Lucas Evers of Waag participates in the joint symposium Art and Innovation: The Future of Interdisciplinarity on 19 March, organized by Het Nieuwe Instituut and The Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT).
Art and Innovation
Again and again, research reveals that, by itself, technology plays a rather modest role in innovation. Dealing with the truly complex challenges of the future requires an open mind and a broad perspective. Of course, research & development and patents are important, but so are creative thinking, clever management and the ability to connect the seemingly incompatible. Interdisciplinarity is what we need, is often suggested. An approach that does not promote pigeonholing, but that takes the idea that innovation depends on bridging disciplines as its starting point.
By itself, this ideal of interdisciplinarity in the context of innovation is not a new one. The emergence of mono-disciplines and hyper-specialization has been criticized extensively. But what makes more recent debates on the matter particularly interesting is this idea that art and artistic practice play an important role in innovation. An idea worth exploring in greater detail. Join us on March 19, 2014 for an afternoon of connecting art practice to innovation, and probing the future of interdisciplinarity.
We will address questions like: Wherein exactly lies the value of being between (inter) disciplines? What can we really expect from interdisciplinarity? It adds complexity, but does it help to see through complexities as well? And how does art fit in there? Is art yet another discipline, is art what binds other disciplines together, or is art above all a perspective? Can art help to deliver easy solutions or is the relation between art and innovation (fundamentally) different from that
Programme
13.00-13.30 Coffee & tea
13.30-15.30 Welcome by Tim Vermeulen, moderator of Het Nieuwe Instituut. About STT (Rein Willems) en Het Nieuwe Instituut (Floor van Spaendonck)
Art & Innovation: What about it? (Dick Rijken), the Hague University of Applies Scienes + STEIM
Innovation for Art: CSI Victory Boogie Woogie: exploring the role of emerging and future technologies in the life of Piet Mondrian’ masterpiece (Jacco van Uden, STT)
On the future of Technology and Art (Yolande Kolstee, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague)
Metaskills: the artist as human in interdisciplinary projects of Het Nieuwe Instituut. (Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Het Nieuwe Instituut)
The Future of Art-Science Collaborations (Jacco van Uden, STT) More Than a Good Thing? Evaluating Creatity (pre-recorded video by Linda Candy, University of Technology, Sydney); audience discussion with Lucas Evers, Waag
Art & Innovation: why we need new perspectives.
Panel and audience discussion. Howard Boland (C-LAB, London), Lucas Evers (Waag). Johan Wagenaar (artist, Van Kampen). Robert Zwijnenberg (Leiden University)
17.00 Closing, drinks and snacks.
