Art Center Nabi

The advance in digital media and information technology has not only changed our daily lives but also fostered a paradigm shift in art and culture. Arts, combined with new possibilities opened up by media technologies, have evolved and expanded its horizon of expression. The interactions between technology and human and the new type of cultural-artistic expressions mediated by technology require constant examination and reflection on the relations between human and technology.

Art Center Nabi aims to act as an intermediary that transforms the cultural desires into vital activities. Our goal is formed around the idea of humanizing technology that technology is fully integrated with human’s cultural life to open a new space for creative practices. This can be achieved only after the fruitful collaboration and understanding among science technology, humanities and arts. Thus, Art Center Nabi maintains the following three ideas; being a ‘critique’ of contemporary culture independent from technological benefits; possessing ‘creativity’ which opens people’s mind to regard a new perspective and enables a new form of expression; creating ‘community’ where these ideas are shared and the new world is dreamed of.

Art Center Nabi is at the center of this new culture, where artistic sensibility is combined with the technological possibility to bring out the power of change and creativity.

FoAM

FoAM is a network of transdisciplinary labs for speculative culture. It is inhabited by people with diverse skills and interests – from arts, science, technology, entrepreneurship, cooking, design and gardening. It is a generalists’ community of practice working at the interstices of contrasting disciplines and worldviews. Guided by our motto “grow your own worlds,” we study and prototype possible futures, while remaining firmly rooted in cultural traditions. We speculate about the future by modelling it in artistic experiments that allow alternative perspectives to emerge. By conducting these experiments in the public sphere, we invite conversations and participation of people from diverse walks of life.

Amidst rampant consumerism, xenophobia and climate chaos, FoAM is a haven for people who are unafraid to ask the question: “What If?” and “How could it be otherwise?” Instead of dismissing possible futures because of their improbability, we speculate: What if we see plants as organisational principles for human society? What if lack of fossil fuels turns jet-setting artists into slow cultural pilgrims? What if market capitalism collapsed? By rehearsing for a range of different scenarios, we can cultivate behaviours that make us more resilient to whatever the future holds. This is why we encourage FoAM‘s activities to explore the breadth of themes and methods – from robotics to permaculture, tinkering to meditation. Layered as long-term initiatives and short term projects, FoAM‘s activities uphold the values of complexity and whole systems thinking, pollinated by the transdisciplinarity of our teams.

As with foam (the mass of bubbles), FoAM (the group) is a dynamic entity that can change shape and scale as required. We can be a transdisciplinary organisation in the morning, a tightly-knit family at lunchtime, a learning facility in the afternoon, a loose bunch of philosophers in the evening and a dedicated designers’ collective by night. Most of FoAM’s activities occur in our studios – hybrids between laboratories, ateliers and living rooms. FoAM studios are designed to encourage reciprocal exchanges of ideas, techniques and experiences. We are organised as a distributed network concentrated in Europe and (Austral)asia, with bases and nodes (people, projects and organisations) spread across the globe. This distributed structure allows our bases to remain small and flexible; they can incubate and spawn experimental initiatives while the network can develop activities on larger scales. We collaborate with people (individuals and organisations) from many different sectors: arts and culture, science and technology, academia, policy, business, and civil society.

Our activities evolve in a layered structure: as long-term initiatives and short-term experiments. This structure allows us both to focus on “burning issues” as they arise, and engage in projects concerned with slower, long-term tendencies. Our activities can be loosely categorised as [1] exploring and creating, [2] learning and developing [3] communicating and archiving. In diversified teams of generalists and specialists, we create experimental situations, generative media, culinary performances and other forms of participatory culture. To support the personal and professional development of our ever-expanding community, FoAM hosts workshops, lectures, gatherings, residencies and coaching sessions. We communicate about our theories and practice in diverse publications and archive  books, media and materials in an eclectic library in our Brussels studio and online.

i-DAT

i-DAT is a lab for creative research, experimentation and innovation across the fields of digital Art, Science and Technology, generating social, economic and cultural benefit. Located within the Faculty of Arts at Plymouth University, it has been delivering high quality and experimental national and international arts and cultural activities since 1998.

i-DAT became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in March 2012. It continues to evolve its programme of activities, pushing the boundaries of digital arts / creative media practice, instigating playful opportunities for research, production and collaboration and making technological innovations accessible to artistic talent and audiences. One of i-DAT’s core aims is to demystify and democratise these processes, supporting a culture of innovation in the arts enabled through digital technologies.

i-DAT’s activities are focused around making ‘data’ generated by human, ecological, economic and societal activity tangible and readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists for artistic expression with a cultural and / or a social impact.

As a networked organisation and cultural broker i-DAT’s transdisciplinary agenda fosters open innovation, Knowledge Transfer and mutually beneficial relationships between companies, institutions, communities and individuals.

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)

EMPAC—The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center—is where the arts, sciences, and technology interact with and influence each other by using the same facilities, technologies, and by breathing the same air.

Situated on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, EMPAC is dedicated to building bridges between our human senses, to modes of perception and experience, to creating meaning in a physical environment, and to the intangible world of digital technology.

Four discrete venues are designed with unique technical infrastructure to enable you, our audience, to see, hear, and move in space in endlessly different ways. We host artists and researchers to create new work and present events which ask you to join the quest for new perspectives.

Aesthetic Technologies Lab

Established in November of 2004, the Aesthetic Technologies Lab continues to impact the culture of the Ohio University creative community offering workshops, lectures, and events by internal experts and external visitors, and serving as a creative studio for faculty and graduate students interested in hybrid scholarship, collaboration, and new modes of expression. The @Lab originally received its foundational support from the Board of Regents’ “Technology Initiatives Program” infusing technology into university classrooms. It settled into its home in the newly renovated Putnam Hall, and developed creative suites for performance, digital media development, and cross disciplinary exploration.

Generous support from the College of Fine Arts as well as from the Arts for Ohio fund continues to help the @Lab introduce new and innovative artists and scholars to our community. Through @Lab programs, Fine Arts faculty were sponsored to attend conferences focusing on new media and technology in arts practice and research. Work through the @Lab also spanned into the realm of international outreach, as our projects includes work with under-served populations in Morocco and South Africa.

beta_space

The Powerhouse Museum and Creativity and Cognition Studios (CCS), University of Technology, Sydney are collaborating to create beta_space an experimental environment where the public can engage with the latest research in art and technology.

beta_space shows interactive artworks in development by CCS researchers and collaborators. These works are at different stages, from early prototype to end product. In all cases engagement with the public can provide critical information for further iterations of the art work or of the research. The name ‘beta’ refers to a new piece of software or hardware that needs testing and feedback from its users to help the project team to eliminate design and engineering errors.

beta_space will give visitors to the Powerhouse Museum the chance to experience collaboration between art and technology. Information displays will contextualize the role of CCS and beta_space in this international field.

beta_space is a working environment, a laboratory which yields valuable research outcomes. It gives you the opportunity to be creatively involved in the development of new forms of artistic expression, and it gives us an insight into the creative process of artists and technologists, and the experience of audiences.

Benefiting from the joint technical expertise of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia’s premier presenter of interactive exhibits, and CCS, a leading research group in creative interaction at the University of Technology Sydney, beta_space shows experimental content with high standards of production and presentation within the cultural precinct developing in the inner city district of Ultimo.

Multimedia Art Research Centers and Electronic Labs (MARCEL)

MARCEL

MARCEL is a permanent high bandwidth interactive network and web site dedicated to artistic, educational and cultural experimentation, exchange between art and science and collaboration between art and industry.

It is also a portal site for the network listing information in art, science and industry for its members, but open to the public.  MARCEL was designed as a tool to help people move into the high bandwidth network space with art, science and education and to claim a part of the network space for culture.

During a meeting in Souillac, France in July 1997 a group of international experts from art and industry agreed on the importance of fundamental artistic research, rather than merely applied arts, in the development of telecommunication networks. The need for collaboration between artists, artistic establishments and the public and private sectors in building a permanent high band-width network for artistic experimentation was the central point of the first conference.

During the second meeting in Souillac, one year later, it was decided to build the permanent network and a portal site for organising and co-ordinating it. That decision marked the beginning of the project MARCEL and the creation of this site, now in its third generation.

The model for the site has been developed since Souillac to expand its possibilities, adding categories and enlarging others to better serve the needs described by all the working groups during all the meetings in Souillac including a third meeting in the summer of 2000. Development of MARCEL began in 2001 at Le Fresnoy, an art research institute based in the region of Lille and continued in collaboration with the Wimbledon School of Art, The Public in West Bromwich and other art institutions in Europe and North America.

The portal site MARCEL gives participants access to and allows them to post information on relevant art projects, educational programmes, research, events, pertinent information in many categories, on-line collaboration, and partnerships. It is an open platform for expansion to interested future participants.

That goal is translated into the following programme:

– to promote artistic experimentation and collaboration in all forms of interactive art
– to promote philosophical exchange between art and science
– to develop the potential of the network as an educational tool
– to study the network as a pedagogical subject
– to develop co-operation between art and industry
– to participate in the development of cultural expression on the network

Arts, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory

The mission of the Arts, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory at the University of New Mexico is to bring together people with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints in order to forge new paths of inquiry and expression across the humanities and sciences. ARTS Lab drives and supports innovative transdisciplinary research relating to new trends and opportunities in media production, gaming, computer graphics and interactive applications.

• We believe bringing diverse people together creates the greatest wisdom.

• We strive to draw out the intuitive creativity of the scientist and the analytic skill of the artist through collaborative work.

• We seek to preserve the unique cultural narratives and regional identities of New Mexico in an increasingly mediated landscape.

ARTS Lab seeks to support innovation and growth in areas such as film, new media, simulation, telehealth, game technology, image processing, scientific visualization, national security applications, and new markets for content. As a center for both technology and the arts, New Mexico provides a dynamic environment for programs that stimulate growth in creative economies. ARTS Lab finds opportunities to cultivate these assets by utilizing a transdisciplinary approach, encouraging ongoing participation across the University of New Mexico campus as well as building on ties with industry, community, and other educational organizations. We strive to enable community building in digital media in New Mexico and beyond.

Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA)

The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) is an organized research unit of UCSD that facilitates the creation of vanguard culture via computer science research. Areas of current activity include: next generation digital media, multicore computing, experimental computer games, future cinema, networked multimedia, software studies, cultural visualization, science/art collaborations, virtual reality and computer-spatialized audio. CRCA is also the home of the UCSD branch of the NSF sponsored Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research.

As the University of California’s oldest arts research center, CRCA pursues speculative cultural activities that draw upon humanistic analysis, engineering innovation and the insights of artistic expression. Faculty members devise new modes of artistic practice through their liaisons with international cultural institutions, technology industries, and interdisciplinary collaborations. CRCA provides the framework for a broad range of approaches to artistic, scholarly, and technological development that is at the basis of our digitally transformed culture. We actively encourage the investigation of what constitutes the potent cultural acts of our time and the viable mechanisms that should be engaged to create them. More information about the center, its researchers, public events, and the process for engagement, can be found at http://crca.ucsd.edu.

Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD)

Innovations emerging from the intersection of the sciences, engineering, arts, and design are transforming our economy, culture, and learning contexts. This transformation is emerging through products, methods, and questions that are fundamentally hybrid, such as software developed for human play, hardware designed for aesthetic elegance, and scientific and cultural information requiring new means of interpretation and expression to enable greater understanding of complex dynamics. Innovation stemming from interdisciplinary creativity is a major contributor to the development of new, sustainable economies and harmonious, cooperating societies. SEAD, the network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design, facilitates research, dialogue, and communication within and among those working in these areas.