Relationality in VR – Luzern workshop at HSLU 22 March 2023

Organizer Hochschule Luzern, Design & Kunst, Dr. Christina Zimmermann, Projektleiterin Forschung

***

Tikka Pia

Enactive Co-presence in Narrative Virtual Reality

The talk describes our most recent project The State of Darkness (SOD 2.0; work-in-progress).

SOD 2.0 is a virtual reality installation in which human and non-human lives coexist. The first is lived by the participant while the latter is lived by the non-human Other. The narrative VR system is enactive, this is, all elements of the narrative space are in a reciprocally dependent state with the other elements.

The participant’s experiential moves are interpreted from their biosensor measurements in real-time, and then fed back to drive the different elements of the enactive narrative system. In turn, the facial and bodily behaviour of the artificial Other feeds back to the participant’s experiential states. The scenography and the soundscape adapt to the behaviours of the two beings while these adaptations affect back to the atmosphere of the intimate co-presence between the human and the Other.

The concept of non-human narrative allows the State of Darkness 2.0 to reflect the human-centric perspective against that of a non-human perspective. The intriguing question is whether narratives and the narrative faculty should be considered as exclusively characteristic to humans, or if the idea of narrative can be extended to other domains of life, or even to the domain of artificially humanlike beings.

The SOD 2.0 is an artistic dissemination of the project Enactive Co-presence in Narrative Virtual Reality: A Triadic Interaction Model.

The MOBTT90 research project which combines arts and sciences to explore how the viewer’s experience of co-presence can be controlled by parametrically modifying the behavior of a screen character or its context. It is led by research professor Pia Tikka, Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM) & Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT), Tallinn University.The project is funded by the EU Mobilitas Pluss Top Researcher Grant and Estonian Research Council.

Read more of the project here: http://enactivevirtuality.tlu.ee/the-state-of-darkness-ii/

MIDI2022 conference Debora de Souza presentation

Kuvaus:https://midi2022.opi.org.pl

Day 3 (14 December, 2022)
Remote event

10:00 –10:05	Conference opening
10:05 – 11:30	Digital Interaction – Session 1 Chair Dr. Wiesław Kopeć / Kinga Skorupska Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Warsaw, Poland
	Seeking Emotion Labels for Bodily Reactions: An Experimental Study in Simulated Interviews Debora Souza, Pia Tikka and Ighoyota Ajenaghughrure

Enactive Virtuality Lab hybrid seminar 24 Nov, 2pm – 6 pm – Open for online attendance!

Enactive Virtuality Lab present the most recent work by the team members.

The event takes place in Tallinn University, Nova building N-406 Kinosaal

Date: 24.11.2022. 14:00-18:00 (EET / CET +1)

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95032524868

Speakers and Schedule, see below.

SPEAKERS

Tanja Bastamow: Virtual scenography in transformation

The performative possibilities of virtual environments

Scenography has historically been understood as the illustrative support for a staged drama. However, in the recent decades, the field has expanded to encompass the overall design of performance events, actions and experiences. Positioning this expanded understanding of scenography in dialogue with virtual reality (VR) opens up interesting possibilities for designing virtual scenography which can become an enabler of emerging narratives, unforeseen events and unexpected encounters. In my research I investigate the question of shifting agencies and virtual scenographers’ role as a co-creator rather than a traditional author-designer. Who – and what – become the creators, performers and spectators in virtual experiences and encounters in which the real-time responsiveness, transformability, (im)materiality and immersivity of virtual scenography play a key role? In my talk I will introduce thoughts around these questions by describing the process of building the virtual scenography for “State of Darkness II” VR experience.

Tanja Bastamow is a virtual scenographer working with experimental projects combining scenography with virtual and mixed reality environments. Bastamow’s key areas of interest are immersive virtual environments, the creative potential of technology as a tool for designing emergent spatial narratives, and creating scenographic encounters in which human and non-human elements can mix in new and unexpected ways. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at Aalto University’s Department of Film, Television and Scenography, doing research on the performative possibilities of real-time virtual environments. In addition to this, she is working in LiDiA – Live + Digital Audiences artistic research project (2021-23) as a virtual designer. She is also a founding member of Virtual Cinema Lab research group and has previously held the position of lecturer in digital design methods at Aalto University.

https://lidia.fi

https://virtualcinema.aalto.fi/

Ats Kurvet: DESIGNING VIRTUAL characters

Ats Kurvet is a 3D real-time graphics and virtual reality application developer and consultant with over 8 years of industry experience. He specialises in lighting, character development and animation, game and user experience design, 3D modeling and environment development, shaders and material development and tech art. He has worked for Crytek GmbH as a lighting artist and runs ExteriorBox OÜ. His focus working with the Enactive Virtuality Lab in researching the visual aspects of digital human development and implementation.

Matias Harju: Traits of Virtual Reality Sound Design

Whilst sound design for VR borrows a lot from other media such as video games and films, VR sets some unique conditions for sonic thinking and technical approaches. Spatial sound is inarguably one of the most significant areas in this respect. That entails the whole process from narrative decisions to source material recordings to 3D audio rendering on the headphones. Other sound design considerations in VR may relate to the level of sonic realism and the role of sound in general. My talk will briefly expose some of the characteristics of sound in VR from both artistic and technical perspectives.

Matias Harju is a sound designer and musician specialising in immersive and interactive sonic storytelling. He is currently developing Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) as a narrative and interactive medium at WHS Theatre Union in Helsinki. He is also active in making adaptive music and immersive sound design for other projects including VR, AR, video games, installations, and live performances. Matias is a Master of Music from Sibelius Academy with a background in multiple musical genres, music education, and audio technology. He also holds a master’s degree from the Sound in New Media programme at Aalto University

MARIE-LAURE CAZIN:Freud’s last hypnosis, validating emotion driven enactions in cinematic VR

Dr Marie-Laure Cazin will present the study she has been conducting in the context of her European Mobilitas + postdoctoral grant with Enactive Virtuality Lab BFM, TLU (2021-2022). She is currently developing an artistic prototype of Emotive VR for interactive 360° film. The project aims to obtain emotional interactivity of the viewer with the film’s soundtrack. While experiencing her VR film, Freud’s last hypnosis, the emotional responses of the viewers are collected with physio-sensors, eye-tracking and with personal interviews after the viewing. Project is in collaboration with Dr Mati Mõttus from the Interaction lab of the school of Digital Technology (TLU) and Matias Harju, composer and sound designer (Finland).

Marie-Laure Cazin is a French filmmaker and a researcher. She is teaching in Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design-TALM in France. She was a postdoctoral researcher at MEDIT BFM, Tallinn University with a European post doctoral grant Mobilitas + in 2022-23. She received a PhD in Aix-Marseille University for her thesis entitled “Cinema et Neurosciences, du Cinéma Émotif à Emotive VR”[1] in 2020. This thesis is about cinema experience, contextualized by neurosciences research, describing the neuronal process of emotions and trying to think further about the analogy between cinema and the thinking process. She is also a regular teacher in the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design TALM, le Mans (France).

She comes from an artistic background, having studied in Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, the Jan van Eyck Academy, post graduate program in residency (Masstricht, Netherlands) and in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She has conducted many art-science projects together with scientific partners that have been shown in many exhibitions and festivals, creating prototypes that renew the filmic experience. In her Emotive Cinema (2014) and Emotive VR (2020) projects she applies physiological feedback, like EEG, in order to obtain an emotional analysis from the brains’ activity of the viewers that changes the film’s scenario.

[1]Cazin, M-L. 2020. Cinéma et neurosciences : du cinéma émotif à emotive VR. Accèss https://www.theses.fr/2020AIXM0009

MATI MÕTTUS: Psyhco-physiology and eye-tracking of CINEMATIC VR

There are various ways to track our emotions through physiometric signals. Most common of these signals are electrical conductance of skin, facial expressions, cardiography and encephalography. In my talk I’d like to discuss the reliability and intrusiveness of physiological measurements in interactive art. While the reliability of measurements is not too critical in the domain of art, the intrusive sensors over art-enjoyers’ bodies can easily spoil the artistic experience.

Mati Mõttus is a lecturer and researcher in the School of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University. His doctoral degree on computer science in the field of human-computer interaction focused on “Aesthetics in Interaction Design” (2018). The current research interests are hedonic experiences in human-computer interaction. The focus is two-fold. The use of psycho-physiological signals in detecting users’ feelings while interacting with technology and explaining emotional behavior on one hand. On the other hand, the design of interactive systems, based on psycho-physiological loops.

Robert McNamara: Empathic nuances with virtual avatars – a novel theory of compassion

Technological mediation is the idea that technology affects or changes us as we use it, either consciously or unconsciously. Digital avatars, whether encountered in VR or otherwise, are one such technology, often in concert with various machine learning applications, that pose potential unknown and understudied interactional effects on humans, whether through their use in art, video games, or governmental applications (such as the pilot program at EU borders which was used to detect traveler deception, iborderctrl). One area where avatars may pose particular interest for academic study is in their perceived ability to not only evoke the uncanny valley effect, but also in their potential to promote a “distancing effect.” It is hypothesized that interaction with avatars, as an artistic process, may also result in increased expressions of cognitive empathy through the conscious or unconscious process of abductive reasoning.

Robert McNamara has a background in American criminal law as well as degrees related to audiovisual ethnography and eastern classics. He is from New York State, but has lived in Tallinn for the last five years. Currently, he specifically focuses on researching related to ethical, socio-political, anthropological, and legal aspects in the context of employing human-like VR avatars and related XR technology. He is co-authoring journal papers in collaboration with other experts on the team related to the social and legal issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality avatars for governmental immigration regimes. During 05-09/2020 Robert G. McNamara worked as a visiting research fellow working with the MOBTT90 team. 10/2020 onwards he continues working with the project as a doctoral student. In the Enactive Virtuality Lab Robert has contributed to co-authored writing; the most recent paper accepted for publication is entitled “Well-founded Fear of Algorithms or Algorithms of Well-founded Fear? Hybrid Intelligence in Automated Asylum Seeker Interviews”, Journal of Refugee Studies, Oxford UP,

DEBORA C.F. DE SOUZA: SELF-RAting of Emotions in simulated immigration interview

Humans benefit from emotional interchange as a source of information to adapt and react to external stimuli and navigate their reality. Computers, on the other hand, rely on classification methods. It uses models to calculate and differentiate affective information from other human inputs because of the emotional expressions that emerge through human body responses, language, and behavior changes. Nevertheless, theoretically and methodologically, emotion is a challenging topic to address in Human-Computer Interaction. During her master’s studies, Debora explored methods for assessing physiological responses to emotional experience and aiding the emotion recognition features of Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs). Her study developed an interface prototype for emotion elicitation and simultaneous acquisition of the user’s physiological and self-reported emotional data.

Debora C. F. de Souza is a Brazilian visual artist and journalist. Graduated in Social Communication at the University of Mato Grosso do Sul Foundation in Brazil. Her artwork and research are marked by experiments with different kinds of images and audiovisual media. Recently graduated with an MA in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); she is now a doctoral student at the Information Society Technologies and a Junior Researcher at the School of Digital Technologies at Tallinn University. In the Enactive Virtuality Lab, she is researching the implications of anthropomorphic virtual agents on the human affective states and the implications of such interactions in collaborative and social contexts, such as medical simulation training.

SCHEDULE 14-18

14:00-14:10 Pia Tikka: State of Darkness (S0D)- Enactive VR experience

14:10-14:45 Tanja Bastamow – Designing performative scenography (SoD)

14:45-15:00 Ats Kurvet –Designing humanlike characters (SoD)

15:00-15:20 Matias Harju – Traits of Virtual Reality Sound Design

15:20-15:40 Marie-Laure Cazin:Freud’s last hypnosis, validating emotion driven enactions in cinematic VR

15:40-16:00 Mati Mōttus: Experimenting with Emotive VR cinema

Break (10 min)

16:15-17:15 Robert McNamara: Empathic nuances with virtual avatars: a novel theory of compassion.

17:15-17:35 Debora Souza: Self-rating of emotions in simulated immigration interview

17:35- 18:00 Discussion

****

BFM PhD is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Enactive Virtuality Lab hybrid seminar
Time: Nov 24, 2022 10:00 Helsinki

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95032524868

Meeting ID: 950 3252 4868
One tap mobile
+3726601699,,95032524868# Estonia
+3728801188,,95032524868# Estonia

Dial by your location
+372 660 1699 Estonia
+372 880 1188 Estonia
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 950 3252 4868
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abUQJvmMJi

Join by Skype for Business
https://zoom.us/skype/95032524868

Invited talk at Tehohoitopäivat 01.-02. Nov 2022 Helsinki University Hospital conference

Pia Tikka

The Finnish language talk “Interfacing Humans and Machines – Challenges for virtual simulation training” was part of the Enactive Virtuality Lab’s efforts to implement the gained scientific findings and innovations within the XR field to serve the societal wellbeing and to find solutions for challenges in the domain of healthcare and medical training.

https://sthy.fi/sthy-koulutus/tehohoitopaivat-9/

page1image3220612576 Simulation session Nov 02, 2022 [in. Finnish]

5. SIMULAATION MONET MAHDOLLISUUDET Pj LT Maarit Hult

Mikä simulaatio? -katsaus simulaatioiden kiehtovaan maailmaan, Ayl, LT Taru Kantola, Anestesia ja leikkausosasto, Meilahden sairaala, HUS (Image above)

“Simulation saves lives.” Oyl, dos. Pekka Aho, Vatsakeskus, Meilahden sairaala, HUS Ihmisen ja koneen rajapinnalla – simulaation haasteita virtuaalitodellisuudessa,

Tutkimusprofessori Pia Tikka, Media Innovaatioiden ja Digitaalisen Kulttuurin Huippukeskus (MEDIT), Tallinnan yliopisto

***

SUOMEN TEHOHOITOYHDISTYKSEN KOULUTUSPÄIVÄT
Clarion Hotelli, Helsinki Tyynenmerenkatu 2, BYSA 3.krs

1.-2.11.2022

Tiistai 1.11.2022

1. LAATU JA HOIDON TULOSTEN SEURANTA. Pj. Dos Mika Valtonen, TYKS

2. EEG:N UUDET MAHDOLLISUUDET Pj. LT Ville Jalkanen, TAYS

3. HOIDON RAJAT MUUTTUVAT- UUDET POTILASRYHMÄT TEHOHOIDOSSA

Keskiviikko 2.11.2022

4. TURVALLISUUSUHAT JA VARAUTUMINEN Pj Dos Mika Valtonen ja Dos Juha Koskenkari

5. SIMULAATION MONET MAHDOLLISUUDET Pj LT Maarit Hult

Invited talk at Elvytys 2022 Helsinki University Hospital 1 day seminar 24 Oct

Pia Tikka

My presentation “Hybrid intelligence – applications in virtual medical training” was part of the Enactive virtuality Lab’s efforts to implement the gained scientific findings and innovations of the XR field to serve the societal wellbeing and to find solutions for challenges in the domain of healthcare and medical training.

https://www.hus.fi/ajankohtaista/elvytys-2022-symposium-kokosi-elvytystoiminnan-kehittajat-yhteen

The Clarion Hall was filled with medical experts and healthcare workers, the professional audience that elicits my greatest respect and admiration. Thank you for serving us — everyday.

Talk at « Art Interactif Numérique et Sciences Cognitives » Journée d’étude Octobre 14, 2022 l’Université Polytechnique Hauts de France, Valenciennes

« Art Interactif Numérique et Sciences Cognitives »

Journée d’étude Octobre 14, 2022

Au bâtiment Matisse de l’Université Polytechnique Hauts de France, Valenciennes https://www.uphf.fr/en

Avec expositions des artistes

Pia Tikka: Designing enactive co-precence with humanlike characters in narrative contexts

The scope of technologies available to filmmakers is expanding and apparently opening new avenues of storytelling. My focus is on the application of new findings in the fields of psychophysiological tracking and machine learning in order to create virtual characters, whose behavior resembles that of humans in the most natural ways.

In this talk I will share some recent updates in this fast developing domain and discuss their possible applications to the co-presence of human participants and humanlike virtual characters in narrative contexts. This implies a range of multidisciplinary challenges. The core research question is what types of roles can the filmmaker give to machine learning and psycho-physiological tracking in the process of creating humanlike behaviors in narrative settings. The discussion draws from the holistic embodied approach to the mind, which in my view provides useful explanatory frames for my claims. The talk aims to inspire discussions related to the use of adaptive artificial characters in the future of virtual storytelling.

A talk at SCSMI conference June 9-12, 2021

Title: Dialogue between neuro- and pheno-dynamics of film viewing experience

https://scsmi-online.org/conference

Tikka, Pia and Rosic, Jelena

One of the main questions put forward by neuro-phenomenology (Varela 1996) is how to bring into a frui\ul dialogue the two to allegedly incommensurable domains of science, namely the one unraveling neural functions of being-human in the world (neuro-dynamics), and that describing the experience of being-human in the world (pheno-dynamics). As it seems in the light of current literature, the main challenge lies in the identification of the mutual constraints (ibid.), this is, the domain-specific conditions on both fields that would allow for reciprocally fruitul dialogue. By discussing phenomenologically informed reflections and corresponding findings of a neurocinematic study we aim to apply such an interdisciplinary dialogue in the domain of film studies. We argue that neurocinematic methods can be optimised with specifications provided by phenomenological inquiry.

References
1. Greene, B. (1999). The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.
2. Kauttonen, J., Hlushchuk, Y., Jääskeläinen, I. P., & Tikka, P. (2018). Brain mechanisms underlying cue-based memorizing during free viewing of movie Memento. NeuroImage, 172, 313–325.
3. Memento (2000). Directed by Christopher Nolan. US: Summit Entertainment & Team Todd.
4. Petitmengin C. (2006). Describing one’s subjective experience in the second person: An interview method for the science of consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 5(3-4), 229–269.
5. Varela, Francisco J. (1996). Neurophenomenology. Journal of Consciousness Studies 3(4), 330–349.

Accepted to be presented. Cancelled by PT.

Round table at Moscow Neurotechnology and Freedom -conference

Pia Tikka, Panelist at Moscow Neurotechnology and Freedom -conference march 18. 2021, 19-20:30 (GMT+3)

Image: Panelists

Program

Neuroscience & Art

Will be held on March 18, 2021 16:00-22:00 (Moscow Standard Time: GMT+3)

International оnline сonference «Neurotechnology and Freedom».

Organized by the Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, HSE University

Scientists, philosophers, and artists will discuss ethical, social, and legal issues related to the development of neurotechnologies.

Preliminary оnline program сonference:

16:00 — 16:15 Vasily Klucharev, Director of Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, PhD in Biology

16:15 — 16:45 Video presentation (opinions of experts on neuroscience and freedom)

16:45 — 17:00 Break

17:00 — 19:00 Talks:

17:00 — 17:25 Prof. Danil Raseev, Saint Petersburg University, Russia, expert of the Russian Science Foundation

17:25 — 17:50 Dr. Suzanne Dikker, NYU Max Planck Center for Language, Music, and Emotion, USA

17:50 — 18:15 Prof. Dr. Gabriel Curio, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

18:15 — 18:40 Prof. Risto Ilmoniemi, Aalto University, Finland

18:40 — 19:00 Dr. Ksenia Fedorova Leiden University, the Netherlands

19:00 — 20:30 Round table:

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Curio, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, Dr. Suzanne Dikker, NYU Max Planck Center for Language, Music, and Emotion, USA; Prof. Risto Ilmoniemi, Aalto University, Finland, Prof. Mikhail Lebedev, HSE University, Russia and Skoltech Center for Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Russia; Dr. Ippolit Markelov, ITMO University, «18 Apples», Russia, Dr. Maria Nazarova, HSE University, Russia and Centre for Brain Research and Neurotechnologies, FMBA, Russia; Dr. Vadim Nikulin, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany, and HSE University, Russia; Prof. Danil Raseev, Saint Petersburg University, Russia; Dr. Prof. Pia Tikka, Enactive Virtuality Lab, Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM) and Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT), Tallinn University

20:30-21:00 Report: Prof. Patrick Haggard, University College London, UK

moderators: Prof. Vasily Klucharev, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Russia; media art theorist, Dr. Ksenia Fedorova Leiden University, the Netherlands

21:00 -—21:15 Break

21:15 — 22:00 Presentation of art projects: Ippolit Markelov artist, researcher, PhD in Biology, ITMO, «18 Apples»

Panelist in Moscow Round table The Art of Moving Images Today and Forever – Dec 18

Pia Tikka

NETWORK PROJECT-FORECAST PRO&CONTRA – three days in Moscow, Dec 16-18

«MEDIA ART 2020–2040»

MediaArtLab is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the PRO&CONTRA network project «MEDIA ART 2020–2040», which will bring together the pioneers of the world media art in the format of discussions-forecasts and online exhibition. The Media Forum is a festival consistently exploring contradictions and interconnections of cinema and video art.

DECEMBER 18, 7 PM (GMT+3)

Round table The Art of Moving Images Today and Forever

2020 has transferred all cultural activities to the network. Cinema and video are watched the same way now: on a computer sitting on a sofa. We now have the audience from all the corners of the world that we have never been aiming for — together with a tactile hunger and general screen fatigue. It seems that now it is the time to talk about the art of moving images — what it has become and what it will be in the future.

Moderator: Olga Shishko (Russia), curator, founder of the MediaArtLab.

Participants: Pia Tikka (Estonia), Martin Honzik (Austria), Erkki Huhtamo (Finland/USA), Boris Debackere (Belgium/Netherlands), Olesya Turkina (Russia), Andrey Velikanov (Russia), Miloš Vojtěchovský (Czech Republic), Peter Weibel (Austria), Olia Lialina (Russia), Christa Sommerer (Austria) and Laurent Mignonneau (France), Bjørn Melhus (Germany/Norway), Shelly Silver (USA), Raymond Bellour (France), Kathy Rae Huffman (USA), Alexandra Dementieva (Russia/Belgium).

The event will be held in Zoom in Russian and English with simultaneous translation. If you want to use the translation, please, register via: https://mediaartlab-org.timepad.ru/event/1505852/

Attached, please, find the full program of the event, duration up to 2 hours.

The links to the follow the Discussion December 18.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/439832857035358

Timepad registration: https://mediaartlab-org.timepad.ru/event/1505852/

###

FULL PROGRAM

See below

NETWORK PROJECT-FORECAST PRO&CONTRA

«MEDIA ART 2020–2040»

FULL PROGRAM

DECEMBER 16, 7 PM (GMT+3)

Round table “Media Art: Communication Shaping the Future”

DECEMBER 16, 9 PM (GMT+3)

Opening of the online exhibition “back forward rewind” on the website mediaartlab.ru

DECEMBER 18, 7 PM (GMT+3)

Round table “The Art of Moving Images Today and Forever”

DECEMBER 18, 9 PM (GMT+3)

Zoom-party in honor of the 20th anniversary of MediaArtLab

DECEMBER 16 /// 7 PM (GMT+3)

Round table

Media Art: Communication Shaping the Future

Together with the growth of the Internet, the end of the 20th century brought us new forms of art that explore how technologies changed our world and, more importantly, how a man changed. It is only logical that this new art could exist in the digital sphere only and use most experimental developments as its instruments.MediaArtLab came to be as a platform that started to look for a way to communicate with such art, to explain it to the audience, to help professionals speak the same language with artists, who use radically different aesthetic criteria. Now that digitalization of culture has become a common place, it seems symbolic to celebrate the anniversary of the MediaArtLab with a discussion on the subject that was topical the year it was born and became pretty much the most crucial for art today.What impact does the media have on our ability to communicate without distortion of a meaning? What limitations can we never overcome neither in virtual reality nor in imaginative spaces? What is going to happen to freedom of speech on the Internet of late capitalism in five or more years?

Moderators: Anna Bouali (Russia), curator, producer for MediaArtLab; Arjon Dunnewind (The Netherlands), artist, researcher, founder of the IMPAKT festival.

Participants: Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Dmitry Bulatov (Russia), George Drivas (Greece), Marina Gržinić (Slovenia), JODI (Belgium), Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan), Alexey Shulgin (Russia), Rasa Šmite and Raitis Šmits (Latvia), Olga Shishko (Russia), Andrey Velikanov (Russia).

The event will be held in Zoom in Russian and English with simultaneous translation. If you want to use the translation, please, register via: https://mediaartlab-org.timepad.ru/event/1505842/. If you do not need the translation, please, join the broadcast on the website of the project.

MEDIAARTLAB.RU

«MEDIA ART 2020–2040»

DECEMBER 18 /// 7 PM (GMT+3)

Round table The Art of Moving Images Today and Forever

The most important project of the MediaArtLab is the Media Forum, a festival consistently exploring contradictions and interconnections of cinema and video art which have undergone a serious revision in 2020 with the transfer of all cultural activity to the network. It turned out that both cinema and video are watched the same way now: on a computer sitting on a sofa. We now have the audience from all the corners of the world that we have never been aiming for — together with a tactile hunger and general screen fatigue. It seems that now it is the time to talk about the art of moving images — what it has become and what it will be in the future. How do we re-define our cultural life in isolation in the light of restrictions? Will there appear new online-cinemas that expand our experience of the moving image and bring us back the experience of care and touch? Great epidemics, pandemics and wars have always come together with dramatic changes in art, what changes can we expect due to COVID-19? What representations of isolated body and sickness can be found in the moving image? What are the formal and imagined strategies adopted by the artists of the past and present to reflect the conditions of the pandemic? Will we succeed in slowing down the flow of images that overwhelms us?

Moderator: Olga Shishko (Russia), curator, founder of the MediaArtLab.

Participants: Martin Honzik (Austria), Erkki Huhtamo (Finland/USA), Boris Debackere (Belgium/Netherlands), Olesya Turkina (Russia), Andrey Velikanov (Russia), Miloš Vojtěchovský (Czech Republic), Peter Weibel (Austria), Olia Lialina (Russia), Christa Sommerer (Austria) and Laurent Mignonneau (France), Bjørn Melhus (Germany/Norway), Shelly Silver (USA), Raymond Bellour (France), Kathy Rae Huffman (USA), Alexandra Dementieva (Russia/Belgium), Pia Tikka (Finland).

The event will be held in Zoom in Russian and English with simultaneous translation. If you want to use the translation, please, register via: https://mediaartlab-org.timepad.ru/event/1505852/. If you do not need the translation, please, join the broadcast on the website of the project.

NETWORK PROJECT-FORECAST PRO&CONTRA

Online-exhibiiton “back forward rewind”

It is quite symbolic that—due to obvious reasons—the anniversary exhibition of MediaArtLab takes place online, in the virtual space. After all, the lab was established in the 1990s precisely for exploring and conceptualizing the digital environment, which has been engulfing humanity deeper and deeper. As an open platform, MediaArtLab has built an international community of artists and invites them to reflect on the new reality today. “back forward rewind” is an in-depth review of themes and artistic methods developed by MediaArtLab over twenty years of its work, a lens to convey the artists’ view of the past, the future, and back to the present. Among them are utopias, environmental problems, anxiety, and dreams. The exhibition title suggests a free surfing through artworks—as if they were frames of an elusive fluid world,—and through imagination of the artists, each of them having contributed to the image of contemporary media art.

Participants: Tanya Akhmetgalieva (Russia), The Blue Soup (Russia), Alexandra Dementieva (Russia/Belgium), George Drivas (Greece), Omer Fast (Israel), William Hooker and Phill Niblock (USA), JODI (Belgium/The Netherlands), Sergey Kishchenko (Russia), Olia Lialina (Russia), Katherine Liberovskaya (Canada/USA), Bjørn Melhus (Germany/Norway), Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan), Csaba Nemes (Hungary), Marnix de Nijs (The Netherlands), Kenji Ouellet (Canada/Germany), Shelly Silver (USA), Rasa Šmite and Raitis Šmits (Latvia), Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau (Austria/France), Eve Sussman and Simon Lee (USA), Miloš Vojtěchovský (Czech Republic), Martin Zet (Czech Republic).

The exhibition will be available on the website mediaartlab.ru from 21:00 (GMT + 3) December 16, 2020 to January 10, 2021

MEDIAARTLAB.RU

«MEDIA ART 2020–2040»

DECEMBER 18 /// 9 PM (GMT+3)

Zoom-party

Right after the end of the round table, Zoom will become a venue to congratulate MediaArtLab on its anniversary, to exchange memories, hopes and greetings from different parts of the world. The central theme of the party is a reunion of old friends and partners. There will be no strict regulations and rules, but there will be live interventions of people united by art and the network. Master of Ceremonies: Olesya Turkina (Russia). Among the special projects of the party are:

Olia Lialina /// Best Effort Network (2015/2020)

The piece reveals the process of sending and receiving datasets over computer networks. In her work, Olia is riding a carousel, and if the vision disappears, it means that the site (best.effort.network) is loaded on another browser. Olia will appear again when it is your device’s turn to receive the dataset. Zoom-performance will make the process of migration of information, images, and viewer’s attention visible. Each partier can offer his/her window to the artist to wander around…

Tanya Akhmetgalieva /// Masks (2020)

Creative thinking is like a filter an artist uses to perceive the reality. This is the way Van Gogh’s famous coloristic vision worked, and the same way new media artists use media as a lens to refract and reflect digital images. Tanya’s works create a distinctive psychedelic universe that one can try on during the party. Her masks can be put on and took off during the party, or they can be exchanged and used to distinguish like-minded people and push the limits of ordinary… Was not it the main reason for inventing the parties?

Andrei Silvestrov /// Jubilee Romance (2020)

Music by Iraida Yusupova with lyrics by Mirkakson (Russian for Life as a Dream)

A musical tribute to the anniversary of the MediaArtLab and to the memory of Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe.“Jubilee is the main word to define the late Soviet times. When we were kids, everything was “jubilee”—avenues, restaurants, gastronomes, cookies. But it was usually unclear whose and what’s jubilee it was. The piece combines different states of mind: nostalgia for the childhood, horrors of the diluted consciousness of the late Soviet era and acute feeling of inconsistency between a vibrant institution that is the MediaArtLab and a charnel notion of Jubilee”. Andrei Silvestrov

Vladislava Berezina, Marina Blinova, Anastasia Korotkova, Evgeny Kruglov, Svyatoslav Oleinik, Maria Romanova, Alexey Shulgin /// Discrete Therapy (2020)

Under new circumstances, we are looking for a language of safe cooperation. Having reconsidered musical improvisation, Alexei Shulgin and a team of musicians exposed therapeutic aspects of an improvisational act, in which the image of a musician (composer) finally dissolves into the stream of network sound. Interaction based on the intuition—established in the process of music-making—calls into question the notion of authorship and audience participation: each participant of the sessions is invited to take on the role of both a musician and a sensitive listener.

All the instructions for online-performances will be shared with the registered participants shortly before the party.

NETWORK PROJECT-FORECAST PRO&CONTRA

MEDIAARTLAB.RU

The project is supported by Trust For Mutual Understanding

Contact: mediaartlab@mediaartlab.ru

Keynote at Transdisciplinarity in Science and Arts UFSM, Brazil 22 Oct 2020

Keynote speaker at The Organizing Committee of the Transdisciplinarity in Science and Arts – Capes Print Symposium at UFSM, Brazil

20 – 22. Oct 2020

Pia Tikka

Virtuality by enaction: Imaginary worlds beyond technology

Humanlikeness is in the eye of the beholder, not in the machine. My argument is that human encounter with an artificial human relies on the mind’s simulation of human-to-human meetings, given similarly meaningful contexts. People have a cognitive drive, or tendency to anthropomorphize intentions and behaviours of humans to beings and things they interact with, be they cats, dogs, vacuum cleaner robots, or abstract geometrical shapes. Reflecting against the human individual’s own experiences, they see emotions, intentions, hidden motivations everywhere. This is the human way to create virtuality, and it comes both via individual bodily experience in life situations as well as evolution of the genre. Thanks to it, human mind is capable of reaching beyond the known physical worlds, to imagine the unimagined, as made obvious, for example, by science fiction. In my creative work of authoring narrative encounters with artificial humane characters, the concept of humanlikeness itself is assumed to be a psychological construct of the human participant. Thus, the tumblestones on the way of implementation of artificial humans may not be the limitations of the technology but rather the characteristics of the bio-cultural humans themselves. My talk concludes with a particular focus on people who are not able to go out, hug trees, play tennis, and people who are tight to their bed. For them, virtuality by enaction means engaging with other humans in technologically augmented worlds. Application of artificial humans in the social and medical fields may provide yet unseen benefits – and dangers – beyond the imaginative powers of human minds.

The symposium is being organized by the Capes-PrInt Project’s researchers belonging to six postgraduate programs1 from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM, Brazil).