Solveig Settemsdal. There's only sky, 2024. Video still.

RIXC Art, Science & Techno-Ecologies Residency program featuring three Art, Science and Techno-Ecologies residencies, two-month each, for Baltic and Nordic artists took place at RIXC in Riga, Latvia, during the time period from February 1, 2023 until March 31, 2024, supported by Nordic Culture Point.

The Residency Program took place for Baltic and Nordic artists who work on the edge of art, science and techno-ecologies, exploring the complex relations between the human, nature and digital technologies, and focusing on new concepts such as “naturecultures”, “sensing environments”, “living technologies”, “terrestrial coexistence”, “naturally / artificial intelligences”, which recently have been re-examined at the heart of our society. 

Solveig Settemsdal (Norway). February 1, 2024 – March 31, 2024

Third residency artist Solveig Settemsdal is a multidisciplinary artist working across mediums including sculpture, video, photography, drawing and sound. Her practice studies the fluidity and transience of materials alongside how objects and ideas transform over time, through analog and digital media.

Solveig Settemsdal. OK GREAT SWALLOW exhibition, 2024. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Lelde Gūtmane

As part of the residency the artist exhibited the OK SWALLOW GREAT video artwork at the solo exhibition at the RIXC Gallery from February 16 until March 28, 2024. The exhibition explores the connections and disconnections of physical and digital realities. Real footage from the deserts of California explores man-made structures bracketing water juxtaposed with Google 3D algorithmic visualizations, and the membranes between these are pierced through text, interrogating what happens between these versions of reality. Read more…

PHOTO ALBUM >>>> OK GREAT SWALLOW Exhibition Opening. Photos: Lelde Gūtmane

Solveig Settemsdal. OK GREAT SWALLOW exhibition, 2024. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Lelde Gūtmane

Based on the field work and the videos shot at the RIXC residency partner location Irbene Radio Telescope, the artist created a new video artwork consisting of 2 videos titled There's only sky, complemented by text. The video artwork creation process was curated by the Latvian artist Rasa Smite.

Solveig Settemsdal. There's only sky, 2024. Video stills.

 

Marko Timlin (Finland). October 25 – December 20, 2023

Second residency artist Marko Timlin creates artworks that link science with art, technology with nature and the past with the present. His artistic work centers on the development of kinetic sound installations and performances with self-made sound machines. Timlin’s works have been exhibited and performed world-wide including at Whitebox New York (USA), Sight & Sound Festival Montréal (CA), Fylkingen Stockholm (SE), Kiasma Helsinki (FI), EOF gallery Paris (FR), E:vent gallery London (UK), Piksel Festival (NO), etc.

Marko Timlin. BITS AND BYTES exhibition, 2023-2024. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs

As part of the residency, the artist exhibited the BITS AND BYTES artwork at the solo exhibition at the RIXC Gallery, taking place from December 1, 2023 to February 3, 2024. BITS AND BYTES is a kinetic sound installation consisting of 104 recycled floppy disk drives. By combining obsolete technology of the 1980s and 1990s with the technological means and aesthetics of the 21st century, completely new sonorous universes arise. Read more…

PHOTO ALBUM >>>> BITS AND BYTES Exhibition Opening. Photos: Juris Rozenbergs

Marko Timlin. BITS AND BYTES exhibition, 2023-2024. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs

During the residency, artist developed a new instrument for live performances and concerts: SENSOR_SOUND_MACHINE. The instrument was presented in a SENSOR_SOUND_MACHINE performance and concert at the RIXC Gallery on December 14, 2023.  The instrument is an invention connecting the physical world with the digital world. Ultrasonic sensors, solar panels, infrared sensors and an arduino microcontroller receive information from the physical world and transmit this data to a computer where it is used to generate and control digital audio feedbacks. Read more…

PHOTO ALBUM >>>> SENSOR_SOUND_MACHINE Concert. Photos: Lelde Gūtmane

Marko Timlin. SENSOR_SOUND_MACHINE concert, 2023. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Lelde Gūtmane

 

Juan Duarte Regino (Mexico/Finland). April 25-July 31, 2023

First residency artist Juan Duarte Regino is a Mexican artist based in Finland and doctoral researcher in Aalto University, who works with environmental sound to explore sensing in-between nature and technology to create methods for augmented listening, and attunement to atmospheric processes that expand our human sensorium.

Juan Duarte Regino. Augury: Hybrid Listening and Atmospheric Attunement exhibition, 2023. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs

During the residency, the artist developed the Augury: Hybrid Listening and Atmospheric Attunement artwork that was exhibited as a solo exhibition at the RIXC Gallery from May 26 to July 8, 2023. The Augury: Hybrid Listening and Atmospheric Attunement exhibition is a generative and interactive media installation that has been inspired by ancient meteorology and modern methods of weather sensing to extend our perception of atmospheric processes. Sensor data was obtained from outside the gallery, and it was used to drive an interactive composition that is transformed with an interface that resembles the Parapegmata and the smoking mirror. The atmospheric processes were sensed within perceptual phenomena including wind direction, temperature, and electromagnetism. Read more…

PHOTO ALBUM >>>> Augury: Hybrid Listening and Atmospheric Attunement exhibition opening. Photos: Juris Rozenbergs

Juan Duarte Regino. Augury: Hybrid Listening and Atmospheric Attunement exhibition, 2023. RIXC Gallery. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs

The residency was concluded with the Augury presentation and performance by the artist at the RIXC Gallery on June 14, 2023. The artist performed a sonic intervention using the installation Augury through real-time sensors outside the gallery sensing atmospheric registers, wind force, pressure and temperature to control a ritualistic divination of the surrounding weather. After performance the artist presented the project developed during the residency. Read more…

 

RIXC Center for New Media Culture has received mobility funding from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture to establish RIXC Art Science Residencies.