The main goal of the Summer School is to offer the participating artists a theoretical and practical framework both, to discuss pivotal contemporary issues and to gain the necessary tools to produce an artistic proposal aimed at an efficient and creative collaboration between the artistic, cultural and productive sectors in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy – FVG).

The intention is to give artists tools and support so that they can develop new creations with the specific aim of telling and enhancing the entrepreneurial reality with which they will be put in contact. On the other hand, it is intended to stimulate the entrepreneurial realities involved to find within artistic practices an opportunity for development, reflection on their identity and promotion of their entrepreneurial philosophy or innovative practices implemented.
Projects related to visual arts, video, dance, theatre and music will be promoted by fostering proposals that facilitate the dialogue between artistic languages and multimedia and technological languages.

10.00 – 11.30              

Digital manufacturing project presentation

Speakers: Eva Sajovic and Chiara Perini // Digital Manufacturing co-curators

Introducing partners, project objectives, summer school program.

Brief presentation by the businesses that will partner on the project.

Artists’ brief for collaborative proposals to be handed in on the 31st of July.

 

11.30 – 13.00        

Brief presentations by participating artists

Speakers: participating artists

Introduction of the keywords of the project: sustainability and innovation

Speakers: Eva Sajovic and Chiara Perini // Digital Manufacturing co-curators

Setting a task to be completed by the artists over lunch and presented during the afternoon session: each artist is asked to define the keywords with the use of images, drawings, found text, objects. What meanings do these hold?

16.00 – 17.30                 

Participatory session

Participating artists present their definitions.

 A sign-up sheet will be set up for the participating artists to express interest in which business they would like to collaborate with. Meetings with the businesses will be arranged for the last day of the summer school programme.

Followed by a Q&A session with all the speakers of the day.    

10.00 – 13.00

Methodological concepts             

Speakers: Eva Sajovic and Sakis Kyratzis // UAL – Great Britain; Irene Urrutia // Media Art Friesland – Netherlands

This session will consist of a combination of talks and workshops.

First, the speakers will explore and interrogate the two main concepts of the project: sustainability and innovation.

In terms of sustainability they will ask the following questions: What do we understand by sustainability? What is the responsibility of the artist in a world of imminent breakdown? What does collaboration look like in a contactless world?

In terms of innovation they will ask the following questions: How can imagination help us create in a utopian world of alternative economies? What does originality mean in the age of digital reproduction? What are the new ways of seeing and making?

Concepts that will be explored: hybridity, prototype/speculative art, (hyper)reality, ethics, green/art-washing, virtual narratives, multi- localism.

 

In the following section, they will explore how to operationalize the topics above through different methodologies. Generally speaking, artistic, technological, and entrepreneurial practices deal with different languages, frameworks, and material conditions. This presents us with both challenges and opportunities. How to deal with these differences in a way that matters?

Drawing from posthumanism, feminism, art theory, ecocriticism and disability studies, speakers will touch upon 3 relevant methodological concepts:

1. Enabling (drawing from the of Krzysztof Ziarek): on how art can open up power-free spaces in our natural-technical and social-historical continuum.
2. Grappling (Eli Clare): how and why we should not shy away discomfort and disagreement; what are we grappling with in our practice?
3. Diffraction (Donna Haraway and Karen Barad): on how to approach and learn from patterns of difference and interference.

 

Eva Sajovic (www.evasajovic.co.uk) is a socially engaged practitioner and Lecturer on the BA Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts and a Theory Lecturer on the BA Graphic Design and Communication at Chelsea College of Arts.

 In her personal practice, Sajovic examines the drivers of global displacement such as the appropriation of localities by capital, poverty, trafficking, culture and climate change. Her practice covers two strands: participatory social action projects and photographic social portraiture, where she collaborates closely with the subject to construct the image. Sajovic also explores the role of the artist and designer in an age of political and ecological break-down.

Sakis Kyratzis is a graphic designer and lecturer on the BA Graphic Design Communication at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL and the BA Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins, UAL. As a graphic designer, he works mainly in the cultural sector. His clients include architects, theatre directors and designers, artists, choreographers, photographers, jewellers, charities and universities. As a researcher, he has a keen interest in the phenomenology of space, geosemiotics, critical design, language and communication, design pedagogy, and queer studies.

Irene Urrutia is a Mexican/Canadian contemporary art curator. Born in Ottawa, Canada, she later moved to Mexico City, where she obtained a bachelor’s in Design and Visual Communication with a diploma in Mexican Art History. In 2016 she was co-founder of Galería Tu Mamá, an independent art space where she curated and organized exhibitions, workshops and other events, as well as collaborating and volunteering with other organizations. She received an M.A. in Arts and Culture at Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 2020, where she specialized in contemporary art topics such as art and environment, interculturality, and art’s relation to epistemology, society and politics.

Currently, she is a curator for Media Art Friesland, and is working on a research proposal for a PhD on plant-human interactions in contemporary art as material/discursive meaning-making practices.

 

14.00 – 15.30            

Audio Video Memory Experience

Speakers: AcquasumARTE  – Italy

This session will consist of a combination of talks and workshops.

 

Acquasumarte will present the Case study: “Audio Video Memory Experience”, a site-specific multimedia project of poetic connection between territory and community. They will explore composition and dramaturgy methods, emergent use of daily use device to build an itinerant individual multimedia experience.

 Starting from the topics covered in the case study, materials and ideas will be provided to the participants, who will have to create a short multimedia composition. The outputs will be shown and shared on Friday morning.

AcquasumARTE (Maurizio Capisani, Sabrina Conte) is an artistic group dedicated to multidisciplinary creation between theatrical language, visual arts, performance and multimedia. Born in 2007, based in Milan and in Oltrepò Pavese, AcquasumARTE make site-specific projects, explores the possibilities of transdisciplinary composition, new forms of relationship with space and involvement of spectators.

 

Followed by a Q&A session with all the speakers of the day.    

10.00 – 11.30             

Gender paradigms in theory and practice

speaker: Sergia Adamo // University of Trieste – Italy

 Sergia Adamo will present a mapping of various paradigms that are at stake when we talk about gender. Thinking about gender is grounded on a vast array of works and theories, which need to be taken into account in their diversity. And she will show how all these different paradigms have been set to work in contemporary visual art practices.

Sergia Adamo teaches Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Trieste (Italy). She has been a visiting professor and researcher at several Universities (such as Cornell University, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt). Her research interest regard critical theory, with a focus on  feminism and gender. She is also very interested in exploring intercultural relations as well as convergences between literature, visual and performing

 

11.30 – 13.00

Interrelation of nature, culture and technology                       

speaker: Robertina Šebjanič // University of Nova Gorica – Slovenija

Robertina will talk about her research-based art practice that deals with cultural, (bio)political and ecological realities of human imprint on aquatic environments and its consequences / challenges.  Focus of the lecture will be the meaning of empathy, solidarity and what are matters of care in context of human – nonhuman relationships. Robertina will present art – science projects, that are dealing with the changes / challenges of rapid changes in world’s water environments in the era of Anthropocene.

Robertina Šebjanič is a practising artist and visiting lecturer at University of Nova Gorica – Slovenia whose projects range from working on animal-machine-human relationships, interspecies communication (Aurelia 1+Hz) and pointing out underwater noise pollution and its ecological consequences (Aquatocene); illuminating the invisible anthropogenic pharmaceutical chemical pollutants – residues of human consumption and (aqua_forensic).

 

14.00 – 15.30             

Art & Business – Jing & Jang?

Speaker: Borut Jerman // PiNA – Slovenija

ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS, STRENGTHENING THOUGHT TO SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF EXISTING SYSTEM INEFFICIENCIES, PROMOTION OF THE SOCIAL EFFECT OF ART

 

Case study – RUK https://www.mcruk.si/en/ – focus on pilot projects

– SYMBIOCENE – Laboratory for invasive plant processing and non-invasive exchange practices

– Dante in the draught (spatial installation)

 

RUK is a network of research centers of art and culture at the intersection of contemporary technologies, science, and the economy. In this interdisciplinary hub, innovative products and services for the soft and humane technology of the future are being developed. RUK’s goal is the integration of art and culture in scientific and technological research, development and innovation, digitalization, entrepreneurship, training, and education with an emphasis on humanities and social sciences, ecology, circular economy, and sustainable development. RUK is a part of decentralized Slovenia and contributes to even regional development and supports the three fundamental pillars of the S4 development strategy: digital development, the circular economy, and Industry 4.0

 Borut Jerman is the coordinator of expert work at PiNA, working mainly in culture, art, cultural industries, participation and critical reflection. He is an expertly-trained and an experienced planner, coordinator and head of national and international projects in the field of art, culture, active participation and citizenship, producer of intermedia art and Festival IZIS – https://festival-izis.org/en/

 

Followed by a Q&A session with all the speakers of the day

 10.00 – 11.30

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” – Attributed to Confucius

Speaker: Time’s Up – Austria

 “No one actually knows how a sustainable, modern society looks like.” (Welzer, 2014) And although we cannot claim to know, we can try and imagine possibilities what it might look like. He goes on to say that “Instead of a technological transformation, we need a socio-cultural one” which reminds us that “There’s no App for that” where the “that” in question is the dilemma of contemporary society.

Time’s Up continues to deepen an arts-based cultural investigation into raising awareness and allowing contemplation of ways in which we might and want to live. We do this by collaboratively imagining and building possible and preferred futures, instigating as well as encouraging public discourse about individual and collective futures.

We invite the public to investigate possible and preferable futures by walking through a built environment that makes a possible future experienceable and thus able to be immersively explored. We offer staged space, a scenography that invites deeper investigation. By creating immersive experiences, the public is encouraged to explore speculative cultures as well as possible, plausible, probable and preferable ways of being.

As a society, we are in constant contact with media and knowledge now, we cannot not know (Donna Haraway) and it is no longer our job (as artists) to raise awareness, because there is no longer an excuse for not being aware. In the midst of a postfactual world, there are also actual facts and with an appropriate level of reflection, as we require in a Redactional Society we can and are aware of enough; the drowning of migrants, the avoidance of fair taxation and the imbalance in society are not hidden in any way any more. As Matthew Fuller says, our job (as artists) is “not about representation and communication, but about putting action in the world.” And we do this by building experiencable possibilities that begin to deal with these issues of which we (all) cannot not be aware.

 We will talk about our work with experiential futures, physical narratives and futuring workshops, artists and others working in similar veins and the value of speculative design for a post normal world.

Time’s Up – Laboratory for the construction of experimental situations.

Founded in 1996, Time’s Up has its principal locus in the Linz harbour of Austria. Its mission is to investigate the ways in which people interact with and explore their physical surroundings as a complete context, discovering, learning and communicating as they do.

Thus our research is based upon constructing interactive situations not unlike the normal physical world, inviting an audience into them and encouraging their playful experience-driven exploration of the space and its behaviours, alone and in groups. In this research process we use tools from the arts and design, mathematics, science and technology as well as sociology and cultural studies.

Our goals are to collaboratively investigate the world and its options with a general public, communicating and discussing these discoveries through workshops, publications, teaching and symposia.

11.30 – 13.00               

Carving a walking stick for a sustainable artistic pathway

Speakers: Adri Schokker & T.S. Anna // Media Art Friesland – Netherlands

 During this workshop we will explore several hands-on methods for defining and positioning your art practice. Based on the book “Plan and Play, Play and Plan” by Jan Willem Schrofer (former director of Rijksakademie vai Beeldende Kunsten) and our own experience as visual artists, we will offer some tools to create and carve your own walking sticks to accompany you on your artistic pathway. We hope these simple tools will help you to think about ‘where you stand and what you stand for’, as well as take ownership of your artistic path and the strategical and tactical choices you make within it. Make sure to bring your sketchbook and pencil to this workshop!

Groningen (NL) based visual artist Adri Schokker has a diverse practice where he shifts between media artist, curator, lecturer, researcher and fast-food developer, critically and playfully examining various aspects of art, technology and pop culture. In his own artistic work, Adri examines the impact that new digital information technologies and the extent to which digital images determine our notion of what is truth. His installations are never finished and through applying simple game elements the viewer is seduced to contribute to the work. In his imaginary playground Nou&Herkauw, Adri develops installations and workshops that explore the creative power of technology on the cross-section with crafts and sculpture. The workshops are meant for children but parents are always welcome. Adri is curator and artist scout at Media Art Festival in Leeuwarden. His most recent passion is Killer Foods, a vegan snack counter that playfully denounces the bio-industry and introduces people to equally tasty vegetable and sustainable alternatives.

T.S. Anna is a visual artist who was born in Riga, Latvia and currently lives in Groningen, the Netherlands. For over a decade Anna has been curating and producing events of varying scale – from local to international – often in-between the blurry boundaries of art, culture, technologies and education. Currently she is focused on her post-media artistic practice that involves intuitive and intellectual speculations about knowledge, knowing and not knowing, and a search for truth in an age of post-truth. Driven by a passion for the complexities found in nature, her work seeks to invite the spectator to wander, discover and wonder. Aside her own practice she works as artistic advisor (for Media Art Friesland), as artist (for “Nou en Herkauw”), and on project basis as research assistant (for prof. Anke Coumans, Image in Context research group, Minerva Art Academy).

Adri and Anna have worked together since 2011 when they co-developed and coordinated an international Erasmus funded Intensive Programme and mini-festival “Island CQ: Power and Control” in Irbene, Latvia. Since then they have worked together on several projects and events. Aside these collaborations, they often assist each other with organising and setting up exhibitions and events. Since 2018 they have been working together on a participatory process-led artistic research path called “The Forest”. This has led them to host workshops and show their ever evolving forest archive in the form of a VR installation on festivals and events in woodlands and galleries around Europe.

 

14.00 – 15.30                                                  

The price of art

Speaker: Andrea Ciommiento // Quarantasettezeroquattro – Italy

 This workshop will explore artistic production models in relation to the economic impact of art. Some essential elements will be proposed in the first part of the workshop: public-private support, value of art, new professional roles of artistic production. In the second part the group will be guided in the creation of its own project through some creative exercises. The ingredients of the recipe: artistic visions, social impact and involvement of local supporters.

 Andrea Ciommiento, drama maker and curator in Community Art Projects. He’s graduated in “Performing Arts and Media Studies” at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice deepening his studies at Biennale College Theatre of Venice. He works with different cultural centres, such as Nazional Theatre of Turin (Torino), ZONA K (Milano), Invasioni Creative (Udine). He has teached at the Master of Social Arts of Sapienza University of Rome and European University of Rome.

 

Followed by a Q&A session with all the speakers of the day.    

10.00 – 11.30             

Outputs of the Audio Video Memory Experience workshop

Speakers: AcquasumARTE and participants

AcquasumARTE and participants will share and analyses the outputs compositions created by the participants.

 

 11.30 – 13.00             

Presentation of the Case study “Biolab”

Speakers: Sam Curtis // visual artist – Great Britain; Massimo Santinelli // Biolab – Italy

The lead artist of the project, Sam Curtis, will present the work in progress being developed in collaboration with the local business Biolab in conversation with Massimo Santinelli, Biolab founder.

Artist Sam Curtis is collaborating with organic vegan food company Biolab for Botteghe Digitali / Digital Manufacturing. Working closely with Sales Director Roberto Grimboldi, Sam discussed ways an artist might work with to imagine new strategies, ways of working or ways to communicate that focus on Biolab’s philosophy concerning sustainability, locality and love and care for others. This pilot project could result in a proposal for something imagined or an intervention, product or action that is actually realised.

Sam Curtis is an artist and curator based in London. Collaborating with a range of people from diverse areas of work and life, he develops projects that provoke, question or subvert our ideas around creativity, economy and labour. Building relationships and trust are key to the conversations he fosters; from which unexpected collaborations grow. Sam graduated from Goldsmiths MFA programme in 2008 and has exhibited across the UK, Europe and the USA. Hi work is represented by Division of Labour.

Biolab is a vegetarian and vegan organic food company based in Gorizia. For 30 years Bioloab has been developing an ethical approach based on safeguarding the environment while also keeping the consumer in the center of the attention: this is what Biolab calls “responsibility chain”. Biolab acts with the utmost respect towards its customers, nature and the territory on which it stands.

 

14.00 – 15.30

Digital Manufacturing: participants meet the local business partners                

Break-out sessions with the businesses that will be involved in the Digital manufacturing project. An opportunity to answer any questions that the artists might have and initiate collaborations. A representative from the Gorizia council and Confcommercio will also be present.

Business partners

Terra di Ciona – Organic agriculture – Nadia Zorzin – Fiumicello (Udine)

Federmoda Confcommercio Gorizia with Style Coach Antonella Pacorig – Gorizia

RUSSIAN not only jewelry  – Annalaura Russian – Gorizia

Il vostro Eden – japanese food and local products – Lara Starz – Gorizia

1848 CHEF’S ROOMS – B&B in via Rastello Gorizia – Chiara Canzoneri – Gorizia

 

In the following week (w/b 20 July) the participating artists will each receive a 30-minute tutorial with one of the partner representatives and the lead artist.