Today, on June 11th, with a lecture and "bacteria battery" workshop by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, ended the Second LCCA Summer School "This Is Tomorrow!". It was organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art will take place in art residency at Rucka manor, Cēsis, on June 6-11. For six days, young and emerging artists, art critics, curators and cultural project managers from the Baltic States had the opportunity to take part in a multi-faceted educational programme, consisting of discussions, lectures and creative workshops.

Programme

(full programme is available here)

Thursday, June 11, 12.30 – 14.30

Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits / RIXC (LV):

lecture:

The Ecological Perspective in Contemporary Media Art

In a contemporary media art today we are facing the transformation from new media to post media situation, which is characterised not only by equality and convergence of different media technologies (accordingly to Peter Weibel), but also by growing interest into science, biotechnologies and ecological issues. Artists who in the 90s were in the contemporary art avant-garde exploring digital frontiers, today are among those, who in a profound way are engaged in a quest for a more sustainable future. By working together with people from very different background – scientists and farmers, environmental experts and innovators in technology, urban gardeners and rural communities, cultural heritage researchers and future visionaries, artists such as those from Renewable Network are building radically new perspective, which we call “techno-ecological”. In our lecture we will be tracing back into the history of art, science and technology, following their parallel lines of development and highlighting crossovers. By analysing examples from Renewable Network and our own work, as well as from three more recent RIXC's curated exhibitions – Techno-Ecologies (2011), Save As (2013) and Fields (2014) we intend to show the shifts from new media to post-media conditions, and from techno-scientific to techno-ecological paradigm.

creative workshop:

Bacteria Battery

The idea behind the “bacteria battery” - art and science research project by RIXC is to explore the relations between biological systems, information technologies and green energy production. Bacteria battery workshop is an experiment with the 'next-generation' bio-technology (called – microbial fuel cells / MFC) and how it can be approached and interpreted through artistic perspective. MFC technology is based on a bio-electrochemical system that converts chemical energy to electrical energy by using microorganisms. Bacteria who live in a dirty water, mud, that is, everywhere where they can 'access' and 'eat' organic matter and where there is nearly no oxygen, release free electrons. During the workshop we will show how to make a “living battery”, in which the electricity is produced from bacteria living in a mud. We also will be introducing how this technology have been used in science (e.g. deep-ocean research, medical devices) as well as in the arts – we will be showing how us – the artists from RIXC for several years now have been collaborating with scientists from Solid State Physics Institute of Latvian University in building networked sound art installations.

biography

Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits are internationally recognized artists, curators and cultural innovators, working with science and emerging media technologies since the mid 90s. Rasa and Raitis are the key founders of RIXC Center for New Media culture, organizers of international Art+Communication festival, and editors of Acoustic Space peer-reviewed journal series. Raitis Šmits has a doctoral degree in the arts, and works in Latvian Academy of Arts. Rasa Šmite holds her degree in sociology, and is associated professor in Liepāja University's New Media Art programme, and researcher in Art Research Lab. Rasa and Raitis are also giving lectures in Riga Stradins University, and extensive lecturing in the festivals, conferences and other universities locally and internationally.