Art & Science
The basis of the „European Digital Art and Science Network“ is a big manifold network consisting of scientific mentoring institutions (ESA, CERN, ESO and Fraunhofer MEVIS), the Ars Electronica Futurelab and seven European cultural partners (Center for the promotion of science, RS – DIG Gallery, SK – Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, ES – Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova, SI – GV Art, UK – Laboral, ES – Science Gallery, IE. The EU funded project lasted from 2014 to 2017. The Online Archive of Ars Electronica provides an overview of the individual activities of the network and also delivers information about the network itself, the residency artists and the involved project partners and the jury.
Earth Without Humans I exhibition organized by Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova Institute
Earth Without Humans I Gilberto Esparza: Autophotosynthetic Plants Vžigalica Gallery, Ljubljana 16.05. –18.06.2016 Adam W. Brown: ReBioGeneSys – Origins of Life Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana 09.06. – 15.07.2016 Andy Gracie: Drosophila Titanus Rampa Lab, Ljubljana 09.06. – 15.07.2016 Aljoša Abrahamsberg: The Game has Begun in Secret Sonoretum, Ljubljana 09.06. – 15.07.2016 Nelo Akamatsu: Chijikinkutsu Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana 01.09. – 29.09.2016 Ralf Baecker: Interface I Kresija Gallery, Ljubljana 22.03. – 16.04.2017 • Info: An exhibition in the context of the European Digital Art & Science Network.
Vžigalica Gallery, Ljubljana
16.05. –18.06.2016
The Autophotosynthetic Plants installation manages to create a symbiotic state between the bacteria, the plants, and the electronics that monitor the chemical and biological processes, so that the plants and animals are capable of survival in a hostile environment. Inspired by catastrophically polluted rivers that serve only as conduits for sewage in the most industrial and overpopulated areas, the artist created a hybrid infrastructure in which waste-digesting bacteria power fuel cells that cast light on the plants growing in a separate area. The polluted water is filtered through a series of microbial fuel cells until it becomes clean enough to water the isolated plants, which coexist in homeostatic equilibrium with other microorganisms.
Expert support: Diego Liedo Lavaniegos
Project development supported by: Espacio Fundación Telefónica Lima, Fundación Telefónica Mexico
Project presentation in Ljubljana supported by:
EU – Creative Europe, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana, Mexican Agency for
International Cooperation for Development, Embassy of Mexico in Vienna
Vžigalica Gallery, Ljubljana
16.05. –18.06.2016
The Autophotosynthetic Plants installation manages to create a symbiotic state between the bacteria, the plants, and the electronics that monitor the chemical and biological processes, so that the plants and animals are capable of survival in a hostile environment. Inspired by catastrophically polluted rivers that serve only as conduits for sewage in the most industrial and overpopulated areas, the artist created a hybrid infrastructure in which waste-digesting bacteria power fuel cells that cast light on the plants growing in a separate area. The polluted water is filtered through a series of microbial fuel cells until it becomes clean enough to water the isolated plants, which coexist in homeostatic equilibrium with other microorganisms.
Expert support: Diego Liedo Lavaniegos
Project development supported by: Espacio Fundación Telefónica Lima, Fundación Telefónica Mexico
Project presentation in Ljubljana supported by:
EU – Creative Europe, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana, Mexican Agency for
International Cooperation for Development, Embassy of Mexico in Vienna
Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana
09.06. – 15.07.2016
ReBioGeneSys – Origins of Life is a hybrid installation that utilizes the processes and materials of science to ask fundamental questions about how all life seems to proceed from previous life and yet had to emerge from inorganic materials. Is life something special or is the possibility of life inherent in matter itself? ReBioGeneSys is a fully functioning scientific experiment capable of being reconfigured into any real or imaginary world, be it Venus, Titan, or our prebiotic Earth. By combining all the scientific research on the origins of life in one set of integrated processes, ReBioGeneSys creates “mashed-up” extreme minimal ecosystems theoretically capable of forming the self-organizing chemistries necessary to produce semi-living molecules and perhaps even protocells.
adamwbrown.net/projects-2/rebiogenesys-origins-of-life
Automated control design: Barry Tigner
Supported by: National Science Foundation, Michigan State University
Special thanks: The Physics and Astronomy Machine Shop, MSU,
Scott Bankroff – Laboratory Glass, MSU
Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana
09.06. – 15.07.2016
ReBioGeneSys – Origins of Life is a hybrid installation that utilizes the processes and materials of science to ask fundamental questions about how all life seems to proceed from previous life and yet had to emerge from inorganic materials. Is life something special or is the possibility of life inherent in matter itself? ReBioGeneSys is a fully functioning scientific experiment capable of being reconfigured into any real or imaginary world, be it Venus, Titan, or our prebiotic Earth. By combining all the scientific research on the origins of life in one set of integrated processes, ReBioGeneSys creates “mashed-up” extreme minimal ecosystems theoretically capable of forming the self-organizing chemistries necessary to produce semi-living molecules and perhaps even protocells.
adamwbrown.net/projects-2/rebiogenesys-origins-of-life
Automated control design: Barry Tigner
Supported by: National Science Foundation, Michigan State University
Special thanks: The Physics and Astronomy Machine Shop, MSU,
Scott Bankroff – Laboratory Glass, MSU
Rampa Lab, Ljubljana
09.06. – 15.07.2016
Drosophila Titanus is a long-term project which, through a process of experimentation and artificial selection, aims to breed a species of Drosophila that would theoretically be capable of living on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The project adheres to a scientific methodology while endeavoring to extract artistic metaphor, poetry, and ambiguity from apparent creative restrictions. The work embraces interwoven narratives and concepts of species, artificially created organisms, and space travel, alongside darker issues such as biological perfection, social Darwinism and eugenics. Beyond the exploration of biological and evolutionary issues the project engageswith biosemiotics in questioning the nature of reality and organic perception of environmental sensory signals.
hostprods.net/projects/quest-for-drosophila-titanus
Rampa Lab, Ljubljana
09.06. – 15.07.2016
Drosophila Titanus is a long-term project which, through a process of experimentation and artificial selection, aims to breed a species of Drosophila that would theoretically be capable of living on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The project adheres to a scientific methodology while endeavoring to extract artistic metaphor, poetry, and ambiguity from apparent creative restrictions. The work embraces interwoven narratives and concepts of species, artificially created organisms, and space travel, alongside darker issues such as biological perfection, social Darwinism and eugenics. Beyond the exploration of biological and evolutionary issues the project engageswith biosemiotics in questioning the nature of reality and organic perception of environmental sensory signals.
hostprods.net/projects/quest-for-drosophila-titanus
Sonoretum, Ljubljana
09.06. – 15.07.2016
Aljoša Abrahamsberg has been on the hunt for signals from the territories of the electro-magnetic spectrum for years. For
Sonoretum, the 8-channel sonic environment, the author created a soundscape consisting of archive recordings of his eavesdropping of signals that he has been intercepting since 1997 using various different radio devices. The audio material that was recorded at Marko Peljhan’s Makrolab, an artistic observatory temporarily set-up at various locations worldwide, has been supplemented by recordings from other places around the world, where performances of the formations Signal-Sever!, Scatter! and Spektr! were hosted. The signals used for Sonoretum come from NMT and satellite phones, satellite, maritime, police, amateur radio communications, and soundscapes intercepted at short, medium, and long wave ranges using AM, FM, CW, and USB radio modulation modes.
myspace.com/maxnullo
Chijikinkutsu
01.09. – 29.09.2016
Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana
Chijikinkutsu is a coinage of two Japanese words: chijiki and suikinkutsu. Chijiki means geomagnetism: terrestrial magnetic properties that have always existed and affect everything on Earth, but cannot be perceived by the human senses. A suikinkutsu is a sound installation for Japanese traditional gardens, invented in the Edo period.
While utilizing the action of geomagnetism, which is normally treated as a subject of science, this sound installation expands the subtle sounds of suikinkutsu in the context of the Japanese perspective on nature. A round surface of water in the glass with a floating magnetized needle is reminiscent of a tiny Earth with its geomagnetism. The fainter the sounds of the glass, the more keenly listeners’ sensibility is sharpened. In the meantime, they realize that the sounds are not coming from outside their bodies, but already exist inside their minds.
www.neloakamatsu.jp/chijikinkutsu-eng.html
Concept, space design, hardware development, sound-sequence programming: Nelo Akamatsu
22.03. – 16.04.2017
Kresija Gallery, Ljubljana
In the project Interface I, the artist employs the artistic method for researching the mutual responsiveness and interactivity of various processes, which, due to the unpredictable nature of their movement and the unique aesthetic functions of their systems, invoke a metaphysical experience, prompting the viewer to ponder about the internal logic, or perhaps even the intelligence, of the machine. This, in turn, sparks questions about the perception of artificial intelligence and synthetic emotions beyond a computer’s operations. The mechatronic installation Interface I is another stage in the evolution of Baecker’s artistic expression, which, from project to project, creates an increasingly effective visual/performative language that is recognizable as the characteristic beauty of artistic machines.
www.rlfbckr.org/work/interface-i
Produced by: NOME Gallery Berlin, 2016
Research and experiments of Interface I were carried out within the framework of Ralf Baecker’s
research project Time of Non-Reality at the Graduate School, University of the Arts, Berlin.