Category: PHASE 2

How can complex data be represented?

Keywords: arts to STEM, social impact, arts as a way to communicate

Who?

MoY, a collective comprising artists Katerina Chryssantopoulou and Benoît Durandin, carry out cross-practices in the fields of art, architecture and science.

A collaborative process with GTD System and Software Engineering, one of the most important European companies in sectors such as space, aeronautics, energy or science.

What?

A collaborative and multidisciplinary process for knowledge exchange and creation of innovation processes between creatives, artists and organizations, developed in the framework of Disonancias (2008-2009), a program where fourteen research projects were developed jointly by international artists and organizations from Catalonia and the Basque Country (Spain).

The Eighth Passenger aimed to develop a reliable source of knowledge to assist space crews. To this end, experimental research was carried out, starting with the question: how can complex data be represented and at what scale? In response, a series of tools were devised to create alternatives or improvements to the graphical interface of decision support systems for users handling large amounts of complex data in a manned space mission control center.

Why?

The Eighth Passenger was an experimental research and prototyping process led by creatives and engineers working together to find a solution to support decision making and decision support systems, modelling of complex data, predictive diagnose and data, among others.

Results

In 2010, GTD presented the Eighth Passenger, conceived as an assistant based on artificial intelligence and augmented reality techniques capable of guiding astronauts on future manned planetary exploration missions. The ePartner helps interpreting complex data and material with which astronauts might not be experts in, such as engineering, medicine or psychology. The aim was to aid them in critical circumstances, and at the same time suggesting actions to be executed in specific situations.

One of the starting questions of this research process was: How can complex data be represented and at what scale? Mo Y created a holistic image by working from physical laws, chemical signals and biological morphogenesis. As a result, the conceptualization of an assistant based on artificial intelligence and augmented reality techniques capable of guiding astronauts on future manned planetary exploration missions in the interpretation and handling of complex data and materials in which they are not experts such as engineering, medicine or psychology. The aim was to aid them in critical circumstances, and at the same time suggesting actions to be executed in specific situations.

Sources

Gtd.eu. 2010. GTD presents the “Eight Passenger” concept for astronaut crew in future space missions. | GTD Blog. [online] Available at: https://www.gtd.eu/en/news-and-events/gtd-presents-eight-passenger-concept-astronaut-crew-future-space-missions [Accessed 25 March 2022].

Zabeli, E. and Chryssanthopoulou, K., 2022. Moy Studio. [online] Moystudio.gr. Available at: https://moystudio.gr/en [Accessed 18 March 2022].

Communicating with something with a few words or lines…

Keywords: simplification, observation skills, advanced awareness

Who?

Artist Al Hirschfeld. He is best remembered for black-and-white drawings of celebrities and show-business stars, Hirschfeld was one of the few artists commissioned to provide art for U.S. postal stamps. His work can be found in museums around the country today, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York City.

Hirschfeld was also a master of camouflage.

What?

Hirschfeld created recognizable images of anyone or anything. His art and his creative technique itself is thae key point of this Steam case. Visualizing even the most complicated of things in a simple, yet clever way. The case teaches how we can communicate ideas to one another.

Why?

To make communication easier and simpler. The point lies in finding and simplifying the essence, sharpening the main point of an idea. The following method trains us to realize and communicate specific details in our surroundings.

Results

Despite the sharpness of his lines and the clarity of his work, Hirschfeld was also a master of camouflage. Each week, droves of his fans would spend their Sunday’s searching for the word ‘NINA’ in his drawings. What started out as an innocent little gesture to celebrate the birth of his daughter turned into a weekend pastime for millions of readers.

Hisrchfeld’s ‘NINA’s’ became so popular that they were even adopted as a training exercise by the U.S. Army (much to Hisrchfeld’s annoyance). Bomber pilots in training would use the illustrations as a means to improve their detection skills. If they were able to find the ‘NINA’s’ in each illustration, then they were sure to be able to detect hidden targets.

Bomber pilots in training would use the illustrations as a means to improve their detection skills.

In 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris and London, where he studied painting, drawing and sculpture. When he returned to the United States, a friend, fabled Broadway press agent Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld’s drawings to an editor at the New York Herald Tribune, which got Hirschfeld commissions for that newspaper and then, later, The New York Times. Hirschfeld is considered to be one of the most important figures in contemporary drawing and caricature, having influenced countless artists, illustrators, and cartoonists.

Sources

Al Hirschfeld Foundation. 2022. alhirschfeldfoundation.org. [online] Available at: https://www.alhirschfeldfoundation.org/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].

McCall, B. and Stern, E., 2021. Always Leave Them Smiling: The Art of Al Hirschfeld. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/hirschfeld-the-biography-ellen-stern.html [Accessed 18 March 2022].

“Human universe colonization”

Keywords: social impact, space, arts as a way to communicate

Who?

Artists: “Quadrature” made up by Juliane Götz and Sebastian Neitsch, whose research focuses on data and physical experiments.

In collaboration with Silvia Bonoli and Raul Angulo, astrophysicists from the Donostia International Physics Center, and the support of local community science groups.

Installation developed in Tabakalera MediaLab (Donostia, Spain), with the collaboration of Ars Electronica.

What?

This audiovisual installation, created through tracking and gathering the data generated by 590 former spy satellites. Supraspectives follows and calculates satellite trajectories in real time, reconstructing the images captured through an artistic process of speculative reinterpretation.

The installation is generated by remixing images with the data from these satellites and from other ones passing close to the exhibition venue. The installation incorporates on screen data relating to the satellites with which it connects live, such as their country of origin and the year of launch.

A motorized antenna was built and placed on the roof of Tabakalera to transform live radio signals into sounds that were incorporated into the piece.

Why?

The research carried out is based on data interpretation and physical experimentation, exploring our planet and the cosmos, and analysing military space activity and how a large number of these satellites can be considered space junk, despite the fact that they continue to fly overhead. Supraspectatives raise awareness of the phenomena that are hardly accessible to most people.

Results

The resulting audiovisual installation addresses, through an artistic interpretation of scientific data, questions related to the unexplored aspects of human life and the universe. The artwork shows the contrast between stunning earth images taken from outer space as it raises critical awareness about human universe colonization, often related to military and surveillance purposes. The creation process incorporated citizen science actions carried out together with the astronomy group of Tabakalera’s MediaLab and the local amateur radio community.

Sources

Götz, J. and Neitsch, S., 2020. Supraspectives. [online] Quadrature.co. Available at: https://quadrature.co/work/supraspectives/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].

Regenerative reliquary

Keywords: arts to STEM, concept development, bio art

Who?

Artist Amy Karle with the support of Autodesk, Autodesk’s Pier 9 Artist in Residence (AiR) Program, Bio/Nano Research Team, the Ember 3D Printer Team, Within Medical, Autodesk Software and Evangelists, California Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception, and The Bone Room.

What?

Karle explores what it means to be human through art, design, science and technology. Leveraging the intelligence of human stem cells, she created “Regenerative Reliquary”, a bioprinted scaffold in the shape of a human hand, 3D printed in a biodegradable pegda hydrogel that disintegrates over time. The sculpture is in a bioreactor, so that human Mesenchymal stem cells seeded onto the design will eventually grow into tissue and mineralize into bone along the scaffold.

Why?

This case encourages envisioning both medical and artistic futuring, fostering innovation and education. This may serve as a foundation for further exploration and research opening conversation about transhumanism, synthetic biology, the future of medicine and implants and speculative design.

Results

This piece was the largest 3D printed scaffold for stem cell growth. This bio art established a new field in the art world, expanding opportunities for biomedical applications. This piece was intended as an artwork outside of the body, but the potential healthcare benefit of this approach could be that a patient’s own stem cells could be obtained and used for a personalized bone graft designed to be an exact fit and implanted with low risk of rejection since it is made of a person’s own DNA, avoiding complications of foreign implantation.

Regenerative Reliquary focuses on the dynamic organ and tissue in our bodies that is constantly remodeling and changing shape to adapt to the daily forces placed upon it: bone.

Bone is the structure and foundation that supports our bodies. It seems solid, but bone is very much alive and constantly changing. Bones are a material of life as well as a material that is left after death; historically used to make tools, accessories, art and objects. Throughout history, there has been a spiritual, macabre, and even miraculous agency associated with bones. Bones have been enshrined into reliquaries to serve as memorials, guidance, protection, objects of fear, superstition and devotion.

Referencing the traditional presentation of relics in their reliquaries, this piece is a finely detailed skeleton sculpture encased in a glass bioreactor. Instead of enshrining the inanimate remains left after death as a memorial to the life that was once there, Regenerative Reliquary presents the opposite, depicting the possibility of life from an inanimate object.

Sources

Karle, A., 2016. Regenerative Reliquary. [online] Amykarle.com. Available at: https://www.amykarle.com/project/regenerative-reliquary/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].

An open call for artists from any art form

Keywords: arts to STEM, creative process, arts as a way to communicate

Who?

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Science Museum of Venice.

Artist: Haseeb Ahmed.

What?

Often working collaboratively Ahmed Haseeb, a research-based artist from the US, now based in Brussels, produces objects, site-specific installations, films, and writes, integrates methodologies from the hard sciences into his art production. His recently completed ‘Wind Egg’ Trilogy blends art and aeronautics, myth and technology, to create new narratives for the present. His work with wind and science began during his Masters from the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology completed in 2010. He is currently an artist in residence at Science Gallery Venice. The focus of his research is the wind, one of the invisible forces which shapes the city of Venice and its maritime history.

Nurturing a game concept is by no means a simple task.

Why?

This case teaches individuals to observe the world by observing artwork and how research can make the process visible by engaging emotions or questions.

Results

About the main results, the artist’s research into the wonders of wind, including the dust-laden Sirocco which blows in from the Sahara, is to lead to the creation of an art piece to be showcased during the Venice Biennale in 2022. The final piece will combine sculpture, architecture, performance and the people of Venice in an artistic work which will also have a digital life.

Earth Water Sky is Science Gallery Venice’s 3-year residency programme for artists interested in the environment and the latest in cutting edge environmental knowledge. Every year there is an open call for artists from any art form – digital arts, painting, sculpture, dance, performance, music, multimedia, video, film, photography, writing, drawing – to apply for a two-month fully funded residency in Venice. The winning artists will work with leading scientists from Ca’ Foscari University and the Veneto region. The main concept of this interesting project is the connection to the history of Earth written in the rocks and sediment in the landscape and which have been used for human culture. From the distinctive white Istrian stone and pink marble used to build the Doges Palace in Venice, to ancient organisms, plants and invertebrates preserved as fossils in sedimentary rock, where rocks are the Earth’s timekeepers, their history is the witness and record of all activities on our Planet.

Sources

CafoscariNEWS. 2020. Haseeb Ahmed is the winner of the 2nd Earth Water Sky residency programme. [online] Available at: https://www.unive.it/pag/16584/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=8749&cHash=23c20a779ef3c0a16f98da261233f255 [Accessed 18 March 2022].

Ahmed, H., 2022. Earth Water Sky Residency, Science Gallery Venice. [online] Wind-residency-venice.com. Available at: https://wind-residency-venice.com/ [Accessed 31 March 2022].

Ahmed, H., 2022. www.haseebahmed.com. [online] Haseebahmed.com. Available at: https://haseebahmed.com/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].

How digital game development can benefit from the cultural sector?

Keywords: multidisciplinary teamwork, concept development, network utilization

Who?

The Great Journey project started in 2015 in Karlstad, Sweden. Since 2020, they have involved Futuregames offering an education programme in Indie Game Development.

What?

The Great Journey focuses on promoting the video games industry in the Värmland region, by creating the best environment for everyone who wants to develop games. The Great Journey offers pitch events in the digital game development field and organizes game jams where people from both the game development and the creative/cultural worlds. Artists, graphic designers, storytellers, programmers, game developers participate all together in co-creation moments. The final aim is to create a network, share ideas and develop new games.

Nurturing a game concept is by no means a simple task.

Why?

The main goal is to create synergies among the creative sector and the digital game developers, who often are programmers and experts in coding.

Results

The final result is the creation of new digital games and new companies in the game development sectors, based on artistic and cultural skills.

The video game industry is flourishing, which is not only a boon to gamers, but also to those who are interested in a career in developing games.

Many years of training and development experience are needed to take a video game from its initial concept to a market-ready product. The work can be challenging, but also exciting and highly rewarding, particularly for those who wish to combine their technical acumen with creative license. Video game development is a field in which STEM students may find ample opportunity for success.

Every game starts with an idea, but nurturing a concept is by no means a simple task. The ideation process can involve brainstorming ideas, creating sketches or prototypes to test those ideas, and evolving or streamlining an idea as needed. Ideation may begin with one person having a “light bulb moment,” arriving at what they think is a winning premise. Typically, however, a full team of developers is involved in shepherding a gaming idea through to the next steps.

Since 2020, in the Swedish region of Värmland, an original project provides the possibility to game developers to work together with practitioners coming from other sectors: artists, storytellers, graphic designers and more. “The Great Journey” is a community-based project where Game makers have the possibility to develop new digital games in close cooperation with people coming from diverse creative sectors.

Sources

About The Great Journey. 2022. The Great Journey. [online] Available at: https://www.thegreatjourney.se/aboutus [Accessed 25 March 2022].

How to learn science and maths through music?

Keywords: arts to STEM, music and science, arts as a way to communicate

Who?

Led by Herbie Hancock and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. Supported by the US Department of Education and UNESCO.

Designed by New York University Music Experience Design Lab.

With the contributions in the curricula development of experts affiliated with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California Berkeley, University of Massachusetts, New York University, San Francisco State University and Johns Hopkins University.

What?

Visual strategies that allow to make visible the invisible.

This project aims to bring response to the need of encouraging students to acquire skills and knowledge in STEM subjects by applying creative thinking. A digital repository that provides free and interactive tools for learning mainly science and mathematics concepts through music-based methods. The initiative has developed play-based games, apps and video interfaces, as well as engaging curricula, developed by professionals from the academia and private sector specialised in scientific, technical, educational and musical disciplines.

While the content is primarily aimed at 4 to 8-year-old children, a stage considered crucial for acquiring this knowledge, other resources can be found both for elementary and higher education students, as well as curricula resources for teachers.

Why?

The aim of this project is to apply creative thinking to the learning of scientific and mathematical knowledge among students from elementary, middle and high schools. All concepts (arithmetic, geometry, logarithms, fractions, ratios, etc.) are approached through engaging ways using music-based methods (rhythm, scratches, grooves, beats, sound waves, etc.).

Results

To highlight a few tools: the EcoSonic (Ecology/Sound) Playground project, where children collect and then work with reusable materials to design, build and play large social musical instruments using STEAM-integrated curriculum materials to guide the process of making and playing, or Groove Pizza, a digital tool to create grooves using mathematical concepts such as shapes, angles and patterns.

Technology acts as an intermediary interface between musical, mathematical and scientific concepts through a set of interactive games, apps and video tutorials accessible for free and aimed both at students and teachers. All of them promote learning through play, experimentation, practical action and collaboration.

Sources

Hancock Institute of Jazz. 2021. Math Science and Music. [online] Available at: https://hancockinstitute.org/education-program/math-science-music/ [Accessed 25 March 2022].

MathMusicScience. 2016. MathScienceMusic. [online] Available at: https://mathsciencemusic.org/#/ [Accessed 25 March 2022].