
17:45 – 19:00 h – Conversation
Stirring knowledge, transforming understanding. Art, science, media and activism to address the climate crisis in urban environments
The current challenges facing cities today, such as globalisation, demographic change, climate change, sustainable and competitive energy and social polarisation, require a medium- and long-term perspective to implement effective solutions.
This conversation recovers the perspective of art and activism to debate the climate crisis and its associated challenges.Beyond environmentalist 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 expertise and resources, to work together towards the common goal of raising awareness and promoting action against the climate crisis.
Through an open and collective conversation, it aims to examine how 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 diverse agencies in responding to the climate crisis.
In this context: how do digital art practices and narratives, in their intersections with science, contribute to addressing these challenges? Can art and academic institutions help cities like Barcelona envision radical changes that can curb the effects of the climate crisis and be effective in that ambition? By adopting a narrative approach and shifting the focus from scientific facts and data to emotional engagement, is it possible to mobilise citizens?
Participants:
Carolina Fernández-Castrillo. Associate Professor of Cyberculture and Transmediality in the Department of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Research Fellow at the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Diego Mantoan. Digital, public and contemporary art historian at the University of Palermo. Founding member of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities and member of The Ecological Imperative at Universität Bern. Currently, PI of a Next Generation EU-funded project on Artivism in the Mediterranean area.
Mark Farid. Artist, researcher and lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s University, London. His work is specialised in the intersection between the virtual and physical worlds and the effect that technologies have on people. Based on the hacker ethic, he addresses issues linked to privacy policies and surveillance technologies becoming a social, legal and political critique.
Neus Crous. Lecturer and PhD researcher at University of Girona, she is part of the Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Tourism Research. Her current research focuses on the role of travel and tourism as part of the process of human flourishing. She is an active member of Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, Culture Declares Emergency and StayGrounded.
A 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 & finger-food
HacTe is member of Red ACTS.
Can Jaumandreu – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
C/ Perú 52
08018 Barcelona
Organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, HacTe, Barcelona’s Hub of Art, Science and Technology, and the digital magazine Artnodes, this conference aims to explore in depth how the arts, the media, activism and science address in a transdisciplinary way the global challenges in which the planet is immersed in a period of social, climatic and economic uncertainty.
The session will bring artists, academics and scientists into dialogue through, on the one hand, the presentation of the issue 33 of the journal Artnodes, which traces a genealogy of media artivism; on the other, the presentation of Mark Farid’s Invisible Voice project, a digital tool that reveals the power structures of corporations and brands in order to promote social action; and finally, an open conversation that invites to debate the power of the liminal spaces between transdisciplinary practices and narratives and activism when it comes to tackling climate challenges.
This conference is organised in the framework of the S+T+ARTS in the City project, a partnership between six European S+T+ARTS Regional Centres of which HacTe is a member. The S+T+ARTS programme is an initiative funded by the European Commission that aims to stimulate cross-innovation between the arts, sciences and technologies. The S+T+ARTS in the City project is supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Programme
16:00 h – Welcome
Manel Jiménez, UOC Vice President for Culture
Pau Alsina, Artnodes
Tere Badia, HacTe’s Director (Barcelona Hub of Art, Science and Technology)
Moderated by: Àlex Hinojo (Open Science UOC)
16:15 – 17:15 h – Presentation of ARTNODES 33, Journal of Arts, Science and Technology
Archaeology of media artivism: challenges of digital culture for social change
The emergence of media artivism over the last 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 inception of the new millennium and the spread of electronic culture, media artivism has grown into a field of its own with distinctive organizations, artists, curators and critics devoted to engaged practices that are close to political antagonism and far from the concerns of the elitist art world. Considering the worsening environmental and political crisis around the globe, the spread and conscious use of new technologies becomes essential to update the concept of artivism, intended as a kind of action-taking art devoted to social issues.
The guest editors of this Artnodes special issue are two founding members of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (Ca’ Foscari University): Carolina Fernández-Castrillo (UC3M) & Diego Mantoan (University of Palermo).
17:15 – 17:45 h – Project presentation
Digital Transparency: Unveiling Power Structures with the Invisible Voice project, by Mark Farid
Presentation of Invisible Voice, a digital platform that allows users to obtain economic, political, social and environmental information about the practices and people behind the websites of the organisations they visit. It is a tool that reveals power structures and seeks to promote collective action to bring about meaningful social change.
A project by Mark Farid, artist in residence at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) as part of the interdisciplinary residency promoted by HacTe, Hub of Art, Science and Technology of Barcelona, within the European project S+T+ARTS in the City, funded by the European Commission.
17:45 – 19:00 h – Conversation
Stirring knowledge, transforming understanding. Art, science, media and activism to address the climate crisis in urban environments
The current challenges facing cities today, such as globalisation, demographic change, climate change, sustainable and competitive energy and social polarisation, require a medium- and long-term perspective to implement effective solutions.
This conversation recovers the perspective of art and activism to debate the climate crisis and its associated challenges.Beyond environmentalist 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 expertise and resources, to work together towards the common goal of raising awareness and promoting action against the climate crisis.
Through an open and collective conversation, it aims to examine how 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 diverse agencies in responding to the climate crisis.
In this context: how do digital art practices and narratives, in their intersections with science, contribute to addressing these challenges? Can art and academic institutions help cities like Barcelona envision radical changes that can curb the effects of the climate crisis and be effective in that ambition? By adopting a narrative approach and shifting the focus from scientific facts and data to emotional engagement, is it possible to mobilise citizens?
Participants:
Carolina Fernández-Castrillo. Associate Professor of Cyberculture and Transmediality in the Department of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Research Fellow at the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Diego Mantoan. Digital, public and contemporary art historian at the University of Palermo. Founding member of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities and member of The Ecological Imperative at Universität Bern. Currently, PI of a Next Generation EU-funded project on Artivism in the Mediterranean area.
Mark Farid. Artist, researcher and lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s University, London. His work is specialised in the intersection between the virtual and physical worlds and the effect that technologies have on people. Based on the hacker ethic, he addresses issues linked to privacy policies and surveillance technologies becoming a social, legal and political critique.
Neus Crous. Lecturer and PhD researcher at University of Girona, she is part of the Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Tourism Research. Her current research focuses on the role of travel and tourism as part of the process of human flourishing. She is an active member of Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, Culture Declares Emergency and StayGrounded.
A 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 & finger-food
HacTe is member of Red ACTS.