At January 12 and 13, Rasa and Raitis Smiti will present workshop on Bacteria Battery – creative experiments with next generation bio-energy technologies. The Bacteria Battery workshop is an experiment with MFC (microbial fuel cells) technology exploring connections between biological systems, water treatment and renewable energy production. In a result of the workshop 5-6 cells will be built, each of which will be producing about 0,6 V electricity.

Also, on January 13, 19.00 there will be lecture on Renewable Futures. Ecological perspective in contemporary media art. Today, according to several voices – Rosalind Krauss, Lev Manovich, Peter Weibel and Domenico Quaranta – we have entered the post-media age; there is no any single medium anymore that dominates in contemporary media art practices. Artists, who in the information technology era at the close of the 20^thcentury were at an emerging art avant-garde – experimenting with immaterial medium of information technology and exploring the new cyberspace borders – are now returningto social reality. This is not new, that media art critically addresses socially political questions, however the perspective revealed by this setting is.

Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits are artists, curators and researchers, working with science and emerging media technologies since 1990s. They are key founders of RIXC, The Center for New Media Culture in Riga and its annual festival; they are also chief editors of Acoustic Space – peer-reviewed publication series.