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RIXC Festival 2023. Crypto, Art and Climate. Photo by Juris Rozenbergs 

 

Festival website: https://festival2024.rixc.org

As part of the RIXC Festival 2024, the international Open Fields conference will take place from October 23 to 25, bringing together more than 50 artists, interdisciplinary researchers, and cultural innovators in Riga and online to discuss topics related to artistic research, the changing role of art in societies, and art and science collaboration. 

RIXC festival curators Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits offer the idea about symbiotic senses and its relation to extended cognition and collective intelligence ideas. This symbiotic coexistence, rooted in the shared habitat of the biosphere, underscores the role of sensory perception in facilitating non-linear, indirect communication and collaboration. However, the intricacies of living together are upheld within a complex socio-technosphere, built upon advanced intelligent technologies that prioritize the brain as the centralized mechanism for decision-making. This emphasis tends to exclude that sensing-based learning, knowing and decision making based on sensual experiences and other intelligent and cognitive processes beyond the brain, which are extended throughout the human body, in non-human worlds, and our planetary systems.  

The so-called sixth sense, based on a symbiotic understanding of sensual perception, has been chosen to outline the axes around which new speculations and utopias for a symbiotic future will be built. But it's not just a metaphor; new scientific discoveries also inspire the search for a symbiotic understanding of our worlds. We are aware that the five human senses are perceived through the use of sensory organs. But what about the elusive 'sixth' sense? Recent scientific studies suggest that it may indeed be a 'symbiotic' one, indicating that bacterial communities, for example, on animals play a significant role. One such 'sense' is "magnetoreception," enabling some organisms to detect a magnetic field for navigation purposes. Birds, fish, and other creatures thought to possess this sense may use the Earth’s weak magnetic field to navigate. Another 'symbiotic' sense, ‘solarception’, as described by Douglas Kahn, synchronizes us with the planetary system cycles (circadian rhythms). He argues that our eyes, beyond providing vision, also serve as solar sensors. These senses are even more pronounced in the plant world, where their bodies are very different from humans and animals; they are 'externally sensory systems' without organs, facilitating intelligent behavior despite lacking brains. Hence, symbiotic senses are crucial for understanding extended cognition serving the fundamentally new perspective towards living together on our planet.

The international Open Fields conference taking place from October 23–25, 2024 at the Neiburgs Hotel and online will bring together Latvian and international scholars and artists to discuss topics related to artistic research, the changing role of art in societies, and art and science collaboration.

Symbiotic Sense(s) invites participants to reconsider the boundaries between self and other, human and machine, and natural and artificial, aiming to embrace symbiotic thinking, inspiring conversations on collaboration and fostering collective action towards a more symbiotic future.

Keynotes and plenary speakers: Eric KLUITENBERG, Rosemary LEE, Jens HAUSER

Conference speakers: Jade APACK, Nima BAHREHMAND, Elizabeth BARRY, August BLACK, Yindi CHEN, Oksana CHEPELYK, Pohao CHI, Enrico DORIGATTI, Sabrina DURLING-JONES, Tuçe EREL, Jānis GARANČS, Mariella GREIL, Yoon Chung HAN, Mona HEDAYATI, Susanna HERTRICH, Carolyn KIRSCHNER, Lily DÍAZ-KOMMONEN, Agata KONARSKA, Jakub KOSECKI, Peter KOZEK, Tina KULT, Robert LISEK, Shanhuan MANTON, Jozef Eduard MASARIK, Me AndOther Me (Anna POMPERMAIER, Cenk GÜZELIS), Katherine MORIWAKI, Sebastian MÜHL, Sandris MŪRIŅŠ, Yi Qing NG, Terho OJELL-JÄRVENTAUSTA, Vygintas ORLOVAS, Miguel PAREDES MALDONADO, Chantal T PARIS, Anna PRIEDOLA, Mónica RIKIĆ, Arturo ROMERO CARNICERO, Yan SHAO, Oleksandr SIROUS, Lucie STRECKER, Sabīne ŠNĒ, Juhani TENHUNEN, Gisèle TRUDEL, Svitlana USYCHENKO, Agnes VARNAI, Līga VĒLIŅA, Martins VIZBULIS, Paula VĪTOLA, Nathan WILLIAMS, Liang XIAO, Anne YONCHA

Registration / Festival pass: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rixc-art-science-festival-2024-symbiotic-senses-tickets-999218548577?aff=oddtdtcreator

Festival website: https://festival2024.rixc.org



Festival and conforence program:

Wednesday, October 23

16.00–17.30 (EEST) Opening Keynotes. Eric KLUITENBERGRosemary LEE. Respondent: Jens HAUSER 

Location: Neiburgs Hotel, Address: Jauniela 25/27, Room A (Amaryllis) / Zoom

18.00 Festival Exhibition Opening

19.00 Be My Guest performance

Location: National Library of Latvia (LNB), Address: Mūkusalas iela 3

 

Thursday, October 24

Conference Day 1

Location: Neiburgs Hotel, Address: Jauniela 25/27 / Zoom

10.00-11.00 Plenary Speaker. Jens HAUSER

11.00-12.30 Panel 1. Hidden Invasions and Sensory Systems

12.40-14.15 Panel 2. Artificial Natures

12.40-14.15 Parallel Session: Futures Workshop (Part 1) Led by Terho OJELL-JÄRVENTAUSTA. Digital Technologies and Human Consciousness: A Futures Workshop for Exploring Potential Implications. 

15.15-17.00 Panel 3. More-Than-Human

15.15-17.00 Parallel Session: Futures Workshop (Part 2 - continues) 

18.00 Deep Sensing Exhibition Opening 

Location: RIXC Gallery, Address: Lenču iela 2, Riga

 

Friday, October 25 

Conference Day 2

Location: Neiburgs Hotel, Address: Jauniela 25/27 / Zoom

10.00-10.30 Plenary Session. Book Presentation by Lily DÍAZ-KOMMONEN, Juhani TENHUNEN. Beyond The Hybrid (Acoustic Space 19). 

10.30-12.00 Plenary Session / EMAP Capacity Building Workshop (Intro) / Panel 4 

12.10-13.40 Parallel Session: EMAP Capacity Building Workshop (Part 1)Led by Rosemary LEE

12.10-13.40 Panel 5.

14.40-16.10 Panel 6.

14.40-16.10 Parallel Session: EMAP Capacity Building Workshop (Part 2 - continues) 

16.20-18.00 Panel 7.

 

21.00 SYNTHETIC SENSE. Performance Program. (Satellite Event). 

I swear, Oleksandr Sirous, Eiii, Daffelz, Vanckars, Ljoha, 3electronics, Seimurs Guseinovs, Miu, Kentasso, Echoeast.

Program: 21.00 Experimental Music and Performances, 00.00-06.00 Dancing and Live Electronic Music

Location: Bar 1983, Vagonu iela 21 (Vagonu ielas kvartāls). 

Entry: 10 EUR donation (5 EUR donation with the RIXC Festival Pass).


Festival website:
https://festival2024.rixc.org

CONTACTS

rixc@rixc.org

+371 67228478 (office)

+371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)

+371 25358541 (Līva Siliņa)