ISEA2022: 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art


ISEA2022:  [Overview] [Venues] [Presentations] [Workshops] [Art Events] [Gallery]

27th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Location:
Barcelona, Catalonia Spain

Dates:
10 - 16 June, 2022

Organised by:
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

In Cooperation With:
Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Santa Monica, Generalitat de Catalunya – Departament de Cultura, Barcelona City Council, MACBA archive and library, Hac Te, and New Art Foundation

Website:

Overview:

ISEA, International Symposium on Electronic Art, is one of the most important annual events worldwide dedicated to the crossroads where art, design, science, technology and society meet.

The event has been held over 26 times all over the world, and after more than 10 years since it last graced European soil, it touches down in Barcelona. With it comes an enthusiastic international and local community, ready to work together to develop this interdisciplinary field.

As it has travelled the globe over the years, ISEA has served as a meeting point for artists, scientists, technologists and theorists to share their research along with their latest prototypes, technological developments or artistic works linked to science and technology.

What makes ISEA unique is that it is not so much an academic conference as a conference-based event that offers a wide array of activities, which surprise visitors with newly conceived formats in every edition.

At the symposium you are sure to find exhibitions, workshops, open-air projects, round tables, talks from artists, school initiatives and a variety of other activities, all with the involvement of different organisations and communities from the city of Barcelona.

ISEA2022 reinforces Barcelona’s role as a leader in research and scientific output, intellectuality and cultural creativity in both a national and international context.

It is a multifaceted event that seeks to explore the intersections between art, design, science and technology in all its aspects.

It is at the same time interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, intersectoral and international, making it possible to bring together in a single event a congress for academic and independent researchers, an open conference program, round tables, a professional meeting space, a set of exhibitions of artistic pieces, demos and prototypes, workshops, performances and artists talks open to the city and citizens with the complicity and involvement of local and international agents.

Organising Committee:
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General Chair/Director: Pau Alsina (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Vice Director: Irma Vilà (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Academic Chairs:

Susanna Tesconi (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Joan Soler-Adillon (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Enric Mor (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Humans and non humans Chair: Andrés Burbano (Universidad de los Andes)
Natures and Worlds Chair: Laura Benítez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Futures and Heritages Chair: Vanina Hofman (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
Educations and Societies Chair: Aida Sánchez de Serdio (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Artworks Chair: Pau Waelder (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Screenings Chair: Gemma San Cornelio (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Performances Chairs:

Laia Blasco (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Mónica Rikić (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Artists talks Chair: Luz María Sánchez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Posters Chair: David Merino (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Demos Chair: Pierre Bourdin (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Workshops Chair: Efraín Foglia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Institutional Presentations Chair: Alba Colombo (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Communication & Web Chairs:

Andrea García (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Paloma González (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Online Program Chairs:

Lluc Massaguer (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Amalia Creus (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Artistic Committee:

Pau Alsina (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Irma Vilà (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Tere Badia (Culture Action Europe)
Vicente Matallana (New Art Foundation)
Pau Waelder(Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Summit on New Media Art Committee:

Bonnie Mitchell (Bowling Green State University)
Jan Searleman (Clarkson University)
Wim van der Plas (ISEA Symposium Archives)
Terry C. W. Wong (Simon Fraser University)

Introductory and Welcoming Notes:

Annual General Meetings:

Informal Get-together:

Theme:
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Possibles not only open up an unfinished world of futures before us, but also presents and pasts behind us.

The Possible is openness and movement, a horizon of change that unfolds and organizes the world.

The Possible started with the polis, the city, and is political by definition.

The Possible has nothing to do with the unreal, the impossible, or the fictitious, but rather with the unfinished real in front of us.

The Possible shapes our reality, and that is precisely why it is a political problem in itself. From “everything is possible” to “be realistic and ask for the impossible”, from an “infinitude of possible worlds” to “this is not possible and cannot be done”.

Sometimes we are trapped in a world of pre-designed Possibles – “this is it” – where it seems that nothing could have been left out, there are no alternatives. Sometimes it is living an illusion of freedom in an impossible world where the critical just disappears. How to open towards contingency, not only to the becoming but also its uncertainty?

How to draw new Possibles to come, and not just confirming those that are there waiting to be confirmed, experienced and thought, as Possibles that can be brought to existence in our worldview? How to move from the impossible, the fable or the utopia to directly bite into our reality?

The Possible is inscribed within the arts, design, sciences and technologies that surround us now and those yet to come.

We see these Possibles behind climate change and global warming, behind robotics and biotechnologies, inside algorithms, artificial intelligence and data science, in between quantic worlds trying to get a grasp of what matter is, up there above our heads in outer space and the multiverse.

Subthemes:
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Human and Non-human

Neuroscience, Technological Singularity, Human Brain, Artificial Life, Brain-Computer Interface, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics

  • What does it mean  to be a human now?
  • How do we relate with the non-humans?
  • How do we become bodies in the world?
  • How do we construct and gain knowledge?
  • How to develop the interaction between human and machine?
  • And with the other animals?

These are some of the questions behind this sub-theme that focuses on the possible humans and non-humans that we are, redesigning ourselves and the things around us through new perspectives that open these Possibles in an unfinished world that shapes our existence.

Natures and worlds

Space Art, Biotechnologies, Climate Change, Complex Networks, Quantum Art or Nano Arts, Hypernatural, Global Warming, Speculative Design, Bio Art

  • How do we understand and experience life nowadays?
  • How do we relate with nature?
  • How to fight climate change and global warming?
  • How do we transform and inhabit our world?
  • How would we inhabit other worlds that we long to discover and experience?
  • And how about the universe, the outer space and the planets we dream about?

In a context where all Possibles seem to be closed towards a dystopian future where we are heading , it is crucial to open these Possibles that are waiting to be unfolded, thought and experienced as the Other to come.

Futures and Heritages

Data Science, Augmented Reality, Histories, Preservation, Collections, Documentation, Data Visualization, Virtual Reality

  • Which is the role of history?
  • How can we construct our futures?
  • What is the role of the arts in all this?
  • How should we take care of our past and heritage?
  • How to remember and forget when there is so much information available?
  • How to create meaning and sense in a world overflowed with data?

The way we conceive our past, memory and history structures our present and creates our future to come. From Digital Oblivion and Technological Obsolescence, this sub-theme moves forward and backward to an Archaeology of Media that suggests possible futures and heritages.

Educations and Societies

Labs and Maker Education, Education as Culture Creation, Art Residencies, Recognition of Diversity, Festivals and Events, Cultivating the Possible, Meaningful STEAM learning environments, Epistemological Pluralism, Constructionism, Artistic Research, Pedagogy as Artistic Practice, Art and Design production centers and Labs

  • How to experience and learn from inter/multi/trans/anti-disciplinarity?
  • How to integrate the arts into science and technology and the other way around?
  • Which experiences need to be shared to reinforce that connection?
  • How and why is there a need to congregate around events such as festivals or conferences?
  • What can we learn from this?
  • What experiences from art and design production and research centres and programmes do we need to be familiar with and replicate?

These are some of the questions that stem from the relationship between education and society, that place where citizenship comes to be and interlaces with the rest

Other Committees:
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Santa Mònica Curatorial Team:

Marta Gracia (Santa Mònica)
Enric Puig (Santa Mònica)
Jara Rocha (Santa Mònica)

Extended Program

Project Manager: Astrid Rousse (Hac Te)
Program transversality, museums and archives coordinator: Marta Millet
Education coordinators:

Laura Malinverni (Universitat de Barcelona)
Cristina Valero (CosiCosa)

Artistic coordinator: Núria Marquès
Scientific coordinator: Irene Lapuente  (La Mandarina de Newton)
Conference Coordinator: Arianna Esposito (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Communication coordinator: Adriana Valero (Hac Te)
Communication assistant: Eva López
Institutional relations: Jaume Moregó (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Corporate advisor: Josep Maria Civit
Technical Secretariat:

Antonio Ponce (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Patrícia Díaz (Kenes Group)
Lorena Granda (Kenes Group)

Institutional Committee:

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya: Josep A. Planell (Rector)
Generalitat de Catalunya:

Pere Aragonès (President)
Natàlia Garriga (Minister of Research and Universities)
Joana Barbany (General director of Digital Society)

Ajuntament de Barcelona:

Ada Colau (Mayor)
Jordi Martí Grau (Deputy Mayor for Culture)
Laia Bonet (Deputy Mayor for Digital Transition)

New Art Foundation: Andreu Rodríguez  (President)
Hac Te:

Josep A. Planell (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Daniel Crespo (UPC)
Lluís Torner (CFO)
Mateo Valero (BSC-CNC)
Gabriel Silberman (BIST)
Miquel Martí (Tech Barcelona)
Anna Manubens (Hangar)
Constantí Serrallonga (Fira de Barcelona)
Ricard Robles (Sónar)
Pepe Serra (MNAC)
Andreu Rodríguez (NAF)

Diputació de Tarragona: Noemí Llauradó (President)
Ajuntament de Reus: Carles Pellicer (Major)

Steering Committee

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya:

Pastora Martínez
Joan Fuster
Daniel Riera
Jordi Sánchez-Navarro
Pau Alsina
Irma Vilà

Generalitat de Catalunya – Departament de Cultura:

Josep Vives (General director of Cultural Promotion and Libraries)
Marisol López (General director of Innovation and Digital Culture)

Ajuntament de Barcelona:

Daniel Granados (Delegate of Cultural Rights)
Júlia Miralles (Delegate of Science and Universities)

New Art Foundation:Vicente Matallana (Director)

CCCB:

Judit Carreras
Carlota Broggi
Susanna Arias

Santa Mònica: Enric Puig (Director)

MACBA: Elvira Dyangani (Director)

Hac Te:

Carme Fenoll (UPC)
Lydia Sanmartí (ICFO)
Fernando Cucchietti (BSC-CNC)
Àlex González (BIST)
Miquel Martí (Tech Barcelona)
Anna Manubens (Hangar)
Francesc Solà (Fira de Barcelona)
Ricard Robles (Sónar)
Víctor Magrans (MNAC)
Astrid Rousse (Hac Te)

GRANTS

Fundació Sorigué: Ana Vallés (President)
Fundació Privada Redis: Carme Buixeda (President)
Fundació Ernesto Ventos / Nasevo: María Reyes Soler-Cabot Serra (President)
DKV: Javier Vega de Seoane (President)

 

International Programme Committee:

Video:
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Publications: