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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
LABORATOIRE PUBLIC
CRÉATION DE SAVOIRS NUMÉRIQUES
Soft Robotics, photo : Anna Schaeffner
September 8-10, 2022 - Îlot Balmoral
ELEKTRA, in collaboration with Hexagram, will be organizing MATERIA : Laboratoire public de création de savoirs numériques.
This event will bring together, over three consecutive days, local and international artists, creators, scientists, researchers and professionals from the artistic and cultural sectors. Invited guests and visitors, along with a team of mediators, will also participate in this arena of creation and knowledge sharing at the intersections of art, design, science, and multiple forms of knowledge and forms of knowing.
Practice-based exchanges around technological and material conditions are the central premises of the Labo Public. Divided into 10 thematic clusters, the collaborative and radically multidisciplinary explorations at each table will unfold along a central theme: MATERIA, which questions the return to materiality, working with matter and tangible media in response to the frantic development of the virtual realm.
The collaborative material practices at the heart of this unique event will open perspectives and avenues for new works and artistic creations. The setting of the Labo in a publicly accessible space and the mediation programme will promote dissemination of research and creation amongst diverse groups and publics. A public presentation of the clusters' work and themes will take place in the afternoon of Saturday, September 10.
GOALS OF MATERIA : Laboratoire public de création de savoirs numériques.
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To increase mutual exchanges knowledge and skills through the aesthetic and technical exploration of new technologies and creative approaches;
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To initiate or consolidate interdisciplinary collaborations based on shared material practices;
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To strengthen the dialogue between disciplines, sectors of the artistic and cultural milieu, academic research and creation, and diverse audiences;
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To demonstrate the links between artistic creation, technological innovation and scientific research;
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To promote the discovery of new practices across sectors and societal groups;
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To develop new artistic and cultural proposals;
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
The organizers invite expressions of interest in joining a cluster of their choice.
Call deadline: the call is now closed.
Cluster initiators will select participants and will ensure diversity of expertise and knowledge, gender and cultural diversity in the constitution of each group.
Those interested in participating in a cluster must be available for the duration of the activity : September 8-9-10, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The presence of participants from this call is on a voluntary basis: Participation is free and no remuneration or compensation is offered by organizers.
In an effort to meet our goal of dissemination and transfer of knowledge and practices about the processes of creation and research that lead to artistic production and innovation, the Labo Public will be documented (photo, audio-visual, podcast). Participants must agree to have their presence communicated, documented, shared and archived. Consent forms for documentation and dissemination will be sent in advance.
CLICK HERE TO FILL IN THE FORM
LIST OF CLUSTERS
SOFT ROBOTICS AND BIO-INSPIRED MEMBRANES
INITIATOR : Samuel BIANCHINI [Ensad - Paris]
In this cluster, participants will engage with pneumatic systems in the field of soft robotics to examine the reciprocal activities and behaviors between membranes and air flows. In close collaboration with the cluster Bio-inspired Soft Membranes and Adaptive Surfaces, participants will be invited to explore the operability of membranes such as their deformable, protective, porous and elastic capabilities. This cluster includes visits to urban sites to address the critical, social and political dimensions of air and the membranes that make up the built environment. The aim is to produce together new ways of thinking and acting with these objects and materials that embody both the power and fragility of life.
Photo: Anna Schaeffner
BIO-INSPIRED FLEXIBLE MEMBRANES AND ADAPTATIVE SURFACES
INITIATORS : Alice JARRY [Concordia University] et Marie-Pier BOUCHER [University of Toronto]
Participants in this cluster will engage with the growth and maintenance processes of bio-inspired membranes such as bioplastics, algae, and abaca. The flexible and filtering properties of these surfaces will inform the creation of foldable and adaptive membranes. In close collaboration with the group Informing-Deforming: Bio-inspired Membranes and Soft Robotics, the behaviors of these membranes will be experimented with pneumatic systems and airflows relevant to "soft robotics". These speculative scenarios aim to cultivate an understanding of practice as taking place in a tangle of material, sensory, technological, human and discursive relationships necessary for a renewed understanding of contemporary socio-environmental issues.
Photo: Samuel Bianchini
CO-SITUATED COLLECTIVE INTERACTIVITY USING HANDHELD SMARTPHONES
INITIATORS : Dominique Cunin [Ensad - Paris] & Emmanuel DURAND, Codirecteur Metalab-SAT [CA]
EnsadLab (Ensad - Paris) joins the MetaLab - SAT (Montreal) for a research and creation work table around their tools dedicated to interactive art creation. LivePose, a software for detecting human bodies from a video stream, and Mobilizing.js, a tool for creating co-sited collective interactivity using smartphones, will be used together for the first time. The aim is to question the possible relations between "bare" hands and hands equipped with a smartphone. Which hand will take control over the other? How can mobile screens encourage the production of a gesture, but also account for the realization of this gesture, especially with several participants?
Photo: Christian Mamoun
Photo: Groupe des objets révolutionnaires
SUPER-OBJECTS: A MORE-THAN-HUMAN APPROACH TO AI
INITIATOR : Filipe PAIS [Ensad - Paris]
This cluster explores the notion of Super-object through prototype building using the MisB Kit (https://misbkit.ensadlab.fr/) as the main tool. This speculative concept is inspired by research on Behavioural Objects, and by the writings of José Saramago, a novel and fiction writer, which offer a framework to imagine future modes of existence and co-habitation with powerful non-human agents with complex forms of agency. Super-objects are conceived to solve complex problems such as global warming, deforestation, and they may also behave independently, dissociated from human will.
MIXED REALITIES AROUND THE CORNER
INITIATOR : Jean-Ambroise Vesac [UQAT]
This cluster will explore the materiality of urban places and digital performativity in mixed reality : it will entail creating a series of micro-experiences based on digitized urban spaces transformed into virtual stages open to participatory and surprising games as well as diverse avant-garde artistic expression.
Photo: JA-Vesac
TEXTUROLOGIES: EXPERIMENTAL SKATEBOARDING
INITIATOR : Max Boutin [UQAM]
At the heart of this cluster, skateboarding becomes a performative act. It brings together artists, researchers and board riders to reflect on new forms of sensory knowledge that emerge at the intersections of digital art and skateboarding. Inspired by Max Boutin's research and creations on the concept of texturology, participants will explore our perception of urban spaces through the sounds, images and vibrations of skateboarding.
Photo: Max Boutin
SONO-(SORO)RIDADES: PODCAST PRODUCTION, THROUGH COLLECTIVITY AND INTERSECTIONAL DIALOGUES
INITIATORS : Amanda Gutierrez [Concordia University], Laura Balboa & Ana Mora
This radio cluster is based on the concept of 'sororidad' to explore non-binary, ethical and political dimensions of contemporary feminisms. Participants will produce short podcasts based on the methodologies and techniques of auditory pedagogy and collective sound production proposed by the initiators.
Photo: Alexis Bellavance from Xeno Walks, produced by Amanda Gutierrez.
Photo: Martin Beauregard
ECOCREATION AND 3D PRINTING OF INDUSTRIAL RESIDUAL MATERIALS
INITIATOR : Martin Beauregard [UQAT]
The goal of the research-creation activities proposed by this cluster is to rethink and redefine the paradigm of 3D printing object fabrication as well as preconceptions related to the production and management of industrial residual materials or waste. At this cluster, participants will become familiar with research-creation and experimental research approaches in an interdisciplinary or intersectoral perspective, as well as various technical processes and concepts from the fields of ecological art practice, ecodesign and sensory design.
IMMERSIVE VISUALIZATION OF EMOTIONS IN REAL TIME
INITIATORS : Yan Breuleux [École NAD - UQAC] & Marie-Ève Bilodeau [ÉTS]
How can a user, connected to a physiological interface, recognize themselves or find forms reflecting their personality? Following an experimental approach, participants will be invited to design prototypes of immersive environment and propose tools to lay the groundwork for a human-machine reflection on immersive visualization of emotions.
Photo: Yan Breuleux
Photo: Nora Gibson
THE PRACTICE AND EXAMINATION OF EMPATHY
INITIATORS : Nora Gibson [Concordia University] & Gabrielle Couillard [UQAM]
Linked to the cluster on Visualization of Emotions in Real Time, this cluster will develop a prototype for an interactive installation which will allow participants to explore different sensorial, emotional, and psychological states.