Day 2, Stream 4

Chair

Andres Burbano: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Speakers

Yto Aranda: Independent artist, Chile

Pamela Figueroa: Independent researcher, Chile

Brisa MP:  Independent artist, Chile

Isabel Cristina Restrepo: Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia

Gabriel Zea: martinez-zea, Colombia

Alejandro Araque: Laboratorio nómada medial no2somos+,  Colombia

Lea Rekow: Green My Favela, Australia/Brazil

ABSTRACTS

Yto Aranda & Pamela Figueroa: Latin American Kinetic Art and its Relationship with Electronic Art

Our investigation focuses on Latin American artists and works of KINETIC ART, a category within the visual arts introduced in the 50′s, bringing together a diverse rang of works which had in common being through movement, moving to the problems of visual perception (Op-art), the use of the light (Lumino kinetic art) and movement (in the work and the spectator’s action).

Our approach in this range is to establish the relationship between kinetic and electronic art, first rescuing the pionering of lumino kinetic art works in the artistic use of technology and second, to analyze common problems less obvious between the kinetic and electronic art in relation to the union of science and art, the incorporation of space and time in the work, and the centrality of spectator participation.

For this we investigated artists and works from Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela, positioning the kinetic analysis in and from Latin America and from country to country, in a reading that considers exchanges and influences between Latin Americans and reciprocally with Europe and the U.S., not noticing centers or peripheries, but posing it as sharing networks.
www.cinetica.abierta.cl

Brisa MP: Art, Body and Technology: an overview of current approaches from Latin America

The presentation aims to make a brief tour of the current state of the art of the production that articulates the human body and the technology in the fields of dance and performance. This tour offers a mapping of various levels of production, such as artists, work of art , theoretical production, collaboration networks, research in Latin American festivals and an analysis of the general situation in the region.

No doubt that the art-technology development in Latin America has been largely led by artists from the visual arts. In this scope we can see that the performative arts are not far behind, while its approach to science and technology has been happening slowly, it is now possible to recognize several projects developed in our region. These projects constitute a network of performances, educational and outreach that have shaped a recognizable set between dance-performance and technological mediation.

Moreover, the state of the art makes evident conceptual, aesthetic and economic problems,  it proposes new ways of collaborative creation, instances of intercultural exchange and training that have allowed local development of projects pushing the boundaries of traditional Dance and Performance Art territories.

Meanwhile It is recognized that in Latin America a first approach to the relationship between dance and technology, comes from the videodance production, in which the initial scenic event moved to digital imaging and the screen. This is evident in several countries, making it visible  a second state of the dance-performance and technology exploring more complex technical and aesthetic structures therefore presenting unequal levels of development in the countries of the region.

http://www.caidalibre.cl/
http://abierta.cl/isea2013/brisamp.html

Isabel Cristina Restrepo: Digital Imaging and Artistic Education: A Pedagogical Model with free software GIMP

This paper shows the results obtained from the investigation Digital Imaging and Artistic Education: A Pedagogical Model, developed by the research group Hipertrópico (Universidad de Antioquia). From the analysis of Colombia´s legislation in terms of the insertion of technology into the academic system and from the analysis of the educational realities of the city of Medellín, the paper suggests a space for reflection that contributes to the development of pedagogical practices that integrate the teaching of digital art into the artistic curriculum in Medellín’s secondary education.

Although this article highlights the difficulties in terms of provision and acquisition of software and the obstacles that educational institutions face in terms of digital education, it is not the intention of the article to study these aspects in depth. This article primarily attempts to summarize the results of explorations performed with the free software GIMP; the article also depicts the manner in which the inquiries were performed and the training that was conducted for teachers in the Artistic area of the school INEM José Félix de Restrepo. Complementing the work done in INEM, some investigations were conducted and training given to teachers attending the workshops at La Escuela del Maestro.

The paper shows how the methodology implemented in the research allowed the integration of practical work for examination, training and multimedia design, with conceptual reflection. The result of this methodology allowed the realization of the multimedia presentation called Líneas digitales. Una Introducción a la enseñanza y la creación gráfica digital con GIMP. The manner in which the interface was designed, simulating the workshops of a school of art, facilitated the integration of technical elements of GIMP with artistic and conceptual reflection, which is necessary for every process of creation and learning in graphic digital art.

For more information about the group, visit: www.udea.edu.co/hipertropico

Gabriel Zea & Alejandro Araque: Mochilabs

The concept Mochilab* was used by Juan Reyes during a discussion within a mailing list to refer to the possibility of avoiding establishing workspaces with big infrastructures, like the MIT Media Lab, in the Colombian context, instead he proposed the uses of movable labs with the size of a bag that can be installed at different geographical locations that responds to the actual needs of specific practices.

The need to produce a new laboratory model that is adaptable to the local context was born from the imposibility of successfully building working and experimental spaces based on laboratory alien models like the MIT Media Lab. Although they are funded through public grants, very often these innitatives dooo not answer to the specific needs of the context where they are embeded. This condition has motivated the creation of a series of projects that can be grouped under the laboratory concept, because they are experimentation spaces that keep the relation among science, art and technology, but they are inspired by singular conditions of a community more than the ones of an institution. This aspect marks the difference from the traditional model that tied to big institutions like academies, goverments or companies.

In this diverse spectrum, we can find Mochilabs -moveable labs- where a group of people pack part of their work space in the bag, so they could travel to a place that is normally far from the big cities to work with communities in a process that is highly framed by pedagogical practices, along with a collective creative process. The subjects and techniques of these labs vary, they can deal with subjects like critical cartography, audiovisual creation and technology appropriation.

*Mochilab refers to “mochila” that is a traditional handcrafted bag

Lea Rekow: Green My Favela and Extract

Extract explores the mineral extraction economy on Navajo Nation and the surrounding tribal lands of the Southwestern United States.  The research was conducted with the assistance of the Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation project, and specifically looks at land use impact from the coal and uranium industries.   Extract reveals a regional portrait of our continued rationalization for the systematic poisoning of land, territories, and people, motivated by decades of disenfranchisement and greed and rendered invisible by our systems of power. Regions studied include McKinley coal Mine, San Juan and the Four corners coal plants, abandoned uranium mines in Monument Valley Utrah and Arizona, the Grants Mineral Belt, and the Shiprock disposal cell.
http://www.learekow.com/extract/

Located in the dense urban slums of Rio de Janeiro, Green My Favela (GMF) works with favela residents to reclaim chronically degraded land and to create productive, sustainable green space. We work through collaborations with individuals, NGOs, and schools, and partner with the public sector and cultural innovators to remediate neglected and abused land; to cultivate food security; to create environmentally responsible and desirable public space; to problem solve for some of the favela’s critical needs; and to skill share with a wide range of participants. This paper discusses how we link creative action to processes that integrate with policy decisions; to form alternative economic models; to physically improve the quality of land and mitigate erosion; to build new organizational networks; and to improve public space. This paper will also discuss how GMF brings new perspectives and proof-of-concept to many fields, including urban planning, social innovation design, environmental law and ethics, cultural and environmental geography, landscape architecture, and more. We also discuss how, through integrated citizen action, GMF provides fresh social and economic templates that can be used to inform practical models that merge innovative public mobilization with top-down policy through cultivating more environmentally responsible land use. In a world where one out of six people currently live in slum conditions, and with an estimated one of three people expected to be living this way by 2050, there is a critical need to build collaborations with the informal sectors of society to improve social space; to build alternative, sustainable economic opportunities; to improve air and soil quality; and to preserve and create green space.
http://www.greenmyfavela.org