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Hello on Spectre list,
<p>this might be of your interest, if you are in Belgium
this summer or planning to visit Mons 2015 – European Cultural
Capital:<br>
</p>
<p>The <a
href="http://rixc.org/en/home___/0/rixc-is-curating-an-exhibition-transformative-ecologies-in-mons-belgium/">Transformative
Ecologies</a> exhibition will open today at 18:00 in the <a
href="http://www.maisondudesign.be/">Maison
du Design</a> gallery in Mons, Belgium. The show features the
result of the "techno-ecological" researches initiated by
Latvian and Belgian artists who are exploring sustainable food and
energy futures.</p>
<p>“The quality of groundwater is heavily affected by human
industrial activities. Looking for innovative ways to get clean
waters to irrigate agricultural fields, artist Rihards Vitols is
currently experimenting with a new type of agronomy that relies on
"cloud-farming". In his scenario, people will raise
thousands of helium balloons over their land to collect water from
the cloud....”</p>
<p>(interview at
<a
href="http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2015/08/aka.php#.VdNLhSyqqko">http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2015/08/aka.php#.VdNLhSyqqko</a>)</p>
<p>The exhibition is open till August 30, and is complemented by 3D
BioLab
symposium, taking place in August
20-21, in Cafe Europa container as a part of RIXC residency. </p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Rasa Smite</p>
<p>artist, researcher and curator</p>
<p>RIXC.ORG</p>
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Press release, August 19, 2015, Riga-Mons<br>
<br>
<br>
TRANSFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES <br>
Exhibition <br>
August 19-30, 2015<br>
<br>
3D BioLab Art and Science symposium <br>
August 20-21, 2015<br>
<br>
Mons 2015 – European Cultural Capital<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://rixc.org">http://rixc.org</a> | <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mons2015.eu">http://www.mons2015.eu</a> <br>
<br>
TRANSFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES exhibition takes place from August 19 to
August 30, 2015 in Maison du Design gallery in Mons 2015 – European
Cultural Capital. Curated by Riga based artists and curators – Rasa
SMITE and Raitis SMITS, the exhibition features innovative art
science works by Latvian and Belgian artists, who are envisioning
sustainable future scenarious with regards to the food and energy.
The artists of TRANSFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES have used innovative methods
to create sonic, visual and 3D representations of various
environmental and biological data collected during their long term
“techno-ecological” researches.<br>
<br>
Gints GABRANS, well-known Latvian contemporary artist, in his new
artwork METABOLIC DOMINANCE offers a vision on future of food by
proposing to use cellulose disintegrating enzymes, which allows
obtaining nutrients from grass, wood, paper... RIXC artists Rasa
SMITE and Raitis SMITS together with Martins RATNIKS keep exploring
human-plant communication by analyzing and mapping the words out
from 13 000 messages received during their TALK TO ME art project:
what exactly people say to the plants so they grow better, taller
and more beautiful? 'Interspecies' communication is also explored in
Belgian artist's Anne-Marie MAES work TRANSPARENT BEEHIVE – a living
sculpture with the bee colonies that have been monitored, measured
and visualized. Likewise, sound artist Voldemars JOHANSONS in his
artwork from ATTRACTORS series has observed the movement
trajectories of an ant colony, creating a 3D object from selected
data. Negotiations with micro-size species – the bacteria, have been
used in two other works by Rasa SMITE and Raitis SMITS from
BIOTRICITY series: together with Voldemars JOHANSONS and Janis
JANKEVICS they have made real-time sonifications and visualizations
of bacteria-electricity generation process. And together with video
artist Martins RATNIKS – Rasa SMITE and Raitis SMITS have created
new video and data visualizations of POUND BATTERY, which is an
outcome of a seven-month long artistic and scientific research,
observing out-door “bacteria battery” installation in Riga Botanical
garden.<br>
<br>
Exhibition also includes artworks by two young Latvian artists:
Paula VITOLA with her PRIVATE ATMOSPHERE has made a costume that
helps to people to create theor own 'ideal' and very private
environments, yet – not escaping, but rather being a part of a
society. And last but not least, Rihards VITOLS with “akA” (Well)
project proposes to launch a unique agricultural field –
“cloud-farming” by using helium balloons to collect rain water. On
the occasion of Transformative Ecologies exhibition opening,
blogger, curator and critic Regine Debatty has interviewed Rihards
VITOLS, you can read it here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2015/08/aka.php#.VdNLhSyqqko">http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2015/08/aka.php#.VdNLhSyqqko</a>
<br>
<br>
TRANSFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES exhibition is complemented by 3D BioLab
symposium that will take place in the following days – August 20th
and 21st in Cafe Europa. The Day 1 will offer the workshop on 3D
data visualization, using as a point of departure the data from two
artistic science research projects – BIOTRICITY by Rasa SMITE and
Raitis SMITS, and INTELLIGENT BEEHIVE by Annemie MAES. During the
Day 2 artists Gert AERTSEN and David DE BUYSER will introduce their
approach to 3D object generation by conducting the workshop on WIND
POWER, SOUND AND MOVEMENT. <br>
<br>
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<br>
3D BioLab Art and Science <br>
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME <br>
CAFÉ EUROPA, Mons, Belgium<br>
Wednesday, 19.08.2015 <br>
<br>
18:00 > 20:00<br>
Exhibition Opening with Bacteria Battery art-science public show by
Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits / RIXC and audiovisual performances by
Rihards Vitols / Trihars and Martins Engelis / VADi.<br>
<br>
Thursday, 20.08.2015 <br>
<br>
12:00 > 16:00<br>
Symposium Day 1: BIOTRICITY, a poetics of green energy, INTELLIGENT
BEEHIVE research and 3D DATA VISUALIZATION: workshop conducted by
Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits by Annemie Maes.<br>
<br>
17:00 > 20:00 <br>
3D BioLab Public Program: Renewable Futures lecture, artist
presentations and participatory discussions (Playing Fields I).<br>
<br>
Friday, 21.08.2015 <br>
<br>
12:00 > 16:00<br>
Symposium Day 2: WIND POWER, SOUND AND MOVEMENT RESEARCH, AND 3D
OBJECT GENERATION: workshops conducted by Gert Aertsen and David de
Buyser <br>
<br>
17:00 > 20:00 <br>
3D BioLab Closing Program: lectures and participatory discussions
(Playing Fields II), workshop result demos and art science
performances.<br>
<br>
Sunday, 23.08.2015 <br>
<br>
15:00 > 18:00<br>
FAMILY 3D BIOLAB (for local participants): VIRTUOSO workshop –
introducing experiments from the 17th century scientists–amateurs
and how artists today work with science: building battery from mud,
using bees as living 3D printers, 'harvesting' drinking water from
the clouds.<br>
<br>
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TRANSFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES <br>
Exhibition Artworks:<br>
<br>
<p>METABOLIC DOMINANCE (2014–2015)</p>
<p>Gints Gabrans (Latvia)</p>
In 2004, the US Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency announced a competition with the aim of providing
soldiers with the means of carrying out battle operations and
relocating without food stores. Under the project Metabolic
Dominance we offer genetically modified human ingestion system
bacteria, which synthesize cellulose disintegrating enzymes, thereby
allowing to obtain nutrients from every material around that
contains cellulose, for example, grass, wood, or else, in
circumstances of urban warfare, from paper. Cellulose is a sugar
glucose polymer that is indigestible for an ordinary human
metabolism.
<p>Credits: Developed in collaboration with microbiologist Jānis
Liepiņš and the company GenScript (<a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.genscript.com">www.genscript.com</a>)
</p>
<p><br>
UNTITLED (FROM ATTRACTORS SERIES) (2012–ongoing) </p>
<p>Voldemars Johansons (Latvia)</p>
<p>Public experiment was carried out by the artist in the exhibition
space, creating, growing and observing an ant colony. A software
was made to gather precise data and with recognition methods to
monitor and record the movement trajectories of individual agents.
The data of the ant movements during the 30-day long experiment
were collected and interpreted using various methods of
data-analysis. In this exhibition the artist has built 3D object
by using an innovative visualization approach. </p>
Credits: Developed in collaboration with biologist Voldemars Spungis
and curator Daina Auzina
<p><br>
THE TRANSPARENT BEEHIVE (2012–2014) </p>
<p>AnneMarie Maes (Belgium)</p>
<p>The Transparent Beehive is a living sculpture in the form of an
observation beehive made from plexiglass, wood, aluminium and
steel. Inside was a living bee colony that had access to the
outside world through a plexiglass pipe. The beehive is internally
structured like a book. Each wooden frame is enhanced with
microphones which pick up the vibrations and sounds of the hive
and which monitor continuously the colony’s buzz. Cameras inside
the hive monitor the growth of the wax structures and the activity
of bees. Additional sensors measure temperature, humidity and
other microclimate measures. Data is treated by sensory
processing, pattern recognition and AI algorithms and visualized
using sophisticated computer graphics algorithms in order to make
the state of the colony tangible. </p>
<p>Credits: AnneMarie Maes – artist & beekeeper, artistic
concept and images (photographs, videos,data-processing &
visualisations); Balthazar de Tonnac – informatics; Vincent
Malstaf – audio engineering; Billy Bultheel – sound processing. </p>
<p><br>
TALK TO ME. Human-plant communication (2011–2015) </p>
<p>Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits / RIXC, with Martins Ratniks (Latvia)</p>
<p>Talk to Me is an artistic inquiry into human and plant
communication, exploring the relationships between nature and
people, biological and social processes in particular. Scientists
have nowadays performed various experiments in order to verify the
old assumption that communicating with plants makes them grow
better. RIXC artists developed a human-plant communication
interface, through which people were asked to send encouraging
messages to the growing plants, "equipped" with web-cam, wi-fi and
loudspeakers. </p>
<p>Over 13000 messages were received during the two-year period of
the human-plant communication experiment performed in various
exhibitions in Tallinn, Basel, Riga and Ventspils. The content of
collected messages now are mapped and analysed by most commonly
used words, selected messages made audible, whereby the video made
from web-cam images represents the growing conditions of the
living plants in different locations. The future stage of the
project includes building a self-sustainable human-plant
communication device that is powered by "bacteria-battery",
generating electricity from soil and water.</p>
<p>Credits: Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits – artistic concept, authors
of the Talk to Me book, data analysing, mapping and visualizing;
Martins Ratniks – video editing, design of the book, Davis Bojars
– technical solutions, Kristine Briede – video documentation. </p>
<p><br>
BIOTRICITY. Bacteria Battery (2014–2015) </p>
<p>Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits / RIXC, with Voldemars Johansons
(Latvia)</p>
<p>Biotricity is an art-science research that uses negotiations with
living microorganisms for free electricity. Bacteria, who live in
a mud, water sediment, waste, soil, inside of our bodies, that is,
everywhere where they can 'eat' organic matter and where there is
nearly no oxygen, release free electrons. For several years RIXC
artists, together with scientists, have experimented with MFC
(microbial fuel cells), the next generation biotechnology –
monitoring bacterial activity in dark gallery spaces, organizing
public DIY workshops on how to build 'bacteria batteries', and
installing bio-energy 'power-stations' outdoors in ponds. In a
result, the art installation was created, consisting of a double
cell “bacteria battery” that interprets bacteria fuel generation
process into live sound and image structures. Thus Biotricity is
providing an aesthetic perspective on the interaction between
nature and technology, ecological systems and electronic networks,
human and micro-worlds. </p>
<p>It is Latvian mud that sings – accordingly to the words by his
excellency ambassador of Latvia in Sweden said during the opening
Biotricity installation opening in Stockholm, April 2015, as a
part of the programme of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of
the EU.</p>
<p>Credits: Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits – RIXC artists collective,
artistic concept; Voldemars Johansons – sound artist,
sonifications; Janis Jankevics – video and live visualizations;
Arturs Gruduls – biologist working with MFC, scientifc solutions;
Solid State Physics Institute, Latvian University – partner,
scientific solutions.</p>
<p><br>
POND BATTERY. A poetics of green energy (2014–2015)</p>
<p>Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits / RIXC (Latvia)</p>
<p>Pond Battery is a continuation of Biotricity art-science research
project. To monitor the bacterial electricity generation process
in out-door conditions, RIXC artists use contemporary language and
tools of science and innovative technologies. Last summer six
“bacteria cells” were installed in the pond of Botanical Garden of
University Latvia in Riga. Live stream with web-cam images with
continues measurements of bacteria electricity fluctuations and
its sonifications were delivered on-line, making audible and
visible the invisible activity of nature – such as was is
happening at the bottom of a pond, and which otherwise we can
neither see nor hear. Collected data from the seven month long
observation of the Pond Battery – from summer to winter, are now
transformed into new visualizations, sound and video, creating
sensual and emotional experiences – a poetics of green energy. </p>
<p>Credits: Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits – artistic concept,
visualization graphics, sound composition; Voldemars Johansons –
sonification; Martins Ratniks – video editing; Arturs Gruduls –
scientifc solutions and monitoring; Davis Bojars, Aigars Alnis –
technical support; Solid State Physics Institute, Latvian
University – partner, scientific solutions.</p>
<p><br>
PRIVATE ATMOSPHERE (2014–2015) </p>
<p>Paula Vitola (Latvia)</p>
<p>Private Atmosphere is a costume that can help you not only to
survive , but live comfortably in the world that is inevitably
affected by other people. You can create your ideal environment
within the actual environment and still be a part of a society.
The helmet is equipped with technology that helps you to see and
hear what is happening around you and also gives you the freedom
to choose whether to use it or not.<br>
</p>
<p>Credits: The work is done in collaboration with Adri Schokker and
students from Liepaja University on the new media art week “iWeek”
2014 – Santa France, Iris Van Der Harst, Matiss Locmelis, Maija
Barbare. </p>
<p><br>
akA (Well) (2014-2015) </p>
<p>Rihards Vitols (Latvia)</p>
<p>In the near future ground waters will be overly polluted because
of industrial activities. The question is brought up – how to get
clean water? The artists offers a possibility within to start a
new agronomy type “cloud-farming”. People will fill their lands
with thousands of balloons to collect water. And those who will
not be able to afford it will rent their land. The artist himself
has started to collect moist and temperature data about sky over
his own land.</p>
Credits: Rihards Vitols – artistic concept, video editing, Janis
Jankevics – video.<br>
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<br>
More info: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://rixc.org">http://rixc.org</a>
<br>
<br>
Contact: rixc (at) rixc.lv, rasa (at) rixc.org (Rasa Smite),
+371-26546776<br>
<br>
Organized by RIXC in collaboration with Mons 2015, Technocite and
Brussels Urban Bee Laboratory.<br>
<br>
The project is a part of Mons 2015 – European Capital of Culture –
Digital projects. <br>
Co-financed by Latvian Ministry of Culture of Republic of Latvia,
and European Economic Area Financial mechanism. <br>
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-- <br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">
MORE INFO:
rixc.org
facebook.com/rixcriga
renewable.rixc.lv</pre>
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