29 Sep 2016

RIXC Art Science Festival OPEN FIELDS Starts in Riga

Contemporary and networked responses to geophysical, socio-political and cultural shifts in European landscapes.

Open Fields is the title of this year's international conference and exhibition taking place in the framework of the annual RIXC Art Science Festival in Riga, from September 29 until October 1, 2016, focusing on new aesthetics, contemporary conditions, digital practices and the post-media situation. Since the first festival took place twenty years ago, the festival has grown and developed into a larger annual gathering in Northern Europe for international scholars and artists working at the intersection of arts, humanities and science.

The Open Fields Festival edition consisting of the Conference and Exhibition aims to present the most innovative approaches in artistic research, and to discuss the changing role of the arts, their transformative potential, and relation to the sciences.

The Open Fields Conference will take place from September 29 until October 1, 2016, in the National Library of Latvia. The Conference challenges the artistic research that is located in the contested territory between academic knowledge production and independent creative practices. Overall, this year we expect that together with the invited keynote speakers, featured session participants, and exhibition artists, more then 100 participants from 30 countries will participate in the festival, representing more then 60 universities, art centers, museums, institutions and companies, as well as independent artists, scientists and scholars from different fields, who are engaged in exploring the transformative potential of the arts.

The Conference will feature the outstanding Public Keynote lectures:
September 29, 16.30 Jussi Parikka / Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / UK
September 29, 17.30 Christiane Paul / New School / Whitney Museum / US
October 1, 16.00 Monica Bello / Arts at CERN / Switzerland

The Conference will be connected to the festival's featured Exhibition, which is taking place from September 30 to November 2, 2016 in the new Exhibition Hall of the National Library of Latvia. Partly curated, partly peer-reviewed, the exhibition will present 25 works by international artists, who are challenging the notion of art and contemporary aesthetics. They are moving across, bringing together and converging different knowledge, various media and diverse Fields, as well as using scientific, cultural and social data as new artistic mediums, and interpreting them in a new and meaningful ways.

The Opening of the Exhibition and Festival – September 29, 19.00, The National Library of Latvia.

Exhibition artists: Rafael LOZANO-HEMMER (MX/CA), Christoph HAAG (DE), Martin RUMORI (DE), Franziska WINDISCH (DE) & Ludwig ZELLER (DE), AUGER-LOIZEAU (UK), Subramanian RAMAMOORTHY (UK) & Alan MURRAY (UK), Laura BELOFF (FI) & Malena KLAUS (DE/DK), Erich BERGER (FI/AT) & Mari KETO (DK/FI), Das Vegas (LT/SE), Līvija DAUDZE (LV) &Valters GRIŠĀNS (LV), Gints GABRĀNS (LV), Mindaugas GAPŠEVIČIUS (LT/DE), Jānis GARANČS (LV), Adam HARVEY (US/DE), Bjørn Erik HAUGEN (NO), Jukka HAUTAMÄKI (FI/UK) & Roberto PUGLIESE (IT/FI), Ellie IRONS (US), Raphael KIM (UK), Karen LANCEL (NL) & Hermen MAAT (NL), Pei-Ying LIN (TW), Špela PETRIČ (SI), Dimitrios STAMATIS (GR) & Jasmina WEISS (SI), Mauro MARTINO (IT/US) & Jianxi GAO (CN/US), Avner PELED (IL/FI), Elisa SPIGAI (IT/FI), Idamaija PITKONEN PIGUET (FI) & Soujanyaa BORUAH (IN/FI), PolakVanBekkum / Esther POLAK (NL) and Ivar van BEKKUM (NL), Rasa SMITE & Raitis SMITS / RIXC (LV), Telcosystems (NL), Jan TORPUS (CH) & José NAVARRO (ES/CH), Paula VĪTOLA (LV), ::vtol:: (RU), Time's Up (AT/AU).

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, September 29, 2016
14.00 – Conference Registration
15.00 – Plenary Session: The Contemporary Condition – Key Concepts (Aarhus University / Contemporaneity Research Group)
PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURES:
16.30 – Jussi PARIKKA (Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / UK)
17.30 – Christiane PAUL (New School / Whitney Museum / US).
19.00 – The Opening of Open Fields Exhibition and RIXC Festival Reception
The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3

FRIDAY, September 30, 2016
09.30 – Conference Day 1: CONTEMPORANEITY / ART AS RESEARCH
Featured session by Liepaja university's Art Research Lab / Thematic keynotes / Parallel sessions
17.00 – Open Fields Book Review 1 (Featured session): book discussion by Armin MEDOSCH and Christiane PAUL.

SATURDAY, October 1, 2016
10.00 – 16.00 Conference Day 2: ECO-AESTHETICS / ART AND SCIENCE
Featured session by Changing Weathers project partners / Thematic keynotes / Parallel sessions
16.00 - PUBLIC KEYNOTE LECTURE: Monica BELLO (Arts at CERN / CH)
17.00 – 18.00 Open Fields Book Review 2 (20'x20 / Pecha Kucha format) presentations: by authors – Open Fields participants // Festival Closing: Art-Science Cocktails
The National Library of Latvia

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FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS

September 29 – November 2, 2016
OPEN FIELDS Exhibition
The Opening – September 29, 2016, 19.00.
The National Library of Latvia, Address: Mukusalas iela 3

September 28 – October 5, 2016
Turnton, a Small City on the Sea. Artists: Time's Up (AU/AT)
The Opening – September 28, 2016, 18.00
RIXC Gallery, Address: 11. novembra krastmala 35, entrance from Minsterejas iela

September 19 – October 2, 2016
Impules. The New Sound Days
The Opening – September 19, 2016, 20.00 // Performances and Guided Tour through the Exhibition – September 30, 21.00
RISEBA Architecture and Media Centre H2O 6, Address: Durbes iela 4

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The festival is organized by RIXC Center for New Media Culture.

Festival and Exhibition curators: Raitis Smits and Rasa Smite. Open Fields Conference Academic Partners: Liepaja University's Art Research Lab, RISEBA University for Business, Art and Technologies, and the Latvian Academy of Arts. RIXC Festival Exhibition and Open Fields Conference partners: Latvian National Library and Creative Europe's project Changing Weathers partners www.changingweathers.net/

Support: EU programme Creative Europe, the State Cultural Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga City Council, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Goethe Institute Riga, Mondriaan Fund, Pro Helvetia, LG Electronics Latvia, Capital, Xcelsior.


About the Open Fields Conference

This year RIXC with its European partners from the Changing Weathers project, and other collaborating institutions and universities from the Baltic Sea region and Europe, are introducing Open Fields, aiming to develop it towards an annual Riga based gathering for discussions on artistic research, the changing role of the arts in societies, art's transformative potential, and its relations to the sciences.

The International Conference Scientific Organizational board:

Prof. Lev MANOVICH / Software Studies Initiative / The Graduate Center, the City University of New York,
PhD. Armin MEDOSCH / Initiator of the Technopolitics working group in Vienna, Austria
PhD. Jussi PARIKKA / Winchester School of Art / the University of Southampton / UK
PhD. Geoff COX / School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
Prof. Kristin BERGAUST / Oslo and Akershus University, Norway
Assoc. prof. Laura BELOFF /the IT University in Copenhagen, Denmark / Finnish Bioart Society, FI
Dr. Lily DIAZ-KOMMONEN / Head of Research Department of Media, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
Dr. Ursula DAMM / Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany
Dr. Andris TEIKMANIS / Vice-rector, the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga
Dr. Vytautas MICHELKEVICIUS / Nida Art Colony, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
PhD. Margrét Elísabet ÓLAFSDÓTTIR / Art Education at the University of Akureyri, Iceland
Andrew Gryf PATERSON / Pixelache Helsinki / SERDE / Aalto University ARTS Media department, Helsinki
Dr. Piibe PIIRMA / Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
Dr. Janis KLEPERIS / Hydrogen Laboratory, Solid State Physics Institute, the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Dr. Raivo KELOMEES / the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Regine DEBATTY / we-make-money-not-art.com, London, UK

Conference participants: Jamie ALLEN (CH), Sandra ALVARO (ES), Anders-Petter ANDERSSON (NO), Ágnes Karolina BAKK (HU), Marita BATNA (AU), Meghan Moe BEITIKS (US), Julien BELLANGER (FR), Laura BELOFF (DK), Tracey BENSON (AU), Kristin BERGAUST (NO), Erich BERGER (AT / FI / DK), Samir BHOWMIK (FI), Maryam BOLOURI (DE), Leonore BONACCINI (FR), Jan Hendrik BRUEGGEMEIER (AU), Sarah BURGER (CH), Benjamin CADON (FR), Cédric CARLES (FR), Aigars CEPLĪTIS (LV), Ioan Ovidiu CERNEI (AT), Ewen CHARDRONNET (FR), Alice COLQUHOUN (UK), Geoff COX (DK), Ursula DAMM (DE), Irina DANILOVA (US), Marieke DE JONG (NL), Daniela DE PAULIS (NL), Jurij DOBRIAKOV (LT), Anna DUMITRIU (NL), Ahmed EL-FEKY (NO), Christina ELINGSEN (NO), Lisa ERB (DE), Lucas EVERS (NL), Bobbie FARSIDES (UK), Christian FAUBEL (DE), Cathy FITZGERALD (IE), Patricia FLANAGAN (AU), Frode FLEM (NO), Xavier FOURT (FR), Raune FRANKJÆR (DK), Natalia FUCHS (RU), Gabriela GALATI (IT), Francisco Javier Fernandez GALLARDO (UK), Jānis GARANČS (LV), Verina GFADER (DK), Christina Della GIUSTINA (NL), Ance GRICMANE (LV), Artūrs GRUDULS (LV), Evin GÜLER (NO), Chris HALES (UK), Martin HOWSE (DE), Helena HUNTER (UK), Adam HYDE (US), Ellie IRONS (US), Lucy IRVINE (AU), Liene JAKOBSONE (LV), Alana JELINEK (UK), Terry JENOURE (US), Ryan JORDAN (HK), Owen KELLY (FI), Raivo KELOMEES (EE), Jon KEMP (UK), Raphael KIM (UK), Jānis KLEPERIS (LV), Ainārs KNOKS (LV), Anne KØLBÆK IVERSEN (DK), Mara-Johanna KÖLMEL (DE), Saskia KORSTEN (NL), Marinos KOUTSOMICHALIS (GR), Arendse KRABBE (NL), Matteo LANFRANCHI (IT), Deborah LAWLER-DORMER (NZ), Pēteris LESNIČENOKS (LV), Marie-Eve LEVASSEUR (DE), Jacob LUND (DK), Mauro MARTINO (USA), Armin Medosch (AT), Iris MEIER (US), Margarida MENDES (PT), Vytautas MICHELKEVIČIUS (LT), Anna Maria MONTEVERDI (IT), Tālis MUZIKANTS (LV), Mirko NIKOLIĆ (UK), Azadeh NILCHIANI (FR), Netta NORRO (SI), Vladimirs ŅEMCEVS (LV), Pauline O'CONNELL (IE), Thomas ORTIZ (FR), Aneta PANEK (DE), Matt PARKER (UK), Andrew PATERSON (FI), Luke PENDRELL (UK), Krista PĒTERSONE (LV), Alexandru RAEVSCHI (DE / FI), Tara ROLFSEN (NO), Ellen RØED (NO), Grit RUHLAND (DE), Martin RUMORI (AT), Audrey SAMSON (CA), Vincenzo SANSONE (IT), Martin SCHNEIDER (DE), Lena SÉRAPHIN (FI), Andreas SIMON (CH), Eva SJUVE (UK), Ilva SKULTE (LV), Lisa SO YOUNG PARK (HK), Ela SPALDING (PA), Justyna STEPIÉN (PL), Minka STOYANOVA (HK), Joanna  SZLAUDERBACH (DE), Rasa ŠMITE (LV), Andris TEIKMANIS (LV), Jan TORPUS (CH), Milos TRAKILOVIC (DE), Lucas VAN DER VELDEN (NL), Mārtiņš VANAGS (LV), Bart VANDEPUT (BE / FI), Rihards VĪTOLS (LV), Yvonne VOLKART (CH), Artis VOLKOVS (LV), Frieda WIK (NO), Danielle WILDE (DK), Amy YOUNGS (US), Solvita ZARIŅA (LV), Emily ZHUKOV (PA), Karolina ŻYNIEWICZ (PL).