Event 3: Art Electronica Festival's Hybrid Arts and STARTS

Event 3: 

April 26th

EDA, Broad Arts, 1240

Art Electronica Festival's Hybrid Arts and STARTS

For my third event, I decided to attend Professor Vesna’s brief lecture about the Art Electronica Festival’s Hybrid Art and STARTS. Although it was more like a short intro to how the application process works and what an application should look like, I found these projects extremely interesting and very applicable to what we learn in this course. I noticed that some of the best projects she showed us were related to the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability. This proves to us that artists can work with technology to address our world’s biggest sustainability and environmental issues. This idea reminds of what we learned in week 1 about CP Snow’s theory. He believed that the “separation” that we have created between humanities and science has been preventing us from solving the issue of wealth gap in the world. Although I am not talking about wealth, it also applies to solving environmental, medical, and any other type of world issue. 

After talking a little bit about how the application process works, Professor Vesna showed us some of her favorite projects from this year. It was interesting to hear that usually the judges really like the applications that deal with current events and issues, they like those that will help humanity in any kind of way. The first project that we looked at was the “Drone Survival Guide.” This was a database of drone sounds and energy so that people could tell whether any drone was a bomb, a toy, a predator, etc. Although it sounds basic and very simple, Professor Vesna told us that one of the judges mentioned how back in her country drones weren’t used as toys like they are used here in America. She said that they are very unfamiliar with drones and it's very unlikely that someone would randomly own one. Therefore, this database could really help them not only to know when a drone is dangerous, but also to get a part of the sensory experience of drones.

Drone Survival Guide

Another interesting project that I wanted to write about was the “Canine TANATOcommercer or the political-ethical dilemma of merchandise” by a Mexican artist. Her work reflected the paradox of what dogs are, she works with the idea of the purposes of dogs-are they a danger to the world, are they pets, are they merchandise? What she did was pick up dead dogs on the side of the street and used art to create different products off their dead bodies. For example, she showed that she could make soap out of their fat, tanning off their fur, textile products, etc. She sold these products in the Mexican markets and seemed to be very successful. What I really liked about this project was how she used medicine (in the form of veterinary medicine), animals, and art to create merchandise. Although it was tough to see the dead dogs, I was really impressed with her artistic skills and ability to create a lot out of something that could seem worthless to someone else (a dead dog :( ). 

Finally, one that really showed the relationship between art and science was the “Sensorial Skin for an Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive.” This one is a bio-installation that deals with sustainability and biodiversity. As of today, pollution has threatens bee colonies, specifically in industrialized countries. This Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive is designed to fight this issue of urban environments, it gives bees a better shelter, supports pollination, and protects biodiversity from dangerous environments. The artist has worked on deep research and collected datasets on bee behavior. She worked with scientists in analyzing these algorithms in order to create this project. The Sensorial Skin mentioned in the title of the project is the outer membrane of this beehive. It is a smart fabric that uses organic and electronic elements for sensing, computing, and communication. There is bacteria living on this that act as biosensors. These change color when they detect a high degree of pollution and reflect the environmental threat. Overall, this project is a perfect example of technology and art used to fight biodiversity and sustainability issues. It uses intelligence and complexity in the form of biotechnology and biomimetic.

Sensorial Skin for an Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive

The Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive annemarie maes

The Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive

All in all, this short lecture showed me real world examples of how artists can influence the scientific lab and the industry, they can come in and add ideas, questions, and aesthetics. Professor Vesna mentioned that although last year’s applications dealt more with technology, this year has made it  evident that artists are concerned with the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability. In my opinion, it is highly needed for artists and scientists to work together, as a team, to come up with projects so complex like these ones. It is impossible to only use one of the fields—science or art—to come up with solutions like these. I was very surprised with the ability for humans to actually come up with innovative ideas that require deep research and the use of intelligence. Once again, this shows me that my two career interests, Communications and Neuroscience, might indeed work together to deal with present day issues. This lecture motivated me to always follow my interests, no matter how “separate" or different they seem to be. In the end, the world needs a mix of different professions in order to deal with issues as big as pollution, diseases, etc. 

Works Cited: 

Atherton, Kelsey D. "A Guide To Spotting And Hiding From Drones." Popular Science. Bonnier Corporation, 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/guide-spotting-and-hiding-drones>.

Cardoso, Gonzalo F. "A Study into 21st Century Drone Acoustics." A Study Into 21st Century Drone Acoustics. Discrepant Records, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://www.droneacoustics.org/>.

Maes, Anne Marie. "THE INTELLIGENT GUERILLA BEEHIVE." ANNEMARIEMAES.NET. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://annemariemaes.net/projects/the-intelligent-guerilla-beehive/>.