Other Realities


Symposium:


Associated Event Title:
  • Other Realities

Associated/Satellite Event or Conference Organiser(s):

Category:


Abstract:

  • Introductory Statement

    Exposing the stories hidden around us, bringing new meanings to old systems of knowledge, and exploring what happens when we let curiosity lead us. This is the thinking that kicks off ISEA 2018 Durban with our Monday programme at BAT Centre and Durban Art Gallery titled Other Realities.

    Global technological trends find practitioners and researchers caught up in the search for meaning, immersed in new technological and mediated environments. Yet, these provide little comfort, connection or solution for those without the means to engage in them. New perspectives and narratives blending both contemporary technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality and the culture of storytelling and collective sharing hope to challenge how these spaces can be developed and encourage local relevance.

    The ISEA2018 theme of Intersections positions creative technological innovation as an activist engagement into public space and public practice. Creative collaboration between artists, artisans, designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists and inventors take place in a context where survival is the most basic instigator for solutions. In such a scenario, technological developments follow and support these solutions.

    In addition, the role of the artist is essential in providing opportunities to build new and exciting interactions between people and place. In order to make sense of these interactions we hack, explore, innovate, collaborate, question and reinvent — the inspiration behind the subthemes: Life Hacking / Art, Science and Us / Other Realities / Decolonizing Futures.

    • Marcus Neustetter, Artistic and Executive Director ISEA2018