Monthly Archives: September 2016

Seminar on financial strategies for creative work: Show Me The Money!

Seminar!

Show Me The Money! – The New Economy for Visual Artist and Designers in the Global Village

Time: 27th of October 2016, at 9.15 – 15.30
Location: Korjaamo Culture Factory (Töölönkatu 51 a-b, Helsinki)

The seminar Show Me the Money! The New Economy for Visual Artists and Designers in Global Village explores visual artists’ and designers’ earning in the digital age, pricing of creative work and what will be the financial strategies for creative work in the future.

The one day seminar includes presentations, a discussion and workshops with key players from local and international context. Pre-registration is required for the workshops. Please note that two of the workshops will be held in Finnish.

The seminar is organised by Visual Arts’ Copyright Society Kuvasto, Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland Grafia, and Aalto University.

Tickets: 20 € for Aalto University students and for Kuvasto and Grafia members / 40 € for others.

The price includes coffee/tea in the morning, vegetarian lunch and afternoon coffee/tea and dessert. Tickets and registration for workshops on Grafia’s website.

Discuss and follow the event on social media: #showmethemoney2016
The seminar event on Facebook.

Program:

Moderator: journalist Ida Kukkapuro

9.15 –> Registration and coffee/tea

9.30 Opening words
9.30 Keynote lecture: Artist, researcher Laura Molloy (UK): Skills and Sustainability: The Importance of Digital Skills in Contemporary Visual Art Practice
10.00 PhD, Development Director Outi Somervuori, Designtutkimus Helsinki Oy: Use Price to Create and Communicate Value
10.30 Artist Teemu Mäki: To Be an Artist Is to Be Poor. Is That All There Is to It?

11.00 Lunch at Korjaamo

12.00 Panel discussion

Participants: Laura Molloy, Outi Somervuori, Teemu Mäki, Jukka-Pekka Timonen, Teemu Keisteri

13.00 Parallel workshops and afternoon coffee/tea

1. Laura Molloy: Mapping Your Workflow to Understand Your Practice
2. Outi Somervuori & Marjo Granlund: Luovan työn hinnoittelu (in Finnish)
3. Teemu Mäki: Taide ja talous (in Finnish)

15.00 Discussion
15.30 Seminar ends

Speakers:

Laura Molloy
Laura Molloy is an artist and researcher based at the Ruskin School of Art and the Oxford Internet Institute, both at the University of Oxford. She is interested in creative practice both actively and theoretically. Her doctoral project investigates the digital curation practices of visual artists. In her current project she builds on her previous academic research at the University of Glasgow into how artists use the internet to support their practice and will look specifically at the artistic and economic value of the internet in the working practices of today’s visual artists.

Outi Somervuori
Outi Somervuori is a researcher, consultant and educator in pricing. She has previously worked as a researcher at Aalto University School of Business and Stanford University. In her studies Somervuori has examined the psychological aspects of buyers’ behaviour in relation to pricing, how customers see prices, process the price information and react to changes in prices. Her arcticles have been published in international journals on marketing. She has extensive experience in price management in service businesses both in Finland and abroad.

Teemu Mäki
Teemu Mäki is an artist, director, writer and researcher. He is a Doctor of Fine Arts (Finnish Academy of Fine arts 2005). Since 1990 he has been an independent, freelancing artist, except for the years 2008–2013, when he was the Professor of Fine Arts in Aalto University.

Mäki describes his activities in the following way: I work in the fields of art, philosophy and politics by whatever means necessary. The results are usually some kind of visual art, literature, theatre, film or theory. For me art is the most flexible, versatile and holistic form of philosophy and politics.

Mäki has had 51 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 200 group shows. He has written six books and six plays and directed theatre pieces, films and operas.

Jukka-Pekka Timonen
Executive Vice President Jukka-Pekka Timonen is the director of Legal Affairs in the Copyright Society Kopiosto. Previously he has worked as director of Kopiosto’s Photocopying department. During his Kopiosto years Timonen has taken part in several projects that have both developed and improved the creative industry and the status of copyright owners.

Teemu Keisteri
Helsinki based visual artist Teemu Keisteri has gained a lot of attention with his character Ukkeli, which he created in summer 2008. Keisteri uses the character for paintings, unique hand-painted t-shirts, postcards and tableware. Keisteri gets his inspiration from cultural phenomena and Finnish lifestyle and uses often himself as the subject of his art. Keisteri’s video art has won popularity with the internet and social media audiences. Besides Ukkeli he does video art, art/dance performances, music and DJ shows. Keisteri has also his own art gallery Kalleria in Kallio, Helsinki.

Marjo Granlund
Marjo Granlund is the founder and CEO of the first illustration agency in Finland, Napa Agency (since 2007), and the president for AGMA, the association of agents and managers in Finnish creative industries. Granlund has a master’s degree from the University of Turku and has a worked as a gallerist and producer among other things.

Ida Kukkapuro
Ida Kukkapuro works in media and design. Currently Ida writes for various publications and produces the Trojan Horse, a summer school for architecture and design students. Ida has been working with several independent publications. She has founded Trash Magazine and co-produced the most beautiful sailing journal, Beaufort Magazine. In printed form Ida’s articles have been published in Alvar Magazine, Apartamento, Avotakka, Form, The Guardian, Grafia Magazine, Helsinki Beyond Dreams (2012), Out of the Blue (Gestalten, 2014), Wilder Quarterly etc. She has also written and produced a video blog for Finnish Cultural Foundation and worked as a researcher for Yle Fem architecture tv-series Stugor. Ida teaches at Aalto Yliopisto and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.

WELCOME!

Defence of Dissertation in the Field of Media: MA Marc Goodwin

WELCOME TO A DOCTORAL DEFENCE

MA Marc Goodwin will defend his dissertation

Architecture’s Discursive Space: Photography 

Friday 30 September 2016,
at 12:00 – 14:00
School of Art, Design and Architecture, lecture hall 822
Hämeentie 135 C, 00560, Helsinki, FI

Opponent: lecturer Niclas Östlind, University of Göteborg

Custos: professor Merja Salo, Aalto University, Department of Media

The discussion will be in English.

ABSTRACT:
This research asks the simple question: Do images make buildings? More specifically, it asks how. The research question is addressed via four articles, published in peer-reviewed journals from 2013 to 2016. Each looks at a different aspect of the question, including: visual conventions, visualising atmosphere, photography as visual data, and the repeatability of these experiments. In addition, the dissertation includes extensive photography section that both illustrates the texts as well as dialoguing with them.

A brief description of each article follows.

‘Nine Facts About Conventions in Architectural Photography’ published in the Nordic Journal of Architectural Research (NJAR 1/2014).

This study is one of the first to use content analysis of images as a means of interpreting architectural discourse. Nine facts were extracted from a detailed analysis of images that appeared in 3493 pages of the Finnish Architectural Review (ARK) between 1912 and 2012. Close attention was paid to the types of images used repeatedly in order to focus on key editorial and photographic decisions. Editorial decisions consisted of type, size, chromatic scale and number of images. Photographic decisions consisted of human presence, weather, depth-of-field and camera orientation for interior and exterior photographs. Data, which quantifies the frequency of each type of image, indicates that there is a strong reliance on visual conventions in ARK. When considering the limited range of images used in the publication, it becomes clear there is little correlation between the complexity of architectural language and environments and the simplicity of its depiction. That discrepancy suggests there is a need for research and development in the field of architectural photography in order to better inform readers about the diversity of architectural practices.

‘A Hinge: Field-testing the Relationship Between Photography and Architecture, in the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR 3/ 2013).

This article seeks to share the methods and preliminary results of an artistic research project in the field of architectural photography. A central concern is the representation of atmosphere in place of the standard depiction of objects. Important also is an attempt at co-design through an interview process with architects based on the notion of the dialectic. This aspect of the study is important not only for this experiment itself but is also crucial for analysing the scalability of practices pursued in this investigation. Findings include excerpts from interviews and examples of photographs. More than just a project about photographic practices, however, this study is part of a larger investigation into the relationship that has developed between photography and architecture, focussing especially on Finland and Denmark, and the institutional practices of architects, publishers and photographers working in collaboration.

‘Architecture’s Discursive Space: Photography’, currently in peer review for the book ‘Visual Methodologies in Architectural Research’, due to be published by Intellect in 2016.

Ultimately, I conclude that conventional architectural photography is reliant upon one atmosphere – the blue and white of eternal summer that has replaced the black and white photography that came before it. A simple system of visual categorisation through grids became my working method for dealing with terabytes of data in the form of photographs. The grid, it is argued, is at the core of architectural depiction, with origins in Renaissance treatises. As a contemporary editing system, however, grids make it easy to spot patterns in purchased / published images, and cross-check statements made in interviews and in writing with photographic statements.

 ‘Grey Matter’, to be published in the first 2016 edition of the International Journal of Education through Art.

It was important to test the repeatability of this research. Could others use atmospheres as a system for classifying images? Is it useful to look at conventional photography as one such atmosphere? Could the classroom be used as a research lab to test the viability of non-conventional atmospheres in the world of architecture. The second phase of the nine-month course ended in a highly successful exhibition and talk at the Finnish Museum of Architecture. The course and exhibition were called Grey Matter because images sought to reflect the lived experience of autumnal Helsinki, testing claims that good architecture must be shown in good weather.

Findings in this research challenge received wisdom about ‘objective’ photography of architecture. They suggest the need for scrutiny of conventionalised practises and argue for an expanded field of architectural photography. That new architectural photography would be informed by the notion of atmosphere and its categorisation into a panoply of responses to site conditions.

The architectural atmosphere sine qua non, known as objective photography, is taught in schools and enforced through repeated global publication. This research suggests that interdisciplinary courses between photography and architecture departments might disrupt the current beliefs and practices of educators and publishers alike. This dissertation argues in favour of such a disruption.

http://www.marc-goodwin.com
http://archmospheres.com

WELCOME!

 

TERVETULOA VÄITÖSTILAISUUTEEN 

MA Marc Goodwin esittää tarkastettavaksi väitöskirjansa Architecture’s Discursive Space: Photography perjantaina 30 syyskuuta 2016, klo 12–14. Tilaisuus järjestetään Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulussa: Hämeentie 135 C, ls. 822, 8. krs, 00560, Helsinki, FI. Vastaväittäjänä toimii yliopistolehtori Niclas Östlind, University of Göteborg. Kustoksena on professori Merja Salo Aalto-yliopiston median laitokselta.

Keskustelu käydään englanniksi.

Valokuvaaja Marc Goodwinin tutkimuksessa etsitään vastausta kysymykseen, miten valokuvat luovat mielikuvaa rakennuksista ja arkkitehtuurista. Tuottavatko kuvat rakennuksia, ja millä tavoin ne sen tekevät?

Vastausta hahmotellaan eri näkökulmista neljässä artikkelissa, jotka on julkaistu vuosina 2013–2016 vertaisarvioiduissa tiedejulkaisuissa. Ensimmäisessä artikkelissa kuvataan arkkitehtuurivalokuvauksen kuvallisten konventioiden historiallista muotoutumista Suomessa Arkkitehti-lehdessä vuosina 1912-2012 julkaistujen valokuvien avulla. Kuvien analyysi osoittaa, että vain pientä osaa valokuvauksen ilmaisukeinoista on käytetty kuvattaessa arkkitehtuuria. Samalla avautuu kysymys siitä, voisiko arkkitehtuurivalokuvauksen visuaalista palettia monipuolistaa.

Toisessa artikkelissa on tutkittu arkkitehtien käsityksiä hyvästä arkkitehtuurivalokuvasta haastattelemalla pohjoismaisia arkkitehtejä. Esiin nousee ajatus atmosfääristä eli tunnelmasta ja sen tuottamisesta valokuvauksen keinoin.

Kolmannessa artikkelissa Goodwin kokeilee ruudukon eli gridin käyttöä sekä kuva-aineiston hallinnan että analyysin välineenä. Gridi on keskeinen työkalu ja käsite niin arkkitehtuurissa kuin valokuvauksessakin, ja sen avulla voidaan luoda siltaa arkkitehtien ja valokuvaajien erillisten diskurssien eli keskusteluavaruuksien välille.

Neljäs artikkeli testaa atmosfäärin ja gridin käsitteitä käytännössä ja kuvaa opetuskokeilua, jossa arkkitehtuurin ja valokuvauksen opiskelijoiden yhteisellä kurssilla etsittiin uudenlaisia, rakennuksen ympäristön ja vuodenajan paremmin huomioivia kuvaustapoja. Kurssin tulokset esitettiin näyttelynä Suomen rakennustaiteen museossa.

Marc Goodwin on englantilainen, arkkitehtuuriin erikoistunut valokuvaaja. Väitöskirja sisältää laajan, tekstejä havainnollistavan ja niiden kanssa keskustelevan kuva-aineiston.

http://www.marc-goodwin.com
http://archmospheres.com

TERVETULOA!

MUU Galleria – KAKSOISOLEMUKSIA / DOUBLE APPEARANCES

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KAKSOISOLEMUKSIA / DOUBLE APPEARANCES
– ääni-instrumentteja Kurenniemen jalanjäljillä / sound instruments in the footsteps of Kurenniemi

workshop>presentation>exhibition

osallistuvat taiteilijat / participating artists:
Hanna Arvela, Juan Diaz, Tuukka Haapakorpi, Inkeri Harri, Kari Kärkiluoma, Rita Leppiniemi, Tom Lönnqvist, Kikka Rytkönen

23.–25.9.2016
MUU Galleria, Lönnrotinkatu 33, Helsinki

Avajaisjuhla perjantaina 23.9. klo 20–22 / 
Opening Night Friday 23 September 20:00–22:00
20:15 sound performance: Jukka Hautamäki
20:40 workshop-presentaatio / workshop presentation
21:00 sound performance: Roberto Pugliese & Andrea Mancianti

Kaksoisolemuksia / Double Appearances –työpajan päättää kolmepäiväinen yleisölle avoin tapahtuma MUU Galleriassa. / The Double Appearances workshop will conclude with a three-day public exhibition in MUU Gallery.

MUUn toteuttama Kaksoisolemuksia / Double Appearances on myös osa Pixelache 2016 – ‘Interfaces for Empathy’ -festivaalin ohjelmaa. / Double Appearances is part of the programme of the Pixelache 2016 festival ’Interfaces for Empathy’.

Järjestäjä / Organiser: MUU ry
Yhteistyössä / In cooperation with: KRUKS & Pixelache Festival 2016

Tapahtuman koordinaattorit ovat mediataiteilijat Jukka Hautamäki ja Roberto Pugliese, MUUn toiminnanjohtaja Timo Soppela ja Pixelachen toiminnanjohtaja Petri Ruikka. / The workshop coordinators are media artists Jukka Hautamäki and Roberto Pugliese, MUU director Timo Soppela, and Pixelache director Petri Ruikka.

Työpajan toteutusta on tukenut Opintokeskus Visio. / The workshop is supported by Educational Centre Visio.

Avoinna: pe 23.9. klo 20-22, la–su 24.–25.9. klo 12–16.
Open to the public: Fri 23 Sep 20:00–22:00, Sat–Sun 24–25 Sep 12:00–16:00

http://www.muu.fi/
http://festival.pixelache.ac/

– english text, please scroll down –

Neljän päivän työpaja – ideoiden, ajatusten ja käytännön taitojen käytännönläheinen ja intensiivinen yhteistyöfoorumi – tuottaa ääni-instrumentteja ja mediataideteoksia, jotka esitellään yleisölle avoimessa päätöstapahtumassa.

Uusi mediateknologia lupaa kokemuksia koko keholle ja aisteille jopa siinä määrin, että se vaikuttaa voimakkaasti havaintokykyymme ja tietoisuuteemme. Työpajan ja tapahtuman tavoitteena on sekä teoreettisesti sekä käytännössä lähestyä ja suunnitella uusia välineitä sosiaalisiin kohtaamisiin. Mediataide voi tarjota paljon näkökulmia kriittiseen keskusteluun teknologiasta, sen riskeistä ja tekniikan lumoavuudesta.

Osan työpajojen kontekstista ja innoittajana toimivat Erkki Kurenniemen osallistavat ääniteokset. Työpajan nimi viittaa ääniteoksien mahdollisuuteen vaihtaa olemustaan kontekstin mukaisesti.

Näyttelytapahtuman avajaisjuhlia vietetään perjantaina 23. syyskuuta klo 20 alkaen. Avajaisten ohjelmaan kuuluu työpajan taiteilijoiden projektien esittely ja Jukka Hautamäen sekä Roberto Pugliesen & Andrea Manciantin ääniperformanssit. Taiteilijat Jukka Hautamäki ja Roberto Pugliese ovat työpajan ohjaajia.

The four-day hands-on workshop is an intense forum for cooperation to exchange ideas, thoughts and practical skills. It will involve the creation of sound instruments and media artworks that will be presented to the public in the concluding exhibition.

New media technology generates intense experiences for the entire body and all the senses, to the extent that it powerfully affects our perceptions and our consciousness. The aim of the workshop and the concluding exhibition is to explore and design new instruments for social encounter, both in theory and in practice. Media art can offer many perspectives on the critical discourse on technology, its risks and its fascination.

Some of the context and the inspiration for the workshop is provided by Erkki Kurenniemi’s participatory sound works. The workshop title is a reference to the capacity of sound art to alter its appearance to fit the context.

The opening night of the concluding exhibition is on Friday, 23 September, starting at 20:00 hours. The programme includes presentations by workshop participants and sound performances by Jukka Hautamäki and Roberto Pugliese & Andrea Mancianti. The workshop leaders are Jukka Hautamäki and Roberto Pugliese.

muugalleria@muu.fi, http://www.muu.fi/

Doctor of Arts Seminar at Media Lab: A Study of Representations of Affections in Digital Era Media Archaeology of Affective Archive

Welcome to the first session of our Doctoral Seminar this semester.

Thursday 22. September 2016, from 17:00–19:00
Miestentie 3, OTANIEMI, 4th floor, room 429.

Hung Han Chen will present work on his doctoral dissertation on Affective Archives.
(See abstract below.)

Tervetuloa! Welcome!

Note that MA students are specially welcome to attend the presentation.

A Study of Representations of Affections in Digital Era.
Media Archaeology of Affective Archive.

Hung-Han Chen

This presentation discusses the representation of emotions in the digital era. My thesis is a media archaeology of representative affective media. I will present the introduction of my thesis that includes the research background, motivation, and research questions.

The main contribution of the thesis is the design of a tool that generates the representation of ontology of affects. The tool heavily depends on emotion theories in the digital era, therefore, my thesis is composed of studies of theories as well as practice.

The theoretical part of my thesis is influenced by affect theories and the affective turn in disciplines and discourses on feelings, emotions, and moods. The hypotheses and concepts of emotions are based on Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze’s theories. The practical outcomes of the thesis are digital tools that enable us to develop ontologies from various types of digital media archives including early 20th cinema samples. In these ontologies entities are used to represent complex emotions such as shame and personal digital footprint.

Defence of Dissertation in the Field of Media: MA Hans Põldoja

WELCOME TO A DOCTORAL DEFENCE

MA Hans Põldoja will defend his dissertation

The Structure and Components for the Open Education Ecosystem:
Constructive Design Research of Online Learning Tools

on Friday 23. September 2016,
at 12:00 – 14:00
Media Factory Auditorium, 3rd floor,
Hämeentie 135 A, 00560, Helsinki, FI

Opponent: Ph.D. Terry Anderson,
Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University, Canada.

Custos: Professor, DA Teemu Leinonen,
Aalto University Department of Media.

The discussion will be in English.

ABSTRACT:
This research studies the design of online learning tools for open education. The dissertation is based on five articles and design case studies that explore open education from different perspectives: open educational resources, open learning environments, and assessment of teachers’ competencies. The underlying concept of the study is the open education ecosystem. The study explores the ways in which the design of online learning tools could benefit from the digital ecosystems approach. The design of online learning tools for open education presents wicked problems, that involve ill-defined requirements and contemplates the influence on and by the stakeholders and other components of the ecosystem. Firstly, to clarify the design challenges related to the open education ecosystem, this study summarizes a set of design challenges presented in design case studies. Secondly, it identifies and recommends a set of design patterns that address these design challenges. Finally, the study proposes the structure and components that are needed for the open education ecosystem.

WELCOME!

VISITING LECTURE: Helena Barbosa – From categorization to the contents: the creation of an on-line poster museum

barbosa

From categorization to the contents:
the creation of an on-line poster museum

Wednesday 28. September 2016
at 12:00–13:00
Miestentie 3, 4th floor, room 429 (Otaniemi)

The University of Aveiro is at present developing a project involving the construction of an on-line poster museum, containing around 30,000 artifacts. Given the large number of posters in existence, and the great diversity of representations, this lecture describes the development of the project and the reasons behind the creation of “key topics,” which function as gateways to other related information on the web – metadata. It also presents the proposed key topics, considered as a tool that allows the visitor access to contents, not only from the perspective of traditional classifications and catalogue, but also from the point of view of design. It is presented a methodology that intended to privilege narratives over rules. In this case, narratives about the poster were made by ten designers when confronted with a request to select 44 posters among 1,962 samples of posters obtained from the collections of the National Library of Portugal (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal) and from the University of Aveiro. The designers discourses, were analyzed, through the theoretical design model developed at the University of Aveiro, revealing each artifact relation inside the triangle authorship / technology / brief, its morphogenetic evolution and semantic dimension. Taking into account those contents the research aims to create an on-line poster museum to be accessible worldwide and contribute to the knowledge of the history of Portuguese design.

helena_barbosa-290x290Helena Barbosa is a Professor of Design at the University of Aveiro, with interests on Portuguese design history, material culture, museology, museography, illustration and art. In addition to working with master’s and doctoral students as a supervisor, she has written extensively and has been invited to give lectures at national and international conferences, with articles in scientific journals, publishing several books. She is currently the keeper for the contents of an on-line poster museum, vice-chair of ID+ Research Institute in Design, Media and Culture, member of the editorial board of various international journals, and member of ICDHS.

WELCOME!

 

 

RENEWABLE FUTURES CONFERENCE 2017 – ECONOMIA

OPEN CALL RENEWABLE FUTURES CONFERENCE 2017 – ECONOMIA
Second edition of art and science conference series in Europe and the Baltic Sea region.

Baltan Laboratories, Eindhoven (NL) – January 20 – 22, 2017.

Renewable Futures aims to invent new avenues for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. The first conference took place in Riga (LV) exploring the transformative potential of art. The second Renewables Futures conference will take place in Eindhoven, aiming to push the boundaries of our thinking about economy. The conference will be a part of Economia festival organized by Baltan Laboratories in Natlab, former physics lab of Philips. Economia is a three-day festival in which we collectively explore new ideas and thinking about our economy. The event is a laboratory for ideas, a place where we can step out of the existing frame. We will use unexpected and playful approaches looking at the essentials of economy, thus establishing a fresh point of view on the economic system and our society.

About Economia:

In the eighties economics transformed more and more into a so called hard science. Economics reduced its various approaches of our complex and unpredictable economic behavior, to one comprehensive theory known as the neoclassical or neoliberal model. This model captured economic behavior in mathematical formulas. It had the beauty of simplicity, the predictability of a formula and sounded too logical not to be true.

Like most powerful technologies dating from after the Second World War, economics has influenced the world of our ideas, how we define ourselves, and how we organize our society. Just as the discovery of DNA forced us to look differently at life, and the developments in ICT made our world smaller in unprecedented ways, the neoliberal model caused a huge shift from common interest to individual interest, and from a long term view to a short term view.

It is striking how little imagination this hard economic approach generates. Economics has no equivalent of multiple universes, singularity or space-travelling. No strange life forms in the depths of the ocean or on other planets, no artificial or eternal life. Economics is astoundingly prosaic and, rather than to explore and push the boundaries of its own domain, it seems to move inward, in precisely the opposite direction.

Since the outbreak of the financial crises in 2007/2008, uncertainty about the effectiveness and validity of the neoliberal model has grown considerably. Economics, as a social technology in its present form, provides no solution to issues of climate change and social inequality. It cannot help us organize social alliances, public interests or develop long-term prospects. Its results no longer appeal. The added value of efficiency and productivity are outweighed by the numerous disadvantages of reducing all values to market value.

Although critique on the neo-liberal model grows, no new answers or alternatives have been proposed yet. In the search for new economic insights and alternatives to the current model, why not start by treating economics like any other technology? Playing with it, hacking it, using input from other disciplines, unleashing science fiction on it, approach it in an artistic manner. In short, taking ownership so that we can reshape and rework economics as we see fit. Because however meaningful, criticizing the current model won’t rid us of it. And we aim to do precisely that.

The aim of the festival and conference is to approach economics in new ways and look at our economic system and society with the detached view of the visitor, researcher, gamer, alien and artist. We want to reclaim economy as a social/cultural structure that we created, ridding us of the idea of economics as an inevitable law of nature.

More information www.thinkeconomia.nl

OPEN CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS AND ARTWORKS
We welcome presentations by academic researchers, designers, artists, scientists, students, social entrepreneurs, visionaries and other creative thinkers and practitioners to submit proposals with regards to the following themes:

Economy as evolution: economics is about development and evolution. Societies develop and the direction they take is determined partly by the type of economic relationships they develop. Parallels are often drawn between these developments in culture and those in nature.

Economics as a game: economics is about rules and laws. Just like other types of relationships in the edifice of a society, an existing system of economic relationships adheres to certain laws and regulations. Gaming is about learning the laws and rules of a game so that you can play it better and better.

Economics as a fiction: economics is about ideas and faith. Credit has existed right from the start of societies, in the form of trust that A would pay B. Just as today, you would do a task for future reward in whatever form. Every form of economic relationship is an idea, or to put it better perhaps a prejudice. Which means it can change.

Economics as a market: economics is about supply and demand. The greatest and most misunderstood cliché. Demand and supply is a way to describe life. Each influences the other in an unpredictable and complex ways.

Economics as magic: economy is both tangible and invisible. We are familiar with two forms of trade, goods and money. The one that you can handle and the other that exists only in the form of ones and zeros. The latter seems like pure magic. It is with good reason that some of these ‘financial wizards’ call themselves ‘Master of the universe’.

Format papers
Proposals should explore at least one of the 5 proposed themes, which are at the heart of this conference. Selected speakers are invited to present their papers as part of the conference and are encouraged to engage within lively discussions amongst peers, experts, and the general audience.

Paper requirements: Length of abstract: 250 words max. + short biography: 100 words.

Deadline for submitting your proposal is 30 September, 2016. Notification for acceptance will be sent before 15 of November.

Submit your proposal to: http://openconf.rixc.lv/
More information conference series: http://renewablefutures.net

Format artworks:
proposals for developing or showcasing art projects (installations, performances, video based work, etc.) should contain a description of the art project (max 1 A4), with a minimum of 2 photo’s and/or a link to website referring to previously developed works. Selection of artworks will be based on quality, feasibility and the connection to the overall theme.

Deadline for submitting your proposal is 30 September, 2016. Notification for acceptance will be sent before 15 November.

Send your proposal to Olga Mink, info@baltanlaboratories.org, subject: Artwork proposal Renewable Futures Conference 2017.

Festival curators: Wiepko Oosterhuis, Olga Mink
Conference chairs: Rasa Smite (RIXC), Olga Mink (Baltan Laboratories), Wiepko Oosterhuis.

Conference International Scientific Board:

– Katja Kwastek. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

– Armin Medosch. Professor of theory of art and media, Singidunum University, Belgrade.

– Gediminas Urbonas. Associate Professor and Director at MIT program in art, culture and technology, MIT Boston.

– Misko Suvakovic. Professor of Aesthetics and Theory of Art, Belgrade University.

– Jussi Parikka, Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics, University of Southampton.

– Dieter Daniels, Professor of Art History and Media Theory, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.

– Douglas Kahn, Professor of Media and Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

– Lev Manovich, Professor of Computer Science, City University of New York.

– Laura Beloff, Associate Professor and Head of Section, IT University Copenhagen.

Local board:

– Katja Kwastek. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

– Daniëlle Arets, lector Strategic Creativity, Design Academy Eindhoven.

– Annie Fletcher, Chief curator exhibitions Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

– Dan Diojdescu (MBA). Teacher Economics at Avans School of International Studies (ASIS).

– Ingrid van der Wacht, independent project manager and concept developer

– Alain Heureux, Your Own Lab and The Egg Brussels

– CeesJan Mol, Venturespring

Contact: info@baltanlaboratories.org, rixc@rixc.lv

Organizers: Baltan Laboratories in collaboration with RIXC and Renewable Future European network.
http://baltanlaboratories.org

Participation Fee / Travel / Accommodation

Conference Registration Fee:
Early Bird €50,- until December 1, 2016 / Full Price: €65,-
Student fee: Early Bird €25,- / Full Price: €35,-
Early Bird registration will open autumn 2016.
Conference tickets will also grant access to the Economia festival.

The conference participants will be asked to take care about covering their own travel and accommodation costs. We will provide you with official invitation letters, encouraging to apply for travel support at your home universities. Selected exhibition artists will be asked to cover all the artwork production costs by themselves – we only will cover the costs related to the exhibiting the works in Eindhoven.

We have limited funding to support travel and accommodation for independent artists and researchers from Europe. Also, as we welcome proposals from countries outside of the EU, we are offering a possibility to apply for covering either your European part of travel, or accommodation costs.

* For academic scholars and PhD students – after the notification (November 15, 2016), we will provide you with an official letter of invitation, addressed to your university (upon request).
* For independent artists and/or researchers – who are not able to cover their travel costs, there will be possibility to apply for travel support.
* For artists and/or representatives from art/culture organizations – partial support (i.e. accommodation) can be considered upon the individual request.