Politics, ethics, power and propaganda - An ‘ICT and Art Connect’ event by Waag
This special evening of short talks, discussions and networking brings together artists, scientists and technologists to investigate the role of art and public engagement in science. We consider forms of best practices and hope to develop new collaborations.
Many people believe that art is able to communicate important issues in science and technology to a wide range of audiences, that aren't reached by traditional science communication techniques. But is this view well founded? What are the issues that need to be considered to achieve best practices? Are we talking about the instrumentalisation of art to create science propaganda? Or about enabling artists to work with cutting edge technologies in contexts that enable audiences to participate in debates around emerging technologies and ethical problems that they would not otherwise have access to? And how can we help achieve the best results for both art and science?
Programme
Welcome and introduction by Lucas Evers, Waag.
Anna Dumitriu - "Art and Modernising Medical Microbiology from the Romantic Disease to Whole Genome Sequencing of Bacteria" - Anna will discuss her long-term artist’s residency with the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project based at The University of Oxford and her working methods.
Dr. Manon Parry, Assistant Professor of Public History at the University of Amsterdam, and an exhibition curator specializing in the history of medicine, will speak about the importance of new curatorial strategies to improve the social relevance of medical museums for a broad public.
Louis Buckley - "Guerilla Science", London (remote presentation). Louis will talk about his residency as a CIRCA researcher at Waag and about his work with the UK based Guerilla Science organisation.
Data & Ethics Working Group - Elliot Burns, Susana Cámara Leret, Geoff Howse, Jack James, Josep Perello, Mike Thompson and Dave Young. The Data and Ethics Working Group formed at the ICT & ART Connect event in November 2013 in Brussels, will for the first time present themselves to the public and their aims for “Experiment #2 Ethics and Bio Data” on which they will work, from then on, analyzing the implications of bio data collection for scientific research through a joint workshop between artists and scientists from The Data and Ethics Working Group (DEWG), and members of the Rhythm of Life project.
Alex May, artist and programmer will speak about his ongoing residency at the University of Hertfordtshire and his project “My Robot Companion”, a robot – HARR1 (Humanoid Art Research Robot 1) whose reaction to humans is rather unconventional (for robots).
My Robot Companion at Watermans from Alex May on Vimeo.
After the presentation there will be a discussion between the speakers and the audience moderated by Lucas Evers, Waag. And we will announce the winner of the first ‘ICT and Art Connect - Waag Art and Technology Residency’. Finally, we will offer participants the opportunity to apply for a residency themselves.
When?
31 January 2014
Doors open at 19.00 hrs
19.30 – 22.00
Drinks till 23.00
Where?
Theatrum Anatomicum & Open Wetlab
Nieuwmarkt 4
1012 CR Amsterdam
This event is part of Waag's program for ICT & ART Connect, a project which aims to bring together artists and technologists to explore new ways of working. Collaborative acts of co-creation, together with an open and multidisciplinary discussion, will foster the combination of art and technology. The initiative stems from the EU FP7 funded support action FET-ART, addressing the FET (Future Emerging Technologies) objective of the FP7 ICT Theme. The project partnership includes Sigma Orionis (coordinator), Brunel University, Waag, Stromatolite and BCC.
