This week we have an extraordinary seminar at the IBMCP by our Artist-in-Residence Carlos Castellanos (https://ccastellanos.com, @ccastellanossf), with the title:
“Intersections of Living and Machine Agencies in the Arts”.
Carlos is the artist awarded with our first Artistic Residence AR(t)IBMCP, organized together with the Vicerrectorate for Arts, Science, Technology and Society at the UPV and the Office of Cultural Action of that University, and he is already working in collaboration with some researchers at the IBMCP.
Find below the abstract for the talk, as well as a brief CV of the speaker.
The talk will be live-streamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoPrBqxv4dA.
We hope you enjoy it!
Abstract:
For years many contemporary artists have demonstrated an interest in the relations between humans and nonhumans. This has manifested itself in explorations of a diverse set of materials, methods and contexts, many of which are often associated with biology and which also make great use of modern computational technologies such as computer vision and machine learning. For this IBMCP seminar, I will discuss my work in this area, including what I am currently working on for the AR(t)IBMCP residency. I will also broaden the discussion to include other work in the field. Although sometimes falling under the umbrella of biological or ecological art, I want to argue that a distinct aesthetic paradigm emerging that is rooted in the unique ways that non-human organisms and adaptive intelligent machines evolve their behaviors in response to one another. Thematically, artworks in this area often examine the implications that arise from encounters between human technology and the environment, while simultaneously raising the ethical and ontological status of the organisms they deploy. They throw into high relief a recognition that matter and non-human life are not passive and inert but are lively and dynamic, with agency and lifeworlds of their own. It is also important to recognize that these works are created within a context infused with notions of art as research, art as experiment, and hybrid art-science. As such, they are part of a larger trend in the arts of increasingly hybridized practices and research agendas that necessarily require new epistemological and ontological models for their analysis, critique and understanding. I will conclude my presentation with some points of discussion for the development of an alternative art-science formation that opens up possibilities for new zones of negotiation and reciprocity between humans, nonhumans and intelligent machines as well as an examination of how contemporary artistic practices and those of the life sciences can hang together.
Brief CV of Carlos Castellanos:
Carlos Castellanos is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher with a wide array of interests such as cybernetics, ecology, embodiment, phenomenology, artificial intelligence and transdisciplinary collaboration. His work bridges science, technology, education and the arts, developing a network of creative interaction with living systems, the natural environment and emerging technologies. His artworks have been exhibited at local, national and international events such as the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), SIGGRAPH & ZERO1 San Jose. Castellanos is Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media at Rochester Institute of Technology.
