Image credits: Sahej Rahal. Druj.exe. 2021

Conference webpage: https://festival2022.rixc.org/

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SPLINTERED REALITIES

The 5th RENEWABLE FUTURES Conference (Hybrid / Virtual)

in the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival 2022

October 6 – 8, 2022

Riga, Latvia / virtually from Liepaja, Karlsruhe, Oslo

“An ecology of the virtual is .. just as pressing as ecologies of the visible world” – Felix Guattari

RIXC in Riga is preparing the next edition of its annual Art and Science festival, which under the title SPLINTERED REALITIES will take place in Riga and virtually, including the exhibition opening program (August 25, 2022) followed by artist talks, guided tours, workshops and performances (August 25 – October 16, 2022), and the final international conference event (October 6–8,  2022).

The SPLINTERED REALITIES Conference of RIXC Festival, is the 5th edition of the Renewable Futures conference series. The Conference will take place from October 6 – 8, 2022, as a hybrid event; rhe on-site part will take place at the RIXC gallery in Riga, hosting keynote speakers, panel curators, co-chairs and moderators, while most of the participants (selected through an open call) will be joining online, including in hybridity format sessions co-hosted by RIXC partners – NAIA in Karlsruhe, MPLab in Liepaja and FeLT in Oslo.

SPLINTERED REALITIES 

Exhibition

August 25 – October 16, 2022

kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia

Conference webpage: https://festival2022.rixc.org/

The exhibition is an intent to play at the “splinters'' of our contemporary condition, affected moreover by an ongoing war, post pandemics, media ubiquity and social division. It features the artworks by international artists who explore transformative potential of art and extended reality, and ground their 'realism' position in the perspective of 'naturecultures' – in the spirit of Guattari's ecosophy, Latour's 'terrestrial coexistence', and Haraway's 'arts of living on a damaged planet'…

Curators: Raitis SMITS, Rasa SMITE

Artists: Debbie DING / DBBD.SG (SG), Jacob KIRKEGAARD (DK), Mario KLINGEMANN (DE), Hayoun KWON (KR), Memo Akten (TR), Laurent MIGNONNEAU & Christa SOMMERER (AT), Alvis MISJUNS (LV), Jurģis PETERS (LV), Sahej RAHAL (IN), Allison STEWART (US), Sabīne ŠNĒ (LV), Theo TRIANTAFYLLIDIS (GR/US).

SPLINTERED REALITIES 

Conference

October 6 – 8, 2022,

Riga (Hybrid and Virtual)

Conference tickets and registration: https://bit.ly/3b2GQIo 

Conference webpage: https://festival2022.rixc.org/

The SPLINTERED REALITIES Conference will be structured into a three-day program, with each “Splinter Session” focusing on a different area or field, identifying the key “splinters” and discussing how to make tentative steps towards reconstituting our realities, everyday lives, and communication with each other, now and into the future. 

We want to meet in Riga and online, to talk, eat, play – and probably also cry – together, and imagine what it would take to build a world in which wars like the current Russian onslaught on Ukraine would become impossible. We choose such a perspective because our realism is neither that of military strategists, nor that of cultural pessimists. Instead, ours is a desperate realism – perhaps in the spirit of Guattari's ecososphy, Latour's terrestrial coexistence, or Haraway's question of how to live on a damaged Earth.. Media ubiquity, pandemic concerns, and social divisions have landed us in a world of splintered realities – to live with? to heal? to learn from nature?

The Conference will also look at creative practices that deal with “splintered realities”, showcasing what art can do and discussing what kind of (extended reality) technologies can help us to become more open (and sensitive) towards each other and our environments. 

We don't expect to provide answers. Instead, the conference aims to be a forum for revising the “splinters” of our contemporary condition – affected moreover by ongoing military conflict.

[Splinter Session 01: Deep Europe] on Day 1 (6 Oct) – “in the rear-view mirror of history” – will focus on the current situation in Europe, with a focus on the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe, discussing and evaluating the “splinters” from the perspective of the past. Day 1 will feature the “Syndicate Meeting”, and artist presentations hosted by MPLab in Liepaja, which will be European Capital of Culture in 2027.

The “Syndicate” was an extended, informal network of artists and cultural practitioners based in Europe and beyond, that was active in the second half of the 1990s. Besides its online mailing list, the participants organised meetings for amicable encounters and professional exchange. We want to revive this format and again hold a Syndicate Meeting under the label of "Deep Europe", a notion that does not refer to a particular territory, but to the awareness that identities and histories are always layered and entangled, a messy formation that cannot be 'cleared up', but that should rather be cherished and cultivated - in Europe, and elsewhere.

Session 01 curators: Andreas Broeckmann and Rasa Smite.
Topics: Deep Europe, Entangled Histories, Cultivated Futures, New Ecosophies, Extended Realities

[Splinter Session 02: Naturecultures] on Day 2 (7 Oct) – “how to live in the damaged world” – will examine eco-feminist perspectives and other new ecosophies, learning from nature and our relations with it, in a search of new cultural theories and art practices that contribute towards goals of socio-ecological justice.

Day 2 will be hosted by the new Karlsruhe based art center – NAIA (Naturally Artificial Intelligence Art association), featuring presentations by Karlsruhe UNESCO Media Art city artists.

Session 02 curators and co-chairs: Anett Holzheid, Eva-Maria Lopez, Daria Mille / NAIA
Topics: NatureCultures, Eco-feminism, More-than-Human, Socio-Ecological Justice, Naturally/Artificial Intelligences… 

[Splinter Session 03: Living Technologies] on Day 3 (8 Oct) – ”in intersections between human beings, living environments and machines” – will focus on how life and the sense of aliveness are experienced and expressed today, in the face of environmental degradation, global pandemics, the war in Ukraine – splinters that raise the fear of domination, and that evoke a sense of the uncanny. Might they also point to a world of possibilities of becoming, creation of new forms and behaviors? Can we co-create more balanced forms of existence?

Day 3 will be hosted by the FeLT project team from Oslo, Norway, who are also co-founders of the Renewable Futures conference series. It will also feature the Green Revisited Book presentation by editors Kristin Bergaust, Jens Hauser and Rasa Smite.

Session 03 curators: Kristin Bergaust, Jens Hauser and FeLT (Oslo) project team.
Topics: Techno-Ecological Sensoriums, AI and Biological Systems, Technologies of Sensible, Terrestrial Co-existence, Beyond Green…

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Registration Fees / Tickets

Full fee: 36 EUR
Students: 50% reduction.

Conference Registration and tickets are available via eventbrite system:
https://bit.ly/3b2GQIo

On-site Exhibitions in kim? and RIXC gallery has a free entrance.
Guided Tours for school groups can be booked for no charge via e-mail rixc@rixc.org

Producers and Contact:
The Festival is Produced by The RIXC Centre for New Media Culture.
Festival curators: Rasa Smite (rasa@rixc.org) and Raitis Smits (raitis@rixc.org)
Festival producer: Agnese Baranova (agnese@rixc.org)
PR and information coordinator: Liva Silina (rixc@rixc.org)
Contact e-mail: rixc@rixc.org
Phones: +371 29635167 (Agnese Baranova), +371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)
Address: RIXC the Centre for New Media Culture, Lencu iela 2, Riga, LV-1010, Latvia

Partners:
The SPLINTERED REALITIES Festival and Conference partners are: NAIA/Karlsruhe, MPLab/Liepaja, FeLT/Oslo.

Support:

The festival is supported by Riga City Council, State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Goethe-Institut Riga, LG Electronics.

Informative support:

Arterritory, Echo Gone Wrong, Satori, We Make Money Not Art, Diena.