Tag: art

Igor Zabel Association: International Conference “So Close: Ecologies of Life and Death”

This month I have an honour and pleasure to speak at the International Conference “So Close: Ecologies of Life and Death”, organised by Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. The event takes place on 17th November in Ljubljana (and is livestreamed on YouTube – see details below). Here comes some brief info:

International Conference “So Close: Ecologies of Life and Death”

The theme of the conference is the future of life on our planet from the perspective of life’s end, drawing attention to reconsiderations of loss, decline, mourning, and death. In this way, it seeks to transcend the binary of, on the one hand, dystopian pessimism about the future and, on the other, utopian optimism in the all-powerful human capacity to overcome the end.

Speakers: Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Thom van Dooren, Šejla Kamerić, Marietta Radomska, Boštjan Videmšek, and Mick Wilson

To take part in the conference online, don’t miss the YouTube stream (https://bit.ly/3zCOBhq): click the “notify me” button to get a reminder. You can also follow along via e-flux Live (https://bit.ly/3suq9dQ).

Read more about the event: https://www.igorzabel.org/en/news/2022/international-conference-2022

The event schedule and registration instruction are available on the event website: https://award.igorzabel.org/

The conference is supported by ERSTE Foundation.

SPLINTERED REALITIES: RIXC Art Science Festival 2022

CALL for Conference Proposals is OPEN!

Deadline for submissions – August 15, 2022

APPLY NOW! Please send your submissions (short abstract and bio) via openconf system online: https://renewablefutures2022.rixc.lv/openconf.php 

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SPLINTERED REALITIES

The 5th RENEWABLE FUTURES Conference (Hybrid / Virtual) in the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival 2022

October 6 – 8, 2022

Riga, Latvia / virtually from Liepaja, Karlsruhe, Oslo http://rixc.org

“An ecology of the virtual is .. just as pressing as ecologies of the visible world” – Felix Guattari

RIXC in Riga is preparing the next edition of its annual Art and Science festival, which under the title SPLINTERED REALITIES will take place in Riga and virtually, including the exhibition opening program (August 25, 2022) followed by artist talks, guided tours, workshops and performances (August 25 – October 15, 2022), and the final international conference event (October 6–8,  2022). The SPLINTERED REALITIES Conference of RIXC Festival, is the 5th edition of the Renewable Futures conference series. The Conference will take place from October 6 – 8, 2022, as a hybrid event; rhe on-site part will take place at the RIXC gallery in Riga, hosting keynote speakers, panel curators, co-chairs and moderators, while most of the participants (selected through an open call) will be joining online, including in hybridity format sessions co-hosted by RIXC partners – NAIA in Karlsruhe, MPLab in Liepaja and FeLT in Oslo.

SPLINTERED REALITIES 

Conference October 6 – 8, 2022, Riga (Hybrid and Virtual)

The SPLINTERED REALITIES Conference will be structured into a three-day program, with each “Splinter Session” focusing on a different area or field, identifying the key “splinters” and discussing how to make tentative steps towards reconstituting our realities, everyday lives, and communication with each other, now and into the future. 

We want to meet in Riga and online, to talk, eat, play – and probably also cry – together, and imagine what it would take to build a world in which wars like the current Russian onslaught on Ukraine would become impossible. We choose such a perspective because our realism is neither that of military strategists, nor that of cultural pessimists. Instead, ours is a desperate realism – perhaps in the spirit of Guattari’s ecososphy, Latour’s terrestrial coexistence, or Haraway’s question of how to live on a damaged Earth.. Media ubiquity, pandemic concerns, and social divisions have landed us in a world of splintered realities – to live with? to heal? to learn from nature?

The Conference will also look at creative practices that deal with “splintered realities”, showcasing what art can do and discussing what kind of (extended reality) technologies can help us to become more open (and sensitive) towards each other and our environments. 

We don’t expect to provide answers. Instead, the conference aims to be a forum for revising the “splinters” of our contemporary condition – affected moreover by ongoing military conflict.

[Splinter Session 01: Deep Europe] on Day 1 (6 Oct) – “in the rear-view mirror of history” – will focus on the current situation in Europe, with a focus on the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe, discussing and evaluating the “splinters” from the perspective of the past. Day 1 will feature the “Syndicate Meeting”, and artist presentations hosted by MPLab in Liepaja, which will be European Capital of Culture in 2027.

The “Syndicate” was an extended, informal network of artists and cultural practitioners based in Europe and beyond, that was active in the second half of the 1990s. Besides its online mailing list, the participants organised meetings for amicable encounters and professional exchange. We want to revive this format and again hold a Syndicate Meeting under the label of “Deep Europe”, a notion that does not refer to a particular territory, but to the awareness that identities and histories are always layered and entangled, a messy formation that cannot be ‘cleared up’, but that should rather be cherished and cultivated – in Europe, and elsewhere.

Session 01 curators: Andreas Broeckmann and Rasa Smite.

Topics: Deep Europe, Entangled Histories, Cultivated Futures, New Ecosophies, Extended Realities

[Splinter Session 02: Naturecultures] on Day 2 (7 Oct) – “how to live in the damaged world” – will examine eco-feminist perspectives and other new ecosophies, learning from nature and our relations with it, in a search of new cultural theories and art practices that contribute towards goals of socio-ecological justice.

Day 2 will be hosted by the new Karlsruhe based art center – NAIA (Naturally Artificial Intelligence Art association), featuring presentations by Karlsruhe UNESCO Media Art city artists.

Session 02 curators and co-chairs: Anett Holzheid, Eva-Maria Lopez, Daria Mille / NAIA Topics: NatureCultures, Eco-feminism, More-than-Human, Socio-Ecological Justice, Naturally/Artificial IntIntelligences… 

[Splinter Session 03: Living Technologies] on Day 3 (8 Oct) – ”in intersections between human beings, living environments and machines” – will focus on how life and the sense of aliveness are experienced and expressed today, in the face of environmental degradation, global pandemics, the war in Ukraine – splinters that raise the fear of domination, and that evoke a sense of the uncanny. Might they also point to a world of possibilities of becoming, creation of new forms and behaviors? Can we co-create more balanced forms of existence?

Day 3 will be hosted by the FeLT project team from Oslo, Norway, who are also co-founders of the Renewable Futures conference series. It will also feature the Green Revisited Book presentation by editors Kristin Bergaust, Jens Hauser and Rasa Smite.

Session 03 curators: Kristin Bergaust, Jens Hauser and FeLT (Oslo) project team. Topics: Techno-Ecological Sensoriums, AI and Biological Systems, Technologies of Sensible, Terrestrial Co-existence, Beyond Green…

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APPLY NOW!  

CALL for Conference Proposals is OPEN!

Deadline for submissions – August 15, 2022

If you are interested in an on-site or virtual participation and contribution, please, submit your proposals (a short abstract and bio) for the RIXC Festival / Renewable Futures conference via the openconf system: 

https://renewablefutures2022.rixc.lv/openconf.php

related to the following topics:

01-1 Deep Europe, Entangled Histories and Cultivated Futures, 01-2 New Ecosophies and Extended Realities

02-1 NatureCultures, Eco-feminism and Socio-Ecological Justice, 02-2 More-than-Human and Naturally/Artificial IntIntelligences 03-1 Techno-Ecological Sensoriums, AI and Biological Systems, 

03-2 Technologies of Care, Terrestrial Co-existence, and Beyond Green

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Registration Fees / Tickets

Early Bird fee: 18 EUR Full fee: 36 EUR Students: 50% reduction.

Conference Registration and Early Bird tickets will be available from July 15, 2022 via eventbrite system.

On-site Exhibitions in kim? and RIXC gallery has a free entrance. 

Guided Tours for school groups can be booked for no charge via e-mail rixc@rixc.org

Producers and Contact:

The Festival is Produced by The RIXC Centre for New Media Culture. 

Festival curators: Rasa Smite (rasa@rixc.org) and Raitis Smits (raitis@rixc.org)

Festival producer: Agnese Baranova (agnese@rixc.org)

PR and information coordinator: Liva Silina (rixc@rixc.org)

Contact e-mail: rixc@rixc.org  

Phones: +371 29635167 (Agnese Baranova), +371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)

Address: RIXC the Centre for New Media Culture, Lencu iela 2, Riga, LV-1010, Latvia

Partners:

The SPLINTERED REALITIES Festival and Conference partners are: NAIA/Karlsruhe, MPLab/Liepaja, FeLT/Oslo.

Support:

The festival is supported by The State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia,  Riga City Council, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Goethe Institute, and others.

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http://rixc.org

Queer Ecologies, Art and Science: Panel talk by Mary Maggic and Marietta Radomska

During the past several months I have given a number of talks in many diverse places and on different occasions. I haven’t been very good at documenting them, though.

Yet, this week I’ve had a great pleasure to take part in an event organised by The Archive of Pink Noises/Arkivet för Rosa Brus: a panel talk/conversation between artist Mary Maggic and myself, focused on the topic of Queer Ecologies, Art and Science.

The panel talk was livestreamed on Facebook on 8th December at 19h00-21h00 CET. In case you missed it, you can still watch the recording HERE.

And here comes the description of the event published by Rosa Brus:

As part of a series of panel talks, the queer sound archive The Archive of Pink Noises has invited scholar Marietta Radomska and artist Mary Maggic to discuss the emerging scholarly and artistic field of “queer ecologies” based in their own scientific and artistic practices.How can we imagine and critically understand the relations between life/death, living/non-living, human/non-human in a world of evironmental toxicities and hormone biopolitics from different queer ecological and/or ecophilosophical perspectives? What role can art play as a political tool in this endeavour? Conversely, what role can science and critical theory play in one’s art practices? What arenas of public discourse are the most important and urgent ones in which to intervene politically? And what methods and methodologies can one develop in one’s own science and art practices?The duration of the talk is approximately 60 minutes, with time for questions after the main talk.

MARY MAGGIC
Mary Maggic (b. Los Angeles, ’91) is a non-binary artist working at the intersection of cultural discourse, body and gender politics and ecological alienations. Using biohacking and public amateurism as a critical practice of care, Maggic investigates the micro-performativity of hormones and works collaboratively to demystify their molecular colonization.
https://maggic.ooo

MARIETTA RADOMSKA
Marietta Radomska, PhD, Assistant Professor in Environmental Humanities, Linköping University (Unit Gender Studies), Sweden; director of The Eco- and Bioart Lab; co-director of The Posthumanities Hub; and co-founder of Queer Death Studies Network. She works at the intersection of posthumanities, philosophy, queer death studies, and visual culture. www.mariettaradomska.com

THE ARCHIVE OF PINK NOISES
Arkivet för Rosa Brus (The Archive of Pink Noises) is a queer sound archive that aims to collect, archive and publish queer culture production in sonic form and we view (queer) sound as a bearer of history. We do this in collaboration with other archives, artists, activists and scholars. By collecting, archiving, reading and arranging public events in the shape of festivals, workshops and site-specific sound pieces around Sweden, we explore together with all the participants what pink noise and a queer sound archive can be. The work of AfRB is made in collaboration with the cultural association Tupilak (www.tupilak.org) and with grants from Kulturbryggan (Konstnärsnämnden/The Swedish Arts Grants Committee).
For more information or for submitting material to the archive please visit us at www.rosabrus.nu

Environmental Racism is Garbage. Virtual Research-Creation and Art Symposium. NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

Photo by David Kilabuk (source: https://environmentalracismisgarbage.art/)

On 27th-29th May 2021 Environmental Racism is Garbage: Virtual Research-Creation & Art Symposium took place online.

This wonderful and important event was supported by a Seed Box grant from Mistra-Formas Environmental Humanities Collaboratory, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Waste Flow (www.wasteflow.ca) and Queen’s University.

Here comes the (shortened) description from the symposium’s website:

The aim of this interactive virtual research-creation and art symposium is to bear modest witness to waste as a symptom of environmental racism. […] Environmental Racism is Garbage seeks knowledge production and acts of resistance at the intersection of art, politics, and the relationship between racialized injustice and ecological crisis. We’ve invited contributions and collaborations from visual and performance-based artists, curators, theorists and activists, to create submissions that engage with the interconnections between environmental health, socio-economic conditions, racialized discrimination, social justice – with transdisciplinary work driven by creative inquiry and lived experience forefronted.

I had a pleasure and honour to speak in the panel focused on Ecological Grief which took place on 26th May. In case you missed it, feel free to check out the recording of the panel (along with many other fascinating talks and panels) available until May 2022 on the symposium’s YouTube channel and website.

‘Arts of Non/Living Matters’ seminar & the launch of The Eco- and Bioart Lab – on 17th June!

Join us for this event!

Welcome to the Posthumanities Hub Seminar on ‘Arts of Non/Living Matters’ with Margherita Pevere and Dr Marietta Radomska!

The seminar is combined with the launch of the new research group and platform: The Eco- and Bioart Lab (EBL).

EBL, founded and head by Dr Marietta Radomska, connects artists, artistic researchers and other practitioners, as well as doctoral students whose practice and research focus on art and the environment in their broadest understanding.

When: 17th June 2021, 13:15 – 15:00 CEST

Where: On Zoom (more info below)

REGISTRATION: In order to take part in the seminar, please register by sending an email to the.posthumanities.hub@gmail.com by 16th June 2021 at noon (CEST) the latest.

The Zoom link will be sent to you on 16th June in the evening.

Speakers:

Leaking. Mattering.

By Margherita Pevere

Abstract

Drawing from her transdisciplinary practice, Margherita Pevere will recount how the non/living is an ongoing, uncontainable encounter made of leaks and unlearning.

She will do so by sharing the research behind her recent and previous artworks. She will talk about what it means to interrogate slugs and hormonal contraception as she did for the series ‘Wombs’. She will share very real and potential leaks encountered during the realisation of ‘Semina Aeternitatis’. She will delve into the body entanglements in ‘Eingeweide’, made in collaboration with artist Marco Donnarumma. She will recount how she worked with animal remains in ‘Lymph’.

While celebrating art, Margherita’s talk will weave a dialogue across non/living encounters with ecosystems as a fundamental epistemic mode. In fact, her artworks would exist without learning why the lagoon water gets transparent, observing algal blooms in urban waterways, or engaging with hybrid kinships of different kinds. Art and ecological observation are, in her practice, conjoined strategies of knowing differently. 

Bio

A truly transdisciplinary practitioner, Margherita Pevere works across bioart and performance with a visceral signature. Her arresting creations hunt today’s surging ecological complexity and the ways embodiment and environment are always entangled. To do so, her research hybridises biolab practice, ecology, queer and death studies with a hacking attitude. She has exhibited her work internationally and is now completing a PhD in artistic research at Aalto University on bioart and queer theory.
https://margheritapevere.com
https://frontevacuo.com

Contact: margherita.pevere[at]aalto.fi

Ecologies of the Non/Living: A Queerfeminist Biophilosophical Perspective

By Marietta Radomska

Abstract

The concept of ‘the non/living’ (Radomska 2016) stems from a transdisciplinary theoretical and practical engagement with bioart, bioscience, and philosophical approaches to life. The non/living reframes what is conventionally referred to as ‘life’ in order to problematise the materiality, processuality and ambiguity of the relationship between the living and non-living, growth and decay, and ultimately, life and death. This ambivalent entwinement comes to the fore even more so when considered against the backdrop of the planetary environmental disruption and other intersecting more-than-human crises of our times.

Drawing on process, queer and feminist philosophical perspectives as well as several select examples of contemporary bio-, eco- and media artworks, I will offer a queerfeminist biophilosophy as an approach that may allow us to better comprehend the complexity, vibrancy and materiality of the non/living. The latter, always-already understood as ‘ecologies of non/living matters’, calls for not only an ontological reflection, but also for an ethical one.

Bio

Marietta Radomska, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Humanities at Linköping University (Unit Gender Studies); director of The Eco- and Bioart Lab; co-director of The Posthumanities Hub; and co-founder of Queer Death Studies Network. She works at the intersection of the posthumanities, environmental humanities, continental philosophy, feminist theory, queer death studies, visual culture and contemporary art; and has published in Australian Feminist Studies; Somatechnics; Women, Gender & Research and Artnodes, among others. Web: www.mariettaradomska.com

Image used on the poster:
Margherita Pevere, Wombs | Study. pencil on colour print 27×18 cm, 2018.

The Eco- and Bioart Lab

Watch online: “(Bio)art & ecologies of non/living matters: A conversation between visual artist Emanuela Cusin and philosopher Marietta Radomska.”

In case you missed the event ‘(Bio)art & ecologies of non/living matters’ that was livestreamed last month, fear not… The recording of the session is now available on University of Birmingham YouTube channel (see below).

About the event:

Visual artist Emanuela Cusin (Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (UK)) and philosopher Dr Marietta Radomska (Assistant Professor in Environmental Humanities, Linköping University (SE)) present their artistic and philosophical engagements with the matter(s)—and materialisation—of (bio)art and ecologies of the non/living. They do so against the backdrop of these more-than-human crisis times that are afflicted by political and pandemic violence, (counter)terrorist acts and events, and processes of mourning, trauma, and commemoration.

“Seeding Stories: A Guide To The Interior Of A Salt Water Crocodile Project” has been launched!

“Seeding Stories: A Guide To The Interior Of A Salt Water Crocodile” artwork by The Migrant Ecologies Project finally has its own beautiful website: https://seeding-stories.org/ – check it out!

More about the project (via Seeding Stories website):

“On 10 June 2019, a single grain of wheat, part of wheat-straw stuffing of a 133-year-dead, 4.7 metres long, saltwater crocodile, shot in 1887 at the mouth of the no-longer-existing Serangoon River, Singapore and kept for over a century in the Raffles Museum, migrated to the Arctic circle and was ceremonially buried in Platåberget, adjacent to the Svalbard Global Seed Bank, on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.

This gesture was part of an artwork by the Singapore-situated Migrant Ecologies Project. The work was selected by an international jury of artists and scientists from 100 entries from all over the world for an exhibition curated and led by Dr. Fern Wickson from the Centre for Biosafety at University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway. Dr. Wickson believes that nature and human cultures are intertwined and wanted to generate a parallel initiative to remember 21st century cultural relationships with plants and seeds, next door to the world famous doomsday vault.”

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