Digital meets Culture

A virtual platform connects the world's leading galleries

Text by Caterina Sbrana.

The home page of Art Basel Viewing Rooms is beautiful. Every page of Art Basel is beautiful. It’s a continuous and amazing discovery. Art Basel was founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel and 50 years later stages the world’s premier art shows for modern and contemporary art.

The home page of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms

The pandemic from Covid-2019 cancelled all events scheduled in Hong Kong, Basel, Miami Beach from March 2020 until next June 2021.

On March 12, 2020, it was announced to the press that the art fair scheduled to open on March 20 in Hong Kong was cancelled due to the severe outbreak and spread of the new coronavirus, but at the same time a new way of visiting the exhibition was announced: the opening of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms.

The first online event, from March 20 to March 25, 2020 put together “235 leading galleries from 31 countries and territories”, especially Asian, and they presented over 2,000 premier artworks.

You need to register and create an account to visit Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms, but it is worth especially in this period when it is not easy to move freely. Never as now digital technology and the web help to promote culture and business.

Adeline Ooi, Director Asia, Art Basel said: ‘I am so pleased that we are able to provide our exhibitors with an alternative platform to show the wonderful work that they had been working so hard to bring to Hong Kong this spring. The work on display is stunning. While nothing can replace the experience of seeing art in person, we hope that this initiative can bring some support and visibility to all the galleries and their artists affected by the cancellation of our March show.’

Infographic for upcoming Online Viewing Rooms Event with basic information: title of the event, date, time and location

Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms is an opportunity for cultural growth, while for galleries to continue their business.

Global Director Art Basel, Marc Spiegler, confirms the importance of the online exhibition for leading galleries : ‘As the art market continues to evolve, Art Basel has continually investigated how new technologies can give us new opportunities to support our galleries. The Online Viewing Rooms will provide galleries with a further possibility for engaging with our global audiences, complementing the essential personal interactions that continue to underlie the art market.’

One of the sector of Art Basel concerns art galleries

From Art Basel home page you can browse through the different sectors and, selecting a particular leading gallery, you are transferred to its home page as you can see above, as an example. You can find galleries from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa that present the works of modern and contemporary artists displaying paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, film, video and digital artworks.

Adeline Ooi said ‘nothing can replace the experience of seeing art in person’, I agree and say that nothing can replace the experience of the trip, however the opportunity to visit art galleries located in different parts of the world and discover new artists, even if only in digital form, is an experience not to be missed.

You can join artists and gallery owners socializing in a virtual walkthrough of each gallery’s respective online booths. Just follow the events proposed by Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms.

www.artbasel.com/basel

www.artbasel.com/stories/online-viewing-rooms-announcement

opening 23rd July, online 24 July - 30 September 2020

Real-Time Constraints, an online exhibition at arebyte Gallery

arebyte Gallery are pleased to announce Real-Time Constraints, a group exhibition featuring works by artists working within the realms of artificial intelligence, algorithms, machine learning, big data, and interventions in web-based platforms. The exhibition brings forward the complexities of the present-tense in light of the emergence of such technologies through works which are generated using real-time information pulled from the internet, or other sources including news items, message exchanges, memes and image banks. The works look critically at the current state of automated and autonomic computing to provide alternative narratives to data-driven and algorithmic approaches, referencing fake-news, gender bias and surveillance.

Website: https://www.arebyte.com/real-time-constraints

Taking the form of a browser plug-in, the exhibition reveals itself as a series of pop-ups where the works are disseminated over the duration of a typical working day, interrupting the screen to provide a ‘stopping cue’ from relentless scrolling, email notifications and other computer-centered, interface-driven work. Real-Time Constraints presents itself as a benevolent invasion – the size, quantity, content and sound of the pop-ups have been decided upon by each artist to feed into the networked performance. The exhibition is experienced through a synchronised global approach where viewers encounter the same pop-ups at the same time no matter where they are, amplifying the exhibition’s disturbance of mundanity across every time zone.

Real-Time Constraints makes its primary argument through a reconfiguration of the usually annoying and uninvited browser pop-up, turning what is typically a tool of the system (and its owners) into a user-centric ‘stopping cue.’ Stopping cues were most prevalent in the 20th Century as a way to signal the end of something, the space in between one activity and the next. Stopping cues imposed a choice for the viewer: do you want to continue watching/reading/listening, or do you want to do something else? They also make available the mental space one needs to digest what they’ve just experienced, enabling useful processing of information, and thus, satisfaction through action.

The way we consume media today is such that there are no stopping cues, there is no design in place that allows us to question our behaviour; social media applications, news sites, streaming services, email and messaging services are a bottomless source of mindless scrolling. Real-Time Constraints invites critical reflection on the systems and processes we are embedded in all day long and allows viewers to take a break from the animated bombardment of working online, albeit unannounced, to be a welcome distraction.

Opening event

Thursday 23 July, 6.30pm – 8pm BST

Join via livestream to hear some of the artists talk through their work in the exhibition. More info and how to join soon…

Panel discussion
Machine learning as an artist tool: disruption and intervention for change in 2020
with Gretchen Andrew, Ben Grosser, Libby Heaney, Sofia Crespo, and Joel Simon + others. Moderated by Luba Elliott

Thursday 6 August, 7 – 8.30pm BST
Join some of the artists from the exhibition as they talk with Luba Elliott about bias in datasets, the origins of AI technologies, privacy and surveillance, and how we might bring about change in the AI industry.

The call is alive till the end of 2020!

Designing Participation for Cultural Heritage: the digital gallery is online on the REACH website!

The REACH project is pleased to announce the launch of the digital posters&videos gallery , joined by innovative and engaging contributions coming from resilient communities and the European Cultural Heritage network of social participation as a whole.

You can visit the gallery at the following links:

Digital Gallery – Poster Abstracts
Digital Gallery – Video Abstracts
Digital Gallery – Posters Mosaic

The contributions collected concern the following 5 topics:

Societal Cohesion – Minorities, Majorities, Groups: everyday lives, especially the excluded, marginalized, and right-wing minorities, the politics of nationalism and majorities
Societal Cohesion – legacies of imperialism/colonialism
Sustainability and Environmental/Ecological Responsibility: ‘cultural landscapes’ bringing together holistically natural and cultural heritage in the Anthropocene Age
Rapid Societal Change – Creativity, Authenticity, Audiences, Users and Emerging and Disruptive Technologies
Narratives, Place/place-making and Identity

You can still participate with a poster and/or a video on the themes of participation in cultural heritage and resilience!

Click here and #participateinculture !

In light of the interest received by the initiative the REACH Consortium have decided to keep the call open until the end of the year.

The 2020 edition, categories and winners

The Prix Ars Electronica

The Prix Ars Electronica, which has been happening every year since 1987, is considered to be one of the most prestigious media arts competition in the world.
The 2020 edition received proposals from 90 countries, for a total of 3,209 proposals in the 5 categories.

The 2020 categories and winners were:
Computer Animation: this category has been part of the Prix Ars Electronica since its origin but is in the last years that computer animation has improved both artistically and technically. In this category, artistic originality counts just as much as technical achievement. Miwa Matreyek (US) received the Golden Nica in this category for “Infinitely Yours”.
Digital Communities: it focuses on the projects and activities that aim to deliver social benefits, that defend and support democracy, human rights and freedom of expression, that foster an open and inclusive civil society, with innovative and artistic approach. With “Be Water by Hong Kongers”, an anonymous group has been awarded in the category.
Interactive Art +: it is dedicated to interactive works of high artistic quality, in all forms and formats, from installations to exhibitions. Innovation and uniqueness are additional key criteria, as are new experiments and broadened interpretations of interactive art. Lauren Lee McCarthy (US) winned with “SOMEONE”.
u19 – create your world: this category addresses to young people (kids and youngsters up to age 19) who imagine the future and want to shape tomorrow’s world. A total of 24 prizes were awarded – the Golden Nica went to Lisa Rass, Franziska Gallé, Jona Lingitz and Anna Fachbach from the HTBLVA-Graz Ortweinschule with “Samen”.
Visionary Pioneers of Media Art: designed to honor people whose creativity and artistic experimentation have contributed to the achievement of important and innovative achievements. The winner in this category was VALIE EXPORT.

In addition to the coveted Golden Nica statuette, the winners were awarded prize money ranging up to € 10,000 per category and an opportunity to showcase their talents at the famed Ars Electronica Festival in Linz that will be held in September 2020.

Many innovations have characterized this edition: for the first time the international jury met in a purely virtual setting; for the first time a Golden Nica was awarded to an anonymous citizens’ movement for its innovative and creative digital action, and for the first time all other Golden Nicas, without exception, went to women.

Further information about the winners here.

2 July 2020, 14.00-15.00 CET

The ICCROM webinar “Heritage and Sustainability in Post COVID-19 World – Building Back Better”

The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) had organized a very interesting webinar, on Thursday 2nd July, in which the sector of cultural Heritage was called to reflect on the actions to be taken to strengthen the role of heritage in sustainable development, in line with the United Nations agenda for 2030.

The sector had to reflect on its experience, reconsider its position and take concrete measures that promote social, environmental and economic sustainability in order to be able to ‘build back better’. Particular considerations was about museums and their collections.

Prominent speakers attended the event:

Viviane Gosselin, PhD, Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Museum of Vancouver, Canada. Member of the Advisory Group for the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice.
Sophia Labadi, PhD, Professor of Heritage, University of Kent, UK.
Abubakar Sule Sani, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria – Nigeria.
Errol Van De Werdt, drs/MA, Director, TextielMuseum, Tilburg – The Netherlands.
José Luiz Pedersoli Jr., ICCROM

Further information and the webinar here.

Video Conference 20 July 2020

REACH Project presented at EVA 2020 Florence

EVA (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts) is a series of annual meetings started as small workshop in 1991 and become in few years a well defined conference.
The key aim of this event was to provide a Forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology.
Main topics of discussion:
– European Commission Projects and Plans regarding Culture Heritage
– Cybersecurity
– Culture and e-government
– Activities and Programmes for e-learning
– Fashion
– Cultural Tourism & Travel Applications
– Impact of Culture in the Smart City
– Art and a Medicine
– Climate Change
– New Technologies for Environment Protection
– Green Economy
– Circular Economy
– Social Humanity
– Actions for Disabled People
Special attention was paid to the emerge of innovation perspectives for new job and, on this regards, a dedicated brain-storm session was reserved to face the connection between research – innovation – development – new enterprise – new job that concluded the first part of the conference.
The event was organized in five sessions:
1) Strategic Issues
2) New Science and Culture Developments & Applications
3) New Technical Developments & Applications
4) Cultural Activities – Real and Virtual Galleries and Related Initiatives
5) Access to the Culture Information
The REACH project was presented in the framework of the last session to the International EVA Network with the possibility to foster future dialogues and engagement.
Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, presentations were held on line.

The full paper on REACH is available here and the presentation is avalaible on the project’s website for the free download .

Download the full programme of the event
Contact Person: vito.cappellini@unifi.it

Symposium, 2 July 2020 h1.15 PM – 6.15 PM

Empathic AI – Art shapes Industry

Which impact do the cultural and creative industries, and in particular the arts, generate for the development of innovations between industry, people and technology?

>> ACCESS HERE: https://kreativ-bund.de/artcreatesindustry
>> Also live on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!
Registration in advance is not required.

Programme and speakers (PDF)

On July 2nd, Germany’s Federal Government’s Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Industries (Kompetenzzentrum Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes) and the European Commission‘s S+T+ARTS initiative will examine how cultural and creative industries, and in particular the arts, contribute to overcoming urgent societal and environmental challenges. The CCI offer approaches which reshape the relationship between people & digital technologies, recognise empathy as the driving force behind technology development and promote art and creativity as sources of innovation in all industries. The hybrid symposium “Empathic AI – Art creates Industry”, will bring together experts from the creative industries and the arts, technology, policy-makers and industry to discuss, inspire and experiment with art and artificial intelligence (AI).

On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the S+T+ARTS – innovation at the nexus of Science, Technology, and the Arts initiative of the European Commission (General Direction Connect), the symposium will also be marked by the opening of the exhibition NEAR FUTURES AND QUASI-WORLDS at the STATE Studio Berlin. For this purpose there will be the possibility of a hybrid tour of the exhibition on July 2, and on July 3 there will be an opportunity to attend discussions between artists and scientists.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact us via e-mail: presse@kreativbund.de.

The Programme will be held in English.
————–
About The German Government’s Centre of Excellence for the Cultural & Creative Industries
The German Government’s Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Industries (Kompetenzzentrum Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes) strives for more visibility for the cultural and creative industries and the farreaching impact these have on economy, society and politics. The Centre aims to increase the dynamics of innovation, especially in the area of non-technical and creative innovations. Further, it shows solutions for challenges of the present and future developed in collaboration with its comprehensive entrepreneur network. The German Government’s Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Industries is a scheme by the German Cultural and Creative Industry Initiative.

The consultation seeks feedback from citizens, PAs, CHIs, international organisations and networks, the Europeana ecosystem, companies, research organisations, and academia

EC launches public consultation on digital access to European cultural heritage

The Commission has opened a public consultation on the opportunities offered by digital technologies for the cultural heritage sector. Stakeholders and all interested people are invited to provide feedback on the Recommendation of 2011 on digitising cultural material and digital preservation. The aim is to propose a more appropriate policy instrument to support the digital transformation of cultural heritage.

Take the survey here: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/DIGCULT2020

Advancements in technology are opening up fresh opportunities to digitise cultural heritage for preservation, conservation, restoration, research, as well as for broader online access and re-use by citizens and various sectors, such as tourism. In addition, the tragic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on 15 April 2019 demonstrates the importance of digitising and preserving culture, for instance, with 3D modelling of buildings, monuments and other heritage sites. More recently, the coronavirus pandemic and the physical distancing measures taken across the Member States have highlighted a practical need for virtually accessible cultural heritage and the advantages of having these digital tools in place.

The consultation seeks feedback from citizens, public administrations, cultural heritage institutions, international organisations and networks, the Europeana ecosystem, companies, research organisations, and academia. It will run from 22 June 2020 until 14 September 2020 at 23:59 CET and the views gathered will feed into the possible revision of the 2011 Recommendation.

PR: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/commission-launches-public-consultation-digital-access-european-cultural-heritage

More than 5,500 art proposals from more than 100 countries around the world will be the source for the ADAF 2020 program selection.

ADAF Athens Digital Arts Festival is launching the ONLINE era

The 16th international festival for digital arts of Greece, Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF), the pioneer longest living institution dedicated to digital culture in the country (est.2005), will be implemented also ONLINE, introducing a new digital institution.

Since the new era is here, the international festival for digital arts in Greece, Athens Digital Arts Festival has decided that its 16th edition titled Technotribalism, will be presented also online. One exclusively online edition, the first one in Greece, titled ADAF ONLINE | Technotribalism, will take place from the 10 of July till 10 of September and will be accessible to everyone through the internet.

ADAF ONLINE, evolving this year’s thematology “Technotribalism”, will host pieces from Video Art, Animation, VR (360 video), Performances, Web Art, Games, Digital Image, talks, workshops, ADAF Kids for Children & their Parents, and Festivals of the world.

More than 5,500 art proposals from more than 100 countries around the world will be the source for the ADAF 2020 program selection.

With the festival theme “Technotribalism”, more evident than ever in the COVID era, where every biometric and every scientific piece of data is a of vital importance as well as every digital footprint feeds the hunger of social distancing, the Festival with its thematic seeks to promote collectivity and openness towards knowledge, art, science as fundamental pillars upon we shall built our new data driven world.

In addition ADAF, always seeking physical contact with the public, has found the way to connect with safety the physical and the digital space, with the aid of cutting edge technology.

Stay tuned to learn how you will live the phygital ADAF experience in Athens.

Because we are the Technotribal generation!

Be one of the first who will enjoy ADAF 2020, by subscribing to online.adaf.gr

#ADAFgreece #ADAF2020 #Technotribalism #ADAFonline

The 16th Athens Digital Arts Festival is co-financed by the Hellenic Republic and the European Union through the Regional Operational Programme of “Attica” in the framework of NSRF 2014-2020.

9-10 July 2020, online workshop organized by the University of Ljubljana for PAGODE project

The curation of Chinese cultural heritage in Europeana

This Workshop is organized by the PAGODE – Europeana China project team at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Ljubljana. Its aim was to set the common ground for the curation of Chinese cultural heritage in the Europeana Digital Library. The workshop was held as an online event on Zoom on 9-10 July 2020.

Final programme (PDF).

Presentations published at https://photoconsortium.net/pagode/2020/06/16/semantic-workshop-9-10-july-2020/

For any additional information do not hesitate to contact dunja.zorman@ff.uni-lj.si.

The purpose of the PAGODE Semantic Workshop is to discuss the semantic background and the metadata curation methods of the already existing as well as newly added China-related content in Europeana. We used this occasion to review the definition of Chinese cultural heritage as well as discuss the list of keywords and use of thesauri that are developed within the PAGODE Project.

Above all, the workshop gave the participants the opportunity to tackle specific problems arising from the practical application of semantic definitions and of the metadata specifications. The project partners and the associated content owners were invited to present the material that is difficult to categorise or otherwise problematic as related to specifications.

Ultimately, the PAGODE Semantic Workshop provided the means for an improvement of the existing metadata scheme and enable further development of methodological approaches.

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